A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

The twelfth century brought about a great change in sculpture and its uses. This century was a period of remarkable activity in every department of human life. The Crusades were then preached, and armies of zealous Christians went forth to redeem Jerusalem from the power of the Pagans; in this century all the institutions of chivalry flourished; the nations of the world had more intercourse with each other than had before existed; commerce was extended into new channels; men were more individual and thought more independently for themselves than they had done hitherto; and, in short, human intellect all over the Western world seemed to be awakening from a long, deep sleep, and to be inspired with strength and activity.

With all the other changes there came revivals of architecture and sculpture, which went hand in hand, and in the beginning can scarcely be separated from each other. The early Christians had been content with the decoration of interiors; now the exteriors received much attention, and the portals or entrances to the churches were richly decorated with statues and other sculptured ornaments, and the exterior decoration soon extended to many portions of the edifices. In the interiors, too, the altars, fonts, choir-screens, and other objects were made of carved stone or of stucco, which hardened like stone, and were all richly ornamented with sculpture. A completely new spirit seemed to possess the artists, who thus found a satisfactory field for their labors, and the period known as the Romanesque was thus ushered in.

Fig. 74.—From the Façade of Chartres Cathedral.

We cannot claim that the works of the twelfth century were free from the faults of the preceding eras, or were satisfactory to our artistic sense; but we may say that they show the effect of the new life which had come into the world, and give unerring promise of the progress which followed. The same improvement is seen in bronze-casting as in sculpture; and though to our eyes it still remains crude and ungraceful, yet by comparing it with the work of the previous century we mark a hopeful and important change.

Germany, in its different provinces, took the lead in this artistic progress; but France was not far behind; and, indeed, in the cathedral of Chartres the first promise was given of the splendid church portals of the early Gothic style of architecture which followed the Romanesque. In this cathedral, too, we see for the first time an attempt to make the head and face a reproduction of nature rather than a repetition of the classic head, which had come to be so imperfectly copied that it had degenerated into a caricature. (Fig. 74.)

Other cathedrals at St. Denis, Le Mans, Bourges, and Paris are splendid examples of the art of this time; and when we remember how Italy took the lead of these northern countries in later days, it seems strange that at this era she was far behind them. It is even true that the first works in Northern Italy which indicated that the awakening which had come north of the Alps had reached that country were executed wholly or in part by German artists; but by the end of the twelfth century both the sculpture and bronze-casting of Italy gave promise of the great revival of true art which was to come in that home of the arts.

However, it is not possible to connect the art of Italy with that of any other country in any comprehensive sense. Italian art may be said to have died out more completely in the beginning of the middle ages than did the art of northern nations; its period of decline, too, was longer; but when its awakening came it aroused itself and took on new strength by a method of its own, and may be said to have been distinct from northern art in every respect, and divided from it by its different spirit as clearly as Italy was divided from other lands by the towering summits of the Alps.

About the beginning of the thirteenth century there dawned upon the northern nations a new era in literature. Hitherto the written language had been the monkish Latin; now the poets began to use their own tongues. This new writing may be said to have commenced with the Provençal poets, who were followed by those of Northern France; but it was in Germany that such song broke forth as showed how the national feeling had been repressed, and how, now that it had burst its bonds, it resembled the freshets of spring when they escape from the icy hand of Winter and rush from one point to another, brushing aside every obstacle which lies in their way. I cannot here speak in detail of these poets and their works, but Hartmann of Aue, Walther von der Vogelweid, Wolfram and Gottfried of Strasburg are names which grow brighter with passing centuries.

At the same time with this advance in letters there came, in North-eastern France, the new Gothic style of architecture, which had the effect to revive sculpture and in a degree restore to it the importance it had in classic days. Now, the same artist was both architect and sculptor, and the result was that architecture was so arranged as to afford an honorable place to sculpture, which, in its turn, added much to the grand and full effect of architecture.