Notes

Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot was a versatile painter who was known for his village scenes, landscapes, genre pictures, moral allegories and biblical stories. His early works reflects the influence of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, David Vinckboons and Esaias van de Velde. He stood in the tradition of Flemish landscape painting, particular of the village scenes as developed by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. His village scenes usually depict a broad village street leading into the distance and houses on both sides. The villages are populated with crowds of coarse peasant figures, dispersed somewhat at random. These figures are individualised and depicted in expressive poses. Droochsloot paid a lot of attention to the details in his compositions.

Sint Maarten is one of the holidays in The Netherlands, which is celebrated every 11th of November and it is said that it has old Roman and Germanic roots. Saint Martin was a Roman soldier that was baptised as an adult and became a bishop – even though he didn’t want to: this holiday is named after him.

Sint Maarten (which is the Dutch name) his real name was Martinus, who was born in nowadays Hungary in the year 316. His parents were romans and pagans. Martinus became one of the patriarchs of Christianity in Roman Gaul (which was a large part of Western Europe).

One night, Martinus met a beggar at the city gate of the French city of Amiens who was shivering in the cold. Martinus cut half of his mantle and gave it to the poor man. At night, Martinus dreamed that the beggar was Jesus Christ. This didn’t come out of nowhere, as Martinus was already interested in Christianity for quite a while. He left the Roman Army and became a devoted Christian.

He was very loved by the poor and had a lot of followers. The French city of Tours was searching for a new bishop, his followers knew the perfect one: Martinus. According to a legend, Martinus didn’t really want to become a bishop, but preferred to travel to convert people, but his followers insisted. When they wanted to bring him to the church in Tours, Martinus fled. However, his followers found Martinus and he became the bishop of Tours.