SPANISH, CIRCA 16TH CENTURY | Saint James the Greater

This evocative jet carving may have been acquired on a pilgrimage to Santiago da Compostela. Jet is a dense form of coal (fossilized vegetable matter) which can be carved and polished. According to Trusted 'many Spanish jets are inextricably connected with the pilgrims who, over the course of six hundred years or more, from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, visited the shrine of St James at the Cathedral of Santiago da Compostela' (op. cit. p. 142). Such carvings were probably apotropaic and may have served as emblems to prove that a believer had embarked on a pilgrimage. Trusted notes that Santiago jet carvers were members of a guild and suggests that 'Probably all the surviving Spanish jets dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century were produced by members of the guild' (op. cit., p. 143). The present, large, carving of St James compares with the figure on a Rosary Bead in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. M.813-1926). It is difficult to give a precise date to the figure, but the characterisation of the Saint probably indicates a 16th century dating.

Related Literature

M. Trusted, Spanish Sculpture. A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, pp. 142-143, no. 70