Reliquary Cross of Jacques de Vitry
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Several clues suggest that this cross was made in Acre, a gateway to the Holy Land for European Christian pilgrims, where Jacques de Vitry was bishop. The city was a wealthy international center for trade, where a goldsmith might incorporate twelfth-century Byzantine enamels into a newly created cross. Set in roundels that were trimmed to fit the new setting, the enamels of saints are not logically arranged, suggesting that the goldsmith could not read the Greek inscriptions identifying them.
Artwork Details
- Title: Reliquary Cross of Jacques de Vitry
- Date: about 1160–80; cross: soon after 1216; base: after 1228
- Geography: Made in Byzantium [enamels]; Made in Acre [cross]; Made in Oignies [base], France
- Medium: Cross: gilded silver, cloisonné enamel on gold, semiprecious stones, and glass; base: gilded copper
- Dimensions: 22 1/8 × 7 1/8 in. (56.2 × 18.1 cm)
- Classification: Metalwork-Gold
- Credit Line: The Treasure of Oignies, coll. King Badouin Foundation, entrusted to the Musée Provincial des Arts Anciens du Namurois, Begium
- Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters