Saint Martin and the Beggar

Art Historical Context

Balthasar Moncornet’s engraving *Saint Martin and the Beggar* captures one of Christianity’s most enduring legends of charity. Created between 1551 and 1600, the print shows the Roman soldier-turned-saint cutting his cloak in half to share with a freezing beggar—an act that, according to tradition, revealed Martin’s sanctity when Christ later appeared to him wearing the same garment. Moncornet, a French engraver active during the late Renaissance, rendered the scene with crisp lines and careful attention to drapery and gesture, inviting viewers to reflect on compassion and humility. Engraving...

About the Artist

Balthasar Moncornet

Balthasar Moncornet (c. 1600–1668) was a French engraver and print publisher who became one of the most prolific portrait printmakers of seventeenth-century France. Born in Rouen, he established a highly productive workshop in Paris on the Rue Saint-Jacques, the traditional center of the French print trade. Despite being blind in one eye — a remarkable handicap for an engraver — Moncornet produced...