SAINT HUBERT OR SAINT EUSTACE. GOLDEN AND POLYCHROMED WOOD. SPANISH SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY.

Possibly, Saint Hubert or Saint Eustace. Carved, polychrome and gilded wood. Spanish school, 16th century. Polychrome and gilded wood carving, simply roughed on the back, showing a richly dressed young rider, wearing a flat hat, and with a falcon on his right arm, his hand covered with a glove. Iconographically, it could be a civil sculpture, of a hunting nobleman, since it does not have a nimbus and there are no other elements that identify it. However, it could also be a saint. In this case, it may be Saint Eustace of Rome, a Roman general martyred in the Italian capital during the persecutions of the Emperor Hadrian in 118 AD. C. and who was converted when, going out hunting, he saw a deer with a crucifix between its antlers, illuminated with a strong light and hearing a voice that warned him. This vision also appears in the lives of Saint Felix of Valois (sanctified in 1666), who had it while walking, and Saint Hubert of Liege (a Merovingian nobleman who gave himself up to hunting when his wife died, and had the aforementioned vision while hunting. one Good Friday, with a voice that told him "Hubert, if you do not return to the Lord and lead a holy life, you will go to hell" and ordered him to look for the bishop of Maastritch, Lambert, converting, renouncing his position and giving to the poor. their wealth). Saint Hubert died in Tervuren, Bravante, and his remains ended up in the Abbey of Andain, in the current town of San Hubert, his remains being lost in the 16th century (until that time the abbey was a very important pilgrimage center). The importance of this saint was increased thanks to some Military Orders that took his name in the 15th century; Furthermore, Philip IV of Spain had him as a protector. Normally, these saints (Saint Eustace and Saint Hubert) appear accompanied by the deer with the cross or a Crucified between the antlers, as it is the most notable moment of their lives. However, when more space or development was available at various times in history, it was not unusual for them to be shown with a horse: portal of the chapel of Saint Hubert in Amboise (chapel built between 1491 and 1496), with the saint next to a horse and kneeling before the deer; two works preserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York: a French relief from the early 16th century with the saint riding a horse (inventory 25,120,284) and a half-prayer account from the early 16th century, from the Netherlands, with the saint also mounted. The representations of Saint Eustace are less numerous, in principle. Stylistically, the work does not present much Spanish-Flemish influence (although the saint was very popular in northern Europe). Also, compare the outfit: the hat is similar to the one worn by the portrait of John Calvin in the engraving attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543).

· Size: 64x20x77 cms