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
MOISSACCLOISTER 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 PORTAL One of the most significant and
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 Saint-Pierre, 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 -> cross-legged 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 Saint-Lazare, 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, 1120-1132
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, Saint-Savin-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
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