Follower of GUIDO RENI ; End of the 19th century.
"Saint James the Apostle".
Oil on canvas.
Presents a red-gilded frame.
Measurements: 100 x 79 cm; 106 x 84 cm (frame).
Aesthetically this work follows faithfully the work titled "Santiago el mayor", which belongs to the collection of the Prado Museum in whose cataloguing it is quoted ; "although it was already considered as a sure work by Reni by Bernard Berenson and Hermann Voss, according to the documentation kept in the archive of the Prado Museum, it was not published as such until 1955, when Cesare Gnudi and Gian Carlo Cavalli, not only demonstrated its autograph character, but also highlighted its excellent technical quality".
In the Bible he is usually referred to under the name of James, a term that passed into Latin as Iacobus and derived in names such as Iago, Tiago and Santiago (sanctus Iacobus). James of Zebedee or James the Greater was one of the first disciples to shed his blood and die for Jesus. A member of a family of fishermen, brother of John the Evangelist - both nicknamed Boanerges ('Sons of Thunder'), because of their impulsive temperaments - and one of the three closest disciples of Jesus Christ, the apostle James was not only present at two of the most important moments in the life of the Christian Messiah - the transfiguration on Mount Tabor and the prayer in the Garden of Olives - but was also part of the small group that witnessed his last miracle, his resurrection on the shores of Lake Tiberias. After Christ's death, James, passionate and impetuous, formed part of the initial group of the early Church in Jerusalem and, in his evangelising work, he was assigned, according to medieval traditions, the Spanish peninsular territory, specifically the northwestern region, then known as Gallaecia. Some theories suggest that the current patron saint of Spain arrived in the northern lands via the uninhabited coast of Portugal. Others, however, suggest that he travelled along the Ebro valley and the Cantabrian Roman road, and there are even those who claim that Santiago reached the Peninsula via what is now Cartagena, from where he set out on his journey to the western corner of the map.