The Sudarium of Saint Veronica
Claude Mellan (French, 1598-1688)
1649
- Medium
- Engraving in black on buff laid paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Plate: 43.3 × 31.6 cm (17 1/16 × 12 1/2 in.); Sheet: 43.6 × 31.9 cm (17 3/16 × 12 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Charles Deering Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This virtuoso print replicates the cloth that Saint Veronica used to wipe Christ’s face on the way to his death. The cloth is called a sudarium, a contact relic containing the print-like impression of the savior’s face. Claude Mellan engraved Christ’s portrait in one seemingly unbroken line; the spiral from the center of his nose swirls outward to delineate the fabric. The artist’s way of approaching the swelling engraved line, produced with increased burin pressure, lends the image an abstract quality.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
