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Saint Helen Testing the True Cross
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti; Italian, 1518–1594)
c. 1545
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- 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.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Böhler and Steinmeyer
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This painting may belong to an extensive series of small scenes illustrating the story of Saint Helen, mother of Constantine, the Roman emperor who made Christianity the official religion of his empire. According to legend, Helen traveled to Jerusalem in search of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, known as the True Cross. Guided to the spot of the crucifixion, she identified the True Cross by testing its power to revive the dead. In this small painting, Tintoretto set down the figures with bold, summarizing strokes that efficiently convey posture and movement.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
