Romanesque style in medieval architecture and art

Romanesque Style

REGIONAL VARIATIONS in the ROMANESQUE STYLE

In the southern regions of Lombard in Italy, one finds for the most part the ancient traditions and conservative styles of Romanesque architecture. The buildings of Tuscany seem to adhere more closely than those of any other region in Europe to the traditions of the Early Christian basilica. For example, the cathedral group of the city of Pisa contains conservative qualities and those of the great classical Renaissance of the late 11th and 12th centuries when "architects, craftsmen, poets and philosophers again confronted classical Christian prototypes and then interpreted them in an original yet somehow familiar way" (Smithson, 144). These cathedrals are large and five-aisled and have been influenced by Early Christian churches and overall, they express great verticality and non-classically styled pointed arches which were probably inspired by Islamic architecture as found in Spain circa 900 a.D.

One particular Tuscan church, San Miniato al Monte in the city of Florence, recalls Early Christian architecture externally, but internally, the church is timber-roofed as are most Tuscan Romanesque churches, and the nave is divided into three equal compartments by diaphragm arches that rise from compound piers. These piers alternate with simple columns in a sort of "a-b-b -- a rhythm that reminds one of abbey churches located in Germany" (Smithson, 145). The diaphragm arches which appeared in Tuscany sometime before 1060 had multiple functional and aesthetic purposes, mainly to support the high, thin walls and to provide fire-breaks within the wooden roof structure. These arches also compartmentalized the basilican interior in a manner so popular with most Romanesque builders in Tuscany.

In contrast to the regions of Lombard and Tuscany, a myriad of influences criss-crossed in Romanesque architecture which helped to create exotic new hybrids found nowhere else in the world of the 11th century. In the region of Aquitania in southwest France, it became customary to "cover church roofs with domes which reflected the influence of Byzantium or Armenia" (Williams, 223). Most of these Aquitanian churches contained a longitudinal, aisle-less nave which was covered by a sequence of domes which in turn were usually covered by a pitched wooden roof.

The end result of this style was quite practical since the pendentive-supported domes required far less buttressing than continuous barrel vaults, such as found in ancient Roman architecture. Although these churches and other similar structures "never aimed for the soaring heights of northern Romanesque structures" like those found in Germany, they do "represent an almost perfect fusion of geometric planning with elevation and clearly exhibit the functions of all their structural parts" (Williams, 225).