Romanesque Sculpture: Characteristics and Evolution
Introduction
The precedent of Romanesque sculpture is found in the trials of pre-Romanesque sculpture. Oriental Greco-Roman sculpture carries some experience but is transformed by Christian elements. In the Romanesque period, sculpture had grown little, especially monumental sculpture, which had been instrumental in the Greco-Roman world. It had been forgotten by both the ancient sculptural tradition and the classical tradition, preferring small dimensions, such as ivory or gold. During the Romanesque period, what interests sculptors is the intellectual aspect, the message, not naturalism, and they reject the faithful representation of reality.
Romanesque Sculpture
Most of the sculpture is concentrated on the front of the churches. Inside, only the capitals of columns were carved. The front of the temple is not just a simple step inward, but it is a triumphant access to the house of God. The covers of Romanesque buildings are often flared and shaped by a series of concentric arcs that decrease progressively in size as they enter the wall, the archivolts. The jambs are the vertical elements that support the archivolts. Access itself is usually a lintel, thus leading to the eardrum, the space between the lintel and the arch, which is one of the favorite places to place sculptural decoration, along with the spandrels of the arch itself if it is backed by other elements of architecture. If the threshold is very wide and long, it is reinforced with a central support, the mullion, which also tends to be richly decorated with sculpture.
Basic Features of Romanesque Sculpture
- The law of the frame.
- The subject is of great importance given the didactic function assigned to the sculpture since the image is used to indoctrinate an illiterate population.
- The carving is rough, with many errors.
- Iconographic sources for themes are: the Bible (Revelation of St. John), the Apocryphal Gospels, the Golden Legend, Lives of Saints, and the bestiary (fantastic beings from the Eastern tradition, with evil or beneficial sense, that relate to the feeling of millennial fear). In scenes that express the terrors of the year 1000 but also oriental fantasy elements (multi-headed monsters, anthropomorphic beings, etc.).
- In general, it is a flat sculpture, marked with small volumes and a lack of perspective in relief, for which the incidence of light is soft.
- Anti-naturalistic, figurative sculpture, in which proportions are broken and re-prioritization according to category, isocephaly, incorrect anatomy and very schematic, rigidity, expressionless, frontal, clothing whose only mission is to cover the body and geometric folds, movements that are unnatural.
Free-Standing Sculpture and Relief
Romanesque free-standing sculpture is reduced to images of the Crucified and the Virgin and Child.
The Crucified
As in the Byzantine world, it is four nails, feet nailed separately, indifferent to pain, stiff, hieratic, with a solemn expression, his body right and horizontal arms, is alive, and so on. We can find it made in ivory, wood, or metal. It takes two types:
- Christ in Majesty, wearing a long-sleeved tunic and crown.
- Naked Christ, covered only from the waist to the knees with a skirt.
The Virgin and Child
The Virgin is represented seated, front, hieratic, and the Child seated on her knees, front and also static, in blessing, with a book or globe in hand, no relationship between the two figures. This model is called Quiriotisa Virgin, Virgin as the Throne of Salvador.
Sculpture in Relief
The importance of sculpture in relief, related to architecture, is not the same in all countries, with Spain and France being those in which it acquired great development. The conquest of the different parts and areas of the churches by the sculpture is a slow process so that until the last third of the eleventh century, the Romanesque monumental doorway appears. It will again be the Camino de Santiago to promote these art forms, so there are similarities between the creations of the two countries, perhaps due to the itinerant nature of the artists of this era.
Romanesque Sculpture in Spain
The early works appear in Catalonia, but the crowning, as in France, will arise in the Camino de Santiago. One of the first is the tympanum of the cathedral of Jaca, in Crismón among lions.
A key work is San Isidoro de Leon or The South Portico of the Lamb, with the themes of the Mystic Lamb and the Sacrifice of Isaac, which has features of archaism as a relief plane and crowding of the figures. In Spain, the Pantocrator Christ or almond is common. Here the theme is more varied and symbolic. The North Home of San Isidoro de León or Home of Atonement, with the theme of the Descent, in this figure are smaller and show a greater spirit of observation.
The masterpiece of this century is the reliefs of the lower cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos.
Another important set of the moment is the home Platerías Santiago Cathedral.
In Navarre, the home stands Sangüesa of French influence on the elongation of the figures. In the Cloister of San Juan de la Peña, the figures have exaggerated eyes, the folds of the dresses are calligraphic, and the composition framework is perfectly adapted to initiate the transition to the Gothic in the folded, expressions, etc.
Transition to Gothic
At the end of the twelfth century, living with works formally Romanesque, sculptural works called transition appear, whose features have been described by some historians as Gothic. They are characterized by the bulk of the draperies, a trend to greater movement, anatomy and natural proportions, and expressiveness achieved by dialogue between the characters and the reflection of feelings. All these features give insight into the triumphant naturalism in Gothic.
Great Masters of Spanish Romanesque
It is at this time that the three great masters of Spanish Romanesque are displayed:
- The teacher of the Holy Chamber of Oviedo
- Fruchel, a teacher working on the covers of San Vicente de Ávila
- The last great figure, Master Mateo, author of the Portico de la Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.