(Thirteenth Century.)
The extraordinary advance that French sculpture made in this age was assisted—if not as regards the higher style of work, which could do without this help, at least in respect to the minor details of the art—by the institution of the fraternities of the Conception Notre-Dame. In many towns the sculptors of images and the painters, the moulders, the bahutiers, or carvers in wood, horn, and ivory (Fig. 286), were all united under the same banner. In Germany and Belgium also existed hanses, or guilds, which were in direct communication with those of Alsace, and who accepted as guides French artists of known ability; as, for instance, Volbert and Gérard, architect-sculptors, who were simultaneously engaged in the construction of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Cologne.
Fig. 286.—Fragment of a small Reredos, in carved Bone (Fourteenth Century).
Presented by Jean, Duc de Berry, Brother of Charles V., to the church of the ancient Abbey of Poissy.
(Museum of the Louvre.)
With respect to the works commenced or finished in the fourteenth century, the only difficulty is to make a choice among these wonderful monuments of Art; which, however, must be looked upon as the last manifestations of Christian art, properly so-called. We must, however, point out the polychrome sculptures of Chartres, of St. Remy, Rheims; St. Martin, Laon; St. Yved, Braisne; St. Jean des Vignes, Soissons; of the Chartreux, Dijon. In this ducal city we find, in 1357, Guy le Maçon, a celebrated
Fig. 287.—“Le Bon Dieu,” in the old Chapel of the Charnier des Innocents, Paris.
(Fifteenth Century.)