Catalan Romanesque
The Catalan Romanesque ( Catalan Època Romànica ) in all its periods and forms was embedded in pan-European art trends. In some ways she played a pioneering role; in other respects it took up innovations from other art regions. But there is no doubt that the Catalan-Romanesque architecture of the 11th century with its monumental stone decorations (realized e.g. in the basilica of the Sant Pere de Rodes monastery ), often referred to as the "First Catalan Romanesque", and The wealth and variety of its Romanesque wall and panel paintings from the 12th century (e.g. the wall paintings in the apse of the church Sant Climent de Taüll , on display in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)) played an absolute pioneering role has taken in Europe.
Introduction and embedding of the term
Romanesque refers to a medieval, Western European art epoch that lasted roughly from the 11th to the 13th century according to region. The term was coined by French art scholars in the early 19th century with reference to the monumental round arches of this architectural style, which were reminiscent of the architecture of the Romans. The architect Elies Rogent , who carried out the restoration of the churches of Santa Maria de Ripoll and Sant Llorenc de Munt , used the concept of the "Romanesque style" in his commemorative publication of the Escola d'Architectura de Barcelona for the year 1873–1874, with which he was the first Line referred to the architectural style of the 11th century. The term was used in other works of the 1880s, especially for the churches in the Vall de Boí and for other buildings such as B. used the tower of the church of Sant Martí del Canígo .
The rediscovery of the Catalan Romanesque coincided with the romantic cultural movement of the Renaixença (Catalan Renaissance) of the late 19th century, which searched for national Catalan identities back to the Middle Ages. The Romanesque period under consideration was the period in which the Catalan regions had developed their own cultural identity. Scientific field studies - organized e.g. B. by the Associació Catalana d'Excursions founded in 1876 and renamed the Center Excursionista de Catalunya in 1891 - followed by numerous publications raised awareness of a specific Catalan heritage from the Middle Ages. The modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner collected and published the results in his Història de l'art romànic a Catalunya . The awareness of this own history encouraged the restoration of buildings such as the monastery of Ripoll by the bishop of Vic Josep Morgades and the architect Elies Rogent.
The Catalan early Romanesque
At the beginning of the 11th century there was a lot of building activity in Catalonia with regard to sacred buildings. New ideas regarding the floor plan, new techniques such as the almost perfect integration of barrel vaults into the load-bearing elements of the building and the new artistic design of masonry prompted the Catalan architect, art historian and politician Josep Puig i Cadafalch to consider the architectural style as the "first (Catalan) Romanesque ”.
A group of buildings were rooted in the traditions of ancient times and the early Middle Ages. The abbey church of Sant Pere de Rodes , built in the first third of the 11th century, belongs here in the forefront . This church stands for the concept of the separation of the main and side aisles by columns and pilasters artistically integrated into them. These column structures, arranged one on top of the other on two levels, referred to architectural elements from antiquity and the Carolingian world. Furthermore, Sant Pere de Rodes stands for a special type of sculptural ornamentation on Corinthian capitals with systematic braids and numerous Romanesque wall sculptures. We encounter flat wall reliefs with theophany visions with stone-carved frames of plant and geometric motifs in Sant Genís de Fontanes (dated 1019–1020) and Sant Andreu de Sureda . These techniques “migrated” south in the course of the 11th century and can then be found, for example, in the Romanesque cathedral of Barcelona (inaugurated in 1058). This new style of carved capitals and facades developed originally in the early 11th century in the eastern Pyrenees region between Roussillon and Empordan.
The outer facades of sacred buildings were also decorated with vertical ribbons with blind, protruding arches. Such elements produced an ornament effect solely through the play of light and shadow. Often, however, they were also decorated with white paint or multi-colored. Examples of such exterior ornamentation and painting can still be found in the remains of the original portal of the Church of Santa Maria de Ripoll , which appears in some places behind the “new” portal from the 12th century. In general, one can say that such decorative ribbons on the outer facades refer to the opus latericium , the brick masonry of the Romans.
The multiple analogies of this "first Catalan Romanesque" with the so-called Lombard Romanesque has led the first researchers in this field (like Josep Puig i Cadafalch) to believe that Lombard stone cutters and stone carvers built these churches in northeastern Catalonia. Without wanting to deny these analogies or possible contacts to Northern Italy, one has to evaluate this early Catalan Romanesque in architecture today as a unique and original integration of Roman and Carolingian architecture and possibly also Lombard Romanesque.
Many of the structures from this period have been lost, such as For example, the original abbey church of Ripoll, consecrated in 1032, with its wide transept and seven apsidal chapels, which was built after the model of Saint Peter in Rome. One of the masterpieces we have received is the church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona, consecrated in 1040 . The interior is completely and ideally "drawn up" by stone vaults. Each barrel vault section of the main nave is assigned three barrel vault sections of the side aisles. The success of this Catalan early Romanesque can be seen in the fact that its basic type continued well into the second half of the 11th century. B. in the Vall de Boí and in other parts of the Pyrenees remained alive.
The Romanesque fresco painting in Catalonia
Another important contribution of the Catalan Romanesque is the numerous wall paintings, mainly from the eastern Pyrenees area. Many of the fresco paintings that have come down to us have survived behind newer altar designs or under layers of newer paints and plasters.
The iconographic program
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The magnificent Catalan-Romanesque architecture of the 11th century was characterized by "bare" stone walls not decorated with paintings. The first great wave of church decorations through wall paintings began in the early 12th century, as evidenced by churches in the valleys of Pallars and Ribagorça . There are many indications that large churches such as that of the aforementioned Ripoll monastery were also furnished with important picture cycles. Although essential information about how the fresco painters worked is missing, the artists have been classified into different groups based on style comparisons. One of these groups (represented by the church of Sant Joan de Boí ) seemed to be involved in central and southern French fresco painting traditions, while another (represented by the work in the churches of Sant Quirze de Pedret and Sant Pere del Burgal ) was more of a northern Italian-Lombard tradition close. Be that as it may, it is precisely these northern Italian style elements that could be better explained by the church reform of the second half of the 11th century, the so-called "Gregorian reform". Religious scene books, which were created according to specifications from Rome, have obviously served in different parts of the church area as a template for large-format fresco paintings in churches and thus led to analogies in the fresco painting of the various regions. The wall paintings of Sant Joan de Boí are an excellent example of the influence of miniature paintings on the large format of the fresco. Scenes from the Ripoll Bible (mid-11th century) were used as direct models for fresco paintings. The artists also seem to have started their careers as painters of panel paintings before they dealt with wall painting.
As can be seen from the well-documented cases from the Romanesque section of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, the iconographic program was able to extend over the entire interior of a church in a consistent and coherent concept. Scenes from the Old and New Testaments decorate the walls of the main and side aisles. On the west side, scenes of the Last Judgment are illustrated (such as in Santa Maria de Taüll ), while the deity occupies her place of honor in the apse opposite.
The artistic roots of these iconographic programs lie deep in Byzantine and late ancient Christian art. They are in the context of the Gregorian church reform and serve the attempt to regain the origins of the Roman church. This is illustrated above all by the pictorial decoration of the apse of Sant Pere de Brugal . This is divided into three registers. In the top register, Christ resides as the Majesty of the Last Judgment, flanked by the Archangels Gabriel and Michael. Below, in the central register, is the sky in the form of a semicircular bench reminiscent of the synthronon of a church. On this bench sit some apostles, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The central presence of Peter and Paul as well as the implicit emphasis on the Eucharist in the attributes of Mary, who holds the bowl with the blood of Christ in her hands, highlight key points of Gregorian reform such as the primacy of the Pope and the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist against the Ideas from a Berengar von Tours .
Finally, in the lowest register, the figure of Countess Llucia von Pellars - identified by the inscription LLUCIA CONMITESA - is depicted. This countess managed her property from 1081 for ten years after her husband's death. On the basis of this "document" an absolute early dating of the Romanesque wall paintings of Catalonia is given. However, it is highly probable that it was her sons who commissioned the wall paintings in the apse of Sant Pere de Brugal and had their mother immortalized there. Accordingly, the onset of Romanesque wall paintings in Catalonia is dated to the early 12th century.
The painters and their craft
The color pigments used in Catalan wall painting were mainly of an inorganic nature, which explains the long shelf life of the works. The following mineral raw materials, which all occur naturally in the area around the Pyrenees, were used for the production of the colors:
- Hematite (Roteisenstein) for the color red
- Goethite (needle iron ore) for the color yellow or for ocher tones
- Charcoal for the color black
- Calcite (calcite) and gypsum for the color white
- Aerinite for the color blue or with the addition of Goethites for the color green
The Aerinite in particular are responsible for the typical, highly peculiar character of the blue and green tones of Catalan wall painting.
The surfaces on which the wall paintings were applied were prepared in the following way. On top of a coarse layer of lime (arricio) a finer layer of a mixture of sand and slaked lime was applied (intonaco). Lines and incisions were applied to this in order to specify the overall composition of the work being created. This was then usually painted in three layers.
Nothing is known about the artists, their origins, their social status, their technical training, the way in which their work and collaboration were organized, or about their relationships with clients. There are no signatures on or in the wall paintings. The only thing that can be said is the fact that their work was considered a fundamental part of the church's construction.
The painters evidently went through a career from panel painter to fresco painter. This can be seen, for example, in paintings in the apse of Sant Climent de Taüll . In addition to the predominant rigid, ornamental characteristics of the pantocrator image, the cloak of the pantocrator was painted over with black and white areas, so that the garment with the accompanying light-shadow effects takes on a downright three-dimensional character. This technique clearly comes from panel painting.
The story of the discovery and rescue of the frescoes
At the end of the 19th century, a few Romanesque frescoes in Catalonia, such as those in the churches of Sant Quirze de Pedret and Sant Martí de Fonollar, were known and published in the specialist literature. In 1904 the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner undertook a series of excursions to the areas of Pallars and Ribagorça for his never published book Història de l'art romànic a Catalunya . During these field studies he came across the wall paintings of El Burgal , Àneu and Taüll in the Vall de Boí for the first time . He described, drew and photographed these paintings for the first time. In 1907 the Institut d'Estudis Catalans organized a field study in the Vall de Boí , in which Josep Puig i Cadafalch , Josep Gudiol i Cunill , the photographer Adolf Mas , among others , took part. Since then, the valuable cultural heritage of the Romanesque wall paintings has enjoyed increasing appreciation worldwide. As a result of this field study, the Junta de Museus (oversight of all Catalan museums) had a series of copies of these murals made. The Institut d'Estudis Catalans published these works between 1907 and 1921. The resulting fame of these works unfortunately also raised the interests of the growing international art market. In this context, Ignacio Pollak (a North American art dealer of Hungarian origin) and Gabriel Dereppe (a French art dealer) sold the frescoes from the apse of the Church of Santa Maria de Mur to the art collector Lluís Planduria from Barcelona, which they have not yet been in Spain The well-known special technique of the " Strappo " had the Italian expert Franco Steffanoni removed from the apse. When the Junta de Museus heard of the sale of the wall paintings, they immediately informed the President of the Catalan government Josep Puig i Cadafalch. In 1920, Puig immediately declared the church to be a Historic and Artistic Monument of Catalonia. But he was late. The wall paintings had already been sold to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston , USA in 1921 by their new owner, Lluís Plandiura . Startled by this incident, the Junta de Museus issued a loan in 1919 and 1920 and negotiated with Ignacio Pollak, who had begun selling further Romanesque works, about the purchase and acceptance of the paintings and their installation in the Museu d'Art i Arqueologia in the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona. All pictures were taken from 1920 to 1923 using the technique of Strappo mentioned by Franco Steffanoni and a few helpers and brought to the museum in Barcelona. A total of 345 m² of murals from the Pyrenees were brought to Barcelona on support structures that replicate the churches (e.g. the apses). On June 12, 1924, the Catalan Romanesque Art Department of the Museu d'Art i Arqueologia was inaugurated. This collection was an instant hit. In 1934, these wall paintings were moved to their present location, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in the Palau Nacional de Montjuïc in Barcelona. This institution grew organically through further acquisitions into the role of the world's leading museum for Romanesque wall paintings.
literature
- Hèlios Rubio et al .: Art de Catalunya (Ars Cataloniae) . L'Architectura Religiosa d'Època Preromanànica i Romànica . 1st edition. tape 4 /16 (Arquitectura religiosa antiga i medieval). Edicions L'Isard, Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84-89931-13-5 , pp. 56-129 .
- Manuel Castiñeiras, Jordi Camps, Joan Duran-Porta: Romanesque Art in the MNAC collections . Barcelona undated , ISBN 978-84-9785-548-8 (Lunwerg), ISBN 978-84-8043-196-5 (MNAC) (Translated from Catalan into English by Andrew Lagdon-Davies and Andrew Stacey; this The work has been published in a Catalan, Spanish and the English edition referred to here)
- Tim Heilbronner: Iconography and contemporary function of wooden seated madonnas in Romanesque Catalonia . Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8300-6809-9 .
- Anke Wunderwald: The Catalan wall painting in the diocese of Urgell: 11. – 12. Century . Korb 2010, ISBN 978-3-939020-07-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the articles Romanesque (in Wikipedia) and Romanesque in the Wiktionary .
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: An Introduction to Catalan Romanesque . P. 9.
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: An Introduction to Catalan Romanesque . P. 9.
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: An Introduction to Catalan Romanesque . Pp. 10-14.
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: An Introduction to Catalan Romanesque . P. 14.
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: The Mural Painting Technique: The Painters Craft . Pp. 38-46.
- ↑ After: Castiñeiras et al .: Mural Painting, Discovery, Removal and first Installations . P. 21 ff.