ROMANESQUE EUROPE

GARDNER CHAPTER 17-2PP. 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