491290 Altar Cross with Stand, Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, 1140-1150 (bronze: cast, gilded, engraved, and chased) by Romanesque, (12th century); h:43.40 w:22.50 d:8.00 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, USA; (add.info.: From the 11th century onward, altar crosses like this one often featured elaborate bases. The most impressive decoration of this cross is its stand: a lavish array of intertwining scrolls emerges from three pawlike legs, while birds perch amid the scrolls and dragon heads sprout from others. ); Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund; out of copyright.