The Dzeelling-houses of this period seldom attained to monumental construction; even great palaces and castles which were built of wood have for the most part disappeared. A fine structure of the early Roman esque is the still-existing Landgrave's Palace on the Wartburg, which has recently been restored for modern dwellings and as a place of recreation. The imperial palace at Goslar has also recently been renovated. Geln hansen has the ruins of the palace of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and Wimpfen those of a similar palace. Among the many castles whose ruins are found everywhere on summit and slope throughout Germany, and which mostly go back to this period, one of the most notable is Castle Trifels, in the Palatinate. Only from the close of this period have we city-dwellings left to us in sufficient number and completeness to enable us to recognize their system. Cologne and Treves have several dwellings of this age, but a part of them have been sacrificed for modern purposes. Two houses at Cologne dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century are represented in Figures 4 and 5.
Ornamentation.—Before we close the description of this period we must cast a glance over the development of ornamental detail. An echo of the classical may still be found, and in Figure S the Corinthian capital may be recognized. As yet the shape of the capitals was not complicated, and, since the cubical form expressed better the power to carry great arches and massive vaults, the simple shape shown in Figure 7 (pl. 26) was widely used, or it was decorated with flat ornament winch did riot disguise its form (figs. 6, 9). The animal world plays a conspicuous part in the ornamentation of the period. The peculiarly imaginative and strongly conventional style of these animals points to an Oriental origin. Woven silks which exhibited in their patterns animal forms symmetrically arranged, turned backward and forward, and interlaced, were brought from the Orient in considerable abundance. The forms were partly based on primitive traditions. Figure to shows a capital with such interlaced animal figures. Just as the animal forms are interlaced regularly, so are ornaments drawn from the vegetable world similarly intertwined, and the frieze and abacus of the capitals, as well as the pattern of the shafts, show such symmetrical leaflike figures.
In France and Italy the capitals bore not only figures of animals, but also entire historical scenes (pi. 2s, jigs. 9, io). This method of deco ration was seldom employed in Germany, where the animals usually carved were the lion, the eagle, and the dragon. With the development of art in the twelfth century more lightness was attained in all forms, and the capitals particularly were often adorned with elegant interlaced ornaments.
For the numerous examples extant we can find but little room (y5/. 26, jigs. 16).
It is to be particularly remarked that it is not the desire to make an exact copy of nature that gives the motive for this foliaged ornament, but rather that the precise symmetry of the spacing of the individual leaves necessitates placing between them bandlike interlacings almost geometri cally formed from separate vegetable motifs, and in most cases the ends of the twists are developed into leaflike forms.
Column Base and base of the column formed a new object of adornment. Where the lower roll-moulding sits on the square base, bosses are introduced to make a harmonious union; leaves are also made to spring from the base and twist themselves around the roll, or they arise from the roll and descend to the square base, their ends perhaps rolled together, or again with a twist rising over the roll (jigs. 19-23). A pecu liar kind of ornament was developed in the cornices, where a series of small arches form a frieze (jigs. 17, IS).
Develoi5ment of the beginning of the thirteenth century nature was approached more nearly in France, yet strictly symmetrical forms were still used, and a charming contrast was effected by the alter nation of the convex outer side with the concave inner side of the leaves (15/. 29, fig. 4). Particularly characteristic are those narrow, hooklike leaves which are rolled into a knob at the end and stand out boldly and freely, almost detached from the bell-shaped cone of the capital. These leaves are not confined to the capitals, but are used in other parts of the building. They stand in rows under the cornice, they form a line along the sloping angles of the spires (crockets), buttresses, etc., and occur even on perpendicular portions.
Both the last-named kinds of ornament were used in Germany together with other motifs. Figure 15 (p1. 26) gives one of the most elegant examples of the application of these narrow, hooklike leaves rolled together at the tip, while Figure 14 shows an approach to nat ural forms. If we compare these with Figures 6 and ro, we become aware of a difference so wide that we can consider them as belonging to the same style only because we find an unbroken series of examples from one extreme to the other. The spirit is, indeed, so different that we have already reached another style; in such forms as those shown in Figures 12-16 we may as truly see the commencement of the Gothic as the close of the Romanesque. The new style has developed so gradually out of the one preceding it that it is hard to fix the dividing line.'