From Byzantine and Romanesque decorations, the visitor passes on to the varied stages of medieval and Gothic art. Before and around him are reproduced the works of men who laboured during what it is the fashion to call "the dark night of the middle ages,' for night no doubt it was, as compared with modern civilization, but few persons consider how radiant and how starlight was that night, that since the stars which shone upon it have been dimmed, the world has been shrouded in a confused and lingering twilight. "More than once during this time," says an eloquent German writer, "men have bid us hail the dawn of a new sun bringing universal knowledge, happiness, and prosperity; but the results have by no means justified the rash anticipation, and if some promise still seem to herald the approach of day, it is but the chill mist of the morning air which ever precedes the breaking twilight. Standing beneath the vaulted roof of a crystal palacea building novel in its style, and a type of the age in which we live, let us hope that the gray streaks of the morning's dawn will soon melt away in the broad light of a day when art will usurp the place of fashion, and again influence our social life as it once did among the Greeks, and at a later period during the reign of Catholicism in the middle ages.

Crossing the threshold, behind which he leaves the gorgeous colours and rich decorations of Byzantine art, the visitor finds himself surrounded by productions of early German artists, which, grotesque and rigid as they appear, are yet full of individuality, and their rude portraiture is evidence of the labours of the artist to preserve on the sculptured stone the lineaments of departed saints and heroes. While criticizing these early productions of Christian art, and comparing them perhaps unfavourably with the more beautiful and classic form of Greece and Rome, let the visitor remember the eloquent advice of Ruskin, and while the recollec

tions of what he has witnessed of the triumphs of pagan art are still vividly before his mind, and while he pays the tribute of his admiration to the patient artists of Italy as they place side by side their burning gems, or smooth with a soft sculpture the jasper pillars that are to reflect a ceaseless sunshine, and rise into a cloudless sky, let him with not less reverence stand by the works of the ruder northman, who, "with rough strength and hurried stroke, has smitten an uncouth animation out of the rocks, which he has torn from the moss of the moorland, and has heaved into the darkened air the pile of iron buttress and rugged wall, instinct with work of an imagination as wild and wayward as the northern seacreatures of ungainly shape and rigid limb, but full of wolfish life, fierce as the winds that beat, and changeful as the clouds that shade them."

Among the works of art in this court, either executed in Germany by the medieval artists of that country, or under their immediate influence, the first which arrests attention is the splendid doorway of Frauen Kirche at Nuremburg. This doorway is remarkably interesting as containing in its two large basreliefs, some of the finest specimens of the two greatest masters of German art of the fifteenth century, Adam Kraft and Veit Stoss. The doorway is 25 feet in height, and is modelled from the original. The most important monuments in the court are the series of Archbishop Electors of Mayence, the earliest of these reverend prelates being Siegfried von Epstein, who exercised his important politico-theological functions in the later part of the thirteenth century. The last of the series is Urich von Gemmingen, a most valuable and interesting example, displaying as it does the transition from the medieval to the classic forms, a revival of the taste for which commenced at the end of the sixteenth century. The two earliest of the series are seen on the side adjoining the Byzantine court, and produced in their original colours, are probably the most authentic and valuable examples extant of the application of polychromy to monumental works of this class. The archbishop is represented in a curiously constrained position, holding a crown in each hand over two smaller figures by his side, and representing the two emperors, whom the good prelate had the honour of crowning during his lifetime: the other archbishop elector has three figures on his monument; of these, however, two only are emperors, the third representing the prime minister.

Passing under the doorway which separates this vestibule into two compartments of 24 feet square, the visitor will see around the upper part, in a series of small arches, a quantity of specimens of the German style of foliage, and others illustrating their mode of treating small panel subjects. The most conspicuous of this series are the eight curious dancing fools from the Rath Haus at Munich. The attitudes and expressions of these figures are admirable, and highly characteristic. The monuments in this

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compartment are entirely selected from the principal works of the artists of the Nuremberg school, including those of Adam Kraft and Veit Stoss. There is a copy of Adam Kraft's elaborate monument from the Church of Our Lady, and with three characteristic bas-reliefs representing "The Last Supper,' The Agony in the Garden," and the "Betrayal," from the church of St. Sebald. The masterpiece of Veit Stoss is reproduced, in the celebrated garland from the Castle Chapel at Nuremberg. In the examination of this marvellous work of art the visitor might profitably employ himself for hours. It contains within the garland the whole history and life of our Saviour, and upwards of 100 portraits of holy saints and fathers of the Church. On each side are square medallions representing the various incidents of the life and passion; and on the lower portion is a curious representation of the miseries and torments of hell, where each description of vice is punished with fearful and grotesque appropriateness by remorseless demons. The happiness of the saints in Paradise is a more pleasing and not less elaborate work of art. By the side of this interesting work is one of the most beautiful of the celebrated stations on the via crucis, or road to the cemetery at Nuremberg, by the same artist. A fine work of Peter Vischer, representing the coronation of the Virgin in bronze, from the church at Erfurdt, is deserving of minute and careful inspection. Placed near this court, will be seen an admirable illustration of the style of German Gothic art, in the bronze tablet of the tomb of Louis, Emperor of Bavaria, from the cathedral at Munich. This monarch, at first King of Bavaria, was elected Emperor of Germany in 1315, in opposition to an Emperor of the House of Hapsburg; and during almost the whole of his reign he was actively engaged in hostilities with the kingdom of Austria and neighbouring provinces. The last war in which he was engaged, was one against the territories of John, the old blind King of Bohemia, who, at the Battle of Crecy was, at his own earnest request, led to the ranks of the enemy in order that he might have " one stroke with his trusty sword," and who was slain, with his valiant knights who accompanied him. Previous to this famous battle, the old king, annoyed at a portion of his provinces going into the possession of the Emperor Louis, had induced Pope Clement VI. to excommunicate and depose him from the Empire; and, while marching at the head of his army to invade Bohemia, Louis was seized with apoplexy, and died in 1347. He was buried in the cathedral at Munich. At the back of the German Gothic court is a copy of the celebrated entombment at Mayence Cathedral; a work of art which was most justly regarded by the late Mr. Pugin, as expressing in a higher degree than any with which he was acquainted, that religious sentiment and subdued emotion which ought ever to be the grand essential in the treatment in fine arts of all subjects of a religious character. The opinion of Mr. Pugin will be fully confirmed by even the most superficial of visitors.

To the visitor whose pride and boast it is to know that English blood flows through his veins, there is certainly no court which will be examined with greater interest than that devoted to the illustration of the early art of this country. The various cathedrals and monastic edifices of the country have, thanks to the active energies of Mr. Digby Wyatt, yielded up their most elaborate and interesting works to instruct the student of the present day. Some of the most characteristic monumental productions of early English art are placed in this court and the nave. Many of these represent the best style of early English art in this country. The tomb of Bishop Bingham, from Salisbury Cathedral, presents some of the most beautiful English details to be met with in the country; it is the work of the fifteenth century. There is also a fine monument of one of the Beauchamp family, from the interesting old church of St. Mary, at Warwick. It was intended that the famous Percy shrine, from Beverley Minster, should have been placed by the side of these tombs, as a fine illustration of the state of art in the fifteenth century. The narrow-minded churlishness of one of the wardens of the minster, however, effectually prevented the object being carried out, notwithstanding all the laudable

exertions of the Archbishop of York, the Duke of Northumberland, himself the representative of the Percy family, Sir C. Barry, Archdeacon Wilberforce, and many others, who each and all vainly endeavoured to soften the heart of this village Dogberry.

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Eight tombs of the Templars, from the Temple Church, so ably restored by Dr. Richardson, are remarkably interesting illustrations of the state of art, at the time when the nations of Europe went forth at the bidding of Peter the Hermit, to rescue the shrine of the nativity from the hands of the Saracens. Here lies Geoffrey de Magnaville, that "bold and bad baron," who, in the reign of Stephen, died excommunicate, and whose body for many long days hung upon a tree in the Temple Gardens. By his side lies the great Protector, Earl of Pembroke, he who, by his sage wisdom and prudent councils, assuaged the divisions which rent the kingdom after the death of the weak and vacillating Plantagenet, John. Near him are his sons, Gilbert and William Marshall, Earls of Pembroke. The one has his sword sheathed; he has fought the good fight" at Ascalon, and witnessed the rout of Mahometan bands; the other has drawn his sword, and intends to plunge it deep in Moslem blood, but death arrests the gallant Templar upon his native soil, and he is deemed worthy of a tomb in the famous Round Church of the Templars, built by the bold Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Robert de Roos, Earl de Roos, alias Fursan, is also a Templar, but he, instead of settling disputes between Turks and Christians at Jerusalem, assisted in achieving, on the field of Runnymede, a bloodless victory over a tyrannous monarch, and securing to a people the great charter of its rights and liberties. The remaining three monuments are those of Templars, who probably either gave battle in Palestine, or rendered good service to their native land; the hand of time has, however, swept from their sculptured graves the records alike of their titles and of their valiant deeds. The colouring of these monuments will be in accordance with the traces found upon the remains; and, as in the originals, the glass eyes of the mailed warriors stare ghastly from those holes, "where eyes did once inhabit."

Turning from monumental to architectural illustrations of our national art, the visitor sees along the façade of the medieval courts facing the nave, various architectural features taken from the ruins of Tintern, Netley, and Guisborough Abbey, and the triforium of Lincoln Cathedral. Here may be realized something of that Gothic element which in earlier times reared itself in vast towers and lofty pinnacles, which flung itself into dark and shadowy aisles, which threw out massive buttresses, which built up in clustering columns long vistas as of forest trees, which shaped vast pointed arches and groined doorways-it is a style vast and grand in conception, and gloomily vigorous in execution. But while planning long drawn aisles, and lofty naves, picturesque transepts, Gothic art did not disdain minuter details in the adorn