Romanesque

Study of the typological and architectonical characteristics of the Romanesque bell towers in Lombard style from Alt Urgell and Andorra, in which several constuctive items (levels, windows, decoration, etc) are analyzed. These allow to do a comparative study between these bell towers and to find their influences.

A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Art History, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2019) (a collection of thirty-nine original essays from leading and upcoming scholars in the field, each historiographically analyzing one of a systematic and editorially determined range of subjects in the development of Romanesque and Gothic art history; eleven new essays were added to the revised original thirty essays of the first edition; this includes my introductory essay, "A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art").

1. Introduction
A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art
Conrad Rudolph

2. Artifex and Opifex – The Medieval Artist
Beate Fricke

3. Vision
Cynthia Hahn

4. Materials, Materia, "Materiality"
Aden Kumler

5. Reception of Images by Medieval Viewers
Madeline H. Caviness

6. Narrative, Narratology, and Meaning
Suzanne Lewis

7. Formalism
Linda Seidel

8. Gender and Medieval Art
Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz

9. Gregory the Great and Image Theory in Northern Europe During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Herbert L. Kessler

10. Iconography
Shirin Fozi

11. Art and Exegesis
Christopher G. Hughes

12. Whodunit? Patronage, the Canon, and the Problematics of Agency in Romanesque and Gothic Art
Jill Caskey

13. Collecting (and Display)
Pierre Alain Mariaux

14. The Concept of Spolia
Dale Kinney

15. The Monstrous
Thomas E. A. Dale

16. Making Sense of Marginalized Images in Manuscripts and Religious Architecture
Laura Kendrick

17. Definitions and Explanations of the Romanesque Style in Architecture from the 1960s to the Present Day
Eric Fernie

18. Romanesque Sculpture in Northern Europe
Colum Hourihane

19. Modern Origins of Romanesque Sculpture
Robert A. Maxwell

20. The Historiography of Romanesque Manuscript Illumination
Adam Cohen

21. The Study of Gothic Architecture
Stephen Murray

22. France, Germany, and the Historiography of Gothic Sculpture
Jacqueline Jung

23. Gothic Manuscript Illustration: The Case of France
Anne D. Hedeman

24. “Specially English”: Gothic Illumination c.1190 to the Early Fourteenth Century
Kathryn A. Smith

25. From Institutional to Private and from Latin to the Vernacular: German Manuscript Illumination in the Thirteenth Century
Michael Curschmann

26. Glazing Medieval Buildings
Elizabeth Pastan

27. Toward a Historiography of the Sumptuous Arts
Brigitte Buettner

28. Reliquaries
Cynthia Hahn

29. East Meets West: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States
Jaroslav Folda

30. Gothic in the Latin East
Michalis Olympios

31. Art and Liturgy in the Middle Ages
Eric Palazzo

32. Architectural Layout: Design, Structure, and Construction in Northern Europe
Marie-Thérèse Zenner

33. Sculptural Programs
Bruno Boerner

34. The Art and Architecture of Female Monasticism
Jeffrey F. Hamburger

35. Cistercian Architecture
Peter Fergusson

36. Art and Pilgrimage: Mapping the Way
Paula Gerson

37. "The Scattered Limbs of the Giant": Recollecting Medieval Architectural Revivals
Tina Waldeier Bizzarro

38. Medieval Art Collections
Janet Marquardt

39. The Modern Medieval Museum
Michelle P. Brown

The reason for choosing this subject came from our desire to investigate a section of medieval art that continues to attract many art historians. Being at the beginnings of what the development of styles in post Carolingian Europe means, the Romanesque art fascinates the viewer. The mixture between the grotesque and the sublime - that strange deformed beauty and beautiful deformity mentioned by Bernard of Clairvaux - visible in the way the different elements and decorations are combining each other, creates a specific iconography, which is the main feature to the specificity of this style.
In this book, our approach is in not only to list and describe the decorative or figurative sculpture assigned to the period between the 11-th and the 13-th centuries in Transylvania. Our declared goal is to find analogies with models from Occidental Europe, which are, as many possible, sources of inspiration for master carvers who worked in the area of Transylvania. Based on existing information, to which we have added analogies with identifiable and datable items, we can try a dating of parts analyzed, in order to assign them to a period.

We propose a new classifi cation of prophet Daniel in the lions’den iconography based on their connections with any of the two versions of this tale in the Book of Daniel. Cantabria and the North of Palencia have many examples of this theme. After the iconography revision of the capitals of Santillana del Mar and Yermo one can conclude that they represent literally the most particular narrative details of both biblical episode versions. Besides, both ensembles might have followed a salvation  program. Finally, we conclude that Pedro Quintana, whose name appears on Yermo’s portal inscription, was the sponsor instead the sculptor.

Approaching the subject from an interdisciplinary point of view, in the present article I will suggest an interpretation of several capitals in the Romanesque church at the monastery of San Martín de Frómista (Palencia) in light of the urban revolts at the beginning of the twelfth century in León-Castile. I will also claim a later chronology for the church, whose construction frequently has been located in the second half of the eleventh century. A document making reference to the construction of the monastery of Frómista is dated 1066; it states that an ample donation of land was included along with a subordinate neighborhood of townspeople. Through an architectural and iconographic analysis of the building and the close reading of a narrative source, the so-called Primera crónica anónima de Sahagún (c.1117), I will propose that the church of San Martín was constructed around 1120, after the subordination of the monastery to Cluny two years earlier.

O objectivo deste estudo é revisitar um conjunto de cruzes processionais medievais que considero muito relevante no quadro da torêutica medieval portuguesa. A partir de avaliações, apreciações, reflexões e propostas de outros autores sobre as suas origens e cronologias, pretende-se contribuir com um novo olhar, em especial com a integração destas obras numa conjuntura cultural, artística e religiosa mais ampla. Ausentes na documentação coeva, estas cruzes permitem apenas um estudo comparativo, tão exaustivo quanto possível (formal e iconográfico) com outras obras congéneres, nacionais e internacionais, a fim de perceber em que medida podem ser singulares de uma realidade autóctone - que é herdeira de tradições e de novidades de diferentes origens e de diferentes épocas -, ou apenas cópia de modelos importados.

The aim of this work is to study a group of medieval processional crosses which I consider very relevant in the wider set of Portuguese medieval thoreutic. From previous evaluations, appreciations, reflexions and proposals made by other authors about the origins and dates of the pieces here gathered, I intend to contribute with a closer look, especially on how these works of art can be part of a wider cultural, artistic and religious reality. Because they are not mentioned in documents from medieval times, these crosses allow only a comparative study with other works of art from Portugal and elsewhere, as thorough as possible (both in a formalist and an iconographic point of view). This is the only way, for now, to understand how they can be part of a local reality (heir of both traditional and new features of different origins and times) or just a reinterpretation of imported models.

Già da qualche tempo si è ritenuto opportuno proporre per la scul-tura ad incrostazione di mastice, tecnica di decorazione basata su un consapevole e schietto approccio coloristico e polimaterico, l'adozione di un vocabolario che non faccia esplicito riferimento ad altri campi della produzione materiale di epoca medievale('). In questo percorso si sono seguite, in verità, le sollecitazioni presenti negli studi pionieristici della seconda metà dell'Ottocento e dei primissimi anni del Novecento di personalità quali Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc(2) e Lucien Bégule(3), attente ., anche se solo in parte, a evitare delle sovrapposizioni, quantomeno semantiche, e ad individuare delle valenze chiaramente esemplificative di questa pratica scultorea. Così, fin da subito, è sembrato preferibile un lessico distinto rispetto a quello usualmente oscillante fràniello' e champlevé , mutuato da altri contesti a seguito di una supposta pratica esecutiva comune(). Di fatto, non basta una procedura similare per impostare dei nessi di corrispon-denza, iié per trovare la derivazione di una tecnica dall'altra, giacché l'ar-co temporale e l'ambiente geografico in cui si diffuse l'incrostazione di...

The representation of Daniel in the Lions’ Den in some of the churches along the different routes of the St. James’s Way are interesting in order to analyze the origin and evolution of the iconographical model that shows the prophet seated with his hands raised. By studying the iconographic features and programs where the Daniel capitals are inserted, found at Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, the cloister of the abbey of Moissac, Notre-Dame la Daurade of Toulouse and Saint-Eutrope of Saintes, we arrive to the conclusion that the prophet adopts the gesture of the Triumphant Christ as its prefiguration. In the Northwest corner from the Moissac cloister, where a fountain was located, two images of Daniel in the Lions’ Den play an important role in the program. In this space, two cycles, connected with the announcement of the Salvation and the Incarnation-Redemption-Resurrection are developed, unfolding the Eucharist as an underlying theme along the lavatorium perimeter. Additionally a program related the Last Judgement is developed at La Daurade cloister. In both spaces, as in the Geneva cathedral, the issue of the Exaltation of the Cross and its relationship with Daniel's episode attain remarkable importance. Finally, at the Pórtico de la Gloria, Daniel’s figure in the plinth underlines the link between the Prophet and the Triumphant Christ, which can additionally be associated with certain trials by ordeal ceremonies.

This paper considers two buildings in southern
Italy; the cathedral of Acerenza, and the unfinished
church (‘l’Incompiuta’) laid out behind
the apse of the late Antique basilica at Venosa.
Both churches are in the modern region of Basilicata
(ancient Lucania) and were begun under
Norman patronage to a virtually identical
plan. That plan, an apse ambulatory with three
radiating chapels, is so unusual in southern Italy
that a variety of non-Italian sources have been
proposed, for the most part consisting of lists
of 11th century buildings with apse ambulatories
in France. It will be argued here that there is
nothing ‘generalised’ in the realisation of this
plan, but that its detailing, in particular the
wide spacing of the apse piers and the method of receiving pairs of transverse arches on their
aisle side faces, indicate the churches share a
common Norman or Anglo-Norman model.
The sculpture has elicited less comment, but
despite the capitals having been carved by quite
different workshops, both similarly point to an
awareness of Norman carving even if the sculptors
may have been southern Italian.
The paper is divided into four sections, dealing
respectively with the architecture, sculpture,
documentary history and European context.

En este trabajo se realiza un repaso crítico a buena parte de los ejemplos de intercambios artísticos, en el campo de la escultura, entre el reino de Aragón y el suroeste de Aquitania en el periodo románico, propuestos por la historiografía. Asimismo, se plantean nuevos casos no detectados hasta el momento. Para ello se presta especial atención a las obras que pueden haber sido realizadas por los mismos talleres a ambos lados de los Pirineos, así como los modelos iconográficos compartidos. Se inicia este recorrido comentando las relaciones existentes entre algunos elementos de la decoración escultórica de Saint-Sernin de Toulouse y la catedral de Jaca, para lo cual, también se alude a los vínculos tolosanos de la catedral de Pamplona, la iglesia de San Esteban de Sos del Rey Católico y el monasterio de Leyre. El doble sentido de estas transferencias artísticas se pone de relieve si se tiene en cuenta que la catedral jaquesa podría haber sido la fuente de inspiración de alguna pieza de la abadía de Saint-Sever, y de los capiteles de Saint-Mont y Simacourbe. En este complejo juego de intercambios, el castillo de Loarre desempeña un papel importante, no solo como receptor de modelos tolosanos y jaqueses, sino por su relación estilística con otras realizaciones del norte de los Pirineos, como la ya comentada Simacourbe. Un caso interesante de estas vinculaciones artísticas lo constituye el denominado «Grand-Atelier», que trabajó en Oloron, Lacommande, Sainte- Engrace, Morlaas y en Santa María de Uncastillo. Quizás los paralelismos iconográficos y estilísticos que se detectan entre Saint-Pierre de Sarbazan y San Pedro de Echano pueden ser el testimonio de la existencia de un taller itinerante que se movió por la Gascuña y Navarra, y que algo tuvo que ver, también, con la ejecución de los capiteles de Saint-Pierre de Saint- Aubin. Estrechas son, también, las relaciones que se detectan entre San Pedro de Aibar y Saint-Austrégésile de Mouchan. Dos capiteles descubiertos en 2015 en la plaza de Saint-Sernin de Toulouse pueden haber sido los modelos de sendas cestas en la portada occidental de Leyre y en la desaparecida iglesia de San  Nicolás de Sangüesa. Finalmente, se comentará un elemento que es el paradigma de las relaciones existentes en este periodo entre las dos vertientes pirenaicas, el crismón con «S», mal llamado «crismón trinitario», que debería ser denominado, en referencia a su área principal de distribución, «crismón pirenaico».

The paintings on the south aisle of Santa Maria of Taüll located in the second bay, just after the
bell tower, concentrate several themes related to the Eucharist : the appearing of Gabriel to
Zechariah, the Divine Lamb, a nimbed figure dressed in liturgical garments and two fish flanking a
cross. The first theme is particularly significant since it includes two clues that clarify the thinking
of the designer : a chalice stands on the altar and it is the archangel who holds the censer and not
the father of John the Baptist.
As in several other Catalan churches, it is therefore the censing of the Oblates that refers to the
sacrifice of the Mass. We can therefore assume that an altar was erected near these images and
that it was dedicated to the angels, because the paintings above the appearing of Gabriel represent
warrior angels and that this scene is adjacent to the bell tower.
As in many elevated places of worship dedicated to Saint Michael or to the angels, two themes have
therefore been connected with these winged beings. There are consequently high probabilities that
the singular iconographic program of Taüll was intended to accompany the cult of the angels
celebrated in the nave, in the tower or in both places.

Cet article propose une étude sur le genre de l’entretien chez Barthes comme il le pratique dans des journaux populaires à gros tirage, auxquels il accorde certains de ses entretiens et interviews. La problématique suit une approche historique. Notre étude s’appuie notamment sur les ressources génétiques disponibles dans les archives barthésiennes conservées à la BnF, qui contiennent une chemise consacrée aux entretiens. Nous proposons aussi une liste répertoriée des entretiens de Barthes. Nous discutons ici du positionnement de Barthes face au champ idéologique de la presse écrite petite-bourgeoise. Enfin, nous montrons que l’invention d’une posture littéraire « romanesque » (régulée sur ses autres écritures) permet à Barthes de jouer de sa propre image d’auteur, tout en évitant de réduire cette dernière à la figure médiatique et personnalisée de l’auteur telle que peut la perpétuer la presse petite-bourgeoise.

"The mural paintings of the church of Sant Andreu de Baltarga gather a set of iconographical scenes (Nativity of Jesus, Last Supper, Apostle’s Calling, Crucifixion, Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, Dextera Domini, Agnus Dei), with the message of the Church exaltation, highlighted by the presence in the vault of the image of Mary represented as the Church.
The revision of this mural paintings has meant a problem when trying to put these paintings along with any known maister and to settle them in a specific chronological frame. We consider that Baltarga’s mural paintings have to be the work of a set of painters very difficult to filiate who worked around the year 1200."

En el cementerio medieval del Conjunto Histórico de San Juan del Hospital de Valencia se alberga una pequeña capilla funeraria fundada a finales del siglo XIII por el caballero Arnau de Romaní. A lo largo de su cornisa se conservan una serie de cabecillas talladas en los canecillos que son uno de los pocos vestigios escultóricos insertados dentro la tradición iconográfica marginal románica que se conservan en la ciudad. Hasta el momento no han despertado el interés de los especialistas y nadie ha dedicado un estudio completo y detallado a estas curiosas e interesantes imágenes situadas en los márgenes de tan bello edificio. El presente artículo aborda el estudio de los canecillos, proyectando un recorrido temático tanto por su iconografía como por su sentido simbólico y funcional.

Men have attributed several meanings to the lion's figure, occasionally contradictory. It has been associated with the images of Christ and the Devil, to the concept of Death, yet also to Resurrection. It is in the Romanesque period when the symbolic versatility of the episode of Daniel in the Lions' Den attains its highest level of development since, departing from the unique relationship between signifier and signified, paradoxically the lion assumes an ambivalent and contradictory meaning, representing at the same time Christ and the Devil. The present study explores this ambivalent and simultaneous interpretation, which can be explained since the typological reading of the Scriptures.

This article explores the sculptural programme of the west portal of Saint-Martin-de-Besse, which places Penance and the Eucharist sacraments at the centre of its polysemic narratives, forming chiastic sequences. Concerned with the fall of humankind and the history of redemption, the portal of Besse presents a series of enigmatic figures from the Old and New Testaments, along with an early Christian figure, Saint Eustace. In this article, I first present a brief historical overview of the church and its surroundings and then proceed with an iconographical survey of its portal. I argue that the series of sculpted narrative vignettes forming the west façade of Besse are polysemic as they carry multiple meanings. Focusing on salvation through (re)conversion, where the liturgical sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist are fundamental, these polysemic narratives form and perform four distinct chiasmus interchanges involving the Garden of Eden, where time and space are in constant dialogue.

Aborder l’œuvre d’Annie Ernaux par l’angle du romanesque relève d’un double paradoxe, et presque d’un interdit : d’abord, le sentiment de lecture premier qui se dégage de la plupart des textes d’Ecrire la vie (dont j’exclue peut-être, et encore sur un plan strictement thématique, les textes de la passion amoureuse) ne correspond pas à l’emballement caractéristique d’une écriture du spectaculaire et des extrêmes ; d’autre part, surtout, l’autrice désigne explicitement le romanesque comme un repoussoir pour son projet d’écriture, par peur de trahir la vérité de l’expérience en ayant recours aux artifices du roman.
Cet article soutient pourtant que le romanesque, défini comme un répertoire de motifs et comme un mode de lecture centré sur l’affect, se présente bien souvent chez Annie Ernaux comme un « partenaire d’intellection » (Viart ) de l’écriture (auto)biographique, et comme l’une des modalités de l’élargissement transpersonnel de l’expérience qui est au cœur du projet ernausien. Le romanesque constitue en effet un vecteur d’identification et de reconnaissance. Ainsi, sur le plan de l’écriture, les topoi romanesques offrent un recours pour la figuration du vécu qui se nourrit d’allusions, de références, voire de clichés romanesques – jamais sans caution critique ou réflexive. Sur le plan de la réception, cette plasticité du topos romanesque est ce qui, en lui donnant forme, rend l’expérience intelligible pour l’écrivaine et reconnaissable pour son lectorat.

The Sacama Castle and its Saint Peter’s church have a pre-romanesque origin. Very few remains of the castle have arrived to our days and from the church we just can see a 11th century Romanesque building, with a lot of later modifications. This castle and its church were probably born in the context of the Marca del Llobregat (the 9th-10th century boundary of al-Andalus and pre-Catalonia) and they were the initial nucleus of Olesa de Montserrat. That situation remained until this town esta- blished in the place it is currently and the parish was taken there.

Publication papier // Le jeu vidéo emprunte une partie de son imaginaire aux productions fictionnelles qui l’ont précédé, qu’il s’agisse de la littérature ou du cinéma. Si la notion de “romanesque” est a priori associée intrinsèquement à la littérature, on sait depuis longtemps que le romanesque constitue un type de modélisation du réel, qui s’est exporté d’un medium à un autre et connote alors le roman hors du roman. C’est ce romanesque transmédiatique, entre livre et jeu vidéo, que ce numéro entend explorer.

Il progetto multidisciplinare “romanico e Territorio: materiali da costruzione delle chiese giudicali sarde: nuovi approcci per la valorizzazione, conservazione e restauro”, volto allo studio di diversi casi studio di chiese romaniche costruite durante l’età giudicale della
Sardegna (dall’undicesimo al tredicesimo secolo), è stato articolato in tre fasi principali:
– 1ª fase: attività di studio in situ (mappatura e campionamento delle litologie e loro
forme di alterazione, rilievo digitale e fotogrammetrico di dettaglio, analisi delle caratteristiche stilistiche e architettoniche significative dei
monumenti);
– 2a fase: indagini di laboratorio sulle caratteristiche composizionali dei geomateriali (analisi chimiche, mineralogiche, petrografiche e fisico-meccaniche) e sui processi di alterazione sui materiali, evidenziando i fattori chimici e fisici;
– 3a fase: definire i rapporti tra il monumento architettonico / sito costruito, sia in prospettiva storica e moderna, gli aspetti socio-politici territoriali, i fattori che hanno influenzato la scelta dei materiali da costruzione, nonché, un protocollo metodologico per il restauro (e la valorizzazione) dei monumenti.