Speaker: Dr. Guillaume Durand, Context Expert
Dr. Guillaume Durand: Bonjour! Hello! My name is Guillaume Durand, I'm based in Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. And I'm an expert in Archaeology, Ancient and Medieval Art History – and History too. My studies center around the Mediterranean basin, Europe, and the Middle East.
Dr. Guillaume Durand: I love to teach about Ancient Civilizations and Medieval Europe, because by the end, they are not so different from us. Learning about the Ancients tells us not only about them, but first of all about us, and that's what I like to share with you.
Dr. Guillaume Durand: Did you know that the term Romanesque was created by Art Historians in the 19th century? We don't know what could have been the term, the label, used by the European scholars during the Medieval period to talk about this architectural and artistic revival. However, Romanesque means like the Romans. You know, basically it smells like the Romans. It looks like the Romans, but it's not Roman. But the point is this label ignores the two other formative influences on Romanesque art, the Insular style of Northern Europe and the art of Byzantium. Nor does it do justice to the inventiveness of Romanesque art.
Dr. Guillaume Durand: With me, you will learn about how Ancient and Medieval populations lived. What were their activities? Their concerns? What were their beliefs? And all these conclusions are based on the artifacts and the monuments they left.
Dr. Guillaume Durand: So if you are interested in learning more about what can be considered as the first Medieval Art style, which gave birth to Christian Europe, I look forward to meeting you soon.
