Transcript romanesque art - churchillcollegebiblio

ROMANESQUE ART
ROMANESQUE ART AND
ARCHITECTURE IN NORTHERN
EUROPE
The art of the Early Medieval Period began to take on new
features and abandon others until a new artistic style knwon as
Romanesque emerged. This new style was especially apparent in
architecture. Churches began to dot the countryside in greater
numbers, and most of these had many features in common.
By the eleventh century, the Romanesque style appears to have
been accepted throughout most of Western Europe.
THE EFFECTS OF
FEUDALISM
• Castles. With warfare unchecked, nobles found it wise to further
fortify their dwellings.
• Towers of stone were built by the late eleventh century, and by the
twelfth century the now-familiar castle had evolved.
• With its tower, walls, moat, and drawbridge, the castle became the
symbol of authority during this period.
•Castles remained important as long as the feudal system
flourished, but the growth of trade and industry in the
thirteenth century brought about an economy based on money
rather than land.
•Cities sprang up, and castles became more and more obsolete.
Romanesque Churches
• All the towns had one thing in common: In the center of
each stood a church.
• During the Romanesque period, the Church increased its
influence on the daily lives of the people.
• It offered comfort in this life and provided the means to
salvation in the next.
•The richly decorated stone churches of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries are a testimony to
the power of the Church, the faith of the
people, and the skill of the builders.
Pilgrimage churches
• Churches during the Romanesque had to be aggrandized
because of two main reasons:
• First, the cult around the Eucharist and the cult towards the
saints were finally done in one church only, just like at
present times.
• Second, at this time the Church placed great importance on
piety and encouraged people to take part in pilgrimages.
•These journeys were a visible sign of religious devotion.
•People banded together and travelled to pay homage to saints and
relics in far-off churches.
•Worshippers believed that praying before the sacred remains of a
saint could assure a plentiful harvest, cure diseases, solve personal
prolems, and secure the promise of eternal salvation.
•The Holy Land and Rome were the destinations of many early
pilgrimages.
•The long journey to the Holy Land was dangerous, however, so
Santiago de Compostela in Spain became a suitable substitute.
•Builders continued to use the Roman basilica plan, but the churches
were made larger to hold the great numbers of pilgrims who visited
them.
Modifications to Church
Design
• To increase the size of a Romanesque church, builders
extended both the nave and transept and added two more
aisles, one on each side.
• They often added an ambulatory, an aisle curving around
behind the main altar, which made it easier for religious
processions and groups of pilgrims to move about inside
the building.
•To accommodate the many priests who were required to say
Mass every day along the pilgrimage routes, additional altars
were placed in small curved chapels built along the transept and
the ambulatory.
•These chapels, projecting out of the building, became a familiar
part of Romanesque churches.
•Their number is always odd, as the one in the center was
dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
THE CHURCH OF SAINT
SERNIN
• It was in France that the Romanesque style reached its
peak in architecture.
• The Cluniac Order set new standards for religious life and
monastic organization, and also for churches whether of
their own or other orders.
• St. Sernin derives from the same origins and its form was
determined by similar structural possibilities, functional
needs and spiritual ideas.
ST. SERNIN
Externally, the emphasis at St. Sernin is placed firmly on the east end,
enclosing the choir and the high altar.
•The large proportions of the church were conditioned by the
use of stone vaulting -- a single great tunnel vault along the
nave, strengthened with diaphgram arches -- instead of the flat
timber ceiling with which church naves had been covered
during the Early Medieval period.
Interior of St. Sernin,
Tolouse, France.
Stone gave a nobler and
more solemn effect and
also provided better
acoustics for the Gregorian
chant.
The octagonal tower
•From the large apse and also from the east walls of the transept
small apses project, presenting a bold grouping of rounded
masses crowned by the great octagonal tower rising above the
crossing (heightened in the thirteenth century by the addition of
two upper stages).
The octagonal tower.
St. Sernin.
Another view from the
interior of the Church.