Ottonian Cross — Gem-Set Processional Crosses of the Holy Roman Empire
Ottonian Cross — Gem-Set Processional Crosses of the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial liturgical crosses of the tenth and eleventh centuries combining gold, gem, and reused antique cameo
Ottonian crosses are gem-set processional and altar crosses produced in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire during the Ottonian dynasty (c. 919 to 1024) and into the early Salian period (1024 to 1125), used in liturgical ceremony and as reliquaries for fragments of the True Cross or other sacred relics. The pieces typically feature a wooden or copper-alloy core overlaid with gold or gilt-copper sheet, set with cabochon gemstones — garnets, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, rock crystal — in tall collet bezels, and frequently incorporating Byzantine cloisonne enamel plaques and reused Roman or Byzantine intaglios and cameos. Ottonian crosses are among the most important surviving early medieval gem-set objects of European production and are central to the study of the gem-and-relic culture of the early medieval Latin Church.
Major surviving examples
The Cross of Lothair, in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, is one of the most studied Ottonian crosses. Produced around 1000, it features a central engraved-rock-crystal seal with a portrait of the Roman emperor Augustus, surrounded by gem-set gold filigree on a wooden core. The reverse carries an engraved Crucifixion. The reuse of the antique imperial seal at the centre of an Ottonian liturgical cross is characteristic of the period's appropriation of Roman imperial iconography for the new Christian-Roman empire claimed by the Ottonians.
The Imperial Cross (Reichskreuz), housed with the Imperial Regalia and now in the Hofburg in Vienna, is a processional cross containing relics of the True Cross and the Holy Lance. It dates to approximately 1024 to 1030, with later additions, and combines gold sheet, filigree, gemstones, and pearls in a complex programme. The Cross of Mathilda at Essen, the Gero Cross at Cologne (a sculptural crucifixion rather than a processional cross but contemporary), the Otto and Mathilda Cross also at Essen, and the Cross of Theophanu represent the surviving major examples of the Essen workshop tradition.
Materials and construction
The construction follows a standard pattern. A wooden core, typically oak, provides the structural form. Sheet gold or gilt-copper is hammered or cast around the core. Cabochon gemstones are set in tall collet bezels soldered to the gold sheet, with gold filigree wire in the spaces between stones. Cloisonne enamel plaques, often Byzantine in origin and either commissioned or reused from earlier objects, are mounted on the cross at the centre and on the arm-ends.
The gemstones are predominantly cabochon-cut and unfaceted, in the early medieval pattern. Garnet, sapphire, emerald, amethyst, and rock crystal predominate; pearls are common; reused antique intaglios and cameos in carnelian, sardonyx, agate, and rock crystal are integrated into the design with little concern for the original iconographic content of the carving. The aesthetic effect is of a rich surface of coloured stones, glittering gold, and saturated enamels, intended to be experienced under candlelight in the liturgical setting.
Function and meaning
The Ottonian cross served liturgical, reliquary, and political functions simultaneously. As a liturgical object, it was carried in procession and placed on the altar for celebration of the Mass. As a reliquary, it contained physical fragments of the True Cross or the Holy Lance, with the gold-and-gem outer construction serving as a protective and venerative housing for the sacred matter. As a political object, it materialised the Ottonian and Salian dynasty's claim to be successors of the Roman emperors and the protectors of the Latin Church, with the imperial regalia (the Imperial Cross, the Imperial Crown, the Holy Lance, and the Imperial Sword) functioning as the physical signs of imperial authority.
The reuse of antique imperial gemstones — Augustus's seal at the centre of the Lothair Cross is the canonical example — encoded the political claim materially. The new Christian Roman empire was understood to have appropriated and Christianised the imperial inheritance of the old Rome, and the gem-set crosses are among the most explicit material expressions of that claim.
In the trade
Ottonian crosses do not appear in the commercial trade and are held entirely by ecclesiastical and museum collections — Aachen Cathedral, Essen Cathedral Treasury, the Vienna Hofburg, the Bavarian National Museum, and a small number of other ecclesiastical and museum repositories. For the gem trade, the Ottonian corpus is essential study material for the cabochon, intaglio, and cameo cutting traditions of the early medieval period and for the integration of Byzantine and Roman antique stones into Western European liturgical objects. See also Ottonian jewellery, Imperial Regalia, reliquary.