Byzantine c. 526-1453
San Vitale, Italy, Theodora and Her Attendants, mosaic
Romanesque c. 1020-1200
Saint-Lazare , France, west portal tympanum, Last Judgment
Gothic c. 1200-1400
Chartres Cathedral (exterior, interior, stained glass)
Cologne Cathedral (interior)
Reims Cathedral (west portal)
Key Terms:
Basilica plan church – In Christian architecture, a church based loosely on the Roman rectangular basilica design and on the Latin cross.
Central plan church – In Christian architecture, a church in which the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center and based on the Greek cross.
Byzantine - An adjective meaning, "characteristic of the Byzantine empire." The Byzantine Empire was the successor to the Roman Empire. Its capital was Constantinople, and it lasted roughly from the fall of Rome in the fifth century C.E. to the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century C.E. The adjective can be used in reference to works of art, architecture, history and other aspects of culture.
mosaic - An art form in which small pieces of tile, glass, or stone are fitted together and embedded in cement on surfaces such as walls and floors.
Romanesque art - The dominant style of art and architecture in Europe from the 8th to the 12th centuries, characterized, in architecture, by Roman precedents, particularly the round arch and the barrel vault.
rounded arch (or Roman arch) - A curved, semicircular architectural form that spans an opening or space built of wedge-shaped blocks, called voussoirs, with a keystone centered at its top.
barrel vault - A masonry roof constructed on the principle of the arch, that is, in essence, a continuous series of arches, one behind the other.
Gothic - A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century, characterized, in its architecture, by features such as pointed arches, flying buttresses, stained glass windows and a verticality symbolic of the ethereal and heavenly.
pointed arch - An arch that is not semicircular but rather rises more steeply to a point at its top.
flying buttress - On a Gothic church, an exterior arch that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or vault, as in a barrel vault, arching inward toward the exterior wall from the top of an exterior column or pier.