Pendant Cross

c. 1575-c. 1625

Spanish or South German

This pendant cross is an elaborate assemblage of cast and fused segments ornamented with emeralds in tall, pyramidal mounts. Enameled gold and pin-fastened pearls add vigorous effects of color, texture, and light. The three-dimensional quality of this piece would have been particularly distinctive when worn upon the rich garments of the Renaissance.

Status: On View, Gallery 238
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Title: Pendant Cross
Place: Spain (Object Possibly made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1550–1600
Medium: Gold, enamel, emeralds, and pearls
Dimensions: 9.5 × 7.6 cm (3 3/4 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf
Reference Number: 1992.506
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/119547/manifest.json

Anna Somers Cocks and Charles Truman, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Renaissance Jewels, Gold Boxes, and Objets de Vertu (London, 1984), p. 128, fig. 2.
Ian Wardropper et al, Renaissance Jewelry in the Alsdorf Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 25, 2 (2000), pp. 25, 36-37, and 92, no. 4.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Renaissance Jewels and Jeweled Objects from the Melvin Gutman Collection, 1962-68, cat. 4.
Chicago, The Martin D’Arcy Gallery of Art, The Art of Jewelry 1450-1650, Spring 1975, cat. 19.

Sale, Munich, Weinmüller, March 14-15, 1962, no. 487. Melvin Gutman, New York; his sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, October 17, 1969, no. 67; Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago [according to Wardropper 2000, p. 4]; given to the Art Institute, 1992.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.