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Altar Cross with Stand

1140-1150

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

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.

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  • Title: Altar Cross with Stand
  • Date Created: 1140-1150
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 43.4 x 22.5 x 8 cm (17 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
  • Provenance: Private collection, Strasbourg; Paul Cassirer, Berlin; (Adolf Loewi, Los Angeles).
  • Type: Metalwork
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.320
  • Medium: bronze: cast, gilded, engraved, and chased
  • Department: Medieval Art
  • Culture: Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim?, Romanesque period, 12th century
  • Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
  • Collection: MED - Romanesque
  • Accession Number: 1944.320
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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