ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
Romanesque is the name given to the architectural style developed by the
Western barbarians who overran the Roman Empire, after their partial
civilisation, when they had learned the art of building. The style arose
chiefly from the copying of Roman buildings and their remains, with some
added features of Byzantine buildings.
Out of this Romanesque, in its turn, there sprang another style which
was founded on the Romanesque and on the architecture of the Saracens.
Towards the end of the eleventh century the new masters of the Roman
Empire, in the course of their military expeditions to Asia Minor,
Syria, and Palestine, were brought in contact with the Saracens and
their architecture, and in coming back to Europe they brought with them
new ideas of building, such as the pointed arch of the Saracens, which
feature together with new forms of ornament were added by them to the
prevalent Romanesque style, the mixture producing an entirely new style,
which has been curiously named after the early Northern barbarians—the
Gothic.
The subsequent Crusades against the Mohammedans had the effect, among
others, of extending the knowledge of mathematics and geometry among the
Crusaders, sciences in which the Saracens excelled; and in coming home
again to the West, they applied their geometrical knowledge to the
development of Gothic architecture to such an extent that, towards the
end of the fourteenth century, this architecture could show examples of
the most lofty and daring constructions in stone that were marvels in
the science of building. Some Gothic buildings present with their
fretted pinnacles, spires, flying buttresses, intersecting and pierced
work, in flamboyant tracery, daring vaulting, and inter-penetrating
mouldings, a worked-out solution of some intricate mathematical problem.
In its complicated phases Gothic construction is more scientific than
artistic, however much one may admire the grouping or design of the
Gothic pile as a picturesque conception.
Returning to the Romanesque style, we find that in the sixth century
Theodoric the Ostrogoth had, in the erections of churches, palaces, and
of his tomb in Ravenna—his capital—sown the first seeds of the future
developments of the German Romanesque, and in some degree of the later
German Gothic style. In producing these works his ambition was to
emulate the grandeur of Imperial Rome. The Longobards, the successors of
the Ostrogoths, continued this building activity through the Middle
Ages, and have left to us monuments of their genius in the early and
rude Duomo Vecchio of Brescia, and amongst many others of their noblest
works were Sant’ Ambrogio at Milan, and San Zeno at Verona.
Prior to the Carlovingian era, the Germanic people began to cultivate
the fine arts in a tentative manner. This was brought about by the
contact of German chiefs and warriors with Italian pomp and splendour,
which also bred in them a love for personal adornment, that strongly
marked the nobles and warriors of this period.
Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of Germany at Rome, on Christmas Day in
the year A.D. 800. The dream and ambition of this great German Prince
was to establish a mighty Christian Empire in the West of Europe that
should rival pagan Rome itself, not only in military power, but in a
widespread culture of literature, science, and artistic excellence.
These were the days of Chivalry, of the Crusaders; the days when men
were rich in high and lofty ideals; when those knightly mystics, Wolfram
von Eschenbach and Vogelweide, sang of the Parsival and the Quest of the
Holy Graal, of songs of love and chivalry, of deliverance from wrongs,
and of many stirring and tuneful themes.
Though Charlemagne never learned to read or write, he thoroughly
appreciated the value of learning. He gathered together learned men,
architects, and artists, and established a school of religious music. He
built many churches, palaces, and bridges, and collected many statues
from Rome and elsewhere for the adornment of his great church at
Aix-la-Chapelle; he organized and encouraged the professions and trades
of his towns and cities.
The great tomb-church at Aix-la-Chapelle—or Aachen—was built by
Charlemagne, and became the prototype of all subsequent churches erected
in the Romanesque style in Germany.
It was in the region bordering on the Rhine that the great church
building activity was developed in Germany. The cities of the powerful
bishoprics rivalled each other in pomp and splendour, as we see in such
buildings as the Doms of Spiers, Mayence, and Cologne, and in the
Romanesque churches of Swabia, Franconia, Westphalia, and Lower Saxony.
The Romanesque style is also found in the churches or Doms of Bamberg,
Brunswick, and Osnabruck; the Godehardi and Michael’s churches at
Hildesheim, the carving in which excels that in the churches of the
Rhineland.
The distinctive characteristics of the German Romanesque are the great
octagonal dome-like towers that arise from the crossing of the nave and
transept, and the flanking towers at each end that are sometimes united
to the central tower by an outside western gallery or façade. A fine
modern church, built in the Romanesque style, is that of the Cathedral
of Fourvière, on the hill overlooking the city of Lyons in France.
[Illustration: Fig. 368.—Round Arch Frieze.]
[Illustration: 369.—Intersecting Blind Arcade.]
Some German Romanesque churches have a western as well as an eastern
apse, and the church known as the Apostelkirche in Cologne has the
transept, both of which features are disturbing elements in any church
where the chief attention should be directed to the culminating point
where the choir, reredos, or altar are usually found—in the apse or
chancel, and at the eastern end only.
[Illustration: Fig. 370.—Rose Window.]
The church architecture of the West—the Romanesque followed closely the
requirements of the Western ritual, while the churches which observed
the Eastern ritual kept to the Greek or Byzantine models.
Romanesque churches of the tenth century are distinguished by the
basilica plan, the apsidal east end, round-headed arches, and single or
double-light windows. The walls have generally a decoration, consisting
of a series of flat pilasters—reminiscences of classic architecture—and
the roofs in many cases were vaulted. Arcaded decoration, with or
without small columnar supports (Figs. 368 and 369) and rose windows
(Fig. 370) are features of the Romanesque. Some of the round-headed
doorways are especially rich in character, and have often five or six
recessed columns (Fig. 371) that carry richly moulded heads, and carved
capitals of quaint animal and bird decoration (Fig. 372).
[Illustration: Fig. 371.—Porch of the Heilsbronn Monastery, near
Nüremberg.]
The shafts of the columns are usually plain, though in some instances,
for the sake of contrast, they are twisted or imbricated, and the bases
are copies of the classic orders (Fig. 373). Above the lintel and under
the round arch mouldings is the lunette or tympanum; this space often
has rich decoration of figures and ornament; sometimes it is divided
into two spaces, when the entrance doorway is divided by a central
pillar.
[Illustration: Fig. 372.—Capital from Wartburg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 373.—Romanesque Shaft and Base.]
The details and motives of Romanesque decoration are derived from
classic ornament—mostly Roman—and are, as a rule, debased forms of the
latter.
[Illustration: Fig. 374.—Roof Cornice of Church at Alstadt-Rottweil.]
[Illustration: Fig. 375.—Later Romanesque Ornament.]
The cable or rope torus-ornament, the scale or imbricated work, the
chevron or zigzag, bead and reel, scroll, billet, checkers, and diapers,
were all extensively used in the Romanesque, many of which have been
retained in the later forms of Gothic ornament. Figs. 374, 375, and 376
are examples of the above ornaments.
[Illustration]
_a_, Arcaded.
_b_, Checkers.
_c_, Waved ribbon.
_d_, Cable or Torus.
_e_, Chevron or Zigzag.
_f_, Billet.
_g_, Nail-head.
_h_, Scales or Imbrication.
_i_, Lozenge.
_k_, Tooth Ornament.
Fig. 376.—Various Romanesque Moulding Ornaments.
The tower was a feature of later Romanesque work, which marked the broad
difference between the latter and Byzantine architecture; these towers
had their stories decorated with semicircular arches on corbels or on
small pillars (Fig. 377).
The corbels usually consisted of masks or grotesque figures, animals,
dragons, or twisted snakes. These forms of decoration were also used in
the capitals and cornices, both in the Romanesque transitional and
Gothic periods. Grotesque forms were used very much as sculptural
decoration in the Lombardic Gothic architecture. In Scandinavia and in
Ireland this kind of ornament assumed the forms of snakes, serpents, and
interlacings developed from them. (See Fig. 65, 69, 70.) The capitals
were at first rude copies of the Roman Corinthian order (Fig. 309),
developed later—after the character of the Byzantine cubical forms—to a
solid cubic shape, called in the Norman style of Romanesque in England,
the “cushion-headed” capital.
[Illustration: Fig. 377.—Towers and Round-arched Frieze, Abbey of
Komberg.]
Window-openings were usually small, and the grouping of two or more
lights under one arcaded head occurs in Byzantine, Romanesque, and
Gothic buildings. The light came usually from the clerestory, but
sometimes smaller circular windows were introduced into the end gables,
which subsequently were developed into windows of greater importance and
intricacy of design in the great Gothic chancels and in western lights.
[Illustration: Fig. 378.—Capital from Palace of Barbarossa, Gelnhausen.]
[Illustration: Fig. 379.—Capital from St. Cross, Winchester.]
Romanesque architecture, and especially its decorative ornamentation,
was never quite free from Byzantine or Saracenic influences. It was of
itself an incongruous mixture, out of which, when the pointed arch of
the Saracens was adopted, and the ornamental features modified to
conform with it, the new ogival or Gothic style arose.
In every part of Europe in which the Romanesque took root, there may be
noticed so many distinct varieties. The style in Rome and Central Italy
naturally followed, as we have seen, the antique Roman forms. In the
cathedral of Pisa the capitals are Corinthian, and there is a greater
display here of mosaics and coloured marbles, both on the exterior and
in the interior, than in most Romanesque buildings.
[Illustration: Fig. 380.—Porch of St. Zeno at Verona.]
The style in Lombardy and Upper Italy is, on the other hand, different
to that of Central Italy, as it there inherited the German traditions.
The columns had in their capitals leafage of a different character to
that of the classic orders, and had birds and animals carved amongst it,
and the bases of the columns rested on animals. Doorways were
square-headed, and had also a circular arch, over which was a pedimented
canopy (Fig. 380). One of the finest examples of Lombardic Romanesque is
the St. Zeno Church at Verona, which has a doorway of this description.
The Church of Monreale in Sicily (_A.D._ 1174), and the Cathedral of
Palermo, exhibit a mixture in which Byzantine and Saracenic influences
are well defined; this was owing to the successive powers that were at
different periods masters of that country.
The Normans at a later date made changes in the architecture of Sicily,
and Norman architecture was developed to a great extent in this place.
It was in Sicily that Norman architecture first developed the
characteristic zigzag feature that is seen so much in the Norman portals
and window-heads in England (Figs. 381 and 382).
[Illustration: Fig. 381.—Norman Doorway, Semperingham Church,
Lincolnshire. (G.)]
The pointed arch of the Saracens was added to the Norman Romanesque in
Sicily. The Cathedral of Cefalu (1132), and the palace of La Ziza at
Palermo, are examples. Nowhere else was the Romanesque of so mixed a
character. The illustration from Palermo (Fig. 383) clearly shows the
pointed Saracenic arch, used after the manner of the Romanesque round
arching, while some other portions of the details are distinctly
Byzantine. In the south of France Romanesque architecture is far more
ornate than that of the Norman style in Normandy, or other parts of the
North; in fact, the latter style in France has its ornament confined to
purely linear decoration; but the churches that were built at the end of
the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries, which represent
Norman architecture in its purest phases, were noble edifices, plain and
solidly built, of which the church of St. Etienne is a good example. Its
arcades rest on piers, it has a vaulted nave and aisles, and has a fine
transept. The gable of the nave is flanked by two western towers, the
western front is built in three stories, and has two ranges of
five-light windows. The Cathedrals of Bayeux and Evreux may be mentioned
as two other fine examples of Norman architecture.
[Illustration: Fig. 382.—Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 383.—Pointed Arcading from the Cathedral of
Palermo.]
The Romanesque doorway (Fig. 384) from the South of France illustrates
the somewhat motley character of this architecture in that part of the
country. Some churches of this locality show the receding arches in the
doors and arcading, supported by engaged columns, which feature was
developed very much in the later Gothic.
The Romanesque style in England is seen in buildings that were erected
before the Norman Conquest.
[Illustration: Fig. 384.—Door of St. Gabriel’s, South of France.]
The buildings of this period—the eleventh century—have received the name
of “Anglo-Saxon.” They are characterized by the round openings of doors
and windows, the latter being sometimes triangular-headed. The tower of
Earl’s Barton, in Northamptonshire, is an example of Anglo-Saxon. It has
pilaster-like strips of stone decorating and tying the masonry together;
small triangular and circular stone-work connecting the perpendicular
strips—a reminiscence of arcading—gives a distinctive appearance of
wood-framing to the whole work, which is probably a copy of the earlier
timber construction.
The Anglo-Saxon tower at Sompting, Sussex, and the Saxon church at
Bradford-on-Avon (A.D. 705), are also examples of early work executed in
England prior to the Norman Conquest (1066).
The work we understand as Norman in England was in existence long before
the Conqueror’s time, and it is quite likely that the subsequent English
Gothic would have developed just the same if the Normans had not invaded
England.
The English Romanesque, or Early Norman style, dates, as near as
possible, from Edward the Confessor’s time (1041-1065). This king
founded the great Abbey of Westminster, of which the Dormitory
substructure walls and vaulting still remain, but the rest of the
original church has disappeared. On the Continent and in England, just
after the year 1000, a great building period set in, as for many years
prior to this date a corresponding period of an opposite kind, or a
lethargy in the life of the Christian peoples, and consequently an
inactivity in all building operations, was manifested, owing to the
prophecy that the end of the world would come in the year 1000. When
this was found to be a delusion, a building craze spread over Europe,
and the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries were the great
building ages, when both Christian and Saracenic architecture advanced
with leaps and bounds.
The Normans in England after the Conquest, no doubt, hastened the
advancement of architecture; for the rule seems to have been that
wherever they found a small or old church of the Anglo-Saxon type or
period, they invariably pulled it down, re-dressed the stones, and built
a much larger and better church on the same site, using up the old
material when available, besides building many churches on new sites.
The Normans were also much better builders than the Saxons, and at this
time great numbers of Norman masons were brought over from France.
The strongholds, or castles, with their massive keeps, were built at
this period by the new Norman barons, in order not only to have stately
dwellings for themselves, but to protect their newly-acquired honours
and possessions from their Saxon foemen. Remains of many of these
strongholds, especially of the keeps, are still to be seen at Hedingham
Castle at Rochester; Gundulph’s Tower—the oldest—at Malling, Kent;
Newcastle, Guildford, Colchester, Richmond, and Conisborough in
Yorkshire, &c. One of the earliest is the great White Tower of London,
in which is found the beautiful little Norman Chapel, one of the best
and most perfect examples of Norman architecture in England. The Norman
keeps, or towers, are uniform in design, having a square plan, with a
square projecting turret at each angle, and a flat, thin buttress in the
centre of the walls; windows were small, and were round or
square-headed. The doorways were round-headed, recessed, and were
generally ornamented.
[Illustration: Fig. 385.—The Landgrave’s Room at the Wartburg.]
Portions of Canterbury Cathedral, as indeed, of almost all the principal
English cathedrals, and many old churches, were built in the Norman
period, which shows how extensively church building must have been
carried on from the Conquest (1066) to the commencement of the reign of
Richard I. (1189). The Norman and oldest parts of Canterbury Cathedral,
built by Archbishop Lanfranc (1070-1089), are the towers forming the
choir transepts.
[Illustration: Fig. 386.—Romanesque Ornament, Iron Hinge from
Notre-Dame, Paris.]
Prior Ernulf, under St. Anselm, rebuilt much of Canterbury Cathedral
(1130), and added richer elements to the ornamentation. The peculiar
plain cushion, or cubic capital, found so much in England in Norman
work, was meant to be carved or enriched afterwards, but often the want
of funds, or haste and carelessness in after years, were the causes that
left them plain, until it was too late, when the style had changed, and
they were superseded by later developments. It is certain that they were
not intended to remain so, for many have been left half-finished in the
carving, and some plain ones are found to alternate with others of the
same type, but richly carved, as at Canterbury and some other places.
Sometimes the intention seems to have been to decorate them with painted
ornament.
[Illustration: Fig. 387.—Romanesque Panel from a Church at Bonn.]
At Winchester and Rochester Cathedrals, St. Peter’s Church, Northampton,
the transepts of Exeter, Peterborough, and, above all, at Durham, the
Norman style is seen both in its best earlier and later developments.
The ornaments are very few, the zigzag being the chief. The lozenge and
billet are also used in the early work, but in the later, as in the rich
doorways, such as that at Iffley, Oxfordshire (1160), grotesque masks,
frets, interlacings, birds, dragons, fishes, and the quadruple form of
the zigzag are added. The columns in some cases are twisted and banded,
and Ionic volutes appear in the capitals. In some late Norman work the
tympana are richly carved with figures and ornament. Many examples of
Romanesque non-ecclesiastical buildings are still in existence in
Germany, or have been skilfully restored as such, which give a tolerably
good idea of the private dwellings of this period. The illustration
(Fig. 385) is an example of the domestic Romanesque. It is the interior
of the Landgrave’s room at the Wartburg, Germany.
Examples of Romanesque ornament are given in the iron hinge from the
Church of Nôtre Dame, Paris (Fig. 386), and the panel from Bonn (Fig.
387).