cted at
the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, much
of its Gothic sculpture is unsurpassed in Spain. A perfect museum of art
and a history in magnificent carving. The composition as a whole recalls
again unquestionably Chartres. It consists of three recessed arches
hooding with deep splays the three doorways which lead into nave and
side aisles. Between the major arches are two smaller, extremely pointed
ones, the most northerly of which encases an ancient columnar shaft
decorated with the arms of Leon and bearing the inscription, "locus
appellationis." Beneath it court was long held and justice administered
by the rulers of Leon during the Middle Ages.

The arches of the porches are supported by piers, completely broken and
surrounded by columnar shafts and niches carrying statues on their
corbels. These piers stand out free from the jambs of the doors and
wall surfaces behind, and thus form an open gallery between the two.
Around and over all is an astounding and lavish profusion of
sculpture,--no less than forty statues. The jambs and splays, the
shafts, the archivolts, the moldings and tympanums are covered with
carving, varied and singularly interesting in the diversity of its
period and character. Part of it is late Byzantine with the traditions
of the twelfth century, while much is from the very best vigorous Gothic
chisels, and yet some, later Gothic. Certain borders, leafage, and vine
branches are Byzantine, and so also are some of the statues, "retaining
the shapeless proportions and the immobility and parched frown of the
Byzantine School, so perfectly dead in its expression, offering,
however, by its garb and by its contours not a little to the study of
this art, and so constituting a precious museum." Again, other statues
have the mild and venerable aspect of the second period of Gothic work.
The oldest are round the most northerly of the three doorways. Every
walk of life is represented. There is a gallery of costumes; and most
varying emotions are depicted in the countenances of the kings and
queens, monks and virgins, prelates, saints, angels, and bishops.
Separating the two leaves of the main doorway, stands Our White Lady.
But if the statues are interesting, the sculpture of the archivolts and
the personages and scenes carved on the fields of the tympanums far
surpass them.

Mrs. Wharton says somewhere, "All northern art is anecdotic,--it is an
ancient ethnological fact tha