Cross, Italian (Florentine), 15th century

Altar cross, with enamels on the front representing at the top, God the Father holding open a book representing the Alpha and Omega symbols; on the left and right terminals the grieving Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist; in the centre the Agnus Dei, below, the hill of Golgotha and St Mary Magdalene. Two smaller figures are also represented on the cross uprights - above, a standing figure of a young man holding a scroll; below, a praying Franciscan labelled MF. The back shows St Francis in the centre, surrounded by saints of his order, Clare, Louis of Toulouse, Bonaventure, Bernardino of Siena and Anthony of Padua, and by smaller figures bearing scrolls and angels. The corpus of Christ from the front of the cross is lost. The enamels have received some damage, and a number of the panels have fogged. Some of the enamelling has probably been restored in the 19th century. Several of the plaques have lost their fixings, and may have been re-attached.

Salting Bequest

The cross came to the V&A as part of the collection of George Salting, bequeathed to the museum on his death. He had aquired the piece, which would have appealed to his taste for small, highly worked art objects, from the dealers Durlacher Brothers. Information later supplied to the V&A from Durlachers suggests that they had acquired the cross from a private collection at Bologna. Nothing further is known of the early history of this piece, although the Franciscan iconography, and the obviously Florentine manufacture clearly indicate a provenance from a Franciscan convent in Central Italy. The works of Antonio di Salvi, who has been linked by Alison Wright to the V&A cross, are mainly known from Florence and the nearby area. The figure of the praying Franciscan almost certainly represents the patron of this piece. The cross might have been for his own use, or a gift to the convent. It was not unusual for friars, particularly conversi, to own chalices and crosses. On their deaths, such pieces usually became the property of the community.

The cross had become by at least the thirteenth century a necessary furnishing for the altar. The grandest of such pieces were made of silver. Much of the format of an altar cross was fixed by convention - there would be representations of the Crucified Christ, accompanied by a symbol of his sacrifice, such as the Lamb of God used here. The two lateral arms of the cross usually held the grieving figures of Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. Other common figures were God the Father and Mary Magdalene, both used here. However, the fact that crosses were double sided allowed a lot of space for variation in iconography. The key characteristic of this piece is the way in which on the rear of the cross, a group of Franciscan saints surround St Francis, who is placed in the centre, displaying the marks of his stigmata. The emphasis on Francis' stigmata was part of a concerted effort by the friars to present St Francis as an 'alter Christus', another Christ. The front and back of the cross therefore parallel each other, emphasising this aspect of Francis. The Franciscan saints have been carefully arranged, with the two bishops, Louis and Bonaventure, in the lateral arms, and the two preachers, Bernardino and Anthony, below. The presence on the front of the cross of a Franciscan monk praying to the now lost figure of the Dead Christ recalls the images of Saint Francis adoring the dead Christ on much larger painted rood crucifixes which dominated the naves of Franciscan churches. The other striking aspect of the imagery of this cross is the use of prophet figures holding scrolls. Remarkably, each of the scrolls once had tiny but legible lettering, although due to the damage to the enamels, only one of these is now easily decipherable. This figure is David, bearing an excerpt from Psalm 68 which was believed to anticipate the events of the Crucifixion. Another figure holding a scroll also appears to be David, holding the quotation 'In ecclesiis', which was usually linked to images of baptism, but in this case might be interpreted as referring to Jesus' incarnation. The scrolls of the other prophet figures would also have carried such appropriate quotations. Such short quotations (of one or two words) could only have been recognised by the learned - and in fact, the letters would only have been legible to someone examining the cross in great detail. Although the Franciscans emphasised poverty, and the importance of pastoral work, they had always allowed for the embellishment of the altar with precious metals, and had accepted the necessity of education for their monks, who could not otherwise fulfil their pastoral role.

There are clear similarities between the enamels of this cross, and a group of Florentine works of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. This group has been summed up by Marian Campbell as: a number of enamels (now mounted into a later cross) by Antonio Pollaiolo dating to the 1470s from the church of San Gaggio, now in the Bargello; a reliquary of Saint Anthony Abbot executed by Antonio di Salvi, one-time collaborator of Pollaiolo, in 1514; and the reliquary of the 'Libretto' of 1501, by Paolo di Giovanni Sogliani.

The relationship between these works enables us to be fairly sure about the time and place in which the V&A cross was produced. The prominence given to Saint Bonaventure may also be significant, given that he was not canonised until 1482, suggesting that the cross was made after this date. However, it is not unknown for figures to be presented as saints in images before their official canonisations.

What is more problematic is the significance of the similarities between this group of objects. In 1987, Marian Campbell suggested that the enamels of all these pieces had been produced in the same workshop, which had supplied several Florentine goldsmiths with translucent enamels. There is certainly evidence for this practice in Tuscan goldsmiths' work of the 1300s, as has been argued on several occasions by Elisabetta Cioni. The similarities between the V&A cross and the work of Antonio Pollaiolo have caused most comment, leading Mendes Atanazio to argue that the V&A cross was identical with a cross documented as having been made by Antonio Pollaiolo for fra Michele Cambini of the Franciscan convent of S. Croce in Florence between 1477 and 1478. Although this is a tempting hypothesis, several factors mitigate against it. Firstly, the donor figure of the V&A cross is labelled 'MF' rather than 'MC'. Secondly, if the cross were produced in the 1470s, then the emphasis given to Saint Bonaventure might be surprising, given his canonisation only in 1482. Finally, although the enamels of the V&A cross are quite similar to Pollaiolo's plaques on the base of the cross from the Florentine Baptistery now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo as well as to the San Gaggio plaques in the Bargello, there are also clear differences: most obviously, the backgrounds of the V&A enamels have been keyed in almost all cases with horizontal lines, a practice not visible in the Florentine plaques. Similarly, the haloes of the figures in the San Gaggio enamels are plain, whereas those of the V&A cross are scalloped.

Alison Wright believes that the V&A cross enamels are closer to the work of Antonio di Salvi, Pollaiuolo's pupil and collaborator, who by the 1470s had set himself up in an independent partnership.

The cross was a necessary furnishing for the altar. The grandest crosses, like this one, were made of silver. Although the front of the cross has conventional images, the rear is decorated with a group of Franciscan saints surrounding St Francis, who displays the marks of his stigmata. Francis was presented by the Franciscans as another Christ. On the front of the cross there is a Franciscan friar praying to the Dead Christ - he was almost certainly the donor of this piece, which must come from a Franciscan convent in Central Italy.

The enamels on this cross have sometimes been related to the work of the Florentine artist Antonio Pollaiuolo, who is known to have produced goldsmiths' work. However, it now seems more likely that the V&A cross was produced by another artist working in a similar style, such as Pollaiuolo's one-time collaborator Antonio di Salvi who by the 1470s had set himself up in an independent partnership.

M.580-1910