56 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. II. Third to the Dominicans. The gates are divided into numerous square panels containing scenes from the old and new testament. It may be remarked at once that the panelled and beautifully ornamented framing of the reliefs is of a different wood from that of the sculptures which it incloses, and that the subjects are older than the border which surrounds them. A careful examina tion of the sculptures will easily convince the observer that their character is not of the twelfth century, and that, if they were executed in the pontificate of In nocent the Third, they are copies of older works. But experience will hardly warrant the assumption that a copyist could produce such a work as this in the twelfth century, and were it so, the gates of Santa Sabina would be a solitary example of their kind. In style these carved subjects are a continuation of that imitation of the classic antique which prevailed in the earlier centuries, yet com posed and executed with remarkable spirit. The sculptors, whoever they may have been, gave animation and action to their figures such as were unknown to the mosaists or painters even of the time of Leo the Third. Their figures were mostly of the short Roman character, wherever the necessity of subject and space did not oblige them to slenderness. Their ideas of costume and of drapery, their conception of bible scenes, were of the kind which had been consecrated by time in the paintings of the cata combs or in the mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore. With out wearying the reader with minute descriptions of all the subjects in the gates a few examples will amply suffice to justify the foregoing conclusions. For instance, Elisha is represented receiving the mantle of Elijah. The latter in a classic car drawn by two horses, is directed to heaven by an angel in flight whose form imitates the bold action and the attitude of a figure of Victory. Nothing more classical, no better draped figure, was produced by any of the imitators of the antique during the Christian decline. Nor is this a solitary figure, being but the counterpart, as regards the qualities above referred to of another angel anointing the head of one standing