1. The Style in its Social Context
The Romanesque:
The Style in its Social Context

2. Late Antique or Early Christian
Architecture in the Middle Ages ( )
Late Antique or Early Christian
Carolingian
Romanesque
Gothic
c. 1400
Italian Renaissance begins
Byzantine
Islam

3. Muslim Empire in 750 Carolingian Empire in 814
I. Historical lead up to the Romanesque period (ad )
Muslim Empire in 750
Carolingian Empire in 814
Great Mosque at Cordoba, Spain 784
Carolingian palace chapel, Aachen, Germany,

4. I.
In the Carolingian period ( ): Western European monasteries given definitive form

5. I.
Scale and plan of Carolingian basilicas (compared to Early Christian predecessors)
Carolingian
Carolingian

6. Carolingian basilicas: vertical emphasis
Carolingian Corvey abbey church, , Germany
Carolingian Abbey church of St. Boniface at
Fulda, Germany,

7. City walls, Avila, Spain, b. 1090 earth and wood fortification
I. A. The Carolingian empire and its restoration of monumental architecture was promising, but why didn’t
it last?
9th- 10th cen. Viking, Magyar, and Saracen invasions 1. 2.
a wood keep
City walls, Avila, Spain, b. 1090
earth and wood fortification

8. ecclesiastical architecture residences of the feudal elite
I. B. When did the fortunes of Europe become more conducive to architectural innovation?
ecclesiastical architecture
residences of the feudal elite
merchants’ townhouses
great hall
2nd & 3rd floors

9. return of cut stone masonry
I. B.
return of cut stone masonry
Ste.-Foy at Conques

10. Ste.-Foy at Conques, France Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany
II. Romanesque Style or Design Mode: Context for its visual and spatial sophistication
Ste.-Foy at Conques, France
(abbey church),
Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany

11. II.
Romanesque architecture (11th cen. - mid 13th cen.): the first European architecture
Speyer Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
Ste.-Foy
Pisa Cathedral

12. II. A. Religious context: Medieval Christian pilgrimage and the cult of relics4.
“Relics mattered more basically than any other fixture of daily existence” (Kostof 301).
Reliquary of St. Faith

13. Pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela The “pilgrimage church” type
II. A.
Pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela
The “pilgrimage church” type

14. Abbey of Ste.-Foy at Conques
II. A.
Abbey of Ste.-Foy at Conques
church
cloister
remains of Ste. Foy’s cloister

15. tribune gallery Ste.-Foy
II. A. 1. New parts of Christian basilicas due to new program requirements (accommodating pilgrims)
starting in the 11th century.
Ste.-Foy
tribune
gallery
tribune gallery

16. Ste.-Foy – two views of the south gallery
II. A. 1.
Ste.-Foy – two views of the south gallery
looking east
looking west

17. ambulatory with radiating chapels
II. A. 1.
Ste.-Foy
ambulatory with radiating chapels

18. II. A. 1.
Speyer Cathedral
crypt

19. Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral
II. B. Competitive aesthetic architectural discourse in c. A.D. 1000
Raoul Glaber’s (monk and historian) commentary: “Just before the third year of the millennium, throughout th ewhole world, but most especially in Italy and Gaul, men began to reconstruct churches, although for the most part the existing ones were properly built and not in the least unworthy. But it seemed as though each Christian community were aiming to surpass all others in the splendor of construction. It was as if the whole world were shaking itself free, shrugging off the burden of the past, and cladding itself everywhere in a white mantle of churches” (Kostof 299).
Ste.-Foy
Speyer Cathedral

20. Early Christian basilicas
III. The Romanesque exterior: aesthetics of less-Roman, future-oriented form begins in the 11C
A. Components of a changed overall appearance from outside
Romanesque basilicas in northern Europe
Early Christian basilicas
Ste.-Foy
Speyer Cathedral

21. Early Christian facade modest basilica silhouette
III. A. 1. What happened to the Christian church façade in the Romanesque period?
Early Christian facade
modest basilica silhouette
Romanesque facades in northern Europe
St. Peter’s (recon.)
Santa Sabina
Speyer Cathedral
Ste.-Foy

22. Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral
III. A. 2. What are some features of the complex massing at the apse end (east) and sometimes the west
end as well?
Ste.-Foy
Speyer Cathedral

23. double transept: two crossing towers crossing tower
III. A. 3. How is the crossing expressed on the exterior?
crossing tower
double transept: two crossing towers
crossing tower
Speyer Cathedral
Ste.-Foy

24. Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral
III. B. Specific qualities of the exterior wall
1. wall subdivided, often hierarchically, into bays
Ste.-Foy
Speyer Cathedral

25. single plane separates interior space from exterior
III. B. 2. Thick skin of the architectural wall worked out in planes and layers
Early Christian S. Sabina in Rome
Romanesque Ste.-Foy
Romanesque Speyer Cathedral
single plane separates
interior space from exterior

26. corbel tables Lombard bands
III. B.
Speyer Cathedral
corbel tables
(horizontal)
Lombard
bands
(vertical)

27. engaged shafts Engaged shafts not guided
III. B. 2. a. engaged shafts
Engaged shafts not guided
by laws of classical proportions.
Ste.-Foy
engaged shafts

28. III. B. 2. b. blind arcades
Ste.-Foy
Speyer Cathedral
blind arcade

29. Speyer Cathedral dwarf gallery
III. B. 2. c. arcaded galleries (dwarf galleries)
Speyer Cathedral
dwarf gallery

30. wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts
III. C. Thickness of Romanesque windows and portals: an impression created by recessed archivolts and
multiple jambs
Early Christian S. Sabina
Romanesque Speyer Cathedral
wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts

31. wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts
III. C.
wall thickness registered in recessed archivolts
archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings
Ste.-Foy

32. archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings
III. C.
archivolt – one of a series of concentric arched mouldings
Ste.-Foy - archivolts

33. Romanesque portal sculpture: Ste.-Foy’s Last Judgment scene
III. C.
Romanesque portal sculpture: Ste.-Foy’s Last Judgment scene