Question: how does the romanesque bust reliquary reflect another culture's influence

title: Romanesque art
text: With the fall of the Roman Empire , the tradition of carving large works in stone and sculpting figures in bronze died out , as it effectively did ( for religious reasons ) in the Byzantine world . Some life - size sculpture was evidently done in stucco or plaster , but surviving examples are understandably rare . The best - known surviving large sculptural work of Proto - Romanesque Europe is the life - size wooden Crucifix commissioned by Archbishop Gero of Cologne in about 960 -- 65 , apparently the prototype of what became a popular form . These were later set up on a beam below the chancel arch , known in English as a rood , from the twelfth century accompanied by figures of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist to the sides . During the 11th and 12th centuries , figurative sculpture strongly revived , and architectural reliefs are a hallmark of the later Romanesque period . Sources