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Saint Veronica

Designer Possibly after a design by Bernard van Orley Netherlandish
ca. 1525
Not on view
Small-scale devotional tapestries like this one were popular among the most elite collections of Europe. One buying trip for twelve such textiles cost Queen Isabella of Castile the equivalent to ten years of the salary she paid the ship’s master on Christopher Columbus’s transatlantic voyage in 1492. A tapestry comparable in size and subject to this one belonged to Isabella’s granddaughter, the Habsburg Queen Catherine of Portugal. The sixteenth-century appeal of this tapestry lay in the skill of its weavers—who rendered the folds of Veronica’s mantle in silver thread, tackling the challenging effect of watery reflections—and in its compelling design. The life-size Veronica, head overlapping the border, seems to step out of the textile and into our space.

[Elizabeth Cleland, 2017]

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Saint Veronica
  • Designer: Possibly after a design by Bernard van Orley (Netherlandish, Brussels ca. 1492–1541/42 Brussels)
  • Date: ca. 1525
  • Culture: Netherlandish, probably Brussels
  • Medium: Wool, silk, gilded silver metal-wrapped threads (18-21 warps per inch, 7-8 per cm.)
  • Dimensions: Overall: 68 × 51 in. (172.7 × 129.5 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Bequest of George Blumenthal, 1941
  • Object Number: 41.190.80
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Final Assault on the Boar, or December from a set of the Hunts of Maximilian, Bernard van Orley , probably Netherlandish, Wool, silk (19-21 warps per inch, 8-9 per cm.), French, Paris
The Final Assault on the Boar, or December from a set of the Hunts of Maximilian
Multiple artists/makers
designed ca. 1531, woven 1692–93
Adoration of the Kings, Bernard van Orley or a member of his workshop Netherlandish, Wool, silk, silver, silver-gilt thread (20 warps per inch, 8 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
Adoration of the Kings
Multiple artists/makers
1525–1535
August from a set of Medallion Months, Bernard van Orley Netherlandish, Wool, silk (20 warps per inch, 8 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
August from a set of Medallion Months
Bernard van Orley
ca. 1525–28
The Twelve Ages of a Man: The First Three Ages (Birth-18), or Spring, Bernard van Orley Netherlandish, Wool, silk (16-20 warps per inch, 6-8 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
The Twelve Ages of a Man: The First Three Ages (Birth-18), or Spring
Bernard van Orley
ca. 1515
The Crucifixion, Bernard van Orley Netherlandish, Wool, silk, silver thread, silver-gilt thread (20-21 warps per inch, 7-8 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
The Crucifixion
Multiple artists/makers
design ca. 1515, woven ca. 1525

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