nward at a German cathedral (St Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim), and the wooden Gero Crucifix, which exceeds life-size.
Romanesque art, which developed from the three great traditions of the Dark Ages (barbarian, Carolingian, and Ottonian), flourished across Western Europe. Thus, for the first time since the fall of Rome, the West was aesthetically unified. The heart of the Romanesque period (and the subsequent Gothic period) was France.
The Romanesque and Gothic periods comprise the great age of cathedrals; the foremost sculpture of this age is architectural.
To the non-expert eye, it can be difficult to distinguish between Byzantine, Carolingian, Ottonian, and Romanesque sculpture. Gothic sculpture, on the other hand, stands clearly apart, thanks to a striking new degree of physical realism. Indeed, Gothic art embodies the transition from medieval stylization to the fully-developed realism of the Renaissance.
The Gothic age witnessed the return of statues as the principal sculptural type. Gothic statues are still usually architectural ornaments, however; independent, free-standing statues would not be revived until the Renaissance. Indeed, given that free-standing statues had been worshipped by the pagan Greeks and Romans, they were firmly discouraged by the medieval Church.H262,1
2 - "Western Painting", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009.
3 - "Byzantine Art", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009.
4 - "Byzantine art and architecture", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed July 2009.
5 - "Ottonian art", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed February 2010.