The Discovery of the Holy Cross by Empress Helena

Nicola Grassi (1682 Formeaso di Zuglio | Carnia – 1748 Venice)
Interpretive copy after Sebastiano Ricci (1659 Belluno – 1734 Venice)

The discovery of the Holy Cross by Empress Helena 1734–1735

In the course of the restoration undertaken in 2024, scientific analyses showed the use of lead white, ochre, red ochre, red lake (on a support containing aluminium), Naples yellow, cinnabar, indigo and carbon black (possibly bone black).
The painting attributed to Nicola Grassi (e.g. Rizzi 1993, Lucchese 2018) was already displayed in the Residenzgalerie (Willvonseder 1955) thirteen years before its purchase in 1968 as a loan purportedly by Sebastiano Ricci, as linked with his altar painting in the San Rocco Church in Venice. It is part of a group of works in which Grassi made skilful creative renderings of 18th-century masters, readily recognisable by experts as copies. Lucchese assumes the date of Grassi’s Discovery of the Holy Cross by Empress Helena to be shortly after Ricci completed the altar painting in San Rocco (paid for on 27 September 1733). In addition, Lucchese refers to a copper engraving (1735) by Gottfried Eichler, with a different background, which presupposes knowledge of Grassi’s work, so that he dates the Salzburg painting to 1734–1735. The inscription at the bottom of Eichler’s engraving – Nicolaus Grassi pinx. Di Venetia / Gottfrid Eichler sculps. Et excud. Aug. Vin. – which hangs in the main hall of the baroque palace (Kellerschlössel) in the Domäne Wachau in Dürnstein, refers to Nicola Grassi as the painter of the Discovery, engraved and printed by Gottfried Eichler.
Empress Helena’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where the discovery of the cross (inventio crucis) is said to have taken place, is described in the Legenda Aurea. One of the three crosses found in the search was possibly the True Cross of Christ, which was distinguished from the crosses of the two thieves by a miracle of raising a youth from the dead. The painting combines several of the episodes described in the Legenda Aurea, though without keeping strictly to detail.
According to the narrative, after Judas prayed on the hill of Golgotha, the ground trembled and the exquisite scent of incense marked the site of the crosses lying buried – shown in the painting by the column of smoke rising behind the figures. In the narrow strip of deep shadow in the foreground, spade and rake are evidence of the excavation of the three crosses, of which only one is depicted. The instruments of torture – lance, three nails and crown of thorns – in the hands of the angels designate the upraised cross as the True Cross of Christ, together with the kneeling youth raised from the dead, his naked body covered only by a white cloth. With an expansive gesture, he stretches his hands aloft in prayer; his back to the viewer, as a repoussoir he guides the eye into the picture, contributing to the effect of depth, like the staggered figures behind – such as the young woman with the flirtatious glance or the youth bowing to present crown and sceptre to the Empress who, deeply moved, touches the Cross with her right hand. Her ecstasy is only one example in a work full of emotions. Unlike Ricci’s rendering of the subject, Grassi does not show the torch-bearers and the bier. The artist has painted the figures in bright or muted colours, according to their function. His choice of colours and the numerous pink accents are typical rococo.

DUCKE Astrid: 55 Nicola Grassi (1682 Formeaso di Zuglio | Carnia – 1748 Venice), Interpretive copy after Sebastiano Ricci (1659 Belluno – 1734 Venice), The discovery of the Holy Cross by Empress Helena 1734–1735, in: Residenzgalerie Salzburg I DomQuartier Salzburg GmbH, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Hrsg.): Die Farben der Serenissima. Venezianische Meisterwerke von Tizian bis Canaletto. The Colours of la Serenissima. Venetian masterworks from Titian to Canaletto. Salzburg 2024, p. 238-241