Lombard architectural styles
As Lombard style in the strict sense is Lombard pre- or early Romanesque referred. It drew on models from late antiquity and was one of the forerunners of the (high) Romanesque in France and Germany, but also rubbed off directly on northern Spain . With suggestions from across the Alps, he developed into Lombard Romanesque . This in turn became the model for the brick Romanesque in Germany. Through the rather selective adoption of style elements from the transalpine Gothic , the Lombard Romanesque was developed into the Lombard Gothic .
Lombard pre-Romanesque
From the end of the 6th century, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy , tens of thousands of members of the eponymous Germanic people of the Lombards , who had conquered large parts of northern and central Italy in the course of the migration , lived in addition to the original Roman population . From the middle of the seventh century both population groups mixed and developed their own architectural style based on ancient models.
Emergence
In Italy the Lombards had found countless ruins from Roman times . Despite the fall of the Roman Empire, this type of architecture continued to exist in the Eastern Roman Empire with the capital New Rome (Constantinople) . The Lombards had also come across buildings in this Byzantine architectural style in northern Italy , which the Ostrogoth king Theodoric in particular had built. As a former conqueror of Italy and thus lord (493-526) of the then capital Ravenna - he had built his palace and some churches ( Sant'Apollinare Nuovo , Baptistery of the Arians or his tomb ) based on Byzantine models, since he was a hostage at a young age had been educated in Byzantium and had learned to appreciate the art there.
In addition, the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I was able to (back) conquer a large part of Italy after 535 and built other splendid buildings in Ravenna ( San Vitale , Baptistery of the Cathedral , Sant'Apollinare in Classe ). These churches and palaces shaped the architectural ideas of the new immigrants.
The majority of the Lombards residing in Italy had initially joined the Arian faith. They did not become Catholic until the 7th century - an important prerequisite for mixing with the original population.
Even after the Frankish conquest (774) by Charlemagne (the Pope had called on him to protect the Papal States from the Longobards), Lombardy retained its cultural independence. The Lombard kings promoted and protected the builders and craftsmen to a high degree, so that the Byzantine architectural style found was further developed and flourished again as the "Lombard style" - especially in the capital Pavia and neighboring Milan (here especially Sant ' Ambrogio ).
One aspect of power politics must not be disregarded: Those who built buildings based on Roman or Byzantine models, i.e. those who built “imperially” , placed themselves in the tradition of the emperors and thus underlined their own claim to rule.
Characteristics
The walls of Lombard buildings in northern Italy often consist of precisely shaped Byzantine bricks , in other regions they are also made of house stones or selected natural stones. They are massive, i.e. H. without filling the rubble, as the Romans did. The cross-section of towers is mostly square , as in the first St. Peter's Church in Rome.
The main characteristics of the Lombard architectural style can be seen in the structure and design of the outer walls of the apse , bell tower and facade through blind arcades , pilasters or pilaster strips and arched friezes . Particularly noteworthy are the - sometimes free-standing - towers with their increasingly numerous light and sound openings.
Regional distribution
Travelers to Italy who were traveling to Rome for religious, political or mercantile reasons and had become acquainted with the northern Italian style on this trip contributed to the spread of the new style in Western Europe. One of the first buildings in Germany with typical Lombard features is the Speyer Cathedral , which, as the imperial cathedral, played a role model that cannot be overestimated.
But ecclesiastical politics also played its part: even before the year 1000, the popes supported the founding of new monasteries that were independent of the local bishop . So it happened that monks from Lombard monasteries in other regions - including foreign ones - became abbots and took the local architectural style with them, which led to its spread throughout Western Europe - including the Rhineland .
Another region in which the Romanesque-Lombard architectural style was of great importance is Catalonia , where the suggestions for this new architectural aesthetic were introduced by Abbot Oliba after his trip to Italy (1011).
Saint-Philibert in Tournus , Burgundy (around 1020)
Saint-Martin-du-Canigou , Roussillon (around 1020)
Vic Cathedral , Catalonia (around 1030)
Santa Maria de Ripoll Monastery , Catalonia (around 1040)
Sant Pere de Rodes Monastery , Catalonia (around 1050/1100)
Sant Climent de Taüll , Catalonia (around 1120)
former cathedral of Uzès , Provence (around 1100)
Quirinus Minster in Neuss , Rhineland (around 1210–1250)
Lombard Romanesque
At the beginning of the Lombard Romanesque there are, among other things, the two Pavesian basilicas of San Michele Maggiore made of sandstone and San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro made of brick with their dwarf galleries rising under the roof edges of the west gable . The central nave of San Michele was vaulted from the start . At San Pietro an initial wooden coffered ceiling is being considered. In the Romanesque era, vaulted ceilings were by no means a matter of course north of the Alps.
Lombard Gothic
The Lombard architecture adopted many stylistic elements of the French and also German Gothic, but proportions and building structures were hardly adopted, especially not the west towers . Again at the beginning there was a distinctive church building in Pavia, Santa Maria del Carmine . Gothic rulers' palaces such as the Sforza Palace in Milan and the Visconti Palace in Pavia anticipated building structures that only became popular in other countries during the Renaissance . Despite some marble facades, the Lombard Gothic (the Gotico Lombardo ) is largely a brick Gothic . The Gothic buildings in the neighboring region of Emilia-Romagna are also assigned to the Lombard Gothic. Among them is the largest of all Gothic brick churches, the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna.
literature
- Lydia L. Dewiel: Lombardy and Northern Italian Lakes. Art and landscape between the Alps and the Po Valley. DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4396-5 , p. 28f.
- Vicenç Buron: Esglésies Romániques Catalanes. Artestudi Edicions, Barcelona 1977, ISBN 84-85180-06-2 .
