Flemish School - Saint James The Greater Surrounded By Demons, 17th Century

"The story is taken from the life of Saint James the Greater as told in the Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine1, and is associated with a sort of magical competition between the Saint and the sorcerer Hermogenes. Saint James had returned to Judea from Spain, and was confronted by a certain Philetus, a follower of Hermogenes, who was sent by the latter to discredit Saint James as a false prophet to the Jewish populace. However, Philetus himself was converted, which so enraged Hermogenes that he used his magical powers to torment his erstwhile disciple and dispatched demons to fetch Saint James to him. The creatures, however, were powerless against the Saint, and Hermogenes himself, ultimately became a Christian. Here the moment is depicted in which Philetus, kneeling at the altar on the left, has already been converted, and the furious magician has just sent his infernal monsters, which surround an unyielding Saint James."

- quote and artwork found at Soethbys.