Northern France had not ignored sculpture in the Romanesque period: its workshops had produced capitals decorated with foliage or animals, but rarely with the human figure, and the great sculpted tympanum had remained unknown there. It was in this region that Gothic art came into being, and from its beginning sculpted works of very high quality appeared, notably on the façade of Saint-Denis. What still exists of the masterpieces produced by these northern provinces of France before the end of the 13th c. is considerable, despite important losses caused by revolutionary vandalism. In all this output, sculpture was strictly subordinated to architecture: after the death of Louis IX, profound changes took place.

The Gothic sculptors of the 12th c. naturally took up of their own accord the tradition that aimed to expound for Christians, on church façades, the great themes of their faith. The multiplication of portals on western and transept façades allowed them to broaden their perspectives and aim to present a coherent and synthetic doctrinal whole; though it was really only at Chartres and Amiens that this aim could be realized, since elsewhere the programmes were disturbed by the fact that it was necessary to re-use elements initially provided for earlier programmes (thus at Paris or Reims). Each portal was deeper than it had been before: it included a tympanum that provided the central theme; on its vast surface, the single scene of the Romanesque period was replaced by rows of superimposed scenes in which multitudes of chararacters were lined up: the legibility of the whole lost a great deal. The multiplication of arch mouldings allowed the main theme to be supplemented and enriched by statuettes often sheltered under canopies. For the embrasures, the Gothic masters at first followed the Romanesque form of ressauts with reflex angles in which were lodged columns associated with statues ( Saint-Denis, Chartres…); then the backgrounds became smooth, the statues, still associated with columns, more autonomous, their bodies more natural, their feet resting on small consoles while small canopies crowned their heads. Beneath these statues, the bases were ornamented with complementary scenes ( Senlis, Amiens) or geometrical decorations inspired by Antiquity (Mantes, Rouen), or even with hangings evoking those with which façades were covered on Feast days. Very quickly too, programmes overflowed this traditional framework and occupied the buttresses both on the façade ( Amiens) and on the side elevations ( Reims). Enthusiasm for the human figure meant that statues were also associated with columns on cloister supports (Châlons) or at the entrances to chapter houses (Boscherville, Cambrai). By contrast, the historiated capital disappeared in favour of more or less realistic foliage. Very soon, the gables encasing the portals were also enriched by sculptures ( Laon) and the great iconographical themes were moved onto these when, to improve the internal lighting of the nave, the traditional historiated tympanum of the portal was replaced by a glazed tympanum.

Romanesque tympana had mainly been dedicated to apocalyptic themes. In the Gothic period, Christ surrounded by the tetramorph is hardly found except at Chartres and Saint-Loup-de-Naud, while the Ascension appears only at Chartres and Étampes. Everywhere else, starting with Saint-Denis, the Last Judgment is retained, but in its Gothic version: Christ has conquered death, and the instruments of the Passion are the trophies of this victory; the Apostles are no longer the Judge’s assessors, they have descended to the embrasures as witnesses and kneel as intercessors alongside Christ, the Virgin and St John; on the trumeau, Christ the redeemer treads on the asp and the basilisk; the wise and foolish virgins and the combat of virtues and vices remind men that they have the freedom to accept or refuse the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice. The 12th c. was a great Marian century; traditionally, the Virgin offered her son, seated frontally on her knees, for the adoration of the Magi or the faithful ( Chartres and Paris). But rapidly another theme was substituted for this; since the Virgin was not soiled by sin, she could not suffer the death that was its consequence. At Byzantium, Christ came himself to gather his mother’s Soul. In the West, scenes of the Dormition were associated with scenes of the Assumption to heaven by angels and the Coronation by Christ himself; this theme, appearing in c.1170 at Senlis and Cambrai, was followed by most of the great Gothic façades. Their third portal was often devoted to the saints of the diocese. However, façades presenting a coherent iconographical programme are rare, with the exception of Amiens and Chartres.

From 1140 to 1270, the style evolved considerably. To begin with, artists borrowed from other disciplines like goldsmithry and illumination; then gradually sculpture acquired real autonomy and became capable of influencing other artistic expressions. From the start it sought to observe Nature, the anatomical reality of bodies and the psychology of the persons represented; this was because creation proved the existence of God. The hieratic style of the royal portals of Chartres and Saint-Denis were succeeded by that of Senlis, full of life, and that of the antiquizing workshops of the end of the century at Laon and Sens. Very soon however, at Paris, another tendency asserted itself: that of immobile characters, impassible and clothed in garments with broad folds falling vertically. After 1240, the court style characterised by smiles, almond eyes and undulating locks and moustaches imposed itself in the workshops of Paris and Reims (the Smiling Angel).

After the death of St Louis, sculpture became more autonomous and less monumental and, in liaison with the evolution of religious mentalities, iconographical themes were renewed. Though great portals were still executed, they became more narrative and their legibility suffered greatly ( Rouen). The isolated statue spread to the interior of buildings; apostolic processions clung to piers as at Jumièges, devotional statues multiplied; Virgins standing with the weight on one leg (the “Gothic slouch”), graciously holding the Child who played with a rabbit, a bunch of grapes or the clasp of his mother’s garment, multiplied to satisy the refined taste of the clientele. But art also had to take part in the glorification of the ruler, symbol of the State; at Vincennes as at the Louvre, the royal family was everywhere commemorated by statues, the language of the emblem appeared. The funerary statue too took part in this exaltation of the monarchy. The idealized faces of previous decades were replaced by genuine portraits of the deceased ( Beauneveu’s Gisant de Charles V). The misfortunes of the time (war, epidemics, famine) meant that death became a subject of anguish. Instead of the idealized dead person lying on his gravestone as he would appear on the day of resurrection, there was the horror of the degradation of the flesh ( Tomb of Cardinal La Grange at Avignon); the weepers who surround the monument recall the sorrow expressed during the funeral procession (tombs of the dukes of Burgundy). In the last centuries of the Middle Ages, this very fear of the misfortunes of the time multiplied devotional statues, including those of the anti-plague saints Roch and Sebastian; this also explains the vogue of themes linked to Christ’s death: Christ in bonds, Crucifixion, Deposition from the cross, Virgins of pity, Entombments (Chaource, Saint-Mihiel). These subjects were translated into stone, but also into wood. The taste of the time for miniaturization explains the vogue for great altarpieces in which all the episodes of the Passion were minutely recounted. Produced all over the place, these works were sometimes the object of a veritable export industry ( Brabant).

The sculpture of the time of the cathedrals, intimately linked to architecture, was succeeded at the end of the Middle Ages by a much more varied output, with renewed themes, in which realism replaced idealization. The new conditions of production explain why humble rural churches could house great works of art at this time.