Neck Cross

Creator

Preview

Geography

Ethiopia, Africa

Culture

Ethiopian

Medium

Metal alloy

Dimensions

2 ⁷/₁₆ ✕ 1 ⁹/₁₆ ✕ ¹/₁₆ in. (6.2 ✕ 4.0 ✕ 0.2 cm)

0.36 oz. (10.1 g)

Credit Line

Bequest of David P. Harris ('46), 2020

Accession Number

2020.45

Provenance

Purchased by David P. Harris from the Guthaim Gallery Inc. in New York on August 15, 1977.

Condition

Several of the round dots on side 1 have worn away, and the upper end of the cross exhibits some damage. Side 2 possesses some shallow nicks, as well as a white elliptical sticker with “24,—” written on it.

References

Brad Hostetler, and Lynn Jones, eds., Ethiopian Objects in the Blick-Harris Study Collection: Art, Context, and the Persistence of Form, Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art & Architecture 8, no. 1 (Spring 2022): pp. 5–25, 112–27, 146, cat. 24. https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol8/iss1/1/

Description

The suspension loop and the vertical bar are longer than the horizontal. On side 1 the applied decoration on the vertical bar features a continuous design, which bisects that of the horizontal bar, a design similar to that on side 2 of 2020.30. This applied decoration consists of pairs of solid lines that alternate with a line of circular dots. Small circular attachments decorate the central corners and ends of the cross. Side 2 is without decoration, though the crossing is obscured by a price sticker.

Sarah Mathiesen, in Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art & Architecture 8, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 146. https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol8/iss1/1/