The Most Beautiful Cross in the World
The Most Beautiful Cross in the World -
The Lalibela Ethiopian Cross
There is no other cross in the world that even remotely shares any design
commonality with the Lalibela Ethiopian Cross. This Cross is unique in its
highly sophisticated design and how ingeniously the greatest Biblical story is
incorporated within its matrix. The first time I saw the Lalibela Cross was
when I was a high school student some forty years ago—in another life. From
then until very recently, I thought of the Lalibela Cross as very mysterious
and puzzling. Thus, over the years I tried to learn more about this great
Cross. At times, I even wondered how it could even be considered a cross.
There are two basic designs of crosses: the Latin Cross and
the Greek Cross. Every cross in the world is built around these two underlying
designs. I checked thousands of variations, some improvised and others strictly
traditional designs of crosses, in books, catalogs, and recently through the
Internet. From thousands of cross designs that I checked, there is not a single
design that could even remotely compare with the originality and beauty of the
Ethiopian Lalibela Cross. Thus, I think the Lalibela Cross is a third group
that stands for its unique matrix as a third basic design next to the Latin and
Greek, all on their own.
Few religious artifacts, as tangible corporeal symbols of
faith, are as venerated, adored, loved, and “worshiped” as the Cross in Ethiopia.
Not only the Christian Faithful adorn themselves with a small cross about their
person (usually worn on a string or chain around their neck), but also often
times non-Christian females wear the Cross as part of their jewelry, at least
those young girls I saw in my part of Ethiopia (Dessie, Wollo). Of course,
since the cross has a very close design resemblance to the “Anuak,” the symbol
of life from ancient Pharaonic civilization, the attraction of the cross for
Ethiopians may be explained as a deep primordial recognition of an ancient
symbol through communal subconsciousness.
In this one design the Christian dogma and history of the
Church are encapsulated in an exquisitely balanced, expressive design. The
Cross is based on two elongated circles intertwined with each other, where one
simply continues or merges into the other, symbolizing the temporal and the
eternal, or Heaven and Earth, or the Spiritual and the Physical aspects of
Creation. The Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is
represented by the three crosses on the vertical axis. The thirteen triangles
with small circles on top of each arranged around the crown of the upper
oval/circle represent Christ and his twelve disciples. And the three pairs of
wings on the opposite sides of the lower oval/circle balance the crowning upper
design of the Christ with his disciples. The effect is stunning, that of
flawless beauty that transcends time and space.
The simplification of the human body into the geometric
design of a triangle and a circle is a perfect choice, for the artist could
have chosen any number of simplifications. The choice of a triangle with a
little circle on top seems to suggest a sitting figure. Thus the overall design
not only fully represents the Christ and his disciples but also suggests a
particular historical time in the life of the Christian Church, that of the
Last Supper—the last communion of man and God.
The wings play a more abstract role, suggesting spirituality
as opposed to representation of a particular concept of God as the Holy Spirit.
This is quite obvious in later developments, where the artist seems preoccupied
in a purely creative search in perfecting this unique design of the Lalibela
Cross more than any form of narration. For example, in both the Processional
and Priest Crosses, we see the six side wings simply being integrated into the
matrix of the Cross with decoration as a primary motif. This is a significant
departure from the spiritual to the aesthetic. In fact, such distinction may
even be too shallow to describe the process of metamorphosis underway in the
minds of the Ethiopian artists who created such wonderful masterpieces.
The Christ is represented by a triangle that is superimposed
on the first cross on top of the oval dome. And the Twelve Disciples are
arranged six on each side of Christ. The genius of the Ethiopian artist is to
be seen also in the subtle suggestion one feels from the arrangement of the
Christ and the Twelve Disciples and the presence of the “crown of thorns” that
the Christ was forced to wear on his way to Golgotha. This Cross is truly a
testament of love and faith. The overall effect is of indescribable harmony and
beauty.
Within this new or original matrix of the Lalibela Cross, you
can see variations that are more impressionistic in execution than symbolic
representational. For example, Christ and the Disciples are transformed into a
rhythmic vein. Some people might dismiss this further abstraction as a result
of sloppy craftsmanship, but I believe that it is an aesthetic development of
much higher magnitude of abstraction of the basic representational work into an
impressionistic and, further on, as pure design. Whether one looks at these
features of the cross as purely decorative, the fact remains that the creativity,
originality, sense of balance, and harmony of the Lalibela Cross are
awe-inspiring. When it comes to the adulation of the cross, the Ethiopian
artist or artists who designed such masterpieces have no equals anywhere in the
Christian world.
All great works of art suspend time, for there is nothing
outside of such works that could be added to enhance or embellish because such
masterpieces are self-defining and self-contained, and we are totally immersed
in such works. In their great beauty, they contain all of human experience of
the universe. These artifacts become the center that pulls our human experience
and the mystery of existence together; in a way, through art we are forced into
becoming one with the universe.
One may generalize that the genius of the Ethiopian artists
who created the Lalibela Cross is not limited to their great structural
abstraction but also extends to their absolute control of the religious
symbolism integrated into the cross from overwhelming the overall design. There
is absolute balance between each part of the Lalibela Cross. In fact, the Cross
seems to be contained by far more profound and subtle narrative, just touching
the subconscious represented in the general matrix of the artifact. However,
one should not forget the fact that the Lalibela Cross is an item of devotion,
thus essentially utilitarian. Is that not what religion is supposed to be? A
kind of guide to achieve eternal communion with the Creator of the Universe?
I searched far and wide for years, going through books and
catalogues, checking (comparing) thousands of all kinds of cross designs, but
could not find anything that is as sophisticated and as complete, as unique and
as beautiful as the Lalibela Cross. It is now clear to me why scholars wrote
about the Lalibela Cross scantly and cryptically. They were all as puzzled and
as stunned as I once was; that is what I would like to believe had happened.
Some scholars were quite dismissive in their evaluation of
the artistic achievement of those Ethiopian masters. Even Richard Pankhurst,
one of Ethiopia’s most distinguished historians, does not seem to pay much
needed attention to those great Ethiopian artists who created the Lalibela
Cross. Pankhurst wrote, "The basic design of the processional cross,
irrespective of the material out of which it was fashioned, was that of an
often highly elaborate and Ethiopianized Greek or Latin cross…. "Though
all crosses were, of course, cruciform in conception, many processional crosses
gave the appearance of other forms. Some were thus almost entirely round, and
others diamond-shaped. Others, again, particularly characteristic of the
Lalibela period, were enclosed in an elongated pear-shaped frame, almost like a
highly decorated leaf. "Richard Pankhurst, 'Ethiopian Crosses, and Their
History: Processional, Hand, and Neck Crosses,' Addis Tribune, 1997. http://archives.geez.org
In my quest for connection to my nation’s awesome history, I
asked few Ethiopians for their ideas of the Lalibela Cross, and their response
is very interesting. Almost everyone said that the Lalibela Cross is the most
beautiful cross of all of Ethiopia's crosses. However, very few were able to
tell me what form of symbolism or message was incorporated in the design of the
Lalibela Cross. Some did not even know the designation of the cross as the
“Lalibela Cross.” That fact did not bother me at all, for by not knowing such a
narrative, they seem to have experienced the beauty of the cross transcending
history and our pedantic categorization of a great masterpiece on its own. In
fact, I am more envious of such direct emotional experience of spirituality
than the rigor and certainty born out of searching for an elusive truth.
Source: http://www.tecolahagos.com/faith.htm | photo credit: africa-gallery.nl
Further reading: Chojnacki, Stanislaw with Carolyn Gossage. (2006). Ethiopian Crosses - A Cultural History and Chronology
ps: article was edited for clarity
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