Page:Western Europe in the Middle Ages.djvu/200

184 literature has used much of this material; one of its main roots runs directly to the Middle Ages.

The connection between art and literature was close in the thirteenth century, especially in sculpture and stained-glass work. Emile Male has shown that many scenes depicted in the cathedrals are simply illustrations of ideas and allegories discussed in the popular and didactic literature of the period. Architecture, naturally, was not so directly affected; there was, as yet, almost no theorizing on the subject. And yet, while architecture had its own life and its own tradition, deriving from the twelfth century, it had much in common with contemporary scholarship. The basic plan of the Gothic cathedral had been established earlier, but certain key relationships still had to be worked out. For example, how could the great, round rose windows of the façade be reconciled with the pointed arches of the interior? As Professor Panofsky has suggested, the architects of the thirteenth century had much the same problem as the theologians; they had to make a consistent and integrated pattern out of the varied ideas of their predecessors. That they succeeded shows both their technical ability and the quality of their artistic imagination.

A great cathedral of the thirteenth century is as logical as the Summa Theologica. It shows the bare ribs of its structure as confidently as Aquinas demonstrated his syllogisms; it resolves its architectural problems as surely as he did the contradictions among his authorities. It sums up the learning and the beliefs of the Western World in its windows and sculptures—history, allegory, legend, the Liberal Arts and the Labors of the Months, parables and dogmas, all are there. And yet, more than any other thirteenth-century activity, it escaped the coldness of intellectualism. The cathedrals are not only well planned; they are beautiful. The sculpture is not merely a visible demonstration of Christian truths; it has an esthetic as well as a rational appeal. The figures of Christ and the saints are idealized, and yet there is startling realism in some of the scenes of daily life. The allegorical figures are