ROMANESQUE EUROPE

GARDNER CHAPTER 17-3PP. 445-453

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE - ARCHITECTURE Salians -> Romanesque

successors to the Ottonians

Ruled an empire covering present day Germany and N. Italy

Salians were great patrons of art and architecture -> and monasteries remained the great centers of artistic production

SPEYER CATHEDRAL

Interior of Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany, nave vaults ca. 1082-1105

The central aim of northern Romanesque architects was to develop a masonry vault system that admitted light and was aesthetically pleasing

The solution was to cover the nave with groin vaults instead of barrel vaults

Speyer shows that groin vaults made possible large clerestory windows above the nave arcade

SANT’AMBROGIO,MILAN Aerial view of Sant’Ambrogio,

Milan, Italy, late 11th to early 12th century

Lombardy = N. Italy -> the central monument of Lombard Romanesque architecture is Sant’Ambrogio

Atrium and low, broad proportions, two bell towers (CAMPANILES) at west end, octagonal tower over east end

SANT’AMBROGIOINTERIOR

Interior of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, late eleventh to early twelfth century

The nave reveals the northern character of Lombard architecture -> each groin-vaulted nave bay corresponds to two aisle bays

Alternate-support system complements this modular plan

ROMANESQUE COUNTESSES, QUEENS, AND NUNS

Hildegard receives her visions, detail of a facsimile of a lost folio in the Rupertsberger Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen, ca. 1150-1179

Hildegard of Bingen -> the most prominent nun of her time and one of the greatest religious figures of the Middle Ages -> experienced divine visions -> 5 tongues of fire entering her brain -> she also composed music and wrote scientific treatises

Eleanor of Aquitaine -> wife of Henry II of England after annulment of her marriage to Louis VII of France

PAINTING AND OTHER ARTS – HILDEGARD OF BINGEN

Religious manuscript known as the Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen -> contains a record of her vision of the divine order of the cosmos and man’s place in it

RAINER OF HUY

Rainer of Huy, baptism of Christ, baptismal font from Notre-Dame-des-Fonts, Liege, Belgium

The bronze basin rests on the foreparts of a dozen oxen -> revives the classical style and classical spirit

Features idealized figures and even a nude representation of Christ

RELIQUARY OF SAINT

ALEXANDER Head reliquary of Saint Alexander, from

Stavelot Abbey, Belgium, silver repousse, gilt bronze, gems, pearls, and enamel, 1145

Reliquary = container for holding relics

Almost life-size head in repousse silver w/gilt bronze hair -> wears collar of jewels -> enamels and jewels adorn the box the head sits on -> reliquary rest of four bronze dragons

Example of the stylistic diversity and sources of Romanesque art

ITALY – ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE

Italian architects never accepted the verticality found in northern architecture.

The Pisa Cathedral is one of the most majestic and impressive of all Romanesque churches. Its striped incrustation (alternating dark green and cream colored marble) becomes a hallmark of Tuscan Romanesque and Gothic buildings.

Detail view of Baptistery

PISA CATHEDRAL COMPLEX

Italian Romanesque - Cathedral complex, Pisa, Italy; cathedral begun 1063; baptistery begun 1153; campanile begun 1174

Pisa’s Cathedral more structurally resembles Early Christian basilicas than the more experimental northern Romanesque churches

Separate bell tower and baptisteries are characteristically Italian

BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE

Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, dedicated 1059

This is the gem of Florentine Romanesque architecture

Freestanding and faces the city’s cathedral

Simple and serene classicism -> central-plan building

Tuscan Romanesque marble incrustation patterns the walls

Domed octagon wrapped on the exterior by elegant arcade w/3 arches to a bay

SAN MINIATO AL

MONTE Interior of San Miniato al Monte,

Florence, Italy, ca. 1062-1090

Design of San Miniato is close to that of Early Christian basilicas -> but diaphragm arches divide the nave into 3 equal compartments

Compound piers alternate w/columns in the arcade

MODENA CATHEDRAL Wiligelmo, creation and

temptation of Adam and Eve, detail of the frieze of west façade, Modena Cathedral, Italy, ca. 110

For Modena’s cathedral Wiligelmo shows scenes from Genesis against an architectural backdrop of a type common on Roman and Early Christian sarcophagi

Entering the cathedral you are reminded of original sin and that the only path to salvation is through the church

BENEDETTO

ANTELAMI BENEDETTO ANTELAMI, King

David, statue in a niche on the west facade of Fidenza Cathedral, Fidenza, Italy, ca. 1180–1190. Marble, approx. life-size

Benedetto Antelami’s King David is a rare example of life-size statuary in the Romanesque period -> the style is unmistakably rooted in Greco-Roman art