Romanesque Architecture - Definition

Definition

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Romanesque", meaning "descended from Roman", was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages (first cited 1715). Architecturally, the French term "romane" was first used by the archaeologist Charles de Gerville in a letter of 18 December 1818 to Auguste Le Prévost to describe what Gerville sees as a debased Roman architecture. In 1824 Gerville's friend Arcisse de Caumont adopted the label "roman" to describe the "degraded" European architecture from the 5th to the 13th centuries, in his Essai sur l'architecture religieuse du moyen-âge, particulièrement en Normandie, at a time when the actual dates of many of the buildings so described had not been ascertained:

The name Roman(esque) we give to this architecture, which should be universal as it is the same everywhere with slight local differences, also has the merit of indicating its origin and is not new since it is used already to describe the language of the same period. Romance language is degenerated Latin language. Romanesque architecture is debased Roman architecture.

The first use in a published work is in William Gunn's An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture (London 1819). The word was used by Gunn to describe the style that was identifiably Medieval and prefigured the Gothic, yet maintained the rounded Roman arch and thus appeared to be a continuation of the Roman tradition of building.

The term is now used for the more restricted period from the late 10th to the 12th century. The term "Pre-romanesque" is sometimes applied to architecture in Germany of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods and Visigothic, Mozarab and Asturian constructions between the 8th and the 10th centuries in the Iberian Peninsula while "First Romanesque" is applied to buildings in north of Italy and Spain and parts of France that have Romanesque features but pre-date the influence of the monastery of Cluny.

Romanesque is generally considered by art historians as a Pan-European architecture with both the manner of construction and the style having a consistency that stretches geographically from Ireland to the Balkans. Tadhg O'Keefe argues against this accepted concept of a Pan-European Romanesque, seeing in the examples of architecture a sign of the dissolution of the effects of the Roman Empire and its building methods, rather than a cultural renaissance brought about by the influence of the church. In either argument, it is seen that local influences such as materials, history and decorative traditions brought about distinctive regional characteristics.

The vault at the Abbey Church of Saint-Foy, Conques, France Cloister of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome Bell tower of Angoulême Cathedral, Charente, SW France Window and Lombard band of the Rotunda of San Tomè, Almenno San Bartolomeo