Altar Cross with Stand
1140–1150
- Medium
- bronze: cast, gilded, engraved, and chased
- Dimensions
- Overall: 43.4 x 22.5 x 8 cm (17 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
- Genre
- Metalwork
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Tags
Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim?, Romanesque period, 12th century
About
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.