Die Heiligen Petrus und Paulus mit dem Schweißtuch der heiligen Veronika (Vera Icon)
Martin Schaffner·1518
Historical Context
Schaffner's panel showing Peter and Paul flanking the Veil of Veronica addresses the cult of the Vera Icon — the miraculous imprint of Christ's face — that held special devotional power in the late medieval German church. The pairing of the two founding apostles with the Sudarium frames the relic-image within apostolic authority, a standard arrangement for panels intended for private devotion or church altarpiece wings. The work dates from Schaffner's middle period, when Ulm's civic and ecclesiastical commissions kept him among the most productive painters in Swabia.
Technical Analysis
The Vera Icon is rendered as a flat devotional image-within-image, deliberately differentiated from the three-dimensional space of the flanking apostles. Schaffner's characteristic cool palette — lead white highlights over deep blue-green glazes — gives Paul's robe a metallic sheen distinctive of his mature handling.







