igoS.] IN THE GERMANIC MUSEUM OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 639 



the left, Mary with the child enthroned in the middle, the archangel 

 Gabriel and Joseph at the right. And no less plausibly than this 

 scene may the eight somewhat under life-size figures which flank 

 both sides of the portal be connected with the subject of the Christ- 

 mas plays. Prophet and Sibyl scenes were very frequently used as 

 introducing the Nativity play proper, one prophet or Sibyl after 

 * another entering to testify to the coming of the Saviour. While 

 retaining most of the names suggested by Springer for these eight 

 figures, — John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, David and Solo- 

 mon, the Queen of Sheba and Bathseba, David and Aaron, — we may 

 call them collectively witnesses to Christ's Nativity. 



As to the plastic representations on the four archivolts encircling 

 the tympanum, they are, to be sure, not taken from any actual scene 

 of a Christmas play ; but they are entirely in keeping with the joy- 

 ous, idyllic character of these plays. On the innermost archivolt, 

 nearest to the Adoration of the Magi, there are at the sides the four 

 archangels, in worshipful attitude ; in the middle, the Coronation of 

 Mary by Christ. The next archivolt contains six apostles, three at 

 each side, and in the center Abraham with a soul of the blessed in 

 his lap, while an angel reaches out another soul toward him. The 

 third archivolt shows eight figures of apostles and in the center 

 the dove of the Holy Ghost surrounded by angels. On the outer- 

 most archivolt, finally, the resurrection of the flesh is represented by 

 ten figures rising from their graves with manifoldly varying expres- 

 sions of faith, hope and exultation ; while the central group, an angel 

 receiving by either hand a saved soul, fittingly symbolizes the last 

 and highest stage of human redemption. All these sculptures, as 

 well as those of the tympanum and the sides of the portal, are dis- 

 tinguished by a remarkable symmetry and adjustment to architec- 

 tural demands, and by a wonderful mellowness and purity of form 

 and an exquisite sweetness and serenity of expression, making an 

 artistic whole of extraordinary beauty and perfection. 



The climax, however, of North German art of the thirteenth 

 century is reached in the Portrait Statues of Founders and Patrons 

 of Naumburg Cathedral from the west choir of that church, a series 

 of works which may be definitely assigned to the middle of the thir- 

 teenth century. These statues, together with that of a young 



