What features distinguish Italian Renaissance painting? Features of the artistic culture of the Renaissance

Renaissance (Renaissance). Italy. XV-XVI centuries. Early capitalism. The country is ruled by rich bankers. They are interested in art and science.

The rich and powerful gather around them the talented and wise. Poets, philosophers, artists and sculptors have daily conversations with their patrons. At some point, it seemed that people were ruled by wise men, as Plato wanted.

We remembered the ancient Romans and Greeks. They also built a society of free citizens, where the main value is people (not counting slaves, of course).

Renaissance is not just copying the art of ancient civilizations. This is a mixture. Mythology and Christianity. Realism of nature and sincerity of images. Beauty physical and spiritual.

It was just a flash. The High Renaissance period is approximately 30 years! From the 1490s to 1527 From the beginning of the heyday of Leonardo's creativity. Before the sack of Rome.

The mirage of an ideal world quickly faded. Italy turned out to be too fragile. She was soon enslaved by another dictator.

However, these 30 years determined the main features of European painting for 500 years to come! Up to .

Realism of the image. Anthropocentrism (when the center of the world is Man). Linear perspective. Oil paints. Portrait. Scenery…

Incredibly, during these 30 years several brilliant masters worked at once. At other times they are born once every 1000 years.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian are the titans of the Renaissance. But we cannot fail to mention their two predecessors: Giotto and Masaccio. Without which there would be no Renaissance.

1. Giotto (1267-1337)

XIV century. Proto-Renaissance. Its main character is Giotto. This is a master who single-handedly revolutionized art. 200 years before the High Renaissance. If it were not for him, the era of which humanity is so proud would hardly have come.

Before Giotto there were icons and frescoes. They were created according to Byzantine canons. Faces instead of faces. Flat figures. Failure to comply with proportions. Instead of a landscape there is a golden background. Like, for example, on this icon.

And suddenly frescoes by Giotto appear. They have voluminous figures. Faces of noble people. Old and young. Sad. Mournful. Surprised. Different.

Frescoes by Giotto in the Church of Scrovegni in Padua (1302-1305). Left: Lamentation of Christ. Middle: Kiss of Judas (fragment). Right: Annunciation of St. Anne (Mother Mary), fragment.

Giotto's main work is the cycle of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. When this church opened to parishioners, crowds of people poured into it. They had never seen anything like this.

After all, Giotto did something unprecedented. He translated biblical stories into simple, understandable language. And they have become much more accessible to ordinary people.

This is precisely what will be characteristic of many masters of the Renaissance. Laconic images. Lively emotions of the characters. Realism.

Read more about the master's frescoes in the article.

Giotto was admired. But his innovation was not developed further. The fashion for international gothic came to Italy.

Only after 100 years will a worthy successor to Giotto appear.

2. Masaccio (1401-1428)

Beginning of the 15th century. The so-called Early Renaissance. Another innovator is entering the scene.

Masaccio was the first artist to use linear perspective. It was designed by his friend, the architect Brunelleschi. Now the depicted world has become similar to the real one. Toy architecture is a thing of the past.

He adopted Giotto's realism. However, unlike his predecessor, he already knew anatomy well.

Instead of blocky characters, Giotto has beautifully built people. Just like the ancient Greeks.

Masaccio lived a short life. He died, like his father, unexpectedly. At 27 years old.

However, he had many followers. Masters of subsequent generations went to the Brancacci Chapel to study from his frescoes.

Thus, Masaccio’s innovation was taken up by all the great artists of the High Renaissance.

3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the titans of the Renaissance. He had a tremendous influence on the development of painting.

It was da Vinci who raised the status of the artist himself. Thanks to him, representatives of this profession are no longer just artisans. These are creators and aristocrats of the spirit.

Leonardo made a breakthrough primarily in portraiture.

He believed that nothing should distract from the main image. The gaze should not wander from one detail to another. This is how his famous portraits appeared. Laconic. Harmonious.

Leonardo's main innovation is that he found a way to make images... alive.

Before him, characters in portraits looked like mannequins. The lines were clear. All details are carefully drawn. The painted drawing could not possibly be alive.

Leonardo invented the sfumato method. He shaded the lines. Made the transition from light to shadow very soft. His characters seem to be covered with a barely perceptible haze. The characters came to life.

Sfumato will be included in the active vocabulary of all great artists of the future.

There is often an opinion that Leonardo, of course, is a genius, but did not know how to complete anything. And I often didn’t finish paintings. And many of his projects remained on paper (in 24 volumes, by the way). And in general he was thrown either into medicine or into music. At one time I was even interested in the art of serving.

However, think for yourself. 19 paintings - and he is the greatest artist of all time. And someone doesn’t even come close in terms of greatness, yet he painted 6,000 canvases in his life. It is obvious who has the higher efficiency.

Read about the master's most famous painting in the article.

4. Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor. But he was a universal master. Like his other Renaissance colleagues. Therefore, his pictorial heritage is no less grandiose.

He is recognizable primarily by his physically developed characters. He portrayed a perfect man in whom physical beauty means spiritual beauty.

That’s why all his heroes are so muscular and resilient. Even women and old people.

Michelangelo. Fragments of the fresco “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican.

Michelangelo often painted the character naked. And then he added clothes on top. So that the body is as sculpted as possible.

He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel alone. Although these are several hundred figures! He didn’t even allow anyone to rub paint. Yes, he was unsociable. He had a tough and quarrelsome character. But most of all he was dissatisfied with... himself.

Michelangelo lived a long life. Survived the decline of the Renaissance. For him it was a personal tragedy. His later works are full of sadness and sorrow.

In general, Michelangelo’s creative path is unique. His early works are a celebration of the human hero. Free and courageous. In the best traditions of Ancient Greece. What's his name David?

In the last years of life these are tragic images. Intentionally rough-hewn stone. It’s as if we are looking at monuments to the victims of 20th century fascism. Look at his Pietà.

Michelangelo's sculptures at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Left: David. 1504 Right: Palestrina's Pietà. 1555

How is this possible? One artist in one life went through all stages of art from the Renaissance to the 20th century. What should subsequent generations do? Go your own way. Realizing that the bar is set very high.

5. Raphael (1483-1520)

Raphael was never forgotten. His genius was always recognized: both during life and after death.

His characters are endowed with sensual, lyrical beauty. It is his who is rightfully considered the most beautiful female images ever created. External beauty also reflects the spiritual beauty of the heroines. Their meekness. Their sacrifice.

Fyodor Dostoevsky said the famous words “Beauty will save the world” about. This was his favorite painting.

However, sensual images are not Raphael’s only strong point. He thought through the compositions of his paintings very carefully. He was an unsurpassed architect in painting. Moreover, he always found the simplest and most harmonious solution in organizing space. It seems that it cannot be any other way.

Raphael lived only 37 years. He died suddenly. From a caught cold and medical error. But his legacy is difficult to overestimate. Many artists idolized this master. And they multiplied his sensual images in thousands of their canvases..

Titian was an unsurpassed colorist. He also experimented a lot with composition. In general, he was a daring innovator.

Everyone loved him for such brilliance of his talent. Called “the king of painters and the painter of kings.”

Speaking about Titian, I want to put an exclamation point after every sentence. After all, it was he who brought dynamics to painting. Pathos. Enthusiasm. Bright color. Shine of colors.

Towards the end of his life he developed an unusual writing technique. The strokes are fast and thick. I applied the paint either with a brush or with my fingers. This makes the images even more alive and breathing. And the plots are even more dynamic and dramatic.

Does this remind you of anything? Of course, this is technology. And the technique of 19th century artists: Barbizonians and. Titian, like Michelangelo, would go through 500 years of painting in one lifetime. That's why he's a genius.

Read about the master's famous masterpiece in the article.

Renaissance artists are the owners of great knowledge. To leave such a legacy, there was a lot to learn. In the field of history, astrology, physics and so on.

Therefore, every image of them makes us think. Why is this depicted? What is the encrypted message here?

They were almost never wrong. Because they thoroughly thought through their future work. We used all our knowledge.

They were more than artists. They were philosophers. They explained the world to us through painting.

That is why they will always be deeply interesting to us.

The Italian Renaissance itself is conventionally divided into a number of stages:

Proto-Renaissance (Ducento “two hundredths”, i.e. 1200s) – XIII century.

Early Renaissance (tricento and quattrocento) - from the middle of the 14th - 15th centuries.

High Renaissance (cinquecento) - until the second third of the 16th century.

Late Renaissance - second third of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries.

Proto-Renaissance. Already in early works Dante(1265 -1321) in the cycle of sonnets, canzonas and ballads combined into the work “New Life”, the unfinished work “Feast” and others - the poet begins experiments on use of Italian, thereby proving its viability. The poet's greatest masterpiece, which immortalized his name, was The Divine Comedy, thanks to which Dante entered cultural history as the creator of the Italian literary language. The plot of the work, very traditional for the Middle Ages, is nevertheless filled with new elements, often contrary to church canons, clearly expressing the opinion and tastes of the author himself. The structure of The Divine Comedy is very complex. The work consists of three parts: “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise”. It is characteristic that Dante chooses the Roman poet Virgil as his guide through Hell and Purgatory, calling him “Teacher.” Each of the three parts of the poem contains thirty-three songs. The content is subject to the sequential symbolism of numbers.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante mentions his great contemporary - the architect, sculptor and artist Giotto. With name Giotto di Bondone(1266/1267 - 1337) associated decisive turn to realistic art. The most famous works of Giotto that have survived to this day are considered to be paintings on gospel subjects in the Chapel del Arena in Padua and paintings on themes from the life of Francis of Assisi in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. In these masterpieces, the master abandons the flat character of iconographic images based on a synthesis of volume and plane. One of the most touching images created by Giotto is rightfully considered the image of Christ in the scene of “The Kiss of Judas” (frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua, 1304-1306). The master managed to convey the high drama of the scene through the gaze of Christ turned to the traitor. At the same time, Giotto managed to convey the calmness of Christ combined with a clear awareness of his destined fate. The theme of the fresco “Christ and Judas” runs as a leitmotif through the entire Padua cycle (“Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth”, “Flight into Egypt”, “Mourning of Christ”, etc.). Giotto's innovation had a tremendous impact on the fine arts of the Renaissance.

Early Renaissance. Literary creativity dates back to the period of the Early Renaissance Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. Along with their fellow countryman Dante, these greatest poets of Italy are considered the creators of the Italian literary language.

Petrarch(1304-1374) remained in the history of the Renaissance as the first humanist who placed man, rather than God, at the center of his work. Petrarch's sonnets on the life and death of Madonna Laura, included in the collection “Book of Songs,” became world famous. Petrarch is also known as a passionate popularizer of the heritage of ancient authors, as evidenced by his treatise “On the Great Men of Antiquity.”

Petrarch was a student and follower Boccaccio(1313-1375) - author of the famous collection of realistic short stories “The Decameron”. The deeply humanistic beginning of Boccaccio's work, full of subtle observations, excellent knowledge of psychology, humor and optimism, remains very instructive today. It is enough to note that in our time, Boccaccio’s short stories have formed the basis for the stage and screen versions of the masterpiece created more than six hundred years ago. Subsequent literature of the Italian Renaissance looked up to the great Florentines: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, although it could not surpass their fame.

An outstanding master of the Early Renaissance, who continued the realistic tradition coming from Giotto, is considered Masaccio(1401-1428). The artist's mural paintings (the Brancacci Chapel in Florence) are distinguished by energetic chiaroscuro modeling, plastic physicality, three-dimensionality of figures and their compositional linkage with the landscape. Masaccio's art became a model for the work of subsequent generations of artists.

The legacy of an outstanding master of the Early Renaissance brush Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510), who worked at the Medici court in Florence, is distinguished by its subtle coloring and mood of sadness. The master does not strive to follow the realistic style of Giotto and Masaccio; his images are flat and seemingly ethereal. Among the works created by Botticelli, the painting “The Birth of Venus” became the most famous, clearly characterizing the peculiarity of his work.

The most famous sculptor of the first half of the 15th century. Donatello(c. 1386-1466). Reviving ancient traditions, he was the first to introduce the naked body in sculpture, creating classical forms and types of Renaissance sculpture: a new type of round statue and sculptural group, picturesque relief. His art is distinguished by a realistic manner.

Prominent Early Renaissance architect and sculptor Philippa Brunelleschi(1377-1446) - one of the founders of Renaissance architecture. He managed to revive the basic elements of ancient architecture, to which, however, the artist gave slightly different proportions. This allowed the master to orient the buildings towards people, and not suppress them, which, in particular, the buildings of medieval architecture were designed for. Brunelleschi talentedly solved the most complex technical problems (construction of the dome of the Florence Cathedral), and made a great contribution to fundamental science (the theory of linear perspective).

High Renaissance. The High Renaissance period was relatively short. It is associated primarily with the names of three brilliant masters, titans of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi and Michelangelo Buonarroti. As well as the work of the greatest Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), who continued the literary traditions of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. His most famous work is the heroic knightly poem “Furious Roland”, imbued with subtle irony and embodying the ideas of humanism.

The characteristic background for the rise of the Renaissance was the economic and political decline of Italy - a pattern that was repeated more than once in history. In the work of representatives of the High Renaissance, the realistic and humanistic foundations of Renaissance culture reached their peak.

Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519) has hardly any equal in terms of talent and versatility among the representatives of the Renaissance. It is difficult to name an industry in which he has not achieved unsurpassed skill. Leonardo was at the same time an artist, art theorist, sculptor, architect, mathematician, physicist, mechanic, astronomer, physiologist, botanist, anatomist, enriching these and many other areas of knowledge with discoveries and brilliant guesses. In his artistic heritage, such masterpieces that have come down to us as “The Last Supper” - a fresco in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, as well as the most famous portrait of the Renaissance “La Gioconda” (Mona Lisa) - stand out.

Among Leonardo's many innovations, one should mention a special style of painting, called smoky chiaroscuro (sfumato, from Italian fumo - smoke), which, in combination with linear perspective, conveyed the depth of space.

In the work of Leonardo, the universalism of the representatives of the Renaissance was most fully expressed, where it is difficult to detect sharp boundaries between science, artistic imagination and the embodiment of ideas. This is evidenced, in particular, by the encrypted notebooks and manuscripts of the Renaissance titan that have reached us, numbering about 7 thousand sheets.

Younger contemporary of Leonardo, great painter of Italy Rafael Santi(1483-1520) went down in the history of world culture as the creator of a number of painting masterpieces. This is the master’s early work “Madonna Conestabile”, imbued with grace and soft lyricism. The artist's mature works are distinguished by the perfection of compositional solutions, color and expression. These are the paintings of the state rooms of the Vatican Palace and, of course, Raphael’s greatest creation - the Sistine Madonna. The master also gained fame for his architectural designs for palaces, villas, a church and a small chapel in the Vatican. Pope Leo X appointed the artist to lead the construction of the dome of St. Petra.

The last titan of the High Renaissance was Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475-1564) - great sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Despite his versatile talents, he is called primarily the first draftsman of Italy thanks to the most significant work of an already mature artist - painting the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace (1508-1512). The total area of ​​the fresco is 600 sq. meters. The multi-figure composition of the fresco illustrates biblical scenes from the creation of the world. The fresco of the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel “The Last Judgment”, painted a quarter of a century after the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, especially stands out from the master’s paintings. This fresco embodies the best humanistic ideals of the Renaissance. The artist’s boldness in depicting naked bodies aroused the indignation of part of the clergy,” which indicated the beginning of a reaction to the foundations of the ideology of the Renaissance.

As a sculptor, Michelangelo became famous for his early work David. But Michelangelo gained true recognition as an architect and sculptor as the designer and construction manager of the main part of the building of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome, which remains to this day the largest Catholic church in the world, as well as for the sculptural design of the stairs and the square of the Capitoline Hill. His architectural and sculptural works in Florence, in particular, the sculptural composition in the Medici Chapel, brought him no less fame. The four naked figures on the sarcophagi of the rulers of Florence “Evening”, “Night”, “Morning” “Day” very clearly illustrate the master’s awareness of the limitations of human capabilities and despair in the face of fast-flowing time.

The period of the High and Late Renaissance was flowering of art in Venice. In the second half of the 16th century, Venice, which retained its republican structure, became a kind of oasis and center of the Renaissance. Among the artists of the Venetian school, an early deceased Giorgione(1476-1510), immortalized his name with the paintings “Judith”, “Sleeping Venus”, “Rural Concert”. Giorgione’s work revealed the features of the Venetian school, in particular, the artist was the first to begin to give the landscape an independent meaning, solving the problems of color and light as a priority.

The greatest representative of the Venetian school - Titian Vecellio(1477 or 1487 -1576). During his lifetime he received recognition in Europe. A number of significant works were completed by Titian commissioned by European monarchs and the Pope. Titian's works are attractive due to the novelty of their solutions, primarily to coloristic and compositional problems. For the first time, an image of a crowd appears on his canvases as part of a composition. Titian's most famous works: “The Penitent Magdalene. “Earthly and Heavenly Love”, “Venus”, “Danae”, “Saint Sebastian” and others. The gallery of portraits of his contemporaries made by him was the subject of deep study and imitation for subsequent generations of European painters.

Late Renaissance. The Late Renaissance period was marked by the onset of Catholic reaction. The Church unsuccessfully tried to restore the partially lost undivided power over minds, encouraging cultural figures, on the one hand, and using repressive measures against the disobedient, on the other. Thus, many painters, poets, sculptors, and architects abandoned the ideas of humanism, inheriting only the manner and technique (the so-called “mannerism”) of the great masters of the Renaissance. Among the most important founders of Mannerism are Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557) and Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), who worked mainly in the genre of portraiture.

However, mannerism, despite the powerful patronage of the church, did not become a leading movement during the Late Renaissance. This time was marked by the realistic, humanistic work of painters belonging to the Venetian school: Paolo Veronese (1528 - 1588), Jacopo Tintoretto (1518 - 1594). Michelangelo da Caravaggio (1573-1610) and others.

Caravaggio is the founder of the realistic movement in European painting of the 17th century. The master's canvases are distinguished by their simplicity of composition, emotional tension expressed through contrasts of light and shadow, and democracy. Caravaggio was the first to contrast the imitative direction in painting (mannerism) with realistic subjects of folk life - Caravaggism.

The last of the most important sculptors and jewelers in Italy was Benvenuto Cellini(1500-1571), in whose work the realistic canons of the Renaissance were clearly evident (for example, the bronze statue of “Perseus”). Cellini remained in the history of culture not only as a jeweler who gave his name to an entire period in the development of applied art, but also as an extraordinary memoirist who talentedly recreated portraits of his contemporaries in the book “The Life of Benvenuto Cellini,” which was published more than once in Russian.

Difference from the Italian Renaissance

The spiritual awakening of Europe, which began in the 12th century, was a consequence of the rise of medieval urban culture and was expressed in new forms of activity - intellectual and cultural. In particular, the flourishing of scholastic science, the awakening of interest in antiquity, the manifestation of individual self-awareness in the religious and secular spheres, and in art - the Gothic style.

This process of spiritual awakening followed two paths (due to socio-economic, national and cultural characteristics):

development of elements of a secular humanistic worldview

development of ideas of religious “renewal”

Both of these currents often came into contact and merged, but in essence they still acted as antagonists. Italy took the first path (see the Renaissance, with its antique and realistic tendencies), Northern Europe followed the second, still with the forms of mature Gothic, with its general spiritualistic mood and naturalism of details.

Main differences: greater influence of Gothic art, less attention to the study of anatomy and ancient heritage, careful and detailed writing technique. In addition, the Reformation was an important ideological component.

Northern Renaissance.

Until the end of the 15th century. Renaissance was a phenomenon only of Italian culture. But at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance culture overcame the national borders of Italy and quickly spread throughout Western Europe north of the Alps - in the Netherlands, Germany and France. Each country had its own characteristics in the development of Renaissance culture, but the most original character of the Northern Renaissance was manifested in the artistic culture of the Netherlands and Germany. The main centers of art were Antwerp, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Halle, and Amsterdam.

The use of the term “Renaissance” in relation to the culture of these countries is rather arbitrary, since its formation was based not on the revived ancient heritage, but on the ideas of religious renewal. Nevertheless, the essence of the processes taking place both in Italy and in these countries was common - the weakening of the feudal worldview, the emergence of bourgeois humanism, and the growth of individual self-awareness.

The development of the Northern Renaissance was a whole century late in relation to the Italian one and took place on a completely different basis. Thus, in Italy, the basis of humanism was the teachings of ancient pagan philosophers, and in the northern countries it was based on the resurrection of the democratic religion of the early Christians with its demand for social justice. If the ideal of the Italian Renaissance was a strong heroic personality, then in the northern countries the ideal became Christian love for one's neighbor. Therefore, in the artistic culture of the Northern Renaissance, much more features of the medieval worldview, religious feeling, symbolism were preserved; it is more conventional in form, more archaic and less familiar with antiquity.

The philosophical basis of the Northern Renaissance was pantheism (deification of the universe, nature). Without directly denying the existence of God, this teaching dissolves him in nature, endowing it with divine attributes, such as eternity, infinity, and limitlessness. Pantheists believed that in every particle of the world there is a particle of God, and concluded that any manifestation of nature is worthy of depiction. Such ideas led to the emergence of landscape as an independent genre in the artistic culture of the Northern Renaissance.

In Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The portrait arose and developed in the art of the Northern Renaissance. German portraiture differed from Italian Renaissance portraiture. If Italian artists, in their admiration for man, created the ideal of beauty, then German masters were indifferent to beauty; for them the main thing was to convey character and achieve emotional expressiveness of the image. In the Italian Renaissance, the aesthetic side was in the foreground, in the Northern - the ethical.

In the art of the Northern Renaissance, such a genre as everyday painting was formed and developed (primarily in the Netherlands). Dutch artists were distinguished by their extraordinary virtuosity of writing: every smallest detail was depicted with great care. This made the paintings very exciting for the viewer: the more you look, the more interesting details you find.

The main difference between the Italian and Northern Renaissance is that the first is characterized by a desire to restore ancient culture, to emancipation, liberation from church dogma, secular education, while in

In the Northern Renaissance, the main place was occupied by issues of religious improvement, renewal of the Catholic Church and its teachings. Northern humanism led to the Reformation and Protestantism.

Revival in the Netherlands

The Netherlands in the 15th century. called the lands off the coast of the North Sea, where Holland and Belgium are now located. The rich regions, united under the rule of the Burgundian dukes, took precedence among European countries economically and culturally. The growth of cities and the way of urban life contributed to the formation of new attitudes towards specific daily activities. Ordinary life events were surrounded by reverent reverence and an aura of holiness: my business, my family, my home, my property, my chapel, my patron saint. In all strata of society, the desire to decorate and poeticize everyday life has increased enormously. Dutch artists literally deified every blade of grass of their northern landscape, copied the smallest details of everyday life and saw beauty in it all. The formation of new art began in the first third of the 15th century. To the painter Jan Vai Eik unconditionally belongs to the primacy in the Dutch Renaissance. Van Eyck's main creation is the grandiose Ghent Altarpiece - a polyptych (that is, folded many times) for one of the chapels in Ghent, which expresses a new worldview, a new idea of ​​​​man and the universe. The image of the universe is created by 12 images on the outer doors of the polyptych (closed) and 14 on the inner doors (opened) - celestial spheres inhabited by celestials, and the earth with saddles, forests, valleys and mountains.

Van Eyck is traditionally credited with inventing the technique of oil painting. This is not entirely accurate, since the method of using vegetable oils as a binder for paint was known before. But the artist improved this method and was the first to use oil painting when creating altar paintings. From the Netherlands, this technique gradually spread to Italy and other countries, displacing tempera.

In the 15th century For the first time in European art, the everyday genre became an independent direction in painting. Dutch artists had no desire for idealization, glorification, or glorification of man and his deeds. On the contrary, they were distinguished by a close look at the world and its truthful, immediate depiction, respect for everyday life and love for the world of things. All this led to the appearance of paintings on everyday themes. A special place in the formation and establishment of this genre belongs to Bosch and Bruegel.

The works of Hieronymus Bosch the modern viewer perceives it as very complex and mysterious, since he constantly resorted to allegories. Probably, the allegorical meaning of his images was clear to his contemporaries, for his works were very popular. The subjects of her paintings demonstrated the negative phenomena of life. In his work, Bosch acted as a moralist, a passionate preacher, castigating the evil and vices of a world mired in sins. In his paintings, the devil takes on a variety of bizarre guises, evil permeates everywhere, and man appears as a slave to sinfulness, as a weak-willed, powerless and insignificant creature.

The artist populated his paintings on the themes of hell, heaven, the Last Judgment, and the temptation of saints with legions of fantastic creatures, which combine parts of different animals, plants, objects, and sometimes humans in the most incredible way. Full of evil activity, these creatures unite with small helpless figures of people, birds, fish, animals, giving rise to a feeling of low-lying, vain existence, devoid of a rational basis. None of the subsequent masters of painting created such fantastic images bordering on madness.

Complex processes of social life in the mid-16th century. in the Netherlands influenced the development of painting. The country was under the rule of the Habsburgs, who shamelessly plundered it. When the Duke of Alba became ruler, a regime of bloody terror was established in the country. The Spanish Inquisition carried out mass arrests, bonfires burned everywhere and gallows were erected. This inevitably gave rise to the idea of ​​the insignificance of the individual person and his activities. As a result, the principles of 15th-century art turned out to be completely obsolete. The work of Dutch artists was increasingly focused on depicting the life of the people. The most expressive in this regard were the works of the last artist of the Dutch Renaissance, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Bruegel's work characterize the way of life and customs of the country in the mid-16th century. Bruegel’s worldview was characterized by the idea of ​​the eternal opposition between good and evil in the world, and the ability to see the deeply embedded higher meaning in any manifestations of life. His paintings reflect the active activity of people, which does not make any sense. The paintings are united by the idea of ​​the madness of human existence in an “upside-down world.” Compositionally, this is a lot of small bustling figures that scurry between houses, come out of doors, look out of windows, etc. They do not form a single whole; their appearance is the appearance of people living according to the laws of the “inverted world.” They are stamped with stupidity, silly fun, meaningless attention. Their cheerful and stupid fun is a kind of symbol of the absurd activity of all humanity. In world painting, Bruegel's landscapes occupy a special place, because there are no other such images of nature, where the cosmic aspect of the worldview would be so organically fused with everyday life. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Bruegel is considered the founder of the landscape genre in Dutch painting.

Renaissance in Germany

The emergence of Renaissance culture in Germany occurred much later than in Italy and the Netherlands. This is explained by the peculiarities of its historical development. Back at the beginning of the 15th century. Germany was a typical medieval country, fragmented into many small principalities. The focus and center of cultural life were cities, which were oases in a feudal country, the entire culture of which was under the control of the church and retained a medieval character.

In Germany, the ideas of humanism became known by the middle of the 15th century. thanks to trade relations with Italian cities. The spread of these ideas caused a struggle against the feudal system and the Catholic Church, a general cultural upsurge, and a renewal of literature and art. In this process, the main thing for German artists was not the mastery of new forms of image in itself, but the desire, with their help, to give religious content new strength and closeness to life, to express the thoughts and feelings that worried people at that time.

Albrecht Durer was the founder of the German Renaissance and the only universal figure similar to the Italian titans of the Renaissance. The great engraver, painter and draftsman in his work was able to very subtly convey the spirit of the era with its sentiments of chiliasm (belief in the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ and the righteous), a premonition of the end of the world, but at the same time the emergence of new humanistic thinking. At the same time, in his work, Dürer most fully expressed the features of the German Renaissance, different from the art of not only Italy, but also the Netherlands: in his work, the rational and classical are inseparable from Gothic expressiveness and spirituality, the craving for knowledge is combined with deep, passionate religiosity.

Dürer's artistic consciousness was greatly influenced by his travels in Italy, so his style of writing is close to Italian. His artistic vision of the world is distinguished by his desire to reflect reality as objectively as possible, to achieve complete authenticity from painting and drawing. In terms of the variety of subjects and breadth of perception of reality, Dürer is a typical representative of the High Renaissance. In the master’s visual language there is no fragmentation, colorful variegation, or linear rigidity. His portraits are integral in composition and plastic in form. High spirituality distinguishes every face. This becomes possible by combining an ideal image with a specific individual prototype.

The choice of subject matter and features of Dürer's style, like all German artists, are determined by his deep religiosity. The atmosphere charged with religious strife, the expectation of the coming of the Antichrist and the destruction of the world, the hope for God's justice were embodied in Durer's greatest work, “The Apocalypse.” The pinnacle of the master’s creativity were three famous engravings: “Horseman, Death and the Devil”, “Saint Jerome”, “Melancholy”, in which the fortitude of the spirit of the people of that time, their willingness to reject any temptations, their sorrowful reflections on the final result of the struggle were most clearly expressed . In these works, rationalism and mysticism coexist, faith in the power of human genius and awareness of its limitations. Not connected by plot, these works formed a single figurative chain, which is based on faith.

Among Dürer’s enormous creative heritage, numerous self-portraits attract special attention, which was unusual for Renaissance art. The self-portrait of 1500 is especially interesting and noteworthy; Here Dürer writes according to the law of ideal proportions and combines in it the appearance of Christ and his own. In this one can see a person’s desire for unity with God, characteristic of that time, and at the same time, a high understanding of the artist’s mission.

The works of Lucas Cranach the Elder is an integral part of the culture of the Northern Renaissance. The range of his subjects is very wide: crucifixions, many triptychs on gospel themes, Madonna and Child, ancient subjects, portraits. The tastes of the Saxon court, with which the artist was associated almost all his life, left a certain imprint on Cranach’s art. Gothic motifs are especially clear in his paintings. Many details and some mannerisms were neutralized by the amazing beauty of color. His Madonnas and other biblical heroines are obvious city dwellers, contemporaries of the artist. They are too fragile, but they wear luxurious fashionable dresses and beautiful hairstyles. Nevertheless, his best works, written at the beginning of the 16th century, remain an example of Renaissance artistic culture. Among them is the famous “Crucifixion”.

Hans Holbein the Younger was the greatest portrait painter in German painting of the 16th century. He owns portraits of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, Jane Seymour, interpreting the image of contemporaries as people full of dignity, wisdom, and restrained spiritual strength. Holbein also worked as an illustrator, creating very different, but bright and expressive illustrations for the Bible and Erasmus of Rotterdam's In Praise of Folly. He also created the series of engravings “Dance of Death”, which echoed the work of Dürer.

The age of the German Renaissance was short-lived. The outbreak of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) delayed the development of German culture for a long time. But in the history of culture this era has remained as an integral phenomenon, giving the world a galaxy of masters of words and painting. Thanks to this era, the peoples of the northern countries were involved in the pan-European cultural process.

The revolutionary significance of the Renaissance for all subsequent times is that it was during this period that the basic humanistic views were laid down, the development of which is still relevant today. The Renaissance ushered in the era of a new man in the history of world culture, which was reflected in the worldview, beliefs, and in all areas of human activity.

Renaissance, or Renaissance(fr. Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento; from “re/ri” - “again” or “new” and “nasci” - “born”) - a globally significant era in the cultural history of Europe, which replaced the Middle Ages and preceded the Enlightenment. It falls - in Italy - at the beginning of the 14th century (everywhere in Europe - from the 15th-16th centuries) - the last quarter of the 16th centuries and in some cases - the first decades of the 17th century. A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture, its humanism and anthropocentrism (that is, interest, first of all, in man and his activities). Interest in ancient culture is flourishing, a kind of “revival” is taking place - and this is how the term appeared.

Term Renaissance found already in Italian humanists, for example, in Giorgio Vasari. In its modern meaning, the term was introduced into use by the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet. Currently the term Renaissance turned into a metaphor for cultural blossoming.

general characteristics

A new cultural paradigm arose as a result of fundamental changes in social relations in Europe.

Of particular importance in the formation of the Renaissance was the fall of the Byzantine state and the Byzantines who fled to Europe, taking with them their libraries and works of art, which contained many ancient sources unknown to medieval Europe, and were also carriers of ancient culture, which was never forgotten in Byzantium. Thus, impressed by the speech of the Byzantine lecturer, Cosimo de' Medici founded Plato's Academy in Florence.

The growth of city-republics led to an increase in the influence of classes that did not participate in feudal relations: artisans and craftsmen, merchants, bankers. The hierarchical system of values ​​created by the medieval, largely church culture, and its ascetic, humble spirit were alien to all of them. This led to the emergence of humanism - a socio-philosophical movement that considered a person, his personality, his freedom, his active, creative activity as the highest value and criterion for evaluating public institutions.

Secular centers of science and art began to emerge in cities, the activities of which were outside the control of the church. The new worldview turned to antiquity, seeing in it an example of humanistic, non-ascetic relations. The invention of printing in the mid-15th century played a huge role in the spread of ancient heritage and new views throughout Europe.

The Renaissance arose in Italy, where its first signs were noticeable back in the 13th and 14th centuries (in the activities of the Pisano, Giotto, Orcagna families, etc.), but it was firmly established only in the 20s of the 15th century. In France, Germany and other countries this movement began much later. By the end of the 15th century it reached its peak. In the 16th century, a crisis of Renaissance ideas was brewing, resulting in the emergence of Mannerism and Baroque.

Renaissance periods

The revival is divided into 4 stages:

Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century)

Early Renaissance (beginning of the 15th - end of the 15th century)

High Renaissance (late 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)

Late Renaissance (mid-16th - 90s of the 16th century)

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic, and Byzantine traditions; this period was the preparation for the Renaissance. It is divided into two sub-periods: before the death of Giotto di Bondone and after (1337). The most important discoveries, the brightest masters live and work in the first period. The second segment is associated with the plague epidemic that struck Italy. At the end of the 13th century, the main temple building was erected in Florence - the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the author was Arnolfo di Cambio, then the work was continued by Giotto, who designed the campanile of the Florence Cathedral.

Benozzo Gozzoli depicted the adoration of the Magi as a solemn procession of the Medici courtiers

The earliest art of the proto-Renaissance appeared in sculpture (Niccolò and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano). Painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). Giotto became the central figure of painting. Renaissance artists considered him a reformer of painting. Giotto outlined the path along which its development took place: filling religious forms with secular content, a gradual transition from flat images to three-dimensional and relief ones, an increase in realism, introduced the plastic volume of figures into painting, and depicted the interior in painting.

Early Renaissance

The period of the so-called “Early Renaissance” covers the period from 1420 to 1500 in Italy. During these eighty years, art has not yet completely abandoned the traditions of the recent past, but has tried to mix into them elements borrowed from classical antiquity. Only later, and only little by little, under the influence of increasingly changing conditions of life and culture, do artists completely abandon medieval foundations and boldly use examples of ancient art, both in the general concept of their works and in their details.

While art in Italy was already resolutely following the path of imitation of classical antiquity, in other countries it long adhered to the traditions of the Gothic style. North of the Alps, and also in Spain, the Renaissance does not begin until the end of the 15th century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century.

High Renaissance

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Pieta (Michelangelo) (1499): in the traditional religious plot, simple human feelings are brought to the fore - maternal love and grief

The third period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is usually called the “High Renaissance”. It extends in Italy from approximately 1500 to 1527. At this time, the center of influence of Italian art from Florence moved to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne of Julius II - an ambitious, courageous, enterprising man who attracted the best artists of Italy to his court, occupied them with numerous and important works and gave others an example of love for art . Under this Pope and under his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are built there, magnificent sculptural works are created, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered the pearls of painting; at the same time, all three branches of art harmoniously go hand in hand, helping one another and mutually influencing each other. Antiquity is now studied more thoroughly, reproduced with greater rigor and consistency; calm and dignity replace the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the previous period; memories of the medieval completely disappear, and a completely classical imprint falls on all creations of art. But imitation of the ancients does not drown out their independence in artists, and with great resourcefulness and vividness of imagination they freely rework and apply to their work what they consider appropriate to borrow for themselves from ancient Greco-Roman art.

The work of three great Italian masters marks the pinnacle of the Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael Santi (1483-1520).

Late Renaissance

Renaissance crisis: the Venetian Tintoretto in 1594 depicted the Last Supper as an underground gathering in disturbing twilight reflections

The late Renaissance in Italy spans the period from the 1530s to the 1590s to the 1620s. Some researchers also consider the 1630s to be part of the Late Renaissance, but this position is controversial among art critics and historians. The art and culture of this time are so diverse in their manifestations that it is possible to reduce them to one denominator only with a large degree of convention. For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica writes that "The Renaissance as a coherent historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which looked warily at any free thought, including the glorification of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity as the cornerstones of Renaissance ideology. Worldview contradictions and a general feeling of crisis resulted in Florence in the “nervous” art of contrived colors and broken lines - mannerism. Mannerism reached Parma, where Correggio worked, only after the artist’s death in 1534. The artistic traditions of Venice had their own logic of development; until the end of the 1570s. Titian and Palladio worked there, whose work had little in common with the crisis in the art of Florence and Rome.

Northern Renaissance The Italian Renaissance had little influence on other countries until 1450. After 1500 the style spread across the continent, but many late Gothic influences persisted even into the Baroque era.

The Renaissance period in the Netherlands, Germany and France is usually identified as a separate style direction, which has some differences with the Renaissance in Italy, and is called the “Northern Renaissance”.

“Love Struggle in the Dream of Poliphilus” (1499) is one of the highest achievements of Renaissance printing

The most noticeable stylistic differences are in painting: unlike Italy, the traditions and skills of Gothic art were preserved in painting for a long time, less attention was paid to the study of ancient heritage and knowledge of human anatomy.

Outstanding representatives are Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Some works of late Gothic masters, such as Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, are also imbued with the pre-Renaissance spirit.

Renaissance - translated from French means "Rebirth". This is exactly what they called an entire era, symbolizing the intellectual and artistic flowering of European culture. The Renaissance began in Italy at the beginning of the 14th century, ushering in the end of the era of cultural decline and the Middle Ages), which was based on barbarism and ignorance, and, developing, reached its peak in the 16th century.

For the first time, a historiographer of Italian origin, painter and author of works about the lives of famous artists, sculptors and architects at the beginning of the 16th century wrote about the Renaissance.

Initially, the term “Renaissance” meant a certain period (the beginning of the 14th century) of the formation of a new wave of art. But over time, this concept acquired a broader interpretation and began to designate an entire era of development and formation of a culture opposite to feudalism.

The Renaissance period is closely associated with the emergence of new styles and techniques of painting in Italy. There is an interest in ancient images. Secularism and anthropocentrism are integral features filling the sculptures and paintings of that time. The Renaissance era replaces the asceticism that characterized the medieval era. An interest in everything worldly, the boundless beauty of nature and, of course, man comes. Renaissance artists approached the vision of the human body from a scientific point of view, trying to work out everything down to the smallest detail. The pictures become realistic. The painting is full of unique style. She established the basic canons of taste in art. A new worldview concept called “humanism” is widely spreading, according to which man is considered the highest value.

Renaissance period

The spirit of flourishing is widely expressed in the paintings of that time and fills painting with a special sensuality. The Renaissance links culture with science. Artists began to view art as a branch of knowledge, thoroughly studying human physiology and the surrounding world. This was done in order to more realistically display the truth of God's creation and the events taking place on their canvases. Much attention was paid to the depiction of religious subjects, which acquired earthly content thanks to the skill of geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci.

There are five stages in the development of Italian Renaissance art.

International (court) Gothic

Originating at the beginning of the 13th century, court Gothic (ducento) is characterized by excessive colorfulness, pomp and pretentiousness. The main type of paintings is miniature depicting altar scenes. Artists use tempera paints to create their paintings. The Renaissance is rich in famous representatives of this period, for example, such as the Italian painters Vittore Carpaccio and Sandro Botticelli.

Pre-Renaissance period (Proto-Renaissance)

The next stage, which is considered to anticipate the Renaissance, is called the Proto-Renaissance (trecento) and occurs at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century. In connection with the rapid development of the humanistic worldview, painting of this historical period reveals the inner world of a person, his soul, has a deep psychological meaning, but at the same time has a simple and clear structure. Religious plots fade into the background, and secular ones become leading, and the main character is a person with his feelings, facial expressions and gestures. The first portraits of the Italian Renaissance appear, taking the place of icons. Famous artists of this period are Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti.

Early Renaissance

At the beginning, the stage of the early Renaissance (quattrocento) begins, symbolizing the flowering of painting with the absence of religious subjects. The faces on the icons take on a human appearance, and landscape, as a genre in painting, occupies a separate niche. The founder of the artistic culture of the early Renaissance is Mosaccio, whose concept is based on intellectuality. His paintings have high realism. The great masters explored linear and aerial perspective, anatomy and used knowledge in their creations, in which one can see the correct three-dimensional space. Representatives of the early Renaissance are Sandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Pollaiolo, Verrocchio.

High Renaissance, or "Golden Age"

From the end of the 15th century, the stage of the high Renaissance (cinquecento) began and lasted relatively short-lived, until the beginning of the 16th century. Venice and Rome became its centers. Artists are expanding their ideological horizons and becoming interested in space. Man appears as a hero, perfect both spiritually and physically. Figures of this era are considered to be Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian Vecellio, Michelangelo Buonarrotti and others. The great artist Leonardo da Vinci was a “universal man” and was in constant search for truth. While engaged in sculpture, drama, and various scientific experiments, he managed to find time for painting. The creation “Madonna of the Rocks” clearly reflects the chiaroscuro style created by the painter, where the combination of light and shadow creates a three-dimensional effect, and the famous “La Giaconda” is made using the “smuffato” technique, creating the illusion of haze.

Late Renaissance

During the late Renaissance, which occurred at the beginning of the 16th century, the city of Rome was captured and plundered by German troops. This event marked the beginning of an era of extinction. The Roman cultural center ceased to be the patron of the most famous figures, and they were forced to leave for other cities in Europe. As a result of the growing inconsistency of views between the Christian faith and humanism at the end of the 15th century, mannerism became the predominant style characterizing painting. The Renaissance is gradually coming to an end, since the basis of this style is considered to be a beautiful manner that overshadows ideas about the harmony of the world, truth and the omnipotence of reason. Creativity becomes complex and takes on the features of confrontation between different directions. Brilliant works belong to such famous artists as Paolo Veronese, Tinoretto, Jacopo Pontormo (Carrucci).

Italy became a cultural center of painting and gifted the world with brilliant artists of this period, whose paintings still evoke emotional delight to this day.

In addition to Italy, the development of art and painting had an important place in other European countries. This movement received the name. Particularly worth noting is the painting of France during the Renaissance, which grew on its own soil. The end of the Hundred Years' War caused a rise in universal self-awareness and the development of humanism. There is realism, a connection with scientific knowledge, and an attraction to images of antiquity. All of the listed features bring it closer to Italian, but the presence of a tragic note in the paintings is a significant difference. Famous artists of the Renaissance in France are Enguerrand Charonton, Nicolas Froment, Jean Fouquet, Jean Clouet the Elder.

Renaissance in Europe.

Periodization and characteristic features of the Renaissance.

Renaissance (Renaissance) is an era in the history of European culture of the 13th-16th centuries, which marked the advent of the New Age.

As an era in European history, it was marked by many significant milestones - including the strengthening of the economic and social liberties of cities, spiritual ferment, which ultimately led to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Peasants' War in Germany, the formation of an absolutist monarchy (the largest in France), the beginning of the era of the Great Geographies discoveries, the invention of European printing, the discovery of the heliocentric system in cosmology, etc. However, its first sign, as it seemed to contemporaries, was the “flourishing of the arts” after long centuries of medieval “decline,” a flourishing that “revived” ancient artistic wisdom, precisely in this sense for the first time in the 16th century. The word rinascita (from which the French Renaissance and all its European analogues come) is used by the Italian artist and art critic Giorgio Vasari.

The periodization of the Renaissance is determined by the supreme role of art in its culture.

The stages of art history in Italy - the birthplace of the Renaissance - have long served as the main point of reference. Specially distinguished:

1. Proto-Renaissance, (“the era of Dante and Giotto”, ca. 1260-1320) - (from proto... and Renaissance), a period in the history of Italian art (13th - early 14th centuries), marked by the growth of secular realistic trends, an appeal to the ancient tradition . The earliest stage in the development of Renaissance art. The art of the Proto-Renaissance first manifested itself in sculpture, and then in painting. It has a particularly noticeable secular element, attention to historical themes, portraiture, everyday life and landscape genres. The work of the poet Dante, the architect Arnolfo di Cambio, the sculptor Niccolo Pisano, the painters Pietro Cavallini and especially Giotto largely paved the way for the art of the Renaissance. Within the framework of the proto-Renaissance there are:

Ducento(Italian ducento, lit. - two hundred, - Italian name of the 13th century) characterized by the growth of realistic trends within medieval art, the awakening of interest in the real world and ancient heritage.

trecento(Italian trecento, lit. - three hundred - Italian name of the 14th century) - a period of intensive development of humanism in Italian culture; Trecento art, along with the growth of Gothic features, is marked by the development of realistic quests

2. Early Renaissance or quattrocento(Italian quattrocento, lit. - four hundred - Italian name of the 15th century). became a time of experimental searches, when new trends actively interacted with the Gothic, overcoming and creatively transforming it. If in the Proto-Renaissance the artist worked based on intuition, then the Early Renaissance brought to the fore precise scientific knowledge. Art began to play the role of universal knowledge of the surrounding world. In the 15th century A number of scientific treatises on art appeared. The first theorist in the field of painting and architecture was Leon Battista Alberti. He developed the theory of linear perspective, a truthful depiction of the depth of space in a picture. In the practical use of linear perspective, the work of the artist Paolo Uccello is of great interest.

3. Cinquecento(Italian cinquecento, lit. - five hundred - Italian name of the 16th century) - the heyday of the culture of the High and Late Renaissance and the spread of mannerism.

High (Medium) Revival- period of the history of Italian art (late 15th - 1st quarter of the 16th centuries) - the classical phase of the artistic culture of the Renaissance. In the architecture, painting and sculpture of the High Renaissance (Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian), Renaissance realism and humanism, heroic ideals received a generalized expression full of titanic power; The art of the High Renaissance is characterized by monumental grandeur, a combination of sublime ideality, harmony with the depth and vital brightness of images.

Late Renaissance(until the end of the 16th century), the continuation of the traditions of the High Renaissance, a special phase of which was Mannerism.

The main features of the Renaissance culture:

Anthropocentrism is the view according to which man is the center of the Universe and the ultimate goal of the entire universe, i.e. the existing world was created for man.

Humanism is recognition of the value of man as an individual.

Reformation of the medieval Christian tradition.

Revival of ancient monuments of art and ancient philosophy

Formation of a new attitude towards the world.

The task of educating a “new man” is recognized as the main task of the era. The Greek word (“education”) is the clearest analogue of the Latin humanitas (where “humanism” comes from).

Humanitas in the Renaissance concept implies not only the mastery of ancient wisdom, to which great importance was attached, but also self-knowledge and self-improvement. Humanitarian-scientific and human, learning and everyday experience must be united in a state of ideal virtu (in Italian, both “virtue” and “valor” - thanks to which the word carries a medieval knightly connotation). Reflecting these ideals in a natural way, the art of the Renaissance gives the educational aspirations of the era convincing and sensual clarity. Antiquity (that is, the ancient heritage), the Middle Ages (with their religiosity, as well as their secular code of honor) and Modern times (which placed the human mind and its creative energy at the center of its interests) are here in a state of sensitive and continuous dialogue.

It is natural that the time, which attached central importance to “divine” human creativity, brought forward personalities in art who, with all the abundance of talents of that time, became the personification of entire eras of national culture (personal “titans,” as they were romantically called later). Giotto became the personification of the Proto-Renaissance; the opposite aspects of the Quattrocento - constructive severity and soulful lyricism - were respectively expressed by Masaccio, Angelico and Botticelli. The "Titans" of the Middle (or "High") Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo are artists - symbols of the great turn of the New Age as such. The most important stages of Italian Renaissance architecture - early, middle and late - are monumentally embodied in the works of F. Brunelleschi, D. Bramante and A. Palladio.

Italian Renaissance

Early Renaissance in Italy.

14-15th century for Italy it is a time of rapid economic development. Italian cities had a fairly developed industry in the form of manufactories and were large trading centers connecting Italy with the countries of Europe and the East. In the cities there were banks that conducted operations of international importance. With the advent of a new attitude to trade and the emergence of banking houses, cities revived and flourished: Pisa, Milan, Genoa, Venice, Naples, Florence.

The industrial, commercial and usurious bourgeoisie of Italian cities needed the development of the exact sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics for their economic activities. At the same time, amassing huge fortunes, she sought to create comfortable living conditions for herself and decorate her palaces with works of art. The bourgeoisie and rulers (kings, popes, republican lords) needed educated officials, notaries, doctors, teachers - and in general, people of mental labor who could conduct trade and credit affairs within the country and abroad.

Thus, along with the emerging bourgeoisie, an intelligentsia appeared in Italian cities: writers, philosophers, historians, poets, musicians, architects, artists, engineers, doctors, etc., who had a decisive influence on the formation of the new ideology.

One of the most important features of the new ideology was individualism. The emerging bourgeoisie, strong and rich, now argued that it was not nobility and birth, but the personal qualities of an individual Man: his intelligence, dexterity, courage, enterprise and energy that ensure success in life. The worldview of the figures of the new culture, which was expressed in their philosophical, political, scientific and literary views, is usually designated by the term “humanism”. Because a person was now viewed as the smith of his own happiness, the creator of all values, moving forward in defiance of fate and achieving success through the power of his mind, fortitude, activity, and optimism. A person should enjoy nature, love, art, science. Representatives of the new ideology were alien to the idea of ​​the sinfulness of man, in particular his body; on the contrary, the harmony of the human soul and body becomes recognized.

Italian society aroused a deep interest in ancient civilization and culture, where even the gods were endowed with a human appearance and human character. Hence the attempt to resurrect a bygone culture and place it on a pedestal.

Cultural figures tried in their works to imitate the style of Latin writers of the “golden age” of Roman literature, especially Cicero. There was an interest in Greek literature and the Greek language. Florence and Venice became the spiritual centers of the Italian Renaissance.

The Early Renaissance is inextricably linked with the names of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio.

The founder of humanism in Italy is considered to be Francesco Petrarch(1304-1374). He was a collector of ancient manuscripts and monuments, a historian, and a promoter of ancient Roman culture (he tried to write the history of Rome in biographies (“On Famous Men” contains 21 biographies of great Romans from Romulus to Caesar)). All of Petrarch’s works can be divided into two unequal parts: Italian poetry (“Canzoniere”) and various works written in Latin. “Canzoniere” (“Book of Songs”) includes sonnets, canzones, ballads, madrigals dedicated to Petrarch’s love for Laura during her life and after her death; several poems of political and religious content; and the allegorical picture of the poet's love - Triumphs, which depicts the victory of love over man, chastity over love, death over chastity, glory over death, time over glory and eternity over time. "Canzoniere", which survived until the beginning of the 17th century. OK. 200 editions and commented by a whole mass of scientists and poets determine the significance of Petrarch in the history of Italian and world literature. He created a truly artistic form for Italian lyric poetry: poetry for the first time is for him the inner history of individual feeling. This interest in the inner life of man runs like a red thread through the Latin works of Petrarch, which determine his significance as a humanist.

Petrarch's contemporary Giavanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) became famous thanks to the Decameron written in Italian - a collection of short stories on themes of Florentine city life, which emphasizes the human right to happiness, to sensual joys, to love that knows no social barriers. The collection contains folk humor and freethinking, criticism of the ignorance and hypocrisy of the Catholic clergy. Boccaccio's "Decameron" became a model of perfection of language and style for Italian authors, a classic of world literature. The Decameron presents one hundred stories told on behalf of noble Florentine ladies and young men; The narrative takes place against the backdrop of a plague epidemic (“Black Death”), from which noble society is hiding in a country estate, and is full of subtle psychologism and unexpected collisions.

Together with Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are the creators of the literary Italian language. Their works in the 15th century. were translated into many European languages ​​and took pride of place in world literature.

The art of the early Renaissance was represented by new painting, sculpture and architecture.

An outstanding master of the early Renaissance, who continued the realistic tradition of Giotto, was the Florentine artist Masaccio(real name Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Cassai) (1401-1428). He painted on church and religious subjects (mainly wall paintings inside churches), but gave them realistic features with the help of chiaroscuro, plastic physicality, three-dimensionality, compositional linkage with the landscape, and transferred the action of religious subjects to the streets of Florence. For the first time in wall painting (the fresco “Trinity” in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence) he creates a centrally perspective structure, giving the composition majesty and at the same time proportionality to human scale. His work became a model for the work of subsequent generations of artists.

Artist Sandro Botticelli was close to the Medici court and the humanist circles of Florence. He wrote works on religious and mythological themes (“Spring”, “Birth of Venus”, around 1483-1484), although his images are flat, they are marked by spiritual poetry, the play of linear rhythms, subtle color, and a mood of sadness. But the sadness of Venus and the condescending smile of Spring are addressed to the audience, to his world, and not to the heavenly transparency as in the icons.

The largest sculptor of the early Renaissance - Florentine Donatello- reflecting on the experience of ancient art, for the first time he created classical forms and types of Renaissance sculpture: a new type of round statue and sculptural group (“St. George”, “David”, “Judith and Holofernes”), a monumental equestrian monument (statue of the condottiere Gattamelata in Padua - the first equestrian monument of the Renaissance), a picturesque relief (the altar of the Church of Sant'Antonio in Padua), a sculptural portrait, a majestic tombstone (the tomb of Antipope John XXIII in the Florentine Baptistery - a classic example for all later Renaissance tombs). His sculpture "David" is the first completely nude figure created during the Renaissance. The forms of Donatello's sculptures acquire plastic clarity, the volumes become solid, the typical expression of faces is replaced by portraiture, the folds of clothes naturally envelop the body and echo its curves and movement. He tried to give his sculptures the features of real people: Christ looks like a peasant, and Florentine citizens are depicted as evangelists and prophets. In creating sculptures, Donatello aims to reproduce the new ideal of the era - the individual heroic personality.

Architecture achieved great success in the early Renaissance. If the beginning of the Renaissance was marked by the construction of the symbol of the city community - the cathedral, then by the end of the 15th century. The ruler's palace becomes the center of the city. The square turned from a place of public assembly into a front yard.

A type of secular palace (palazzo) is formed: quadrangular in plan, closed around a courtyard, which then becomes open on one side or is separated only by a portico. The memory of medieval fortress architecture was preserved in the use of masonry made of rough stone blocks, which later became a common decorative element (“rust”), mainly when laying the lower ground floors.

Free development is being replaced by planned development. The new architecture of the Renaissance - huge buildings, high domes, grandiose colonnade, required strict mathematical calculations. Thanks to the improvement of construction technology, the construction of large buildings, cathedrals and palaces began to be carried out in a shorter period than in the Middle Ages, sometimes within several years.

Major architects who created the Renaissance style of architecture were Fillippo Brunulleschi and Leon Battista Alberti.

Three cities became the main centers of new art in Northern Italy: Padua, Ferrara, and Venice.

Padua was one of the oldest university cities in Europe. The University of Padua, founded in 1222, attracted many students from different countries. The heritage of antiquity was intensively studied here. A circle of humanists, experts and lovers of antiquity was created at the university. Here they collected manuscripts of ancient authors and collected works of art. Dante and Petrarch visited Padua. Giotto and Donatello came here to work and had a strong influence on local artists.

In Ferrara, the center of humanistic culture became the court of local rulers - the Dukes of Este.

Venice is a republic of merchants who trade with the whole world and concentrate in their hands most of the trade turnover between East and West. The Venetians borrow everything beautiful from the Muslim East, decrepit Byzantium, and “barbarian” Germany, and try to turn their city into the most brilliant and magnificent in the world. And financial well-being allows them not to skimp in the implementation of their plans.

High Renaissance.

At the turn of the 15th – 16th centuries. The Italian Renaissance entered a new phase of development. At the end of the 15th - first decade of the 16th century. marks the highest rise of art. This stage was called the High Renaissance.

In the first decade of the 16th century. The center of Italian artistic life moves to Rome. Back at the end of the 15th century. The Papal States began to play an important role among the largest Italian states. Less developed economically than Florence or Venice, it had high international importance (as a center of Catholicism). Dreaming of uniting all of Italy under the rule of Rome, the popes tried to turn it into a leading political and cultural center. This was facilitated by the patronage policy of the popes, which attracted the best artists to Rome. And the historical past of the “eternal city” perfectly suited its new role. The memory of the greatness of the Roman Empire, which did not die throughout the Middle Ages, now acquired special significance. In this regard, at the beginning of the 16th century. interest in ancient history and culture revived. It was in Rome, with its numerous monuments that always attracted artists, that the classical heritage was perceived fully and deeply.

The art of the High Renaissance absorbed the ideas of humanism; it was imbued with faith in the creative powers of man, in the unlimited possibilities of his capabilities, in the rational structure of the world. At the same time, the naive narrative and everydayism common in Quattrocento art is being replaced by the problem of civic duty and heroic deed. The leitmotif of culture becomes the image of a beautiful, harmoniously developed, strong in body and spirit person, rising above the level of everyday routine.

At the beginning of the 16th century. a new type of synthesis of arts reaches harmonious unity, which, unlike the medieval one (when all types of art are subordinated to architecture), assumes the equality of painting and sculpture in relation to architecture. The liberation of painting and sculpture from strict subordination to architecture leads to the isolation and development of new genres of art: portraiture, landscape and historical painting.

The formation of High Renaissance art began at the end of the 15th century. – his cradle was Florence, where such great masters as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo came from. The traditions of the Florentine school and early Quattrocento were the basis of 16th century art.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Rome took the leading position in the development of architecture, painting and sculpture. The architecture of gardens, parks and country residences of the nobility is being developed. Utopian city projects are emerging. The distinctive qualities of High Renaissance architecture are: monumentality, impressive grandeur inspired by ancient Rome and grandeur of plans. This was most clearly manifested in the reconstruction of the Vatican and the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral, the architect of which was Donato D'Angelo Bramante(1444-1514), who with his creativity determined the development of architecture in the 16th century. The small chapel of Temppietto, built by Bramante, is one of the best works of architecture of the mature Renaissance; it is distinguished by the integrity of its composition, the sophistication of its proportions, and the depiction of details. Bramante planned to make the main cathedral of Rome (St. Peter's Cathedral) also according to a centric plan, and he was guided not by practical considerations (convenience during worship), but by the concept of centric composition, favorite during this period, striving for balance, stability and completeness. But the construction of the cathedral began in 1506, so Bramante did not have time to complete the cathedral and the following were successively involved in the construction: Raphael, Peruzzi, Antonio da Sangalo the Younger, Michelangelo.

Many cultural figures were the embodiment of “homo universale” - a universal person, gifted in all spheres of creative and scientific activity, creating masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture, writing treatises on various scientific topics.

Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519) - the greatest painter, sculptor, architect, scientist and engineer. Leonardo left few paintings, as scientific interests consumed a lot of time and energy.

Already in his first paintings, the main features of Leonardo’s art are present: interest in psychological solutions, laconicism, emphasis on spatial arrangement and three-dimensionality of forms.

Combining the development of new means of artistic language with theoretical communications, Leonardo created a harmonious image of a person that meets humanistic ideals; Thus, he summed up the experience of the Quattrocento and laid the foundations of the art of the High Renaissance.

In the service of the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Moro, Leonardo da Vinci acts as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and organizer of court extravaganzas. The creative flowering of Leonardo the painter also occurred during this same period. In “Madonna of the Rocks,” the master’s favorite subtle chiaroscuro (“sfumato”) appears as a new halo that replaces the medieval halos: this is equally a divine-human and natural mystery, where the rocky grotto, reflecting Leonardo’s geological observations, plays less dramatic role than the figures of saints in the foreground. In addition, Leonardo introduces a new motif into Italian painting - the image of the Virgin Mary with children in a landscape.

In the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Leonardo creates the painting “The Last Supper”. In “The Last Supper”, psychological conflict and mathematical calculation are introduced into art in the construction of composition. The high religious and ethical content of the image, which represents the stormy, contradictory reaction of Christ’s disciples to his words about the impending betrayal, is expressed in clear mathematical laws of the composition, powerfully subjugating not only the painted, but also the real architectural space. The clear stage logic of facial expressions and gestures, the combination of strict rationality with an inexplicable mystery made “The Last Supper” one of the most significant works in the history of world art. Also involved in architecture, Leonardo develops various versions of the “ideal city” and the central-domed temple.

In the portrait of Mona Lisa (“La Gioconda”), the image of a wealthy city dweller appears as the embodiment of a sublime ideal of femininity, without losing its intimate human charm; An important element of the composition is the cosmically vast landscape, melting into a cold haze. “La Gioconda” forms the basis for all subsequent Italian portraiture.

Among the late works of Leonardo da Vinci is “Saint Anne with Mary and the Child Christ,” which completes the master’s search in the field of light-air perspective and harmonious pyramidal composition. Leonardo's last painting, “Saint John the Baptist,” is full of erotic ambiguity: the young Forerunner here looks not like a holy ascetic, but like a tempter full of sensual charm.

The most important source for studying the views of Leonardo da Vinci are his notebooks and manuscripts (about 7 thousand sheets). These notes were systematized after the artist’s death by his student F. Melzi in his “Treatise on Painting.” This work had a huge impact on European artistic practice and theoretical thought.

A tireless experimental scientist and a brilliant artist, Leonardo da Vinci remained in the tradition as a personality-symbol of the era.

Rafael Santi(1483-1520) - artist of synthesis and harmony. His art is distinguished by the features of balance of mind and feelings, reality and ideals, impeccable clarity of composition and forms; he is the classic embodiment of the High Renaissance. Already in his early paintings (“Madonna Conestabile”, “The Dream of a Knight”, “The Three Graces”, “The Betrothal of Mary”), Raphael’s inherent harmonious talent was evident, his ability to find an impeccable harmony of forms, rhythms, colors, movements, gestures.

He glorified the earthly existence of man, the harmony of spiritual and physical forces in the paintings of stanzas (ceremonial chambers) of the Vatican, achieving an impeccable sense of proportion, rhythm, proportions, euphony of color, unity of figures and majestic architectural backgrounds. In the majestic multi-figure compositions on the walls (uniting from 40 to 60 characters) “Disputa” (“Dispute about Communion”), “School of Athens”, “Parnassus”, without repeating a single figure or pose, not a single movement, Raphael weaves them together flexible, free, natural rhythm, flowing from figure to figure, from one group to another. In “The Miraculous Escape of the Apostle Peter from Prison,” Raphael, with a pictorial subtlety unusual for an artist of Central Italy, conveys the complex effects of night lighting - the dazzling radiance surrounding the angel, the cold light of the moon, the reddish flame of torches and their reflections on the armor of the guards.

Among the best works of Raphael the monumentalist are also the paintings of the vaults of the Chigi Chapel in Rome and the fresco “The Triumph of Galatea” (Villa Farnesina, Rome) full of pagan cheerfulness.

One of the main themes of Raphael's painting was the Madonna and Child. In his works “Madonna with the Goldfinch”, “Madonna in the Greens”, “The Beautiful Gardener”, he uses the same motif - he depicts a young mother and small children playing at her feet - Christ and John the Baptist - against the backdrop of an idyllic landscape; he unites figures with a stable, harmoniously balanced rhythm of the compositional pyramid, beloved by the Renaissance masters. A new, polyphonically complex interpretation of the image of the Madonna found its most complete expression in one of Raphael’s most perfect creations - the Sistine Madonna altarpiece.

Raphael left a noticeable mark on Italian architecture. He participated in the construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. Among his buildings is the small church of San Eligio degli Orefici with its austere interior, the Chigi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, the interior of which is an example of a unity of architectural design and decoration developed by Raphael, rare even for the Renaissance, - paintings, mosaics, sculptures.

Michelangelo Buonarotti(1475-1564) - sculptor, painter, architect, poet. Michelangelo far outlived his illustrious contemporaries (Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael) and witnessed the humiliation of Italy and the collapse of all ideals and hopes. Therefore, with the greatest force he expressed the deeply human ideals of the High Renaissance, full of heroic pathos, as well as the tragic feeling of the crisis of the humanistic worldview during the Late Renaissance.