Origin of two paintings?

[M. Demetrius]

How many converted soldiers do we know?

Besides an unspecified group of soldiers in the Gospels, who ask what they should do now that they are Christians, there is Cornelius from the Book of Acts. He was not an emperor, but a centurion.

The second picture, however, reminds me of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul. It has the same elements as the account in Acts. We don't know if he wore soldierly gear or not, but don't we now think the clothing of the Israelis of that day was a lot more like the Roman attire and less like 8th Century Arabs? He was on a mission to arrest and/or attack the Christians in Damascus when he was himself "arrested" by God, knocked to the ground, blinded, and later told in a dream to go to a specific street where a man would heal him of his blindness. After that, he told the local Christians about his experience. Looks like the same story to me, but I don't claim to be an expert.

That the clothing is depicted in a slightly unusual or possibly stylized way doesn't automatically make it accurate to the time, or inaccurate, either. Consider the "Roman armor" from Victorian times as an example of overstylization, and limited information. Art from a later period, as we have all come to know, doesn't necessarily concern itself with the specific cultural accuracy of the event it depicts; it's more of an attempt to tell the story frequently to those who can not read, than to be a historical record of costume.