The Romanesque: Between Historicist and Modernist Modes of Design

Ste.-Foy

I. Romanesque visual sophistication on the interior A. Wall thickness revealed in planes and subdivided vertically into bays (individual parts subordinated to the whole)

Speyer Cathedral – 1st building

Ste.-Foy

Voids become lively and rhythmic spaces. Masonry walls are 3-dimensional entities

I. A. 1. compound pier - a pier with several attached shafts

I. B. Romanesque nave elevation – parts and directionality

Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

Early Christian St. Peter’s

clerestory

nave arcade

Ste.-Foy

Romanesque: interior and exterior worked out in 3-dimensionally in planes

Classical Roman architecture: sculpting of spatial volumes

Hadrian’s Villa (Roman)

I. C. Contrast Romanesque 3-dimensionality with Roman volume

Ste.-Foy

Romanesque

S. Sabina

I. C.

Early Christian

II. Grandeur and dignity: a comprehensive Romanesque vaulting systemII. A. Load-bearing masonry vaults in the Romanesque church nave

Vaulting and aesthetics:“improving the composition of the work,” “wondrous effects”

Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral

II. A. 1. How is Romanesque vaulting different from Roman vaulting?

Romanesque load-bearing stone masonryRoman load-bearing concrete masonry

Domus Aurea, Rome

bay system of supports and buttressesmonolithic

St.-Sernin in Toulouse, France

old way: continuous centering new way: centering one bay at a time

advantage: transverse arches help vault maintain its form

aesthetics: banded barrel vault has a closer relationship with the lower part of the nave

Ste.-Foy’s banded barrel vault

II. A. 2. Banded Romanesque barrel vaults (Ste.-Foy): why were they useful?

diagonal thrust of a barrel vault

abutment of low barrel vault abutment of a high barrel vault

II. A. 3. What effect did the high barrel vault have on the supporting walls?

Ste.-Foy, Conques

barrel vault

quadrant vault or half barrel vault

wall or spur buttress

II. A. 3.

II. A. 3.

Ste-Foy, Conques

II. A. 4. Groin vaults in church naves (Speyer Cathedral): what advantages did a groin vaulted nave have over a barrel vault?

Speyer Cathedraltimber ceiling of 1st bldg. groin vaulted nave of 2nd bldg.

Speyer Cathedral

before groin vaults with groin vaults

II. A. 5. What effect did the high groin vault have on the supporting walls?

III. Romanesque architectural theory: What theoretical approach to sacred architecture is validated by Romanesque design?

Speyer Cathedral

Byzantine: what heaven is likeIslam: vast, infiniteness of One God

Romanesque: serene dignity of God(cerebral, sober, mathematical)

Ste.-Foy abbey church

III.

Romanesque architecture reveals the order of the universe

“Beauty is a concordance and fittingness of . . . all the individual parts to themselves and to each other and to the whole, and that of the whole to all things” (Robert Grosseteste, 13th cen., a view based on Vitruvius).

Romanesque cathedral at Modena, Italy

IV. Romanesque regional diversity correlates to historicist tendencies in southern Europe (Italy, Spain, S. France) VS. modernist tendencies in northern Europe (Germany, N. France, England)

Italy FranceGermany England

most historicist most modernisttension between historicist and modernist tendencies

New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by

precedent)

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

walls a continuous plane

classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)

standard basilical profile

punched in windows and square-headed doors

rib vaults

skeletal frame

OR elevational system rather thantrue wall

pointed arches (“broken” arches)

horizontal continuous space

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

Romanesque Ste-Foy

Features of Romanesque Ste-Foy

IV.

New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by

precedent)

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

walls a continuous plane

classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)

standard basilical profile

punched in windows and square-headed doors

rib vaults

skeletal frame

OR elevational system rather thantrue wall

pointed arches (“broken” arches)

horizontal continuous space

Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

Features of Romanesque Speyer Cathedral

IV.

most historicizing

most modernizing

ROMECONSTANTINOPLE

between historic

izing

and modernizing

historicist tendencies ………… Romanesque spectrum ……………….modernist tendencies IV.

most historicizing

most modernizing

ROME

Pisa Cathedral

Durham Cathedral

between histo

ricizi

ng

and modern

izing

Speyer Cathedral

Ste.-Foy

IV. A. The medieval churches of Rome so faithful to Early Christian models, they are immaculately ➞ historicist

Early Christian in Rome Romanesque in Rome

(Old St. Peter’s)

(S. Giorgio in Velabro)

Pisa Cathedral, Pisa, Italy 11th – 13th cen. (1063-1118 cathedral)

IV. B. The Romanesque elsewhere in Italy

baptistery

bell tower

cathedral

Pisa’s Romanesque Baptistery, 1152-1363; arch. Diotislavi

IV. B.

Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, Rome, c. 350

Lateran Baptistery, Rome315, and 432-40

Anastasis RotundaJerusalem, 325-80

Baptisteries Mausolea Martyria

Early Christian occasional space for venerationCentrally-planned mausoleums, baptisteries, martyria

IV. B.

IV. B.

Pisa Cathedral

“Medieval architecture in Italy’s greatest contribution to the medieval environment may be its ability to see the church as the framer of a public space, a town square” (Kostof 316).

IV. B. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist?

E.C. St. Peter’s

Pisa Cathedral

IV. B. 1.E.C. St. Peter’s

Pisa Cathedral

crossing dome

IV. B. 1.

Pisa Cathedral

E.C. S. Sabina

IV. B. 1.

Pisa CathedralE.C. St. Peter’s

IV. B. 1.

Pisa Cathedral

E.C. S. Sabina

New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by

precedent)

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

walls a continuous plane

classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)

standard basilical profile

punched in windows and square-headed doors

rib vaults

skeletal frame

OR elevational system rather thantrue wall

pointed arches (“broken” arches)

horizontal continuous space

Romanesque Pisa Cathedral

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

complex, towered profile

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)

punched in windows and square-headed doors

horizontal continuous space

IV. B. 1.

Features of Romanesque Pisa Cathedral

Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, 11th-12th century (1060-1133)

IV. D. The Romanesque in England

Durham Cathedral, Durham, England

NOT URBAN: Site chosen by William the Conqueror in 1093 as a bulwark against the Scots to the north

castle used as bishop’s palace

HAS RELICS of St. Cuthbert (634-87), bishop of Lindisfarne

IV. D.

MONASTIC in spite of being a cathedral (English bishops were also monks)

IV. D. 1. Durham CathedralE.C. St. Peter’s

Typical monastic buildings

public church

monks’ choir

Lady Chapel added 1153-95

IV. D. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, massing, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section. a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist?

E.C. St. Peter’s

Durham Cathedral

IV. D. 1.

Durham Cathedral

E.C. S. Sabina

IV. D. 1.

Durham Cathedral

E.C. St. Peter’s

E.C. St. Peter’s

IV. D. 1.

Durham CathedralE.C. S. Sabina

II. B. Durham Cathedral

clerestory

nave arcade

tribune gallery

dwarf gallery in clerestory

IV. D. 1. Durham Cathedral

wall passage of dwarf gallery

quadrant vault

tribune gallery

Durham Cathedral

Durham nave rib vaults, 1128-33

Durham’s choir aisle vaults, earliest known rib vaults, 1093

ribs of rib vaults

IV. D. 1. earliest known rib vaults

rib vaults – skeletal frame alone bears the load

IV. D. 1. linear, non-classical surface decoration

Anglo-Saxon architecture: Earls Barton tower (10th cen.)

Durham Cathedral

piers build forward in 3 layers

chevron moldings on archivolts and ribs

surface diaper work and chevrons

MODERNIST: linear surface patterns attempt to unify all parts of the structure in a linear web

New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by

precedent)

round arches

structural ponderance

load-bearing vaults

walls a continuous plane

classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)

standard basilical profile

punched in windows and square-headed doors

rib vaults

skeletal frame

OR elevational system rather thantrue wall

pointed arches (“broken” arches)

horizontal continuous space

Romanesque Durham Cathedral

wall as a 3-D entity in planes

compound piers

vertical articulation in a bay system

complex, towered profile

walls/doors in recessed archivolts

rib vaults

round arches

Features of Romanesque Durham Cathedral