Medieval Art & Manuscripts
Altar Cross with Stand
Permanent ExhibitionMetalwork
Details
- Author / creator
- Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim?, Romanesque period, 12th century
- Object type
- Metalwork
- Date or period
- 1140–1150
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 43.4 × 22.5 × 8 cm
- Place of origin
- Germany
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Founder's Endowment, 1944
- Text
- Unidentified text
- Script
- Gothic textualis
- Language
- Latin
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
From the 11th century onward, altar crosses like this one often featured elaborate bases. The most impressive decoration of this cross is its stand: a lavish array of intertwining scrolls emerges from three pawlike legs, while birds perch amid the scrolls and dragon heads sprout from others.
Materials and technique
Bronze: cast, gilded, engraved, and chased
