According to legend, Saint Veronica was among the crowds who gathered in Jerusalem to watch Christ carrying the cross to Calvary. Pitying his exhaustion and suffering, Saint Veronica wiped the sweat from Christ's face with her sudarium (or handkerchief). Miraculously, Christ's facial features were imprinted on the linen cloth, hence the derivation of her name-vera icon or true image. Claude Mellan's depiction of the sudarium that retained Christ's image is a tour de force of engraving. A single line that begins at the tip of Christ's nose spirals around and around to form the entire image. In several places, Mellan then widened the line to varying degrees to create a play of light and dark that suggests volume in its depiction of the image's haunting details: Christ's intense stare, his open mouth, and the drops of blood on his cheeks.