Cross of angels

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Cross of Angels, obverse

The Cross of Angels ( Cruz de los Ángeles ) is a Kreuzreliquiar in the form of a Greek cross , which in the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain is kept.

history

Legend

The legend recorded in his work by Bishop Lucas von Tuy († 1249) says that King Alfonso II of Asturias wanted to give the Church of San Salvador in Oviedo a cross made of gold and precious stones, and that one day after he Had attended mass and arrived at the royal palace, two angels in the form of pilgrims went to see them and said they were goldsmiths. The king provided them with gold, precious stones and a house so that they could work undisturbed. But he wanted to find out to whom he had given his gold and gemstones and sent several people one after the other to the two “goldsmiths” to see what they were doing. All of the king's servants who arrived at the house found that there was great light in it, preventing them from seeing what was happening there, and they went to the king to tell him. He went to the house himself, but found it empty. All that remained was an intensely shining cross. Alfonso II brought it to the Church of San Salvador, where it was placed on the altar. The legend gave the cross its name.

Facts

The Cross of Angels was given to the Church of San Salvador by King Alfonso II in 808, as evidenced by an inscription on the back of the cross, perhaps on the occasion of the consecration of the church he built as the predecessor of today's cathedral. Today it appears in a version that has been restored many times. Originally it was used as an altar ornament and presentation cross and hung over the main altar.

During the Asturian miners' strike in 1934 , the revolutionaries detonated a bomb under the Cámara Santa. The items kept there, including the angel cross, suffered severe damage. They were restored until 1942 . However, no precautions were taken to later enable the original substance to be distinguished from the added parts.

In 1977 the angel's cross was stolen from the Cámara Santa along with other items and dismantled by the thief. Before he could sell the loot, however, he was caught.

On the occasion of the now re-needed restoration, a commission was chaired by the Provost formed to appoint to the process and monitor. After the work was completed, the cross returned to Cámara Santa on September 14, 1985.

description

The cross has the shape of a Greek cross: the length of the four arms is almost identical. They assume a disk in the middle. It is 465mm high and 450mm wide and the central disc that gathers the arms measures 85mm. The diameter of the arms is about 25 mm. It weighs 1.765 kg. The cross consists of two pieces of wild cherry wood . This wooden core is clad with thin sheet of gold, which is held in place by small nails, also made of gold. In each of the arms of the cross there is a small box for storing relics. Each of the four boxes has a sliding lid for this.

On the cross arms there are eyelets for pendants, similar to Visigoth votive crowns . Contemporary images of the cross with corresponding pendants, the letters Alpha and Omega , can be found on wall paintings in the Church of San Julián de los Prados .

front

The front of the cross is decorated with 48 stones, set cabochons and cameos , five of which were used here. Some of the stones are semi-precious , such as garnets and agate . The gold surface is delicately stippled and decorated with polychrome pearls. Of the Roman cameos embedded in the cross, one depicts a young Roman farmer, another the goddess Athena , a third depicts a goat's head with the body of a snake, and another depicts Aeneas leaving the city of Troy .

back

The back of the cross is smooth and covered with chased gold sheet, but there is a stone at each of the four ends of the cross, surrounded by two circles of smaller stones. Here, on the central disk, was a Roman agate cameo, surrounded by a circle of pearls. This cameo had to be replaced after the theft in 1977. The replacement was made in Germany.

inscription

The inscription on the back of the cross indicates the year it was made and the name of the founder, King Alfonso II:

  • Upper arm: SVSCEPTVM PLACIDE MANEAT HOC IN HONORE D [OMI] NI / OFFERT ADEFONSVS HVMILIS SERVVS XP [IST] I
  • Right arm (left arm from the side of the viewer): QVISQVIS AVFERRE PRESVMSERIT MIHI / FVLMINE DIVINO INTEREAT IPSE
  • Left arm (right arm from the side of the viewer): NISI LIBENS VBI VOLVNTAS DEDERIT MEA / HOC OPVS PERFECTVM EST IN ERA DCCCXLVI
  • Lower arm: HOC SIGNO TVETVR PIVS HOC SIGNO VINCITVR INIMICVS

Translation: “Graciously accepted, may this remain for the glory of the Lord. Alfons, humble servant of Christ, offers it. Whoever presumes to carry me away, except where my free will allows it, may go under by the divine orbital ray. This work was completed in Era 846. Through this sign the pious receives protection. With this sign the enemy is defeated. "

Art historical classification

Due to its design and typology , the cross of angels refers to Lombard crosses that were made in northern Italy between the 7th and 9th centuries.

Together with the Cross of Victory , the Cross of Angels is representative of a group of crosses that were otherwise not documented from this period and belonged to the furnishings of particularly important Asturian churches. No other specimens are known from the previous Visigothic period either.

Worth knowing

The cross of angels appears in the coat of arms of Oviedo . The inscription HOC SIGNO TVETVR PIVS HOC SIGNO VINCITVR INIMICVS appears on the coat of arms of Asturias with the Cross of Victory .

literature

  • Carlos Cid Priego: Las joyas prerrománicas de la "Cámara Santa de la Catedral de Oviedo" en la cultura medieval . In: Revista anual de historia del arte 10 (1991): 8. Universidad de Oviedo: Servicio de Publicaciones y Departamento de Historia del Arte y Musicología, Oviedo. ISSN 0211-2574
  • Luis Fernández: El robo que consternó a Asturias en 1977 . In: La Nueva España of November 27, 2013; accessed on June 20, 2019.
  • Dietrich Höllhuber and Werner Schäfke: The Spanish Way of St. James. History and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, [Cologne] 1999. ISBN 3-7701-4862-2
  • Pedro de Palol , Max Hirmer : Art of the early Middle Ages from the Visigoth Empire to the end of the Romanesque. Hirmer, Munich 1965, ISBN 3-7774-5730-2
  • Fernando Rayón Valpuesta and José Luis Sampedro: Las joyas de las reinas de España: la desconocida historia de las alhajas reales . Editorial Planeta SA, 2nd edition 2004. ISBN 84-08-05119-9
  • Werner Schäfke: Northwest Spain. Landscape, history and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, Cologne 1987. ISBN 3-7701-1589-9
  • Matthias Untermann : Architecture in the early Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-03122-1 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ The church only became a cathedral after the diocese of Oviedo was founded in 818 .
  2. ↑ See: here .
  3. ↑ 808 AD

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Priego: Las joyas prerrománicas .
  2. ^ Schäfke: Nordwest-Spanien , p. 217.
  3. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 249; Schäfke: Northwest Spain , p. 217.
  4. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 248.
  5. ↑ Valpuesta / Sampedro: Las joyas .
  6. ↑ Fernández: El robo .
  7. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 248.
  8. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 249.
  9. ^ Untermann: Architecture in the Early Middle Ages , p. 126.
  10. ↑ Palol: Spain , p. 34; Schäfke: Nordwest-Spanien , p. 217, interprets the shape of the cross as Byzantine .
  11. ↑ Palol: Spain , p. 34.