Restored in 2005 with funding from The James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, through Beatrice Rossi-Landi, Trustee.

This sculpture, carved in high relief from Istrian stone, adorns the doorway of the parish priest’s home adjacent to the church of San Martino in the Castello district of Venice. Produced in the 1460s, the relief is set within a pointed lunette, possibly once part of the decorations of the earlier Gothic church of San Martino and relocated during Jacopo Sansovino’s complete renovation of the church in the 1540s.

The subject of the relief sculpture is a story from the life of Saint Martin, in which he performs an act of Christian charity: Martin, a fourth-century Roman soldier serving in Gaul, divides his cloak in two in order to share it with a shivering beggar. Christ later reveals himself to Martin in a dream, wearing the piece of cloak that Martin had given away. The sculptor has modeled the beggar’s long hairstyle and short beard on the standard mode of depicting Christ, thus providing a visual clue to the figure’s true identity.

The sculpture was restored by conservators from the Ducale Restauro firm, with the guidance of project director Emanuela Zucchetta of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Unidentified sculptor
Saint Martin and the Beggar
1460s, Istrian stone