Arrestation de Saint Jacques le Majeur

The Arrestation de Saint Jacques le Majeur by the Master of the Legend of Saint James, painted around 1490 and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, depicts the arrest of the apostle James the Elder — the event that preceded his martyrdom under Herod Agrippa and that gave his life its dramatic narrative climax. The Master of the Legend of Saint James produced a major cycle of narrative panels depicting James's apostolic career, miracles, and martyrdom, several of which survive in Alsatian museum collections near the original commissioning context. James was the patron saint of pilgrims and the apostle associated with the great Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, which remained among the most important in European Christendom throughout the fifteenth century. The artist's upper Rhine style blends Flemish narrative precision with a graphic directness typical of the region.

The composition renders the arrest with the episodic clarity characteristic of altarpiece narrative painting, the figures of soldiers and the apostle James organized to communicate the violent interruption of sacred activity with visual legibility. Flemish influence is visible in the spatial depth of the architectural setting and the descriptive rendering of costumes and armor.