ARH - Reflections
1) According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art essay about Romanesque art, what contemporary accounts for the unprecedented artistic and cultural activity of the eleventh and twelfth century?
2) According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art essay, when was the term "Romanesque" first coined?
3) According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art essay, what cultural influences impacted the Romanesque aesthetic? What does the article suggest was more important than its synthesis of various influences?
4) At St. Sernin, how is the vaulting system in the aisles different from that of the nave?
5) What is the overall quality of naturalism of the figural sculpture at St. Sernin? How do sculptors attempt to blend classical features?
6) What is the significance of the west façade at St. Etienne? How does it suggest the formal arrangement of the interior elevation?
7) Describe some of the more "colorful" narrative elements of the tympanum at Autun Cathedral.
8) At Durham Cathdral, how are the pointed transverse arches supported? What is unique about does the "ribbed" design over the nave and to what effect?
9) In the tympanum of the south porch at the Abbey of Saint-Pierre, what visual strategies create a quality of naturalism that is "expressionistic"?
10) Discuss the iconography in the illustration from the Bury Bible.
ARH - Reflections
1) According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History," how did Gothic architecture succeed in achieving an engineering challenge of spanning in stone ever-wider surfaces from ever-greater heights?
2) According to the diagram of the floor plan for Abbott Suger's interior design of Saint-Denis, what type of vaulting system was used?
3) What architectural elements distinguish the west façade of Chartres Cathedral from the earlier Romanesque period?
4) Choose one of the stained glass images from the photo gallery and describe it in detail.
5) Describe the west façade of Notre Dame as well as its use of flying buttresses. Why do you think this structure has become one of the most recognizable architectural feats in Western civilization?