Impressively large and elaborately embellished, the cross to which this fragment belonged was likely carried in liturgical processions. The central medallion on its front depicts Christ, flanked by medallions showing the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist. Together they form the Deesis, a powerful Byzantine image formula evoking these saints’ intercession with Christ on behalf of mankind. In the central medallion on the cross’s back is Saint Sabas, founder of an important monastery near Jerusalem, in whose honor the cross was made. He is surrounded by other monastic saints, thus indicating that the cross was likely used by a monastic community.
Date
1000
date QS:P571,+1000-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium
Silver gilt, niello
Dimensions
Overall: 32.3 x 44.8 x 5.7 cm (12 11/16 x 17 5/8 x 2 1/4 in.)
The three-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with copyright terms of life of the creator plus 70 years or less. The creation of photographic reproduction of this object, however, generates a new copyright and an additional statement should be provided to indicate the copyright status of the image.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.enCC0Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedicationfalsefalse