La colonne à l'époque romane. Réminiscences et nouveautés

Abstract

It is not only the monuments themselves but also texts which vouch for the intellectual status enjoyed in the Early Middle Ages and the Romanesque period by the column as an architectural member. Of course columns can be splendid, and particularly when they are of marble, but they can also within the Christian tradition enjoy a major symbolic force. With the advent of Romanesque architecture they were the object of renewed interest and underwent a number of formal and technical transformations. Thus, since monolithic columns or columns formed of several drums were more or less unsuitable for bearing heavy weights, a masonry pier was often adopted ; the composite pier was in particular employed to carry the thrust of the vaults. In contrast, many architects favoured the column applied to the wall, for instance for arcading, window-surrounds and so on. In this way, decoration and structure were treated as separate problems. At the same time the column-shaft itself underwent important modifications : the shaft with entasis became the cylindrical shaft, the moulding at the top of the shaft (in French "astragale") was carved as part of the capital, a "necking-band". It followed from such modifications that architects were able to opt for a whole vast range of proportions for their columns, whilst in regions with good limestones they could use the stones as detached shafts set "en délit" (against the quarry-bed). Here they were playing with architectural solutions which sometimes looked forward to Early Gothic Architecture 's column.