Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/99

 Romanesque Architecture. GO above the principal entrance, as well as in the building itself. Piers and columns were used for a great variety of purposes, and were of very varied forms. The antique orders were replaced by columns with basket capitals (Fig. 35), or capitals representing flowers of different kinds. Later, every variety of form was introduced into capitals : flowers, leaves, human heads, and those of animals beinsr treated with the greatest boldness and freedom. The arcaded cornice to the walls of the nave was a ^ mm mmA WLnrru- ._ ^ V --l^ ^i^^^mm^Bm^mmmmm^g^^m^m^k w o -Vj "?V^^ ipital. From the Cathedral of Gurk. . # characteristic feature of many Romanesque buildings ; but perhaps the profuse ornamentation of the west fronts is what principally marks the cathedrals of this early age. The chief entrance was the part most sumptuously decorated ; but every portion of the front was often richly carved with devices of marvellous variety. Flowers and leaves alternate with scroll-work and tracery ; human figures with grotesque animal forms — some of deep