Essen cross with large enamels

The cross is a pure crux gemmata, in which the senkshmelz plaque at the centre shows the Crucifixion of Jesus.

The enamel is surrounded by tiny pearls and due to its size it extends a little above and below the horizontal arm of the cross.

[1] However, on the grounds of their similarly irregular shape, these plaques were probably created for another context and later incorporated into the Cross, which was considerably altered as a result.

[5] In order to fit these plaques, the original border of the ends and centre of the Cross was simplified to the current form.

This ornamental motif came into vogue in the reign of Henry II (r. 1014–1024), along with another type of filigree decoration, the Blütenkronen (corollae) which also appears on the ends of this cross (uniquely among the pieces in the Essen Cathedral Treasury).

Sophia had been appointed Abbess of Essen by Henry II and was close to him, which might have given her the opportunity to employ one of his goldsmiths.

Neither Bienenkörbe nor Blütenkronen appear on the treasures which Sophia's successor Theophanu had made (presumably at another workshop), so Beuckers excludes her as the person responsible for the creation of the Cross with large enamels.

It is not known why Sophia had a sacral object which had been created by her predecessor Mathilde remodelled and had another, apparently significant artwork of her own incorporated into it.

Beuckers assumes that the Cross and the Shrine, which was decorated with golden enamel plaques, were created in a workshop which was located in Essen.

The Inventarium reliquiarum Essendiensium of 12 July 1627, the earliest inventory of the Abbey's treasury does not allow a certain identification, since it only recorded "Two crucifixes richly decorated with 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.

[9] In the Second World War the Cathedral Treasury was first taken to Warstein, then to Albrechtsburg in Meissen and thence to a bunker in Siegen.

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.