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Romanesque Period
With the coming of a new millennium, people across Europe were waiting for Christ second coming. Christian ruler set aside their swords for Gods peace and people started to take religious pilgrimages. When the millennial came and went, it caused the Millennial Disappointment and people had a lot of religious energy leading to new expressions of art.
Why was the addition of decorative sculpture to Romanesque churches so surprising?
The ealier Christians shunned sculptures as a form of idolatry instead prefered the churches had very plain exteriors, but sculptures became a permanent fixture of the Romanesque art.
Tympanum
Circular relief sculptures that surronded the doorways
Romanesque Period: Stained Glass Windows
Relatively small and simple with narrow fame and rounded tops. Stain glass along with sculptures began to replace murals and illuminations
Romansque Period: Secular Art
Art that had no religious reference and can be in any medium. Ex: bronze statue of a lion that was commissioned by the Duke of Bavaria.
Carmina Burana
An example of secular art created during the Romanesque time. It is an illumination of poems that talks about matters such as sex and drinking.
Bayeux Tapestry
Piece of embroidered fabric that is voer 200 ft long. It depicts the Battle of Hasting and the events that led up to it. The purpose of the Tapestry is to justify William the Conqueror’s invasion of England.
Types of Sculptural Decoration in Romanesque Churches
Sculped columns, Tympanums, Statues
Factors Contributed to the rise of Romanesque Art
Millenniual disappointment, pilgrimages, reopened trade, dominance of the Roman Catholic Church, reemergence of cities/towns, growth of middle class
Characteristics of the Romanseque style
semicircular arch, vaulting, towers, arcades, sculptural decor
Vaulting: Barrel Vaulting
Simplest sort of vaulting, semicirular arch stretch along a single axis.
Vaulting: Groin Vaulting
Two barrel vault meeting at a right angle creating a square dome
Vaulting: Ribbed Vault
Builting arch frame or ribs and then filling the gaps between them
Romanesque Period: Bulkier Construction
Vaulted ceilings meant a lot of heavy masonry hanging over your head and the weight had to go somewhere. The architects solution was bigger wall with few windows, but lead to less light. Another solution alternating columns, good at handling vertical force, with piers, good at handling horizontal force.
Campaniles
Free-standing bell towers like the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Romanseque Arcade
A row of archways
Three Vaulting Types of Romanesque Period
Barrel, groin, and rib
Why did Romanesque architects start building more piers as supports within buildings as compared to columns?
Piers provided stronger support to vaulted ceilings than columns.
France and Spain Romanesque
France and Spain started the Romanesque style because they are along the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela. This pilgrimage led to new pilgrimage churches created on the path. Those churches utilized vaulting in order to create larger structures with more open interior. A lot of those church possess relics so radiating chapels were created for the pilgrims. Reliefs were very popular as a way of depicting biblical scenes or images connected to the relics in the church.
Radiating Chapels
Chapel jutting out the side of the Church so that the pilgrims could visit the relics without interrupting Mass.
Norman Romanesque
England and Normandy, William the Conqueror’s Kingdom, the churches were more ornate and had massively tall bell towers, a symbol of there closeness to god. Also developed buttresses to keep the towers upright. Also used relief, but there were more animated then the French ones on the pilgrimage
Italian Romensque Style
The Italians focused more on decorating the surface of their churches. Also the bell tower and baptistery were not connected to the main church but in seperate buildings.
What sort of artisitic production was biggest in Northern Europe?
Gold and metal working, especially iwth reliquaries
Purpose of Art in Churches
Teaching people about the faith: during this time majority of the population was illerate
Demostrating Wealth and Status: wealthy churches were chosen by god to protect and spread the faith
How did pilgrimages impact art in Romanesque churches?
Churches started competing to attract pilgrims, and they used art to indicate status and the possession of relics.
Roughly when was the Romanesque period in art?
1050-1200 CE
Monastic Orders: Art and Architecture
Each monastic order were creating different type of art because they all had strict ruel and were proud of their own set of beliefs. Each order embraced art and architecture the personifed their personal beliefs and use art to show off there status + wealth.
Why does Romanesque art and architecture tend to have such strong regional characteristics?
Each monastic order embraced different style, leading to strong regional traits
Why was architecture so important to the various monastic orders?
They believed that they needed to be constantly surrounded by symbols of faith and an environment of piety.
Why did Romanesque churches tend to be larger than anything else in the Medieval world?
To house the large congregation also because the monks had enough wealth to affort large structures. The monks were also constantly competing to develop the most innovative architecture
Stavelot Triptych
The Stavelot Triptych is a reliquary around 19 inches tall and consisit of three triptychs in one, two smaller triptych inside the center the overall triptychs. Entire piece is gold and covered with semi-precious stones/gems.
Overall Triptych: The two outside wings has six medallions that tells the story of the Ture Cross, cross Jesus was crucified on. The left wing show emperor Constantien conversion to Christianity. The right shows Constantine’s mother, Saint Helene finding the True Cross.
Two smaller Triptych is the Byzantine origin: Top one shows Mary and St John surronding a crucified Christ and annunication scene. Bottom Triptych in the center possess a holy relic, a piece of the True Cross, surronded by the archangel Gabriel and Michael, Constantine and St. Helena
Triptych
Alterpiece with three pieces and the outside two wings could fold and conceal the center section
Mosan
Created the Stavelot Triptych
Where was the Stavelot Triptych made?
The larger triptych was assembled in what is now Belgium and the smaller ones are Byzantine.
The iconography of the Stavelot Triptych relates to which relic that is said to be housed inside?
Pieces of the True Cross
Who embroidered tapestry?
Queen Matilda, William the Conquer’s wife, and her ladies or nuns
Who are th three main characters of the tapestry?
William the Conqueror, Edward the Confesser (the King of England), and Harold Godwinson, powerful noble/brother-in-law to Edward
Story in the Bayeux Tapestry
Edward the Confesser the King of England had no heir; supposedly, William, Edward’s cousin, was named his heir. It starts with Edward sending Harold to meet with William in France. Harold swears on a holy relic, which is believed to be him promising to recognize Willaim as heir. When Edward died, Harold takes control of England which violates his oath to god and Edward. This shows that William wasn’t conquering anything but reclaiming what was his. The tapestry later shows William raising an army to cross the channel and the Battle of Hasting occurs. Harold is killed in the end. The end of the tapestry is missing, but it believed to be William being crowned King
Why is it important to show Harold swearing on holy relics?
To show later actions as ungodly
Gothic Art
Late Medieval era, artistic style began to change becoming Gothic style, which is characterized by monumental size and complexity.
Why was naturalistic art unpopular in Europe between the time of Constantine and the Gothic period?
It was considered pagan and heretical
What artistic periods occurred after Romanesque?
Gothic
Who provided most of the financial resources that supported the growth of the Gothic style?
Kings
Relationship between ancient Roman styles and European society in early Gothic era
Roman Catholic Church had gained prominence and people wanted to demonstrate their connection to it through art
Where did Gothic art originate?
France when Abbey of St. Denis was completed
Gothic Age: interior decoration of churches
The main decor was stained glass windows and the other forms of interior decor like frescos or mosaics fell out of fashion. The only place were frescos reign sumpreme was in Italy, where stained glass wasn’t as popular.
Madonna Enthroned
Virgin Mary sitting on a throne holding baby Jesus surrounded by saints and angels
Development of Italian Gothic Art with Madonna Enthroned
Cimabue: figure have set poses with odd neck bending and flat grave expression
Duccio: Figures have much more natural poses then in Cimabue and there is no weird neck bending. There is shading around their faces and tender glances
Giotto: mastered the shading that Duccio was doing. Each figure has there own individual expression. The figues look more realistic.
Interior Perspective
Depth to an enclosed space
Exterior Persepctive
Well-established foreground, midground, and background
Development Perspective in Italian Gothic Art
Maesta Altar: figures stand in front of a flat backdrop
Birth of the Virgin: architectural elements appear like rib vault
Christ Entering Jerusalem: instead of images getting smaller as they are further away, the figures greow larger
Effects of Good Government: Several layers of backgroung and foreground
Adoration of the Magi: continuous stream of very realistic people
What was the main Northern Gothic form of art?
Illumination which were heavily inspired by Gothic sculpture and stain glass
Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Prayer book has illustration of peasants and princes doing their seasonal tasks. See similar advancement like in Gothic Italian art like realism and growing mastery of persepective. New thing were being painted such as breath, smoke from a chimney, footsteps in the snow, clouds, and shadows.
Why were the artists of the Italian Gothic age so influential?
They developed perspetive painting
Fundamentals of Gothic Architecture
Pointed Arches, Ribbed Vault, Flying Buttress
Pointed Arch
Predecessor of the semicircular/Roman arch. The stress lines in a pointed arch was vertical, which means the gothic architectures didn’t need thick walls to support the weight
Stress lines
Direction the arch distributes the pressure from above it
Pointed Ribbed Vaulting
Gothic architects replaced the romanesque semicircular arch with the pointed arch led to less bulky walls and less piers
Flying Buttress
A side effect of rib vaulting the weight of the roof went outward. Flying buttresses were invented to help by providing extra support to the piers and redirect the weight downwards.
What do the three doors in the narthex mean?
Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
What is traditional on the west face of a gothic church?
Two towers and three doors to symbolize the Trinity
Who is allowed to enter the apse?
The priest
How does the priest fit into the general message of the church?
He is an intermediary between the people and God.
Which part of the church can be compared to the human head?
Apse
What best describes a Gothic floorplan?
Symmetrical
What direction would Medieval priest face the altar when giving sermon? Why?
Priest would face the altar with his back to the congregation because he isn’t focused onthe material people but to the holiest part of the church (the apse)
Purpose of Stained Glass
The window would be full of images of important religious characters to instruct the illerate audience. Another purpose was to fill the church with beautiful light.
Three Trends when Developing Gothic Sculptures
Geometric harmony and symmetry
Sculpture in the round
Increase sense of realism
Sculpture in the Round
3D sculptures that stand on there own two feet
Gothic Sculpturing: Tympanum
The tympanum was pointed instead of a semicircle and usually with more realistic sculptures and deeper reliefs
Which of the following architectural advances made the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals possible?
Flying buttresses
Why did the earlier Christians avoid free-standing statues?
They considered them to be idols.
How did Gothic sculptures differ from earlier Romanesque sculptures?
Gothic sculptures were more realistic and detailed than Romanesque sculptures. The romanesque sculptures usually had bizarre expression and actions
Chartres Cathedral
Example of Gothic architecture, but it does bear so resemblance to Romanesque churchs because it was built in the early years of the period. For example, the west face has gothic elements like tall, thin windows but they are topped with round arches. Chartres had decorative jambs of realistic human figures. The interior has other gothic features such as ribbed vaults and large stain glass windows.
Jambs
Decor on either side of the door
Tracery
Decorative stone work that hold the glass in place
St. Foy is older than Chartres, what can we expect the church to be like?
More plain than Chartres
Which side of the Chartres is the oldest?
West
Passion Relics
Relics associated with the death of Jesus
Reliquary Chapel
Relic and reliquaries that were given their own Chapel
Sainte-Chapelle
The French King purchased relics and multiple passion relics from the King of Constantiople. He stored the relics in the Sainte-Chapelle or the Holy Chapel. The Chapelle is a reliquary chapel consisting of only a nave and apse. It is missing few of its original architectural pieces like Grande Chasse, spire, relics, the baldachin, and few stain glass windows because they were destoryed during the French Revolution. Even though stain glass was broken during the Rev., it still possess the largest stain glass collection in Europe with both lancet and rose windows.
Baldachin
A canopy made of cloth, wood, or stone installed over an important location like reliquary, altar, or throne
Lancet WIndows
Tall, thin stain glass windows which emphasizes the height of the building
Rose Windows
Circle stained glass windows unfold from the center like a rose
What are the primary subjects of the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle?
Stories of the Bible
Three Stages of English Gothic Architecture
Early Gothic, Decorated Gothic, Perpendicular Gothic
English Gothic: Early Gothic
Pointed arches were constructive and decorative element. They also adopted buttresses and ribbed vault, but they still use thick walls
English Gothic: Decorated Gothic
Focuses on elaborate decor like pinnaclesand rose windows.
English Gothic: Perpendicular Gothic
Focuses on perpedicular lines and stone-traced vertical line to decorate the windows. Ribbed vaults were replaced by fan vaults, which are ribs radiating form column into the ceiling in elaborate patterns
What are the two distincitve features of German Gothic?
Hall Church and Brick Gothic
Hall Church
The church consisted of a nave and the side aisles would be identical in height which allowed for more space for stain glass windows.
Brick Gothic
Most common in Northern Germany and areas around the Baltic Sea because access to stone was limited so they mainly use brick.
What were some of the distinctive elements of French Gothic architecture incorporated into the English and German Gothic styles?
Pointed arch and ribbed vault
