SCULPTURES OF WELLS CATHEDRAL. 61 
as evincing both “ the piety and comprehension of Bishop 
Joceline’s mind; the sculpture presenting the noblest, most 
useful and interesting subjects possible to be chosen.” 
Flaxman admits however that “ the work is ill drawn and 
deficient in principle, and that much of the sculpture is rude 
and severe : yet, that in parts there is a beautiful simplicity, 
an irresistible sentiment, and sometimes a grace, excelling 
more modern productions.”* 
After enumerating several of the subjects,f he continues, 
“Wells was finished 46 years before the cathedral of 
Amiens, and 36 years before the cathedral of Orvieto was 
begun ; and it seems to be the first specimen that is to be 
found in Western Europe of such magnificent and varied 
sculpture, united in a series of sacred history. It is there- 
fore probable that the general idea of the work might be 
brought from the east by some of the crusaders.”} This 
appears a natural conclusion. The return of the crusaders 
“brought a taste for Grecian art, which was then visible 
wherever they had marched. The church waxed strong, 
rich, ambitious, and desirous of splendour. Magnificent 
abbeys were built, and the whole skill and genius of the 
land were employed in embellishing them with traditions of 
the saints, and legends of the church. In the days of the 
third Henry, the desire to excel seemed universal, and many 
works of true genius adorned our cathedrals.. The creation, 
the deluge, the nativity, the crucifixion, and the resurrec- 
tion were designed with a feeling at once scriptural and 
‚imaginative. Over the works of those days were scattered 
much good sense, right feeling and simple grace, which 
redeemed the imperfeet workmanship.” |] 
* Flaxman’s Leetures on Sculpture, p. 39. 
f Of three of these he has given engravings,—1st the creation of 
Eve ; 2nd the death of Isaac ; and 3rd what is called an angel, but 
which is doubtless the figure of St. John the Evangelist. 
4 Lectures ut supra, p. 40. || Quarterly Review, vol‘ xxxiv.p. 121, 
