German school; 15th century. "Religious". Stucco. Measurements: 77 x 25 x 16 cm. Round sculpture made of carved stucco which presents the figure of an adult man. Both the clothes and the long parchment he is holding in his hand suggest that it is a representation of a religious figure. The quality of the artist is evident in the technical skill shown in the folds of the cloak and the way he manages to place the parchment on the base in a realistic and organic manner. With the arrival of the Gothic period, a substantial aesthetic change took place throughout Europe, both in architecture and in painting and sculpture. The symbolic and timeless hieratism of the Romanesque gave way to a desire for reality and narrative meaning that had its roots in classical sculpture and forced artists to take nature as their model. Gothic sculptors therefore sought to represent the visible world as it is. In this way, the gestures and attitudes of the figures are humanised, and they acquire individuality. Aesthetic conventions - such as the large eyes standing out from the rest of the face, which symbolised the character s soul - were left behind and a naturalistic representation of faces, anatomy, clothing, etc. was sought. Following this new aesthetic line, the figures abandoned their vertical, symmetrical and hieratic postures to adopt increasingly more expressive and gestural ones, with greater realism in their movement. At the same time, an attempt was made to represent the emotions of the figures through eloquent gestures of the face and hands. Gothic art underwent an evolution from the classicism of the 13th century, in which the serene beauty of idealised naturalism was sought, to a certain mannerism of forms that can be seen in the stylisation and elongation of the figures in the 14th century. Due to its dating, in the 15th century, we can classify this carving as part of the mature Gothic period. With the Proto-Gothic period behind us, the changes in aesthetic mentality became more evident at this time. Symbolic and conventional gestures and representations were left behind, and the artists, who were still anonymous, focused on the naturalistic representation of figures and objects, but above all on expressions and gestures. In Germany, Gothic sculpture appeared around 1220 and its sculpture was subordinated to the façades. In Gothic sculpture, naturalism prevailed, which is evident in this work, perhaps due to its Carolingian heritage, which came to Germany through its links with the Byzantine Empire. German artists formulated a realism that was not always faithful to anatomical reality, although their bodies were extremely dramatic, with elaborate folds of clothing.