Editing Rood screen (section)

===Great Rood===
The Great Rood or [[Rood cross]] itself long preceded the development of screen lofts, originally being either just hung from the chancel arch or also supported by a plain beam across the arch, and high up, typically at the level of the capitals of the columns (if there are any), or near the point where the arch begins to lean inwards. Numerous near life-size crucifixes survive from the [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] period or earlier, with the [[Gero Cross]] in [[Cologne Cathedral]] (965–970) and the [[Volto Santo of Lucca]] the best known. Such crosses are commonly referred to in German as ''Triumphkreuz'' or [[triumphal cross]]. The prototype may have been one known to have been set up in [[Charlemagne]]'s [[Palatine Chapel in Aachen|Palatine Chapel]] at [[Aachen]], apparently in gold foil worked over a wooden core in the manner of the [[Golden Madonna of Essen]]. The original location and support for the surviving figures is often not clear;&nbsp; many are now hung on walls - but a number of northern European churches, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, preserve the original setting in full&nbsp;– they are known as a "Triumphkreutz" in German, from the "triumphal arch" (chancel arch in later terms) of Early Christian architecture. As in later examples a Virgin and Saint John often flanked the cross, and [[cherubim]] and other figures are sometimes seen.{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|pp=141–46}}