Small Standing Cross

A small standing cross carries a bas-relief Christ on the front and the Benediction on the reverse, putting Spratling's hand to the devotional silver that had been part of Taxco's metalworking long before he arrived. Religious objects in silver were a deep regional tradition, and a worked cross of this kind sits within it.

Stromberg notes that silver and goldsmithing were pervasive in the Taxco region from the Colonial period, the local workshops producing religious objects among their wares (Stromberg, p. 25). A double-sided relief, imaged front and back, is a more ambitious treatment than a plain devotional cross.

Standing crosses from the workshop survive in smaller numbers than his jewelry and tableware, and the two relief scenes mark this one as a considered piece rather than a stock form.