ROMANESQUE REVIVAL STYLE MOULDING PROFILES & GALLERY
ABOUT ROMANESQUE REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE
The Romanesque style of architecture incorporates wide, round arches supported by short, squat columns and other features from the 11th and 12th century monastic and ecclesiastic buildings of Europe. It is characterized in the United States by a heavy and sometimes ponderous use of rough-faced ashlar masonry, brick, carved textures and usually dark woodwork. Frequently large roof forms, punctuated with round or faceted turrets and broad gables are used. Henry Hobson Richardson popularized the style in the late 19th century and his work and work inspired by it is sometimes referred to as “Richardsonian Romanesque.”
ROMANESQUE REVIVAL STYLE MOULDINGS
Romanesque style mouldings include bold, simple shapes such as the torus and cove that complement the bold forms of the stonework. These bold shapes are frequently paired with small, incidental shapes, fillets, quirks, cavettos, ogees, etc. Wooden trim, built-in cabinetry, paneling, beamed ceilings, windows and doors in Romanesque style buildings are usually finished dark, with a transparent finish rather than being painted.
HISTORY OF ROMANESQUE REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE
Heavy stone walls, deeply shadowed arches, and monumental towers recalled the architecture of medieval Europe when the Romanesque tradition returned to prominence during the nineteenth century. The style reached the United States by the 1840s, influenced in part by contemporary European architectural movements and the German Rundbogenstil, or “round-arched style.” One of its most prominent early American expressions was James Renwick Jr.'s Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C., begun in 1847 and completed in 1855. Renwick initially explored a Gothic design before developing the Romanesque scheme that ultimately won the competition. Its selection represented a deliberate departure from the Classical architecture then dominating Washington and reflected a growing American interest in medieval architectural traditions.
Romanesque Revival architecture assumed a distinctly American character during the 1870s and 1880s through the work of architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Educated at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Richardson studied European precedents but departed from a straightforward imitation of medieval architecture, developing an interpretation that was uniquely his own. His Trinity Church in Boston, completed in 1877, brought national attention to this approach and helped establish what became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. The success of Trinity Church elevated Richardson to national prominence, while architects across the country increasingly drew upon his interpretation of the Romanesque tradition.