Romanesque

style c. 1000-1200 Europe

Romanesque art is the art of Europe from roughly 1000 to the rise of Gothic in the twelfth century, preceded by the Pre-Romanesque and named by nineteenth-century historians who saw in it a return to Roman building forms. Round arches, barrel vaults, and apses recall antiquity, yet the style is anything but revivalist: it was the first to spread across all of Catholic Europe, from Sicily to Scandinavia, absorbing Byzantine painting and the anti-classical energy of Insular decoration from the British Isles. In southern France, Spain, and Italy it grew from unbroken Late Antique traditions. Architecture set the terms - massive churches with sculpted doorways - and carving, manuscripts, and bronze work answered with an art of rhythmically patterned figures and fierce, visionary imagery.

Panteon kraljeva od Leona
Panteon kraljeva od LeonaCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Megginede) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Round (semicircular) arches, barrel vaults, and thick masonry walls
  • Carved tympana and column figures crowning church portals
  • Elongated, hieratic figures with rhythmic, patterned drapery
  • Historiated capitals and sculpted arcading organizing the wall
  • Small windows and compact, blocky volumes with fortress-like mass
  • Bold, stylized manuscripts and bronze doors with visionary imagery

Key figures

  • Gislebertus (active c. 1115-1135) — Sculptor of the tympanum and portals of Autun Cathedral, among the period's most original carving
  • Master Mateo (c. 1150-c. 1200) — Sculptor-architect of the Pórtico da Gloria at Santiago de Compostela
  • Bernward of Hildesheim (c. 960-1022) — Bishop whose bronze doors and column at Hildesheim embody early Romanesque metalwork

Example works

Sources

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