Saint Helen Testing the True Cross

c. 1545

Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti; Italian, 1518–1594)

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.

Status: On View, Gallery 206
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Tintoretto
Title: Saint Helen Testing the True Cross
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1540–1550
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
Reference Number: 1932.44
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/10509/manifest.json

Art Prices Current, vol. 4 (London, 1911), p. 556.
J. B. T., “The Lydig Collections,” American Art News, 11, 24 (1913), p. 6.
“Rita Lydig Sale,” American Art News, 11, 26 (1913), p. 6.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Illustrated Catalogue of the Rita Lydig Collection (New York, 1913), no. 130, ill.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Mrs. Lydig’s Library,” Art in America 1, 2 (1913), p. 69.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), p. 173.
Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 26 (1932), p. 60, ill.
Hans Tietze, “Bozzetti di Jacopo Tintoretto,” Arte veneta 5 (1951), pp. 57–58, ill.
W. R. Rearick, “Battista Franco and the Grimani Chapel,” Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte 2 (1958–59), p. 119 n. 67.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 450.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” in Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae (Munich, 1961), p. 518.
Carlo Bernari and Pierluigi De Vecchi, L’opera completa del Tintoretto, Classici dell’arte 36 (Milan, 1970), p. 134.
Aldo Bertini, “Un’ignorata opera giovanile del Tintoretto: L’erezione del vitello d’oro,” Arte veneta 25 (1971), p. 261.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972), pp. 199, 402, 570.
James K. Kettlewell, The Hyde Collection Catalogue (Glens Falls, New York, 1981), p. 81.
Rodolfo Pallucchini and Paola Rossi, Tintoretto: Le opere sacre e profane (Milan, 1982), vol. 1, p. 21, no. 96; vol. 2, fig. 123.
Palluchini and Rossi, Tintoretto: L’opera Completa, vol. 2 (Milan, 1990), no. 96.
Christopher Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1993), pp. 239–42, ill.
Ana Debenedetti, “A Recently Identified Painting by Tintoretto in the Victoria and Albert Museum,” Burlington Magazine, 155 (2013), pp. 19–24, figs. 25, 26, 32, 36.

Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, Germälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, July–August 1925, no. 399b.
Benent, Illinois, National Arts Foundation Museum, 1955, no cat.

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.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.