ROMANESQUE EUROPE GARDNER CHAPTER 17-3 PP

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE - ARCHITECTURE  Salians -> Romanesque successors to the Ottonians  Ruled an empire covering present day Germany and N. Italy  Salians were great patrons of art and architecture -> and monasteries remained the great centers of artistic production

SPEYER CATHEDRAL  Interior of Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany, nave vaults ca  The central aim of northern Romanesque architects was to develop a masonry vault system that admitted light and was aesthetically pleasing  The solution was to cover the nave with groin vaults instead of barrel vaults  Speyer shows that groin vaults made possible large clerestory windows above the nave arcade

SANT’AMBROGIO, MILAN  Aerial view of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, late 11th to early 12th century  Lombardy = N. Italy -> the central monument of Lombard Romanesque architecture is Sant’Ambrogio  Atrium and low, broad proportions, two bell towers (CAMPANILES) at west end, octagonal tower over east end

SANT’AMBROGIO INTERIOR  Interior of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, late eleventh to early twelfth century  The nave reveals the northern character of Lombard architecture -> each groin-vaulted nave bay corresponds to two aisle bays  Alternate-support system complements this modular plan

ROMANESQUE COUNTESSES, QUEENS, AND NUNS  Hildegard receives her visions, detail of a facsimile of a lost folio in the Rupertsberger Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen, ca  Hildegard of Bingen -> the most prominent nun of her time and one of the greatest religious figures of the Middle Ages -> experienced divine visions -> 5 tongues of fire entering her brain -> she also composed music and wrote scientific treatises  Eleanor of Aquitaine -> wife of Henry II of England after annulment of her marriage to Louis VII of France

PAINTING AND OTHER ARTS – HILDEGARD OF BINGEN  Religious manuscript known as the Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen -> contains a record of her vision of the divine order of the cosmos and man’s place in it

RAINER OF HUY  Rainer of Huy, baptism of Christ, baptismal font from Notre-Dame- des-Fonts, Liege, Belgium  The bronze basin rests on the foreparts of a dozen oxen -> revives the classical style and classical spirit  Features idealized figures and even a nude representation of Christ

RELIQUARY OF SAINT ALEXANDER  Head reliquary of Saint Alexander, from Stavelot Abbey, Belgium, silver repousse, gilt bronze, gems, pearls, and enamel, 1145  Reliquary = container for holding relics  Almost life-size head in repousse silver w/gilt bronze hair -> wears collar of jewels -> enamels and jewels adorn the box the head sits on -> reliquary rest of four bronze dragons  Example of the stylistic diversity and sources of Romanesque art

ITALY – ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE  Italian architects never accepted the verticality found in northern architecture.  The Pisa Cathedral is one of the most majestic and impressive of all Romanesque churches. Its striped incrustation (alternating dark green and cream colored marble) becomes a hallmark of Tuscan Romanesque and Gothic buildings.  Detail view of Baptistery

PISA CATHEDRAL COMPLEX  Italian Romanesque - Cathedral complex, Pisa, Italy; cathedral begun 1063; baptistery begun 1153; campanile begun 1174  Pisa’s Cathedral more structurally resembles Early Christian basilicas than the more experimental northern Romanesque churches  Separate bell tower and baptisteries are characteristically Italian

BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE  Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, dedicated 1059  This is the gem of Florentine Romanesque architecture  Freestanding and faces the city’s cathedral  Simple and serene classicism -> central-plan building  Tuscan Romanesque marble incrustation patterns the walls  Domed octagon wrapped on the exterior by elegant arcade w/3 arches to a bay

SAN MINIATO AL MONTE  Interior of San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, ca  Design of San Miniato is close to that of Early Christian basilicas -> but diaphragm arches divide the nave into 3 equal compartments  Compound piers alternate w/columns in the arcade

MODENA CATHEDRAL  Wiligelmo, creation and temptation of Adam and Eve, detail of the frieze of west façade, Modena Cathedral, Italy, ca. 110  For Modena’s cathedral Wiligelmo shows scenes from Genesis against an architectural backdrop of a type common on Roman and Early Christian sarcophagi  Entering the cathedral you are reminded of original sin and that the only path to salvation is through the church

BENEDETTO ANTELAMI  BENEDETTO ANTELAMI, King David, statue in a niche on the west facade of Fidenza Cathedral, Fidenza, Italy, ca. 1180–1190. Marble, approx. life-size  Benedetto Antelami’s King David is a rare example of life-size statuary in the Romanesque period -> the style is unmistakably rooted in Greco-Roman art