this period, since the works which are not by foreign artists are in the
same style as theirs; for the native sculptors copied those from Central
and Northern Italy, and no great progress or original manner can be
found in these southern districts.

CHAPTER VI.

SCULPTURE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND SPAIN, FROM 1450 TO 1550.

In Italy, as we have seen, the sculpture of the Renaissance was much
advanced by the fact that in the beginning of its growth the
architecture of the country was largely an imitation of Greek
architecture; and as the same artist was frequently an architect,
sculptor, and painter, edifices were designed with the purpose of
placing the works of the sculptor in the most favorable positions.

In the countries north of Italy sculpture had no such aid or advantages.
The Gothic style of architecture was a hindrance to the sculptor, whose
works were combined with it. The Gothic construction afforded no broad,
generous spaces for sculpture; all plastic work must be confined in
limited spaces between columns and baldachins, or in arched niches, or
between narrow flutings; and though something had been done to vary the
upright stiffness of the statues of its earliest days, there was no
freedom for the realistic and natural tendencies of the Renaissance art
to develop in.

Another advantage on the side of Italian art was the fact that Italy was
a land of grace and beauty; its people were more refined in manner, more
elegant and picturesque in their costumes than were those of Northern
Europe, and all the influences surrounding the Italian artist were far
more favorable to a development of his artistic nature than were those
of France or Germany. Then, too, the remains of antique art which were
within reach of the Italian sculptor were quite shut off from others.
For all these and other reasons the sculpture of the north was more
tardy in taking on the better spirit and form of the Renaissance, and as
a whole it never became as pleasing to most people as was the sculpture
of Italy.

In a former chapter we have spoken of the sculptor Claux Sluter and his
work at Dijon in the fourteenth century; the desire which he showed to
make his figures like the men they represented, and a general study of
nature rather than of older works of sculpture, had much effect upon the
sculpture of his time, and gradually became much exaggerated. German
sculptors tried not only to make exact portraits of the face