The Emperor Trajan Greets St. Eustace
This painting is one of a series on the life of St. Eustace in the sacristy of the church of San Stae, Venice. ("San Stae" is "St. Eustace" in Venetian.) The printed materials at the church did not address its painter, title, or date.
The Golden Legend's story of Eustace begins with his conversion after a life of brilliant successes as a military officer. A series of catastrophes leaves him as a poor hireling watching other men's flocks for fifteen years, but then the Emperor Trajan sends two soldiers out to find him and restore him to office. In the painting the emperor greets Eustace and the two soldiers look on from the left and right sides of the frame.
In the legend the soldiers who found Eustace "clad him in noble vestments," but in the painting he still wears the garb of a poor peasant.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.