Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/306

Rh mediæval buildings. Of this freedom there is evidence enough in the work itself. The range of invention in the designing of figures and ornaments is, in any given building, far too wide to have been compassed by any single mind. There was, of course, a master builder, or architect, whose general directions were followed, but there was no individual who, like a modern architect, strictly determined every detail. The conditions were all different from those of modern times. The bands of laymen, by whom these great buildings were wrought, and who, at this period, went about from place to place wherever important architectural works were to be undertaken, had, in the first instance, been trained in the monastic art schools. In these schools they had learned not only their craft, but also how to work together for common ends. There existed among them a strong esprit de corps; and each individual in the fraternity felt the ardour, the pleasure, and the freedom in his work that are inspired by mutual confidence and a common enthusiasm. So perfect was the concord of feeling, so imbued were all the members with the general principles of the art, that individual freedom had no tendency to produce insubordination in design.

The art schools of the Middle Ages were such in the truest sense. Nothing akin to modern academic methods existed in these schools. They were strictly schools of practice, where the novice learned his art by taking part, according to his capacity, in the actual construction and adornment of buildings. He was, of course, taught by his seniors such general principles as had been acquired by tradition, or derived from experience; but fresh experiment ever afforded fresh instruction to both pupil and master. A great public monument in progress formed naturally and unconsciously a true school of art. And so far as concerns artistic production no other kind of school has yet proved of much avail.

One conspicuous element of effect in the sculpture of the Middle Ages is now entirely lost, and hence the aspect of even the best preserved examples remaining is very different from that which it must have originally displayed. The colour with which these sculptures were formerly enlivened has wholly disappeared, with