Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Religious Art in France, XIII Century: A Study in Mediaeval Iconography and Its Sources of Inspiration
A synthetic work of this kind is Open to the objection that it gives no sufficient indication of the slow growth that was going on during the centuries preceding the thirteenth. The thirteenth century is the period when the thought of the Middle Ages was most fully expressed in art - hence our choice of it - but it was very far from originating all the modes of ex pression which it perfected. It had inherited a multitude Of types, of dispositions, and Of ideas from previous centuries. The long evolution of Christian art is one of the most interesting, as it is one Of the most elusive subjects of research that can be undertaken by the scholar. Nothing could be more instructive than to follow the representation Of a given person or scene, from the art of the catacombs to that of the cathedrals. Careful study Of the same type, Observing its development in chronological order from fifth century mosaics, through Byzantine miniatures, Carlovingian ivories and Romanesque capitals to the sculpture and glass of the thirteenth century, would reveal a long series of stages in the evolution of Christian thought. It would be seen, for example, that the art Of the catacombs does not venture to show to the faithful the image Of the crucified Christ, that Romanesque art Of the early period represents Him on a jewelled cross, crowned and triumphant, with Open eyes and lifted head, and that the art Of the thirteenth century, less doctrinal and more human, shows the crucified figure with closed eyes and drooping form. The final appeal is to the heart rather than to the head.
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