Saint Martin and the Beggar, ca. 1475

About the Work

While a soldier in the Roman army, Martin of Tours (ca. 316/17–397) gave half of his warm officer’s cloak to a freezing beggar. Christ appeared to him afterwards in a dream, prompting his conversion to Christianity; later he became a hermit and a bishop. Dressed in a velvet jacket, he cuts a generous piece off his large mantle; the sparsly dressed beggar receives it. A closer look reveals that Schongauer originally intended to show the beggar’s right arm outstretched rather than bent.