{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O70467"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70467/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC6782/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC6782/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CC6782","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CR3486","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CR3456","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6882","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6794","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6791","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6790","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6777","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6776","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3775","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3774","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3773","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3772","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3771","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3770","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3769","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM3768","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BD1847","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BD1833","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BB6524","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9047","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP1331","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KV8729","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KV8728","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O70467/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O70467","accessionNumber":"218-1865","objectType":"Staff head","titles":[{"title":"The  St Nicholas Crozier","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"This so called  St Nicholas Crozier shows scenes relating to Christ and St Nicholas. Bishops, and sometimes abbots, carry a crozier as a symbol of office. It resembles a shepherd's crook. At the end of the volute or scroll an angel supports the Lamb of God, a symbolic image of Christ. Its head is now missing. On the other side is the Nativity of Christ. The Annunciation to the Shepherds takes place on one side of the shaft.\r\n\r\nThe rest of the crozier proper shows three scenes from the Life of St Nicholas. According to tradition, St Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, a town in Asia Minor, in the late Roman period. The first scene depicts his birth. The second shows the infant saint's abstinence from his mother's milk. The Golden Legend, a popular 13th century manual recounting the lives of saints, notes that 'he took the breast only once on Wednesdays and Fridays'. The final scene records the saint's gift of gold to an impoverished and emaciated nobleman of Myra. This was to supply his daughters with a dowry to prevent their being put out on to the streets as prostitutes. The very particular choice of scenes suggests that the crozier was made for a bishop or abbot who was either named after the saint or in charge of a foundation dedicated to him.\r\n\r\nThis crozier is one of the most sublime achievements of the medieval ivory carver's art. The awkward shape of the volute has been brilliantly transformed into a fantastic landscape for the two separate but interlinked narratives. You can see evidence of the carver's fertile and creative imagination wherever you look. Perhaps the most striking example is the way in which Nicholas's father emerges from inside the surface of the ivory halfway up the crozier. This is a tour de force of technical and creative genius.","physicalDescription":"The crozier shows three scenes from the Life of St Nicholas, the Agnus Dei, the Nativity of Christ and the Annunciation to the Shepherds: at the end of the volute are, on one side, the Nativity with Christ cradled in a tendril which springs from the stem of the crozier, and on the other side an angel supporting the Lamb of God (the <u>Agnus Dei</u>), now lacking its head. In the Nativity scene the Virgin is shown reclining under a blanket with the Infant Christ swaddled above her. A lamp hangs down between the Virgin and the Infant, behind which an angel supports the Infant. The heads of the ox and ass protrude from the ivory tongue to the right of the Christ Child.\r\n\r\nThe Annunciation to the Shepherds fills one side of the shaft of the crozier, with the angel - marked by the inscription 'Angelus' - flying down above the star to the three Shepherd and their six animals. The remaining scenes are from the life of  St. Nicholas: besides the Annunciation to the Shepherds is the Birth of St. Nicholas, and above that is the infant Saint's abstinence from his mother's milk on fast days. The outer curve of the crozier head is filled by the representation of the Saint giving money to the impoverished nobleman of Myra for his three daughters, to prevent their being sold into prostitution. The three daughters are shown asleep and resting at the top of one side, with their semi-naked emaciated father lying beside them, and on the other is the nobleman's wife, also under a blanket, reaching out towards the young Nicholas, who climbs up the curve of the crook to post his bundle of gold.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved ivory","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2009CC6782","2009CR3486","2009CR3456","2009CC6882","2009CC6794","2009CC6791","2009CC6790","2009CC6777","2009CC6776","2007BM3775","2007BM3774","2007BM3773","2007BM3772","2007BM3771","2007BM3770","2007BM3769","2007BM3768","2006BD1847","2006BD1833","2006BB6524","2006AY9047","2006AP1331","2018KV8729","2018KV8728"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"8","id":"THES49714"},"free":"","case":"CA6","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Crozier","id":"x35914"}],[{"text":"staff, pastoral","id":"x43367"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Ile-de-France","id":"x29609"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably or England (probably Winchester)"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1150-1170","earliest":"1145-01-01","latest":"1170-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"11.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"2.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"0.34","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Formerly in the Webb collection, acquired by the Museum in 1865 for £140.\n\nHistorical significance: The St Nicholas Crozier - justifiably considered one of the most sublime achievements of the Romanesque period - has since the early 20th century been regarded almost unanimously as an English work  A stronger case can be made for a French origin, both on iconographic and stylistic grounds.\r\n\r\nThe awkward shape of the volute has here been brilliantly transformed into a fantastic landscape for the two separate but interlinked narratives, while the creative fertility of the sculptor's imagination is evident throughout.\r\nThe crozier was a symbol of a bishop's or abbot's responsibilities to those under his charge and as a living representative of Christ, the Good Shepherd.","historicalContext":"Because of its very particular iconography it is assumed that the crozier was made for a high-ranking ecclesiastic either named after the saint or in charge of a foundation dedicated to him.","briefDescription":"Crozier, pastoral staff head, elephant ivory, The St. Nicholas Crozier, England (Winchester?) or French (Ile-de-France), ca. 1150-70","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret. H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part I. London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927.","id":"AUTH409856"},"details":"p. 87, pl. LXVI","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1865. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 32"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<font -u>The South Kensington Museum:  Etchings of Works of Art in the Museum.</font> 1881, p. 12"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Sauerländer, William. The Year 1200. <font -u>The Art Bulletin</font>. December 1971, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 506-516"},{"reference":{"text":"Swarzenski, H. Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. London: Faber and Faber, 1954.","id":"AUTH409851"},"details":"pl. 139, figs. 312, 313","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Boase, T.S.R. English Art 1100-1216. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1953.","id":"AUTH409857"},"details":"p. 100","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Kendrick, T.D. Late Saxon and Viking Art. London: Methuen, 1949.","id":"AUTH409847"},"details":"pp. 45-46","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Stone, L. Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.","id":"AUTH409855"},"details":"p.86","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dale, William S. A. And English Crosier of the Transitional Period. <font -u>The Art Bulletin.</font> September 1956, vol. 38, no. 3, p. 137"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beckwith, John. An Ivory Relief of the Ascension. <font -u>The Burlington Magazine.</font> April 1956, vol. 98, no. 637, pp. 118-122"},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul (ed.), <u>The Medieval Treasury: the art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1986","id":"AUTH334016"},"details":"pp. 140-141","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul, ed., <u>European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996","id":"AUTH320316"},"details":"pp. 46-47","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul. <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings. Early Christian to Romanesque</u>. London, V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010","id":"AUTH337755"},"details":"pp. 324-29, cat. no. 83","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Zarnecki, G. et al (eds.), <i>English Romanesque Art 1066-1200<i>, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984","id":"AUTH353419"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Beckwith, John, <i>Ivory Carvings in early medieval England, 700-1200</i>, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1974","id":"AUTH356271"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul, and Motture, Peta (eds.), <u>Medieval and Renaissance Treasures</u>, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2010","id":"AUTH334230"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hoffmann, Konrad, <i>The Year 1200: a centennial exhibition at the Metropilitan Museum of Art</i>, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters, New York, 1970","id":"AUTH356953"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art, 1930.</i>, London : V&A, Published by authority of the Board of Education, 1930","id":"AUTH357071"},"details":"73","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Luckhardt, Jochen & Niehoff, Franz (eds.), <i>Heinrich der Löwe und Seine Zeit</i>, München : Hirmer, 1995","id":"AUTH357889"},"details":"D.108","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"The Christ Child","id":"N1185"},{"text":"Saint Nicholas of Myra","id":"N366"},{"text":"The Virgin Mary","id":"N480"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"The Nativity (1BC-1AD)","id":"V23"},{"text":"Annunciation to the Shepherds","id":"V234"},{"text":"Birth of Saint Nicholas","id":"V128"},{"text":"Saint Nicholas gives the dowry (4th century AD)","id":"V129"},{"text":"Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)","id":"V433"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"angel","id":"x31516"},{"text":"lambs","id":"x30134"},{"text":"lamp","id":"x36234"},{"text":"ox","id":"x44669"},{"text":"ass (animal)","id":"x30281"},{"text":"blankets (coverings)","id":"AAT197367"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Christianity","id":"AAT73711"},{"text":"devotion","id":"x35215"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["218-1865"],"accessionNumberNum":"218","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1865,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU4702"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-22","recordCreationDate":"2002-11-20","availableToBook":false}}