He is a butcher pricing his goods, weighing the meat, inviting you to feel it, and hesitating to sell till he gets the best price.

How different from the Saint John!" "The tympanum of the door will have no charm for us," the Abbe went on.
"The death of the Virgin, Her assumption and coronation are more curious to read of in the Golden Legend than to study in those has-reliefs which are but an epitome.
"We will proceed to the left-hand doorway.
"It is much mutilated, in a lamentable state of ruin.

Most of the large statues have disappeared.

There were once, it would seem, as on the royal porch of Notre Dame at Paris and the southern porch at Reims, the figures of the Synagogue and the Church; also Leah and Rachel, typifying the active and the contemplative life, of which we shall decipher the details recorded in the archivolt.
"Of the large figures that remain, three are regarded as masterpieces: the Virgin, Saint Elizabeth, and Daniel.
"That is saying a great deal," cried Durtal.

"They are stupid-looking and the drapery is cold; the arrangement of their robes recalls the Greek peplum; they have a prophetic savour of the Renaissance." "I will not contradict you; but what is really attractive is the scheme of ideas expressed by the figures in the hollow mouldings of the arch of this portal, based on an equilateral triangle.