Saint Helen Testing the True Cross
Jacopo Tintoretto·c. 1545
Historical Context
Tintoretto's Saint Helen Testing the True Cross from around 1545 depicts the empress mother Helena's discovery and verification of the cross on which Christ was crucified in Jerusalem. This early work by the young Tintoretto already demonstrates the dramatic lighting and dynamic composition that would define his mature style. The subject of the True Cross was significant in Counter-Reformation Venice, where a relic of the Cross was venerated at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista.
Technical Analysis
Tintoretto's oil-on-canvas technique in this early work shows the dramatic chiaroscuro and energetic composition that would become his hallmarks. The bold, spontaneous brushwork and the theatrical arrangement of figures around the cross demonstrate his instinct for visual drama.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the dramatic cross at the center of the composition: Tintoretto organizes the entire painting around this sacred object.
- ◆Look at the theatrical chiaroscuro: light falls on the cross and Helena's face with the directed intensity Tintoretto developed from his study of Michelangelo.
- ◆Observe the spontaneous brushwork already visible in this early work: Tintoretto's instinct for visual drama is present from the beginning of his career.
- ◆Find the figures arranged around the cross in dynamic response: each reacts differently to the sacred relic, creating a variety of gesture and expression.
- ◆Notice the spatial depth Tintoretto creates through overlapping figures and foreshortening: the composition recedes into space rather than remaining flat.
Provenance
Sir Thomas Andros de la Rue, Bart. (died 1911), London; his sale, Christie’s, London, June 16, 1911, no. 67, to Robert Langton Douglas, for £273, along with the related painting “The Discovery of the True Cross” now in the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York [see Art Prices Current 1911 and an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the painting seems to have remained with the “The Discovery of the True Cross” until 1932, when it entered the collection of the Art Institute]; sold by Langton Douglas to Mrs. Philip M. Lydig (née Rita de Acosta), New York, by 1913; sold in her sale, American Art Association, New York, April 4, 1913, no. 130 to W. W. Seaman for $2000 [“Rita Lydig Sale,” 1913, p. 6; for price and buyer, see annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]. Robert Langton Douglas, London, by 1924 [according to the mount of a photograph in the Witt Library, London]. F. Hess, Berlin, by 1925 [lent to Berlin 1925]; sold in his sale, Paul Cassirer and Théodore Fischer, Lucerne, September 1, 1931, no. 4, for Fr 9000 [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Ryerson Library, Art Institute]. Böhler and Steinmeyer, New York, by 1932; given to the Art Institute, 1932.
