Metal cross

An altar cross, metal, four-armed, mounted on a handle and a stand. The cross has a shaped relief finish on its four arms, worked in the Baroque style: the edges take the form of lavish shell- and leaf-shaped scrollwork with openwork "radiance" along the contour. On the front of the cross is the composition "The Crucifixion" with attendant figures: at the center, the crucified Christ; to the left and right, the Mother of God and John the Baptist with halos; on the upper arm, God the Father with a triangular halo amid clouds; on the lower arm, the Head of Adam. On the reverse is the composition "The Theophany (Baptism)": at the center, the naked Christ in the waters of the Jordan, to the left John the Baptist, to the right an angel; on the upper arm, amid clouds, the Holy Spirit as a dove in radiance. The cross is mounted on a profiled handle, at the bottom of which is a broad, cup-shaped base with edges curved outward. The base is gold-toned, decorated with silver-toned spreading acanthus leaves.

The cross belonged to the pre-war collection of the Sloboda Ukraine Museum named after H. S. Skovoroda. During the Second World War it was evacuated and returned to Kharkiv in November 1944.