Saint James and Saint Christopher

These two tall, narrow panels are the surviving wings of a small folding altarpiece. On the left stands Saint James the Greater dressed as a pilgrim, with staff and broad hat, the patron of everyone walking the long road to his shrine at Santiago in Spain. On the right, Saint Christopher wades through water with the Christ child heavy on his shoulder, leaning on a staff of his own. Both were protectors of travelers, and Christopher in particular was believed to guard against a sudden, unprepared death. That choice was practical. A merchant or pilgrim of the 1470s faced real danger on the road and at sea, and an altarpiece like this could be folded shut and carried along. The central panel the two once framed is gone, and only these guardians of the journey remain, now in the Accademia in Venice.