| A Russian icon of the Mandylion of Edessa or the sweat cloth of Veronica. Very interesting history below you may want to read. Circa 1800 and dated as recieved as old in 1879 on the verso. Quality work by a master painter. About 12" by 8" in size condition is very good. In the eastern Churches, a “miraculous image of Christ”, “not created by human hands”, is venerated, the Mandylion of Edessa. According to the legend, King Abgar of Edessa was sick and sent a letter to Jesus asking him to come to his city (modern-day Sanli Urfa in South Turkey) to help him. Jesus replied he had a mission to fulfill, but when the king's messenger arrived, Abgar was miraculously healed. Therefore he sent his messenger a second time to Jesus, this time to paint him. In the first version of the “Doctrina Addai” of the 4th century, he comes back with a painted portrait, in a later version, the “Acta Thaddei”, Jesus Himself miraculously created that Holy Image, by washing his face and drying it with a towel, on which His Likeness appeared. Obviously there seems to be a connection between the story of the sweat cloth of Veronica healing the Emperor Tiberius and the handkerchief of Abgar´s messenger after the King's miraculous healing. Indeed, the Mandylion and the Veronika look so similar that it takes an art historian to define the difference between both in Church murals. |
