Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/709

 SCULPTURE

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SCULPTURE

The sculpture of Babylonia and Assyria, the sur- vivals of which have been excavated on the sites of an- cient Nineveh and Babylon, has, notwithstanding its shortcomings, produced works of imperishable im- portance. It is imperfect in the representation of man, who is portrayed in a conventional and typical manner, but in the representation of animal combats and hunting scenes it reveals a surprisingly close ob- servation of nature, free composition, and youthful energy. In its subjects it is greatly the inferior of the Egyptian, since it serves almost entirely for the glori- fication of the great and little deeds of the deified rulers. The sculpture of the Persians has become known particularly through the excavations at Perse- opolis. It served the same purpose as the Babylonian, but the relief is more correct in perspective, and the human figure shows a touch of individuality.

Pre-Christian sculpture attained its zenith in Greece ; its sculptures have in all times been consid- ered as unrivalled masterpieces. We can only devote a few words to them here. The subjects of Greek sculpture were taken particularly from the domain of religion, even in the times of the decline, when belief in the gods was rapidly disappearing. Numerous vo- tive statues for deliverance from calamities or for vic- torious battles, as well as those erected in the temples and their vicinity by the victors of the athletic games, belong, in a wide sense, to what may be called re- ligious sculpture. Besides religious subjects, por- traits and genre statues were produced in great num- bers. In accordance with the material used three classes of Greek sculpture may be distinguished: chryselephantine statues, the nude parts of which were of ivory and the draperies of gold; marble (par- ticularly Parian marble); bronze, in which material the Greeks achieved perfect mastery of solid casting as well as hollow casting in a fire-proof mould. The excellences of Greek sculpture are ex-traordinary sim- plicity and clearness in composition, plastic repose as well as pleasing action, wonderful charm, and con- scientious technical execution. The great beauty of body which immediately impresses one at the sight of Greek sculpture is explained partly by the beauty of the Greek race, partly by the daily ob.servation of naked youths and men as they appeared in the pales- tra. But they reveal no sensual beauty in the mod- em sense, and only during the period after Phidias did sculptors venture to depict female goddesses, for instance Aphrodite, entirely nude. In addition to the excellences just mentioned especial charac- teristics appear in each separate period. Three or four periods of Greek sculpture are usually distin- guished.

Works of the first period, or of the Archaic style (b. c. 775-449), show in the beginning a hfeless con- straint, but later reveal an expression of physical power and agility. The second period, the golden age (b. c. 449-323), is characterized at first by an ideal trend, represented especially by Phidias of the Attic School in his gold-ivory statues of the deities; partly also by a tendency to emphasize the highest physical beauty, the mo.st celebrated representative of which is Polycletus of the Argive School. The tendency during the last part of the second period was towards graceful, bewitching beauty, combined with the expression of the most tender sentiment, through which subjectivity gained the upper hand, and through which the decline or third period (32.3- 146) was ushered in. This age still produced a num- ber of much admired works, such as the Laocoon group, the Farnese Bull, the Apollo Belvedere. The centres of art shifted to Pergamon and Rhodes. To the fourth period, the period of decay (b. c. 146- a. d. 397) are attributed the works, which partly originals, partly copies, were created by Greek and Roman ar- tists in Italy. Typical of this period is the preva- lence of portraits, both busts and statues. Grseco-

Roman sculpture was finally destroyed, not, as the Assyrian and Babylonian, by violent suppression or gradual absorption, but by the infusion of a new spirit and of new ideas.

III. The current views of early Christian art have very recently been radically changed because through the researches of Strzygowski and others, the Orient has received its just dues. Both in form and in technique Christian sculpture is, generally speaking, identical with the pagan from which it was developed. But what the latest modern research has shown us is this: that it was not Rome which produced the best and most ancient works of Christian sculpture, but the East, which is certainly the cradle of Christian art. In Asia Minor the influence of Hellenistic art was still so strong that many early Christian works present an almost classical character, but in the West, where this beneficent influence was lacking, sculpture fell earher into decline. In pre-Constantinian times probably few works of sculpture were executed. This is espe- cially true of representations of the Persons of the Trinity, because the Jews who had become Christians were averse to graven images, and the converted pa- gans were deterred by their remembrance of the in- numerable statues of their former gods. But with the Emperor Constantine the production of sculptures in stone and bronze immediately began on a large scale. Few examples of the statuary of this period have been preserved ; but among these are a "Pastor Bonus " in the Museum of the Lateran, and a "Christ" in Berlin, both probably Oriental works. On the other hand, numerous reliefs survive, because, after the ancient custom, the sarcophagi, of which a large number survive, were richly decorated with sculptural representations. The surviving Christian sarcophagi belong mostly to the fourth and fifth centuries, and may be classified into an Occidental and an Oriental group. To the latter belong the beautiful sarcophagi of Ravenna, whose art stood in very intimate re- lation with the Byzantine. Sculpture in wood and ivory, so highly developed in antiquity, was enlisted in the service of the Church, as is proven by the por- tals of the Basilica of S. Sabina at Rome, and the nu- merous preserved book-covers, diptychs, and pyxea. For our knowledge of the transition from the early Christian to medieval sculpture we are indebted principally to reliefs carved in ivory, for there is an almost complete dearth of statuary until the tenth century. Sculptvu-e in ivory achieved great impor- tance in the ninth and tenth centuries. In delicacy of execution, in rh>i:hm of line, and in well-considered ob.sorvance of the laws of composition, the master- pieces of this epoch approach the creations of the early Renai.ssance. This branch of sculpture flour- ished especially in France, at Tours, Corbie, and Metz.

In comparison with these delicate ivory carvings, the first attempts of Romanesque stone sculpture ap- pear crude and clumsy, but they contain the germs of a new life, which in the thirteenth century occasioned the first flower of medieval sculpture. It is typical of this period that sculpture, especially in stone, was predominantly subordinated to architecture and served almost exclusively for ecclesiastical purposes. The reliefs are entirely of symbolic character, and ex- press thoughts which to a great extent have not yet been completely fathomed. At the beginning of this period (llth-12th centuries) there was an important development of sculpture in bronze, at Hildesheim under Bishop Bernward (d. 1022), and at Magdeburg in the works of Master Riquinus. In Dinant (Bel- gium) also works of imposing beauty originated at this time, the best known of which is the baptismal font at Liege (1112), resting upon twelve bronze oxen — the work of Renier de Huy. Until the end of the twelfth century sculpture in stone was almost entirely con- fined to reliefs, which served as decorations of baptis-