St. Helen
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Wood sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 10
- Inventory
- PV 07569
- Material and technique
- Sculpted pinewood, paint and gilding
- Author
- attributed to Ivo Strigel (c.1430-1516)
- Dating
- Early 16th century
- Dimensions
- 124.5 x 40 x 27 cm.
- Origin
- Tower-Wurts Collection (1933)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
This work depicts the mother of the Emperor Constantine, St. Helen, as the large cross that she holds in her left hand indicates; the cross refers to the most important episode of her life when, according to tradition, she found the relics of the Passion of Christ on Mount Golgotha. As almost always in depictions of the subject, the saint is wearing a regal cloak over a purple, green and golden robe, and an elaborate crown, whose upper section has here been lost, over her very long hair that falls down over her shoulders. The work is completely hollow at the back, suggesting it was intended only to be seen from the front, and would have been part of a triptych. Hermanin (1948) attributed the work to the Cologne school in the second half of the 15th century; then Santangelo (1954), who did not identify her as St. Helen, attributed it to Ivo Strigel and dated it to around 1505, for its strong similarity to the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Frankfurt cathedral, which is inscribed with its date of execution, 1505. In fact, the authorship of this work can be confirmed by comparing it to other works by Ivo Strigel, who was born in Memmingen, in Swabia in 1430 or 1431 to the painter Hans Strigel the Elder, such as the Madonnas of St. Oswald and St. Joseph in his native city, which are characterized by their deeply carved folds and a very realistic and powerful rendering of facial features (including a double chin etc.). The majority of the 21 altarpieces that have been identified as products from the workshop of the artist are held in Graubünden and in Alto Adige, while only a few fragments remain in Swabia. Technical-scientific tests carried out in 2009 by IVALSA-CNR in Florence identified the wood used as Swiss pine (Pinus cfr. cembra).
Grazia Maria Fachechi
