The Lowther Cross

Medieval

British Museum

785 - 815

The cross-shaft is decorated on all four sides with a running vine-scroll in three varieties and was regarded as the best-preserved, earliest, and finest of a group of some dozen Lancashire and Westmorland crosses. On all of this group, vine-scroll decoration predominates. The treatment of the vine leaves and other details on the Lowther shaft relate it also to important depictions of the vine in manuscripts and metalwork, notably the Book of Kells, the Ormside Bowl, and the Leningrad Bede. The clarity and freshness of the ornament and its technical accomplishment suggest a familiarity with continental work.

• Medium: wood
• Dimensions: 159 cm
• Art Fund Grant: £1000 ( Total: £6,000)
• ArtFunded in: 1967
• Vendor: John Hunt

Provenance

Formerly at Lowther Castle, Westmorland, ; John Hunt.

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