Romanesque architectural criticism

Romanesque Architectural Criticism: A Prehistory explores attitudes toward medieval architecture as conveyed in the art historical literature written in England and France from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth century. In this, the first lengthy modern scholarly study of Romanesque architectural criticism, Tina Waldeier Bizzarro posits that the naming and consequent isolation of Romanesque as a distinct style was an important step in the process of its rehabilitation, as well as that of medieval art in general. Officially repudiated since the sixteenth century by Vasari and most subsequent critics of art, medieval architecture was designated by most writers under the portmanteau "Gothic," a dismissive term encompassing a nonclassical architecture from the disappearance of the classical style in Italy during the late Antique period to its revival during the Renaissance. The pejorative epithet "Gothic" further assumed the critical conviction that such architecture represented a devolution or decline in architecture away from the classical ideal. The salvation of Romanesque was its nomenclature, first documented in the early nineteenth century. Once nominally defined, it was recognized as the distant cousin of Roman architecture. Indeed, this resemblance, however broad, formed the basis of its terminology. This examination of critical attitudes toward the Romanesque records a history of past opinions. Analyzing patterns of style and stylistic change throughout history, it demonstrates how architectural history has been shaped by an evolving philosophy of history and, as profoundly, by a developing language of art history.