The Romanesque era is the first since Archaic and
Classical Greece to take its name from an artistic style
rather than from politics or geography. Unlike
Carolingian and Ottonian art, named for emperors, or
Hiberno-Saxon art, a regional term, Romanesque is a
title art historians invented to describe medieval art that
appeared ―Roman-like.‖ Architectural historians first
employed the adjective in the early 19th century to
describe European architecture of the 11th and 12th
centuries. They noted that certain architectural elements
of this period, principally barrel and groin vaults based
on the round arch, resembled those of ancient Roman
architecture. Thus, the word distinguished most
Romanesque buildings from earlier medieval timberroofed
structures, as well as from later Gothic churches
with vaults resting on pointed arches (see Chapter 13).
Scholars in other fields quickly borrowed the term.
Today ―Romanesque‖ broadly designates the history and
culture of western Europe between about 1050 and
1200.
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