Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting

Illustrated on nearly every page with color photographs, reproductions of art, drawings, or maps, this overview of Romanesque art and architecture is a visual feast of Western culture during the spread of Christianity, revealed here in hundreds of paintings, religious objects and sculpture, and buildings that have stood for nearly a thousand years.

By the end of the first millennium, both Christianity and Roman architecture were established throughout Europe. As the empire collapsed and Rome withdrew, the architectural traditions left behind — most notably the round arch — were the foundation of what became essentially Christian architecture. Later classified as Romanesque, this style of art and building flourished with the expanding influence of Christianity and monastic culture through the mid-13th century. In sections that explore the evolution of the Romanesque in various regions, this book spotlights such buildings as the fanciful gingerbread collegiate cathedral of St. George in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, and the picturesque pilgrims' bridge across the Somport in Puente de la Reina, France. Here too are apocalyptic visions in manuscript illuminations in Christian Spain, "tainted" as they were by Moorish influences, and a stunning cathedral-shaped reliquary from Cologne that is domed, gilded, and peopled with saints carved from walrus tusk.