Two-Barred Cross - Styles and Influences
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Two-Barred Cross
Rhine-Meuse; ca. 1180
The reliquary shaped like a two-barred cross is linked to the legend of the True Cross. It is richly decorated with precisely mounted semi-precious oval stones, cabochons, on a gilded copper background with an embossed relief decoration made of stylized floral ornaments and scrolls. On the crossings there are tiny openings shaped like crosses which once held pieces of wood - relics of the True Cross.
This kind of double-barred Cross-reliquary was usually part of a larger reliquary surrounded with figures of angels and scenes from the legend of the True Cross. It developed in the Rhine and Meuse area in the 12th c.