The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
This small Court is devoted exclusively to examples of Gothic art and
architecture in Germany, and, taken with the English and French Mediæval
Courts,--which we shall presently reach,--gives an excellent idea of the
style and character of architecture in these three countries during the
Middle Ages. Such remarks as are required to explain the transition from
the Romanesque and Byzantine to the Pointed style of architecture, we
shall defer until we find ourselves in the Mediæval Court of our own
country. We, therefore, without preface, conduct the visitor from the
gallery of the Byzantine Court, through the side arches, directly into
the German Mediæval Court. The large doorway in the centre at once
attracts attention. This is cast from a celebrated church doorway at
Nuremberg, and is especially worthy of notice. On the wall to the right
is a doorway leading into the Byzantine Court. This is not copied from
any one particular example, but is a composition displaying the elements
of the German style. The equestrian statue of St. George is from the
Cathedral square at Prague, a work of the 14th century. The seven round
bas-reliefs at the top of the doorway, representing scenes from the life
of Christ, are fac-simile copies of the originals by Veit Stoss, at the
Church of St. Lawrence, in Nuremberg. On either side of this doorway are
two monuments, of Bishops Siegfrid von Epstein and Peter Von Aspelt,
opposite to which are the fine monuments of Albert of Saxony, and of
Bishop Von Gemmingen; all of these are cast from the originals, in
Mayence Cathedral. Above the arches, and all round the Court, is a small
arcade, the capitals, brackets, and other monuments of which are taken
from various German churches, but more especially from the Cathedral of
Cologne. Immediately over the arches through which we have entered, and
between the columns of the arcade, are four bosses with the symbols of
the Evangelists, also from Cologne Cathedral.
[13] See “Handbook to the Mediæval Court,” by M. Digby Wyatt and J. B.
Waring.
[Illustration: Plan of the German Mediæval Vestibule.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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