Processional or Altar Cross from the Abbey of Grandmont

On this cross, Christ is shown as emaciated and suffering with bright red enamel wounds and red-rimmed eyes. The light blue censers (incense burners) seen below Christ's hands likely swung in the hands of angels (now lost from the ends of the cross) as shown in another cross fragment, Walters 44. 646. Adam's skull at the bottom of the cross and below Christ's feet symbolizes the redemption of mankind through the Crucifixion. The use of vivid and varied colors, especially white and red enamels, combined with technical details such as the delicate gilded metal outlines that shimmer with stippling (dotting), identify this cross as the work of craftsmen active at Grandmont Abbey, near Limoges, in central France.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Prince Alexis Dmitrievitch Saltykoff (Aleksei Dmitrievich Saltykov), by purchase; Alexei Alexandrovitch Saltykoff-Golovkin (Aleksei Aleksandrovich Saltykov-Golovkin), 1858, by inheritance; Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 8, 1861, no. 96; Frédéric Spitzer, Paris, by purchase; Sale, Paul Chevallier and Charles Mannheim, Paris, April 17, 1893, no. ???; Sale, New York, 1929; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1930, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.