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Find Helen, crowned and dressed in gold, reaching toward the pale man being lifted at left.
Legend says that Helen, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem to find the cross on which Jesus died, and recognized the true one when it brought a dead man back to life. This small canvas may belong to a series of scenes from her story; a related picture, The Discovery of the True Cross, is in the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York. Tintoretto set down the figures with quick, broad strokes that capture each pose in a few touches.
Oil on canvas · 21.5 × 48.9 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · High Renaissance and Mannerism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Saint Helen Testing the True Cross
- Artist
- Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti; Italian, 1518–1594)
- Date
- c. 1545
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 21.5 × 48.9 cm (8 1/2 × 19 3/8 in.); Framed: 31.8 × 59.4 × 6.4 cm (12 1/2 × 23 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Böhler and Steinmeyer
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.