Saint James triumphing over indigenous people, otherwise as “Santiago Mataindios,” is the New World counterpart and response to the well-known Spanish iconography of Saint James triumphing over the Moors—“Santiago Matamoros.” The origin of Santiago Matamoros imagery can be traced to the legend that Saint James miraculously appeared on horseback at the Battle of Clavijo, leading the Spanish to victory over the Moors in their campaign for the reconquest of Spain. In most depictions of this scene, the Apostle is shown towering over enemy combatants, many of whom have fallen to the ground. The legend refers specifically to the defeat of Muslim Moors, from which he derives the name Saint James Killer of Moors.
It was not long after the Spanish began their conquest of the New World that images of Santiago Mataindios began to proliferate in Mexico and Peru. By the mid-16th century, images of Saint James presented him in this distinctly New World guise, at war with Aztec and Inca warriors. Spanish conquistadors are known to have invoked Saint James for protection before battle. Furthermore, beyond general parallels between the reconquest of Spain and the conquest of the New World—particularly the shared campaign of Christianization—the emergence of Santiago Mataindios may be tied to a related legend from Peru, in which the saint was believed to have intervened on behalf of the Spanish during the siege of Cuzco by Manco Inca Yupanqui and his armies in 1536–1537. A related depiction of Santiago Mataindios is today in the Cathedral in Cuzco (Fig. 1).
In this painting, Saint James appears riding on a white horse and brandishes a sword. His white mantle, which billows in the wind, is marked with a red cross, identifying him as a Christian warrior. And his tricorn hat signifies his being European in origin. At the left edge of the composition, several Inca are seen wearing feathered headdresses and attired in traditional geometric-patterned tunics known as unca. The figures display a mix of expressions—ranging from fear to astonishment at the miraculous appearance of the Apostle—with one warrior drawing his bow against the saint. Two additional figures are depicted beneath Saint James’s rearing horse—one recoils under the horse’s front legs, while the other is pinned beneath its hind legs and appears as if reaching out of the pictorial plane at the edge of the frame.
Interestingly, in the New World Santiago Mataindios was sometimes conflated with an indigenous deity. Saint James became equated in Peru with the Inca god of lightning, Illapa, as a protector of Christians in the New World since he was said to have appeared as a flash of lightning at the siege of Cuzco. This conflation may be hinted at in the present painting, as Saint James’ horse displays a sun-like motif with emanating rays in the center of the browband on its bridle that may derive from Inca imagery (Figs. 2-3). Furthermore, the textiles worn by the figures in the foreground directly relate to known examples of Incan tunics, such as those found in painted representations of Incan people in Peru (Fig. 4), as well as this especially elaborate 16th-century tunic displaying numerous patterned squares (Fig. 5).
The present work is painted in an unusually sophisticated style, one which can be localized in the Altiplano, the Andean plateau, which extends across southern Peru and into northern Bolivia. A recent conservation treatment has revealed several pentimenti in the horseback and in the indigenous people depicted at the bottom edge of the composition. The painting survives on its original canvas (which consists of two pieces of canvas sewn together) and in its original format, as revealed by the presence of cusping.
