Norman architecture

Norman architecture is the style of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles, and at the same time monasteries, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by rounded arches and heavy proportions compared to other regional variations of the style. The style was developed in Normandy, and brought to England and Wales after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was also used later by Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, and by Scottish rulers adopting English fashions. The Normans also conquered Sicily and southern Italy, but the architecture they used there was distinct from that of Normandy and Britain, as it blended local Islamic and Byzantine influences.

Name

The use of term "Norman" to refer to architecture may have originated with eighteenth-century antiquarians, but its usage in a sequence of styles has been attributed to Thomas Rickman in his 1817 work An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation. In this work he used the labels "Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular". The more inclusive term "Romanesque" was used of the Romance languages in English by 1715, and was applied to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries from 1819. The style is also referred to as 'Anglo-Norman', reflecting the substantial English contributions to its development. In earlier antiquarian works, many Norman buildings were mistakenly identified as Saxon.

History

Normandy

Viking invaders ('Northmen') arrived at the mouth of the river Seine in Normandy in 911, at a time when Franks were fighting on horseback and Frankish lords were building castles. Over the next century the population of the territory ceded to the Vikings (now called Normans) adopted these customs as well as Christianity and the langue d'oïl. Norman barons built timber castles on earthen mounds, beginning the development of motte-and-bailey castles, and great stone churches in the Romanesque style of the Franks. By 950, they were building stone keeps.^{[citation needed]} The Normans were among the most travelled peoples of Europe, exposing them to a wide variety of cultural influences which became incorporated in their art and architecture. They elaborated on the early Christian basilica plan. Their churches were originally longitudinal with side aisles and an apse. Caen was the centre of Norman architecture, due to its castle and two wealthy ducal abbeys - the Abbaye aux Hommes (c.1063) and the Abbaye aux Dames (c.1059-65). Both of these foundations built large churches, with three-storey elevations and towered façades. These would form a model for the larger English cathedrals some 20 years later, after they had invaded and conquered England.

England and Wales

In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence before the Norman Conquest of 1066, and Norman influences affected late Anglo-Saxon architecture. Edward the Confessor was brought up in Normandy and in 1042 brought masons to work on the first Romanesque building in England, Westminster Abbey. This building was entirely replaced in the 13th century, but from excavations and a depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry something of its form is known. It appears to have been derived from that of Jumièges, in Normandy. In 1051 Edward brought in Norman knights who built motte-and-bailey castles as a defence against the Welsh, though they were quickly expelled and their castles destroyed.

Barring these early exceptions. Romanesque architecture was introduced to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Normans gradually replaced every English bishop except for Wulfstan of Worcester, rebuilt every English cathedral (starting with Canterbury after a fire in 1067) and almost every monastic church, and built hundreds of new parish churches. They cemented their rule with a series of castles, to protect the new aristocracy. However, there was overlap between Anglo-Saxon and Norman architecture, as some Saxon masons worked in misunderstood versions of contemporary French architecture (as at Great Paxton and St Bene't's, Cambridge), while some Saxon features continued to be used by local masons after the Conquest (like triangular arches in the gatehouse of Exeter Castle). As few minor buildings have documentary evidence for dating, it is possible that many 'Saxon' churches, e.g. in Norfolk, are in fact 'Saxo-Norman', i.e. they post-date the Conquest.

After a fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 William of Sens, a French master mason, introduced the new Gothic architecture from France. Shortly thereafter Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral brought in the English Gothic style, and Romanesque architecture had virtually disappeared by the early 13th century. There were nonetheless several decades of overlap between the Norman and Gothic styles, in which features of both were combined. In England, this is generally referred to as the Transitional Style. Examples include St Davids Cathedral, Ripon Cathedral, Cartmel Priory, St Cross Hospital, the west end of Worcester Cathedral, the east end of Chichester Cathedral, Brinkburn Priory, and many Cistercian abbey churches like Byland, Fountains, Kirkstall and Roche. While many Transitional buildings in southern England were very ornate, those influenced by Cistercian architecture in the north were austere, reflecting that order's aesthetic principles. As well as buildings begun from scratch in the Transitional style, many of the larger Norman abbey churches, like Selby and Romsey, show a gradual transition from Norman to Gothic in their naves, as construction took so long that the fashion changed while they were building. Some builders, like those of Peterborough c.1190, continued to use the Norman style even after it had fallen out of fashion to preserve the aesthetic unity of the interior.

Scotland

Scotland also came under early Norman influence with Norman nobles at the court of King Macbeth around 1050. Malcolm III overthrew him with English and Norman assistance, and his queen, Margaret, encouraged the church, founding a Benedictine abbey at Dunfermline. Her sixth and youngest son, King David I, built St. Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle at the start of the 12th century. He founded a series of large abbeys near the English border, of which Jedburgh and Kelso still retain significant Romanesque work. The choir at Jedburgh uses a giant order probably derived from Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, while Kelso has a large westwork. He may also have built the large square keep at Carlisle Castle, which was then part of Scotland. In contrast to the imposing abbeys, the only large Scottish cathedral to have survived from Norman times is Kirkwall on Orkney, which was under Norwegian control. The early cathedral church at St Andrews, now known as St Rule's Church to distinguish it from the larger edifice that replaced it, is a very small building dominated by an exceptionally tall and thin tower.

Ireland

The Anglo-Normans first landed in Ireland in 1169, though the Irish were already building Hiberno-Romanesque churches, such as Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel. Within five years earthwork castles were springing up, and in a further five, work was beginning on some of the earliest of the great stone castles. For example, Hugh de Lacy built a motte-and-bailey castle on the site of the present day Trim Castle, County Meath, which was attacked and burned in 1173 by the Irish king Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. De Lacy, however, then constructed a stone castle in its place, which enclosed over three acres within its walls, and this could not be burned down by the Irish. The years between 1177 and 1310 saw the construction of some of the greatest of the Norman castles in Ireland. The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland, later known as the Pale, and among other buildings they constructed were Swords Castle in Fingal (North County Dublin) and Carrickfergus Castle in County Antrim. Carrickfergus Castle has a commonplace square keep, while that of Trim was surrounded by four projecting wings to form a unique Greek Cross plan. The terms 'Norman' and 'Anglo-Norman' also sometimes used in Ireland to refer to castles like Dublin and Limerick, but architecturally these are Gothic, not Romanesque.

Features

The buildings show massive proportions in simple geometries using small bands of sculpture.

Plans

The cruciform churches often had deep chancels and a square crossing tower which remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. Great churches usually had an apsidal east end (Romsey Abbey being a notable exception), which either stood freely, as at Lessay and Durham, or was surrounded by an ambulatory and radiating chapels to form a chevet, as at Norwich and Gloucester.

Arches

Norman arches are semicircular in form. Early examples have plain, square edges; later ones are often enriched with zig-zag and roll mouldings.

Piers

The arches are supported on massive columns, generally either formed of clusters of smaller shafts or cylindrical, sometimes with incised decoration (most famously at Durham Cathedral); occasionally, square-section piers are found.

Windows

Norman windows are mostly small and narrow, generally of a single round-headed light; but sometimes, especially in a bell tower, divided by a shaft into two lights.

Doorways and carving

Main doorways have a succession of receding semicircular arches, termed orders, often decorated with mouldings, typically of chevron or zig-zag design; sometimes there is a tympanum under the arch, which may feature sculpture representing a Biblical scene. Carving can also be found on capitals, which were usually of cushion form; the finest English capital carving is in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. The Herefordshire School of sculptors developed an elaborate style of carved ornamentation in western England, combining Norman, Saxon, Norse and Celtic forms, which is best seen at Kilpeck.

Murals

While most Norman buildings are now bare stone, they would have been plastered and painted. Norman murals survive at several churches including Canterbury Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral, Chaldon, Ickleton and the group of Sussex churches referred to as the Lewes group.