. Art in France. er grain, its whiteness, its polished surface necessitatedsuppler and more precise modelling. Theornamental vocabulary was the first thing tobe transformed. The interlaced ribs andserrated foliage of the Flamboyant Styledisappeared from an architecture of regularlines. Flat pilasters and entablatures weredecorated with candelabra, arabesques, andgarlands in low relief; a decoration sub-ordinated like an embroidery to the plane ofthe surface and its framework. The Italianworkers in marble, who had come to Franceas early as the reign of Charles VIII, inter-mingled their ornament
. Art in France. er grain, its whiteness, its polished surface necessitatedsuppler and more precise modelling. Theornamental vocabulary was the first thing tobe transformed. The interlaced ribs andserrated foliage of the Flamboyant Styledisappeared from an architecture of regularlines. Flat pilasters and entablatures weredecorated with candelabra, arabesques, andgarlands in low relief; a decoration sub-ordinated like an embroidery to the plane ofthe surface and its framework. The Italianworkers in marble, who had come to Franceas early as the reign of Charles VIII, inter-mingled their ornamental style with that ofmonuments, the figures of which remainedpurely Gothic. But very soon these figuresthemselves began to cast aside their pecu-liarities of costume and phjsiognomy, general-ising, idealising, and tending towards thattype of beauty which Florentine disciplineand the study of the antique had recendy re-vealed. It was then only that French art waspenetrated to its depths by the classic M. FlC. T;i_^. — SKELETON IN THECHlRCH OF SALNT ETIENNE AT BAR-LE-Dlf. LIGIER-RICHIER. (Photo. Laurent.) ART IN FRANCE Around royal or princelysarcophagi arose beautiful alle-gorical figures clad in those con-ventional draperies known asantique, which reveal the formof the body. The recumbentfigure was no longer encased inrigid armour; he wore thecuirass of the Roman pattern,outlining the breast, the abdomenand the thighs. Very often herose on the funeral slab, andrested on his elbow after themanner of an antique river-god,or knelt before a face was still a portrait,but the figure was that of an impersonal hero. The monuments at Saint Denis demonstrate this transformationof sculpture very clearly. In order to pass from the Gothic worldto that of the Renaissance, we must make a pilgrimage through thisWay of Tombs. The evolution of form corresponds to a moralevolution. The sculptors of the Middle Ages had fixed images ofdeath in these recumbent
Size: 1074px × 2327px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernew, booksubjectart
