Romanesque Art. Victoria Charles
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The creation of individual forms and ornaments was as varied as the layout of the floor plans, where arches, pillars and columns in particular could be considered. It was already indicated that alongside the capital, whose Antique ornamentation had been imitated with more or less understanding, a separate Romanesque capital form developed in the form of the cushion-cap capital, whose smoothly carved, semi-circular surfaces where probably painted. Later, they were covered with relief ornamentation of foliage and twisted bands, which gradually obscured the square column top, rendering the original form underneath completely unrecognisable. Fable motifs, human and animal figures, demons and saints, in natural but also frequently fantastic forms were woven into the ornamentation.
The stonemasons, particularly of the later Romanesque period, sought to outdo each other by inventing ever more fantastic designs, in which the comical and terrible combined into a grotesque effect, particularly as the influences conveyed by the Crusades asserted themselves. The basic form of the cushion-cap capital can hardly be recognised in those figurative capitals. Echoes of basic Antique forms presumably still exist in the cup and bud shapes of the capital, but the ornamentation was new at the time, and its independence can again be found most clearly in the monuments in Germany.
The column base was usually shaped after the Attic example; a hollow moulding located on top of a rectangular plinth between two tori. The fact that the lower torus was resting directly on the plinth did not sit well with the artist builders for long. Initially, they trimmed the four corners with round blocks, later with tuber-shaped leaves, which only then brought about the actual transition between round and squared. The initially smooth column shafts were later covered with sculpted ornamentation; interlacings reminiscent of twisted bands, zigzag patterns and more.
The original basic square pillars, which were only attached to a simple cover plate on the top and a wooden hollow moulding, soon took on richer forms. The edges were bevelled or moulded and the resulting corners were filled with small, slim columns, a technique that made the pillar appear more vivid and which could already be found in Muslim buildings such as those in Cairo. Later, the four pillar surfaces – or possibly only two of them – had engaged columns attached to them, mostly with their own capitals, which had their own function; they carried the vault’s transverse arches. Finally, the pillar tops also received sculpted adornment corresponding to the richness of the rest of the ornamentation. Thus, the formation of the Romanesque style was in the process of a soaring development on both the construction and ornamentation sides, until it was gradually replaced by the use of form of the Gothic period.
Eastern view of nave, St. Martin Cathedral (end of 10th, 17th-18th century) and St. Stephan church (after 1011), Mainz.
Eastern nave view, Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Steven (“Imperial Cathedral of Speyer”), Speyer, 1030–1061.
Horizontal plan, Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Steven (“Imperial Cathedral of Speyer”), Speyer, 1030–1061.
Horizontal plan, St. Martin Cathedral (end of 10th, 17th-18th century) and St. Stephan church (after 1011), Mainz.
Crypt-Hall, Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Steven (“Imperial Cathedral of Speyer”), Speyer, 1030–1061.
Maria Laach Abbey, Maria Laach, 1093–12th century.
Western chevet view, Cathedral of St. Peter (“Worms Cathedral”), Worms, 1110–13th century.
Northeast view, Church of the Holy Apostles, Cologne, first third of the 11th century, Oriental parts constructed after 1192.
II. Romanesque Monuments in Central Europe
Germany
However many varied expressions the Romanesque style of architecture may have found on German soil, there are still three regions that stand out from the others with particularly distinct individual characteristics; Saxony, the Rhineland and Westphalia. These regions’ buildings also most clearly reflect their inhabitants’ tribal culture. For the Saxons, their dogged hold to the traditions of Carolingian times and their sense for strict regularity is typical, and finds a particular expression in the methodic alternation between the pillars and columns carrying the upper walls of the central naves. The buildings of the Rhineland reflect the light-hearted sense of beauty and love of grandeur of a carefree people. The defiant rise of the massive walls between the towers of the western façade in Westphalia corresponds to their taste for the simple and practical, which aimed only to fulfil a particular need without placing great emphasis on decorative forms, but ever more on the buildings’ stability by means of effective construction.
The Gernrode Stiftskirche in modern-day Saxony-Anhalt built from 959 A. D. is one of the many structures pre-formed by the Carolingian monastic churches, which were built with two choirs and two transepts. It also retained its overall original character in all other parts, so that it can be gauged from this structure the extent to which Romanesque architecture had already blossomed in Germany in the tenth century, in both the spatial effects of the interior and the monumentality of the exterior appearance.
The church owes its name to St. Cyriacus. Margrave Gero, founder of this church, had brought back a relic of the saint from his pilgrimage to Rome in 963 A. D., during which he also obtained a papal blessing for this building. One feature of the Stiftskirche is the reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre dating from the eleventh century.
The addition of a second choir at the west end, which generally corresponded exactly to the eastern one, occured wherever two patron saints were honoured. The western choir is not always paired with a transept. In this Stiftskirche, it is demonstrated that the western basilica form is also the foundation of the new system, but in many ways expanded and enriched by new forms. The main old elements – choir, nave and transept – were retained. The choir, however, was gradually enlarged by the insertion of a rectangular space between it and the transept, whose size corresponds to that of the square resulting from the intersection of the centre nave and transept; the crossing. Thus, the floor plan shape of the Latin cross was created already in the monastic plan of St. Gall, which replaced the T-shaped floor plan and remained dominant throughout the Middle Ages. But after this type of twin-choir church had reached its climax in the twelfth, or possibly even the eleventh century, the two evenly developed cross-sections had a characteristic exterior appearance. In the most perfectly formed structure of this kind, the Michaeliskirche (St. Michael’s Church) in Hildesheim, it was even further accentuated by four towers attached to the gables of the transepts.
The central nave of the Stiftskirche rises to quite considerable height above the aisles, above which a triforium is installed, which was originally connected by a gallery on the west side. They were probably used by nuns, who, separate from the lay world, were able to participate in the service in those rooms. The arcades of the central nave were alternately supported by pillars and columns, a form of construction that was presumably first implemented in the Wipertikirche’s crypt.
View of the chevet, Church of St. Maria in the Capitol, Cologne, 1049–1065.
Northeast exterior view, St. Clemens Church, Büsum, 1434–1442.
Bamberg Cathedral, Bamberg, 1004–1012 (burned down in 1087), rebuilt from 1111 to the 13th century.
This alternation of supports was later developed into a true system. In the Michaeliskirche of Hildesheim, for