Saint James the Greater Meeting Hermogenes, and the Martyrdom of Saint James

Saint James the Greater, one of the apostles, stood in the main panels of this altarpiece, so the predella below told his story. It comes from the Golden Legend, the medieval collection of saints' lives that painters relied on. A magician called Hermogenes sent demons to seize the apostle and bring him in chains. James turned the demons against their master, and on the left they drag Hermogenes himself, hands tied, before the saint on his throne. James let him go unharmed, and the magician became his follower. On the right is James's death. He was beheaded in Jerusalem on the orders of King Herod Agrippa, and his haloed head lies on the rocks at the soldiers' feet. The episode in between, Hermogenes throwing his books of magic into the water, was painted on another panel of the same strip, now in a private collection in the United States.