Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/181

ARCHITECTURE ] 69 part of the world. The most striking mediaeval buildings in the ancient Polish city of Cracow all bear the stamp of the German school. It is true that in the Gothic edifices belonging to the close of the Middle Ages there is not seldom an over- powering wealth of ornamentation, but buildings were, nevertheless, always constructed ' according to the laws of compass and measure,' and wonderful beauty is to be found in the graceful and elegant designs of the ornamentation. In Germany, as well as in England and Spain, especially in the cathedrals of Segovia and Salamanca, 1 the later Gothic style is still characterised by great beauty and power. Immediately before the total decay of the architectural art in Germany, Mar- garet of Austria, daughter of Maximilian, founded the Cathedral of ' Our Lady of Brou,' which seems to com- bine all the different features of Gothic beauty in one sublime whole. The influence of Germanic art continued to be felt during the first period of the so-called ' Eenaissance,' for the fundamental principles of the earlier Eenaissance architecture were in all essentials the same as had sur- vived from the Middle Ages. The architects of the new school inherited the old technical skill and a wealth of noble forms and designs, and so long as they remained true to the grand traditions of the past they produced much beautiful work. So many ecclesiastical monuments of German medi- aeval art have been levelled to the ground that it is difficult to form an exact idea of the enthusiasm which then prevailed for the building of churches. The 1 Street, in his Gothic Architecture in Spain, 2nd edit., pp. 428-432, considers these later Gothic cathedrals ' in some respects equal to the grandest works.'