6.14: A Return to Naturalism in Gothic Sculpture

When Sculpture Starts to Make Holy Figures Look Like Regular People Again

Caryatids at the Acropolis in Athens

West façade portal, Chartres, 1145-1155 featuring subjects relating to the life of Christ

Tympanums

• Like the Romanesque period, exterior tympanums were extremely common.

• Almost like exterior billboards for a largely illiterate population, motivating people to go to church.

• Three elaborate tympanums:

  • Christ's Ascension.

  • Second Coming of Christ (Judgment Day).

  • Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

• Second Coming:

  • Christ judges all souls.

  • Surrounded by the four evangelists.

• Virgin Mary becomes increasingly prominent.

• Growing "fandom" for the mother of Christ.

Jamb statues, Chartres portal,

• Focus is on the sculpture flanking each doorway.

• Called jamb statues.

• Mid-12th century.

• West façade survived a devastating fire, preserving the sculptural program.

• Instead of plain columns or patterned piers:

  • Slender colonettes.

  • High-relief figures attached to them.

• Depict Old Testament kings and queens.

• Considered the ancestors of Christ.

• Whole sculptural program:

  • Old Testament kings and queens = foundation.

  • Above them: Jesus, Mary, the evangelists = New Testament.

• Foundation leading to Jesus, mankind's savior and redemption.

Style

• Typical of the period:

  • Disproportionate.

  • Elongated figures.

  • Highly stylized robes.

• Unlike the Greco-Roman world:

  • Drapery no longer describes anatomy accurately.

  • Figures become long tubular forms.

• Robes filled with:

  • Linear designs.

  • Cascading arcs.

  • Wave-like scallops.

• Reminiscent of the Old Testament Prophet at Saint-Pierre.

• Same elongated, stylized, otherworldly appearance.

• Disproportionality separates holy beings from ordinary people.

Return to Naturalism

• Faces become:

  • Softer.

  • More human.

  • More naturalistic.

  • More relatable.

• Baby steps toward a return to naturalism.

• Less stoic.

• Less otherworldly.

Reims Cathedral

Gothic Features

• Typical Gothic cathedral:

  • Pointed arches.

  • Rose windows.

  • Dissolving walls.

  • Soaring verticality.

• Sculpture concentrated around the portal.

• Jamb statues replace the emphasis on the tympanum.

Annunciation and Visitation, jamb statues on west façade, Reims Cathedral, France, ca. 1230-1255

-Mid-13th century.

• One of the best Gothic jamb statue programs.

• Two scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary:

  • The Annunciation.

  • The Visitation.

• Nearly freestanding, but still attached to the columns.

• More independent than the earlier Chartres jamb statues.

The Visitation ( the right)

• Mary visits Elizabeth.

• Mary pregnant with Jesus.

• Elizabeth pregnant with John the Baptist.

• Probably carved by the same sculptor.

• Strong Greco-Roman influence.

• Figures:

  • Well proportioned.

  • Contrapposto stance.

  • Anatomy visible beneath the robes.

• Turn toward one another.

• Gesture naturally.

• Feel like they have a genuine human relationship.

The Annunciation ( the left)

• Angel Gabriel tells Mary she will become the mother of Jesus.

• Different sculptor.

• More stylized medieval approach.

• Gabriel:

  • Slightly elongated.

  • Small head.

  • Impish, mischievous expression.

• Mary:

  • Minimalistic.

  • Frozen.

  • Anatomy hidden beneath the robes.

  • Expressionless and wooden.

Transition Toward the Renaissance

• Same period shows two different artistic approaches.

• Left side:

  • Earlier French Gothic stylization.

• Moving to the right:

  • Pendulum swings toward Greco-Roman naturalism.

• Begins the trend that leads into the Renaissance.

• Art history continually moves between:

  • Abstraction.

  • Naturalism.

• Gothic sculpture marks the beginning of the return to naturalism, even for the holiest figures.

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