Art History: Chapter 17
first massive building resurgence since the Roman Empire had collapsed more than six hundred years before; contributed to the continued growth in the cult of religious relics and pilgrimages
A Medieval Building Boom
reliquary
A container where religious relics are stored or displayed (especially relics of saints)
Influential Cistercian monk and theologian who took a strong stand against the sculptural adornment of churches, especially in monastic cloisters, thought monks should only solemnly pray and read, not "spend the whole day wondering at every single [marble sculpture]" which some "would rather read . . . than . . books."
Bernard of Clairvaux
This marble sculpture stands 4' 2" high and its "sharply incised lines and ornamentation" reflects the influence of pre-Romanesque metalwork.
Bernardus Gelduinus; Christ in Majesty; ambulatory of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France
commissioned Bayeux Tapestry
Bishop Odo
Comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900—during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs—popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance.
Carolingian art
Ended the Muslim invasion of France at the Battle of Poitiers in 732.
Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne
Christian Pilgrim Churches
Designed to accommodate pilgrims; showcased sacred relics of holy figures, saints and martyrs in beautifully adorned reliquaries; competed to attract pilgrims who would stimulate the economy for the church and town.
First used to designate a style of architecture that used Roman arches and had thick, heavy walls, based upon the basilica. The style is pervasive throughout Europe.
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
Romanesque meaning
Roman-like
to serve and educate a largely illiterate lay public
Romanesque exterior sculpture
Ottonian period
Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919-1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony.
Subject of many western portal tympanums, showed he consequences of a sinful path were in gruesome, terrifying detail.
Scenes of the Apocalypse and Last Judgment
Relics at Santiago de Compostela
St. James, the Apostle
Santiago de Compostela was dedicated to ___________.
St. James, the Apostle
Includes a self-portrait of Eadwine the Scribe at work; the scribe exaggerates his importance by showing his role to parallel that of the Evangelists writing the Gospels.
The Eadwine Psalter
contains the nun's "vision of the divine order of the cosmos and of humankind's place in it.
The manuscript of the Abbess Hildegard of Bingen
The four main roads linked religious centers in France with Spain.
The routes joined together and led west to the tip of Northwest Spain.
Groin vault of monumental dimensions developed during the 11th century by masons, using ashlar blocks joined by mortar, allowed for ______________________.
clerestory windows
The Romanesque period lasted approximately ___ years, from ____ to ____.
150, 1050 to 1200
Pilgrimage
A journey to a holy place or shrine undertaken as a spiritual quest to obtain supernatural help or as a form of penance for sins.
Saracens
Archaic generic term for Arab. Used by Romans to describe Arabs who lived in the desert around Syria, and later by crusades to describe any Arab who fought against the crusaders.
The Dukes of Normandy became the kings of England, establishing one of the early strong centralized governments of the Middle Ages.
Battle of Hastings
Embroidered depiction of the Norman conquest of England; seems influenced by historical narratives of ancient Roman art such as the Column of Trajan.
Bayeux Tapestry 229.8 ft embroidery 1066, Norman Conquest of Great Britain
fireproof, more majestic, and "enhanced the acoustics for the Christian liturgy and the music that accompanied it
Benefits of Stone barrel vaults
"Good God!" he exclaimed, "If one is not ashamed of the absurdity, why is one not at least troubled at the expense?"
Bernard of Clairvaux
"[Men's] eyes are fixed on relics covered with gold and [they open their] purses. . . . [A] beautiful images of some . . . saints is exhibited and that saint is believed to be the more holy the more highly colored the image is. People rush to kiss it, [and] they are invited to donate, and they admire the beautiful more than they venerate the sacred. . . . O Vanity of Vanities, yet no more vane than insane! The Church dresses its walls in gold and it abandons its children naked. It serves the eyes of the rich at the expense of the poor".
Bernard of Clairvaux lamented reliquaries
AKA Charles the Great, Charles I; King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor from 800. United much of western and central Europe during the early Middle Ages.
Charlemagne
The first pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela, dreamed of a star-filled road in the sky (the Milky Way); St. James appeared in his dream urging him to follow the stars to Compostela where he would find the saint's remains.
Charlemagne
Undertook a military campaign against the Muslims and further fortified the Pyrenees against Islamic expansion.
Charlemagne
Identified as the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
demanded austerity; the rejection of worldly extravagance and emphasis on poverty, labor, and prayer are reflected in their unadorned churches.
Cistercian order
Shows exactly the type of decoration that Bernard denounced: Abstract patterns, zoomorphic creatures, along with biblical scenes decorate 76 carved capitals.
Cloister of Saint-Pierre at Moissac, a Cluniac abbey church in southwestern France
Two major Monastic orders established during Romanesque period.
Cluniac and Cistercian
favored beautiful grand churches with luxurious reliquaries
Cluniac monastic order
Shows the Norman Romanesque transplanted to England after William's conquest. Large pillars with geometric designs carved into their sides stand between compound piers. Together the pier, column, pier units support seven-part groin vaults. Each 7-part vault covers two bays. It is the earliest example of ribbed groin vaults placed over a three-story nave dating to 1093. The groin vaults and ribs afford the opportunity for clerestory windows in the upper story.
Durham Cathedral
Santiago de Compostela was the culminating point of all ________________.
European Christian Pilgrimages
Medieval Christian Pilgrims
European churches claimed to house relics of saints. A pilgrimage to visit those relics was believed to save a sinner from hell or heal the sick.
True or False:all architecture of the Romanesque period was similar.
False. The architecture varied in style from one region to another
Christian Crusaders
In 1065, the Islamic Seljukian Turks took Jerusalem from the Arabs. Fear of the Holy Land in the hands of infidels turned the Christian Pilgrimage into a military campaign.
Time and place St. James was martyred.
Jerusalem, in 44 CE
The legend of St. James, the Apostle in Spain.
Journeyed to Spain as part of his evangelical mission where his body was miraculously relocated to in the 8th century.
Scivias translates to
Know the Ways of God
the business of relics (cult of the relic)
More relics meant more visitors, which meant more donations.
"May this terror terrify those whom earthly error binds, for the horror of these images here in this manner truly depicts what will be." A mandorla surrounds Christ and as well as a halo; hands extend outward, his right hand gesturing to the heavenly realm of the saved, his left hand to hell and the damned; standard convention to associate the left hand with the damned and the right with the righteous and just; On the lintel, souls are lined up, summoned to judgment; giant hands clasp one terrified soul by the neck to pull him upward to face his eternal sentence. To the left of Christ one scene shows the weighing of a soul. Satanic creatures pull down on the scale to tip and balance and damn the soul to eternal hell. All the figures are shown with expressive facial expression and gestures.
On the lintel, souls are lined up, summoned to judgment; giant hands clasp one terrified soul by the neck to pull him upward to face his eternal sentence. To the left of Christ one scene shows the weighing of a soul. Satanic creatures pull down on the scale to tip and balance and damn the soul to eternal hell. All the figures are shown with expressive facial expression and gestures. An inscription on the lintel reads, "May this terror terrify those whom earthly error binds, for the horror of these images here in this manner truly depicts what will be." Gislebertus also signed his name on the lintel under the feet of Christ.
became routes of trade/commerce as well as travel
Pilgrimage Roads
Center portal tympanum depicts the Ascension of Christ and Mission of the Apostles; church is associated with the Crusades; The missionary activity of the apostles to spread the word of the gospels is paralleled to that of the crusaders' military campaign (a kind of "second mission of the apostles"). Pope Urban II intended to preach the 1st Crusade there in 1095, St. Bernard preached the 2nd Crusade there undertaken with Louis VII, and Richard the Lionhearted, king of England, and Philip Augustus of France set out on the 3rd Crusade from the site.
Pilgrimage church, La Madeleine at Vézelay, France
Thick heavy walls support stone roofs. Blocky, earthbound appearance Simple geometric masses The exterior reflects the interior structure and organization. Interiors tend to be dark because the massive walls dictate small windows. Over time, a growing sophistication in the understanding of how to use vaulting to span the large spaces led to the use of groin vaults and rib vaults.
Romanesque Architecture:
the brilliant work of master stone-carver Gislebertus for the pilgrimage church of Saint-Lazare. It also shows the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment. Christ at the center is thin, angular and elongated, his body formed by flat diamond and bell shapes.
Romanesque tympanum at Autun
Initially used as a derogatory term in the 19th century to describe architecture with Roman-like features, specifically with ______________ and ____________________.
Romanesque, rounded arches and stone barrel vaults
An example of the new type of pilgrimage church; Very similar is form to Santiago de Compestela; Precise geometry structures the plan according to a square modular system used in Carolingian and Ottonian periods. The exterior aerial view shows the tripartite division of the tall central nave flanked by shorter aisles, and the east ends' rounded apse.
Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, France
The twin-towered façade is divided into three bays. 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 view shows groin vaults covering the nave. Over each bay (the space marked out by two piers), diagonal and transverse ribs divide the vaults into 6 parts (sexpartite vaults). The groin vaults allow for clerestory windows above the tribune gallery (second story).
Saint-Étienne at Caen
Importance of Monastic orders in Medieval times.
Serve to reform the church and provide centers of learning and spirituality.
feudal system
Social structure during the Middle Ages; consisting of a king, lords, vassals, and serfs. People were loaned land to farm in exchange for their fidelity and service (military).
one of the earliest examples of groin vaults over a nave of the Romanesque period
Speyer Cathedral
Represents the Cistercian ascetic approach to architectural design
The church of Notre-Dame, at Fontenay
popular during the period as "reminders of the chaos and deformity of a world without God's order"
The depiction of fantastic monsters
Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel
The earliest vaulted structure of the Early Middle period
undertaken in the 11th century with the goal of recapturing Jerusalem from the Muslims in the name of Christendom
The first of the Crusades
The general culture of the Romanesque period
The rise of towns, centralized governments, a strong papacy, and monastic orders
Why is the altar in the east?
The rising sun, symbolizing the light of God, God's wisdom, Christ's resurrection, and the hope for humanity's redemption.
Distinctly Romanesque style with elongated bodies and draperies decorated with zigzag and dovetail lines; shows the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment as described in Revelations, the last book of the Bible. Christ, enthroned, is surrounded by two angels, and the four winged evangelists symbols holding books (Matthew=man or angel, Mark=Lion, Luke=Ox, John=Eagle). On either side of the tympanum and on the lintel are the figures of the 24 crowned elders, holding musical instruments and perfume containers.
The tympanum of St. Pierre at Moissac, France
As towns grew and the economy prospered communities could afford the costly stone masonry
The view of St. Sernin's nave shows the stone barrel vaults.
Symbolic thresholds between the worldly realm filled with sinful temptations and the heavenly city of God, embodied on earth by the church itself.
The western portals of Christian Churches
Brightly painted, Throne of Wisom, sedes sapientiae, a western European freestanding version of the Byzantine Theotokos theme; The Virgin Mary represents the throne of the divine wisdom of the Holy Scriptures of Christ. (The soft modeling of the faces of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child on a wooden reliquary lends the figures a human warmth and intimacy.)
Virgin Mary and Christ Child, workshops of Auvergne, France
vault
a curved ceiling made of arches
apse
a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof, typically at the eastern end, and usually containing the altar
apsidiole
a small apse or chapel connected to the main apse of a church
Sepulchre (SEP-ul-ker)
a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried.
rows of rounded arches that open to the side aisles
arcades
tripartite division
break into three parts
Romanesque Art, period
c. 1050-1200
Most of the new buildings of the Romanesque period were _____________.
cathedrals, churches, and monasteries
An enclosed space that "expressed the seclusion of the spiritual life . . . . [T]he cloister provided the monks (and nuns) with a foretaste of Paradise . . . . [where] they could read their devotions, pray, and meditate in an atmosphere of calm serenity"
cloister
Although the feudal system of the Early Middle Ages continues, its static economy and social structure begin to give way to _____________ as towns are re-founded and the number of __________________ increases.
economic growth and social mobility, merchants, traders and craftsmen
During the Romanesque period, towns gain independence from _______________.
feudal lords
zoomorphic
having animal form or attributes
Monks and nuns in religious communities' scriptoria continue the tradition of ________________________.
manuscript illumination.
Immense relief that the world had not ended at the turn of the millennium The resurgence of cities and trade The emergence of Europe as we know it The strengthened authority of the Pope The emergence of a middle class and merchant class The evolution of the Romance languages The peak of feudalism as a political system
marks of the Romanesque Era
If the Early Middle Ages is the age of ________________, the Romanesque period is an age of ___________________.
monasteries, pilgrimages
Romanesque architecture marks a resurgence of ______________.
monumental stone sculpture
The Romanesque period is an age of _________________.
pilgrimages
Plan shows geometrical division of the space. The crossing square of the transept served as the module for the entire church. Barrel vaults with transverse arches cover the nave. Side aisles, lower in height, are doubled and covered with groin vaults as indicated by the dotted lines crossing in X-shapes. By doubling the aisles and increasing the nave's length, greater numbers of pilgrims were accommodated, and they could be efficiently moved through the church without disturbing daily mass or other services. The ambulatory at the east end circling the back of the apse also facilitated the flow of pilgrims, for often the venerated relics where kept at the east end in radiating chapels or underground crypts.
plan of Saint-Sernin Apse at east end; radiating chapels around ambulatory; main portal in east (narthex); doubled side aisles
The strong papacy of the Romanesque period is as much a ______________ as it is a __________________.
political force, spiritual force
A prominent feature of many Romanesque churches is the addition of multiple chapels, known as __________________.
radiating chapels
Standard attractions to most Romanesque churches. Pilgrims strove to see or touch such them and thereby be healed or forgiven of sins, or spiritually fortified.
reliquaries
life-size idealized head made of silver repoussé with gilt bronze, gems, pearls, and enamel
reliquary of Saint Alexander
tripartite
shared by or involving three parties
The Latin term for left is _________, from which our word denoting evil or dark derives.
sinister
Political state of France, England and Germany during the Romanesque period.
stronger centralized governments are established with more powerful royal dynasties that expand and consolidate their territory.
Portrayed on reliefs on the four corner piers of the Cloister of Saint-Pierre at Moissac
the 12 Apostles
St. James' relics arrival in Spain coincides with ______________.
the Muslim expansion into Spain and Europe, and Christian efforts to repel the invasions.
nave
the central part of a church building, intended to accommodate most of the congregation
In Romanesque churches, exterior sculpture was often concentrated at _______________________________.
the west entrances of churches along the pilgrimage routes
buttress
to reinforce; support
a second story balcony/passage way
tribune gallery
Jeremiah or Isaiah stands tall, thin and elongated with unnaturalistically cross legs and a thin, weightless body rendered through simplified jagged, angular lines.
trumeau sculpture at Moissac
the semicircular area above a door with decorated with relief carving
tympanum
