History of mediæval art . mposition, as well as in the execution of the de-tails, show a decided want of style. A certain hesitation and inex-perience is evident in the unequal heights of the relief, the legsbeing flat, the upper portions of the bodies high, the heads, and in part also the arms, in the full round and detached from the back- 29 450 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH. ground, while the accessaries of architecture and foliage are pitiably-bungling. Nevertheless, the energy and direct truthfulness of ac-tion, the expressive gestures, and the comparative correctness ofform, even in the
History of mediæval art . mposition, as well as in the execution of the de-tails, show a decided want of style. A certain hesitation and inex-perience is evident in the unequal heights of the relief, the legsbeing flat, the upper portions of the bodies high, the heads, and in part also the arms, in the full round and detached from the back- 29 450 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH. ground, while the accessaries of architecture and foliage are pitiably-bungling. Nevertheless, the energy and direct truthfulness of ac-tion, the expressive gestures, and the comparative correctness ofform, even in the more difficult positions, command an interest anda respect due only to original creations,—never to a merely tradi-tional work, however superior in technical respects. Such originality is not found in the Column of Bernward, whichis said to have been placed in the Church of St. Michael in Hildes-heim in 1022, and now stands, mutilated, in the Domplatz of thattown. This may or may not have been dependent upon the brazen. Fig. 274.—Adoration of the Magi. Relief upon the Bronze Gates of Hildesheim. columns of Corvey, but certainly owes its spiral decoration of reliefsto reminiscences of the Column of Trajan or that of Marcus Aure-lius. The influence of these models is unmistakable, not only in thearrangement of the spiral reliefs of Biblical subjects, but also in theconventional treatment of the figures, which, in their dull and heavyimitation of the classic style, differ greatly from those upon the doorof the Cathedral of Hildesheim. The somewhat more recent bronze gates of the Cathedral ofAugsburg {Fig. 275) also do not attain to the pleasing effect of thoseof Hildesheim, although their low-relief and more equal projectionof the figures from the background are in better accordance with the GERMANY. 451 conventional requirements of this kind of work. The unpretentiousrepresentations, mostly limited to single figures, are quite withoutthat bold energy which causes the artist
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkharperbros
