MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, German
(active 1240-1250 in Naumburg)

Count Eckhart and Uta

c. 1245
Stone
Cathedral, Naumburg

There is a sense of dramatic tension marked in the sculpture of the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral. Inside the choir the walls are decorated with large figures, after the manner of the Ste Chapelle in Paris. The figures are secular benefactors of the cathedral. They are given unexpectedly dramatic poses, appearing to communicate with each other across the breadth of the church. Although they register a wide variety of different human types and different emotional states, the sculptors in general avoided the grotesque and the over-emphatic.

The sculptures appear to have derived from Bamberg. The drapery is thick and heavy and the figures lack the elegance of the Strasbourg tradition.