Box Reliquary of the True Cross in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2007

Box Reliquary of the True Cross
Gilded silver, gold, and enamel worked in cloisonne and niello
Byzantine
Made about 800 in Constantinople

Accession # 17.190.715 a,b

The cross upon which Christ was crucified is said to have been discovered in the early 4th century by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor. During the Byzantine era, small pieces of the True Cross were distributed as gifts and housed in precious containers to be venerated by the faithful.

This finely made box is one of the earliest examples of a True Cross reliquary. On the lid, worked in cloisonne, Christ is shown alive on the cross, wearing the long tunic (colobium) popular in early Byzantine depictions of this scene and flanked by the mourning figures of the Virgin and Saint John. On the reverse, worked in niello, are four episodes from the life of Christ: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the Anastasis (in the West called the Harrowing of Hell). The lid slides back to reveal five compartments for relics arranged in the shape of a cross.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.