Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/46

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In this sculpture a singular correspondence with the spirit of the Gothic construction is manifest. As there is a living expression in the constructive system which distinguishes it from all other systems, so is there an expression of vitality in this Gothic sculpture which distinguishes it from all other sculpture. A fine appreciation of the life of natural organic forms, from which they largely drew their motives for ornament, is displayed by the Gothic carvers, and displayed in an unparalleled degree. Whether in mere ornament—the enrichment of capitals, the running patterns of string-courses, the voussoirs of archivolts,—or in figure or animal sculpture, this expression of life is alike conspicuous. It is true that in all good ornamental sculpture of the previous schools of art a greater or less degree of vitality had been expressed. Most Greek ornament, though severely conventional, owes its beauty to these living qualities of lines and surfaces. And in Greek, no less than in Gothic sculpture, these living qualities arise from a greater or less conformity with the characteristics of form in natural things. There may not have been, in the mind of the Greek carver when designing his ornament, any conscious reference to nature; but that the lines and surfaces of the best Greek ornaments possess, however abstractly, a degree of conformity with those of natural things will hardly be questioned. The profile of the Doric capital, the Ionic volute, and the acanthus foliage of the Corinthian capital are conspicuous instances; but in Gothic ornament this expression of life is more distinctly marked. In it the reference to nature is more distinct, more direct, and more systematic, than had ever before been the case. Even a likeness to individual species of vegetation soon makes its appearance in the growing style; and an extensive range of flora—answering, in some cases, to that of the locality in which the work was wrought—is used to adorn the Gothic building. But the life derived from nature which appears in Gothic sculpture is no more an independent development than is the constructive system. The elements of Gothic ornament may almost all be traced back to the arts of antiquity. These antique elements were taken up by the Romanesque designers, at first in a spirit of coarse and formal imitation, but finally with truer feeling which gave