Gothic sculpture was a sculpture style that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages, from about mid-12th century to the 16th century,The chronology of the period varies significantly according to the source consulted evolving from Romanesque sculpture and dissolving into Renaissance sculpture and Mannerism."Gothic art". In: Encyclopædia Britannica Online
When the classical values started to be appreciated again in the Renaissance, the sculpture from the previous centuries was seen as shapeless and rough and was given the name of Gothic, since it was believed to come from the culture of the Goths, people considered barbaric and supposedly responsible for the disappearance of the Roman Empire.
But the people from the Gothic period never gave themselves that name neither they considered themselves barbarians. On the contrary, in its emergence Gothic art was seen as innovative and was called opus modernum ("modern work"), being sculpture one of its most important and sophisticated expressions. However, the negative appreciation lasted until mid-19th century when a revivalist movement appeared, called neo-Gothic, that recovered its values. In actuality, it is known that Gothic art has nothing to do with the Goths—but the denomination remained, consecrated by the use.
Gothic sculpture was born closely linked to architecture—as a result of the decoration of the great cathedrals and other religious buildings—but it eventually gained independence and started to be worked as autonomous art. It started in Paris, France, and had its first important expression in the reform of the Basilica of Saint-Denis between 1137 and 1144. Its first phase developed an austere, sleek style, with elongated proportions and a general hieratical aspect, wishing to convey an impression of spirituality, quite far from the actual anatomy of a body.
From the 13th century, the style began to evolve toward greater naturalism and realism, with the progressive absorption of classical influences and a greater observation of nature. Changes in religious doctrine, which led to a rapprochement of God toward man and a softening in his previously inaccessible and inflexible character, also contributed to influencing the evolution of preferred forms and themes. By the 14th century, the Gothic style had spread far beyond the borders of France, important regional schools were formed, and by the 15th century it dominated most of Europe, then began a decline that followed different patterns in different regions. Gothic sculpture in its late stages continued to be widely used in architectural decoration, but by this time, the sculptors had already experimented with the most diverse materials and explored the most varied uses for reliefs and statues, forming a collection of extraordinary richness and variety.
The history of Gothic sculpture still has many uncertainties and grey areas, and its study is far from complete. At various times in history, there was mass destruction of medieval monuments and works of art (for example, in the iconoclastic issue throughout the Reformation and during the French Revolution) and so the determination of the chronology, genealogy and geographical distribution of the style presents many gaps impossible to be filled. Added to this is the fact that when the Gothic style was finally reappraised in the second half of the 19th century, many inadequate restorations were made to the surviving monuments for lack of deeper knowledge. Even in the face of so many difficulties, the legacy of Gothic sculpture is still vast and lives on in buildings, collections, museums, widely circulated textbooks and other forms.
Overview and chronology
Theoretical background The Gothic style was largely the result of the definition of a new visual vocabulary for the representation of images, accompanying the debate that was taking place about certain concepts of the Christian religion. One of the most important points in this debate was about the validity of the representation of sacred images, a problem that went back to the very origin of Christianity and was not yet sufficiently clarified. Early Christianity harbored an aversion to the depiction of sacred images, a reservation that had been inherited from Judaism, which forbade the creation of images for worship, fearing idolatry. An explicit command against depiction of sacred images was issued in the Ten Commandments, where the third one states:"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."On the other hand, the ancient classical pagan tradition, which provided essential elements for the formulation of the new faith, was fully in favor of the representation of gods, and both currents remained in constant friction throughout the Middle Ages.
One of the first consistent Christian statements favoring the depiction of sacred images came from Pope Gregory I, who in letters to the Bishop of Marseille written around year 600 laid the groundwork for the controversy that followed. In them, the pope said that images, like other material things, should not be worshiped, but neither should they be destroyed because the representation of scenes from sacred history and of biblical characters were useful for the teaching of doctrine to the illiterate masses, who "could read in them what they could not read in books", and their contemplation could lead the devout to the contemplation of God.
Gregory I had recurred for this to the opinion of Basil the Great, who had stated centuries earlier that "the honor given to the image ascends to its prototype." The Gregorian statement, coming from a pope considered wise—later elevated to the rank of Doctor of the Church, like Basil—together with the contribution of John of Damascus, were powerful arguments in the iconoclastic question that agitated Christians from the beginning and raged strongly in the Byzantine Empire.
Although the issue was officially settled in year 787 at the Second Council of Nicaea, which legalized the veneration of images, the debate continued, and over the following centuries, various other prelates wrote texts defending sacred art, and both the texts from the early church and from ancient philosophers continued to be cited as authorities.
Specially linked to the rise of the Gothic were the texts of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an author who had drunk from the Platonic fountain through Plotinus and who was held in high esteem in France from the 9th-10th centuries onward, being an influence on Suger, the creator of the first Gothic church to be erected. By this time, the iconoclastic problem had finally been overcome by a number of other theoretical contributions, and sacred art had been definitively consolidated, even if protests were still heard here and there, and had become not only biblia pauperum ("books for the uneducated"), but were also offered as authorized versions, supervised by the constituted ecclesiastical hierarchy, for the rectification of oral traditions that misrepresented or unduly embellished sacred history.
Early Gothic The proof of this success is in the great proliferation of sacred representations that took place during the final phase of the Romanesque, between the 11th and 12th centuries, establishing a body of thematic motifs and forms suitable for conveying religious doctrine.Chapuis, Julien. "Romanesque Art". In: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
Regarding sculpture, the main Romanesque iconography was left in the decoration of the tympana over the main entrances of churches and cathedrals, conceived as a visual introduction and a spiritual preparation for the worship that was to take place inside, which coincides with the appearance of the first Gothic examples in the 12th century.
In fact, the Romanesque iconographic programs naturally exerted great influence on the Gothic, the latter being a natural evolution from the former. Thus, the stylistic distinction between Romanesque and Early Gothic sculpture often becomes subtle. The most obvious innovations of Early Gothic were the application of sculptures to the archivolts and lateral columns of the portals and a growing tendency toward a less compact, more open and rational organization of scenes, and a lengthening in the proportions of figures, accompanying the greater verticalism of the buildings.
In general terms, the distribution of the images, derived from the consolidated Romanesque heritage, was produced according to the following scheme:
Above the main entrance, there was invariably a scene with Christ, often the Last Judgment, Christ in Majesty or the Crucifixion. In the archivolts around it, there were figures of saints and angels, in the columns and friezes below, apostles and other Old Testament figures, or occasionally allegories, such as the Prudent Virgins and the Foolish Virgins, personifications of the Liberal Arts, or more recent historical characters such as some champion of the faith or a devout patron. If the church had secondary entrances, its spandrels could be decorated with a scene from the life of the Mary, mother of Jesus—whose cult saw a great increase in this period—and with some event from the life of the church's patron saint.
Far from being arbitrary choices, the images of the Gothic facade iconography were carefully selected to form a coherent didactic program for the observer, illustrating the evolution of the faith from its foundation by the Hebrew patriarchs to the advent of Christ incarnate with his doctrine of redemption, and finally presenting its teleological corollary in the apocalyptic condemnation of the wicked and the apotheosis of the good in the Kingdom of God.
At the same time, the approach to the motifs found in the Romanesque iconographic tradition also began to change. Until then, the scene most commonly found on church portals was that of the Last Judgment, with an emphasis on the torments awaiting the infidels in Hell.
Since the middle of the 11th century, Paris had become the biggest theological and cultural centre in Europe, with the presence of great philosophers and pedagogues such as Peter Abelard and Hugo of Saint Victor, and the action of several schools, which would merge to form around 1170 the University of Paris. In this more liberal academic environment, relatively independent of the Church, a humanistic philosophy gained ground, and the doctrine of Purgatory was structured, offering an escape route from Hell through a purifying stage prior to the ascent to Heaven.
At the same time, Mary, mother of Jesus, as well as other saints, began to be regarded as humanity's great advocates before the justice of Christ. In the process, the old tendency of the Christian faith to correct the sinner through fear and the threat of eternal damnation was tempered by visions that emphasized mercy rather than divine wrath and that took more account of the inherent fallibility of human nature.
Thus, the Last Judgment scenes continued to be a frequent motif, but now they were conceived to emphasize order, hope, and justice, showing the ways of salvation through repentance and the compassionate intercession of the saints. The very pronounced verticality of Gothic cathedrals, and their abundance of large windows that allowed great penetration of light into the interior—in contrast to the much heavier "square" forms and dark surroundings of Romanesque architecture—have been interpreted as a formal feature that mirrored this new, optimistic spiritual impulse.