St. Martin of Tours

Austria, circa 1410
Stained glass, approximately 2 feet high (60 cm.)
The Cloisters, New York City

St. Martin of Tours cuts off part of his cloak for the beggar on the left. The imagery tends to emphasize the pridefulness of the young soldier Martin previous to his vision of Christ. He stands straight and tall next to the diminutive beggar, whose feet are twisted every which way. The beggaar is naked while Martin wears gleaming armor and a capacious cloak, of which he is cutting off only a small part, not the half specified in the legend. Most important, he looks insouciantly away from the beggar.

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Photographed at the Cloisters by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.