2. ROMANESQUE ART
Romanesque art shows the visual art made in
Ancient Rome and in the territories of the Roman
Empire.
Major forms of Romanesque art are architecture,
painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Metal-work,
coin-die and gem engraving, ivory carvings,
figurine glass, pottery, although this would not
necessarily have been the case for
contemporaries.
3. PAINTING
The range of samples is confined to only about
200 years out of the about 900 years of Roman
history and provincial and decorative painting.
Most of this wall painting was done using the
secco (“dry”) method, but some fresco paintings
also existed in Roman times.
There is evidence from mosaics and a few
inscriptions that some Romanesque paintings were
adaptations or copies of earlier Greek works.
4. Painting in Catalonia
The painting has the same iconographic
subjects than the sculpture.
There are also mural painting. This painting
was very important because all the buildings
were polychrome. The painting was situated
inside.
The subjects are: the tetramorf, the
pantocrator, the apostles and the saints. In
the walls narrative subjects appear, like the
Old and New Testament. But also appear the
lives of the saints appear, especially if they
have relation with the road that the faithful
have to resore to obtain the Salvation
In the romanesque painting the miniature
stands out.
6. SCULPTURE
Traditional Romanesque sculpture is divided into
five categories: portraiture, historical relief,
funerary reliefs, sarcophagi and copies of ancient
Greek works. Romanesque sculpture was heavily
influenced by Greek examples, in particular their
bronzes.
One example of this is at the British Museum,
where an intact 2nd century AD sculpture was
found..
7. Sculpture in Catalonia
The romanesque sculpture represents the most
complete reaction to the classical naturalism. The
figures have a tremendous spirituality.
The sculptures of romance art are mainly situated
in capitals and facades.
As all the represented figures, they have to adapt
to the space that gave to occupy.
9. ARCHITECTURE
The Romanesque art produced its greatest
innovations.
Though concrete had been invented a thousand
years earlier in the Near East, the Romans
extended its use from fortifications to their most
impressive buildings and monuments, capitalizing
on the material’s strength and low cost.
The concrete core was covered with
plaster, brick, stone or marble veneer, and
decorative polychrome and gold-gilded sculpture
was often added to produce a dazzling effect of
power and wealth.
10. Architecture in Catalonia
The term was invented by 19th century art
historians, especially for Romanesque
architecture, which retained many basic features
of Romanesque architectural style most notably
round-headed arches, but also barrel vaults,
apses, and acanthus-leaf decoration - but had also
developed many very different characteristics.
Romanesque art was also greatly influenced by
Byzantine art, especially in painting, by the anti-
classical energy of the decoration of the Insular
art of the British Isles, and from
these elements forged a highly innovative and
coherent style.
