Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/190

178 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE CHAPTEE II SCULPT 17EE AND PAINTING In Germany, as with all other nations, the development of architecture went on simultaneously with that of the sister arts of sculpture and painting. Architecture needs the co-operation of these two arts, and can only reach perfection by an intimate connection with them ; as, on the other hand, sculpture and painting only con- tinue to nourish so long as they have their centre in architecture. The walls of the temples of God once finished, it was necessary to relieve their bareness by colour, and to ornament them by pictures and statues which would represent the persons and teachings to whose honour they were erected, and, so to speak, ' be admonitors to a higher life.' The Christian religion required that the place where the Saviour dwells and condescends, in love and grace, to become one with men, and where the faithful are lifted up to heaven through prayer and devotion, should be decorated with all that is most beautiful on earth and best calculated to hallow and purify the imagination. Hence painting and sculpture may be said to have grown out of architecture, and attained, in the service of the Church, to the highest expression of Christian life and feeling. A wonderful depth of lofty idealism and childlike simplicity, of natural graee combined with supernatural sanctity,