EXCEPTIONAL LARGE RETABLE GROUP in carved oak... Lot 40

EXCEPTIONAL LARGE RETABLE GROUP in carved oak with minute traces of polychromy representing the Translation of the body of Saint James in Galicia. In the foreground, the body of the beheaded Saint James is carried by two of his disciples; on the left, two other disciples, the youngest of whom is holding the head of the Holy Apostle; in the upper part, the arrest of a young man surrounded by three other figures; in the background, boulders and a small mill. Spanish Netherlands, Middle Meuse, Limburg, Ruremonde, attributed to the master of Esloo (Jan van Oel?), ca. 1510/20 Height: 73,5 cm - Width: 45 cm - Depth: 21,5 cm Origin: Former private collection, Ghent, bought about 30 years ago on the local art market. It seems to be a very little represented scene in the artistic production and even unseen in sculpture. It is taken from the apocryphal legend of Saint James the Greater, which explains and legitimizes the presence of the Apostle's bones in Spain. This miraculous translation of the relics from Jaffa in Palestine to Compostela in Galicia would have been carried out in a marble boat, a floating sarcophagus, under the guidance of an angel. The scene depicted seems to be the moment when the companions of James place his tortured body in the "boat of stone, without sail or rudder". Among these figures, one could recognize the magician Hermogenes and his disciple Philet, whom the Apostle had succeeded in converting to the true Faith. The latter, the youngest, carries the head of the saint while his master, the eldest, supports his body with his armpits. In the small scene in the upper part of the scene, we recognize Philetius who had previously been chained up under the effect of the evil spells of Hermogenes, who had been enraged by his conversion. As is often the case in altarpieces, the sculptor could represent twice the same characters at different sizes, which made it possible to relate several episodes of a legend to a single group.