The science of plans, balance of volumes, and proportion in the moldings
govern the spirit of Gothic art. Of late I believe I have discovered how
the masters struck upon the beautiful Gothic molding, that undulating
molding which gives so much suppleness to the architecture. I have found
something new in the well-known, and beauty in forms which I did not
understand before. This change is due above all to my work. Having
always studied more intensely, I can say that I have always loved more
ardently.
I believe the masters of Gothic art got their ideas of molding through
their understanding of the human body, and perhaps above all of the body
of woman. The body, that human column, seen in profile is a line of
projections and protuberances, of the nose, the chin, the breast, the
flank. Thence springs the beautiful undulating line which is the outline
of Gothic molding. For Gothic molding, like the Greek, is soft and
swelling. The "doucine" (a molding, concave above, convex below), a term
of the trade, tender as the name of a woman, well expresses the charm of
the beautiful French molding.
The proportions of molding exist in nature, but in such form that we
have not yet been able to subject them to rules. It required men of
positive taste, of most profound understanding, to grasp the harmony of
these proportions and to express them in sculpture. One might say the
Gothic architects understood molding by means of their intelligence as
well as by means of their heart.
By means of the cathedral the artists of the Middle Ages have shown
us the most impressive drama in existence--the mass. The mass has the
grandeur of the antique drama. Greek tragedies are in fact only a form
of the mass. The human mind starts afresh at different epochs. When the
priest officiates, his gestures have the beauty of the antique, and this
beauty merges into that of the church music, that sublime tongue, the
voice of the sea. Then, when the crowds prostrate themselves, when they
arise simultaneously, the undulation of their bending bodies is like the
waves of the ocean. Truly the Gothic master builders were the familiar
friends of the sublime. From what source did these men spring! From what
minds did those ideas arise! God has shared his power with some of his
sons.