Empress Kneels Before Saint Martin

The Empress kneels before Saint Martin. Early 15th century or nué embroidery, northern France/Flanders. The Empress kneels before Saint Martin. Early 15th century or nué embroidery, northern France/Flanders. Copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 47.101.63.

A roundel with a diameter of 15.5 cm with embroidery carried out in the or nué tradition, popular in the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is housed, among other or nué examples, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It dates to the early fifteenth century and shows two scenes from the medieval legendary story of Saint Martin. The embroidery is carried out in silk and silver thread on a linen background.

One of the scenes, to the right, shows a number of highwaymen surrendering to Saint Martin and being converted to the Christian faith. The other, to the left, shows the wife of Roman Emperor kneeling in front of Saint Martin.

See also the entry on the exhibition Scenes from the Life of St Martin, which was organised at the MET in 2015, and the entry on another, comparable embroidery from the same series, Saint Martin and the Repentant Horsemen.

Metropolitan Museum of Art online catalogue (retrieved 2 November 2016).

WV

Last modified on Saturday, 10 December 2016 16:18
Published in Religious representations
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