History of art . at eachinhabitant of the city and the country contributed hisstone to the pile. But the corporations which workedat it, the carpenters, the masons, the stonecutters, theglassmakers, the plasterers, the leadworkers, and thepainters, all plumbed the lowest depths of the peoplewhose forebodings and needs they drew forth whole-heartedly. The master builder laid out the plan, anddistributed the work; then each man, with his instinctfor independent action, animated a capital, sculpturedan image, framed in lead the holiday splendor of a pieceof stained glass, and set in line, between
History of art . at eachinhabitant of the city and the country contributed hisstone to the pile. But the corporations which workedat it, the carpenters, the masons, the stonecutters, theglassmakers, the plasterers, the leadworkers, and thepainters, all plumbed the lowest depths of the peoplewhose forebodings and needs they drew forth whole-heartedly. The master builder laid out the plan, anddistributed the work; then each man, with his instinctfor independent action, animated a capital, sculpturedan image, framed in lead the holiday splendor of a pieceof stained glass, and set in line, between the diagonalribbing, the little stones cut by hand that suspendedthe vault a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet abovethe soil. The cathedral lived so completely the life of CHRISTIANITY AND THE COMMUNE 321 its builders that it changed at the same time they did,and one generation would erect a tier in the pointedstyle on top of a tier of round arches, while anotherwould abandon the arm of a transept already half. The descent from the Cross, ivory (xiii Century). {Louvre.) constructed, would add a crown of chapels, changethe profile of the towers, multiply or leave themunfinished, or would set a rose window flaming at thefront of a Romanesque nave which had been relievedof its vault. The cathedral rose, sank, and spread outwith our feelings and our desires. Hence its close, rich unity wherein, as in a crowd or 322 MEDIAEVAL ART in nature, all the different forms derived their solidarityfrom the current of the same sap. Hence the liberty,the sweep, and the violence, and the sweetness of thehymn which these innumerable voices chanted and withwhich it still trembles. It was an Encyclopaedia,
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
