Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/100

 70 Romanesque Architecture. symbolic meaning, others the mere creations of the archi- tect's fancy. The period included between 1175 and 1220 is known as the Transition Period. In it Romanesque architecture reached its fullest development; many churches of great beauty were erected, retaining all the peculiarities of the true Romanesque style, — imbued, however, with a slight Gothic feeling, premonitory of the coming change. The restless spirit of the age, ever longing for and reaching after change, was reflected in its architecture, in the constant adoption of new forms and new combinations of iiiit 44 4 4 if 4 Fig. 36. — Romanesque Arcaded Cornice. From a Church at Vienna. familiar details. The transitional style was the result of the ever-increasing demand for finer and more costly places of worship. The Crusades unlocked to the people of the West the treasures of Eastern art ; and Eastern forms were widely adopted by the Western nations, alike in architec- ture, sculpture, and painting. Something of the grand severity and purity of form of earlier works was lost, never to be regained. Pointed and foiled arches replaced the circular Roman arch ; the shafts of the columns were more richly clustered, the capitals more elegantly carved. But in nothing was the change so marked as in the door-
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