Course program "history of Italian art" in Florence. Italian culture from A to Z

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Florence

• Introduction;
• Chronology of major historical stages, Roman period;
• XIII century:
  Architecture: French Gothic in Italy;
  Italian Gothic;
  Sculpture, from Nicola Pisano to Arnolfo di Cambio;
• Architectural and urban changes between the 13th and 14th centuries;
• Florence and Siena in the 14th century:
  Cimabue and Duccio;
  Giotto;
  Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers;
• Florence in the second half of the century;
  Traces of International Gothic.
• Brunelleschi and the Revolution of Perspective:
  Three fathers of the Italian Renaissance: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio;
• Early Renaissance:
  Florence in the first half of the 15th century;
• Florence in the second half of the 15th century:
  Men of Art at the Court of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Botticelli;
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Raffaello and Michelangelo

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Milan

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Milan

The course program consists of two parts:

• Theoretical lessons introducing students to the history of Italy and the history of Italian art, with an emphasis on periods related to the history of Milan;
• Outdoor lessons organized in the final part of the course. The purpose of these lessons is an in-depth study of sections of the course that are especially interesting to students; visiting the cultural sights of Milan

Audio and video materials are used during lessons. Periods of art, main characteristics and key works of art (painting, sculpture, architectural structures, etc.). Educational materials supplemented by illustrations, videos, audio recordings and other materials.

Example program:

• From Celtic tribes to the Roman Empire: the first cultic settlements and the arrival of the Romans. Archaeological finds of the era Ancient Rome; analysis of the first urban centers. Analysis of three architectural styles using the example of the Basilica of San Lorenzo;
• From early Christian Milan to the founding of the municipality: Saint Ambrose, Christian culture and the invasion of the Longobards. Basilica of Saint Simpliciano and Saint Ambrose: analysis and characteristics of the Romanesque style;
• Medieval Milan and the Signoria Visconti: chronology of the family tree of the Visconti dynasty;
• Milan and its medieval sites such as Piazza dei Mercanti and the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio;
• General characteristics of Gothic architecture and the Gothic monuments of Milan such as Piazza San Marco and the Duomo;
• Sforza Dynasty and Renaissance: Sforza Court and Sforza Castle.
  Analysis and characteristics of the beginning of the Renaissance in Florence. Renaissance in Milan using the example of an analysis of the work of Milanese architects, sculptures, artists, including Filarete and Bramante, as well as architectural landmarks such as the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Santa Maria and San Satiro;
• Leonardo da Vinci: his life and works, the period of his life in Milan: history and analysis of the painting "The Last Supper", a unique masterpiece of the great master;
• Spanish influence: Mannerist period, artists Caravaggio, Carracci and Rubens.
  Analysis and characteristics of Baroque architecture: the Church of St. Alessandro, Palazzo Parino, Palazzo del Senato, Omenoni House and Palazzo Durini;
• French and Austrian influence: Maria Theresa of Austria and the reform of Napoleon Bonaparte;
• Neoclassical architecture: Palazzo di Brera, Palazzo Reale, La Scala Theatre, Foro Bonaparte, Sempione Park, Villa Reale, Arch of Peace;
• Restoration, Renaissance, Kingdom of Italy: Austrian restoration and Italian War of Independence, era of Garibaldi;
• Industrial revolution. Eclectic Analysis: Monumental Cemetery, Victor Emmanuel Gallery;
• Fascism and rationalism: Mussolini and fascist architecture in Milan (Piacentini). Liberty style.
  Analysis of the main characteristics of rationalism. Muzio and Gio Ponti: Statione Centrale (central station), Piazza San Babila, Palazzo di Giustizia (Palace of Justice)

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Rome

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Rome

Getting to know Rome, the Eternal City:

Ancient Rome:
- Roman Forum (Foro Romano);
- Palatine;
- Imperial forums;
- Colosseum;
- Capitol

Medieval Rome:
- Trastevere;
- Santa Maria in Trastevere;
- Basilica of Santa Cecilia;
- Santa Maria in Cosmedin and "Mouth of Truth";
- San Clemente

Vatican:
- San Pietro;
- Piazza San Pietro;
- Vatican Museums

Baroque:
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini - Piazza Navona, Elephant Obelisk, Santa Maria sopra Minerva;
- Francesco Borromini - St. Ivo alla Sapienza;
- Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - San Luigi dei Francesi, Sant'Agostino and Santa Maria del Popolo;
- Galleria Borghese

Rationalism of the Roman Quarter:
- EUR

Modern Rome:
- Ara Pacis;
- Auditorium

A vacation in Rome is a fascinating introduction to the history and art of the Eternal City, a huge variety of cultural attractions and interesting places.

Our Art History course in Rome is a great opportunity to get to know the city through a wealth of historical and cultural discoveries. The course program begins with an overview of the classical era, studying the work of ancient writers and attractions that have survived to our time.
The next stage is Christianity, the first period of intensive development of the city: the study of works of religious art in local churches and monasteries.
Course participants will be able to appreciate the outstanding masterpieces of the Baroque and Rococo eras that decorate city squares and streets.
The final part of the course will focus on works of art and architecture after 1870, when Rome became the capital of Italy.

The Art History course in Rome includes classroom lessons as well as guided tours of the city. The program is designed as a whole series of exciting trips with the main goal of getting to know the wonders and sights of Rome.

The first part of the course is taught in the classroom, using texts, illustrations and maps to introduce the history of Rome.

Rome, the Imperial Past: This part of the course examines sites from the classical period, such as the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon, illustrating the political and cultural evolution of Rome from the Empire to the Republic.

Early Christian and medieval Rome (IV - III centuries): churches and monasteries that became the visual embodiment of the Christian religion, architecture, mosaics, frescoes and altar paintings made by artists such as Cavallini, Torriti, Rusuti and others.

Renaissance Rome (15th and 16th centuries): masterpieces by Michelangelo, Raffaello and Bramante, visiting the churches and palaces where they are kept (such as the Vatican Basilica and Villa Farnesina, as well as new urban areas of the era, such as Piazza Campidoglio and Via Giulia.

Baroque Rome (17th and 18th centuries): the triumph of fancy fountains, palaces and churches built by Bernini and Borromini and their followers, Piazza Navona, Piazza Quirinale and Piazza di Spagna (Plaza di Spagna).

Rome the Capital (1870) and Rome under Fascism: an analysis of the period when Rome was transformed into a modern capital with spacious streets and squares. Later, under Mussolini, Rome regained its central role as a symbol classical culture: You will find confirmation of this when exploring the EUR area and Foro Italico.

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Siena

Course program "History of Italian Art" in Siena

Students will have an exciting journey into the world of classical art and get acquainted with the works of outstanding Italian artists, sculptors, architects who lived and worked in Siena, the pearl of Tuscany, where numerous masterpieces are carefully preserved today.
Classroom lessons are complemented by city walks and excursions

Course program:

Middle Ages
Romantic and Gothic culture. Influence of France and Northern Europe. Religious and secular architecture: Florence, Siena, Pisa, Venice.
Churches and municipal buildings. Local examples of abbeys such as St. Antimo and St. Galgano.
Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, pulpits in Pisa, Siena, Pistoia: from antiquity to Gothic. Cimabue, Giotto, Duccio and fresco technique. Basilica of Saint Francesco in Assisi.

Siena painting of the 16th century
The period after Duccio: Simone Martini, the Lorenzetti brothers and the Florentine Renaissance.
The importance of the Siena school of painting in Italy.

Renaissance
Florence, XV century. Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Jacopo della Quercia, brothers della Robbia. The grandiose buildings of the Baptistery and Duomo. Mastering perspective and artistic life in European cities. . La padronanza della prospettiva e la direzione artistica della città in Europa. Italian courts.

Examples of Renaissance Art
Italy: Mantova, Urbino, Milan, Pienza
Influence on art by the Pope and patrons of the arts. Growing fame of artists, sculptors, architects.
New techniques: canvas, oil, print. The geniuses of Michelangelo, Raffaello, Leognardo, Titian.
Antiquity and nature as a source of inspiration.

Mannerism
The crisis of the 17th century in architecture, sculpture and painting. Giorgio Vasari, Pontormo, Domenico Beccafumi, Giambologna.

Italian art and painting

The history of Italian art is the art of Italy itself in time and space. After the Etruscan civilization and especially after the Roman Republic and the Empire, which dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy occupied central place in European art during the Renaissance. Italy also demonstrated European artistic dominance in the 16th and 17th centuries thanks to Baroque artistic movement. It has re-established a strong international presence art scene since the mid-19th century thanks to such movements as Macchiaioli, Futurism, Metaphysics, Novecento, Spacialism, Arte Povera and Transavantgarde.

Italian art has influenced some major movements for centuries, producing many great creators, including painters and sculptors. Today Italy occupies an important place on the international art scene, with several major art galleries, museums and exhibitions; The country's significant art centers include its capital, Rome, as well as Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, Turin and other cities.

"The Triumph of Galatea" by Raphael

Etruscan art

Etruscan bronze figures and terracotta funerary reliefs are examples of the powerful traditions of central Italy, which had weakened by the time Rome began building its empire on the peninsula. The Etruscan paintings that have survived to this day are mainly wall frescoes from burials, mainly from Tarquinia. This is the most important example of pre-Roman visual arts Italy, known to scientists.

The frescoes are executed using the technique of painting on top of fresh plaster, this was done so that when the plaster dries, the painting becomes part of the plaster and an integral part of the wall, helping it to survive so well (and indeed, almost all surviving Etruscan and Roman painting is represented only by frescoes). Colors were created from stones and minerals of different colors that were ground and mixed together, small brushes were made from animal hair (even best brushes made from ox hair). From the middle of the 4th century BC. The use of chiaroscuro to depict depth and volume began. Sometimes scenes from everyday life are depicted, but most often they are traditional mythological scenes. The concept of proportion does not appear in any of the surviving frescoes, and we often find images of animals or people with some disproportionate body parts. One of the most famous Etruscan frescoes is the painting of the Tomb of the Lionesses in Tarquinia.

Roman art

Rome under Emperor Constantine, photo: Campus Martius, public domain

The Etruscans were responsible for the construction of Rome's early monumental buildings. Roman temples and houses copied Etruscan models with great accuracy. Elements of Etruscan influence on Roman temples included a podium and an emphasis on the facade to the detriment of the other three sides of the building. Large Etruscan houses were grouped around central hall much in the same way that Roman large town houses were later built around an atrium. The influence of Etruscan architecture gradually waned during the Republic due to influences (especially Greek) from other parts of the world. Etruscan architecture itself was influenced by the Greeks, so when the Romans adopted Greek styles, they did not become alien to their culture. During the republic, there was probably a constant assimilation of architectural trends mainly from Hellenistic world, but after the fall of Syracuse in 211 BC. Greek works of art poured into Rome. In the 2nd century BC, a stream of these works, and more importantly by Greek craftsmen, continued to flow into Rome, having a decisive influence on the development of Roman architecture. Towards the end of the Republic, when Vitruvius wrote his treatise in architecture, Greek architectural theory and examples of architectural work prevailed over everything else.

As the empire expanded, Roman architecture spread over large areas and was used to create both public buildings and some large private buildings. In many areas, elements of style, especially decoration, were influenced by local tastes, but the architecture remained recognisably Roman. Local architectural styles were influenced to varying degrees by Roman architecture, and in many regions Roman and vernacular elements are found combined in the same building.

By the 1st century AD, Rome had become the largest and most developed city in the entire world. The ancient Romans came up with new technologies to improve the city's sanitation systems, roads and buildings. They developed a system of aqueducts that brought food into the city through pipes. fresh water, and built a sewer system that removed the city's waste. The richest Romans lived in big houses with gardens. Most of the population, however, lived in tenement buildings made of stone, concrete or limestone. The Romans developed new technologies and used materials such as volcanic soil from Pozzuoli, a village near Naples, to make their cement stronger and stronger. This cement allowed them to build large concrete apartment buildings called insulas.

Statue known as "Augustus of Prima Porta", Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

Wall paintings decorated the homes of the rich. The paintings often depicted garden landscapes, events from Greek and Roman mythology, historical scenes, or scenes from everyday life. The Romans decorated floors with mosaics - designs or patterns created from small colored tiles. Richly colored paintings and mosaics helped make the rooms of Roman houses visually larger and brighter, as well as flaunt the owner's wealth.

In the Christian era of the late empire, 350-500. AD, wall paintings, mosaic decorations on ceilings and floors, and funerary sculptures flourished, while full-size all-round sculpture and painted panels gradually disappeared, most likely for religious reasons. When Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople), roman art Eastern influences began to influence, giving birth to the Byzantine style of the late empire. When Rome was devastated in the 5th century, artisans moved to and found work in the Eastern capital. Almost 10,000 workers and artisans worked on the creation of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, this was the final accord of Roman art under Emperor Justinian I, who also ordered the creation of the famous mosaics of Ravenna.

Medieval art

Throughout the Middle Ages, Italian art primarily included architectural decoration (frescoes and mosaics). Byzantine art in Italy it was a very formal and elaborate decoration with standardized calligraphy and striking use of color and gold. Until the 13th century, art in Italy was almost entirely regional, influenced by external European and Eastern movements. After approx. 1250, the art of different regions had developed common characteristics, so there was a certain unity and deep originality.

Byzantine art

After the fall of his western capital The Roman Empire lasted another 1,000 years under the leadership of Constantinople. Byzantine craftsmen were involved in important projects throughout Italy, and Byzantine styles in painting are observed until the 14th century.

Gothic art

The Gothic period marks the transition from medieval art to the Renaissance, and is characterized by styles and attitudes developed under the influence of the Dominican and Franciscan monastic orders founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi, respectively.

This was a time of religious controversy within the church. The Franciscan and Dominican orders were founded as an attempt to resolve these disputes and return the Catholic Church back to basics. The early years of the Franciscans are especially remembered for the charity of St. Francis, and the Dominicans are remembered as the order most responsible for the rise of the Inquisition.

Gothic architecture originated in northern Europe and spread south to Italy.

Renaissance Art

In the Middle Ages, artists and sculptors tried to give their works a religious character. They wanted viewers to focus on the deep religious meaning of their paintings and sculptures. But the artists and sculptors of the Renaissance, like the writers of this era, sought to depict people and nature realistically. Medieval architects designed huge cathedrals in order to emphasize the greatness of God and humble the human spirit. Renaissance architects designed buildings whose proportions were based on those of the human body, and whose decorations imitated ancient patterns.

Art of the 1300s and early 1400s

In the early 1300s, the Florentine artist Giotto became the first artist to depict nature realistically. He created magnificent frescoes (painting on wet plaster) for churches in Assisi, Florence, Padua and Rome. Giotto made an attempt to create realistic figures that showed real emotions. He portrayed many of his characters in real-life settings.

A remarkable group of Florentine architects, painters and sculptors created their work in the early 1400s. Among them were artist Masaccio, sculptor Donatello and architect Filippo Brunelleschi.

Masaccio's best work was a series of frescoes that he created around 1427 in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. These frescoes realistically depict biblical scenes of emotional intensity. In these works, Masaccio used Brunelleschi's system to create linear perspective.

Donatello tried to depict the dignity of the human body in his sculptures with realistic and often dramatic detail. His masterpieces include three statues biblical hero David. In the version completed in the 1430s, Donatello's David is depicted as a graceful, naked youth, shown moments after he has killed the giant Goliath. The work, which stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, was the first large free-standing nude sculpture created in Western art since antiquity.

Brunelleschi was the first Renaissance architect to revive the ancient Roman style of architecture. In his projects he used arches, columns and other elements of classical architecture. One of his most famous buildings is the beautifully and harmoniously built Pazzi Chapel in Florence. This chapel, whose construction began in 1442 and was completed around 1465, was one of the first buildings built in the new Renaissance style. Brunelleschi was also the first Renaissance artist to master linear perspective - mathematical system, with which artists could demonstrate space and depth on a flat surface.

Art of the late 1400s and early 1500s

The outstanding representatives of the art of the late 1400s and early 1500s were three masters. These were Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo was an outstanding painter, architect and poet. Moreover, he was named the greatest sculptor in history. Michelangelo was a master of depicting the human body. For example, his famous statue of the leader of the Israelite people, Moses (1516), gives an extraordinary impression of physical and spiritual power. These qualities are also evident in the biblical and classical frescoes that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. These frescoes, painted from 1508 to 1512, belong to the greatest works art of the Renaissance.

"David" by Michelangelo

Palazzo Pitti

Academy Gallery fine arts

National Museum Bargello

National Museum of San Marco

National Archaeological Museum Florence

Opera del Duomo Museum

Palazzo Vecchio

Orsanmichele Museum

Gem processing workshop

Palazzo Rosso

Palazzo Bianco

Palazzo Reale

Pinacoteca Brera

Poldi Pezzoli Museum

Sforza Castle

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

National Archaeological Museum of Naples

City Museum of Padua

G. Palermo

Palazzo Abatellis

National Gallery Parma

Magnani Rocca Foundation

G. Perugia

National Museum of Umbria

National Museum of San Matteo

City Museum of Prato

Cathedral Museum

Reggio Calabria

National Museum of Magna Graecia

Capitoline Museums

Montemartini Center

National Roman Museum

Gallery Doria Pamphilj

Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Corsini

National Etruscan Museum

Castel Sant'Angelo (Castel Sant'Angelo)

Spada Gallery

National Pinacoteca of Siena

Palazzo Publico

Museum of the Siena Cathedral (Museum of Duomo Works)

Sabauda Gallery

Palazzo Reale ( Royal Palace)

Palazzo Madama

G. Urbino

National Gallery Marche

G. Venice

Academy Gallery

Ca" d'Oro

Scuola San Rocco

Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni

Some gems of Italian art

"The Tempest" by Giorgione

The collection of Italian painting is one of the most significant sections of the museum’s art gallery: it numbers over five hundred and fifty works and chronologically covers the entire period of development of one of the leading European schools of painting. Of these, no more than two hundred are presented in the permanent exhibition, and those stored in the museum’s storerooms remain little known to both the general public and specialists.

Italian painting has a special place in the history of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, since it was with her that the formation of his art gallery began. The founder of the museum, Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, who planned to create a museum of casts from works at Moscow University classical sculpture, even before its opening, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to include originals, primarily paintings, in the exhibition. The final change in his views occurred in the late 1900s, when valuable collections were offered to the museum original works. Among them is the collection of diplomat M.S., consisting of unique monuments of Italian painting of the 14th-15th centuries. Shchekin, who laid the foundation for the collection of paintings. In 1924, the museum’s art gallery acquired the status of an independent section.

Early Italian painting, VIII-XIV centuries.

During the Middle Ages, Italian painting developed in close contact with the art of Byzantium, but gradually, from the second half XIII century, a new type of art is being formed here, in relation to which the term “proto-Renaissance” is often used, that is, “pre-renaissance”.

Three fragments of mosaics that once decorated the old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, as well as two monumental icons of the second half of the 13th century, made in the workshops of Florence and Pisa, are associated with Byzantine traditions.

In the 14th century, the process of formation of Italian painting as a deeply national artistic phenomenon in nature took place. The main local schools are being formed, primarily the Florentine and Venetian, which will retain their leading position in subsequent centuries. The Siena school, one of the leading ones in the 14th century, is represented in the museum’s collection in particularly diverse ways. The signature “Crucifixion” of Segni di Bonaventura, assistant to the great Duccio, is one of the outstanding monuments, as are the doors depicting Mary Magdalene and St. Augustine, parts of an unsurvived altar composition executed by Simone Martini, an outstanding master of the first half of the 14th century.

Italian Renaissance painting, XV-XVI centuries.

The painting of Italy from the 15th to early 16th centuries introduces us to the era of the formation and flourishing of Renaissance art. Ideological basis Italian culture of the Renaissance was humanism, and one of its most important components was the discovery and deep creative development of the ancient heritage. The art of that time affirms the idea of ​​the high destiny of man. In their works, artists depicted the world around them, relying on scientific achievements; they developed the basics of linear perspective, studied human anatomy and the laws of lighting.

The leading cultural center during the period Early Renaissance(XV century) was Florence. Sandro Botticelli, one of the prominent masters of that time, owns the “Annunciation”, full of inner emotion, dating back to the late period of his work.

A high idea of ​​a person was embodied in the painting “Portrait of a Young Man in the Image of Saint Sebastian” by Boltraffio, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s Milanese students.

During the Renaissance, the Venetian school experienced a brilliant flourishing, represented in the museum’s collection by the works of Jacopo Palma the Elder, Titian, Paris Bordone, Savoldo, Veronese, Jacopo Palma the Younger and others.

Italian painting of the 17th-18th centuries

Around 1600, two directions were formed in Rome - Caravaggism and Academicism, which largely determined the further development of not only Italian, but also the entire European painting subsequent time. Caravaggio and his followers proclaimed an appeal to reality as the main principle, while representatives of Bolognese academicism, led by the Carracci brothers, asserted the inviolability of the canons of classical art, enriched by the practice of life drawing.

A striking example of Caravaggism is the painting “The Crowning with Thorns” by Tommaso Salini, as well as “The Fruit Seller” from the circle of Bartolomeo Manfredi.

Bolognese academicism is represented in the museum's collection by the works of leading representatives of this movement - Guido Reni, Simone Cantarini, Guercino, Luca Ferrari and other masters.

In Northern Italy, where painting developed in its own way, Bernardo Strozzi and Domenico Fetti worked.

The 17th century in Italian art is usually called the Baroque era. Its brightest exponents were the Roman Pietro da Cortona and the Neapolitan Luca Giordano. The Baroque style gave a powerful impetus to the flourishing of landscape, still life, and genre painting.

Innovative tendencies in painting at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries were especially clearly expressed by Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Alessandro Magnasco.

The last yak period in the development of Italian art is associated with Venice, which in the 18th century produced a whole galaxy of brilliant painters, such as Giambattista Tiepolo, Sebastiano Ricci, Crosato, Pittoni, Canaletto, Bellotto, Francesco Guardi.

Italian painting of the 19th-20th centuries

During this period, Italy lost its leading position in European fine arts and architecture, which it had maintained for four centuries.

This section opens with the painting “Napoleon on the Throne” by the famous Milanese neoclassicist Andrea Appiani. Giovanni Migliara and Ippolito Caffi worked in the urban landscape genre. Big interest presents a group of paintings by Giacinto Gigante, famous master Neapolitan landscape acquired by the museum starting in the mid-1980s.

Italian and ancient art

I have already shown several times the sinusoid, or “accordion” of the centuries, along whose nine lines it is easy to find matches between the styles of different types of art. It's time to complicate the sine wave. The fact is that some historical eras - for example, the Roman - are “inscribed” in history with a different step, with a shift relative to the standard Greek scheme by four and a half centuries. Moreover, when, according to art historians, the Roman Empire was “decaying”, but before Rome came under the rule of Odoacer and then Byzantium, there was a clear disruption in the development of art. As a result, the 3rd century A.D. e. “decomposed” into three lines of regressive nature:

The left descending branch of the standard “Greek” sine wave is, as it were, cut off here, because it is not so standard, and not even Greek at all, but Egyptian-Cretan, but we’ll talk about that later. For now, let us return to the topic of this chapter, the comparison of northern Italian art with ancient Greco-Roman art, given this additional complexity.

This is how the history of the Italian Renaissance developed, according to Stendhal(1783–1842), the author not only worldwide famous novels, but also such works as “History of Painting in Italy”:

"U Nicolo Pisano The idea arose to imitate antiquity. Cimabue and Giotto began to copy nature. Brunelleschi provided perspective. Masaccio took advantage of all this... and introduced expression into painting. After him, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Frate and Andrea del Sarto suddenly appear.”

In the 12th century, Greek masters completed extensive mosaic cycles in Venice and Sicily. Thus, medieval Italy had high pictorial traditions. However, new trends (fashion for antiquity) have emerged, first of all, in sculpture, and not in painting. Nicolo Pisano, a native of the Italian south, brought this fashion from there to the cities of central Italy.

“Nicolo Pisano... developed a style that has much in common with the style of good antique statues, especially in the sculpting of heads and the manner of conveying the folds of clothing.”

Stendhal

Pisano, it seems, developed this style by studying exclusively from long-dead antiquities. He would not have found contemporary sculptor teachers in Southern Italy and Sicily. Nowadays, art historians have little idea what kind of sculptors worked in Palermo. Stendhal notes that there is nothing to say about painting in the Kingdom of Naples. So, unfortunately, we know almost nothing about the sculpture and painting of southern Italy, not only of the period preceding the Renaissance, but also of the Renaissance itself.

However, let me remind you that in the Middle Ages Southern Italy was called “Greater Greece”, a significant part of the population was Greek, and the feudal states on the territory of Greece, on the contrary, were considered as colonies of Southern Italian rulers.

So was Nicolo Pisano a unique phenomenon for the art of southern Italy? Or does the style of all southern Italian sculptors indicate a “suddenly flared up” interest in Greek antiquity? Or, finally, let’s consider the version that the original “antiquity” was developed by Pisano’s immediate predecessors, sculptors of the 11th–13th centuries, and he himself was also an “antique” who moved from the south to the north of Italy?

In the south of Italy, although Greek-speaking people lived here, speakers Greek culture, nevertheless, people from European princely houses ruled (Friedrich of Hohenstaufen, Charles of Anjou, etc.), who did not have close ties with the rest of Europe and were not very concerned about its affairs. Europeans of the 11th–13th centuries had an interest in both Greece and the Balkans: through these lands they carried out the Crusades, and what’s more, they set up fashionable resorts here. And already at the end of this period of history, the crusaders of Europe established their military and political dominance over Greece and the surrounding lands.

This is what the historian reports about the previous period (VI–X centuries) F. Gregorovius in its "History of the city of Athens in the Middle Ages":

“As for the city of Athens itself, its fate in this era (Middle Ages) covered with such impenetrable darkness that a most monstrous opinion was even put forward, which could not be believed, namely, that Athens from the 6th to the 10th centuries turned into an uninhabited forest, and in the end was completely burned out by barbarians.”

“The city became depopulated, impoverished, its maritime power and political life faded away just like life in all of Hellas in general... The glory lies with the modern (medieval) The city is provided not so much by wise men as by honey merchants.” “We have no factual evidence to support the existence of either schools or public libraries in Athens. The same darkness covers the civil structure of the city of Athens in this era."

“Neither history nor legend breaks for us the silence that envelops the fate of the illustrious city. This silence is so impenetrable that anyone who examines the traces of the life of the famous city in the centuries described rejoices, as if at a discovery, when he comes across even the most insignificant data, such as those given in the “life” of St. Luke that the miracle worker visited Athens."

S. I. Valyansky And D. V. Kalyuzhny remark about this: “Why is there such “silence”? Yes, because the Greek chroniclers of the Middle Ages ( Thucydides, Xenophon and others) together with their chronicles and the whole history were “thrown out” centuries and centuries into the past!.. By the way, “Thucydides” translated means “bearer of censer”, sexton - where did the ancient Greek get such a name?”

Then newcomers from Western Europe began to cultivate this wild, “uninhabited” land.

In 1204, the crusaders directed their attack on Constantinople. Byzantine Empire was destroyed. On its lands, Italian and French invaders formed the so-called Latin Empire. Republics of the Venetian type were created on the Greek archipelago; Mainland Greece fell to the French. And although Latin Empire fell already in 1261, when supporters of Orthodoxy regained Constantinople, Greece itself remained a protectorate for a long time. Thus, the Principality of Achaia in the Peloponnese existed under the cultural European influence and protectorate of Western Europe for two hundred and twenty-seven years.

In Estiva there was a beautiful castle covered with frescoes, in which, as some researchers believe, “the count worked Saint-Homer, author of heroic poems about past wars and the long, adventurous voyage of the Crusaders under the leadership of the brave king of Ithaca Odyssey… He wrote in Old French, but Greek was also in use.”

F. Gregorovius:

“It was the Latins who discovered a new history for Greece, and this new history turned out to be almost as motley as the ancient one... The Venetian nobles, thirsty for adventure, set off into the Greek seas, posing as Argonauts of the 13th century... At the court of Theodore II there lived a famous Byzantine Georgy Gemist (Pleton) , resurrected ancient Hellene."

But, just like greek history VI-X centuries, the history of the Frankish crusader states on the territory of Greece also has huge gaps due to the “lack of historical documents.” This is simply amazing!

Everyone knows everything about the “ancient” history, but it is completely unknown what happened after it, and only a little - what happened immediately before the “revival” of this “antiquity”! In the modern ten-volume World History, events in medieval Athens are given only three lines of small print in a footnote. And dozens of pages - the history of “Ancient” Greece!..

After the Turks came to power in Constantinople (in 1453), Greece generally fell out of the sphere of European interests. Its history became mythologized, and the chronology compiled by Scaliger cemented the myth. If we move from myth to reality, then I will tell you this: the development of art is a consistent process, and Nicolo Pisano, of course, directly studied from the ancient “Ancient Greek” masters and continued to develop their creativity. Only this explains the stylistic parallels between his works and the works of supposedly “ancient”, but in fact contemporary, artists.

The reliefs of the pulpit of the Baptistery in Pisa by Nicolo Pisano are distinguished by the complexity of the composition with the clear three-dimensionality of the forms of each individual figure, and the clear rhythm of the folds in the clothes of the gospel characters. These works are from 1260 ( line no. 5) are really similar to reliefs Altarpiece of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus hundredth year BC e., or with the tombstone stele “The Married Couple” from the middle of the 1st century BC. e. from the Capitoline Museums (line no. 5 of the “Roman” wave).

Nicolo Pisano. Relief of the pulpit of the Baptistery in Pisa. 1260. Line No. 5.

Good Shepherd. Rome. Relief detail of the sarcophagus. IV century.

No one knows what “ancient sculptures” Nicolo was familiar with - Stendhal mentions sarcophagi located in Pisa - but his style is reminiscent of the tombstone of Ctesileus and Theano from Athens, allegedly from the 4th century BC. e., as well as metopes of the temple of Hera in Selipunte of the 5th century BC. e. And Zeus statue from the eastern pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (lines No. 5 and 6 of the “Greek” sine wave). The only difference is that some metopes look more archaic, although in general Greek sculptors have a more fluent command of the material, their works are distinguished by a more relaxed rendering of the naked body, a more complex rhythm of the folds of clothing with greater clarity and purity of compositions. That is, you need to understand that they were manufactured at the same time, but in different countries.

The stylistic perfection of such simple compositions as "Procession of the Girls" or "Standing Men" (fragments of the zophorus of the eastern wall of the Parthenon) by the unknown circle sculptor Phidias, (440-435 BC), not yet available to Nicolo Pisano. But I have already noted that Fidia“placed” in the 5th century BC. e. completely in vain; after all, it turns out that he did not in any way influence the development of art in the immediate future; artists only reached his level two or three hundred years later.

For example: N.I. Kibalchich and S.P. Korolev were both “sitting”, and both were engaged in the development of jet technology in the chamber. Science has developed progressively from one to the other. However, would anyone have remembered Kibalchich if he had drawn his “rocket” revelations AFTER Korolev launched the rocket into space? So, Phidias in the 5th century BC. e. it’s the same as Korolev in the 17th century AD. e.

Returning to the story of Nicolo Pisano, I will say that he, like those who follow him Arnolfo di Cambio V "Madonna and Child" And allegorical figure from a fountain in Perugia(1280), only approach the style of Greco-Roman sculpture.

“Needless to say, he was never able to get closer to ancient art. His overly shortened figures, his compositions, complicated by the abundance of characters, speak more about the labor expended than about the success of this work.” (Stendhal).

It would be worth asking the question: who studied with whom, Nicolo Pisano with the sculptors of the “Phidias circle”, or vice versa. But consideration of such options is possible only if we abandon traditional chronology.

Reliefs from the pulpit of the Cathedral of Pisa work Giovanni Pisano 1300 are less schematic, more complex in composition, but suffer from the same drawback that Stendhal noticed in his father: intricacy bordering on pretentiousness. This is completely out of character Greek sculpture, which, even when conveying complex, varied movements, retains compositional simplicity, but is characteristic of “later” Roman sculpture (remember the “Roman” wave of our sine wave). The simplicity of Greek and pretentiousness of Roman sculpture can be judged by comparing friezes Mausoleum in Halicarnassus 350 BC e. with intricate, difficult-to-perceive reliefs Columns of Marcus Aurelius in Rome (180–190), or sarcophagi depicting the myth of Orestes(130–135) with the “Battle of the Galatians” (160–170).

“Giovanni Pisano had a certain assistant... and student Andrea Pisano, who, subsequently settling in Florence, decorated the cathedral and church of San Giovanni with statues. Andrea created the famous school from which Donatello and Ghiberti came.”

Stendhal

Madonna and Child from Orvieto(1340) works by Andrea Pisano are distinguished from similar works Giovanni "Madonna della Cintola"(1312) and "Madonna and Child" from Padua (1305) the desire for plastic modeling instead of graphic drawing. The figure becomes mobile, the chiasmus is emphasized (image human figure, leaning on one leg). Behind the robes of the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ one can feel the body, and the hands and heads are sculpted very convincingly.

It's like mastery Polykleitos, although Andrea is not as virtuoso as the Greek in his "Wounded Amazon"(440 BC), and closer to statue of Aulus Metellus 100 BC e.

Similarities between "Madonna and Child"(1296–1302) Arnolfo di Cambio and such “ancient” works as Etruscan sculpture "Boy's Head" and the so-called "Capitolian Brutus" III–II centuries BC e., and also with "Male head from Fiesole" II century BC e. obviously.

Line No. 5–6

Statue of Livia from the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii.

Arnolfo. Madonna and Child.

Comparison of the “Madonna and Child” by Arnolfo (late 13th century - early 14th century) with the “Portrait of a Girl” from the Villa Albani or with the statue of Livia from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii (late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD) .) suggests that the statues were sculpted from the same model, first a girl, and then a woman who had gained weight after giving birth. Similarities psychological state amazing. They are brought together not only by the inlay of the eyes, but by the commonality in the way of conveying the emotional state.

Here, following Stendhal, I should move on to painting XII I–XIV centuries, including mosaics. The fact is that mosaics from this period seem to have a completely different history than sculpture. They seemed to develop without knowing anything about each other. The sculpture was based on “ancient” experience, while the mosaic “fulfilled” the tasks of religious education. Meanwhile, we can easily compare the paintings of ancient Rome with the mosaics of medieval Italy and Byzantium.

Below you see the works different centuries, but approximately the same artistic level. They are clearly very close, and the difference is explained by geographical reasons. Sicily was culturally superior to Rome. We can safely conclude that the Roman painting was done in the 13th century AD. e. By the way, we must take into account that the difference between centuries can be only a few years.

Isaac and Isaiah. Mosaic of the Cathedral in Montreal (Sicily). XII century. Line No. 4.

Labors of Hercules. Detail of a Roman mosaic. Traditionally dated to the 3rd century, although it would be “more correct” to date it to the 4th century, line no. 5.

Regarding the mosaics of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice (13th century), Stendhal wrote:

“The mosaics were made by the Greeks of Constantinople. These artists, whose disgusting works have survived to our time, served as a model for Italian artisans, who made Madonnas for believers always according to the same template, depicting nature only in order to distort it.”

This work is really helpless. Mosaics in the south of Italy in Montreal and Palermo were made in the same style. But the floor mosaics of the 4th-century Basilica of Bishop Theodore in Aquileia are even worse. Terrible and gladiator's head from the Baths of Caracalla. These are all works of one line of centuries, No. 5.

But the mosaic "Christ is the solar deity", depicting the Savior on the chariot of Apollo 270–275, "Rural work" from Shershel of the 3rd century, "Autumn, sacrifice" from the villa of Constantine in Antioch (330), "Hunters with a Captured Boar" from Sicily of the same year, "The Good Shepherd" from the Basilica of Theodore of the 4th century, already shows the authors' desire to convey various actions, careful attention to little things, their keen interest in natural phenomena. They were made earlier than the helpless works of the 13th century (if you follow the traditional chronology), but at the same time, albeit in different places, if you look at the standard “Greek” sine wave: it’s the same line no. 5.

Autumn: plowing and sowing. Mosaic detail. IV century. National Museum of Antiquity of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France.

Creation of the World Miniature. France. XIII century.

Miniature from a 13th-century French manuscript with the fabulous adventures of Alexander the Great.

And mosaics "Gymnasts"(Sicily, ca. 350) and "Drinking contest between Bacchus and Hercules" from Antioch of the 3rd century, I would say, anticipate "Dionysian Mysteries" from Pompeii and the “Marriage Ceremony” from the Equiline Hill in Rome, although they date back to the 1st century BC. e., like the mosaic “Landscape in the Nile Valley” from the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina.

St. Francis feeding the birds. Fragment of a fresco. Italy. 1260–80.

These mosaics of the 3rd and 4th centuries have many similarities with the works of the Greek masters of the 12th and 13th centuries in the Cathedral of San Marco, “Hercules and the Boar”, “St. George", "Archangel Gabriel", "Hercules and the Deer" and also "The Story of Noah and global flood", "The Story of Moses" and others.

The manner of execution of both works is closer to graphic than to painting. The approach to depicting clothes is different, the compositions of the Greeks are more schematic, but there is much in common in the awkwardness of poses, disproportion of figures, primitive interpretation of feelings, or rather in the naive absence of emotions as such.

All these qualities are inherent in Italian painting of the 12th century. It, as it should be, anticipates the mosaic in its development - but only if we trace this development along the “lines of centuries”, and not according to traditional chronology. If we remain within the framework of ordinary ideas, then the conclusion will be similar to that of Stendhal, discussing the painting of Italy in the 12th century (line No. 4): “As for painting, it remained far behind mosaics, and even more so sculpture”. The conclusion is incorrect if you follow the lines of centuries.

The dynamics of the development of artistic principles along our “lines of centuries” are the same. Over the same period of time, “Roman” and medieval artists achieved the same success. As you can see, the drawing along line No. 5 is much superior to that described by Stendhal. About the works of painting of the early 13th century, he writes:

“...The figures are smaller than natural size, the drawing is terribly dry, the fingers are of extraordinary length. Nevertheless, the expression of grief is visible in the faces, the folds of clothing are skillfully conveyed, the careful work on the naked parts of the body is visible, significantly superior to the art of the Greek masters of that era... some signs of chiaroscuro are noticeable, and the entire work as a whole is inferior only in its proportions to the crucifix... which is attributed to Cimabue "

Cavallini. Last Judgment. Fresco details. 1293.

Describing "Madonna and Saints" Cimabue(1285), Stendhal notes: “His drawing, less than that of his predecessors, is replete with straight lines; clothes have folds." But also work Cimabue, and a fresco by another master of the same time Cavallini“The Last Judgment” and the “Annunciation” mosaic from Santa Maria in Trastevere are not much different from the 4th century mosaic from the Mausoleum of Constantina “The Presentation of the Tablets of the Covenant to Moses.” Cavallini prefers to depict figures without movement; he is still not good with his hands, although he strives to convey chiaroscuro.

“Ancient” art left few analogues of such painting (they exist, for example, in the Balkans. The art of Crete and Achaean Greece did not yet know chiaroscuro, and the paintings and mosaics from Pompeii are superior to Cavallini, which is not surprising, since they were made later.

We find similarities with them in the paintings of the truly Proto-Renaissance artist Giotto.

Stendhal:

“The variety of patterns in the facial features, more careful finishing of the limbs, more liveliness in the turns of the head, more successful movements... He developed a manner of cutting clothes with folds, rare, simple, majestic... Connoisseurs see in these frescoes the style of bas-reliefs by Nicolo Pisano. It is quite natural to assume that Giotto studied them; painting, which was still in diapers... lost almost nothing, following in the footsteps of her sister (sculptures - Author)».

Further study shows that according to line no. 6“Ancient” art is overtaking medieval art. What does this mean within the framework of the proposed concept? This means that in the south of Italy more attention was paid to art than in the north, but this happened at the same time! Perhaps the fact is that northern artists dealt mainly with gospel subjects, and religious art less dynamic. Southerners preferred a secular or fairy-tale plot. Here development proceeded more dynamically, and it was precisely this kind of art, not recognized by the church, that turned out to be “thrown back” into the past.

In the paintings presented below, it is precisely in Pompeian painting that we see great compositional boldness, free arrangement of figures, and spontaneity in the transfer of movements.

North of Italy. Giotto. Scenes from the life of Saint Mary: wedding procession. 1304–06. Line No. 6

If we compare Giotto’s compositions such as “The Dream of Joseph” or "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene"(1305) with painting "Punished Cupid" from Pompeii 20-30 years, and the “Marriage at Cana”, the emotional “Lamentation of Christ” and even the dynamic "Kiss of Judas" with the “Dionysian Mysteries”, “An Actor Resting After a Performance” or a scene from the life of a Pompeian lupanar, it is clear: he still lacks much as an artist!

And here he is not alone in his Middle Ages. In the Pompeian mosaic depicting satyr drama rehearsal, in "The Philosopher" 40 BC. e. from the villa in Boscoreale, in the painting “Infant Dionysus with the Nymphs” from the Villa Farnesina (30-15 BC) there is that ease that is not found in Maso di Bano, Simone Martini, or Pietro Lorenzetti - artists following Giotto.

Stendhal:

"His (Giotto, - Author) the shortcomings are obvious; his drawing is dry; he always tries to hide the limbs of his figures under long robes, and he is right, because he does not do well with them. In general, his paintings give the impression of something barbaric.”

Only Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the fresco "The Fruits of Good Government"(1340) and Altichieri in frescoes of 1385 "Martyrdom of St. Lucia" and "The Execution of St. George" solve problems that bring us closer to the painting of the 15th century.

Portrait of a young girl. Pompeii. 1st century Line No. 6.

Punished Cupid. Painting from Pompeii. 20–30 years. Line No. 6 "Roman" wave.

Vivid portrait characteristics, psychological depth characteristic of Fayum portraits: "Portrait of a Girl" beginning of the 3rd century, “Portrait of the Brothers” of the 2nd century, “ Portrait of a man» I century, as well as such paintings from Pompeii as "Portrait of a Spouse"(60–80) and “Portrait of a Young Girl” (1st century), we find in the paintings of Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Ghirlandaio, Antonello da Messina, as well as in such sculptors as Verrocchio, Desiderio da Settignano, Luca della Robbia, Mino da Fiesole, Francesco Laurana, Antonio Rossellino.

Here I want to dwell on the point in which Stendhal was mistaken (and after him, so many). He believed that antiquity did not know color, light and shade and perspective, since it did not leave any monuments of painting.

We see from the example of “Punished Cupid” or “Marriage Ceremony” how well Greco-Roman artists mastered color, and from the example of portraits from the Fayum - how accessible chiaroscuro was to them. “Ancient” artists depicted both still lifes and landscapes, including architectural ones.

In line with generally accepted ideas, they did not reach the level of the 15th century in understanding perspective either: they supposedly avoided depicting long plans and wide spaces, such as in the paintings of Ghirlandaio of the 1480s, and would have bowed to the accuracy of the perspective constructions of Raphael or Tintoretto, if would have been able to see them - but the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e. tragically stopped further study of the prospects in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

If we understand that the mentioned “ancient” artists of the Roman wave belong to line No. 6, and those with whom they are compared belong to line No. 7, then it becomes clear that they simply preceded XVI century, which means that Pompeii was filled with lava from the eruption no earlier than 1500.

Painting from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. Detail. OK. '79. The perspective is beautifully conveyed. This - line no. 6 "Roman" wave.

Masaccio. The resurrection of the son Theophilus and the enthronement of Saint Peter. 1426–27. Line No. 7.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, the “antiquities” skillfully used perspective; Pompeian frescoes of the 1st century serve as evidence: the painting of the house of Lucretius Fronto, the house of the Vettii from Herculaneum, the bedroom of Publius Fannius Sinistor, in their complexity can only be compared with the “Taking into custody of the Apostle James” by Mantegna (1448–56) or with the “Annunciation” by Carlo Crivelli (1486 ). And the prospect here, as you see, is obvious.

Having undeservedly “deprived” the ancients of the ability to understand chiaroscuro and perspective, experts at the same time admit that in dynamism of sculpture the southern Italians (or Greeks?) from Herculaneum were not inferior to the sculptor from northern Italy of the late 15th century, Niccolo del Arca.

The bronze “antique” statue of an athlete with anxiety on his face and in the pose of a man “put to flight” is, as it were, the personification of all the unfortunate people who died from the volcanic eruption. The statue differs only in the inlay of the eyes and the absence of developing clothes from terracotta group “Lamentation of Christ” del Arca. At the beginning of the 15th century such dynamism sculptural composition neither Bruneleschi, nor Ghiberti, nor Donatello is yet known.

It is appropriate here to talk about how artists’ knowledge of anatomy developed.

Eastern ("Paradise") doors of the Baptistery in Florence(1424–52) amaze with the complexity of spatial structures and multifaceted compositions of their reliefs. In this work and in the reliefs of the northern doors (1404–25) Ghiberti uses such complex movements of the human body as the “double screw” with the ease of a knowledgeable anatomist.

Knowledge of anatomy demonstrates and Donatello in his "David" 1430. However, northern Italian artists still rarely turn to the motif of the naked body, preferring to drape it in wide, majestic folds, especially when working with marble. That's how "John the Evangelist" Donatello 1408–15.

It is believed that Michelangelo was the first to use the expressiveness of the naked body in its entirety at the very beginning of the 16th century, but the same thing was done Praxiteles V "Hermes with the Child Dionysus"(340 BC) or in "Aphrodite of Knidos"(350 BC), or Lysippos in Apoxyomenes (320 BC).

Hercules Farnese. Roman copy from the original by Lysippos. IV century BC e. line no. 6.

Michelangelo. Dying slave. XVI century. Line No. 8.

And even Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci could learn from the knowledge of anatomy that Lysippos, the ancient author of the so-called “Hercules Farnese” (IV century BC), showed!

Hercules from Telephus. Painting from Herculaneum. 1st century Line No. 6 "Roman" wave.

Antonello da Messina. Saint Sebastian. OK. 1476. Line No. 7.

Here we see that not only sculpture, but also painting confirms the equally brilliant knowledge of human anatomy by both the “antiques” and the artists of the so-called Renaissance.

It is easy to see stylistic similarities in the depiction of horsemen in different eras. The equestrian statues of Gattamelata (1443–53) by Donatello in Padua, and Colleoni (1479–96) by Verrocchio in Venice, of course, echo the equestrian statue (161–180). All three horses are as immaculate as the horses from St. Mark, and if not for the “chronological accuracy” of historians, we can say that they were made in one historical era. Everyone belongs to line no. 7.

Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. 161–180.

Verrocchio. Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice. 1479–96.

It is also interesting that Emperor Marcus Aurelius on horseback is the only (!) image of this kind in the entire history of antiquity. Horsemen, of course, were depicted on numerous reliefs. But the round sculpture of a rider on a horse, made without predecessors or successors to this artistic “novelty,” suggests serious reflection.

The similarities between ancient and medieval portrait traditions have already been mentioned. Now we should especially note the skill of ancient sculptural portraits, the virtual absence of differences between them and medieval ones along the corresponding “lines of the centuries.”

First of all, works such as “Portrait of an Old Patrician” of the 1st century BC. e., “Portrait of a Man”, 2nd quarter of the 1st century BC. e. from Chieti, “Portrait of Vespasian” 70–80, “Portrait of Hadrian” 135, “Portrait of Maximilian the Thracian” 325, “Portrait of Philip the Arabian” 245, “Portrait of Volcatius Myropnus” 160–170, “Portrait of an Elderly Roman Woman” the end of the 1st century amaze with their realistic convincingness.

This has clear parallels with the works of sculptors of the 15th century.

Portrait of Lucius Caecilius Jucunda. 60s.

Benedetto da Maiano. Portrait of Pietro Mellini. 1474

Portrait of Julius Caesar. 1st century BC e.

Donatello. Erasmo de Narni (Gattamelata). 1447–50

They seem to be relatives of Lucius Caecilius Jucundus (60) and Pietro Mellini from the portrait of Benedetto da Maiano (1474), Gaius Julius Caesar (1st century BC, Vatican Museums) and Erasmo de Narni (Gattamelata) Donatello, not to mention that they could very well be spouses Julia Domna (200) and Piero de' Medici from a portrait Mino da Fiesola (1453).

The degree of disclosure of psychological character is equally deep in Antonio Rossellino’s portrait of Giovanni Kellini (1456), in Desiderio da Settignano’s portrait of a girl (1460), and in the authors of “The Syrian Woman” (160–170) or the bust of Sabina (117–135).

The completeness of artistic disclosure of images in Nanni di Banco’s sculptural group is clear "Four Saints"(1415), who could well be called philosophers, and in the “Portrait of a Young Man” (135–140) from Ostia, and the “Portrait of Antisthenes” by Demetrius from Alopeka 1st half IV century BC e. The individuality of the depicted personalities is not an end in itself, as in "Four Apostles"(1526) by Albrecht Durer, there are typifying features here. All these works relate to lines No. 6 and 7.

Bust of Sabina. 117–134.

Desiderio da Settignano. Portrait of a girl. OK. 1460

The inhabitants of the Apennines are generally less interested in the human body, covering it with a toga, as we can see in the example of the statue of a Roman from the Temple of Hercules in Tivoli in 70 BC. e.

Donatello's folds take on a completely different character when he turns to reliefs of the altar of St. Anthony in Padua or the pulpit of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence 1450–60s. Here small folds seem to flow around the body and resemble streams of flowing water, similarly "Nike untying her sandal" or "Nymph of the Source" 5th century BC e.

The extreme complexity in the interpretation of the twisting folds on the sculptures of the circle of Pheidias from the pediments of the Parthenon in Athens has no repetition in the art of the Renaissance, and anticipates the Baroque era. At the same time, the complexity of multifaceted perspective constructions of such reliefs as “The Descent from the Cross” (1461–66), “The Miracle of the Donkey” (1447–50) by Donatello, or "The Flagellation of Christ"(1475) Francesco di Giorgio is not familiar to antiquity. Generalizing tendencies are equally evident in the work of Greco-Roman sculptors and Italian artists of the Renaissance, although the portrait genre developed less in Greece than in Rome.

Mino da Fiesole. Portrait of Piero de' Medici. 1453

Portrait of Adrian. OK. 135 years old.

If we move from lines No. 6 and 7 higher on our new time scale, then we can say that in the 16th century ( line no. 8) none of the majestic heads of Greece, neither "Aristotle" nor "Euripides" (350 BC), not a single Roman statue, nor "Augustus" (20 BC), nor "Hadrian" were no longer an unattainable perfection for northern Italian masters. And such masterpieces of antiquity as Laocoon and "Venus de Milo", “Pergamon Altar” and “Nike of Samothrace” are in the same row With "Gioconda", “School of Athens”, “Venus of Urbino” and “Sistine Chapel”.

Did Greco-Roman art develop further? Are there samples of it on lines No. 8 and 9? Yes, an example of this is Aphrodisian sculpture, the naturalism of which again finds a parallel in the work of the followers of Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo. These are "Dead Christ" Rosso Fiorentino, "Madonna with a Long Neck" Parmigianino, paintings by Pontormo and Bronzino.

It is difficult, by the way, to explain the amazing fact that the Byzantine emperors did not leave their images to their descendants. Mehmet II, for example, posed for Gentile Bellini or, in any case, ordered his portrait, and Suleiman I did the same. And of the portraits of the Constantinople emperors of the 14th–15th centuries, only the profile of John VIII Palaiologos (1425–78) is known.

Neither Constantine Palaiologos (1448–53), nor Manuel Palaiologos (1391–1425), nor John VII Palaiologos (1390, regent 1399–1403), nor Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1376–79), nor Matthew Cantacuzene (1353–57) , neither John VI Cantacuzene (1341–54), nor John V Palaiologos (1341–91 with breaks in 1375–79 and 1390), nor Andronikos III Palaiologos (1325–41), nor Michael IX Palaiologos (1295–1320), it is possible to think, they were not interested in real portrait art. I say “real” because their images in book miniatures or on icons can hardly be called portraits.

It is impossible to believe that a whole galaxy of rulers, unlike all other historical figures of the 14th–15th centuries, even less important than them, refused the services of artists of this truly creative time. It is even less likely that artists would not want to sculpt or paint portraits of the most powerful of the world this.

We know from recent history what a “cult of personality” is. In every office there were portraits or busts of Stalin, Lenin and others. Huge statues were erected in cities at the rate of almost one per hundred thousand population. And of the listed Byzantine rulers, many were revered as living gods, and - they did not sculpt sculptures! They didn't paint portraits!

Surely these portraits exist. But they, by the will of the historians of the Scaligerian school, ended up in the distant past, in the mythical ancient distance that never existed.

Art historians of the 19th century and the recent past have struggled to find differences in the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. As you can see, there are no such differences.

Virtual spouses Piero de' Medici (portrait of 1453) and Julia Domna (portrait of 200).