Renaissance gold & enamel crucifix pendant. Spanish, late 16th century.

A late Renaissance gold & enamel crucifix pendant

Spanish, late 16th century

Measures 7.6 x 4cm

The limp body of Christ hangs from the crucifix, the bones of Adam at his feet. Above his head is the plaque mocking the saviour, hung by Pilate with the initials ‘INRI’, an abbreviation of the Latin ‘I?sus Nazar?nus, R?x I?dae?rum’, which translates into English as “'Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews’. The goldsmith has taken tremendous care to imitate the grain, knots and stumps of the wood, a technique typically seen only on processional crosses dating two centuries earlier! A baroque pearl is suspended from both arms and the base of the cross.

See the last image for a remarkably similar example sold by Sotheby’s, London, European Sculpture & Works of Art, 4th December 2013, Lot 58.