(c. 246/248 AD – c. 330 AD)
A Christian saint and the mother of Constantine the Great.
While surfing for info on Tommaso Cades, I came across an article entitled “Helena’s Hidden Gems” on a website called “WRITING HELENA”.
In the article the author, Julia Hillner, describes her beginner’s introduction to engraved gems, which sounded very familiar. She is writing a book about Helena, a Christian saint and the mother of Constantine the Great, which is scheduled to be published later this year.
Julia (the web immediately puts everyone on a first name basis) was searching for images of Helena in Delbrück’s Spätantike Kaiserporträts. She came upon photographs of two intaglio plaster casts purported to be Helena (Middle row in the image at left). They were labeled ns. 4 & 5.
As usual, I immediately went down the rabbit hole.
As part of her introduction to the glyptic arts, Julia located a plaster cast copy (on the left 2nd row, 2nd from left) of the first image, by Tommaso Cades, (photo n. 4) in the Akademische Kunstmuseum in Bonn. The museum’s ancient gem expert agreed with other authorities that it did not represent Helena. New mystery — who is this woman?
She found a plaster cast copy of the second image, again by Tommaso Cades, (photo n.5) in the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Rome. The find is documented in her tweet, “Cades Dactyliotheca at the DAI in Rome…” In the photo at the right, top row third from left is a cast of a gem showing Helena, bottom row third from left is Fausta (Helena’s daughter-in-law, the second wife of Constantine the Great).
In a comment below the article Julia wrote: “…although further research and conversations with gem specialists have revealed that it (cast of photo n.5) probably isn’t Helena at all. Having said this, I would be very interested if you find other copies of this portrait and the Fausta one on the row below….”
What a challenge — I set to work.
Continue reading HELENA