armour. The ecclesiastical chasuble, in which priestly efligies
nearly always appear, is also a thoroughly unsculpturesque
form of drapery, both from its awkward shape and its absence
of folds. The Günther of Schwarzburg (d. 1349) in Frankfort
cathedral is a characteristic example of these sepulchral effigies
in slight relief.
In England, much of the fine 13th-century sculpture was used to decorate the façades of churches, though, on the whole, English cathedral architecture did not offer such great opportunities to the imagier as did that of France. A notable exception is Wells cathedral, the west end of which, dating from about the middle of the century, Architectural sculpture in England. is covered with more than 600 figures in the round or in relief, arranged in tiers, and of varying sizes. The tympana of the doorways are filled with reliefs, and above them stand rows of colossal statues of kings and queens, bishops and knights, and saints both male and female, all treated very skilfully with nobly arranged drapery, and graceful heads designed in a thoroughly architectonic way, with due regard to the main lines of the building they are meant to decorate. In this respect the early medieval sculptor inherited one of the great merits of the Greeks of the best period: his figures or reliefs form an essential part of the design of the building to which they are affixed, and are treated in a subordinate manner to their architectural surroundings-very different from most of the sculpture on modern buildings, which frequently looks as if it had been stuck up as an afterthought, and frequently by its violent and incongruous lines is rather an impertinent excrescence than an ornament.[1] Peterborough, Lichfield and Salisbury cathedrals have hue examples of the sculpture of the 13th century: in the chapter-house of the last the spandrels of the wall-arcade are filled with sixty reliefs of subjects from Bible history, all treated with much grace and refinement. To the end of the same century belong the celebrated reliefs of angels in the spandrels of the choir arches at Lincoln, carved in a large massive way with great strength of decorative effect. Other fine reliefs of angels, executed about 1260, exist in the transepts of Westminster Abbey; being high from the ground, they are broadly treated without any high finish in the details.[2]
Purely decorative carving in stone reached its highest point of excellence about the middle of the 14th century-rather later, that is, than the best period of figure sculpture. Wood-carving (q.v.), on the other hand, reached its artistic climax a full century later under the influence of the fully developed Perpendicular style.
The most important effigies of the 14th century are those in gilt bronze of Edward III. (d. 1377) and of Richard II. and his queen (made in 1395), all at Westminster. They are all portraits, but are decidedly inferior to the earlier work of William Torell. The effigies of Richard II. and Anne of Bohemia were the work of Nicolas Broker and Godfred Prest, goldsmith citizens of London. Another fine bronze effigy is at Canterbury on the tomb of the Black Prince (d. 1376); though well cast and with carefully modelled armour, it is treated in a somewhat dull and conventional way. The recumbent stone figure of Lady Arundel, with two angels at her head, in Chichester cathedral is remarkable for its calm peaceful pose and the beauty of the drapery. Among the most perfect works of this description is the alabaster tomb of Ralph Nevill, first earl of Westmorland, with figures of himself and his two wives, in Staindrop church, county Durham (1426), removed, 1908, from a dark corner of the church into full light, a few feet away, where its beauty may now be examined. A very fine but more realistic work is the tomb figure of William of Wykeham (d. 1404) in the cathedral at Winchester. The cathedrals at Rochester, Lichfield, York, Lincoln, Exeter and many other ecclesiastical buildings in England are rich in examples of 14th-century sculpture, used occasionally with great profusion and richness of effect, but treated in strict subordination to the architectural background.
The finest piece of bronze sculpture of the 15th-century is the effigy of Richard Beauchamp (d. 1439) in his family chapel at Warwick—a noble portrait figure, richly decorated with engraved ornaments. The modelling and casting were done by William Austen of London, and the gilding and engraving by a Netherlands goldsmith who had settled in London, named Bartholomew Lambespring, assisted by several other skilful artists.
The first Spanish sculptor of real eminence who need be considered is Aparicio, who lived and worked in the 11th century. His shrine of St Millan, executed to the order of Don Sancho the Great is in the monastery of Yuso, and is a composition excellent, in its way, in design, grace and proportion. In the early medieval period the sculpture of northern Spain. Spain was much influenced by contemporary art in France. From the 12th to the 14th century many French architects and sculptors visited and worked in Spain. The cathedral of Santiago de Compostella possesses one of the grandest existing specimens in the world of late 12th-century architectonic sculpture; this, though the work of a native artist, Mastei Mateo,[3] is thoroughly French in style; as recorded by an inscription on the front, it was completed in 1188. The whole of the western portal with its three doorways is covered with statues and reliefs, all richly decorated with colour, part of which still remains. Round the central arch are figures of the twenty-four elders, and in the tympanum a very noble relief of Christ in Majesty between Saints and Angels. As at Chartres, the jamb shafts of the doorways are decorated with standing statues of saints—St James the elder, the patron of the church, being attached to the central pillar. These noble figures, though treated in a somewhat rigid manner, are thoroughly subordinate to the main lines of the building. Their heads, with pointed beards and a fixed mechanical smile, together with the stiff drapery arranged in long narrow folds, recall the Aeginetan pediment sculpture of about 500 B.c. This appears strange at first sight, but the fact is that the 'works of the early Greek and the medieval Spaniard were both produced at a somewhat similar stage in two far distant periods of artistic development. In both cases plastic art was freeing itself from the bonds of -a. hieratic archaism, and had reached one of the last steps in a development which in the one case culminated in the perfection of the Phidian age, and in the other led to the exquisitely beautiful yet simple and reserved art of the end of the 13th and early part of the 14th century-the golden age of sculpture in France and England. In the cathedral of Tarragona are nine statues, in stone, executed by Bartolomé in 1278 for the gate.
In the 14th century the silversmiths of Spain produced many works of sculpture of great size and technical power. One of the finest, by a Valencian called Peter Bernec, is the great silver retable at Gerona cathedral. It is divided into three tiers of statuettes and reliefs, richly framed in canopied niches, all of silver, partly cast and partly hammered.
In the 15th century an infusion of German influence was mixed with that of France, as may be seen in the very rich sculptural decorations which adorn the main door of Salamanca cathedral, the façade of S. Juan at Valladolid, and the church and cloisters of S. Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, perhaps the most gorgeous examples of architectural sculpture in the world. These were executed between 1418 and 1425 by a group of clever sculptors, among whom A. and F. Diaz, A. F. de Sahagun, A. Rodriguez and A. Gonzales were perhaps the chief. The marble altar-piece of the grand altar at Tarragona was begun
- ↑ The sculpture on the Paris opera house is a striking instance of this; and so, in a small way, are the statues in the reredos at Westminster Abbey and that at Gloucester cathedral. Another is afforded by the figures of modern soldiers inserted in the beautifully-designed Gothic oer War Memorial (by G. F. Bodley, R.A.) set up in the cathedral close in York.
- ↑ On the whole, Westminster possesses the most completely representative collection of English medieval sculpture in an unbroken succession from the 13th to the 16th century.
- ↑ A kneeling portrait-statue of Mateo is introduced at the back of the central pier. This figure is now much revered by the Spanish peasants, and the head is partly worn away with kisses.
