“This touched the 4 Great Relics of Aachen.” Unrecorded foil & fabric print.
[Touch relic] / [Foil-and-fabric print]. S. Veronica. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [dated 1818 in manuscript on verso]. [12.2 x 7.7 cm], [1] f. etching decorated with metal foil and fabric. Toned, mend to lower right corner, minor edge wear, remnants of mounting on verso, inscription on verso (see below).
Unrecorded ‘enhanced’ etching depicting St. Veronica displaying the ‘Sudarium’ on which is imprinted the Holy Face of Christ. Here portions of the engraved image have been cut out and backed with pink fabric and with metal foils to produce a glittering effect in changing light. This print is doubly interesting for the inscription on its verso, which states in Dutch that in 1818 it was “touched to the 4 great relics of Aachen” (“angeraekt de vier groote reliquien van Aken”).
The ‘Four Great Relics’ of Aachen (“Aachener Heiligtümer”) are the Swaddling Clothes of Jesus, the Loincloth of Jesus, the Beheading Cloth of John the Baptist, and the Dress of the Virgin Mary. They have been preserved in the Marienschrein (Shrine of Mary) in Aachen Cathedral since 1239. The textile theme of these relics squares nicely both with the textile subject depicted in this print (the Sudarium) and with the print’s enhancement by the addition of fabric.
The print, when it was touched to the ‘Four Great Relics,’ became an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ relic), i.e., an item that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item. It thereby carries a certain ‘charge’ from the ‘Four Great Relics.’
Engravings enhanced with foil and fabric in the manner seen here were especially popular in German-speaking lands during the second half of the 18th century (they are sometimes called Spickelbilder; see A. Spamer, pp. 105-12). While some interventions of this sort were personal or ad hoc improvements made by a print’s owner, most composite prints of this type were made by design at the printer’s shop. Notable engraver-publishers of Spickelbilder include Caspar Harrer, F. X. Jungwirth and G. W. Weissenhahn in Munich; Georg Frehling and Johann Gutwein in Augsburg; and Johann Hendl in Linz (see, H. Heres, pp. 36-8). Examples of specific Spickelbilder are today rarely found in more than one or two copies.
This engraving is not located by OCLC, KVK, Omnia, or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
* H. Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett; A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert.