pope’s relics, is one of the finest examples. The almost life-size head,
fashioned in repoussé silver with bronze gilding for the hair, gives
worshipers the impression that the saint is alive and present. The ide-
alized head resembles portraits of youthful Roman emperors such as
Augustus (FIG. I-9) and Constantine (FIG. 10-77), and the Roman-
esque metalworker may have used an ancient sculpture as a model.
The saint wears a collar of jewels and enamel plaques around his
neck. Enamels and gems also adorn the box on which the head is
mounted. The reliquary rests on four bronze dragons—mythical ani-
mals of the kind that populated Romanesque cloister capitals. Not
surprisingly, Bernard of Clairvaux was as critical of lavish church fur-
nishings like the Alexander reliquary as he was of Romanesque clois-
ter sculpture:
[Men’s] eyes are fixed on relics covered with gold and purses are
opened. The thoroughly beautiful image of some male or female
saint is exhibited and that saint is believed to be the more holy the
more highly colored the image is. People rush to kiss it, they are in-
vited to donate, and they admire the beautiful more than they vener-
ate the sacred....O vanity of vanities, but no more vain than insane!
The Church ...dresses its stones in gold and it abandons its children
naked. It serves the eyes of the rich at the expense of the poor.^5
The central plaque on the front of the Stavelot reliquary depicts
Pope Alexander II (r. 1061–1073). Saints Eventius and Theodolus
flank him. The nine plaques on the other three sides represent female
allegorical figures—Wisdom, Piety, and Humility among them. Al-
though a local artist produced these enamels in the Meuse River re-
gion, the models were surely Byzantine. Saint Alexander’s reliquary
underscores the multiple sources of Romanesque art as well as its
stylistic diversity. Not since antiquity had people journeyed as exten-
sively as they did in the Romanesque period, and artists regularly saw
works of wide geographic origin. Abbot Wibald himself epitomized
the well-traveled 12th-century clergyman. He was abbot of Monte-
cassino in southern Italy and participated in the Second Crusade.
Frederick Barbarossa (Holy Roman Emperor, r. 1152–1190) sent him
to Constantinople to arrange Frederick’s wedding to the niece of the
Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus. (Two centuries before, an-
other German emperor, Otto II, married the Byzantine princess
Theophanu, which also served to promote Byzantine style in the
Holy Roman Empire; see “Theophanu,” Chapter 16, page 428.)Italy
Nowhere is the regional diversity of Romanesque art and architec-
ture more readily apparent than in Italy, where the ancient Roman
and Early Christian heritage was strongest. Although Tuscany, the
ancient Etruscan heartland (see Chapter 9), and other regions south
of Lombardy were part of the territory of the Salian emperors, Italy
south of Milan represents a distinct artistic zone during the Roman-
esque period.Architecture and Architectural Sculpture
Italian Romanesque architects designed buildings that were for the
most part structurally less experimental than those erected in Ger-
many and Lombardy. Italian builders adhered closely to the Early
Christian basilican type of church.
PISA CATHEDRAL COMPLEXThe cathedral complex
(FIG. 17-25) at Pisa dramatically testifies to the prosperity that
busy maritime city enjoyed. The spoils of a naval victory over the17-25Cathedral
complex, Pisa, Italy;
cathedral begun 1063;
baptistery begun 1153;
campanile begun 1174.
Pisa’s cathedral
more closely
resembles Early
Christian basilicas
than the structurally
more experimental
northern Romanesque
churches. Separate
bell towers and bap-
tisteries are character-
istically Italian.
450 Chapter 17 ROMANESQUE EUROPE