Blackwell Reference Online

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The sculpture of the period from c. 1150 to c. 1250 is usually labeled “Gothic.” Primarily associated with the cathedral, sculpture developed rapidly until around 1250. Most of the leading workshops of Gothic sculpture were attached to cathedrals, and their artistic leadership came from French abbeys after the Romanesque period. The exteriors of Gothic cathedrals became the setting for large sculptural projects of a size that had never before been seen. The outside of Chartres Cathedral displays about 2,000 pieces of sculpture; Reims Cathedral has even more. Rood-screens ( jubés ), too, were covered with sculpture. Unfortunately, only fragments are left in France to tell us about their once lavish programs; most of them were destroyed during the seventeenth century. Rood-screens functioned as barriers to restrict the view of the chancel from the nave at the celebration of the Mass. Defining sculpture of this period as “cathedral sculpture” becomes even more convincing once we notice the changes in the character of such work after 1250, when the outsides of church buildings were no longer covered with large amounts of sculpture. For example, Sainte-Chapelle at Paris, which functioned as a chapel for the royal palace and which was built to house the Crown of Thorns (recently brought from Constantinople), marks the end of our period. Its sculptural program consists primarily of ... log in or subscribe to read full text