Proto-Gothic Christ (Church of San Vicente Mártir, Sigüenza)

This proto-Gothic carving of Christ (dated from the 12th and 13th centuries) is located in the Romanesque Church of San Vicente Mártir (Sigüenza, Guadalajara, Spain), dating from the 12th century. Proto-Gothic is considered a style in which some of the characteristics of Romanesque have been lost, but in which Gothic as such has not yet emerged. Thus, the Romanesque artist was not figurative but rather represented the ideal of beauty of the time.

From the book Historia del Arte – La Edad Media (Alianza Editorial), page 199:

In the Romanesque period, one can in no way speak of decadence or creative primitism. The clear, symmetrical forms dominated by geometry respond to a style of plastic plenitude, a style in which the important thing was not to transcribe onto a surface or a block of stone external reality, what the eyes perceived, but rather what the era considered the ideal of perfection. To approach perfection, Romanesque forms had to transcend the limits of reality, move away from the deception of the everyday and the accidental, and represent only, across space, time, and even expression, the most essential and constant, the most universal characteristics.

E. H. Gombrich in his History of Art (pages 196 ff):

In the 13th century, artists accidentally abandoned the schemes in books to depict subjects that interested them. We can hardly imagine what this meant. (…) In the Middle Ages, there were no (…) portraits, according to our concept. All the artists did was draw conventional scenes, adding the emblem of their office—a crown or scepter for the king; a mitre and crosier for the bishop—and perhaps writing their name underneath to eliminate error. (…) The medieval artist, at least from the 13th century on, was perfectly aware of proportions, and if he dispensed with them, it was very often not through ignorance, but simply because he did not believe they mattered. (…) We must not forget that the sculptor who set out to reproduce nature had an easier task than the painter who set out to do the same. The sculptor did not have to worry about creating an illusion of depth through foreshortening or the play of light and shadow: the work he executed is situated in a real space and light.

The rigidity of the Romanesque style is gradually fading in favor of greater naturalness and harmony of proportions: for example, as in the Piasca Cross (also from the 13th century), the legs are no longer depicted completely frontally, but the loincloth falls to the knees, just as on that Cross. Therefore, Romanesque traces still remain (for example, the shape of the hands, which are depicted with all the fingers joined, is very representative) that prevent it from being considered fully Gothic. Simply compare it with the Smiling Angel in Reims Cathedral (Gothic), and the differences are clear.

Originally published in Wordpress.

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