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Lot Essay
THE SUBJECT
St. Veronica wiped Christ's face with her handkerchief or veil (sudarium) as he carried the cross to Calvary. His face imprinted on the sudarium. The story is first told in this fashion circa 1300 while the first images of it appeared approximately 100 years later. By the 15th Century the story formed an important part of the Passion plays.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
The facial type and headdress of this panel is related to a figure on the left wing of a Crucifixion tryptich by Rogier van der Weyden in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, of circa 1440 - 1445 (Katalog der Gemälde: II. Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, Vienna, 1958, pp. 147 and 148, no. 416, pl. 4). Tapestries solely depicting St. Veronica are rare and include one showing her in full-length at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (E. A. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, cat. 7, p. 75). Another half-length figure of St. Veronica with a landscape background but wearing heavy circular ear coverings and holding a fringed sudarium with Christ's head without crown of thorns was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 13 December 1963, lot 75. A Veronica with similarly slightly slanted head and solemn expression but wearing a differing head-dress and holding the sudarium of Christ without the crown of thorns is incorporated in a larger panel depicting The Deposition of Christ in the Museo del Duomo in Milan and is dated to 1505 - 1510 by N. Forti Grazzini ('Arazzi di Bruxelles in Italia, 1480 - 1535', Gli Arazzi del Cardinale, Trento, 1990, p. 45).
The border of the Wildenstein tapestry relates closely to a larger panel depicting The Resurrected Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen in the Garden, which also incorporates very similar birds set within vegetation (A. S. Cavallo, Medieval tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, cat. 30, pp. 447 - 451). The author attributes the weaving of that tapestry to 1500 - 1520 on the basis of the design of the main subject. Another such devotional tapestry showing Noli me Tangere in the Art Institute of Chicago employs the same type of borders (C.C. Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles from The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1969, plate 13). The fine weaving of the offered lot has often been associated with Brussels, although other centers are known to have woven such devotional tapestries.
(E. A. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, cat. 7, pp. 74 - 78)
St. Veronica wiped Christ's face with her handkerchief or veil (sudarium) as he carried the cross to Calvary. His face imprinted on the sudarium. The story is first told in this fashion circa 1300 while the first images of it appeared approximately 100 years later. By the 15th Century the story formed an important part of the Passion plays.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
The facial type and headdress of this panel is related to a figure on the left wing of a Crucifixion tryptich by Rogier van der Weyden in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, of circa 1440 - 1445 (Katalog der Gemälde: II. Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, Vienna, 1958, pp. 147 and 148, no. 416, pl. 4). Tapestries solely depicting St. Veronica are rare and include one showing her in full-length at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (E. A. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, cat. 7, p. 75). Another half-length figure of St. Veronica with a landscape background but wearing heavy circular ear coverings and holding a fringed sudarium with Christ's head without crown of thorns was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 13 December 1963, lot 75. A Veronica with similarly slightly slanted head and solemn expression but wearing a differing head-dress and holding the sudarium of Christ without the crown of thorns is incorporated in a larger panel depicting The Deposition of Christ in the Museo del Duomo in Milan and is dated to 1505 - 1510 by N. Forti Grazzini ('Arazzi di Bruxelles in Italia, 1480 - 1535', Gli Arazzi del Cardinale, Trento, 1990, p. 45).
The border of the Wildenstein tapestry relates closely to a larger panel depicting The Resurrected Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen in the Garden, which also incorporates very similar birds set within vegetation (A. S. Cavallo, Medieval tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, cat. 30, pp. 447 - 451). The author attributes the weaving of that tapestry to 1500 - 1520 on the basis of the design of the main subject. Another such devotional tapestry showing Noli me Tangere in the Art Institute of Chicago employs the same type of borders (C.C. Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles from The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1969, plate 13). The fine weaving of the offered lot has often been associated with Brussels, although other centers are known to have woven such devotional tapestries.
(E. A. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, cat. 7, pp. 74 - 78)