Saint James Major

Simone Martini

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned, bearded man faces us against a shiny gold background on this arched, vertical panel. The wooden panel is rounded at the top and has a wooden frame, which is painted gold along the bottom. The man’s skin has a greenish cast, but his cheeks and forehead are rosy. He has wavy, honey-brown hair and a long, forked beard. With his head tilted slightly to our right, the man looks up and off in that direction with gray eyes. He has a narrow, straight nose, a thin pink mouth, and small ears. He holds a red book in front of his chest with his right hand, to our left. The book has brown hinges, and the edges of the pages are gold. In his other hand, he grasps a wooden staff tied at the top with a small, black, square flag displaying a petal-pink scallop shell. His harvest-yellow cloak drapes over his shoulders, across his body, and over his left arm. Under the cloak, he wears a black tunic with wide gold trim patterned with starburst-like forms within pointed ovals along the neckline and sleeves. A double ringed halo punched with a flower pattern surrounds the man’s head against the glimmering gold background. There is a noticeable network of cracks across the painting's surface, especially on the gold background behind the man. Inscriptions next to his shoulders read “SATVS” on our left and “YACOBVS” on our right.