Romanesque

Romanesque. Architectural style of buildings erected in Romanized Western Europe from C7 to the end of C12 having certain characteristics similar to those in Early Christian, late– Roman, and Byzantine architecture, notably the semicircular–headed arch, the use of the basilican form for churches, and the survival of design elements such as the Classical capital (though much coarsened and transformed).

Opinion, however, is divided about when the Romanesque style began: some accept C7, drawing Carolingian and Anglo–Saxon architecture within the Romanesque umbrella; others hold that true Romanesque began with the Ottonian Empire in Germany and the evolution of architecture at Cluny in Burgundy from 910 and the subsequent rise of the Cluniac branch of the Benedictine Order. The latter view tends to regard Romanesque as arriving in England with the Norman Conquest in 1066, but this therefore denies the qualities of such unquestionably sophisticated structures as the crypt of St Wystan's Church, Repton, Derbys. (c.827–40—with vaulted roof carried on columns with spiral shafts (clearly associated with the tomb of St Peter in the Basilica of San Pietro in Rome) and pilasters (obviously derived from Classical precedents), and the Old and New Minsters, Winchester, Hants. (C7–C11—with evident Carolingian prototypes).

Mature Romanesque architecture, mostly surviving in churches and castles, had thick walls and sturdy piers (often cylindrical); the semicircular arch, as mentioned above; vaults based on semicircles, often simple barrel–vaults, but frequently groin– and rib–vaults; plans that were simple in their geometry, including apses and circular buildings (such as Holy Sepulchre Church, Cambridge (c.1130) ); and clearly defined bays, square or rectangular on plan, making the construction of vaulted ceilings relatively simple. Bays were often delineated outside the building by means of pilaster–like lesenes marking each division between bays, and inside by shafts rising up to the tops of the walls, or associated with the springing of arches. Romanesque architecture was therefore clear and logical, the forms and subdivisions comprehensible with ease, both inside and out: this inherent geometrical simplicity also made it powerful and impressive.

Grander churches had ambulatories at the apsidal east end, with radiating chapels around them (as at Cluny). Barrel– or tunnelvaults were employed in France (e.g. Notre Dame, Clermont–Ferrand, and St–Austremoine, Issoire (C12) ), and in Spain; groin–vaults were common in Germany (e.g. the nave of Speier Cathedral (1082–1106) ); domes in parts of France (e.g. Angoulême (1105–30) and Cahors (1119) Cathedrals and St–Front, Périgeux (1120) ); and rib–vaults in England (e.g. Durham Cathedral (end of C11–c.1130) ) and Italy (e.g. San Michele, Pavia (c.1117) ). In England and Northern France (where Romanesque is called Norman) the western fronts of larger churches usually had two towers with a tower over the crossing (as at Southwell Minster, Notts., and St–Étienne, Caen, Normandy). In Italy the basilican clerestoreyed–nave–and–aisles shape of the west end is often expressed and decorated with ranges of arcades (as at Pisa and Pistoia); in Southern France the west ends often have screen–façades (as at St–Gilles–du–Gard, near Arles, where the Roman triumphal arch is clearly a precedent); and in Germany there may be several towers as well as structures (often octagonal) over the crossings (as at Speier Cathedral (1030–1106) and Maria Laach Abbey (1093–1156) ). In Northern Europe roofs were invariably steeply pitched. In terms of rigid, powerful geometries, German Romanesque was unsurpassed: plans were often composed of a series of square bays in the nave, transepts, and chancels, with square bays a quarter of the main nave–bays in the aisles (e.g. Worms Cathedral (1110–81) and the Church of the Apostles, Cologne (1035–1220) ), the threedimensional compartments of each bay emphasizing the rigidity more than in other parts of Europe.

Architectural detail was fairly limited in range, but distinctive. Capitals were often clearly derived from Roman and Byzantine prototypes, but simplified, as with certain examples where the Corinthian volutes are still visible (e.g. the cloisters of Monreale Cathedral (C12) ). Basic Romanesque capitals include the cushion and scalloped type. Mouldings and ornaments, too, were simple, and straightforward, including the beak–head, billet, cable, chevron, double cone, nebule, and reversed zig–zag.

Romanesque enjoyed a revival in the early C19 connected with a general trend towards Historicism. In Germany the style was mingled with Early Christian and Byzantine elements to produce the Rundbogenstil that was to be widely influential especially in Munich. In England there were some attempts to create a C19 untainted Romanesque, including Cottingham's Church of St Helen, Thorney, Notts. (1846), and some buildings by Donthorn and Thomas Hopper. Serious archaeological revival of the style was rare, however, but was a phenomenon in France (with the work of Abadie and others—e.g. basilica of Sacré–Coeur, Paris (1874–1919) ), and in Ireland, where it enjoyed considerable success as Hiberno–Romanesque continuing well into the 1960s (e.g. St Oliver Plunket, Blackrock, Co.

Louth (1923), by Patrick Byrne).

Bibliography

Conant (1979);
Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Curran (2003);
M. Davies (1993);
Fernie (1995);
Kubach (1986);
Pevsner (1960);
Jane Turner (1996);
D. Watkin (1986)