than
did the art of northern nations; its period of decline, too, was longer;
but when its awakening came it aroused itself and took on new strength
by a method of its own, and may be said to have been distinct from
northern art in every respect, and divided from it by its different
spirit as clearly as Italy was divided from other lands by the towering
summits of the Alps.

About the beginning of the thirteenth century there dawned upon the
northern nations a new era in literature. Hitherto the written language
had been the monkish Latin; now the poets began to use their own
tongues. This new writing may be said to have commenced with the
Provencal poets, who were followed by those of Northern France; but it
was in Germany that such song broke forth as showed how the national
feeling had been repressed, and how, now that it had burst its bonds, it
resembled the freshets of spring when they escape from the icy hand of
Winter and rush from one point to another, brushing aside every obstacle
which lies in their way. I cannot here speak in detail of these poets
and their works, but Hartmann of Aue, Walther von der Vogelweid, Wolfram
and Gottfried of Strasburg are names which grow brighter with passing
centuries.

At the same time with this advance in letters there came, in
North-eastern France, the new Gothic style of architecture, which had
the effect to revive sculpture and in a degree restore to it the
importance it had in classic days. Now, the same artist was both
architect and sculptor, and the result was that architecture was so
arranged as to afford an honorable place to sculpture, which, in its
turn, added much to the grand and full effect of architecture.

Artists now began to study nature and the life about them in preference
to the antique, and the sculptors of the thirteenth century were
fortunate in living in a time when costumes were picturesque and suited
to artistic representations. The dress of a knight was as graceful as
one could wish, with its flowing lines and the mantle clasped at one
side of the neck, or thrown loosely over the arm and shoulder; and the
costume of the other sex, with the full folds of the lower garment
fastened by the girdle, and veiling without hiding the movement of the
figure, was scarcely less fitting for the artists use than were the
classic robes of the Greeks.

The effect of the sculpture of this period was frequently heightened by
the use of color. The draperies were e