Artwork
Vera Icon
Vera Icon is an oil painting by the Byzantine icon painting artist Unknown. It dates from 1500 and is held in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The Vera Icon is a religious painting devoted to the depiction of Jesus Christ, identified as its main subject.
The Vera Icon is a religious painting devoted to the depiction of Jesus Christ, identified as its main subject. The work belongs to the genre of religious art and takes as its theme the "Vera Icon," a devotional image associated with the true likeness of Christ, a tradition rooted in the legend of the Mandylion and related acheiropoieta (miraculous, hand-not-made) images revered in Christian tradition.
As a copy after Jan van Eyck, the painting participates in a long lineage of devotional reproductions that sought to transmit the sacred presence and salvific power attributed to Christ's authentic countenance. Such images functioned both as objects of contemplation and as instruments of veneration, inviting the viewer into a direct, meditative encounter with the figure of Christ.
Technique & Style
The Vera Icon is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, a technique characteristic of early Netherlandish painting practice. The work is relatively small in scale, measuring 50.6 cm in height by 37.3 cm in width. Classified as a painting of religious genre, it depicts Jesus Christ as its main subject.
The combination of oil medium and panel support, together with its modest dimensions, is consistent with devotional imagery produced in the tradition of Jan van Eyck.
The painting is held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek, where its condition and stylistic handling can be examined in person. Specific notes on the work's present state, surface handling, or stylistic details beyond its medium, support, and dimensions are not documented in the available sources.
Overview
Vera Icon is an oil painting that presents a solemn male figure with a dark beard and cropped hair. He is dressed in a red robe accented by a gold chain, set against an unadorned black backdrop that isolates his sharply rendered visage.
History & Provenance
No specific details about the painting’s creation date, artist, or ownership history are provided in the source material, limiting the ability to trace its provenance or contextual origins.
Artist & collection
