Vernicle
This is such a striking image, one of the panels of the fifteenth century font at the remote church at Snarford in Lincolnshire. A full frontal head of Christ entirely fills one panel of the octaganonal font. This image probably derives from the popular late image known as the 'Vernicle'. The Vernicle was a reproduction of the cloth, which tradition asserts, was used by St Veronica to wipe the face of Christ on his way to the cross and was found to be miraculously marked with the imprint of his face. It was an image that grew in popularity in the late Middle Ages and with the invention of printing the Vernicle became a popular domestic devotional item.
Next to this image on the Snarford font is a representation of the arma christi, a shield charged with the cross and two scourges.
Next to this image on the Snarford font is a representation of the arma christi, a shield charged with the cross and two scourges.
Comments
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80227119@N00/673678578/
Simon Cotton
It is really wonderful that this was not destroyed. Perhaps it was simply too out of the way to come to the notice of the iconoclasts.
What is said to be the veil is kept in St Peter's. I suggest that the image is associated with this font rather than the Holy Shroud of Turin which has no early documented history.
The first reference to it is in 1389 when the Bishop of Troyes petitioned Pope Clement VII in Avignon to stop the veneration of a so-called relic purporting to be Christ's shroud, which he maintained was a cloth painted with imprints which a local painter had admitted making.
Thank you.
Is there a correspondance between East and West here?
Rdr James,
Olympia WA USA
Rdr. James lurker on the West Coast of the other continent