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Course: History of Art 2

Date: 4th semester, 15th of May 2014
Title: Karel krta: St. Martin shares his cloak with a beggar
Name: Viktria Zacharov

Karel krta: St. Martin shares his cloak with a beggar
(oil on canvas, 324 x186 cm, cca. 1645
The altarpiece St. Martin shares his cloak with a beggar was originally ment to be
placed on the wall in the Church of St. Martin in the old town in Prague. This church was
canceled in 1784 and the painting was sold to the family of the earls from Lobkowicz.
Afterwards the artpiece was borowed to the National Gallery and in 2009 the city of Prague
has bought the painting and it is situated in the National Gallery until now. /2/
We can see in the painting two scenes happening there. The central one in the
middle forms the main character of the altarpiece. The second one is in the background on
the left. The central person is the St. Martin with his horse. The man is wearing red cloak, hat
and he looks like pretty wealthy and proud man. On the other hand the man below who is
sitting on the ground is completely naked and we can assume that it is a beggar for sure.
Those two character in the painting are depicted as the contrarys. Martin is facing us with his
face and front body compared to the beggar who is facing us with his back. His back is very
musculous and dark. Martin looks like a young man with pale skin.
The story is from St. Martins iconography. Martin was the son of the Roman tribus
and after his studies signed on the army. In that time the most famous act he did and is the
main theme of this painting happened. When coming from the fight he noticed the naked
beggar in front of the gates to Amiens. He came to feel sorry for him that noone is actually
giving him something. Then Martin took out his sword and cutted off one half of his cloak and
gave it to the beggar. According to the legend the day after this act had happened Jesus
robed in the half of the cloak, which Martin gave to the beggar, revealed to Martin. Jesus
challenged Martin to get baptisted. Martin followed this offer, withdrew from the army and got
baptisted. /2/
Thanks to this story we know the man sitting on the horse is Martin before baptism
and it is not St. Martin yet. But the second scene depicted in the altarpiece is showing us St.
Martin tilting above the young girl. He himself as a bishop is resurrecting her. Here St. Martin
looks very old. Dislpay of the same person in two different times of life has catholic
symbolism of relationship between virtuous deed and manifestation of Gods grace. /2/
The huge vertical architectonic scenery can be seen in the background. Quite
conspicous Renaissance lodge decorated with reliefs and freestanding woman sculpture are
characteristic features of the painting and express the bitter struggle of St. Martin with
pagandom . The woman sculpture could be the goddes of allegory. But we cannot find the
exact model for the triumhal arch in the background of the scene with St. Martin and the
beggar. The urban context nonetheless suggests that it might be a poetic completition of the
so-called Arco di Portogallo the arch that intersected Via Lata (which is, today, Via del
Corso) and was torn down in 1662 /1/.
Skreta applied in this artpiece characteristic features of the Italian painters from
Renaissance and early Baroque. Choice of the colors is very interesting. We can see there
mostly red, blue and white on the brown background. Depiction of saints cloak, realistic
characteristic of his head and his extras says that the artist was studying Carravagios

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artpieces and works of his followers (Neumann, 1974) Martins robust horse ort he scenery
in the backgrounbd resembles the Veroneses paintings. The composition of the elements in
the painting reminds us the Van Dycks images.
Other influention of the Italian art can be seen in the perspective of the altarpiece. It is
painted in the perspective called di sotto in su which means that the all figures are painted
shorter as they really are. Since the altar was supposed to be placed in a big height there
was a need to paint it like this so that all the persons look realistic from below.
The painting itself was painted to remind people the fact, that during the 30-years war
there exists a latent form of the admiration of war (Kriegsbegeisterung). The depiction of St.
Martin as the jubilant warrior expresses the support of the Catholic Church. In the 17th
century this motif was put into context with an emphasis on charity during Counter-
Reformation and the theme of St. Martin was depicted many times.



References:
/1/ Lenka Stolrov, Vt Vlnas: Karel krta (1610-1674):Studies and Documents;
Prague;2011, pg. 94
/2/ http://db.skreta.cz/w/index.php?title=Sv._Martin