Spanish, probably Catalan, 13th/ 14th century and later | Altar Cross

Rock crystal was viewed as having particular Christian significance in the Middle Ages. As Stefania Gerevini has outlined: 'Due to its physical properties of hardness and transparency and its widely accepted associations with congealed water, rock crystal was approached in the medieval West as a metaphor for a variety of theological notions: angelic natures, the Incarnation of Christ, the sacrament of baptism and the miraculous conversion of souls hardened by sin' (op. cit., p. 92).

This cross can be compared with others dating from the 13th and 14th centuries associated with a Catalan workshop. Compare in particular with the cross in the Museo Civico in Turin dating from the early 14th century and illustrated by Hahnloser (op. cit., no. 63). The present example has three sections which are drilled both vertically and horizontally indicating either that further rock crystal knops where attached to the lower and upper sections as in the example in the Barcelona Diocesan Museum (op. cit., no. 79), or alternatively that it is composed of elements from three crosses.

RELATED LITERATURE

H.R. Hahnloser, Corpus der Hartsteinschliffe des 12-15. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1985, nos. 56-67, 79; S. Gerevini, 'Christus crystallus: Rock Crystal, Theology and Materiality in the Medieval West,' in J. Robinson and L. de Beer (eds.), Matter of Faith: Interdisciplinary Study of Relics and Relic Veneration in the Medieval Period, London, 2014, pp. 92-97