This tiny manuscript illumination, a sympathetic portrait of
Christ, belongs to the tradition of religious images known as
acheiropoita, images believed to have been created miraculously.
It is one of a group of representations of the head of Christ,
called the Holy Face, that have their roots in Byzantine legend
and in the legend of Saint Veronica. The story of Veronica
became enormously popular in Europe in the thirteenth century,
and medieval pilgrims traveled to Saint Peter's in Rome to see
what they believed to be the actual veil of St. Veronica (known
as the sudarium), impressed with the image of Christ's face.Holy
Face miniatures were particularly popular in Books of Hours made
in Bruges toward the end of the fifteenth century and into the
beginning of the sixteenth. Although there are no signed
miniatures by Gerard David, nor indeed any panel paintings today
that bear his signature, there is a strong possibility that this
miniature was one of several illuminations by David excised from
a Book of Hours