Reliquary cross

The cross is of the Latin kind and has a classic Gothic shape: centred around a square crossing, the arms have fleur-de-lis ends preceded by bulging quatrefoils. The shaft extends downwards to a triangular end, allowing it to be carried or be secured to a foot at the base.

On the obverse, under a piece of rock crystal, the crossing contains a small square translucent enamel plaque, set on one of its points, with a cruciform casing at its centre, probably for containing relics of the True Cross. The medallions on the arms are enamelled in blue and embellished with small beads of opaque white enamelling marked centrally with a red dot. The holes visible in the middle of each of these medallions, as well as on the lower one, were made for attaching a statuette of Christ. An example of this type of mounting, with a figure of Christ fixed directly over the translucent enamel medallions, occurs on the cross once in the church at Soses in the Province of Lleida.² The medallion at the top of the cross has a pelican piercing its breast to feed its young with its own blood, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.

On the reverse, the crossing bears a plaque with Christ in Majesty, blessing with his right hand and holding the orb of the world with his left, against a ground enamelled in translucent blue and strewn with reserved gilded stars. The medallions on the arms of the cross show the symbols of the Four Evangelists, each bearing a scroll with his inscribed name. On both obverse and reverse, the smooth parts of the arms of the cross are covered in delicate foliate decoration in fine dotted lines. In addition to the Barcelona hallmark on the shaft, several elements enable us to associate this reliquary cross to Catalan goldsmiths’ art of the end of the fourteenth century.

Beyond the basic idea of the cross shape itself, we should underline the highly characteristic design and the palette of the translucent enamel medallions. Likewise, a Catalan origin is confirmed by details such as the inscription on the scroll of Saint Luke’s ox, which uses the rare form of “LUCH” instead of “LUCAS”. This form can also be found on a medallion in the Musée de Cluny as well as on the cross “of the brotherhoods” in the Treasury of Girona Cathedral.³

Most of the surviving crosses made in Barcelona at the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth centuries are large, probably processional ones, made from sheets of silver mounted on a wooden core and generally accompanied, as in our case, by translucent enamel medallions. This cross is distinct from these various examples because of its eminently more precious character, clearly linked to its function as a reliquary.⁴ Its execution in solid silver, the setting of the medallions (as opposed to customary simple attachments) as well as the thick silver fleur-de-lis leaves at the ends of the arms of the cross, all contribute to making this piece an exceptional example of Catalan goldsmith’s art from the years around 1400.