peculiarities of natural leaves and flowers. In the one motive a rounded foliate or floral boss answers to the ovate member of the ancient scheme, while a tendril with lateral leaves answers to the dart. In the others the meander or scroll is a living branch, into the spaces enclosed by the wavy or convoluted lines of which grow, as if of their own volition, leaves and fruits, giving place at happy intervals to fluttering birds, or springing, crouching, or reposing animals.
Everything is designed organically. Leaves and buds spring from growing stems, fruits depend naturally from their branches, animals live and leap. In this respect Gothic ornament is in striking contrast to what we find in the so-called revived classic art, where natural objects are treated inorganically, where fruits and flowers are represented as tied up into bunches, or are hung in formal festoons, and where even artificial objects enter largely, as leading elements, into the decorative composition. Everywhere in Gothic art is life, but life ordered by and obedient to the requirements of architectural congruity, so that the resulting conventional character becomes as conspicuous as the living naturalism. More life and abstract natural beauty it is hardly conceivable that human art could express. A nearer approach to imitative realisation would violate the nature of stone and defeat the ends of art. The artist is keenly appreciative of nature, but he equally perceives the purposes of his art. In judgment of what to take and what to leave he is unerring. The springy line and gracefully undulating surface are caught from nature and wrought into the stubborn stone; but the designer experiences no embarrassment in keeping within the limits of what stone can be made rightly to express.
This living and refined beauty, coexisting with architectural subordination, is as marked in Gothic figure sculpture as it is in that of the lower forms of ornament. And in figure sculpture, no less than in lower ornament, there are marked signs of Greek influence and kinship. [1] This shall
- ↑ Nor is it impossible, in some measure, to account for this; though fully to trace the lines of connection might be difficult. The Greek elements in Gothic sculpture have been noticed, though not exhaustively treated, by M. Viollet-le-Duc. It ought to be made the subject of a special treatise by some competent writer. To treat the subject justly would require both scholarship and trained artistic faculty—such as are rarely united in the same individual.
