The Age of Pilgrimages: Romanesque Art
    
       
  Architecture :: Sculpture :: Painting   Images courtesy of
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  PAINTING

Mural Painting

Romanesque painting shows considerable regional and stylistic diversity. Artists continued the practice of painting murals on the walls and ceilings of churches.

Christian Spain:

In the apse fresco from Santa María de Mur, the figures are posed in formal frontality. Drapery is partitioned into volumes arranged in irregular geometric patterns.

12-32: Christ in Majesty, apse fresco from Santa María de Mur, near Lérida, Spain, mid-twelfth century. 22’ X 24’. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  1. Fresco
  2. Fresco
  3. Fresco
  4. Fresco
  5. Fresco
Italy and Byzantine:

The fresco above the nave arcade at Sant'Angelo in Formis shows fully modeled figures, a three-dimensional architectural setting, and a natural blue sky.

12-33: Entombment of Christ, fresco above the nave arcade, Sant’Angelo in Formis, near Capua, Italy, ca. 1085.
  1. Fresco
  2. Similar
  3. Similar
Painte vaults:

The paintings in the vault of the nave of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe show elongated, agitated cross-legged figures.		    
       
  12-34: Nave of the abbey church, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, France. Painted barrel vault, ca. 1100.
  1. nave
  2. detail
  3. detail
  4. vault painting
  5. nave
Manuscript Illumination

Hildegard’s visions:

A facsimile of a lost folio shows Hildegard of Bingen's vision.

12-35: The vision of Hildegard of Bingen, detail of a facsimile of a lost folio in the Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen, from Trier or Bingen, Germany, ca. 1050–1079. Formerly in Hessische Landesbibliothek, Wiesbaden.
  1. folio
  2. folio
  3. folio
  4. folio
Knight versus dragons:

An example of Cistercian illumination shows a colorful letter R in the form of two figures battling a dragon. The banding of the torso and partitioning of the folds are typical of the Romanesque style.

12-36: Initial R with knight fighting a dragon, folio 4 verso of the Moralia in Job, from Cîteaux, France, ca. 1115–1125. Ink and tempera on vellum, 1’ 1 3/4” X 9 1/4”. Bibliothèque Municipale, Dijon.
  1. initial R
  2. initial R
  3. initial R
  4. initial R
Master Hugo:

Folio 94 recto of the Bury Bible is an example of sumptuous illustration with dignified figures painted in softly glowing harmonized colours.

12-37: MASTER HUGO, Moses expounding the Law, folio 94 recto of the Bury Bible, from Bury Saint Edmunds, England, ca. 1135. Ink and tempera on vellum, approx. 1’ 8” X 1’ 2”. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
  1. Bury Bible
  2. Bury Bible
The prince of scribes:

The self-portrait of Eadwine the Scribe shows softly modeled drapery that follows the movements of the body underneath it.

12-38: EADWINE THE SCRIBE(?), Eadwine the scribe at work, folio 283 verso of the Eadwine Psalter, ca. 1160–1170. Ink and tempera on vellum. Trinity College, Cambridge.
  1. folio 283
  2. folio 283
  3. folio 283
  4. folio 283
The conquest of England:

The Bayeux Tapestry, which recalls the historical narratives of ancient Roman art, shows the linear patterning and flat colour of the Romanesque style.

12-39: Funeral procession to Westminster Abbey, detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, from Bayeux Cathedral, Bayeux, France, ca. 1070–1080. Embroidered wool on linen, 1’ 8” high (entire length of fabric 229’ 8”). Centre Guillaume le Conquérant, Bayeux.
  1. Full Tapestry
  2. Full Tapestry
  3. Full Tapestry
  4. Full Tapestry
  5. Detail
12-40: Battle of Hastings, detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, from Bayeux Cathedral, Bayeux, France, ca. 1070–1080. Embroidered wool on linen, 1’ 8” high (entire length of fabric 229’ 8”). Centre Guillaume le Conquérant, Bayeux.
  1. Full Tapestry
  2. Detail
  3. Detail
  
 
 
       
       
  Architecture :: Sculpture :: Painting