Romanesque - Architecture, Sculpture, Painting

The Romanesque was the first period in medieval art to include all of Europe. It began around 1000 and did not end - with the Staufen late Romanesque in Germany and Italy - until about the middle of the thirteeth century. Some of the contributions in this volume also consider pre-Romanesque Carolingian and Ottonian art. The borrowing of particular formal elements from Roman architecture, including the round arch which is considered the hallmark of the Romanesque, led to the coining of the term "Romanesque." However, the Romanesque was a period in the high Middle Ages which was en-ly moulded by the spirit of Christianity, and it can even be said that Romanesque art essentially is Christian church art. The majority of the works of architecture, sculpture and painting discussed in this volume can be properly understood only in the context of a Christian view of the world and Christian ways of life. In addition, monastic culture, as discussed in the introduction, played its own important role.