The Caryatid here reproduced (pi. 26, jig. 4) gives the rich and gran diose side of Goujon's style. This massive and calm figure seems well fitted to stand under an entablature in the place of a column, and even reminds us of the magnificent caryatids of the Erechtheion at Athens. The heavy drapery, with its rich and numerous folds, does indeed resem ble that of the Greek artists.
Diana of phase of Gonjon's art, and one in which he showed how much he owed to Italy, is his figure of Diana of Poitiers (j'. 2), comparable to Benvenuto Cellini's Nymph of Fontainebleau. Under the guise of Diana, the goddess of the chase, he represented the favorite of I Tenn- II. with her bow in hand, resting by a stag by which a is standing. The figure is excessively slender, but is probably a faithful representation. It was in small works of this kind—in which Cellini was so famous—that imitation of the Italian style was most notice able. None of the other prominent sculptors in France, like Germain Pilon and BuHaut, sacrificed their originality in works of statuary.
Rape qf decay of art is illustrated in Francois Girardon's (1628-1715) Rape of Proserpine 26, 3). In this work we see an evident imitation of the extravagant barocco style, which had already become fashionable in Italy with Bernini and Algardi; in fact, it clearly a copy of the group representing the same subject by Bernini. The marble is treated like flesh yielding to the fingers, and violent action and a display of anatomy are aimed at. In works of this kind the artists make a parade of the victory over technical difficulties. This group was executed for the garden of Louis XIV. at Versailles.
Renaissance in the same Plate are examples of the Renaissance in the form which it took in other countries. Figure S gives a relief from the tomb of Henry VII. in his chapel in Westminster Abbey. The two figures, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, represented as conversing with each other, show the influence of the Italian Renaissance upon English realism.
qf Italy and Flanders on file Spanish Spain sculpture did not flourish so brilliantly during this period as either archi tecture- or painting. In all the branches of the fine arts it was exceed ingly receptive of foreign influence, as it had been during the Gothic period; but, while then the influence of France preponderated, it was to Italy and the Netherlands that Spain looked during the Renaissance period. She was brought into relation with the one by war and conquest,
and with the other by annexation.
In sculpture the of Italy excited the greatest admiration, and led the Spanish monarchs not only to patronize Italian sculptors, but also to invite a number of them to make their home in Spain. This was especially the case, for example, with the two eminent sculptors Pompeo and Leone Lconi, most of whose works were produced in Spain.
Siloc was prominent among native artists in the second half of the fifteenth century. In a richly-decorated niche in the late Gothic style he carved a portrait statue of the Infant Don Alfonso in state robes kneeling in prayer on a soft cushion in front of an elaborately-draped prayer-desk (fic. I). The prince's sister, Isabella the Catholic, had the tomb executed. It was she who, in conjunction with her royal husband, Ferdinand, intro duced the new style of art.
Realism iu is rather difficult to connect the sculpture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Germany with the Italian Renaissance, especially because the former remained so strictly national. Still, the development in each was without doubt a correspond ing one, and commenced in Germany long before its artists could have felt any direct influence from Italy. The Teutonic nationality was strongly antagonistic to so sensual and so classic a spirit as that which pervaded the Renaissance in Italy. On one point—and that, perhaps, the most import ant and universal factor in the entire movement—Germany was at one with Italy, and that was the realistic spirit which began to pervade German sculpture even during the early half of the fifteenth century. In study of human character, in expression of human passions and feeling, German artists had no superiors.
Predominance of Wood-carving..—Remarkable is the great quantity of works executed during this period, especially in wood-carving, which was made a specialty and carried to a perfection never realized elsewhere or at any other period in Germany. In fact, the altar-pieces of carved and painted wood with which the churches all over Germany were filled dur ing the latter half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century were well fitted to embody the intensely realistic and passionate ideas of their creators.