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268
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
CHAP.
the first to break away, in some measure, from lifeless traditions in the carving of leafage. The capitals of the porch of Vézelay, begun in 1132, and those of the nave of the nearly contemporaneous Cathedral of Autun, distinctly exhibit, in the acanthus-like foliage with which they are
FIG. 175.
adorned, the fresh influence of nature, while, at the same time, they retain a large measure of the old conventional character. But it was reserved for the artists of the Ile-de-France to develop the art of foliate sculpture in complete emancipation from the old and outworn conventions.
In the capitals and other carved members of the early transitional buildings of France two leading types of Roman-
