The world didn’t come to an end in the year 1000, as some had predicted it might; and in the years after the millennium, a grand and beautiful style of architecture, decorated with astonishing sculpture, burst forth, to meet the needs of the faithful and particularly of the pilgrims who marched across France on their way to the shrine of St James in northwestern Spain. Sculpture, disused since the fourth century, when apparently it was tainted with the suspicion of idolatry was seized upon with enthusiasm in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Romanesque sculpture was meant to inspire, frighten, and entertain its viewers. It was, and is, an irresistible source of pleasure, in which talented artists were not only employed in the service of religion but were also given freedom of expression that seems surprising to us today. In this lecture we will survey the great sculptures on churches in Burgundy and western France through the mountains to the south, ending in the great cathedra) of Santiago.
