CHAPTER 1 : ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

ROMANESQUE ART (1)
CHAPTER 1 – ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
By Jacques Rouveyrol

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Before building a church, there is first a plan.

1. The Plan

The 12th century was a time of pilgrimages. The most prestigious — but also the riskiest and most expensive — were, first, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and second, to Rome. More popular and more frequently visited was the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

A pilgrimage is an organized journey to see relics. In ancient Greece, people would go to Delphi to consult the Oracle, given by the Pythia, whenever they had a big decision to make. Why Delphi? Because there stood the Omphalos — the “navel” of the world — a large stone shaped like an egg. Delphi was believed to be the center of the universe.

The Christian world created many “centers”: places where relics of saints were kept, believed to have spiritual power (to save the soul) or physical power (to heal illness).

So the church plan had to meet two needs:

1. To display the relics.

2. To allow pilgrims to move around easily.

Two types of plans appeared:

• The Benedictine plan, which focused on displaying relics in chapels lined up along the transept.

• The radiating chapels plan, which focused on letting pilgrims circulate. In this design, the chapels holding the relics are grouped around the apse, along the ambulatory.
  This second plan became the more common one.

The radiating chapels plan makes it easier for pilgrims to move around by grouping the chapels — where relics are displayed — in the apse, around the ambulatory. This plan generally became more widely used than the other one.

2. The Structure

The structure refers to the building elements and how they are put together.

2.a. The elements : arches
It is commonly believed that the Romanesque arch is always a semi-circular arch. This is not entirely true. Of course, the semi-circular arch is a typical feature, but Romanesque architecture is not limited to that. The pointed arch, as well as many other types of arches, were also used by Romanesque builders.

2.b. Composition : the vaults

The most common type of vault is, naturally, the barrel vault with a semi-circular shape. But again, the pointed vault is also fully part of Romanesque architecture.

Where two barrel vaults intersect, they form a groin vault, which must later be clearly distinguished from the ribbed vault (typical of Gothic architecture).             

3.The wall

3.a. Elements: columns and piers

Churches with wooden roofs (timber frames) generally use piers.

Churches with vaulted ceilings use columns. But things are not so simple. A pier can be attached to pilasters (giving rise to the quadrangular pier, for example) or half-columns (giving rise to the quadrilobe pier). The column can consist of half-columns. Sometimes, the number of elements becomes quite significant.

3.b. Engagement in the Wall

However, these piers and columns are generally embedded in the wall, so they have only a very secondary load-bearing function. It is as if this grouping of pilasters and half-columns around the pier and column, which themselves are attached to the wall, is meant to express the subordination of the small to the large and the organized solidarity that results from it, reflecting the social order of feudalism (lord, vassals, peasants).

Below is the terminology related to the column topped with a capital and the drawing of a half-column embedded in a pier, which in turn is embedded in the wall.

(in order : abaque, basket, astragale, shaft, torus, base)

3.c. The Portal

The portal is an essential element of the church. It is not simply the point of passage from the outside to the inside, because the church has a whole perimeter around it that contributes to its sanctity (often including the cemetery as part of its "space"); rather, it is the place of opening.

(in order : arch moulding, tympanum, lintel, corbel, trumeau, abutments)

3. d. The Romanesque wall.

The Greek wall (below, left)is abstract. Whatever the stone extracted the quarry and then cut, we can put it where we want, we can put another stone in the same place without difficulty. The Greek wall is homogeneous.

The Romanesque wall (below, right) is concrete. Each stone is unique and wants that another stone joins it perfectly. As in a living organism where each organ is (more or less), adapted to the variations of all the other organs, the Romanesque stone responds at all the others.

4. The Rejection of Perspective in Painting

The wall is the essential element of Romanesque art and spirit. It takes precedence. It will shape both the painting and sculpture of the 12th century.
In painting, for example, it was not possible to "pierce" the wall with an illusion of depth. Thus, the linear perspective, which the Renaissance would later develop, was not accepted. There could be no more than one plane, and everything had to be depicted on the same plane (see next chapter).

5. The Locations of Decoration

The places for sculpted decoration are therefore determined by the architecture. These are the points of junction:

• The capital at the junction of the column and the vault.

• The base at the junction of the column and the floor.

• The archivolts at the junction of the inside and outside (portal).

• Finally, the corbels at the junction of the wall and the roof.

6. The Chevet.

The chevet is the external eastern part of the church, which includes the apse, around which, like the half-columns around the column, the small apses are grouped, again evoking the subordination of the small to the large.
Viewed from the outside, the church appears as a gigantic sculpture, carved directly from the space, forming in this profane space an architectural block of sacred space. The gaze, flowing from the small apses to the apse, gradually rises toward the Sky, passing through the spire. 

7. The Problem of Sculpture

a. In the Egyptian scheme, "technical" and "objective" dimensions coexist. The statue of the pharaoh respects the proportions of the human body. However, when scaled to a gigantic size, visual distortions occur that are not corrected. The top of the statue appears smaller because it is farther away, while the base looks larger because it is closer. Similarly, the foreshortening that makes the arm farther back appear shorter than the one extending forward is ignored. The two arms are always the same size.

b. In the Greek Scheme, "Objective" Dimensions Prevail Over "Technical" Dimensions

In the Greek scheme, "objective" dimensions take precedence over "technical" dimensions. Visual correction is applied, ensuring that, regardless of the height of the statue, the impression given is that of the preservation of the human body's objective proportions, which have been canonized.

c. In the medieval scheme, objective dimensions are simply abandoned, and human or animal figures are subjected to "deformations," the reasons for which will need to be explained (in the next chapter).