The history of the Arts at Pisa, from the tenth to the fourteenth century, supplies the best information on the state of Sculpture and Architecture in Italy. Pisa may be considered, indeed, as the cradle of the restoration. What the exact state of Art was in other countries, or rather the degree of civilization, to the twelfth century, it is difficult to ascertain; but the most immediate effect on the arts of England may be considered as having arisen out of the crusades, an event which had agitated and given an impulse to every northern nation.
The passions of men generally, but more especially of the nobility, whose only employment was war, had been much excited by the promoters of the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, and they readily enlisted under the cross, in the hopes of those spiritual rewards offered to them through the Church. This, doubtless, assisted by their communication with the East, at that time the chief seat of arts and commerce, occasioned on their return an attention to the improvement of sacred buildings. Whether we owe it to their taste or to their fears, the fact is that we may date from the second to the sixth crusade, or from A.D. 1144, to 1228, the establishment of nearly six hundred religious foundations in our country. The more polished nations with whom the crusaders mixed, had attracted their attention to the sister arts, and Painting and Sculpture were called in to assist in the embellishment of these pious edifices.
The effect of this religious zeal may be seen in many churches of that age. About this period we may date the erection of Rochester and Wells cathedrals, in both of which we perceive, but more especially in the rich and fanciful foliage which decorates the great west door of Rochester cathedral, a strong indication of Saracenic arrangement ; whilst the composition and treatment of the rilievi, within the arch, remind us strongly of the simple character of the compositions of the Greek, and early artists of Italy, of that period.
Wells cathedral presents noble specimens of sculpture, and these, I have no doubt, were the works of Englishmen, assisted, probably, as the composition of several of the statues, and the cast of the draperies would intimate, by foreign workmen associated with them. The heads and other extremities mark that deficiency of knowledge which may be readily allowed for in a rude age and people, with whom Art was in so incipient a state.
