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Jay DeFeo, The Verónica, 1957

From Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective

Mar 7, 2013

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Jay DeFeo, The Verónica, 1957

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Corey Keller: As with everything else with DeFeo, there's a second layer of meaning. 

Narrator: Corey Keller.

Corey Keller: The name of the bull fighting maneuver, the Verónica, comes from a much more ancient source. One of the women who accompanied Christ to Calvary wiped his brow with a piece of cloth, and the legend has it that Christ's face was imprinted, almost like a photograph, on that piece of cloth. She brought it to Rome where it was pronounced a vera icona, true image. From that, it became popularized as Verónica. That was how Saint Veronica got her name. She was the woman who brought the piece of cloth, as well as the bull fighting maneuver is named after that piece of cloth.