IX Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2017

Romanesque architecture is the term that describes the architecture of Europe which emerged from the dark ages of the late tenth century and evolved into the Gothic style during the twelfth century. The Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.

This style of architecture was one of the earliest to use entirely stone materials instead of wood because stone was the only thing that would support the heavy roofs. The style of building was also inspired by the Byzantine style which focused on sweeping religious buildings.

The origins of Romanesque architecture can be found with Edward the Confessor who commissioned many of the original abbeys in this style, including the Abbey at Westminster. He also commissioned many other churches and buildings in this style, though he didn’t live to see his Abbey finished.

Romanesque architecture may have had its beginnings in Norman England, but it slowly spread across Europe to Italy which took the style, but altered it slightly with the materials on hand. Italian Romanesque architecture had more marble for example and was more brightly colored.

The following features of buildings are related to Romanesque architecture.

• The walls of Romanesque buildings are often of massive thickness with few and comparatively small openings. They are often double shells, filled with rubble.

• The building material differs greatly across Europe, depending upon the local stone and building traditions. In Italy, Poland, much of Germany and parts of the Netherlands, brick is generally used. Other areas saw extensive use of limestone, granite and flint.

• Romanesque buttresses are generally of flat square profile and do not project a great deal beyond the wall.

• The arches used in Romanesque architecture are nearly always semicircular, for openings such as doors and windows, for vaults and for arcades. Wide doorways are usually surmounted by a semi-circular arch. These doors sometimes have a carved central jamb. A characteristic feature of Romanesque architecture, both ecclesiastic and domestic, is the pairing of two arched windows or arcade openings, separated by a pillar or colonnade and often set within a larger arch.

• Columns are an important structural feature of Romanesque architecture. Colonnettes and attached shafts are also used structurally and for decoration. Monolithic columns cut from a single piece of stone were frequently used in Italy, as they had been in Roman and Early Christian architecture. They were also used, particularly in Germany, when they alternated between more massive piers. Arcades of columns cut from single pieces are also common in structures that do not bear massive weights of masonry, such as cloisters, where they are sometimes paired.

• The foliate Corinthian style provided the inspiration for many Romanesque capitals, and the accuracy with which they were carved depended very much on the availability of original models, those in Italian churches such as Pisa Cathedral or church of Sant'Alessandro in Lucca and southern France being much closer to the Classical than those in England. The Corinthian capital is essentially round at the bottom where it sits on a circular column and square at the top, where it supports the wall or arch. This form of capital was maintained in the general proportions and outline of the Romanesque capital. This was achieved most simply by cutting a rectangular cube and taking the four lower corners off at an angle so that the block was square at the top, but octagonal at the bottom, as can be seen at St. Michael's Hildesheim.

• The majority of buildings have wooden roofs, generally of a simple truss, tie beam or king post form. In churches, typically the aisles are vaulted, but the nave is roofed with timber, as is the case at both Peterborough and Ely. The simplest type of vaulted roof is the barrell vault in which a single arched surface extends from wall to wall, the length of the space to be vaulted, for example, the nave of a church. An important example, which retains Medieval paintings, is the vault of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe.

• Domes in Romanesque architecture are generally found within crossing towers at the intersection of a church's nave and transept, which conceal the domes externally. Called a tiburio, this tower-like structure often has a blind arcade near the roof. Romanesque domes are typically octagonal in plan and use corner squinches to translate a square bay into a suitable octagonal base.

The Romanesque style influence a lot temple architecture. Many parish churches, abbey churches and cathedrals are in the Romanesque style, or were originally built in the Romanesque style and have subsequently undergone changes. The simplest Romanesque churches are aisless halls with a projecting apse at the chancel end, or sometimes, particularly in England, a projecting rectangular chancel with a chancel arch that might be decorated with moldings. Abbey and cathedral churches generally follow the Latin Cross plan. In England, the extension eastward may be long, while in Italy it is often short or non-existent, the church being of T plan, sometimes with apses on the transept ends as well as to the east.

To describe the model of external decoration, which, is mostly presented in a large French Romanesque facade we deal with Saint-Étienne, Caen, a cathedral in France. It is a symmetrical arrangement of nave flanked by two tall towers each with two buttresses of low flat profile that divide the facade into three vertical units. The lowest stage is marked by large doors, each set within an arch in each of the three vertical sections. The wider central section has two tiers of three identical windows, while in the outer sections there are two tiers of single windows, giving emphasis to the mass of the towers. The towers rise above the facade through three further tiers, the lowest of tall blind arcading, the next of arcading pierced by two narrow windows and the third of two large windows, divided into two lights by a colonnade. This facade can be seen as the foundation for many other buildings.

Internal decoration varied across Europe. Where wide expanses of wall existed, they were often plastered and painted. Wooden ceilings and timber beams were decorated. In Italy walls were sometimes faced with polychrome marble. Where buildings were constructed of stone that was suitable for carving, many decorative details occur, including ornate capitals and mouldings.

The apsidal east end was often a focus of decoration, with both architectonic forms such as arcading and pictorial features such as carved figures, murals and occasionally mosaics. Stained glass came into increasing use from the 11th century.

During the 12th century, features that were to become typical of Gothic architecture began to appear. It is not uncommon, for example, for a part of building that has been constructed over a lengthy period extending into the 12th century, to have very similar arcading of both semi-circular and pointed shape, or windows that are identical in height and width, but in which the later ones are pointed. This can be seen on the towers of Tournai Cathedral and on the western towers and facade at Ely Cathedral.

During the 19th century, when Gothic Revival architecture was fashionable, buildings were occasionally designed in the Romanesque style. The type of modern buildings for which the Romanesque style was most frequently adapted was the warehouse, where a lack of large windows and an appearance of great strength and stability were desirable features. This style was adapted to suit commercial buildings by opening the spaces between the arches into large windows, the brick walls becoming a shell to a building that was essentially of modern steel-frame construction, the architect Henry Hobson Richardson giving his name to the style, Richardsonian Romanesque.

References:

• Bannister Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method. Gidon 1934, p. 285-286

• Gidon, Ferdinand (1934). "L'invention de l'expression architecture romane par Gerville (1818)

• de Caumont, Arcisse (8 May 1824). "Essai sur l'architecture religieuse du moyen-âge, particulièrement en Normandie". Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de Normandie (in French). Mancel: 535–677.

• Williams, Elizabeth (1 January 1985). "The perception of Romanesque art in the romantic period: archaeological attitudes in france in the 1820s and 1830s". Forum for Modern Language Studies. 303–321.

• Jean Hubert, Romanesque Art.

• 3de Caumont 1824, p. 550

• Gunn, William (1819). An inquiry into the origin and influence of Gothic architecture. R. and A. Taylor. p. 6.

• Andreas Hartmann-Virnich: Was ist Romanik, Darmstadt 2004, p. 28-30

• Rolf Toman, Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting

• Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England

• Rene Hyughe, Larousse Encyclopedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art

• Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture

• Howe, Jeffery. "Romanesque Architecture (slides)". A digital archive of architecture. Boston College.

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