ccounted in a great
measure for that rhythmic control of invisible structural and ornamental
line which asserts itself in such works as the Pan-Athenaic frieze. It
was strictly slab sculpture, and became part of the surface of the wall.

[Illustration (f107): Greek Relief. Eleusis. Egyptian Relief. Denderah.]

[Gothic Sculpture]

The structural and ornamental feeling also asserts itself strongly in
Gothic sculpture, owing to its close association with architecture, as,
when it was not an integral part of the structure, it was always an
essential part of the expression of the building, and it was this which
controlled its treatment decoratively, in its scale and its system and
degree of relief.

In the porches of the Gallo-Roman churches of France of the twelfth
century, the figures occupying the place of shafts became columnar in
treatment, the sinuous formalized draperies wrapped around the elongated
figures, or falling in vertical folds, as in the figures in the western
door of Chartres Cathedral (p. 199[f108]). The lines of the design of
the sculptured tympanum were strictly related to the space, and the
degree and treatment of the relief clearly felt in regard to the
architectural effect (p. 201[f109]).

[Illustration (f108): Chartres Cathedral: Carving on the West Front.]

[Illustration (f109): Chartres Cathedral: Tympanum of the Central Door
of the West Front.]

[Architectural Influence]

In the sculptured tombs of the Middle Ages, with their recumbent figures
and heraldic enrichments, again, we see this architectonic sense
influencing the treatment of form and relief, as these monuments were
strictly architectural decorations, often incorporating its forms and
details, and often built into the structure of the church or cathedral
itself, as in the case of the recessed and canopied tombs of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

As sculptures became detached from the building and wall, and appeared
in full relief in the round, though still, as it were, carrying a
reminiscence of their origin with them in the shape of the moulded
pedestal, architectural control became less and less felt, statues in
consequence being less and less related to their surroundings. The
individual feeling of the sculptor or the traditions of his school and
training alone influenced his treatment, until we get the incidenta