Saint James the Greater as a pilgrim

The apostle James is depicted here as a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela, wearing a wide-brimmed hat adorned with a scallop shell, the emblem of pilgrimage. He wears his bag across the body, and traces of where the staff was torn away, to which a rosary was attached, can be seen under his left hand.

The swaying posture style of the statue, with a broad bearded face and prominent cheekbones, helps to locate where it was made in Burgundy, between Autunois and Auxois, shortly before 1500.

The work was recovered at the end of the Second World War, assigned to the Louvre Museum in 1951 by the Office of Private Property, and deposited at the Musée de Cluny before 1964, awaiting its return to its rightful owners.