Shirt a Phobia

Sample Page

This article is about Romanesque architecture in Britain and Normandy. For other buildings in Normandy, see Architecture of Normandy. For the architecture of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, see Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture.
The nave of Durham Cathedral in England
St Swithun’s Church, Nately Scures in Hampshire, from the south-east

Norman architecture is the style of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles, and at the same time monasteries, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by rounded arches and heavy proportions compared to other regional variations of the style. The style was developed in Normandy, and brought to England and Wales after the Norman Conquest. It was also used later by Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, and by Scottish rulers adopting English fashions. The Normans also conquered Sicily and southern Italy, but the architecture they used there was distinct from that of Normandy and Britain, as it blended local Islamic and Byzantine influences.[1]

Name

The use of term “Norman” to refer to architecture may have originated with eighteenth-century antiquarians, but its usage in a sequence of styles has been attributed to Thomas Rickman in his 1817 work An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation. In this work he used the labels “Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular”. The more inclusive term “Romanesque” was used of the Romance languages in English by 1715,[2] and was applied to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries from 1819.[3] The style is also referred to as ‘Anglo-Norman’, reflecting the substantial English contributions to its development.

The early rib-vaulted interior of Lessay Abbey

History

Normandy

Further information: Architecture of Normandy

Viking invaders (‘Northmen’) arrived at the mouth of the river Seine in Normandy in 911, at a time when Franks were fighting on horseback and Frankish lords were building castles. Over the next century the population of the territory ceded to the Vikings (now called Normans) adopted these customs as well as Christianity and the langue d’oïl. Norman barons built timber castles on earthen mounds, beginning the development of motte-and-bailey castles, and great stone churches in the Romanesque style of the Franks. By 950, they were building stone keeps. The Normans were among the most travelled peoples of Europe, exposing them to a wide variety of cultural influences which became incorporated in their art and architecture. They elaborated on the early Christian basilica plan. Their churches were originally longitudinal with side aisles and an apse. They then began to add towers, as at the Church of Saint-Étienne at Caen, in 1067. This would eventually form a model for the larger English cathedrals some 20 years later, after they had invaded and conquered England.

England and Wales

Edward the Confessor’s Westminster Abbey, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.

In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence before the Norman Conquest of 1066, and Norman influences affected late Anglo-Saxon architecture. Edward the Confessor was brought up in Normandy and in 1042 brought masons to work on the first Romanesque building in England, Westminster Abbey. This building was entirely replaced in the 13th century, but from excavations and a depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry something of its form is known. It appears to have been derived from that of Jumièges, in Normandy. In 1051 he brought in Norman knights who built “motte” castles as a defence against the Welsh.

The gatehouse of Exeter Castle (c.1067), Norman in date, but with Saxon architectural features.

Barring these early exceptions. Romanesque architecture was introduced to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Normans gradually replaced every English bishop except for Wulfstan of Worcester, rebuilt every English cathedral, starting with Canterbury after a fire in 1067, and almost every monastic church, and built hundreds of new parish churches. They cemented their rule with a series of castles, to protect the new aristocracy. However, there was overlap between Anglo-Saxon and Norman architecture, as some Saxon masons worked in misunderstood versions of contemporary French architecture (as at Great Paxton and St Bene’t’s, Cambridge), while some Saxon features continued to be used by local masons after the Conquest (like triangular arches in the gatehouse of Exeter Castle).[4][5] As few minor buildings have documentary evidence for dating, it is possible that many ‘Saxon’ churches, e.g. in Norfolk, are in fact ‘Saxo-Norman‘, i.e. they post-date the Conquest.[6]

After a fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 William of Sens, a French master mason, introduced the new Gothic architecture from France. Around 1191 Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral brought in the English Gothic style, and Romanesque architecture had virtually disappeared by the early 13th century.

Scotland

See also: Architecture of Scotland in the Middle Ages
The ruined church of Kelso Abbey, from the west

Scotland also came under early Norman influence with Norman nobles at the court of King Macbeth around 1050. Malcolm III overthrew him with English and Norman assistance, and his queen, Margaret, encouraged the church. The Benedictine order founded a monastery at Dunfermline. Her sixth and youngest son, who became King David, built St. Margaret’s Chapel at the start of the 12th century. He founded a series of large abbeys near the English border, of which Jedburgh and Kelso still retain significant Norman work. He may also have built the large stone keep at Carlisle Castle, which was then part of Scotland. In contrast to the imposing abbeys, the only large Scottish cathedral to have survived from Norman times is Kirkwall on Orkney, which was under Norwegian control.

Ireland

See also: Architecture of Ireland
Trim Castle

The Normans first landed in Ireland in 1169, though the Irish were already building Hiberno-Romanesque churches, such as Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel. Within five years earthwork castles were springing up, and in a further five, work was beginning on some of the earliest of the great stone castles. For example, Hugh de Lacy built a motte-and-bailey castle on the site of the present day Trim Castle, County Meath, which was attacked and burned in 1173 by the Irish king Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. De Lacy, however, then constructed a stone castle in its place, which enclosed over three acres within its walls, and this could not be burned down by the Irish. The years between 1177 and 1310 saw the construction of some of the greatest of the Norman castles in Ireland. The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland, later known as the Pale, and among other buildings they constructed were Swords Castle in Fingal (North County Dublin) and Carrickfergus Castle in County Antrim.[7] The term ‘Norman’ is also sometimes used to refer to castles like Dublin and Limerick, but architecturally these are Gothic, not Romanesque.

Features

A Norman arch and tympanum with zig-zag mouldings above the church doorway at Guiting Power, Gloucestershire

Norman arches are semicircular in form. Early examples have plain, square edges; later ones are often enriched with zig-zag and roll mouldings.[8] The arches are supported on massive columns, generally either formed of clusters of smaller shafts or cylindrical, sometimes with incised decoration (most famously at Durham Cathedral); occasionally, square-section piers are found. Main doorways have a succession of receding semicircular arches, termed orders, often decorated with mouldings, typically of chevron or zig-zag design; sometimes there is a tympanum under the arch, which may feature sculpture representing a Biblical scene. Carving can also be found on capitals, which were usually of cushion form; the finest English capital carving is in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral.[9] Norman windows are mostly small and narrow, generally of a single round-headed light; but sometimes, especially in a bell tower, divided by a shaft into two lights.[10] While most Norman buildings are now bare stone, they would have been plastered and painted. Norman murals survive at several churches including Canterbury Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral, Chaldon, Ickleton and the group of Sussex churches referred to as the Lewes group.[11]

The buildings show massive proportions in simple geometries using small bands of sculpture. The cruciform churches often had deep chancels and a square crossing tower which has remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture.

Transitional style

The Transitional nave of St Davids Cathedral

As master masons developed the style and experimented with ways of overcoming the geometric difficulties of groin vaulted ceilings, they introduced features such as the pointed arch that were later characterised as being Gothic in style. Architectural historians and scholars consider that a style must be assessed as an integral whole rather than an aggregate of features, and while some include these developments within the Norman or Romanesque styles, others describe them as ‘Transitional’ or “Norman–Gothic Transitional”. Examples include St Davids Cathedral, Ripon Cathedral, Cartmel Priory, the west end of Worcester Cathedral, and many Cistercian abbey churches like Byland, Fountains, Kirkstall and Roche.

Examples

Normandy

England and Wales

Ecclesiastical

Castles

Domestic architecture

Other secular buildings and structures

Scotland

Ireland

Neo-Norman

Main article: Romanesque Revival architecture in the United Kingdom
The fantastical Neo-Norman interior of Penrhyn Castle

Neo-Norman architecture is a type of Romanesque Revival architecture based on Norman Romanesque architecture. The style was regarded as being less suitable than the Gothic for churches, but was often used for buildings requiring a heavy massiveness, like prisons. Examples include Penrhyn Castle in Wales, the church of St Mary and St Nicholas, Wilton, Lewes Prison and the Natural History Museum.

There is sometimes confusion, especially in North America, between this style and revivalist versions of vernacular or later architecture of Normandy, such as the “Norman farmhouse style” popular for larger houses.

See also

References

  1. ^ Reilly, Lisa (2020). The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108488167.
  2. ^ OED “Romanesque”: in French a letter of 1818 by Charles-Alexis-Adrien Duhérissier de Gerville seems to be the first
  3. ^ OED same entry; in French by Gerville’s friend Arcisse de Caumont in his Essaie sur l’architecture du moyen âge, particulièrement en Normandie, 1824.
  4. ^ Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2014). Cambridgeshire (3rd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 288. ISBN 978 0 300 20596 1.
  5. ^ Goodall, John (2011). The English Castle. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-300-11058-6.
  6. ^ Flannery, Julian (2016). Fifty English Steeples. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-500-34314-2.
  7. ^ Castles in Ireland Feudal Power in a Gaelic World. by Tom McNeill. (London, 1997) ISBN 978-0-415-22853-4
  8. ^ Bell, Edward (December 1888). “On the Distinction Between Romanesque and Gothic”. The Archaeological Review. 2 (4): 237–251. JSTOR 44245200.
  9. ^ Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967). The Cathedrals of England. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 64–65.
  10. ^ Bloxam, Matthew Holbeche (1841). The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture. Oxford: John Henry Parker. pp. 52–57.
  11. ^ Park, David (1984). “The ‘Lewes Group’ of Wall Paintings in Sussex”. In Allen Brown, R. (ed.). Anglo-Norman Studies VI: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1983. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 200–237.
  12. ^ Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester – Britain’s first Roman town. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (ISBN 1 897719 04 3)
  13. ^ Denney, Patrick (2004) Colchester. Published by Tempus Publishing (ISBN 978-0-7524-3214-4)
  14. ^ “Moyse’s Hall museum”. Moyseshall.org. Retrieved 2011-06-11.

Sources and literature

Bilson, John (1929), “Durham Cathedral and the Chronology of Its Vaults”, Archaeological Journal, 79
  • Clapham, Alfred William (1934), English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest, Oxford{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967), The Cathedrals of England, London{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Cook, George Henry (1957), The English Cathedrals through the Centuries, London{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Escher, Konrad (1929), Englische Kathedralen, Zürich{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Fernie, Eric (2000), The Architecture of Norman England, Oxford{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus; Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh (1971) [1966], Lexikon der Weltarchitektur, München{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Wagner-Rieger, Renate (1953), “Studien zur mittelalterlichen Architektur Englands”, Wiener Kunstwiss. Blätter, Jg. 2
  • Short, Ernest H. (2005), Norman Architecture in England
  • Webb, Geoffrey (1956), “Architecture in Britain: The Middle Ages”, Pelican History of Art, London