03 — ARTWORK
Exterior view
- MEDIUM
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- TYPE
- Other
PALETTE
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COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The RomanesqueStyle of art and architecture prevailing throughout most of Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, the first style to achieve such international currency. The dominant art of the Middle Ages was architecture, and 'Romanesque', like 'Gothic', is primarily an architectural term that has been extended to the other arts of the period. As the name suggests, it indicates a derivation from Roman art, and sometimes Romanesque is used to cover all the developments from Roman architecture in the period from the collapse of the Roman Empire until the flowering of the Gothic roughly AD 500-1200. More usually, however, it is applied to a distinctive style that emerged, almost simultaneously, in several countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain - in the 11th century. It is characterized most obviously by a new massiveness of scale, reflecting the greater political and economic stability that followed a period when Christian civilization seemed in danger of extinction. Romanesque painting and sculpture are generally strongly stylized, with little of the naturalism and humanistic warmth of classical or later Gothic art. The forms of nature are freely translated into linear and sculptural designs which are sometimes majestically calm and severe and at others are agitated by a visionary excitement that can become almost delirious. Because of its expressionistic distortion of natural form, Romanesque art, as with other great non-naturalistic styles of the past, has had to wait for the revolution in sensibility brought about by the development of modern art in order to be widely appreciated. Basilicaa church building, usually facing east, with a tall main nave and two or four side aisles of lesser height. There may also be a transept between the nave and the choir, which is reserved for the clergy. Originally, the basilica was an ancient Greek administrative building, and the Romans used this form for markets and law courts; it then became a place of assembly for the early Christians, and thus a church. of St. Peter and St. Paul, built principally between 1088 and 1130, was the largest church in the world until the erection of St. Peter's in Rome. Cluny's basilica was in great part demolished in the early 19th century, but the ruins of the main southern transeptsection of a church at right-angles to the nave and in front of the choir., dominated by a great belfry tower, testify to its former glory(1) The supernatural radiance surrounding a holy person. (2) To have the distinction of one's deeds recognized in life and to be revered for them posthumously: this was glory. The nature of true gloria was much discussed, whether it must be connected with the public good, whether the actions that led to it must conform with Christian ethics, how it differed from notoriety. The concept did not exclude religious figures (the title of the church of the Frari in Venice was S. Maria Gloriosa), but it was overwhelmingly seen in terms of secular success and subsequent recognition, as determining the lifestyles of the potent and the form of their commemoration in literature, in portraits and on tombs. As such, it has been taken as a denial of medieval religiosity ('sic transit gloria mundi'), and thus a hallmark of Renaissance individual ism; as a formidable influence on cultural patronage; and as spurring on men of action, as well as writers and artists, to surpass their rivals - including their counterparts in antiquity..
Cluny III, as it was rebuilt at the end of the 11th century and early 12th century and destroyed by the French themselves in 1810, had two transepts, each with an octagonal tower over the crossingthe area of a church where the nave is intersected by the transept.. The more important of these, the one farther west, had octagonal towers to the right and left of the crossing (one of these survives), and two eastern apses to each arm. The eastern transept had four apses too. Moreover, the chancelinterchangeable with choir, sometimes the area in front of the altar. apseA semicircular projection, roofed with a half-dome, at the east end of a church behind the altar. Smaller subsidiary apses may be found around the choir or transepts. Also known as an exedra. The adjective is apsidal. had an ambulatorySemicircular or polygonal circulation space enclosing an apse or a straight-ended sanctuary. with five radiating chapelschapels leading off from the ambulatory, and arranged in a semi-circular fashion.. Thus it is a structure so complex as earlier centuries in the West could not have conceived.
The photo shows the surviving southern transept. The view of the church as it might appeared in the sixteenth century can be seen in the <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/s/sagot/index.html')" href="/html/s/sagot/index.html">lithographs by Émile Sagot.</a>
View the <a href="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/support/plans/zzzarchi/11c/2/cluny.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600');w.opener=this;w.focus();return false">ground plan</a> of the whole monasterythe complex of buildings used by a community of monks. Among the main elements of the complex are the church, cloister, chapter house (used by the governing body), refectory (dining room) and dormitory (sleeping quarters). site, reconstruction of its state around 1150.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rff8d3dddb2dec6,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Exterior view by ARCHITECT, French},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/architect-french-rdae55df3ad7702/exterior-view-rff8d3dddb2dec6},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
