St Sernin

• Accomodate more pilgrims

  • Double side aisles allowed pilgrims to visit without interrupting any religious service in process

  • Enter the church, turn left, proceed down a side aisle, and move along the transept.

  • Concluding their visit, traveling pilgrims would walk along the side aisle opposite the one they had previously used and then exit the church.

• House and display relics

• Materials - stone vs wood

• Pilgrimage church must have ALL three:

  • House a relic(s)

  • Incorporate features to accomodate influx of pilgrims wanting to see relics

  • Located along a major pilgrimage route

• Constructed in honor of Saint Sernin

  • First bishop of Toulouse

  • One of seven bishops that Pope Fabian sent to different parts of Gaul to actively preach to pagans

  • Chained to a bull and dragged through the city

  • Remains are in St Sernin

• One of the best-preserved and largest Romanesque churches in the world

• Medieval architects used a fundamentally Roman architectural language

  • Thick walls with relatively few windows

  • Roman arches

  • Massive vaulting

• Latin cross plan

• Shifting architectural styles and changing sculptural aesthetics

• Large-scale relief of Christ

  • Jesus sits in a shallow madorla

  • Raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing

  • Left hand holds a gospel with the words Pax Vobis → “Peace to You”

  • Symbols of evangelists look towards him from the four corners

• Tomb of Saint Saturnin

  • Inner part of the ambulatory

  • Enter through a doorway where the lintel was carved with the head of Christ flanked by two scallop shells (symbols for the pilgrimage trail)

  • Non Est in Toto Sanctior Orbe Locus → “There is no holier place on earth”

• Upper and lower crypts that could be visited while in the ambulatory

  • Contains shrines and reliquaries

Maiestas Domini in Saint Pierre

• One of the most impressive and elab orate Romanesque portals of the 12th century

• Carved images occupy walls of the extended porch leading to the door, the door itself, and even the space over the door.

• Portal → doorway or entry into a building

  • Divided in half vertically by the trumeau

    • Decorated on three of its four sides

    • Three pairs of intertwined lions and lionesses

      • Symbolically guard the entrance

    • Representation of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who holds a scroll in his hands

    • St. Paul from the New Testament

    • Placement of two figures on the sides of the trumeau

      • Face two other figures on the door jambs

      • Across from St. Paul → representation of St. Peter (New Testament saint)

      • Across from Jeremiah → Isaiah (Old Testament prophet)

      • Pairing of Old and New Testament figures was common during this period → suggesting fulfillment of Mosaic law

    • Also supports the horizontal beam of stone

  • Lintel

    • Decorated with ten rosettes that are bound together by a carved rope and have a repeated floral pattern at both the upper and lower spaces between each rosette

    • Left and right ends, rope and rosette design is coming from the mouth of a fantastical animal

      • Common characteristic in Romanesque art from illuminated manuscripts to sculpture

  • Tympanum

    • Has majority of the sculpted decoration

    • Surrounded by three decorative archivolts which have various foliate patterns carved into the individual block of stone

    • During Romanesque and Gothic periods, two subjects were popular for tympanum decoration.

      • Subject of the Last Judgement → when Christ sits as judge over those who will be divided into the Saved and the Damned

      • Maiestas Domini (Christ in Majesty)

    • More esoteric concept of the Second Coming of Christ and the End of Time

      • Center:

        • Jesus on a throne with his right hand raised in gesture of blessing

        • Left hand balances a book on his knee (Book of Revelation?)

        • Circular halo is inscribed with a cross (cruciform halo)

        • Mandorla

      • Left and right

        • Evangelical beasts

        • Two tall, elegant angels holding scrolls

        • 24 elders mentioned in the text from Revelations

          • Each elder holds a small musical instrument and a chalice

        • Arranged on three levels

          • Two are divided by wavy lines, reminding us the “sea of glass”

        • Everyone turned towards Jesus

Bayeux Tapestry

• Bishop Odo of Bayeaux, France

• Story of historical battle from the victor’s perspective

  • Events leading up to the Battle of Hastings

    • Death of King Edward the Confessor

    • Coronation of Harold Godwinson

    • Invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy

    • Climactic battle itself

• Nearly 230 feet long

• Over 50 scenes that tell the story of the Norman Conquest

• Comet seen in 1066

  • King Harold cowers at the sight of a comet considered to be a bad open

• Evidence suggests the banner should be displayed along three sides of a rectangular space

• Not a tapestry but embroidered cloth

  • Detailed and colorful with Latin inscriptions that explain the scenes

Vocabulary

• Romanesque

  • Style of European art and architecture that flourish from 11th to 12th centuries

  • Term coined in the 19th century to describe the style’s resemblance to the Roman architectural style which it emulated

  • Fusion of Roman, Carolingian, Ottonian, Byzantine, and local Germanic traditions.

  • Features rounded arches, barrel vaults, apses, and acanthus-leaf decorations

  • Influenced by Byzantine art, especially in painting, and by the anti-classical energy of Insular art

  • Used visual iconography to teach Christian doctrine

  • Romanesque architects developed the ribbed vault which allowed for lighter and higher vaults and more windows on the upper level of the structure

  • Used simple geometric shapes

• Relic

  • Religious object associated with a saint or other venerated person

  • Kept in a protective container called a reliquary which can be made of precious metals and gemstones

  • Large pilgrimage churches would house major relics and many lesser-known relics

  • Valuable and churches competed to have an important relic which led to a black market for fake and stolen relics

• Reliquary

  • Container that holds sacred relics

  • Elaborately decorated with precious metals and gemstones

  • Shrines, chasses, and phylacteries.

  • Portable reliquaries → fereters

    • Chapels that housed them → feretories

• Ambulatory

  • Covered walkway that encircles the apse of chancel of a church

  • Allows for movement of clergy and worshippers around the altar

  • Provides a designated space for processions

  • Has altars for saints set up along it

  • Vaulted which enhances their structural integrity, acoustics, and aesthetic appeal.

• Radiating chapels

  • Small, semi-circular chapels that extend from the main body of a church and are arranged around the apse

  • Provide extra space for altars during Mass

  • Enhance the liturgical space

  • Allow for more efficient movement of worshippers during services

  • Contribute to the overall aesthetic of the church

• Barrel vaulting

  • Series of arches that form a tunnel-like structure

  • Continuous arched surface that extends from wall to wall, creating a long, tunnel-like space.

  • Used to create spacious interiors in religious buildings, and to support the weight of the structure above.

  • Symbolize the connection between heaven and earth

  • Made of stone or brick

  • Constructed by building round arches from the bottom up

• Groin vaulting

  • Used to cover naves where two vaults met at a right angle

  • Form an X at their intersection

  • Used to create large, open spaces without relying too much on columns.

  • Made from stone or brick

  • Stronger than barrel vaults because the four pillars of the groin vault helped to distribute the weight of the ceiling

• Tympanum

  • Decorative area above a doorway or entrance that is located between the door’s horizontal frame and the arch or pediment above it

  • Decorated with intricate relief sculptures that depicted biblical scenes, saints, or significant events.

  • Popular subject was Last Judgement

• Lintel

  • Horizontal beam spanning an opening, as over a window or door, or between two posts.

• Trumeau

  • Vertical post or pillar that supports the lintel of a doorway

  • Feature decorative elements such as sculptures or reliefs that convey religious narratives or symbolize various themes

• Side wall

  • Thick, heavy, and double-shelled, filled with rubble.

• Jamb

  • Side of a doorway or window frame

  • Decorated with figure sculpture

• Archivolt

  • Decorative molding or band that runs around the underside of an arch or the inner curve of the arch itself

  • Convey a theological story or depict religious figures and ideologies of the church

  • Made of wedge-shaped stones called voussoirs

• Bestiaries

  • Literary genre and a type of illuminated text

  • Type of encyclopedia that included fables with moral lessons

  • Way for medieval Christians to learn from animals which were seen as manifestations of God and were believed to have either virtuous or evil connotations

• Mandorla

  • Almond-shaped frame that surrounds the entire body of a holy figure

  • Symbolize heaven, divine glory, or light.

  • Often depicted in scenes of Christ’s Ascension and the Virgin’s Assumptions

• Historiated capitals

  • CCapital decorated with humans, animals, or birds, often in a narrative sequence.

• Hellmouths

  • Entrance to Hell depicted as a monster’s gaping mouth

  • Visual deterrent against wrongdoing and a reminder of the importance of the Church