Читать книгу The World's Debt to the Catholic Church - James J. Walsh - Страница 7

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At the beginning of Christianity there seems to have been some little feeling of suspicion as to the employment of sculpture in Church decoration and some discouragement of its use in connection with religion. The Jews who had been converted to Christianity still retained the objection that had been created in them by the prohibition of graven images, while pagan converts were deterred by their remembrance of the use of sculpture in their temples and the abuses connected with the worship of these. Recent research, however, has revealed the fact that in the East much more than in the West sculpture was cultivated in connection with Christianity, though unfortunately the iconoclastic movement of the early Middle Ages destroyed many precious monuments of this kind which would have served to illustrate the influence of Christianity on the sculptors of the early Christian time. There are but few examples of the statuary of the first two or three Christian centuries, but among these are a really beautiful Pastor Bonus which may be seen in the museum of the Lateran and a "Christ" in Berlin. Sculptured works in relief, however, were very common, especially in connection with sarcophagi, and a number of these in the fourth and fifth centuries show that Christianity was not only not discouraging but on the contrary was affording opportunity for the development of sculptural genius. The sarcophagi of Ravenna are particularly interesting in this regard and very definitely related to Byzantine art.

While life size sculpture did not flourish to any extent in early medieval Western Christianity, the artistic carving of smaller objects in other materials besides stone or bronze was cultivated very interestingly under the influence of the Church. Sculpture in wood is illustrated in the doorway of the basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome, and there were a number of book covers, book stands and other objects in connection with Church services that were beautifully carved. Ivory came to be a favorite material for sculpture in the earlier Middle Ages and flourished particularly in France. The use of the precious metals for the making of altar vessels afforded another opportunity for plastic art that was taken very finely. Collections of Merovingian art work show that some of the best specimens were made for Church purposes and that there was a real artistic spirit manifested in their creation. The French sculpture in ivory was declared by Kleinschmidt to "approach the creations of the early Renaissance in delicacy of execution, in rhythm of line and in well considered observance of the laws of composition."

With the beginning of the second millennium of the Christian era, and in connection particularly with the development of Romanesque architecture, there was an important evolution of sculpture in bronze in Germany at Hildesheim and at Magdeburg in the eleventh century and in Belgium in the twelfth century. The famous baptismal font at Liége, resting upon twelve bronze oxen, the date of which is the early twelfth century, the work of Renier de Huy, is a striking example of how men were inspired to do work of artistic character and at the same time most difficult performance in connection with the Church. Carving in stone during this period was subordinated to architecture, but some of it as done for churches was extremely interesting and artistic. Stone reliefs, which served as decorations of baptismal fonts, portals and choir screens, are still visited very often by architects in search of ideas and not a few of them have been copied in plaster to find a place in the modern museums. Our own Metropolitan Museum in New York shows some striking examples of twelfth century stone carving and relief which find a place there only because they represent extremely important steps in the history of art.

With the beginning of what is known as the earlier Renaissance, at the end of the twelfth and the early years of the thirteenth century, Gothic sculpture as it was called flourished very strikingly and came to occupy a place in the history of art that has probably never been excelled. The statue of Christ over the main portal of the Cathedral of Amiens is an interesting example of this. It was finished not long after the middle of the thirteenth century. It has often been said to be perhaps the most beautiful presentation of the human form divine ever made in stone. It is really a marvelous piece of sculpture. The people of Amiens did not call it in the old fashioned way Le Bon Dieu, but because of its beauty, Le Beau Dieu, the beautiful God. Amiens was not ahead of other cathedrals except in this one specimen and the cathedrals at Chartres, at Bourges and Le Mans surpass most of the work of northern France because they "achieve an imposing: effect by reason of their solemn dignity and silent repose." The Gothic cathedrals presented abundant opportunities for the exhibition of sculpture and these opportunities stimulated churchmen to patronize sculpture and provided men who had any tendency in this direction with occupations that afforded them pleasure in their work and a living wage while they were executing beautiful things that gave them a joy that could be secured in no other way.

The extent to which sculpture developed in the Gothic period in France is very well illustrated by the fact that in the Cathedral of Rheims there were about two thousand five hundred statues altogether. Some of them were gems of artistry. Whenever any of them were destroyed during the war there was always the feeling that no one in our generation could ever hope to equal the sculptured beauty that modern chemistry in its development of high explosives had enabled us to break up so easily. [Note 2] From 1150 at Chartres through St. Denis in the beginning of the thirteenth century down to the statues of the twelve apostles in the Ste. Chapelle in Paris at the end of the thirteenth century there are some wonderful examples of how men may express the deepest thoughts and the moods of humanity in stone. Everywhere the impetus to this form of art spread because of the stimulus of the churchmen and their liberal patronage. In Burgundy and in the Netherlands a whole series of artistic triumphs in sculpture were erected in the churches during the fifteenth century. This was all under the influence of the Gothic and had nothing to do with the Greek and Roman remains which had been unearthed and were so deeply influencing the latter part of this period down in Italy.

After the great Gothic sculpture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries came the glorious renascence of sculpture under the influence of restored interest in Greek and Roman models in the Renaissance time. The group of names in connection with that movement is the best known in the history of sculpture. It begins with Donatello and includes Leopardi, Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, the Della Robbias, Benvenuto Cellini, Michelangelo and John of Bologna. Practically everyone who has any pretense to education anywhere throughout the world knows these names. But there are other sculptors of such distinction as Mino da Fiesole, the two Rossellinis, Benedetto da Maiano in Florence alone and the rivals and imitators of Michelangelo, Baccio Bandinelli, Giacomo delia Porta, Montelupo, Ammanati, and Vincenzo di Rossi who are very well known by everyone really interested in sculpture or art. These sculptors of the second rate in the Renaissance are probably greater than any sculptors of the modern time, yet their names are quite unfamiliar to even the educated public because the ordinary memory refuses to hold more than a certain number of names and Italy had too many geniuses at this time for them all to be recalled.

All these men did their work under the inspiration of Catholic Christianity and under the patronage of the ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church. Only that heads of religious orders and the hierarchy and those responsible for the decoration of cathedrals and abbey churches had the good taste to employ really great sculptors, there would have been comparatively little opportunity for these men to display their genius. Does anyone think for a moment that at a time when there were so many great men there were not a whole host of smaller men who were constantly being "boosted" and with regard to whom political and family influence of one kind or another was constantly being used so as to secure them commissions? It would have been cheaper, doubtless, though money meant very little for the work of this time, to have employed the smaller men. Many of them would doubtless have been much more obsequious in following out ideas presented to them and pretending that patrons had artistic sense enough and a sense of beauty to enable them to dictate the composition of art subjects. These men would have been much more ready to flatter their patrons than were the really great sculptors, but we have as the result of the taste of the churchmen of the time a wonderful treasure of artistic achievements in sculpture during this period.

The subjects for most of these great works were suggested, even inspired, by the teachings of the Church. Donatello's great statue of St. George outside the church of Or San Michele at Florence, is a typical example. Critics consider that it is surpassed only by some of Michelangelo's work and that of the Greeks. We have in the Metropolitan Museum in New York his Boy St. John the Baptist, which is one of the treasures of the museum. There were many other saints done evidently with the heartiest of religious feeling by Donatello.

Michelangelo was a deep believer and a faithful follower of Church tradition. Probably nothing illustrates this so well as his famous group known as La Pietà, which may be seen at St. Peter's in Rome. Executed when Michelangelo was less than twenty-five years of age, it has come to be looked upon as one of the greatest sculptures of the world. Only a man with deep belief in the doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God could have made this wonderful group in which the dead Savior taken down from the cross is lying across His Mother's knee. Some critics objected to the youthfulness of the Mother's face and even in Michelangelo's time this was commented upon. His famous reply, all the more interesting in these days of discussion of the Virgin birth, was, "Don't you know that chaste women keep their youthful looks much longer than others? This is much more true in the case of a virgin who had never known a wanton desire to leave its shade upon her beauty!" Michelangelo's next important work was his David, a copy of which is the crowning feature of the hill above Florence. After this work Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II and commissioned to make that great tomb which occupied so much of his attention for the next quarter of a century. Unfortunately, owing to political and other disturbances, he was never able to finish it and he was called away to do the less congenial but triumphant work of decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The figure of the Moses and other details of the tomb show how much the commission stimulated him. His statue of Christ, executed in marble,--and the difference between the marble and the bronze David in Florence shows how much more suited marble is to bring out the feeling of humanity,--is another of these wonderful triumphs of Michelangelo's genius. It well deserves to be placed beside even the statue of Christ over the centre portal at Amiens and there is the same almost worship of it by the ordinary citizens of Rome who come visiting it in the church. The Amiennois called their statue of Christ, as we have said, Le Beau Dieu, the beautiful God. At Rome they have had to protect Michelangelo's Christ from having its foot all kissed away,--after sad ravages had all ready been made on it,--by shielding it with a sandal made of bronze. Unthinking people may talk of such customs as superstition, but when they bring the men and women into intimate contact with beautiful works of art such as this while all the time fostering a strong sense of personal relationship, they are marvelously productive of that elusive quality we call culture.

There are men whose names are scarcely known outside of Italy and surely not known outside of intimate art circles who did art work in the service of the Church that is simply exquisite. Take for instance the sculptor, or perhaps the series of sculptors whose names we are not sure of, who decorated the façade of the Certosa of Pavia. This was the Carthusian monastery three miles outside of the city of Pavia that has been for nearly five centuries now a place of pilgrimage for art lovers because of the beautiful things made for it. The Carthusian monks kept perpetual silence, never ate meat, never went outside of their monasteries, took a shovel full of earth out of the grave that they were to lie in and meditated on death every day, but they made a beautiful edifice as a home for Emmanuel and themselves; and people who came to visit it learned to know that a thing of beauty is a joy forever and that the most beautiful things in the world were associated with religious ideas. Or take the beautiful work done by Giralamo Lombardo and his sons who wrought the magnificent bronze gates of the Holy House of Loretto and the sculpture on the western façade of the church of the same place. It was one of the delights of pilgrims to Loretto before the fire ruined some of it to find how charmingly the little old house which, according to tradition, was the home of Christ and His Mother while He was on earth, is here enshrined. It adds a new item of proof, as it were, and creates a willingness to believe the legend.

Even in such apparently unsuitable material as terra cotta these Renaissance Italians did some marvelously beautiful sculpture. Luca Della Robbia, after having made the beautiful angels of the choir gallery at Florence and ever so many other charming things in marble, set himself the task of making equally beautiful things in terra cotta and accomplished his purpose so marvelously that replicas of his work have ever since been favorite bits of adornment for drawing rooms and living rooms all over the world. His brothers and a sister and his nephews also became interested in the work and now we are not always able to decide how much of Luca's work is in these pieces. We have some striking examples at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Luca liked above all to make terra cottas of the mysteries of the Rosary. the events in the life of the Blessed Virgin, the Annunciation, the Visitation of St. Elizabeth by the Blessed Virgin, the Nativity. He had a wonderful charm in the plastic reproduction of children. His putti in marble are famous and the bambini, little babies wrapped in swaddling clothes, usually in white on a blue circular ground or blue on white, were exquisitely done. They were made for the decoration of the Hospital of The Innocents, which was the gracious name that the Florentines had for the foundlings instead of the rude betrayal term that we employ. These are favorite subjects for reproduction and copies of them are probably to be found in more homes than of any other piece of sculpture in the world. It was Luca's studies of the Christ Child that led up to these.

There were other great sculptors who drew their inspiration from religious subjects. Antonio Begarelli of Modena, who died just about the end of the Renaissance (1565), was enthusiastically admired by Michelangelo. His Descent From the Cross in San Francesco at Modena shows how much can be accomplished by a genius in producing great sculpture even in so complicated a composition as this, and justifies Michelangelo's admiration fully.

After this comes decadence. Bernini was the greatest sculptor of the seventeenth century. In his younger years his Cain and Abel under Church influence represent really beautiful sculpture. Later came his classical period and deterioration. He was probably more admired than any sculptor has ever been in his own time and he deserved it least, though he was a man of artistic genius or at least of supreme talent and in a better environment would surely have accomplished some wonderful work. His contemporary, Stefano Maderna, under the influence of religious feeling produced the really very beautiful statue of St. Cecilia lying dead, the figure which under the high altar of her basilica at Rome attracts so much admiration and copies of which are to be seen all over the world. The sculptor has caught with marvelous realism the pose in death of the martyr and his treatment of the drapery shows positive genius for plastic art.

It was not alone in Italy, however, that religious inspiration led to the making of supremely great sculpture during this Renaissance time. The Germans were famous as wood carvers and an immense number of carved altars, pulpits, choir screens, choir stalls, tabernacles and church furniture of many kinds, as well as church fittings of nearly every description and of very great elaborateness and usually fine artistic quality, were produced. One of the first of the great German wood carvers, Jörg Syrlin, executed the famous choir stalls of Ulm cathedral, so richly decorated and ornamented with statuettes and canopies. His son of the same name did the great pulpit in the same cathedral and the elaborate stalls in Blaubeurn church. These works were finished within a few years of the discovery of America. Veit Stoss was another of these skillful artists in church woodwork and he was invited to many parts of Europe, to Cracow, to do the high altar and the tabernacles and the stalls of the Frauenkerchen. His masterpiece is the great wooden panel, nearly six feet square, carved toward the end of the fifteenth century with an immense number of scenes from Bible history,--which is now among the treasures of the Nuremburg town hall. And yet one will hear it said that they were keeping the Bible away from the people at this time.

Albrecht Dürer, the great painter, with Renaissance versatility took up sculpture and did not despise even the humble medium of wood in the service of the Church. As might be expected, he could execute beautifully and artistically even in this mode, and as an act of pious devotion he executed a tabernacle with an exquisitely carved relief of Christ on the cross between His Mother and St. John, which still may be seen in the chapel of the monastery in Landan.

Then came the work of Adam Kraft and the Vischer family for three generations in bronze, though at the beginning the influence of wood carving can be seen. These men, too, took their inspirations from Catholic Christianity, and how much that could mean as a stimulus to a great artist is seen very well in the magnificent masterpiece of the Vischers, the shrine of St. Sebald at Nuremburg. There is a copy of this to be seen in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The original is a wondrous shrine to which many visitors of the modern time turn their steps with very little thought of the religious elements represented by it yet attracted by the marvelous artistic value. It is a veritable triumph of plastic art, admired and reverenced by the people of that time very highly, and modern critical appreciation of it has completely corroborated contemporary admiration. Its details are a never ending source of interesting study. Some of the statuettes of saints attached to the slender columns of the canopy are among the most beautiful examples of their kind extant. They have grace and dignity as well as fine expressiveness. They could have come only from a man who believed thoroughly and heartily in the doctrine of the communion of saints. Faith alone could have given such a supreme stimulus to expression.

No wonder that Gerhard Hauptmann, the world known German dramatic poet to whom the Nobel prize for literature was awarded not long before the war, said after praising the tomb of St. Sebald as a veritable stroke of genius: "I as a Protestant have often had to regret that we purchased our freedom of conscience, our individual liberty at entirely too high a price. In order to make room for the small, mean little plant of personal life we destroyed a whole garden of fancy and hewed down a virgin forest of aesthetic ideas. We went even so far in the insanity of our weakness as to throw out of the garden of our souls the fruitful soil that had been accumulating for thousands of years or else we plowed it under sterile clay."

And then he added, "In my workroom there is ever before me a photograph of St. Sebald's tomb. It seems to me one of the most wonderful bits of work in the whole field of artistic accomplishment. The soul of all the great medieval period enwraps this silver coffin, giving to it a noble unity, and enthrones on the very summit of Death, Life as a growing child. Such a work could only have come to its perfection in the protected spaces of the old Mother Church."

Modern sculpture has deteriorated to a very great extent, and while there are occasional pieces of sculpture that represent a worthy striving after the expression of emotional truth in plastic mode, there are very few critics who are ready to admit that our sculpture in any way compares with that of the Renaissance or of the Greeks. Especially the Renaissance sculpture, that was done under the influence of religious motives and with the definite purpose of finding its place in a church or religious structure of some kind where it would be the admiration of the people, proved to be wondrously beautiful. Many of those who know most about sculpture are quite ready to confess that in our time the great lack of the sculptor is not so much talent as the depth of feeling which comes so readily in connection with religion and the incentive to do the best that is in one when one feels that it is being accomplished not merely for selfish ambition and still less for sordid gain but as an act of worship of the Creator or of reverence for some favorite saint. It is deep emotion that our artists and poets lack. Poetry is truth touched with emotion and sculpture is plastic art similarly touched. Without the profound emotional element in it the sculpture is commonplace almost inevitably. The Church has ever provided not only the opportunity to house great sculpture suitably where it would be admired, but has also been the medium to arouse the profound emotion that the artist needs.