As part of preparing the Dom church for Protestant services, the Dom chapter in charge of the cathedral took the initiative of having all sculptures removed by a contractor. A small selection of sculptures was thus safely stored in the chapter’s archive. Following the abolishment of the Dom chapter in 1811, the sculptures were offered for sale. They were purchased by the Utrecht architect Christiaan Kramm, who sold them on to the municipal council in 1838. These five Dom sculptures thus lie at the very basis of the collection of the Centraal Museum.

The central figure is Saint Martin, the patron saint of the cathedral and of the city of Utrecht. The saint is depicted as a Roman officer on his horse, cutting a piece from his mantle for a beggar with a mangy dog. Two other saints of the group that are closely associated with the Dom church are Saint Agnes and Pontian of Spoleto. Both their names were tied to the consecration of the Dom in July, commemorated annually with festivities. The Dom owned important relics of Pontian. He is depicted here as a knight, and for that reason the figure was long thought to represent Saint George but without the customary dragon. Agnes is portrayed in a long fashionable dress with her symbol, the lamb. The two other saints, Mary Magdalene and the apostle Paul, were not specifically associated with the cathedral but were simply popular saints. The sculptor furnished them with their traditional symbols: an ointment jar and a sword. Over time Paul’s sword went missing, but aside from that the sculptures have been preserved remarkably intact. Even the original polychrome can still be seen to some extent.