Romanesque Art: Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting
Romanesque Art and Architecture
Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture reached its peak with the construction of major pilgrimage churches. These significant buildings shared several common features:
- Latin cross plan
- Ambulatory
- Apsidioles (small radiating chapels)
- Gallery or tribune
- Groin vaults in side naves and typically barrel vaults over the main nave
- A prominent high tower
Romanesque Sculpture
Romanesque sculpture was predominantly religious in theme and primarily integrated into the architecture, especially on portals (doors) and capitals. Relief sculpture was particularly significant.
Influences included:
- Byzantine style: contributing rigidity and established iconography.
- Mozarabic art: from Christian communities in Muslim-controlled territories.
- Northern European traditions: emphasizing abstraction and didacticism.
General Characteristics of Sculpture
- Anti-naturalism: Figures are often disproportionate, lack depth, and may show a tendency towards symmetry.
- Symbolism: Elements hold symbolic meaning, and their placement within the composition is significant.
- Expressionism: Figures are often distorted to effectively communicate religious messages and facilitate interpretation.
- Conventionalism and Rigidity: Adherence to established formulas and hierarchical scale helped express the religious significance of figures, serving a didactic purpose.
- Horror Vacui: A tendency to fill the entire surface with decoration.
Relief Sculpture
Early reliefs were often planar and simple, with drapery depicted using parallel folds. Sculpture was frequently polychromed (painted in multiple colors).
Common Relief Themes:
- Tympanum (above the portal): Pantocrator (Christ in Majesty), Tetramorph (symbols of the four Evangelists), Lamb of God, Chi-Rho monogram (XP).
- Portal surrounds and capitals: The 24 Elders of the Apocalypse, struggles between humans and animals, torments of Hell, vegetal or geometric motifs, biblical scenes.
- Monsters and fantastical creatures: Served both decorative and architectural functions, sometimes found on capitals or corbels, featuring vegetal, animal, and monstrous forms.
Freestanding Sculpture
Freestanding sculptures, often in stone or wood and also polychromed, were less developed than relief but shared similar characteristics.
Main Themes:
- Virgin and Child: Known as the Theotokos (Mother of God).
- Christ on the Cross: Often depicted with four nails.
Romanesque Painting
Romanesque painting was overwhelmingly religious, serving both thematic and didactic purposes.
General Characteristics of Painting
- Anti-naturalism
- Expressionism
- Symbolism
- Simplified backgrounds
- Emphasis on line (linearism)
- Use of flat, bright colors with strong contrasts
- Bidimensionality (lack of depth)
- Frontality (figures facing forward)
Wall Painting (Fresco)
Wall painting was the most important form, serving decorative and teaching functions. Techniques included fresco and tempera.
Common Themes by Location:
- Apse and Vault: Pantocrator, Hand of God, Dove (Holy Spirit), Virgin and Child.
- Lower Apse Walls: Apostles, Saints.
- Side Walls: Scenes from the lives of saints or biblical narratives.
- Entrance Wall (West Wall): The Last Judgment.
Panel Painting
Painting on wood panels was used for altar frontals and baldachins. Panels were prepared with gesso, the design often incised, and then painted. Pastiglia (raised gesso details) could be used to create relief effects.
Common Themes:
- Central Panel: Pantocrator, Virgin and Child, or the church’s patron saint.
- Side Panels: Scenes from the Bible or the lives of saints.
Manuscript Illumination (Miniatures)
Miniature painting was used for illustrating religious books (manuscripts). These illustrations were primarily didactic.
Technique:
Artists sketched designs onto parchment, outlined the figures clearly (emphasizing line), and filled them in with basic, often bright colors.