Art Newspaper, UK
June 8 2004

Unknotting a tangled tale of towels

Scientific tests have established that an icon, revered as an imprint
of Christ’s face, is 13th century

By Martin Bailey

Tests on a painting, called the Mandylion, revered as a miraculous
imprinted image of Christ, have revealed it to have been made in
the 13th century. There are several early versions of the image,
but the one in Genoa is the first to have been subjected to a
thorough scientific examination. The results are being presented at
an exhibition (until 18 July) in the city’s Museo Diocesano as part
of the European Capital of Culture celebrations. Appropriately, the
show is presented as a journey, both spiritual and scientific—since
the venerated icon has links with Syria, Turkey, Sinai and Armenia.

The Mandylion is traditionally believed to be a representation of the
face of Jesus miraculously transferred to a towel (from the Arabic
word mandil, “small cloth”), but is not to be confused with the cloth,
which also bears His likeness, with which Veronica wiped Christ’s
face as He went to Calvary.

The first mention of the existence of the Mandylion comes from the
sixth century. In 944 it was brought from Edessa to Constantinople by
emperor Constantine VII. The imperial city lost the Mandylion in the
crusader conquest of 1204, when it was sold to the French and taken
to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Other versions existed from early
on in Rome and Genoa.

The provenance of the Genoa Mandylion can be traced back to the
1370s, when Byzantine emperor John V presented it to Leonardo Montaldo,
Captain of the Genoese colony on the Bosphorus and later Doge of
Genoa. On Montaldo’s death in 1384, he bequeathed his Mandylion to the
Armenian monastery attached to the Church of San Bartolomeo in Genoa,
where it has remained for over 600 years.

The church recently agreed to a small sample of wood being removed
from the poplar panel, for carbon dating at the University of Lecce.
The results show that there is a 90% probability that the panel on
which the painted linen image is fixed dates from between 1240-90.

Other objects associated with the Genoa Mandylion were also examined.
Most important is the magnificent gilded silver frame, which was made
in Constantinople in the mid-14th century. Enclosing the original frame
are two later cases made in Italy, one in 1601 and the other in 1702.

The back of the Genoa Mandylion is covered by a fine piece of
10th-century Syrian silk. The fact that the original Mandylion arrived
in Constantinople in 944 has led exhibition co-curator Colette Dufour
to suggest that this silk could have once formed a covering for the
original icon.

The Sinai connection Also temporarily on show in Genoa are a
pair of diptych panels from the Greek Orthodox monastery of St
Catherine’s, which have left Sinai for the first time in over 1,000
years. Art-historical detective work has proved that these must
originally have been wings for another Mandylion.

The upper-right image on the diptych depicts King Abgar receiving
the imprinted towel of Christ. Abgar is given the facial features of
Constantine VII, who brought the Mandylion from Edessa in 944. The
other wing shows the Apostle Thaddeus, whom Christ had sent to
establish the church in Edessa. The wings are 28 centimetres high,
the same as the Genoa Mandylion, which is the clinching evidence that
they were created for a triptych with the face of Christ.

The Sinai wings have been dated on stylistic grounds to the second-half
of the 10th century and were probably painted at St Catherine’s. It is
therefore now being suggested that a copy of the Mandylion was given
by Constantine VII to the monastery very soon after the original
had reached him in 944, with the wings being created as protective
shutters for this precious gift. A photographic reconstruction of the
“Mandylion Triptych” has never been published, and appears in The
Art Newspaper for the first time.

The mystery is what happened to the lost Sinai central panel of the
Mandylion. As a small object, it was vulnerable to theft, but what is
curious is that the wings were separated from it and survive. This
has led exhibition co-curator Professor Gerhard Wolf to propose
that the Sinai Mandylion “may have been returned to the emperor in
Constantinople after the original was seized by Crusaders in 1204”.

Historical background

Legend has it that King Abgar of Edessa, who reigned during the
time of Jesus, was ill, and believed that an image of the Saviour
would cure him. He sent an emissary to Jerusalem to paint Christ’s
portrait. Instead Jesus took a towel and put it to his face, which was
brought back to Edessa, in ancient Syria (Sanliurfa in present-day
Turkey). The Sainte-Chapelle version was looted during the French
Revolution and probably destroyed.

Another Mandylion was taken to Rome and by 1587 it was in the Convent
of the Poor Clares at San Silvestro in Capite. In 1870, it passed
to the Vatican. It is currently in the “St Peter and the Vatican”
exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art (until 6 September). The
US catalogue accepts the Vatican dating, ascribing it to the third
to fifth centuries, but the entry reveals considerable uncertainty.
However, Professor Wolf believes that the Vatican icon dates from
the same period as Genoa’s, and is also 13th century.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress