Gardner’s Art Through the Ages – C17
Adam’s History of Western Art – C12
The Age of Pilgrims and Crusaders
Part One -Architecture

The term Romanesque (meaning "Romanlike") is used to
designate a period lasting approximately 150 years, from
1050 to 1200, when buildings incorporated certain
architectural elements that resemble ancient Roman
architecture.

While mural painting and manuscript illumination
continued much as before, there is a resurgence of
monumental stone sculpture.
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Map of Europe c.1150
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
Rise of towns: The increase in trade and the growth of towns
and cities in the Romanesque period began to replace
feudalism.

Monasteries and churches: Separated by design form the
busy secular life of Romanesque towns were the monasteries
and their churches.

Pilgrimage: The enormous investment in ecclesiastical
buildings and furnishings also reflected a significant increase in
pilgrimage traffic in Romanesque Europe.
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Link to The Feudal System, Pats 8 and 9,(appx.6:00) The Role and Power of the Church at
http://digital.films.com/play/YRGUQZ
Architecture

Romanesque architecture is
noteworthy principally for the use
of the round arch and for the use
of stone barrel and groin vaults.

Walls are also thick and solid.

Most of the new buildings were
cathedrals, churches, and
monasteries that varied in style
from one region to another.

A number of churches were
designed to accommodate visiting
pilgrims.
View of the church of St. Pierre from the
inside the cloister, c.1100, Moissac (Tarnet-Garonne, France
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
West Front with three portals (doors), two towers, and a large
window over the door.

Walls of Romanesque buildings are often of massive thickness with
few and comparatively small openings.

Piers were often employed to support arches. They were built of
masonry and square or rectangular in section, generally having a
horizontal molding representing a capital at the springing of the
arch. Columns may also serve as piers.

Barrel and Groin Vaults replace the wooden ceilings of earlier
churches.

Sculptural ornamentation most frequently took a geometric form
and was particularly applied to moldings around arches. arches.
Sculpture also filled the tympanums – the semi circular areas above
each doorway.
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

Regional diversity is evident in Romanesque buildings.
Specific to northern style of French Romanesque architecture is the use of
large sawn blocks of stone to construct the walls of the buildings, but roofed
with timber.
Interior of SaintÉtienne,
Vignory, France,
1050-1057.
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
Further south, in southern France, Spain, and
Lombardy, early Romanesque builders
generally preferred to construct their edifices
with brick or small bricklike blocks of stone
and to cover the nave and aisles with vaults.
Saint Philibert, Tournus, France, ca. 1060.
Above: exterior view
Right: nave vaults,
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Sainte Foy
West front of the 12th-century Abbey Church of St. Foy.

High in the hills of southern
France, the picturesque little
village of Conques
(pronounced "conk" and named
for the shell-shaped lay of the
land) is home to a magnificent
Romanesque church and the
only medieval shrine on the
pilgrimage route to Santiago de
Compostela that still survives
intact.

Thanks to its possession of the
relics of a virgin martyr, the
Romanesque Abbey of St. Foy
in Conques was an important
stop on the medieval pilgrimage
route and received rich gifts
from pilgrims and kings.
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
The medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela
that passed through Conques (called the Via Podensis) began in
Le Puy in eastern France and proceeded west through difficult,
mountainous terrain before arriving in the hillside village.

(The floor of the church slopes towards the door to make it easier to
wash away the mud tracked in by tired pilgrim feet.)

Pilgrims coming from Le Puy and Estaing entered Conques on
rue Haute.

In the abbey church, pilgrims circled the shrine of St. Foy
three times then stopped in front of the golden reliquary-statue
to ask the saint for a safe journey to Santiago, which might take
them up to a year of dangerous travel.
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Conques is in the hills of southern France, overlooking a wooded gorge.
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

For the monks at Conques, the lure of fame and riches soon
proved too much to bear, and they conspired to steal some
relics to attract pilgrims.
In 866, a Conques monk was dispatched to join a monastery in
Agen, which had the relics of St. Foy, a virgin martyred in
303 AD under Diocletian. The saint was known for her ability
to cure blindness and free captives, and her statue-reliquary
attracted many pilgrims.
The Conques brother acted as a faithful monk for 10 years at
Agen until he was able to steal the relics, which he brought
back to Conques.
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Relics and Reliquaries




The saint's mortal remains were placed
inside a golden reliquary-statue and just as
they had hoped, the pilgrim road shifted
from Agen to Conques.
The Shrine of St. Foy, on display in a small
museum in the cloisters, dates from the late
9th century and is the only medieval shrine
of its kind that survives today.
Made of wood and covered entirely in gold
and precious stones, the statue contains
relics of the saint's skull in its back.
The shrine originally stood at the east end
of the abbey church
Learn more about reliquaries –
Arm Reliquary of the Apostles
(from the Cleveland Museum od Art) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TGRH757cuU
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
Inside, the church is
attractive but rather bare
except for the 212 columns
in the cloisters, which are
topped with charming
Romanesque capitals.

These depict palm leaves,
flowers, scenes from the
life of St. Foy, birds,
monsters and various
symbols.
Interior view, Abbey Church of St. Foy
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Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. (c. 1080-1120) is an example of the new

pilgrimage church .

Saint Foy was adapted to pilgrimage but Saint Sernin was
designed and built to bring pilgrims to the town.
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Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1070–1120.
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

The Saint-Sernin plan is extremely regular and geometrically precise.
The crossing square, flanked by massive piers and marked off by heavy
arches, served as the module for the entire church.
17
Stone vaults
reduced the
risk of fire.
Interior of
SaintSernin,
Toulouse,
France, ca.
1070–1120.
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Architectural Techniques,Pt 1-Arches & Vaults(3:55) at http://digital.films.com/play/FANBHA

Founded in 910, the Abbey at
Cluny was the center of a
monastic reform movement that
would spread throughout
Europe.

At the time of its erection, the
stone-vaulted monastery church
at Cluny (Cluny III) was the
largest in Europe.

The church had an innovative
and influential design, with a
barrel-vaulted nave and radiating
chapels, as at Saint-Sernin, but
with a three story nave elevation
(arcade-tribune-clerestory) and
slightly pointed nave vaults.
West face of the great south transept and its two towers.
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Vault of the great south transept, looking into the cupola of the octagonal Holy Water Belfry.
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Even from this small part, one can see that the sense of space and light at Cluny Abbey was much
greater than other Romanesque churches. On the right is the closed-in north side of the transept,
which originally opened into the nave. The lower part of the photo is the west wall of the transept.
Cluny Monastery Plan, 1157.
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

Cistercian austerity: The church of Notre-Dame, at Fontenay is
representative of the Cistercian approach to design.
The Cistercians' rejection of worldly extravagance and their emphasis on
poverty, labor, and prayer are reflected in the austerity of their churches.
Nave of the abbey church, looking east to the altar.
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
The abbey church, built from 1139 to 1147, is the oldest Cistercian church
remaining in France and one of the best examples of the Cistercian
Romanesque architectural style.
West facade of the church of Fontenay Abbey in northern Burgundy, France.
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
The Cathédrale St-Lazare
(Cathedral of St. Lazarus) is the the
most important historical building in
Autun, Burgundy, and one of the
most important Romanesque
churches in France.

Dating from the mid-12th century
with some later Gothic additions, it is
especially famed for its splendid
sculptures by the Romanesque master
sculptor Gislebertus.
The beautiful nave with its Romanesque capitals,
looking west to the entrance.
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
The church was decorated with sculptures and carvings by Gislebertus, who is
widely regarded as one of the great Romanesque sculptors.

We know his name because, unusually, he signed his work - an inscription in the
tympanum says Gislebertus hoc fecit, "Gislebertus made this."
Gislebertus, Romanesque capital
from the choir, now displayed in the
chapter house.
It depicts a charming
scene in which the
Three Kings, wearing
their crowns and
sharing one cozy bed,
are awakened by an
angel pointing to a star.
The king being
poked by the angel has his eyes open in surprise, but the others slumber on. This
seems to combine two biblical episodes into one scene. The star recalls the one that
led them to Bethlehem, while the angel awakening them refers to the warning they
received in a dream not to return to Herod after visiting the Christ Child.
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West portal in the narthex, decorated with magnificent Romanesque sculptures by Gislebertus , c 1150.
The tympanum depicts the Last Judgment and the outer archivolt has medallions
of the Four Seasons, the Zodiacs and the Labors of the Month.
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Detail of the Last Judgment tympanum over the west door, sculpted by Gislebertus around 1130.
In the center, apostles incline their heads in veneration towards Christ. Above them, the
enthroned Virgin Mary extends her hands in blessing and an angel trumpets to waken the dead.
On the left, redeemed souls ascend to heaven. Most catch a ride on the wings of angels and one
is pulled up by St. Peter himself. At the top, the heads of those already in the Kingdom of Heaven can
be seen. Along the bottom, a Latin inscription proclaims the joys of Paradise.
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
The right side of
the tympanun
depicts the
weighing of souls.
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
Gislebertus’s unique
sculptural style is
continued in decorative
details within the
cathedral.
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

During the 11th century, masons,
using ashlar blocks joined by
mortar, developed a groin vault
of monumental dimensions that
allowed for clerestory windows.
The design of Speyer
Cathedral follows a modular
scheme and employs an
alternate-support system in the
nave.
Interior of Speyer Cathedral, Germany, begun 1030;
nave vaults, ca. 1082–1106.
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Speyer Cathedral has maintained the overall form and dimensions of the 11th
century structure and, despite successive restorations, presents as a complete and
unified Romanesque building. The design broadly follows the plan that was established
at St. Michael's Church in Hildesheim and set the standard that was to be generally
adopted in the Rhineland.
Plan of Speyer Cathedral, Germany, begun 1030.
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Speyer Cathedral, Eastern facade
A unique feature at Speyer is the dwarf gallery encircles the exterior of the building.
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
Sant'Ambrogio, is one

of the most ancient
churches in Milan, it was
built in 379-386, in an area
where numerous martyrs
of the Roman
persecutions had been
buried.
In the following centuries
the church underwent
several restorations and
partial reconstructions,
assuming the current
appearance in 1099, when
it was rebuilt in
Romanesque architecture.
Exterior of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, late
11th to early 12th century.
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The modular scheme and alternate-support system employed at Sant'Ambrogio in
Milan created a series of domical ribbed groin vaults.
InteriorView of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, late 11th to early 12th century.
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

The Normans developed a
distinctive Romanesque architectural
style.
The twin-towered façade of the
church of Saint-Étienne at Caen is
divided into three bays.
West façade of Saint-Étienne, Caen, France, begun 1067.
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
Identify the parts of a cathedral and their uses.
Plan of Saint-Étienne, Caen, France.
Plan of Saint-Étienne, Caen, France.
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
The nave employs an alternating
system of compound piers with
engaged half-columns and piers
with half-columns attached to
pilasters that rise through three
stories to support rib vaults.
Interior of Saint-Étienne, Caen, France,
vaulted ca. 1115-1120.
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Interior of St Etienne, Caen. vaulted c. 1115-1120
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
Durham Cathedral was designed and built under
William of Calais, who was appointed as the first
prince-bishop by William the Conqueror in 1080.

Exterior, Durham Cathedral,
begun ca. 1093.
Since that time,
there have been
major
additions and
reconstructions
of some parts
of the building,
but the greater
part of the
structure
remains true
to the Norman
design.
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

Durham Cathedral alternates
large ornamented pillars with
compound piers that support a
series of groin vaults each
covering two bays.
It is the earliest example of
ribbed groin vaults placed over a
three-story nave.
Interior of Durham Cathedral, England, begun ca.
1093.
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

The cathedral complex at Pisa comprises
a cathedral, a free-standing bell tower, and a baptistery.
The cathedral has a timber ceiling and a nave arcade of reused classical columns.
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
Arcaded galleries decorate
the exterior of the leaning
bell tower.
Cathedral complex, Pisa, Italy; cathedral begun 1063;
baptistery begun 1153; campanile begun 1174.
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
The Duomo Pisa (Cathedral Pisa) is the largest Romanesque church in Tuscany.
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Interior of Pisa Cathedral,
Pisa, Italy, begun 1063.
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Detailed view of the frescoes in the Pisa Cathedral
Other Italian
Romanesque Churches
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
The exterior of the octagonal Baptistery in Florence is decorated with
polychrome marble.
Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, begun 1053.
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
Geometric polychrome marble
decorates the exterior of
San Miniato al Monte, while
the inside of the nave is divided
by diaphragm arches and
roofed with timber.
West façade of San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, 1062
and 12th century
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Detail, San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, 1062 and 12th c.
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Interior of San Miniato al Monte, Florence,
Italy, 1062 and 12th century.

Identify features that distinguish
Italian Romanesque from
French.
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
Continue on to Part Two to look at Romanesque
sculpture and painting…
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