Pieter Coecke van Aelst I Aelst (now Aalst) 1502 - 1550 Brussels

M.J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, Berlin/Leiden 1937, vol. XII, no. 156, reproduced plate 26;
G. Marlier, Pierre Coeck van Alost, Brussels 1966, pp. 216-7, footnote 59, reproduced fig. 159;
M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Brussels/Leiden 1975, vol. XII, p. 38, no. 8, pp. 161, 164, reproduced plate 82, fig. 156.

This painting is a fine example of Coecke van Aelst's mature style and can be dated to the 1530s, by comparison with other works by the artist. The detailing on the bridle and reins of the horse recall those on the soldiers' armour and on the horses in Coecke van Aelst's painting of Calvary (reproduced in Marlier, see Literature, p. 195, fig. 136), thereby suggesting a similar (or slightly later) date of execution for the present work. Marlier (op. cit., p. 217) suggests that the composition may have been inspired by an Italian prototype, more specifically he refers to Giovanni Mansueti's painting of the same subject in the Museo Correr, Venice (reproduced in G. Mariacher, Il Museo Correr di Venezia. Dipinti dal XIV al XVI Secolo, Venice 1957, p. 110): other than the upright format and the placing of figures in an extensive landscape, the similarities between these two works are not so marked as to make such a connection likely.

St. Martin is shown on horseback, dividing his cloak with a beggar on the roadside. The subject was popular with Northern artists throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the most celebrated example being Sir Anthony van Dyck's altarpiece (1620-21) today in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.