Presentation for 2nd ESO class

1. UNIT 4 – ARTS HISTORY
ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC

2. ROMANESQUE: General characteristics
and context
• Church controls every aspect of life,
• Pilgrimage and Crusades to save your soul,
• Churches, cathedrals and monasteries,
• Unsafety, need for protection,
• Fear to be judged by God and the end of the
World,
• Importance of symbology,
• Anonymous artists.
Historic Context: Early Middle Ages and Feudal System
(Units 1 and 2)

3. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
• STONE, solid and thick buildings, with big and thick columns, pillars and walls,
reinforced by buttresses (unsafe, mystic atmosphere). Not many windows, and very
small.
• Barrel vaults and ROUND ARCHES everywhere,
• Floor plan mainly as a Latin Cross, with ambulatory.
• Isolated small churches in the countryside,
• Big (but not very high) cathedrals due to pilgrimage.
Craftsmen’s marks
Santiago’s Latin cross

4. BARREL VAULT

5. BUTTRESSES

6. SMALL WINDOWS

7. ROUND ARCHES

8. ROMANESQUE BUILDINGS:
SPAIN
San Clemente de Taull, Lleida

9. San Martín de Frómista, Palencia

10. ROMANESQUE BUILDINGS:
EUROPE
Pisa, Italy

11. Poitiers, France

12. Speyer, Germany

13. ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE
• Educational and religious function,
• They fit to architectural spaces,
• Unrealistic, feelings and mystic life are more important than real life,
• Colourful but disappeared today,
• Tympanums main themes: Christ in Glory and Last Judgement,
• Capitals and cloisters decorated with fantastic creatures and biblical scenes,
• Only a few examples of sculptures separated from a building.
Eve and AdamGriffins

14. Noah’s Ark construction
David against
Goliath

15. Christ in Glory: Pantocrator
And the 4 Evangelists as Tetramorphs
Matthew
Mark
John
Luke

16. Santa Fe de Conques, France

17. Portico of Glory: Santiago de Compostela

18. Silos Monastery in Burgos
Doubting Thomas Descent from the Cross

19. Single piece example: Christ on the Cross

20. ROMANESQUE PAINTING
• Directly painted on the wall inside churches: Altar, Apses...
• Bright colours are used, but they don’t last long...
• Importance of the black line outlining figures,
• Eyes, hands and feet emphasised,
• No concrete background,
• Main Themes: Christ in Glory (Pantocrator) and Virgin and Child,

21. Saint Clement of Tahull: Pantocrator and Tetramorphs

22. Saint Mary of Tahull: Virgin and Child

23. GOTHIC: General characteristics and
context
• Religion was still very important,
• Reborn of urban life and cities’ economies,
• Life in the countryside and feudal system
declined,
• Universities were created,
• Kings were more powerful, and modern
states were created,
• Trade routes were safe and important in
Europe,
• God is good, he is people’s light.
Historic Context: Evolution of the Middle Ages. Growth
of Cities (Unit 3)

24. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
• STONE is still the main material used, but buildings were not heavy and solid. The
grew in height thanks to new technological advances: Pointed Arches, Rib Vaults and
Flying Buttresses.
• Big stained windows where light could easily come through,
• Latin Cross is still the main shape used as floor plan. Side naves were sometimes lower
than the central one.
• Cathedrals were gigantic, and other buildings were important like town halls, markets,
guild halls, palaces, showing the power and the wealth of the cities.
Toledo’s floor plan Valencia’s merchants hall

25. Rib Vault

26. Flying Buttresses
Notre Dame, Paris, France

27. Stained Glass Windows

28. GOTHIC BUILDINGS: SPAIN
León

29. Burgos

30. GOTHIC BUILDINGS: EUROPE
Strasbourg, France

31. Sainte Chapelle, Paris, France

32. Lincoln, England

33. King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England

34. Cologne, Germany

35. Milan, Italy

36. GOTHIC SCULPTURE
• Educational and religious function, like in Romanesque,
• They don’t fit to architectural spaces anymore,
• Realistic and natural, detailed clothes and gestures,
• Curves, movement and feelings are expressed: Christ suffering or happy Virgin,
• New forms appeared like altarpieces and gargoyles,
• Many examples of sculptures separated from a building.
Gargoyles

37. Altarpiece, Cathedral of Toledo

38. White Virgin, Cathedral
of Toledo

39. GOTHIC PAINTING
• Not only paintings on the wall of churches, also on wood,
• Religious themes, but increasing importance of portraits of merchants and nobility,
• Bright colours and use of gold,
• Eyes, hands and feet emphasised,
• Background landscapes,
• Movement and realism.

40. Descent from the Cross, Roger van der Weyden (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

41. The Arnolfini Portrait,
Jan van Eyck (National
Gallery, London)