the bas-reliefs on the beautiful choir-screen in St. Michael's
Church in Hildesheim.

[Illustration: BERNWARD'S CHALICE, HILDESHEIM]

The cross executed by Bernward's own hands in 994 is a superb work,
with filigree covering the whole, and set with gems _en cabochon_,
with pearls, and antique precious stones, carved with Greek divinities
in intaglio. The candlesticks of St. Bernward, too, are most
interesting. They are made of a metal composed of gold, silver,
and iron, and are wrought magnificently, into a mass of animal
and floriate forms, their outline being well retained, and the
grace of the shaft and proportions being striking. They are partly
the work of the mallet and partly of the chisel. They had been
buried with Bernward, and were found in his sarcophagus in 1194.
Didron has likened them, in their use of animal form, to the art
of the Mexicans; but to me they seem more like delightful German
Romanesque workmanship, leaning more towards that of certain spirited
Lombard grotesques, or even that of Arles and certain parts of
France, than to the Aztec to which Didron has reference. The little
climbing figures, while they certainly have very large hands and
feet, yet are endowed with a certain sprightly action; they all
give the impression of really making an effort,--they are trying
to climb, instead of simply occupying places in the foliage. There
is a good deal of strength and energy displayed in all of them,
and, while the work is rude and rough, it is virile. It is not
unlike the workmanship on the Gloucester candlestick in the South
Kensington Museum, which was made in the twelfth century.

Bernward's chalice is set with antique stones, some of them carved.