The apostle is dressed as a pilgrim, his hat and pouch decorated with scallop shells. His staff stands to the right, and at his feet is the vanquished figure of his murderer, King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:2). The canopy enclosing his figure has been partially lost, but its original side shafts remain and are occupied by small, delicately painted figures enriched with silver stain. The background behind St James is decorated with lozenges filled with exquisitely detailed figures of musicians, grotesques and animal hybrids. The style of the work is closely related to glass commissioned in 1339 for the west wall of the nave by Archbishop William Melton. It belongs to a series of standing figures and narrative panels of exceptional quality, now predominantly located in the south quire clerestory (S3 and S4). The series of apostle figures is one of the earliest in which each apostles is assigned a specific attribute. St James was inserted here between the 1690s and c.1730.
