Art History the Architecture of Term Paper

Patterned after the old cathedral at Reims, the abbey church displays a similar set of volumes with east and west transepts with crossing towers; an especially large western apse balancing a triple apse at the opposite end.

The massing of the towers around the main structure of the nave, and the rows of round arched windows set high in the walls are typical Romanesque features. The overall affect is one of fortress-like magnificence - a fitting setting for an abbey in a world that was still heavily plagued by violence, and in which the learned were as yet required to turn inward. Symbolically, too, it represents the introspection of religion, the commitment of the devout to purge themselves of sin, and to create a pure space within themselves, one that is walled off from all external temptations. The interior plan, as well, is simple and straightforward, a two-aisled nave that is forerunner of the kinds of proportions that would remain common throughout the Gothic Era.

Solid, yet expansive with its long, tall nave, Hildesheim, and other structures like it, are perfect exemplars of a medieval piety that is poised between Heaven and Earth, an ideal manifestation of Romanesque architecture.Works Cited

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=53317567

Calkins, Robert G. Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: From a.D. 300 to 1500. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

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Horste, Kathryn. Cloister Design and Monastic Reform in Toulouse: The Romanesque Sculpture of La Daurade. Oxford: Oxford University, 1992.

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Stokstad, Marilyn. Medieval Art. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

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Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art (New York: Harper & Row, 1986) 110. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=74414403

Kathryn Horste, Cloister Design and Monastic Reform in Toulouse: The Romanesque Sculpture of La Daurade (Oxford: Oxford University, 1992) 41. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=53317659

Robert G. Calkins, Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: From a.D. 300 to 1500 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 85. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=53317659

Robert G. Calkins, Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: From a.D. 300 to 1500 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 84......