The period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic art, initiated in France. Almost no biographical material exists concerning the names and works of individual artists. Sculptures served as elements of the architecture. Italy showed considerable resistance to the northern Gothic ideas.

The period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic art, initiated in France. Almost no biographical material exists concerning the names and works of individual artists. Sculptures served as elements of the architecture. Italy showed considerable resistance to the northern Gothic ideas.

The period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic art, initiated in France. Almost no biographical material exists concerning the names and works of individual artists. Sculptures served as elements of the architecture. Italy showed considerable resistance to the northern Gothic ideas.

The European Gothic style emerged by about 1250. The pre-eminent cultural centre was Paris, mainly due to the French royal patronage. In Italy a different and authentic Gothic style appeared by Nicola Pisano. Arnolfo di Cambio developed ideas of the funeral monuments at the papal court in Rome.

By the normal standards of medieval history, a considerable amount is known about Tuscan sculpture in this period, which Vasari considered as the first stage of Renaissance sculpture. Beside Nicola Pisano's workshop, Lorenzo Maitani was an outstanding artist. The style of Andrea Pisano was much influenced by the art of painter Giotto.

Stylistically indecisive years, often described as International Gothic. Many ideas formulated earlier were developed further, but existing traditions are embellished rather than changed. Prague, seat of the Imperial court, emerged as a new artistic centre, where the German Peter Parler controlled the construction and the sculptural decoration of the cathedral. The work of the Flemish Claus Sluter marks a stylistic change from what had gone before.

With the competition in 1400-01 for a set of bronze doors of the Baptistry in Florence, the Mature Renaissance started (Vasari's second stage). The victor of the competition, Lorenzo Ghiberti, established a workshop which was a training ground for a new generation of artists, among them Donatello who became the dominant sculptor of the period. The decoration of the Cathedral and the Orsanmichele in Florence provided an arena for the excellent competing Florentine sculptors. Luca della Robbia invented the glazed terracotta sculpture. Originated by Pisanello, the portrait medal came of age, manifesting many of the Renaissance's ideals and achievements. Jacopo della Quercia, the greatest Sienese sculptor had an itinerant career in Italy. In the conservative Venetian Republic, the Gothic style was prevalent (Bon family, Lamberti, Master of the Mascoli Altar).

Under the patronage of the Medici, Renaissance sculpture flourished in Florence. Until 1470 dominating artists were the Rossellino brothers and Desiderio, all coming from Settignano and working in marble. The portrait bust became fashionable, its established type was radically innovated by Verrocchio. The two major sculptors of the late Quattrocento was Andrea del Verroccio and Antonio del Pollaiolo, both working mainly in bronze. The young Michelangelo emerged from the workshop of Bertoldo.

The Florentine sculptors were in great demand outside Florence. They spread the Florentine style, which blended with regional styles and ideas. Vecchietta in Siena, Agostino di Duccio in Rimini, Francesco Laurana in Naples, Cristoforo Solari and Il Bambaia in Lombardy, Antico in Padua, Antonio Bregno, Antonio Rizzo and the Lombardo family in Venice provide good examples.

Outside Italy the late Gothic style dominates but the appearence of Italian decorative elements can be observed.

The first quarter of the sixteenth century is the High Renaissance, which Vasari considered to be the third stage of Renaissance. He viewed Leonardo as its initiator and Michelangelo as its apogee. A determining factor of the period is patronage, which surfaced first in Florence, and quickly fluorished in papal Rome and secure Venice. The dominant genius was Michelangelo, the best known among the Renaissance sculptors. Other sculptors had to contend with his intimidating works. They tended to adopt his ideas in form rather than in spirit. Baccio Bandinelli, who after Michelangelo's departure from Florence in 1534 became the principal Florentine sculptor for twenty years, exemplifies this statement. Benvenuto Cellini was a prolific goldsmith, designer and sculptor.

In Spain Alonso Berruguete was the finest sculptor of the sixteenth century.

The second half of the sixteenth century includes the Mannerism, the period between the High Renaissance and the Baroque. The main characteristic of a Mannerist statue is that all angles of view are equally important, it must be walked around. The most influential sculptor of this style is Giovanni Bologna. Beside him Vincenzo Danti and Bartolomeo Ammanati were the major sculptors in Florence after the death of Bandinelli. The Leoni family in Lombardy, Giovanni da Nola in Naples, Guglielmo della Porta in Rome, Jacopo Sansovino and Girolamo Campagna in Venice can be considered as Mannerist sculptors. The greatest Venetian sculptor of the late century was Alessandro Vittoria.

In France two great sculptors of the period were Jean Goujon, who decorated the new wing of the Louvre built by Pierre Lescot, and Germain Pilon.

The term Baroque is applied to European art (architecture, painting and sculpture) of the period approximately 1600 to 1750. The Baroque art was intimately bound up with the Counter-Reformation and in particular the Jesuit order. The first half of the seventeenth century includes the early period of the Baroque. Significant representants of this period were Francesco Mochi, Alessandro Algardi and Francois Duquesnoy.

The themes of Spanish sculpture were religious, monumental and sepulchral sculpture disappeared. At Valladolid Gregorio Fernandez was in line of succession to Berruguete and Juan de Juni. In Andalusia, Seville reached the climax of realism in Juan Martinez Montañés whose high altar in the church at Santiponce is one of the most beautiful works of the century. Alonso Cano dominated art in Granada. The Portuguese Manuel Pereyra worked in Madrid and Burgos.

In Flanders, pictorial in character, largely decorative, sculpture was predominantly in wood. Certain families of artists excelled in this the Duquesnoy, the Verbruggen, the Quellin. In Holland the development of sculpture was little favoured by Protestantism, except for funerary sculpture, pulpits and organ-lofts. The most important sculptor was Hendrick de Keyser.

The most important artist of the Italian (and European) Baroque sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. His style is characterized by movement and virtuosity, his influence was decisive in the development of various forms of sculpture, like bust, funeral monument, fountain. He had followers in Italy (Melchiore Caffa, Ercole Ferrata) and in other countries (François Girardon, Michael Zürn).

In Florence sculptors were inspired either by the tradition created by Giovanni Bologna or by Bernini and Algardi (e.g. Giambattista Foggini). In Genoa sculpture was marked by influence of Lombard Florentine Mannerism, and later Pierre Puget, the most important French sculptor of the period. The greatest native sculptor was Filippo Parodi.

In France in the middle of the 17th century, the principal role of the sculptors was to decorate Versailles or the royal châteaux. Their work reveals the influence of Bernini or of the antique art, e.g. François Girardon, Antoine Coysevox. Pierre Puget trained his nephew, Cristophe Veyrier.

Lucas Faydherbe was the most Rubensian of the Flemish sculptors.

In France Baroque influence is more apparent in sculpture than in painting and can be seen in three members of the Coustou family (Nicolas and Guillaume) who worked at Trianon and Marly. The Lemoyne family worked as portraitists.

The classical reaction had its beginnings quite early in the 18th century with Edmé Bouchardon, who worked in a cold style and who admired the antique. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle's monument for the Maréchal de Saxe, a masterpiece of French monumental sculpture, was closer to the Baroque than to the antique. His sensibility made him an admirable portraitist.

In Rome the Baroque taste for movement and for the grandiose gave way to grace and lightness. Giuseppe Mazzuoli, a pupil of Ferrata, evolved evolved from a Berninesque style towards a melancholy grace. Filippo della Valle produced works of greater charm. Pietro Bracci carved a number of tombs. In Florence Innocenzo Spinazzi was the most representative sculptor of the 18th century. In Naples sculpture tended to virtuosity with Giuseppe Sammartino and Francesco Queirolo. Sicily had one of the most original sculptors of the century in Giacomo Serpotta. Francesco Maria Schiaffino worked in Genoa. In Venice one of the best known sculptors was Antonio Corradini.

In Germany Balthasar Permoser played an important part in the decoration of the Zwinger in Dresden. In Austria Georg Raphael Donner executed statues and decorations at Salzburg, Vienna and Bratislava.