Figurine, crucifix, corpus figure

Copper alloy figure of Christ crucified, dated to the early 13th century. From an altar or processional cross. Decorated with champlevé enamel and probably made at Limoges (Haute-Vienne) in France. Found in the robbing debris in a drain on the site of the Cluniac priory and abbey of St Saviour, Bermondsey. It is cast and hollow-backed and would have originally been mounted on a cross. There are two holes for attachment in the splayed base, the head is inclined to the left and the eyes appear closed. The flat band of the crown has been added separately - it is incomplete at the top and has triangular panels picked out with engraved lines. Details of the facial hair, body, legs and feet are added by engraving. Folds in the loincloth are rendered by a series of triangular enamelled areas (now green). The girdle is picked out in enamel that is now brown.Traces of gilding survive but is now mostly worn off. There is a tear in the metal on the left side of the loin cloth. This was a stock product and isn't very detailed - the legs are not three-dimensionally separated, there was no attempt to represent a realistic rib cage and the eyes don't seem to have had glass in them.
This enamelled bronze figure of Christ was found during excavations between 1984 and 1988 on the site of Bermondsey Abbey (London Borough of Southwark). There may have been a monastery at Bermondsey as early as the 800s but a Cluniac priory was founded there in 1082, and it became an abbey in 1399.
For more information on this object and the site, see Dyson, T. et al (2011): The Cluniac priory and abbey of St Saviour Bermondsey, Surrey: Excavations 1984-95, MOLA Monograph 50.