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A woman sitting close to us in front of a deep landscape holds up a white cloth with the image of a man’s face on it in this vertical painting. The woman and the image on the cloth both have pale skin, hooded eyes, and long, straight noses. The woman’s shoulders are squared toward us, and her legs are tucked under her. Her head tips slightly to our right. Her eyes are downcast, and her bow-shaped lips are parted. She wears a white, turban-like headdress with a white veil covering her neck and upper chest. Her rose-pink dress is mostly covered by a voluminous, lapis-blue robe falling from the back of the headdress to the ground, where it puddles in angular folds. On the white cloth she holds up, the man’s head has chin-length blond hair and a beard. He looks out at us with light brown eyes. The woman sits on a grassy field. A dirt path cuts through a shallow valley across the picture, not far behind the woman. More harvest-yellow and moss-green hills roll back to a town with gray stone buildings with blue roofs along the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition. The sky above deepens from white at the horizon to azure blue across the top of the painting.

Hans Memling

Saint Veronica [obverse], c. 1470/1475

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 39

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 30.3 x 22.8 cm (11 15/16 x 9 in.)
overall (panel): 31.2 x 24.4 cm (12 5/16 x 9 5/8 in.)

framed: 38.9 x 31.8 x 3.8 cm (15 5/16 x 12 1/2 x 1 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.46.a

Artists / Makers

Hans Memling (artist) Netherlandish, active c. 1465 - 1494

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Probably Bernardo Bembo, Venice or Verona [d. 1519]. Probably his son, Cardinal Pietro Bembo [1470-1547], Padua and Rome.[1] Nicolai Nikitich Demidov, Prince of San Donato [1773-1828], near Florence;[2] his son, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, Prince of San Donato [1812-1870], near Florence; (his sale, Paris, 3 March 1870, no. 204, repro., etching by Rajou). Private collection, Italy, until c. 1928.[3] (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin). (Paul Cassirer, Berlin).[4] Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1875-1947], Schloss Rohoncz, Hungary, and later, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, by 1930;[5] on consignment 1950 with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 1951 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; [6] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA.

[1] Letter of 31 August 1502 from Carlo Bembo, son of Bernardo, to Isabella d'Este, accompanying a loan of paintings to her in Mantua. The letter was published by Vittorio Cian, "Pietro Bembo e Isabella d'Este Gonzaga. Note e documenti," Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 9 (1887), 85-86. Bernardo Bembo was at that time away from Venice on a diplomatic mission. Carlo Bembo died in 1503. For the Bembo family see Dizionario biografico degli italiani (Rome, 1966), 8: 103-109 and 133-151. Approximately thirty years later (after Bernardo's death), Marcantonio Michiel's notes on what seems to be this diptych name the owner as the poet Pietro Bembo, another son of Bernardo: "The little painting with two wings of Saint John the Baptist clothed, with a lamb that sits in a landscape on one side, and Our Lady with the little Child on the other [side] in another landscape, by the hand of Hans Memling, year 1470, this being true." D. Jacopo Morelli, Notizia d'opere di disegno (Bassano, 1800), 17, and Theodor von Frimmel, Der Anonimo Morelliano (Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik) N.F. I (Vienna, 1896), 86. Pietro Bembo's paintings were then in Padua. Jennifer Fletcher, "Marcantonio Michiel: his friends and collection," Burlington Magazine 123 (1981), 461 dates Michiel's notice of Pietro Bembo's collection in the 1520's or early 1530's.

[2] According to the catalogue of the Demidov sale, 3 March 1870, no. 204.

[3] According to Max J. Friedländer, Die altniederländishe Malerei, 14 vols. (Berlin and Leiden, 1928), 6: 125.

[4] According to Friedländer, in Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections, ed. by W.R. Valentiner, (London, 1930), unpaginated, no. 27. [The list of references published in the NGA systematic catalogue entry erroneously cites no. 37 rather than no. 27.]

[5] According to the exhibition catalogue, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Munich, Neue Pinakothek, 1930, no. 222.

[6] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Commission book no. 4, p. 143, no. CA 3725; Sales book no. 16, p. 310 (copies in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1908).

Associated Names

Bembo, Bernardo
Bembo, Cardinal Pietro
Demidov, prince of San Donato, Anatoly Nikolaievich
Demidov, prince of San Donato, Nicolai Nikitich
Galerie Paul Cassirer
Knoedler & Company, M.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)
The Matthiesen Gallery
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinrich, Baron

Exhibition History

1930: Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1930, no. 222.

1931: Alte Pinakotek, Munich, 1931, no cat.

1983: Raphael and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1983, no. 78, repro.

1994: Hans Memling's "Saint John the Baptist" and "Saint Veronica", National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994, brochure, figs. 2, 3, color repros.

1994: The Art of Devotion 1300-1500, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1994-1995, no. 14, repro. 45.

1995: Hans Memling: Johannes und Veronka, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1995, no. 2, repro.

2000: Il Volto di Cristo, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 2000-2001, no. IV.37, repro.

2002: Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe L'Oeil Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2002-2003, no. 58, color repro.

2006: Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 2006-2007, no. 25, repro.

2013: Face to Face: Flanders, Florence, and Renaissance Painting, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, 2013-2014, pl. 28.

2013: Pietro Bembo e l'invenzione dal Rinascimento, Palazzo del Monte di Pieta, Padua, 2013,

Technical Summary

The panel is composed of a single piece of wood which has been unevenly trimmed at the top edge. It is approximately .5 cm thick at the bottom edge. The painting on the front of the panel is in excellent condition, with only a few scattered small losses. There are some small areas of abrasion in the sky. The back is in less good condition, having received a number of nicks and scratches as well as more abrasion. However, the chalice and snake are well preserved with only a few small losses. The front of the panel was cleaned and restored in 1982 and the reverse cleaned and restored in 1983.

The figure of Saint Veronica is fully underdrawn in what appears to be black chalk, but infrared reflectography revealed minimal underdrawing in the landscape. The underdrawing on the reverse is free and cursory, providing a more general guide for the painted design, including the shadow cast by the chalice.

Bibliography

1872: Crowe, J. A., and G.B. Cavalcaselle. The Early Flemish Painters: Notices of their Lives and Works. 2nd ed. London, 1872: 299.

1887: Cian, Vittorio. "Pietro Bembo e Isabella d'Este Gonzaga." Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 9 (1887) 85-86.

1887: Pearson, Karl. Fronica: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Christubsbildes im Mittelalter. Strasbourg, 1887: 91, 108.

1907: Weale, William Henry James. Hans Memlinc. London, 1907: 18.

1911: Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et et à l’étranger pendant les XVIIIme & XIXme siècles. 7 vols. Paris, 1911: 5:157, 158.

1916: Friedländer, Max J. Von Eyck bis Bruegel. Berlin, 1916: 178.

1924: Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei. 14 vols. Berlin and Leiden, 1924-1937. Berlin, 1934: 6:125, no. 46. (English ed. 14 vols. Leiden, 1967-1976. Leiden, 1971: 6 pt. 2:52, 130, no. 46, pl. 95.)

1930: Kunstauktion 4, no. 28 (13 July 1930): 2, repro.

1930: "La vie artistique à l'étranger." Le Bulletin de l'art ancien et moderne 58 (1930): 416, repro. 415.

1930: Mayer, August L. "Die Ausstellung der Sammlung 'Schloss Rohoncz' in der Neuen Pinakothek, München." Pantheon 6 (July 1930): 308, repro. [305].

1930: Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: n.p., pl. 27 [erroneously cited as no. 37 in the published NGA systematic catalogue entry].

1937: Heinemann, Rudolf. Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. 3 vols. Lugano-Castagnola, 1937: 1:104-105, no. 281, 2:pl. 68.

1939: Bazin, Germain. Memling. Paris, 1939: plates 10, 11.

1942: Baldass, Ludwig von. Hans Memling. Vienna, 1942: 20, 42, no. 57, fig. 57.

1949: Alexander, H. G. "The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection at Lugano." The Connoisseur 123 (1949): 30, fig. 6.

1950: Krönig, Wolfgang. "Geertgens Bild Johannes des Täufers." Das Münster 3 (1950): 198.

1951: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces." Art News Annual xxi 50 no. 7 (November 1951): pt. 2:102, 105, 111, repros.

1952: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." ArtNews Annual Christmas Edition, vol. 50 no. 7 (November 1951): 102, 111, 105 col. repro.

1952: Sterling, Charles. La Nature morte de l'antiquité à nos jours. Paris, 1952: 27, 127.

1953: Panofsky Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1953: 2:498, n.3.

1954: Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1954: pl. 11.

1955: Shapley, Fern Rusk. "The National Gallery of Art at Washington: Acquisitions 1945-1955." The Studio 150, no. 748 (July 1955): 2, 6, repro.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 132.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 285, repro.

1960: Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 22.

1960: Folie, Jacqueline. Flanders in the Fifteenth Century: Art and Civilization. Exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts, 1960: 144. (The NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)

1961: Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 62-63, 213, color fig. 56.

1962: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 56.

1962: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 56, color repro.

1962: Neugass, Fritz. "Die Auflösung der Sammlung Kress." Die Weltkunst 32 (1962): 4.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 304, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 89.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:84-85, color repro.

1967: Kermer, Wolfgang. "Studien zum Diptych in der sakralen Malerei von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Eberhardt-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, 1967: 1:184-187, 292-294; 2:139-141, no. 139, figs.178, 179.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 78, repro.

1969: Corti, Maria, and Giorgio T. Faggin. L'opera completa di Memling. Milan, 1969: 104, no. 59b. pl. 51.

1971: McFarlane, Kenneth Bruce. Hans Memling, ed. Edgar Wind. Oxford, 1971: 45, fig. 132.

1972: Brown, Clifford M. "An Art Auction in Venice in 1506." L'arte 5, no. 18-19/20 (June-December 1972): 124.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 232, repro. 233.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 55-57, figs. 50, 51 (as St. Veronica Holding the Sudarium and The Chalice of St. John the Evangelist in a Niche).

1978: Chastel, André. "La Véronique." Revue de l'Art no. 40-41 (1978): 75.

1979: Rosenbaum, Allen. Old Master Paintings from the Collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza. Exh. cat. International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1979: 116.

1981: Brown, Clifford M. "Un tableau perdu de Lorenzo Costa et la collection de Florimond Robertet." Revue de l'Art no. 52 (1981): 27-28, fig. 4.

1981: Campbell, Lorne. "Notes on Netherlandish Pictures in the Veneto in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." The Burlington Magazine 123, no. 941 (August 1981): 471, fig. 15.

1981: Fletcher, Jennifer. "Marcantonio Michiel, 'che ha veduto assai'." The Burlington Magazine 123 no. 943 (October 1981): 604-606.

1981: Hull, Vida Joyce. Memlinc's Paintings from the Hospital of Saint John in Bruges. New York and London, 1981: 123-128, 140-141, figs. 44, 45.

1983: Brown, David Allen. Raphael and America. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1983: 153-157, 196-197, pl. 13.

1983: Eikemeier, Peter. "Memling." In Alte Pinakothek München: Erläuterung zu den ausgestellten Gemälden. Munich, 1983: 345, under no. 652.

1983: Shearman, John. "A Drawing for Raphael's 'St. George'." The Burlington Magazine 125 no. 958 (January 1983): 25.

1983: Shearman, John. The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen. Cambridge, 1983: 210.

1983: Sonnenburg, Hubertus von. Raphael in der Alten Pinakothek: Geschichte und Wiederherstellung des ersten Raphael-Gemäldes in Deutschland und der von König Ludwig I. erworbenen Madonnenbilder. Exh. cat. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, 1983: 107-108, 125.

1984: Gould, Cecil. Review of The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen by John Shearman. Apollo 119 (1984): 225.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 130, no. 118, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 267, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 193-201, color repro. 194, repro. 195.

1990: Belting, Hans. Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst. 6th ed. Munich, 2004: 478-480, fig. 260; color repro. on cover. (English edition, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art, translated by Edmund Jephcott. Chicago, 1994: 428-430, fig. 260.)

1991: Kuryluk, Ewa. Veronica and Her Cloth: History, Symbolism, and Structure of a "True" Image. Oxford, 1991: 139-140

1993: Mouchoirs. Exh. cat. Musée du Textile Choletais, 1993: 12, repro.

1993: Schläppi, Christoph, and Bernard Schlup. Machs na. 2 vols. Bern, 1993: 1 ("Ein Führer zum Berner Münster"): 20, fig 20.

1994: Belting, Hans and Christiane Kruse. Erfindung des Gemäldes: Das erste Jahrhundert der niederländischen Malerei. Munich, 1994: 61, 187, 254-255, 266, color figs 219, 225.

1994: Klein, Peter. "Dendrochronological Analysis of Panels of Hans Memling." In Hans Memling: Essays. Edited by Dirk De Vos. Bruges, 1994: 103.

1994: Lobelle-Caluwé, Hilde. "Het Ursulaschrijn van Hans Memling: ontwerp, contructie en oorspronkelijk uitzicht." In Vos, Dirk de, ed. Hans Memling: Essays. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 1994: 91, fig. 3.

1994: Vos, Dirk de. Hans Memling: Catalogue, translated by Ted Akins and Marcus Cumberledge. Exh. cat. (Hans Memling: Five Centuries of Fact and Fiction), Groeningenmuseum, Bruges, 1994: 81-83, color repro. (The NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)

1994: Vos, Dirk de. Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Translated by Ted Alkins. Antwerp and Ghent, 1994: 204-207, color figs.

1995: György, Gábor. A bizonyság két táblája beszélgeté sek a tízparancsolatról. Budapest, 1995: 76, 82, fig. 20.

1995: Humphrey, Peter. Painting in Venice. New Haven, 1995: 11-12, 80, fig. 13.

1996: Kruse, Christiane. "Eine gemalte Kunsttheorie im Johannes-Veronika-Diptychon von Hans Memling." Pantheon 54 (1996): 37-49, fig. 1d.

1998: Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Beheading/Decapitation (Acheiropaiec Heads)." In Helene E. Roberts, ed. Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 1:123.

1998: Christiansen, Keith. "The View from Italy." In From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. New York, 1998: 44, 60 note 28. (NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)

2000: Blasio, Tiziana Maria Di. Veronica--il mistero del volto: Itinerari iconografici, memoria e rappresentazione. Rome, 2000: 156-157, color repro.

2002: Belozerskaya, Marina. Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts Across Europe. Cambridge, 2002: 266-267, 269, fig. 86.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 50-51, no. 36, color repro.

2004: Neverov, Oleg Yakovlevich. Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia. New York and Saint Petersburg, 2004: 126-128, ill. 161.

2004: Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500. New Haven and London, 2004: 248, fig. 281.

2005: Borchert, Till-Holger. "Memling, vida y obra." In Retratos de Memling. Exh. cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2005: 32-33, color repro.

2006: Schawe, Martin. Alte Pinakothek: Altdeutsche und altniederländische Malerei. Munich, 2006: 327.

2006: Verougstraete, Hélène. “Diptychs with Instructions for Use.” In Essays in Context: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, edited by John Oliver Hand and Ron Spronk. Cambridge and New Haven, 2006: 161-162, fig. 2.

2007: "El retablo, en la National Gallery of Art de Washington." Lapiz 26, no. 229 (January 2007): 18.

2007: Lane, Barbara G. Hans Memling: Master Painter in Fifteenth-Century Bruges. London, 2009: 250, 290-291, 319, col. fig. 25.

2007: Michiels, Alfred. Hans Memling. New York, 2007: 46, [47], color fig.

2013: Brooke, Irene. "Pietro Bembo, Padua." Burlington 155, no. 1,322 (May 2013): 355-356, color fig. 57.

2014: Lane, Barbara G. “Hans Memling: vita e opere.” In Memling: Rinasimento fiammingo, ed. Till-Holger Borchert. Exh. cat. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2014-2015. Milan, 2014: 39, 40, color fig. 1. (The NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)

2017: Alexandrova, Alena. Breaking Resemblance: The Role of Religious Motifs in Contemporary Art. New York, 2017: 20-21, fig. 2.

2024: Manges Nogueira, Alison. “Concealing portraits in Renaissance Venice: Jacometto’s painted box.” The Burlington Magazine 166 (February 2024): 131.

2024: Mangues Noguera, Alison. Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2024: 36, 41.