" The Benedictine
monasteries soon possessed not only libraries but ateliers, where
architecture, painting, mosaic, sculpture, metal-chasing, calligraphy,
ivory carving, gem-setting, book-binding, and all the branches of
ornamentation were studied and practised with equal care and success,
without interfering in the least with the exact and austere discipline
of the foundation. The teaching of these various arts formed an
essential part of monastic education. "The greatest and most saintly
abbeys were precisely those most renowned for their zeal in the culture
of Art. St. Gallen in Germany, Monte Cassino in Italy, Cluny in France,
were for centuries the mother-cities of Christian Art." And after the
establishment of the reformed colony at Citeaux, the Cistercian Order
became the one above all others which has left the most perfect
edifices, and if the Cistercian illumination may not claim the splendour
of some contemporary examples, it often excels them in soundness of
design and severe correctness of execution.
In saying that all this kind of work was executed by monks, we are
speaking literally. The monks were not only the architects, but also the
masons, and even the hodmen of their edifices. Nor were the superiors in
this respect different from their humble followers.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136