The Museum of the Ways of the Gaudí Palace presents as ‘Piece of the month’ of April a processional cross in bronze on wooden core from Veldedo dating from the sixteenth century. The work is exhibited on the second floor of the Gaudí Palace.
It is a Latin cross with straight arms and rhomboidal terminations. The border is crossed by a double molding that breaks in the center of the arms to form scrolls, the same as those of the angles of the ends and vertices of the squares. The surface is decorated with four petals inscribed in a circle, in the center of each arm, and scrolls and fountains on both sides. At the ends are inscribed medallions with magnificent busts in high relief. The squares inscribe a laurea and superimposed, they present the figures of Christ Crucified on the obverse and the Virgin and Child crowned by two angels on the reverse.
The base is octagonal, of two bodies with a spherical cap at the top, pilasters on the edges ending in balusters above and below. Each face is decorated with busts enclosed in tondos.
In spite of the abundance of silver, many small parishes had bronze crosses, less expensive, to whose serial production this piece belongs, casting identical plates for the back and front, which covered the wooden structure. In the middle years of the 16th century we find pieces almost identical to Veldedo’s in many dioceses that used similar molds and that hardly differ except in the pieces superimposed on the squares.
At the end of April, the piece will be moved, but will remain until the end of the year along with the rest of the works exhibited in the coming months. The Gaudí Palace is open every day from Monday to Sunday from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm and in the afternoons from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
