_The Ornaments_ throughout the whole of the Christian round-arched
period are a very interesting subject of study, and will repay close
attention. In the basilican style mouldings occur but seldom: where
met with, they are all of the profiles common in Roman architecture,
but often rudely and clumsily worked. Carving partakes also of classic
character, though it is not difficult to detect the commencement of
that metamorphosis which was effected in Byzantium, and which can
hardly be better described than in the following paragraph from the
pen of Sir Digby Wyatt:--"The foliage is founded on ancient Greek
rather than on Roman traditions, and is characterised by a peculiarly
sharp outline. All ornamental sculpture is in comparatively low
relief, and the absence of human and other figures is very marked.
Enrichments were almost invariably so carved, by sinking portions only
of the surfaces and leaving the arrises and principal places
untouched, as to preserve the original constructive forms given by the
mason (Fig. 184). The employment of the drill instead of the chisel,
so common in debased Roman work, was retained as a very general
practice by the Greek carvers, and very often with excellent effect.
The foliage of the acanthus, although imitated from the antique,
quite changed its character, becoming more geometrical and
conventional in its form. That which particularly distinguishes
Lombard from Byzantine art is its sculpture abounding with grotesque
imagery, with illustrations of every-day life, of a fanciful mythology
not yet quite extinct, and allusions, no longer symbolic but direct,
to the Christian creed; the latter quality a striking evidence of the
triumph of the Roman Church over all iconoclastic adversaries in
Greece." What is here asserted of Lombard carving is true of that in
the Romanesque buildings in Germany, Scandinavia (Fig. 182), France,
and to a certain extent in Great Britain, though in our own country a
large proportion of the ornamental carving consists simply of
decorative patterns, such as the chevron, billet, and zig-zag; and
sculpture containing figures and animals is less common.

[Illustration: FIG. 182.--DOORWAY AT TIND, NORWAY. (END OF 12TH
CENTURY.)]

The mouldings of Romanesque buildings are simple, and at first were
few in number, but by degrees they become more conspicuous, and before
the transition to Gothic they assumed considerable importance (Fig.
183) and added not a li