Pectoral Cross (1600s): Art, History and Details

Pectoral Cross (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This ivory cross is carved on the front with scenes drawn from Twelve Feasts of the Orthodox Church, including the Passion and Resurrection of Christ; on the reverse is a scene of the Mother of God surrounded by clergy. The scenes include Slavonic inscriptions. The ivory cross is mounted within a silver frame as a pectoral to be worn at the breast, probably by a priest.

Object facts

• Title: Pectoral Cross
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Byzantium, Russia, Byzantine period, 17th century
• Type: Ivory
• Technique: walrus ivory, wood, partially gilt silver and pearls
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.5 x 5 x 1.7 cm (4 1/8 x 1 15/16 x 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1993.37

Collection credit

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Eleanor and Morris Everett

Further reading listed by the museum

• “1993 Annual Report.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.