| The bust-reliquary of St Bernard from 1519 by Urs Graf the Elder (1485-1527/8) was probably the greatest work of this goldsmith, painter, glass painter, and engraver. It was commissioned by Abbot Erhard Kastler of St Urban to commemorate the re-building of the abbey following a fire in 1513 which destroyed most of the buildings. The bust itself is lost, but eight engraved silver plates with thirteen scenes mostly from the life of Bernard (five double plates each with two scenes separated by a massive column and one double plate with only one scene, and two single plates, each with one scene) still exist. Four of these are in London, British Museum, and four in Zuerich, Schweizerisches Landesmuseum. Each scene has an inscription in Latin in the curved vaulting between the central columns and the side columns. The scene on the left is of the mother's dream that she has given birth to a dog. Aleth lies on a bed at the end of which is the artist's monogram with dagger. A small dog lies on top of her. The inscription reads: NIC VERO MATRIS CATVLV QUE SONIA FINGVNT ('Here is the mother's dog who appeared in a dream'). On the right, Bernard as a boy on Christmas Night sees the Nativity. The inscription: IS VIDIT ET CHRISTV PVER VT NOVVUS EXIT AB ALVO ('As a boy he saw Christ as a new-born come from the mother's bosom'). (See also VA04-09, and VA11).
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