Romanesque. The three colossal cathedrals of the Upper Rhine, Worms, Mentz, and Spires, are Romanesque on a scale unrivalled in England.

There was no unity in this style, as in the Gothic that succeeded it: the Ionic volute, and Corinthian acanthus, are frequently traceable above the perpendicular Romanesque shaft (the same diameter at the top as at the base).

While this transition was going on, from the classic orders to a new and more perfect style, architecture was of course mixed, and in some respects barbarous; yet there were many striking and beautiful inventions, which gave a distinctive character to the details (especially to the ornaments) of that period. The Church at Cologne (Plate XV.) is a good example of the Lombardic style.

THE ROMANESQUE IN ITALY.

In Italy may be found every variety in this style. The departures from classic models were not so striking as those of Northern Europe, yet there are splendid specimens of the mixed or transition style. The west door of the Church of St. Giacomo, at Venice, has a canopy that shows one of these singular combinations. Here the shafts of the columns rest upon lions. Four retreating arches rest upon columns, with mixed capitals. Above rises the acute Romanesque pediment, surmounted by the cross.

THE ROMANESQUE IN FRANCE.

Of all the Romanesque varieties, that of the south of France appears to possess the most simplicity and plainness of decoration, and yet the greatest complication of plan. Pilasters are used in the interior of churches of so classical an appearance, that if they were not almost universal, one would be tempted to believe them interpolations from more ancient struc

tures.

The celebrated Abbey of Clugny was built about 910, by Bermo, Abbot of Balme. Many other splendid edifices in the Romanesque style adorned other parts of France, and remain lasting monuments of the architecture of that period. The Church of St. Etienne (Plate XII.), at Caen, was founded by William the Conqueror, and "there the dead body of the sovereign before whom all men had trembled, was hurried to the grave."

There is not only great beauty, but there are many other excellencies, worthy of imitation in the Romanesque or Lombard style; the best specimens evince great architectural skill, and consummate knowledge in the freemasons who are supposed to have been the builders. "Some historians fancy they find symptons of freemasonry as early as the seventh century, and that a peculiar masonic language may be traced as far back as the reigns of Charlemagne and Alfred."

CHAPTER XIII.

GOTHIC OR POINTED ARCHITECTURE.

DURING the twelfth century, symptoms of a great architectural revolution began to show themselves in northwestern Europe. After the lapse of ages, an originative period in the constructive art once more approached. Various changes were introduced during the period of the Romanesque, which, though at the time may have seemed mere matters of detail, now that we can look back upon them, in one connected view, are clearly seen to have been the various partial developments of one grand and self-consistent whole. An internal principle of harmony was apparent in the newer works, clear and single, like that which had pervaded the buildings of antiquity.

It does not seem surprising that a new style of architecture should arise, adapted to a new and pure religion. The mighty, massive structures of the Egyptians excited awe bordering on terror; they were intended to conceal the mysteries which priestcraft imposed upon ignorance. The purer Grecian style was the embodying of a love of the beautiful, for

which the Greeks were remarkable; they deified nature, amid her most beautiful scenes, and made their splendid temples to harmonize with the sunny sky of clearest cerulean, her waving groves and sparkling streams, fanned by the bland breezes of the blue Ægean. This light and graceful beauty was united with the lofty character, stamped upon all the works of ancient Greece by the stern dignity of republican simplicity.

The Romans, in their religion and architecture, were imitators of the Greeks. When, as mistress of the world, Rome reared her gorgeous fabrics and hung her lofty vaults in air, they were symbols of her aspiring ambition. Rich in decoration, and gigantic in size, her finest structures were wanting in grace and elegant simplicity.

The characteristic forms of Classic Architecture, were "horizontal, reposing, definite;" of the Christian Architecture," vertical, aspiring, indefinite." "It would hardly be too fanciful," says a reverend author, "to consider the newer religious architecture as bearing the impress of its Christian birth, and exhibiting in the leading lines of its members, and the aspiring summits of its edifices, forms whose 'silent finger points to Heaven.'"*

*The principle of the Gothic Architecture is Infinity made imaginable. It is no doubt a sublimer effort of genius than the Greek style."-COLERidge.