210 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" It is only exceptionally and as by flashes that the writings of 

 the middle ages give the impression of true beauty. The concep- 

 tions are often grand, but the expression is always weak and drag- 

 ging. On the other hand, Roman or Gothic churches are not lesa 

 beautiful after their manner than Greek temples. Their beauty 

 is of another fashion, but many souls are touched more deeply. 

 They manifest no less clearly the power of the religious faith which 

 constructed them. The particular character of Christian faith is 

 shown with singular clearness in their majesty, in the elevation of 

 their vaults, in the half lights which flood them, and in the thou- 

 sands of figures which populate and animate every surface. As 

 in Greece, the sculptor co-operates intelligently and docilely with 

 the architect and has occupied no less happily the allotted fields. 

 As Phidias and Alcamenes represented on the pediments and friezes 

 of Doric temples the great gods of Greece and the local myths of 

 Athens and Olympia, so anonymous masters, called to decorate the 

 cathedrals of the middle ages, have placed impressive statues on 

 the sides and in the voussoirs of the portals, in the open galleries 

 which run along the facades, on the top of the pinnacles which 

 throng the roof — in fact, everywhere where space is offered. These 

 statues, distributed in an order regulated by doctrine and tradition, 

 show forth the Saviour, the Virgin, saints and angels, prophets and 

 apostles, and hosts of personages and scenes suggested by Holy 

 "Writ or by local and popular legends. Among these images there 

 are many at Bourges, Chartres, Rlieims, Amiens, and Notre Dame 

 de Paris, which are marvels of severe elegance, of chaste and 

 haughty grace, and of lofty moral nobility. This wonderful statu- 

 ary has but lately been investigated, exposed, and studied, but al- 

 ready it would be difficult to find a connoisseur unwilling to com- 

 pare with the most boasted statues of antiquity that admirable 

 image of the teaching Christ of the west portal of Amiens, to 

 which the popular surname has been attached of le Beau Dieu 

 d^ Amiens. 



" For evident reasons, French sculpture of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury did not, as did Greek sculpture, devote itself to the study and 

 reproduction of the nude. It denied itself this attraction. All 

 figures are clad; but beneath the drapery, which is in fine masses 

 with large folds, the outline and the movement of form are indi- 

 cated with precision. The principal interest and the rare origi- 

 nality, however, of this sculpture is that it is perhaps the most ex- 

 pressive that has ever existed. This expressiveness appears in the 

 general effect of the pose, in the disposition of the drapery, but 

 especially in the character which the artist has succeeded in giving 

 to the features of the face. 



