ROMANESQUE

ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE

HARSHIT ARORA
2-B
MBSSPA
 ROMANESQUE

INTRODUCTION

GEOGRAPHICAL:

•The style which grew up on the decay of the Roman empire, and is known as Romanesque, was
carried on throughout practically the whole of the Western empire that is, in those countries
which had been under the rule of Rome.

•The influence of Byzantine art brought through Ravenna and Venice also influenced the Italian
Romanesque in general.

GEOLOGICAL :

•In these early times a rough use of the material at hand characterizes the style in each country.

CLIMATE :

•Local styles were favoured by the variations of climate north and south of the Alps.

RELIGION:

•The Christian Church, which was the civilizing and educating agency of the period, was striving
to extend its boundaries in Northern Europe, and the erection of a church was often the
foundation of a city.

•The monastic communities, with the encouragement and aid of Charlemagne, came into
existence.
•The papacy had been rising to great power and influence, and, directed with skill, it controlled
such civil government as existed.
•The Pragmatic Sanction (A.D. 554) had already conferred authority on the Bishops over the
provincial and municipal governments, thus increasing the power of the Church, with which now
often rested the nomination of public functionaries and judges.

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•The different countries looked to Rome until each developed its own style.

•Religious enthusiasm and zeal prevailed, and was manifested in magnificent edifices, and in
creed warfare, so that when the Turks overran Palestine, the loss of the Holy Places resulted in
the long warfare known as the Crusades (1096-1270) between the Christians of the West and the
Mahometans of the East.

•Until the middle of the twelfth century science, letters, art and enlightenment generally were the
monopoly of religious bodies, and pupils of monks afterwards became the designers of many of
the great Gothic Cathedrals.

•The Schools attached to certain monasteries discharged to some extent the functions of
universities and the aid thus rendered by monastic institutions to architecture was therefore
important.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL :

•The system of feudal tenure, or the holding of land on condition of military service, was
growing up, and caused important changes in the social and political organization of states.

•The growth of the towns as civilization advanced is noticeable , and the privileges which they
acquired, amounting almost to independence, rapidly gave them importance.

•Constant warfare rendered the condition of the people unsettled during this period, and skill in
craftsmanship was at the lowest edge.

•Christianity and civilization gradually extended from southern to western Europe.

CHARACTERSTIC FEATURES
•The term Romanesque is said to include all those phases of Western European architecture
which were based on Roman art, and which were being carried out \ in various parts of Europe.

•The general architectural character is sober and dignified, while picturesqueness is obtained by
the grouping of the towers, and projection of the transepts and choir.

•The appreciation of the character of Romanesque architecture is recognised only by the

multitude of its monuments, some intact, others injured or partially destroyed .

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•In the ruins of vast edifices, some still standing among heaps of stones hewn and carved, of
sculptured capitals and friezes, of monoliths of porphyry and marble, while any shelter afforded
little protection either from heat or cold.

•As time went on they gathered up the smaller fragments and arranged them perhaps upon the
foundations, still intact, of an ancient building, and as they gradually acquired the knowledge of
the uses the fragment, they insensibly produced a new art founded on the old.

•This explains the birth of Romanesque, for on the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the
quarry of the ruins of ancient buildings largely influenced the work done, both in construction
and decorative treatment, for the earlier buildings of the period were often built from the remains
of ancient Roman buildings in the vicinity.

•In the course of time, however, a new style was evolved, for, putting aside spasmodic efforts,
the period of the tenth to the twelfth centuries is remarkable for the tentative employment of a
new constructive principle and a new use of material.

•The first was the principle of equilibrium which succeeded that of inert-stability as used by the
Romans, and the second was the employment of dressed stonework in comparatively small
pieces, connected with mortar beds of considerable thickness.

•This was a method not before attempted, because the materials in use up to that time had not
demanded it.

•By this new employment of materials, the whole current of architecture was turned to a
constructive system which should answer to its needs, and which, after many tentative
experiments, was to lead to the next glorious period of architecture the thirteenth century in
which elasticity of structure was joined to the principle of equilibrium.

•In Italy there were various early Christian edifices erected at Ravenna from the fifth to the
seventh centuries, for Ravenna was the principal city in Italy during this period, being the seat of
the representative of the Byzantine Emperor in the western part of his dominions.

•These buildings partake, naturally, of the elements of the fully developed Byzantine style, in the
same way in which S. Mark, Venice, and S. Front, was the result of the close connection of these
centres with the trade and commerce of the East.

•In France, especially in the Western and Northern Provinces, the old traditional basilican plan
was preferred and adhered to during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with certain , exceptions,
notably S. Front, but the dome raised on pendentives became the common kind of vaulting, in
the South, in conjunction with the aisle less nave.

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•It is worthy of note also that the use of the pointed arch occurred in the South of France sooner
than in the North, and it is considered by some, but with apparently little foundation, to have
been derived from contact with the Saracens, who invaded this portion of France from 719-732.

•Further, the development of monasteries in the eleventh century gave a great impulse to
civilization and agriculture, and exercised considerable influence on architecture.

•Similarly, the development from Roman to Gothic art was accomplished through the ordeal of
the destructive, yet purifying dissolution . of the Dark Ages, whence the true spirit of Roman
construction emerged, cleared to a great extent of the extraneous elements with which it had been
so long encrusted.

•Up to the end of the twelfth century the Provencal architects had led the way, but at this period
the lay architects of the North, seizing on the Provencal principle of the Pointed arch, soon
developed from it the magnificent Gothic system of the perfected architecture of the thirteenth
century.

CHARACTERSTIC FEATURES IN FRANCE

•The southern style is remarkable for its rich decorative facades and graceful cloisters, the
buildings of Provence being a new version of old Roman features, which seem to have acquired
a fresh significance.

•In Aquitania and Anjou the vast interiors in one span, supported by the massive walls of the
recessed chapels, are impressive, and seem to revive the great halls of the Roman Thermae.

•In the north the style is the promising commencement of a new epoch, having the first tentative
essays of a new system.

•The interiors were close set with pier and pillar, and heavily roofed with ponderous
arching,forming a link to the marvellous structures of the next three centuries.

•The plain thick walls, usually with flat external buttresses in the north or internal buttresses in
the south, emphasized the richness of the west fronts of the churches in both districts.

•The development of vaulting, which was different in the north and south. In the south, naves
were covered with barrel vaults, whose thrust was resisted by half barrel vaults, over two- storied
aisles , thus suppressing the clerestory, as at Notre Dame du Port, Clermont-Ferrand.

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•In the north, naves were covered by groined vaults, often in square compartments and covered
with sexpartite vaulting, the groined ribs being constructed independently and supporting the
infilling,.

CHARACTERSTIC FEATURES IN ITALY

NORTHERN ITALY

•The principal aim is perfection, in the construction of vaulting, which influenced the whole
design, where vaulting was now being developed.

•Such treatment, caused the introduction of many and new constructive ideas.

•Arcades restricted to top of gables and apses.

•The character is less refined owing to the use of stone and brick rather than marble.

•Wide, flat, and severe facades are typical, covering the whole church, without marking in any
way the difference of nave and aisles.

•A rose window and a porch resting on lions are often the chief relief.

•In sculpture, hunting and other scenes reflecting the life of the northern invaders are frequent.

•The churches were of the Basillican type, and were nearly all vaulted and roofed.

•Side aisles are often in two stories, the clerestory is omitted, the walls between the sidechapels
forming buttresses.

CENTRAL ITALY

•New ideas rarely found.

•Constructive boldness not sought after, less departure being made from the ancient
Basillican type.

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•The Italians have always possessed a greater capacity for beauty in detail, than for developing a
bold and novel construction into a complete style.

•Arcades in several stories were employed as an ornament to the facades.

•Marble facing was carried to such an extent as to form a style in that material.

•The Basilican type was closely adhered to, and beauty and delicacy of detail were preferred to
the invention of fresh architectural forms produced by a new system of construction, Detail much
affected by Classic remains and traditions, which resulted in the production of carving and
ornament of great refinement.

•At Pisa ancient sarcophagi richly sculptured with figures existed, by whose study the Pisani
were influenced.

•The churches were mostly roofed with plain open-timbered roofs, the members of which were
ornamented with bright coloring.

SOUTHERN ITALY

•The change from the Byzantine to the other dominion in the eleventh century is traceable.

•Byzantine influence is shown in the plans of certain churches, as in the Church of the Martorana
at Palermo, where a square space is covered by a dome supported on Four freestanding columns.

•Mahometan influence is evident, particularly in the decorative parts of churches.

•Architecture developed considerably under the Norman rule by the erection of cathedrals, and a
school of mosaic was maintained in the Royal Palace during this period.

•The churches have either wooden roofs, or a Byzantine dome, but are hardly ever vaulted.

•Dark and light stone was used in courses externally, and rich mosaics and colored marbles were
employed as a facing internally.

•The architectural features of the interiors, of which Monreale Cathedral has typical examples,
were subordinate to the mosaic decorations which clothe the walls.

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PISA CATHEDRAL
•Pisa Cathedral (A.D. 1063-1092) is a fine example of the style , the interior, with rows of
columns and flat ceiling recalling the Early Christian Basilican church, but the transepts with
apse at each end were an advance on the Basilican plan.

•Over the crossing or intersection of nave and transepts is an elliptical dome of later date.

•Externally, blind arcades,built in stripes of red and white marble, ornament the facades, which
also have small open arcades, one above the other, producing a fine impression.

•The building depends for its artistic effect upon the beauty and interest of its ornamental
features rather than the promise of logical development to a new style which a northern example
possesses.

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THANK YOU
-HARSHIT KUMAR ARORA
2B

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