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Dictionary of Art
and Artists

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CHAPTER THREE
GOTHIC ART
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ARCHITECTURE
- Part 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14
SCULPTURE
- Part 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14
STAINED GLASS
- Part 1,
2
PAINTING
- Part 1,
2
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SCULPTURE
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England
The spread of Gothic sculpture beyond the borders of France began
only toward
1200, so that the style of the Chartres west
portals had hardly any echoes abroad. Once under way, however, it
proceeded at an astonishingly rapid pace. England may well have led the
way, as it did in evolving its own version of Gothic architecture.
Unfortunately, so much English Gothic sculpture was destroyed during the
Reformation that we can study its development only with difficulty. Our
richest materials are the tombs, which did not arouse the iconoclastic
zeal of anti-Catholics. They include a type, illustrated by the splendid
example in figure 493,
that has no counterpart on
the other side of the Channel. It shows the deceased, not in the quiet
repose found on the vast majority of medieval tombs, but in violent
action, as a fallen hero fighting to the last breath.

493. Tomb of a Knight,
ñ. 1260. Stone. Dorchester
Abbev, Oxfordshire
According to an old tradition, these dramatic figures honor the
memory of crusaders who died in the struggle for the Holy Land. As the
tombs of Christian Soldiers, they carry a religious meaning that helps
to account for their compelling expressive power. Their agony, which so
oddly recalls the Dying Trumpeter (see fig.
211),
makes them among the finest achievements of English
Gothic sculpture.
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LINCOLN CATHEDRAL

Main door, Lincoln Cathedral
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WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Westminster Abbey. Ten Christian martyrs depicted in
statues above the Great West Door

Westminster Abbey. Ten Christian martyrs depicted in
statues above the Great West Door
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YORK MINSTER

York Minster choir screen (detail)

York Minster choir screen (detail)

York Minster choir screen (detail)
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Germany
In Germany, the growth of Gothic sculpture can be traced more easily.
From the 1220s on, German masters trained in the sculptural workshops of
the great French cathedrals transplanted the new style to their
homeland, although German architecture at that time was still
predominantly Romanesque. Even after the middle of the century, however,
Germany failed to emulate the large statuary cycles of France. As a
consequence, German Gothic sculpture tended to be less closely linked
with its architectural setting. (The finest work was often done for the
interiors rather than the exteriors of churches.) This, in turn,
permitted it to develop an individuality and expressive freedom greater
than that of its French models.
THE NAUMBURG MASTER.
These qualities are strikingly evident in the
style of the Naumburg Master, an artist of real genius whose best-known
work is the magnificent series of statues and reliefs of about
1240-50
for Naumburg Cathedral. The Crucifixion (fig.
494)
forms the central feature of the choir
screen; flanking it are statues of the Virgin and John the Baptist.
Enclosed by a deep, gabled porch, the three figures frame the opening
that links the nave with the sanctuary. Rather than placing the group
above the screen, in accordance with the usual practice, our sculptor
has brought the sacred subject down to earth both physically and
emotionally. The suffering of Christ thus becomes a human reality
because of the emphasis on the weight and volume of His body. Mary and
John, pleading with the beholder, convey their grief more eloquently
than ever before.

494. Crucifixion, on the
choir screen, Naumburg Cathedral, ñ. 1240-50.
Stone
The pathos of these figures is heroic and dramatic, as against the
lyricism of the Strasbourg tympanum or the Reims Visitation (see
figs.
488
and 489).
If the Classic High Gothic sculpture of France evokes
comparison with Phidias, the Naumburg Master might be termed the
temperamental kin of Scopas.
The same intensity of feeling dominates the Passion
scenes, such as The Kiss of Judas (fig.
495), with its unforgettable contrast between the
meekness of Christ and the violence of the sword-wielding St. Peter.

495. The Kiss of Judas, on
the choir screen, Naumburg Cathedral, ñ. 1240-50.
Stone
Attached to the responds inside the choir are statues of nobles
associated with the founding of the cathedral. These men and women were
not of the artist's own time, so that they were only as names in a
chronicle. Yet the famous pair Ekkehard and Uta (fig.
496) are personalities as
distinctive and forceful as if they had been portrayed from life. In
this regard, they make an instructive contrast with the idealized
portrait of St. Theodore at Chartres (see fig.
487, left).

496. Ekkehard and Uta.
ñ 1240-50. Stone.
Naumburg Cathedral
THE PIETA.

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Gothic sculpture, as we have come to know it so far,
reflects a desire to endow the traditional themes of Christian art with
greater emotional appeal. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, this
tendency gave rise to a new kind of religious imagery, designed to serve
private devotion. It is often referred to by the German term
Andachtsbild, since Germany played a leading part in its
development. The most characteristic and widespread type of
Andachtsbild was the Pieta (an Italian word derived from the
Latin pietas, the root word for both pity and piety): a
representation of the Virgin grieving over the dead Christ. No such
scene occurs in the scriptural account of the Passion. Rather, it was
invented (we do not know where or when) as a tragic counterpart to the
motif of the Madonna and Child.
The Roettgen Pieta, reproduced in figure
497, dates from the same period
as The Virgin of Paris. Like most such groups, it is carved of
wood, with a vividly painted surface to enhance its impact. Realism here
has become purely a vehicle of expression. The agonized faces convey an
almost unbearable pain and grief. The blood-encrusted wounds of Christ
are enlarged and elaborated to an almost grotesque degree. The bodies
and limbs have become puppetlike in their thinness and rigidity. The
purpose of the work, clearly, is to arouse so overwhelming a sense of
horror and pity that beholders will identify their own feelings
completely with those of the grief-stricken Mother of God.
At a glance, our Pieta would seem to have little in common
with The Virgin of Paris. Yet they both share a lean, "deflated"
quality of form that is the characteristic period flavor of Northern
European art from the late thirteenth century to the mid-fourteenth.
Only after 1350 do we
again find an interest in weight and volume, coupled with a renewed
impulse to explore tangible reality.
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