The Dream of Saint Helena

Helena, and the object she is looking for

Helena is identified by a cross — not carried as an instrument of her own death, but found. The tradition credits her with the recovery of the True Cross, and painters give her the beam itself, together with an imperial crown or robe that marks her rank. The subject named here is the step before the discovery: a dream, in which the object is shown to her. It is a rare construction, because the attribute appears as something imagined rather than something held, and the picture has to make the difference visible.

What the record holds

The entry is dated 1570 and gives the National Gallery, London, UK as its location. The dimensions are 197.5 x 115.6 cm, a tall narrow upright — the proportion of a panel made for a specific position rather than for a wall in general. It is filed under female portraiture and Religion, with Mannerism Late Renaissance as the style and Italian as the nationality; the measured colour family is brown.

Two Helenas by one painter

2 titles in this catalogue carry her name, and both are by this artist: this dream, and a vision recorded at 108 x 80 cm in the Vatican Museums, Vatican. Same saint, same hand, two words for the same kind of event, and two entries that a catalogue keeps apart because their titles differ. Nothing more than that is claimed from the pairing.