uettes, reliefs, and a great
variety of simply ornamental designs were lavished upon the Christian
cathedral, as they had been upon the Greek temple; and in one case as in
the other the various groups and scenes represented were intended to
show forth religious mysteries, and to illustrate the working of the
supreme power which controls the world in relation to human beings.

But I must leave this part of our subject and speak of the monumental
sculpture of the thirteenth century. While many of the tomb statues
still retained a general resemblance to those of the past, there were
many examples of new strength and progress. In a church near Le Mans the
statue of Berengaria, the wife of Richard Coeur de Lion, who died in
1219, was made with open eyes; this gives a very life-like appearance to
the face, and the whole head is as noble as that of an antique statue;
the drapery is full and free; the feet rest upon a dog, which is the
emblem of fidelity, and in the hands is a casket. There is something
about this statue which appeals to us--a human element which had been
sadly wanting in the monumental statues of the preceding centuries.

But the series of reliefs which were made for the Cathedral of St. Denis
were the most important tomb sculptures of this period. They were
sixteen in number, and represented princes of the early lines of French
sovereigns down to the thirteenth century. Of course those of the
Merovingians and Carlovingians could not be portrait statues, and the
heads of both kings and queens are all of the same type until those of
Philip the Bold, who died in 1285, and his wife, Isabella of Aragon, who
died in 1271, are reached. These two are intended to be portraits, and
they show the individual characters of these royal personages. In all
France there is no more interesting succession of monuments than these.

In Germany the Romanesque style of architecture and the sculpture which
went with it held their sway much longer than in France, and the new
Gothic style made its way very slowly in the countries north of France.
Slight traces of its influence in one way and another may be found about
the middle of the thirteenth century; but it was not until the very end
of this period that the Gothic style had affected German art, except in
the south-western portions of the country. These provinces bordered upon
France, and formed a sort of middle ground between the two nations. In
Strasburg, at the end of the cent