Les débuts de l'art roman dans le royaume franc (ca. 980-ca. 1020)

Abstract

Various regions of Capetian France witnessed a major shift in the years immediately before and after the year 1000. The scale and rapidity of these changes have been the subject of lively debate, over since the 19th century. The whole question is reviewed here, taking into account buildings which are lost, as well as the most important survivals, sometimes known to us only from excavation. From such a review emarges an artistic landscape of strong contrast : some regions boost very few new buildings, others such as Catalonia, or the area between Poitou and Burgundy, or the Basse-Auvergne, or Champagne, were highly original at this early date. Thus we see new solutions to the planning of the east end of the church (e.g. with Cluny II, apses in echelon ; with the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, with Saint-Philibert de Tournus and with Saint-Aignan d'Orléans, the ambulatory with radiating chapels) ; the elevation and mass of the wall, the supporting elements and vaulting are all rethought. The first experiments with monumental sculpture, rare though they are, do not appear before c. 1010-1020 : the lintel of Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines in the Roussillon, the capitals of Saint-Bénigne de Dijon, Saint-Philibert de Tournus and Saint-Aignan d'Orléans.