Intertextuality in the Mandylion and Veronica traditions

This article examines the complexity of intertextuality in iconographic and textual traditions related to the Mandylion, a portrait of Christ apparently not made by human hands and typical of the East, and the Veronica, a portrait of Christ on cloth held in Rome in the Middle Ages. It considers how the recurring juxtaposition of elements such as a white cloth, or the description of a white cloth and the figure (or a portrait) of Jesus can be seen as elements of a phraseological unit, where one element disambiguates the meaning of the other (Hanks 2013). It also examines the importance of terminology, and traces the names associated with these portraits on cloth, including sudarium, handkerchief, towel, veronica.