A Brief History of the Smile

Apollo, May, 2005

A Brief History of the Smile Angus Trumble Basic Books, 9.99 [pounds sterling]/$14 (paper) ISBN 0 465 08779 5

This highly entertaining book by the curator of paintings and sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art ranges across art, history and literature throughout the world in its examination of the meaning of the smile. In this extract, Angus Trumble ponders the 'gothic smile' in medieval sculpture.

Accounts of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I 'Barbarossa' (literally Red-Beard), who died suddenly on the Third Crusade, lay particular emphasis on the fact that his entire face was habitually 'glad and hilarious' and that he took particular care always 'to give the impression of smiling or laughing'. In this case, the expression has been attributed to the emperor's desire to seem royally superior, but there is plenty of evidence in sculpture to suggest that it could mean other things as well. A Romanesque statue of the Prophet Daniel, for example, on the Portico della Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella, wears an open smile and directs it toward the neighbouring Prophet Jeremiah. On the facade of the Cathedral at Reims, the Angel Gabriel likewise communicates with the Virgin Mary by means of a subtly formulated smile of exquisite cheerfulness ... Radiating from the sculptural program at Reims and other new cathedrals in France, this new 'Gothic' smile spread to England and Germany, where in the Last Judgement Portal of Bamberg Cathedral the Elect wear vividly plastic smiles of utter satisfaction, while the damned are led away weeping.