The famous gate at Mycoene is one instance. This is
not the place to discuss the question, so we let it pass. We could point
out long and elaborate arguments intended to prove that it originated in
England--that it originated in France--in Germany.[32] Possibly they may
all be right in a sense, for most probably the origin was not in any
particular locality, but in the religious spirit of the time. It was a
general revival of the Church itself that was its cause. If any special
locality has more reason on its side than another, it is probably
France, but as we say, that is not an essential point. It must suffice
us here that it arose, and that by the end of the twelfth century it was
a fact. And the remarkable part about it is that it was by the influence
of lay artists and especially of the freemasons that it became the
accepted architecture of Christendom.
[31] For more about them, see Cahier, _M?langes d'Arch?ologie, etc._
[32] Not to mention _theories_, which are endless.
BOOK II
CHAPTER I
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUMINATION
The Gothic spirit--A "Zeitgeist" not the invention of a single artist
nor of a single country--The thirteenth century the beginning of the new
style--Contrast between North and South, between East and West, marked
in the character of artistic leaf-work--Gradual development of Gothic
foliage--The bud of the thirteenth century, the leaf of the fourteenth,
and the flower of the fifteenth--The Freemasons--Illumination
transferred from the monastery to the lay workshop--The Psalter of St.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152