Romanesque=HierarchyContemplative vs. Active Life

• Opposition between spiritual and secular world

• Contemplative life-- represented by monks and the church---monasteries

• Active life -- represented by laypeople living in a feudal society---castles and villages, primogeniture

• Church and society adhere to strict hierarchy, spiraling upward to God of the church or King of the castle

Feudalism—king as head Monasteries-God as head

Serfs belowMonks below

Medieval Conflicts• Mysticism vs Rationalism• Contemplative vs Active• Poverty vs Luxury• Faith vs Knowledge• Latin vs Vernacular• Sacred vs Secular• Feudal kingdoms vs Emerging Nations

How can these dualities be reconciled?

SUMMA a complex theory of the universe

Thomas Aquinas’ summa (1273 CE) stated that beauty can only be seen through order and unity

Faith is brought into a rational system

Romanesque (800-1150)

St. Sernin, 1080 CE Toulouse, Francea pilgrimage church

•Roman basilica shape with a cross design

•Little exterior ornamentation

•Spires begin to show emphasis on vertical---hierarchy!

RomanesqueTYMPANUMS and CAPITALS

with low-relief sculpture

“Sheep go to heaven; goats go to hell” Cake

Last Judgment---what would you feel if you walked under this door?

ROMANESQUEARCHITECTURE

•Rounded arches•Barrel vaulting•Thick walls•Low spires•Minimal decoration•Tympanums, capitals•Inner not outer•Abbey not urban

GOTHICARCHITECTURE

•Pointed arches•Ribbed groin vaulting•Stained glass•Gargoyles•Flying buttresses•Outer and inner ornamentation•Urban not abbey

800-1150 CE 1200-1400 CE

Romanesque vs. Gothic Nave

Chartres Cathedral,

outside of Parisafter fire construction:

1194-1260 CE

GOTHIC1200-1400

Right spire, 1145 CELeft spire, 1180 CE

Rose window

Pointed arches ribbed groin vaulting

ExteriorPortal sculpture

Chartres Stained Glass•Rose window•Lancet windows•Light expresses ecstasy•Inner blends with outer•The world dematerializes

Bakers’signature

Minerals are blended into molten glassDetails are added with metal oxides

Lead strips join pieces

Patrons are families, royalty, guilds

GOTHIC

Chartres Cathedral

Buttresses

labyrinth

gargoyles

NOTRE DAME de PARIS“Our Lady”

1183-1250 CE

Paris becomes center of education and culture

Statues and stained glass tell holy stories to the illiterate

UPWARD….VERTICALRibbed arches

Flying buttressesLancet windowsPointed spiresLayered design

Rooftop gargoyles

Notre DameCalled the “Temple of Reason” during revolutionary times, where much art was destroyed.

Notre Dame was rebuilt in the 1800s, and was the setting for Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Romantic novel with a tragic, deformed hero and a “Madonna/whore” Medieval leading lady

Sculpture used by clergy to tell biblical storiesOrnamentation more 3-dimensional than Romanesque

More detailed tympanum with statues becoming freed from the walls