The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Altar Cross with Stand

1140–1150

Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim?, Romanesque period, 12th century

bronze: cast, gilded, engraved, and chased
Overall: 43.4 x 22.5 x 8 cm (17 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1944.320
Location: 106C Medieval Treasury

Description

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.
  • Private collection, Strasbourg; Paul Cassirer, Berlin; (Adolf Loewi, Los Angeles).
  • Winter, Patrick M. de. “The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 1 (March 1985): 2–160. Mentioned: p. 94; reproduced: p. 92, pl. XIX www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 144-145, no. 49
    Sanjosé i Llongueras, Lourdes de. Obras emblemáticas del taller de orfebrería medieval de Silos: "el Maestro de las Aves" y su círculo. Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos): Abadía de Silos, 2016. Mentioned: P.198, n. 325
    Mende, Ursula. Gusswerke: BeiträGe Zur Bronzekunst Des Mittelalters. Edited by Michael Brandt, Claudia Höhl, and Lothar Lambacher. 1. Auflage. [Berlin], Regensburg: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft e.V.; Schnell + Steiner, 2020. Mentioned: p. 114
  • Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).
    Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"
    Ithaca, NY, 1968: Andrew White Museum of Art, A Medieval Treasury: An Exhibition of Medieval Art from the 3rd to the 16th Centuries, no.43
    Religious Art. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (December 15, 1964-January 10, 1965).
    Buffalo, NY, 1964: Albright-Knox Gallery, Religious Art, no.36
  • {{cite web|title=Altar Cross with Stand|url=false|author=|year=1140–1150|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.320