Constantine Slaying the Lion

Constantine Slaying the Lion, painted around 1636, continues the Constantine cycle at the Palazzo Barberini. The scene depicts the emperor's legendary feat of strength in killing a lion—an episode that paralleled David's triumph over the lion and served to present Constantine as both warrior-emperor and agent of divine providence. The cycle glorified the first Christian emperor as a model for the Barberini papacy. His position alongside Bernini and Borromini as one of the three great creators of Roman Baroque style gave him access to the most prestigious commissions in 17th-century Rome, and his approach to illusionistic ceiling painting defined the grandest ambitions of the era.

The violent encounter between emperor and beast is rendered with Baroque dynamism, the twisting bodies creating a powerful diagonal composition. Cortona's mastery of both human and animal anatomy is evident in the convincing physicality of the struggle.