Romanesque Art

Romanesque Art

Introduction

Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on the region. The term was invented by the 19th century art historians, especially for Romanesque architecture, which retained many basic features of Roman architectural style most notably round headed arches,but also barrel vaults, apses, and acanthus –leaf decoration- but had also developed many very different characteristics. In southern France, Spain and Italy there was an architectural continuity with the late Antique, but the Romanesque style was the first style was the first style to impact the whole of catholic Europe from Denmark to Sicily.

Characteristics
Outside Romanesque architecture,the art of the period was characterised by a very vigorous style in both sculpture and painting. The latter continued to follow essentially Byzantine iconographic models for the most common subjects in churches, which remained Christ in Majesty, the Last Judgement and scenes from the Life of Christ. In illuminated manuscripts, where the most lavishly decorated manuscripts of the period were mostlybibles or psalters, more originality is seen, as new scenes needed to be depicted. The same applied to the capitals of columns, never more exciting than in this period, when they were often carved with complete scenes with several figures. The large wooden crucifix was a German innovation right at the start of the period, as were free-standing statues of the enthroned Madonna, but the high reliefwas above all the sculptural mode of the period.

Background
The period saw Europe grow steadily more prosperous, and art of the highest quality was no longer confined, as it largely was in the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, to the royal court and a small circle of monasteries. Monasteries remained extremely important, especially those of the expansionist new orders of the period, theCistercian, Cluniac, and Carthusian, which spread across Europe, but city churches, those on pilgrimage routes, and many churches in small towns and villages were elaborately decorated to a very high standard - indeed it is often these that have survived, when cathedrals and city churches have been rebuilt, and no Romanesque royal palace has really survived.

Sculpture
Metal-, enamel-, and ivoryworkPrecious objects in these media had a very high status in the period, probably much more so than paintings — we know the names of more makers of these than painters, illuminators or architect-masons. Metalwork, including decoration in enamel, became very sophisticated, and many spectacular shrines made to hold relics have survived, of which the best known is the Shrine of the Three Kings atCologne Cathedral by Nicholas of Verdun and others (ca 1180–1225). The Stavelot Triptych and Reliquary of St. Maurus are other examples of Mosan enamelwork. Large reliquaries and altar frontals were built around a wooden frame, but smaller caskets were all metal and enamel. A few secular pieces, such as mirror cases, jewellery and clasps have survived, but these no doubt under-represent the amount offine metalwork owned by the nobility.

Architectural sculpture
The tympanum of Vézelay Abbey, Burgundy, France, 1130s, has much decorative spiral detail in the draperies.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of carving large works in stone and sculpting figures in bronze died out, as it effectively did (for religious reasons) in the Byzantine world. Some life-size sculpture wasevidently done in stucco or plaster, but surviving examples are understandably rare.[1] The best-known surviving large sculptural work of Proto-Romanesque Europe is the life-size wooden Crucifix commissioned by Archbishop Gero of Cologne in about 960–65, apparently the prototype of what became a popular form. These were later set up on a beam below the chancel arch, known in English as a rood, from...