The World of Romance: being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856Morris, William
Science
The World of Romance: being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856
Morris, William
Middle Ages -- Fiction; Tales
_could_ have carved an infant if they had thought fit so to do, men who
again and again grasped eagerly common everyday things when in any way
they would tell their story. To return to the statues themselves. The
face of the young Christ is of the same character as His figure, such a
face as Elizabeth Browning tells of, the face of One 'who never sinned or
smiled'; at least if the sculptor fell below his ideal somewhat, yet for
all that, through that face which he failed in a little, we can see when
we look, that his ideal was such an one. The Virgin's face is calm and
very sweet, full of rest,--indeed the two figures are very full of rest;
everything about them expresses it from the broad forehead of the Virgin,
to the resting of the feet of the Child (who is almost self-balanced) in
the fold of the robe that she holds gently, to the falling of the quiet
lines of her robe over her feet, to the resting of its folds between
them.
The square heads of the door-valves, and a flat moulding above them which
runs up also into the first division of the tympanum, is covered with
faintly cut diaper-work of four-leaved flowers.
Along the jambs of the doorway on the north side stand six kings, all
bearded men but one, who is young apparently; I do not know who these
are, but think they must be French kings; one, the farthest toward the
outside of the porch, has taken his crown off, and holds it in his hand:
the figures on the other side of the door-jambs are invisible in the
photograph except one, the nearest to the door, young, sad, and earnest
to look at--I know not who he is. Five figures outside the porch, and on
the angles of the door-jambs, are I suppose prophets, perhaps those who
have prophesied of the birth of our Lord, as this door is apportioned to
the Virgin.
The first division of the tympanum has six sitting figures in it; on each
side of the canopy over the Virgin's head, Moses and Aaron; Moses with
the tables of the law, and Aaron with great blossomed staff: with them
again, two on either side, sit the four greater prophets, their heads
veiled, and a scroll lying along between them, over their knees; old they
look, very old, old and passionate and fierce, sitting there for so long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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