Lot 403
CARVED LIMESTONE PANEL OF SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS
14TH/ 15TH CENTURY
Fine Furniture and Works of Art
Auction: 5 July 2017 at 11:00 BST
Description
depicting St. Martin on horseback with his sword raised, handing his cut cloak to a beggar, carved with the initials S M, with a modern wall mounting bracket
Dimensions
35cm wide, 38cm high
Footnote
Note: The depiction of St. Martin of Tours was a popular subject for religious devotional items during the medieval period, and surviving artworks show that this particular scene was regularly portrayed during the 14th and 15th centuries, in a variety of media. St. Martin was a French soldier in the fourth century, who in an act of kindness cut his cloak in two and handed a beggar a portion of it at the gates of Amiens. Examples of this scene exist in not only religious institutions throughout the world, such as a piece carved in pietra serena in Nova Scotia, but in important museums including the V&A and the Cleveland Museum of Art.