Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Szilveszter TERDIK: “Athonite” Miniature Carvings at the Museum of Applied Arts
4. Blessing cross, Mount Athos (?), Constantinople, seventeenth century. Boxwood, silver, enamel. Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, inv. no. 53.5014.1 inscriptions,27 from which it can be inferred that this type of cross was particularly popular in the first half and the middle of the eighteenth century. It is possible that the carving was originally protected on both sides by a sheet of isinglass, as this feature is decidedly common among similar objects. Blessing crosses are represented in the collection by two outstanding pieces. One has a metal-mounted, bulging, balustershaped shaft with cast-silver, ornamental engravings, filled in with coloured enamel (green, blue and black).28 (Fig. 4) The frame of the boxwood carving was made from rectangular sheets of silver, fixed using interlocking rings soldered around the rims of the sheets, and threaded together with bead-ended wires. Additional sheets decorated with enamel flowers embellish the exteriors of the silver sheets. Two of these have now been lost from the ends of the shorter arms of the cross. The top of the cross is finished off with a mounted piece of polished glass. The carving was probably made on Mount Athos, almost certainly in the second half of the seventeenth century. In the centre is a scene of the Crucifixion: standing at the base of the Cross are the Virgin Mary and John the Apostle, behind whom we can make out the head of the centurion looking up at Christ on the Cross. There are half-length portraits of evangelists at the top and bottom of the upright shaft, although they cannot be identified more precisely. At both ends of the horizontal crosspiece can be seen half-length figures of saints, each wearing a crown and holding a scroll, standing in front of an architectural background; these are surely Jesus Christ’s royal ancestors, David and Solomon. On the other side of the cross, in an ogee- arched field resting on two small columns 60
