Very often when one thinks of 'Byzantine art' we naturally tend to jump in our thoughts towards the beautiful icons found on wood panelled boards but, historically speaking, Byzantium was known for much more than just that. They were known for various arts and luxury goods, not least of which their beautiful and ornamental metalwork. The workshops of imperial Constantinople produced some of the very finest metalwork in the entire history of Christendom. Sometimes these works were especially precious in nature, being comprised not only of gold and silver gilt metalwork, but also embedded with beautiful and precious coloured gemstones, decorative enamels and so on. Of course, not all such pieces included these iconic features and most of today's examples do not. Today's pieces rely primarily on the beauty of the metalwork itself.
So what are today's pieces? Well, they are Byzantine processional crosses. That may surprise some of our readers as processional crosses tend to be something we more so associate with the Latin West, but their use could also be found in the Byzantine East as well, heading up processions of various sorts. One of the things I would invite you to take note of in these various examples are the particular form the crosses themselves take. There is a distinctive (and compelling) shape to these Byzantine crosses; effectively they are a bit of a mix between a Latin and a Greek cross, with the horizontal bar being in the middle of the cross, but its vertical bars being longer than the horizontal; what's more, the arms widening toward the ends, often including other ornamental detailings like you see here.
Each of these examples come from a period right around the beginning of the second millennium, thus representing what is known as the 'middle Byzantine period' (effectively the period covering the ninth through twelfth centuries). One of the interesting themes of these crosses is that each of them contain not only depictions of Christ and the saints, but in many regards of the same saints. Specifically, they include the Mother of God and St. John the Baptist to either side of Christ -- what the Byzantines call the deesis -- and many of them also include the various archangels. It is also worth pointing out that when I say they include an image of Christ, I do not mean Christ crucified as one generally sees in the Latin West. In the Byzantine East, while images of Christ crucified can be found, the Byzantines were far more inclined to depict Christ, less in his humanity and suffering, and more so in his divine nature as the Lord, Ruler, Judge and Teacher.
So with all that in mind, we're pleased to present today this small sampling of some beautiful medieval Byzantine processional crosses.
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| Back of the cross, with images of St. Thalelaios, St. Nicholas, St. John Chrysostom and two archangels. |
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| Detail |
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| Processional Cross, circa late 11th-12th century, once again with images of Christ, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, as well as St. John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin. (Source) |
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| Processional Cross, circa 11th century. |
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| A processional cross fragment from circa A.D. 1050. Made in the workshops of Constantinople. |
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| The back of the cross includes what appears to be St. Nicholas, as well as various enamels of various saints. |
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| Our sole example with the classic use of gemstones. Beautifully coloured, this one dates to circa 10th-11th century. In the centre, an image of Christ Pantocrator |
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