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

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

Critics have compared the progress and life which pervaded the art of the thirteenth century with the spirit of the age of Phidias. The two periods are alike in the fact that the artists of each broke away from the traditions of those who had preceded them, and took up their work with a desire to come nearer to nature. They were alike, too, in the union of architecture and sculpture, and in the fact that all kinds of sculpture were required for the adornment of a single structure. Colossal and full-sized statues, statuettes, reliefs, and a great variety of simply ornamental designs were lavished upon the Christian cathedral, as they had been upon the Greek temple; and in one case as in the other the various groups and scenes represented were intended to show forth religious mysteries, and to illustrate the working of the supreme power which controls the world in relation to human beings.

But I must leave this part of our subject and speak of the monumental sculpture of the thirteenth century. While many of the tomb statues still retained a general resemblance to those of the past, there were many examples of new strength and progress. In a church near Le Mans the statue of Berengaria, the wife of Richard Cœur de Lion, who died in 1219, was made with open eyes; this gives a very life-like appearance to the face, and the whole head is as noble as that of an antique statue; the drapery is full and free; the feet rest upon a dog, which is the emblem of fidelity, and in the hands is a casket. There is something about this statue which appeals to us—a human element which had been sadly wanting in the monumental statues of the preceding centuries.

But the series of reliefs which were made for the Cathedral of St. Denis were the most important tomb sculptures of this period. They were sixteen in number, and represented princes of the early lines of French sovereigns down to the thirteenth century. Of course those of the Merovingians and Carlovingians could not be portrait statues, and the heads of both kings and queens are all of the same type until those of Philip the Bold, who died in 1285, and his wife, Isabella of Aragon, who died in 1271, are reached. These two are intended to be portraits, and they show the individual characters of these royal personages. In all France there is no more interesting succession of monuments than these.

In Germany the Romanesque style of architecture and the sculpture which went with it held their sway much longer than in France, and the new Gothic style made its way very slowly in the countries north of France. Slight traces of its influence in one way and another may be found about the middle of the thirteenth century; but it was not until the very end of this period that the Gothic style had affected German art, except in the south-western portions of the country. These provinces bordered upon France, and formed a sort of middle ground between the two nations. In Strasburg, at the end of the century, a cathedral was built which was one of the most splendid examples of a union of the two styles that could be produced. The sculptures show the effect of the new French manner in their life and ease of grouping and attitude, while they are still crowded and over-decorated, as in the earlier days, and the fixed architectural frame of the German style is preserved throughout. (Fig. 76.)

Fig. 76.—From the West Façade, Strasburg Cathedral.

There is reason to believe that the relief of the Death of the Virgin, at Strasburg, was the work of Sabina von Steinbach, a daughter of the architect of the west façade of the cathedral. The grouping is fine, and the transparent drapery, which reminds us of the same effects in antique sculpture, is beautifully executed.

Fig. 77.—Duke Robert of Normandy.

In the Cathedral of Freiburg, the nave of which was completed in 1270, there are some very fine sculptures, which are like the Rheims works in spirit and execution; a figure of the Madonna is one of the best statues of the time in any country. There is much to admire in the whole of this cathedral. Here and there in Germany there are some tomb-sculptures of the thirteenth century, which are simple, noble, and individual; but the progress of art here was much less rapid than in France.