Picture 3 / 3
The Works of Mercy
Anthony van Dyck, Saint Martin Dividing his Cloak, c. 1618
- Painter
- Anthony van Dyck
- Collection
- St Martin's Church, Zaventem
- Scripture
- Matthew 25:36
- Published
- 5 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
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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.
Van Dyck painted the altarpiece as a young man for the village church of Zaventem near Brussels, where it still hangs. The story does not end with the gift. In the night Christ appears to Martin in a dream, wearing the half cloak, and says to the angels: Martin has clothed me with this garment.
The blade lies across the cloth; Martin's eyes are on his hand.
The two beggars. The older one has already grasped the end of the cloak.