Paolo Veronese, 'The Dream of Saint Helena', about 1570

The Dream of Saint Helena

Paolo Veronese

Room 9

About the work

Overview

Helen or Helena was mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. She dreamed that an angel revealed to her the location of the cross on which Christ was crucified and urged her to travel to the Holy Land to find it. She dug up three crosses and, by testing their healing power, was able to identify Christ’s, known as the True Cross.

Saint Helena sits with one foot up on a stone bench in a window alcove, her head resting in her hand, her elbow on the window ledge. As she sleeps, two winged cherubs appear in the sky carrying the True Cross. The deterioration of the pigment smalt has caused the sky to turn from pale blue to yellow-grey.

Veronese’s painting has probably been cropped at the top and bottom. It was clearly designed to be seen from below, and may have been painted as decoration for an organ shutter, perhaps with a now lost opposite shutter showing Constantine.

In-depth

Helen or Helena was mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. She dreamed that an angel revealed to her the location of the cross on which Christ was crucified and urged her to travel to the Holy Land to find it. She excavated three crosses and, by testing their healing power, was able to identify which was Christ’s cross, known as the True Cross.

In Veronese’s painting, Saint Helena sits with one foot up on a stone bench in a window alcove, her head resting in her hand, her elbow on the window ledge. As she sleeps, two winged cherubs appear as a vision in the sky carrying the True Cross. The composition is highly unusual in Veronese’s work and the economical way in which it is painted is masterly. The absence of the sumptuous accessories usually favoured by Veronese and of any pattern or detail in Saint Helena’s salmon pink and gold dress allows light to ripple over the softly blended colours like a dream flowing through the sleeping body. The effect has been likened to sunlight gleaming in damp sand on the seashore.

This picture’s composition was derived from an anonymous print of Saint Helena (British Museum, London), which itself was based on a drawing by Raphael (Uffizi, Florence). The print probably represents Saint Helena, although Raphael’s drawing may have been intended as someone else – an early inscription identifies it as Danaë. Veronese’s painting differs from the print in its dramatic cropping – Saint Helena fills almost the entire canvas – and the unusual, knotty grouping of angels and the Cross at the top. The cupid on the left and Saint Helena have lost their feet, which suggests that a little of the painted area has been cut off at the top and bottom of the picture, and the deterioration of the pigment smalt has caused the sky to turn from pale blue to yellow-grey.

The limited palette and relative roughness of the brushstrokes may reflect the painting’s original purpose and location. It was probably not intended to be seen at close range, but was clearly designed to be displayed high above the viewer – we can see the underside of Saint Helena’s chin and only sky is visible through the window. It may have been made as one of the outside canvas shutters for a church organ, visible when the organ was not in use. The canvas is of a similar size to Veronese’s shutters for the organ at S. Giacomo on the Venetian island of Murano. Organ shutters often showed pairs of saints, one on each shutter. The most likely companion saint for Helena would have been her son Constantine. Their images are commonly found in Franciscan churches dedicated to the True Cross (Santa Croce in Italian).

The National Gallery’s painting may have been the Saint Helena that was listed in Rubens’s collection in Antwerp after his death in 1640.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Dream of Saint Helena
Artist: Paolo Veronese
Artist dates: 1528 - 1588
Date made: about 1570
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 197.5 × 115.6 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1878
Inventory number: NG1041
Location: Room 9
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 16th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Perhaps in the collections of Peter Paul Rubens, Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel, and Philips de Flines. Probably acquired in Holland for the 2nd Earl of Godolphin (d. 1766), by whose heirs or descendants sold Christie’s, 6 June 1803 (lot 60). Bought by William Comyns, by whom sold Christie’s, May 1815 (lot 73). Bought by ‘Ponsonby’, sold by ‘Dorrien’, both perhaps acting for Comyns, Christie’s, 2 March 1816 (lot 109), when bought by the Earl of Yarmouth. Bequeathed by him (as Marquess of Hertford) to the Countess Zichy, 1842, and confirmed as hers ten years later. Sold by her on the premises, St Dunstan’s Villa, Regent’s Park, on 9 July 1855 (lot 118). Bought by ‘Emery’, who was either acting for Percy Ashburnham or sold it to him soon afterwards. Sold by Ashburnham at Christie’s, 19 May 1860 (lot 74). Bought by Munro of Novar. In the posthumous sale of Munro of Novar’s old masters, 1 June 1878 (lot 144), where purchased for the National Gallery.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2013

The Renaissance Dream

Musée du Luxembourg

7 October 2013 - 26 January 2014
2014

Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice

The National Gallery (London)

19 March 2014 - 15 June 2014
2017

Frederic William Burton: For the Love of Art

National Gallery of Ireland

24 October 2017 - 14 January 2018

Bibliography

1888

P. Caliari, Paolo Veronese, sua vita e sue opere, Rome 1888
1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1913

D.S. MacColl, 'Notes on Pictures in the Wallace Collection. The Italian School', The Burlington Magazine, XXII, 1913, pp. 323-6
1914

C. Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell'arte, 1648, ed. D. von Hadeln, Berlin 1914
1916

R.C. Witt, 'The Cataloguing of the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXVIII/155, 1916, pp. 190-2
1923

C.J. Holmes, Old Masters and Modern Art: The National Gallery, Italian Schools, London 1923
1926

A.M. Brizio, 'Note per una definizione critica dello stile di Paolo Veronese', L'arte, XXIX, 1926, pp. 213-42
1927

P.H. Osmond, Paolo Veronese: His Career and Work, London 1927
1928

G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588, Bologna 1928
1928

G. Nicodemi, 'Centenario di grandi artisti: Paolo Veronese', Emporium, 68, 1928, pp. 327-44
1934

G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, Rome 1934
1934

R.N.D. Wilson, The National and Tate Galleries, London 1934
1943

R. Pallucchini, Veronese, Bergamo 1943
1950

R. Cecil, 'The Remainder of the Hertford and Wallace Collections', The Burlington Magazine, XCII, 1950, pp. 168-72
1957

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
1959

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School, London 1959
1960

M. Levey, A Brief History of the National Gallery: With A Representative Selection of Pictures, London 1960
1962

L. Crosato, Gli affreschi nelle ville venete del Cinquecento, Treviso 1962
1968

G. Piovene and R. Marini, L'opera completa del Veronese, Milan 1968
1973

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: January 1971 - December 1972, London 1973
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1976

T. Pignatti, Veronese: L'opera completa, Venice 1976
1981

A. Golahny, 'Jan de Bisschop's St. Helena', Master Drawings, XIX, 1981, pp. 25-7
1982

J. Ingamells, '"Perseus and Andromeda": The Provenance', The Burlington Magazine, CXXIV/952, 1982, pp. 396-400
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1993

D. Summers, 'Form and Gender', New Literary History, XXIV/2, 1993, pp. 243-71
1994

L. Gnocchi, Paolo Veronese fra artisti e letterati, Florence 1994
1994

M. Eidelberg, 'The Dispersal of the Last Duke of Mantua's Paintings', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXVI/123, 1994, pp. 207-94
1996

D. Jaffé, 'The Earl and Countess of Arundel: Renaissance Collectors', Apollo, CXLIV, 1996, pp. 3-35
1996

N. Penny, A. Roy and M. Spring, 'Veronese's Paintings in the National Gallery, Technique and Materials: Part II', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVII, 1996, pp. 32-55
2000

A. Priever, Paolo Caliari, Gennant Veronese, 1528-1588, Cologne 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2008

Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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