UNKNOWN MASTER, English
(active mid-12th century)

Cross

1150-60
Walrus ivory with traces of polychromy, 58 x 36 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This ivory cross is assembled from five pieces of walrus ivory and is carved on both sides with more than 100 figures and 60 inscriptions in Latin and Greek. It was probably produced in at the Abbey of Bury Saint Edmunds in eastern England, a thriving monastic centre in the 12th century.

This front view shows the cross as the Tree of Life.