Romanesque Style

1000 - 1140

The Romanesque style was marked by the following:

• Art contained a great deal of symbolism in the form of colors and shapes.
• Artists were not at all concerned with perspective or even of depicting events or people in a realistic way.
• Figures that were depicted were quite large - especially the important ones.
• Lines were combined to create patterns of all sorts.
• There was a sense of urgency in both painting and sculpture.
• The great French cathedrals were born.

Romanesque churches tended to be somewhat dark and "heavy". Reason being that the churches were made out of masonry and thus needed rather large support systems. These supports were located in the interior of the church and because of this location, light from the few windows - to put it simply - just didn't shine through very well. The problem was that the architects of the time did not quite know how they could place larger windows in the walls without the walls collapsing...

Important Artist:

• Gislebertus

Image: Last Judgement by Gislebertus in the west tympanum at Autun Cathedral. Source: Photograph taken by Lamettrie

By Andrea Mulder-Slater