Frederic Lord Leighton: An Illustrated Record of His Life and WorkRhys, Ernest
General
Frederic Lord Leighton: An Illustrated Record of His Life and Work
Rhys, Ernest
Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, Baron, 1830-1896
Many more extracts we would gladly make, whether from the account of the
French sculpture of this period, marked as it was by "sincerity and
freshness, often by great beauty and stateliness;" or from the criticism
of such artists as Jean Cousin, who painted windows which were "limpid
with hues of amethyst, sapphire, and topaz, and fair as a May morning;"
or again, of Watteau, of whom we are told that "in the vivacity and
grace of his drawing, in the fascination of his harmonies, rich and
suave at once, in the fidelity with which he reflected his times without
hinting at their coarseness, this wizard of the brush remains one of the
most interesting, as he is one of the most fascinating, masters of his
country's art."
In the Discourse of 1893 the History of Gothic Architecture was pursued,
from its native France to its adopted home in Germany. At the end of
last century Goethe declared that not only was the Gothic style native
to Germany, but no other nation had a peculiar style of its own; "for,"
he said, "the Italians have none, and still less the Frenchmen"!
According to Leighton, "the Germans, as a race, were, speaking broadly,
never at one in spirit with ogival architecture. The result was such as
you would expect; in the use of a form of architecture which was not of
spontaneous growth in their midst, and unrestrained, moreover, as they
were, by a sound innate instinct of special fitness, German builders
were often led into solecisms, incongruities, and excesses, from which
in the practice of their native style they have been largely free." Of
this style, which may be called the German-Romanesque, the best examples
are to be found among the churches of the Rhineland. In the thirteenth
century this style, admirably as it expressed the genius of the Teuton,
succumbed to invading French influence. "I have often wondered," he
continued, "at the strange contrast between the reticent and grave
sobriety of the architecture of Germany before the fall of the
Hohenstaufens, and its erratic self-indulgence in the Gothic period."
There is much, however, to be said in praise of the Gothic churches of
Germany, their fine colouring, suggestiveness, and variety. Take the
description of the Church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg. "Nothing could
well be more delightful than the impression which you receive on
entering it; the beauty of the dark brown stone, the rich hues of the
stained glass, the right relation of tone value, to use a painter's
term, between the structure and the lights--the sombre blazoned shields
which cluster along the walls, the succession on pier beyond pier of
pictures powerful in colour and enhanced by the gleaming gold of
fantastic carven frames, above all the succession of picturesque objects
in mid-air above you, a large chandelier, a stately rood-cross, and to
crown all, Veit Stoss's masterpiece, the Annunciation, rich with gold
and colour; all these things conspire to produce a whole, delightful and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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