art: Europe 103 Gothic art seemed to them to be a new phenomenon The effort to convey the spiritual reality of their subjects led artists to depict facial expressions and poses that slightly exaggerated some features to create an impression of emotional movement as well as physical movement An outstanding example of this is a wooden sculpture from the early 1300s called Pietà The name Pietà was given to many sculptures, all depicting the dead body of Christ being held by his mother, Mary The Pietà was invented to serve as a contrast to images of the infant Christ and his mother The wooden example by an unnamed sculptor features heads that seem too big for the bodies of Christ and Mary, and Christ’s body is preternaturally thin, looking wasted The details are realistic, with Christ’s bone structure and musculature carefully rendered By making the heads slightly outsized, the sculptor emphasized the expressions on their faces, and Mary has a profoundly moving expression that displays sorrow and misery Her eyes stare at her tortured son Beneath the body of Christ the folds of Mary’s dress ripple, as if in motion as she shifts her legs to maintain support of her Son’s body, lending a sense of movement to the whole sculpture The figures were painted, enhancing their realism Stone sculptures were highly valued, probably because of their durability Churches, monasteries, and convents had outdoor sculptures that needed to endure weather that would quickly ruin wooden sculptures Throughout the medieval era in Europe sculptors in stone used techniques passed down from the Roman Empire For smaller statues a sculptor would sit on a stool or armless chair; for larger ones he would need to stand The stone he intended to sculpt would be directly before him, resting on a low table, with its lower end nearest him The top of the statue was raised 22 to 33 degrees above the table With charcoal the sculptor would sketch on the stone the image he wished to create Sometimes the sculptor would make a clay version of what he hoped to sculpt, either in miniature or at full size He would first use a pointed iron pick to chip away the stone, later using a chisel to refine the features of the sculpture Files were used to remove the marks left by the chisel, and then the sculpture was smoothed by rubbing it with pumice and straw Using this approach to sculpting, Gothic sculptors in stone created the greatest monumental pieces since the fall of the Western Roman Empire Artists from northern Europe, including Scandinavia, often carved their works to be independent of their architectural settings, especially when carving for the interiors of churches and cathedrals Their works came close to being totally free standing, calling more attention to themselves than to their settings Among the finest sculptors was the Naumburg Master, so called because of his series of sculptures for the Naumburg Cathedral, carved about 1250 to 1260 Gothic artists were trying to meld abstract Christian ideas with the immediacy of strong emotional appeal, and the Naumburg Master was among the most successful at doing so For the choir screen in the cathedral, he carved images of biblical characters, and, as was customary for the era, he carved portraits of benefactors of the church into his scenes, including people he had never actually met because they had died before his time Still, each figure seems to have a personality of his or her own, as if each was carved from life Part of the screen depicts Judas kissing Jesus It is a scene of furious action, with figures in turmoil, yet Jesus is quiet, his expression one of pain and sorrow as Judas kisses him Although some figures are in front of Christ, he stands out because he remains a center of peace amid frantic emotions The main part of the choir screen features the crucified Christ The image of Christ is heavy, sagging into space and giving the Crucifixion a physical reality To either side are Mary and Joseph, who seem to gaze at their audience as if aware of the presence of worshipers, their intense sorrow enhancing the sadness of the scene Gothic architecture created new opportunities for painters as well as sculptors, most notably when working with colored glass During the 1100s glassmakers began adding various metals to glass to create colors The technological innovations of Gothic architecture meant that walls of large buildings could be much thinner than before, because the walls no longer had to bear the full weight of themselves and their roofs Thinner walls meant more opportunities to include windows to illuminate interior spaces A love of bright colors emerged in the Gothic era, and making windows out of colored glass to illuminate church interiors quickly became popular To create a colored-glass window, the artist would first whitewash a tabletop or bench Then he would use charcoal to sketch on the tabletop or bench the image he wished to create Glassmakers would mix ash and fine sand with traces of various metals to give the glass color For instance, a bit of iron would tint glass green They would blow molten glass at the end of pipes and then spin the pipes, causing the glass to flatten and form a disk The disk was set on a table and allowed to cool Then the glass was cut into the shapes the artist wanted with a grozing iron, a sharply pointed iron rod The artist would fit the pieces of colored glass together by using molten lead to bind them The trick was to organize the glass in such a way that observers from a distance would recognize the image the artist wished to create For details such as eyes, the artist painted directly on the glass A spectacular example of medieval colored-glass windows is the northern Rose Window of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris