642 FRANCKE— MEDI/EVAL GERMAN SCULPTURE [April 25, 



look of heavenly exaltation. Behind her couch, in the middle of 

 the tympanum, stands Christ, holding Mary's soul (in the form of 

 an infant) in his left hand, his right hand raised in blessing. Mary 

 Magdalen cowers in front of the couch, wringing her hands, her 

 face expressing deepest sorrow. The space at the sides and back 

 of the death-bed is filled with the figures of the Disciples, some of 

 them giving way to grief, others contemplative, others transfigured, 

 all of them filled with holy awe and deep religious feeling. The 

 graceful vine which runs along the edge of the Romanesque arch 

 of the tympanum gives to the whole composition a fitting enclosure. 

 In this monument the French sense of form and German feeling 

 seem most happily blended. 



Of no less refinement are the statues of Ecclesia and Synagoga. 

 To contrast the Church triumphant and the Synagogue defeated was 

 a very common conception both in the religious sculpture and in 

 the religious drama of the Middle Ages. Noteworthy instances of 

 their occurrence in sculpture are the statues of Rheims Cathedral, 

 the north portal of Bamberg Cathedral, and the vestibule of the 

 Cathedral of Freiburg im Breisgau ; of their introduction into the 

 drama, the part played by them in the Ludus de Antichristo and 

 the Alsfeld Play. Of all plastic representations, these Strassburg 

 statues are the most exquisite. The Church, with wide-flowing 

 mantle, the crown on her head, her right hand holding the standard 

 of the cross, her left bearing the communion chalice, stands erect 

 and dignified at the left side of the portal, looking with pride and 

 disdain at her adversary on the opposite side. The Synagogue 

 wears neither crown nor mantle ; in her left hand she holds the table 

 of the Mosaic law turned downward, in the right a standard, the 

 shaft of which is broken in many places ; her eyes are bandaged 

 (to indicate that she does not see the true light), and her face is 

 turned away from the Church and is bent slightly down. In spite 

 of her humiliation, she appears more human and lovable than her 

 victorious rival. Both figures together are perhaps unsurpassed in 

 mediaeval sculpture for grace and delicacy of outline ; only in the 

 somewhat coquettish twist of the hips there is observable a slight 

 indication that the highest point in the classic epoch of plastic art 



