Dutch painting of the 15th century. Renaissance art in the Netherlands

It is interesting to note that the first shoots of the new art of the Renaissance in the Netherlands are observed in book miniatures, which would seem to be most associated with medieval traditions.

The Dutch Renaissance in painting begins with the "Ghent Altarpiece" by the brothers Hubert (died 1426) and Jan (c. 1390-1441) van Eyck, completed by Jan van Eyck in 1432. The Ghent Altarpiece (Ghent, Church of St. Bavo) is a two-tiered folding room, on 12 boards of which (when opened) 12 scenes are presented. At the top is Christ enthroned with Mary and John in attendance, angels singing and playing music, and Adam and Eve; below on five boards is the scene of “Adoration of the Lamb.” It contains other features that are no less important for art: the Dutch masters seem to be looking at the world for the first time, which they convey with extraordinary care and detail; Every blade of grass, every piece of fabric represents for them a high piece of art. The Van Eycks improved their oil technique: oil made it possible to more comprehensively convey the brilliance, depth, and richness of the objective world, which attracted the attention of Dutch artists, and its colorful sonority.

Of the many Madonnas by Jan van Eyck, the most famous is the “Madonna of Chancellor Rollin” (circa 1435), so named because the donor, Chancellor Rollin, is depicted in front of the Madonna worshiping her. Jan van Eyck worked a lot and successfully on portraits, always remaining reliably accurate, creating a deeply individual image, but without losing the general characteristics of a person as part of the universe behind the details (“Man with a Carnation”; “Man in a Turban”, 1433; portrait of the artist’s wife Margarita van Eyck, 1439). Instead of active action, characteristic of portraits of the Italian Renaissance, van Eyck puts forward contemplation as a quality that determines a person’s place in the world, helping to comprehend the beauty of its endless diversity.

The art of the van Eyck brothers, who occupied an exceptional place in contemporary artistic culture, was of great importance for the further development of the Dutch Renaissance. In the 40s of the 15th century. In Dutch art, the pantheistic multicoloredness and harmonic clarity characteristic of Van Eyck are gradually disappearing. But the human soul is revealed deeper in all its secrets.

Dutch art owes a lot to Rogier van der Weyden (1400?-1464) in solving such problems. At the end of the 40s, Rogier van der Weyden traveled to Italy. "The Descent from the Cross" is a typical work of Weiden. The composition is built diagonally. The drawing is rigid, the figures are presented in sharp angles. The clothes either hang limply or are twisted in a whirlwind. Faces are distorted with grief. Everything bears the stamp of cold analytical observation, almost ruthless observation.

In the second half of the 15th century. accounts for the work of a master of exceptional talent, Hugo van der Goes (circa 1435-1482), whose life was spent mainly in Ghent. The central scene of his grandiose in size and monumental in image Portinari altar (named after the customers) is the scene of the adoration of the baby. The artist conveys the emotional shock of the shepherds and angels, whose facial expressions indicate that they seem to predict the true meaning of the event. The mournful and tender appearance of Mary, the almost physically felt emptiness of space around the figure of the baby and the mother bending towards him, further emphasize the mood of the unusualness of what is happening. The painting of Hugo van der Goes had a definite influence on the Florentine Quattrocento. Hus's later works increasingly acquire the features of disharmony, confusion, mental breakdown, tragedy, disunity with the world, being a reflection of the painful state of the artist himself (“The Death of Mary”).

The work of Hans Memling (1433-1494), who became famous for his lyrical images of Madonnas, is inextricably linked with the city of Bruges. Memling's compositions are clear and measured, his images poetic and soft. The sublime coexists with the everyday. One of Memling's most characteristic works is the reliquary of St. Ursula (about 1489)

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), creator of dark mystical visions, in which he turns to both medieval allegorism and living concrete reality. In Bosch, demonology coexists with healthy folk humor, a subtle sense of nature with a cold analysis of human vices and with merciless grotesqueness in the depiction of people (“Ship of Fools”). In one of his most grandiose works, “The Garden of Delights,” Bosch creates a graphic image of the sinful life of people. In the works of late Bosch ("St. Anthony") the theme of loneliness is intensified. The boundary between the 15th and 16th centuries in the art of the Netherlands is much more noticeable than, say, between the Quattrocento and the High Renaissance in Italy, which was an organic, logical consequence of the art of the previous era. Art of the Netherlands of the 16th century. is increasingly abandoning the use of medieval traditions, on which artists of the past century relied heavily.

The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was, undoubtedly, the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, nicknamed Peasant (1525/30-1569). The name of Bruegel is associated with the final formation of landscape in Dutch painting as an independent genre. “Winter Landscape” from the cycle “The Seasons” (another name is “Hunters in the Snow”, 1565) earned particular fame among descendants: subtle insight into nature, lyricism and aching sadness emanate from these dark brown silhouettes of trees, figures of hunters and dogs against the backdrop of white snow and hills stretching into the distance, tiny figures of people on the ice and from a flying bird that seems ominous in this tense, almost palpably ringing silence.

In the early 60s, Bruegel created a number of tragic works that surpassed all Bosch's phantasmagoria in terms of expressive power. In allegorical language, Bruegel expressed the tragedy of modern life in the entire country, in which the excesses of the Spanish oppressors had reached their highest point. He turned to religious subjects, revealing in them the topical events of “Bethlehem Massacre of the Innocents” (1566)

In the Dutch Renaissance there was also an Italianizing movement, the so-called Romanism. Artists of this movement followed (if possible) the traditions of the Roman school and, above all, Raphael. The works of such masters as J. Gossaert, P. Cook van Aalst, J. Scorell, F. Floris and others surprisingly combined the desire for idealization, for Italian plasticity of forms with a purely Dutch love for detail, narrative and naturalism. As it is rightly said (V. Vlasov), only the genius of Rubens was able to overcome the imitativeness of the Dutch novelists - already in the 17th century.

Related information.

The fifteenth century was a turning point in the development of the culture of northern Europe. Its social structure was changing, and under the influence of new progressive forces the medieval world began to collapse. This process, which began first in Italy, captured the countries located north of the Alps - the Netherlands, Germany, and France - in the 15th and 16th centuries. This gave rise to calling the culture of the Trans-Alpine countries the Northern Renaissance.

The formation of Renaissance culture in Germany and Austria and Switzerland, subject to the German emperor, took place in conditions of complex political, social and spiritual contradictions. In the 15th century, Germany was a conglomerate of separate territorial entities, principalities, bishoprics, “imperial” and “free” cities. Their geographical location in Central Europe strengthened the economic and cultural ties of the German states with neighboring countries. The invention of the printing press around 1445 by John Guttenberg contributed to the development of education and the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge. By the middle of the 15th century, humanism, which originated in Italy, gained recognition in university circles in Germany. However, the medieval way of life was still quite strong in the country. The artist in Germany, by his position, remained a craftsman for a long time; he was completely dominated by the laws of the workshop and the will of the customers, who strictly regulated the artist’s work and fettered freedom of search.

The Catholic Church had enormous power in the fragmented country. Its wealth, politics, and the behavior of the clergy caused protest, which was expressed in the spread of religious movements calling for a return to the “sincere faith of the early Christians.” The humanism spreading in Germany directed its main efforts against the omnipotence of the Church. The forces that led to the Reformation (1517-1555) at the beginning of the 16th century accumulated in the country.

Since the 14th century, new forms of carved sculpture and easel painting, the so-called altars, began to spread in Western Europe. They were monumental folds that were placed in the apse of the church behind the altar. Images on a carved or painted folding altar were associated with the liturgy and made it possible to more directly illustrate the service, and for pilgrims to venerate sacred images.

The altars were three-part (triptychs) and multi-part (polyptychs). In the central part of the folding was placed the main image - the image of Christ or the Mother of God, on the movable side doors - Gospel scenes or images of saints. On weekdays, such an altar was closed, so the images were also placed on the outside of the doors. In Germany, where there were many forests, altars were originally mainly carved, with the figures brightly painted. Later, picturesque foldings appeared.

In subsequent centuries, as a result of religious wars, the secularization of church properties, and after the closure of monasteries, the altars were sold, often separately. Some of their parts ended up in various collections, museum and private. It is precisely these scattered parts of the altars that are mainly represented in the Museum’s collection by the art of the 15th century, which was formed in the domains of the German emperors.

Most of the 15th century works that have come down to us are anonymous. The name of the owner of the painting workshop appeared in the contract concluded with her. The artist himself, for various reasons, including pious ones, did not put his signature. The large altar was created through the efforts of the entire workshop, with each painter having his own area of ​​work: the main master created the composition, often painting the faces of the main characters. There were specialists in individual parts of the image, who masterfully depicted costumes, objects and decorations, and details of the landscape. At the same time, the handwriting of each workshop was distinguished by its unity and originality. This allows researchers, based on stylistic analysis and other research techniques, to combine the works that came out from there. A range of similar works is united under a conventional name: by the name or storage location of the most significant work for a given master, or by a specific painting technique.

Longer, more powerful and more significant in its consequences was the rise of artistic life in the Netherlands that began in the 15th century. Its impact was felt not only by German and French contemporaries, its breath was felt in the citadel of the Renaissance - in Italy. The “Lowlands” (as the name of the country is translated) on the coast of the North Sea in the lower reaches of the Scheldt, Meuse, and Rhine (the territory of modern Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and partly northeastern France) were an area of ​​Europe where cities grew intensively, crafts and trade developed, manufacturing was born. The country achieved its greatest success at the beginning of the 16th century, when trade routes, after the discovery of America, moved to the north of Europe.

However, political life in the Netherlands during this period was unusually tense. In 1516, the country became part of the Habsburg Empire, which held the Spanish throne. Progressive changes, the growth of self-awareness of the human person, the spread of humanism came into conflict with foreign domination, the dominance of Catholicism, in which the Spaniards saw the support of their power. Foreign oppression led to disasters for the masses. The anti-feudal struggle that began in the Netherlands acquired the character of Protestant movements, and in the 60s of the 16th century it developed into an open armed struggle. This made the artistic process in the Netherlands of the 16th century complex and diverse; pan-European trends acquired a pronounced national coloring here.

Dutch art is represented in the museum mainly by works of the 16th century.

Since the 15th century, painting has been the leading form of Dutch art. The traditions of the great masters of this century remained quite strong at the beginning of the next century. Fidelity to their precepts was cultivated by painters grouped around the patriarchal city of Bruges. More diverse was the artistic life of Antwerp, a large trade and craft center, where people of different nationalities and artistic tastes gathered, where the ideas of humanism spread, and book printing developed. Here the search was more intense, and the inertia of the degenerate tradition was felt more acutely. The third artistic center was Brussels - the residence of the governor.

In addition to religious compositions, in the 16th century portraits played a significant role in Dutch art; developed landscape backgrounds developed into an independent pictorial genre - landscape.

In Dutch art of the 16th century, two trends stand out. One adheres to national traditions, the second is largely oriented towards contemporary Italian art. It received the name of Romanism (from the Latin Roma - Rome).

In the second half of the 16th century, when the Netherlands became the scene of turbulent events associated with the war of liberation against Spanish oppression, Italianizing trends receded into the background. Art that addressed the national theme and image of the people became more vital. At this time, new painting genres were formed - landscape, still life, everyday life.

VI - Netherlands 15th century

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

4 hours of classroom work and 8 hours of independent work

Lecture84. Painting in GermanyXV - XVI centuries.

4 hours of lecture work and 4 hours of independent work

Lectures

1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke.

2. Painting in Germany in the second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner.

3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher.

4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer.

5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. The phenomenon of reformation.

1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke

General characteristics of Renaissance art in Germany in the 15th century. In German painting of the 15th century, three stages can be distinguished: the first - from the beginning of the century to the 1430s, the second - until the 1470s. and the third - almost until the end of the century. German masters created works in the form of church altars.

During the period 1400-1430s. German altars open up to the audience a beautiful Mountain world, beckoning people to it like some extremely entertaining fairy tale. This can be confirmed by the painting “Garden of Eden”, created by an anonymous Upper Rhine master around

1410-1420s

It is believed that the door of the altar of St. Thomas with the scene “Adoration of the Magi of the Infant Christ” was made by Master Franke from Hamburg, who was active in the first third of the 15th century. The fabulousness of the gospel event.

2. Painting in Germany, second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner

At the stage of the 1430-1470s. works of fine art in Germany are filled with plastically voluminous human figures immersed in an artistically designed space. Visualizations

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

various facets of the picture characters' condolences are exposed to the earthly sufferings of Christ, most often presented as a person equal to other people, experiencing many torments of earthly existence. Expressive realism of the sensually revealed events of Holy Scripture, taking into account the audience’s intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as their own. During these years, the artists Hans Mulcher and Konrad Witz worked very interestingly in the German cities of Basel and Ulm.

A citizen of the city of Ulm, Hans Multscher is known as a painter and sculptor. The master's sculptural works include the decoration of the front windows of the Ulm Town Hall (1427) and the plastic design of the western facade of the Ulm Cathedral (1430-1432). Dutch influence, which allows us to draw a conclusion about the artist’s stay and training in Tours. Of Mulcher's paintings, two altars survive in fragments. The master’s most significant work is the “Wurzach Altar” (1433-1437), from which eight doors have survived depicting the life of Mary on the outside and the Passion of Christ on the inside. From the “Štercin Altar of the Virgin Mary” (1456-1458) only a few side doors and individual carved wooden figures have survived to this day.

The painting “Christ before Pilate” is a fragment of the interior of the “Wurzach Altar”. Different attitudes of the characters to the depicted action. Another panel of the “Wurzach Altar” is the painting “The Resurrection of Christ”.

A native of Swabia and a citizen of the city of Basel, Konrad Witz is known as the author of twenty altar panels. All of them demonstrate the influence on the artist of the work of such Dutch masters as Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden. Witz's works are characterized by the desire to achieve, through light and shadow modeling, a realistically detailed rendering of the flesh of things and spatial clarity.

In 1445-1446. Konrad Witz, while in Geneva, commissioned Cardinal François de Mies to perform “The Altarpiece of St. Peter’s Basilica.” Painting of the reverse side of the altar “Wonderful Catch”.

The artistic space of the work, combining two gospel stories, “A Wonderful Catch” and “Walking on the Waters,” visualizes the reasons that do not allow one to achieve a religious connection with the Almighty. Human sinfulness, loss of faith in the Lord.

IN first half of the 15th century The works of German painters of the city of Cologne were distinguished by their originality, especially altar paintings,

created by Stefan Lochner. Research has shown that in his original work the artist relied on the achievements of the French-Flemish miniature of the Limburg brothers with its refinement and exquisite colorism, as well as the local Cologne tradition represented by the Master of St. Veronica. Lochner especially often painted paintings depicting the Mother of God with the Child Christ. In this regard, the most famous painting by Stefan Lochner is “Mary in Pink”

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

garden" (c. 1448). The originality of the composition of the painting is in the form of a ring-shaped curved line.

3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher

During the period 1460-1490s. The process of creating works of fine art in Germany was influenced by the Italian Trecento Renaissance (primarily the works of Simone Martini) and the work of the Dutch masters Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes. The problem of visualizing the range of feelings.

One of the leading German painters of the second half of the 15th century. was Martin Schongauer. The artist was initially destined for a career as a priest. Schongauer studied painting with Caspar Isenmann in Colmar. The drawing in the manner of Rogier van der Weyden confirms the fact that Schongauer was in Burgundy.

The work “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1475-1480). A visual expression of the spiritual sincerity of the heroes of the pictorial action. In the event depicted by Schongauer, the main attention is paid to how sincere all the heroes are in their actions and thoughts.

The work of Michael Pacher. The artist studied in Pustertal and also made an educational trip to Northern Italy, which is clearly evidenced by the Italianized plastic language of his works.

Among the best paintings of Michael Pacher is the “Altar of the Church Fathers” (1477-1481). The painting “The Prayer of St. Wolfgang” is the upper part of the right outer wing of the “Altar of the Church Fathers”.

The artistic space of the work demonstrates that it was the sincerity and sincerity of the prayer of the Bishop of Regensburg that contributed to Wolfgang’s divine inclusion in the rank of Saints and the ascent of his soul to the heights of the Heavenly World.

4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer

The fine arts of Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries are the highest stage of the German Renaissance, the best periods of creativity of Albrecht Dürer and Niethart Gothardt (Matthias Grunewald), Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger. Often a separate and even naturalistically resolved single motive is raised to the level of the idea of ​​the general and universal. In artistic creations, rational and mystical principles coexist.

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Matthias Grunewald is one of the largest painters of the German “enthusiastic” Renaissance, whose work is connected with the regions of Germany located along the banks of the Main and the middle Rhine. It is known that the artist alternately worked in Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg, Mainz, Frankfurt, Halle, and Isenheim.

The task is to visualize the features of simple-minded sympathy, empathy, identification, acceptance of the torment of the suffering Christ as one’s own pain. The artist’s sharing of the views of Thomas a à Kempis. In Grunewald's time, Thomas a à Kempis's book On the Imitation of Christ was so popular that it was second only to the Bible in the number of editions.

Matthias Grunewald's most significant work was the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), created for the Church of St. Anthony in Isenheim.

The altar consists of a shrine with a sculpture and three pairs of doors - two movable and one fixed. Various transformations with the altar doors entail the movement of scenes of the incarnation and sacrifice of the Savior.

IN When closed, the central part of the altar represents the scene of the Crucifixion of Christ. At the end there is a picturesque depiction of the “Entombment”, and on the side doors there are “Saint Anthony” and “Saint Sebastian”.

IN In general, the religious events depicted on the altar doors visualize the idea of ​​the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the chosen leaders of the Christian Church for the atonement of human sins, visually express the Catholic prayer “Agnus Dei” - “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Expressive realism of the events of Holy Scripture, taking into account the audience's intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as their own. The edges of condolences. Traditions of Dutch masters. Means of conveying realistically detailed flesh of things

And spatial clarity.

The artistic space of the painting “The Crucifixion of Christ” represents Jesus Christ nailed to the cross with several others standing by. The Savior is huge and horribly disfigured. The depicted body of Christ testifies to the savage torment to which the Messiah was subjected. It is completely covered with hundreds of terrible wounds. Jesus was nailed to the cross with giant nails that literally broke His hands and feet. The head is disfigured by the sharp thorns of a crown of thorns.

To the left of the cross of Calvary are depicted John the Evangelist, supporting the Madonna, weakened from long prayer, and the sinner Mary Magdalene, who, kneeling at the foot of the cross, turns to the Savior in passionate prayer.

To the right of the figure of Christ is John the Baptist and the Lamb of God. The presence of John the Baptist in the “Crucifixion” scene gives the theme of Golgotha ​​an additional dimension, recalling the redemption for which Christ’s sacrifice was made. The gospel event is presented with such expressive power that it cannot leave anyone indifferent.

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

It is not for nothing that next to the figure of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus Christ there is an inscription: “He must increase, I must decrease.”

With the doors of the Isenheim Altar open, the central panel of the work represents the scene of the Glorification of Mary, to the left of which is the Annunciation, and to the right is the Resurrection of Christ.

Compositionally and coloristically, the painting “Glorification of Mary” is divided into two parts, each of which manifests its own special event in the glory of the Madonna.

The picturesque work “The Resurrection of Christ”, with the doors of the “Isenheim Altar” open, located next to the painting “Glorification of Mary”, represents the Savior in the guise of a knight ascended above the earth in the radiance of mystical light. Knight Christ, having risen from the dead, by the very fact of the Resurrection won an all-out victory over the armed warriors. The symbolism of the lid of the sarcophagus, where the body of the Savior was imprisoned. The meaning of the act of rolling away the stone of Christ's tomb. The slab of the tomb from which the Lord arose as a tablet containing the record of the Old Testament Law. The personification of victory over adherents of the Old Testament principles symbolizes the triumph of the Gospel Law.

The construction of the “Isenheim Altarpiece” facilitates not only the opening, but also the additional movement of the picturesque doors, which reveals the sculptural part of the work with statues of St. Augustine, St. Anthony and St. Jerome, as well as the predella with sculpted half-figures of Christ and the twelve apostles. On the back of the inner doors, on the one hand, the scene “Conversation of St. Anthony with St. Paul the Hermit” is depicted, and on the other, “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”

The artistic space of the painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”

The work of Lucas Cranach the Elder - court painter of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as a wonderful graphic artist. Cranach is considered the creator and largest representative of the Saxon art school. Simultaneously with his creative activity, the master performed important municipal work in Wittenberg: he owned a tavern, a pharmacy, a printing house, and a library. Cranach was even a member of the city council, and in the period from 1537 to 1544. was elected burgomaster of Wittenberg three times.

Despite the fact that many of Lucas Cranach the Elder's significant works were lost during the Reformation and the fire that devastated Wittenberg in 1760, the works that have survived to this day reflect the diversity of the master's talent. He painted excellent portraits and also created paintings on religious and mythological subjects. There are numerous famous nudes by Cranach - Venus, Eve, Lucretia, Salome, Judith. When creating his works, the master used themes from contemporary humanistic sources.

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The artistic space of Lucas Cranach's painting "The Punishment of Cupid". The goddess of love is called upon with her naked beauty to wash the human soul from the evil of sinful filth, to rid human hearts of callousness and fossilization. The task is to arouse crystal clear love energy, thereby snatching the human soul from the sticky mud of everyday profaneness. Features of the spiral composition of the work.

The work "Martin Luther", performed in 1529, reveals Lucas Cranach the Elder as an excellent portrait painter.

The great German reformer of the Catholic Church is depicted communicating with God in “righteous everyday life.”

The work of Albrecht Durer, the great German painter, graphic artist and engraver of the late 15th – first third of the 16th centuries. Dürer's work is characterized by:

1. Fluctuation of professional interest from generalized philosophical images to strictly naturalistic visual representations;

2. The scientific basis of the activity, a combination of practical skills with deep and precise knowledge (Dürer is the author of the theoretical treatises “Guide to Measuring with Compass and Ruler” and “Four Books on Human Proportions”);

3. The discovery of new possibilities for creating graphic and pictorial works (engraving, which before him was understood as a black drawing on a white background, Dürer turned into a special type of art, the works of which, along with black and white colors, are characterized by a huge number of intermediate shades);

4. The discovery of new artistic genres, themes and subjects (Dürer was the first in Germany to create a work of landscape genre (1494), the first in German art to depict a naked woman (1493), the first to present himself naked in a self-portrait (1498), etc.);

5. Prophetic pathos of artistic creations.

Two years before his death, Albrecht Dürer created his famous pictorial diptych “The Four Apostles” (1526), ​​which he treasured very much.

The artistic space of the left picture of the diptych represents the apostles John and Peter, and the right – the apostles Paul and Mark.

The depicted apostles personify human temperaments. Evangelist John, presented as young and calm, visualizes a sanguine temperament. Saint Peter, depicted as old and tired, symbolizes a phlegmatic temperament. Evangelist Mark, shown in impetuous movement with sparkling eyes, personifies the choleric temperament. St. Paul, shown gloomy and wary, signifies a melancholic temperament.

The work is like a most skillful analytical mirror of human souls. Visual representation of the full spectrum of temperaments.

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

On the other hand, the work is a visual evidence of the truth of the appearance of the prophets, spreading the Christian faith on behalf of the Lord, and not the Devil. Portrait characteristics of the apostles.

Both paintings at the bottom of the image contain specially selected texts from the New Testament, carefully executed on behalf of Dürer by the calligrapher Neiderfer.

The diptych "Adam and Eve", created by Dürer in 1507, like the work "The Four Apostles", consists of two relatively independent works of painting. The artistic space of the right picture represents Eve standing near the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and receiving a red pouring apple from the tempting serpent. The artistic space of the left painting represents Adam with a fruiting branch of an apple tree in his hand.

A reminder to people of the sinfulness of every person, a warning about the fatal consequences of original sin.

The copper engraving “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513) is one of Albrecht Dürer’s best graphic works. The artistic space of the work represents a mounted knight in heavy armor, whose path is being tried to be blocked by Death and the Devil.

The plot of the engraving is correlated with the treatise of Erasmus of Rotterdam “Manual of the Christian Warrior” (1504) - a moral and ethical teaching in which the author appeals to all the knights of Christ with an appeal not to be afraid of difficulties if the road is blocked by terrible, deadly demons. A demonstration of the power of the soul, tirelessly striving for the Spirit of God, which no one and nothing in the world can prevent, not even Death and the Devil.

An extremely original phenomenon of the German Renaissance at the beginning of the 16th century. became the activity of the artists of the “Danube School” (German: Donauschule), who discovered the genre of romantically fantastic landscape with their work. In the paintings of the “Danubians” the idea of ​​the need to unite human life with the life of nature, its natural rhythm of existence and a panentheistic organic connection with God was visualized.

The leading master of the “Danube School” was Albrecht Altdorfer. Research has shown that the development of the artist’s creative method was influenced by the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Albrecht Durer.

A representative work of the initial stage of Altdorfer’s work was the painting “Prayer for the Cup,” executed by the master in the early 1510s. The artistic space of the work, sensually revealing the gospel plot, represents nature as a kind of sensitive living organism that actively reacts to events occurring in the human world.

Around the beginning of the 1520s. Significant changes occurred in Altdorfer's artistic activity. Central theme

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The master’s creativity began to visualize the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God. The painting “Landscape with a Bridge” (1520s) is indicative of this stage of the artist’s activity. The central theme is the visualization of the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God.

The pinnacle of Altdorfer’s art was the painting “The Battle of Alexander the Great,” created by the master in 1529 by order of Duke William of Bavaria.

The artistic space of the work represents a panorama of the Universe. The divine elements of solar fire, heavenly air, ocean water and rocky earth are depicted as living according to the single law of the Universe, constantly and quite rigidly in contact with each other. However, this is not a destructive battle of the elements among themselves, but the principle of their natural interaction. The principle of natural interaction of elements living according to a single law of the Universe.

5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. Phenomenon of the Reformation

The history of the Renaissance in Germany ended suddenly. By 1530-1540 in fact everything was over. The Reformation played a disastrous role here. Some Protestant movements directly came out with iconoclastic slogans and determination to destroy monuments of art as handmaidens of the ideas of Catholicism. In those German lands where religious primacy passed to Protestantism, they soon abandoned the picturesque design of churches altogether, which is why most artists lost the basis of their existence. Only by the middle of the 16th century. in Germany there has been some revival of artistic activity, and even then in areas that have remained faithful to Catholicism. Here, as in the Netherlands, Romanism develops.

In the second half of the 16th century, German fine art actively joined the general mannerist flow of Western European painting. However, now the examples of German art were shaped not by local masters, but by Dutch and Flemish artists invited to work in the country.

The work of Hans Holbein the Younger - German painter and graphic artist. Like his brother Ambrosius, Hans Holbein began his education in his father's workshop.

In the initial period of his creativity, the master was influenced by the works of Matthias Grunewald, whom he personally met in Isenheim in 1517. Equally, Italian influence is felt in Holbein’s initial works, despite the fact that there is no evidence of the artist visiting Italy. The work “The Crucifixion” dates back to the initial period of Hans Holbein’s work.

TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.

Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Many of Holbein's works, created in Germany, fell victim to reformist "iconoclasm" in February 1529. This was the main reason that it was in that year that the master finally settled in England. In England, Holbein worked mainly as a portrait painter at the London court, gradually gaining a reputation as the most important portrait painter in Northern Europe.

Beginning in 1536, the artist entered the service of King Henry VIII, for whom he made many trips to the continent in order to create portraits of princesses considered as possible suitable parties.

Portraits from the English period mainly depict members of the royal family and members of the high aristocracy.

The work “Henry VIII” (c. 1540s) belongs to the best portrait creations of the master. In addition to portraits, the master completed many wall paintings, as well as sketches of costumes and utensils. Holbein's true masterpiece was his woodcut "Dance of Death", created in 1538.