Themes of the Romanesque Period
* The "Age of the Great Migration" ended, and urban centers began to grow and develop
* Christianity triumphed in Europe
* The year 1,000 did not bring the Last Judgement as feared, resulting in gratitude to God, a boost in spirituality, and a building bo
Themes in Romanesque Art
* Huge cathedrals and churches were constructed over tens of years by master builders and master artists who orchestrated construction.
* Christian works dominate, though some secular works were created. The line between secular and religious was blurred.
Significant Architecture of France and Northern Spain
* Saint-Etienne, France, 1050-1057
* Saint-Sernin, France, 1070-1120
* Cluny III, France, 1088-1130
* Saint-Pierre, France, 1100-1115.
* Notre-Dame Fontenay, France, 1139-1147.
* Saint-Savin-Sur-Gartempe, France, 1100.
Significant Architecture of the Holy Roman Empire
* Speyer Cathedral, Germany, 1030-1105.
* Sant'Ambrogio, Italy, late 11th to early 12th
Significant Architecture of Italy
* Pisa Cathedral Complex (Cathedral, Baptistrey, and Campanile), Pisa, 1063-1174
* Baptistrey of San Giovani, Florence, 1059
* San Miniato al Monte, Florence, 1062-1090
Significant Architecture of Normandy and England
* Saint-Etienne Caen, France, 1115-1120
* Durham Cathedral, England, 1093
Ambulatory
A round passageway around the apse of the church.
Apse
The east end of a church, where the altar is located.
Arcade
A series of arches supported by columns.
Archivolts
The continuous concentric molding framing an arch. In Romanesque and Gothic architecture, one of the series of concentric bands framing the tympanum.
Axial Plan
A church with a long nave whose focus is the apse, so called because it is designed along an axis. Also called a Basilican plan or a Longitudinal plan.
Baptistery
In Medieval architecture, a separate chapel or building in front of a church used for baptisms.
Bay
A vertical section of a church that is embraced by a set of columns and is usually composed of arches and aligned windows.
Bestiaries
Collections of illustrations of real and imaginary animals.
Blind Arcade
Arches form a wall that is not self-supporting.
Campanile
The detached bell tower of an Italian church.
Cathedral
The principal church of a diocese, the bishop's seat.
Clerestory
The top, or window, story of a bay in a church.
Cloister
From the Latin claustrum, "enclosed place." The inner courtyard of a monastery; a silent, calm place for the clergy to reflect and commune with God.
Crypt
A vaulted underground chamber, often found beneath churches.
Encrustation
Wall decorations consisting of bright panels of different colors, as in the Pantheon's interior and the exterior of the Pisa Cathedral Complex.
Jamb
The side posts of a medieval portal.
Narthex
The vestibule, or "lobby", of a church.
Portal
A doorway, lavishly decorated in the Medieval age, which symbolized Christ, the "door to salvation.
Hall Church
A church where the aisles are approximately the same height as the nave. This provided abundant illumination.
Historiated columns
Ornamented with representations, such as plants, animals, or human figures, that have a narrativeas distinct from a purely decorative function.
Radiating Chapels
Chapels that radiate off the ambulatory, built to contain reliquaries that pilgrims flocked to see.
Reliquary
A vessel for holding sacred remains or possession of a Christian holy figure. Often reliquaries took the shape of the object they held. Precious metals and stones were the common material.
Rib vault
A vault in which diagonal arches form riblike patterns. These arches partially support a roof, in some cases forming a weblike design.
Tapestry
A woven product in which the design and the backing are produced at the same time on a device called a loom.
Transept
An aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave.
Transverse Barrel Vaults
Tunnel-like vaults perpendicular to the nave.
Triforium
The second story of a bay in a church, which features groupings of three windows.
Trumeau
The central pillar of a portal; it serves to stabilize the structure and supports the lintel. It is often decorated.
Tympanum
The prominent semi-circular lunette above the doorway proper of a portal, comparable in importance to the triangular pediment atop a Greco-Roman temple.
Lintel
The horizontal beam above the doorway in a Romanesque church portal.
Lunette
A semicircular area (with the flat side down) in a wall over a door, niche, or window; also, a panting or relief with a semicircular frame.
Voussoir
A wedge-shaped stone that forms the curved part of an arch. The central voussoir is called the keystone.
Saint-Etienne, Vignory (1050-1057, France.)
* Innovative plan: an ambulatory around the choir and three radiating chapels for relics.
* Displays a characteristic Romanesque trait, stone sculpture. However, also influenced by Carolinginan-Ottonian art (three stories, wooden ceiling.)
Saint-Sernin, Toulouse (1070-1120, France.)
* Exemplifies the "pilgrimage church" type: massive scale, long nave, double side aisles, transept, ambulatory, radiating chapels, tribunes over the inner aisle: all to accommodate crowds.
* Early example of stone vaulting; a barrel vault over the nave is
Christ in Majesty by Bernardus Gelduinus; Toulouse, France; 1096.
* One of the earliest large Romanesque stone reliefs; the revival of stone carving is a hallmark of the Romanesque age.
* Depicts Christ in Majesty in a mandorla.
* Likely inspired by Carolingian or Ottonian illuminated manuscript.
* In the Romanesque per
Cluny III; Cluny, France; 1088-1130.
* The monks of the powerful Cluniac order built many Romanesque churches.
* The Abbot of Cluny was only subject to the Pope.
* Cluny III had a bold design (barrel-vaulted nave, four side aisles, three stories) and was MASSIVE (largest church in Europe for
Saint-Pierre, Moissac; France; 1100-1115.
* A wealthy church of the Clunaic order on the route to Santiago de Compostela.
* Cloisters with historiated columns depicting patterns, saints, and bestiaries of monsters and composite beasts. Bernard of Clairvaux, the most influential theologian of the
South Portal; Moissac, France; 1115-1130.
* Sculpture of a prophet on the trumeau.
* Elongated, elegant and animated; flowing fabric derived from illuminated manuscripts.
* Lions protect the entrance to the church.
Notre-Dame, Fontenay; Fontenay, France; 1130-1147.
* The austerity and simplicity of Notre-Dame Fontenay is representative of Ciscercian architecture. Single story, plain walls, simple capitals, no ambulatory or chapels.
* Transverse Barrel Vaults: tunnel-like vaults perpendicular to the nave.
Moralia in Job, France; Illuminated Manuscript, 1115-1125.
* Historiated initial depicts a knight and his page fighting a dragon; viewed as an allegory of monks v. evil for the salvation of souls.
* Ciscerian illumination before their 1134 ban on elaborate paintings, sculptural ornaments, full-page ornamentations
Saint-Savin-Sur-Gartempe; Spain; mid 12th century.
* Frescoes cover the barrel vault; they are stylistically akin to French and Spanish reliefs.
* A Hall Church, a church where the aisles are approximately the same height as the nave. This provided abundant illumination.
Christ in Majesty; apse, Santa Maria de Mur; Spain; Fresco; mid 12th century.
* Northern Spain was important regional artistic center.
* Fresco in the Byzantine style of Christ in a mandorla surrounded by apostles.
Virgin and Child (Morgan Madonna); Auvergne, France; Painted wood; 12th century.
* A rare sculpture in the round (b/c of resistance to "graven images.") Made for a small personal altar.
* Mary is the Throne of Wisdom b/c she is Christ's "throne."
* Though based on Byzantine models, this is softer and more intimate.
Speyer Cathedral; 1030; Speyer, Germany.
* A cathedral (seat of a bishop), funded by imperial patrons, burial place of Holy Roman Emperors.
* EARLY use of stone groin vaults above the nave made it possible to install a clesterory, which brought ample light.
* Alternate-support system creates a s
Sant'Ambrogio; late 11th century; Milan, Italy.
Resembles an Early Christian basilica: low, longitudinal, no transept. Groin-vaulted. Modular plan.
Hildegard of Bingen; Germany; copy of lost illuminated manuscript; 1150-1179.
* A link in a chain of author portraits with roots in antiquity.
* Hildegard receiving divine visions, shown as five tongues of fire entering her brain.
Rainer of Huy; Baptism of Christ; Belgium; bronze; 1118.
* Bronze baptismal font with Christian themes.
* Ranier of Huy worked in the Classical style. These figures are softly modeled, forshortened, and some are nude.
Reliquary of Saint Alexander; Belgium, precious metals and stones, 1145.
* Costly materials are typical of reliquaries
* Idealized classical head atop a Byzantine-style base, shows the Romanesque stylistic diversity
Pisa Cathedral Complex; Pisa, Italy; 1063-1174.
* Pisa Cathedral: Large and majestic. Strong resemblance to an Early Christian Basilica, but with Romanesque touches (multiple arcaded galleries.) Encrusted.
* Campanile (Leaning Tower of Pisa): Arcaded galleries and stylistic motifs link the campanile to
Baptistery, Florence
* Baptisms were religious events which became civic assemblies as well. The free-standing Italian baptisteries shows their importance.
* A domed octagon descended from Roman and Early Christian central-plan buildings.
* Distinctive exterior Tuscan Romanes
San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy; 1062-1090.
* Similar to Early Christian basilicas, but it has diaphragm arches that divide the nave into three and alternating compound piers and columns.
Wiligelmo, Creation and Temptation of Adam and Eve, Italy, 1110.
* Very high relief, rare at the time
* The patrons were proud that such a significant artist as Wiligelmo worked for them
* Inspired by Early Christian sarcophagi, Classical influence
Benedetto Antelami, King David, Italy, 1180-1190, marble.
* A rare example of life-size statuary
* Style is rooted in classical Greco-Roman art
* Architecture dominates the figure
Saint-Etienne, Caen; France; 1115-1120.
* The masterpiece of Norman Romanesque architecture.
* The West fa�ade is rooted in Carolingian and Ottonian west works but is methodically planned and clearly reflects the interior.
* Groin vaults made a clerestory possible; combined with the three-stori
Durham Cathedral; England; 1093.
* Typically English with long, slender proportions
* Marks the influx of the Norman Romanesque into England after the Battle of Hastings of 1066
* Many elements are Gothic precursors:
? Earliest example of a ribbed groin vault places over a three-story na
Bayeaux Tapestry; France; 1070-1080; embroidered wool on linen.
* Historical narrative of contemporary events (Battle of Hastings of 1066 and related events) in full detail
* Linear figures, flat colors
Master Hugo, Bury Bible; England; 1135.
* Master Hugo was part of the emerging class of lay artists.
* An example of the luxurious illustration of non-Cistercian abbeys.
* Smooth, gentle style.
Eadwine the Scribe, Eadwine Psalter, Cambridge, 1160-1170.
* The Romanesque scribe at work. More naturalistic.
* Eadwine was arrogant- inserted himself into the tradition of evangelists
* New attitude towards the role of the artist as an individual