Giuseppo BrunoCame from well-known family of goldsmiths and painters on enamel, established in Sicily for at least three generations. Bruno's signature is found on several pieces of jewelry made for the Spanish aristocracy (the Aragon family, which dominated Sicily at the time, was Spanish). It is plausible that Bruno, a master at his art, worked both in Italy and in Spain. An exceptional watch by this artist was in the Lord Sandberg Collection (see Antiquorum, The Sandberg Watch Collection, March 31, 2001, N. 151), and is now in the Patek, Philippe Museum in Geneva. Both watches feature themes from the Christian tradition; the Holy Family in contemporary surroundings (similar to a scene on a pendant with Maltese Cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum), the symbolic empathy of Christ and the Church in the case of the pelican, and the power of the Saint. The pendant itself is remarkably well preserved despite some damage done to the outer frame, and the major paintings are very well preserved, one wth two slight chips at the edge.St. James the GreaterApostle St. James the Greater was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Galilee, and a brother of St. John the Evangelist. He was among the circle of men closest to Christ, being present with Peter and John at the Transfiguration, and again at the Agony in the Garden, where the same three are seen sleeping while Christ prays. He was tried in Jerusalem in the year 44 by Herod Agrippa and executed.A series of legends dating from the Middle Ages tells of his mission to Spain and burial at Compostela, which became one of the great centers of Christian pilgrimage. This has been an important source of inspiration, especially to Spanish artists, who depict James as the Apostle, the Pilgrim, or the Knight and Patron Saint of Spain. In the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Saint James appears as a bishop, which indicates the high rank that he gained early on among the apostles. A twelfth-centry representation in the Santa Maria de Tera Church shows him as a pilgrim. The image of James as a knight in battle was widely disseminated in the form of seals and flags. The first sculpted form of this image dates from 1230 and is found in the so-called "tympano de clavijo" of the Cathedral of Santiago. Here, the saint is shown astride a horse with fallen Moors as his iconographic attributes. Another representation, with bound Moors supporting the trumeau pillar, is to be seen in the portal othe Sainte-Marie Cathedral in Oloron Sainte-Marie. It was during the 15th century, when the Catholic kings launched campaigns against Granada, and the fear of the Islamic menace was at its height, that representations of Saint James as "Moor-slayer" were most popular. During the 16th and 17th centuries, and after the final expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609, Saint James became a symbol of the fight against heresy and heathenism, as on the present pendant.