Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/781

* MONASTIC ART. 703 MONASTIC ART. and still has interesting early mosaics and sculp- tures. Wliile the monastic and lay artists of Eurojie developed their styles of architecture with hut little reference to the East, the arts of ivory carving, enameling, goldsmith work, mosaic, tapestry, and embroidery were perpetuated in the Eastern monasteries and by them trans- mitted to the Western monks of the Carlovingian age. To the Eastern monks also wa-s due a domi- nant part in perfecting the system of Christian iconography which was in part, at least, adopted in the West, including the artistic types of Christ, the Virgin, .John the Baptist, the Apostles, angels, and saints, as well as tlie arrangement of most of the subjects of the Old and New Tes"ta- ments. This influence was supreme in Italian painting, for example, up to the time of Giotto. With the name of the monk Panselinos will al- ways be connected that written text-book of painters used until the present day by Neo-By- zantine artists. Benedictine Akt. The earliest establishments of the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict at Subiaco and Jlonte Cassino have left no traces to show that they had any special ar- tistic significance, ilost of the Western mon- asteries of the seventh century were of wood, and the life was still largely anchoretic. It was in the eighth century, as the Carlovingian era approaches, that Benedictine life became more highly organized, types of monastic buildings were created for all time^ and monasteries of great wealth and power arose, taking a leading part in art. Centula. Lorsch, Fontanella, and Fulda were followed by Nanantula, Monte Cas- sino, Cava, Saint Gall, Tours, Reichenau, and many other great artistic centres. The cloister, a new architectural form adapted from the atri- um of the early Christian basilica, became the centre around which the monastic buildings were grouped. For the general plan and organization of the monasteiy and its early artistic activity, consult the article Benedictines. In the tenth centui-y the great Benedictine re- form took place at Cluny, which henceforth was the leading monastery of the Order, using the establishments of Hirsau and Farfa to further her artistic and other reforms in (iermany and Italy. The plans used in rebuilding and reor- ganizing these two monasteries were borrowed from Cluny. The revival which ensued led to an immense increase in the ntimber of establish- ments. In Italy alone art became partly enfran- chised, with a notable increase of lay artists, due to the great prosperity of the free communal cities. The style of architecture practiced by the Benedictines during these centtiries did not show nuich originality. It retained in the churches the old basilical type, with colunuis and wooden roof, though piers were occasionally used. The lack of close, organized union between the dif- ferent monasteries of the Order prevented the creation of a special Benedictine style. The work had local characteristics. In newly con- verted and civilized regions the monks were al- ways the pioneers of art. and in this way, even without special style, became a paramoimt in- fluence. But in fresco painting and in the minor and industrial arts, the case was different. (See Benedictines.) The monks partly introduced Byzantine methods and ideas, as in the school k founded in the eleventh century by Desiderius at Jlonte Cassino, for nearly all branches of art, partly evolved a special style and iconography, as in Germany and France. The lay guilds of the late Romanesque and Gothic periods were merely olTshoots from these monastic schools. The in- tellectual attainments of the monks peculiarly <iualified them in developing systematically the themes of religious art, which they handed on to their lay successors, who had but to accept and vary them. Cistercian Art. The Cistercian monasteries were not, like the Benedictine, centres of the industrial and minor arts ; no (irovision was made for the practice of ivory carving, gold- smith work, enameling, illuminating manuscripts or fresco painting, mosaic work, and monumental sculpture. On the other hand, it was necessary to train a school of architects that should under- stand the special needs of the Order and build according to its rules. This school originated in Burgundy, and as the Order spread over the whole of Europe and part of the Orient during the twelfth centur}' and became the most power- ful of all monastic institutions, as well as the most perfectly organized, its architects carried the Burgundian Cistercian style over a large part of the then civilized world. Pontigny in France. Maulbronn in Germany, Fossanova in Italy, Veruela in Spain are ty|)ical establish- ments in good preservation of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The high walls inclosing the entire establishment, and insuring protec- tion against raids, as well as marking the clois- tral limits, were entered through a monumental gateway, and contained large waiehouses, barns, and stables, and often a mill, a hospital, and chapel, as well as the main quadrangle of build- ings, flanked by a cemetery, garden, and orchaid. Of this quadrangle the church ustutlly occupied the left flank, facing the gateway, the dormi- tories being on the front and rear of the quad- rangle around the cloister, on the second floor, the ground floor being occupied by a chapel and chapter-house on the side near the church, a refectory and kitchen on the side opposite the church, and reception rooms, passageways, and staircases on the front. The architectural style of these buildings was plain on principle. The church had a plain gable front without towers, and its material was of stone or brick, left undecorated by figured sculptures or frescoes. The practical element, being so strongly developed, led to a divorce of the decorative from the structural elements in architecture. Stress was laid njion forms of vaulting, and the Order became associated with the substitution of tunnel, groin, and ribbed vaulting for wooden roofs throughout a large part of Europe. But the influence of the new Gothic constructive forms commenced in Bur- gundy toward IIGO, and the Cistercian archi- tects quickly adopted them as in harmon^' with their own ideas, and propagated them through- out Europe. Nevertheless the Order never de- veloped the Gothic style in its entirety or to its ultimate forms, but rested satisfled with its elementary' stage as more in harmony with the sim])le i<leas of the Order. The monastic buildings of Fossanova in Italy are a good example of structures built by French Cistercian constructors imported from Bur- gund}- : those of the neighboring Casamari es-