Signs, Symbols, and Meanings in Art (No.3) - The True Cross

Warning!  This Legend is a complex read.

Piero Della Francesca's Death of Adam from the story of the True Cross fresco in the Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo.

If you look at the left hand side of the fresco you can see Seth with the Archangel Michael.

This legend of the True Cross is not familiar to us today, but it was common knowledge to medieval man.

According to legend, when Adam grew old, his son, Seth, went to the gates of Paradise and begged for some healing ointment. The Archangel Michael appeared and gave him a branch, supposedly from the Tree of Knowledge.  Seth returned to find his father dead, and planted the branch over his grave.  It grew into a tree which was cut down to build a house for King Solomon, but the trunk could not be accommodated, and so was laid across a stream to serve as a bridge.  On her visit to Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, who had had a vision that the Saviour would one day hang upon this trunk, approached the bridge and knelt to worship it.

Procession of the Queen of Sheba where she recognises the wood of the Cross  from the fresco in Arezzo 

She told Solomon that a man would come to destroy the kingdom of the Jews, and Solomon ordered the wood to be buried deep in the earth. When the time of Christ’s Passion drew near, the wood floated to the surface of a pool and was used to make his Cross.

The story leaps several hundred years to the 4^th century, when the emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity and baptised.  His mother, Helena, went to Jerusalem to seek a relic of the True Cross, but Jewish scholars refused to tell her where to find it.  One Jew was thrown down a dry well and, after six days without food, he capitulated and led Helena to the site of the Cross on Golgotha. Three crosses, however, were found, and since they could not distinguish Christ’s from those of the two thieves, Helena and her companion placed them upright in the city and waited for the Lord to give a sign. A young man was restored to life when the True Cross was held over him, and Helena returned home with part of the supposed relic, now preserved in St. Peter’s, Rome. The True Cross became famous over the centuries as it performed miracle after miracle. According to legend, Chosroes, king of Persia, stole part of the True Cross. Coveting its power, he used it to subjugate his citizens. In the name of the Cross the emperor Heraclius defeated him and ordered the Persians to embrace the Christian faith. On his victorious return to Jerusalem, Heraclius was told by an angel to humble himself. 

Michele Lambertini's painting, The Emperor Heraclius Carries the Cross to Jerusalem, shows him entering the city barefoot, carrying the cross.

Musee du Louvre, Paris via wikipedia

The story of the True Cross links the Fall of Man to the Redemption. It was painted in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, especially in churches that possessed a relic of the Cross, such as Santa Croce, Florence.  Here Agnolo Gaddi painted frescoes of the narrative in the Chancel.

courtesey Web Gallery of Art via wikipedia

Agnolo Gaddi - fresco in Santa Croce, Florence - Discovery of the True Cross 

The story provided artists with a cast of celebrities, a variety of settings and a token piece of anti-semitism. Episodes were not necessarily painted in sequence. Piero della Francesca, painted his frescoes of the Legend of the True Cross in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. He put the battle scenes of Heraclius against the Persians opposite each other in the lowest tier of the cycle to create a balanced decorative scheme.

Below are some of the scenes from Piero della Francesca's frescoe, which fills the whole of the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo 

 

 Burial of holy wood

Heraclius restores the cross to Jerusalem

 detail from the above painting 

The Queen of Sheba meeting with King Solomon - the handshake between the Queen and King of Israel, portrays 15th century hopes for a union between the Orthodox and Western Churches. 

Detail of Battle depicts the defeat of the Persian king, Chosroes, who had stolen the Cross. 

Finding the True Cross - the town in the background is meant to be Jerusalem but is a fair representation of Arezzo in the 15th century. 

Congratulations if you have made it to the end of this post. The legend of the True Cross is a very complicated story, and although I have tried to simplify it, and hope that the paintings help the narrative, it is a convoluted tale to absorb.

Signs and Symbols and Meanings in Art No.1, No. 2

all images from Arezzo via wikipaintings.