Romanesque Architecture

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE Origin and Development.—Conditions in the western part of the Roman empire during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries were chaotic. The invading barbarians from the north made Roman provinces their highway, occasionally, like the Goths and Vandals, passing on to Africa, but usually settling in the districts which they conquered and mixing with the native stock. In the resultant confusion, the Roman material civilization died. Men of alien tra dition, with pastoral and nomadic backgrounds, filled the cities of France, Spain and Italy, where the Roman buildings fell into decay and were looted of their furnishings. The new peoples born from this condition needed buildings, and especially, because of their recently acquired Christianity, churches. Yet their building traditions and skill were unequal to the task. Naturally they turned to Roman buildings for their inspiration, and their at tempts to imitate them constitute the earliest Romanesque, which is well represented by certain Roman basilicae (q.v.), in which crude, new buildings were decorated with architectural details looted from Roman work and confusedly used.

Charlemagne

(768-814) made a real attempt to resurrect Ro man culture, and the church that he built at Aachen (Aix-la Chapelle) was, in its day, the most advanced building in Europe. In building it, he turned to Byzantine work for inspiration, and in many ways the church strongly resembles S. Vitale at Ravenna. It is an octagonal building with two storeys of side aisles round a central domed area; the details are as Byzantine as the general scheme. This was a unique example to which later architecture owes little. A more interesting effort was made in the barbaric kingdom of the Lombards, where under Liutprand, towards the end of the 8th century, legal recognition was given to a builders' gild known as the Maestri Comacini. These builders attacked the building problem realistically, gave up the sterile attempt to imi tate Roman work and developed forms to fit their own crude tech nique and ornament to express their own emotions.

It is difficult to trace the exact growth of Romanesque art dur ing these chaotic times. It developed from various sources. In France, the influence of Roman precedents was strong (e.g., S. Jean, Poitiers, probably 6th century; complete contemporary de scriptions of other lavish buildings exist). In northern Spain, there was a crude art of great vitality, sometimes known as Visi gothic art. It was not, however, until the loth century that an architecture thus engendered achieved definite form ; examples from then on become increasingly numerous and important. All Romanesque architecture has certain common features. National boundaries were then non-existent and the unifying power of the Church, exerted especially through the widely spread monasteries, particularly of the Benedictine and Cistercian orders, was every where dominant. Monasticism was the ecclesiastical expression of the same social and political influences that produced feudalism. To cultivate the arts was a cardinal tenet of the Benedictine order, and although lay architects begin to appear in increasing numbers in the I2th century, the earlier master builders were undoubtedly monks who carried building traditions from one monastery to another, and so spread the Romanesque style. All the common factors of Romanesque architecture are the result of the attempt to build an adequately lighted, impressive church building, as richly decorated as possible, with incomplete technical skill and crude materials. Knowledge of structural engineering grew from year to year, by•trial and error, through the frequent collapse of earlier buildings, but never enough to give builders complete mas tery of their problem. Romanesque walls are universally heavy, usually of small stones or brick; windows and doors are almost always small and round arched ; columns are short and stumpy, with heavy capitals. In the place of columns, square or clustered piers are often used to separate nave and aisles.

The church plan went through an extensive evolution. Although occasional circular churches of Eastern type are found (S. Sepol cro, Bologna, i ith century; St. Sepulchre's, Cambridge, England, I ioi ), it is the Roman basilica type that is dominant. Side aisles are low and frequently vaulted with groined vaults. In order to get clerestory windows, naves are made as high as the builder dared; in earlier cases they are usually roofed with wood, but increasingly the attempt was made to vault them completely in masonry. The triforium (q.v.) gallery appears between the ar cades of the side aisle and the clerestory windows, sometimes occupying merely the space under the sloping roof of the side aisles, sometimes existing as a full second storey gallery. Apses usually terminate nave and choir at the east and, as the ritualistic requirements of the church increased, first transepts, and later minor apses, and additional chapels, were added. The interior decoration is simple, consisting merely of carved capitals of the columns of piers, steppings or simple mouldings in the arches, occasional carved panels round doorways or in other important positions, and simple horizontal mouldings separating side aisle arcade, triforium and clerestory. Lavish colour decoration is found on simple surfaces. There are extensive remains in the church of St. Benoit sur Loire, 12th century. The lower portions of the wall are painted to represent drapery, while above, groups of saints and angels are indicated in a stiff but forcefully Byzantine manner.

The Romanesque period saw the development of the Latin cross type of church plan and the complex but systematized east end or chevet (q.v.) consisting of an apse (q.v.) with the side aisle carrying around it as an ambulatory (q.v.) and with chapels, gen erally apsidal, opening from it. Significant, also, is the common use of clustered piers, carefully designed with reference to the members which they carry. A typical pier between nave and aisle is frequently of cross shape ; the two longitudinal arms carry the pier arches, the projection toward the aisle carries a cross rib of the aisle vault, and the projection into the nave continues up in front of the triforium and clerestory walls to carry either a cross rib of the nave vault or the nave truss. In addition, minor mem bers on the nave side were occasionally added under the groin of the nave vault, and if the pier arches are heavily moulded there may be subsidiary shafts under the main moulding members. In exterior design, decoration consists of simple cornices, sometimes supported by little arches and frequently with corbels (brackets), carved with human heads or leaves and the use of projecting but tresses or buttress stripes occasional wall arcading.

The typical Romanesque door, although itself small, was made a large decorative motive by stepping outward the sides and cov ering arch in several layers in the thickness of the wall. Each step, known as an order, was treated as a separate decorative entity. Columns, carrying additional arch mouldings, were frequently in serted in the re-entrant angles of the steps. The space between the arch and the top of the door, known as lunette or tympanum, is usually decorated with reliefs of biblical stories or the lives of saints. In addition, there is much rich foliage, frequently inter mingled with birds, animals and grotesques (for the elaborate sym bolism of these reliefs, see E. Male, Religious Art of the Twelfth Century in France). Among the most common subjects and mo tives of this decoration are : The Last Judgment ; Christ en throned, surrounded by the four evangelists; and the Virgin, enthroned. Christ and the Virgin are usually represented within an oval frame, known as the vesica or mandorla. In the carving of capitals and running mouldings, there is frequent evidence of influence from Mohammedan textiles. The Romanesque period also saw the growth of the church tower as an integral part of ecclesiastical architecture. (See CAMPANILE and TOWER.) The most important development of Romanesque architecture was the result of continual experimentation with vaulting. (See VAULT.) Completely stone vaulted churches were necessitated by frequent disastrous fires in wooden-roofed buildings, and the problem of counteracting the thrust, or outward pressure, of high, heavy, nave vaults without obscuring clerestory windows, was a controlling factor in Romanesque design. The barrel, or continu ous vault, is found in early examples, in which the thrust is only imperfectly braced by the brutally heavy walls. This was soon abandoned in favour of the groined or intersecting vault, in which the weights and thrusts are concentrated at the piers. Intersecting vaults, themselves, brought difficulties, for the nave and aisles, being of different widths, would, in true intersecting vaults, have different bay spacings. To obviate this, the Lombards made one bay of the nave include two bays of the aisle (e.g., S. Ambrogio, Milan, loth and nth th centuries) . They were followed in this by the Rhenish builders. In other localities, various types of oblong vault bays were used, and in Normandy, the sexpartite vault (q.v.) was invented in the attempt to combine the advantages of both schemes. The final solution came only with the pointed arch in Gothic architecture (q.v.). Another difficulty lay in the heavy centring or temporary timber bracing required during the con struction of great vaults. To cope with this, the vault was divided into small sections by ribs, i.e., independent arches, easily built. From these, centring for the intervening sections could be sup ported. At first ribs were only used across the nave and aisles, but, later ribs were also built under the groins (the diagonal inter sections between the two surfaces that make up the intersecting, or groined vault) . These still further diminished the surface for which centring was necessary at one time. The last stage in the development came with the slight arching of all of the surfaces between the ribs, so that the ribs carried the entire weight of the vault. Complete ribbed vaults of this type, with cross ribs, and groin or diagonal ribs, came into use in several places at almost the same time. It is generally agreed that the earliest example is that over the nave of the Lombard church of S. Ambrogio, Milan, probably dating from the second half of the 11th century (Cat taneo, L'architettura in Italia dal secolo VI al mile circa, 1888). Other early instances exist in France at Morienval, Oise (c. 1120), and at Durham cathedral in England (1093-1133) In the development of Romanesque architecture four historical influences are apparent. The first is a direct legacy of pagan Rome. The second is the influence of the Byzantine Eastern empire, which was known in the western world through the wide circula tion of manuscripts, jewel work, ecclesiastical furniture and carved ivory, all made in Constantinople, and also by means of the occa sional use of Syrian masons and Greek decorative artists. The third is the influence of the builders' own northern background, shown in a certain structural vitality, and the use of ornament of a bold and almost savage intricacy. The last is a direct influence from the Near East, due to commerce in oriental textiles and memories brought back by the crusaders. The various ways in which these influences were intermingled and the varying mate rials occurring in different localities necessarily produced a series of important local styles which, with their chief characteristics, may be summarized as follows : Lombard.—This style shows great structural genius, with development of the arcaded cornice, the buttress strip and the campanile. The carved ornament is crude, with much use of gro tesques and interlaces borrowed from the Byzantine. (S. Ambro gio, Milan ; S. Michele, Pavia.) Tuscan and Central Italian.—A style developed by skilled decorators, showing little structural initiative ; the buildings follow Roman basilican types. Byzantine influence causes the use of col oured marbles, especially in bands alternately dark and light. Decorative arcades (q.v.) and colonnades (q.v.) are developed to a high degree, as in the fronts of Pisa (c. 1020) and Lucca (12th century) cathedrals.

South Italian and Sicilian.

Here the style is a confused mixture of Lombard, Byzantine, Roman and oriental influences. There is a rich use of mosaic, which in the Capella Palatina in Palermo and in the apse of Monreale cathedral, both of the late I 2th century, achieves its highest possibilities. In Apulia, strong Lombard characteristics are evident, as in Troia and Bitonto cathedrals.

Provence.

The barrel vaulted naves, low proportions, rich en trances are characteristic, and all decorative work reveals the attempt to copy, with very little change, the motives of Roman ornament. This is the most classic of the Romanesque styles in France (e.g., S. Trophime, Arles).

Aquitaine.

Unique in its adoption of Byzantine structural ideas, with the consequent use of the dome on pendentives. Its greatest monument, S. Front at Perigueux (begun 1120), in plan strikingly resembles S. Mark's at Venice. The pointed. scaled, exterior spire and dome forms are characteristic, as also the great façade richness through the use of many tiers of crude wall arcading filled with sculpture. Pointed arches are occasionally used, as in Cahors cathedral.

Auvergne.—Byzantine, Roman and Lombard influences are all present, and barrel vaults, groined vaults and domes are found. There is much use of polychrome masonry for exterior decoration. This style is important because of its vaulting experiments and its elaborate development of the chevet (e.g., N. Dame-du-Port, Clermont-Ferrand, cathedral at Le Puy en Veldy).

Burgundy.

Here there is evidence of strongly-marked struc tural genius, coupled with interesting adaptations of Roman deco rative forms (e.g., cathedral at Autun). Very elaborate entrance doors are frequently found, and occasionally enclosed porches, as in the Abbey of Vezelay.

Normandy.

Little Roman or Byzantine influence is found in Normandy. The Lombard influence is strong owing to the fact that an abbot of Pavia, Lanfranc, was in charge of Norman monas teries in the I ith century. The ingenious experiments in vaulting reached their climax in the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen (last quarter iith century), where rudimen tary flying buttresses first appeared, and in Durham cathedral. The architectural forms are used for decorative purposes (arcades, buttresses, etc.) and the highly finished geometric ornament is characteristic. The Romanesque architecture of England, known as Norman, is largely of this type. An English peculiarity is enormous length in church plans, as in Ely and Peterborough cathedrals.

Rhineland.

.Here the Lombard influence is dominant. The development of height in church interiors is noteworthy, and the churches frequently have an apse at each end. The use of many towers resulted in fantastic silhouettes, and the carved ornament is often vividly grotesque (e.g., cathedrals at Mainz and Speyer, Church of the Holy Apostles, Cologne).

Spain.—There was development in Spain at a very early period (Visigothic art). Later manifestations show strong Moor ish influence in geometric ornament and conventionalized foliage, and unusual skill in figure sculpture. Through the great church of Santiago at Compostella, one of the most thronged pilgrimage spots of the period, and the existence of a brilliant school of manu script decoration, this style was of the greatest importance in the development of decorative sculpture throughout Europe. (See Male, loc. cit., and Arthur Kingsley Porter, Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, 1923.) The general effect of Romanesque architecture, both structu rally and decoratively (except in southern Italy), is that of power, incomplete achievement and sombre gloom. Its grotesque orna ment, often full of a perverse cruelty, instinct with a sense of terror, expresses a mentality under terrific nervous strain—the same emotional instability revealed in the popular fear of the end of the world in the year 1 000, and later expressing itself in such extraordinary manifestations as the Children's crusade. Whatever the symbolic or religious explanation of these carvings may be, they are one of the best expressions of the time. The entire popu lation of Europe, struggling to create an as yet inchoate civiliza tion and hampered by feudalism, was confronted by the remains and the tradition of the Roman world. They could not produce buildings or art comparable to those of Rome, and this fact engen dered in them, especially in those who were artists, a profound sense of inferiority and frustration, which could only find expres sion in such an art as that which built the moving mystery of St. Sernin at Toulouse, or painted the savage Last Judgment of Tor cello cathedral. (See also ARCHITECTURE.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonne de ?architecBibliography.-Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonne de ?architec- ture francatse du XI. au XVI. siecle (1854) ; A. J. Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt (1884) ; Ruprich-Robert, L'architecture normande aux XI. et XII. siecles en Normandie et en Angleterre (1885 87) ; R. Cattaneo, L'Architettura in Italia dal secolo VI. al mile circa (1888; English trans., 1889) ; Dehio and von Bexold, Die kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes (1892) ; Lethaby and Swainson, The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople (1894) ; Gabriel Millet, Le Monastere de Daphini (1899) ; G. T. Rivoira, Le Origini dell' architet tura Lombarda (1901) ; H. C. Butler, Architecture and other Arts (Syria) (1903) ; T. G. Jackson, Byzantine and Romanesque Archi tecture (1913) ; A. K. Porter, Lombard Architecture (1915-17) ; E. Male, L'Art religieuse du XII. siecle en France (192 2) ; A. K. Porter, Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads (1923) ; P. P. Sinthern, Roma Sacra (1925) ; M. Stapley Byne, The Sculptured Capital in Spain (1926) ; C. Errard, L'Art Byzantin (192 7) ; M. Salmi, L'architettura Romanesca in Toscana (1927) ; C. A. Cummings, A History of Architecture in Italy (new 1927) . (T. F. H.) Text-cut, page 485 ; A, F, H, L, M, N, from Jackson, "Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture" (Cambridge University Press) ; B, from Hamlin, "History of Ornament" (Century Co.) ; C, E, from Vogue, "Syrie Centrale," Tome II. (Ch. Beranger) ; J, from Sturgis and Frothingham, "History of Architecture" (Doubleday, Doran and Co.) ; K, 0, from Kimball and Edgell, "History of Architecture" (Harper and Bros.) Text-cut, page 487 ; A, B, C, F, I, K, L, M, from Jackson, "Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture" (Cambridge University Press) ; D, from Porter, "Mediaeval Architecture" (Yale University Press) ; E, from Joseph Pijoan, "History of Art" (Salvat) ; G. from Simpson, "History of Architectural Development" (Longmans, Green and Co.) 0, P, from Dartein, "Etude sur ?Architecture Lombarde" (Dunod) ; Q, from Sturgis and Frothingham, "History of Architecture" (Double day, Doran and Co.) .