Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/283

^i)e ^rclbaeological Sournal* SEPTEMBER, 1852. ON THE BRONZE DOORS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF GNESEN. There are perhaps few examples of the earhcr period of mediaBval sculpture ^ more deserving of attention from the student of the history of art than the metal doors which ornament many continental churches. As the bronze of which they are usually composed, admits of delicate work- manship, and possesses great durability, better opportunities of forming correct estimates of the powers of the artists of those times are seldom to be found than are afforded by works of this description. In the following pages it is proposed to give some account of one of these monuments of the metal-founder's art which has hitherto been little known in this country, the bronze doors of the cathedral of Gnesen in Prussian Poland. They merit notice not only as good and well-preserved examples of the art of an early period, but in regard to the remarkable person from whose history the subjects of the bas-reliefs which cover them are taken, St. Adalbert, the second Bishop of Prague, who as one of the earliest apostles of Christianity in the north-east of Europe, and as a martyr in the cause, has ever been held in the highest veneration in Bohemia, Northern Germany, and especially in Poland, of which last country he is one of the patron saints. It may I fear be thought that the subject is here treated at too great length, but its nature makes it unavoidable either to enter somewhat full}' into details, or to treat it in a cursory and incomplete manner. It must, moreover, be ' The application of the word sculpture however, sanctioned by Cicognara,D' A gin- to castings in metal may, perhaps, appear court, and many other writers on art. unusual to an English reader. It is, VOL. IX. F F