Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding: gold on the hair of all the figures (except the magus), along the hems, and on accessories.
According to Koechlin, the colour is not original (Koechlin 1924).

Reverse
Carved in the round (Virgin). Flat (other figures).

Object Condition
Missing: Christ's left hand and the object held by the Virgin (statuette); silver crowns and sceptre (mentioned in the 1451 inventory); Magus' right hand; right hand of the Virgin Annunciate (smaller relief).
The head of the Virgin seems to have been cut along a horizontal line and glued back into place; the head of Christ was also, at some point, separate from the body and has been inserted in the body. Vertical cut down the right side of the Virgin's cloak.
There is a hole at the back to hold the figure in place.

Comments
All the figures are arranged on the same modern base.

Provenance
Mentioned in the Liber fundatorum zwetlensis monasterii, a manuscript written from the beginning of the 14th century, as one of the several artefacts and relics acquired by Zwettl Abbey between 1248 and 1258 (see Kubes 1981 and Haltrich 2012); mentioned in the 1451 inventory.

Bibliography
Das Stiftungen Buch des Cistercienser Kloster Zwettl, Fontes rerum austriacarum, part II, vol. III (Vienna, 1851), p. 142.
Wiener Weltausstellung, exhibition catalogue, Vienna, 1873, no. 155.
K. Lind, 'Die österreichische kunsthistorische Abteilung aus der Wiener Weltausstellung', in Mitteilungen Zentral-commission (Vienna, 1873), p. 176.
Christliche Kunstausstellung, exhibition catalogue, Vienna, 1887, no. 967.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ivoires gothiques français connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'Art Chrétien 41 (1911), pp. 387-402, fig. 27.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 34, 62, 93, 99; II, no. 62; III pl. XXIV. "
P. Buberl, Die Kunstdenkmäler des Zisterzienserklosters Zwettl (Vienna, 1940), pp. 219-221.
R. Suckale, Studien zu Stilbildung und Stilwandel der Madonnenstatuen der Ile-de-France zwischen 1230 und 1300 (Munich, 1971).
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. 216 (K. Kubes).
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. 89 (M. Haltrich).
Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, 'Documents et œuvres d'art: remarques sur quelques ivoires gothiques français', Cahiers Archeologiques, vol. 55, 2014, p. 123-4, pl. 7.