had forgotten the casting and the chasing of metals, but the art was revived by works and artists imported from Constantinople in the eleventh century. These large bronze doors were inlaid with thin strips of silver wire, by which are given the outlines and the details of the composition. In this way the many subjects, instead of being, as is usual, brought out in relief, arc quite fiat, and the effect is like that of painting on metal. The bronze-caster Staurachios of Constantinople, apparently a Syrian by birth, was most famous for his bronze doors during the latter half of the eleventh century, and doors by him are still to he seen at Amalfi, Monte Gargano, and Atrani. In Figure 4 (fill i 7) is reproduced a sin gle panel of the door of the Basilica of St. Paul outside-the-walls, at Rome. This also was by Staurachios, and suffered terribly from the fire which in 1823 almost entirely destroyed the basilica. This panel represents the presentation of the infant Christ in the temple by the Virgin. The Virgin, behind whom stands Joseph, is about giving the Child to Simeon, while on the left Anna is raising her left ann in an inspired attitude. The buildings in the background form part of the temple. The lines and details of the features are all worn away, as well as the more delicate lines of the drapery. Still, even making clue allowance for these facts, it must be confessed that this work shows an art at a low ebb. Native Italian artists, after imitating this inlaid niello-work, began in the twelfth cen tury to cast bronze doors in relief with very good results, as shown by the doors at Monreale and Trani cast by Barisanus.
The reason for Italy's inferiority in sculpture at this time is that she remained throughout the Middle Ages partly outside the great artistic movements that swept over the rest of Europe. The classical traditions that still seemed miraculously to cling to the soil of Italy, the Latin blood that still flowed in the veins of its people, kept it distinct from the nation alities of the North and prevented it from joining them in their advance. It waited for a national movement, and this came, though somewhat late, carrying with it the whole of Europe, at the time of the Renaissance.
German the same Romanesque period the rest of Europe, and France in particular, presents quite a different picture. While in Italy sculpture was confined to the lintel of the church portal and to arti cles of church furniture, like fonts, pulpits, and tombs, elsewhere it formed, as we above remarked, an intrinsic part of the architecture. This period was one that exhibited the greatest multitude of styles and schools—greater than at any time before or after. Religious subjects were, of course, employed almost exclusively, but they had not that well-connected cha racter which was afterward attained in the Gothic period. Gospel scenes, legends of saints, and allegorical subjects were all mingled, and the love for broad comedy and satire so prevalent in the Middle Ages was exhibited in many a sculptured capital.
The early example of Romanesque sculpture in Ger many is given in Figure 6 (p1. 17). It is called the " Externstein," and is carved on a rock near Horn, in Westphalia, before a rude sanctuary which was consecrated in 1115 A. D. It is sixteen feet high and twelve broad, and represents the descent from the cross. Joseph of Arimnathea and Nicodenins are taking down the body, which has fallen forward upon the former's shoulder. On one side stands the Virgin, weeping, with her hands to her face; on the other, St. John, holding a book. Above are allegorical figures of the Sun and the Moon with their emblems behind them, veiling their faces in woe. The most remarkable figure, however, is that which leans over the left arm of the cross bestowing a blessing upon the dead Christ. It has a cruciform nimbus, and bears in
its left arm the soul of Christ, figured as an infant, and in its hand the banner of victory. This figure is generally termed the Father taking unto himself the soul of the Son, who said, " Father, into thy hands I commend Inv spirit;" still, the cruciform nimbus, which is a special attribute of Christ, might suggest that the divine and the human natures were here represented as distinct. Below, Adam and Eye and other suf fering- spirits are represented in hell, tormented by serpents and awaiting the coining of the Saviour. Though its many injuries have badly muti lated it, we may say that the style of this work is very rude, and, though it shows no dependence on Byzantine art, it yet manifests no traces of progress in a national art.
Bronze Sculplure took an important part in Germany, as is proved by the bronze gates of Mainz, Augsburg, and Hildesheim, and by the bronze column, in the last-named city, erected in imitation of the Roman tri umphal columns. The most beautiful works of all German Romanesque sculpture are perhaps the gold altar-front of Basel, given by the emperor Henry H., and the stucco choir sculptures of Hildesheim, representing apostles and angels; both of these point to a survival or revival of clas sic feeling in Germany. At the same time, small sculpture in metal and enamel was carried to the greatest degree of perfection, especially in reliquaries, of which the most exquisite examples are the shrines at Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle.
Frinch Romanesque : the same period France pos sessed many schools of sculpture. To the Ile de France and to the latest part of the Romanesque period belong the figures reproduced on Plate 19 (fig. 2). They are three statues from the " Porte Sainte-Anne" of Notre Dame, at Paris, which stand attached to the colonnettes on the left hand jamb of the door, under delicate canopies. The figure at the right is St. Peter, holding- the keys in his left hand and raising the other as if instructing; his feet rest upon an evil-looking pigmy, who so turns his head as to louk him in the face. Next conies a king with crown, book, and sceptre, and filially a queen with flower and sceptre; both wear crowns, and are probably Clovis and Clotilde. These sculptures are midway between the two royal figures from Corbeil, now at St. Denis (which date from about r140), and the fully-developed Gothic statuary of Amiens or Rheims. The figures are not so stiff as the former nor so free as the latter; they still preserve a strictly architectural character, but, though the figures may seem wanting in life, the drapery is finely managed, and the faces arc full of a beauty and a quiet dignity that were never surpassed in later produc tions. In the South of France many schools were active. The greatest works of the prolific school of Provence were the two façades of St. Gilles and St. Trophime, at Arles, where classicism and Byzantinism strove for the mastery. The large school of Burgundy produced examples of wild vehemence and remarkable originality which had in them the germs of greatness, while the school of Toulouse was calmer and more graceful, though less forcible. I The spirit of the Ile-de-France sculptures was architectural; the statues were not considered as separate, isolated entities, but as subordinate parts of a whole. Hence the stiffness of each figure; hence, also, the beautiful symmetry of the general effect. In the South the Roman ruins that still covered the country were but signs of the inner traditions handed down among the people from classic times, which found expression in their art— more clearly in architecture, less so, but still strikingly, in sculpture, in whose figures the ample drapery and the quiet dignity remind us of Rome.