A high cross or standing cross is a free-standing Christian
cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early
Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone
crosses, usually outdoors. These probably developed from earlier traditions
using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic
memorial stones; the Pictish stones of Scotland may also have influenced the
form. The earliest surviving examples seem to come from the territory of the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of Northumbria,
Which had been converted to Christianity by Irish
missionaries; it remains unclear whether the form first developed in Ireland or
Britain. Their relief decoration is a mixture of religious figures and sections
of decoration such as knotwork, interlace and in Britain vine-scrolls, all in
the styles also found in Insular art in other media such as illuminated
manuscripts and metalwork. They were probably normally painted, perhaps over a
modelled layer of plaster; with the loss of paint and the effects of weathering
the reliefs, in particular scenes crowded with small figures, are often now
rather indistinct and hard to read.
