Page - 62 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

the reproduction of an original, but the reproduction of an original that had left a trace, an imprint of itself on the cloth. Christ was the original, the prototype present in each relic of his. While the Besançon author in the chapters leading up to the central plate with the two shrouds had concentrated on the descrip- tion of the actual object preserved in his hometown, the overarching purpose of the treatise transcended the pure materiality and appearance of the linen textile. The cloth was said and had now been demonstrated to be a touch relic of Christ, a proof of his historical, physical presence on earth and at the same time of his divine nature and resurrection. It needed, to complete the argument advanced by the author, to be situated within a much broader context of faith and devotion, of the immense challenges posed by any attempt to represent the incommensurability of the dual nature of Jesus as fully human and fully di- vine. This was Chifflet’s concern in the final section of his treatise and the very last illustration referred to the broader context of acheiropoieton images – im- ages that were not made by the hand of man, but were instead traces of Jesus’ presence on earth purposely left by him.34 The object chosen by the erudite author to visualize this point was a coin. Chifflet had a great interest in numis- matics and was aware of the quality and particularity of a medium that in its own right could be considered a very specific vehicle for the representation, interpretation, circulation and reception of iconographies, in this case related to Jesus.35 In his opinion, various coins, among them one of Justinian II he had, as he noted, seen in person, testified to the historical presence of such an achei- ropoieton image in Constantinople.36 The small engraving in De linteis sepulchral- ibus showed a famous gold solidus of the Byzantine emperor, who during his first rule minted a series of gold and silver coins bearing on the obverse the image – believed to be the rendering of an acheiropoieton cloth – of a blessing Christ with long hair and a beard, shown from the chest up, with the Gospels in his left hand and his right hand raised in benediction, and on the reverse the emperor37 (fig. 5). Against the background of the theological debates of his time and particu- larly in light of the highly controversial nature of his topic, Chifflet, in the very last chapter of his treatise, had to take a stand and offer his readers an explicit 34 Cf. Finaldi 2000; Morello/Wolf 2000; Wolf/Dufour Bozzo/Calderoni Masetti 2004; Frommel/Wolf 2006. 35 De linteis was the first book with numismatic references published by the Plantin press. Cf. Watershoot 2005, 346. 36 Chifflet 1624, 212: “Nummi Tiberij & Iustiniani nomine cusi id videntur innuere, in quibus aversis effigies Christi usurpata primum conspicitur, a divina illa Imagine forsitan mutuata. […] Iustiniani solidus, etiam ex auro, vidi alias hac forma.” 37 The numismatic imagery related to Jesus recalls the iconography of the Pantocrator. Still, it was con- tended time and again that it was derived from an Edessan-sindonic archetype. The Byzantine nu- mismatic iconography has remained up to today a much-discussed topic in sindonologist debate. Cf. Nicolotti 2014, 173–182. 62 | Paola von Wyss-Giacosa www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1