Essentials of Romanesque Art & Architecture

Essentials of Romanesque Art & Architecture udemy course

Power in Stone

Romanesque art and architecture consolidate Latin Christian religion, conquest, and power into its most permanent medium seen in Europe so far: stone. These lasting monuments and their art were designed to impress and to terrify, and a new chapter into the psychology of Christian images opens in Early Medieval Europe. The Romanesque style proliferated and united Europe Christendom into a homogenous society- in terms not only of a shared theology and intellectual climate but also shared architectural, artistic, and technological expertise. Just as the monastic and elite political stratum of Western Europe spoke the same language, Latin, so too did their architects, sculptors, and illustrators find themselves part of a continent-wide phenomenon which defined its time period and whose forms remain clearly distinguishable today. With the Carolingian, Ottonian, and other dynasties’ alliance with the Church of Rome and their rise to new titles and power in Europe of the ninth and tenth centuries, the construction of permanent, massive stone monuments of church and state ushered in a new era of architecture and its associated decorative arts in Western Europe. In the lands farthest from Rome, Italy, and the oldest churches of the Late Roman Empire, these stone monuments- whether they took the form of defensive fortifications or churches- introduced these imposing forms where nothing similar had existed before.