Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/284

 2U ON THE BUONZE BOOKS OF THE CATHEDKAL OF GNESEN. remembered that the study of the works of art executed among the continental nations ought not to be neglected by the British artist or archceologist who desires to acquire a thorough and correct knowledge of those of his own country. The examination of foreign examples and the comparison of them with our own, will often aid us most materially in forming correct conclusions as to the purpose, the history, or the oi-igin of the latter ; and many of the errors into which some of our older antiquarian writers have follen might have been avoided if they had been better acquainted with the antiquities existing on the Continent. The doors in question are fixed at the principal entrance of the cathedral of Gnesen, on the south side of the nave near the west end, and consist of two valves, each about ten feet high by three wide. They are solid castings in bronze or bell-metal, the execution very clean and good. After the casting the work has been carefully tooled up, and fine lines, such as those marking the embroideries on garments, and the small folds of the draperies added with the graver. A border about five inches wide, of foliage mixed with figures of men, quadruj)eds, birds, and monsters runs entirely round each valve, and encloses nine panels containing subjects in relief, taken as above mentioned from the history of St. Adalbert ; one of the valves has a narrow border ornamented by a scroll so placed as to cover the junction with the other valve. The general character of the arrange- ment and of the border may be seen in the cuts at pages 222 and 224, which are copied from the engraving of these doors in Count E. Raczynski's " Wspomnienia Wielkopolski," (Memorials of Great Poland), No. 51 of the plates. For the purpose of giving a correct idea of the style and character of the work, and of the power of the artist, a portion of each of the same two panels has been engraved from casts from moulds made by myself on the doors in 1851. These cuts will be given in a subsequent number of the Journal. The figures on the left valve (i.e. the one opposite to the left hand on entering the church) are in considerably higher relief than those on the right. Before describing the reliefs which fill the several panels, it will be necessary, in order to make their meaning intel- ligible, to give a sketch of the life of St. Adalbert. Excellent materials for this purpose are afibrded by the two biographies