The Sudarium

Hans Schlaffer of Ulm

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Signed at the lower margin by Hans Schlaffer, a woodcutter and publisher active in Ulm during the last thirty years of the fifteenth century, this is one of the few prints from this period that displays the name of its creator. A true capitalist, Schlaffer (and others) frequently rendered simple versions of existing compositions to fill the popular demand for sacred imagery. For the prototype to this woodcut, Schlaffer copied a finer print, probably created in Nuremberg and now in London's Guildhall Library. The sudarium was believed to have been the only true image of Christ; Saint Veronica offered him her cloth as he struggled under the weight of the cross, and his image miraculously appeared on the fabric as he wiped his face.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art