Romanesque Art

Battle of Hastings

1066

Warriors of the First Crusade Capture Jerusalem

1099

Nave of Saint-Étienne at Caen Vaulted

1115-1120

Apologia of St. Bernard at Clairvaux

1127

Pilgrims Guide

1130

Winchester Psalter

1150

Crusaders take Constantinople

1204

Romanesque means

in the Roman manner

Romanesque style was influenced by

 Carolingian, Byzantine, Islamic, and other artistic traditions

France – “pilgrimage type” churches included:

1. A nave, side aisles, transept, and apse with radiating chapels

1. An ambulatory within the apse connected the inner aisles

2. Vaults are used with interior bay articulations.

3. The interior spatial design of these churches is “legible” from the exterior.

“Hall churches” were not built with

reinforcing arches. This architecture created a large surface area for interior murals.

Innovations in Norman churches include:

1. A redefined Westwork

2. A novel interior vault articulation

Example 1 of Italian Romanesque Architecture

Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy. ca. 1060–1150. 

Example 2 of Italian Romanesque Architecture

Façade, San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy. 1062–1150

Romanesque sculpture

in this period there was a revival of monumental stone sculptures. They were placed in Church entranceways.

New monumental buildings of the Romanesque period reflects

Increased economics and political stability

Pilgrim’s guide

written around 1130, gives a vivid account of the routes to Santiago de Compostela and what was to be met along them by pilgrims traveling to the shrine of the apostle James there. It also provides interesting information on the personnel in charge of the construction of the shrine at the cathedral.

Colonnette

A small, often decorative, column that is connected to a wall or pier.

Archivolt

A molded band framing an arch, or a series of such bands framing a tympanum, often decorated with sculpture.

Crusades

1095-1295. Military expeditions were organized by western European Christians to check the spread of Islam, to retake control of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean, to conquer pagan areas, and to recapture formerly Christian territories 

Crenelations

A sequence of solid parts, and the intervals between them, along the top of a parapet, allowing for defense and to facilitate firing weapons. The effect is of a notched termination of a wall. Generally used in military architecture.

Machicolations

A gallery projecting from the walls of a castle or tower with holes in the floor in order to allow liquid, stones, or other projectiles to be dropped on an enemy.

Quadrant vault

A half-barrel vault designed so that instead of being semicircular in cross-section, the arch is one-quarter of a circle.

Ribbed vault

A style of vault in which projecting surface arches, known as ribs, are raised along the intersections of segments of the vault. Ribs may provide architectural support as well as decoration to the vault’s surface.

Groin vault

A vault formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles to each other. A groin is the ridge resulting from the intersection of two vaults.