Romanesque Art
In this chapter we learn about Romanesque Art during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The first thing I thought about when hearing Romanesque is romantic, so it’s interesting to know that it means Roman-like. That fits more into what we are reading about, so it makes sense! It describes medieval art and ancient Roman architecture. Round arches, stone vaults, thick walls and exterior relief sculptures describe the cathedrals, churches, and monasteries that were continuously built. They reflected political power and the stability of the Christian church. It is interesting to note that there is a lot of Romanesque art that is still intact, but mostly in France. The church owned close to one third of land in France. It had the same authority as the kings and nobles. I did not know that a religious building could hold power. I thought that the Kings and nobles were at the highest. It is no wonder religion was very important at that time. In the eleventh century, Christians made pilgrimages to make up for their sins. These people were called pilgrims and would travel with sacred relics to pilgrimage sites like Jerusalem and Rome. There were four main routes and as they were traveled, churches, lodging and monasteries were built. This reminds me of a confession at church. You confess your sins to hopefully feel better and be forgiven. The difference is, is that we aren’t leaving sacred items in place of telling our sins. The Sainte-Foy at Conques is the earliest surviving pilgrimage church. It was named after a virgin martyr and the church was built over her tomb. In other centuries we learn about tombs being inside structures, but this is the first I’ve heard of a structure being built over a tomb. To me it’s kind of creepy. The virgin martyr, Sainte-Foy had a reliquary statue made of gold that held the relics that were given. The churches were changed in architectural design to form an ambulatory so that large crowds could come visit, while normal clergy business could take place without interruption. I’m sure that this helped economically as well because they would want to keep visitors and Pilgrims coming to the churches. The roofs of the churches were also built with stone barrel vaults instead of wooden roofs. This was less of a risk with fire and improved the acoustics during liturgy. Relief sculptures on the portals all depicted different visual scenes of the bible. This would be cool to see because you can look at the scenes and try to formulate a story. The most interesting piece of art I found in this chapter is the Gislebertus, Last Judgement. The use of physical weight and spiritual weight is seen between the angels and the little demon creatures. It’s an interesting way to use art as an irony. Looking at the picture, I probably would not have realized that is what was being depicted. Romanesque manuscripts were an important piece of art during that time. They remind me of a large, flat rug with scenes. Mural paintings were found on the walls of the churches and chapels. They were decorative but also a form of teaching. I do see how all their artwork is decorative and full of colors but tries to tell a story or teach of a religious event. They Bayeux Tapestry is impressive. It is unfortunate that the artist is unknown. I’m sure it was the work of many artists since it is over 230 feet long. There are 626 human figures, 731 animals, 376 boats and 70 buildings and trees stitched onto the tapestry. I can’t imagine how long this would have taken to complete! This chapter was interesting because most of their artwork depicted a story made of pictures. Some of these pictures could be looked at for hours and you may see something you didn’t notice before.
