Silver-gilt and silver on a wooden core, set with engraved and gilded plaques originally also coloured with translucent enamel. The silver strips on the sides of the cross are a later restoration; later gilding on some of the silver plaques.

Wooden foundation covered with thin sheets of silver-gilt chased with a scroll of foliage, and with cast crocketed edging. At the end of each arm is an engraved quatrefoil plaque, formerly enriched with translucent enamel; where the arms intersect with the cross upright there are engraved square plaques. On the front of the cross, a cast applied silver-gilt figure of the crucified Christ; on the reverse a cast applied silver-gilt figure of Christ in Majesty.

There are 15 silver plaques set into the front and back of the cross. There are traces of enamelling on four of them: on the upper quatrefoil plaque on the front of the cross (depicting the Pelican in her piety), and on three plaques depicting the Evangelists on the reverse of the cross (St Mark, St Matthew and St Luke). The plaques on the arms and the uprights are of quatrefoil shape; the three set where the arms intersect with the upright (two on the front, one on the back) are square.
On the front of the cross, the plaques have the following scenes: at the top, the Pelican in Her Piety. On the upper arms, left to right, scenes before and during Christ's Passion: the Agony in the Garden, the Flagellation and the Resurrection. On the lower arms, left to right: the Mourning Virgin Mary, the Last Supper (behind the head of the crucified Christ) and St John, mourning. Below the feet of the crucified Christ: probably a donor figure, rather than Adam, rising from his tomb.
On the reverse of the cross, at the top of the upright, the Evangelis symbol of St John; at the foot of the cross, the Evangelist symbol of St Matthew. On the lower arms, left to right: Evangelist symbols of St Mark and St Luke. On the upper arms of the cross, left to right: scene of the Nativity, scene of the Pentecost, including the Virgin Mary (square plaque); the Adoration of the Magi.
There appears to be a sixteenth silver plaque, of square shape, set behind the figure of Christ in Majesty.

Dr W.L. Hildburgh Bequest

The hooded, robed, praying figure that emerges from his tomb to the blessing hand of God, engraved on the plaque beneath the Crucified Christ, may represent the donor or sponsors of the cross. Although a figure emerging from a coffin is a standard iconographical type in this context, and represents the resurrection of Adam, the First Man, it is more usual for him to be depicted naked, or throwing off his shroud.
The cross was almost certainly made for a cathedral, as in Spain only churches of this regional importance were authorised to use this double-armed processional type. At a later date, probably in the nineteenth century, the figures of the Crucified Christ and Christ in Majesty were applied (the Christ in Majesty covers a missing central plaque). The quatrilobed plaque of St Matthew, above the Crucified Christ, is a nineteenth-century replacement and incorrectly duplicates the medieval plaque of St Matthew at the foot of the cross (the replacement should have depicted St John). The plaque above the Crucified Christ, engraved 'JHS', has been crudely soldered to the edge of one of the gilded strips of metal covering the cross. The cross was bought in London in 1915 by the collector Walter Leo Hildburgh, and entered the V&A in 1956 after his death as part of his bequest to the Museum.

This is a rare surviving example of a double-armed processional cross from early-fifteenth-century Barcelona. Its special form indicates it was made for a cathedral, the church which contains the official seat of the bishop in a diocese. The engraved silver plaques would originally have been enamelled with bright, translucent colours. On the front of the cross, scenes of Christ's final hours and of His Resurrection are arranged above the cast and applied figure of the crucified Christ. The plaque at the top of the cross which depicts a pelican plucking at its breast is symbolic of Jesus's sacrifice. On the back of the cross is the cast and applied figure of Christ in Majesty, His hand raised in blessing, surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists who recorded His life in the Gospels. The awkward proportions of this figure suggest it may not be original to the cross, while the large knop typically found at the base of processional crosses (to facilitate carrying them) is missing.

M.500-1956