Posted by I have started reading the “History of European Culture”, by Panayiotis Kanellopoulos (1902 – 1986), a Greek author and politician. In the first volume of the treatise he explores Romanesque, and Gothic Art and this led me to depict part of his journey pictorially.
The term Romanesque Art refers to a period from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century, or later, depending on region.. The term appeared first in France and England in 1818 and 1819 respectively, and then in the German territories in the 1830s.
Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art.
Gothic Art has a child movement, Expressionism, which also transcends Gothic to the Renaissance. Expressionism is linked to romanticism, the bedrock of German culture of the age. As such, some of the works visited here are expressionistic. It resurfaced as a major movement in Germany in the late 19th , early 20th century.
A journey of such scope will never end unless it is cut short. This is the predicament of every effort that attempts to capture what is almost infinite.
The stained glass windows in the Cathedral of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany c. 1065
Germany has the distinction of having preserved the oldest complete windows in the world – in the cathedral in the ancient town of Augsburg, which was founded by the Romans in the first century AD.
The southern clerestory of the Cathedral of Augsburg (German: Dom Mariä Heimsuchung) has five stained glass windows dated to the late 11th-early 12th centuries, the oldest in Germany: they feature the prophets David, Jonah, Daniel, Moses, Hosea, and were perhaps part of a larger series, the others now being missing.
The colours in these windows are very different from the colours of twelfth‑century stained glass in England and France. Instead of luminous blues and rubies, the Augsburg figures are predominantly brown, gold, yellow, green and wine, and what little blue is used is a murky grey. These were the colours that predominated in many German churches, both in the Romanesque period and beyond.
The tympanum of the central portal of Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, Burgundy, France, c. 1130
In a 1944 article, Adolf Katzenellenbogen interpreted Vézelay’s tympanum as referring to the First Crusade and depicting the Pentecostal mission of the Apostles.
The central tympanum shows a benevolent Christ conveying his message to the Apostles, who flank him on either side.
Braunschweig Collegiate Church, Germany, second half of the 12th century
Wooden Crucifix crafted by Master Imervard dating from the second half of the 12th century
Kanellopoulos considers this wooden sculpture to be the first work of art of German expressionism. This is where the path to the inconceivable and the infinite has started.
Chartres Cathedral, France, early 13th century
The transition from Romanesque to Gothic Art combines classical aesthetic values with the the gothic turn to man’s internal world. Comparing the Christ of Vezelay, to the Christ of Chartres, it is clear that one is God, the other is almost human.
Gone are the sad, serious, frightened faces of Romanesque Saints.
St. Modeste of Chartres is happy, smiling, calm.
Naumburg Cathedral, Saxony, Germany, 13th century
Uta von Ballenstedt (c. 1000 — 23 October before 1046), a member of the House of Ascania, was Margravine of Meissen from 1038 until 1046, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard II. Umberto Eco wrote in his ″History of Beauty″ that from all women of art history, the one he would like most have dinner with was in first place, ahead of all others, Uta von Naumburg.
Art Critic Ernst Gombrich’s first research project after leaving university was on the expressive features of the statues of the founders in the Cathedral of Naumburg:
‘These lifelike but imaginary portraits appeared to be so full of expression
that a whole drama had been woven around them. Ciceroni had developed
the legend that all these figures were participants in a story of conflict and
murder.’ (‘The Study of Art and the Study of Man’ in Tributes, Oxford 1984)
A lover handing his heart to his mistress, Roman de la Poire, c.1275
“Miniature (capital S) from a manuscript of the Roman de la poire. This is the earliest known visual depiction of a lover handing his heart to his mistress. The heart is in the shape of a pine-cone (point upward), in accord with anatomical descriptions of the human heart at the time.” (Wikipedia)
Notre-Dame de Reims, France, 13th century
The cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims is a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture, where the kings of France were once crowned. It was begun in 1211 and completed at the end of the 13th century, with the exception of the upper parts of the western towers.
The Bamberg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany
On May 6, 1237, the city of Bamberg celebrated the consecration of its newly rebuilt cathedral. Perched high on a hill at the center of town and accented by four imposing towers, the new structure loomed over the civic space in the valley below. Now known as the Fürstenportal, the chief ceremonial entryway at the building’s north side was lavishly adorned with sculptures.
Deeply carved figures in dramatic poses inhabit its tympanum, offering a pantomime performance of the separation of the saved and the damned at the Last Judgment. Wedged into the door jambs below, apostles stand on the shoulders of prophets; both strain to look up and catch a glimpse of the sacred drama being enacted in the tympanum.
Hovering at the base of the portal’s left archivolts, a trumpeting angel announces Christ’s Second Coming and a figure of Abraham sits enthroned, cradling the souls of the saved.
The Bamberg Horseman (Der Bamberger Reiter), c. 13th century
The trigger for me to include the Bamberg Cathedral in this journey was the Horseman.
The Synagoga Sculpture
But in the process I discovered the Synagoga sculpture and I was stunned.
Flanking the portal’s ensemble are monumental sculpted female personifications of Church and Synagogue, each installed atop a column and beneath a baldachin. The column under Ecclesia is adorned with a seated figure and symbols of the evangelists; that beneath Synagoga features the Devil blinding a Jew.
Synagoga represents Judaism and the Old Testament defeated by Christianity. She’s blindfolded and dropping Moses’ tablets of law. Troubling anti-Semitism aside, Synagoga is the most beautiful sculpture in the church. Actually, with her sheer dress and dignified stance, she’s quite sexy.
Professor Achim Hubel, considers this as one of the finest 13th century female figures. There is sensuality in the bodily posture that has never before been accomplished in medieval sculpture.
Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany, early 16th century
I conclude this journey with the transition to the Renaissance.
The small Gothic Herrgottskirche in Creglingen near Würzburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber has four altars including the Altar of the Virgin Mary (Marienaltar) — a masterpiece by the Late Gothic sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider. It is one of the most important medieval wood-carved artworks in Germany and as much worth seeing for its exquisitely carved details as for the religious messages in the work.
The faces of Christ’s disciples are considered splendid works of Expressionism, the child of Gothic Art that was handed over to the Renaissance.
