of Christ blessing and holding a book, and the rear another Christ in Majesty. The style of the figures has been related to contemporary continental Carolingian art, "underlying the apparent naturalism, there is a carefully planned logic to the overlapping elements which is as rigidly defined as an interlace sequence". The layout and appearance of the apostle's heads has also been compared to a Byzantine row of heads around an archivolt from a church in Constantinople of the 6th–7th centuries. The rear face contains a continuous vine scroll "inhabited" with beasts, an early appearance of this motif in Anglo-Saxon art. The scroll is the type known as "medallion scroll". Ernst Kitzinger thought the form of the scroll related to early Carolingian art, though it may have been derived more from Late Antique examples. The two much narrower side faces contain panels of interlace and vine scroll that alternate apparently rather randomly, as the two sides do not match. The corners have rope-work running the whole length of the faces, which the modern filler sections imitate. The cross dates from the period when Alcuin of York and other Anglo-Saxons held important positions in the court of Charlemagne, and remained in contact with the Northumbrian monasteries. It is one of the finest surviving Anglo-Saxon crosses, and the best of a group of Northumbrian crosses including those from Otley, with similar busts of apostles or saints in arched compartments (but singly), Rothbury, Ilkley and Lowther. It has similarities to the earlier Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross, from western Northumbria, which are larger and have more ambitious decorative programmes, but also mix interlace with inhabited vine-scrolls. With an approximate date of 800–820, the cross was erected just as the golden age of Northumbrian art was coming to an end with the devastating Viking raids which began with the attack on Lindisfarne in 793. The cross is now displayed at the start of the recently re-arranged Medieval galleries (in at the front door, right down stairs). See also Easby Abbey, founded 1152, now in North Yorkshire Notes References "Corpus": Lang, James and others, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture: Northern Yorkshire, Volume 6 of Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture in England, 2002, British Academy/Oxford University Press, , , Google books (nb Most of text chapters but not actual catalogue entry seen) "Corpus website" Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, project website, hosted by Durham University Casson, Stanley,