Romanesque architecture and the cultural renewal of medieval Europe

Cultural and Construction History Of Romanesque Period

Cultural Environment

The term Romanesque is an architectural category that refers to the art and architecture of the Mid -- Late Medieval Period in Europe (1000 to 1240 AD). It was coined in the nineteenth century to delineate features of the post-Roman Empire style. The Romanesque period saw the decline and downfall of the Roman Empire, a vacuum that was filled by the Roman Catholic Church. During this time, cathedrals and castles connected with the church and the Crusades sprang up in stone. Their Romanesque elements comprise round-headed arches, barrel vaults, apses, and decorations, and in southern Europe are often blended with Byzantine elements (Atrisgerinko). Additionally, the Romanesque style developed to reflect a rebirth of art, science, and culture in the High Middle Ages. This European intellectual revival came with a great deal of social, political, and economic transformation (Benson). There was also a renewal in scholasticism that coincided with the Romanesque architecture and its new technologies.

Relationship to Previous Periods

The Romanesque period is considered a furthering of the traditions of the Roman and Byzantine empires. Through feudalism, Europe became more prosperous and experienced urbanisation. This placed more emphasis on urban art and architecture related to the church, which was the cultural centre of every European town. The church continued as the vehicle for spiritual art and building, but gave artists new opportunities to experiment with past trends and designs.

Politically, Europe was divided and not as robust or unified a civilisation as that of the Islamic World. However, by the twelfth century the Hanseatic League had been founded, and the Holy Roman Empire had taken on the overall political administration of the old Carolingian (from Charlemagne) structure (Grant). Added to this were the Eastern artistic, cultural, and scientific influences brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. One scholar has written:

The twelfth century in Europe was in many respects an age of fresh and vigorous life. The epoch of the Crusades, of the rise of towns, and of the earliest bureaucratic states of the West, it saw the culmination of Romanesque art and the beginnings of Gothic; the emergence of the vernacular literatures; the revival of the Latin classics and of Latin poetry and Roman law; the recovery of Greek science, with its Arabic additions, and of much of Greek philosophy; and the origin of the first European universities. The twelfth century left its signature on higher education, on the scholastic philosophy, on European systems of law, on architecture and sculpture, on the liturgical drama, on Latin and vernacular poetry. (Haskin viii)

This important summary of the period by historian Charles H. Haskins describes the major features of the High Middle Age renaissance at the end of the eleventh century and its important connections with other periods and movements.

Essentially, the Carolingian renaissance was historically grounded in previous periods, especially the Islamic Golden Age and the Byzantine Empire with their contributions to the rediscovery of Greek science. It heralded later literary, artistic, and scientific achievements in the fifteenth-century Italian Renaissance and the seventeenth-century Scientific Revolution.

This medieval Renaissance was in both Latin and vernacular writing, with new dynastic histories like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles becoming common all over Europe. Henry II's Anglo-Norman court and its famous scholars like John of Salisbury became a model for the rest of the continent, along with an "explosion of learned writing" based on both the Latin and popular traditions (Damian-Grint xi). Given that this was a period of relative peace, order and stability compared to what came before or afterwards, scholars, clerics and students were able to travel more and exchange ideas. Growth in towns and the expansion of trade, commerce and the money economy also meant that "high-quality education was now available to those who could travel to acquire it" (Swanson 27). Paris became the centre of theology and philosophy, while Padua led the way in law, and graduates in law and theology were in great demand by the expanding church and civil administrations.

Contribution(s) to Western Civilisation

The twefth-century renaissance that accompanied the development of the Romanesque style was international in scope. For example, wandering scholars travelled from country to country developing their own genre of poetry (Sommerville). There were social, political, and economic transformations too. For example, the new institution of the university altered higher education, providing innovative techniques of thought and speech. Scholars working within the universities and monasteries created fresh approaches to ancient intellectual problems (Middle Ages).

Any association between the 12th Century Reniassance and the Renaiassance in Italy in the 15th and 16th Centuries would lead to questions of whether the medieval period produced any important artistic, literary and scientific figures like Galileo, Leonardo, Petrarch and Michelangelo, as opposed to St. Thomas of Aquinas and St. Francis of Asssi. It also raises the question of whether any imporant historical trasnition merits the title of a "remaissance" rather than all periods simply being "taken on their own terms" (Swanson 2). Even 12th Century writers and thinkers reverred to their era as a "renovatio" or renewal, and this was at least partially secular in nature rather than only eccesiastical (Benson et al. xvii). In addition, the 12Th Century Renaissance produced more individualism and "individuation, both of people and groups, which was founded on an examination of the inner life and an awreness of self" (Benson et al. xxiii). It has this much in common with humanists of the Italian Renaissance, although unlike them the medieval theologians and philosophers did not "perceive the discontinuity of history, a cuktural gap between Antiquity and the present" (Benson et al. xxiv). In short, they did not know that they were living in the Middle Ages or reagrd themselves as moderns reviving classical knowledge after a long period of backwardness and superstition.

2. Scientific Environment

Background

In the High Middle Ages, urban life revived along with trade, commerce and the money economy, while agriculture developed the two-field method that left one field fallow in each season (Medieval Economics). Norman institutions like serfdom "were superimposed on an existing system of open fields and mature, well-established towns involved in international trade" (Dyer 14). Despite economic dislocation in urban and extraction economies "including shifts in the holders of wealth and the location of these economies, the economic output of towns and mines developed and intensified over the period" (Hatcher 40). In England, the population grew from 1.5 million in 1086 to 4-5 million in 1300, although the majority of these were peasants and serfs (Hodgett 148; Kowalski 248). More land was "brought into production to feed the growing population or to produce wool for export to Europe" (Bailey 41). Mining increased in England, with the silver boom of the 12th century helping to "fuel a fast-expanding currency" (Dyer 115).

Towns

By the late-11th Century more than a hundred towns had developed with a combined population approaching 200,000, and by 1300 about 600 towns existed, including forty with populations over 2,000. Burghers and bourgeoisie (town dwellers) received charters of self-rule from medieval kings and aristocrats, and by 300 had won "the rights to regulate trade, levy taxes and hold courts" (Medieval Economics). Trade, commerce and the circulation of money kept expanding, at least until the crisis of famine and plague inhibited these developments in the 14th Century. A new class of merchants evolved in the towns that believed in liberalism and free enterprise, and became a third force between the aristocracy and peasantry (Medieval Economics).

Agriculture

Wheat remained the single most important crop, followed by but rye, barley and oats were (Bailey 44). Sheep, cattle, oxen and pigs were common, "although most of these breeds were much smaller than modern equivalents and most would have been slaughtered in winter" (Dyer 25). New villages had adopted an open field system "in which fields were divided into small strips of land, individually owned, with crops rotated between the field each year and the local woodlands and other common lands carefully managed" (Dyer 19-29). Most peasants were tied to the land and had to pay rents to the aristocracy in cash or kind (Bartlett 313). This early English economy was not entirely at subsistence level "and many crops were grown by peasant farmers for sale to the early English towns" (Dyer 14-26). At the same time, the number of slaves decreased and the Anglo-Saxon nobility gradually merged with the Normans (Bartlett 319; Dyer 81-82). Fishing became an important trade along the English coast, especially in Great Yarmouth and Scarborough (Bailey 51-53). Most of the peasant population lived in great poverty, though, and "records of household belongings show most possessing only 'old, worn-out and mended utensils' and tools" (Dyer 174).

Taxation

William enforced the collection of taxes be his shire reeves (sheriffs) and imposed new taxes on trade. He also commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086, "a vast document which attempted to record the economic condition of his new kingdom" (Douglas 299-302). Norman kings adopted the French feudal aid model, "a levy of money imposed on feudal subordinates when necessary; another method was to exploit the scutage system, in which feudal military service could be transmuted to a cash payment to the king" (Lawler and Lawler 6). These were increasingly unpopular and, along with the feudal charges, were condemned and constrained in the Magna Carta of 1215. As part of the formalisation of the royal finances, "Henry I created the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post which would lead to the maintenance of the Pipe rolls, a set of royal financial records of lasting significance to historians in tracking both royal finances and medieval prices" (Bartlett 159).

In 1275, the Great and Ancient Custom began to tax woolen products and hides," with the Great Charter of 1303 imposing additional levies on foreign merchants in England, with the poundage tax introduced in 1347" (Hodgett 203). In 1340, the discredited tallage tax system was finally abolished by Edward III. Assessing the total impact of changes to royal revenues between 1086 and 1290 is difficult. At best, Edward I was "struggling in 1300 to match in real terms the revenues that Henry II had enjoyed in 1100, and considering the growth in the size of the English economy, the king's share of the national income had dropped considerably" (Carpenter 51).

Trade

Unable to produce much they were often left to purchase items at a cost that exceeded their income. Compensation for these small holders came again "in the economic advances of the wealthier peasants. Private employment, steady wages and annual taxation took its roots in this byproduct of the expansion of the medieval market" (Medieval Economics). Some towns, such as York, "suffered from Norman sacking during William's northern campaigns. Other towns saw the widespread demolition of houses to make room for new motte and bailey fortifications, as was the case in Lincoln" (Douglas 313). In the years immediately after the invasion, a lot of wealth was drawn out of England in various ways by the Norman rulers and reinvested in Normandy, "making William immensely wealthy as an individual ruler" (Douglas 303-304).

New towns were usually located with access to trade routes in mind rather than defense, and the streets were laid out to make access to the town's market convenient. A growing percentage of England's population lived in urban areas, and "estimates suggest that this rose from around 5.5% in 1086 to up to 10% in 1377" (Pounds 80). London was also "an important hub for industrial activity; it had many blacksmiths making a wide range of goods, including decorative ironwork and early clocks (Geddes 174-175). The increasing wealth of the nobility and the church "was reflected in the widespread building of cathedrals and other prestigious buildings in the larger towns, in turn making use of lead from English mines for roofing" (Bailey, 46). Land transport remained much more expensive than river or sea transport during the period (Bartlett 361). Shipbuilding generally "remained on a modest scale and economically unimportant to England at this time," while transport remained very costly in comparison to the overall price of products (Hodgett 109). A large number of bridges were built during the 12th century to improve the trade network (Bartlett 364).

Money Supply

William the Conqueror maintained the old system of standardized coinage and used the term "sterling" as the name for the Norman silver coins (Stenton 162). Subsequent kings continued to increase control over coinage throughout the 13th century (Stenton 169). Before the Norman invasion "there had been around £50,000 in circulation as coin, but by 1311 this had risen to more than £1 million" (Bailey 49). As a result, coins were being "moved in barrels and sacks to be stored in local treasuries for royal use as the king travelled" (Stenton 163).

Mining

Four metals were mined commercially in England during the period, "namely iron, tin, lead and silver; coal was also mined from the 13th century onwards, using a variety of refining techniques" (Bailey 131-132). By end of the 12th Century, strip mining for iron was being replaced by "more advanced techniques, including tunnels, trenches and bell-pits" (Geddes 169). In addition, coal production grew in the 12th Century and "began to be commercially produced from bell-pits and strip mining" (Bailey 49). This led to a local economic boom and improvement in royal financing (Blanchard 33). Economically fragile, however, "the lead mines usually survived as a result of being subsidized by silver production" (Homer 62).

4. General Management

Background

Medieval economies in urban areas began to develop larger and more complex organizations and the application of increasingly sophisticated management techniques (Shama). For example, the Venice Arsenal of Venice mass-produced ships on assembly lines using manufactured parts, producing "nearly one ship every day and, at its height, employed 16,000 people" (Factory). Certain concepts developed by the military and industry of the period are still widely used today, although in a more refined and elaborate form, including the concept of corporation as a separate entity, which was "a remarkable and extremely useful contribution of the Late Roman law" (Sharma). Besides the first generation mass production system of Venice Arsenal, two other management systems were developed during the Romanesque period, they were domestic system and guild system.

Domestic System

For most of the Romanesque period, travel was arduous and extremely rare. Transportation systems were unreliable, expensive, or dangerous. People generally stayed in their towns and worked in their homes or on farms. Most of those who were not involved in agriculture did not commute to work. This is important because of the rise of domestic system (History of Organization of Work).

With rare exceptions, though, domestic or cottage industry was the main method of manufacturing -- which includes many producers, working from their homes, typically part time. Most industries like textiles and shoemaking which are usually operated from large centralized factories were cottage industries before the Industrial Revolution. One of the factors which allowed the industrial revolution to take place in Western Europe was the presence of business people or 'factors' who had the ability to expand the scale of their operations. Peasant families worked part time in this domestic system to earn extra cash, especially during winter.

Domestic system, for example that involved in the manufacture of textiles, was organised among families, whose homes were often located in a semi-circle, allowing each family to complete a particular stage in production and then to pass it to the next until production was complete. There would be a division of labour for each activity, such as shearing the sheep, cleaning the wool, combing, bleaching, and dying it, spinning the yarn, and weaving the yarn into cloth. The whole organisation of activity occurred without commuting, bosses, regulation, common buildings, and other modern forms of work structure. Such groups of workers were inextensive and self-organising, thus there was little need for management (History of Organization of Work).

Guild System

Trade guilds were formed by skilled tradesmen, including leather goods makers, furniture makers, and blacksmiths. The precursor to labour unions, these guilds organized the specialized labour necessary for society to stay in operation. Typically the craftsmen worked out of their shops, which were located in or next to their homes (History of Organization of Work).

According to Etienne Boileau's Book of Handicrafts, by the mid-13th Century there were no less than "100 guilds in Paris, a figure which by the 14th Century had risen to 350" (Rutenburg 30). The guild system reached a mature state in Germany circa 1300 and held on in the German cities into the 19th Century, with some special privileges for certain occupations remaining today, and "by 15th Century, Hamburg had 100 guilds, Cologne 80, and Lubeck 70." The latest guilds to develop in Western Europe were the gremios of Spain (Burton and Marique). Not all city economies were controlled by guilds; some cities were "free." Where guilds were in control, they shaped labor, production and trade. In Ghent as in Florence the woolen textile industry developed as a congeries of specialized guilds. The appearance of the European guilds "was tied to the emergent money economy, and to urbanization. Before this time it was not possible to run a money-driven organization, as commodity money was the normal way of doing business" (Braudel).

Mass Production System

Construction of the Arsenal began around 1104, during Venice's republican era. It was the largest industrial complex in Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution,"spanning an area of about 45 ha (110 acres), or about fifteen percent of Veni. Surrounded by a 2 mi (3.2 km) rampart, laborers and shipbuilders regularly worked within the Arsenal, building ships that sailed from the city's port" (Giove, Rosato and Breil ). Prefabricated parts were assembled into a ship in as little as one day, while "an exclusive forest owned by the Arsenal navy, in the Montello hills area of Veneto, provided the Arsenal's wood supply" (Davis 201).

The Venetian Arsenal's ability to mass produce galleys on an almost assembly-line process was unique for its time and resulted in possibly the single largest industrial complex in Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution. Indeed even Dante himself was transfixed by the wonder of the Arsenal, who found it inspiring enough to include it in his Inferno:

As in the Arsenal of the Venetians

Boils in winter the tenacious pitch

To smear their unsound vessels ov'er again

For sail they cannot; and instead thereof

One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks

The ribs of that which many a voyage has made

One hammers at the prow, one at the stern

This one makes oars and that one cordage twists

Another meds the mainsail and the mizzen (Lane 163)

The Arsenal's amazing capacity for production was rare in a "time when most of Europe had no manufacturing abilities more efficient than the guild system, the slow and tradition-bound way craftsmen had of passing on skills to their sons or apprentices while monopolizing production and sale of craft pieces in a given region... The Arsenal was something different, a harbinger of future times." In this respect at least, the Arsenal represented a huge breakthrough in the ability to mass-produce items, or in the very least, producing items at a scale that was unique to its time (Dolinsky).

5. Architectural Principles

Background

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 8th to the 10th century, although it developed into Gothic in the 12th cCntury, with more use of Islamic-style pointed arches. Combining features of Western Roman and Byzantine buildings, "Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, its thick walls, round arches, sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers and decorative arcading" (Fletcher). Many castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by churches, while the "enormous quantity of churches built in the Romanesque period was succeeded by the still busier period of Gothic architecture, which partly or entirely rebuilt most Romanesque churches in prosperous areas like England" (Fletcher).

Spatial Planning

Many parish churches, abbey churches and cathedrals are in the Romanesque style, or were originally built in the Romanesque style and have subsequently undergone changes. St. Mark's Basilica, Venice and the Church of the Holy Apostles have a Greek cross plan with five domes. In the same region, Angouleme Cathedral is "an aisle-less church of the Latin cross plan, more usual in France, but is also roofed with domes" (Fletcher). In Germany, Romanesque churches are often of distinctive form, "having apses at both east and west ends, the main entrance being central to one side. It is probable that this form came about to accommodate a baptistery at the west end" (Harvey). During the Romanesque period there was a development from this two-stage elevation to a three-stage elevation in which there is a gallery, known as a triforium

Cathedral East and West Ends

Romanesque church facades, generally to the west end of the building, are usually symmetrical, and have a large central portal made significant by its moldings or porch and an arrangement of arched-topped windows. In Italy there is often a single central ocular window. The common decorative feature is arcading (Fletcher). Smaller churches often have a single tower which is usually placed to the western end, in France or England, either centrally or to one side, while larger churches and cathedrals often have two.

In France, Saint-Etienne, Caen presents the model of a large French Romanesque facade in which towers rise through three tiers, "the lowest of tall blind arcading, the next of arcading pierced by two narrow windows and the third of two large windows, divided into two lights by a colonnette" (Toman). While the form is typical of northern France, "its various components were common to many Romanesque churches of the period across Europe. Similar facades are found in Portugal. In England, Southwell Cathedral has maintained this form, despite the insertion of a huge Gothic window between the towers." Lincoln and Durham must once have looked like this. In Germany, the Limburg Cathedral has a rich variety of openings and arcades in horizontal stories of varying heights, while in France, "simple churches without apses and with no decorative features were built by the Cistercians who also founded many houses in England, frequently in remote areas" (Huyghe).

Architectural and Figurative Sculpture

In England, such decoration could be discrete, as at Hereford and Peterborough cathedrals, or have a sense of massive energy as at Durham where the diagonal ribs of the vaults are all outlined with chevrons, which were combined to create one of the richest and most dynamic interiors of the Romanesque period. Although much sculptural ornament was sometimes applied to the interiors of churches, the focus of such decoration was generally the west front, and in particular, the portals. Chevrons and other geometric ornaments, referred to by 19th Century writers as "barbaric ornament" are more 'barbaric' in England, Germany and Scandinavia, such as that seen at Speyer Cathedral. France produced a great range of ornament, "with particularly fine interwoven and spiralling vines in the 'manuscript' style occurring at Saint-Sernin, Toulouse" (Holmes; Harvey).

During the 11th and 12th centuries figurative sculpture in a distinctly Romanesque style existed all over Europe, although the most spectacular sculptural projects are concentrated in South-Western France, Northern Spain and Italy (Howe). In South-Western France "many have survived, with impressive examples at Saint-Pierre, Moissac, Souillac" (Hall 154), Autun Cathedral has "a Last Judgement of great rarity in that it has uniquely been signed by its creator, Giselbertus" (Gardner; Harvey).

Murals

In England, France and the Netherlands murals were systematically destroyed during the Reformation, or in later wars. The north wall of the nave would often "contain narrative scenes from the Old Testament, and the south wall from the New Testament. On the rear west wall would be a Last Judgement, with an enthroned and judging Christ at the top" (Seddon). Other parts of the church would have the "martyrdom of the local saints shown in the crypt, and Apocalypse in the narthex and Christ in Majesty." The range of colors employed was limited to light blue-green, yellow ochre, reddish brown and black. Similar paintings exist in Serbia, Spain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere in France.

6. Construction Technology

Background

Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. 6th Century octagonal Byzantine churches like the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna inspired "the greatest building of the Dark Ages in Western Europe, the Emperor Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel, Aachen, Germany, built around the year AD 800" (Gardner). Romanesque construction, like Byzantine architecture "relies upon its walls or sections of walls called piers" (Fletcher).

Romanesque building construction draws on the structural features of the Roman Empire period, including the following building elements: thick and heavy walls, flat square buttresses, round arches and arcade, thick and heavy pillars, stone barrel and groin vaults (Sacred Destinations).

Walls, Buttresses, Arches and Other Supports

Walls of Romanesque buildings are often of massive thickness with few and comparatively small openings, and are often double shells filled with rubble. Smooth ashlar masonry was not a "distinguishing feature of the style, particularly in the earlier part of the period, but occurred chiefly where easily worked limestone was available" (Huyghe). Because of the massive nature of Romanesque walls, "buttresses are not a highly significant feature, as they are in Gothic architecture. In the case of Durham Cathedral, flying buttresses have been employed, but are hidden inside the triforium gallery" (Clifton-Taylor). In many cases, arches were a direct imitation of Islamic architecture. Other late Romanesque churches such as Durham Cathedral introduce the pointed arch in as a structural device. An arcade is a row of arches, supported on piers or columns, which occurs in the interior of large churches, separating the nave from the aisles, and in large secular interiors spaces, such as the great hall of a castle, supporting the timbers of a roof or upper floor. Arcades also occur in cloisters and atriums, enclosing an open space. In Romanesque architecture, "piers were often employed to support arches that occur at the intersection of two large arches, such as those under the crossing of the nave and transept" (Fletcher; Gardner).

Arcades of columns cut from single pieces are also common in structures that do not bear massive weights of masonry, such as cloisters, where they are sometimes paired (Fletcher; Toman). Architectural compromises of this type are "seen where materials have been salvaged from a number of buildings. Salvaged columns were also used to a lesser extent in France" (Toman). In most parts of Europe, Romanesque columns were massive "as they supported thick upper walls with small windows, and sometimes heavy vaults. The most common method of construction was to build them out of stone cylinders called drums, as in the crypt at Speyer Cathedral" (Toman).

In churches, typically the aisles are vaulted, but the nave is roofed with timber, as is the case at both Peterborough and Ely (Clifton-Taylor). In Italy where open wooden roofs are common, "tie beams frequently occur in conjunction with vaults, the timbers have often been decorated as at San Miniato al Monte, Florence" (Fletcher). However, the barrel vault generally required the support of solid walls, or walls in which the windows were very small (Toman). Groin vaults occur in early Romanesque buildings, notably at Speyer Cathedral where the high vault of about 1060 is the first employment in Romanesque architecture of this type of vault for a wide nave (Toman). Groin vaults are frequently separated by transverse arched ribs of low profile as at Speyer and Santiago de Compostela. At La Madeleine, Vezelay, the ribs are square in section, strongly projecting and polychrome (Pevsner).

Towers

Towers were an important feature of Romanesque churches and a great number of them are still standing. Large churches of Spain and Portugal usually have two towers. Large paired towers of square plan could also occur on the transept ends, such as those at Tournai Cathedral in Belgium. In Germany, where four towers frequently occur, they often have spires which may cathedrals of Limburg or Speyer. It is also common to see bell or onion-shaped spires of the Baroque period surmounting Romanesque towers in central and Eastern Europe (Toman). Norman towers exist at the cathedrals of Durham, Exeter, Southwell, Norwich and Tewkesbury Abbey. This is the case in nearly all Italian churches both large and small, except in Sicily where a number of churches were founded by the Norman rulers and are more French in appearance (Fletcher). Two fine examples occur at Lucca, at the church of San Frediano and at the Duomo. It is also seen in Spain (Fletcher). In Italy, there are a number of large free-standing towers which are circular, the most famous of these being the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Italy and Spain such as that of the Old Cathedral, Salamanca, which is covered by a dome supported on a ribbed vault (Toman).

Wheelbarrows

Wheelbarrows were useful in building construction, mining operations, and agriculture, and universally featured a wheel at or near the front, which is "the arrangement now universally found on wheelbarrows" (Lewis 453-455). The English historian of science M.J.T. Lewis" has identified in English and French sources four mentions of wheelbarrows between 1172 and 1222, three of them designated with a different term" (Lewis 463). The first depiction appears in an English manuscript, Matthew Paris's Vitae duorum Offarum, completed in 1250 (Matthies 357-358). By the 13th Century, the wheelbarrow "proved useful in building construction, mining operations, and agriculture. However, going by surviving documents and illustrations the wheelbarrow remained a relative rarity until the 15th Century" (Lewis 256). It also seemed to be limited to England, France, and the Low Countries (Matthies 358).

7. Master Builder Tradition

7.1 Background

The Romanesque period coincided with the rise of the guilds throughout Europe. During that time craftsmen formed guilds as a means of organisation and there are some extant written contracts, particularly those relating to church structures. Architects were normally described as master masons, or Magister lathomorum (The Medieval Builder).

Some cities did not use guilds and were deemed "free." The pooling of labour in the trades made the guilds a powerful force. Part of the idea was job security, so that out of the guilds developed the idea of lifetime progression (a career) within a particular trade or craft. The progression was from apprentice through journeyman to master craftsman, just as it is today. The problem with a guild was that non-members were shut out of the trade. There were historical cases of struggle between greater guilds and the lesser artisan guilds. What is significant is that where the guilds functioned they held a monopoly on trade in that particular craft (Guild). In addition, master builders would often apprentice their sons and grandsons to their projects, allowing for continuity and a sort of family craft to persist.

Romanesque work typically included rounded arch windows, arched doors, and arched entrances. The important rose and wheel styles of window are Romanesque (Browne 13 -- 20). Most of the Romanesque masterpieces are cathedrals, since the Roman Catholic Church was the principal force behind construction projects in Europe. These cathedrals were built on the military model prevalent at a time during which warfare was perpetual and castles were the other major type of monumental building. Like the Crusader castles, the Romanesque master builders built the cathedrals to be heavy and strong, as though fortified for the same strategic defensive purposes. Their thick, weight-bearing walls created a dark and gloomy atmosphere. It was this type of austere ambience that medieval master builders thought was conducive to the experience of God's presence. Beauty was not the most important criterion for building. The cathedrals normally had triple arches that symbolized the Trinity (Edson 173 -- 88).

7.2 Education of a Master Builder (300 words)

Founders of guilds were usually free, independent master craftsmen and only they were allowed to become full members. Only after a period of apprenticeship and journeying could artisans join a guild, after they had produced a masterpiece (Guild). Apprentices would typically not learn more than the most basic techniques until they were "trusted by their peers to keep the guild's or company's secrets." This system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. In France, apprenticeships also developed between the "ninth and thirteenth centuries, with guilds structured around apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen, continuing in this way until 1791, when the guilds were suppressed." Apprenticeships have a long tradition in the United Kingdom, dating back to around the 12th century and flourishing by the 14th century. The parents or guardians of a minor would "agree with a Guild's Master craftsman the conditions for an apprenticeship which would bind the minor for 5 -- 9 years (e.g. from age 14 to 21). They would pay a premium to the craftsman and the contract would be recorded in an indenture" (Aldrich 195-205). Masterpieces illustrated the abilities of the aspiring master craftsman and were "often retained by the guild" (Aldrich 195-205). Only with the rise of the factory system in the 18th and 19th Centuries was this feudal guild system replaced by modern mass production methods of cheap consumer goods, although the artisan and craft tradition remained powerful in Germany, France and eastern and southern Europe well into modern times.

7.3 Career of a Master Builder

The Romanesque master builders incorporated structural advances in technology into their architecture to enable larger and taller buildings with new features and decorative styling. For instance, the arch was used in a new form. The semi-circular arch, which evolved into the Gothic style, was the first major improvement in building techniques since the Roman Empire. This form of arch increased building strength and load-bearing capability. The stone vault ceiling and buttress were also employed on a wider scale (Castles Architecture). Similarly, the use of symmetrical planning and ratio in design demonstrated a keen application of mathematical knowledge to building technology (Fletcher).

The master builders took into account interior factors as well. Concepts of the use of space were changed (Carlsson 91 -- 114). Interior planning utilised mathematics, knowledge of materials, and specialized tools to create personal living spaces inside fortified buildings. According to Williams, this "heralded a new idea in the design of comfort" that forced master builders to think out technical issues of indoor plumbing, water, and insulation from heat and cold. Objects and architectural features often had both functional and aesthetic value. During the Crusades, the use of Middle Eastern rugs became fashionable. At first they were employed for decorative purposes rather than to cover floors. The stone walls began to be plastered to insulate them against both heat and cold, which in turn made possible the painting of frescoes for decoration (Erlich 85 -- 93). Aesthetically, the master builders utilised enamel and ivory work, as well as detailed bronze and gold sculptures, as stylish adornments. Stained glass and embroidery were extensive and detailed (Toman). The Normans builders also hung their walls with tapestries. These utilities mitigated to some extent the often harsh, dark, and heavy stone appearance of the Romanesque castles and cathedrals.

The length of time required to complete the grand Romanesque cathedrals gives some indication of how massive these projects were. Often they took generations to build, exceeding by many years the time it took to complete the Roman projects. The techniques were massive as well, surpassing those used in several hundred prior years. The builders used large-scale machinery alongside human capital and material resources (Sacred Destinations). Due to the longevity of the construction process and advances in architectural techniques, there were frequent additions to the original plans. These design changes resulted in a mixed look within the structure (Conant). In general, the Romanesque period was important in introducing a heavy and bulky construction style of building into Western architecture that included the semi-circular arch while retaining ties with the past.