ROMANESQUE
EUROPE
GARDNER CHAPTER 17-2
PP. 437-445
ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE
•
Common elements of Romanesque
sculpture as seen at St. Pierre Moissac
include:
•
extremely elongated figures
•
curious, cross-legged dancing pose of
angel of Matthew
•
jerky, hinged movement
•
zigzag and dovetail lines of the
draperies
•
bending back of hands against the
body
•
wide cheekbones

First definite relation of architecture and
sculpture appears in the Romanesque
style

Early Romanesque sculpture, as at St.
Sernin, has a random and haphazard
placement of sculpture

Portals of churches emerge as the
primary placement for sculpture,
especially the tympanum

Common Romanesque subject for the
tympanum: the vision of the Last
Judgment which would serve as a
dramatic, teaching tool for the illiterate
pilgrims.
SAINT-PIERRE, MOISSAC

The monks of the Moissac abbey
joined the Cluniac order in 1047 ->
important stop on the route to
Santiago de Compostela

Adorned their church w/elaborate
series of relief sculptures -> oldest
are in the cloister

CLOISTER = enclosed place -> shut
away from the world -> read, pray,
meditate in calm serenity
MOISSAC
CLOISTER SCULPTURE

Detail of pier with relief of Abbot
Durandus in the cloister at Saint-Pierre,
Moissac, France, 1100-1115

Large figural reliefs on the piers as well as
HISTORIATED (ornamented with figures)
capitals on the columns

76 capitals alternately crown single and
double columns -> decorated w/abstract
patterns, bible scenes, lives of saints, and
fantastic monsters -> BESTIARIES

Bernard of Clairvaux and the
CISTERCIANS reject figural sculpture as a
distraction
THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH
One of the most significant and
PORTAL
distinctive features of Romanesque

art is the revival of monumental
sculpture in stone

The clergy considered the church
doorway the beginning of the path
to salvation through Christ -> many
Romanesque churches feature
didactic reliefs above and beside
the entrance portals

TYMPANUM

VOUSSOIRS

LINTEL

TRUMEAU

JAMB
SOUTH PORTAL, MOISSAC

Lions and Old Testament prophet,
trumeau of the south portal of SaintPierre, Moissac, 1115-1130

Saint-Pierre’s south portal faces the town
square and is even more lavishly
decorated than the cloister

Below the tympanum are a richly
decorated trumeau and door jambs
w/scalloped contours

Prophet’s figure is tall and thin -> crosslegged step -> animation of the body ->
flowing drapery folds, beard, and locks ->
face of a dreaming mystic

Six roaring interlaced lions fill the
trumeau’s outer face

Vast tympanum depicts the
Second Coming of Christ -> Christ
was the most common central
motif in sculpted Romanesque
portals
SAINT-LAZARE, AUTUN

Gislebertus, Last Judgement,
west tympanum of SaintLazare, Autun, France, ca.
1120-1135, marble

Christ in a mandorla
presides over the separation
of the Blessed from the
Damned -> dramatic vision
of the Last Judgement

Designed to terrify those
guilty of sin and beckon
them into the church
LA MADELEINE, VEZELAY

Pentecost and Mission of the
Apostles, tympanum of the center
portal of the narthex of La
Madeleine, Vezelay, France, 11201132

The light rays emanating from
Christ’s hands representing the
instilling of the Holy Spirit in the
apostles

Over the lintel and in 8
compartments around the
tympanum -> the heathen wait to
be converted

Closer view of
the Tympanum
THE CRUSADES


In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an
assault on the Holy Land -> between
1095 and 1190 Christians launched
three great CRUSADES from France
The Crusades (“taking of the Cross”)
= mass armed pilgrimages whose
purpose was take the Christian
shrines in the Holy Land from Muslim
control

Strengthened papal authority

Created an image of Christian
solidarity

The Christian Knight

The Knights Templar -> stationed
themselves next to the Dome of the
Rock on the site of the Solomon’s
Temple -> mission was to protect
visiting pilgrims

In the end the Muslims expelled the
Christian armies -> Crusades failed
miserably
NOTRE-DAME,
FONTENAY

Interior of the abbey church of
Notre-Dame, Fontenay, France,
1139-1147

Cistercians were great builders ->
some of their churches among the
largest in Romanesque Europe

The Fontenay church is typically
austere -> single story nave,
square east end lacking
ambulatory or chapels -> rejected
sculptural ornamentation
PAINTING AND OTHER ARTS –
MORALIA IN JOB

Initial R with knight fighting dragons,
folio 4 verso of the Moralia in Job,
from Citeaux, France, ca. 1115-1125,
ink and tempera on vellum

Painting did not need to be
“revived” in the Romanesque period

One of the major Romanesque
SCRIPTORIA was at the abbey of
Citeaux

Ornamented initials date to the
Hiberno-Saxon era -> this artist
translated the theme into
Romanesque terms
SAINT-SAVIN-SUR-GARTEMPE

Nave and painted nave vault
of the abbey church, SaintSavin-sur-Gartempe, France,
ca. 1100

Murals decorate the church’s
stone-vaulted nave -> aisles
are about the same height as
the nave -> tall windows in the
aisles allow illumination of the
nave -> this may explain the
painting of the nave
SANTA MARIA DE MUR

Christ in Majesty, apse fresco from
Santa María de Mur, near Lérida,
Spain, mid-twelfth century. 22’ X 24’

The Apocalypse fresco of the Santa
Maria de Mur apse resembles the
reliefs of French and Spanish
tympana -> Christ appears in a
mandorla between the signs of the 4
evangelists

Formality, symmetry, and placement
of the figures are Byzantine
MORGAN
MADONNA

Virgin and child, from Auvergne,
France, 2nd half of the 12th century,
painted wood, 2’7” high

Despite use of stone relief sculpture
to adorn Romanesque church
portals -> resistance to statues in the
round continued

Veneration of relics brought with it a
demand for small-scale images of
the holy family and saints to be
placed on chapel altars

Wooden statuette depicts the Virgin
as the Throne of Wisdom