Medieval Gilt Basse-Taille Plaques from a Processional Cross Depicting Evangelists

SPAIN, CATALONIA, CIRCA 1400-1420 A.D.

1 7/8 - 2 in. (27.49 grams total, 48-50 mm).

Group of four quatrefoil plaques, each with a hole at the end of each arm for attachment; champ-levé enamelled images of the symbols of the evangelists: angel, ox, and lion, one with an image of a pelican piercing her side with her own beak, symbolising Christ's Passion; each with a looped and draped band, the angel holding a banner with a legend 'marcus' in bastarda script. [4, No Reserve]

Provenance

Galerie Ratton Ladriere, 2021.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13470-262833.

Literature

See the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. M.307-1956, for a late 14th-century Catalonian processional cross.

Footnotes

Processional crosses in late medieval Catalonia were richly decorated with gilt silver and basse-taillle plaques. In terms of the typology of Catalan crosses in the later Middle Ages, the present work was part of a 'cruz flordelisada' (cross adorned with a fleur-de-lis), which was a Catalan fashion in the 14th and 15th centuries, and which was used in Christian processions.

CONDITION

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LOT 0323