The Dream of Saint Helena

Saint Helena was the mother of Constantine, the Roman emperor who turned the empire toward Christianity, and legend says she found the True Cross in Jerusalem after a dream told her where to dig. Veronese paints the dream itself. She has fallen asleep at a window, her head propped on one hand, while two small winged figures drift up carrying the cross into her vision. He made it in Venice around 1570, and he did not invent the pose. It comes from a print after a drawing by Raphael, which Veronese then cropped hard so that Helena nearly fills the frame. The plain, unfussy handling is a clue to the picture's job. It was most likely painted for the outer shutters of a church organ, meant to be read from well below when the organ stood closed.