(b. ca. 1375, Valenciennes, d. 1444, Tournai)

St Veronica c. 1410 Oil on wood, 151,5 x 61 cm Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

This is the right panel of a triptych, the left panel representing the Virgin and Child, while the central panel being a grisaille Holy Trinity. In the background of the side panels the artist uses a background of brockade hangings to produce a space without depth.

The saint appears delicate and psychologically isolated in her emotion. The lower part of the figure, where her clothes are gathered into elegant folds, is three-dimensional, but around the shoulders it is made to look comparatively flat, so as not to stand out too much from the entirely non-spatial, strongly patterned brocade of the background. The folds of her garments form patterns and matching correspondences, for instance where the end of her green sleeve on the right is echoed by the end of the red cloak hanging to the ground. There is deliberate beauty of form in the elaborate cloth framing Veronica's face.

Veronica is standing on a comparatively deep piece of natural ground that ends against a flat and entirely unrealistic wall that seems very close to the figure at the top, thus the illusion of a shrine or niche is given. In other words the saint is displayed as if in a carved shrine.

--- Keywords: --------------

Author: MASTER of Flémalle Title: St Veronica Time-line: 1401-1450 School: Flemish Form: painting