Romanesque Art: Sculpture1050-1200

Europe ca. 1100

Romanesque Europe:11th-12th centuries

Issues:Cult of RelicsPilgrimageCrusades

Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France 1070-1120

Romanesque Portal,Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre at Moissac, France, 1100

Detail of trumeau, Romanesque Portal,Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre at Moissac, France, 1100

Detail of trumeau at Moissac, ca. 1100. Left: St. Paul. Right: Prophet Jeremiah.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum.

Christ in Majesty, Tympanum of the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France 12th cent. Tympanum, detail of artist inscription: “Gislebertus hoc fecit”

Cloister

Abbey churchPlan and general view of the cloister of the abbey church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, ca. 1100-1115

Detail of historiated capitals in the cloister of the abbey church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, ca. 1100-1115

Historiated capitals at Moissac, ca. 1100Left: the Temptation of Christ.

Historiated capitals at Moissac, ca. 1100Left: the Temptation of Christ.

Right: Fantastic monsters

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): Monk and abbot of Cistercian Monastery at Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia , XII. 29: “But . . . in the cloisters, before the eyes of the brothers while they read -- what is that ridiculous monstrosity doing, an amazing kind of deformed beauty and yet a beautiful deformity? What are the filthy apes doing there? The fierce lions? The monstrous centaurs? The creatures, part man and part beast? The striped tigers? The fighting soldiers? The hunters blowing horns? You may see many bodies under one head, and conversely many heads on one body. On one side the tail of a serpent is seen on a quadruped, on the other side the head of a quadruped is on the body of a fish. Over there an animal has a horse for the front half and a goat for the back; here a creature which is horned in front is a horse from behind. In short, everywhere so plentiful and astonishing a variety of contradictory forms is seen that one would rather read in the marble than in books, and spend the whole day wondering at every single one of them than in meditating on the law of God. Good God! If one is not ashamed of the absurdity, why is one not at least troubled at the expense?”

Moissac capitals, ca. 1100

Abbey church at Fontenay, France. Church begun in 1139. Cistercian monastic order.

Nave of abbey church at Fontenay, France. Church begun in 1139