Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture presents a great regional variety determined by the traditions of each European territory it developed in. It was founded on the subtract of Roman antiquity, with which German countries influences were mixed. At the beginning there were different styles, known as pre-Romanesque but about the 11th century there is a certain unification of the style.
Basically, it is religious architecture, with dominance of the church in which we can find the two characteristics that gave solidity to the movement: monumentality, creating wide spaces and durability, doing something eternal, linked to the divininity.

Church
The plan of the building is Latin cross, with three or five naves, being the central one higher and wider than the lateral. The transversal nave is called transept and the intersection point is the crossing. In pilgrimage churches the apse tended to be surrounded by an ambulatory in which pilgrims could spend the night. In the façade it is normal to find high towers, the same as over the crossing. At the feet of the church is the nartex. The plan of the church may vary and be substituted by central plans.
The elevation of the building presents naves of different high, being the main one the central. When the central nave has two floors, the second one is called tribune and has a corridor overlooking the central nave. Over the crossing is common to find a tower, sometimes polygonal, called ciborium.
The foundations of the buildings tend to be solid and deep because the strong walls of the building demand it. Walls are thick and reinforced in the outside by buttresses. This need for supports made difficult to open windows. At the same time, the existence of such a wall demand a lot of decorative elements, such as pilasters, blind arches, Jaca’s taqueado, or modillions.

Cover systems evolved from the wood lintelled covers to stone made barrel vaults, that are divided by fajon arches. Where two barrel vaults cross transversally it appears a rib vault. Apses are covered with a quarter of sphere vaults. Domes standing of squinches or trumps can be used too.
Internal support system: weighty covers are sustained by the walls and strong pillars and columns. The classical Romanesque pillar has a central-squared-body to which different columns are linked complicating its section. In the outside there are buttressed corresponding with the internal pillars. The capitals are full of relieves, narrating Biblical passages.
The façades or portals are at the feet of the church and in both sides of the transept. They are normally limited by towers. These façades are coincident with the internal distribution of the building. It is common to be formed by several arches decorated, the same as the tympanum inside them.
The cloisters are characteristic of the monasteries. It is an squared courtyard with a covered gallery sustained by semicircular arches.
Romanesque architecture symbolised the house of God. There are elements linked to both, human and divine. In general, circular parts such as the axis or the vaults are considered more perfect because of their shape. The relation among apse, nave and tower represent the union of the holy and human worlds. The nave is an squared construction with four angles, symbol of the earth (four elements, four seasons, four cardinal points).
Apart from that, the Romanesque symbolism is related to the light too. The church has its head oriented toward the East, the place from where the sun shines. In the same way, the altar in the apse is Christ’s light that illuminates the humans to rescue them from the dark.

Other buildings
Other important Romanesque building was monastery. It was organised as an small celestial city and consisted of different dependencies: church, cloister, monks’/nuns’ houses, hospital, refectory or dinning room, capitulary room for meetings, scriptorium for working in manuscript copying, library.

Castles were the most important of civil constructions. They were essential in this period due to the lack of security of the moment. They were built in areas easy to defend and frequently in mountains from where it was easy to observe the surroundings. Walls were strong and there was a protective wall all around the circuit ending in crenelations at the top. Inside there were different dependencies organised around a courtyard. The residence of the lord of the castle was the homage tower.

A construction directly related to pilgrimage were bridges. They were built to make it easier to pilgrims to continue with their journey. Normally they were a bit elevated in the middle.

Geography

France

Romanesque appeared in France, around Cluny abbey. From there it expanded following the pilgrimage routes, mainly Santiago. It has several styles: in Provence they used domes and façades decorated with arches; in Auvergne they have long choir, and side aisles around the semicircular sanctuary forming an ambulatory in which radiating chapels were open. In Burgundy buildings were barrel-vaulted and with three aisles. In Normandy there are Lombard influences with groined vaults supported by flying buttresses and façades with two flanking towers.

Italy
Italian provinces developed a great diversity of architectural styles. Lombardy was known by its groined vaults of heavy proportions. In central Italy decorative elements were classical: Corinthian capitals, coloured marble, open arches, colonnades and galleries and façades with sculptures. In the South Romanesque combined with Byzantine and Arabic influences, using mosaics and interlaced pointed-arches.

It was common to find separate buildings: the cathedral, the campanile or bell tower and the baptistery in three separe buildings.

Germany
Churches were planned on large scale and they were very high. They had an apse at each end and there was frequent to find round or octagonal towers in them.

England
Before the 10th century churches were made of wood and stone buildings were of small proportions until the Norman style replaced the Saxon style in 11th century. Buildings are long and narrow, with heavy walls and piers, rectangular apses, double transepts and deeply recessed portals. The naves were covered with flat roofs, later replaces by vaults, and side aisles were covered with groined vaults.

Spain
The first Romanesque appeared in Catalonia, influenced by Lombardy and France. The rest of Spain received this style through the pilgrimage. Catalan churches present an exterior of ordered volumes, decorated with Lombard bands and blind arches and galleries. The inside is divided into three naves with a small narthex and the hear presents triple apse.
Santiago’s route was important for the expansion of Romanesque art. The pilgrimage churches had a plan with three to five aisles and a transept in which there were radial chapels. Inside there is a tribune and it has ambulatory. Sometimes buildings can be polygonal, influenced by the Temple who was inspired in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre.
In Castile and Leon there is an important influence of pilgrimage routes and the churches are identified with the spirit of the Reconquist. Buildings are simple and small, in contrast with the Muslim architecture.

Islamic Architecture

Islamic architecture took, synthesized and expanded the traditional methods of construction. This architecture is based on the use of poor materials locally found but that covered with decorative elements resulted in an effect or richness and monumentality.
Islamic architecture synthesized Byzantine, Christian, Copts and other elements. They lacked of a personal style so they took it from the different areas under their control. The main characteristics are:
· Buildings are not very high and they integrate with the surrounding landscape. Horizontality is dominant, the same as in their haimas.
· The most important building is the Mosque, that is at the same time, meeting and pray centre. In addition, they built palaces, mausoleums, medersas, and other buildings.

· Materials commonly used are brick and masonry, combined with wax, wood or, exceptionally, stone.
· There is not a big interest in building problems. Buildings tend to be cubic volumes covered with spheres and minarets and towers.
· The column and pillar continue being the main support, but due to the light covers, they do not need to be too strong, and tend to be slim.
· Vaults are of great variety: domes, ribbed vaults, gallonaded, pierced.
· From the Visigoths they took the horse-shoe arch that combined with the polylobulate, ogive horse-shoe. In addition, they have polychrome voussoirs.
· Especial taste for internal decoration, sometimes done in materials of poor quality. The subjects could be plants, animals, calligraphy or others, and colour had an important role. It is abstract frequently.
· In decoration human figure does not appear normally. Anyway, it was not forbidden by religion and there are examples of this, especially in non religious buildings.

The Mosque
It is the main building of Islamic art. It is the place for praying and has just a few needs. It is a wide space, free of impurities, sometimes even open, looking at La Mecca. Its structure consists of the following parts:
· Sahn or courtyard, opened and discovered, surrounded by arches or a wall and with a fountain or sabil in the middle.
· The minaret or tower to call to the community.
· The pay room or haran, perpendicular to the wall or quibla or wall in which the mihrab or holiest part of the builing is.
· The maxura or space near the mihrab reserved for the caliph.
· The mimbar or pulpit from which spiritual leaders read the Coran.
· The Iwan or vaulted rooms closing the courtyard around the Mosque in three sides.
There are several types of mosques with local characteristics. Materials can also vary due to the different regions and chronology because they continue being built even nowadays.

Other buildings are:

Madrassa or medersa: it was the Koran school. It was linked to a mosque and normally counted with several rooms were the students lived.




Caravanserai: it was a kind of hotel for both people and animals. There were on the commerce routes and were simple buildings, protected against the elements, which tended to have two floors: the bottom one for animals and products and the top one for people.



Fortress: they were common to protect cities. There were built in a stepped area easier to defend. They were surrounded by a wall and could have crenelletions at the top.





Palaces: they were luxurious residences. Their structure would vary depending on the area and the period in which they were built.




Houses: They were simple and they consisted of two different parts, a common one to receive visits and the private one. They were organised around courtyards.



Bridges: They were a public work but sometimes they were covered.

Other buildings: there was a quite wide variety but some of the most original are those used for keeping and containing water. Being a group of population coming from the dessert it is easy to understand the special care for such an important element.

Hispanic-muslin art
There are different manifestations, with several styles.
The first is the Caliph style, being its main building Cordoba’s mosque. It has all the parts of a mosque but the most important is the hypostyle room, with several naves divided by slim columns in which stand the double-coloured arches.

Almohad and Almoravid style: it is directly linked with the North of Africa. The main manifestation are towers as the Giralda and palaces such as the Aljaferia, in Saragossa.
Nazari style: the most characteristic building is the Alhambra palace. Organize around a series of courtyards, it appears as the perfect combination of architecture and nature. Decoration is extremely important and there is an especial trend to include water in the building.
Mudejar style: it was that of the Muslins living in Christian territory. They used the same structural elements with an important use of brick. Buildings could be churches, as in San Martin, in Teruel.

Roman Painting

It is mainly wall painting on plaster. The best examples were found in Pompeii, where four different styles are distinguished and due to this they are known as Pompeian styles.

The First Style was largely an exploration of simulating marble of various colours and types on painted plaster. the wall was divided into three horizontal, painted zones crowned with a stucco cornice of dentils based upon the Doric order.

The Second Style in Roman wall painting emerged in the early first century B.C., during which time fresco artists imitated architectural forms purely by pictorial means. In place of stucco architectural details, they used flat plaster on which projection and recession were suggested entirely by shading and perspective; as the style progressed, forms grew more complex. There are visual ambiguities to tease the eye, painted masonry, pillars, and columns that cast shadows into the viewer's space, and more conventional trompe l'oeil devices. Objects of daily life are depicted in such a way as to seem real, with metal and glass vases on shelves, and tables appearing to project out from the wall. The intention of the owner was to create a kind of picture gallery, with the choice of subjects most likely based on the quality and renown of the original paintings.

The Third Style during Augustus' reign, rejected illusion in favour of surface ornamentation. Wall paintings from this period typically comprise a single monochrome background—such as red, black, or white—with elaborate architectural and vegetal details. Small figural and landscape scenes appear in the centre of the wall as a part of, not the dominant element in, the overall decorative scheme.

The Fourth Style in Roman wall painting, considered as a baroque reaction against the third is generally less disciplined than its predecessor. It revives large-scale narrative painting and panoramic vistas, while retaining the architectural details of the Third Style. The colours warm up once again, and they are used to advantage in the depiction of scenes drawn from mythology.

Among the technical characteristics we can signal the elaborate methods employed by wall painters, including the insertion of sheets of lead in the wall to prevent the capillary action of moisture from attacking the fresco, the preparation of as many as seven layers of plaster on the wall, and the use of marble powder in the top layers to produce a mirror like sheen on the surface. Preliminary drawings or light incisions on the prepared surface guided the artists in decorating the walls a fresco (on fresh plaster) with bold primary colours. Softer, pastel colours were often added a secco (on dry plaster) in a subsequent phase. Vitruvius informs us about the pigments used by the Roman artist. Black was drawn from the carbon created by burning brushwood or pine chips. Ochre was extracted from mines and served for yellow. Red was derived either from cinnabar, red ochre, or from heating white lead. Blue was made from mixing sand and copper, and then baking the mixture. The deepest shade of purple was by far the most precious colour, as it was usually obtained from sea whelks.

Mosaic was other example of Roman art directly related to painting. These works were common in the decoration of luxurious villas and the subject represented in each of them used to be related to the function to which the room was devoted. They were made of small pieces of coloured stones that could be regular or irregular. A good example is the Villa of Casale in Piazza Armerina.

Roman Sculpture

The most original fields of Roman Sculpture are portrait and historical relief. Anyway, this was not an obstacle to be combined with Greek and Hellenistic influences.
Greek influence was noticeable at the end of the Republic (2nd- 1st centuries BC). The same as in architecture, the models influenced Roman artists. The admiration of the upper classes towards Hellenistic plastic and the fact that many Greek sculptors were working in Rome supported this influence. Greek plastic was considered as a model of beauty and copies proliferated. Thanks to it was possible to know classical artists’ work.
Roman Portrait
It is the most characteristic element of Roman sculpture, the distinctive one. For the Romans, sculpture depicts realism and the sculptor’s mission is not to depict just beauty but to reproduce nature, reality. In front of the abstraction of perfect characters, Romans preferred the depiction of real people, with their real features, even if there were not nice. Artists did not aim at showing their technical mastery but to honour the authorities. This explains the fact of the artists being anonymous.
Roman realism has its root in several points. The first of them is the fidelity pursued by the Etrurian in their funerary portraits and the tombs painting. This led them to realise masks of the dead people that were the model for future images. These busts were kept in the houses to be honoured. Other element is the practical sense of Romans that encouraged them to depict things as they are. The interest for bearing witness of the things that had happened pushed an interest for history and narration that imbued plastic arts. Finally, individual portrait was widely developed during Hellenism and this was a model for the Romans.

Characteristics
Romans cultivated all kind of portraits: bust, half body, full body, head, and any positions: standing, sitting, and equestrian. This last one was reserved for emperors. The portrayed characters are always people important in Roman society, mainly emperors, who could be depicted in different ways. The materials, disposition, folders of the clothes and other elements evidence Greek influence but what is original is the extraordinary realism of the portrayed people, maintaining their hard character or their expression in addition to the psychological elements. Until the 2nd century there were polychrome effect but them they changed for monochromic depictions and the eyes started having volume to depict the pupil.
Evolution
The development of Roman portraiture is characterized by a stylistic cycle that alternately emphasized realistic or idealizing elements. Each stage of Roman portraiture can be described as alternately "veristic" or "classicizing," as each imperial dynasty sought to emphasize certain aspects of representation in an effort to legitimize their authority or align themselves with revered predecessors. These stylistic stages played off of one another while pushing the medium toward future artistic innovations.
Republican period (until 1st century BC)
Portraits were made just to the neck. Giving emphasis to the head. After that they continued with the bust. They were made of bronze or stone and polychrome. A majority of the artists were Greek. Portrayed characters are seldom private or public, showing gravity and serenity. Faces are energetic, strong and determined, even when public portraits present a certain idealization to underline the virtues of the subject. The most highly valued traits included a devotion to public service and military powers, and so Republican citizens sought to project these ideals through their representation in portraiture. Public officials commissioned portrait busts that reflected every wrinkle and imperfection of the skin, and heroic, full-length statues often composed of generic bodies onto which realistic, called "veristic” portrait heads were attached. The overall effect of this style gave Republican ideals physical form and presented an image that the sitter wanted to express.
Imperial period (2nd half of 3rd century)
Since Rome became an Empire sculpture suffered a transformation and so did portrait. Classical Greek idealism was more influential. Official portrait is idealized, trying to show the grandeur of the character, mainly divine, even without losing their own physical features or character expression. The prototype was established during August’s times. The emperor appeared as a god, his hair falling in an irregular way on his forehead, the face always shaved. With the Flavians and on (2nd century) realism appeared again, hair had more volume, they had beard and chiaroscuro effects were used. There are monumental portraits, with great variety: Thoracata, as emperor or victorious general (Augusto of Prima Porta), Togatae wearing as a civilian or with the classical toga; apotheosis, with a divinised image, almost naked and crowned with laurel; equestrian, riding a horse (Marco Aurelio).

During this period feminine portraits were common too, with especial attention given to hairstyles and a realistic depiction of women.

Depending on the dynasties we can find:
Augustan and Tiberian portrait tradition of classical and idealized features that carried a strong "family" resemblance. However, during the reign of the emperor Claudius (r. 41–54 A.D.), a shift in the political atmosphere favored a return to Republican standards and so also influenced artistic styles. Portraits of Claudius reflect his increasing age and strongly resemble veristic portraits of the Republic. This trend toward realism eventually led to the characteristic styles of the second imperial dynasty: the Flavians.
With the Flavians portraiture characterized by a return to a veristic representation that emphasized their military strengths. Portraits of Vespasian, the founder of the Flavian dynasty, similarly show him in an unidealized manner. During the Flavian era, sculptors also made remarkable advancements in technique that included a revolutionary use of the drill, and female portraiture of the period is renowned for its elaborate corkscrew hairstyles.

With Trajan the cycle continued with his portraits (r. 98–117 A.D.), who wanted to emphasize symbolic connections with Augustus and so adopted an ageless and somewhat idealized portrait type quite different from that of the Flavians. His successor Hadrian, however, went a step further and is noted as being the first emperor to adopt the Greek habit of wearing a beard. The textual interplay that was developed in the treatment of Flavian women's hairstyles was now more fully explored in male portraiture, and busts of the Hadrianic period are identified by a full head of curly hair as well as the presence of a beard.
The Antonines modeled their portraits after Hadrian, and emphasized (fictional) familial resemblances to him by having themselves portrayed as never-aging, bearded adults. Continued development in Roman portrait styles was spurred by the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus (r. 177–92 A.D.), whose portraits feature new levels of psychological expression that reflect changes not only in the emperors' physical state but their mental condition as well. These physical embodiments of personality and emotional expression later reach their fullest realization in the portraits of the Severan emperor Caracalla.
Caracalla is shown with a short, military beard and hairstyle that were stippled across the surface of the marble for a "buzz-cut" effect, also called "negative carving." He is also shown with an intense, almost insane facial expression, which evokes his strong military background and, according to some scholars, reflects his aggressive nature. This portrait type is credited as having a profound effect on imperial portraiture in the turbulent years to follow his reign, and many of the soldier-emperors of the third century sought to legitimize their rise to power by stylistically aligning themselves with Caracalla. As time went on, these stylized aspects became increasingly prominent, and soon a pronounced attention to geometry and emotional anxiety permeated imperial portrait sculptures, as evident in the bronze statue of Trebonianus Gallus. This increasing dependency on geometric symmetry and abstraction contributed to the highly distinctive portraiture utilized by the Tetrarchy.

Low Empire (mid 3rd century to 5th century)

During this period there was a reaction against classicism. Delicate volume disappeared, facial expression is intensified but simplicity is underlined, at once with hieratic gestures. All sense of proportion and taste for detail disappeared. Dehumanization, monumentality and schematization are the features of the period. The works appear to be archaic, aspect in which they linked to Bizantian models. The most important example is Constantine the Great.

Historical relief
It symbolised the aim of depicting Roman immortality. The last tradition of presenting the exploits of the warriors and the desire of depicting them in stone reached its last expression. It is propagandistic. It is present in several buildings, subordinated to architecture (columns, arches, and sarcophagus).
They used pictorial effects such as perspective to create effects of deepness. Characters are located in different plans and landscape elements are included. It developed mainly during the Empire. The most important examples are Ara Pacis made to honour Augusto and his family. Tito’s Arch it is definitely propagandistic; Traian Column with the whole surface covered as pursued by horror vacuii, deepness, perspective and landscape are present. Other field for relief sculpture were the sarcophagus, that could vary from simple medallions to full scenes associated with the buried character. Christians used a more simple model, with immortality symbols.