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Leather Art Museum

Religious images

Religious image area.

Religious image area.

Religious images made with gilded, polychrome, and metallised leather, or with relief, started to proliferate in the 16th century. These images were commonplace in many homes and churches as objects of popular devotion. They insistently repeated the same subjects around the crucifixion, the Mother of God and saints like St Veronica and the Holy Face of Jesus. The inexpressive figure of the Holy Face represents the impression of Jesus’s face on a shroud. On Jesus’s way to Calvary, Veronica wiped the sweat from Christ’s face with her veil and his face was imprinted on it.

The cordwainer himself usually painted the pictures as another step in the whole process. However, in works of greater artistic quality a painter might also have been involved.

OBJECTS

<p>A cordwain triptych with the Holy Face, the prayer in the garden and the crucifixion, from the 16th-17th centuries, cordwain, gilded leather, decorated and polychromed, 49 &times; 68 &times; 5.5 cm, Spain.&nbsp;Leather Art Museum. Vic.</p>

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Triptych of the Holy Face
Triptych of the Holy Face
<p>16th<sup>&nbsp;</sup>century image of St. Paul, cordwain, gilded leather, polychromed and decorated, 65 &times; 46 cm, Spain.&nbsp;Leather Art Museum. Vic.</p>

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St Paul
St Paul
<p>Image of St Francis from the 17th century, cordwain, gilded leather, polychromed and decorated, 79 &times; 46 cm, Spain.&nbsp;Leather Art Museum. Vic.</p>

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St Francis
St Francis
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