Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/313

 Fifteenth Century. 283 and full of simple dignity, was the work of William Torel (or Torelli) a goldsmith, who died about the year 1300. The sculptures of Lincoln Cathedral, of a somewhat later date than those of Wells, are thought to mark a considerable advance in the art of sculpture. They are, unfortunately, much injured. When the Decorated style of architecture prevailed in England, statues were introduced in buildings wherever it was possible. In a window in Dorchester Church near Oxford, for instance, there are twenty-eight small figures of our Saviour's ancestors ; and the keystones of the Lady Chapel in Norwich Cathedral are all beautifully carved in high-relief with scenes from the life of the Virgin. Some of the finest sepulchral monuments of England date from this period ; that of Aymer de Valence in Westminster Abbey, and that of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral,* are amongst the best. No works of English mediaeval sculpture excel those remaining in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. The small figures carved in the jambs of the entrance door- way, and the statues above the same door, are remarkable, — the former for spirit and the latter for beauty and grace ; whilst each is perfectly well suited to its position in the architecture. Three works have been selected by Flaxman as illus- trative of the state of the art of English sculpture in the reign of Edward IV. : the sculptures of the door of All Souls' College, Oxford : those of the arch in Westminster Abbey which passes from the back of Henry V.'s tomb over the steps of Henry VII.'s Chapel ; and the monument
 * Casts are in the Crystal Palace.