Adam, sculpture from interior of
transept of the cathedral of Notre
Dame, Paris. 14th century. Photograph
courtesy of Rebecca A.Baltzer.
by the goldsmith Nicolas de Verdun. Two of his famous works, the Klosterneuburg Altar
and the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne, display the supple bodies, plastic forms,
and clinging drapery. In manuscript illumination, a famous example is the Ingeborg
Psalter, possibly made in north France ca. 1190 for the second wife of King Philip
Augustus, whom he repudiated immediately after their marriage. The monumental figures
stand out almost in relief against burnished gold grounds. They have the elongated faces
and draperies that fall in looping folds as they articulate and model the substantial bodies.
The Encyclopedia 775