romanesque: the cult of saints

RomanesqueDates and Places: • 1000-1200• Western Europe

People:• Pilgrimage• Fear of judgment• Church building boom• Cult of relics Reliquary head of St. Alexander, from

Stavelot Abbey, Belgium; 1145, silver repoussé with gilt bronze, gems,

pearls, and enamel, approx. 1’5 ½” high.

RomanesqueThemes:• Biblical themes • Saints and martyrs• Relics

Forms:• Expressive

exaggeration• Cruciform pilgrimage

churches• Barrel vaults,

buttressing Initial R, Moralia in Job, ca. 1115–1125.

Romanesque: FranceExample: • Pilgrimage church• Radiating chapels• Ambulatory• Side aisles• Barrel and groin vaults• Nave bays, crossing• Engaged columns,

compound piers• Crossing tower

Plan, Saint-Sernin, ca. 1070–1120.

Saint-Sernin , ca. 1070–1120.

Romanesque: France• Christian child burned

in 303 for refusing to make sacrifice to pagan god

• Cranium relic originally located in different monastery but monk from Conques stole it (relics=important source of income) Reliquary statue of Saint Foy, late

10th-11th century; gold and gemstones, 33.5" high

Romanesque: FranceExample• Short towers at the

entrance (from Westwork of Carolingian buildings) and over crossing=intersection of nave and transept

• Rounded arches• Relatively small

windows with lots of wall surface left intact

The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques

Romanesque: France• Example:

• Exterior plain sandstone, looks like plain exteriors of Roman basilicas and early Christian churches

• Masonry seems solid, dense, thick, heavy

• Round arhces

The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, from the east

Romanesque: FranceExample• Tympana to main

portals favorite subject matter=Last Judgment

• Authority of Christ as king of kings who will return at the end of time to judge all; also great reminder of the power of the church as people approach the church to go inside

Last Judgment, artist unknown, Abbey of St. Foy in Conques, 1124-1135

Romanesque: FranceExample:• Pilgrimage church• Radiating chapels• Ambulatory for viewing relics• Side aisles• Barrel and groin vaults (helps with

acoustics, allows for various shapes)

• Nave bays, crossing• Engaged columns, compound piers• Crossing tower• Regular and compartmentalized

space with basic unit=nave bay

Floor plan, The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques

Romanesque : FranceExample: • Tympanum sculpture • Fear of judgment• Door to salvation• Expressive exaggeration

(terrifying urgency of moment)• Stylization, stretched out

figures• Christ in mandorla• For illiterate• Master artist’s signature=artist

wanting to make sure he is remembered

• Less compartmentalization of figures

• Influence of metalwork or manuscript illumination found in delicate detail of robes

• Pilgrims figured

GISLEBERTUS, Last Judgment, ca. 1120–1135.

Romanesque: Holy Roman EmpireExample: • Nun with visions• Abbess of convent• Women’s involvement with

manuscript production• Hildegard commissions and writes

book herself• Illustration of own vision• Picturing scribe work• Conceptual treatment of figures

and space• Continuation of manuscript

illumination• Book lost during WWII

Hildegard from Scivias, ca. 1180. Fig. 6-23.

Romanesque: Italy• Example• Italian Romanesque

architecture very different from architecture in the North; there is a greater influence of classical Rome

• Large atrium• 2 towers West entrance• Articulation of wall surface is

simple and austere; strip buttresses (vetically) and corbel tables (horizontally)

St. Ambrogio, Milan arcaded atrium, built between 1088 and 1099

Romanesque: ItalyExample: • Regional diversity of

Romanesque• Italians add campanile

and baptistery• Arcaded galleries• Incrustation with marble• No Western towers, groin

vaulting• Very decorative inside

and outside• Lack large sculpture

programs on exterior that were particular to France

Cathedral complex, Pisa, Italy, 1063-1174.

Romanesque: EnglandExample: • Regional variation of

Romaneque • Seven-part nave rib-vault• Surface patterns • Compound piers support

transverse arches• Quadrant arches • Clearly divisible spaces• Heaviness and solidity of

masonry, nave formed by arcade shaped by alternating columns and compound piers

Lateral section, Durham Cathedral, begun ca. 1093.

Durham Cathedral, begun ca. 1093.

Romanesque: Normandy

Example: • Rare secular object• Embroidered pictorial narrative• Norman defeat of Anglo-Saxons• Battle conventions from Greece

and Rome• Made for display of relics at

Cathedral of Bayeux in Normandy

• Considered best known work of Norman art

• 8 colors of wool used on 8 lengths un-dyed linen

• May have been sewn by ladies at Norman court or needle women in Kent

Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1070–1080, embroidery 230’ long x 20” high

Romanesque: EnglandExample:

• Divisions of drapery not related to body beneath

• Conceptual treatment of figure and space

• Scribe at work

• Similar to evangelist portraits

• New attention to individual artist

Eadwine the Scribe, Eadwine Psalter, ca. 1160–1170.