MEMLING, Hans
(b. ca. 1440, Seligenstadt, d. 1494, Bruges)

St John and Veronica Diptych (right wing)

c. 1483
Oil on wood, 31,2 x 24,4 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Veronica, who consoled Christ on the road to Golgotha, is represented by Memling as a fashionably dressed lady of the fifteenth century. In her hands is the 'sudarium' or sweat cloth with the imprint of Christ's face. Behind stretches a poetic north European landscape of breathless calm.

On the reverse the gold chalice with a serpent can be seen. It refers to the legend of St John the Evangelist.

The left wing of the diptych representing St John the Evangelist is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.