sculptors made full use of a classical vocabulary, including decorated cornices,
Corinthian capitals, friezes, and figures in niches set between fluted pilasters. The façade
of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard resembles Roman stage architecture; the figures and draperies,
more classically conceived than elsewhere in France, display a distinctly Roman feel for
monumental form. The Apostles of the west portal of Saint-Trophime at Arles have an
equally classicizing flavor.
In the north of France, where a regional Romanesque was never as fully developed,
the masters at Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame at Étampes, and Chartres were free to
appropriate elements, and even craftsmen, from other regions. The result of this
assimilation and experimentation was a revolutionary deployment of the figure and a new
approach to the entire portal format.
The Royal Portal of Chartres, in which the triple portals and supporting elements are
integrated within an iconographic whole, has been viewed as the culmination of the
Romanesque, as Early Gothic, or as a unique transitional style. The serene column figures
placed on the jambs of the portals assume the shape of architectural members lining the
three entrance portals and embody a rare fusion of sculpture and architecture. In
comparison with the reliefs of the jambs and trumeaux of Moissac and Vézelay, from
which they ultimately descend, they are at the same time statues in their own right and
integral parts of the structural columns.
Jean M.French
[See also: ANGOULÊME; AULNAY-EN-SAINTONGE; AUTUN; BEAULIEU-
SUR-DORDOGNE; BRIOUDE; CHARTRES; CLERMONT-FERRAND; CONQUES;
ENAMELING; GISLEBERTUS; GOTHIC ART; MOISSAC; POITIERS;
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE; ROMANESQUE ART; SAINT-DENIS; SAINT-
GILLES-DU-GARD;SAINT-NECTAIRE; SOUILLAC; TOULOUSE; VÉZELAY]
For regional Romanesque, see the multivolume series “La nuit des temps” (Bourgogne roman,
Auvergne roman, etc.) published by Zodiaque at La-Pierre-qui-vire (Yonne).
Armi, C.Edson. Masons and Sculptors in Romanesque Burgundy: The New Aesthetic of Cluny III. 2
vols. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.
Borg, Alan. Architectural Sculpture in Romanesque Provence. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1972.
Focillon, Henri. L’art des sculpteurs romans: recherches sur l’histoire des formes. Paris: Leroux,
1931.
Forsyth, Ilene H. The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Hearn, M.F. Romanesque Sculpture: The Revival of Monumental Stone Sculpture in the Eleventh
and Twelfth Centuries. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981.
Lyman, Thomas W. French Romanesque Sculpture: An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: Hall,
1987.
Mâle, Emile. Religious Art in France. The Twelfth Century: A Study of the Origins of Medieval
Iconography, ed. Harry Bober, trans. Marthiel Mathews. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1978.
Porter, Arthur K. Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads. 10 vols. Boston: Marshall Jones,
1923.
Schapiro, Meyer. Romanesque Art. New York: Braziller, 1977.
Scher, Stephen K. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Providence: Rhode Island School of
Design, Museum of Art, 1969.
Seidel, Linda. Songs of Glory: The Romanesque Façades of Aquitaine. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1981.
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