Romanesque Art: A Summary of Art History. Characteristics, Images and Architectural Examples of the Artistic Movement That Preceded Gothic Art.
Romanesque art
Romanesque art is the medieval artistic movement that developed from the end of the 10th century until the 12th century , when it was overtaken by the affirmation of Gothic art throughout Europe .
The term Romanesque was attributed to it later, in 1824, by the French archaeologist Arcisse de Caumont who thus alluded to the Roman origin that the works of art created in the years between 1000 and 1200 (1150 for France) still retained.
It is important to remember that Romanesque art – which brought with it a great building fervor – spread also thanks to the repopulation of the cities that took place after the year 1000 , as well as the birth of new urban centers and the intensification of various economic activities.
Romanesque art: characteristics
Driven by this economic ferment, Romanesque art had a real innovative impact , especially in the fields of architecture and monumental sculpture : there was in fact great activity around the renovation of pre-existing Roman structures, but there was also interest in the construction of new buildings for the emerging urban centers . Born in France, the Romanesque style did not constitute a regional phenomenon, but soon spread throughout Europe, maintaining a basis of common characteristics while differentiating itself according to the different realities in which it was established. But what are the characteristics of Romanesque art ?
As far as Romanesque architecture is concerned , we can therefore find some characteristics common to all European states. The interior of Romanesque buildings is almost always divided into bays , often covered by barrel vaults; however, there was no lack of truss roofs and, it should be noted, there is the first diffusion of cross vaults . A distinctive element of Romanesque architecture was the considerable thickness of the walls of the buildings, often made of cut stone subsequently decorated and frescoed, as well as the use of pillars and buttresses to counteract the thrust coming from the cross vaults. The columns were increasingly rarely left bare, and it was preferred instead to enrich them with capitals sculpted with vegetal and fantastic shapes.
As regards, more specifically, the buildings dedicated to the worship of the Catholic religion, we see how the majority of them show a basilica plan with a Latin cross with three (and, in rare cases, five) naves, a transept and a semi-underground crypt, associated with a raised presbytery. The apse with the choir was also introduced in this period , often connected to an ambulatory with chapels arranged in a radial position. The walls of the naves began over time to develop upwards – approaching in this sense to Gothic art – divided into different levels: the matroneum (a gallery located above the vaults of the side naves), the triforium and the clerestory .
Romanesque sculpture
Sculpture was conceived in the Romanesque age as subordinate to architecture , in relation to which it assumed a simple decorative function – in particular with regard to capitals, windows, portals and architraves. Often religious in theme , but also inspired by scenes of daily life, Romanesque sculpture clearly distanced itself from Byzantine art , promulgating and implementing a return to the volumetry of bodies and forms.
Romanesque painting
As far as painting is concerned , it did not have a particularly innovative scope in the Romanesque age . Remaining strongly linked to the late antique and Byzantine pictorial tradition , Romanesque art assumed a particular importance only with regard to book illumination , practiced by Benedictine and Carthusian monks.
