the romanesque: between historicist and modernist modes of design
TRANSCRIPT
The Romanesque: Between Historicist and Modernist Modes of Design
Ste.-Foy
I. Romanesque visual sophistication on the interior A. Wall thickness revealed in planes and subdivided vertically into bays (individual parts subordinated to the whole)
Speyer Cathedral – 1st building
Ste.-Foy
Voids become lively and rhythmic spaces. Masonry walls are 3-dimensional entities
I. A. 1. compound pier - a pier with several attached shafts
I. B. Romanesque nave elevation – parts and directionality
Romanesque Speyer Cathedral
Early Christian St. Peter’s
clerestory
nave arcade
Ste.-Foy
Romanesque: interior and exterior worked out in 3-dimensionally in planes
Classical Roman architecture: sculpting of spatial volumes
Hadrian’s Villa (Roman)
I. C. Contrast Romanesque 3-dimensionality with Roman volume
Ste.-Foy
Romanesque
S. Sabina
I. C.
Early Christian
II. Grandeur and dignity: a comprehensive Romanesque vaulting systemII. A. Load-bearing masonry vaults in the Romanesque church nave
Vaulting and aesthetics:“improving the composition of the work,” “wondrous effects”
Ste.-Foy Speyer Cathedral
II. A. 1. How is Romanesque vaulting different from Roman vaulting?
Romanesque load-bearing stone masonryRoman load-bearing concrete masonry
Domus Aurea, Rome
bay system of supports and buttressesmonolithic
St.-Sernin in Toulouse, France
old way: continuous centering new way: centering one bay at a time
advantage: transverse arches help vault maintain its form
aesthetics: banded barrel vault has a closer relationship with the lower part of the nave
Ste.-Foy’s banded barrel vault
II. A. 2. Banded Romanesque barrel vaults (Ste.-Foy): why were they useful?
diagonal thrust of a barrel vault
abutment of low barrel vault abutment of a high barrel vault
II. A. 3. What effect did the high barrel vault have on the supporting walls?
Ste.-Foy, Conques
barrel vault
quadrant vault or half barrel vault
wall or spur buttress
II. A. 3.
II. A. 3.
Ste-Foy, Conques
II. A. 4. Groin vaults in church naves (Speyer Cathedral): what advantages did a groin vaulted nave have over a barrel vault?
Speyer Cathedraltimber ceiling of 1st bldg. groin vaulted nave of 2nd bldg.
Speyer Cathedral
before groin vaults with groin vaults
II. A. 5. What effect did the high groin vault have on the supporting walls?
III. Romanesque architectural theory: What theoretical approach to sacred architecture is validated by Romanesque design?
Speyer Cathedral
Byzantine: what heaven is likeIslam: vast, infiniteness of One God
Romanesque: serene dignity of God(cerebral, sober, mathematical)
Ste.-Foy abbey church
III.
Romanesque architecture reveals the order of the universe
“Beauty is a concordance and fittingness of . . . all the individual parts to themselves and to each other and to the whole, and that of the whole to all things” (Robert Grosseteste, 13th cen., a view based on Vitruvius).
Romanesque cathedral at Modena, Italy
IV. Romanesque regional diversity correlates to historicist tendencies in southern Europe (Italy, Spain, S. France) VS. modernist tendencies in northern Europe (Germany, N. France, England)
Italy FranceGermany England
most historicist most modernisttension between historicist and modernist tendencies
New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by
precedent)
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
walls a continuous plane
classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)
standard basilical profile
punched in windows and square-headed doors
rib vaults
skeletal frame
OR elevational system rather thantrue wall
pointed arches (“broken” arches)
horizontal continuous space
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
Romanesque Ste-Foy
Features of Romanesque Ste-Foy
IV.
New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by
precedent)
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
walls a continuous plane
classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)
standard basilical profile
punched in windows and square-headed doors
rib vaults
skeletal frame
OR elevational system rather thantrue wall
pointed arches (“broken” arches)
horizontal continuous space
Romanesque Speyer Cathedral
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
Features of Romanesque Speyer Cathedral
IV.
most historicizing
most modernizing
ROMECONSTANTINOPLE
between historic
izing
and modernizing
historicist tendencies ………… Romanesque spectrum ……………….modernist tendencies IV.
most historicizing
most modernizing
ROME
Pisa Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
between histo
ricizi
ng
and modern
izing
Speyer Cathedral
Ste.-Foy
IV. A. The medieval churches of Rome so faithful to Early Christian models, they are immaculately ➞ historicist
Early Christian in Rome Romanesque in Rome
(Old St. Peter’s)
(S. Giorgio in Velabro)
Pisa Cathedral, Pisa, Italy 11th – 13th cen. (1063-1118 cathedral)
IV. B. The Romanesque elsewhere in Italy
baptistery
bell tower
cathedral
Pisa’s Romanesque Baptistery, 1152-1363; arch. Diotislavi
IV. B.
Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, Rome, c. 350
Lateran Baptistery, Rome315, and 432-40
Anastasis RotundaJerusalem, 325-80
Baptisteries Mausolea Martyria
Early Christian occasional space for venerationCentrally-planned mausoleums, baptisteries, martyria
IV. B.
IV. B.
Pisa Cathedral
“Medieval architecture in Italy’s greatest contribution to the medieval environment may be its ability to see the church as the framer of a public space, a town square” (Kostof 316).
IV. B. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist?
E.C. St. Peter’s
Pisa Cathedral
IV. B. 1.E.C. St. Peter’s
Pisa Cathedral
crossing dome
IV. B. 1.
Pisa Cathedral
E.C. S. Sabina
IV. B. 1.
Pisa CathedralE.C. St. Peter’s
IV. B. 1.
Pisa Cathedral
E.C. S. Sabina
New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by
precedent)
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
walls a continuous plane
classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)
standard basilical profile
punched in windows and square-headed doors
rib vaults
skeletal frame
OR elevational system rather thantrue wall
pointed arches (“broken” arches)
horizontal continuous space
Romanesque Pisa Cathedral
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
complex, towered profile
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)
punched in windows and square-headed doors
horizontal continuous space
IV. B. 1.
Features of Romanesque Pisa Cathedral
Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, 11th-12th century (1060-1133)
IV. D. The Romanesque in England
Durham Cathedral, Durham, England
NOT URBAN: Site chosen by William the Conqueror in 1093 as a bulwark against the Scots to the north
castle used as bishop’s palace
HAS RELICS of St. Cuthbert (634-87), bishop of Lindisfarne
IV. D.
MONASTIC in spite of being a cathedral (English bishops were also monks)
IV. D. 1. Durham CathedralE.C. St. Peter’s
Typical monastic buildings
public church
monks’ choir
Lady Chapel added 1153-95
IV. D. 1. Consider the Pisa Cathedral’s plan, massing, ext. elevation, int. nave elevation, section. a. What aspects of its design are historicist? b. Which are modernist?
E.C. St. Peter’s
Durham Cathedral
IV. D. 1.
Durham Cathedral
E.C. S. Sabina
IV. D. 1.
Durham Cathedral
E.C. St. Peter’s
E.C. St. Peter’s
IV. D. 1.
Durham CathedralE.C. S. Sabina
II. B. Durham Cathedral
clerestory
nave arcade
tribune gallery
dwarf gallery in clerestory
IV. D. 1. Durham Cathedral
wall passage of dwarf gallery
quadrant vault
tribune gallery
Durham Cathedral
Durham nave rib vaults, 1128-33
Durham’s choir aisle vaults, earliest known rib vaults, 1093
ribs of rib vaults
IV. D. 1. earliest known rib vaults
rib vaults – skeletal frame alone bears the load
IV. D. 1. linear, non-classical surface decoration
Anglo-Saxon architecture: Earls Barton tower (10th cen.)
Durham Cathedral
piers build forward in 3 layers
chevron moldings on archivolts and ribs
surface diaper work and chevrons
MODERNIST: linear surface patterns attempt to unify all parts of the structure in a linear web
New MODERNIST tendencies(anti-classical, forward-moving)
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
HISTORICIST tendencies(classicizing, legitimized by
precedent)
round arches
structural ponderance
load-bearing vaults
walls a continuous plane
classical column (pilasters, engaged columns)
standard basilical profile
punched in windows and square-headed doors
rib vaults
skeletal frame
OR elevational system rather thantrue wall
pointed arches (“broken” arches)
horizontal continuous space
Romanesque Durham Cathedral
wall as a 3-D entity in planes
compound piers
vertical articulation in a bay system
complex, towered profile
walls/doors in recessed archivolts
rib vaults
round arches
Features of Romanesque Durham Cathedral