This large processional cross, profusely engraved with surface decoration and embellished with four rock-crystal cabochons and a figure of Christ moulded in deep relief, is of unusually grand scale and, despite the abrasion to its gilding and the repair on one arm, is a rare intact survival from the thirteenth-century workshops of Limoges in south-central France. It belongs to a group of Limousin altar crosses known as ‘fleuronné’ on account of its shapely cross termini, which are thought to derive from leaf or flower sprays. Christ is shown at the center of the cross, clothed in a loincloth that encircles his waist and snakes over both knees. It is embellished along its upper hemline and on a central band of vertical trim with paste gems alternating with engraved diamonds or lozenges. Further gems are visible on his ornate cusped crown with its tall, cruciform fleuron, and on the v-shaped orphrey collar at the top of his otherwise naked chest, a decision which imitates earlier figures of Christ shown dressed in a tunic. A series of six small, pierced protrusions sprouting from both sides of the vertical arm of the cross were likely intended for the suspension of pearls or metalwork attachments that would have fluttered and moved when the cross was processed.
