ABSTRACT
Among the Romanesque monuments of Aquitaine, there survives a remarkable group of churches with aisleless naves covered by a file of domes. The scheme is found in several cathedrals, a handful of major monasteries and a significant number of smaller churches. The construction of multiple ‘in-line’ domes demanded certain technical refinements, such as the use of pointed arches framing pendentives, and seems to have first emerged in the wake of the First Crusade, flourishing between c. 1105 and 1150. Arriving at either a precise or a relative dating is difficult, in part because of drastic 19th-century over-restoration. Neither the historical sources nor the archaeological arguments are sufficiently strong to enable one to point to the instigator of this type of church with any confidence, in spite of the fact that the various ecclesiastical patrons responsible for the development of churches with ‘in-line’ domes were acquainted. From a strictly formal perspective, a linear evolution must be rejected. What quickly becomes evident is that the type is more dynamic than its supposed oriental models, from which it is distinguished by a preference for transeptal plans and ashlar masonry. The buildings also embrace western aesthetic tastes and ideological concerns. Angoulême Cathedral will be seen to be the most creative and experimental of the buildings considered, characteristics that flow from its patron’s position as a papal legate, and to his concern that the cathedral should contain references to its titular, St Peter.
