Artibus et Historiae no. 28 (XIV)
1993, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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INGRIED BRUGGER - Empress Helena Discovers and Tests the True Cross: A Refound Early Work by Hans von Aachen
An important altarpiece by Hans von Aachen, Empress Helena Discovers and Tests the True Cross, long believed lost, was rediscovered a few years ago in a private collection. The painting was commissioned by Count Otto Heinrich von Schwarzenberg in 1586 for his family's funerary chapel in the cemetery of the Franciscan church in Munich, but disappeared in Austria following the demolition of the church. Based on previously unknown source material as well as on a comparative analysis of the presentation drawing and the final painting, the work can be dated between 1586 and 1588. Although the preliminary drawings were made while the painter was still in Venice, the painting itself was executed in Munich. This is the first work by Aachen, other than his bourgeois portraits, in which central Italian influences are replaced by elements of the Venetian style.
