romanesque 3: what is romanesque style? continued

Romanesque 3: What is Romanesque Style?continued

Benedictine Abbey at Vézelay (Cluniac 1096-1137), choir, transept, narthex, 1090-1104 nave 1120-32

First large-scale church in France with groin vaults throughout

III. Romanesque Burgundy alternative thin wall construction

Benedictine Abbey at Vézelay (Cluniac 1096-1137), choir, transept, narthex, 1090-1104 nave 1120-32

First large-scale church in France with groin vaults throughout

III. Romanesque Burgundy alternative thin wall construction

Vézelay – groin-vaulted nave with generous clerestory windows

groin or cross vaults

Vézelay – narthex with sculpted portal

going into the nave coming out into the narthex

III. Romanesque Burgundy narthex portals

Benedictine abbey at Moissac, France (Cluniac from 1048), south portal 1115-30

III. Romanesque Burgundy narrative sculpture on portals + in cloisters


cloister walk cloister garden

Cloister of Moissac abbey church, 1085-1100

Earliest historiated capitals in a cloister

South portal of Moissac abbey church, 1115-30

trumeau

trumeau – prophet Jeremiah


1073 Benedictine monk Robert of Molesme joins hermits in the forest of Collan

1098Robert, Alberic, and Stephen Harding settle in the forest of Cîteau, found the New Monastery

III. Romanesque Burgundy: the Cistercian challenge

What remains of the abbey at Cîteaux

1113Nobleman Bernard of Fontaine (a.k.a. Bernard of Clairvaux) arrives at Cîteaux

Bernard: “One learns more in the woods than in books. The trees and the rocks will teach you things you will not hear elsewhere.”

Cîteaux = Cisteaux = Cistercian

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Cistercian challenge

Bernard founds the new of daughter house of the monks at Ciairvaux in 1115 and Fontenay in 1118

Clairvaux today


Fontenay Abbey, France, construction 1133-47

Fontenay Abbey


Benedictine abbey at Cluny Cistercian abbey of Fontenay

cloister(s), refectory, chapter house, dormitory, workroom and forge, fountain

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Cistercian challenge Work ethos = functional buildings

dormitoryforge Fontenay

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Cistercian challenge Work ethos = functional buildings

Cistercian abbey of Fontenay

clear geometric shapes (massing) ?Distinctive formal characteristics of the Romanesque

Cistercian abbey church of Fontenay

exterior/interior masses and volumes correspondDistinctive formal characteristics of the Romanesque

east end

facing east toward chancel


exterior/interior masses and volumes correspondDistinctive formal characteristics of the Romanesque

east endtransept with chancel and chapels

Cistercian abbey of Fontenay

Plan of a Cistercian church from French master-builder Villard de

Honnecourt’s sketchbook (1230s)

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Theory the Cistercian model

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Theory the Cistercian model


Fontenay’s cloister

cloister walk cloister garden

III. Romanesque Burgundy: Cistercian challenge the cloister

Le Thoronet Cistercian abbey, France (Provence), 1135

Network of Cluniac monasteries

III. Romanesque Burgundy: the Cistercian challenge

Network of Cistercian monasteries

Speyer Cathedral, Germany, 1030-61; 1081-1133St. Michael’s, Hildesheim, Germany, 1010-33 (Ottonian)

IV. Romanesque basilicas and structure – looking up (wall to ceiling) Implications for articulation of wall and parts?

Speyer Cathedral, Germany, 1030-61 (wood ceiling)St. Michael’s, Hildesheim, Germany, 1010-33 (Ottonian)

Implications for articulation of wall and parts?IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling)

Germany (wood ceiling)Central Italy (Tuscany) – wood ceiling

Implications for articulation of wall and parts?

Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61Pisa Cathedral, 1063-1118

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling)

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) wood ceilings

Normandy: implications for wall and parts?

Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61

Germany Normandy

Abbey church at Jumièges (Normandy) France, 1037-66, wood roofed nave


IV. Romanesque basilicas with wood roofs

Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61

GermanyNormandy

wood roof and double bays

Jumièges (Normandy) France, 1037-66

Normandy: implications for wall and parts?

Germanygroin vaulted nave and double bays

Normandywood roof and double bays

Jumièges (Normandy) France, 1037-66Speyer Cathedral, 1081-1133

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Germany’s vaults: implications for wall and parts?

Abbey of St.-Étienne, Caen, France, 11th-12th century (1064-77, vaults 1120)

Normandy: implications for wall and parts?IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling)

Normandy: wood ceiling and thick wall construction

St.-Étienne at Caen with timber ceiling, double bays, and clerestory passage, 1064-77


Germany (wood ceiling)Anglo-Norman wood ceiling

Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61Ely Cathedral, 1081-115

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) England: wood ceiling and thick wall construction

rib vaults in choir aisle (1093-96)

skeletal frame alone bears the load

IV. Romanesque basilicas and structure rib vaults

Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, 1093-1133

Durham’s choir aisle vaults, earliest known rib vaults, 1093

Durham Cathedral – rib vaults in choir aisle

skeletal frame alone bears the load


mobile centering one bay at a timeplanking and wattle to support webbing during construction ribs of a rib vault

Soissons Cathedral, France

left in place in Lincoln Cathedral


IV. Romanesque basilicas and structure about Durham

Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, 1093-1133

regular clergy (monastic clergy) = monastic layout

Durham Cathedral – thick wall and double bay system

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Durham: rib vaults, thick wall, double bay

Durham Cathedral – surface decoration on archivolts and cylindrical piers

Earls Barton, 970 - Anglo-Saxon church tower with linear surface decoration

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Durham: rib vaults, thick wall, double bay


Durham nave rib vaults, 1128-33

St.-Étienne with timber ceiling, 1064-77 St.-Étienne with rib vaults added 1120


St.-Étienne with rib vaults added 1120 – thick-wall, double-bay system

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Normandy: rib vaults, thick wall, double bay

St.-Étienne at Caen (Normandy) with sexpartite rib vaults and double-bay system

Speyer Cathedral (Rhineland, Germany) with groin vaults and double-bay system

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Different vaults and double bay systems

S. Ambrogio in Milan with quadripartite rib vaults on double-bay system, complete by 1117

St.-Étienne in Caen with rib vaults added in 1120

IV. Romanesque basilicas – looking up (wall to ceiling) Other rib vaults and double bay systems

Durham Cathedral with paired quadripartite rib vaults and pointed transverse arches

IV. Romanesque basilicas and structure

St.-Étienne with sexpartite rib vaults and all round arches

Durham: first pointed rib

IV. Romanesque basilicas and structure

Pointed arches and vaults – already seen in Burgundy (Cluny III) but not combined with rib technique

Durham: first pointed rib

Cluny III: load-bearing pointed barrel vault with

pointed transverse arches

Durham: pointed rib (the transverse arches only)

+

Gothic architecture

V. Romanesque structural technology building blocks of Gothic architecture available

Roger Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture, 1999

romanesque 3: what is romanesque style? continued

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