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Beginnings of Romanesque Architecture and Art

Vikings and Insular Art

The many Viking invasions of Europe and the British Isles marked the era before the Romanesque menstruation. Beginning in 790 with raids on Irish coastal monasteries, the raids became full-scale military excursions inside a century as shown past the Sack of Paris in 845 and the Sack of Constantinople in 860. For the side by side two hundred years, the Vikings raided and sometimes conquered surrounding areas. With the conversion of the Vikings to Christianity, the era ended around 1066 when the Normans, themselves descended from Vikings, conquered England.

With the conversion to Christianity of the British Isles and Ireland, following from the mission of St. Augustine in 597, monasteries in Hibernia (present-solar day Ireland) and present-twenty-four hour period Uk played a primary role in cultural continuity throughout Europe, developing the Insular, or Hiberno-Saxon, way that incorporated the curvilinear and interlocking ornamentation of Viking and Anglo-Saxon cultures with the painting and manuscript examples sent from the Roman church building.

Stone crosses and portable artifacts such as metalwork and elaborate gospel manuscripts dominated the menses. Masterpieces like the British Book of Durrow (c. 650) and the Irish gaelic Volume of Kells (c. 800), created by monks, included extensive illustrations of Biblical passages, portraits of saints, and elaborately decorative carpet pages that preceded the start of each gospel. Insular art influenced both Romanesque manuscript illumination and the richly colored interiors and architectural decorative elements of Romanesque churches.

The Carolingian Renaissance

King of the Franks in 768 and King of the Lombards in 774, Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor in 800, finer consolidating his rule of Europe. He strove to position his kingdom equally a revival of the, now Christian, Roman Empire. Charlemagne was an active patron of the arts and launched a edifice campaign to emulate the creative grandeur of Rome. Drawing from the Latin version of his proper noun (Carolus), the era is known equally the "Carolingian Renaissance." Every bit fine art historian John Contreni wrote, his reign "saw the structure of 27 new cathedrals, 417 monasteries, and 100 purple residences." His palace complex in Aachen (c. 800) that included his Palatine Chapel modeled on the Byzantine St. Vitale (6^thursday century) became a model for subsequent compages.

While Carolingian compages drew on earlier Roman and Byzantine styles, it also transformed church façades that would have consequential effects throughout the Middle Ages. Emphasizing the western entrance to the basilica, the westwork was a monumental addition to the church, with two towers and multiple stories, that served as a majestic chapel and viewing room for the emperor when he visited.

Carolingian murals and illuminated manuscripts continued to look to earlier Roman models and depicted the man figure more realistically than the earlier Hiberno-Saxon illuminators. This (early) naturalism had a lasting influence on Romanesque and Gothic art.

Cluny Abbey

In the early 900s, concern began to abound almost the economical and political control that nobles and the emperor exercised over monasteries. With ascent taxes imposed past nobles and the installation of relatives as abbots, the Cluny Abbey sought monastic reform, based upon the Rule of St. Benedict (c. 480-550), written by the 5^th-century St. Benedict of Nursia, that emphasized peace, work, prayer, study, and the autonomy of religious communities.

In 910, William of Aquitaine donated his hunting guild and surrounding lands to constitute Cluny Abbey and nominated Berno equally its first Abbott. William stipulated the independence of the Abbey from all secular and local authority, including his ain. As a event, the Abbey was accountable just to the authority of the Pope and rapidly became the leader of the Benedictine order, establishing dozens of monasteries throughout France. As function of its emphasis on prayer and written report, the Abbey also created a rich liturgy, in which fine art played an important role.

Between the 10^thursday and the early 12^th centuries, three churches were built at Cluny, each larger than the last, and influencing architectural design throughout Europe. Not much is known of Cluny I, but it was a pocket-size, barnlike construction. Later on a few decades, the monastery outgrew the pocket-size church, and Cluny II (c.955-981) was erected. Based on the erstwhile basilica model, Cluny Ii employed round arches and barrel vaults and used pocket-size upper level windows for illumination. Designed with a cruciform programme, the church emphasized the w façade with two towers, a larger crossing belfry (where the transepts and nave intersected), a narthex (an enclosed entrance surface area), a choir between the chantry and the nave of the church, and chapels at the east end. All of these elements became characteristic of Romanesque architecture. With the building of Cluny Three, completed in 1130, the church became the largest in Europe, rivaling St. Peter's in Rome, and a model for similarly ambitious projects.

First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque

In the 10^th century, Beginning, or Lombard, Romanesque was an early development in Lombardy region (now northern Italy), southern French republic, and reaching into Catalonia. Started by the Lombard Comacine Guild, or stonemasons, the style was distinctive for its solid stone structure, elaborate arching that avant-garde Roman models, bands of blind arches, or arches that had no openings, and vertical strips for exterior decorative effects. Particularly dominant in Catalonia, some of the best surviving examples are found in the Vall de Boí, a designated World Heritage Site in Catalonia.

Monastic Centers and Pilgrimages

During the Romanesque era, no longer under constant threat from Viking raids, monastic centers, which had provided cultural continuity and spiritual consolation through desperate times, became political, economic, religious, and creative powerhouses that played a office in unifying Europe and in creating relative stability. Monastic centers that housed religious relics became stops on pilgrimage routes that extended for hundreds of miles throughout Europe to the very edge of Spain at Santiago de Compostela. Christians revered Santiago de Compostela as the burial site of Saint James, a disciple of Christ who brought Christianity to Spain, and thus securely symbolic to Catholic Europe.

The faithful believed that by venerating relics, or remains of saints, in pilgrim churches they could obtain saintly intercession on their behalf for the forgiveness of their sins. Trigger-happy competition for relics sometimes adult between churches and fifty-fifty resulted in the monks stealing relics from other churches, every bit was the case with the reliquary of St. Foy, in order to attract more than pilgrims and, therefore, more than coin. As e'er-larger crowds began to flock to sites, monastic centers expanded, providing lodging and food and farrier services to the pilgrims. Equally a result of this growth, various arts and crafts guilds were employed to encounter the demand for Romanesque construction.

Romanesque Compages and Fine art: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

Plant throughout Europe and the British Isles, the Romanesque style took on regional variations, sometimes specific to a particular valley or boondocks. The most noted sub styles were Mosan Fine art, Norman Romanesque, and Italian Romanesque.

Mosan Art, 1050-1232

Mosan art is named for the River Meuse valley in Kingdom of belgium, where the style was centered around the boondocks of Liege and the Benedictine monastery at Stavelot. Because of the region's location, it had many political and economic links to Aachen and was greatly influenced by the Carolingian Renaissance. The manner became famous for its lavish and highly accomplished metalwork, employing gold and enameling in both the cloisonné technique, where metal is used to create raised partitions on the surface that are then filled with colored inlays, and the champlevé technique, where depressions are created in the surface and and so filled. Noted metalworkers were Godefroid de Claire (de Huy), Nicholas of Verdun, and Hugo of Oignies. De Claire is credited with the creation of the Stavelot Triptych (1156-1158), both a portable altar and a reliquary containing fragments of True Cross, and Nicholas of Verdun's virtually noted work was his reliquary Shrine of the Magi (1180-1225). Mosan goldsmiths and metalworkers were employed throughout Europe past notable patrons and spread the style's influence.

Norman Romanesque (eleven^th-12^th centuries)

Norman Romanesque is primarily an English way named for the Normans who adult it after conquering England in 1066. Normandy, its proper name derived from the Latin Nortmanni, meaning "men of the north," became a Viking territory in 911, and the abstruse decorative motifs of Norman architecture reflected the Viking love of such elements. Thomas Rickman in his An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English language Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation (1817) first used the term Norman Romanesque to refer to the style. Used for cathedrals and churches but likewise castles and keeps, Norman Romanesque was distinctive for its massive walls, its cylindrical and compound piers, and the Norman curvation, employed to brand grand archways. A wider and higher ceiling became possible, replacing the narrow limitations of the preceding barrel vault.

The style developed in Normandy, French republic, and England simultaneously, but in England information technology evolved into a distinctive sub-style that combined the austerity of the Norman way with a tendency toward ornament. A noted masterwork was Durham Cathedral (1093-1140) built under the leadership of William of St. Carilef. Though the cathedral was later redesigned in the Gothic style, some Norman elements, particularly the nave of the church, remain.

Italian Romanesque

Italian Romanesque is characterized by a distinctive utilize of gallery façades, projecting porches, and campaniles, or bell towers. Regional variations occurred; for case, the Northern Italian style had wide and severe looking stone façades, as seen in San Ambrogio in Milan (1140). However, the most important regional fashion was the Pisan mode, sometimes called the Tuscan, or Central, manner, favoring classical and refined decorative effects and using gallery facades and projected porches with horizontal bands of colored marble. Decorative elements included scenes of daily life, hunting scenes, and classical subjects, and statuary doors were frequently employed. The Piazza del Duomo, or Cathedral Square, in Pisa, which included the Baptistery (1153) the Cathedral (1063-1092) and the Campanile (1172) is the almost famous example.

Later Developments - After Romanesque Architecture and Fine art

The Romanesque style continued to be employed through virtually of the 12^th century, except in the area around Paris where the Gothic style began in 1120. Subsequently as the Gothic style spread, the Romanesque way was superseded and existent churches were oftentimes expanded and redesigned with new Gothic elements, retaining only a few traces of the earlier manner. In more rural regions, however, the Romanesque manner continued into the 13^th century. Romanesque design was foundational to the Gothic which continued using a cruciform plan, a western façade with two towers, and carved tympanums above the portals. Similarly, Gothic fine art was informed by the aforementioned motion toward a more than realistic handling of the human form that can be seen in the Romanesque Mosan mode. Romanesque tapestries, similar the Bayeux Tapestry, influenced the formation of tapestry workshops throughout Europe in the Gothic menstruation and beyond.

Romanesque Revival styles first developed in England with Inigo Jones' redesign of the White Tower (1637-1638). In the following century Norman Revival castles were built for estates throughout the British Isles, and in the early 1800s, Thomas Pesnon adult a revival manner for churches. Romanesque manuscript illumination, with its jewel-like colors and stylized motifs, also influenced and informed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts move in the eye and later 19^th century.

In Germany Rundbogenstil, or round-arch style, became popular around 1830, and the fashion was influential in America, as seen in the Paul Robeson Theater, formerly the Fourth Universalist Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn (1833-34) and the erstwhile Astor Library, now the Public Theatre (1849-1881), in Lower Manhattan.

In America the first work of Romanesque Revival architecture was Richard Upjohn's Maaronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon (1844-1846) in Brooklyn. The American architect James Renwick's design for the Smithsonian Constitute (1847-1851) was a prominent example. The style became known as Richardsonian Romanesque, as Henry Hobson Richardson actively promoted the mode and designed notable buildings including the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (1885-1887) in Chicago and Trinity Church building (1872-1877) in Boston. Harvard University commissioned Richardson to design several campus buildings, including Sever Hall (1878-1880), considered one of his masterpieces and designated a National Celebrated Landmark. Every bit a result the style was adopted by other American universities in the following decades.

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Source: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/romanesque-art/history-and-concepts/