Constantine the Great in Seventeenth-Century Art of the Netherlands: Iconography, Tradition and Ancient Sources

In this chapter, several specimina of Constantine the Great as a theme in Netherlandish Art are being discussed: the development of the theme and possible sources and models, in earlier art as well as literature. An important link between the Ancient and Medieval tradition and (pre-)modern times were the cycles devoted to the Roman Emperor as designed by Raphael in the early sixteenth centure and, one century later, his Northern counterpart of Catholic painting Rubens. Whereas the Constantine-related themes of the Vision of the Cross and the Battle at the Milvian Bridge do only have scanty ground in classical historiography, it appears that Raphael was tantamount in the shaping of a Constantinian tradition that thrived in the Netherlands. Its function was not only to create large battle scenes, dynamic painting models or pastoral landscapes, but also to recruit and advertise the power of the Christian belief, in Catholic as well as Protestant circles.