The Veil of Veronica

In Counter-Reformation Toledo, where El Greco settled, there was a deep appetite for images of Christ's true face, and none carried more weight than the veil of Veronica. The story held that a woman wiped Christ's face as he carried the cross, and that the cloth kept the imprint of his features. El Greco painted the subject several times in the late 1500s, sometimes showing Saint Veronica holding the outstretched veil, sometimes only the cloth itself with the face upon it. He would take care over the folds of the linen and the way the light caught them, so the miraculous image reads as a real piece of fabric held up in front of you. The face gazes straight out, sorrowful and frontal, the way holy relics were meant to meet the eye.