Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/262

 232 Sculpture op the Romanesque Period. figures, it is true, retain the formal pose of the Byzantine style, but we recognise a new spirit in the heads, which are of the Teutonic type, and full of life and energy. The southern entrance of the cathedral of Le Mans marks yet another step in advance in the same direction ; the orna- ments are copied from antique models, but the heads of the figures are life-like and natural, and that of Christ is full of more than human beauty. The southern entrance of the cathedral of Bourges, which belongs to the close of the twelfth century, is an equally characteristic work ; and the west front of Notre Dame at Paris, executed about A.D. 1215, is a specimen of the transition from the late Romanesque to the early Gothic style. The sculptures which so profusely adorn the cathedral of Amiens are of a rather later date. Among them the statues of the angel Gabriel and the Holy Virgin (Fig. 97) are of the most interest. The architectural sculptures of Italy, belonging to the early Romanesque period, are inferior to those of France and Germany. The sculptures of the west front of St. Zeno at Verona (about 1139), representing the creation of the world, give promise of future excellence, and are in- teresting as specimens of the love of symbols characteristic of the age. They have been ascribed to two German masters, Nicolaus and Wilhelm by name. Towards the close of the twelfth century Benedetto Antelami, of Parma, produced a number of works of considerable excellence, of which the decorations of the baptistery of Parma were the principal. The sculptures on the pulpit of St. Ambrogio, in Milan, are good specimens of the rude but life-like symbolic creations of the period.