The Museum of the Ways of the Gaudí Palace presents as the piece of the month of April 2022 a polychrome wooden relief representing Santiago Matamoros from San Martín de Tábara (Zamora). In the Provisory of the Gaudí Palace, the diocesan pieces related to the Way of St. James and the varied iconography of the apostle that developed in the Diocese of Astorga since the Middle Ages are exhibited.
The work, dated in the 18th century, has been part of the Museum’s collection since 1967, just three years after its inauguration. The relief presents the equestrian and warlike version of the iconography of St. James. The warrior figure of Santiago is represented with the apostle on the back of a white horse, holding a sword in his right hand, about to brandish it over a Muslim soldier who is fallen on the ground under the equine. The left hand holds a small shield with the cross of Santiago marked in relief and holding the reins. Bearded and with a wide-brimmed hat, as is usual in other representations, he wears a large red coat with golden borders, characteristic clothing in the male fashion of the eighteenth century.
It is a work of popular character in which the unknown author represented an iconographic version of the apostle that since the 17th century shows him to us as patron and Hispanic protector and that has its origin in his identification as “Miles Christi” (soldier of Christ), recalling the appearance to King Ramiro I and his participation in the legendary Battle of Clavijo. His first equestrian representations as a warrior in combat probably appear in the 14th century, being the miniature of the Tumbo B of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela the starting point of this iconography. Its diffusion is also linked to the Order of Santiago.
The Gaudí Palace presents, coinciding with the feast of St. James, every 25th, the Piece of the Month, an initiative to show the works exhibited in the permanent collection. The Museum continues the tradition inaugurated on the occasion of the Jacobean Holy Year of showing pieces from the Diocese related to the tradition of St. James. This piece from the Zamora area of the Diocese of Astorga can be seen in the Provisorato Room on the first floor of the Gaudí Palace, dedicated exclusively to the Santiago de Compostela phenomenon.