Gothic Sculpture

14th Century.

The perfect balance between mathematics and nature lasted only a moment. By the first quarter of the 14th century, when the cathedral-building impulse was dying, when the making of shrines, of tombs, of ecclesiastic furniture drew the sculptor horn his work in the great portals, the architec tural quality had already lost its dominance in his modelled forms. The figures in the jambs of the doorways begin to sway, to bend, to make gestures no longer confined within the architectural frame. No longer generalized in type, they become individuals, rendered oftentimes with an actuality of detail and of expression that ap proaches portraiture. Their draperies, falling in naturalistic folds, are arranged ingeniously for effects of chiaroscuro and of pattern in which the structural line is progressively ignored. The groups in the tympani, the sedated figures in the orders of the arches and along the lintels abandon their simplicity for a luxury of detail and for pictorial truthfulness. Their number is multiplied; acces sories, details, settings are elaborated ; and the narrative, rather than the symbolic meaning, is insisted upon. The foliated forms of flower and leaf spring from the cathedral stones; birds, ani mals, landscapes appear; contemporary costume and contempor ary personalities are depicted. From the observed universe about him the sculptor creates a new iconography in which types of liv ing people replace the types which tradition had established and in which there are substituted, for the doctrinal scenes of monas tic art, scenes such as the Coronation, the Entombment, the Scenes of the Passion, which are expressive of human suffering and of human aspirations.

The sculpture of the 13th century was international in char acter, all Europe having turned to France for inspiration and guid ance. The fine sculptures of the cathedrals at Bamberg and of Strasbourg, for example, are the work of men who must have been intimately familiar with the sculptures of Reims and Char tres. The famous tympanum of the Hospital of St. John, in Bruges, is a direct imitation of French work. The figures on the towers of Wells (c. 123o) although displaying a tenderness that is un mistakably English in character were at least in part inspired by the Porte Royale of Chartres. At Burgos, the superb transept portals are probably the actual work of French artists, and the beautiful portal of the south transept of Leon Cathedral, although having many details that are Spanish—such as the Neustra Senora la Blanca—is essentially a reproduction of the north portal of Chartres.

In the 14th century, when the vitality of France was lessened by the Hundred Years' War, and when the growth of realism had led to a more studied observation of contemporaneous life, local schools became gradually more independent. Of these, the schools of Germany appear to have been the most vigorous. The archi tectural line disappears at an early period in Germany. Free and even sinuous attitudes, lively and expressive faces, and draperies which are richly and even extravagantly modelled are characteris tic of her 14th century sculptures, produced in great abundance and charged oftentimes with a compelling vitality. The pillar

statues in the choir of Cologne Cathedral (1322-1330) are good examples of this art, too strongly individualized for architectural effectiveness but with an intensity of life that is analogous in feel ing to the Baroque. The ornate west portal of the Minster of Thann and the corresponding portal of the historic church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg (both about 135o) show the mastery of the German sculptor in the use of realistic anecdote to produce a sumptuous ornamentation.

Flanders and, towards the end of the century, Burgundy were centres of realistic art scarcely less important than Germany. The naturalism common to all. Europe at this time was especially suited to the temper of Flanders. A national art developed rapidly there from the French base and before the end of the century the mak ing of sculptures had become almost an industry in Tournai, in Bruges, and in Courtrai. A colloquial art, deriving its subject matter from the life of the court, the merchant-class, and the mys tery play, Flemish sculptures, soon attained a vast popularity throughout northern Europe. No longer associated with architec ture and no longer intent on the expression of spiritual or even intellectual concepts the sculptor rapidly abandoned the simple and monumental harmonies of the 13th century. These qualities no doubt appeared to him as limitations in technique. His own skill was oftentimes amazing, a representational virtuosity which de lights us with its sympathetic rendering of contemporary life. The mediaeval world, like ancient Egypt, lives before us in his innu merable carvings in which the scenes of sacred history take place in the familiar settings of a Flemish market-place or church and are enacted by bourgeois figures that embody the physiognomy, the costume, the manners and the postures of their day.

Effigies and the ornamentaticn of tombs, the vast retablos that fill the spaces behind the altars, the sanctuary enclosures and chapel screens, and the choir stalls, with canopy, arm-rests and misericordia, are the objects most congenial to this pictorial art. These furnished inexhaustible fields for the incomparable skill of the 14th century carver, who filled the cathedrals with sumptu ous furniture in which his storied art is mingled with a vast in tricacy of ornamental forms—of carved canopy and interlaced tracery, of cusped panel and flowered pinnacle. For this work, stone soon ceased to be the desirable medium. Bronze, for sepul chral images and for fonts, was used extensively in Flanders, es pecially in the Ateliers of Dinant. Terra-cotta was also exten sively used, but wood was by far the most popular material. Easily worked into the narrative panels and groups—greatly re duced in scale from the monumental work of the earlier century —and easily transported, wood lent itself also to the elaborate enframements, the gilded and coloured ornament, which had now become the fashion.