Segment of a Crozier Shaft

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Croziers, sometimes made of ivory, were important symbols of the authority of the Western Church. This ivory formed part of the shaft of a crozier that was surmounted either by a crook or a T-shaped cross known as a tau. The shaft segment is divided into four horizontal bands. At the top is Jesus enthroned and surrounded by the Elders of the Apocalypse. The enthroned Virgin and Child appear on the opposite side. Angels dressed as clergy populate the two central registers. The lowest register depicts the heavenly investiture of the bishop, for whom this crozier perhaps was made. The richly animated drapery and technical virtuosity of the carving are almost without parallel in twelfth-century ivory sculpture. Elements of its style and iconography—such as the highly unusual inhabited mandorla surrounding Jesus—can be found in northern Spanish art.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art