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Artistic Splendor: Significant Works from the Thrivent Art Collection,

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Sculpture by late renowned artist Richard Hunt featured outside Thrivent's downtown Minneapolis office.
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Sebald Beham
German, 1500-c. 1550
Head of Christ, c. 1520
Woodcut

Sorrowful and focused, Jesus Christ gazes intently outward. His face appears weary, and his demeanor tormented. Thick drops of blood gather like beads of sweat under his piercing crown of thorns. A dizzying maze of bold lines wind in spirals and undulating curls, a stunning display of the woodcut medium. This absorbing portrait of Christ stems from the art historical and theological tradition of the sudarium. According to apocryphal legend, St. Veronica encountered Jesus on the road to Calvary. After compassionately wiping his face with her veil, a miraculous impression of Christ’s face appeared on the cloth’s surface. This woodcut, printed on a sheet of paper, devotionally functions as Veronica’s veil, confronting viewers with a larger than life-sized face of Jesus and offering a visual aid for devotional practice and prayer.