Processional cross. Orense, 1575-1600

Processional cross. Orense, 1575-1600.
Molded, turned, cast, relieved, chiseled and engraved silver; wood and iron.
Punch: ORENS on passing lion, in the foot sheath.
Published in "Silver and bronzes in the Bordonaro collection", César González Zamora, Volume 1, card nº78.
Excellent preservation.
Weight: 2940 g.
Measurements: 80 x 43 x 13 cm.

In addition to its historical and artistic value, this cross is especially significant for its formal uniqueness, since it combines a model of bevelled arms typical of the Castilian tradition with three-lobed terminals and decorative elements of Gothic roots, unusual in this type of crosses, which makes it an exceptional example of survival and reinterpretation of medieval languages in the Renaissance.

Greek cross with a wooden core covered with silver plates and reinforced at the edges with iron bands. The arms, with a balustraded profile, end in three-lobed terminals -the central one is conopial- and have a cresting of recumbent crosses with molded finials at the vertices. On the obverse side, a central disk decorated with engravings of ribbons and four perillons houses a Crucified Christ with three nails and crown of thorns; at the ends are the four evangelists in relief, while the arms are covered with symmetrical vegetal decoration topped with scrolls. On the reverse side, the central disk shows a Immaculate Conception on a crescent and engraved rays, accompanied by Saint John and the Virgin on the crossbeam, God the Father on the upper part and Mary Magdalene on the lower part, with analogous decoration on the arms.

The shaft has a truncated cone with engraved cutouts and a slender knot in the form of a crater, with a long neck decorated with reliefs of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. Jude Thaddeus, separated by pillars with mirrors; the belly is decorated with a frieze of angels' heads and six handles with female heads, supported by ces with masks. Over the mouth of the knot is a toric molding with decoration of angel heads, cut-out leather and skulls, topped by a rectangular sheath with a forked profile to fit the cross.

The mark of Orense, visible in a gusset-shaped punch, corresponds to the one used by the city in the last third of the 16th century and still documented in 1604, identified by the lion symbol of the city without a sword. The typology of the balustraded arms refers to models that emerged in Burgos from the 1530s, although this piece introduces a singularity by using trilobate terminals of Gothic tradition, unusual in this type of crosses and comparable only to some isolated examples. Likewise, the cresting of the recumbent crosses recovers Gothic models, and the figures in relief of the ends are worked directly on the plates, while those of the knot are molded appliqués. Both the Crucified and the iconographic program show the hand of an experienced silversmith, and the morphology of the whole, together with the engraved motifs, allows us to place the work in the transition from the 16th to the 17th century.