After the collapse of the Roman empire in western Europe, came a period of imigration of warlike tribes from the north in France and Spain. Art of the Carolingan period (700 to 900 A.D named after the emperor Charlemange) shows the final stage of plant decoration used by Barbaric tribesman. Goths, Norse, Anglo-Saxen, Dane, Celt, Irish - whose worship of the supernatural powers of nature still survived. The art of this period laid emphasis on interlacing ribbons, straps, loops, pland and animals shapes all combined in a restless intrewinding energetic but undisplaced and organic pattern.
Christian doctrine was not unknown to the Goths who had practised their own from -called Arainism since 300 AD when Theodoric the Goth conquerored Ravenna which was then capital of the Roman empire. Monasteries and churches were established throughout Europe, but no style developed until Romanesque in the 10th century France. The Romanesque period gave man a new faith and code of living after the Dark Ages of barbarism following the Roman empire.
From the 10th to 13th century was a period of unerversal control by the church. All learning and art came out of the monasteries. The church prescribed a spiritual attitude which individuality was subordinated which had been lost since the Graeco-Roman time, was re-established. Romanesque though touched all countries not yet reached by Byzantinum and so the two styles do not occur in one country.
Architecture
The Romanesque monastery was important in politics and society and spread its influence out through the church and its congregation. The arts of the Early Catholic Bascilica were used in the Romanesque churches but the appearance changed. It became taller until the naive was sometimes twice as high as it was wide. The campanile (bell tower) became joined to the building and then duplicated one on each side of the entrance.
The intersection of hte naive and transept was surmounted by a tower or dome and in the northern countries a spire. Early churches had wooden frame roofs which ave way to stone vault construction which was usually round headed. To carry the weight of these large churches the builder had to use massive and thick piers (groups of columns) and very thick walls.
Sculpture
It was in Romanesque sculpture that man returned to the study of nature after 600 years of inactivity. Imagery had been prohibited in Islamic countries and discouraged by the Christian iconoclasts for fear of idol worship. Sculpture was, however, dependent on an architectural setting and was not free standing as it had been in the Graeco-Roman period.
Walls and facade of the Catholic church were carved with sculpture almost free standing from its background. The Romanesque church was decorated with scenes from the Testaments.
The Romanesque artists had unlimited imagination and invented human, animal, and plant forms. The Biblical subjects were used to teach Christianity to the illiterate and in form. Figures were elongated and stylized in a linear manner owing much to hte preceding Byzantine tradition. English Romanesque was known as Norman style, afterh the invaders from Normandy in France who introduced it to the English in 11th century A.D. In Germany, Romanesque style was highly developed while in France hte Gothic style took over. In Italy, the country of origin of Romanesque style the Italian Renaissance of ancient classical Greek and Roman style developed.