The elaborateness of the decorations have become identified with the Gothic period. As can be seen from the column from Saint-Denis, this sort of elaborate decoration took many forms and most often built sculpture into the building itself. The column from Saint-Denis also shows the power and importance of aesthetic harmony in the figure of a king seeming to emerge from the column itself. This element was not just an aesthetic but a philosophical statement of the time. Suger was much preoccupied with speculations on the metaphysics of light, which governed many of his decisions about the architecture of the building. At the same time, though, he was tied to the prevailing use of high relief in architectural detail and sculpture, with its emphasis on the third dimension (Frankl 30).
Whitney S. Stoddard notes how the new French style developed in the twelfth century so that "the persistence of older Romanesque ideas was combined with different interpretations of the human form. A new portal design, with three-dimensional jamb statues integrated with the architecture, reflected the diagonality of the nave piers. New iconographical programs replaced the more visionary Romanesque portals" (Stoddard 93). He further states that this emerged at the same time as Europe saw a rise in towns, the development of the first bureaucratic states, a revival of classicism, and the Crusades as an assertion of Christian power. In spite of the aura of centralized control the Medieval has for many people, this was also a time emphasizing freedom of inquiry, though all learning would eventually come under the control of the papacy. This particular column shows a sense of this as a specific king from the old Testament is celebrated in a classical way, though which king this is has been lost....
Stoddard cites Raymond Klibansky on the issue when the latter writes,
Thus the seven liberal arts together give man both knowledge of the divine and the power to express it. but, in so doing, they fulfill at the same time another purpose. They serve ad cultum humanitatis, that is, they promote the specifically human values, revealing to man his place in the universe and teaching him to appreciate the beauty of the created world. (cited by Stoddard 95)
The column at Saint-Denis merges this teaching function with a statement of the power of the human form and of the human values represented by this Old Testament king in this particular setting.
Works Cited
Frankl, Paul. Gothic Architecture. Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1962.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (2008). November 20, 2008. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_20.157.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/ho/07/euwf/ho_20.157.htm&usg=__dFrtLGp00hQiSZZjwXklNITMxk0=&h=707&w=300&sz=55&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=KXJ9MTiHqzbG8M:&tbnh=140&tbnw=59&prev=/images%3Fq%3DColumn%2BFigure%2Bof%2Ba%2BNimbed%2BKing%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-U.S.:official%26sa%3DN.
Medieval European Sculpture for Buildings." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (2008). November 20, 2008. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/arch/hd_arch.htm.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Art and Architecture in Medieval France: Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained Glass, Manuscripts, the Art of the Church Treasuries. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1972.
Vyverberg, Henry, the Living Tradition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
