The Romanesque: The Style in its Social Context

The Romanesque: The Style in its Social Context

Architecture in the Middle Ages (400-1400) Late Antique or Early Christian Carolingian 780-900 Romanesque 1000-1200 Gothic 1200-1400 c. 1400 Italian Renaissance begins Byzantine Islam

I.Historical lead up to the Romanesque period (ad 1000-1250) Muslim Empire in 750 Carolingian Empire in 814 Great Mosque at Cordoba, Spain 784 Carolingian palace chapel, Aachen, Germany, 792-805

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

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

I. Carolingian basilicas: vertical emphasis Carolingian Corvey abbey church, 873-85, Germany Carolingian Abbey church of St. Boniface at Fulda, Germany, 790-819

I. A. The Carolingian empire and its restoration of monumental architecture was promising, but why didn’t it last? 9th- 10th cen. Viking, Magyar, and Saracen invasions 1. 2. a wood keep City walls, Avila, Spain, b. 1090 earth and wood fortification

I. B. When did the fortunes of Europe become more conducive to architectural innovation? ecclesiastical architecture residences of the feudal elite merchants’ townhouses great hall 2nd & 3rd floors

I. B. return of cut stone masonry Ste.-Foy at Conques

II. Romanesque Style or Design Mode: Context for its visual and spatial sophistication Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany 1030-1106 Ste.-Foy at Conques, France (abbey church), 1030-1120

II. Romanesque architecture (11th cen. - mid 13th cen.): the first European architecture Speyer Cathedral Durham Cathedral Ste.-Foy Pisa Cathedral

II. A. Religious context: Medieval Christian pilgrimage and the cult of relics 4. “Relics mattered more basically than any other fixture of daily existence” (Kostof 301). Reliquary of St. Faith

II. A. Pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela The “pilgrimage church” type

II. A. Abbey of Ste.-Foy at Conques church cloister remains of Ste. Foy’s cloister

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

II. A. 1. Ste.-Foy – two views of the south gallery looking east looking west

II. A. 1. Ste.-Foy ambulatory with radiating chapels

II. A. 1. Speyer Cathedral crypt

II. B. Competitive aesthetic architectural discourse in c. A.D. 1000 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). Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral

III. The Romanesque exterior: aesthetics of less-Roman, future-oriented form begins in the 11C A. Components of a changed overall appearance from outside Romanesque basilicas in northern Europe Early Christian basilicas Speyer Cathedral Ste.-Foy

III. A. 1. What happened to the Christian church façade in the Romanesque period? Early Christian facade modest basilica silhouette Romanesque facades in northern Europe St. Peter’s (recon.) Santa Sabina Speyer Cathedral Ste.-Foy

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

III. A. 3. How is the crossing expressed on the exterior? crossing tower double transept: two crossing towers crossing tower Speyer Cathedral Ste.-Foy

III. B. Specific qualities of the exterior wall 1. wall subdivided, often hierarchically, into bays Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral

III. B. 2. Thick skin of the architectural wall worked out in planes and layers Romanesque Ste.-Foy Romanesque Speyer Cathedral Early Christian S. Sabina in Rome single plane separates interior space from exterior

III. B. Speyer Cathedral corbel tables (horizontal) Lombard bands (vertical)

III. B. 2. a. engaged shafts Engaged shafts not guided by laws of classical proportions. Ste.-Foy engaged shafts

III. B. 2. b. blind arcades Speyer Cathedral Ste.-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

III. C. wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings Ste.-Foy

III. C. archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings Ste.-Foy - archivolts

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

The Romanesque: The Style in its Social Context