Romanesque (Part One).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

English: The Nave of the Basilique Sainte Marie-Madeleine, 

Vézelay, France.

Français: Nef de la Basilique de Vézelay.

Photo: 10 May 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Jean-Christophe BENOIST.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Vézelay Abbey (now known as Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine) was a Benedictine and Cluniac Monastery in Vézelay, in the Yonne départment in Northern Burgundy, France. The Benedictine Abbey Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (or Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene), with its complicated programme of imagery in sculpted Capitals and Portals, is one of the outstanding masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art and architecture, though much of its exterior sculpture was defaced during the French Revolution.

The Church at Vézelay was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979.

English: The same Nave of the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene,

Vézelay, France, this time without the chairs.

Français: Le 23 juin 1976 à 14h27 dans la nef de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, le Père Hugues Delautre o.f.m. a donné rendez-vous au soleil, à cet instant précis en culmination par rapport à la terre, pour qu'il lui manifeste le secret de l'édifice. Photographie de François Walch.

Photo: 23 June 1976.

Source: Own work.

Author: Francis Vérillon. J'ai créé ce fichier en numérisant le tirage papier d'une photographie argentique faite par François Walch qui m'a autorisé à la publier dans Wikipédia par courriel du 28 août 2008. Cette photographie m'a été donnée par Hugues Delautre, o.f.m., commanditaire de l'oeuvre et cité dans l'article de Wikipédia intitulé "Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay", paragraphe "Vézelay et la lumière" comportant quatre références bibliographiques.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Mediaeval Europe, characterised by semi-circular Arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th-Century to the 10th-Century. It developed in the 12th-Century into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed Arches.

Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the Continent, making it the first Pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.

Combining features of Roman and Byzantine buildings and other local traditions, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, thick walls, round Arches, sturdy Piers, Groin Vaults, large Towers and decorative Arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms and they are frequently of very regular, symmetrical Plan, so that the overall appearance is one of simplicity, when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials.

English: The central Tympanum of the Narthex of the 

Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, Vézelay, France.

Français: Le tympan central du narthex (1140-1150), 

ouvert pour la sortie de la messe. 

Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay.

Photo: 15 July 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Vassil.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Many Castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by Churches. The most significant are the great Abbey Churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete and frequently in use.

The enormous quantity of Churches, built in the Romanesque period, was succeeded by the still-busier period of Gothic architecture, which partly or entirely rebuilt most Romanesque Churches in prosperous areas like England and Portugal. The largest groups of Romanesque survivors are in areas that were less prosperous in subsequent periods, including parts of Southern France, Northern Spain and rural Italy. Survivals of unfortified Romanesque secular houses and Palaces, and the domestic quarters of Monasteries, are far rarer, but these used and adapted the features found in Church buildings, on a domestic scale.

Interior of the Basilica of 

Saint Mary Magdalene, Vézelay, France.

Photo: 13 April 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: PMRMaeyaert.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Romanesque", meaning "descended from Roman", was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages (first cited 1715).

Architecturally, the French term "romane" was first used by the archaeologist, Charles de Gerville, in a letter of 18 December 1818 to Auguste Le Prévost, to describe what Gerville sees as a debased Roman architecture. In 1824, Gerville's friend, Arcisse de Caumont, adopted the label "roman" to describe the "degraded" European architecture from the 5th-Century to the 13th-Century, in his Essai sur l'architecture religieuse du moyen-âge, particulièrement en Normandie, at a time when the actual dates of many of the buildings so described, had not been ascertained: 

"The name Roman(esque) we give to this architecture, which should be universal as it is the same everywhere with slight local differences, also has the merit of indicating its origin and is not new since it is used already to describe the language of the same period. Romance language is degenerated Latin language. Romanesque architecture is debased Roman architecture".

Cloister of the Basilica di San Giovanni 

in Laterano, Rome.

Photo: 30 May 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Joonas Lyytinen.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The first use in a published work is in William Gunn's "An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture" (London 1819). The word was used by Gunn to describe the style that was identifiably Mediaeval and prefigured the Gothic, yet maintained the rounded Roman Arch and thus appeared to be a continuation of the Roman tradition of building.

Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen, France.

Photo: 5 April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Abbey of Saint-Etienne, also known as Abbaye aux Hommes ("Men's Abbey"), is a former Monastery in the French city of Caen, Normandy. Dedicated to Saint Stephen ("Saint Étienne"), it is considered, along with the neighbouring Abbaye aux Dames ("Ladies' Abbey"), to be one of the most notable Romanesque buildings in Normandy. Like all the major Abbeys in Normandy, it was Benedictine. Lanfranc, before being an Archbishop of Canterbury, was Abbot of Saint-Etienne.

Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen, France.

Photo: 5 April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The term is now used for the more restricted period from the Late-10th- to the12th-Centuries. The term "Pre-Romanesque" is sometimes applied to architecture in Germany of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods and Visigothic, Mozarabic and Asturian constructions between the 8th- and the 10th-Centuries in the Iberian Peninsula, while "First Romanesque" is applied to buildings in the North of Italy and Spain, and parts of France, that have Romanesque features, but pre-date the influence of the Monastery of Cluny.

Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen, France.

Photo: 5 April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Romanesque is generally considered, by art historians, as a Pan-European architecture with both the manner of construction and the style having a consistency that stretches geographically from Ireland to the Balkans. Professor Tadhg O'Keeffe argues against this accepted concept of a Pan-European Romanesque, seeing, in the examples of architecture, a sign of the dissolution of the effects of the Roman Empire and its building methods, rather than a cultural renaissance brought about by the influence of the Church. In either argument, it is seen that local influences, such as materials, history and decorative traditions, brought about distinctive regional characteristics.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.