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CH. xxix] BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE 261from precedent. And the Romanesque style whichsprang from it inherited a sobriety and simplicity whichdistinguishes it from the Gothic art of the followingperiod. The masses of its buildings are plain and solid,with plenty of bare wall-face, and none of that efflorescenceinto airy pinnacles, niches and canopies, open traceries andtabernacle work, from which, inthe fervour of the earlyRenaissance, Vasari prays heaven to defend us 1 . Thecontrast is that of Pisa with Milan, Worms with Cologne,Roman-AngoulSme and V^zelay with Amiens and Rheims, and Gothicthe nave of Gloucester with its choir. Not that Roman- comparedesque could not be splendid enough and indulge inornament as well as Gothic : the fronts of Angoulfeme,Notre Dame at Poitiers, and Civray are asrichlydecorated as those of Paris or Rouen, but the ornamentiseconomised and used with discretion.In point of technique and execution no doubt Roman-Romanesque sculpture must yield to the later school ;in sculpturethe statuary at Aries and S* Gilles with all its dignityof expressionit must be confessed there issomethingarchaic, a trace of barbarism, which prevents its rankingwith the figuresat Chartres, Rheims, and Paris, someof which are comparable to the antique. But in otherrespects the iscomparison not all in favour of the laterwork, Viollet4e-Duc a indeed, as we have already observed,compares the portal of S. Trophime disadvantageouslywith that of the Virgin at Paris, which is only1^.facevano una malediaione di tabernacolini I' un sopra r altro, contante piramidi e punte e foglie che non ch' elle possano stare, pare impossiblech' elle sipossano reggere* Ed harmo pifcil modo da parer fatte di cartache di pietre o di marmd Iddio scampi ogni paesi da venir a tal pensieroed ordine di IavorL.,/V#mz0 deli 1ArchiUttiira.RafFaelle writes to Pope Leo X in the same strain.i& Rats, vol. vn. p, 419.an