Romanesque Sculpture

Romanesque sculpture had an educational objective: it should teach the Bible to illiterate people. The message is simple and clear to be easily understood. It is not important to be loyal to nature but to express the ideas they aimed at transmitting. It is limited by the frame in which it is contained. The main places for scutptural locations are: Portals and capitals.

1. Main characteristics: Images must adapt to the frame. They are distributed following criteria of hierarchy and symmetry. Lack of naturalism. Simplicity of the message. Different plans to give impression of deepness. 2. Location of the iconographic programme: Portals are reserved for the depiction of the Last Judgement. Capitals are left for: - Biblical stories (in a simple and understandable way). - Vegetal motives. - Satirical or symbolic depictions with monsters and allegories. - Other minor decorations (in the outside) are left for depicting sins and vices. 3. Parts of a portal: Tympanum. Archivolts. Jambs. Lintel and Trumeau. Tympanum. The tympanum depicts the Last Judgement. In the middle Christ appears as a Judge. He is blessing, with his hand elevated. His feet are standing on a symbol of the Earth. He is sitting in the mandorle or almond shape (it represents a mystical element). It is surrounded by the four Evangelist as people or animals (Mark, the lion; Mathew, the man; Luke, the ox; John, the Eagle). Around them people judged or the twenty-four wise men of the Apocalypses The lintel is reserved for less important images of for the wise men of the Apocalypse Archivolts. The images are distributed in each archivolt. They are limited by the space. Sometimes each voussoir contains a whole story. The subjects can vary from one archivolt to the other and from geometrical to human depictions. Images in the archivolts are looking at the centre. We can find non religious elements such as zodiacal symbols. Other important elements appear in the portals: Images of the Apostles tend to appear in the jambs, being elongated images. Christ, the Virgin or other important Saints may appear in the trumeau.

4. Exempt Sculpture. Main characteristics It is made of Wood. The images are not of big size They are always religious They have Byzantine influences Types: o Virgin with her Son o Christ on the Cross o Deposition (representing the moment in which Christ was deposited from the cross). Virgin. It is based on the Byzantine Theotokos. The Virgin is a throne for her Son Both of them appear looking at the front They are blessing There is not different of ages, just of size. They are disproportionate. With the time they evolved and the position of the Son varied to be a bit more naturalistic They were polychrome Christ. They are on the cross They still alive and lack of any symbol of sufferance They were a long dress They have four nails Everything in them is symmetrical They are polychrome