'Romanesque' was a term first used by Charles de Gerville, a Norman archaeologist, to describe western architecture from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries. It is now applied to a more restricted type of architecture and decorative arts which evolved in western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Technically speaking, Romanesque architecture amounts to a complete building system executed by highly skilled workers. Developments included the
Replacement of timber roofing with stone groin and barrel vaults, for timber churches made them vulnerable to fire. At first only small spaces were vaulted, but eventually this would include the vaulting of elongated naves, made possible only by strengthening the structure of the building. What is known as 'the first international romanesque style' began in Lombardy where one bay of a church between the apse and the nave was vaulted (e. g. San Ambrogio, Milan). The next step took place in Catalonia where entire churches were vaulted with barrel vaulting, such as San Vicente de Castillo at Cardona and St-Martin-du-Canigou. The culminating point in the development of Romanesque architecture is, however, in England at Durham cathedral, with its ribbed vaulting throughout supported by cylindrical and compound piers.
Travelling ateliers of masons from Lombardy
Were called on by abbots and bishops to rebuild churches which had either suffered damage following the upheavals and invasions of the tenth century, or were newly built by reformed religious orders. These naturally spread up the Rhine as far north as Sweden. Once assembled, the ateliers gave training to locals and eventually these areas became centres from which craftsmen could be sent elsewhere. Hence the diffusion of regional trends throughout much of Europe. The Cluniac and Cistercian Orders played an important role in the patronage during this period. The pilgrimage roads to Rome, Jerusalem and particularly Santiago de Compostela were also an important factor in the dissemination of style. Amongst notable examples of pilgrimage churches are Ste Foy at Conques; St Martial at Limoges; St Sernin at Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela.
L. Bourdua
Gothic Europe
The term 'Gothic' was coined in Italy as a later expression of contempt to describe medieval architecture as a whole. However, Gothic architecture evolved over the course of four centuries (twelfth to sixteenth), and required more sophisticated building methods than its Romanesque predecessor. Developments included greater use of cross-ribbed vaulting to roof larger areas than previously, a system of supports including exterior flying buttresses, the substitution of walls by large windows of multicoloured glass, and more complex facades with portals and programmes of sculpture. The greatest technical developments occurred in the Ile-de-France, where builders refused to use rib vaulting with heavy Norman walls and consequently developed more adventurous vaulting techniques. The solutions were to reinforce piers by creating more projections on the wall, either by grouping clusters of engaged columns inside, or using bigger buttresses outside. Vault cells assumed a pointed shape, as did the arch, and the vault was also made lighter through the use of well-cut stones of thin ashlar, instead of the rubble previously employed. New exterior flying buttresses reduced the thrust of the vaults and despite their structural purpose became things of beauty. The rebuilding of the abbey church of St Denis, situated north of Paris, marked a turning point in the development of the style. The wide gothic chevet (a double ambulatory) was created, an open structure with no walls between chapels, articulated by two rows of slender columns; stained glass was also used on an unprecedented scale. A parallel development was the rebuilding of Sens cathedral, where from the very start it was intended to cover the nave and choir with a crossribbed vault.
Most French cathedrals were designed on such an ambitious scale that few were ever finished as intended. (The desire for verticality was so great that Beauvais cathedral remained unfinished.) English Gothic churches were lower than French ones, with more complex ribvaulting designs (e. g. St Hugh's choir at Lincoln cathedral)
And differing facades. In Germany, the influence set in during the thirteenth century (e. g. Cologne cathedral), as in Spain (e. g. the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo). In Italy, apart from
Cistercian abbeys (such as Fossanova), the style retained more Romanesque features.
L. Bourdua
World History
