Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/288

Rh I mean more or less indication in face, movement, or attitude, of some thought or emotion. We may not be always able to read the intended thoughts or feelings with precision; but we are, in the best Gothic sculptures, impressed with a sense that the minds of the personages represented are in some way definitely exercised. And often we can divine almost with certainty the nature of the thought or emotion with which the artist endeavoured to animate his figures. What we have seen in the lintel of Senlis is but a conspicuous instance of what is in some measure apparent in most of the works wrought by Gothic hands. And this development of expression as the chief motive of the art is, indeed, the natural outcome of the mediæval, as compared with the ancient, genius of the Christian as opposed to the pagan idea of humanity. In the arts of the earlier ages of Christianity this characteristic hardly appeared, perhaps because the requisite skill to produce it was wanting. Gothic sculpture was, indeed, the first Christian art to attain the technical advance required to enable it to become a medium of varied expression.

But though the expression of character was the leading motive of Gothic sculpture, it does not follow that bodily beauty was ignored by the Gothic artists. The production of such beauty was distinctly one of their aims, yet, since in the Gothic ideal physical perfection did not count for everything, many imperfections were admitted into a composition, and skilfully subordinated to a general scheme of beauty. The idea that this art was generally animated by an ascetic spirit which was incompatible with beauty is a misconception. The Christian doctrine of self-abnegation did not, with the lay artists of the Ile-de-France, at all preclude the joyful contemplation of all that was regarded as becomingly fair; and though, in the representation of terrestrial beings, beauty was often associated with deformity, the illustration of conceptions of the supernatural led often to the production of very exquisite types of beauty. But the mediæval motives were so different from those of pagan art that there could be little likeness between the respective forms produced. The Christian sentiment naturally excluded everything that savoured of bodily charm alone; it demanded a fitting modesty