NARRATOR: The screen of columns in this room comes from a monastery in France called Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. Turn to your left and walk along the row. You'll notice that the shafts of the columns take a variety of shapes: cylindrical, faceted, and wave-like. They offer a fine introduction to medieval sculpture. To see what I mean, continue through the arcade to the place where you can pass between the columns, and look at the pair immediately on the left. *

Look at the inverted bell shape that crowns these columns: it’s called a capital. The leaf decoration is just what you might find on an ancient Roman capital, carved a thousand years before these. But if you look above the leaves at the rectangular block, you'll find features without ancient precedent: the curling vine resembles a grapevine, but instead of grapes, there are human heads, each with its own hairstyle and facial expression. The twelfth-century sculptor responsible could have completed his commission without this level of inventiveness; and yet he produced this variety, it would seem, out of pure creativity. It's worth noting too that nature was his springboard: the capitals of many columns in this cloister show foliage of some kind. Most of the leaves and vines are not botanically recognizable, but one is: it's hops, the basic ingredient in beer, and an essential commodity in the medieval economy.