You are perfectly right; these toiling and meditative women are so delicate and so loving, that we can but regret that they should be hidden in the shadow of a cavern.
What artists must those have been who worked thus for the glory of God and for their own satisfaction, creating marvels while knowing that no man would see them!" "And they had not even the vanity to sign them; they were always anonymous." "Ah! they were men of a different mould from us.

Prouder souls, and humbler." "And holier," added the Abbe.

"Shall we now inquire into the iconography of the right-hand portal?
It has suffered less, and may be explained in a few words.
"This sculptured vault is, as you know, dedicated to types of Mary; but we might more accurately say that it is devoted to prototypes of Christ, for in this doorway, as in the other two, indeed, the image-makers of the thirteenth century have made it their task to identity the Son with the Mother." "In fact, most of the personages we have already studied relate more especially to Christ.

What, then, are those in the Old Testament, which are more essentially proper to the daughter of Joachim, and transferred in images of stone to be deciphered here ?" "The allegories of the Virgin in the Scriptures are numberless.

Whole books, as the Song of Songs and the Book of Wisdom, allude in every verse to Her beauty and wisdom.