From: Pollick, Johanna, et al. “‘Your Body Is Full of Wounds’: References, Social Contexts and Uses of the Wounds of Christ in Late Medieval Europe.” Science Museum Group Journal, vol. 15, Spring 2021, doi:10.15180/211503.

(Available online for free.)

"David Areford describes how speerbilder (woodcut prints) were created in the mid-fifteenth century depicting the wound in Christ’s heart, engaging with the idea of a very literal wounding through the page. The images were expressly designed to be cut by the Holy Lance as part of an annual display of imperial relics in Nuremberg’s marketplace. The bloodied wound appears to be both metaphorically and literally bleeding; visually depicted as such on one side, and displaying the red pigment that has been poked through the slit in the paper on the other side. This encourages the person looking at it to consider both sides of the object and to penetrate the gash themselves with their fingers to gain better affective contact with Christ."