indeed, the evolution of the two arts proceeded in parallel stages—the
change from the earlier to the later style is so gradual and
almost imperceptible, that it is all but impossible to follow it
step by step, and to illustrate it by examples. What distinguishes
the Gothic from the Romanesque in sculpture is the striving to
achieve individual in the place of typical expression. This
striving is as apparent in the more flexible and emotional treatment
of the human figure, as it is in the substitution of naturalistic
plant and animal forms for the more conventional ornamentation
of the earlier centuries. Statuesque architectonic dignity and
calmness are replaced by slender grace and soulful expression.
The drapery, instead of being arranged in heavy folds, clings
to the body and accentuates rather than conceals the form.
At the same time, the subjects treated by the Gothic sculptor
do not depart to any marked degree from those which fell to
the task of the Romanesque workers, though they are brought
more within the range of human emotions.
It is only natural that in France, which was the birthplace of Gothic architecture, the sister art of sculpture should have attained its earliest and most striking development. During the 13th century, the imagiers, or stone sculptors, worked hand in hand with the great cathedral builders. This century may indeed Gothic sculp-ture in France.be called the golden age of Gothic sculpture.
While still keeping its early dignity and subordination to its architectural setting, the sculpture reached a very high degree of graceful inish and even sensuous beauty. Nothing could surpass the loveliness of the angel statues round the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and even the earlier work on the façade of Laon cathedral is full of grace and delicacy. Amiens cathedral is especially rich in sculpture of this date,—as, for example, the noble and majestic statues of Christ and the Apostles at the west end; the sculpture on the south transept of about 1260–1270, of more developed style, is remarkable for dignity combined with soft beauty.[1] The noble row of kings on the west end of Notre Dame at Paris has, like the earlier sculpture, been ruined by “restoration,” which has robbed the statues of both their spirit and their vigour. To the latter years of the 13th century belong the magnificent series of statues and reliefs round the three great western doorways of the same church, among which are no fewer than thirty-four life-sized figures. On the whole, the single statues throughout this period are finer than the reliefs with many figures. Some of the statues of the Virgin and Child are of extraordinary beauty, in spite of their being often treated with a certain mannerism—a curved pose of the body, which appears to have been copied from ivory statuettes, in which the figure followed the curve of the elephant's tusk. The north transept at Rheims is no less rich: the central statue of Christ is a work of much grace and nobility of form; and some nude figures—for example, that of St Sebastian show a knowledge of the human body which was very unusual at that early date. Many of these Reims statues, like those by Torell at Westminster, are quite equal to the best work of Niccola Pisano. The abbey church of St Denis possesses the largest collection of French 13th-century monumental effigies, a large number of which, with supposed portraits of the early kings, were made during the rebuilding of the church in 1264; some of them appear to be “archaistic” copies of older contemporary statues.[2]
In the 14th century French sculpture began to decline, though much beautiful plastic work was still produced. Some of the reliefs on the choir screen of Notre Dame at Paris belong to this period, as does also much fine sculpture on the transepts of Rouen cathedral and the west end of Lyons. At the end of this century an able sculptor from the Netherlands, Claus Sluter (who followed the tradition of the 14th-century school of Tournai, which is marked by the exquisite study of the details of nature and led to the brilliant development of Flemish realism), executed much fine work, especially at Dijon, under the patronage of Philip the Bold, for whose newly founded Carthusian monastery in 1399 he sculptured the great “Moses fountain” in the cloister, with six life-sized statues of prophets in stone, painted and gilt in the usual medieval fashion. Not long before his death in 1411 Sluter completed a very magnificent altar tomb for Philip the Bold, now in the museum at Dijon. It is of white marble, surrounded with arcading, which contains about forty small alabaster figures representing mourners of all classes, executed with much dramatic power. The recumbent portrait effigy of Philip in his ducal mantle with folded hands is a work of great power and delicacy of treatment.[3]
Whilst in France there was a distinct slackening in building activity in the 14th century, which led to a corresponding decline in sculpture, Germany experienced a reawakening of artistic creative energy and power. That the style had taken root on German soil in the preceding century, is proved by the fresh, mobile German 13th-century Gothic sculpture. treatment of the statues on the south porch of the east façade of Bamberg cathedral, and even more by the equestrian statue of Conrad III. in the market-place at Bamberg, which supported by a foliated corbel, exhibits startling vigour and originality, and is designed with wonderful largeness of effect, though small in scale. The statues of Henry the Lion and Queen Matilda at Brunswick, of about the same period, are of the highest beauty and dignity of expression. Strassburg cathedral, though sadly damaged by restoration, still possesses a large quantity of the finest sculpture of the 13th century. One tympanum relief of the Death of the Virgin, surrounded by the sorrowing Apostles, is a work of the very highest beauty, worthy to rank with the best Italian sculpture of even a later period. Of its class nothing can surpass the purely decorative carving at Strassburg, with varied realistic foliage studied from nature, evidently with the keenest interest and enjoyment.
But such works were only isolated manifestations of German artistic genius, until, in the next century, sculpture rose to new and splendid life, though it found expression not so much in the composition of extensive groups, as in the neighbouring France, but in the carving of isolated figures of rare and subtle beauty.
Nuremberg is rich in good sculpture of the 14th century. The church of St Sebald, the Frauenkirche, and the west façade of St Lawrence are lavishly decorated with reliefs and statues, very rich in effect, but showing the germs of that mannerism which grew so strong in Germany during the 15th century. Of special beauty are the statuettes which adorn the “beautiful fountain,” which was formerly erroneously attributed to the probably mythical sculptor Sebald Schonhofer, and is decorated with gold and colour by the painter Rudolf.[4] Of considerable importance are the statues of Christ, the Virgin, and the Apostles on the piers in the choir of Cologne cathedral, which were completed after 1350. They are particularly notable for their admirable polychromatic treatment. The reliefs on the high altar, which are of later date, are wrought in white marble on a background of black marble. Augsburg produced several sculptors of ability about this time; the museum possesses some very noble wooden statues of this school, large in scale and dignified in treatment. On the exterior of the choir of the church of Marienburg castle is a very remarkable colossal figure of the Virgin of about 1340–1350. Like the Hildesheim choir screen, it is made of hard stucco and is decorated with glass mosaics. The equestrian bronze group of St George and the Dragon in the market-place at Prague is excellent in workmanship and full of vigour, though much wanting dignity of style. Another fine work in bronze of about the same date is the effigy of Archbishop Conrad (d. 1261) in Cologne cathedral, executed many years after his death. The portrait appeals truthful and the whole figure is noble in style. The military effigies of this time in Germany as elsewhere were almost unavoidably stiff and lifeless from the necessity of representing them in plate
- ↑ See Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens (1878).
- ↑ See Félibien, Histoire de l’Abbaye de Saint-Denys (Paris, 1706).
- ↑ See A. Kleinclausz, Claus Sluter (Paris, 1908).
- ↑ See Baader, Beiträge zur Kunstgesch. Nürnbergs; Rettberg, Nürnberger Kunstleben (Stuttgart, 1854), and P. J. Rée, Nuremberg and its Art to the end of the 18th Century (London, 1905).
