Four saints
Hello everyone! Today I would like to introduce the relief "Statue of the Four Saints" in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Château in France, which was created between 1145 and 1155 AD.
Medieval church carving tended to elongate and deform the non-realistic image, emphasizing subjective imagination, but the natural realistic style also appeared in the carving work, and this change developed rapidly, with ancient artistic characteristics or rich in secular atmosphere.
Human body carving gradually plumped up, and even broke through the limitations of stylization, showing a certain human body structure, the layout of the carving is clearer and more orderly and vivid than Romanesque carving, and the subject matter of the carving is more extensive, in addition to a large number of Virgins and Children, the life of Christ, the Bible story, as well as history, geography, biology and court life.
The decorative carvings of the Basilica of Santa Maria d'Ore in Chartre, France, are both colorful and distinctive, and are the most representative carvings of this period.
If compared with the Romanesque church gate, the most significant feature of the carving of the west gate of the Church of Chartre is the orderly arrangement of the statues, the figures are no longer mixed with each other, but become independent units, of which the "Four Saints" on the south wall of the church is the most outstanding, which is the Gothic sculptors using a new spirit to express the saints of the four different eras in the Bible, they all appear in the form of round carvings, the proportions of the body are more accurate than other works of the same era, and the texture of the clothing is also delicately expressed.
The quiet, peaceful demeanor of all these statues is intended to emphasize the ideal image in the Christian faith, symbolizing the sacred and solemn reminder of moral truth.
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