Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe: Architecture, Ritual and Urban Context

340 Pages·2016·106.111 MB·English

by  Gerardo Boto Varela, Justin E. A. Kroesen

RoMANES^E Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe
Architectura Medii Aevi
Vol. VII
Series Editor
Prof. Thomas Coomans (KU Leuven, Department of Architecture)
Advisory Board
Prof. Caroline Bruzelius (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina)
Prof. Paul Crossley (Courtauld Institute of Art, London)
Prof. Christian Freigang (Freie Universität Berlin, Kunsthistorisches Institut)
Prof. Dany Sandron (Université de Paris Sorbonne - Paris IV)
Romanesque Cathedrals
in Mediterranean Europe
Architecture, Ritual and Urban Context
Edited by
Gerardo Boto Varela & Justin E.A. Kroesen
BREPOLS
Cover photo: Ravello (I), cathedral, interior (photo Luciano Pedicini)
This volume was published with the financial support of the Institute for Christian Cultural Heritage at the Univer­
sity of Groningen, the Netherlands, and the University of Girona, Spain.
All English te^s were carefully checked by JamesEdits.
© 2016 Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publisher.
D/2016/0095/27
ISBN 978-2-503-55250-7
e-ISBN 978-2-503-55281-1
DOI 10.1484/M.AMA-EB.5.109561
Printed in the EU on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe:
Balance and Perspectives
GernrdoBotolekò'JustinElKroesen
I. Shaping Cathedrals in the Pre-Romanesque Era
The Cathedrals of early Medieval Italy:
The Impact of the Cult of the saints and the Liturgy
on Italian Cathedrals from 500 to 1200
Beat Brenk 9
French Cathedrals around the Year 1000:
Forms and Functions, Antecedents, and Future
Jean-PieeCaillet 29
II. Building Romanesque Cathedrals on Older Substrates
Between ‘Church Families’ and Monumental Architecture:
German Eleventh-Century Cathedrals and Mediterranean Traditions
MatthiasUntermann 47
Aosta Cathedral from Bishop Anselm’s Project
to the Romanesque Church, 998-1200
MauroCortelazÂoôlenatoPerinetti 71
Interrii^sHispaniarttittrbesJarraconensissedisinsqpüssii::
Morphogenesis and spatial Organization of Tarragona Cathedral (1150-1225)
Gerardo Boto Varela 85
III. Romanesque Cathedrals in Urban Contexts
The Cathedral of Toulouse (1070-1120): An Ecclesiastical, Political,
and Artistic Manifesto
Quitterie Cazes 109
The Renovation of Northern Italian Cathedrals during the Eleventh
and Twelfth Centuries:
The state of Current Research and some Unanswered .estions
SaerioLomatire 119
Medieval Cathedral Architecture as an Episcopal Instrument of
Ideology and Urban Policy: The example of Venice
XarierBarmliAltet 139
The Architecture ofJaca Cathedral: The Project and its Impact
JarierMartinezieAguirre 153
The Portuguese Cathedrals and the Birth of a Kingdom:
Braga, oporto, Coimbra, and the Historical Arrival at
Lisbon - Capital City and shrine of st Vincent
JorgefMiueldeOlireiralRoclrigues 169
IV. Liturgical Layout and Spatial Organization
The Mise-en-scène of the Holy in the Lateran Church
in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
MicheleBacci 187
Liturgical Installations in the Cathedral of salerno:
The Double Ambo in its Regional Context
between sicilian Models and Local Liturgy
ElisakttaScirocco 205
Romanesque Cathedrals in Catalonia as Liturgical systems: A Functional
and symbolical Approach to the Cathedrals of Vic, Girona,
and Tarragona (Eleventh-Fourteenth Centuries)
MarcSurecUiJukn)! 223
V. Visual Discourses and Iconographie Programmes
A New Interpretation of the Thirteenth-Century Capitals
of the Ancient Cathedral of Lleida (‘seu Vella’)
FrnncescFiteiLlerot 245
The Iconography of the Cloister of Gerona Cathedral
and the Functionalist Interpretation of Romanesque Historiated
Cloisters: Possibilities and Limitations
PeterKIlein 259
The Cloistral sculpture at La seu d’Urgell
and the Problem of its Visual Repertoire
MirtaSe'moCollò'EstkrLoz.ioLóleez, 275
Romanesque sculpture in Zamora and salamanca
and its Connections to santiago de Compostela
JoseLuisHernndoGarido 291
List of Contributors and Editors 305
Index of Monuments 309
Color Plates
317
Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe
Balance and Perspectives
Gerardo Boto Varela & Justin E.A. Kroesen
Within the ecclesiastical hierarchy, a cathedral is the d’Estudis Medievals, an international research group
principal church of a diocese. The term ‘cathedral’ comprised of scholars from Spain and several other
is derived from cathedra, a Greek word designating European countries focusing on Medieval church
the seat (or ‘see’) of a bishop, which stands as a pars architecture in Catalonia and beyond.1 Templa
pro toto for the entire church building. In France and members who have contributed to the present volume
Castile, respectively, the terms ‘cathédrale’ and ‘cate- are Gerardo Boto, José Luis Hernando Garrido,
dral’ became the most widespread names to signify Justin Kroesen, Esther Lozano, Marta Serrano and
the bishop’s church, while Portugal, Catalonia and Marc Sureda. The research group aims at under­
Aragon in turn employed the words ‘sé’ (catedral), standing the overall complexity of Medieval cathe­
‘seu’ and ‘seo’, indicating the bishop’s seat. In Italian, drals starting from the geology of building materials
the term ‘duomo’ became common, corresponding down to the visual discourse of iconographies and the
to the German ‘Dom’, which is believed to be an abbre­ intricacies of the liturgical life that once filled their
viation of domus (‘house’), being that of God or of the interiors. Cathedrals are approached as multi-faceted
bishop (or both). In everyday speech, the term ‘cathe­ stages with both tangible and intangible characteris­
dral’ is nowadays often more loosely used to designate tics, including architectural particularities, church
large church buildings in general, including churches furnishings, visual landscapes, the presence of relics,
that never housed the see of a bishop. Moreover, iconographic programs, ritual patterns, social and
‘cathedral’ in a more metaphorical sense may even be economic hierarchies, etc. This integrated and com­
used to describe imposing structures per se, including prehensive approach attempts to surpass traditional
those with non-ecclesiastical functions; football sta­ cathedral research which was organized along disci­
diums, for example, are sometimes called ‘cathedrals plinary lines, such as history of art and architecture,
of soccer’ and museums ‘cathedrals of culture’, while liturgical studies and social and economic history,
train stations and airports have been described as and which often resulted in either/or answers based
‘cathedrals of modernity’. As such, the debased mea­ on arguments from engineering to stylistic vocabula­
ning has come to stretch far beyond the ecclesiastical ries and scholastic discourses.
category to effectively become the epitome of power, The centuries studied in this volume correspond
of technical wonder and of civic pride. roughly to the Romanesque style period, from the
The articles in this volume have grown out of two turn of the millennium through to the thirteenth
conferences held at the University of Girona (Spain) century. Examples of Romanesque architecture can
organized within the framework of Templa. Taller be found across the continent, making it the first
RomnesqueCdtfoedniisin MedttemmeimEurope. ArcbitecturejRttMiindUrknContext١ei\yj Gera.rdoBotoVareha.Mus.trnlAIrocs.en .,Architectura.
Medii Aevi, 7 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 1-6
© BREPOLS H PUBLISHERS 10.1484/M.AMA-EB.5.109562
pan-European architectural style since late Antiquity. research concerning the individual monuments into
The Romanesque style period represented an age of the underlying cultural realm of the cathedral as a
expansion and consolidation of Christian Europe. cultural topos and an identity marker both for local
It was characterized by increasing urbanization and communities and indeed for Europe as a whole.
witnessed remarkable technical and intellectual inno­ As monuments of art and architecture, many
vations, including many monumental and indeed cathedrals clearly express their status as the primary
emblematic ecclesiastical building projects. This buil­ church of the diocese. The pursuit of a representative
ding hausse was accompanied by large-scale structu­ building to serve as primas to the entire bishopric
ral reforms of the church organization as well as the could materialize into a single monumental building
meticulous codification of many aspects of religious towering over all other churches and incorporating
life, from canonical law to the liturgical ritual. This the latest building techniques. At the same time, in
is the time in which Georges Duby’s ‘L’Europe des many Romanesque cathedrals, attempts were made
cathédrales’ (‘The Europe of the Cathedrals’) took to incorporate the oldest local layers of Christianity,
shape, with bishops’ churches coming to dominate which in southern Europe generally reach back into
the skyline of many towns and cities across the conti­ late Antiquity. The original texture of the late Antique
nent. The geographical focus of the studies collec­ cathedrals is preserved only by way of exception,
ted in this volume is on the western Mediterranean however, with rare sixth-century examples found in
countries, including the Iberian Peninsula, southern PoreC/Parenzo and Grado (see Beat Brenk, in this
France, and Italy. The northern borders of the area volume). In other cases, the Ancient legacy becomes
studied are rather fluid, since some attention is manifest in the outline and shape of Romanesque
also paid to cathedrals in northern France and the church buildings, such as in Tarragona, where the
Germanic parts of the Holy Roman Empire, in view Roman temenos has determined much of the ground
of the many political and cultural contacts which tied plan of the late-Romanesque cathedral and cloister,
north and south together. as is shown by Gerardo Boto Varela, or in the form
Most of the case studies collected in this volume of spolia, i.e., deliberately reused parts of predeces­
have remained unpublished to date — at least in sor-buildings, as is the case in Modena, for example.
English. Together they offer many new and in-depth Saverio Lomartire points out that, more than caused
insights into the nature of cathedrals in southern by a lack of funding or technical abilities, the main­
Europe and of cathedrals as such. Medieval architec­ tenance of Ancient buildings and building parts
ture is often the result of an ages-long process of buil­ forged ties to a remote past and kept the memory
ding and rebuilding. In most of the articles, cathedrals of the diocesan community alive. This memory was
are not approached as isolated buildings, but rather as often closely bound up with the presence of relics, the
parts of complexes, including many subsidiary spaces, possession of which could lead to fierce competition
such as the cloister, chapter house, housing for the between dioceses. In his article, Jorge Rodrigues des­
clergy and the bishop’s palace. Many contributions cribes several cases of such relic rivalry in the Iberian
also address the location of cathedrals in the urban Peninsula.
fabric, in an area that was often called the ‘canonical Competition and emulation vis-à-vis the churches
quarter’. Much attention is paid to the interiors of of the monastic orders and the parish churches of
cathedrals as functional spaces: cathedrals served as the increasingly self-conscious townspeople resulted
ritual stages, not only for the sacred liturgy and the in many Romanesque cathedrals being almost
veneration of relics, but also for many other ceremo­ constantly altered, expanded and sometimes even
nies. Another focus well represented in this volume rebuilt. Nearly all cathedrals therefore manifest
is on cathedrals as bearers of imagery, including first a complex and fundamentally layered character.
and foremost sculptured portals and the capitals Matthias Untermann studies the many cathedral
found in their interiors and in cloisters. A number of (re)constructions that took place in the Holy Roman
studies deal with Romanesque cathedrals as ‘messen­ Empire between c. 980 and c. 1050, often remarkably
gers’ of the ideas, claims and ambitions held by those monumental with west transepts and double choirs.
who built, furnished and used them. In this man­ Saverio Lomartire examines the wave of cathedral
ner, this book reaches beyond the state-of-the-art renovations that swept across northern Italy during
2 Gerardo Boto Varela & Justin E.A. Kroesen
the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In addition, Beat left their mark on the buildings. It is the task of the
Brenk asserts that the chancels of Romanesque cathe­ researcher to peel these layers off and reconstruct
drals in Italy and their furnishings are almost never the cathedral in its different stages and as a mirror
preserved in their original form as the result of later of local history. Saverio Lomartire states that this
changes and replacements. In Venice, as Xavier Barral requires the joint efforts of archaeologists, historians
i Altet demonstrates, the bishop’s church of San of art and architecture and historians of liturgy and
Pietro di Castello on the islet of Olivolo did not suc­ palaeography. Such research projects should reach
ceed in asserting itself architecturally as the primary beyond the cathedral proper into the urban envi­
church of the city since it was fully dwarfed by Saint ronment in which the building is situated. ^itterie
Mark’s basilica at the palace of the Doge. For the Cazes describes how a true ‘cathedral quarter’ deve­
twelfth-century rebuilding of Venice’s cathedral, a loped during the eleventh century at the eastern city
particular style idiom was adopted that was unfami­ gates of Toulouse. Jean-Pierre Caillet and Matthias
liar to the lagoon city, but deliberately connected the Untermann highlight a number of cases where the
building to the Romanesque in the Venetian hinter­ special status of the cathedral was not expressed in a
land, the powerhouse for the local bishop in his strug­ single building, but rather in complex and multiple
gle against the city’s ruler. ‘church families’ consisting of a number of separate
In some instances, the Romanesque period saw cultic buildings, of which Lyon provided a repre­
the creation of coherent masterpieces in the round- sentative illustration. At many cathedrals in Italy
arched style that would remain points of reference the baptistery was maintained as a separate building
throughout architectural history. One such case is throughout the Romanesque period because — as
the cathedral of Jaca in northern Aragon studied by Beat Brenk shows — it had gradually changed into a
Javier Martinez de Aguirre, an ambitious and perfec­ parish church for the daily Mass and was used for the
tly designed three-aisled building in which the pur­ cult of the deceased. Cases such as these remind us
suit of the Gregorian Reform and the ambitions of of the fundamentally plural character of many cathe­
a monarchy in an age of expansion were combined. drals being all too often overlooked, obscured as it
The issue of patronage is addressed in a number often was by later urban planning. Caillet points out
of articles in this volume. Saverio Lomartire states that a better recognition of the spatial dissemination
that the bishop is — mistakenly — often regarded of different components of such church families or
as the sole patron and the only ‘engine’ behind the groups may help to understand the functional fabric
rebuilding or renovation of cathedrals. In many ins­ of the large single-body church that became common
tances, however, the chapter of canons also played in the thirteenth century.
a decisive role, as well as persons of political power, Many Romanesque cathedrals displayed a wide
including kings, dukes and counts. In Modena, for range of imagery in the form of sculptures, pain­
example, the large-scale rebuilding of the cathedral tings and stained glass. According to the often-
took place precisely during a period when the bishop repeated Medieval adagium, images would have
was absent and the canons regarded the cathedral as served as Biblia pauperum (‘books of the illiterate’).
their own. José Luis Hernando Garrido explores the Nevertheless, images never speak for themselves, but
architecture and sculpture of Salamanca and Zamora always in conjunction with other forms of commu­
Cathedrals which cannot be understood without nication including ritual activity and the written
the intervention of the Leonese kings Fernando II or spoken word. Where the images show a certain
and Alfonso IX, who employed professionals who degree of internal coherence, in the form of thematic
had previously worked on the cathedral of Santiago clusters or narrative series, we may speak of ‘icono-
de Compostela. Matthias Untermann analyzes the graphical programs’ or ‘pictorial narrativity’. A num­
cathedral at Speyer, whose monumental features were ber of articles in this volume focus on the figurative
not the result of a high ecclesiastical rank, but from sculptures found on capitals, which were particularly
royal patronage by Kings Conrad II and Henry III. common in the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern
Since the architecture of many Romanesque France. Francesc Fité i Llevot recognizes a true icono-
cathedrals displays a complex and layered charac­ graphical programme in the imagery found on sculp­
ter, the sucessive periods have, like earth strata, all tured capitals in the chancel and transepts of Lleida
RoMANEs^E Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe 3
Cathedral, the so-called Seu ^lla. He notes that the celebrated in ‘ordinary’ parish churches. Marc Sureda
presbytery is dedicated to Christological themes with eloquently calls the cathedral a ‘celebrating machine,
a primordial role for the Virgin Mary, while the side with the episcopal liturgy being the primary reason
chapels display hagiographic topics. The transepts for its very existence, and it is Mauro Cortelazzo
and crossing, which were constructed at a slightly and Renato Perinetti who show that the renewal
later date, treat Christ’s Second Coming accom­ of Aosta Cathedral in the eleventh century was pri­
panied by angels announcing the Final Judgement. marily steered by the increase of private masses and
As such, the entire History of Salvation is narrated orations. However, the study of cathedrals as stages
and made present at significant locations inside the for liturgical (and para-liturgical) ritual is rather
church building. recent. Fortunately, the last decades have seen a
Marta Serrano and Esther Lozano are less asser­ continual rapprochement between art history and
tive about the presence of a coherent programme in liturgical studies, and many of the articles in this
the processional space of the Romanesque cloister volume pay considerable attention to the liturgical
at the cathedral of La Seu d’Urgell. Rather than one use of Romanesque cathedrals. In spite of the many
unifying pattern, the authors believe that the sculp­ changes from the later Middle Ages and afterwards,
tor of the capitals deliberately situated certain eye­ almost all cathedrals studied are still in use, which
catching compositions in relation to others without means that the liturgy is one of our most direct
following one linear narrative, turning the cloister connections to the past. It is the conservative nature
into a ‘mnemonic device’. Sculptures would evoke of rituals that has helped to preserve large parts of
certain passages from the Bible, especially the book their original fabric, although many choir partitions
of Psalms, in the onlooker — being a cleric or a lay­ have lamentably fallen victim to such modern pur­
man — invoking, reminding and admonishing him suits as ‘transparency’.
toward good behaviour. Peter Klein studies the richly Saverio Lomartire describes how architecture and
sculptured capitals of the cloister at Girona (Gerona) liturgy constantly and mutually influenced each other.
in the light of a possible explanation pertaining to the Renovations and restorations of Romanesque cathe­
ritual functions of this space. He comes to the conclu­ drals in northern Italy were at the same time answers to
sion that a one-to-one correspondence between new liturgical requirements and restricted the extent
image and ritual was never developed in Romanesque to which these could be adapted. The complex nature
art. Rather, the biblical cycles on the capitals reso­ of cathedrals corresponds to the plural and stratified
nate with general iconographical concepts that were nature of the community of users being the bishop,
also found in the naves of the churches and the por­ the canons, the minor clergy (priests and chaplains),
tal sculptures on the exterior. The choice for certain and the lay people. On the one hand, different clerics
motifs and subjects, according to Klein, seems to have and the populace often competed over access to the
derived mainly from prevailing artistic traditions and salvation offered by the liturgy. At the same time, they
trends. However, the strong concentration of figura­ all shared the same concern, namely the preservation
tive decorations in the walk adjacent to the church of the memory of the patron saint(s) as protectors
and the presence of certain motifs including the Foot of the entire city. The community-building aspect of
Washing (mandatum) and the head shaving (rasura) churches, and cathedrals in particular, is pointed out
may be related to the functions of the cloister. by Michele Bacci, who notes that they played a pro­
The primary function of each cathedral was, natu­ minent role in reinforcing the community’s solidarity
rally, to provide space for the celebration of everyday around certain symbols by means of a shared beha­
liturgy — the celebration of Mass and the singing vioural code. Upon entering the building, individuals
of the Officium by the canons — which means that become part of both the local congregation and of the
cathedrals should first and foremost be defined as wider Christian community: the ecclesia, metaphori­
churches. Beat Brenk warns against the treatment of cally understood as the Body of Christ. Compared to
cathedrals as a category sui generis; bishops’ churches other churches, cathedrals served an additional func­
did not fundamentally differ from other church tion, namely that of manifesting the moral and politi­
types functionally, and Sunday Mass, baptisms, cal authority of the bishop and his secular clergy. This
feasts and solemn processions could just as well be authority was often underpinned by the presence of
4 Gerardo Boto Varela & Justin E.A. Kroesen