Art of the High Renaissance. Titans of the High Renaissance

From the end of the 15th century, Italy began to experience all the consequences of unfavorable economic rivalry with Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. The northern cities of Europe organize a series of military campaigns against Italy, which is fragmented and losing its power. This difficult period brings to life the idea of ​​unifying the country, an idea that could not but excite the best minds of Italy. It is well known that certain periods of the flowering of art may not coincide with general development society, its material and economic status. During difficult times for Italy, the short-lived “golden age” of the Italian Renaissance began - the so-called High Renaissance, highest point heyday Italian art. The High Renaissance thus coincided with the period of fierce struggle of Italian cities for independence. The art of this time was permeated with humanism, faith in the creative powers of man, in the unlimited possibilities of his capabilities, in the reasonable structure of the world, in the triumph of progress. In art, the problems of civic duty, high moral qualities, heroism, the image of the beautiful, harmoniously developed, strong in spirit and the body of a human hero who managed to rise above the level of everyday life. The search for such an ideal led art to synthesis, generalization, to the disclosure of general patterns of phenomena, to the identification of their logical relationship. The art of the High Renaissance abandons particulars and insignificant details in the name of a generalized image, in the name of the desire for a harmonious synthesis of the beautiful aspects of life. This is one of the main differences High Renaissance from early.

The founder of the art of Cinquecento can be considered:

LEONARDO DA VINCI. (1452-1519).

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first artist to clearly embody this difference. He was born in Anchiano, near the village of Vinci; his father was a notary who moved to Florence in 1469. Leonardo's first teacher was Andrea Verrocchio. The figure of an angel in the teacher’s painting “Baptism” already clearly demonstrates the difference in the artist’s perception of the world of the past era and the new era: no frontal flatness of Verrocchio, the finest cut-off modeling of volume and extraordinary spirituality of the image. Researchers date the “Madonna with a Flower” (“Benois Madonna,” as it was previously called, after the owners) to the time of Verrocchio’s departure from the workshop. During this period, Leonardo was undoubtedly influenced for some time by Botticelli. His “Annunciation” in detail still reveals close connections with the Quattrocento, but the calm, perfect beauty of the figures of Mary and the Archangel, the color structure of the painting, and the compositional orderliness speak of the worldview of the artist of the new era, characteristic of the High Renaissance.

From the 80s of the 15th century. Two unfinished compositions by Leonardo have survived: “The Adoration of the Magi” and “St. Jerome." Probably in the mid-80s, “Madonna Litta” was also created using the ancient tempera technique, in whose image the type of Leonardo’s female beauty was expressed: heavy, half-lowered eyelids and a subtle smile give the Madonna’s face a special spirituality.

Florence, however, did not seem to be very welcoming to the artist during these years, and in 1482, having learned that the Duke of Milan Lodovico Sforza, better known as Lodovico Moro, was looking for a sculptor to create a monument to his father Francesco Sforza, Leonardo offered his services Duke and leaves for Milan. Note that in a letter to Moreau, Leonardo first of all listed his merits as a military engineer (bridge builder, fortifier, “artilleryman,” ship builder), land reclamation worker, architect, and only then as a sculptor and painter. Connecting scientific and creative beginnings Possessing both logical and artistic thinking, Leonardo spent his whole life engaged in scientific research along with the fine arts; distracted, he seemed slow and left behind little art. At the Milanese court, Leonardo worked as an artist, scientific technician, inventor, mathematician and anatomist. At the same time, having found himself in the service of Moreau, he seems to have been created for social life, similar to the one led by the Milanese nobleman.

The strengthening and decoration of the Milan fortress (Castello Sforzesso), the design of constant celebrations and numerous weddings, and scientific studies took Leonardo away from art. With all this, the Milanese period, which lasted from 1482 to 1499, was one of the most fruitful in the master’s work, which marked the beginning of his artistic maturity. It was from this time that Leonardo became the leading artist in Italy: in architecture he was busy designing an ideal city, in sculpture - creating an equestrian monument, in painting - painting a large altar image. And each of the creations he created was a discovery in art. The first major work he performed in Milan was “Madonna of the Rocks” (or “Madonna of the Grotto”). This is the first monumental altar composition of the High Renaissance, interesting also because it fully expressed the features of Leonardo's style of writing. Having created a generalized, collective, ideally beautiful image in the image of the Madonna with the infants Christ and John and the angel, while maintaining all the features of vital persuasiveness, Leonardo, as it were, summed up all the quests of the Quattrocento era and turned his gaze to the future. The composition of the picture is constructive, logical, and strictly verified. The group of four people forms a kind of pyramid, but the gesture of Mary's hand and the pointing finger of the angel create a circular movement within the painting, and the gaze naturally moves from one to the other. Peace emanates from the figures of the Madonna and the angel, but at the same time they also inspire a certain sense of mystery, disturbing mystery, emphasized by the fantastic view of the grotto itself and the landscape background. In fact, this is no longer just a landscape background, but a certain environment in which the depicted persons interact. The creation of this environment is also facilitated by that special quality of Leonardo’s painting, which is called “sfumato”: an airy haze that envelops all objects, softens the contours, forming a certain light-airy atmosphere.

Leonardo's greatest work in Milan, the highest achievement of his art, was the painting of the wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie on the subject of the Last Supper (1495-1498). Christ meets with his disciples for the last time at dinner to announce to them the betrayal of one of them. “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Leonardo depicted the moment of reaction of all twelve to the words of the teacher. This reaction is different, but there is no external affectation in the picture, everything is full of restrained internal movement. The artist changed the composition many times, but did not change the main principle: the composition is based on precise mathematical calculations. Thirteen people sit at a long table, parallel to the line of the canvas: two are in profile to the viewer on the sides of the table, and eleven are facing. The key to the composition is the figure of Christ, placed in the center, against the backdrop of a doorway, behind which a landscape opens; Christ's eyes are lowered, on his face there is submission to the higher will, sadness, consciousness of the inevitability of the fate awaiting him. The remaining twelve people are divided into four groups of three people each. All faces are illuminated, with the exception of the face of Judas, turned in profile to the viewer and with his back to the light source, which corresponded to Leonardo’s plan: to distinguish him from the other students, to make his black, treacherous essence almost physically tangible.

For Leonardo, art and science existed inseparably. While engaged in art, he did scientific research, experiments, observations, he went through perspective into the field of optics and physics, through problems of proportions - into anatomy and mathematics, etc. “The Last Supper” completes a whole stage in the artist’s scientific research. It is also a new stage in art. Many Quattrocento artists painted The Last Supper. For Leonardo, the main thing is to reveal, through the reactions of different people, characters, temperaments, and individualities, the eternal questions of humanity: about love and hatred, devotion and betrayal, nobility and meanness, greed, which is what makes Leonardo’s work so modern, so exciting to this day. People show themselves in different ways at the moment of emotional shock: Christ’s beloved disciple John, all drooping, meekly lowering his eyes, Peter grabbed a knife, Jacob spread his hands in bewilderment, Andrei convulsively raised his hands. Only Christ remains in a state of complete peace and self-absorption, whose figure is the semantic, spatial, coloristic center of the picture, imparting the unity of the entire composition. It is no coincidence that the blue and red tones that dominate the painting sound most intensely in Christ’s clothing: a blue cloak, a red tunic.

Unlike many of Quattrocento's works, Leonardo's paintings do not contain any illusionistic techniques that allow the real space to transform into the depicted. But the painting located along the wall of the refectory subjugated the entire interior. And this Leonardian ability to subjugate space to a large extent paved the way for Raphael and Michelangelo.

The fate of Leonardo's murals is tragic: he himself contributed to its rapid disintegration by experimenting with mixing tempera and oil, experimenting with paints and primers. Later, a door was broken in the wall and moisture and vapors began to penetrate into the refectory, which did not contribute to the preservation of the painting. Those who broke into late XVIII V. In Italy, the Bonapartists built a stable, a grain warehouse, and then a prison in the refectory. During the Second World War, a bomb hit the refectory, and the wall only miraculously survived, while the opposite and side walls collapsed. In the 50s, the painting was cleared of layers and fundamentally restored.

Leonardo took time off from studying anatomy, geometry, fortification, land reclamation, linguistics, versification, and music to work on “The Horse,” an equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, for which he primarily came to Milan and which he completed in full size in the early 90s in clay. The monument was not destined to be embodied in bronze: in 1499 the French invaded Milan and Gascon crossbowmen shot the equestrian monument. We can judge Leonardo's sculpture by his drawings made at different stages of work. The monument, about 7 m high, was supposed to be 1.5 times higher than the equestrian statues of Donatello and Verrocchio; it was not for nothing that contemporaries called it the “great colossus”. From a dynamic composition with a rider on a rearing horse trampling the enemy, Leonardo moved to a calmer solution to the figure of Sforza, solemnly sitting on a mighty horse. In 1499, the years of Leonardo's wanderings began: Mantua, Venice and, finally, hometown artist - Florence, where he paints the cardboard “St. Anna with Mary on her lap,” from which he creates an oil painting in Milan (where he returned in 1506). Leonardo spent a short time in the service of Caesar Borgia, and in the spring of 1503 he returned to Florence, where he received from Pietro Soderini, now a Gonfaloniere for life, an order to paint the wall of the new hall of the Palazzo Signoria (the opposite wall was to be painted by Michelangelo). Leonardo made a cardboard on the theme of the battle of the Milanese and Florentines at Anghiari - the moment of a fierce battle for the banner, Michelangelo - the Battle of Cascina - the moment when, following an alarm signal, soldiers emerge from the pond. Contemporaries left evidence that the second cardboard enjoyed great success precisely because it depicts not the fierce, almost bestial anger, rage and excitement of people grappling to death, as in Leonardo, but beautiful young healthy youths rushing to get dressed and enter into battle - sublime an image of heroism and valor. But both cardboards were not preserved, were not embodied in painting, and we know about Leonard’s plan only from a few drawings. In Florence, Leonardo began another painting: a portrait of the merchant del Giocondo's wife, Mona Lisa, which became one of the most famous paintings in the world. Hundreds of pages have been written about the portrait: how Leonardo arranged the sessions, inviting musicians so that the smile on the model’s face would not fade, how long (as is typical for Leonardo) he delayed the work, how he tried to thoroughly convey every feature of this living face. The portrait of Mona Lisa Gioconda is a decisive step towards the development of Renaissance art. For the first time, the portrait genre became on the same level as compositions on religious and mythological themes. Despite all the undeniable physiognomic similarities, Quattrocento’s portraits were distinguished by, if not external, then internal constraint. The majesty of the Mona Lisa is conveyed by the mere juxtaposition of her emphatically voluminous figure, strongly pushed out to the edge of the canvas, with a landscape with rocks and streams visible as if from afar, melting, alluring, elusive and therefore, despite all the reality of the motif, fantastic. This same elusiveness is also present in the very appearance of Gioconda, in her face, in which one senses a strong-willed principle, an intense intellectual life, in her gaze, intelligent and insightful, as if continuously watching the viewer, in her barely noticeable, bewitching smile.

In the portrait of Mona Lisa, a degree of generalization has been achieved that, while preserving all the uniqueness of the individuality depicted, allows us to consider the image as typical of the High Renaissance. And this is, first of all, the difference between Leonard’s portrait and the portraits of the early Renaissance. This generalization, the main idea of ​​which is a sense of one’s own significance, a high right to an independent spiritual life, was achieved by a number of certain formal moments: both the smooth contour of the figure and the soft modeling of the face and hands, shrouded in Leonardo’s “sfumato”. At the same time, without ever falling into minute detail, without allowing a single naturalistic note, Leonardo creates such a feeling of a living body that allowed Vasari to exclaim that one could see the pulse beating in the hollow of Mona Lisa’s neck.

In 1506 Leonardo left for Milan, which already belonged to the French. The last years at home were years of wandering between Florence, Rome, Milan, filled, however, with scientific research and creative pursuits, mainly painting. Burdened by his own unsettledness, a feeling of lack of recognition, a feeling of loneliness in his native Florence, torn, like all of Italy, by external and internal enemies, Leonardo in 1515, at the suggestion of the French king Francis I, left for France forever. Leonardo was the greatest artist of his time, a genius who opened new horizons of art. He left behind few works, but each of them was a stage in the history of culture. Leonardo is also known as a versatile scientist. His scientific discoveries, for example, his research in the field of aircraft, are of interest in our age of astronautics. Thousands of pages of Leonardo's manuscripts, covering literally every field of knowledge, testify to the universality of his genius.

A striking expression of the classical line in the art of the High Renaissance, where man is perfect and the world is in balance and harmony, was the Urbino resident:

RAFAEL EL SANTI (1483-1520).

The ideas of monumental art of the Renaissance, in which the traditions of antiquity and the spirit of Christianity merged, found their most vivid expression in the work of Raphael (1483-1520). In his art, two main tasks found a mature solution: the plastic perfection of the human body, expressing the inner harmony of a comprehensively developed personality, in which Raphael followed antiquity, and a complex multi-figure composition that conveys all the diversity of the world. These problems were resolved by Leonardo in “The Last Supper” with his characteristic logic. Raphael enriched these possibilities, achieving amazing freedom in depicting space and the movement of the human figure in it, impeccable harmony between the environment and man. The diverse life phenomena under Raphael’s brush simply and naturally formed into an architectonically clear composition, but behind all this stood the strict precision of every detail, the elusive logic of construction, and wise self-restraint, which makes his works classic. None of the Renaissance masters perceived the pagan essence of antiquity as deeply and naturally as Raphael; It is not without reason that he is considered the artist who most fully connected ancient traditions with Western European art of the modern era.

Rafael Santi was born in 1483 in the city of Urbino, one of the centers of artistic culture in Italy, at the court of the Duke of Urbino, in the family of a court painter and poet, who was the first teacher of the future master. The early period of Raphael’s work is perfectly characterized by a small painting in the form of a tondo “Madonna Conestabile”, with its simplicity and laconism of strictly selected details (despite the timidity of the composition) and the special, inherent in all of Raphael’s works, subtle lyricism and a sense of peace. In 1500, Raphael left Urbino for Perugia to study in the workshop of the famous Umbrian artist Perugino, under whose influence The Betrothal of Mary (1504) was written. The sense of rhythm, the proportionality of plastic masses, spatial intervals, the relationship between figures and background, the coordination of basic tones (in “Betrothal” these are golden, red and green in combination with a soft blue sky background) create the harmony that appears already in early works ah Raphael and distinguishes him from the artists of the previous era. In 1504, Raphael moved to Florence, the artistic atmosphere of which was already saturated with the trends of the High Renaissance and contributed to his search for a perfect harmonious image.

Throughout his life, Raphael searched for this image in the Madonna; his numerous works interpreting the image of the Madonna earned him worldwide fame. The merit of the artist, first of all, is that he was able to embody all the subtlest shades of feelings in the idea of ​​motherhood, to combine lyricism and deep emotionality with monumental grandeur. This is visible in all his Madonnas, starting with the youthfully timid “Madonna Conestabile”: in the “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna with the Goldfinch”, “Madonna in the Armchair” and especially at the pinnacle of Raphael’s spirit and skill - in the “Sistine Madonna”. Undoubtedly, this was the way to overcome the simple-minded interpretation of serene and bright maternal love for an image saturated with high spirituality and tragedy, built on a perfect harmonic rhythm: plastic, coloristic, linear. But it was also a path of consistent idealization. However, in “The Sistine Madonna” this idealizing principle is relegated to the background and gives way to the tragic feeling emanating from this ideally beautiful young woman with the baby God in her arms, whom she gives to atone for human sins. The Madonna's gaze, directed past, or rather through the viewer, is full of mournful anticipation of the tragic fate of her son (whose gaze is also childishly serious). “The Sistine Madonna” is one of Raphael’s most perfect works in terms of language: the figure of Mary and Child, strictly silhouetted against the sky, is united by a common rhythm of movement with the figures of St. The barbarians and Pope Sixtus II, whose gestures are addressed to the Madonna, as are the views of two angels (more like putti, which is so characteristic of the Renaissance), are in the lower part of the composition. The figures are also united by a common golden color, as if personifying the Divine radiance. But the main thing is the type of face of the Madonna, which embodies the synthesis of the ancient ideal of beauty with the spirituality of the Christian ideal, which is so characteristic of the worldview of the High Renaissance. The Sistine Madonna is a late work by Raphael. Before this, in 1509, Pope Julius II invited the young artist to Rome to paint the personal papal rooms (stanzas) in the Vatican Palace. At the beginning of the 16th century. Rome takes over cultural center Italy. The art of the High Renaissance reaches its greatest flowering in this city, where, by the will of the patronizing popes Julius II and Leo X, artists such as Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael simultaneously work. Art develops under the sign of national unity (for the popes dreamed of uniting the country under their rule), feeds on ancient traditions, and expresses the ideology of humanism. The general ideological program for painting papal rooms is to glorify the authority of the Catholic Church and its head, the Pope.

Raphael paints the first two stanzas. In the Stanza della Segnatura (room of signatures, seals), he painted four fresco allegories of the main spheres of human spiritual activity: philosophy, poetry, theology and jurisprudence. It was common for the art of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance to depict sciences and arts in the form of individual allegorical figures. Raphael solved these themes in the form of multi-figure compositions, sometimes representing real group portraits, interesting both for their individualization and typicality. It was in these portraits that Raphael embodied the humanistic ideal of the perfect intellectual man, according to the Renaissance. The official program for painting the Stanza della Segnatura was a reflection of the idea of ​​​​reconciling the Christian religion with ancient culture. The artistic implementation of this program by Raphael - the son of his time - resulted in the victory of the secular over the ecclesiastical. In the fresco “The School of Athens,” which personifies philosophy, Raphael presented Plato and Aristotle surrounded by philosophers and scientists from different periods of history. Their gestures (one points to the sky, the other to the earth) characterize the essence of the differences in their teachings. On the right, in the image of Euclid, Raphael depicted his great contemporary, the architect Bramante; Next are famous astronomers and mathematicians; at the very edge of the right group the artist painted himself. On the steps of the stairs he depicted the founder of the Cynic school, Diogenes, in the left group - Socrates, Pythagoras, in the foreground, in a state of deep thought, Heraclitus of Ephesus. According to some researchers, the majestic and beautiful image of Plato was inspired by the extraordinary appearance of Leonardo, and in Heraclitus Raphael captured Michelangelo. But no matter how expressive the individualities depicted by Raphael are, the main thing in the painting remains the general atmosphere of high spirituality, the feeling of strength and power of the human spirit and mind.

Plato and Aristotle, like other ancient sages, were supposed to symbolize the sympathies of the popes of pagan antiquity. Placed freely in space, in a variety of rhythm and movement, the individual groups are united by the figures of Aristotle and Plato. Logic, absolute stability, clarity and simplicity of the composition give the viewer the impression of extraordinary integrity and amazing harmony. In the fresco "Parnassus", personifying poetry, Apollo is depicted surrounded by muses and poets - from Homer and Sappho to Dante. The complexity of the composition was that the fresco “Parnassus” was placed on a wall broken by a window opening. By depicting a female figure leaning on the frame, Raphael skillfully linked the overall composition with the shape of the window. The image of Dante is repeated twice in the frescoes of Raphael: once again he depicted the great poet in an allegory of theology, often incorrectly called the “Disputa,” among the artists and philosophers of the Quattrocento (Fra Angelico, Savonarola, etc.). The fourth fresco of Stanza della Segnatura “Measure, Wisdom and Strength” is dedicated to jurisprudence.

In the second room, called the “Stanza of Eliodorus,” Raphael painted frescoes on historical and legendary subjects glorifying the popes of Rome: “The Expulsion of Eliodorus” - on the Bible plot about how the punishment of the Lord in the form of an angel - a beautiful horseman in golden armor - fell on the Syrian leader Eliodor, who tried to steal gold from the Jerusalem Temple, intended for widows and orphans. It is no coincidence that Raphael, who worked on the order of Julius II, turns to this topic: the French are preparing for a campaign in Italy and the Pope reminds of God’s punishment of all who encroach on Rome. It is not for nothing that Raphael included in the composition the image of the Pope himself, who is carried in a chair to the defeated criminal. Other frescoes are also dedicated to the glorification of popes and their miraculous power: “Mass in Bolsena”, “Meeting of Pope Leo I with Attila” - and in the first Pope the features of Julius II are given, and this is one of his most expressive portraits, and in the last - Leo X. In the frescoes of the second stanza, Raphael paid great attention not to linear architectonics, but to the role of color and light. This is especially evident in the fresco “The Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison.” The threefold appearance of an angel in three scenes depicted on the same plane of the wall, in a single composition (which in itself was an archaic technique), is presented in complex lighting of various light sources: the moon, torches, radiance emanating from the angel, creating great emotional tension. This is one of the most dramatic and subtle frescoes. The remaining frescoes of the Vatican stanzas were painted by Raphael's students based on his sketches. The students also helped Raphael in painting the Vatican loggias adjacent to the Pope’s rooms, painted according to his sketches and under his supervision with motifs of ancient ornaments, drawn mainly from newly discovered ancient grottoes (hence the name “grotesques”).

Raphael performed works of various genres. His gift as a decorator, as well as a director and storyteller, was fully manifested in a series of eight cardboards for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel on scenes from the life of the apostles Peter and Paul (“A Miraculous Catch of Fish,” for example). These paintings throughout the 16th-18th centuries. served as a kind of standard for classicists. Raphael's deep understanding of the essence of antiquity is especially visible in the painting of the Roman Villa Farnesina, built according to his design (the fresco "The Triumph of Galatea", scenes from Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche). Raphael was also the greatest portrait painter of his era, who created a type of image in which the individual is in close unity with the typical, where, in addition to certain specific features, the image of a man of the era appears, which allows us to see historical portraits-types in Raphael’s portraits (“Pope Julius II”, “Lion X”, the artist’s friend the writer Castiglione, the beautiful “Donna Velata”, etc.). And in his portrait images, as a rule, internal balance and harmony prevail.

At the end of his life, Raphael was disproportionately loaded with a variety of works and orders. It’s even hard to imagine that all this could be done by one person. He was a central figure in the artistic life of Rome; after the death of Bramante (1514), he became the chief architect of the Cathedral of St. Peter, was in charge of archaeological excavations in Rome and its environs and the protection of ancient monuments. This inevitably entailed the involvement of students and a large staff of assistants when executing large orders. Raphael died in 1520; his premature death was unexpected for his contemporaries. His ashes are buried in the Pantheon.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (1475-1564).

The third greatest master of the High Renaissance - Michelangelo - far outlived Leonardo and Raphael. The first half of his creative career occurred during the heyday of the art of the High Renaissance, and the second during the Counter-Reformation and the beginning of the formation of Baroque art. Of the brilliant galaxy of artists of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo surpassed everyone with the richness of his images, civic pathos, and sensitivity to changes in public mood. Hence the creative embodiment of the collapse of Renaissance ideas. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was born in Caprese, in the family of a podesta (city governor, judge). In 1488, in Florence, where the family moved, he entered the workshop of Ghirlandaio, a year later - into the sculpture workshop at the monastery of San Marco with one of Donatello's students. During these years, he became close to Lorenzo de' Medici, whose death left a deep mark on him. It was in the Medici gardens and in the Medici house that Michelangelo began to carefully study ancient sculpture. His relief “Battle of the Centaurs” is already a work of the High Renaissance in its internal harmony. In 1496, the young artist left for Rome, where he created his first works that brought him fame: “Bacchus” and “Pieta”. Literally captured by the images of antiquity, Michelangelo depicted the ancient god of wine as a naked young man, as if slightly staggering, turning his gaze to a bowl of wine. The naked beautiful body from now on and forever becomes the main subject of art for Michelangelo. The second sculpture - “Pieta” - opens a whole series of works by the master on this subject and puts him forward among the first sculptors of Italy.

Michelangelo depicted Christ prostrate on Mary's lap. The young, ideally beautiful face of the Madonna is mournful, but very restrained. To position a large male body on the Madonna's lap, the sculptor multiplies the number of folds of the cloak falling from Mary's knees. The figures form a pyramid in the composition, giving the group stability and completeness. At the same time, even in this early work of Michelangelo there are features that are not characteristic of the art of the Renaissance or, say, unusual for it: in an unusual strong angle, the head of Christ is thrown back, his right shoulder is turned out, the left part of the composition, loaded with more than the right, required a complex asymmetrical design of the pedestal , higher on the right side. All together gave the group an internal tension unusual for Renaissance art. However, the dominant features in this composition are features characteristic of the High Renaissance: the integrity of the heroic image, the classical clarity of monumental artistic language.

Returning to Florence in 1501, Michelangelo, on behalf of the Signoria, undertook to sculpt the figure of David from a block of marble damaged before him by an unlucky sculptor. In 1504, Michelangelo completed the famous statue, which the Florentines called the “Giant” and placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchia, the city hall. The opening of the monument turned into a national celebration. The image of David inspired many Quattrocento artists. But Michelangelo portrays him not as a boy, as in Donatello and Verrocchio, but as a young man in the full bloom of his strength, and not after a battle, with a giant’s head at his feet, but before the battle, at the moment of the highest tension of strength. In the beautiful image of David, in his stern face, the sculptor conveyed the titanic power of passion, unyielding will, civil courage, and the boundless power of a free man. The Florentines saw in David a hero close to them, a citizen of the republic and its defender. The social significance of the sculpture was immediately understood.

In 1504, Michelangelo (as already mentioned in connection with Leonardo) begins to work on the painting of the “Hall of the Five Hundred” in the Palazzo Signoria, but the drawings and cartons for his “Battle of Cascina” have not survived, like Leonardo’s work. In 1505, Pope Julius II invited Michelangelo to Rome to build his tomb. The sculptor's idea was grandiose: he wanted to create a colossal monument-mausoleum, decorated with forty figures more than life-size. He spent eight months in the mountains of Carrara, supervising the extraction of marble, but when he returned to Rome, he learned that the Pope had abandoned his plan. An angry Michelangelo left for Florence, but, demanded by the Pope, under pressure from the Florentine authorities, who were afraid of complications with Rome, he was forced to return to Rome again, this time for an equally grandiose, but, fortunately, realized plan - painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican palace

Michelangelo worked alone on the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from 1508 to 1512, painting an area of ​​about 600 square meters. m (48x13 m) at a height of 18 m. Michelangelo dedicated the central part of the ceiling to scenes of sacred history, starting from the creation of the world. These compositions are framed by the same painted cornice, but creating the illusion of architecture, and are separated, also by picturesque rods. Picturesque rectangles emphasize and enrich the real architecture of the ceiling. Under the picturesque cornice, Michelangelo painted prophets and sibyls (each figure is about three meters), in lunettes (arches above the windows) he depicted episodes from the Bible and the ancestors of Christ as simple people engaged in everyday affairs.

The nine central compositions unfold the events of the first days of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, the global flood, and all these scenes, in fact, are a hymn to man, the forces inherent in him, his power and his beauty. God is, first of all, a creator who knows no barriers on the path to creation, an image close to the humanistic era’s idea of ​​a creator (scene “The Creation of the Sun and Moon”). Adam is ideally beautiful in the scene “The Creation of Adam”; he is still deprived of will, but the touch of the creator’s hand, like an electric spark, pierces him and ignites life in this beautiful body. Even the tragic situation of a flood cannot shake faith in the power of man. Greatness, power and nobility are expressed in the images of the prophets and sibyls: creative inspiration - in the person of Ezekiel, who heard the voice of God; contemplation - in the image of the Erythraean Sibyl; wisdom, philosophical thoughtfulness and detachment from worldly vanity - in the figure of Zechariah; sorrowful reflection - Jeremiah. With a huge number of figures, the painting of the Sistine ceiling is logically clear and easily visible. It does not destroy the plane of the arch, but reveals the tectonic structure. Michelangelo's main means of expression are emphasized plasticity, precision and clarity of line and volume. Plastic beginning in Michelangelo's paintings, the pictorial always dominates, confirming the artist's idea that “the best painting will be that which is closest to the relief.” Soon after the completion of work in Sistine, Julius II died and his heirs returned to the idea of ​​a tombstone. In 1513-1516. Michelangelo performs the figure of Moses and slaves (captives) for this tombstone. According to his design, the sculptor’s students later built a wall tomb, in lower tier in which the figure of Moses was placed. The image of Moses is one of the most powerful in the work of the mature master. He invested in him the dream of a wise, brave leader, full of titanic strength, expression, will - qualities that were so necessary then for the unification of his homeland. The slave figures were not included in the final version of the tomb. Perhaps they had some kind of allegorical meaning (art in captivity after the death of the Pope? - there is such an interpretation). “The Bound Slave”, “The Dying Slave” convey different states of a person, different stages of the struggle: a powerful impulse in the desire to free himself from fetters, powerlessness (“The Bound Slave”), the last breath, dying life in a beautiful but already numb body (“The Dying Slave” "). From 1520 to 1534, Michelangelo worked on one of the most significant and most tragic sculptural works - on the tomb of the Medici (Florentine church of San Lorenzo), expressing all the experiences that befell the master himself, his hometown, and the whole the country as a whole. Since the late 20s, Italy was literally torn apart by both external and internal enemies. In 1527, mercenary soldiers defeated Rome, Protestants plundered the Catholic shrines of the eternal city. The Florentine bourgeoisie overthrows the Medici, who ruled again since 1510, after the death of Pietro Soderini, but the Pope marches on Florence. Florence is preparing for defense, Michelangelo is at the head of the construction of military fortifications, experiences a mood of confusion, despair, leaves - literally flees from Florence, having learned about the impending betrayal of its condottiere, returns to his hometown again to witness its defeat. In the terrible terror that began, many of Michelangelo’s friends died, and he himself was forced to live as an exile for some time.

In a mood of severe pessimism, in a state of increasing deep religiosity, Michelangelo works on the Medici tomb. He himself built an extension to the Florentine church of San Lorenzo - a small but very high room, covered with a dome, and decorated two walls of the sacristy (its interior) with sculptural tombstones. One wall is decorated with the figure of Lorenzo, the opposite with Giuliano, and below at their feet there are sarcophagi decorated with allegorical sculptural images - symbols of fast-flowing time: “Morning” and “Evening” in Lorenzo’s tombstone, “Night” and “Day” in Giuliano’s tombstone . Both images - Lorenzo and Giuliano - do not have a portrait resemblance, which is why they differ from the traditional solutions of the 15th century. Michelangelo emphasizes the expression of fatigue and melancholy in the face of Giuliano and the heavy thought, bordering on despair, in Lorenzo, considering it not necessary to accurately convey the features in the faces of the models. The most famous is “Night”. She is personified by the figure of a woman who is sleeping, leaning on her knee. Michelangelo dedicated the following lines to her:

“It’s nice to sleep, it’s nicer to be a stone,

Oh, in this age, criminal and shameful,

Not living, not feeling is an enviable lot.

Please be quiet, don’t you dare wake me up.”

For him, the philosophical idea of ​​contrasting life and death, expressed in poetic form, is more important. A feeling of uneasiness and anxiety comes from the images of Lorenzo and Giuliano. This is achieved by the composition itself: the figures are planted in the cramped space of the niches, as if squeezed by pilasters. This restless rhythm is further intensified by the poses of allegorical figures of the time of day: tense curved bodies seem to be rolling off the sloping lids of sarcophagi, not finding support, their heads cross the cornices, disturbing the tectonics of the walls. All these dissonant notes, emphasizing the state of brokenness, violate the architectural harmony of the Renaissance and are a harbinger of a new era in art. In the Medici Chapel, architectural forms and plastic images are in indissoluble connection, expressing a single idea.

Even Pope Clement VII, shortly before his death, taking advantage of one of Michelangelo’s visits to Rome, suggested that he paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel with the image of the “Last Judgment.” Busy at that time with statues for the Medici Chapel in Florence, the sculptor refused. Paul III, immediately after his election, began to persistently demand that Michelangelo fulfill this plan, and in 1534, interrupting work on the tomb, which he completed only in 1545, Michelangelo left for Rome, where he began his second work in the Sistine Chapel - to the painting "The Last Judgment" (1535-1541) - a grandiose creation that expressed the tragedy of the human race. Features of the new artistic system appeared even more clearly in this work by Michelangelo. The creative judgment, the punishing Christ is placed in the center of the composition, and around him in a rotating circular motion are depicted sinners casting themselves into hell, the righteous ascending to heaven, and the dead rising from their graves to God's judgment. Everything is full of horror, despair, anger, confusion. Even Mary, who stands for the people, is afraid of her formidable son and turns away from his hand, which inexorably separates sinners from the righteous. Complex angles of intertwined, twisted bodies, extreme dynamism, increased expression, creating an expression of anxiety, anxiety, confusion - all these are features that are deeply alien to the High Renaissance, just as the very interpretation of the theme of the “Last Judgment” (instead of the triumph of justice over evil) is also alien to it - catastrophe, collapse of the world).

Painter, sculptor, poet, Michelangelo was also a brilliant architect. He completed the staircase of the Florentine Laurentian Library, designed the Capitol Square in Rome, erected the Pius Gate (Porta Pia), and since 1546 he has been working on the Cathedral of St. Peter, begun by Bramante. Michelangelo owns the drawing and drawing of the dome, which was executed after the master’s death and is still one of the main dominant features in the city’s panorama.

The last two decades of Michelangelo's life coincided with a period when the free-thinking traits of the great humanistic era of the Renaissance were being eradicated in Italy. At the insistence of the Inquisition, which considered such a number of naked bodies in the Last Judgment fresco obscene, Michelangelo's student Daniele de Volterra recorded some of the figures. The last years of Michelangelo's life were years of loss of hope, loss of loved ones and friends, a time of his complete spiritual loneliness. But this is also the time of the creation of the most powerful works in terms of tragedy of the worldview and laconicism of expression, testifying to his undying genius. These are mainly sculptural compositions and drawings (in graphics, Michelangelo was as great a master as Leonardo and Raphael) on the theme of “Lamentation” and “Crucifixion”.

Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 89. His body was taken at night to Florence and buried in the oldest church in his hometown of Santa Croce. The historical significance of Michelangelo's art, its impact on his contemporaries and on subsequent eras can hardly be overestimated. Some foreign researchers interpret him as the first artist and architect of the Baroque. But most of all he is interesting as a bearer of the great realistic traditions of the Renaissance.

The Renaissance is a time of cultural flourishing, the heyday of all arts, but the one that most fully expressed the spirit of its time was fine art.

Renaissance, or Renaissance(fr. “new” + “born”) had global significance in the history of European culture. The Renaissance replaced the Middle Ages and preceded the Age of Enlightenment.
Main features of the Renaissance– the secular nature of culture, humanism and anthropocentrism (interest in man and his activities). During the Renaissance, interest in ancient culture and it is as if its “rebirth” is taking place.
The Renaissance arose in Italy - its first signs appeared in the 13th-14th centuries. (Tony Paramoni, Pisano, Giotto, Orcagna, etc.). But it was firmly established in the 20s of the 15th century, and by the end of the 15th century. reached its peak.
In other countries, the Renaissance began much later. In the 16th century a crisis of Renaissance ideas begins, a consequence of this crisis is the emergence of mannerism and baroque.

Renaissance periods

The Renaissance is divided into 4 periods:

1. Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century)
2. Early Renaissance (beginning of the 15th - end of the 15th century)
3. High Renaissance (end of the 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)
4. Late Renaissance (mid-16th-90s of the 16th century)

The fall of the Byzantine Empire played a role in the formation of the Renaissance. The Byzantines who moved to Europe brought with them their libraries and works of art, unknown medieval Europe. Byzantium never broke with ancient culture.
Appearance humanism(a socio-philosophical movement that viewed man as highest value) was associated with the absence of feudal relations in the Italian city-republics.
Secular centers of science and art began to emerge in cities, which were not controlled by the church. whose activities were outside the control of the church. In the middle of the 15th century. Printing was invented, which played an important role in the spread of new views throughout Europe.

Brief characteristics of the Renaissance periods

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is the forerunner of the Renaissance. It is also closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic traditions. He is associated with the names of Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, the Pisano brothers, Andrea Pisano.

Andrea Pisano. Bas-relief "Creation of Adam". Opera del Duomo (Florence)

Proto-Renaissance painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). Central figure painting was Giotto. He was considered a reformer of painting: he filled religious forms with secular content, made a gradual transition from flat images to three-dimensional and relief ones, turned to realism, introduced plastic volume of figures into painting, and depicted interiors in painting.

Early Renaissance

This is the period from 1420 to 1500. Artists Early Renaissance Italy drew motifs from life and filled traditional religious subjects with earthly content. In sculpture these were L. Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, the della Robbia family, A. Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano, B. da Maiano, A. Verrocchio. Their creativity begins to develop freely standing statue, picturesque relief, portrait bust, equestrian monument.
IN Italian painting XV century (Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, A. del Castagno, P. Uccello, Fra Angelico, D. Ghirlandaio, A. Pollaiolo, Verrocchio, Piero della Francesca, A. Mantegna, P. Perugino, etc.) are characterized by a sense of harmonious orderliness of the world, appeal to the ethical and civic ideals of humanism, a joyful perception of the beauty and diversity of the real world.
The founder of Renaissance architecture in Italy was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), an architect, sculptor and scientist, one of the creators of the scientific theory of perspective.

A special place in the history of Italian architecture occupies Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). This Italian scientist, architect, writer and musician of the Early Renaissance was educated in Padua, studied law in Bologna, and later lived in Florence and Rome. He created theoretical treatises “On the Statue” (1435), “On Painting” (1435–1436), “On Architecture” (published in 1485). He defended the “folk” (Italian) language as a literary language, and in his ethical treatise “On the Family” (1737-1441) he developed the ideal of a harmoniously developed personality. In his architectural work, Alberti gravitated towards bold experimental solutions. He was one of the founders of new European architecture.

Palazzo Rucellai

Leon Battista Alberti designed new type a palazzo with a facade, rusticated to its entire height and dissected by three tiers of pilasters, which look like the structural basis of the building (Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, built by B. Rossellino according to Alberti’s plans).
Opposite the Palazzo is the Loggia Rucellai, where receptions and banquets for trading partners were held, and weddings were celebrated.

Loggia Rucellai

High Renaissance

This is the time of the most magnificent development of the Renaissance style. In Italy it lasted from approximately 1500 to 1527. Now the center of Italian art from Florence moves to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne Julia II, an ambitious, courageous, enterprising man, attracted to his court best artists Italy.

Rafael Santi "Portrait of Pope Julius II"

In Rome, many monumental buildings are built, magnificent sculptures are created, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered masterpieces of painting. Antiquity is still highly valued and carefully studied. But imitation of the ancients does not drown out the independence of artists.
The pinnacle of the Renaissance is the work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael Santi (1483-1520).

Late Renaissance

In Italy this is the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. The art and culture of this time are very diverse. Some believe (for example, British scientists) that “The Renaissance as a holistic historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." The art of the late Renaissance presents a very complex picture of the struggle of various movements. Many artists did not strive to study nature and its laws, but only outwardly tried to assimilate the “manner” of the great masters: Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. On this occasion, the elderly Michelangelo once said, watching artists copy his “Last Judgment”: “This art of mine will make fools of many.”
In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which did not welcome any free thought, including the glorification of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity.
Famous artists of this period were Giorgione (1477/1478-1510), Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), Caravaggio (1571-1610) and others. Caravaggio considered the founder of the Baroque style.

High Renaissance Art

The art of the High Renaissance developed in the first three decades of the 16th century. This period is called the "Golden Age" of Italian art. Chronologically it was short, and only in Venice did it last longer, until the middle of the century.

Socio-economic conditions. The highest rise in culture took place during the most difficult historical period in the life of Italy, in conditions of a sharp economic and political weakening of the Italian states caused by the opening of America and new trade routes to India and, as a consequence, the loss of the role of the most important trading centers. Other reasons include the disunity and constant internecine hostility of the Italian states, which made them easy prey for the growing centralized northwestern states.

The invasion of French troops in 1494, the devastating wars of the first decades of the 16th century, and the defeat of Rome weakened Italy. There is a movement within the country of capital from trade and industry to agriculture, a gradual transformation of the bourgeoisie into the class of landowners interested in preserving the feudal order. All this contributed to the spread of feudal reaction. However, it was during this period, when the threat of complete enslavement by foreigners loomed over the country, that national self-awareness grew. In these difficult conditions of the first decades of the 16th century, the principles of culture and art of a new style were formed.

Distinctive feature The culture of the High Renaissance was an extraordinary expansion of the social horizons of its creators, the scale of their ideas about the world and space. The view of a person and his attitude to the world changes. The very type of artist, his worldview, and position in society are decidedly different from that occupied by the masters of the 15th century, who were still largely associated with the class of artisans. The artists of the High Renaissance are not only people of great culture, but creative personalities, free from the framework of the guild foundation, forcing representatives of the ruling classes to reckon with their plans.

At the center of this art, generalized by artistic language, - the image is perfect wonderful person, perfect physically and spiritually, the image of a heroic person who managed to rise above the level of everyday life. In the name of this generalized image, in the name of the desire for a harmonious synthesis of the beautiful aspects of life, the art of the High Renaissance abandons particulars and insignificant details. At the heart of such art is an all-consuming belief in limitless possibilities a person for self-improvement, self-affirmation, faith in the rational structure of the world, in the triumph of progress. The problems of civic duty, high moral qualities, and heroism came to the fore.

The creators of this deeply humanistic art were people not only of great culture and broad outlook, but also creative individuals, free from the framework of the medieval guild foundation. The era gave rise to creative individuals in whom there is a synthesis of science and art. The great creators of the High Renaissance were later called titans. In their creativity they reached such heights that no other era could achieve before or after them. Each of them is a whole world, complete, perfect, having absorbed all the knowledge, all the achievements of previous centuries and raised them to the pinnacle of art.

Even before their discovery and clear identification, some features of the High Renaissance style are, as it were, latently contained in art Early Renaissance. Sometimes certain trends, anticipating the art of the High Renaissance, make their way to the surface, affecting themselves in the aspirations of one or another painter and sculptor of the 15th century. to an increased degree of artistic generalization, to liberation from the power of details, then in the statement collective image instead of empirically following nature, finally, in a commitment to images of a monumental nature. In this sense, such masters as Masaccio, Castagno, Piero della Francesca, Mantegna are, as it were, successive milestones of the art of the Early Renaissance on the path to a new style.

And yet the art of the High Renaissance itself does not arise in the process of smooth evolution, but as a result of a sharp qualitative leap that separates it from the previous stage. The transitional forms between the art of these two periods are expressed in the work of only a very few masters. With a few exceptions, the artists of the Early Renaissance seemed to have already been born as such, just like those of the 15th century painters who continued to work in the first decades of the 16th century. (including Botticelli, Mantegna, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo, Perugino) still remained artists of the Early Renaissance in their art.

Leonardo da Vinci

Certain trends in the art of the High Renaissance were anticipated in the work of outstanding artists of the 15th century and were expressed in the desire for grandeur, monumentalization and generalization of the image. However, the true founder of the High Renaissance style was Leonardo da Vinci, a genius whose work marked a grandiose qualitative shift in art. The significance of his comprehensive activities, scientific and artistic, became clear only when Leonardo's scattered manuscripts were examined. His notes and drawings contain brilliant insights in various fields of science and technology. He was, as Engels put it, “not only a great painter, but also a great mathematician, mechanic and engineer, to whom the most diverse branches of physics owe important discoveries.”

Art for Leonardo was a means of understanding the world. Many of his sketches serve as illustrations scientific work, and at the same time these are works high art. Leonardo embodied a new type of artist - a scientist, a thinker, striking in his breadth of views and versatility of talent.

Leonardo was born in the village of Anchiano, near the city of Vinci. He was the illegitimate son of a notary and a simple peasant woman . He studied in Florence, in the studio of the sculptor and painter Andrea Verrocchio. One of Leonardo's early works - the figure of an angel in Verrocchio's painting "Baptism" (Florence, Uffizi) - stands out among the frozen characters with its subtle spirituality and testifies to the maturity of its creator.

Among Leonardo’s early works is the “Madonna with a Flower” (the so-called “Benois Madonna,” circa 1478), kept in the Hermitage, which is decidedly different from the numerous Madonnas of the 15th century. Refusing the genre and careful detailing inherent in the works of the early Renaissance masters, Leonardo deepens the characteristics and generalizes the forms. The figures of a young mother and baby, subtly modeled by side light, fill almost the entire space of the picture. The movements of the figures, organically connected with each other, are natural and plastic. They stand out clearly against the dark background of the wall. The clear blue sky opening in the window connects the figures with nature, with the vast world dominated by man. In the balanced construction of the composition, an internal pattern is felt. But it does not exclude the warmth, the naive charm observed in life.

In 1480, Leonardo already had his own workshop and received orders. However, his passion for science often distracted him from his studies in art. The large altar composition “Adoration of the Magi” (Florence, Uffizi) and “Saint Jerome” (Rome, Vatican Pinacoteca) remained unfinished.

Not finding proper appreciation of his talent at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, with his cult of exquisite sophistication, Leonardo entered the service of the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Moro. The Milan period of Leonardo's work (1482-1499) turned out to be the most fruitful. Here the versatility of his talent as a scientist, inventor and artist was revealed in full force.

He began his activity with the execution of a sculptural monument - equestrian statue father of Duke Ludovico Moro Francesco Sforza. Large model The monument, which received unanimous high praise from contemporaries, was destroyed during the capture of Milan by the French in 1499. Only drawings and sketches have survived various options monument, It was significantly larger in size than the monuments of Gattamelata and Colleoni, which gave rise to contemporaries and Leonardo himself to call the monument “the great colossus”. This work allows us to consider Leonardo one of the largest sculptors of that time.

Not a single completed architectural project by Leonardo has reached us. And yet his drawings and designs of buildings, plans for creating an ideal city speak of his gift as an outstanding architect.

The Milanese period includes paintings of a mature style - “Madonna in the Grotto” and “The Last Supper”. “Madonna in the Grotto” (1483-1494, Paris, Louvre) is the first monumental altar composition of the High Renaissance. Her characters Mary, John, Christ and the angel acquired features of greatness, poetic spirituality and fullness of life expressiveness.

The most significant of Leonardo’s monumental paintings, “The Last Supper,” executed in 1495-1497 for the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, takes you into the world of real passions and dramatic feelings. The composition of the fresco amazes with its unity, integrity, it is strictly balanced, centric in construction. The fresco is badly damaged. Leonardo's experiments using new materials did not stand the test of time; later recordings and restorations almost hid the original, which was cleared only in 1954. But the surviving engravings and preparatory drawings allow you to fill in all the details of the composition.

After Milan was captured by French troops, Leonardo left the city. Years of wandering began. Commissioned by the Florentine Republic, he made cardboard for the fresco “The Battle of Anghiari”, which was to decorate one of the walls of the Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio (city government building). When creating this cardboard, Leonardo entered into competition with the young Michelangelo, who was executing an order for the fresco “The Battle of Cascina” for another wall of the same hall. However, these cardboards, which received universal recognition from their contemporaries, have not survived to this day. Only old copies and engravings allow us to judge the innovation of the geniuses of the High Renaissance in the field of battle painting.

In Leonardo's composition, full of drama and dynamics, an episode of the battle for the banner, a moment is given high voltage forces fighting, the cruel truth of war is revealed. The creation of a portrait of Mona Lisa (“La Gioconda”, circa 1504, Paris, Louvre), one of the most famous works of world painting, dates back to this time. The complex, semi-fantastic landscape subtly harmonizes with the character and intelligence of the person being portrayed. It seems that the unsteady variability of life itself is felt in the expression of her face, enlivened by a subtle smile, in her calmly confident, penetrating gaze. The face and sleek hands of the patrician are painted with amazing care and gentleness. The thinnest, as if melting, haze of chiaroscuro (the so-called sfumato), enveloping the figure, softens the contours and shadows; There is not a single sharp stroke or angular contour in the picture.

IN last years Leonardo spent most of his life on scientific research. He died in France, where he arrived at the invitation of the French King Francis I and where he lived for only two years.

His manuscripts contain countless notes and drawings that testify to the universality of Leonardo's genius.

Madonna Benois, 1478 Gioconda (Mona Lisa) Last Supper, (central fragment)

Rafael Santi

Raphael (actually Raffaello Santi or Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Sanzio) (March 26 or 28, 1483, Urbino - April 6, 1520, Rome), Italian painter and architect.

His work most clearly embodied the humanistic ideals of the High Renaissance about a beautiful and perfect person living in harmony with the world, the ideals of life-affirming beauty characteristic of the era. Raphael, the son of the painter Giovanni Santi, spent his early years in Urbino. In 1500-1504, Raphael, according to Vasari, studied with the artist Perugino in Perugia. The works of this period of Raphael’s creativity are marked by subtle poetry and soft lyricism of landscape backgrounds (“The Dream of a Knight”, National Gallery, London; “The Three Graces”, Condé Museum, Chantilly; “Madonna Conestabile”, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; all - about 1500-1502). Close in compositional solution Perugino’s fresco “Transfer of the Keys to St. Peter” in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, Raphael’s altarpiece “The Betrothal of Mary” (1504, Brera Gallery, Milan). From 1504 Raphael worked in Florence, where he became acquainted with the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo, and studied anatomy and scientific perspective. The move to Florence played a huge role in creative development Raphael. Of primary importance for the artist was familiarity with the method of the great Leonardo da Vinci.

Following Leonardo, Raphael begins to work a lot from life, studying anatomy, mechanics of movements, complex poses and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas. In the last Florentine works of Raphael (“Entombment”, 1507, Galleria Borghese, Rome; “St. Catherine of Alexandria”, about 1507-1508, National Gallery, London) there is an interest in complex formulas dramatic, agitated movement designed by Michelangelo. The numerous images of Madonnas he created in Florence (“Madonna Granduca”, 1504, Pitti Gallery, Florence; “Madonna with the Child Christ and John the Baptist” or “The Beautiful Gardener”, 1507, Louvre, Paris; “Madonna with the Goldfinch”, Uffizi) were brought All-Italian glory to the young artist.

Raphael received an invitation from Pope Julius II to Rome, where he was able to become more familiar with ancient monuments and took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and the assignment to paint the state rooms of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he directed the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral, worked in the field of church and palace architecture, in 1515 he was appointed Commissioner of Antiquities, responsible for the study and protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the pope's order, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of man, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities. In the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura (1509-1511), where papal decrees and bulls were sealed, the artist Raphael Santi presented subjects in the field of spiritual activity: theology (“Disputa”), philosophy (“School of Athens”), poetry (“Parnassus” ), jurisprudence (“Wisdom, Measure, Strength”), each of the walls of this relatively small room had a semicircle for painting, the horizontal base of which was above eye level standing spectator. On the ceiling of the room, Raphael created allegorical, biblical and mythological scenes corresponding to the main compositions - “The Fall”, “The Victory of Apollo over Marsyas”, “Astronomy” and “The Judgment of Solomon”. In the neighboring hall of the Stanza d'Eliodoro, in the frescoes on legendary historical subjects (“The Expulsion of Eliodorus”, “The Meeting of Pope Leo I with Attila”, “Mass in Bolsena”), Raphael’s talent as a master of chiaroscuro and harmonious, soft and bright coloring. In the work “The Miraculous Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison" The increasing drama in these frescoes takes on a shade of theatrical pathos in the paintings of the Stanza del Incendio (1514-1517), which Raphael performed with numerous assistants and students. Raphael's cardboards from the series are close to the Vatican frescoes tapestries for decorating the walls of the Sistine Chapel (1515-1516, Italian pencil, brush coloring, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and other collections). To the number best works Raphael, as a muralist, also includes paintings on the vaults of the Chigi Chapel (circa 1513-1514, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome) commissioned by the banker and philanthropist Agostino Chigi and imbued with the spirit of ancient classics with its cult of sensual beauty famous fresco“The Triumph of Galatea” (1514-1515, Villa Farnesina, Rome).

First portraits refer to Florentine period(“Agnolo Doni”, 1505, Pitti, Florence; “Maddalena Strozzi”, around 1505, ibid.; “Donna Gravida”, 1505, ibid.). However, only in Rome did Raphael overcome the dryness and some stiffness of his early portraits. It was in Rome that Raphael’s brilliant talent as a portrait painter reached maturity (“Portrait of a Cardinal”, circa 1512, Prado, Madrid; “Lady in the Veil” or “Donna Velata”, circa 1516, Galleria Palatina, Florence; portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, 1515-1516, Louvre, Paris, and others). In Raphael’s “Madonnas” of the Roman period, the idyllic mood of his early works is replaced by a recreation of deeper human, maternal feelings (“Madonna Alba”, circa 1510-1511, National Gallery, Washington; “Madonna di Foligno”, circa 1511-1512, Vatican Pinacoteca) ; Mary appears as the intercessor of humanity, full of dignity and spiritual purity, in Raphael’s most famous work - “The Sistine Madonna” (1514-1519, Art Gallery, Dresden).

In the last years of his life, Raphael was so overloaded with orders that he entrusted the execution of many of them to his students and assistants (Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, Francesco Penni and others), usually limiting himself to general supervision of the works. In these works (frescoes of the “Loggia Psyche of the Villa Farnesina”, 1514-1518; frescoes in the Loggias of the Vatican, 1519; altarpiece “Transfiguration of Christ”, 1520, Vatican Pinacoteca) After Bramante's death, Raphael took over the position of chief architect of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome (he drew up a new plan for the cathedral, basing it on the architectural type of basilica), and also completed the construction of the Vatican courtyard with loggias begun by Bramante. Among Raphael's other buildings: the round church of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici (built from 1509) and the Chigi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo (1512-1520) in Rome, the elegant palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli (from 1515) in Rome and Pandolfini ( from 1520) in Florence. The art of Raphael, which had a huge influence on European painting The 16th-19th and, partly, 20th centuries, for centuries, retained the meaning of indisputable artistic authority and example for artists and viewers.

The Knight's Dream 1504. Madonna of Ansidei 1505-1507 Madonna of the Greens 1506 Lady in the Veil 1516 Sistine Madonna,

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo Buonarroti; otherwise Michelangelo di Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarroto Simoni (1475-1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Michelangelo studied in Florence in the workshop of D. Ghirlandaio (1488-1489) and with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (1489-1490), however, his acquaintance with the works of Giotto, Donatello, Masaccio, Jacopo della Quercia, and the study of monuments were of decisive importance for the creative development of Michelangelo antique plastic. Already in his youthful works (reliefs “Madonna of the Stairs”, “Battle of the Centaurs”, circa 1490-1492, Casa Buonarroti, Florence) the main features of the sculptor’s work were determined - monumentality and plastic power, internal tension and dramatic images, reverence for human beauty. Working in Rome in the late 1490s, Michelangelo paid tribute to his passion antique sculpture in the statue “Bacchus” (1496-1497, National Museum, Florence); He introduced new humanistic content and vivid convincing images into the canonical scheme of the group “Lamentation of Christ” (circa 1498, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome). In 1501, Michelangelo returned to Florence, where he created the colossal statue “David” (1501-1504, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence), embodying the heroic impulse and civic valor of the Florentines who threw off the yoke of Medici tyranny. In 1505, Pope Julius II invited Michelangelo to Rome and commissioned him to create his own tomb. For the tomb of Julius II, completed only in 1545 (the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome), Michelangelo created a number of statues, including the “Moses” (1515-1516), endowed with a powerful will, titanic strength and temperament, filled with the tragedy of the “Dying Slave” ” and “The Rebel Slave” (1516, Louvre), as well as 4 unfinished figures of slaves (1532-1534 In a picturesque cycle executed by Michelangelo on the vault Sistine Chapel in Vatican , the artist created a grandiose, solemn, easily visible composition in general and in detail, perceived as a hymn to physical and spiritual beauty, as an affirmation of the limitless creative possibilities of God and man created in his image. In the most difficult conditions, for four years, from 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo worked, completing the entire painting of the huge ceiling (600 sq.m. area) with his own hand. In accordance with the architectonics of the chapel, he divided the vault covering it into a number of fields, placing in a wide central field nine compositions on scenes from the Bible about the creation of the world and the first people on earth:

“The Creation of Eve”, “The Fall”, “The Flood”, “The Drunkenness of Noah”, etc. On the sides of them, on the slopes of a huge vault, are depicted figures of prophets and Sibyls (soothsayers), in the corners of the fields there are sitting naked young men; in the vault sails, formwork and lunettes above the windows are episodes from the Bible and the so-called ancestors of Christ. The grandiose ensemble, including more than three hundred figures, seems to be an inspired hymn to the beauty, power, and intelligence of man, glorifying his creative genius and heroic deeds . In 1516-1534 years, Michelangelo Buonarroti worked in Florence on the design of the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo and the architectural and sculptural ensemble of the tomb of the Medici family in the New Sacristy of the same church, as well as on sculptures for the tomb of Pope Julius II. Michelangelo's worldview in the 1520s acquired a tragic character. The deep pessimism that gripped him in the face of the death of political and civil liberties in Italy, the crisis of Renaissance humanism, was reflected in the figurative structure of the sculptures of the Medici tomb - in the heavy thought and aimless movement of the statues of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano, devoid of portrait features, in the dramatic symbolism of the four figures depicting “ Evening”, “Night”, “Morning” and “Day” and personifying the irreversibility of the flow of time. In 1534 Michelangelo moved again to Rome, where he spent the last 30 years of his life. The master’s late paintings amaze with the tragic power of the images (the fresco “The Last Judgment” on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, 1536-1541), permeated with bitter reflections on the futility of human life, on the painful hopelessness of the search for truth (partly anticipating Baroque painting, the paintings of the Paolina Chapel in the Vatican , 1542-1550).

David Pietaa t Bacchus The Dying Slave Evening (Twilight Morning (Aurora

The last sculptural works of Michelangelo include the “Pieta”, marked by the tragic expression of artistic language, for the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (before 1550-1555, destroyed by Michelangelo and restored by his student M. Calcagni; now in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence) and the sculptural group “Pieta” Rondanini” (1555-1564, Museum of Ancient Art, Milan), intended by him for his own tombstone and unfinished. Michelangelo's late work is characterized by a gradual departure from painting and sculpture and a turn to architecture and poetry. From 1546, Michelangelo supervised the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral and the construction of the ensemble of the Capitol Square in Rome (both works were completed after his death). The trapezoidal Capitol Square with the ancient equestrian monument of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the center, the first Renaissance urban ensemble designed by one artist, is closed by the Palace of the Conservatives, flanked by two symmetrically placed palaces on its sides and opens into the city with a wide staircase.

In the plan of St. Peter's Cathedral, Michelangelo, developing the ideas of Bramante and preserving the idea of ​​centricity, strengthened the significance of the center of the cross in the internal space. During Michelangelo's lifetime, the eastern part of the cathedral was built with the base of a grandiose dome, erected in 1586-1593 by Michelangelo's student, the architect Giacomo della Porta, who somewhat lengthened its proportions. Michelangelo's lyrics are marked by depth of thought and high tragedy. In his madrigals and sonnets, love is interpreted as man’s eternal desire for beauty and harmony, lamentation of the artist’s loneliness in hostile world side by side with the bitter disappointments of a humanist in the face of triumphant violence. The work of Michelangelo, which became the brilliant final stage of the Italian Renaissance, played a huge role in the development of European art, largely prepared the formation of mannerism, and influenced big influence on the formation of the principles of the Baroque.

2. Technological achievements of the Renaissance

The philosophy of the Renaissance was characterized by a pantheistic tendency. Pantheism was most clearly manifested in the works of Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrizi, Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella. Thus, the teaching of Telesio is characterized by the fact that both God and his creation, including the immortal human soul and purposefully constructed nature turn out to be impersonal principles.

For Patrizi, the light is above all, and the entire universe, together with man and material things, is only a hierarchical emanation of this primal light, i.e. Before us is Neoplatonism.

Bruno created one of the most profound and interesting forms of pantheism in Italy XVI V.; the basis of his teaching about the beauty of the divine universe and, consequently, about the beauty of each individual element of such a universe, heroically striving to merge with the deity (which is also the material universe), lies the basic ontological principle - everything is in everything (this principle is used in 20th century science .).

Campanella’s pantheistic system is very contradictory, since it features a real monotheistic god and at the same time proclaims complete freedom of human sensory perception, complete freedom of logic, epistemology and science based on it, and thereby complete independence from the deity and his institutions.

The contradictions of Campanella's system and his flirtations with exact sciences, in which he understood little, indicate both the progressive collapse of the Renaissance and the progressive formation of modern natural science. One of the most striking phenomena of the Renaissance in the traditional presentation is usually the heliocentric system of Copernicus and the doctrine of infinite measures by Giordano Bruno. Nevertheless, Copernicus's discovery was advanced and revolutionary event for subsequent centuries, but for the Renaissance it was a phenomenon not only of decline, but even of Renaissance self-denial. The fact is that the Renaissance appeared in the history of Western culture as an era of exaltation of man, as a period of faith in man, in his endless possibilities and in his mastery of nature. But Copernicus and Bruno turned the Earth into some insignificant grain of sand of the universe, and at the same time man turned out to be incomparable, incommensurable with the endless dark abyss of world space.

The revivalist loved to contemplate nature with the motionless Earth and the ever-moving vault of heaven. But now it turned out that the Earth is some kind of insignificance, and no sky exists at all. The Renaissance man preached the power of the human personality and his connection with nature, which for him was the model of his creations, and he himself also tried in his work to imitate nature and its creator - the Great Artist.

But along with the great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler, all this human power collapsed and crumbled to dust. A picture of the world emerged in which man has become a nonentity with an endlessly inflated mind and self-esteem. Thus, heliocentrism and the infinite number of worlds not only contradicted the culture of the Renaissance, but were its negation.

Along with all this, the everyday practice of alchemy, astrology and all magic covered the entire Renaissance society from top to bottom and was by no means the result of ignorance.

It is the result of the same individualistic thirst to master the mysterious forces of nature, which makes itself felt even in Francis Bacon, that famous champion of inductive methods in science. Connected with this is the historical paradox that the Holy Inquisition flourished during the Renaissance.

Hunts for heretics and witches, unbridled terror and collective psychoses, cruelty and moral insignificance, suffering and ordinary bestiality are the products of the Renaissance; they, like the activities of the Holy Inquisition, do not oppose the then great achievements of the spirit and thought of man, but are connected with them, are their integral part, and express the authentic aspirations and needs of man.

After all, the Renaissance is very rich in endless superstitions that permeated absolutely all layers of society, including scientists and philosophers, not to mention politicians and rulers.

3. Art of the Renaissance.

The culture of the Renaissance, its art and, above all, plastic art make it possible to formulate a paradox: the archetype of youth, which in its essence is an expression of the search for immutability, is seemingly historical.

The basis of this paradox is the position adopted by the Renaissance about the fundamental genetic identity of the natural world and the world of culture. This position in Renaissance culture becomes a leitmotif in the works of writers, philosophers and artists.

Picodella Mirandola's classic formulation in the Oration on the Dignity of Man is an expression of the generally accepted idea of ​​the fundamental unity of the world.

Finally, the Renaissance represents the first cultural form of regeneration of time, consciously expressing the idea of ​​renewal.

The Renaissance can also be looked at as a great, integral attempt to begin history anew, an act of renewal of the beginning, a regeneration of social time. In general, we can say that it was in the Renaissance culture that the idea of ​​the limitless power of man, of his unlimited capabilities, was developed.

The aesthetics of the Renaissance orients art towards imitation of nature. However, what comes first here is not so much nature as the artist, who in his creative activity resembles God. In the creator of a work of art, who is gradually freed from church ideology, what is most valued is a keen artistic view of things, professional independence, and special skills, and his creations acquire a self-sufficient, rather than sacred, character.

One of the most important principles of perception of works of art is pleasure, which indicates a significant democratic tendency as opposed to the moralizing and scholastic “scholarship” of previous aesthetic theories.

Aesthetic thought The Renaissance contains not only the idea of ​​the absolutization of the human individual as opposed to the supra-mundane divine personality in the Middle Ages, but also a certain awareness of the limitations of such individualism, based on the absolute self-affirmation of the individual.

Hence the motives of tragedy found in the works of W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes, Michelangelo and others. This is the inconsistency of a culture that has moved away from ancient medieval absolutes, but due to historical circumstances has not yet found new reliable foundations.

The fine arts of the Renaissance provide a contrast to the medieval in many respects. It marks the emergence of realism, which determined the development of European artistic culture for a long time.

This affected not only the spread of secular images, the development of portraits and landscapes, or a new, sometimes almost genre-specific interpretation of religious subjects, but also a radical renewal of the entire artistic system. During the Renaissance, an objective image of the world was seen through human eyes, therefore one of important issues The problem that faced the artists was the problem of space.

The art of antiquity constitutes one of the foundations of the artistic culture of the Renaissance. It is known that the ancient heritage was also used in the Middle Ages, for example, during the Carolingian Renaissance, in the painting of the Ottonian period in Germany, in Gothic art.

But the attitude towards this heritage was different. In the Middle Ages, individual monuments were reproduced and individual motifs were borrowed. And representatives of the Renaissance find in ancient culture something that is in tune with their own aspirations - commitment to reality, cheerfulness, admiration for the beauty of the earthly world, for the greatness of heroic deeds. At the same time, having developed in other historical conditions, having absorbed traditions Romanesque style and Gothic, Renaissance art bears the stamp of its time.

Compared with the art of classical antiquity, the human spiritual world is becoming more and more complex and multifaceted.

The artists' works become signatures, that is, they are clearly copyrighted. More and more self-portraits are appearing. An undoubted sign of a new self-awareness is that artists are increasingly shying away from direct orders, devoting themselves to work out of inner motivation.

By the end of the 14th century, the external position of the artist in society also changed significantly.

Artists begin to receive all kinds of public recognition, positions, honorary and monetary sinecures. A. Michelangelo, for example, is elevated to such a height that, without fear of offending the crowned princes, he refuses the high honors offered to him. The nickname “divine” is enough for him.

He insists that in letters to him any titles should be omitted, and they should simply be written “Michelangelo Buonarotti.” A genius has a name. The title is a burden for him, because it is associated with inevitable circumstances and, therefore, with at least a partial loss of that very freedom from everything that interferes with his creativity.

But the logical limit to which the Renaissance artist gravitated was the acquisition of complete personal independence, implying, of course, first of all creative freedom.

In architecture, an especially important role was played by the appeal to the classical tradition. It manifested itself not only in the rejection of Gothic forms and the revival of the ancient order system, but also in the classical proportionality of proportions, in the development in temple architecture of a centric type of building with an easily visible interior space.

Especially a lot of new things were created in the field of civil architecture. During the Renaissance, multi-story city buildings (town halls, houses of merchant guilds, universities, warehouses, markets, etc.) received a more elegant appearance; a type of city palace (palazzo) emerged - the home of a wealthy burgher, as well as a type of country villa. Issues related to city planning are being resolved in a new way, and city centers are being reconstructed.

Unlike the Middle Ages, when the main customers of works were the church and large feudal lords, now the circle of customers is significantly expanding and their social composition is changing. Along with the church, guild associations of artisans, merchant guilds, city authorities, and private individuals - both nobles and burghers - often give orders to artists.

Along with monumental forms, easel forms are becoming increasingly widespread - painting on wood and canvas, sculpture made of wood, bronze, rherracotta and majolica.

Chronological boundaries of the development of Renaissance art in different countries don't quite match. Due to historical circumstances, the Renaissance in the northern countries of Europe was delayed compared to the Italian one.

And yet, the art of this era, with all the variety of particular forms, has the most important common feature - the desire for a truthful reflection of reality. In the last century, the first Renaissance historian Jacob Burckhard defined this feature as “the discovery of the world of mankind.”

The art of the Renaissance is divided into four stages: Proto-Renaissance (late XIII - first half of the XIV century),

Early Renaissance (XV century),

High Renaissance (end of the 15th century, first three decades of the 16th century),

Late Renaissance (middle and second half of the 16th century).

In the literature about the Renaissance, Italian names of centuries are often used: Ducento - XIII century, Trecento - XIV century, Quattrocento - XVI century.

REFERENCES

1. Kravchenko A.I. Culturology: Textbook for universities. - 3rd ed. - M.: Academic Project, 2001.

2. Cultural studies for technical universities. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2001.

3. Bichko A.K. Ta in. Theory and history of light and veterinary culture: Course of lectures. – K.: Libid, 1992. – 392 p.

4. Cultural studies in questions and answers. Tutorial. Rotov-on-Don: “Phoenix”, 1997 – 480 p.

t to solving ideological problems. That is why the culture of the Renaissance has a distinct artistic character. 1. Culture of the Renaissance Western Europe XIV-XVI centuries. – Italian Renaissance The tendency to rethink antiquity in the Italian Renaissance is strong, but it is combined with cultural values many origins, in particular with Christian (Catholic) ...

A new type of person has been forged. This era “needed titans” - and “gave birth to titans in strength of thought, passion and character, but also in versatility and learning.” It is difficult to find a major cultural figure of the Renaissance who did not write poetry. Talented poets were Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci; poems were written by Giordano Bruno, Thomas More, Ulrich von Hutten, and Erasmus of Rotterdam. Art...

God, not man. God is the beginning of all things, and man is the center of the whole world. This ideological turn was carried out by the humanists of the Renaissance. Humanism (Latin humanus - human) is one of the central phenomena of Renaissance culture. Renaissance figures great importance gave studia humanitatis - mastery of spiritual culture. Cicero, from whom this term was borrowed, understood by...

In contrast to the Catholic point of view, the moral significance of worldly professional work and the religious reward for it have grown enormously.” Different historians resolve the issue of the relationship between the Renaissance and the Reformation in different ways. Both the Reformation and the Renaissance placed the human personality at the center, energetic, striving to transform the world, with a pronounced strong-willed beginning. But the Reformation...

The High Renaissance, which gave humanity such great masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian, Bramante, covers a relatively short period of time - the end of the 15th and the first third of the 16th centuries. Only in Venice did the flowering of art continue until the middle of the century.
Fundamental changes associated with the decisive events of world history and the successes of advanced scientific thought have endlessly expanded people's ideas about the world - not only about the earth, but also about space. The perception of the world and the human personality seems to have become larger; in artistic creativity this was reflected not only in the majestic scale of architectural structures, monuments, solemn fresco cycles and paintings, but also in their content and expressiveness of images. The figurative language, which in the Early Renaissance, according to some researchers, could seem too “chatty,” became generalized and restrained. The art of the High Renaissance is a living and complex artistic process with dazzlingly bright ups and subsequent crises.

Architecture

Painting

Art Rafael Santi(1483-1520) also belongs to the peaks of the Italian Renaissance. In the history of world art, the work of Raphael is associated with the idea of ​​sublime beauty and harmony. It is generally accepted that in the constellation brilliant masters The High Renaissance, in which Leonardo da Vinci personified intellect and Michelangelo - power, was Raphael who was the main bearer of harmony. Of course, to one degree or another, each of them possessed all these qualities. There is no doubt, however, that the tireless striving for a bright, perfect beginning permeates all of Raphael’s work and constitutes his inner meaning. His works are unusually attractive in their natural grace ("Sistine Madonna"). Perhaps this is why the master gained such extraordinary popularity among the public and had many followers among artists at all times. Raphael was not only an amazing painter and portrait painter, but also a monumentalist who worked in fresco techniques, an architect, and a master of decor. All these talents were especially evident in his paintings of the apartments of Pope Julius II in the Vatican (“School of Athens”). In art genius artist a new image of a Renaissance man was born - beautiful, harmonious, perfect physically and spiritually (“Portrait of B. Castiglione”).

Raphael. Madonna and Child (Madonna Conestabile). Hermitage Museum. Around 1500-1502.

A contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael was their eternal rival - Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest master of the High Renaissance - sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Mine creative path this titan of the Renaissance began with sculpture. His colossal statues became a symbol of a new man - a hero and fighter (“David”). The master erected many architectural and sculptural structures, the most famous of which is the Medici Chapel in Florence. The splendor of these works is built on the colossal tension of the characters’ feelings (Sarcophagus of Giuliano de’ Medici). But Michelangelo’s paintings in the Vatican, in the Sistine Chapel, are especially famous, in which he proved himself to be a brilliant painter. Perhaps no one in world art, neither before nor after Michelangelo, has created characters so strong in body and spirit (“The Creation of Adam”). The huge, incredibly complex fresco on the ceiling was painted by the artist alone, without assistants; it remains to this day an unsurpassed monumental work of Italian painting. But in addition to painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the master, already in old age, created the fiercely inspired “Last Judgment” - a symbol of the collapse of the ideals of his great era. Nevertheless, Michelangelo always idolized the beauty of man, no matter what fatal and tragic pages of life determined the content of the creations of this genius. Michelangelo worked extensively and fruitfully in architecture, in particular, he supervised the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral and the ensemble of the Capitol Square in Rome. The work of the great Michelangelo constituted an entire era and was far ahead of its time; it played a colossal role in world art, in particular, it influenced the formation of the principles of the Baroque.

Venice added a bright page to the history of High Renaissance art, where this period lasted until the mid-16th century. The city acquired particular splendor after the reconstruction of its center by Bramante's student Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570). Opposite the Doge's Palace, he erected the monumental Library of San Marco with an openwork facade, organically connecting it with the ensemble of the square. At the foot of the bell tower of the Cathedral of San Marco, the master built a small elegant building - Loggetta, and in 1532-37. on Grand Canal- elegant palazzo Corner della Ca Grande. Highest prosperity in the 16th century. achieved Venetian painting with its rich traditions created by the masters of the previous century, and primarily the poetic and contemplative work of Giovanni Bellini, teacher of the great masters Giorgione and Titian.

Giorgione considered the first master of the High Renaissance in Venice. His art is completely special. The spirit of clear harmony and some special intimate contemplation and dreaminess reigns in it. This Venetian knew how to convey the mood of the scene, its subtle, like a wonderful dream, absolute silence. He often painted delightful beauties, real goddesses. Usually this is a poetic fiction - the embodiment of a pipe dream, admiration for romantic feeling and beautiful woman. His paintings contain a hint of sensual passion, sweet pleasure, unearthly happiness. Refined hedonism became an important theme of his painting. With the art of Giorgione, Venetian painting acquired pan-Italian significance, establishing its artistic characteristics.

Titian entered the history of Italian art as a titan and the head of the Venetian school, as a symbol of its heyday. The breath of a new era - stormy, tragic, sensual - was manifested with particular force in the work of this artist. Titian's work is distinguished by its exceptionally wide and varied coverage of types and genres of painting. Titian was one of the founders of monumental altar painting, landscape as an independent genre, and various types of portraits, including ceremonial ones. In his work ideal images coexist with bright characters, tragic conflicts- with scenes of jubilant joy, religious compositions - with mythological and historical paintings. Titian belongs to the greatest colorists of world painting. His paintings shine with gold and a complex range of vibrating, luminous undertones of color. Titian developed a new painting technique that had an exceptional influence on the further development of world fine art until the 20th century. Powerful temperament and bright creative individuality Titian's works were already evident in his early works, saturated with vibrant life, sparkling beauty, richness of spiritual content, and depth of emotional experiences. Titian, who lived for almost a century, experienced the collapse of Renaissance ideals; the master's work half belongs to the Late Renaissance. His hero, entering the fight against hostile forces, dies, but retains his greatness. The influence of Titian's great workshop affected all Venetian art.
Self-portrait