UNKNOWN MASTER, German
(active c. 1015 in Hildesheim)

Bernward door (detail)

1015
Bronze
Cathedral, Hildesheim

The technical skill represented by the founding of each of the leaves of the Bernward door in one piece is only equalled by the plastic effort employed to animate a flat surface with figures in high relief. The scenes from the Old and New Testaments, depicted in cycles on separate registers, show a combination of the static force of antique models and the movement inherited from Carolingian illuminations.