The Battle of St. James The Greater at Clavijo
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Sheet trimmed within platemark: 28.7 × 42.3 cm (11 5/16 × 16 11/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4019
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Saint James the Greater (died a.d. 44) was one of Christ’s apostles and the patron saint of Spain. He was said to have miraculously appeared, sword in hand, to help the Christian Spaniards defeat a Muslim army in a.d. 844—a battle that in fact never happened. The scene here abounds in gritty details such as the beheaded enemy corpse and various dismembered limbs. The saint wears a scallop shell on his hat, an allusion to the sign pilgrims wore on their long journey to revere his relics at the Sp...