Romanesque, a. (and n.)
(rəʊməˈnɛsk)
Also 9 -esk.
[f. Roman n.1 or a.1 + -esque. Cf. F. romanesque romantic.]
1. = romance n. 1 b.
| 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 304 The old Norman Dialect was compos'd of those, Theudisque and the provincial and vulgar Romanesque Dialects. 1804 Mitford Inquiry 237 Southern French, formerly distinguished from the northern by the name of the Roman, Romanesk, or Romance language. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §647 The German language has taken more kindly to this Romanesque ornament than English has. |
b. absol. as n. = romance n. 1.
| 1802 Ranken Hist. France II. vii. i. 336 The two languages approached one another and by their union generated the Romanesque or Romans, a new tongue. |
2. Arch. Prevalent in, or distinctive of, the buildings erected in Romanized Europe between the close of the classical period and the rise of Gothic architecture.
| 1819 W. Gunn Inq. Gothic Archit. 82 Capitals of different orders and magnitudes, surmounted with Romanesque arches. 1842 Gwilt Encycl. Archit. §286 Strongly marked with the distinguishing features of the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. a 1878 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 15 In England..the same Romanesque architecture had grown up with the new civilisation. |
b. Built in the Romanesque style.
| 1830 Whewell Arch. Notes German Ch. 48 In the three great Romanesque cathedrals we have a horizontal moulding. 1842 Murray's Handbk. N. Italy 133 The early Lombard Romanesque churches exhibit a very peculiar character. 1883 ‘Ouida’ Wanda I. 33 The prisons and clock tower are Romanesque. |
c. Characterized by the use or prevalence of the Romanesque style.
| 1850 Sir G. Scott Anc. Churches 79 The architects of the later Romanesque period. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. 2139 The Romanesque period of Christian sculpture may be said to begin with the eleventh century. |
d. absol. as n. The Romanesque style of art or architecture.
| 1830 Whewell Arch. Notes German Ch. Pref. 13 Spires, Mentz and Worms, are spoken of..as three great examples of the Romanesque. 1850 Sir G. Scott Anc. Churches 79, I do not for a moment admit that Romanesque is other than a purely and truly Christian style. 1883 Longman's Mag. Nov. 45 Roman art had died and was not yet fully revived in the Romanesque. |
3. Painting. (See quot.)
| 1842 Brande Dict. Sci., etc., Romanesque, in historical painting it consists in the choice of a fanciful subject, rather than one founded on fact. The romanesque is different from romantic; because the latter may be founded on truth, which the former never is. |
4. Romantic. ? Obs.
| 1799 Malthus Diary 24 June (1966) 87 He spoke of him [sc. Gustavus III] as..a little too romanesque and bizarre. 1850 C. M. Yonge Kenneth xx. 237, ‘I know he thinks your point of honour rather romanesque,’ said Effie, in her French-English. 1869 K. H. Digby Little Low Bushes 260 All fair things, lovely,..wild, or romanesque. |