The rose-colored face of Christ, his chalk-white torso with fine lines of gilded copper that articulate the interior and exterior lines of his body, and the knee-length deep-blue loincloth link this cross to a small number of others associated with the abbey at Grandmont.
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Title:Central Plaque of a Cross
Date:ca. 1185–95
Geography:Made in Limoges, France
Culture:French
Medium:Copper: engraved, stippled, gilt; champlevé enamel: dark and light blue, translucent dark and opaque medium green, yellow, translucent and opaque red, rose, and white
Dimensions:Overall: 14 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 3/4 in. (37.4 x 29.8 x 1.9 cm)
Classification:Enamels-Champlevé
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.409a
Inscription: Enameled, top of the cross: IH[SU]S XP[ISTU]S (Jesus Christ)
Alfred André (French), Paris (sold 1910); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1910–1913)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 12–May 10, 1970.
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.
State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "L'Oeuvre de Limoges," October 23, 1995–January 22, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enamels of Limoges, 1100-1350," January 22–June 16, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1925. pp. 100–1, fig. 54.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. pp. 100–1, fig. 54.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1952. no. 52, pp. 59, 221.
Thoby, Paul. Les Croix limousines de la fin du XIIe siècle au début du XIVe siècle. Paris: Picard, 1953. pp. 989–99, pl. XI, fig. 16.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "Le goût Plantagenet." In Stil und Überlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes: Volume 1, Epochen europäischer Kunst. International Congress of the History of Art, Vol. 21. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1967. p. 148 n. 27.
Souchal, Geneviève. "Autour des plaques de Grandmont: Une famille d'émaux limousins champlevés de la fin du XIIe siècle." Bulletin Monumental 125, no. 1 (1967). no. VI, pp. 34–36, 56, fig. 8.
Hoffmann, Konrad, ed. The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970. no. 156, p. 151.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Émaux du Moyen Âge Occidental. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1972. no. 51, pp. 99, 331, ill. p. 97.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Émaux Méridionaux: Catalogue International de l'Oeuvre de Limoges; L'Époque Romane. Corpus des émaux méridionaux, Vol. I. Paris: Editions du centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1987. no. 245, p. 203–04, pl. CCXVII, ill. 721 (color.
Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 20, p. 10.
State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 20, pp. 8, 48–49.
Taburet-Delahaye, Elisabeth, and Barbara Drake Boehm, ed. L'Oeuvre de Limoges: Emaux limousins du Moyen Age. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995. no. 62, pp. 232–233.
Boehm, Barbara Drake, and Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, ed. Enamels of Limoges, 1100-1350. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. no. 62, pp. 232–33.
Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, ed. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 293, pp. 455–56.
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003. p. 343.
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