Lot Essay
This is the modello for the tenth of the Life of Constantine the Great series, the commission of which is considered in the introduction preceding lot .
Various sources describe the events of Saint Helena's journey to Jerusalem, where between 325 and 327/8 - after the Council of Nicaea and before her death - she discovered the True Cross.
Rubens followed the text of Tardieu's print which describes the appearance of Saint Helena after her journey, 'avec toutte la force et éclat de la jeunesse'. Saint Helena, Constantine's mother, is shown here, in accordance with the legend, not as an old woman, but with her youthful looks miraculously restored after the discovery of the True Cross. Constantine, victorious over Maxentius and Licinius, and now the Christian Emperor and master of Rome, kneels in devotion in front of the Cross. To the left stands a bishop, possibly Macarius of Jerusalem who, according to Eusebius, was given directions by Constantine to build a church on the site of the Crucifixion. Behind the central group is a building which Rooses proposes may be an allusion to this church.
DuBon has observed similarities between the architectural setting in the modello and Rubens' Miracles of Saint Francis Xavier in Vienna and his Miracles of Saint Francis of Paola in Munich.
There are pentimenti in the silhouette of Constantine's back and in the outline of Macarius' cope, and other adjustments in the balustrade and the central column.
A tapestry from the first edition of the series is at Philadelphia (DuBon, pls.23-5); it measures 332.7 x 331.5cm., and there are differences in design between it and with the cartoon from which it was copied, and the present modello. The architecture in the tapestry has been moved forward and proportionately enlarged. The two figures standing on the balustrade have also been enlarged and one looks down at Constantine. As Held observes, these changes were made to give more prominence to the setting. In the tapestry both Constantine and Helena seem somewhat older, and Constantine, who is clean-shaven in the modello, has a slight beard
Various sources describe the events of Saint Helena's journey to Jerusalem, where between 325 and 327/8 - after the Council of Nicaea and before her death - she discovered the True Cross.
Rubens followed the text of Tardieu's print which describes the appearance of Saint Helena after her journey, 'avec toutte la force et éclat de la jeunesse'. Saint Helena, Constantine's mother, is shown here, in accordance with the legend, not as an old woman, but with her youthful looks miraculously restored after the discovery of the True Cross. Constantine, victorious over Maxentius and Licinius, and now the Christian Emperor and master of Rome, kneels in devotion in front of the Cross. To the left stands a bishop, possibly Macarius of Jerusalem who, according to Eusebius, was given directions by Constantine to build a church on the site of the Crucifixion. Behind the central group is a building which Rooses proposes may be an allusion to this church.
DuBon has observed similarities between the architectural setting in the modello and Rubens' Miracles of Saint Francis Xavier in Vienna and his Miracles of Saint Francis of Paola in Munich.
There are pentimenti in the silhouette of Constantine's back and in the outline of Macarius' cope, and other adjustments in the balustrade and the central column.
A tapestry from the first edition of the series is at Philadelphia (DuBon, pls.23-5); it measures 332.7 x 331.5cm., and there are differences in design between it and with the cartoon from which it was copied, and the present modello. The architecture in the tapestry has been moved forward and proportionately enlarged. The two figures standing on the balustrade have also been enlarged and one looks down at Constantine. As Held observes, these changes were made to give more prominence to the setting. In the tapestry both Constantine and Helena seem somewhat older, and Constantine, who is clean-shaven in the modello, has a slight beard