Romanesque Art: from Late Roman to Middle Ages!

Romanesque art as can be guessed originated from ancient Roman art and developed from the 10th century, in the European Middle Ages, until the explosion of Gothic art that is, around the middle of the 12th century. We owe to the French archaeologist Arcisse de Caumont the division of Romanesque art into three periods: primitive Romanesque from the 5th century to the end of the 10th century, intermediate Romanesque from the end of the 10th century to the 11th century, and transitional Romanesque to Gothic in the 12th century. Romanesque art developed against a background of economic and social recovery fostered by improved working conditions for peasants who were thus able to produce greater quantities of food, which was reflected in a marked increase in population. This also led to the development of new villages and urban centers in which markets and trade intensified. All this influenced the emergence of a new social class the “bourgeois,” that is, an intermediate class between that of the peasants and the aristocrats and clergymen. In such a context construction as well as the demand for culture and art grew naturally, especially on the part of local lords who mainly financed construction of religious buildings, which from then on were no longer commissioned only by emperors or bishops.

Romanesque was innovative especially in architecture and sculpture because, unlike Byzantine art, in Romanesque art matter was no longer to be hidden but to be highlighted as a gift from the Creator. This art form developed as can be guessed in the territories conquered by the Romans and was born in France soon expanding to almost all of Europe with common characteristics even though it differs depending on the nation or region in which it was born. Romanesque architecture was inspired by ancient Roman architecture by recovering its building models and techniques. Mainly the sense of monumentality and spatiality were taken from the ancient Roman and elements such as the round arch, pilaster, column and vault were used extensively. Romanesque buildings were constructed with more regular masonry and square-shaped stones as well as the use of roofing sometimes in large spaces. Unfortunately, the civil buildings of the Romanesque world such as fortresses or castles have been almost completely lost so that we are left only with the evidence of religious buildings such as churches or domes. The most common plan of Romanesque churches was the Latin cross while the nave was divided into bays.Originally the crypt was limited to a small room under the chancel, only later did it expand as a hall crypt to become almost a second lower church. Early attempts at vaulted roofing can also be seen in the crypts. From 1080 onward the first examples of barrel-vaulted roofing appear in Spain and France but also pointed vaults; ribbed vaulting appears in Lombardy and England while reticulated ones in Germany.

Romanesque sculpture is closely connected with architecture since it was born with the function of decorating capitals, architraves, archivolts of windows and doorways. The sculptors of the Romanesque period reinterpreted decorative sculpture in a new way through various kinds of influences, creating a clear and effective language that was to be understood by people from different social strata in fact, religious art was no longer to be intended only for the imperial and ecclesiastical classes. The sculpted themes had a didactic function to enable even people of little culture to understand the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The main sculptors in Italy were Wiligelmo, Nicholaus and Benedetto Antelami who signed the decorative marble slab of the Deposition from the Cross in 1178.

So-called Romanesque painting was influenced by several styles such as Mannerism in Germany and Austria and a new classicism that was renamed “style 1200 ”but the ever-present influence of Byzantine painting especially in Italy should not be forgotten. Romanesque painting, as seems obvious, is also devoted to the depiction of religious themes that relate specifically to Christianity, but differs in a greater sensitivity and drama of the themes addressed such as for example the pains of hell, the deadly vices, the apocalypse and the Last Judgment! In Romanesque art the iconography of Jesus is always represented with regal attributes such as the throne, crown, alpha and omega, sun and moon so that God becomes a majestic and stern King rather than a good and compassionate Lord ! Thanks to the support of the church this new image of God-King favors the earthly power precisely of kings and emperors against feudalism. The new iconography of Christ is placed side by side with the more reassuring image of Christ-Man, Shepherd and Doctor in which he was represented with the attribute of the mill and millstone meant to symbolically represent the fruitful sacrifice of Jesus. The cosmological Christ, on the other hand, derives from earlier and ancient solar cults where he was represented at the center of a wheel; Christ was represented with several other symbols in Romanesque art including the bunch and the vine, the lion to the eagle symbols of power, the liocorn symbol of purity, the pelican symbol of sacrifice, and the famous phoenix symbol of resurrection and immortality.

Romanesque art was an art that characterized much of the Middle Ages until the birth of Gothic art, which supplanted the Romanesque style in almost all of Europe. The monumentality and sacredness of Romanesque religious buildings was even more accentuated by the exquisite decorative sculptural works that aimed not only to beautify “the house of God” but also to indoctrinate the less affluent social classes characterized by a high rate of illiteracy. Romanesque painting, on the other hand, promoted a new image of God by transforming him into a stern awe-inspiring king rather than a good Father who consoles man from earthly labors; a divine image that was desired by kings and emperors and supported by the Catholic Church and thus formed a kind of symbiosis that benefited the two forms of absolutist power, moreover increasing the people’s subservience to divine-earthly power.

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