Anglo-Norman architecture
The Anglo-Norman Architecture is an epoch of English architectural history and conforms to European high and late Romanesque in the 11th and 12th centuries. After the conquest of England by William I in 1066, the Norman architectural style found its way there in its Anglo-Norman form and thus replaced the architectural styles of the pre - Romanesque Anglo - Saxon architecture .
This is followed by the first stage of Gothic architecture in England: the Early English Style .
term
The term Anglo-Norman architecture is used today to denote the form of Norman architecture widespread in the United Kingdom and is thus differentiated from the original Norman architecture of Normandy and the Norman architecture in southern Italy and Sicily. The architect and antiquarian Thomas Rickman first described English Romanesque architecture as "Norman" in 1817. In his work An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation , published in 1817, he characterized the medieval architectural styles of England according to stylistic and chronological aspects in Norman , Early English , Decorated and Perpendicular .
Historical development
Anglo-Norman architecture developed after the conquest of England by the Normans under William the Conqueror (1066–87) in 1066, who brought the Romanesque architecture of Normandy to England. The great Romanesque churches of Jumièges (1037-1067), the abbey church on Mont-Saint-Michel (1024-84) and Sainte Trinité and Saint-Étienne in Caen (begun in 1062 and 1064), which were built under William I. originated, and show similar forms as they appeared a little later in conquered England. However, Norman influences can be recorded beforehand, for example in the "Saxon-Norman mixed style" from approx. 1050-65 when the new Westminster Abbey was built by Edward the Confessor , who grew up in exile in Normandy and was thus familiar with the Romanesque architecture.
With the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, society, the church and thus also architecture were normannized. The Norman claim to power first showed itself in castles including keep and forts , and later in monastery or abbey and cathedral churches. Almost all the important churches were rebuilt.
Designs
The previously existing Anglo-Saxon hall buildings had little in common with the powerful churches of the Norman tradition. The additive arrangement of the room parts is significant for the large new buildings. The parts are assigned to one another equally. A “whole of space” is not sought.
In terms of ornamentation, the Norman zigzag band has become legendary, along with crenellated, chain and roll patterns - i.e. above all geometric shapes.
The cathedral of Durham was of decisive importance for the vault construction , which in 1104 was the first large church to introduce a ribbed vault in the central nave, so that Caen and St-Etienne in Beauvais could have an impact and this vault shape enabled the triumphal procession through Europe.
The long houses of the Norman churches are noticeably elongated: St. Albans has 10 bays, Winchester 11, Ely 13 and Norwich 14. The transepts and the choirs are also elongated. In Normandy there were a maximum of two choir bays, later three in Gloucester , Chichester and Lincoln , and four in St. Albans, Ely and Norwich.
The Norman tradition initially included the relay choir ( Westminster , Canterbury , Old Sarum , St. Albans, Rochester , Ely, Durham, Christchurch and Lincoln) and the ambulatory with a chapel wreath ( Battle Abbey , Canterbury II, Winchester, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Chichester and Norwich). After the turn of the century the picture changed under the influence of the Reform Orders and the rectangular choir was preferred (Southwell, Old Sarum II, Hereford , Romsey). The development of spacious hall crypts (Canterbury, Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, Rochester) was part of this rich development of the eastern parts.
The traditional Norman column system is changed in the west and north of England and the round pillar becomes the norm (Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Worksop, Dunfermline ).
Wall elevation
The clear structure of the Norman tradition persisted until the end of the 11th century, and it was only in the course of the 12th century that divergence tendencies and a variety of forms became noticeable.
St. Albans
At the beginning there is the Abbey Church of St. Albans , as the elevations of the probably older Lanfranc Church of Canterbury, Wilhelms Battle-Abbey and Old Sarum can no longer be proven. Characteristic of St. Albans are the flatness and mass of the wall, the simplicity in the structure and the limitation in the form. Six bays of the north wall are still preserved from the original nave. The support zone is marked by a row of stepped, walled pillars and deeply tiered archivolts . Round-arched openings with narrowing walls open out onto the side roofs. In the upper storey are arched windows with a wall walkway. Flat, rectangular templates mark the yoke sequence, narrow cranked cornices mark the storeys. Double arcades have been preserved in the transept and in the open crossing tower . All of this makes it difficult to see the connection to Norman models at first.
Winchester
The transept of Winchester with its strict, clearly structured wall system proves to be a derivation of the mainland architecture. The horseshoe-shaped, provided with joist Scheid sheets are crosswise pillars with single and featured half-columns . Above it are deep, two-part gallery arcades and in the upper aisle an alternating colonnade in front of the windows. The yokes are structured by semicircular services on rectangular templates.
Ely
In the transept of Ely (1081-1099), the pillar change is started for the first time. On the ground floor, round pillars of two cross pillars each with half-column templates are pulled together to form "double arcades". This arrangement continues in a slightly varied manner in the gallery zone. The window walkway is wider than in Winchester.
Durham
The change of pillars in 1093 in the Abbey Church of Durham was designed in a concise way, in the alternation of massive cross pillars surrounded by templates and massive, profiled round pillars. This creates a large, slow rhythm of double yokes, which are limited by widely protruding service bundles. The altitude tendency that occurs here is in the tradition of Bernay , Jumièges and La Trinitè in Caen. At the same time, the gallery and upper aisle zone is shrinking considerably.
Heavy, profiled belt ribs are placed on the services, which tie in the seven-part cross-ribbed vault . The center caps are placed on consoles in the nave, while they are placed on bundles of pillars in the choir. Rich decorations on plastic limbs lighten the weight of the wall. The arches are covered with zigzag bulges up to the ribs, the cylinder pillars are decorated with fluting, diamond and zigzag patterns.
Vault
Traditionally, the 11th century English churches were either flat-roofed or had an open roof. Apses, aisles (St. Albans, Blyth, Gloucester, Ely, Norwich etc.), crypts (Canterbury, Rochester, Winchester, Gloucester and Worcester), rarely transept arms (Winchester and Ely) were groin-vaulted. The turning point came with the construction of Durham. In 1096 the choir aisles, 1104 the choir, 1110 the transept and until 1130 the nave were equipped with ribbed vaults. The interlocking of the wall compartments with the vaulted fields creates a unit that makes it possible to use the term yoke in its strictest sense.
But the ribbed vault could not establish itself in the Anglo-Norman area and was only used now and then in side aisles, occasionally also in the transept (side aisles of Southwell and Romsey, transept aisles in Winchester after 1107, choir aisle of Peterborough around 1118).
Norwich
The change of pillars also extends to the eastern parts of the nave of Norwich (1096–1119), in the fifth yoke west of the crossing, with a decrease to "normal" proportions. To the west it continues in a modified form (bundle pillars - actually cross pillars with 16 templates - alternate with segment arch pillars ).
The tendency towards stratification of the wall can also be seen in the rows of three-dimensional elements. This becomes clear in the nave by Ely (from 1106), which gains a fast rhythm due to the narrow position of the supports.
Peterborough
The choir and transept of Peterborough (1118–1143) accommodate the inclination to lighten the wall with round and hexagonal pillars and the grating by horizontal and vertical members.
Romsey
This development tends to culminate in Romsey (1120–1140) in the interlocking of the rising pillars with the gallery zone, while the first pair of pillars before the crossing is still round, the remaining bundle pillars of the nave show a strong vertical tendency. This is divided into two free-standing arched profiles, the open arched field is divided by a small column. The window walkway divides the wall into three layers. This is then only visible in the narrow "bridges" between the pillars.
St. Albans Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral
Romsey Abbey
Special development
A special development, possibly in interaction with Durham, seems to have taken place in the west of the island, namely in the high round pillars of the longhouses - up to 9.30 meters high - of Gloucester (first quarter of the 12th century) and Tewkesbury with their shrunken ones Central zones. To the north, Dunfermline Abbey (1128–1150) follows this principle. Romsey, Jedburg, Oxford and Hereford can also be seen as variants of this height extension of the arcades. The round pillar in moderate proportions is found in Southwell, Carlisle, Malvern, Chester and Melbourne.
In summary, it can be said that up to the middle of the 12th century the tendency adopted from Normandy to dissolve and structure the wall in a body-plastic manner continued. The rhythmization by changing supports and wall templates, the concealment of the wall thickness with half-columns, profiles and decorative beads, the depth of the upper floors and the gradual emaciation of the wall are significant. These individual features are a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of the Gothic, but in the mass and severity of their form they are still completely linked to the Romanesque.
Exterior construction
The exterior of Anglo-Norman churches is the consistent adoption of the structural principles of the interior. The southern courtyard chapel of Norwich with its zonal structure and the rich blinds is an example of the east end, as it has been handed down from Normandy (model is the choir apse of La Trinité in Caen). The transept front also adopts the Norman risalit arrangement with tower structures over the corner risalits . The gable is usually divided into blind arcades, niches and ornamental fields (Norwich, Winchester, Southwell and Lincoln). The nave wall is still simple in the early phase (St. Albans and Winchester), but is then increasingly decorated with blind arches and cornices . In the upper aisle, the inner aisle arcade is formally transferred to the exterior (Norwich, Ely, Peterborough). The "Norman crossing tower ", still roughly structured in the 11th century (St. Albans), is adorned in the 12th century with pilasters , templates and panels. This leads to the complete grating of the walls in Norwich (between Southwell and Tewkesbury) at the turn of the century.
West facade
A decisive element of Anglo-Norman architecture is the two-tower west facade, which can be derived from the Norman two-tower facade in St-Etienne and Ste-Trinité in Caen and Jumièges . It is narrated in Durham Cathedral (around 1100) and Southwell Minster (around 1130). While the towers in Southwell are still in line with the aisles, in Durham they go beyond them.
Another essential element of the facade design is the niche motif , as can be seen, for example, in the massive west block of Lincoln (around 1092): a triple-stepped, niche portal zone extends well beyond the side aisles and leads the niche motif to the southern narrow side. Rows of panels decorate the upper zone. The mighty twin towers rise behind it. There are five staggered niches cut deep into the wall with three portals. The erection of the twin towers goes back to St-Étienne in Caen. The "niche facade" appears later in Tewkesbury (around 1140) in the form of a central nave high, deeply staggered individual niche.
Rochester gives up the west towers around the middle of the century and occupies the main and side aisles with small side towers. The dazzle curtain is drawn decoratively over the entire facade.
The horizontal tendency of Anglo-Norman western buildings becomes evident in the last third of the 12th century. The expansive west transept of Ely was built around 1174. With its mighty tower massif (square, massive central tower and four octagonal flank towers), the interlocking of the structural members (the structure of the facade overlaps the towers) through horizontal arches and latticework to form a unit, Ely stands on the threshold of Gothic.
ornamentation
The ornamentation used in the architectural decoration can also be traced back to the Norman tradition. Geometric patterns such as triangles, zigzags , diamonds , chessboards , rolls and braiding appear in ribbons and beads. They are used to decorate the archivolts of the portals, windows, divider and gallery arches, blind and pilaster arcades. Diamond, scale and checkerboard patterns fill the arches and remnants of the wall, for example in Peterborough (transept and choir), Hereford (nave), Christchurch (nave) and Ely (facade). Vegetable ornamentation adorns the portal garments (Ely, Rochester, Lincoln etc.). Architectural sculptures appear on facades (Lincoln) and tympana (Ely, Rochester, Malmesbury). Characteristic is the bundled zigzag pattern or chevron band (Durham, Gloucester, Ely, Peterborough etc.) and the crossed round arch cover (Durham, Ely, Worcester, Castle Acre Castle etc.). The relief decoration of the cylindrical pillars (Durham, Dunfermline, Norwich, Waltham ) is also independent . The capital shapes are simple cubes - and richer folded capitals (Winchester, Norwich, Dunfermline etc.). Usually they are pressed or shrunk like a pillow.
literature
- U. Fischer: Cityscape under the sign of conquest. English cathedral cities in the early Norman period (1066–1135). 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-33205-1 .
- Ernest H. Short: Norman Architecture in England . 2005.
- Eric Fernie: The Architecture of Norman England. Oxford 2000.
- Nikolaus Pevsner , John Fleming, Hugh Honor (ed.): Lexicon of world architecture. Munich 1971.
- A. Clifton-Taylor: The Cathedrals of England. London 1967.
- GH Cook: The English Cathedrals through the Centuries. London 1957.
- Geoffrey Webb: Architecture in Britain. The Middle Ages (= Pelican History of Art). London 1956.
- R. Rieger: Studies on the medieval architecture of England. In: Wiener Kunstwiss. Blätter, Vol. 2, 1953.
- AW Clapham: English Romanesque Architecture after the conquest. Oxford 1934.
- J. Bilson: Durham cathedral and the chronology of its vaults. In: Archeol. Journal 79, 1929.
- K. Escher: English cathedrals. Zurich 1929.
- Thomas Rickman : An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture, from the Conquest to the Reformation. Preceded by a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders, with notices of Nearly Five Hundred English Buildings. Longman, Hurst etc., London 1817.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dethard von Winterfeld: Romanesque architecture in Normandy and in England (= art historical worksheets . No. 3.2.4 ). Deubner Verlag for Art, Theory and Practice, Cologne 2008, p. 1 .
- ^ A b Thomas Rickman - Dictionary of Art Historians. (No longer available online.) Dictionaryofarthistorians.org, archived from the original on March 6, 2016 ; accessed on February 14, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Thomas Rickman: An attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture, from the conquest to the reformation . Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, London January 1, 1819 ( archive.org ).
- ↑ Lexicon of World Architecture . 218.
