Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/436

340 ON THE BRONZE DOORS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF GNESEN. antiquary, Thaddeus Czacki, (in a note on the passage in Naruszewicz, above referred to,) says that the tradition was that these doors were taken from the imperial castle at Kiev,^ and presented to the Church of Gnesen by Boleslaus, but, adverting to the supposition that the subjects of the reliefs were taken from the life of St. Adalbert, he concludes that, if the fact be so, the tradition must be erroneous. In Count Raczynski's work, above referred to, two theories as to the origin of these gates are advanced — one, that of the author, the other that of an architect named Berndt, who was commissioned by the Prussian Government to make dra^angs of this remarkable monument of early art. Count Raczynski, relying somewhat upon the tradition which con- nects these doors with Kiev and Boleslaus, but feeling the improbability of such memorials having beea erected at Kiev before 1008, in honour of a saint of another church, who suffered only eleven years earlier, supposes that Boleslaus may have caused them to be cast at Kiev. There is, how- ever, nothing to be found in them characteristic either of so early a period as the commencement of the eleventh century, or of the Greek style which must unquestionably have prevailed at Kiev, but, on the contrary, much which belongs to the German style of the twelfth. Mr. Berndt observes that the colour of the metal of the two valves is not alike, that of the left valve being more coppery, while that of the right is more brassy ; he also notices the different degrees of relief which distinguish them ; and from these circumstances infers that the two valves date from different periods : the right valve he believes to be the remaining one of a pair given by the Emperor Otho the Third, and the work of some Byzantine sculptor ; its fellow he thinks was carried away by the Bohemians, when they pillaged Gnesen in 1039, and the existing left valve he supposes to have been wrought by some Italian artist of the fifteenth century. The first of these points is not of much importance, as it is well known that bronze, unless treated with proper care and skill, becomes much altered if kept long in fusion ; in consequence of the speedy oxidation of the tin,* the pro- 3 "Z Carogroda do Kijowa." Kiev at ■* Bronze usually consists of about that time belonged to the Dukes Uches- 90 parts of copper and 10 of tin ; bell- laus, or Wsevolod ; I know not why a metal of from .'33 to 60 of tin to 100 of division of the city or a castle in it should copper. — Ure's Dictionary of Arts, be called imperial.