Hand Cross
unknown
Basic information
Additionally
- Type
- decorative and applied arts ritual items
- Genre
- religious
- Provenance
- Lviv region
Information about author
Object description
The hand cross is seven-ended, with an elongated middle bar and a long handle. Its carving is clear and restrained, predominantly geometric in character; the line sharply defines the form. The folk craftsman, using carved parallel lines, slanted diagonal lines and cross grooves, created a distinctive graphic expressiveness. On the front side, the central part of the main shaft is occupied by a flat-carved cross set against a background of vertical parallel grooves. The image corresponds to the iconographic type of the blossoming cross, symbolising the rebirth of life and the redemption of humankind by the Saviour. On both sides, at the ends of the central intersection, are schematised figures of angels with raised wings – rendered with a tendency towards the geometrisation of forms, in the manner characteristic of folk craftsmen and their primitive style. The upper and lower arms are separated from the central composition; the surface of each is filled with depictions of cherubim with spread wings. On the reverse side of the hand cross, against a background of shallowly carved grooves, there is a cross pattée formed of flat squares and surrounded on four sides by rosettes inscribed in squares. The entire surface of the upper arm is occupied by a depiction of a cherub outlined with a precise graphic contour, distinguished by a schematic treatment of details. Along the contour of the cross runs a double smooth band, clearly defined and divided by a shallow groove into two unequal parts.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery
