Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/49

I be further considered, though it cannot be adequately treated, in future pages. It is enough here to remark that all of those fundamental principles of design which characterise the finest plastic art of Greece,—such as organic composition, breadth of masses, refined flexures of surfaces, quiet grace of contours, moderation of curvature in figures and draperies, and general dignity of pose and gesture—are constantly present in the works of the Gothic carvers. While in addition to these qualities there are in Gothic figure sculpture the same adaptation to position, and the same subjection to architectural effect, that we find in foliate ornament. And herein consists largely the difference, in so far as treatment is concerned, between Greek and Gothic design. Sculpture as an independent art reached a higher perfection in Ancient Greece and in Renaissance Italy. But as an architectural auxiliary there is no sculpture comparable to Gothic. Nor is Gothic sculpture rendered altogether inferior as sculpture by this subordination. On the contrary, this stern subjection brings out some of the grandest qualities that sculpture can attain. It enforces the omission of all that is trivial, and gives emphasis to what is significant and important. As instances of Gothic sculpture in which these qualities are especially marked may be mentioned, the statues of the west portals of Chartres, the bas-relief of the Assumption of the Virgin on the lintel of the main portal of the Cathedral of Senlis—to be more fully noticed when we come to treat of French sculpture,—and the statue of the Virgin in the portal of the north transept of the Cathedral of Paris.

It should be noticed also that there is in Gothic sculpture a structural fitness wherever occasion calls for it—as, for instance, in the corbelled projections which support the wide abaci of capitals. It is remarkable that a high degree of beauty often appears to result from such structural adaptation. Indeed, the beauty of the finest Gothic capitals is largely due to the forms which adapt them to their functions, and render them to the eye, as well as in reality, strong and efficient working members. With this functional form of the main mass every detail of ornament appears to act in sympathy, though it be only in the direction of its lines. There is an expression of upward impulse in the endlessly varied Corinthianesque foliation of the Gothic