Date: Circa 1500
Production place: Created in Crete or Venice
Materials and technics: Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions: H. 35 cm ; w. 28,3 cm
Inscriptions : Inscriptions on top :"S(ANCTUS) (M)ARTINU(S)"
Inventory number: PPP04870
Acquisition details: Roger Cabal bequest, 1998
Room: 41
Born in approximately 317 in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary), he enlisted in the Roman army at an early age and was sent to Gaul. In the winter of 337 in Amiens, he met a naked beggar shivering with cold and gave him half of his cloak.
That night, Christ appeared to him dressed in the half cloak he had given to the poor man and thanked him for his charitable gesture. The hand of God emerging from the darkness in the top left conjures up this vision. Martin converted and left the army. He is the most popular saint in France but is not very well known in the East.
This work is probably unique in Creto-Venitian icon-making. The Latin inscription reveals that it would seem to have been commissioned by an Italian Catholic.
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