Geometric Patterns in English Romanesque Sculpture

What is it about?

Patterns are often seen on the doorways of village churches and may be used throughout greater churches and in secular buildings, but tend to be ignored but when they were made they were significant. Pattern-making was typical of traditional art, while geometry, symmetry and order were considered by theologians to reflect heavenly perfection. It is suggested that patterns sometimes described as rosettes, diaper, zigzag, scale and arcading, were used in English Romanesque sculpture in a coherent logical series to build up a cosmographic diagram, a 'picture' of heaven. The comprehensive building programme that followed the Conquest allowed the language of geometric patterns to be used more intensively in England than appears to have been the case on the continent. Evidence for the suggested interpretations is drawn from a variety of sources but the placing of one pattern relative to another and to any figurative sculpture is always important to notice.

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Why is it important?

Understanding the built-in diagram opens a new window into the early medieval world, revealing its serious purposes in providing what is sometimes thought of as a superfluity of sculpture.