Pyrenean School, circa 1550

We are grateful to Dr. Paul Taylor and the Photographic Collection of the Warburg Institute for identifying the subject. According to a legend related by the Roman Breviary (8 May), the most beautiful bull in the herd of a nobleman of Siponto went astray on Mount Gargano. Anxious to recover the prize animal, the nobleman sought far and wide along the mountain. When he finally discovered the bull kneeling before a shrine to the pagan god Mithras, he was so enraged by its wilfulness that he fired an arrow at it. Miraculously, the arrow turned away from the bull and struck the nobleman himself, gravely injuring him. The prayers of the local bishop and the nobleman's penance were met with a vision of the Archangel Michael, who instructed them to establish his shrine at the old Mithraic site. This shrine, one of the earliest to the saint, still exists as the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano, in Apulia. The present lot is believed to come from the church dedicated to Saint Michael in Prats, Andorra, and is probably part of a series depicting the founding of Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano.