Cross of Mathilde

It is named after Abbess Mathilde (died in 1011) who is depicted as the donor on a cloisonné enamel plaque on the cross's stem.

On the obverse there is a crucifix cast in bronze[1] and gilt, with three cavities for holding relics: two in the back and one in the occiput.

To the left and right of the crucifix there are enamel roundels with personifications of the Sun and the Moon, surrounded by four pearls each and by filigreework.

Above the crucifix is the normal cross inscription in enamel: IHC NAZA/RENVS REX / IVDEORV (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews), above which there is a large red stone surrounded by four pearls.

Under the crucifix there is a brown cameo gem of a lion and under that there is an enamel plate with the donor portrait which depicts Mathilde (named) in monastic clothing, kneeling in prayer before the Madonna.

The central area with the crucifix, donor portrait, cross inscription, sun, moon and lion cameo is bordered by a strip of alternating enamel plates and stones, each surrounded by four pearls.

On the left arm it is an intaglio cut in a piece of striped onyx, showing a helmeted soldier in profile, holding a spear.

[6] Until 2010, the cavities on his back side contained three small relic packets, which were held in place by ties.

A nocent relic wrapped in white linen is in the middle cavity with an accompanying cedula, from Innocent I (r.401-417).

The relic packets and cedulae are now stored in the Cathedral treasury chamber separately under inventory numbers MK1 to MK4.

Its iconic "Seat of Wisdom" shows an enthroned Madonna in frontal view on the right, holding her son on her left knee, in front of a figure dressed in the white robes of a monastic.

The epigraphist Sonja Hermann suggests that the enameller confused the third and fourth letters and has inverted a Τ, which would yield ΜΗΤΗΡ (μήτηρ - "mother").

Mary's head is surrounded by an opaque yellow halo and she wears a white hood as well as a translucent brown-violet robe with red ochre sleeves.

Mary sits on a yellow throne, with her feet in grey shoes placed on a blue footrest.

Christ wears a blue robe, with gold wire indicating folds in it, and grey shoes.

Mathilde's line of sight passes through the transept of her cross and Christ's hand to the face of her saviour.

[10] The cross inscription IHC NAZA/RENVS REX / IVDEORV is made of golden wire set in a translucent blue background.

The letters are made easily readable, but do not reach the precision of their model on the Cross of Otto and Mathilde.

[11] The dotting of the gold border, which is characteristic of the workshop of Egbert of Trier, is absent, in contrast to the inscription plaque of the Cross of Otto and Mathilde.

[12] The two round enamel medallions with personifications of the Sun and Moon, which symbolise the mourning of all creation at Christ's death, are located on the horizontal beam of the cross.

[14] The Cross of Mathilde contains three classical cameo engraved gems, which have a significant iconographic role.

On the left arm of the cross, a horizontally striated onyx features a warrior with a spear and helmet in profile facing Jesus.

Opposite him, on the right arm of the cross is an oval cameo with a lightly carved female bust on a dark background.

The lion cameo could therefore also be interpreted as a reference to the hope for the resurrection of the donor depicted on the enamel plaque below it.

The use of these particular items of spolia seems intentional, but a convincing iconographic interpretation of the naked warrior with spear and helmet and the noble women has not yet been made.

For one thing, individual ornamental motifs are found on the Senkschmelz Cross, which was meant to be created earlier, which only become common later.

The Inventarium reliquiarum Essendiensium of 12 July 1627, the earliest inventory of the Abbey's treasurym does not allow a certain identification, since it only recorded "Two crucifixes decorated with a lot of gemstones and gold, but gilded copper on the reverse.

The Liber Ordinarius, which controlled the liturgical use of the Abbey's treasure, speaks of processional crosses only in general terms.

During the Ruhr Uprising of 1920 the whole treasury was taken in great secrecy to Hildesheim, whence it was returned in 1925 in equally secretive circumstances.

After the end of the war it was found there by American troops and the cross along with the rest of the treasury was taken to the State Museum in Marburg and later to a collection for displaced artworks in Schloss Dyck in Rheydt.