Complexity in design, iconography, and media of Girona Cathedral's Cross of the Enamels

As processions became a part of the established liturgy in Europe during the Middle Ages, the processional cross became an important part of religious paraphernalia. The metal crosses that became popular during the Romanesque and Gothic eras joined the other Eucharistic metal pieces necessary for the Mass, including patens, chalices, and monstrances, but the imagery of the crosses also associates the pieces with the church decoration and furniture of those periods, such as altar frontals, apse murals, and retables.;The Medieval metal processional crosses from Catalonia embody a particular style that distinguishes them from the rest of Europe or even the rest of Spain. They share many of the same characteristics that associate them with this particular region and time period. In addition, stylistic changes from the late Romanesque to Gothic eras are easily identifiable within the corpus.;This thesis will examine the role of one cross, the Cross of the Enamels from the Girona Cathedral, a Gothic example from Catalonia that embodies the characteristics of its time and region. The first chapter of this paper examines how the Cross of the Enamels is a characteristic example of a metal Catalan processional cross, embodying the stylistic changes from the Romanesque style to the Gothic. In the second chapter, I examine the link between imagery in processional crosses, specifically the Girona cross, and church furnishings and how this parallel reflects similar functions and meanings between the different media. The third chapter focuses on how the mixed-media aspect of processional crosses links them to other important church furnishings, but takes a close look at how the Cross of the Enamels incorporates its various media within a complex narrative design that surpasses other processional crosses as well as church retables.