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Louis XIV silver and gilded bronze processional cross, 17th-18th century

Height x width x depth: 56.5 x 33 c 8 cm. Total gross weight: 1835 g.

Corpus Christi in burnished silver, mounted on a silver cross; the terminals, crest, and lower crossbar are in gilt bronze, decorated with raised cherub figures and scroll motifs.

At the top of the cross is a gilt bronze cartouche with a cherubic head bearing the Titulus Crucis inscription: I.N.R.I. (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, which translates literally as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”).

The figure of the Savior is rendered with careful anatomical detail: the outstretched arms show defined musculature; the semi-closed hands are nailed to the cross with pyramid-shaped nails.

The head, crowned with thorns and surrounded by a gilt bronze halo, is tilted toward the right shoulder, the gaze turned downward, and the expression is one of suffering—an evocation of the Imago Pietatis, a depiction of the crucifixion used since the 14th century.

The legs, parallel and slightly bent, end with the feet placed one over the other and nailed together to the cross with a single prominent pyramid-shaped nail. The lower body is covered with a loincloth.