Romanesque

The Romanesque era is the first since Archaic and Classical Greece to take its name from an artistic style rather than from politics or geography.  Stone sculpture almost had disappeared from the art of western Europe during the early Middle Ages.  Around 1110 another sculptor, Wiligelmo, carved one of the first fully developed narrative reliefs in Romanesque art.  The facade of Modena Cathedral has a frieze representing scenes from Genisis.  The framing device is derived from late Roman and Early Christian sarcophagi.  The creation and temptation of adam and eve serve as a reminder of Original Sin and suggest that the only path to salvation is through the Christian Church.  Christ is at the far left framed by a mandorla held up by angels.  Although the figures appear in an architectural frame, they break through the arcade's constriction to make for a more continuous narrative.  They are not linear patterns but high reliefs.  Some parts are almost entirely in the round.

The Bayeux Tapestry is a woven tapestry related to Romanesque manuscript illumination.  It is a continuous frieze like, pictorial narrative of a crucial moment in England's History where the Norman defeat the Anglo-Sazons at Hastings in 1066.  The first detail depicts King Edward's Funeral procession.  The Hand of God points the way to the church.  The second detail shows the Battle of Hastings in progress. The lower border is filled with the dead and wounded while the upper register continues the animal motifs of the rest of the embroidery.  The Romanesque artist co-opted some of the characteristic motifs of Greco-Roman battle scenes.  The horses have twisted necks and contorted bodies.  The artists translated the figures into the Romanesque manner.  Linear patterning and flat color replaced 3 dimensional volume.