ROMANESQUE EUROPE

1. ROMANESQUE EUROPE GARDNER CHAPTER 17-2 PP. 437-445

2. ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE • Common elements of Romanesque sculpture as seen at St. Pierre Moissac include: • extremely elongated figures • curious, cross-legged dancing pose of angel of Matthew • jerky, hinged movement • zigzag and dovetail lines of the draperies • bending back of hands against the body • wide cheekbones • First definite relation of architecture and sculpture appears in the Romanesque style • Early Romanesque sculpture, as at St. Sernin, has a random and haphazard placement of sculpture • Portals of churches emerge as the primary placement for sculpture, especially the tympanum • Common Romanesque subject for the tympanum: the vision of the Last Judgment which would serve as a dramatic, teaching tool for the illiterate pilgrims.

3. SAINT-PIERRE, MOISSAC • The monks of the Moissac abbey joined the Cluniac order in 1047 -> important stop on the route to Santiago de Compostela • Adorned their church w/elaborate series of relief sculptures -> oldest are in the cloister • CLOISTER = enclosed place -> shut away from the world -> read, pray, meditate in calm serenity

4. MOISSACCLOISTER SCULPTURE • Detail of pier with relief of Abbot Durandus in the cloister at Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, 1100-1115 • Large figural reliefs on the piers as well as HISTORIATED (ornamented with figures) capitals on the columns • 76 capitals alternately crown single and double columns -> decorated w/abstract patterns, bible scenes, lives of saints, and fantastic monsters -> BESTIARIES • Bernard of Clairvaux and the CISTERCIANS reject figural sculpture as a distraction

5. THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH PORTAL • One of the most significant and distinctive features of Romanesque art is the revival of monumental sculpture in stone • The clergy considered the church doorway the beginning of the path to salvation through Christ -> many Romanesque churches feature didactic reliefs above and beside the entrance portals • TYMPANUM • VOUSSOIRS • LINTEL • TRUMEAU • JAMB

6. SOUTH PORTAL, MOISSAC • Lions and Old Testament prophet, trumeau of the south portal of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, 1115-1130 • Saint-Pierre’s south portal faces the town square and is even more lavishly decorated than the cloister • Below the tympanum are a richly decorated trumeau and door jambs w/scalloped contours • Prophet’s figure is tall and thin -> cross-legged step -> animation of the body -> flowing drapery folds, beard, and locks -> face of a dreaming mystic • Six roaring interlaced lions fill the trumeau’s outer face

7. Vast tympanum depicts the Second Coming of Christ -> Christ was the most common central motif in sculpted Romanesque portals

8. SAINT-LAZARE, AUTUN • Gislebertus, Last Judgement, west tympanum of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France, ca. 1120-1135, marble • Christ in a mandorla presides over the separation of the Blessed from the Damned -> dramatic vision of the Last Judgement • Designed to terrify those guilty of sin and beckon them into the church

9. LA MADELEINE, VEZELAY • Pentecost and Mission of the Apostles, tympanum of the center portal of the narthex of La Madeleine, Vezelay, France, 1120-1132 • The light rays emanating from Christ’s hands representing the instilling of the Holy Spirit in the apostles • Over the lintel and in 8 compartments around the tympanum -> the heathen wait to be converted

10. Closer view of the Tympanum

11. THE CRUSADES • In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an assault on the Holy Land -> between 1095 and 1190 Christians launched three great CRUSADES from France • The Crusades (“taking of the Cross”) = mass armed pilgrimages whose purpose was take the Christian shrines in the Holy Land from Muslim control • Strengthened papal authority • Created an image of Christian solidarity • The Christian Knight • The Knights Templar -> stationed themselves next to the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Solomon’s Temple -> mission was to protect visiting pilgrims • In the end the Muslims expelled the Christian armies -> Crusades failed miserably

12. NOTRE-DAME, FONTENAY • Interior of the abbey church of Notre-Dame, Fontenay, France, 1139-1147 • Cistercians were great builders -> some of their churches among the largest in Romanesque Europe • The Fontenay church is typically austere -> single story nave, square east end lacking ambulatory or chapels -> rejected sculptural ornamentation

13. PAINTING AND OTHER ARTS – MORALIA IN JOB • Initial R with knight fighting dragons, folio 4 verso of the Moralia in Job, from Citeaux, France, ca. 1115-1125, ink and tempera on vellum • Painting did not need to be “revived” in the Romanesque period • One of the major Romanesque SCRIPTORIA was at the abbey of Citeaux • Ornamented initials date to the Hiberno-Saxon era -> this artist translated the theme into Romanesque terms

14. SAINT-SAVIN-SUR-GARTEMPE • Nave and painted nave vault of the abbey church, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, France, ca. 1100 • Murals decorate the church’s stone-vaulted nave -> aisles are about the same height as the nave -> tall windows in the aisles allow illumination of the nave -> this may explain the painting of the nave

15. SANTA MARIA DE MUR • Christ in Majesty, apse fresco from Santa María de Mur, near Lérida, Spain, mid-twelfth century. 22’ X 24’ • The Apocalypse fresco of the Santa Maria de Mur apse resembles the reliefs of French and Spanish tympana -> Christ appears in a mandorla between the signs of the 4 evangelists • Formality, symmetry, and placement of the figures are Byzantine

16. MORGAN MADONNA • Virgin and child, from Auvergne, France, 2nd half of the 12th century, painted wood, 2’7” high • Despite use of stone relief sculpture to adorn Romanesque church portals -> resistance to statues in the round continued • Veneration of relics brought with it a demand for small-scale images of the holy family and saints to be placed on chapel altars • Wooden statuette depicts the Virgin as the Throne of Wisdom