Chapter17

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Chapter 17Romanesque Europe

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13e

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Europe About 1100

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Goals

• Understand the term “Romanesque” in designating the artistic style of a historic period.

• Examine the need for large scale pilgrimage churches, the growth of architecture and urban centers. 

• Understand the ‘millennial’ and apocalyptic mood of the Romanesque era and their impact on artistic themes.   

• Understand the role of relics and the artistic objects designed to contain relics.

• Recognize differences and similarities in regional Romanesque architecture and artistic styles.

• Understand the narrative function of the human figure in Romanesque sculpture.

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Romanesque Architecture

• Examine the result of pilgrimages and the crusades in terms of architecture in Europe.

• Identify architectural elements particularly those associated with the large pilgrimage and monastery churches.

• Explain the function of specific architectural elements such as the ambulatory, radiating chapels, and crossing square

Important Elements of Romanesque Architecture

Recognize the following architectural features: • Ambulatory – major innovation• Radiating chapels• Portal and its parts• Nave, transept, and side aisles• Cruciform (overall shape of building)• Crossing square• Bays (3-D modules of nave and side aisles)• Gallery/ tribune level• Clerestory (usually small in Romanesque churches)• Barrel vault (the norm for Romanesque naves)• Groin vault (less common, used more in side aisles)• Cloister (element in a monastic abbey church)

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Geometry and Vaulting

• Examine the architectural elements and scheme that made possible Saint-Sernin’s in Toulouse, France.

• Understand that the design of a Romanesque church is based on mathematical ratios in relation to the size of its crossing square

• Understand the importance of Cluny and the Cistercian religious order in architecture and art.

7Figure 17-4 Aerial view (looking northwest) of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1070–1120.

Figure 17-5 Plan of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1070-1120 (after Kenneth John Conant). 8

Figure 17-6 Interior of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1070-1120.

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Romanesque Sculpture

• Examine the revival of stone sculpture, its placement and iconography.

• Observe how the arrangement and form of Romanesque sculpture is closely tied to its architectural framework

• Understand the narrative function of the human figure in Romanesque sculpture.

• Understand the role of relics and the artistic objects designed to contain relics.

• Recall the names of one known Romanesque sculptors  

Figure 17-10 The Romanesque church portal.

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Diagram of a Romanesque Portal

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Figure 17-12 GISLEBERTUS, Last Judgment, west tympanum of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France, ca. 1120–1135. Marble, 21’ wide at base.

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Figure 17-18 Virgin and Child (Morgan Madonna), from the Auvergne, France, second half of twelfth century. Painted wood, 2’ 7” high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916).

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Romanesque Painting and Other Arts

• Examine the extent and styles of mural and fresco painting on walls and in vaulted ceilings.

• Explore the continuing art of manuscript illumination.

• Understand the artists, the themes, and the styles of Romanesque manuscripts.

• Examine other two dimensional art, particularly weaving and embroidery.

• Study the form and stylistic elements of the Bayeux Tapestry.

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Figure 17-22 Hildegard receives her visions, detail of a facsimile of a lost folio in the Ruperts-berger Sciviasby Hildegard of Bingen, from Trier or Bingen, Germany, ca.1150–1179. Abbey of St. Hildegard, Rüdesheim/Eibingen.

Figure 17-35 Funeral procession to Westminster Abbey (top) and Battle of Hastings (bottom), details of the Bayeux Tapestry, from Bayeux Cathedral, Bayeux, France, ca. 1070-1080. Embroidered wool on linen, 1’ 8” high (entire length of fabric 229’ 8”). Centre Buillaume le Conquerant, Bayeux. 16

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Discussion Questions

Identify key elements of Romanesque architecture.

What factors sparked the increase in building of churches in Western Europe?

Why do you think there was such a strong positive reception of the concept of relics in Romanesque society??

What were the various roles of figural art, both two-dimensional and sculptural, during the Romanesque period?