male head is heavily damaged). The painted architecture, which is among the finest from the period in Rome, was executed by Pietro Paolo Drei. Two large frescos by a Flemish artist, Pieter van Lint depict scenes from the legend of the True Cross: on the left side the Invention of the True Cross, on the right the Exaltation of the Cross. The first painting shows the moment when the True Cross was identified: three crosses were found on the site of the Calvary by Saint Helena and the body of a dead man was brought to the place. The True Cross restored the dead to life. The scene is set in a bucolic landscape with the city of Jerusalem on the left and a small shrine with the statue of Apollo on the right. The second painting shows Emperor Heraclius when he brought back the cross to Jerusalem in 629. He tried to enter the city carrying the cross but he was stopped until he dismounted his palfrey, and took off his imperial robes and boots. The gate of Jerusalem closely resembles the original Porta del Popolo outside of the basilica giving the impression that the procession is arriving on Via Flaminia. The richly decorated stucco frames of the paintings are crowned with the Soderini coat-of-arms. The Invention of the True Cross was copied by another Flemish artist, the engraver Pieter de Bailliu. He was also working in Rome around 1636 but his print was only published through the support of Judocus Gillis, the abbot of the Cistercian abbey of St. Bernard near Antwerp in the 1650s. A preparatory study for the same fresco was sold in Cologne in 1892. The frescos on the vault depict the Angels with the Symbols of the Passion. In the five main field brightly winged angels hold objects associated with the Passion of Christ: the purple robe of mockery and the crown of thorns; the cross; the Veronica; the Holy Tunic; the Holy Lance and the Holy Sponge on a reed. In the two narrow fields on the sides there are chubby putti reading a book and playing on musical instruments. The fresco in the central oculus shows God the Father surrounded by cherubs. A small coat-of-arms of the Cybo family survived on the vault as part of the decoration. A preparatory study of an angel by Pieter van Lint is conserved in Rotterdam.