Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/274

Rh race, as we have before noticed, peculiarly fitted for artistic pursuits, and the conditions of climate also such as would naturally favour the development of a new art, but the very geological formation of the country was such as to meet all the requirements of this new art, both artistic and constructive. As Greece had her Paros and Pentelicus, and Italy her

FIG. 167. Carrara, so had France, in the basins of the Seine and Oise, among other materials, her beds of lias cliquart, a stone of fine grain and strong substance, easily cut, and suitable for slender shafts or delicate carving.

Of figure sculpture in the Ile-de-France we have few examples of an earlier date than the second quarter of the twelfth century. But from 1140 there are remains which show, associated with the imperfections peculiar to an immature art, a grace and mastery of design, a truth and tenderness of sentiment, and a fineness and precision of chisel touch, that are unparalleled in any other schools,