Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, NY

The martyrdom of James is depicted in sequence in a 13th-century mosaic from the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice. At left, a crowd of Jews watches as James (with a halo) is pushed off the Temple roof. He is then clubbed to death by a fuller while several Pharisees look on; finally, he is buried. The depiction is based primarily on the account of James’s death written by Hegesippus, who concludes: “And they buried him on the spot, by the Temple, and his monument still remains by the Temple.” Hegesippus’s report is the earliest to mention the site of James’s tomb and, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor argues, it is likely to be the most accurate on this point.