Romanesque and Gothic Art and Architecture The Background

Romanesque and Gothic Art and Architecture

The Background and History • History that even the most powerful empires can crumble and fall. • The Roman empire falls to invading armies around 400 A. D. • Temples and palaces were torn down. • Christianity becomes widely accepted and the Catholic church dominate western Europe. • Two periods of art and architecture grow from this change throughout the middle ages. Romanesque and Gothic periods.

Romanesque Period • Warfare was extremely common because landowners were fighting for more land. With land comes, wealth to protect what they had and • The landowners: there were many kings of numerous regions at this time and they fought amongst each other to gain more land.

Architecture • The Castle: the rich lived in castles to protect themselves. • These were fort like dwellings with high walls and towers. • Most castles were further protected by a moat and a drawbridge.

La Calahorra Castle

Early Castles • Early castles were strong, massive, dark and drafty. • Instead of windows they had narrow slits cut into the walls to help those inside detect intruders. • Does this castle still look sturdy now even 700 years after it was built? • Why do you think there were very few windows? • Did the builder worry about comfort or something else?

Living life surrounded by walls • Leaders and rulers lived in castles. • Townspeople were left to fend themselves against attack behind large walls. – The original walls were made of wood, but by the 1100 s the townspeople in most areas created large stone walls. – Masons were in high demand. – Some of these walled cities were quite impressive.

The city of Carcasonne, Southern France