Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy (red, black and gold). There was possibly once a painted inscription on this crozier.
It is likely that the original polychromy was removed in the 17th century, when the gilt silver figures were added to the crozier.

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Missing: Agnus Dei in the centre of the volute (holes remain where it was fixed); one of the six ebony plaques and one of the ivories triangles (later replaced with wood) on the knop.

Comments
The crozier is made of 15 different pieces of ivory.
The legend according to which saint Bernard gave the crozier to the abbey certainly triggered the addition of the figures in the 17th century. The Agnus Dei must have originally featured in the centre of the volute, as in the Kloster Nonnberg or Perugia croziers.

Provenance
Said to have been brought to the Abbey by saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1140 when he travelled to Hungary. First mentioned in an early 15th-century manuscript, where it is connected with saint Bernard's journey to Hungary: '...relinquens nobis virgam pastoralem in consolacionem et in monumentum hujus sacre visitationis [...] hinterließ er uns einen Hirtenstab als Trost und als Erinnerung an seinen heiligen Besuch' (Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 84, fol. 8v); then mentioned in a 1451 inventory: 'Item una virga pastoralis facta de ossibus', and again in a 1626 inventory, which mentions an ivory crozier decorated with gilt silver and stones: 'Ein pastoral von Helfenbain. In verguldes silber eingefaßt, mit stainen versetzt' (Stift Zwettl, Arch. Lade 32); by 1646, the figures had been added, as they are mentioned in a 1646 inventory: 'Mehr ein ganz Helfenbainer stab mit silber übergulten schrauffen, darauf S. Bernardi bildt.' (idem).

Bibliography
B. Linck, Annales Austrio-Clara-Vallenses 1 (1723).
Abbé Barraud, 'Des Crosses pastorales', in Mélanges d'Archéologie, d'Histoire et de Littérature 4 (1856), pp. 145-160.
H. Tietze, Die Denkmale des Stiftes Nonnberg in Salzburg: mit archivalischen Beiträgen von Fr. Regintrudes von Reichlin-Meldegg (Vienna, 1911), p. 99.
P. B. Cott, Siculo-Arabic Ivories (Princeton, 1939).
P. Buberl, Die Kunstdenkmäler des Zisterzienserklosters Zwettl (Vienna, 1940), pp. 217ff.
M. von Bárány-Oberschall, 'Baculus pastoralis. Keltisch-irische Motive auf mittelalterlichen beingeschnitzten Bischofsstäben', in Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft, 12 (1958), pp. 13-36.
J. Sommer, Das Deckenbild der Michaeliskirche zu Hildesheim (Hildesheim, 1966).
O. Demus, Romanische Wandmalerei (Munich, 1968).
K. Hoffman and F. Deuchler, The Year 1200, A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.
K. Kubes and J. Rössl, Stift Zwettl und seine Kunstschätze (1979), pp. 42-43.
J. T. Ambrózy, 'Die verschollene Elfenbeinkrümme der Abtei Geras und ihre Verwandten', in Geraser Hefte I (1981), pp. 2ff.
Die Künringer: das Werden des Landes Niederösterreich: niederösterreichische Landesausstellung, ed. by H. Wolfram, K. Brunner, G. Stangler, exhibition catalogue, Stift Zwettl, 16 May-26 October 1981, no. 215 (J. T. Ambrózy).
Verbündet Verfeindet Verschwägert. Bayern und Österreich 1 (= Veröffentlichungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur 61), dir. by W. Jahn, E. Brockhoff, exhibition catalogue, Regensburg, 2012, no. 87 (M. Haltrich).