Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/264

VII. Sculpture in the Gothic Period. From about a.d. 1225 to a.d. 1400. At the end of the twelfth century a marked change was already noticeable in the art of the whole of Western Europe. The Crusades were drawing to a close ; the working of the new ideas and modes of thought intro- duced by them was seen on every side ; and with the beginning of the thirteenth century a new style sprang up, which was a kind of reflection of the new spirit of freedom with which European society was imbued. In this movement France took the lead. The sculptures of the west front of the cathedral of Amiens (Fig. 98), executed about 1240, retain something of the early severe Gothic style, which, as we have seen, prevailed from about 1225-75 ; the transept pediment of Chartres Cathedral is a specimen of the transition to greater freedom, and the statues of La Sainte Chapelle at Paris (1245 — 1248) are the first instances of the completed Gothic, in which all trace of the rude earlier style has disappeared, and grace and dignity are admirably blended. It is in the west front of Rheims Cathedral, however, that the full development of Gothic sculpture in France may best be studied. The grandeur of the arrangement and the beauty of the details of the various groups are alike unrivalled, the attitudes of the figures are dignified and graceful, the drapery is simple and natural, and many of the heads are full of individual character. The cathedrals of Bourges, Beauvais, and Blois, also contain fine specimens of Gothic sculpture, and the