Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Romanesque or Norman Architecture (and Gothic)

The Romanesque architectural style called Norman in England developed almost simultaneously in the Normandy region of northern France and in England. Most Romanesque building in England began after the Conquest. Some Romanesque or Norman architectural elements had already been brought to England before the Conquest; the principal example of this, perhaps, was Westminster Abbey, which was originally built just before the Conquest in a Romanesque style, but which has since been more or less all replaced by later rebuilding. Westminster Abbey is believed to have been the earliest of a major Romanesque building in England. 

Romanesque [Norman] was influenced by Roman architecture, hence its name. Similarities between Roman and Romanesque include the use of round arches and stone materials, and a basilica-style plan for ecclesiastical buildings. English Norman architecture was characterised by long plans and construction on a massive scale, especially in the erection of large round columns in the naves of churches, and the use of elaborately carved geometric decoration.

It has been commented that the introduction of Romanesque architecture to England was part of William the Conqueror's plan to Normanise his new kingdom following the Conquest. He had Normanised the clergy: nearly all the bishops were now Normans, the Anglo-Saxon ones having been deposed. Now it was the turn of the cathedral buildings. They too would be Normanised. England was now part of Normandy. Perhaps the new Norman bishops wanted to civilize what they saw as the uncouth English, or maybe, along with the new castles springing up everywhere, the new architectural style brought with it a stamp of authority representing the imposition of the new Norman power in England. The new massive buildings perhaps symbolised that the Normans were now the new masters in the land. Romanesque architecture linked England with the architectural fashions then currently being used all over Western Europe. England was now no longer a remote island just off the coast of Europe but would now to be part of mainstream Europe. Romanesque architecture symbolised all that. England had re-entered the empire of the Western Roman Empire and its Church with the pope at its head.

Examples

Ecclesiastical Buildings
Many of the major English cathedrals contain examples of Romanesque architecture; the more significant are the following: Durham, Canterbury, Ely, Gloucester, Rochester and Southwell Minister. Others include Peterborough, St. Albans

Non Ecclesiastic Buildings
Of non-ecclesiastical work, the best surviving example is probably the White Tower, the stone keep at heart of the Tower of London.  which was begun in 1078.

The arrival of Early English Gothic
After a fire had damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 Norman masons introduced the new Gothic architecture to England. Around 1191 both Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral were built in the new Gothic style, known as Early English Gothic. Later Salisbury Cathedral was to follow.

References





















Eric Fernie (2002). The Architecture of Norman England. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-0-19-925081-3.

Hugh M. Thomas (2008). The Norman Conquest: England After William the Conqueror. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-0-7425-3840-5.



Bates (1994). "Chapter 8: E.C. Fernie - Architecture and the Effects of the Norman Conquest". England and Normandy in the Middle Ages. Continuum. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-0-8264-4309-0.


Some Examples in France
Romanesque Architecture: Characteristics, History, Buildings:




Gothic Architecture: Characteristics, History


Gothic

Gothic churches were built as a skeleton of columns with pointed arch ribbed vaulting in the roof and side aisles, and the external walls and columns were often supported by flying buttresses. In England this design was known as a "Lantern Church", as the empty space between the columns on the outside walls could be filled with stained-glass glazing letting light into the interior. This was quite different from Romanesque whose churches had thick walls and rounded arches, and which were built like fortresses, with very few windows.

 Gothic evolved very simply from what had gone before; it consists in the union of ribbed stone vaulting with pointed arches. The central feature behind Gothic architecture is the pointed arch. This may have had an Islamic origin, and the idea brought to North West Europe after the second crusade, possibly by the Knights Templar. One of their roles was that they were Master Stonemasons designing and building formidable castles, chapels and cathedrals across Europe and the Levant. They introduced "holy geometry" into the building of Gothic masterpieces such as Chartres Cathedral in France.

Among the earliest church in Western Architecture using a pointed arch was the abbey at Cluny 

Others argue that Gothic Architecture simply evolved from the ribbed vault.

English Gothic architecture - Wikipedia

BUILDING THE GREAT CATHEDRALS NOVA (documentary) - YouTube



Islam and the West: The Early Use of the Pointed Arch Revisited
Peter Draper
Architectural History
Vol. 48 (2005), pp. 1-20
Published by: SAHGB Publications Limited
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40033831

The Arch that never Sleeps  ACF4FB.pdf  https://goo.gl/RF2ZFF

Karen Ralls (15 April 2015). Gothic Cathedrals: A Guide to the History, Places, Art, and Symbolism. Nicolas-Hays, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89254-627-5.

Robert A. Scott (2011), The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-94956-0
The Structural Analysis of Gothic Cathedrals
Robert Mark
Scientific American
Vol. 227, No. 5 (November 1972), pp. 90-101
Published by: Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.https://www.jstor.org/stable/24922917


Benjamin Winkles (1837). French cathedrals. C. Tilt. pp. 1–.



George Lesser (1964). Gothic Cathedrals and Sacred Geometry, Vols. 1-3, by G. Lesser. Alec tiranti.

 English Church Gothic
Author(s): Reginald Arthur Percy Rogers
Source: The Irish Church Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 29 (Jan., 1915), pp. 11-28

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30067962

The Vault: The Mutations of a Structural Element
Author(s): James H. Acland
Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1947-1974), Vol. 16, No. 2, ACSA-AIA Seminar,June 1960, Sagamore (Summer, 1961), pp. 39-43
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools ofArchitecture, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1424153

Architecture and Evolution
Author(s): Robert Mark
Source: American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 4 (JULY-AUGUST 1996), pp. 383-389
Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29775710

The Origins of Fan Vaulting
Author(s): Walter C. Leedy Jr.
Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Jun., 1978), pp. 207-213
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049776

Fan Vaulting
Author(s): Walter C. Leedy Jr.
Source: Scientific American, Vol. 248, No. 2 (February 1983), pp. 134-145
Published by: Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24968835

Jacques Heyman (3 July 1997). The Stone Skeleton: Structural Engineering of Masonry Architecture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62963-8.

YouTube: BBC Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age
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