Relief with Scene from the Legend of the True Cross

Relief with Scene from the Legend of the True Cross

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This relief, along with another in the collection (acc. no. 23.79.2), once formed part of a narrative that stretched across the back of an altar. Carved from single blocks of marble, the two compositions feature episodes from the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In order to bring these distant events into the present, the sculptor employed clothing and character types familiar to fifteenth-century audiences. Here Saint Helena and her retinue witness proof of the True Cross’s identity, when its miraculous touch brings a man back from the dead. Jude, having led Helena to the cross and observed the miracle, converts to Christianity and receives baptism

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Relief with Scene from the Legend of the True CrossRelief with Scene from the Legend of the True CrossRelief with Scene from the Legend of the True CrossRelief with Scene from the Legend of the True CrossRelief with Scene from the Legend of the True Cross

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.