Romanesque Art: Sculpture and Painting Characteristics
Romanesque Sculpture
We have previously pointed out how sculpture incorporated into the building has a dual role: to beautify and to teach. It shows great development in both form and content. The shape is inspired by Byzantine and Romanesque styles, and the content is primarily religious. Biblical inspiration sets out to the faithful, mostly illiterate, the truths of faith. But it is also geometric, animalistic, and narrative, as it presents the various trades, minstrels, and picaresque themes, even monsters and allegorical subjects. It is, therefore, both individual history and sculpture.
Its features depend on the materials used and the places it is intended for. So, figures are elongated or dwarfed, and appear on the eardrum, archivolt, capital, or jamb. In any event, the work is conducted under the direction of a monk or priest, who identifies the topics and organizes the iconographic programs. Almost always, the expressive content is more important than formal beauty, since the images are often hieratic (rigid) and solemn.
Christs and Virgins are two of the most discussed iconographic themes and meanings of this style:
- Christs are depicted with four nails, eyes open, a royal crown, not hanging, a medium or long tunic skirt, and not suffering.
- On the other hand, the Virgin appears in Majesty, enthroned and serving as a throne to the child, but does not hold any apparent relation to it.
Romanesque Painting
Its general features are an anti-naturalistic approach with few prospects. It is almost always associated with the architecture, and design dominates the color, which is applied for flat color contrasts. Shading is achieved through parallel lines; red spots are placed on the cheeks, chin, and forehead of the figures. It is usually mural or fresco or tempera, or on wood (retablos for altar frontals), usually in the chapel and the vault, but sometimes the side walls are also painted in horizontal bands. There is a predominance of substance over form, hieratic style, and a lack of expressiveness.
Spanish Mural Fresco
In Catalonia, there is a certain approach to pictorial virtuosity in the Byzantine model, highlighting the Christ of San Clemente Tahull and the Virgin of Santa María de Tahull. Both seem to be the work of the master of Maderuelo. Another author is the master creator of the frescoes of San Pedro de Urgel.
In Aragon, the master who decorates the chapter of Sigena monastery in the early thirteenth century with scenes from the Old Testament is important. Maderuelo’s teacher should be the painter of the paintings of the Holy Cross Church and St. Baudelio de Berlanga in Soria. The Master of San Isidoro decorates the dome of the Pantheon of Kings with outstanding quality and an original decorative frame: since the vaults are divided into rectangles. In one of them appears the Pantocrator with his Tetramorph, while the other is the Adoration of the Shepherds. The intrados of the arches are also decorated with scenes of farm work for the twelve months of the year and with geometric patterns. Finally, another example of wall painting is the whole church of San Justo de Segovia.
Paint on wood is mainly manifested in the front of the altar of Seu d’Urgell and in some other altarpieces.
Lighting codex looms large following Mozarabic models, highlighting the Catalan Bibles of the 11th century, San Pedro de Roda, and Ripoll.
The Applied Arts
The works of goldsmiths worked with gold and precious stones like the calyx of Doña Urraca in San Isidoro are highlighted, as well as enamels and textile work.