03 — ARTWORK
View of the round crypt
- MEDIUM
- Photo
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
HOVER OR TAP A SWATCH FOR NAME, SHARE AND HEX. SAMPLED FROM THE IMAGE — INDICATIVE, NOT A PIGMENT ANALYSIS.
THIS REPRODUCTION
- FILE
- 700 × 1019 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
In the early 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. period only centrally planned buildings or crypts were vaulted. The latter had been erected as tombs since the late eight century, mostly under the high altar. The main reason for this was the desire to create a place for the venerated relics of the saints and to make them accessible to everyone. Various ground plans were selected depending on the architectural possibilities of the particular building: a ring cryptunderground chamber beneath the altar in a church, usually containing a saint's relics. Though the chamber is underneath the choir, it can extend as far as the crossing. It is not always completely underground, so that the choir and altar sometimes considerably higher than the nave and aisles; as a result, very impressive flights of steps were built to connect nave and choir., a barrel-vaulted semicircular passageway, or a cross-shaped passage or tunnel crypt.
The photo shows the crypt in Fulda.
OTHER WORKS BY GERMAN ARCHITECT
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rcb63d94cedb999,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {View of the round crypt by ARCHITECT, German},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/architect-german-r58f966d9014e51/view-of-the-round-crypt-rcb63d94cedb999},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.