Spanish school, late 16th century.
"Saint James".
Oil on canvas.
Size: 106 x 82 cm; 128,5 x 105 cm (frame).
Half-length painting of the apostle James, seated at a table, wearing a red draped cloak and holding a rod in his left hand. The saint's name appears in Latin at the bottom. The closed composition and dark background are characteristic of Spanish painting of the period, a transitional period towards the Baroque. Resolved with naturalistic language and Mannerist lighting, the wiry, bearded face is chiselled with intense chiaroscuro. The right hand, with its open, twitching fingers, emphasises the expressiveness of a face withdrawn in thought. During the Counter-Reformation, series of Apostles became popular, generally depicting them half-length, against a neutral background and bearing their iconographic attributes. They were, on the one hand, a derivation of the late medieval altarpieces, whose benches and streets usually depicted isolated, full- and half-length saints.