Old Masters · Matthew 25:40 · 5 October 2026 · 3 works
The Works of Mercy
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
For St Martin's Day: bread at the door and a cloak cut in two.
In a Dutch street a couple hands out bread from a basket at the door of their house. The poor crowd round: old men, a cripple on the ground, a child on its father's shoulders. Among them stands a quiet figure whom nobody notices.
A young nobleman in gilded armour sits on a white horse and cuts his green cloak in two with his sword. Beside him stands a naked beggar, very tall and very thin, and takes hold of the cloth.
Martin, in black armour and a hat with feathers, leans from his white horse and draws his sword through the red cloak. Two beggars wait for it: one kneels with his bare back to us, the other, his head bandaged, stares up.
