Jean Juste of Tours was one of the best French artists of his day. In the Cathedral of Tours is a monument to two young children of Charles VIII., which proves him to have had much delicacy and tenderness of execution. The sarcophagus is covered with graceful designs, and on the lid lie the two babies, for the eldest was but three years old. The whole work is exquisite, and gives one a feeling of satisfaction.
About 1530 Juste erected the splendid monument to Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany in the Church of St. Denis. While the general form of the monument is much like that of the Visconti in the Certosa at Pavia, the figures of the dead couple are quite different from the Italian manner. Below on a bier the two nude bodies are stretched in all the realism possible, and the heads are noble and touching in expression. Above, on the upper part of the monument, where in Italy the patron saint or some other figure usually is placed, the king and queen again appear; they are kneeling, with full drapery about them, while the faces are characteristic and very expressive. This monument, taken all in all, is in the perfection of the French art of the time. Another work by Juste now in the Louvre is the monument to Louis de Poncher, one of the ministers of Francis I., and his wife, Roberta. These statues are in alabaster, and were formerly in the Church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, which was built by Poncher.
Pierre Bontemps must have been a famous sculptor, as he was chosen to erect the monument to Francis I., his wife Claude and their three children. This is also at St. Denis, and is even more grand than that to Louis XII. On the upper platform the five figures are kneeling; they are noble and simple, with an air of great repose. These examples serve to give an idea of the religious sculpture of the time.
Secular subjects were unusual. A house in Bourges is decorated with the figures of the master and mistress above the entrance, as if they would speak a welcome, while reliefs of industrial scenes, such as might be seen outside and inside of the house, are placed in various positions over the building and in the court-yard. Something of a like sort is upon the Hotel Bourgtheroulde at Rouen, where the friezes show scenes between Francis I. and Henry VIII. Biblical scenes are also distributed over the building.
Bruges is almost the only city of the Netherlands that has any sculptures of this period of which one would speak. Just at this time the art of that country was painting preeminently, and the Van Eycks and their followers had done such things as held the attention of all to the neglect of other arts. At Bruges in the cathedral, the Church of St. Jacques, and the Liebfrauenkirche there are some fine monuments, and the Palais de Justice has a carved chimney-piece which is magnificent, and a work of the highest rank.
In England sculpture was of less account even than in the Netherlands. One circumstance is worthy of notice. Pietro Torrigiano, after quarrelling with Michael Angelo and breaking his nose, fled to England, and his monument of Henry VII. and his queen in Westminster Abbey, erected in 1519, marks the introduction of the style of the Italian Renaissance into England. The structure is of black marble; the statues of the king and queen are in gilt bronze, and are grandly noble in design and finished in execution. The smaller figures and all the details of the monument are fine. The master received £1000 for this work. Torrigiano executed other works, and entered into an agreement to make a monument to Henry VIII. and Catherine of Aragon, but for some reason he went to Spain in 1519 and never returned, as he was destroyed by the Inquisition three years later.
It is probable that Torrigiano may have been led to Spain by hearing of the revival of art which was taking place there. Flemish and Italian artists went there, and the influence of their styles was felt by the native masters. The result was that they brought forth a manner of their own, combining certain features of northern and of southern art, and used to express the thoughts of the Spaniards themselves. The carved altars of Seville, Toledo, and Burgos show how splendid this art was; and though we cannot trace the lives and works of Spanish sculptors as we should like to do, we can be sure that there were men among them equal to any demand that could be made upon decorative sculptors.
This is proved by the portals and fronts of the churches, by the highly ornamented chapels, the wall niches and choir screens of the interiors, while the monuments are also equal to those of other nations. That of Ferdinand and Isabella in the Church of the Guardian Angel, at Granada, is noble and magnificent. It is believed to have been erected before the death of Ferdinand in 1516, and was probably the work of an Italian sculptor. This monument has a large marble sarcophagus, with a structure above it in the Renaissance style. At the corners of the sarcophagus there are griffins of excellent workmanship, and on the sides reliefs and statuettes of the Four Fathers of the Church; on the lid repose the figures of the royal pair, executed in a grand and dignified simplicity.
