Fragment of a Processional Cross

c. 1050

Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period

Medium

silver gilt, niello

Measurements

Overall: 32.3 x 44.8 x 5.7 cm (12 11/16 x 17 5/8 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1970.36

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Location

105 Byzantine

Did You Know?

Byzantine processions were a feast for the senses. Imagine the scent of sweet and spicy incense wafting through the air, mingling with the sound of sacred chants as priests carry this cross in a procession during the service.

Description

Impressively large and elaborately embellished, the cross to which this fragment belonged was likely carried in liturgical processions. The central medallion on its front depicts Christ, flanked by medallions showing the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist. Together they form the Deesis, a powerful Byzantine image formula evoking these saints’ intercession with Christ on behalf of mankind. In the central medallion on the cross’s back is Saint Sabas, founder of an important monastery near Jerusalem, in whose honor the cross was made. He is surrounded by other monastic saints, thus indicating that the cross was likely used by a monastic community.