Ottonian Art Romanesque Art: Monasteries

Ottonian Art
Romanesque Art:
Monasteries

Otto I presenting
Magdeburg Cathedral to
Christ, ivory, 962-73
Ottonian empire:
919: Henry the Fowler,
duke of Saxony, elected the
king of Germans
Henry’s son, Otto the
Great, crowned in Aachen,
self-proclaimed successor
of Charlemagne; by
marriage to a Lombard
queen Adelaide adds
northern Italy to his
possessions
962: Crowned by Pope
John XII Roman Emperor

Sources for Ottonian art
Roman: ancient monuments copied, without regard to
religious creed; focus on human figures.
Germanic: schematization of natural forms, vivacity of
expression, emphasis on metalwork
Byzantine: objects brought to the court by a Byzantine
princess; emphasis on opulence; imperial and religious
iconographic models; representations of space, figures and
costumes
Carolingian: used as a filter for the above styles, especially
the Byzantine style

Gero Crucifix (and reliquary), Cologne Cathedral, Germany, ca. 970

Church of St Michael in Hildesheim, 1001-1033: exterior and interior
Crypt consecrated in 1015 by Archbishop Bernward
Alternating support system and clerestory

Doors of St. Michael’s Church, Hildesheim, 1015 (16 ½ feet high)

Doors of St. Michael’s Church, Hildesheim, 1015: details

Doors of St. Michael’s
Church, Hildesheim, 1015:
introduction scene

Doors of St. Michael’s Church, Hildesheim, 1015: the Fall
conflated narrative

Hildesheim doors: The Blaming Scene

Hildesheim doors: The
Blaming Scene, detail

Left: Trajan’s column; Right: Bernward’s spiral column from Hildesheim, 1015-1022
(12 ½ feet high)

Bernward’s spiral column from Hildesheim, 1015-
1022: full view and detail

Romanesque Era
Vita contemplativa: Further development and ultimate flowering of monastic culture
Vita activa: Rise of feudalism
Pilgrimages: Rome and Santiago de Compostela, sometimes Jerusalem
Crusades (seven): 1096-1271
Jerusalem captured by crusaders, but then lost in 1187 to Muslims
Crusader kingdoms established in Syria and Palestine: cultural exchange with
Byzantines and Muslims
Building campaigns throughout Europe after the Apocalypse fails to arrive;
international common traits are inflected with regional diversity
12 th century: rise of the universities (Bologna, Paris, Oxford)

History of Cluny
•909: Duke William of Aquitaine presents a farmland with a Roman station
(Cluniacum) to the Benedictines; free of local jurisdiction; owes allegiance
to the Pope
•910-927: Abbot Berno of Baume initiates monastic reforms and builds
Cluny’s first church
•927-944: Cluny receives a privilege to oversee other monasteries under
abbot Odo
•954-1049: influx of monks necessitates the building of a larger church,
Cluny II, alongside the old church
•1049-1109: Hugh of Semur, master builder of the order, settles disputes
between imperial and papal authorities
•Papacy controlled by Cluny: Popes are either trained at Cluny or are
former Cluniac monks
•Churches along pilgrimage roads are absorbed by Cluny
•1083: 1200 monks live at Cluny, as opposed to the initial 12; Cluny III is
being built

Reforms:
Cluniac monasteries are no longer independent but retain
absolute dependence upon the central abbey: feudal
hierarchy.
Every profession of every monk requires Abbot of Cluny’s
sanction; every monk has to pass some years at Cluny itself.
Divine Office is enriched by extra devotional exercises:
psalms and votive offices in addition to the daily canonical
hours prescribed by the Benedictine Rule.

Cluny III: plan and reconstruction

Cluny III: plan and interior

The Cistercians
1098: Robert of Molesmes establishes a new monastic community of Citeaux, near Dijon,
independent of Cluny. Rejection of worldly riches acquired by Cluny; return to St
Benedict’s precepts. Prayer and manual labor are emphasized.
1112: Bernard de Fontaines, and his 32 companions, request admission to the order
Bernard finds Citeaux too liberal, and moves to establish his own monastery at
Clairvaux
1124-1153: Bernard rules Clairvaux
1174: Bernard is canonized
“But in the cloister, under the eyes of the brethern who read there, what profit is there
in those ridiculous monsters, in the marvelous and deformed comeliness, that comely
deformity? To what purpose are those unclean apes, those fierce lions, those monstrous
centaurs, those half-men, those striped tigers, those fighting knights, those hunters
winding their horns? Many bodies are there seen under one head, or again, many heads
to a single body. Here is a four-footed beast with a serpent's tail; there, a fish with a
beast's head. Here again the forepart of a horse trails half a goat behind it, or a horned
beast bears the hinder quarters of a horse. In short, so many and so marvelous are the
varieties of divers shapes on every hand, that we are more tempted to read in the marble
than in our books, and to spend the whole day in wondering at these things rather than
in meditating the low of God. For God's sake, if men are not ashamed of these follies,
why at least do they not shrink from the expense?”

Fontenay Abbey, 1139-1147: plan

Fontenay, Abbey Church, 1139-1147: exterior and interior

Differences between Cluniacs and Cistercian monks:
- each Cistercian monastery is independent, while Cluniac ones are
interconnected
- Cistercian self-sufficient communities in the wilderness, helped by
the conversi (lay brothers) are unlike Cluniac communities that
depend on serfs
- emphasis on poverty (although monasteries become wealthy)
rather than intellectual sophistication and luxury
- monochromatic painting of grisaille replaces narrative stained
glass
- Cistercians placed emphasis on austerity, rejected of elaborate
liturgical vessels and figured pavements
- Special devotion to the Virgin
- Initial rejection of art, music and reading

Romanesque Art: Pilgrimages
Map of major pilgrimage routes of 11th century

Priest Aymery Picaud, The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela (Liber
Sancti Jacobi), Codex Calixtinus, 1130-40
-The routes
-The towns and the hospices
-The bitter and sweet waters along the
road
-The saintly remains
-The quality of the lands and the people
along the road
“The country of Poitou is well-managed,
excellent, and full of all blessing… its
inhabitants vigorous, fast in running,
comely in dressing, of noble features, of
clever language.”
“The Navarrese dress most poorly and eat and drink disgustingly. The whole
household eats from a single dish, not with spoons but with their own hands.
If you saw them eating, you would take them for dogs or pigs in the very act
of devouring; if you heard them speaking, you would be reminded of the
barking of the dogs. Their face is ugly, and they are perverse, disloyal and
corrupt, libidinous, drunkard, given to all kinds of violence, ferocious and
savage, impudent and false, impious, cruel and quarrelsome, incapable of
anything virtuous, well-informed of all vices and iniquities.”

St. Sernin, Toulouse, 1070: exterior views

St. Sernin, Toulouse, 1070: plan
nave
transept
aisles
apse
ambulatories
crossing
portals

Toulouse, St. Sernin, 1070: nave and vaults
ribs
barrel vault
nave arcade
gallery
compound piers

Toulouse, St. Sernin: nave walls

Christ and the Apostles, Church of St. Genis-des-Fontaines, 1020-21

Christ and the Apostles, Church of St. Genis-des-Fontaines, 1020-21

Moissac, St. Pierre, South Portal 1115-1130

lintel
trumeau

Moissac, St. Pierre,
1115-30: portal

Moissac, St. Pierre, 1115-30: Christ in Majesty

24 Elders (detail)

Moissac: trumeau (front)

Moissac: trumeau (side) – prophet
Jeremiah

Moissac, St. Pierre, cloister after 1042

Moissac cloister capitals: Daniel in the Lions’ Den and grotesques

Gislebertus (?), The tympanum of St-Lazare, Autun, France, 1120-35
“May this terror frighten those who are bound by worldly error. It will be true just as the
horror of these images indicates”

St-Lazare, Autun: lintel
with the blessed and the
pilgrims

St-Lazare, Autun: Cheating demons and
the weighing of the soul

St-Lazare, Autun: Lintel with the damned

Gislebertus (?), The lintel of the north portal of St-Lazare, Autun, France, 1120-
35

Autun, St. Lazare, cloister capitals, 1120-35: Three Magi and Suicide of Judas

Abbey Church of St. Savinsur-Gartempe,
1100-1115:
Old Testament in the nave,
Infancy of Christ in the
transept, Passion in the
gallery over the porch, lives of
saints in the chapels and
crypt, Apocalypse and the
Second Coming in the
entrance porch

Abbey Church of St. Savin-sur-Gartempe, 1100-1115: the Ark of Noah

Abbey Church of St. Savin-sur-Gartempe, 1100-1115: the Tower of Babel

Christ in Glory, apse fresco, S Clemento, Tahull, 1123

Virgin and Child in
Majesty, 1150–1200

Reliquary of Ste. Foy, Conques, 11th and 12th centuries (face: 5 th century?)