Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/796

SCULPTURE. 722 SCULPTURE. of his works, which possess iv certain naivete and (li-corative (|uality, but are often mannered. At Siena there was an independent scliool, the chief characteristics of which were sentimental tendencies and elaborate architectural decora- tion. A typical Sicncse artist was l-orenzo Vecehietta "(d. 1480). The {jrealest master of the school. Jacopo della liuercia ( 1.S7114.'18) , represents the transition from the Gothic. Xef^leeting form and detail, he seeks to give his lifjures life, exhibited in motion, lender Qucrcia's intluenee stood Niecolo dell Area (141404), at Bologiia, and he in turn -jave impulse to Guido JIazzoni (1450-1518) of .Modena. the principal sculptor, during this period, of painteil terra- cotta ;^roups, generally placed in a niche or chapel. lie represi'nied, with yreat realism, the Italian peasant as ]i:irtic-ipant in sacred story — a species of work most jiopular with the people. At Padua the inlluence of Donatello was para- mount. In Lombardy, too, the inlluence came from Florence, with the activity of Jlichelozzo at Alilan, though this school was somewhat influ- enced b.y neighboring German art. Its chief characteristics were luxurious decorations and the multiplication of details, executed, however, in a crisp and vigorous style. Its chief monu- ments are the sculptures of the cathedral at Jlilan, of the Certosa at Pavia, and of the Col- leoni Chapel at Bergamo, and the principal mas- ters are Omodeo (d. 1522), Cristoforo Solari (d. 1523), Caradossa (d. 1527). and Busti (d. 1548). The inlluence of Milan prevailed throughout the northern part of Italy as far east as Verona. In Venice sculpture was closely united with architecture. It was richly decorative in char- acter and bixuriant in form, being softer and more sensuous than the Milanese or Florentine. Gothic forms lingered longer here than elsewhere, as is shown in the beautiful Porto della Carta (1438-4S) of the Ducal Palace, by Bartolommeo Buon, representing the transition to the Renais- sance forms. The later work of Antonio Rizzio, however, belongs to the best that the Early Renaissance has produced. Pietro Lombardo (d. 1515) is thoroughly Renaissance in style, and characteristically Venetian in ornamentation, as may be specially seen in the decorations of Santa Maria dei Miraeoli. His sons Tullio and Pietro, together with Alessandro Leopardi (d. 1522), present the remarkable spectacle of artists seek- ing inspiration in Greek monuments instead of the customary Roman, exactly as Canova did at Venice three centuries later, and achieving fine decorative results. High Renaissance (sixteenth century). Sculpture now became freer than at any previous period, being no longer dependent upon archi- tecture as in the Gothic epoch, or even upon deco- ration, as in the fifteenth century. It was al- lotted a more important place by architecture than previously; indeed, architecture itself be- came sculpturesque — a framing for statues or monuments. Half colossal or even colossal fig- ures were used in place of the former life-size figures, and new types of biblical subjects were invented. At first there was a deeper study of the antique, which gave a monumental style and universal type: but this soon degenerated into a mannered imitation of the great masters who acquired it. Florence again furnished the greatest geniuses. Among the first to enter the new path was .Andrea Sansovino (1400-1529), a follower of Verrocchio, called the Raphael of sculpture. With all beauty of form, however, his work shows a lack of originality, and his later statues are mannered, ilore original in fancy, but not his equal in technique, was Bene- detto da Rovezzano (1471)1556), who ex- celled as a decorator. Torrigiano (1472-1522) introduced the Italian Renaissance into Kngland and into Spain, while Tribolo (1485-1550), a Florentine chiefiy active in Bologna, was pre- vented b,y misfortunes from attaining the higher rank that his early work jiromised. . The greatest of the Florentines, and, indeed, the greatest sculptor in modern art, was Jlichelangelt), ■the man of destiny," in whose hands were placed the life and death of scul]iture. To a perfect knowledge of anatomy and perfect skill in line, he addeii an equal technical ability in the treatment of the marble. Using the action of the human figure as expressive of emotion, he developed a st.vie which was the culmination of that of Dona- tello, Querela, and Signorelli. Its cliief character- istics were gigantic, highly developed forms com- bined with intense dramatic action, and these qualities, which the Italians call terribilita, domi- nated the sculpture of the remaining sixteenth century, and, indeed, of the seventeenth and eight- eenth. Xot possessing his genius, and impelled by the demand for rapid production, his followeis produced works without real feeling and man- nered in character. His pupils and followers show no particular individuality. Bandinelli ( 1488- 1560) was, in spite of himself, a mere imitator of Michelangelo, and his pupil Ammanati (1511- 92) was even worse. Brilliant exceptions to the general mediocrity were the Florentine bronze sculptors Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) and .lean ■ Boulogne (1524-1608), by birth a Fleming. In Venice the chief master was the Florentine .lacopo Sansovino (1477-1570), a pupil of An- drea Sansovino, who modified his st.vie to suit the rich decorative effects demanded there. His pupils, like Girolamo Campagna, produced good work after the rest of Italy had sunk into man- nerism. But during the two following centuries came the same decline. Sculpture of the seventeenth century in Ital.v was dominated bv Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1508-1680), active chiefiy at Rome. He was a most skillful technician, but in his exaggerated works failed to recognize the limitations of sculp- ture. His followers, like Algardi and Madcrna, lost even the capacity for great ideas, and were hopelessly mannered and extravagant. The French Renaissance. During the fif- teenth and still more during the sixteenth cen- tury the Italian influence spread throughout Europe, at first propagated bv Italian sculp- tors who were summoned abroad. The Renais- sance of sculptiire appeared much sooner in Northern Europe than did the Italian influence. Before this event the observation of nature had partially transformed media'val sculpture and painting, and the ensuing amalgamation produced an art which remained essentially national in character. During the fifteenth century a style of sculp- ture prevailed in France analogous to that of the Netherlands, the chief characteristic of which was a pictorial naturalism. The works of Claux .Sinter at Dijon exercised a wide influence, and the greatest French sculptor of the period, Michel