A message on the topic of early Renaissance art. Renaissance artists and their paintings

Filippo Brunellesco. 1377 – 1446. Orphanage house (hospital) - Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. 1421-44.

Brunellesco. Pazzi Chapel in Florence. Started in 1429.

Leon Battista Alberti. 1404 – 1472.
Central figure of the Renaissance along with Brunellesco.
Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. 1446-51.

Alberti. Facade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. 1456-70.

Sculpture in Florence

Lorenzo Ghiberti. 1378 – 1455.
Eastern doors of the Baptistery in Florence. 1425-52. Gilded bronze.

Ghiberti.

Joseph's story.

Ghiberti. Eastern doors of the Baptistery in Florence. Noah and the Flood. 1425-52. Fragment.

Andrea Verocchio (Verocchio).
1435 – 1488.David. Bronze. 1476.

Painting of Florence

Masaccio. 1401 – 1428.

Saint Peter healing the sick with his shadow. 1425-26.

Fra Filippo Lippi. 1406 – 1469.

Polaiolo, Antonio. 1429 – 1493. Hercules and Antaeus.

Andrea Mantegna. 1431 – 1506. Dead Christ. 1490.

Mantegna. Lodovico Gonzago, Duke of Mantua and his family. Camera degli Sposi. Fragment of the northern wall. 1471-74.

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….….3

1. Giotto’s innovation…………………………………………………….....6

2. Creativity of Masaccio: distinctive features art of the early Renaissance………………………………………………………………………………..17

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………25

References……………………………………………………………...28

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………...29

Introduction

Renaissance culture arose in the second half of the 14th century. And it continued to develop throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, gradually covering all European countries one after another. The culture of the Renaissance reflected the specifics of the transitional era. The Renaissance, with which Florence and its society were closely connected, is undoubtedly one of the brightest in the history of Western European civilization. She not only showed the world a whole galaxy of creative artists and humanist thinkers, but to this day contributes to the development of scientific thought, the formation high culture, remains a great teacher of beauty

The formation of a new culture became the task, first of all, of the humanistic intelligentsia, which was very diverse and heterogeneous in its origin and social status. The ideas put forward by humanists can hardly be characterized as “bourgeois” or “early bourgeois”. In the culture of the Italian Renaissance, the core of a single new worldview developed, the specific features of which determine its “renaissance”. It was generated by the new needs of life itself, as was the task set by humanists to achieve more high level education for a fairly wide segment of society.

The emergence of the prerequisites for a humanistic worldview is increasingly associated with progressive trends in the development of the spiritual culture of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. Urban non-church schools and the universities that emerged on their basis became the focus of secular knowledge, the desire for which reflected the needs of social development. In the early Renaissance, the question begins to arise about what art should be - secular or social, how anthropocentric it is, about the place of man in art. There is a struggle between the secular and the religious, which has determined the art of our days. There is a rethinking of man, his role and place in the social universe. This is a time of revolution, the novelty of which lies in the discovery of the world and man. The Renaissance gave a secular and social character to art. It is necessary to understand how much art should be secular, how public. The era of the Proto-Renaissance is a struggle between the secular and the religious. Religious subjects in Italian painting play a predominant role. Nowadays, Russia is a secular state in which there is a surge in religiosity. The country is undergoing a religious renaissance and therefore we are interested in understanding the religious and secular renaissance.

The purpose of the work is to show the essence of the culture of the Pre-Renaissance era, to find out what new features appeared in painting in comparison with the Middle Ages.

To do this, it is necessary to solve the following problems: to study the new features of Italian painting in comparison with the Middle Ages, using the example of the innovation of Giotto’s work and the work of Masaccio.

Chronological framework course work- This is the period from the XIII to the XV centuries. The era of the Proto-Renaissance or Ducento Trecento is 1237-1380, since Giotto’s work belongs specifically to this period and the era of the Early Renaissance or Cinquecento is 1420-1490. - period of Masaccio's creativity.

M. Dvorak, in “The History of Italian Art in the Renaissance,” believes that Giotto’s innovation lay in the compositional principle underlying each image. N. Lazarev in his “General History of Arts” writes that during the period of Giotto’s work it was too early to talk about a breakthrough as such, since at that time the boundaries between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages were completely erased. His point of view is very similar to that of R. Longhi. The author in “From Cimabue to Morandi” tried to trace the complex paths of development of painting of this period, which, in his opinion, was under the strongest Byzantine influence and hardly managed to find its own national language. M.A. Gukovsky in the “Italian Renaissance” emphasized that it was Giotto’s works that were endowed with truthfulness in their depiction of nature, D.S. Berestovskaya’s “Artistic Culture of the Renaissance,” on the contrary, believes that it is Masaccio who represents typicality, sublime through the study of nature. A. V. Stepanov in “Art of the Renaissance. Italy of the 14th-15th centuries”, outlining the main biographical data, strives at the same time to illuminate the creative path of Masaccio and talk about the originality of his talent using the example of an analysis of the most significant, landmark works.

1 Giotto's innovation

Since the mid-15th century, the uncompromising international confrontation between Islam and Christianity has ceased. Muslims finally took possession of the lands of the southern Mediterranean, and after the capture of Constantinople (1453) they finally ousted Christians from Asia. Christians, in turn, finally ousted Muslims from Catholic (Western) Europe, destroying the Cordoba Caliphate on the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 (the year Columbus discovered America). The entire population of Europe was finally Christianized. An important historical factor was the decline of the influence of the church on public and public life Western Europe. By this time, Christianity had become ideologically mothballed and, in principle, turned out to be incapable of further progress: development or improvement. Added to this was the internal moral decay of the church hierarchy, as a result of which it lost its former power over secular sovereigns. In turn, feudalism, as a socio-political system, has not yet exhausted the reserves of its progressive development. Moreover, precisely to the time we are considering for the heyday of feudalism. Under these conditions, secular power is freed from ecclesiastical supremacy over itself. The Church and Christianity are being pushed out of the way historical progress to marginal (side, secondary, only accompanying) positions. The Middle Ages put God at the center of their worldview and all spiritual life, it was Theocentric, and the Renaissance, instead of God, put Man at the center, that is, it became Anthropocentric. Therefore, the Renaissance is also called the era of Humanism.

The spiritual culture of the masses during the Middle Ages was formed by the oral preaching of churchmen. Complete illiteracy reigned. The overwhelming majority of priests perceived the content of religious teachings by ear from their wise hierarchs and theologians, since they themselves were illiterate. In 1445, the German inventor Johann Gutenberg (1399-1468) created a printing press on which he printed the text of the Bible. The Church - both Orthodox and Catholic - cursed printing and burned printed Bibles along with their owners. It is no coincidence that the Middle Ages were nicknamed the centuries of darkness and obscurantism. The Renaissance contrasted medieval lack of culture and illiteracy with enlightenment. That is why the Renaissance is also called the Age of Enlightenment. Figures of the Enlightenment, in addition to the Bible, publish the works of ancient philosophers, courses of their lectures, write and distribute on national languages their works.

The Renaissance, the culture of Optimism, became famous for the flourishing of Realistic art, which replaced the iconographic, conventional and mystified art of the Middle Ages, the culture of pessimism.

The Renaissance culture arose earlier than other countries in Italy. Against the backdrop of the still strong Byzantine and Gothic traditions, features of a new art began to appear - the future art of the Renaissance. That is why this period of its history was called the Proto-Renaissance (that is, it prepared the offensive of the Renaissance; from the Greek “protos” - “first”). There was no similar transition period in any of the European countries. In Italy itself, proto-Renaissance art existed only in Tuscany and Rome.

Its origin and rapid progressive development are due to the historical characteristics of the country. At this time, Italy reached a very high level of development compared to other European countries. The free cities of Italy gained economic power. The independent cities of Northern and Central Italy, rich and prosperous, extremely active economically and politically, became the main base for the formation of a new, Renaissance culture, secular in its general orientation.

Of no small importance was the fact that clearly defined classes did not exist in Italy. This feature contributed to the creation of a special climate: the freedom of full citizens, their equality before the law, valor and enterprise, which opened the way to social and economic prosperity, were valued here.

The era of Ducento, i.e. The 13th century was the beginning of the Renaissance culture of Italy - the Proto-Renaissance. The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine traditions (in medieval Italy, Byzantine influences were very strong along with Gothic). Even the greatest innovators of this time were not absolute innovators: it is not easy to trace in their work a clear boundary separating the “old” from the “new.” Symptoms of the Proto-Renaissance in the fine arts did not always mean a break in Gothic traditions. Sometimes these traditions are simply imbued with a more cheerful and secular beginning, while maintaining the old iconography, the old interpretation of forms. The true Renaissance “discovery of personality” has not yet reached here.

New phenomena in the culture of the 12th century. – the beginning of the struggle for the liberation of philosophy from the authority of faith, interest in the problems of man and his place in the world, a call for the unification of “human” and “natural” (humanitarian and natural science knowledge) into unified system sciences, the starting point of which should be reality, and not its verbal meaning, can be considered as the harbingers of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance. The struggle for new, humanistic ideals, waged by a small circle of the first humanists, could not but cause resistance from representatives of the old ideology, and primarily from the clergy clean water, who, not without reason, saw in humanism a serious danger for everything they lived and preached.

The constituent elements of the proto-Renaissance worldview are diverse: it was nourished by the Franciscan heresy, and the opposite atheistic, “Epicurean”, and Roman antiquity, and French Gothic, and Provençal poetry. And, as a general result, the idea of ​​revival was maturing - not just the revival of ancient culture, but the revival and enlightenment of man. She inspires Giotto's work.

The difference in the interpretation of the religious image, which for early Italian art remained the focus of attention of both artists and sculptors, will become clear when comparing some Ducento and Trecento paintings, among which stand out the works of the outstanding master of the Siena school Duccio di Buoninsegna and, especially, his younger and great contemporary Giotto, that “Giotto, the Florentine,” who, “after a long study” of nature, “surpassed not only the masters of his age, but all of them for many past centuries,” as Leonardo da Vinci said of him.

Giotto was ahead of his time, and for a long time after him, Florentine artists imitated his art. Giotto is the first among the titans great era Italian art. Vasari wrote about him: “And truly the greatest miracle was that that age, both rude and inept, had the power to manifest itself through Giotto so wisely that the drawing, about which the people of that time had little or no idea, thanks to him completely returned to life "

Petrarch, although he preferred the Sienese due to his literary inclinations, noted that the beauty of Giotto’s art affects the mind more than the eye. Boccaccio, Sacchetti, Villani join in the same praise: Giotto revived painting, which had been in decline for centuries, giving it naturalness and attractiveness.

Giotto di Bondone (1266/76 - 1337) was born in Florence and moved to Rome at the end of the 13th century, in addition to these cities he worked in Naples, Bologna and Milan. According to sources of the 14th century. studied with Cimabue. The most profound experience of the undoubtedly impressionable young man was the discovery that the only eternal and true things in the world are man and nature. Giotto, with his uniquely laconic depiction of reality, enriched art with genuine human feelings and traits. This kind of worldview of the artist probably developed not only under the influence of the Dominican school, not only due to the influence of the Franciscan cult of feelings and contemporary literature, but also under the influence of his teacher Cimabue.

He worked in Florence, Rome (c. 1300), Padua (c. 1305-08), Naples (c. 1328-33), Milan (c. 1335-36) and other cities in Italy. In 1327, together with his students, he enrolled in the workshop of Florentine painters. In 1334 he was appointed head of the construction of the Florence Cathedral and its bell tower (campanile; by the time of his death its first tier had been erected).

Reformer of Italian painting, Giotto discovered new stage in the history of painting throughout Europe and was the forerunner of Renaissance art. Its historical place is determined by overcoming medieval Italo-Byzantine traditions. Giotto created the appearance of the world, adequate to the real one in its basic properties - materiality and spatial extent. Using a number of techniques known in his time - angular angles, simplified, so-called. antique perspective, he gave the stage space the illusion of depth, clarity and clarity of structure. At the same time, he developed techniques for tonal light-and-shadow modeling of forms using gradual lightening of the main, rich colorful tone, which made it possible to give the forms almost sculptural volume and at the same time preserve the radiant purity of color and its decorative functions.

Giotto's most remarkable work is the painting in the Chapel del Arena in Padua, built on the site of an ancient circus.

Like illustrations or slowly changing film frames, these frescoes seem to lead a calm story, linking scenes of disparate plots into one harmonious whole. He introduces new details into old medieval stories. He humanizes them so much and gives them such vital clarity that by this alone he already anticipates the ideas of the Renaissance. Giotto's main merit lies in a new interpretation of the image of a person, which becomes vital and real in him, endowed with a more subtle psyche than in the art of antiquity.

Giotto's art is truly classical art, and not an imitation of classical forms. Evidence of this is a generalized view of reality (albeit understood as the relationship of the human to the divine), expressed in the balance of closed masses, the universality of the display of history, and the completeness of the transmission in visible form of various contents without any hints.

The range of human experiences in Giotto’s work is quite limited. Man is just beginning to gain his dignity. He does not yet know the proud self-awareness, the ideal personality of humanists. Inextricably linked with other people, in this linkage he also reveals his dependence. Hence the main range of his experiences: hope, humility, love, sadness. Only curiosity and clarity of thought allow a person to rise above his fate. This thirst for knowledge was also familiar to Dante, who even in Paradise, beholding the fiery sky, feels in his chest an unbearable desire to know the root cause of things.

One of the most touching images of a person created by Giotto is Christ in the scene “The Kiss of Judas” [Appendix 1]. The majestic figure of Christ occupies central place among a crowd of warriors and students. On the left, Judas approaches Christ to kiss him. The face of Christ is marked with the seal of the greatness of the Almighty, the terrible judge, but not the suffering God. In this fresco, Giotto achieves the most complete artistic penetration. In the center of the composition, among menacingly raised spears and torches, he places two profiles - Christ and Judas, they look very closely into each other's eyes. One feels that Christ penetrates to the bottom of the dark soul of the traitor and reads it as if in an open book - and he is afraid of the unshakable calm of Christ’s gaze. This is perhaps the first and perhaps the best depiction of a silent duel of views in the history of art - the most difficult for a painter. Giotto loved and knew how to convey silent, meaningful pauses, moments when the flow inner life as if it stops, having reached the highest climax.

The face of Christ in “The Kiss of Judas” is remarkable for its exceptionally regular features. The profile of Christ is distinguished by the proportionality of the proportions of ancient sculpture. Giotto rose here to the heights of classical beauty. Giotto goes further than the ancient ideal of human personality. He imagines a perfect person not in a happy and serene existence, but in effective relationships with other people.

Giotto managed to combine the ideal of classical beauty with the deepest fullness of human spiritual life. The new pictorial system and understanding of the painting as a scenic unity gave him the opportunity to embody the image of a perfect personality in its effective relationship to the world around it and, first of all, to other people.

“Lamentation of Christ” [Appendix 2] is one of Giotto’s most mature compositional solutions. Giotto perceives the event of death epically, with a sense of the inevitability of what has happened. “The Lamentation of Christ” is a scene of people grieving for him saying goodbye to the deceased. Christ lies like a lifeless corpse, but retains all the nobility and greatness of a hero who has finally found peace. Elements of spatiality have another purpose in Giotto: they connect individual parts of the composition that are distant from each other and determine their interaction. Such, for example, is the rocky wall stretching down in the Lamentation of Christ. These elements definitely become carriers of ideas and receive symbolic meaning. The withered tree in this fresco symbolizes the fate of Jesus.

Composition, being nothing more than the interaction of individual components subordinate to a leading, precisely formulated idea, thus determines the relationship between figures, perspective and landscape. But in Giott's concept main theme is, after all, a person and his actions. Giotto's man is a hero full of self-esteem, who combines breadth and restraint. Giotto's images do not resemble complex individuals, but rather resemble characters in Gothic art, standing between allegory and reality. In Giotto, each figure is a type, the personification of some moral property or character trait, purposeful will. Each such character in Giotto has his own strictly defined position and sphere of action.

The whole scene is conceived as a single whole. The artist captures the action with a clear gaze and builds a dramatic scene, comparing various shades of emotional experiences. The focal point of the composition is the farewell of the Mother of God, who fell to the corpse of her beloved son. This is despair that finds no words, no tears, no gestures. Giotto clearly sees physical movements in their inextricable unity with the mental life of a person. Giotto objectifies the mental life of a person. This gives such inner calm and cheerfulness to his most tragic scenes. This position also determines Giotto’s compositional decisions, his desire to construct the picture in such a way that the arrangement of the figures in the viewer’s perception is captured in the form of a visual, clear spectacle.

The image of a man courageously enduring his trials and calmly looking at the world, runs like a leitmotif through Giotto’s Padua cycle. Giotto's man resists the blows of fate, like an ancient stoic. He is ready to humbly endure his hardships, without losing heart, without becoming bitter against people. Such an understanding lifted a person, affirmed his independent existence, and gave him vigor.

Giotto's foundations of human heroism lay in his active attitude to life. The man Giotto finds the application of his active forces in relations with other people, in his inextricable connection with the world of his own kind.

The range of human experiences in Giotto’s work is quite limited. Man is just beginning to gain his dignity. He does not yet know the proud self-awareness, the ideal personality of humanists. Inextricably linked with other people, in this linkage he also reveals his dependence. Hence the main range of his experiences: hope, humility, love, sadness. Only curiosity and clarity of thought allow a person to rise above his fate.

We can conclude that Giotto became the greatest transformer of art. Historical meaning His innovation for the development of fine art lies in the new techniques that he began to use, in a new understanding of man and nature. Giotto sought to construct the picture in such a way that the arrangement of the figures in the viewer’s perception would be captured in the form of a visual, clear spectacle. Giotto introduced a sense of three-dimensional space into painting and began to paint three-dimensional figures, modeling with chiaroscuro. He was one of the first artists to put man at the center of his works.

Humanism as a principle of Renaissance culture and as a broad social movement is based on an anthropocentric picture of the world; a new center is established in the entire ideological sphere - a powerful and beautiful personality.

During the Renaissance, the ancient ideal of man, the understanding of beauty as harmony and proportion, the realistic language of plastic arts, in contrast to medieval symbolism, were revived. Renaissance figures spoke about medieval culture severely, since the culture of the Renaissance as a whole was formed as a protest, a rejection of medieval culture, its dogmatism and scholasticism. The attitude towards theology was negative. But the denial of the church did not yet mean the denial of religion.

In contrast to the repetition and uniformity characteristic of medieval art, he introduces a complex rhythm, where the figures on the left stand close to each other. This rhythmic composition brings to mind ancient, or more precisely, Greek processions, like the Parthenon frieze.

First of all, it is Giotto’s creations that mark the beginning of a decisive turning point from the artistic systems of the Middle Ages to the creative perception of man of modern times. There is a departure of the artist from the authority of cult dogma, from the predominance of abstract spirituality in the content of images to fundamentally new creative attitudes. They are based on recognition of the reality of the world and the possibility of transmitting high ethical ideas based on real human feelings and actions. Since Giottian art marks the boundary between two types of artistic worldview, Giotto's reforms represent one of the decisive points in the world history of art. Unlike the Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic masters, Giotto’s color is subordinated to chiaroscuro modeling. It loses its symbolic and ornamental meaning in order to help identify volumes and clarify the composition. In other words, it serves the desire to affirm the reality of the image. The coloring of the frescoes is laconic; the blue background of the sky and brownish-gray shades of the earth, rocks, buildings, and bright silhouettes of clothes dominate. Perhaps the color scheme of Giotto’s paintings reveals a desire to counteract the exquisite coloring of Byzantine painters and their Italian followers.

Instead of a “scheme of a phenomenon,” Giotto’s composition is built rather on the principle of plot dialogue. Giotto prefers a profile image, and the figures are arranged as if facing each other. The desire to focus the viewer's attention on internal action and “closing” the scene leads to Giotto sometimes placing the figures with their backs to the viewer. Giotto put an end to the fear of emptiness, characteristic of the art of the Middle Ages - space began to live its own life in his paintings.

IN medieval painting the figures exist as if on the very surface of the board or wall. Giotto specifies both time and place. Each scene is given a space allocated to it, often limited in depth and at the edges, something like a shallow stage box in which the action takes place.

With the painting of the Chapel del Arena, Giotto made a revolution in European painting, opened new type pictorial thinking. This also applies to the new interpretation of the image of a person who now receives independent meaning. And the fact that the composition is built on real relationships, and not on ideas or canon. And one of the most important principles of realistic art appears - the unity of place and time. He introduces a solid spatial basis for the figures - they stand firmly on their feet and are located one after another (i.e. in space and movement). The figures become massive and heavy. Instead of the usual flat scenes, Giotto has an interior - a completely new form of spatial thinking, unknown to all medieval art.

2 Masaccio's work: distinctive features of early Renaissance art

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masaccio's characters are much more independent than Giotto's, so they are full of a new understanding of human dignity, expressed in their entire appearance. This understanding is based on the reflection of a certain spiritual force, it is also based on the awareness of Masaccio’s heroes of their own power and free will. In this lies the moment of some of their isolation. For no matter to what extent all these characters of sacred history participate in the events depicted, they are nevertheless characterized not only by their attitude to these events, but also by their own individual significance, which gives them the character of solemnity. But this isolation is also expressed in the compositional role of individual figures. Giotto divided into separate figures the traditional medieval mass group of participants in an event; in Masaccio, on the contrary, groups are built from separate, completely independent figures. Each of these figures seems absolutely free in its position in space and in its plastic volume. The entire artistic process proceeds differently in Masaccio than in the art of the period preceding him. Giotto, like medieval artists, starts in his compositions from a general concept in which individual figures are assigned certain functions of content and form that determine their character. Masaccio's compositions are endowed with a special originality - it is characterized by the fact that, despite all the achievements in the depiction of figures and spatial surroundings, their connection with each other has not become closer than before, but, on the contrary, has weakened.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Appendix 1. Giotto “Kiss of Judas”.

Fresco.

Appendix 2. Giotto “Lamentation of Christ”

Fresco.
Scrovegni Chapel (Capella del Arena), Padua

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

Fresco.

Appendix 4. Masaccio “The Miracle of the Stater”

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

www.school.edu.ru

Appendix 5. Masaccio “Madonna and Child and Angels”

Wood, tempera.
National Gallery, London

www.school.edu.ru

Appendix 6. Masaccio “Trinity”

Fresco.
Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence

www.school.edu.ru

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

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

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

Freeing itself from the religious and mystical content that constrains it, painting turns to life, to real images of reality, to man. Along with the images of Christian mythology and antiquity that retain their significance, the objects of artists’ depictions now also include living people, heroes of our time. Overcoming the Gothic abstraction of images, developing the best features of Giotto's painting, artists of the 15th century embarked on the broad path of realism. Monumental fresco painting is experiencing an unprecedented flourishing.

Masaccio. The reformer of painting, who played the same role as in the development of Brunelleschi's architecture, and Donatello in sculpture, was the Florentine Masaccio, who lived only 27 years (1401-1428), who created a cycle of frescoes that served as a model for several generations Italian artists, in which the search for a generalized heroic image a person, a truthful representation of the world around him. Following the tradition of Giotto, artist Masaccio focuses attention on the image of a person, enhancing his harsh energy and activity, civic humanism. Masaccio takes a decisive step in combining figure and landscape, introducing for the first time aerial perspective. In Masaccio's frescoes, the shallow platform - the scene of action in Giotto's paintings - is replaced by an image of real deep space; The plastic light and shadow modeling of figures becomes more convincing and richer, their construction is stronger, and their characteristics are more varied. And besides, Masaccio retains a huge moral strength images that captivate Giotto's art.

Masaccio's main work is the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, which depict episodes from the legends of St. Peter and two biblical story- “The Fall” and “Expulsion from Paradise.”

Among the undisputed works of Masaccio is the fresco "Expulsion from Paradise". Against the backdrop of a sparingly sketched landscape, the figures of Adam and Eve emerging from the gates of paradise, above whom an angel with a sword soars in the heavens, clearly emerge. This fresco represents a striking contrast to late Trecento painting, the traditions of which still dominated Florence at the time of its creation. Refusing the clutter of figures and objects, and minute detailing, Masaccio focuses on the dramatic content of the plot, staging and plastic sculpting of the figures. For the first time in the history of Renaissance painting, Masaccio was able to convincingly sculpt a naked body, give it the correct proportions, firmly and steadily place it on the ground, where for the first time in Renaissance painting naked figures are depicted, powerfully modeled by side light. He was especially successful with the figure of the widely striding Adam, who lowered his head in shame and covered his face with his hands. The thrown back head of the crying Eve with sunken eyes and dark spot wide open mouth.

The paired fresco “The Fall” produces a slightly different impression. True, here too the general plan is laconic, the figures are sculpted plastically. However, the action here develops sluggishly and is completely devoid of internal tension, usually inherent in the works of Masaccio, the figures are not placed as confidently as in “Expulsion from Paradise”, and give the impression of staticity. It is possible that this fresco was painted by Masolino, who imitated the works of his more advanced and gifted younger brother.

Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel are imbued with sober rationalism. Telling about the miracles performed by St. Peter, Masaccio deprives the scenes he depicts of any shade of mysticism. His Christ, Peter and the apostles are earthly people, their faces are individualized and marked with the stamp of human feelings, their actions are dictated by natural human impulses. Therefore, the miracles they perform are perceived as the result of the effort of human will, and not the intervention of divine providence.

Masaccio's compositions are distinguished by a clear development of action. In the fresco "Miracle with Tax" the central place is occupied by the initial moment of history, when Christ and his disciples were stopped at the gates of the city by a tax collector who demanded payment of money for entry. In this group, three main ones are clearly identified characters a - Christ, Peter and the tax collector. The collector is painted by the artist from behind, standing firmly on the ground, blocking the path of Christ and the apostles. This is the personification of brute force. He is opposed by Christ, calm and majestic. Pointing to the river flowing nearby, he commands Peter to take a coin from the mouth of the fish to pay the tax. The very moment of the miracle is relegated to the background by the artist. On the left, in the depths, squatting and bending over the river, Peter with an effort opens the mouth of a fish sticking out of the water and takes out a coin. On the right side, Peter hands the coin to the guard. The entire composition is written from a single point of view, the heads of the characters are on the horizon line. The figures are located one after another in space and are given against the backdrop of a mountainous landscape, well correlated with them both in scale and color. Masaccio uses here not only the means of linear, but also aerial perspective, gradually softening the colors as they move into depth.

Masaccio also interpreted the episodes “Almsgiving,” “Healing by Shadow,” and “Baptism of Converts” in a simple and realistic manner. The faces of the characters presented are individualized, apparently many of them are portraits. Individual figures are depicted with great observation, for example, the naked young man shivering from the cold in the “Baptism” scene.

Masaccio broke with the decorative and narrative trends that dominated painting in the second half of the 14th century. He took a decisive step in combining figure and landscape, for the first time he gave aerial perspective and a natural horizon line. Instead of pompous decorative colorfulness, a restrained and harmonious color scheme appeared in the artist’s paintings and frescoes.

Castaño. Among the followers of Masaccio, Andrea del Castagno (about 1421-1457) stood out, who showed interest not only in the plastic form and perspective structures characteristic of Florentine painting of that time, but also in the problem of color. The best of the created images of this rough, courageous, uneven by nature artist are distinguished by heroic strength and irrepressible energy. These are the heroes of the paintings of the Villa Pandolfini (circa 1450, Florence, Church of Santa Apollonia) - an example of a solution to a secular theme. The figures of prominent figures of the Renaissance stand out against the green and dark red backgrounds, among them the condottieri of Florence: Farinata degli Uberti and Pippo Spano. The latter stands firmly on the ground, legs spread wide, clad in armor, with his head uncovered, with a drawn sword in his hands; he is a living person, full of frantic energy and confidence in his abilities. Powerful light-and-shadow modeling gives the image plastic strength, expressiveness, emphasizes the sharpness of individual characteristics, and a bright portraiture not previously seen in Italian painting.

Among the frescoes of the church, Santa Apollonia stands out for the scope of the image and the sharpness of its characteristics." last supper"(1445-1450). This religious scene - the meal of Christ surrounded by disciples - was painted by many artists who always followed a certain type of composition. Castagno did not deviate from this type of construction, the bright character of the images, the nationality of the types of the apostles and Christ, the deep dramatic expression of feelings , the rich and contrasting color scheme is emphasized.

Fra Beato Angelico. Early works Fra Beato is close in style to late Gothic miniatures and is distinguished by the weak development of spatial relationships, the elongation and curvature of the figures, the careful finishing of details, the abundance of gold and the locality of colors. Fra Beato's works are imbued with religious feeling, but they are devoid of the harsh asceticism of the Middle Ages. The images of Christ, Mary, and saints he created are lyrical and poetic, surrounding nature is no longer hostile to man, but reveals itself to him in all its beauty.

Painted by the artist after 1524, the painting “The Last Judgment” (Florence, San Marco Museum) still seems very Gothic next to frescoes by Masaccio. There is no unity of space in it; the overall structure is subordinated to the old iconographic scheme. And yet, a Renaissance sense of the reality and beauty of the world breaks through, especially in the depiction of a round dance of the blessed dancing on the flower-strewn grass of the Gardens of Eden. It is interesting that in this picture Fra Beato tried to use linear perspective, but he was unable to maintain the spatial principle in all parts of the composition.

Fra Beato Angelico did not remain alien to Masaccio's artistic reform. Having undergone a great evolution over his long life, he masters later works means of conveying volume and space and moves on to a more generalized manner of painting. This was partly reflected in his big cycle frescoes in the monastery of San Marco in Florence, but even more so in the paintings of the chapel of St. Nicholas in the Vatican, the last great job masters

Paolo Uccello. At the beginning of his career, Paolo Uccello (1397-1475) was also associated with the art of the late Trecento, who then became passionately interested in new problems of art, especially the theory of linear perspective and the problem of depicting a figure from complex angles.

He was an assistant in Ghiberti's workshop while he was still working on the north doors of the baptistery. Uccello's earliest dated work known to us is a fresco of the condottiere John Gokwood in the Florence Cathedral (1436). Unlike the first of these works - the fresco by Simone Martini in the Siena Palazzo Publico, executed a century earlier, Paolo Uccello not only depicts a condottiere riding on a horse, but seems to imitate an equestrian monument. In constructing it, Uccello skillfully uses linear perspective, creating the impression that the viewer is looking at the monument somewhat from the bottom up. Painted in monochrome, in a laconic, generalized manner, this fresco, according to the artist’s plan, was supposed to, as it were, replace a sculptural monument.

Uccello is also known as the author of the first monumental battle scenes in the history of Western European art. Uccello varied compositions with episodes from the Battle of San Romano three times, enthusiastically depicting multi-colored horses and riders in a wide variety of perspective cuts and reversals. Along with the well-known archaic manner, they also reveal the artist’s passion for perspective and angles, which reaches the point of excessiveness.

No less indicative in this regard are the poorly preserved frescoes of Uccello in the church of Sita Maria Novella, in which small, miniature-like technique and an abundance of detail are combined with an interest in the depiction of space and a bold solution of angles.

Domenico Veneziano. Standing somewhat apart in the art of Florence in the first half of the 15th century is Domenico Veneziano (c. 1410-1461). A native of Venice, he apparently became acquainted in his youth with Dutch miniatures, which aroused his interest in the problem of color, light and conveying the texture of things. He was closer to the archaic art of Angelico than to Masaccio. His figures lack structure, and perspective constructions are not always correct. But at the same time, Veneziano’s works are covered in subtle lyricism and imbued with the poetry of light and color. Color takes on a leading role in his paintings; with its help, he conveys space, air, form and light, and unites figures with the environment. He was one of the first in Italy to use technology oil painting. Among his best works are “The Adoration of the Magi” (Berlin, Dahlem), “Madonna and Saints” (Florence, Uffizi).

In the 15th century, the portrait genre gained its own significance. The profile composition, inspired by ancient medals and making it possible to generalize and glorify the image of the person being portrayed, has become widespread. A precise line outlines a sharp profile in " Portrait of a woman"(mid-15th century, Berlin-Dahlem, Picture Gallery). The artist achieves a living direct similarity and at the same time subtle coloristic unity in the harmony of light shining colors, transparent, airy, softening the contours.

Filippo Lippi. Fra Filippo Lippi (circa 1406-1469) achieves extraordinary subtlety of execution, very restrained in color, and secular in character works. typical representative of the early Renaissance, who exchanged the monastic robe for the restless profession of a wandering artist. In tender, lyrical images - “The Veiled Madonna” (circa 1465, Florence, Uffizi) the painter and fugitive monk Filippo Lippi captured the touchingly feminine appearance of his beloved Lucrezia Buti admiring a plump baby.

Florentine painting. Develops in complex ways in Florence in last third 15th century painting of the early Renaissance, in which the multifaceted problems of Renaissance realism receive a variety of solutions - from monumental-epic, heroic to genre-narrative, sublimely poetic and lyrical. The growing interest in everyday motifs and details of the situation gives the pictorial compositions features of a genre. People's figures acquire greater slender proportions and flexibility.

Ghirlandaio. The works of Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), and above all in his frescoes, summarize the quests of early Renaissance artists; in them he appears as an observant writer of everyday life of the Florentine patriciate, who has retained spiritual clarity and a calm, attentive view of the world. Painted at the request of the Medici family and people close to them, the frescoes are of a narrative nature, which is combined with solemnity and decorativeness, interest in everyday details, and the transfer of lighting and space. They often include portraits of customers.

The traditionalism of Ghirlandaio's art is revealed in the painting of the Church of Ognissanti "The Last Supper" (1480). Repeating the composition found by his predecessors, he unites the figures of the apostles into groups, more clearly reveals the conflictual nature of the situation, and pays attention to the characteristics of the scene. Ghirlandaio's main work is the frescoes of the church of Santa Maria Novella (1485-1490) on scenes from the life of Mary and John the Baptist.

Located one above the other in several tiers, they turn in his interpretation into essentially solemn ceremonial everyday scenes modern life townspeople The action takes place either on the street or in the interior of a rich house. In the fresco “The Nativity of Mary”, among those who came to visit the woman in labor, Florentine ladies dressed in the fashion of the time, led by the daughter of patrician Tornabuoni, are depicted.

Among other works, Ghirlandaio stands out for his gentle humanity and warmth in “Portrait of an Old Man with His Grandson” (Paris, Louvre), where childish naivety and charm are contrasted with fading old age, transformed by deep tenderness and care for the child.

Botticelli. If Ghirlandaio’s art reveals a connection with the tradition of holistic worldview painting of the early 15th century, then the features of sublime poetry, sophistication and aristocratic sophistication find their most vivid embodiment in the work of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). The poetic charm of his images and their deep spirituality are combined in his later works with a tragic attitude and painful brokenness.

Botticelli's early works are distinguished by soft lyricism and serenity. Along with religious compositions, he paints portraits full of inner life, spiritual purity, charm. His most famous mature paintings - "Spring" (about 1480) and "The Birth of Venus" (about 1484, both - Florence, Uffizi) - are inspired by the poetry of the Medici court poet A. Poliziano and are marked by the originality of the interpretation of plots and images of ancient myths, translated through deeply personal poetic worldview.

In the painting "The Birth of Venus" Botticelli achieves an organic combination of sensual beauty and sublime spirituality. Strengthening the decorative features, he introduces the conventional technique of gilding the goddess’s hair, intertwined into a complex linear pattern. Sparkling gold enriches the exquisite colorfulness of the picture, combining with the greenish transparent tones of the sea, dark, rich tones of plants and blue of the sky. The rapidity of the linear rhythm, the purity and tenderness of the cold tones give rise to a feeling of fragility, instability of the beautiful ideal. And the flying zephyrs, and the nymph unfurling her cloak before Venus, and the goddess herself with her thoughtful sad face, in which hidden movements of feelings slip through and are perceived as images that spiritualize nature.

Subtle graceful features female type, found by Botticelli in Venus and Spring, can also be recognized in the images of Madonnas created by the artist. The most famous of them is the Magnificat (Madonna in Glory, 1481, Florence, Uffizi), presented surrounded by angels crowning her. The composition inscribed in a circle echoes the frame with its lines. Botticelli finds the most complex musical linear rhythms in the construction of compositions; For him, the line is the main means of emotional expressiveness. At the same time, unlike most Florentine painters, Botticelli perfectly feels and conveys the beauty of exquisite color combinations.

Everyone knows that Italy was the heart of the entire Renaissance period. Great masters of words, brushes and philosophical thought appeared in each of the Culture in Italy demonstrates the emergence of traditions that will develop in subsequent centuries, this period became the starting point, the beginning of a great era in the development of creativity in Europe.

Briefly about the main thing

Early Renaissance art in Italy spans the period from approximately 1420 to 1500, preceding and culminating the Proto-Renaissance. As with any transitional period, these eighty years are characterized by both ideas that preceded them and new ones, which, nevertheless, were borrowed from the distant past, from the classics. Gradually, creators got rid of medieval concepts, turning their attention to ancient art.

However, despite the fact that for the most part they sought to return to the ideals of a forgotten art, both in general and in particular, ancient traditions were still intertwined with new ones, but to a much lesser extent.

Architecture of Italy during the Early Renaissance

The main name in the architecture of this period is, of course, Filippo Brunelleschi. He became the personification of Renaissance architecture, organically embodying his ideas, he managed to turn projects into something fascinating, and, by the way, his masterpieces are still carefully protected for many generations. One of his main creative achievements It is considered to be buildings located in the very center of Florence, the most notable of which are the dome of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Pitti Palace, which became the starting point Italian architecture Early Renaissance.

To others important achievements Italian Renaissance also applies which is located near main square Venice, palaces in Rome by Bernardo di Lorenzo and others. During this period, the architecture of Italy strives to organically combine the features of the Middle Ages and the Classics, striving for the logic of proportions. An excellent example of this statement is the basilica San Lorenzo, again the hands of Filippo Brunelleschi. In others European countries The early Renaissance did not leave equally striking examples.

Early Renaissance Artists

Results

Although the culture of the Early Renaissance in Italy strives for the same thing - to display the classics through the prism of naturalness, the creators take different paths, leaving their names in Renaissance culture. Many great names, brilliant masterpieces and a complete rethinking of not only artistic, but also philosophical culture- all this was brought to us by a period that foreshadowed other stages of the Renaissance, in which established ideals found their continuation.

The Renaissance began in Italy. It acquired its name due to the dramatic intellectual and artistic flowering that began in the 14th century and greatly influenced European society and culture. The Renaissance was expressed not only in paintings, but also in architecture, sculpture and literature. The most prominent representatives of the Renaissance are Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael.

During these times, the main goal of painters was realistic image human body, so they mainly painted people, depicted different religious subjects. The principle of perspective was also invented, which opened up new possibilities for artists.

Florence became the center of the Renaissance, Venice took second place, and later, closer to the 16th century, Rome.

Leonardo is known to us as a talented painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer and architect of the Renaissance. Most Leonardo worked throughout his life in Florence, where he created many masterpieces known throughout the world. Among them: “Mona Lisa” (otherwise known as “La Gioconda”), “Lady with an Ermine”, “Benois Madonna”, “John the Baptist” and “St. Anna with Mary and the Christ Child."

This artist is recognizable thanks to the unique style that he has developed over the years. He also painted the walls of the Sistine Chapel at the personal request of Pope Sixtus IV. Botticelli wrote famous paintings on mythological themes. Such paintings include “Spring”, “Pallas and the Centaur”, “Birth of Venus”.

Titian was the head of the Florentine school of artists. After the death of his teacher Bellini, Titian became an official, generally recognized artist Venetian Republic. This painter is famous for his portraits on religious themes: “Ascension of Mary”, “Danae”, “Earthly Love and Heavenly Love”.

The Italian poet, sculptor, architect and artist painted many masterpieces, including the famous statue of “David” made of marble. This statue has become a major attraction in Florence. Michelangelo painted the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which was a major commission from Pope Julius II. During the period of his creativity, he paid more attention to architecture, but gave us “The Crucifixion of St. Peter”, “Entombment”, “The Creation of Adam”, “Forteller”.

His work was formed under the great influence of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, thanks to whom he gained invaluable experience and skill. He painted the state rooms in the Vatican, representing human activity and depicting various scenes from the Bible. Among famous paintings Raphael - " Sistine Madonna", "The Three Graces", "Saint Michael and the Devil".

Ivan Sergeevich Tseregorodtsev