CROSS, MICHAEL (fl. 1630–1660), painter, obtained great renown as a copyist in the reign of Charles I. He is doubtless identical with Miguel de la Cruz, a painter at Madrid, who in 1633 executed copies for Charles I of the principal pictures in the royal galleries at Madrid, in memory of Charles's visit to Spain. According to some authorities he died early, but he was employed by Charles I to copy pictures in Italy, and a story has been handed down that while at Venice he copied a Madonna by Raphael in San Marco so accurately that he was able to substitute his copy for the original picture and bring the original back to England as his own handiwork. There does not seem, however, to be any record of any such picture by Raphael at Venice, and it is not likely that Charles I would be so easily duped. This picture is stated to have been sold at the dispersal of the king's collection to the Spanish ambassador. From the fact of his name being anglicised it would appear that he resided in England, and it is on record that he made copies of Vandyck's ‘Charles I on a Dun Horse,’ Titian's ‘Europa,’ Titian's ‘Venus and Adonis,’ &c. In the catalogue of Charles I's collection there is mentioned ‘A piece of our Lady, copied at the Escurial in Spain, after Raphael Urbin, by Mich. de la Croy.’ This picture may have given rise to the story alluded to above. After the Restoration Cross petitioned Charles II to redeem a promise made to the petitioner while at Caen in Normandy, for the renewal of a pension of 200l. per annum granted him by Charles I during twenty-eight years for services, ‘both in Spaine in coppying of old peeces of famous painters, and in Italie in making newe collections.’
[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; De Piles's Lives of the Artists; Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Catalogue of King Charles I's Collection; Fine Arts Quarterly Review, Jan.–June, 1867.]
CROSS, NATHANIEL (18th cent.), was one of the best English violin-makers. He worked at the sign of the Bass Viol in St. Paul's Churchyard, and in Aldermanbury, in the early part of the eighteenth century. He long worked in partnership with Barak Norman, probably from about 1720 to 1740, when the latter died. Their joint label reads, ‘Barak Norman and Nathaniel Cross, at the Bass Violin, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, fecit 172–.’ Prior to this he used a printed label, of which Sandys and Forster record a specimen, which reads: ‘Nathanaeli Crosso Stainero, fecit, No. 2417.’ It is absurd to suppose that he could have made 2417 instruments in his life, and chronology renders it impossible that he should have been a pupil of Stainer. He was principally a maker of violoncellos, which are of a small size, and are varnished a greyish yellow colour, the varnish being of a thin and chippy substance. His work is very good, and most of his instruments have the monogram N. B. (which is found in all Barak Norman's instruments) inlaid in the centre of the back and on the breast under the finger-board. For this reason his instruments are often sold as Norman's; but the work is quite different, and cannot be confused. The monogram may, in fact, be either Barak Norman or their two christian names, Nathaniel and Barak. In the few violins by Cross which we know we find the cross which he printed on his labels stamped in the wood, and as a rule the letters N. C. are branded inside the back. His violins are rather large, and of a high model, resembling that of Jacob Stainer, whom he professed to copy. The bass bar is often made in one piece with the breast instead of cut separately and affixed; his edges are always well sunk in and finished. He was alive in 1751, but the exact date of his death is not known.
[J. M. Fleming's Old Violins; Sandy's and Forster's History of the Violin; instruments exhibited at Inventions Exhibition, 1885.]
CROSS, NICHOLAS (1616–1698), Franciscan friar, was a native of Derbyshire. He joined the order of St. Francis in 1641, and was so highly esteemed by his brethren that he was selected four times for the office of provincial, in 1662, 1671, 1680, and 1689; but in consequence of ill-health he could not complete the latter triennium, and accordingly he sent in his resignation on 12 May 1691. For a time he was chaplain to Anne, duchess of York. He suffered imprisonment three times in this country, but ended his days at Douay on 21 March 1697–8, and was buried before the high altar of the old conventual church.
He is the author of: 1. ‘The Cynosura; or a Saving Star which leads to Eternity, discovered amidst the celestial orbs of David's Psalms, by way of Paraphrase on the 50th Psalm,’ London, 1670, folio. Dedicated to Anne, countess of Shrewsbury. This is wrongly ascribed by Dodd to John Cross, D.D.
