| Medieval legend relates that Christ’s face was imprinted on the sudarium, a cloth used by St. Veronica to wipe his face as he carried the cross to Calvary. The church offered indulgences—reduced time spent in purgatory before admittance to heaven--to those who prayed to images of the sudarium. Consequently, during the early Renaissance, printmakers produced abundant images of St. Veronica displaying the cloth. The Latin inscription on this woodcut, SALVE XPI EFFIGIES SACERRIA (Hail, Sacred Image of Christ), confirms its function as an object of personal devotion. |
