The Truth about Constantine
History, Hagiography and Confusion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12033684 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diana M Webb, Diana Webb (Universidad de Londres, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Pages | 85-102 |
| Publication date | 1981-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Church History (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0424-2084 • E-ISSN: 2059-0644 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0424208400010287 |
| OpenAlex | W2326711727 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
In about 1380 the choir of the Franciscan church of Florence, Santa Croce, was decorated by Agnolo Gaddi with scenes illustrating the legend of the Holy Cross. The emperor Constantine does not appear in these frescoes, although it was understood that it was his conversion that had moved his mother Helena to undertake her archaeological expedition to the Holy Land to discover the whereabouts of the Cross. It is, nevertheless, his unseen presence that links Gaddi’s cycle to the frescoes of the life and miracles of Saint Silvester, painted by Maso di Banco in the nearby Bardi di Vernio chapel a generation earlier. Here the emperor, afflicted with leprosy, recoils from the advice of his pagan priests that he should bathe in the blood of innocent children and is advised by the apostles Peter and Paul in a dream that to obtain a remedy he must send for the persecuted pope Silvester. Silvester shows Constantine portraits of the apostles, thus authenticating his vision, and cleanses him of his leprosy by baptism. The remaining frescoes illustrate miracles of the saint, notably his quelling of a dragon that had been terrorising Rome and his resuscitation of two magicians who had been overcome by it
Ancient history · Apostles · Art · Art history · Baptism · Chapel · Confusion · Emperor · Fresco · Legend · Literature · Miracle · Painting · Portrait · SAINT · Theology · Unison · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
| Highly cited | No |
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