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Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) is the most powerful artistic personality that the earth has ever carried. Never, neither before nor after him, has any artist exerted such a predominant and lasting influence on his contemporaries and posterity; and although he, as a model, turned out to be fatal for the next generation, for whom the language of his forms was not, as for himself, an internal necessity, nevertheless, thanks to this, his own greatness comes to the fore all the more victoriously. His poetic works, which have no place here, allow us to penetrate deeply into the struggle of his passionate, demanding love, lonely soul with himself, with his God and with the ideals of his art.

As an architect, Michelangelo became the founder of all the grandiose, unique quirks of the Baroque style. As a sculptor and painter, during the Renaissance he was such an exceptional depicter of man as no one else, but ordinary people whom he took for his paintings and statues, even with their inherent properties, imperceptibly in his hands turned into supermen and demigods. Powerful forms of the body and powerful movements, externally caused by the bold opposition of lines, and internally embraced by almost worldly or even entirely worldly aspirations, stemmed from his most intimate experiences. After Phidias, no artist was able to achieve the sublime as much as Michelangelo.

As an aspiring painter, Michelangelo, in the thirteenth year of his life, entered the apprenticeship of Domenico Ghirlandaio, as an aspiring sculptor a year later, and not earlier than 1488 (as Frey showed) - to a certain Bertoldo, then caretaker of the Medicean collection of antiquities at San Marco, a student Donatello, late in his life. Further development young Buonarroti as a painter was performed before frescoes by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, and in the sculptor - on the mentioned antiques of the Medici Garden. From that time on, he wanted to be looked at exclusively as a sculptor. But fate still led him to painting again. His most significant sculptural enterprises have reached us only partially completed, while in painting, imbued with his plastic spirit, he left the greatest works united by a common connection. He developed into an architect, although in distant dependence on Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo, but essentially independently, thanks to the tasks that presented themselves to him.

His earliest sculptures show the claws of a lion. The marble flat relief “Madonna of the Stairs” in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence recalls the still later style of Donatello’s school, but with powerful forms main group and the children playing on the front stairs are abruptly removed from this school. Higher marble relief"Battle of the Centaurs" from the same collection, depicting a fierce battle between the strong and slim people and centaurs, whose bodies and movements are reproduced with a perfect understanding of the matter, reveals the direct influence of the reliefs of ancient sarcophagi.

Rice. 6. Painting Madonna on the stairs

In 1494, Michelangelo lived in Bologna and here he painted an angel with a candelabra on the sarcophagus of St. Dominic in San Domenico, then the figure of Bishop Petronius, as well as the recently re-exhibited group of the half-naked horseman Proculus. This group, more clearly than previous works, reveals the bold language of forms characteristic of the young master, still influenced by the Bolognese works of Jacopo della Querci. That Proculus is a work of Michelangelo, Justi also insists on this, contrary to Frey. Makovsky showed that the model for the angel was preserved in the Louvre ancient goddess victory. Returning to Florence, he executed in marble young John and sleeping Cupid, which was sold at the same time for antiques. It is still difficult to recognize the former together with Bode and Carl Justi in the “Giovannino” of the Berlin Museum, and the latter together with Conrad Lange and Fabrizi in one piece of the Turin collection. Quite reliable, however, remains the naked marble Bacchus by Michelangelo in National Museum in Florence, the first work he performed in 1496 in Rome. The ancient and the modern, characteristic of the master, are inseparably united in this swaying figure, whose naked body is conveyed with such vital warmth.

In the marble group of the suffering Mother of God with the deceased Savior in her bosom, distinguished by such inner grandeur and now decorating the Church of St. Peter, Michelangelo embraced with his personal view of nature and the life of his heart everything that he owed to the school of Donatello in Florence, the works of Querci in Bologna and ancient sculpture in Florence and Rome.

This noble creation is still slightly surrounded by the severity of the 15th century, but is already completely imbued with the aspirations characteristic of Michelangelo. Returning to Florence a second time, the master in 1501 received an order from the city to carve a statue of young David from a colossal marble block left by one of his predecessors in the form of a fragment. This naked colossus of a youth, aiming with a sling, guarded the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio from 1504 to 1873, and now stands imprisoned in the rotunda of the academy. The figure of the brave youth is executed with an amazing sense of nature, all individual parts, such as arms and legs, are executed with extreme care, and the magnificent head is animated by an angry expression. The restraint of movements is only partly explained by the narrowness of this block; Michelangelo managed to extract strong, strong, true to life and original forms.

After these majestic and austere works, the beautiful marble group of the Madonna with a naked boy standing between her knees in the Church of the Virgin Mary in Bruges and the graceful round relief with the Madonna and two boys in the National Museum in Florence show a calmly balanced and full of beauty style XVI century V plastic creativity Michelangelo.

But then the first big painting task fell to his lot. In 1504, his hometown gave him the execution battle painting from Florentine history on the wall of the city council chamber, located opposite the begun painting by Leonardo. Michelangelo chose an unexpected attack on bathing soldiers at the Battle of Cascina. He had no intention of feigning the confusion of battle. He clearly sought to represent in the noblest images every person, every group and to convey the variety, naturalness and excitement of movements. All these strong people animated by only one feeling of fear of approaching danger, one desire to escape. Michelangelo's work on cardboard was interrupted in 1505 by his call to Rome, but even in its unfinished form it became a school for the whole world. The best idea of the individual groups of this vanished work is given to us by copper engravings by Mark Antony and Agostino Veneziano.

The charming relief of the Madonna in the Academy of Arts in London and the round painting in the Uffizi, this, perhaps, the only handmade easel painting by Michelangelo, already suggests the presence of cardboard with bathing soldiers. The Madonna sits on her knees in front of Joseph and stretches her arms back to receive the baby from him over her right shoulder, and her strong members are shown by positioning them in opposite directions; the same should be noted regarding the unfinished marble statue Apostle Matthew of the Florentine Academy, depicted in a bold, sharp turn. The victory of a line over a stationary mass means in in this case the victory of the spirit over the body, and already here begins Michelangelo’s style in conveying movement, which captivated the whole world.

, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Titian - contributed to world art invaluable contribution. Among these artists it is Michelangelo created titanic, heroic, courageous images both in form and content, in inner spiritual strength.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

“Michelangelo’s merit lies in how much passion and impulse, how much storm, pain and strength he put into his works. He gave art unprecedented dynamism and learned to depict what is actually impossible to depict - combustion human soul, and in general everything that is invisible and intangible.”

Priest Georgy Chistyakov. engulfed in fire

It was no coincidence that I called my presentation dedicated to the work of Michelangelo “Titan”. When we mention the name Leonardo da Vinci, we first of all remember his intellectual abilities. Raphael's name is associated with harmony. Michelangelo Buonarroti amazes, first of all, with the power of his creations. The beauty and strength of man delighted the artist and aroused the desire to embody this beauty and power in images, both sculptural and pictorial.

Beauty, strength, power, energy

Strength and power are distinguished even by Michelangelo’s female images. Look at his Madonnas, the Sibyls from the Sistine Chapel, the Morning and Night figures from the Medici Chapel. Compare them with female images Leonardo and Raphael. What can we say about male images! These are titans! Titans are not only external. The artist was able to express in these creations the strength of spirit, energy that can change the world. Michelangelo lived a very long life, having outlived his great compatriots Leonardo and Raphael, several popes with whom relations did not always work out. He was often forced to obey the Pope and do things that were not what his soul required. The world was changing around him, the Baroque era was approaching. And in Michelangelo’s work features appear that are not characteristic of classical art. The storm that raged in the soul of this titan finds expression in his titanic images.

In my presentation I focused on figurative series. It will help the teacher illustrate the story of Michelangelo. For those who would like to learn more about the life and work of this titan, I recommend a list of books.

Argan J.K. History of Italian art. – M.: OJSC Publishing House “Raduga”, 2000
Beckett V. History of painting. – M.: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2003
Vasari D. Lives of famous painters, sculptors and architects.– K.: Art, 1970
Great artists. Volume 38. Michelangelo. – M.: Publishing house “Direct-Media”, 2010
Whipper B.R. Italian Renaissance 13th – 16th centuries. – M.: Art, 1977
Volkova Paola Dmitrievna. Bridge over the Abyss/Paola Volkova.– M.: Zebra E, 2013
Julian Freeman. History of art.– M.: Publishing house "AST" Publishing house "Astrel", 2003
Emokhonova L.G. World Art. M.: Publishing center "Academy", 1998
Clients A. Michelangelo.– Moscow White City, 2003
Cristofanelli Rolando. Diary of Michelangelo the Furious.– M.: "Rainbow", 1985
Kushnerovskaya G.S. Titanium. (Michelangelo. Composition)– M.: “Young Guard”, 1973
Makhov A. Michelangelo. Fourteen sketches for the fresco “The Last Judgment”.– Moscow “Ladder”, 1995
Michelangelo. Series “World of Masterpieces. 100 world names in art."– M.: Publishing center "Classics", 2002
Poetry of Michelangelo. Translation by A.M. Efros– M.: “Iskusstvo”, 1992
Rolland R. Lives of great people.– M.: Izvestia, 1992
Samin D.K. One Hundred Great Artists. – M.: Veche, 2004
One Hundred Great Sculptors/Auth.-comp. S. A. Mussky.– M.: Veche, 2002
Stone I. Torment and joy.– M.: Pravda, 1991

RENAISSANCE. The period of high renaissance. The Renaissance period made contributions of enormous importance to world artistic culture. It was a period of wars and economic weakening, but despite this, creative creation was the tireless need of the people of that time. Artistic life experienced a rise in drawing, engraving, sculpture and in all its other manifestations. The High Renaissance period represents the apogee of the Renaissance. It was a short period that lasted about 30 years, but in terms of quantity and quality, this period of time was like centuries.

The art of the High Renaissance is a summation of the achievements of the 15th century, but at the same time it is a new qualitative leap both in the theory of art and in its implementation. The extraordinary density of this period can be explained by the fact that the number of historical period working brilliant artists is a kind of record even for the entire history of art. It is enough to name such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo.

It is the latter that today’s story will be about. INTRODUCTION It can be said about many masters that their work constituted an era. These have long been ordinary words, being expressed at the address of Michelangelo, acquire the actual fullness of their meaning. In addition to the fact that creative path Michelangelo was distinguished by his extraordinary chronological length; what is important is that he completely covers two of the most important stages in the development of the Italian Renaissance: the High Renaissance and the Late Renaissance.

Michelangelo's activity turned out to be equally grandiose in scale and fruitful in results in the three main types of plastic arts: sculpture, painting and architecture. Throughout his entire creative career, Michelangelo remained a bright reformer and the founder of the avant-garde art of the Renaissance. All this creates a special mark on world artistic culture, distinguishing Michelangelo even among many other great masters with whom Italy was so rich in the era of the highest flowering of its art. This special position of Michelangelo in the art of his time is perceived with extraordinary palpability in those two main centers of Italy that were the arena of his activity, in Florence and Rome. In each of these cities, in which a huge number of magnificent monuments have formed a kind of integral artistic organism, Michelangelo's main creations give rise to a feeling of indisputable dominance. Michelangelo, in the light of his tragic fate, is similar to his heroes and it is not for nothing that his life attracted the attention of writers and poets.

He was not a textbook ideal.

Acting in his art as a creator of images of monolithic integrity, as a person he may seem full of weaknesses and contradictions. Actions marked by extraordinary courage are replaced by attacks of weakness. The highest creative ups alternate with periods of uncertainty and doubt, with countless interruptions in work on works of much more modest scale.

Inexhaustible strength, unparalleled creative energy and so many unfinished works. Ethical and civic ideals were not something external and transitory for Michelangelo; it was like a part of his soul. Representing the embodiment of the teachings of the Italian humanists about the perfect man, in whom physical beauty and strength of spirit are combined, the images of Michelangelo, more than the works of any other artist, carry a visual expression of this important quality this ideal as the concept of virtual.

This concept acts as the personification of the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to realize his lofty thoughts in spite of all obstacles. That is why Michelangelo, unlike other masters, depicts his heroes at a decisive moment in their lives. Equally gifted in all areas of the plastic arts, Michelangelo was still primarily a sculptor, as he himself repeatedly emphasized this. Besides the fact that sculpture, like no other type visual arts, opens up favorable opportunities in the creation of monumental heroic images, it requires especially high degree artistic generalization, due to which the creative volitional principle finds extremely vivid expression in it.

FIRST PERIOD YOUTH YEARS Let us turn to the stages covering Michelangelo's youth, from the early 1490s to his first trip to Rome in 1496. The first years of matser's formation passed under fairly favorable conditions for him.

After Michelangelo, a thirteen-year-old boy, set out on the path of an artist and was sent to study with Ghirlandaio, a year later he moved to art school in the Medici gardens at the Florentine monastery of San Marco. The Academy in the Medici Gardens was a higher level school. Not associated with the execution of official and private orders, it was deprived of a specific workshop environment. The spirit of the craft workshop gave way here to a more free and artistic atmosphere.

The leadership of the workshop by the experienced sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni ensured that students not only acquired deep professional knowledge, but also the perception of the best traditions of Florentine sculpture of the 15th century. Finally, the attention from outside meant a lot to the school. Lorenzo Medici and the figures of Florentine culture grouped around him. Already at the age of fifteen, Michelangelo apparently stood out so much for his talent that Lorenzo took him under his special protection.

Having settled him in his palace, he introduced him to his circle, among which the head of the Neoplatonist school, the philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, stood out. Both are the first to come down to us sculptural works Michelangelo reliefs. Perhaps this is the result of the influence of Bertoldo, who felt stronger in relief than in a round statue, and at the same time a tribute to tradition for the 15th century, relief was one of the most important sections of sculpture. One can confidently say about one of these reliefs about the Battle of the Centaurs that this is an example of the purest sculpture that the 15th century, so rich in monuments of plastic art, has ever known.

The plot for this work was proposed to the sculptor by the poet Angelo Poliziano as his primary sources in plastic art, researchers call the Battle of Bertoldo in the Florentine National Museum and relief compositions antique sarcophagi. Michelangelo's Battle of the Centaurs essentially opened new era in Renaissance art, and for the history of sculpture it was a harbinger of a true revolution.

The special significance of the Battle of the Centaurs also lies in the fact that this relief already contains a unique program for Michelangelo’s future work. Not only did it express the leading theme of his art, the theme of struggle and heroic feat, here the type and appearance of his heroes have already been determined to a large extent, and new means of sculptural language have been brought to life.

As for the first of these two works of the Madonna at the Florence Staircase, Casa Buonarroti, Michelangelo is close in it to the sculptures of the 15th century, except in the very technique of low, extremely finely nuanced relief, requiring the master to masterly mastery of spatial plans within a very slight elevation plastic masses above the background plane. The significance of Michelangelo's first two works must also be assessed as important milestone in the evolution of Renaissance art in general, in particular, in the formation of the principles of High Renaissance art.

Michelangelo did not have time to complete his work on the Battle of the Centaurs when the death of Lorenzo de' Medici marked the beginning of decisive changes not only in the fate of the young master, who was now left to his own devices. The four years that separated Michelangelo's departure from the Medici Gardens from his first trip to Rome were a period of his further spiritual growth. But the development of his talent was not as rapid as one might expect after Michelangelo's first experiments in sculpture.

Unfortunately, information about the works of these years is incomplete, so most of them, moreover, the most interesting ones, have not been preserved. Among them, the statue of Hercules, which came to France already in the 16th century and was installed in front of the castle of Fontainebleau. Giovannino’s statue of the young John the Baptist and the Sleeping Cupid, the acquisition of which by the Roman Cardinal Riario was the reason for Michelangelo’s departure to Rome in 1496, also disappeared. THE SECOND PERIOD FROM THE ROMAN MAILINGS TO MATTHEW Beginning in 1496, the first Roman period opens new stage in the works of Michelangelo.

Perhaps for no one Rome meant as much as for Michelangelo, the magnitude of whose creative imagination found an inspiring example in the majestic monuments of the Eternal City. Michelangelo's passion antique sculpture was so great that at first it obscured the clearly expressed personal imprint inherent in his work. An example of this is the statue of Bacchus, Florence, created in 1496-1497, National Museum.

The true Michelangelo begins in Rome with his first major work, which glorified the name of the master throughout Italy, with the Lamentation of Christ Pietà in the Cathedral of St. Petra. This group was created in 1497-1501, some researchers associate the theme and idea of this work with tragic death Savonarola, who made a deep impression on Michelangelo. In principle, Michelangelo’s Lamentation in the Cathedral of St. Peter, being one of the characteristic works of the first, classical phase of the High Renaissance, occupies approximately the same place in Renaissance sculpture as Leonard's Madonna in the Grotto, completed between 1490 and 1494, occupied in painting.

Both of these works are similar in their purpose, and Leonardo’s painting and Michelangelo’s group are compositions intended to decorate the altar of a church or chapel. As always, Michelangelo’s typical deviations from the traditional interpretation of the theme, bold violations of iconographic canons, attract attention.

An unusual motif for Italian Renaissance sculpture, the image of the Virgin with dead body Christ on his knees goes back to examples of Northern European sculpture of the 14th century. Michelangelo's Pieta is the first programmatic work of the High Renaissance deployed in sculpture, which represents a truly new word both in the content of its images and in their plastic embodiment. Here one can feel the connection with the images of Leonardo, but still Michelangelo went his own way. In contrast to the calmness of the closed and ideal images Leonardo and Michelangelo, by the nature of their dramatic talent, gravitated towards a vivid expression of feelings.

True, the example of the harmonious balance of Leonardo’s images was obviously so irresistible that in the Roman Pieta Michelangelo gave an unusually restrained decision for himself. However, this did not stop him from making here important step forward. Unlike Leonardo, in the appearance of whose characters one can see the features of a certain general ideal type, Michelangelo introduces into his images a shade of specific individualization, so his heroes, with all the ideal height and scale of their images, acquire a special imprint of a unique, almost personal character.

The Pieta belongs to Michelangelo's most completed works; it is not only complete in all its the smallest details, but everything is polished to a shine. But it was traditional reception, from which Michelangelo in this case has not yet decided to move away.

The Roman Pieta made Michelangelo the first sculptor of Italy. Not only did she bring him fame, she helped him truly appreciate his creative forces, the growth of which was so rapid that this work very soon turned out to be a passed stage for him, only a reason was needed for this. Such a reason was found when in 1501, upon Michelangelo’s return from Rome to Florence, official representatives of the guild circles turned to him with a request regarding the possibility of using a huge block of marble, unsuccessfully begun at one time by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio. No matter how disfigured this marble block was, Michelangelo immediately saw his David in it.

Despite the unusual dimensions of the statue, about five and a half meters, and the very great compositional difficulties associated with the need to fit the figure into the extremely inconvenient dimensions of the marble block, the work proceeded without delay, and after just over two years, in 1504, it was completed. The idea itself Michelangelo embodied in a colossal statue precisely the image of David, which, according to generally accepted tradition, as evidenced by famous works Donatello and Verrocchio were portrayed in the guise of a fragile boy, which is perceived in this case not simply as a violation of some canonical rules, but as the master gaining complete creative freedom in the interpretation of motifs consecrated by centuries-old traditions.

Michelangelo is already in initial phase The High Renaissance in his David gives an example of merging into an inseparable whole of appearance perfect beauty and human character, in which the main thing is an unusually bright embodiment of courage and concentrated will. The statue expresses not only a readiness for cruelty and dangerous fight, but also unshakable confidence in victory.

The place that Michelangelo's David occupied in sculpture was to be occupied in painting by his Battle of Cascina, on which he worked in 1504-1506. The very scale of this fresco composition predisposed, if this plan were realized, to the creation of an outstanding image of monumental mural painting.

Unfortunately, Michelangelo, like his rival Leonardo, who was working on the Battle of Anghiari at that time, did not go further than cardboard. Vasari testifies to what the cardboard itself looked like, noting that the figures in it were executed in different manners, one outlined in charcoal, the other was drawn with strokes, and the other was shaded and highlighted with white, so Michelangelo wanted to show everything that he knew how to do in this art.

In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned by Julius II to Rome, where he created a design for the papal tomb. After the pope lost interest in this plan, Michelangelo, unable to bear the insulting treatment, voluntarily left Rome in April 1506 and returned to Florence, where he remained until the beginning of November of this year. Michelangelo began to carry out a very large order, which he had received here back in 1503, when he undertook to complete twelve large statues Apostles for the Florence Cathedral.

But later, not having time to finish work on the first of the statues - Matthew, Michelangelo was forced to make reconciliation with the pope. This was followed by work in Bologna on bronze statue Julius II, and then departure to Rome, as a result of which work on the statues of the apostles for the Florence Cathedral was no longer resumed. Matthew attracts attention by its scale. With a height of 2.62 m, it significantly exceeds the size of life, this usual standard of Renaissance sculptures. This scale, combined with the large plasticity of forms characteristic of Michelangelo, gives Matthew a very great monumental expressiveness.

But the main thing in it is a new understanding of the image and the associated features of a new plastic language, which allows us to consider this sculpture a huge step forward compared to the Roman Pieta and David. Speaking from Matthew, who was not even half finished, we can say that he captures the viewer with some new furious drama. If in David the dramatic intensity of the image was justified by the plot mobilization of all the hero’s forces for a mortal battle, then in Matthew it is the idea of an internal tragic conflict .

For the first time in Renaissance art, the master depicts a hero whose spiritual impulses escape the power of human will. THIRD PERIOD SISTINE PLAFOND The problem that Michelangelo had to solve in painting Sistine ceiling, was very difficult. Firstly, it was ceiling painting, and here the experience of the Renaissance masters was less than in ordinary mural painting.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, together with the adjacent lunettes, is about six hundred square meters The development of a general compositional design for the painting alone presented a very difficult problem. Here, a simple sparse composition with a few isolated figures, as was previously customary, was replaced by a painting that was very complex in its construction, consisting of many episodes and individual images, including great amount figures. Michelangelo solved the problem posed to him fully armed with his mastery of the fundamentals of all plastic arts.

In this first major painting work of his, his talent as an architect was essentially revealed for the first time. Since the rejection of the first version of painting also meant the rejection of subordinating the lengthy room with a vaulted ceiling to the architectural forms of the Sistine Chapel, which had unfavorable proportions for painting, Michelangelo had to using painting means to create your own painting architectural basis, which is entrusted with the main organizing function.

This architecture divides the painting into separate component parts, each of which has independent completeness, and in interaction with other parts forms a whole that is rare in its clear structure and logic. Michelangelo used both means of planimetric division of painting and means of plastic expressiveness, in particular, varying degrees of relief or depth of a particular image.

In the painting of the Sistine ceiling we find a vivid manifestation of the ethical maximalism characteristic of Michelangelo. Filled with high humanistic pathos, the master is least inclined to make any even external compromises with official churchliness. In close connection with the evolution of the ideological and content principles of painting was the evolution of its visual language. It is known that the compositional structure of the main scenes of the stories was not found by the artist immediately, but in the process of work itself.

Having completed the first three scenes of the Drunkenness of Noah, the Flood and the Sacrifice of Noah, Michelangelo dismantled the scaffolding, which allowed him to test the conditions for the viewer’s perception of the frescoes. At the same time, he became convinced that he had chosen an insufficiently large scale for the figures, and in the Flood and in the Sacrifice of Noah he oversaturated the compositions with figures, with the high height of the vault this impaired their visibility. In subsequent episodes, he avoided a similar drawback by enlarging the figures and reducing their number, as well as introducing important changes to stylistic devices paintings.

The Sistine ceiling became the comprehensive embodiment of the High Renaissance - its harmonious beginning and its conflicts, ideal human types and bright characters merging with this ideal basis. In subsequent works, Michelangelo will have to observe the process of a steady increase in the contradictions of time, the realization of the impracticability of Renaissance ideals, and subsequently their tragic collapse. FOURTH PERIOD TOMB OF JULIUS II The place that in Michelangelo's painting was occupied by the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in his sculpture could be occupied by the tomb of Julius II. However whole line Various circumstances were the reason that this monument was not realized in its original plan.

Many decades of work on the tombstone led to the creation of several essentially heterogeneous sculptural cycles, which are largely of independent value. The original plan, dating back to 1505, was distinguished by such an excessive number of sculptural works that it could hardly be realized.

Michelangelo conceived it as a two-tiered mausoleum, decorated with statues and reliefs, and he intended to carry out all the work with his own hands. However, subsequently he decided to reduce the number of sculptures and reduce the size of the tomb, which was a necessary measure. In 1513, having completed the painting of the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo began work on the sculptures of the second version of the tomb - the statues of the Prisoners.

These works, together with Moses dating back to 1515-1516, mark a new important stage in Michelangelo’s work.

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Italy made a great contribution to the formation of Western civilization. For hundreds of years it was the center of the vast Roman Empire. The papal region was formed in Rome back in the 8th century, and later the city became the world center of the Roman Catholic Church. With the advent of the Renaissance, a period of enlightenment that brought an end to medieval times, Italians made great contributions to the intellectual and artistic development Western world. Italy still retains most its noble past in cities, museums and ruins, attracting foreign tourists more than any other country in the world.

The Renaissance in Italian culture

Italians, experienced and prolific in such cultural areas, like literature, music, architecture and sculpture, are the creators of world masterpieces. In general, this is the path of development from the Proto-Renaissance period to the High Renaissance.

Real cultural development started in Italy mainly during the Renaissance, which initiated general revolution in different cultural spheres Worldwide. The influence of the Renaissance in Europe is also strongly felt on the Italian peninsula. As a result, some radical changes occurred during this period that touched the imagination, creative potential and human intelligence in general. This drastic but obvious transformation was directly absorbed by the population and was embodied in subsequent works.

The Italian Renaissance is divided into several stages: Ducento, Quattrocento and Cinquecento, each of which occupies its own century and has special cultural features.

Painting

Fine art in Italy has existed from ancient times to the present day. In Ancient Rome, Italy was a center of art and architecture. During the Gothic and Medieval periods there were many talented Italian artists. The era of prosperity came during the Renaissance. Later styles in Italy included trends such as Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo. Futurism began to develop in the country in the 20th century. Florence is a famous city in Italy due to its art museums.

Creation Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and many other famous Italian artists and sculptors - national pride and invaluable contribution to world culture. Tourists can still admire the ceiling paintings Sistine Chapel in Vatican,

portrait of a world-famous Mona Lisa(or Mona Lisa) in the Paris Louvre

"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci

And « Sistine Madonna» , exhibited in Germany at the Old Masters Gallery.

"Sistine Madonna" Raphael

Architecture

The primary significance of architecture had a religious connotation. The first architecture dates back to the era of Ancient Rome, which was distinguished by grandiose and monumental buildings. Today, ancient ruins are a vivid reminder to both Italians and tourists of the past. great empire: these are temples erected in honor of the ancient Gods, and Pantheon,

And Coliseum.

In the 11th century A Romanesque movement emerged in architecture, the buildings of which stood in strong contrast with their festive appearance to a truly gloomy era. For changing Romanesque style Gothic has arrived: Church of San Petronio

The Church of San Petronio was founded in 1390.

And San Francesco,

"San Francesco" is the main temple of the Franciscan Order

Doge's Palace in Venice

"Doge's Palace! - shining example gothic architecture

And Palazzo VecchiO.

Late 14th century marked by the Renaissance, when all public and residential buildings began to be built in a secular manner. They are characterized by elegance and beauty with certain elements of antiquity. This period includes : Sistine Chapel in Rome,

Palazzo Pitti in Florence

"Palazzo Pitti" is located on the square of the same name in Florence

And Church of the Madonna da Carignano in Genoa.

Sculpture

Recognized as the father of the school of sculpture Italian master Niccolo Pisano. He created a huge foundation for the further development of this type of culture. His teaching, which existed until the mid-14th century, quickly spread throughout the country. One of Pisano's most striking works is Hexagonal marble pulpit in Pisa.

Literature

A new distinguished form of poetic style called "Sonnet", was introduced by the famous Italian poet Petrarch(the comedy “Philology”), which was later adopted by Shakespeare.

Philosopher and writer Niccolo Maiavelli in his literary work“The Sovereign” proposed advanced methods of governing the country. His work significantly changed Political Views reigned during that period of time.

Science and technology

Meanwhile, progress in science and technology was in full swing during the period Renaissance. Made enormous contributions to the field of astronomy Galileo Galilei.

The famous physicist Fermi studied quantum theory, while Volt was occupied with issues related to the electric battery. Lagrange mathematician and laureate Nobel Prize Marconi (invented radio) made a significant contribution to the cultural development of Italy.

Music

Music has traditionally been one of the biggest indicators of what "Italian" truly means and holds an important position in society and even politics. Italian music has a wide range of styles: from her celebrated opera to contemporary experimental and classical music,

from traditional motifs of ethnically diverse regions to large selection domestic and foreign popular music. Today the entire infrastructure that supports music as a profession is very extensive in Italy: conservatories, opera houses, radio and television stations, recording studios, music festivals and important centers of musicological research. Music life in Italy remains extremely active. Milan is home to the world famous Opera theatre"La Scala", which is recognized as the world's heart of opera culture.

La Scala Opera House

Italy is a Catholic country

92% of Italians practice Catholicism. The church is of great importance for the country: not only religious, but also political, since it has the official status of a separate unit. The state and the church regulate relations between themselves, based on the law of the “New Concordat”, issued in 1984.

In addition, the Italian state divides religion into “Catholic” and “non-Catholic”. The second group includes Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities. They have the same rights as Catholics.

National language

The national language of Italy is "Italian"

Official language - Italian, spoken by 93% of the population. 50% can also speak regional dialects as their own native language. Many of them are not legible and are recognized by linguists as separate languages. But they never received official status. For example, in northeastern Italy, about 600,000 people speak Friuli.

Family values

Family for Italians is of paramount importance: is the center social structure and has a stabilizing effect on its members. Italians usually have no more than 1-2 children and are more than calm about their pranks. Italian men have a very strong family connection with their mother even after they reach mature age. Therefore, the picture when a 30-year-old Italian lives with his mother, seems like a stable rule. True Italians- those are still actresses. They always “run the show,” but pretend that the owner of the house is a man.

4 - Contribution to art of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is the most powerful artistic personality the earth has ever bore. Never, neither before nor after him, has any artist exerted such a predominant and lasting influence on his contemporaries and posterity; and although he, as a model, turned out to be fatal for the next generation, for whom the language of his forms was not, as for himself, an internal necessity, nevertheless, thanks to this, his own greatness comes to the fore all the more victoriously. His poetic works, which do not belong here, allow us to deeply penetrate into the struggle of his passionate, demanding love, lonely soul with himself, with his God and with the ideals of his art.

As an aspiring painter, Michelangelo, in the thirteenth year of his life, entered the apprenticeship of Domenico Ghirlandaio, as an aspiring sculptor a year later, and not earlier than 1488 (as Frey showed) - to a certain Bertoldo, then caretaker of the Medicean collection of antiquities at San Marco, a student Donatello, late in his life. The further development of the young Buonarroti into a painter took place in front of the frescoes of Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, and into a sculptor in the aforementioned antiques of the Medici Garden. From that time on, he wanted to be looked at exclusively as a sculptor. But fate still led him to painting again. His most significant sculptural enterprises have reached us only partially completed, while in painting, imbued with his plastic spirit, he left the greatest works united by a common connection. He developed into an architect, although in distant dependence on Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo, but essentially independently, thanks to the tasks that presented themselves to him.

His earliest sculptures show the claws of a lion. The marble flat relief "Madonna of the Staircase" in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence recalls the still later style of Donatello's school, but the powerful forms of the main group and the children playing on the front staircase are sharply removed from this school. The higher marble relief “Battle of the Centaurs” from the same collection, depicting a fierce battle between strong and slender people and centaurs, whose bodies and movements are reproduced with a perfect understanding of the matter, reveals the direct influence of the reliefs of ancient sarcophagi.

In 1494, Michelangelo lived in Bologna and here he painted an angel with a candelabra on the sarcophagus of St. Dominic in San Domenico, then the figure of Bishop Petronius, as well as the recently re-exhibited group of the half-naked horseman Proculus. This group, more clearly than previous works, reveals the bold language of forms characteristic of the young master, still influenced by the Bolognese works of Jacopo della Querci. That Proculus is a work of Michelangelo, Justi also insists on this, contrary to Frey. Makovsky showed that the model for the angel was the ancient goddess of victory preserved in the Louvre. Returning to Florence, he executed in marble young John and sleeping Cupid, which was sold at the same time for antiques. It is still difficult to recognize the former together with Bode and Carl Justi in the “Giovannino” of the Berlin Museum, and the latter together with Conrad Lange and Fabrizi in one piece of the Turin collection. However, Michelangelo's nude marble Bacchus in the National Museum in Florence, the first work he executed in 1496 in Rome, remains completely reliable. The ancient and the modern, characteristic of the master, are inseparably united in this swaying figure, whose naked body is conveyed with such vital warmth.

After these majestic and austere works, the beautiful marble group of the Madonna with a naked boy standing between her knees in the Church of the Virgin in Bruges and the elegant round relief with the Madonna and two boys in the National Museum in Florence show the calmly balanced and beautiful style of the 16th century in the plastic work of Michelangelo.

But then the first big painting task fell to his lot. In 1504, his hometown gave him the execution of a battle painting from Florentine history on the wall of the city council hall, located opposite the begun painting by Leonardo. Michelangelo chose an unexpected attack on bathing soldiers at the Battle of Cascina. He had no intention of feigning the confusion of battle. He clearly sought to represent in the noblest images every person, every group and to convey the variety, naturalness and excitement of movements. All these strong people are animated by only one feeling of fear of approaching danger, one desire to escape. Michelangelo's work on cardboard was interrupted in 1505 by his call to Rome, but even in its unfinished form it became a school for the whole world. The best idea of the individual groups of this vanished work is given to us by copper engravings by Mark Antony and Agostino Veneziano.

The charming relief of the Madonna in the Academy of Arts in London and the round painting in the Uffizi, this, perhaps, the only handmade easel painting by Michelangelo, already suggests the presence of cardboard with bathing soldiers. The Madonna sits on her knees in front of Joseph and stretches her arms back to receive the baby from him over her right shoulder, and her strong members are shown by positioning them in opposite directions; the same should be noted regarding the unfinished marble statue of the Apostle Matthew of the Florentine Academy, depicted in a bold, sharp turn. The victory of the line over the motionless mass in this case signifies the victory of the spirit over the body, and already here begins Michelangelo’s style in conveying movement, which captivated the whole world.