Relief from San Siro di Cemmo

In the provinces the conquest of the new Romanesque expressiveness was slower and more laborious, nor could it draw on the cultural nourishment that fed the great schools. Yet the rough relief shown here does not look like a vulgar, belated imitation of city models, but rather a crude and moving attempt to animate the material, in a far from negligible presentiment of the message that plastic skill can convey.