The "headmaster" of Chartres and the origins of "Gothic" sculpture
By: C. Edson Armi.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: University Park, Pa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 148
Subjects: Cathédrale de Chartres; Church doorways -- France -- Chartres; Christian art and symbolism -- France -- Chartres -- Medieval, 500-1500; Sculpture, Gothic -- France -- Chartres; Sculpture, French -- France -- Chartres
First sentence: From our vantage it is impossible to tell whether the Chartres Master alone was responsible for making decisions about the program and emplacement--the type, size, location, and articulation--of the parts surrounding the sculpture he carved.
Description: Despite the aesthetic and historical significance of the Royal Portal, scholars lack concrete knowledge about it since no documentation of its design and construction exists. Nevertheless, over the last century, a set of truths about the facade has become accepted. Employing a new methodology that overcomes the lack of documents with a revised form of connoisseurship, Edson Armi proposes a radically different biography of the headmaster that has far-reaching implications for the study of Gothic sculpture.

With a new perspective on this, the most important mid-twelfth-century portal, the book concludes that the style and cultural context of Ile-de-France sculpture is less defined and more diverse than previously imagined. More important, the book argues that the forms of art, as well as the design and working procedures in the Paris basin, can no longer be seen as unique or separate from the practices of provincial French art in the period before 1140
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [137]-143) and index.