The Romanesque: The Style in its Social Context

Architecture in the Middle Ages (400-1400)

Late Antique or

Early Christian Carolingian

780-900Romanesque

1000-1200Gothic

1200-1400

Byzantine Islam

c. 1400Italian

Renaissance begins

Muslim Empire in 750 Carolingian Empire in 814

I. Historical lead up to the Romanesque period (AD 1000-1250)

Carolingian palace chapel, Aachen, Germany, 792-805

Great Mosque at Cordoba, Spain

784

In the Carolingian period (780-900): Western European monasteries given definitive form

I.

Scale and plan of Carolingian basilicas (compared to Early Christian predecessors)

I.

Carolingian Carolingian

Carolingian basilicas: vertical emphasis

I.

Carolingian Corvey abbey church, 873-85, Germany Carolingian Abbey church of St. Boniface at Fulda, Germany, 790-819

9th- 10th cen. Viking, Magyar, and Saracen invasions1.2.

City walls, Avila, Spain, b. 1090

a wood keep

earth and wood fortification

I. A. The Carolingian empire and its restoration of monumental architecture was promising, but why didn’t it last?

residences of the feudal elite

great hall 2nd & 3rd floors

I. B. When did the fortunes of Europe become more conducive to architectural innovation?

ecclesiastical architecture merchants’ townhouses

Ste.-Foy at Conques

I. B. return of cut stone masonry

Ste.-Foy at Conques, France (abbey church), 1030-1120

Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany1030-1106

II. Romanesque Style or Design Mode: Context for its visual and spatial sophistication

Pisa Cathedral

Durham Cathedral

Speyer Cathedral

Ste.-Foy

Romanesque architecture (11th cen. - mid 13th cen.): the first European architectureII.

II. A. Religious context: Medieval Christian pilgrimage and the cult of relics

Reliquary of St. Faith

“Relics mattered more basically than any other fixture of daily existence” (Kostof 301).

4.

The “pilgrimage church” type

II. A. Pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela

II. A.

Abbey of Ste.-Foy at Conques

remains of Ste. Foy’s cloister

cloisterchurch

Ste.-Foy

tribune gallery

tribune gallery

II. A. 1. New parts of Christian basilicas due to new program requirements (accommodating pilgrims) starting in the 11th century.

Ste.-Foy – two views of the south gallery

II. A. 1.

looking east

looking west

Ste.-Foy

II. A. 1.

ambulatory with radiating chapels

II. A. 1.

Speyer Cathedral

crypt

II. B. Competitive aesthetic architectural discourse in c. A.D. 1000

Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral

Raoul Glaber’s (monk and historian) commentary: “Just before the third year of the millennium, throughout th ewhole world, but most especially in Italy and Gaul, men began to reconstruct churches, although for the most part the existing ones were properly built and not in the least unworthy. But it seemed as though each Christian community were aiming to surpass all others in the splendor of construction. It was as if the whole world were shaking itself free, shrugging off the burden of the past, and cladding itself everywhere in a white mantle of churches” (Kostof 299).

III. The Romanesque exterior: aesthetics of less-Roman, future-oriented form begins in the 11C A. Components of a changed overall appearance from outside

Speyer CathedralSte.-Foy

Early Christian basilicas Romanesque basilicas in northern Europe

Speyer Cathedral

Ste.-Foy

III. A. 1. What happened to the Christian church façade in the Romanesque period?

St. Peter’s (recon.)

Early Christian facademodest basilica silhouette

Santa Sabina

Romanesque facades in northern Europe

Speyer CathedralSte.-Foy

III. A. 2. What are some features of the complex massing at the apse end (east) and sometimes the west end as well?

Speyer Cathedral

Ste.-Foy

III. A. 3. How is the crossing expressed on the exterior?

crossing tower crossing towerdouble transept: two crossing towers

III. B. Specific qualities of the exterior wall 1. wall subdivided, often hierarchically, into bays

Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral

Romanesque Ste.-Foy

III. B. 2. Thick skin of the architectural wall worked out in planes and layers

Romanesque Speyer CathedralEarly Christian S. Sabina in Rome

single plane separatesinterior space from exterior

III. B.

Speyer Cathedral

corbel tables(horizontal)Lombard

bands(vertical)

III. B. 2. a. engaged shafts

Ste.-Foy

engaged shafts

Engaged shafts not guidedby laws of classical proportions.

III. B. 2. b. blind arcades

Speyer CathedralSte.-Foy

blind arcade

III. B. 2. c. arcaded galleries (dwarf galleries)

Speyer Cathedral

dwarf gallery

III. C. Thickness of Romanesque windows and portals: an impression created by recessed archivolts and multiple jambs

Early Christian S. Sabina Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts

archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings

III. C. wall thickness registered in

recessed archivolts

Ste.-Foy

archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings

III. C.

Ste.-Foy - archivolts

Romanesque portal sculpture: Ste.-Foy’s Last Judgment scene

III. C.