Saint Martin Cutting his Cloak

The story painted on this panel was known to everyone who saw it. Martin, a Roman soldier, rides up to the gate of Amiens on a freezing day and meets a beggar with almost nothing on. Having no money, he draws his sword and cuts his military cloak in two to give the man half. That night, the story goes, he dreams of Christ wearing the divided cloak, and he is baptised soon after. By the time this was painted, around 1440 to 1450 on the Upper Rhine, Martin of Tours had for centuries been one of the most honoured saints north of the Alps and a patron of the Frankish kings. The painter keeps to the essential moment, the mounted soldier, the sword, the half cloak passing down to the man at the roadside.