Saint Martin and the Beggar (early 1500s): Art, History and Details

Saint Martin and the Beggar (early 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This plate is an appliqué seal, intended as a decorative element for a garment or possibly as a simple pilgrimage medallion. The work tells a story of charity. It depicts Martin of Tours, a French soldier of the fourth century who, when accosted by a beggar at the gates of Amiens, cut a portion of his cloak and gave it to him. Saint Martin is depicted midway through cutting away his cloak with his saber. The bronze is often attributed to an artist in the northern Netherlands, which is due in part to the popularity of several motifs there at the turn of the sixteenth century. The depiction of plant life, for instance, is highly detailed, recalling Netherlandish scenes of the time. A similar seal (now in Berlin) belonged to Johann Potken, who was the provost of the Monastery of Saint Martin. This monastery was located in the now-German city of Emmerich am Rhein, not far from the Dutch city of Nijmegen. Despite the seal's Germanic attributes, the figures' physical qualities suggest the artist's awareness of Italian Renaissance art.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Martin and the Beggar
• Date: early 1500s
• Culture: Germany, early 16th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1971.163

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Chester D. Tripp

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Twelve Additions to the Medieval Treasury.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 4 (April 1972): 87–111.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.