The Romanesque: Between Historicist and Modernist Modes of Design

1. The Romanesque: Between Historicist and Modernist Modes of Design

2. I. Romanesque visual sophistication on the interior A. Wall thickness revealed in planes and subdivided vertically into bays (individual parts subordinated to the whole) Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral – 1st building

3. I. A. 1. compound pier - a pier with several attached shafts Ste.-Foy Voids become lively and rhythmic spaces. Masonry walls are 3-dimensional entities

4. I. B. Romanesque nave elevation – parts and directionality clerestory nave arcade Early Christian St. Peter’s Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

5. I. C. Contrast Romanesque 3-dimensionality with Roman volume Classical Roman architecture: sculpting of spatial volumes Romanesque: interior and exterior worked out in 3-dimensionally in planes Hadrian’s Villa (Roman) Ste.-Foy

6. I. C. Early Christian Romanesque S. Sabina Ste.-Foy

7. II. Grandeur and dignity: a comprehensive Romanesque vaulting system II. A. Load-bearing masonry vaultsin the Romanesque church nave Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral Vaulting and aesthetics: “improving the composition of the work,” “wondrous effects”

8. II. A. 1. How is Romanesque vaulting different from Roman vaulting? monolithic bay system of supports and buttresses Romanesque load-bearing stone masonry Roman load-bearing concrete masonry DomusAurea, Rome St.-Sernin in Toulouse, France

9. II. A. 2. Banded Romanesque barrel vaults (Ste.-Foy): why were they useful? new way: centering one bay at a time Ste.-Foy’s banded barrel vault old way: continuous centering advantage: transverse arches help vault maintain its form aesthetics: banded barrel vault has a closer relationship with the lower part of the nave

10. II. A. 3. What effect did the high barrel vault have on the supporting walls? diagonal thrust of a barrel vault abutment of low barrel vault abutment of a high barrel vault

11. II. A. 3. quadrant vault or half barrel vault Ste.-Foy, Conques barrel vault wall or spur buttress

12. II. A. 3. Ste-Foy, Conques

13. II. A. 4. Groin vaults in church naves (Speyer Cathedral): what advantages did a groin vaulted nave have over a barrel vault? Speyer Cathedral timber ceiling of 1st bldg. groin vaulted nave of 2nd bldg.

14. II. A. 5. What effect did the high groin vault have on the supporting walls? Speyer Cathedral before groin vaults with groin vaults

15. III. Romanesque architectural theory: What theoretical approach to sacred architecture is validated by Romanesque design? Romanesque: serene dignity of God (cerebral, sober, mathematical) Islam: vast, infiniteness of One God Byzantine: what heaven is like Speyer Cathedral Ste.-Foy abbey church

16. III. “Beauty is a concordance and fittingness of . . . all the individual parts to themselves and to each other and to the whole, and that of the whole to all things” (Robert Grosseteste, 13th cen., a view based on Vitruvius). Romanesque architecture reveals the order of the universe Romanesque cathedral at Modena, Italy

17. IV. Romanesque regional diversity correlates to historicist tendencies in southern Europe (Italy, Spain, S. France) VS. modernist tendencies in northern Europe (Germany, N. France, England) most historicist tension between historicist and modernist tendencies most modernist Italy Germany France England

18. IV. standard basilical profile complex, towered profile complex, towered profile structural ponderance structural ponderance skeletal frame wall as a 3-D entity in planes wall as a 3-D entity in planes walls a continuous plane OR elevational system rather than true wall classical column (pilasters, engaged columns) compound piers compound piers round arches round arches pointed arches (“broken” arches) punched in windows and square-headed doors walls/doors in recessed archivolts walls/doors in recessed archivolts vertical articulation in a bay system vertical articulation in a bay system horizontal continuous space load-bearing vaults load-bearing vaults rib vaults Features of Romanesque Ste-Foy Romanesque Ste-Foy

19. IV. standard basilical profile complex, towered profile complex, towered profile structural ponderance structural ponderance skeletal frame wall as a 3-D entity in planes wall as a 3-D entity in planes walls a continuous plane OR elevational system rather than true wall classical column (pilasters, engaged columns) compound piers compound piers round arches round arches pointed arches (“broken” arches) punched in windows and square-headed doors walls/doors in recessed archivolts walls/doors in recessed archivolts vertical articulation in a bay system vertical articulation in a bay system horizontal continuous space load-bearing vaults load-bearing vaults rib vaults Features of Romanesque Speyer Cathedral Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

20. IV. historicist tendencies ………… Romanesque spectrum ……………….modernist tendencies most modernizing between historicizing and modernizing ROME CONSTANTINOPLE most historicizing

21. Durham Cathedral Speyer Cathedral most modernizing between historicizing and modernizing Ste.-Foy ROME most historicizing Pisa Cathedral

22. IV. A. The medieval churches of Rome ➞ so faithful to Early Christian models, they are immaculately historicist Early Christian in Rome Romanesque in Rome (Old St. Peter’s) (S. Giorgio in Velabro)

23. IV. B. The Romanesque elsewhere in Italy Pisa Cathedral, Pisa, Italy 11th – 13th cen. (1063-1118 cathedral) bell tower baptistery cathedral

24. IV. B. Pisa’s Romanesque Baptistery, 1152-1363; arch. Diotislavi

25. IV. B. Early Christian occasional space for veneration Centrally-planned mausoleums, baptisteries, martyria Baptisteries Mausolea Martyria Lateran Baptistery, Rome 315, and 432-40 Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, Rome, c. 350 Anastasis Rotunda Jerusalem, 325-80

26. IV. B. “Medieval architecture in Italy’s greatest contribution to the medieval environment may be its ability to see the church as the framer of a public space, a town square” (Kostof 316). Pisa Cathedral

27. IV. B. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist? E.C. St. Peter’s Pisa Cathedral

28. IV. B. 1. E.C. St. Peter’s crossing dome Pisa Cathedral

29. IV. B. 1. E.C. S. Sabina Pisa Cathedral

30. IV. B. 1. Pisa Cathedral E.C. St. Peter’s

31. IV. B. 1. E.C. S. Sabina Pisa Cathedral

32. IV. B. 1. standard basilical profile complex, towered profile complex, towered profile structural ponderance structural ponderance skeletal frame wall as a 3-D entity in planes wall as a 3-D entity in planes walls a continuous plane OR elevational system rather than true wall classical column (pilasters, engaged columns) classical column (pilasters, engaged columns) compound piers round arches round arches pointed arches (“broken” arches) punched in windows and square-headed doors punched in windows and square-headed doors walls/doors in recessed archivolts vertical articulation in a bay system horizontal continuous space horizontal continuous space load-bearing vaults load-bearing vaults rib vaults Romanesque Pisa Cathedral Features of Romanesque Pisa Cathedral

33. IV. D. The Romanesque in England Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, 11th-12th century (1060-1133)

34. IV. D. Durham Cathedral, Durham, England NOT URBAN: Site chosen by William the Conqueror in 1093 as a bulwark against the Scots to the north castle used as bishop’s palace MONASTIC in spite of being a cathedral (English bishops were also monks) HAS RELICS of St. Cuthbert (634-87), bishop of Lindisfarne

35. IV. D. 1. Durham Cathedral E.C. St. Peter’s monks’ choir public church Typical monastic buildings Lady Chapel added 1153-95

36. IV. D. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, massing, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section. a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist? E.C. St. Peter’s Durham Cathedral

37. IV. D. 1. E.C. S. Sabina Durham Cathedral

38. IV. D. 1. E.C. St. Peter’s E.C. St. Peter’s Durham Cathedral

39. IV. D. 1. E.C. S. Sabina Durham Cathedral

40. II. B. Durham Cathedral clerestory dwarf gallery in clerestory tribune gallery nave arcade

41. IV. D. 1. Durham Cathedral wall passage of dwarf gallery quadrant vault tribune gallery

42. IV. D. 1. earliest known rib vaults Durham Cathedral rib vaults – skeletal frame alone bears the load Durham’s choir aisle vaults, earliest known rib vaults, 1093 ribs of rib vaults Durham nave rib vaults, 1128-33

43. IV. D. 1. linear, non-classical surface decoration Durham Cathedral Anglo-Saxon architecture: Earls Barton tower (10th cen.) MODERNIST: linear surface patterns attempt to unify all parts of the structure in a linear web chevron moldings on archivolts and ribs piers build forward in 3 layers surface diaper work and chevrons

44. standard basilical profile complex, towered profile complex, towered profile structural ponderance skeletal frame wall as a 3-D entity in planes wall as a 3-D entity in planes walls a continuous plane OR elevational system rather than true wall classical column (pilasters, engaged columns) compound piers compound piers round arches round arches pointed arches (“broken” arches) punched in windows and square-headed doors walls/doors in recessed archivolts walls/doors in recessed archivolts vertical articulation in a bay system vertical articulation in a bay system horizontal continuous space rib vaults load-bearing vaults rib vaults Features of Romanesque Durham Cathedral Romanesque Durham Cathedral