The Sudarium held by one angel

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The Sudarium of the title of this work is the Latin word for the sweat-cloth of Veronica. When she encountered Jesus on the Via Dolorosa towards Calvary, Veronica paused to wipe the blood and sweat off his face with her veil. In doing so, his image was miraculously and indelibly impressed onto the cloth. The story was not recorded until the Middle Ages, but in the 14th century the Sudarium and Christ's portrait became an iconic image in the Western (Catholic) Church. It is normally depicted as the Sixth Station of the Cross, found in many Catholic and some Protestant churches today.

Albrecht Dürer's print precedes his conversion to Lutheranism by several years. Significantly, it is one of his relatively few etchings and is more fleeting and atmospheric than the equivalent theme addressed in one of his engravings, <em>The Sudarium Displayed by Two Angels </em>(1513). The engraving altogether more solemn, frontal and formal. Here in contrast we can almost hear the lamenting angel who soars out of the dark with the Sudarium. The print can be called a feverish vision, with the pace of the needle accelerated to a musical allegro furioso. Veronica's cloth billows in the heavenly wind like the sail of a ship in a stormy night. Sharply foreshortened and upside-down, the holy face is barely recognisable. Space seems to have dissolved into darkness pervaded by the angel's long wail of lament. The drama is also heightened by showing the same angel as having broken away from the group behind him, who are transporting the instruments of the Passion. Dürer's use of chiaroscuro (light and shade contrasts), evident for example in the main angel's robe, is fully consistent with this.

See: Web Gallery of Art http://www.wga.hu/html_m/d/durer/2/14/4sudariu.html

Jeffrey Chipps Smith, <em>Nuremburg, a medieval city, 1500-1618</em> (Austin, 2014).

Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art                         November 2016

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