Summary

Hand Cross   (  )
Artist	Anonymous (Ethiopia)Unknown author
Title	Hand Cross
Description	English: Hand-held crosses, called hand or benediction crosses, are carried by Ethiopian priests and offered to the faithful to be kissed during church services. Made out of metal or wood, the crosses are also used by priests to bless holy water and to perform exorcisms. Beginning in the 16th century, hand crosses also appear as signs of victory in icons and manuscripts, where they are held by saints, archangels, and even the resurrected Christ. This object has a conventional design, but the cross in the center appears in silhouette. As a result, during benedictions this opening could be used to project a cruciform shadow onto the object or person receiving the blessing. The rectangular base may be interpreted as a reference to the tabot, or carved altar box, venerated by Ethiopian Christians.
Date	17th century date QS:P571,+1650-00-00T00:00:00Z/7 (Early Modern)
Medium	wood medium QS:P186,Q287
Dimensions	37 × 16 × 2.2 cm (14.5 × 6.2 × 0.8 in)
Collection	Walters Art Museum    Native name Walters Art Museum Location Baltimore, United States of America Coordinates 39° 17′ 48″ N, 76° 36′ 58″ W   Established 1934  Website thewalters.org Authority file : Q210081 VIAF: 128918374 ISNI: 000000040373611X ULAN: 500279110 LCCN: no00096900 GND: 16029354-6 WorldCat institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number	61.342
Place of creation	Ethiopia
Object history	Anonymous dealer, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Richard Hubbard Howland, 1963, by purchase 1998: given to Walters Art Museum
Exhibition history	Angels of Light: Ethiopian Art from the Walters Art Museum. Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; Museum of Biblical Art, New York. 2006-2007.
Credit line	Gift of Richard Hubbard Howland, 1998
Source	Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
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This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Walters Art Museum as part of a cooperation project. All artworks in the photographs are in public domain due to age. The photographs of two-dimensional objects are also in the public domain. Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License. In the case of the text descriptions, copyright restrictions only apply to longer descriptions which cross the threshold of originality. العربيَّة | English | français | italiano | македонски | русский | sicilianu | +/−

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