ROMANESQUE EUROPE GARDNER CHAPTER 17-2 PP

ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE Common elements of Romanesque sculpture as seen at St. Pierre Moissac include: extremely elongated figures curious, cross-legged dancing pose of angel of Matthew jerky, hinged movement zigzag and dovetail lines of the draperies bending back of hands against the body wide cheekbones  First definite relation of architecture and sculpture appears in the Romanesque style  Early Romanesque sculpture, as at St. Sernin, has a random and haphazard placement of sculpture  Portals of churches emerge as the primary placement for sculpture, especially the tympanum  Common Romanesque subject for the tympanum: the vision of the Last Judgment which would serve as a dramatic, teaching tool for the illiterate pilgrims.

SAINT-PIERRE, MOISSAC  The monks of the Moissac abbey joined the Cluniac order in > important stop on the route to Santiago de Compostela  Adorned their church w/elaborate series of relief sculptures -> oldest are in the cloister  CLOISTER = enclosed place -> shut away from the world -> read, pray, meditate in calm serenity

MOISSAC CLOISTER SCULPTURE  Detail of pier with relief of Abbot Durandus in the cloister at Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France,  Large figural reliefs on the piers as well as HISTORIATED (ornamented with figures) capitals on the columns  76 capitals alternately crown single and double columns -> decorated w/abstract patterns, bible scenes, lives of saints, and fantastic monsters -> BESTIARIES  Bernard of Clairvaux and the CISTERCIANS reject figural sculpture as a distraction

THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH PORTAL  One of the most significant and distinctive features of Romanesque art is the revival of monumental sculpture in stone  The clergy considered the church doorway the beginning of the path to salvation through Christ -> many Romanesque churches feature didactic reliefs above and beside the entrance portals  TYMPANUM  VOUSSOIRS  LINTEL  TRUMEAU  JAMB

SOUTH PORTAL, MOISSAC  Lions and Old Testament prophet, trumeau of the south portal of Saint- Pierre, Moissac,  Saint-Pierre’s south portal faces the town square and is even more lavishly decorated than the cloister  Below the tympanum are a richly decorated trumeau and door jambs w/scalloped contours  Prophet’s figure is tall and thin -> cross- legged step -> animation of the body -> flowing drapery folds, beard, and locks -> face of a dreaming mystic  Six roaring interlaced lions fill the trumeau’s outer face

 Vast tympanum depicts the Second Coming of Christ -> Christ was the most common central motif in sculpted Romanesque portals

SAINT-LAZARE, AUTUN  Gislebertus, Last Judgement, west tympanum of Saint- Lazare, Autun, France, ca , marble  Christ in a mandorla presides over the separation of the Blessed from the Damned -> dramatic vision of the Last Judgement  Designed to terrify those guilty of sin and beckon them into the church

LA MADELEINE, VEZELAY  Pentecost and Mission of the Apostles, tympanum of the center portal of the narthex of La Madeleine, Vezelay, France,  The light rays emanating from Christ’s hands representing the instilling of the Holy Spirit in the apostles  Over the lintel and in 8 compartments around the tympanum -> the heathen wait to be converted

 Closer view of the Tympanum

THE CRUSADES  In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an assault on the Holy Land -> between 1095 and 1190 Christians launched three great CRUSADES from France  The Crusades (“taking of the Cross”) = mass armed pilgrimages whose purpose was take the Christian shrines in the Holy Land from Muslim control  Strengthened papal authority  Created an image of Christian solidarity  The Christian Knight  The Knights Templar -> stationed themselves next to the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Solomon’s Temple -> mission was to protect visiting pilgrims  In the end the Muslims expelled the Christian armies -> Crusades failed miserably

NOTRE-DAME, FONTENAY  Interior of the abbey church of Notre-Dame, Fontenay, France,  Cistercians were great builders -> some of their churches among the largest in Romanesque Europe  The Fontenay church is typically austere -> single story nave, square east end lacking ambulatory or chapels -> rejected sculptural ornamentation

PAINTING AND OTHER ARTS – MORALIA IN JOB  Initial R with knight fighting dragons, folio 4 verso of the Moralia in Job, from Citeaux, France, ca , ink and tempera on vellum  Painting did not need to be “revived” in the Romanesque period  One of the major Romanesque SCRIPTORIA was at the abbey of Citeaux  Ornamented initials date to the Hiberno-Saxon era -> this artist translated the theme into Romanesque terms

SAINT-SAVIN-SUR-GARTEMPE  Nave and painted nave vault of the abbey church, Saint- Savin-sur-Gartempe, France, ca  Murals decorate the church’s stone-vaulted nave -> aisles are about the same height as the nave -> tall windows in the aisles allow illumination of the nave -> this may explain the painting of the nave

SANTA MARIA DE MUR  Christ in Majesty, apse fresco from Santa María de Mur, near Lérida, Spain, mid-twelfth century. 22’ X 24’  The Apocalypse fresco of the Santa Maria de Mur apse resembles the reliefs of French and Spanish tympana -> Christ appears in a mandorla between the signs of the 4 evangelists  Formality, symmetry, and placement of the figures are Byzantine

MORGAN MADONNA  Virgin and child, from Auvergne, France, 2 nd half of the 12 th century, painted wood, 2’7” high  Despite use of stone relief sculpture to adorn Romanesque church portals -> resistance to statues in the round continued  Veneration of relics brought with it a demand for small-scale images of the holy family and saints to be placed on chapel altars  Wooden statuette depicts the Virgin as the Throne of Wisdom