The vision of Saint Helena

The vision of Saint Helena



Painter: Paolo Veronese
Colors: 19
Dimensions: 35 * 25 squares1 square is 10 * 10 dots, about 1 centimeter
Solded to private collection

Paolo Veronese (1528 – 19 April 1588) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. He was the fifth child to a stone-cutter, or spezapreda, by the name of Gabriele. It was common for surnames to be taken from a father’s profession, and thus Veronese was known as Paolo Spezapreda. He later changed his name to Caliari when he relocated to Venice. He adopted the name Paolo Cagliari or Paolo Caliari, and became known as “Veronese” from his birthplace in Verona.

The vision of Saint Helena is located in Vatican Museums and Galleries.

The vision of St. Helena is a work that belongs to his mature stage and portraits the mother of Constantine I, emperor of Rome. Raised in a humble home, St. Helena is later canonized for her pious works and her relentless search for christian relics. Legend says that, slept, dreams with a place where can be found the original cross where Jesus was crucified on and, after that, she began her quest.

There are two versions of the painting: the first from 1565 and the other one we have today, from 1580. The concept for both is the same, although the treatment of the motif is different.

In the 1580 version, we see Helena sleeping, wearing 16th century clothes (note: Helena lived from 250 to 330 a.c.), with a cloth and a veil, secured by her crown. He rests over her left hand in a position that, to my understanding, is far from comfortable. To the right of the canvas, symbolically, a winged angel, with his back to us, shows her the cross.

The motif of the work can be interesting, but it is undeniable that the technique of this artist is from another world. In today’s painting, we can almost touch the texture of the dress and the cloth of the empress…. However, Veronese is not only known for his technique but also for the use of the color. Although the canvas from today has a limited palette, the colors of Helena’s clothing are extremely pure and clear and, under the shadow, they don’t lose his strength or intensity.

It is because of that that Veronese is considered, according to the words of the art critic Théophile Gautier, as the greatest colorist that ever lived, even above artists like Titian, Rubens or Rembrandt.

Saint Helena

Saint Helena