MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, German
(active around 1230)

Synagogue

c. 1230
Stone, height 193 cm
Cathedral, Strasbourg

The double portal (south portal) is flanked by the allegorical figures of Ecclesia (the Church) on the right and Synagoga on the left. These figures, whose originals are preserved in the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg, have been replaced by copies.

The master masons and sculptors of Strasbourg had worked in the Reims stoneyards, whose style they brought with them to the Rheinish city. The allegory of the Synagogue is modelled after that of Reims, executed about 1225 and still impregnated with the style of the classicizing sculptors. But the Strasbourg Synagogue is more ethereal and unreal than its French prototype. The forward-stepping motion is more strongly marked in the hip movement and the gesture of the arms. The art of Reims had enormous prestige and influence during the Middle Ages, when it was considered the model of all arts by the whole of Europe.