Early Renaissance painting. Artists of the early Italian Renaissance and their work

When we hear the word “lake”, a picture appears in our imagination - a wonderful place to relax, where you can swim and fish. However, this is not always the case. Some lakes inspire fear and horror. And there are reasons for this.

Lake Pustoe (Russia)

Its location is the Kuznetsk Alatau region located in Western Siberia. Lake Pustoe is a fresh and environmentally friendly reservoir of continental origin, because it is completely free of chemicals. Many scientists have repeatedly conducted studies of water from the lake, which have never confirmed the presence of any toxic components in it.

The lake has clean water that is suitable for drinking and resembles champagne, as it is dominated by completely safe bubbles of natural gases. However, researchers were unable to determine the reason why there was no fish in the lake.

In the vicinity of Lake Empty there has never been environmental disasters and emergency technical incidents that pollute the reservoir. By chemical composition its water is no different from the nearest reservoirs of the reserve, characterized by an abundance of fish resources. Moreover, the reservoir feeds several fresh, clean reservoirs in the vicinity; the fact that there is fish in them will add special mystery to what is happening in these dreams.

There have been several attempts to introduce unpretentious fish species such as pike, perch and crucian carp into the reservoir. Each of them ended in failure, the fish died, aquatic plants rotten. And today there is no grass or birds on the banks of the reservoir, there are no fish or fry in the water, the lake guards its mysteries.

Why are there no fish in the lake?

Samples from the Kuznetsk reservoir were studied by chemists from the USA, Great Britain and Germany. However, no one was able to put forward a sensible version explaining the lack of fish in the reservoir. Scientists are not yet able to answer the questions of ordinary people about what is happening to the Kuznetsk reservoir.

However, scientists repeat attempts to explain the extraordinary phenomenon of Empty Lake with enviable frequency. There are many people who want to visit the shores of the unusual lake; tourists come here and stay overnight. Some of them dream of touching the mystery of nature and unraveling it.

Lake of Death (Italy)

Our world is amazing and beautiful, its nature can be endlessly admired and enjoyed. But besides this, there are places on our Earth that sometimes lead us to bewilderment. Among such places is the Lake of Death on the island of Sicily. This lake can be considered one of the phenomena and unique natural phenomena. The name itself suggests that this lake is deadly for all living things. Any living organism that gets into this lake will inevitably die.

This lake is the most dangerous on our planet. The lake is absolutely lifeless and there are no living organisms in it. The shores of the lake are deserted and lifeless; nothing grows here. Everything is connected with the fact that any living creature that enters the aquatic environment immediately dies. If a person decides to swim in this lake, he will literally dissolve in the lake in a few minutes.

When information about this place appeared in the scientific world, it was immediately sent there. scientific expedition to study this phenomenon. The lake revealed its secrets with great difficulty. Water analyzes showed that the lake’s aquatic environment contains a large number of concentrated sulfuric acid. Scientists were not immediately able to figure out where the sulfuric acid comes from in the lake. Scientists have put forward several hypotheses about this.

The first hypothesis stated that at the bottom of the lake there are rocks that, when washed away by water, become enriched with acid. But further study of the lake showed that at the bottom of the lake there are two sources that release concentrated sulfuric acid into the lake’s water environment. This explains the circumstance why any organic matter.

Dead Lake (Kazakhstan)

There is an anomalous lake in Kazakhstan that attracts the attention of many people. It is located in the Taldykurgan region, the village of Gerasimovka. Its dimensions are not large, only 100x60 meters. This body of water is called Dead. The fact is that there is nothing in the lake, neither algae nor fish. The water there is unusually icy.

Low water temperatures remain even when there is intense sunshine outside. People drown there all the time. For some unknown reason, scuba divers begin to choke after three minutes of diving. Locals do not advise anyone to go there, and they themselves avoid this anomalous place.

Blue Lake (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia)

Blue karst abyss in Kabardino-Balkaria. Not a single river or stream flows into this lake, although it loses up to 70 million liters of water every day, but its volume and depth do not change at all. The blue color of the lake is due to the high content of hydrogen sulfide in the water. There are no fish here at all.

What makes this lake creepy is the fact that no one has been able to figure out its depth. The fact is that the bottom consists of an extensive system of caves. Researchers have still not been able to figure out what the lowest point of this karst lake is. It is believed that under the Blue Lake is the largest system of underwater caves in the world.

Boiling Lake (Dominican Republic)

The name speaks for itself. Located in the beautiful Caribbean of Dominica, this lake is actually the second largest natural hot spring on earth. The temperature of the water in the boiling lake reaches 90 degrees Celsius and there is hardly anyone who wants to test the temperature of the source on their own skin. Just look at the photographs and it becomes clear that the water here is practically boiling. The temperature cannot be regulated because it is the result of a crack in the bottom of the lake through which hot lava erupts.

Lake Powell (USA)

Despite its common name (Horseshoe), located near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Lake Powell is a terrifying killer. The city of Mammoth Lakes was built on top of an active volcano, which is not the best location. However, for many years the lake was considered safe. But about 20 years ago, the trees around Horseshoe suddenly began to dry out and die.

After ruling out all possible diseases, scientists decided that the trees were being suffocated by excessive levels of carbon dioxide slowly seeping through the ground from underground chambers of cooling magma. In 2006, three tourists took refuge in a cave near the lake and suffocated from carbon dioxide.

Lake Karachay (Russia)

Located in Russia's beautiful Ural Mountains, this deep blue lake is one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. During a secret government project, the lake was used as a dump site for radioactive waste for many years beginning in 1951.

This place is so toxic that a 5-minute visit can make a person sick, and a longer visit of an hour is guaranteed to be fatal. During a drought in 1961, the wind carried toxic dust that affected 500,000 people - a tragedy comparable to atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima. It is definitely one of the most polluted places on Earth.

Lake Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo)

This lake is located on the border between Democratic Republic Congo and Rwanda, with large layers of carbon dioxide at the base of the volcanic rock, as well as 55 billion cubic meters of methane at the bottom. This explosive combination makes Lake Kivu the deadliest of the world's three explosive lakes. Any earthquake or volcanic activity could pose a lethal threat to the 2 million people living in this region. They can die from both methane explosions and carbon dioxide suffocation.

Lake Michigan (Canada)

Of the five Great Lakes on the border of Canada and the United States, Lake Michigan is the deadliest. The warm, attractive lake is a popular holiday destination for many tourists, despite its dangerous underwater currents, which claim at least several lives every year.

The shape of Lake Michigan makes it particularly susceptible to dangerous currents that arise spontaneously and abruptly. The lake becomes more dangerous in the fall, October and November, when sudden and significant changes in water and air temperatures occur. The height of the waves can reach several meters.

Mono Lake (USA)

One of the most developed ecosystems in the world, Mono Lake is located in the county of the same name in California. This ancient salt lake has no fish, but trillions of bacteria and small algae thrive in its unique waters. Up until 1941 this is amazing beautiful lake was healthy and strong. But Los Angeles, which was just beginning its giant growth spurt, stepped in. The city drained the tributaries of the lake, which began to dry up.

This is a scandalous destruction natural resources continued for almost 50 years and when it was stopped in 1990, Mono Lake had already lost half its volume and its salinity had doubled. Mono has become a toxic alkaline lake filled with carbonates, chlorides and sulfates. Los Angeles has decided to correct its mistake, but the restoration project will take decades.

Lake Manoun (Cameroon)

Located in the Oku Volcanic Field in Cameroon, Lake Monoun appears to be a completely normal body of water. But its appearance is deceiving, as it is one of three explosive lakes on earth. In 1984, Monun exploded without warning, releasing a cloud of carbon dioxide and killing 37 people. Twelve of the dead were riding in a truck and stopped to watch the aftermath of the explosion. It was at this moment that the lethal gas did its job.

Lake Nyos (Cameroon)

In 1986, Lake Nyos, located just 100 kilometers from Lake Monun, exploded following a magma eruption and released carbon dioxide, converting the water into carbonic acid. As a result of the massive landslide, the lake suddenly released a giant cloud of carbon dioxide, killing thousands of people and animals in local towns and villages. The tragedy was the first known major suffocation caused by a natural event. The lake continues to pose a threat because its natural wall is fragile and even the slightest earthquake can destroy it.

Natron (Tanzania)

Lake Natron in Tanzania not only kills its inhabitants, but also mummifies their bodies. On the shores of the lake there are mummified flamingos, small birds, and bats. The creepiest thing is that the victims freeze in natural poses with their heads raised. It was as if they froze for a moment and remained that way forever. The water in the lake is bright red due to the microorganisms living in it, closer to the shore it is already orange, and in some places it is a normal color.

The evaporation of the lake scares away large predators, and the absence of natural enemies attracts a huge number of birds and small animals. They live on the banks of the Natron, reproduce, and after death they are mummified. A large amount of hydrogen contained in water and increased alkalinity contribute to the release of soda, salt and lime. They prevent the remains of the inhabitants of the lake from decomposing.

A group of 5 karst lakes in the Chereksky district of Kabardino-Balkaria is located approximately 30 km south of Nalchik.

The lowest lake of this group is the most unique with a relatively small surface of 235 by 130 meters, its depth reaches 258 meters, and water saturated with hydrogen sulfide gives the lake a rich blue color.

The surface water temperature in winter and summer is about +9 degrees. This attracts divers from all over the world - a modern diving center has been built on the shores of the Lower Lake, which operates both in summer and winter.

Not a single stream or river flows into the lake, but about 70 million liters of water flow out every day. The lake level remains unchanged, which is explained by powerful underwater sources.

The nature here is quite picturesque: green hills, dense beech forests on steep slopes, and in the distance, in the blue haze, peaks sparkling in the sun.

2. Lake Khanka

Lake Khanka is located on the border of the Primorsky Territory of Russia and the Heilongjiang Province of China.

This is the largest freshwater body of water in the Far East. Area 4070 km² (at average water level), length 95 km.

24 rivers flow into the lake, and the Sungacha River flows into it.

The international Russian-Chinese Khanka Nature Reserve has been organized on the lake.

Due to its location, it attracts a large number of tourists who can get acquainted with the culture and customs of two countries at once. About 75 species of fish live in the waters of this lake, and even some of them are listed in the Red Book of Russia.

3. Seliger

Seliger is a system of lakes of glacial origin in the Tver and Novgorod regions of Russia. This lake is also called Ostashkovskoye, after the name of the city of Ostashkov, located on the lake shore.

The area of ​​the lake is 260 km². The area of ​​the entire basin is 2275 km².

Seliger receives 110 tributaries, and only one river, Selizharovka, flows out of it.

4. Topozero

Topozero is a crystal clear, deserted lake-sea, one of the largest lakes in Karelia.

It has an area of ​​986 sq. km, a length of 75.3 km, a width of 30.3 km, 144 islands with a total area of ​​63 sq. km. Topozero is part of the Kum reservoir system.

The rivers flowing into Topozero are Kizreka, Valazreka, Taka, the rivers flowing out are Pongoma, which flows into the White Sea, and Sofyanga, which flows into Pyaozero.

The nature and landscapes of Topozero are very beautiful. In the wide part of the lake, the opposite shores and chains of islands are hidden behind the horizon, the shores of the lake are often clad in steep rocky embankments, but there are also real harbors with sandy beaches protected by rocks. You can see extensive sandy and rocky shallows and swamps. There are a lot of berries in the swamps and forests: cloudberries, blueberries, blueberries, lingonberries.

Topozero keeps the secrets of history. Once upon a time, hermit monks lived on Zhiloy Island, spreading the Old Believer faith among the residents of villages on the shores of the lake.

The lake is ideal for sailing and kayaking routes. Numerous islands offer tired travelers overnight stops.

Fishing on Topozero is interesting and varied. The long rocky shallows are interesting for those who like to catch grayling; in the bays and lambins there are perch, roach and pike.

5. Raspberry Lake

One of the most beautiful places in Siberia is Raspberry Lake, Altai region. The reservoir is the largest bitter-salty lake among the Borovye lakes in this region. Its area is 11.4 square kilometers. Raspberry Lake may surprise you with the unusual color of its water. The reason for this is a branchial crustacean called Artemia salina, which lives in it. It produces a pink pigment that, when released into water, colors it. The color changes throughout the year. In spring it is the brightest and most saturated, and in autumn it turns brown. The crustacean has long been considered food product, today the crustacean is used only to feed fish fry.

Foreigners who were lucky enough to share a meal with great empress Catherine II, were surprised at the unusual pinkish-crimson salt served to the table. They had never seen such a curiosity anywhere else. And the Russians knew that it was brought from the far-distant Kulunda steppe, located at the foot of Altai mountains. But few could visit those distant places - it was so difficult to get there. There were only legends that there was a huge pink lake splashing there, and after swimming in it, motherless women soon gave birth to babies, and the pockmarked ones became prettier. And in the modern world, getting to those regions costs nothing, so many of our compatriots know for sure about the healing salty waters of Raspberry Lake. It really helps to improve women Health, has a beneficial effect on the skin (rejuvenates and cleanses it), relieves fatigue and muscle pain, treats inflammation, and swimming in the waters of this lake is a pleasure. There are also very beautiful landscapes here, so it’s an excellent place to relax and very popular among Siberians. However, tourists also come here from the European part of the country.

For a hundred years after Giotto's death, there was not a single artist as gifted as him in Florence. The best of the subsequent masters were aware of their inferiority, but did not see any other way than intensive copying and distortion of Giotto. Giotto was ahead of his time, and only a hundred years later another Florentine - Masaccio (1401-1428) - raised art to an even higher level.

Less than ten years of creativity were allotted to him by fate. But even in this short time, he managed to accomplish, according to his contemporaries, “a real revolution in painting.” In Florence, he painted two of the largest cathedrals - the church of Santa Maria Novella and the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine.

Giotto's successor, Masaccio always strived to construct space according to the laws of perspective, conveying real volumes on a plane. But his innovation was not limited to the development of perspective. He was attracted to the image of the surrounding world, imitation of natural nature. Art critic A.K. Dzhivelegov noted the innovative nature of his work: “Painting before Masaccio and painting after Masaccio are two completely different things, two different eras. Giotto discovered the secret of transmitting the sensations of a person and a crowd. Masaccio taught how to depict man and nature... He completely freed himself from stylization. The mountains are no longer pointed, ledge-like pebbles, but real mountains. They either take on the soft contours of the spurs of the Apennines... or they develop into a harsh rocky landscape... The ground on which people stand is a real plane on which one can actually stand and which the eye can trace to the background. Trees and vegetation in general are no longer props, sometimes stylized, sometimes simply fictitious, but nature itself... If the people appearing in the picture decide to enter the houses, this will not cause any inconvenience: they will not break through the roofs with their heads, they will not break the walls with their shoulders will fall apart. Masaccio began to look at how everything was happening in reality. Then the conventional poses, the unnatural facts, and the fictitious landscape naturally disappeared.”

The main subjects of Masaccio's paintings were the life and deeds of the apostles, Jesus Christ, and scenes of the creation of the world. These are the frescoes “The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise” (1427-1428) [Appendix 3] and “The Miracle of the Statir” (1427-1428) [Appendix 4] in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. One of Masaccio's early paintings, Madonna and Child with Angels [Appendix 5], was conceived as the central part of a large altar for the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. On a high throne placed in a deep niche, Mary sits with a baby in her arms. The golden background, halos on the heads, and flowing clothing give a special solemnity to the image. The novelty of the artistic solution is striking in the picture. None of the masters of the 15th century. You won’t find such clarity in conveying the depth of space, “achieved thanks to the geometrically precise reduction in the size of the throne. The figures fit naturally into the architectural space with the Gothic arch and classical columns of the throne.

“Trinity” [Appendix 6] is one of the last and perfect creations of Masaccio, in which a completely new interpretation of the plot of the Old Testament Trinity was proposed. In three-dimensional space, the artist shows real figures of God the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit, symbolically embodying the image of the world created by the human mind. In the ability to distribute light and shadows, in creating a clear spatial composition, in the volume and tangibility of figures, Masaccio is in many ways superior to his contemporaries. Showing the naked body of Christ, he gives him ideal, heroic features, exalts his power and beauty, and glorifies the strength of the human spirit. Inside the chapel, at the foot of the cross, stand the Virgin Mary and the Apostle John. The face of the mother of Christ, devoid of its usual beauty, is turned to the viewer. Being the link between God and man, she points with a restrained hand gesture to the crucified Son. In this generally static composition, Mary's gesture is the only movement that symbolically organizes the space. In front of the arch, at the entrance to the chapel, a kneeling man and woman are depicted in profile - the customers of the paintings for the church.

The artistic unity of Masaccio, just like that of the great Giotto, the founder of new Italian painting, was not identical with real reality, but represented something higher than it, something that should not be a copy of this reality. This phenomenon becomes clearer when analyzing the image of individual figures than the entire composition as a whole. And the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel in this regard most of all reflect new era. A gigantic gulf separates the powerful figures of Christ and his disciples from the graceful costumed dolls from the works of the immediately preceding period. Not only have the precious fashions and entertaining details disappeared, but also all attempts to influence the viewer through verisimilitude in the representation of real objects taken from reality: the fresco captures a timeless, eternal human existence, appearing before us in the same way as in Giotto, and again - completely different from his. This difference is usually defined as a different sense of form. What can be seen in Masaccio's frescoes is typicality, sublime through intensive study of nature. The real forms that underlay the old iconographic schemes turned out to be so enriched with new knowledge that they no longer appear to be dead formulas, but to living people. Far from the slender and graceful images of the late Trecento period depicted in lively movement, these figures remind us of the powerful characters of Giotto. Just as in ancient art, here the heaviness and lifelessness of the body are overcome with the help of vital energy, and this balance serves as the source of a new sense of form and the source of what should serve as the most important content of the artistic depiction of the human figure. And at the same time, this is overcoming the Gothic.

Masaccio's characters are much more independent than Giotto's, so they are full of a new understanding of human dignity, expressed in their entire appearance. This understanding is based on the reflection of a certain spiritual force, it is also based on the awareness of Masaccio’s heroes of their own power and free will. In this lies the moment of some of their isolation. For to whatever extent all these characters participate sacred history in the events depicted, they are nevertheless characterized not only by their relation to these events, but also by their own individual significance, which gives them the character of solemnity. But this isolation is also expressed in the compositional role of individual figures. Giotto divided into separate figures the traditional medieval mass group of participants in an event; in Masaccio, on the contrary, groups are built from separate, completely independent figures. Each of these figures seems absolutely free in its position in space and in its plastic volume. The entire artistic process proceeds differently in Masaccio than in the art of the period preceding him. Giotto, like medieval artists, starts in his compositions from a general concept in which individual figures are assigned certain functions of content and form that determine their character. Masaccio's compositions are endowed with a special originality - it is characterized by the fact that, despite all the achievements in the depiction of figures and spatial surroundings, their connection with each other has not become closer than before, but, on the contrary, has weakened.

The depiction of a landscape segment of space has become more consistent with sensory experience. Those occasional advances in perspective during the Trecento period are replaced by a universal and more accurate system of perspective. In Giotto, everything - both space and figures - consists of one piece and is built as a kind of unity, here plane and space are inextricably intertwined. This absolute unity, which encloses all the elements of the composition and creates a solid structure of the work, is replaced by Masaccio (and even more so by his followers) with somewhat conditional connections. This can be seen in the division of the image into three scenes. As a result, a dualism of figure and space arises. This dualism is even more striking in the later masters of the Quattrocento period than in Masaccio, in whom the Giottian composition is felt somewhat more strongly; in later masters this dualism leads to the opposition of landscape background and figures in the plane. This dualism is based on the fact that body and space appear as separate complexes of visual means. As a result, the paintings become a juxtaposition of space and individual figures, and the figures, as the most important component of this complex unity, have the advantage.

Without this fact, it is impossible to understand the nature of the development of art during the Quattrocento period. Compositional rules throughout the fifteenth century change to an insignificant extent - accordingly, very few sketches of compositions have survived - but in the depiction of figures and in the depiction of space there is continuous intensive progress, which is evidenced not only by completed works, but to a much greater extent - numerous sketches and drawings. The great act of the Renaissance was not precisely the “discovery of the world and man,” but the discovery of material laws. Based on this discovery, which is in close contact with the ancient understanding of the world, the meaning and content of all subsequent development of art now lay in the task of a new understanding of the image and a new conquest of the world. The depiction of man as the most important and responsible complex was to come to the forefront of artistic interests, and it is in this area that the further improvement of the new style can be observed. How short is the period of time that Masaccio’s life allowed him to create the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, so great is the progress made during this period.

In the narrow fresco “St. Peter Healing with His Shadow,” [Appendix 7], Peter, immersed in his thoughts, accompanied by St. John, passes through the quarter of the poor, and his shadow heals the sick located near the wall of the house. The emotion of the sick - it is represented in various shades, is as beautiful in design as the majestic gait of the saint. The saint's clothes - just like Giotto's - still touch the ground, which, however, Masaccio usually avoided. to more clearly characterize the motives of rest and movement. But baggy clothes, when depicted only by rare folds within the boundaries of large planes create plastic animation, are reminiscent of Giotto. Signs of the realism of late Trecento art can also be found in the second scene, which depicts Saints Peter and John distributing alms. This time the outskirts of the city are depicted: the streets end here, and only a few buildings precede the field. The poor gathered here to receive modest gifts from the saints. Nothing like this, of course, had ever happened before in Italian painting: thanks to their grandeur and free style, they resemble classical dressed figures and indicate that the desire to depict clothing in its natural function led the artist not only to imitation of ancient models, but also to the comprehension of artistic the meaning of antique clothing. And not only this greatness, but also the underlying concept of beauty and perfection - this can be taught to us by the fresco located above the one described above and depicting St. Peter performing the rite of baptism. This event takes place in a deserted mountainous area, the powerful forms of which emphasize the significance of the scene. The converts gathered in a semicircle near the saint proceeding to baptize a kneeling man in water. Already the entire fifteenth century admired the figure of a naked young man, seemingly shivering from the cold, among the witnesses of baptism - but the group of St. Peter and the kneeling man deserves more attention. Giotto in “The Baptism of Christ” [Appendix 8] depicted the naked Savior: the figure of a standing emaciated man; in Masaccio's fresco, a beautiful male body was reintroduced into art, like antique statue, the classical ideal of bodily beauty and perfection was introduced. Masaccio seemed to have used an ancient model when depicting the body - and yet, despite some contradictions that become noticeable only upon careful study, the entire kneeling figure is perceived as a whole as a free competition with the ancient image of the naked body. To enter into such a competition with equal forces, however, there was still lacking - and this is evidenced by “Expulsion from Paradise” [Appendix 3] - exact knowledge of a living organism. The heavy, hopeless tread of people leaving their lost bliss outside the gates seems clumsy; overcoming this constraint was the problem that had to be solved. Masaccio acquired knowledge of the anatomy of the human body by working with nature and studying works of classical sculpture; In his work, he abandoned the decorativeness and conventionality inherent in Gothic art. The figures, the three-dimensionality of which is conveyed through powerful cut-off modeling, are correlated in scale with the surrounding landscape, painted taking into account light-air perspective.

Thus, we can conclude that Masaccio was a great master who understood the essence of painting, he was highly gifted with the ability to convey tactile value in artistic images.

Masaccio was a worthy successor to Giotto, whose art he knew well and carefully studied. Giotto introduced him to monumental forms, taught him to depict what is important and significant from the standpoint of high artistic unity. Masaccio's art contains the entire program of new Renaissance painting - man as the center of the universe

Unlike Giotto, a characteristic feature of Masaccio’s work is a more accurate study of nature. He was also the first to depict the naked body in painting and gives a person heroic features. In the painting of a later time one can find greater perfection of detail, but it will not have the same realism, power and persuasiveness. Masaccio acquired knowledge of the anatomy of the human body by working with nature and studying works of classical sculpture; In his work, he abandoned the decorativeness and conventionality inherent in Gothic art.

Masaccio is characterized by a rational, three-dimensional space built according to the rules of perspective, light and shadow processing of the form, making it convex and voluminous, and enhanced plasticity of the form through color. The figures, the three-dimensionality of which is conveyed through powerful cut-off modeling, are correlated in scale with the surrounding landscape, painted taking into account light-air perspective.

Masaccio was a great master who understood the essence of painting, he was highly illuminated by the ability to convey tactile value in artistic images. The artist’s concept is expressed by the statement of one of his contemporaries: a fresco or painting is a window through which we see the world.

Conclusion

During the Renaissance, painting was expected to depict new people destined for great purposes. The object of close attention of historians continues to be one of the main centers of Renaissance culture - Florence. After all, it was here that, earlier than in other city-states, the prerequisites for changing cultural eras were formed, Renaissance humanistic ideas were born, and writers, artists, architects, and sculptors created their greatest creations. And within it, social life pulsated with unusual intensity, drawing in almost the entire adult male population, for whom the concerns of education, upbringing, and culture were far from the least important.

The ideological guidelines of the Renaissance culture of Italy were influenced by the psychological climate of city life. In the secular-oriented merchant morality, new maxims began to prevail - the ideal of human activity, energetic personal efforts, without which it was impossible to achieve professional success, and this step by step led away from church ascetic ethics, which sharply condemned the desire for hoarding. The lower urban environment was the most conservative; it was there that the traditions of folk medieval culture were firmly preserved, which had a certain impact on the culture of the Renaissance.

Giotto's innovation was manifested in three main features of his work, which his followers then continued to develop. On the one hand, the beauty of lines was improved, various fusions of colors were used. On the other hand, the narrative element becomes of great importance. Also, figures and scenes borrowed from life are associated with a poetic understanding of the whole, and thus from this source also flow many realistic motives, such as truthfulness in the depiction of nature, etc. Giotto’s very understanding of man was in agreement with nature. For Giotto, the image of movement and action is important. The grouping of figures and their gestures are completely subordinated to the meaning of what is depicted. With line and chiaroscuro, expressing the full significance of the event, with glances turned to the sky or down, with gestures that speak without words, based on the simplest painting technique, without knowledge of anatomy, Giotto gives an image of movement.

Masaccio is similar to Giotto, but Giotto, who was born a century later and found himself in favorable artistic conditions. He showed Florentine painting the path it followed until its decline. This path lies in the ability to distribute light and shadows, in creating a clear spatial composition, in the power with which he conveys volume, Masaccio is far superior to Giotto. In the painting of a later time one can find greater perfection of detail, but it will not have the same realism, power and persuasiveness.

Masaccio took the next decisive step after Giotto in creating a collective image of a person, now freed from the religious and ethical basis and imbued with a new, truly secular worldview. He used the possibilities of chiaroscuro, modeling plastic form, in a new way.

In general, the phenomenon of the Renaissance is a very multifaceted phenomenon in the cultural development of Europe, the core of which was a new worldview, a new self-awareness of man. During this period, art developed as rapidly as it had never developed before. Each artist adds something of his own, his own unique feature to the development of painting of this period. Therefore, great works of art created even in a distant era not only do not lose their meaning, but acquire new shades in understanding their content and moral and ethical issues. Artistic forms, understood from the perspective of modern times, and the universal human values ​​contained in them, excite us at all times.

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Appendix 1. Giotto “Kiss of Judas”.

Fresco.

Appendix 2. Giotto “Lamentation of Christ”

Fresco.
Scrovegni Chapel (Capella del Arena), Padua

Appendix 3. Masaccio “The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise.”

Fresco.

Appendix 4. Masaccio “The Miracle of the Stater”

Fresco.
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Brancacci Chapel), Florence

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Appendix 5. Masaccio “Madonna and Child and Angels”

Wood, tempera.
National Gallery, London

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Appendix 6. Masaccio “Trinity”

Fresco.
Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence

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Appendix 7. Masaccio “St. Peter healing with his shadow”

Fresco.
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Brancacci Chapel), Florence

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Appendix 8. Giotto “The Baptism of Christ”

Fresco.
Scrovegni Chapel (Capella del Arena), Padua

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1. Art era Renaissance (4)

   Abstract >> Culture and art

   Abstract on the topic: “ Art era Renaissance" Performed by a student of the group EK-... -XIII – XIII-XIV centuries), Early Renaissance(Quattrocento XIV-XV centuries), High... surrealists. The largest master of the Northern Renaissance in the visual arts art Albrecht Durer was. ...

2. Culture of the era Renaissance Renaissance

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   Giovanni Pisano. to the begining ART EARLY REVIVAL In the first decades of the 15th century art In Italy there is a decisive... almost portrait. This is a typical feature art early Renaissance, caused by the artist’s desire to free himself from...

3. Culture of the era Renaissance XIV-XVI XVII centuries.

   Abstract >> Culture and art

   ... art Early Renaissance was complex, contradictory, and this contradiction led him forward. IN art Early Renaissance, ... improved oil technology. Venetian art completes development art early

The Renaissance brought great changes to the art of painting. The artists mastered the ability to subtly convey light and shadow, space, and the poses and gestures of their characters became natural. With great skill they depicted complex human feelings in their paintings.

In the painting of the Early Renaissance, or Quattrocento (15th century), major notes are usually sounded; it is distinguished by pure colors, the characters are lined up and outlined with dark contours that separate them from the background and light background plans. All the details are very detailed and carefully written out. Although Quattrocento's painting is not yet as perfect as the art of the High and Late Renaissance, it touches the viewer to the depths of the soul with its purity and sincerity.

The very first significant painter of the Early Renaissance was Masaccio. Although the artist lived only 28 years, he managed to leave a significant contribution not only to Renaissance painting, but to all world art. His paintings are distinguished by their deep color, the figures seem dense and surprisingly alive. Masaccio perfectly conveys perspective and volume, and masters light and shadow effects. He was the first of the Early Renaissance painters to depict the naked human body and presented his heroes as beautiful and strong, worthy of respect and admiration. Later, such great masters of the High Renaissance as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael studied from the works of Masaccio (“Expulsion from Paradise”, “Miracle with Tax”).

During this period, many wonderful artists created their creations. Paolo Uccello worked in Florence, who painted battle scenes and was famous for his ability to depict horses and riders in complex angles and poses. Giorgio Vasari, a mediocre artist and a remarkable biographer and art historian who lived in the 16th century, said that Uccello could not leave the house for weeks or even months, solving the most complex problems of perspective. To his loved ones, who begged him to interrupt these activities, he answered: “Leave me, there is nothing sweeter than the prospect.”

The painter Filippo Lippi worked in Florence. In his youth he was a monk in the monastery of the Carmelite brothers, but soon left it, devoting himself to painting. There are many legends about his life. They say that the whole of Florence followed the love affairs of the former monk with interest. The artist kidnapped his future wife, Lucrezia Buti, from the monastery. Subsequently, he painted her more than once in the image of the Madonna (“The Coronation of Mary,” 1447; “The Veiled Madonna”). Filippo Lippi's paintings are only formally related to religious themes: they are devoid of drama and pathos, there is no grandeur or monumentality in them. At the same time, cheerful curly-haired angels, pretty children and lovely women captivate the viewer with their charm. With great skill, the artist paints cozy and fresh forest landscapes that serve as a backdrop to biblical scenes. The works of Filippo Lippi were very popular among his contemporaries; he was the favorite artist of Cosimo de' Medici, who was the ruler of Florence at that time.

At the same time, another Florentine master, the Dominican monk and abbot of the monastery of San Marco, Fra Beato Angelico, worked, whose works are filled with deep religious feelings. All my life Fra
Angelico dedicated himself to creating icons and frescoes for monasteries. His paintings are distinguished by bright and clean colors and shining gilding. The Gothic elongated figures of his Madonnas seem spiritualized, detached from everything earthly. One of Fra Angelico's best works is the altar composition “The Coronation of Mary” (c. 1435-1436). His Mother of God is the embodiment of poetic, pure femininity, joyful and calm. There is no gloomy mysticism in the painting of the Florentine master; even in the multi-figure altar on the theme of the Last Judgment, on the left side the artist depicted a blissful paradise with figures of happy angels in beautiful clothes.

At this time, oil paints were invented in the Netherlands, which allowed painters to make color transitions more subtle and to use light more freely to enliven color. They also helped to achieve a uniform color tone. The first of the Italian artists oil paints A representative of the Florentine school, a Venetian by birth, Domenico Veneziano began to write. Already in his early works (“Adoration of the Magi”, 1434), the artist’s coloristic talent is clearly manifested. Pure, almost transparent colors, saturated with light, form a single tonal range. Later works amaze with their masterly rendering of the light-air environment - it is believed that Domenico Veneziano was one of the first to depict it on his canvases.

The artist's skill was especially fully expressed in the famous Florentine portraits of Domenico Veneziano.

Most often he portrayed women's faces in profile (most of the models are not named) against a silvery sky or landscape. Trying to make the paints cleaner and brighter, the artist added linseed oil to them.

The achievements of Domenico Veneziano were developed by his student and follower Piero della Francesca, whom his contemporaries considered the “monarch of painting.” A native of Tuscany who worked in Florence, he studied the works of Giotto, Masaccio and Paolo Uccello. He was also somewhat influenced Dutch painting. Not only an artist, but also a famous art researcher, Piero della Francesca wrote theoretical treatises - “On Perspective in Painting” and the book “On the Five Regular Bodies”.

The works of Piero della Francesca are distinguished by their clear and precise composition, skillful rendering of the light-air environment, and clean and fresh colors. The man in his paintings is devoid of that internal conflict that would appear later in the painting of the Late Renaissance and Baroque. The heroes of Piero della Francesca are calm, stately and courageous. It is these qualities that are inherent in the images of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino - Federigo da Montefeltro and his wife, Battista Sforza, in the famous pair portrait.

The commander, politician and philanthropist, ruler of Urbino Federigo da Montefeltro was a close friend of the artist. Piero della Francesca portrayed the Duke in another famous painting - “Madonna with Saints and Angels and the customer Federigo da Montefeltro.”

Perfectly able to convey perspective, Piero della Francesca painted magnificent architectural vedutas (veduta is a picture-plan of an “ideal city”), which had a great influence on the work of contemporary architects.

During the High Renaissance, the art of Piero della Francesca began to seem outdated, and the Pope invited Raphael to paint the walls of the Vatican, covered with frescoes by Piero della Francesca. Rafael agreed and did the job masterfully.

Most brightly artistic ideals late Quattrocento were represented by the master of the Umbrian school of painting, Pietro Perugino. His paintings, calm, contemplative and lyrical, are filled with fragile and graceful images, surrounded by the poetic hilly landscapes of Umbria. The clear harmony of Perugino’s paintings brings his painting closer to the art of the High Renaissance (“Lamentation of Christ,” c. 1494-1495; “Madonna and Saints, 1496”). Painter
had a great influence on his student - the famous Raphael.

Almost every city in Italy had an art school with its own identity.
But they all sought to show in their art the beauty of the earth and man. During this era, one of the most significant cultural centers was Padua with its famous university. In this city in the 15th century. lived the art connoisseur Francesco Squarcione. He collected ancient coins, medals, and fragments of bas-reliefs in the vicinity of Padua, as well as far beyond the city. His passion was passed on to the Paduan painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, who surrounded him and considered him their teacher.

Squarcione raised the great painter Andrea Mantegna, who came to his house as a ten-year-old boy. The work of Mantegna, who lived a long life, is unusually multifaceted: in addition to painting and engraving, he was interested in geometry, optics, and archaeology. Having fallen in love with art in the Squarcione house ancient Rome(during the Renaissance in Italy they did not yet know about the art of Ancient Greece), the painter used its images in his works, giving them heroic-romantic features. His saints, rulers, and warriors, painted against the backdrop of a gloomy rocky landscape, give the impression of greatness and power. Many of Mantegna's works are imbued with deep drama. This is his famous composition “Dead Christ”, which amazed his contemporaries with its emotionality.

Mantegna also became famous as a talented copper engraver. He was the first to make engraving an equal form visual arts.

Proto-Renaissance painting reached its peak in the work of Botticelli.

Sandro Botticelli

Not much information has survived to this day about the life of Sandro Botticelli and the history of his creation of works that later became pearls of world fine art. Art critics and historians became aware of only a few facts from the biography of the great master.

Botticelli was born in 1444. He studied painting in the art workshop of Filippo Lippi. Early creativity Botticelli is marked by the influence of Lippi's art, as well as ideas formed at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici. However, we can say with a great deal of confidence that the images created by the great artist were more voluminous and meaningful than the works of painters working under the auspices of the Medici.

Botticelli's early portraits bear traces of the influence of the painting style of Filippo Lippi, as well as Andrea Verrocchio and Pollaiuolo. In more later works The master's individuality manifests itself more deeply. Yes, on famous painting“The Adoration of the Magi” depicts members of the Medici family and gives a self-portrait of the artist. The composition is distinguished by its richness, brightness and at the same time tenderness of colors, as well as subtle grace and lightness. The images created by Botticelli are filled with lyricism and extraordinary beauty coming from the depths of the soul.

In the 70s XV century The first painting by Botticelli appears, which brought the painter enormous fame among his contemporaries and left the memory of the master for centuries. This painting is "Spring", now kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The work was written after the artist read one of Poliziano’s poems. Allegorical images are presented against the backdrop of a wonderful forest landscape. Resembling a paradise, the garden amazes with its unusualness and unearthly beauty. Central location Venus is featured in the composition. On the right side of her is Flora, scattering fabulous flowers, on the left are dancing graces, light and airy, similar to white, almost transparent clouds. The dynamics are created precisely due to the image of the graces moving in a round dance.

The whole picture is different extraordinary beauty and tenderness. Despite the fact that its title is “Spring,” when looking at the picture, a feeling of slight sadness arises, with which we are not accustomed to identify spring. In the minds of any person, spring is a renewal of the world, joy, delight. In Botticelli, there is a rethinking of generally accepted and familiar images.

In 1481, Sandro Botticelli went to Rome, where he painted the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Among other frescoes, he painted the famous “Life of Moses”.

In 1482, the artist again settled in Florence. Art critics and biographers consider this year to be the most fruitful for the formation and development of the master painter’s creativity. It was then that the famous painting “The Birth of Venus” appears, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

There is no flat image in the picture - Botticelli appears here as a master of conveying spatial lines.
It is they who create the impression of depth and volume, designed to show the dynamics of the movements of the characters in the pictorial narrative. The light pastel colors of the canvas and skillfully used combinations of colors (transparent green waters of the sea, blue capes of zephyrs, golden hair of Venus, a dark red cloak in the hands of a nymph) create a feeling of extraordinary tenderness and speak of the artist’s subtle sense of color.

The central figure of the composition is Venus, who has just emerged from the waters blue sea. She's naked. However, thanks to her calm and spiritual gaze, the viewer does not feel awkward. The goddess is beautiful, as beautiful as an unearthly being descended from heaven can be. The image of Venus can be easily recognized in the paintings created by Botticelli based on famous biblical motifs. Among the paintings with religious content, the most notable are “Madonna Enthroned” (1484) and “Madonna in Glory” (“Magnificat”).

Both are currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. “Madonna in Glory” is distinguished by the subtle lyricism of its images. The dynamics of the composition are created thanks to the round shape of the picture, the rhythms of which are repeated
in the arrangement of moving figures. The landscape, brought to the background of the composition, creates volume and space.

The portrait works of the great painter are also extremely beautiful and lyrical. Of particular interest among them are
portrait of Giuliano de' Medici and "Portrait of a Young Man". However, at present, some art historians attribute the authorship of the last work to Sandro Botticelli's student Filippino Lippi (son of Filippo Lippi).

90s The 15th century became a turning point for the artist. This time was marked by the expulsion of the Medici and the rise to power
Savonarola, whose religious sermons were aimed at denouncing the Pope and wealthy Florentine families. He
He also criticized secular art, and all artists and poets, according to Savonarola, faced fiery Gehenna after death. To avoid this, you need to renounce art and repent of your sins...

These sermons significantly influenced Botticelli’s worldview, which could not but affect his work. The artist’s works created during this period are distinguished by their unusually deep pessimism, hopelessness and doom. The author now increasingly turns to Christian stories, forgetting about antiquity. A characteristic work of this time for Botticelli is “The Abandoned One,” now kept in the Pallavicini collection in Rome. The plot of the picture is quite simple: crying woman sitting on stone steps against a wall with a tightly closed gate. But, despite the simplicity of the content, the picture is very expressive and creates a depressing, sad and dreary mood in the viewer.

In the 1490s XV century Botticelli's illustrations for " Divine Comedy» Dante. Only 96 drawings have survived to this day, which are now in the museums of Berlin and the Vatican. All the images in the sketches are unusually fragile, airy and light, which is a distinctive feature of Botticelli’s entire work.

In the same 90s. The great master created the canvas “Slander,” which is stored in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The painting is notable for the fact that the painting style changes somewhat here. The lines that create images become sharper and more pointed. The composition is filled with pathos, emotionality and greater clarity of images compared to other works.

The pinnacle of expression of the artist’s religious fanaticism was the painting entitled “The Lamentation of Christ.” Currently, versions of the canvas are kept in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Of particular interest here are the images of those close to Christ, filled with deep sorrow and longing. The impression of tragedy is enhanced by the artist’s use of contrasting, sometimes dark, sometimes bright colors. The viewer no longer sees disembodied, almost weightless and invisible images, but rather concrete and clear figures.

One of the brightest works related to late period Botticelli's work is the painting "Scenes from the Life of St. Zenobius", currently stored in the Dresden Art Gallery in Germany. Made in the style of painting of ancient altar chapels, the composition is a kind of collage made up of individual paintings telling about the life of the saint. However, despite the similarities with ancient art, the creative individuality of the master of painting was clearly demonstrated in the canvas. His images are solid and clear. They are placed not in an abstract space, but against the backdrop of a concrete landscape. The location of Botticelli's action is clearly defined: most often these are ordinary city streets with a beautiful forest visible in the distance.

Of particular interest are the combinations of colors used by the painter. The manner of painting from this point of view is in many ways similar to the technique of painting ancient icons, the coloring of which is based not on bright contrast, but on the selection of calm, close-colored tones.

Sandro Botticelli died on May 17, 1510. His work had a great influence not only on the masters of the 15th-16th centuries, but also on many painters of later eras.

In the era of the Proto-Renaissance, such wonderful artists as the Siena painters who lived at the same time as Duccio, the brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti; Florentines Masolino and Benozzo Gozzoli, Umbrian Gentile de Fabriano; painter and medalist Pisanello; Florentines Filippino Lippi (son of Filippo Lippi) and Piero di Cosimo. Representatives of the Umbrian school were painters Luca Signorelli, Pinturicchio, Melozzo da Forli. Cosimo Tura, Ercole Roberti, Francesco del Cossa, Lorenzo Costa worked in Ferrara.

In the 15th century Another painting genre was very popular in Florence. Many families had elegant chests (cassones) in which girls kept their dowry. Craftsmen covered them with skillful carvings and elegant paintings. Most often, artists used mythological themes for paintings.

Venetian painting

Venice holds a special place in the art of the Quattrocento. Amazing city, located on one hundred and eighteen islands, separated from each other by one hundred and sixty canals, was at that time a city-state. Venice, a merchant republic trading with Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Baghdad, India, Arabia, North Africa, Germany and Flanders, was open to the entry of other cultures.

Venetian painting was designed to capture all the beauty, wealth and splendor of this great city. It reached its peak in the second half of the 15th century. The works of Venetian masters, colorful and festively decorative, decorated temples, palaces, and the premises of various public institutions, delighting rulers and ordinary citizens.

A striking example of Venetian painting is the work of Vittore Carpaccio. His simple narrative compositions poetically represent Venice during ceremonies (“Reception of Ambassadors”). The artist depicts and daily life hometown; he writes scenes from Sacred History, interpreting them from a modern point of view. These are his “Life of St. Ursula" (1490s), "Scenes from the Life of Mary", "Life of St. Stephen" (1511-1520).

The realistic tendencies of Venetian painting of the Early Renaissance were reflected in the work of Antonello da Messina. One of his most famous paintings is “St. Sebastian" (1476). Theme of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, who became the victim of Diocletian, an opponent of Christianity, was widespread among Renaissance artists, but Antonello da Messina interprets it in a special way: in the image of Sebastian there is not that suffering exaltation that is characteristic of works written on the same subject by other painters with this subject. The artist makes the viewer admire the beauty of the human body and admire the courage and fortitude of the beautiful young man. The calm landscape against which Sebastian is depicted is permeated with air and light. Majestic city buildings rise behind him, and an antique column lies at his feet.

Antonello da Messina is a wonderful master of portraiture, best works of this genre - the so-called. “Self-portrait” (c. 1473), “Condottiere”, “ Portrait of a man"(1470s). These works are characterized by restraint and generality, qualities that were so valued by the artist’s contemporaries. The master's portraiture anticipated the work of Giovanni Bellini.

A major master of the Venetian Quattrocento, Giovanni Bellini is considered one of the founders of the High Renaissance. His works “Madonna and Saints” (1476) and “Lamentation of Christ” (1475) are marked by tragic greatness. His mysterious “Madonna of the Lake” (c. 1500), inspired by a French poem, attracts attention
about the golden age "Pilgrimage of the Soul". In this picture they combined beautiful images antiquity and dreams of a Christian paradise.

Until now, researchers have not fully figured out what the artist wanted to say when he depicted ordinary people next to the Virgin Mary, the apostles and saints.

Bellini painted several wonderful portraits (“Boy”, “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredano”, etc.), from which the flourishing of portraiture in Venice began. The painter’s skill in depicting nature, which is an integral part of all his works (“St. Francis”, 1470s), had a great influence on many Venetian landscape painters of subsequent generations. Bellini's students were such famous painters as Giorgione and Titian.

Giorgione

Giorgione, not only great painter, but also a talented musician and poet, stands out clearly among the Venetian painters. Vasari wrote that “his playing of the lute and his singing were considered divine.” This is probably where the special musicality and poetry of Giorgione’s paintings come from - in this he has no equal not only in Italian, but also in world art.

There is little information about Giorgione's life. His real name is Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco. As Vasari writes,
The artist received the nickname Giorgione (“Big Giorgio”) “for his greatness of spirit.”

Giorgione was born around 1478 in Castelfranco. In his early youth he came to Venice, where he entered the workshop of Giovanni Bellini. Since then, the painter almost never left Venice, where he died in 1510 during a plague epidemic.

One of Giorgione’s most famous paintings is the famous “Judith”, kept in the Hermitage. Legend says that the beautiful Judith entered the tent of the leader of the enemy army, Holofernes, and seduced him. When Holofernes fell asleep, the girl beheaded him.

The Russian artist A. Benois wrote about this mysterious painting: “A strange painting, as “ambiguous” and “insidious” as Leonardo’s paintings. Is this Judith? - I would like to ask about this stern, sad beauty with the face of the Dresden Venus, so calmly trampling on her severed head.” Indeed, there is some kind of contradiction and mystery hidden in this painting: the merciless biblical Judith appears in Giorgione’s work in poetic image dreamy girl against the backdrop of calm and quiet nature.

And this is not the only mystery in Giorgione’s work.

What secret is hidden in the painting “The Thunderstorm”, in which, under a stormy sky, among trees and fragments of antique columns, we see a sitting young woman feeding a child, and a young man walking at a distance? It is also unclear what the artist wanted to say when he depicted two naked women in the company of two musicians, located in the shade of a tree, on the canvas entitled “Rural Concert”. In “Rural Concert” - his last work - Giorgione did not have time to complete the landscape in the background, and Titian did it for him. Already in another era, the idea of ​​the composition was used by E. Manet in his famous “Luncheon on the Grass.”

Trees, hills, bright distances in Giorgione's works are not just a background on which human figures are depicted. The landscape is inextricably linked with the characters and the idea of ​​​​the works of the Venetian master. Thus, in the composition “Three Philosophers” an old man in ancient robes, a middle-aged man in an oriental turban and a young man, embodying different stages of knowledge of nature, represent a single whole with it: the delicate greenery of a mountain valley, a rocky mass, a pale sky illuminated by dim sun rays.

The same idea of ​​harmony between man and nature was reflected in one of Giorgione’s masterpieces - the painting “Sleeping Venus”. The sensual and at the same time chaste nudity of a beauty immersed in sleep has become the personification of a delightful and at the same time simple Italian landscape, the golden yellow tones of which are repeated in warm shades body of Venus. Later, the motif of “Sleeping Venus” was used by Titian (“Venus of Urbino”), then by D. Velazquez (“Venus before the Mirror”), F. Goya (“Mach”) and E. Manet (“Olympia”).

Giorgione's deep interest in landscape as an independent element of composition prepared the emergence of a new genre in Italian painting - landscape.

Giorgione's work had a significant influence not only on Venice, but throughout Italian painting. The remarkable artist became one of the founders of the art of the High Renaissance. Subsequently, the principles and ideas of his art, Giorgione, were reflected in the works of his student Titian.

Early Renaissance Art (Quattrocento)

Beginning of the 15th century marked by acute political crisis, the participants of which were the Florentine Republic and Venice, on the one hand, the Duchy of Milan and the Villa Medici Kingdom of Naples, on the other. It ended, which lasted from 1378 to 1417. church schism, and at the Council of Constance, Pope Martin V was elected, choosing Rome as his residence. The balance of political forces in Italy changed: the life of Italy was determined by such regional states as Venice, Florence, which conquered or bought part of the territories of neighboring cities and reached the sea, and Naples. The social base of the Italian Renaissance expanded. Locals are flourishing art schools with long traditions. The secular principle becomes decisive in culture. In the 15th century humanists twice occupied the papal throne.

“Neither the sky seems too high for him, nor the center of the earth too deep. And since man has learned the structure of the heavenly bodies and how they move, who will deny that the genius of man... is almost the same.” Marsilio Ficino The Early Renaissance was characterized by overcoming late Gothic traditions and turning to the ancient heritage. However, this reversal is not due to imitation. It is no coincidence that Filarete invented his own order system.
“Imitation of nature” through comprehension of its laws is the main idea of ​​treatises on art of this time.
If in the XIV century. humanism was predominantly the property of writers, historians and poets, then from the first years of the 15th century. humanistic quests penetrated into painting.

Virtu (valor) - this concept borrowed from the ancient Stoics was adopted by Florentine humanism of the late XIV-1st floor. XV centuries Leading place in humanism last third XV century took over Neoplatonism, in which the center of gravity moved from moral and ethical issues to philosophical ones. All humanists of this century are united by the idea of ​​man as the most perfect creation of nature.

The changes in the artist’s position are due to the fact that at the beginning of the century the Signoria of Florence confirmed the long-forgotten rule, according to which architects and sculptors could not be part of the guild organization of the city in which they worked. Realizing the value of artistic uniqueness, the creators of works begin to sign their creations. Thus, on the doors of the Florentine Baptistery it is written: “A wonderful work of art by Laurentius Cione de Ghiberti.” In the second half of the 15th century. Drawing from the model and full-scale sketches become mandatory.

The first Italian architect who was guided by the ancient Roman heritage was Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). Beauty was absolute and primary for Alberti. On this understanding of beauty, Alberti based his doctrine of concinnitas (consonance, agreement) of all things. In connection with the concept of proportionality, interest in the laws of harmonic numerical relations and perfect proportions also appears. Some, like Filarete, looked for them in the structure of the human body, others (Alberti, Brunelleschi) - in the numerical relations of musical harmony.
“Beauty is a proportionate harmony of all parts, united by what they belong to, such that nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse,” Alberti believed.

Another discovery of the Quattrocento is direct perspective. F. Brunelleschi was the first to use it in two views of Florence. In 1416, it was used by Brunelleschi's friend, the sculptor Donatello, in the reliefs “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon", and around 1427-1428. Masaccio created a perspective structure in the Trinity fresco. Alberti gave a detailed theoretical development of the principles of perspective in his Treatise on Painting. The projection method was based not on individual object images, but on the spatial connection of objects, in which each individual object lost its stable appearance. Perspective image is designed for the effect of presence, therefore it involved drawing from life from a fixed point of view. Perspective involves the transmission of light and shade and tonal-color relationships.

Quattrocento architecture

The essence and patterns of architecture are determined for theorists of the 15th century. her service to man. Therefore, the idea drawn from Vitruvius about the similarity of a building to a person becomes popular. The shapes of the building were likened to the proportions of the human body. Architectural theorists also saw the connection between architecture and the harmony of the universe. In 1441, a treatise by Vitruvius was found, the study of which contributed to the assimilation of the principles of the order system. Architects tried to build a model of an ideal temple. According to Alberti, in plan it should be similar to a circle or a polyhedron inscribed in it.

Baptistery (Greek baptisterion - font) - baptismal chamber, room for baptism. In the early Middle Ages, due to the need for mass baptisms, baptisteries were built separately from the church. Most often, baptisteries were built round or faceted and covered with a dome.
A logical result of the development of the theory of perspective was the development of laws of proportions - the spatial relationships of individual elements of a building (the height of the column and the width of the arch, the average diameter of the column and its height).
A fascination with antiquity was characteristic of the Quattrocento masters, but each creator created and realized own ideal antiquity.

In the 15th century competitions began to be held for granting the right to any art project. Thus, in the competition of 1401 for the manufacture of the northern bronze doors of the baptistery, both famous masters and twenty-year-old Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi took part. The theme of the image was "The Sacrifice of Abraham" in the form of a relief. Ghiberti won. In the 1418 competition for the construction of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Brunelleschi (1377-1446), an architect, mathematician and engineer, won. The dome was supposed to crown the cathedral, built at the beginning of the 13th century. and expanded in the 14th century. The difficulty was that the dome could not be erected using the then known techniques. Brunelleschi derived his method from the techniques of ancient Roman stone masonry, but changed the shape of the domed structure. The slightly pointed huge (diameter - 42 m) dome consisted of two shells, the main frame - of 8 main ribs and 16 additional ones, interconnected by horizontal rings that absorb thrust.

The architectural embodiment of the essence of the Renaissance was the loggia created by Brunelleschi on the façade of the Orphanage in Florence. Returning to the foundations of ancient Roman architecture, relying on the principles of the Proto-Renaissance and national tradition Italian architecture, Brunelleschi distinguished himself as a reformer by creating the portico of the Orphanage, a charitable institution. The shape of the façade was new. The portico was wider than the Orphanage itself, which was adjoined to the right and left by another span. This created the impression of wide extension, which was expressed in the spaciousness of the arched bays of the arcades and was emphasized by the relative low height of the second floor. The building lacked Gothic forms; instead of oriented the building in height or depth, Brunelleschi borrowed from antiquity the harmonious balance of masses and volumes.

Flattened relief (Italian relievo schiacciatto) is a type of bas-relief in which the image rises above the background to the least extent and the spatial plans are brought closer to the limit.

Brunelleschi is credited with being the first practical implementation of direct perspective. Even in antiquity, geometers based optics on the assumption that the eye is connected to the observed object by optical rays. Brunelleschi's discovery was that he intersected this optical pyramid with an image plane and obtained an exact projection of the object on the plane. Using the doors of the Florence Cathedral as a natural frame, Brunelleschi placed in front of them a projection of the baptistery (the baptismal building located in front of the cathedral), and this projection at a certain distance coincided with the silhouette of the building.

Not all of Brunelleschi's projects were carried out in accordance with his plans.
Brunelleschi's student Michelozzo di Bartolommeo created the Palazzo Medici - three-story, square in plan, with a square courtyard in the center.

Leon Batista Alberti (1404-1472) - a diversely educated humanist philosopher who worked in Florence, Ferrara, and Rimini. Alberti was the first architect, focusing primarily on the ancient Roman heritage, who deeply understood the meaning of Roman architecture. Contemporaries were confused by the unusual nature of Alberti's church buildings; To Pope Pius I, the Church of San Francesco in Rimini seemed like a pagan temple; the Church of San Sebastiano in Mantua resembled both a church and a mosque. Alberti created the Palazzo Ruccellai in Florence with smooth walls devoid of rustication, elegant framing of portals and windows, and orderly decoration of the facade. In the design of the Mantuan church of Sant'Andrea, Alberti combined the traditional basilica form of the temple with a domed roof. The building is characterized by the majesty of the façade arches and the grandeur of the interior space. A wide entablature crossed the wall horizontally. The portico and its vault, in which the ribs were replaced by a flat dome, were of decisive importance.
Most other architects successfully combined the role of designers with the functions of superintendents.

Painting of the 15th century.
Painting is predominantly monumental painting, i.e. fresco. A special feature of the fresco is the need to use a limited amount of dyes that combine with lime. Among the easel types of painting, the altar is beginning to play an increasingly important role. This is not a Gothic altar with many doors, but a single composition - an altar picture, the so-called. pala. Under the altar painting are several small, horizontally elongated paintings, forming a narrow predella strip. In the first half of the century, an independent secular portrait appeared. One of the first artists of the era was Masaccio (real name - Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Cassai) (1401-1428). Main works: “Madonna and Child and Angels”, “Crucifixion”, “Adoration of the Magi”, “Trinity”.

In the fresco of the Brancacci Chapel in the church Santa Maria del Carmine “The Miracle of the Stater” by Masaccio connects three episodes: Christ, from whom the tax collector asks for money; Christ commanding Peter to catch a fish in order to take out a coin from it; Peter gives the money. Masaccio makes the second episode central because he needed to show that events depend on the impelling will of Christ.
Fra Beato Angelico (1395-1455). In 1418 he took monastic vows at the Dominican monastery in Fiesole, henceforth called Fra (brother) Giovanni. In 1438 he moved to the monastery of San Marco in Florence, where he designed the main altar image and the monks' cells. Fra Angelico's most famous work was the fresco of the Annunciation.

Filippo Lippi (c. 1406-1469) was left without parents at an early age; in 1421 he took monastic vows at the monastery of Santa Maria del Carmine. Filippo painted altarpieces for the Florentine churches of San Spirito, San Lorenzo, Sant'Ambrogio, small altar paintings in the form of tondo, which was customary to give for a wedding or in connection with the birth of a child. He was patronized by the Medici. Piero della Francesca (1420-1492) was born in San Sepolcro and all his life, despite constant absences, returned to work in his hometown. In 1452-1458. Piero della Francesca painted the main chapel of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo with frescoes on the history of the life-giving cross.
Andrea della Verrocchio (1435-1489) was one of the favorites of the Medici, on whose behalf he carried out work in the Church of San Lorenzo.

Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) in Florence worked for merchants and bankers close to the Medici house. In his compositions he often depicted his fellow citizens as characters in the sacred history.
Perugino (1450-1523). Real name - Pietro Vannucci, was born near Perugia, hence his nickname Perugino. In Rome in 1481, together with others, he painted the Florence Chapel with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, and created altar compositions commissioned by churches and monasteries in Northern Italy.
Bernardino di Betto, nicknamed Pinturicchio because vertically challenged(1454-1513), created frescoes, miniatures on literary subjects. Pinturicchio's most famous work was the stucco decorations and frescoes in the papal rooms in the Vatican.

Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) was the court painter of the Duke of Gonzaga in Mantua, painted paintings, created engravings, and scenery for performances. In 1465-1474. Mantegna designed the city palace of Lodovico Gonzaga and his family.
The last of the great masters of the Quattrocento is Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), close to the Florentine Neoplatonists in his aspiration to other world, the desire to go beyond natural forms and history. Botticelli's early works are distinguished by soft lyricism. He paints portraits full inner life. This is Giuliano Medici, whose face is marked with sadness. In “Portrait of Cimonetta Vespucci” Botticelli depicts a standing young woman in profile, whose face expresses self-esteem. In the 90s he created a portrait of Lorenzo Lorenziano, a scientist who committed suicide in 1504 in a fit of madness. The artist depicts an almost sculpturally tangible image.

“Spring” marked the beginning of the highest flowering of Botticelli’s activity, his fame reached Rome: in the middle of a flowering meadow stands Venus, the goddess of love, represented in the form of an elegant dressed girl. Cupid hovers above Venus and, blindfolded, shoots a burning arrow into space. To the right of Venus, the Three Graces lead a round dance. Near the dancing graces stands the messenger of the gods, Mercury, raising his staff - the caduceus. On the right side of the picture, the wind god Zephyr flies from the depths of the thicket, embodying the elemental principle in nature. Botticelli wrote “The Birth of Venus” in 1482-1483. commissioned by Lorenzo Medici. The sea approaches the very edge of the picture, a golden-pink shell floats on its surface, on the curl of which stands a naked Venus. Roses fall at her feet, the winds direct the shell to the shore, where the nymph has prepared a cloak woven with flowers.

It is likely that Botticelli put into the image a subtext taken from Neoplatonism. “The Birth of Venus” is by no means a pagan chant female beauty. It contains the idea of ​​Christianity about the birth of the soul from water during baptism. The naked body of the goddess means purity, nature is represented by its elements: air is Aeolus and Boreas, water is a greenish sea with ornamental curls of waves. This is consistent with the way the head of the Florentine Academy, Marsilio Ficino, interpreted the myth of the birth of Venus as the personification of the soul, which, thanks to the divine principle, is capable of creating beauty. For Botticelli, there was no impassable line between antiquity and Christianity. In their religious paintings the artist introduces ancient images. One of the famous paintings of religious content is “The Glorification of the Madonna,” created in 1483-1485. The Madonna is depicted enthroned, surrounded by angels, with the Christ Child on her lap. The Madonna holds out her pen to write words into the book as she begins a prayer in her honor. After the “Magnificat”, Botticelli creates a series of works in which spiritualism is increasingly intensified, Gothic echoes are manifested in the absence of space, in the exaltation of images.

Renaissance sculpture embodied the anthropocentrism of the Renaissance. The sculptors of the Italian Renaissance individualized the image not only in terms of physiognomic personification, but also as the spiritual self-awareness of the individual. main feature sculptures of the 15th century - its separation from the wall and niche of the cathedral.
Donatello (real name Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi) (1386-1466) is credited with the invention special type relief, the essence of which lies in the finest gradations of volumes, in which the most advanced figures are sculpted in high relief, the most distant ones protrude slightly from the background. At the same time, the space is constructed in a perspective manner and allows it to accommodate many figures. These are the reliefs depicting the miracles of St. Anthony of the altar of the Church of Sant'Antonio in Padua. Donatello's first flattened relief was the panel "St. George Slaying the Dragon", created around 1420. The bulk of the image is flattened and flattened, limited by a deeply incised contour, often made using the inclined groove technique.

In 1432 in Rome, Donatello met ancient art and comes to his own interpretation of the spirit of antiquity, in which he is attracted by the transmission of emotional excitement and dramatic feelings. Donatello revived the one used in antique sculpture chiasmus - a pose of a figure in which the weight of the body is transferred to one leg, and therefore the rising hip corresponds to the lowered shoulder and vice versa.
In the square in front of the Church of Sant'Antonio in Padua in 1447-1453. Donatello erects the first bronze monument to Gattamelata in modern art.

S. Botticelli. Birth of Venus. Fragment