



KOMAXESQUK AIJCIIITl-XTUiK. 



ROMANESQUK A i;i 1 1 1TECTURE. 



160 



which are due to the character of tin- inhabitants, and the phyaical (or 

 ological) peculiarities of the country, ami which are always found 

 imloM <li<- inventive faculties are .. nsr !!, d l.y rigid ecclesiastical or 

 nrufecriunal precedent*. We may nay, however, that as the birthplace 

 of the style was Italy, it was there that it retained inoet deeidedh the 

 nMiililnrn to iU original, the divergence from the classic type be- 

 coming more marked in proportion to its distance in place an well .-.-. 

 time from iU source. And whilst in other countries the Romanesque 

 merged in the 18th century into Pointed Gothic, in Italy it maintained 

 itaelf as the prevalent style till the advent of the Hi 



"hall here treat of Romanesque architecture generally : the 

 peculiar forms it assumed in our own country, first in a very rude 

 shape in the Anglo-Saxon, and afterwards in a more developed and 

 artistic condition as the Anglo-Norman style, are noticed under 

 XORMAX ABfiirrriTfRE. and SAXON AHCHITKI-TI-KE, to which articles 

 w refer for many of the details necessarily omitted here, and which 

 ore in a measure applicable to the style in other countries. 



The earlier buildings of Christian Rome were merely a degenerate 

 imitation of the older buildings. From the establishment, if not from 

 the tolerance, of Christianity the ancient basilicas were employed as 

 churches ; and the earliest churches erected, were modelled on the type 

 of the basilica. Presbyteries, chapels, and other features were gradually 

 added, and ultimately the church assumed the form of a Latin cross ; 

 but even then the principles of the basilica form were retained. 

 [BAKU II'A ; C"m IICH ] In the buildings of the degenerate Roman 

 period it was usual to employ the materials as well as to imitate 

 the forms of the older edifices and columns, and other ornamental 

 fragments were appropriated to places which they could only be made 

 to fit by various modifications and contrivances. Hence the classic 

 proportions, at first little heeded, were soon entirely forgotten, and 

 the different parts of the building were designed according to the 

 necessities of the case, or the taste or caprice of the architect. Arches 

 were made of all sizes and placed anywhere. Columns were arranged 

 without regard to the orders ; and the dimensions of the shafts were 

 regulated merely by the weight they had to sustain. Mouldings and 

 earrings assumed the most irregular and fantastic patterns. 



Thus, then, we perceive, when Romanesque architecture was emerging 

 from the chaos, references in all its parts to ancient Roman forms and 

 principles, but the utmost licence in their application ; and what the 

 architects of the period did, was to reduce the discord into order, and 

 to mould the whole into a consistent system. Among the distinctive 

 characteristics of this style in its maturity may be mentioned in the 

 first place, its general ttassiveness of construction and severity of 

 character. The walls arc usually of great thickness and pierced by 

 windows of a comparatively small size and few in number. Indeed, in 

 nothing does pointed Gothic differ more markedly from the round- 

 arched style out of which it grew than in the enlargement and the 

 prominency given to windows a characteristic due to the introduction 

 of painted glass, and the admiration felt for it by the ecclesiastics of the 

 west and north, the decorations of the Romanesque, essentially of 

 Italian origin, having been chiefly mural paintings and mosaics. But 

 besides the massiveness of construction, a leading characteristic is the 

 predominance of horizontal lines in the general composition, which 

 again distinguishes this style from Pointed Gothic, in which a general 

 tendency to vertically is as decidedly apparent. 



The semicircular or aegmental arch is distinctive of the style. It is 

 employed for all purposes, and occurs of all sizes in the same building. 

 Usually it is employed in combination with the columns, the column 

 being made the essential support of the arch all appearance of en- 

 tablature being now discarded. At first the columns themselves were 

 mostly tapering, not cylindrical like the slender detached ones met 

 with in the Pointed style, and the capitals bore a more or less close 

 resemblance to those of the Corinthian order in contour and proportion. 

 The capital itself, however, was larger in proportion to the rest of the 

 i .'iiinm, thereby affording a greater surface or impost for the arches 

 to rest upon ; and also combining the appearance of security at that 

 l-.int with general lightness of appearance. The shaft was mostly 

 plain, yc-t frequently highly ornamental, striated or carved in different 

 ways, and sometimes twisted, either singly or with two steins twining 

 spirally round each i 'thiT. Columns funnelling examples of all these 

 different modes occur in the cloiBters of Sim Paolo au.l San Ciovanni 

 Latrrano t l!"!jn- ; and the* capitals present quite as much variety, it 

 seeming to I he aim on vuch occasions to introduce as much 



diversity as possible, instead of so arranging the columns as to have two 

 of tli.- some kind placed together: a practice probably originating in 

 making use of fragments taken from other buildings, and afterwards 

 retained as conducing to variety and richness. 



Although the arches were, as frequently as not. quite plain, and 

 without archivolt mouldings of any kind, the use of orchivolt* 

 DO means uncommon ; sometimes consisting of merely a single 

 ing enclosing a plain border around the arch, at others divided into 

 > lew enriched, as in the front of the cathedral of Pisa, 

 in which building the arches describe more than a semicircle above 

 the capitals of the columns, being prolonged downwards by a deep 

 abacus, consisting in some places of two, in others of a sing! 

 block resting immediately on the capital. Similar blocks or atiari occur 

 in the remains of Frederick Barbarosn's palace at Gelnhausen, where 

 small heads or masks are introduced immediately above such abaci, so 



as to fill up the same space there between the arches, and continue iu 

 some degree the vertical lines produced by the columns. 



In some Romanesque buildings the design consists of little more 

 than an assemblage of arche . disposed, the apertures for 



windows being few and small and destitute of ornament ; and they 

 generally form either successive tiers, one above the other, like HO 

 many blank galleries, or occur at intervals in the vertical line of the 

 edifice. In these kinds of arcades [ ARCADE], that which is uppermost 

 is generally of much [smaller dimensions than the one beneath, go 

 that two of its arches occupy no wider space than one of those below 

 it. Another practice peculiar to this style is that of carrying a range 

 of arches beneath a gable, ascending one above the other in the same 

 sloping direction as the sides of the roof ; instances of which occur 

 in the fronts of the Duomo at Parma, San Michele at 1'avia, and in those 

 of the cathedral at Carrara, and the church of San Zeno at Verona, in 

 which two latter instances, however, the bases of the columns are all 

 on the same level, and consequently the columns themselves gradually 

 increase in height as they approach the centre. The front of the 

 cathedral at Pisa offers a double instance of the same kind in the ii]>|>er, 

 or gable story, and in the half gables over the ends of the second one, 

 with the difference, that in the latter the pillars support merely blocks 

 placed beneath the inclined line of the roof. To this may be added 

 the very prevalent custom of making an upper cornice or border of 

 very small interlacing arches, or of mouldings producing that ap]>ear- 

 ance. Interlacing arches were also very common in the decorative 



::.: -.:.]. t, 



Among the other more prominent characteristics of this style, which 

 are all that we can here touch upon, it should be noticed, that whether 

 forming actual porticos and galleries, or closed up and applied merely 

 as decoration, the arcades were generally small in proportion to the 

 building itself, and instead of occupying the entire width of the 

 front, or other elevation, were mostly inserted into distinct compart- 

 ments of it, slightly recessed within the general face of the wall, so 

 that the plain spaces between them assumed the appearance of but- 

 tresses, or, when narrow, of plain pilasters continued up to the cornice 

 of the gable or roof, and cutting through whatever string-courses, or 

 other horizontal mouldings (if there were any), divided the different 

 stories or stages of the edifice. Such buttress-like surfaces for 

 buttresses they cannot properly be termed were occasionally more or 

 less enriched ; sometimes so much so, as to produce vertical lines of 

 ornament continued the entire height of the building, as in the front 

 of San Michele at Pavia. When, as was frequently done, these surfaces 

 were made wider at the angles of the front than elsewhere, they gave 

 an expression of repose and of great solidity to it, serving as it were as 

 a frame to the architectural decoration. 



Pinnacles are of rare occurrence, and when introduced have the look 

 of being set on the part they rise above, being separated from it by 

 horizontal mouldings ; besides which they are generally low, and some- 

 what resemble pedestals. Pinnacles of this description may be found 

 surmounting pilaster-breaks, and cutting through either an hori/ontal 

 cornice or the sloping cornices of a gable, as in the front of the cathedral 

 at Monza. 



Windows, as we have said, were for the most part sparingly intro- 

 uced, and of small dimensions, so that they rarely contributed much 

 towards embellishment ; circular or wheel windows are, however, not 

 unfrequently introduced in gables, and often with considerable 

 Doorways were generally made very important features, the chief 

 ornament being lavished upon them. The aperture itself jid.. 

 generally plain, and also square-headed, but it was enclosed in a recess 

 formed by a series of arches one within another and resting upon 

 columns ; and so deep was this outer casing as to be frequently very 

 nearly as wide as the actual doorway. Sometimes the tympanum was 

 filled with sculpture, and the arches and capitals were very richly 

 arved. 



Vaulting is another important characteristic of the style. At first 

 the ordinary Roman semi-nylindrical or waggon vaulting prevailed; 

 but the awkward appearance of continuous vaulting supported by dis- 

 connected columns seems to have soon arrested attention, and the 

 'luadripartite vaulting was introduced. This was succeeded by 

 x]i.ntite, which met most of the immediate requirements of the 

 but led to other innovations which in turn introduced new el: 

 Indeed, as Mr. Wliewell. Mr. Scott, and other distinguished auth< 

 have suggested, and as appears highly probable, it may have been the 

 1 1 efforts of tho builders to improve the system of vaulting 

 which led to the use of the pointed arch, and ultimately to the 

 adoption of the pointed style. 



There are other pointa on which we might dwell, as the ^ neral 

 employment of the apsidal termination, and the use of the triforium 

 and the clerestory, but for these features it must suffice to refer to the 

 articles Arsis, CI.KKESTOIIV, and TRIFORIUM; and again for the illus- 

 trations of details omitted here to NOUMAN AUCBITKCTURR. We may, 

 iiowever, just add a word or two on Towers, a new and important feature 

 n this style of architecture. In Italy, towers only occur as detached 

 Miildingx [('AMi'AXii.KsJ, but in the Romanesque churches of Germany, 

 France, and England, they are an essential and very characteristic. 

 portion. As the rule they are square in plan ; massive in structure ; 

 )ierced with a few narrow, round-arched windows, which are often 

 coupled and enclosed with a larger arch ; the surface is often orna- 



