Saint Roch (1293–1327) was born into a rich family in Montpellier, but gave away his inheritance and embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. Along the way he comforted victims of the plague, but then succumbed to the disease, suffering a sore on his thigh. The Black Death ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century and Saint Roch became established as a protector of the sick. The Wallace Collection’s picture is one of the earliest representations of the saint, who became a favoured subject both as a devotional figure and as an intercessor with the Virgin on behalf of those hoping to be spared infection (cf. Cima P1). He is identified by his wound and by his pilgrim’s hat, cloak and staff. The picture is dateable c.1480, or a little later, and may have formed a pendant to a figure of Saint Sebastian (Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum) in a polyptych.