Characteristic features of the work of artists of the Italian Renaissance. Painting: Renaissance

Specifics of the development of the artistic style of the Netherlands during the Renaissance. The Northern Renaissance is a period in the cultural development of countries located north of the Alps - the Netherlands, Germany, France in the 1st third of the 15th-16th centuries. North The Renaissance arose under the influence of Italy. Gothic art was the soil on which the gray rose. Revival. In Northern Europe, the greatest influence on the formation of a new culture was not the ancient heritage, but Christianity. As on Wednesday Centuries and later, artists understood that God, in principle, cannot be depicted. It was believed that the image of God is most clearly imprinted in the surrounding world. Therefore, the subject of attention of the Northern European artist of the Renaissance became the sky and sunlight, water and stones, plants and animals, man himself, his home. Northern European art conceptualized the place of man in the universe differently than Italian art. In the art of Italy, man, endowed with limitless creative potential and capable of transforming the world, was seen as the center of the Universe. In the art of the North. In Europe, man is not the pinnacle of creation, but only one of the many evidences of the omnipotence of the Creator. For them, a person is both beautiful and majestic, but still no more than any stone or blade of grass.

Northern Renaissance - images were not endowed with harmony (as in Italy), but copied the smallest details to the point of naturalism. The artists of the Northern Renaissance were little concerned with the beauty of the human body; for them, Gothic expressiveness, violation of the proportions of figures, folds of clothing in restless movement, muscles and veins on the neck were more expressive. The art of this time was stylistically heterogeneous and manifested itself differently in the Netherlands, Germany, and France.

New features of Renaissance art appeared in the Netherlands. This country was one of the richest industrialized countries in Europe. Here is your ideal person - clear, sober, businesslike. Extensive connections made it possible to quickly perceive new directions. Artists copied every blade of grass of their landscape, the smallest details of everyday life, they saw beauty in it. Dutch art has strong features of folklore, fantasy, grotesque, and sharp satire, but its main feature is a deep sense of the national identity of life, folk forms of culture, way of life, customs, types, as well as the display of social contrasts in the life of various strata of society. The Renaissance style in the Netherlands was discovered by Jan Van Eyck. One of the most remarkable works - Ghent Altarpiece. This is a two-tier folding room for 26 paintings. The paintings that make up the altar are combined into 2 pictorial cycles: everyday life (painting on the outside of the altar doors, accessible to the viewer when the altar is closed) and festive (interior). The picture of everyday life is instantly replaced by the spectacle of earthly paradise. This is a glorification of the beauty of earthly life. Here you can see observations from nature, figures and objects in three-dimensional volume and weight. In another picture, the earthly and heavenly worlds come face to face - “Madonna of Chancellor Rolin.” Father Van Eyck discovered oil painting. The realistic content of Jan Van Eyck's art manifested itself in the genre of portraiture. For the first time in Europe, a paired portrait was created "Portrait of the Arnolfine couple" against the backdrop of a living room. Individual character traits are conveyed through copying the smallest details of everyday life, clothing, and figures. An image of a person surrounded by specific things. The transfer of perspective and air environment is conveyed using a mirror in which they are reflected, deepening the space.

Rogier Van der Weyden took elements of a realistic depiction of reality from his teacher Jan Van Eyck, but remained under the influence of the Gothic. In the picture "Descent from the Cross" reflected its own expressive style. Signs of this style: silhouette line, clear linear contours, large bright flat color spots and rich ornamental decor. Vaden was not attracted to the diversity of the world. He focused on man and saw them as a source of beauty and spiritual perfection. Therefore, he conveys the environment around a person without scrupulousness; it is a background. But he paints out the ornaments and details meticulously in the spirit of Dutch naturalism. For example, an altar painting "Adoration of the Magi" in Munich. The theme is religious, but due to the extreme realism in the rendering of the figures, it acquired a secular connotation. Therefore, it resembles a genre scene. The portraits created by the artist are distinguished by their attention to the complex world of human feelings and moods.

The second half of the 15th century was one of political and religious strife. Hieronymus Bosch was working at this time. His work stands apart in the art of the Netherlands. His painting is imbued with deep pessimism. In his work, a connection with popular beliefs and folklore emerges; a craving for the base, the ugly, for social satire, dressed in an allegorical, religious or dark fantastic form, is more clearly revealed. He penetrated the depths of the human psyche. He preserved the medieval destructive assessment of man, which all artists of the Dutch Renaissance abandoned. In his work, he castigates the vices of the weak-willed, powerless, mired in the sins of humanity. Bosch lived in his own, scary world. The subject of his paintings showed the negative phenomena of life. The earthly existence of people is sinful, for this there will be a Last Judgment. The image of the underworld has grown to enormous proportions . "Garden pleasures ", "The Last Judgment", "A Wain of Hay". There is no center in his compositions, no main characters. The space is filled with numerous figures and objects: exaggerated reptiles, toads, spiders, parts of different creatures and objects are connected in them. The purpose of Bosch's composition is moral edification. Even in everyday paintings, Bosch gives a low assessment of humanity. He is the founder of genre painting. "Carrying the Cross", "Ship of Fools", "Prodigal Son"– here people are carriers of evil and madness. His work is characterized by a connection with folk traditions. The artist introduced landscape and genre motifs into his paintings. Bosch painted with transparent blue, pink, and emerald colors and created delicate color combinations.

A new rise in Dutch painting began in the 16th century. It was accompanied by a variety of searches, a painful breakdown of old traditions, and a struggle between new artistic movements. This led to the abandonment of the artistic traditions of the 15th century. Artists turned to a more direct reflection of reality and modernity. The source of folk realistic art grew stronger in Dutch painting. By the middle of the 16th century. not only did the nature of religious painting change, but also themes devoted to the life of the masses - peasants, poor people, vagabonds, beggars - became more and more established - a monumental everyday genre, still life, individual and group portraits developed. “Grotesque realism” with its characteristic fairy-tale-humorous plots and folklore motifs reaches a particular flourishing.

The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was Pieter Bruegel the Elder; he can be called the singer of the crowd. He was nicknamed Muzhitsky for his love of folk themes. The paintings show the way of life and customs of their people in the middle of the 16th century. His art grew out of Dutch traditions and folklore. "Dutch Proverbs", "Children's Games" reflects the active, meaningless activity of people. They live according to the laws of a crazy “upside-down world.” Bruegel's paintings were not created for peasants, they were for connoisseurs. He did not paint for public buildings or churches. The gloomy spirit of the time (oppression and execution by the Spaniards) was reflected in the films “Mad Greta” and “The Triumph of Death”. The development of the landscape genre is associated with his name. He depicts many small figures in the vast expanses of nature. The peculiarity of the compositions is the view from above ( "Winter Landscape", "Hunters in the Snow",« The Fall of Icarus", "Child's Games"). Bruegel's landscape and genre paintings are his philosophical reflections. Created the series " Seasons" where he first depicted useful and meaningful human activity. Man is an integral part of nature, depends on it and seeks harmony with it. At the end of his life Bruegel paints a picture "Blind"– illustration of the Gospel parable of the blind. Blindness here symbolizes blind fate. The artist in the image of cripples symbolizes the image of humanity, physically and spiritually blind.

With his work, Bruegel completed the quest of the Dutch painters of the 15-16th centuries. At the same time, he paved the way for the art of the 17th century, the art of Rubens and Rembrandt.

End of work -

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Difference from the Italian Renaissance

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

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

development of elements of a secular humanistic worldview

development of ideas of religious “renewal”

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

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

Northern Renaissance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revival in the Netherlands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Renaissance in Germany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

general characteristics

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

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

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

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

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

Renaissance periods

The revival is divided into 4 stages:

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

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

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

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

Proto-Renaissance

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

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

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

Early Renaissance

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

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

High Renaissance

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

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

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

Late Renaissance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the spiritual culture of the Renaissance, art became the main type of creative activity. It was for the people of the Renaissance what religion was in the Middle Ages. No wonder the idea was defended. That the ideal person should be an artist. There were almost no people indifferent to art. The work of art most fully expressed both the ideal of a harmoniously organized world and the place of man in it. All types of art are subordinated to this task to varying degrees.

Any creative activity evokes respect in the historical period under study, but it is art - painting and sculpture - that become the subject of almost sacred worship. And this, of course, is a consequence of the exaltation of the individual human personality (anthropocentrism), which is the core of the Renaissance worldview. The initial axiom of creativity is the affirmation of the beauty of the real world as one of its most essential objective properties. Beauty was defined as “unity in diversity”, or “harmony”, or “commensurability”, or “proportionality”, that is, the ancient aesthetic tradition was reproduced. The source of earthly beauty was God as the first and greatest artist.

Understanding nature and man as the main objects of beauty determined the main goal of art as the comprehension, affirmation and multiplication of this beauty. The thesis “art is an imitation of nature” was generally accepted in the culture of the Renaissance.

Human comprehension of a world filled with divine beauty becomes one of the ideological tasks of the revivalists. The world attracts man because it is spiritualized by God. And what could better help him understand the world than his own feelings. The human eye in this sense, according to the revivalists, has no equal. Therefore, in the era Italian Renaissance There is a keen interest in visual perception, and painting and other spatial arts flourish. It is they, possessing spatial patterns, that allow us to more accurately and accurately see and capture divine beauty. Therefore, special attention is paid to the laws of art; it is artists who stand closest to others in solving ideological problems. In terms of understanding the world, the artist has all the advantages. The Italian Renaissance had a distinctly artistic character. P. Muratov, an expert on the Italian Renaissance, wrote about it this way: “Never has humanity been so carefree in relation to the cause of things and never has it been so sensitive to their phenomena. The world is given to man, and since it is a small world, everything in it is precious, every movement of our body, every curl of a grape leaf, every pearl in a woman’s dress. To the eye...of the artist there was nothing small or insignificant in the spectacle of life. Everything was an object of knowledge for him.”

In other words, the thirst for knowledge, which so distinguished the personality of the Renaissance, first of all resulted in the form of artistic knowledge. But, trying to most fully reflect all natural forms, the artist turns to scientific knowledge. The close connection between science and art is a characteristic feature of Renaissance culture. While engaged in artistic creativity, artists went through perspective - into the field of optics and physics, through problems of proportion - into anatomy and mathematics, etc. This led the Renaissance masters to identify science and art. Hence the search for numerical relationships in the proportions of the beautiful human body, carried out with rare persistence by Dürer, who divided the human body in his drawings into 1300 parts. Hence Leonardo da Vinci’s statement that “perspective is the reins and helm” of painting. A new system of artistic vision of the world is being developed, based on trust in sensory perceptions, primarily visual ones. To depict as we see is the original principle of Renaissance artists. And we see things not in isolation, but in unity with the environment where they are located. The environment is spatial; objects, located in space, are seen in abbreviations.

The combination of scientist and artist in one person, in one creative personality was possible during the Renaissance and will become impossible later. Renaissance masters are often called "titans", referring to their versatility. “This was an era that needed titans and gave birth to them in strength of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning,” wrote F. Engels.

But although nature was considered as a truly beautiful example for the artist, the latter should not be content with the depiction of specific individual objects, because in none of them is beauty captured completely and absolutely. The artist had to consider and compare many specific objects, select the more beautiful elements in each and combine them in the work he created, which turned out to be both an imitation of nature and a creation of absolute beauty. The artist became like God the Creator, idealizing reality with art, creating a special world of absolute beauty.

In proto-Renaissance painting, the preparatory stage of the Renaissance, art turns to realistic persuasiveness and physical tangibility of images. This quality was combined with another property - the preservation and rethinking of the Gothic tradition. Art represents a sensual-material tendency Giotto di Bondone (1266/67-1337). His name is associated with a revolution in Italian painting, based on a break with medieval tradition, an increase in realistic aspects, filling religious forms with secular content, and a transition from flat images to three-dimensional and relief ones. In his works “The Lamentation of Christ” and “The Return of Joseph to the Shepherds” he conveys three-dimensional space built in linear perspective.

The spiritualistic tendency is reflected in creativity Simone Martini (c.1284-1344). In his frescoes “Maesta” and “Annunciation”, a refined poetic interpretation of images developed, marked by aesthetic sophistication and increased emotionality.

In the works of the early Renaissance, man is still merged with the events of sacred history, but his appearance and internal state are already filled with enlightenment. A feature of this period was the comprehension of the balance of the world and man. At the same time, the world is clear, transparent and open to the hero, who with dignity takes his place in the universe in accordance with all its phenomena. The painting produces a sculptural impression. Problems of color recede into the background. Artists of the 15th century discover the laws of perspective and build complex multi-figure compositions. The leading center of culture at this time was Florence. The social life of painters has changed; they are perceived as outstanding public figures.

In Quattrocento painting there was a turn towards a secular interpretation of the depicted subjects. The art of fresco has reached a high level. The painting was a closed composition, enclosed in a frame, permeated with a sense of discovery of the world. Through the perspective of structure and proportion, bodies acquired new significance.

Creativity occupies a special place in the culture of this period Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), which correlates with the contemplative tradition. Botticelli's style is distinguished by sophistication and aristocracy. Among the allegorical works, the most famous are “The Birth of Venus”, “Spring”, “Abandoned”.

Masaccio (Tomaso di Giovanni di Simone Guidi) (1401-1428) reflects in his religious paintings (“Miracle with the Satyr,” “Trinity,” “Expulsion from Paradise”) the idea of ​​a perfect human personality. Antique motifs are noticeable in the work; there are portrait images of customers, which is one of the first examples of authentic portraits in a painting on a religious theme.

In the high Renaissance, geometricism deepens, but spirituality, psychologism, and the desire to convey the inner world of a person, his feelings, moods, character, and temperament are added to it. An aerial perspective is being developed, the materiality of forms is achieved not only by volume and plasticity, but also by chiaroscuro.

During this period, two art schools stood out and defined their positions - the Florentine and Venetian. The Florentine school was defined by its programming. artistic thinking, theoretical foundations for undertaken creative attempts. A distinctive feature of the Venetian school is emotionality. Florentine rationalism was alien to her sensual worldview.

The "Titan" of the High Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) – painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer-inventor, mathematician and mechanic. He considered painting to be a universal language, because all manifestations of the rational principle that reigns in nature are accessible to it. Realistic reproduction of the beauty of sensual earthly objects was achieved by abandoning hard, sharp lines in painting and replacing them with chiaroscuro. Leonardo’s famous “smoky chiaroscuro” is a gentle half-light with a soft range of milky-silver, bluish tones, sometimes with greenish tints, in which the line itself becomes airy. Chiaroscuro and “disappearing outline” are amazing discoveries of Renaissance artists, which were used to recreate the physicality and volume of objects in painting. The fresco “The Last Supper” and the picturesque portrait of the Florentine woman “La Gioconda” are considered Leonardo’s highest achievements. Optical research allowed him to lay the foundations of aerial perspective. He outlined his thoughts on art in the treatise “The Book of Painting.”

Rafael Santi (1483-1520) had the gift of artistic synthesis. The altar painting “Sistine Madonna” occupies a special place in the master’s heritage. He worked in the Vatican Palace - “School of Athens”. Creativity is inherently monumental, but there are also graphic works and sketches. In Rome, Raphael's talent as a portrait painter flourished. Famous works are “The Veiled Lady”, a portrait of Pope Julius II. Raphael's art for a long time retained the significance of an unattainable example.

For Michelangelo Buonaroti (1475-1564) the whole world lies in man and is exhausted by him. Each of his characters is the embodiment of human existence, understood as a feat. The internal conflict of human existence is overcome in his images by a powerful volitional effort, which creates extreme spiritual tension in Michelangelo’s works. Such is the moral pathos of “David”, the titanic will and powerful temperament of “Moses”, the extreme concentration of forces of “The Rebellious Slave”, the power and expression of the painting of the Sistine Chapel.

The term "late Renaissance" is usually applied to the Venetian Renaissance. Problems of color come to the fore; the materiality of the image is achieved by gradations of color. Having reworked Gothic and oriental traditions, Venice developed a style characterized by colorful, romantic painting.

The greatest master of the late Renaissance was Titian (1476/77-1576), the essence of whose work is the psychological depth of man. Titian's mythological compositions contained a clear moral idea and were perceived as an allegorical embodiment of modernity, and as an image of the beauty of human feelings and relationships. These are the works “Danae”, “Venus in front of the mirror”.

Veronese (1528-1588) chooses the greatness and victories of the Venetian Republic as a theme for his creativity. Cheerfulness and decorativeness are inherent in the works “The Triumph of Mordecai” and “Juno Distributing Gifts to Venice.” Everyday motives are not decisive in creativity, they only add authenticity. The compositions are complex and multi-figured. In the work “Marriage in Cannes” the gospel theme is resolved in the spirit of a festive secular picture, the characters are dressed in modern costumes.

The crisis of Renaissance artistic culture became acute in the second quarter of the 16th century. The ideal utopian anthropomorphism of the Renaissance no longer corresponded to reality, which caused complex crisis processes in the culture of the era. Aesthetic norms and humanistic attitudes were rethought. The former confidence in the rationality of the world, in the special purpose of man, has been lost. He feels himself not as a connection between all the elements of the world, but as a place of their collision. Confusion, uncertainty, doubt now determine the state of mind of people. All this encourages a rejection of the ideals of the Renaissance. The main theme of culture becomes the relationship between man and environment, and the main character is the crowd, the mass of people.

The crisis of culture was expressed in opposition to the ideals of the subjective will of the artist, the idea of ​​the ephemeral nature of the world, the precariousness of human destiny, which is at the mercy of irrational forces. This direction has become mannerism. In works of mannerism, psychological connections within the plot and the logic of the story are destroyed, and tension increases. A restless, anxious feeling, mystical exaltation, pretentiousness and mannerism are replacing the simplicity of style.

In creativity Pontormo (1494-1557) there is a search for a new style. The mystical expression of the works goes against the canons of Renaissance art - “Portrait of a Young Man”, “Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth”. The pinnacle of creative tragedy is the work “Entombment,” the language of which is stylized, has a conventionality, and the unreality of the scene.

Parmigianino (1503-1540) completes the first stage of mannerism with his work. Already in the early period, the master moved away from Renaissance traditions, replacing interest in people with the pursuit of purely formal tasks, the desire to convey an interesting optical effect with illusory precision. The crown of creativity is the work “Madonna with a Long Neck”, full of unreality, incorporeality, and refined beauty. There is a psychological insight in the portraits - “Self-portrait”.

The aesthetic and artistic ideal of the Renaissance was most fully expressed in architecture and sculpture. A striking example of this is the work of the famous architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). He was both a sculptor and a scientist, one of the authors of the scientific theory of perspective, the creator of the grandiose for that time dome over the choir of the Florence Cathedral, which became the first major monument of architecture and engineering of the Renaissance and determined the characteristic silhouette of Florence.

Leon Batista Alberti (1404-1472) - scientist, architect, writer, musician, one of the most gifted people of his time, became widely known for his theoretical works. His treatise “Ten Books on Architecture” was almost the only work on architecture. Using various ancient sources, Alberti created a new theory of architecture based on an understanding of the practical problems of his time.

In the architecture of the 15th century. The ancient order system was rethought. All famous Italian architects sought to match the logic and clarity of Greek design with the luxury and grace of a holistic solution to secular construction. In cities, palaces (palazzos) with powerful monumental facades and light arcades in the courtyards, villas with beautiful gardens, porticoes and loggias were erected. Basilicas and centric churches were built, demonstrating the variety of possibilities of the new style.

The direction of sculpture was presented by such a master as Donatello (Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi) (1386-1466), in whose work all the most important milestones of evolution and the peak achievements of the era, and the crisis turns of its history were reflected. In his works he showed interest in the spiritual and physical existence of a real person, and paid attention to the ancient heritage. Moves away from Gothic plasticity in his work. He owns the construction and sculptural decoration of the tomb of Pope John XXIII. "David" is the first depiction of nudes in the Renaissance style. Later works are marked by features of spiritual breakdown, returning to the themes of passion and suffering, religious asceticism - “Judith and Holofernes”.

The progressive humanistic content of Renaissance culture received vivid expression in theatrical art, which was significantly influenced by ancient drama. It is characterized by an interest in the inner world of a person endowed with the features of a powerful individuality. The distinctive features of the theatrical art of the Renaissance were the development of folk art traditions, life-affirming pathos, a bold combination of tragic and comic, poetic and buffoonish elements. This is the theater of Italy, Spain, England. The highest achievement of Italian theater was the improvisational commedia dell'arte (16th century).

During the Renaissance, professional music lost the character of a purely church art and was influenced by folk music, imbued with a new humanistic worldview. Various genres of secular musical art appeared - frontal and villanelle. Madrigal, which originated in Italy, has become widespread. Secular humanistic aspirations also penetrate into religious music. New genres of instrumental music are emerging, and national schools of performance are emerging. The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres - solo songs, oratorios, opera.

The main stages and genres of Renaissance literature are associated with the evolution of humanistic concepts during the early, high and late Renaissance periods. Literature is characterized by a short story, especially a comic one, with an anti-feudal orientation, glorifying an enterprising and free from prejudices personality.

Among the representatives of Renaissance culture there are individuals who most fully expressed the features of one or another of its periods. The largest representative of the proto-Renaissance period - Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). He is the author of the original lyrical autobiography “New Life” and the philosophical treatise “The Feast”. He is better known as the author of the “Iliad of the Middle Ages” - “Comedy”, called by the descendants of the Divine. At the very beginning of his creative activity, Dante turns to the “new sweet style” - a direction full of emotions, but at the same time with deep philosophical content. This style is distinguished by the resolution of the problem - the relationship between “earthly” and “heavenly” love. The new style, while preserving the image of earthly love, spiritualizes it. He appears as an incarnation of God accessible to sensory perception.

The Early Renaissance is the works Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), written in the tradition of knightly literature, which attracted him with its secular motives and the ability to depict the psychological experiences of a person. The pinnacle of the writer’s creativity was the collection of short stories “The Decameron,” which contains criticism of the church and clergy, condemns the ascetic morality of the Middle Ages and hypocrisy, and defends the right of people to sensual pleasure and love.

Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) highly valued and affirmed the freedom of individuality. The desire to glorify love for a woman is reflected in his autobiography “Letter to Descendants.” He went down in history as the author of love lyrics. His poems are dedicated to Laura, and the poem “Triumph” is dedicated to her. Petrarch is also the author of sonnets and collections of biographies of famous people of antiquity.

The High Renaissance was marked by the flowering of the heroic poem: in Italy - L. Pulci , whose adventure-knightly plot poetizes the Renaissance idea of ​​a man born for great deeds.

The philosophical humanistic thought of the Renaissance is represented by a wide range of thinkers. The ideological factor that influenced the development of Renaissance culture was the development of morality, the prestige of the family and the respect of descendants and fellow citizens.

Coluccio Salutati(1331-1406) understood Renaissance culture as the embodiment of universal human experience and wisdom. He brought to the fore a new set of humanitarian disciplines and theoretically substantiated the importance of each of them in the education of a highly moral and educated person. He paid special attention to ethical issues. The main thing in his concept was the thesis that earthly life is given to people and their own task is to build it according to the natural laws of goodness and justice. Hence the moral norm - creative activity for the benefit of all people.

Leonardo Bruni (1370/74-1444) founder of civic humanism, wrote works on moral and pedagogical topics. He defended civil liberties, equality of all before the law, justice as a moral norm. He sees the path to the implementation of these norms in educating citizens in the spirit of patriotism, high social activity, and subordination of personal gain to common interests.

Matteo Palmieri (1406-1475) became famous for his essay “On Civil Life” and public speeches. He put forward an interpretation of the concept of “justice” and insisted that laws correspond to the interests of the majority. He believed that the main thing in the education of virtue was work that was obligatory for everyone, justified the desire for wealth, but allowed only honest methods of accumulation. The goal of pedagogy is to educate an ideal citizen.

Alamanno Rinuccini (1426-1499) in his writings - “Dialogue on Freedom”, “Speech at the Funeral of Matteo Palmieri”, “Historical Notes” - defended the principle of civic humanism. He elevated political freedom to the rank of the highest moral category - without it, true happiness of people, their moral perfection, and civic activity are impossible.

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was engaged in translations, development of problems of cosmology, anthropology. He affirmed the unity of a beautiful, ordered cosmos, imbued with divine light. The vital, driving principle of the cosmos is the soul of the world, to which the human soul is also involved. Man is the connecting link of the world, in his soul are the ideas of all things, so he turns to self-knowledge. Ficino recognizes the sensual and spiritual sides of human nature as equal, and recognizes the limitless possibilities of human knowledge.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) author of the works “900 Theses on Philosophy, Cabalism, Theology”, “Speech on the Dignity of Man”, “On the Existing and the One”. The main thing is the doctrine of the dignity of man, of his unique position in the cosmic hierarchy: endowed with free will, he himself forms his essence and determines his place in the world. He is godlike, in knowledge a person is able to embrace the entire cosmos, therefore, he is the connecting link of the world. The stages of knowledge pass through the mastery of ethics, free comprehension of the laws of the surrounding world, through philosophy.

Original character Northern Renaissance manifested itself primarily in the culture of the Netherlands and Germany. The cities that turned out to be the main centers of this culture were Antwerp, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Halle. Amsterdam later became the leader. The Northern Renaissance lags behind the Italian by a whole century and begins when Italy enters the highest stage of its development. It is characterized by a complex combination of mystical worldview and humanistic thinking. The understanding of the world and the human personality by the artists of the Northern Renaissance did not occur through the denial of the ideals of the Middle Ages, like the Italians, but through the development of the traditions of national Gothic art. The art of the Northern Renaissance has more of a medieval worldview, religious feeling, symbolism; it is more conventional in form, more archaic, and less familiar with antiquity.

The desire, characteristic of the entire Renaissance culture, to spread the idea of ​​​​divine harmony and grace to the entire material world was translated into the work of the northerners differently than in Italy. Italian artists endowed images with ideal harmony, and northerners copied the smallest details, so that their creations made a somewhat strange impression with their naturalism.

Northern Renaissance artists, unlike Italian ones, were little concerned about the beauty of the human body and the illusory depth of the depicted space. For them, Gothic expressiveness was expressive, consisting in the violation of the proportions of figures, the restless movement of folds of clothing, in the tense muscles and veins of the neck.

For Italian artists, exact proportions and symmetry were considered ideal, while for northerners, any pattern was considered deliberate. For these reasons, the art of the Northern Renaissance is also called “magical realism.” It was stylistic and heterogeneous and manifested itself differently in the Netherlands and Germany.

The Netherlands, like Germany, retained connections with the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages and Gothic traditions. The specificity of the painting style that developed in the Netherlands was determined by the fact that the Netherlands were under the yoke of the feudal power of the Duchy of Burgundy, where one of the most striking and unique art schools arose - Burgundian, or Franco-Flemish. The formation of the stylistic features of Dutch painting was influenced by Franco-Flemish miniatures, in which the depiction of real life with many specific details appeared earlier than in other types of fine art.

The growth of cities and the way of urban life contributed to the formation of new attitudes towards specific daily activities. Everyday life events were surrounded by reverent reverence and an aura of holiness: one’s business, one’s home, one’s property, one’s own chapel, one’s own patron saint, one’s own family. In all strata of society, the desire to decorate and poeticize everyday life increased enormously. Dutch artists deified every blade of grass of their northern landscape, copied the smallest details of everyday life and saw beauty in everything. The credo of Dutch painting became the concept of “righteous everyday life”. The philosophical basis of the Northern Renaissance was pantheism. Pantheism, without directly denying the existence of God, dissolves him in nature, endows nature with divine attributes, such as eternity, infinity, and limitlessness. Since pantheists believed that in every particle of the world there is a particle of God, they concluded: every piece of nature is worthy of an image. Such ideas lead to the emergence of landscape as an independent genre.

The great master of Dutch painting, who took precedence in the Dutch Renaissance, is Jan van Eyck (1390-1441). In 20-30 years. XV century he created a new type of painting that combined the traditional Gothic altarpiece and portrait. The hidden symbolism of the painting indicated its connection with the Gothic, but in terms of the role assigned to man and the world around him, it was Renaissance. He painted altarpieces, the greatest of which is the Ghent altarpiece for the chapel in the Church of St. Bavona. The image of the world, developed in the Ghent Altarpiece, where religious characters and the inhabitants of the earth lived together, was repeated in the artist’s subsequent paintings, for example in “The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin.” The realistic nature of Jan van Eyck's art was clearly manifested in the genre of the secular “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple.” Solving the purely secular task of portraiture, the master was able to reveal the psychological subtext of the event, focusing on the mental state of the characters.

New Netherlandish painting ended its path with painful demonism Hieronymus Bosch (c.1460-1516), whose work stands apart in the art of the Netherlands in the 15th-16th centuries. In his work, he penetrates into the depths of the human psyche, showing the dark and tragic aspects of his era. Most of his paintings are painted on religious themes, but the combination of dark medieval fantasies and elements of folklore, mystical symbolism and precision of realistic details is striking.

The plot basis of Bosch's paintings is aimed at demonstrating the negative phenomena of life, preserving the medieval derogatory assessment of man, constantly emphasizing the sinful earthly existence of people and the movement of humanity along the crooked path of madness towards the Last Judgment. The main theme of everyday life paintings - “Carrying the Cross”, “Ship of Fools”, “Prodigal Son” - is an impartial assessment of humanity. People's faces are ugly, insane, they are carriers of evil. The demonic “phantasmagoria of Bosch” is a unique phenomenon in world art. He embodied the delusional worldview of the end of the Middle Ages in fictional images, the structure of which was generated by life.

In the 15th century art in Germany sought to accurately record what was seen, to reveal and teach. It was stylistically heterogeneous. The founder of the German Renaissance is considered Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), who in his work managed to convey the spirit of the era, where the sentiments of chiliasm (belief in the thousand-year reign of Christ and the righteous), the premonition of the end of the world, but at the same time the emergence of new humanistic thinking were widespread. The specificity of Dürer's vision of the world lies in the search for the possibility of an objective reflection of the world, complete authenticity.

Durer's engravings are striking, for example "The Four Horsemen"; the greatest creation - “Apocalypse” - reflected religious themes, the expectation of the coming of the Antichrist and the destruction of the world, and hope for God's justice. Rationalism and mysticism are inherent in the engravings “Melancholy”, “Horseman, Death and the Devil”, in which he conveys the power of human genius and the awareness of its limitations.

In addition to engravings, Dürer painted portraits, which are typically characterized by an asymmetrical, ugly face full of concentrated thought - “Self-Portrait”, “Portrait of a Young Woman”, etc. Durer summed up his views on man in his work “The Four Apostles.”

A feature of the fine art of Germany, due to the deep religiosity of the Germans, was that every person experienced the suffering of Christ as the tragedy of his own life, as a terrible event that occurs for a believing soul every day. This is precisely what explains the creation of such a stunning combination of ugly and beautiful, naturalistic and metaphysical work as the Isenheim Altarpiece, the author of which was Mathis Niethard , known as Grunewald (c.1470/75-1528). The altar consists of 9 parts. Niethard repeatedly returns to the theme of the crucifixion and gospel stories. One of the artist’s most mystical paintings, “The Ascension of Christ,” is inscribed on the altar. The Savior’s body seems to dissolve in a flash of colored rays. The style of the Isenheim altar is somewhat contradictory, since it absorbed the artistic delights of different schools and movements.

In subsequent years, Niethard again turned to the theme of the passion of Christ - this is the “Tauberbischofsheim Altar”, “Lamentation of Christ”. Despite the mystical nature of Niethard’s art, his work should be considered as the “autumn of the Middle Ages”, since the mysticism of his works is filled with earthly suffering and hopes .

In the field of architecture, the actual Renaissance planning and plastic principles merge with the Gothic traditions, which gives German Renaissance architecture sophistication and pretentiousness. In many buildings, the construction of which lasted for many decades, it is generally impossible to establish the boundary separating Gothic and later styles. This may include the most grandiose cathedral of the Catholic world in Cologne (begun in 1248, improved, restored and renovated to this day), the cathedral in Ulm (1377-1529), as well as a number of castle and palace buildings. The interiors of churches are decorated with sculptures, frescoes, and, less often, stained glass windows, folding altars, and easel paintings. Churches served as a museum along with the celebration of religious moments. In general, the achievements of Northern Renaissance architecture are less original than the achievements of painting. The same can be said about sculpture. Extremely interesting Gothic sculpture turns into mannerist decoration, almost without stopping at the stage of the Renaissance.

The music of the Northern Renaissance is very interesting. By the 16th century There was a rich folklore, primarily vocal. Music was heard everywhere in Germany: at festivals, in church, at social events and in a military camp. The Peasant War and the Reformation caused a new rise in folk song creativity. There are many expressive Lutheran hymns whose authorship is unknown. Choral singing became an integral form of Lutheran worship. The Protestant choir influenced the later development of all European music, but primarily on the musicality of the Germans themselves, who even today consider musical education no less important than natural education.

The variety of musical forms in Germany in the 16th century. It’s amazing: ballets and operas were performed on Maslenitsa. It is impossible not to name such names as K. Pauman (c.1415-1473), P. Hofheimer (1459-1537), G. Izak (c.1450-1515), these are composers who composed secular and church music, primarily for organ, prelude, and chant. They are joined by the outstanding Dutch composer O. Lasso (c.1532-1594), who wrote music for psalms and masses.

But he makes a real revolution in German music G. Schutz (Schütz) (1585-1673), who wrote the first German opera “Daphne” and the first German ballet “Orpheus and Eurydice”.

Renaissance literature in Germany drew on the medieval tradition of the Mastersingers. The most perfect examples of poetry of that time were presented by the successor of these folk traditions Hans Sachs . He can be considered the creator of the modern German language. The time dependence of Gothic was reflected in the development of German literature.

In the printing workshops of Basel and Strasbourg, where all modern intellectual life was concentrated, a book of secular content, “Ship of Fools,” was published. Sebastian Brandt (1457-1511), which was designed by Dürer. This didactic book was an outstanding phenomenon in literature, because it was written in German, and most importantly, it questioned previous ideas about morality and the sources of evil. In medieval poems, human misfortunes were explained by the machinations of the devil, who followed on man's heels. And “Ship of Fools” showed that it is not the devil who cripples and spoils the world, but vulgarity and stupidity. And Brandt, “for the sake of eradicating stupidity, blindness and prejudice in the name of correcting the human race,” pointed a “mirror” at all human vices - ignorance, debauchery, drunkenness, laziness, etc.

Public criticism was possible only under the guise of a buffoon's cap. Satire was the best way to condemn. The most outstanding prose writer, philosopher, humanist was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536), who called his worldview “Christian humanism.” He viewed Christianity not as a negation of ancient culture, but as its continuation. Striving for a “revival” of the ideas and ideals of early Christianity, Erasmus considers Scripture to be the main source. Moral and historical interpretation of Scripture is more important than any dogmatic debate. He places Christ on a par with the sages of antiquity. His best book, The Praise of Folly (1511), is a satire on modern society. All strata and nations, all classes, all people are subject to stupidity, and “everyone fools in his own way.” The author conveys the idea that stupidity lies in human nature itself. But stupidity can be overcome and reason must ultimately triumph.

Numerous speeches against the church and constant criticism of the vices of the Catholic hierarchy did not alienate Erasmus from the popes, who repeatedly offered him the cardinal's mantle. E. Rotterdamsky sees virtues in freedom and clarity of spirit, peacefulness, temperance, education, and simplicity. He considers fanaticism, ignorance, violence, hypocrisy, and intellectual pretentiousness to be vices. He believes that the most destructive things for human existence are obsession, tendency to excesses, and intellectual blindness.

The age of the Northern Renaissance was short-lived, but in the history of culture this era remained as an amazingly valuable phenomenon, as a club of geniuses, masters of words and painting. Gothic mysticism served to a greater extent as the basis of the Northern Renaissance, but the overcoming of the darker sides of the people’s national outlook and the involvement of northern countries in the pan-European cultural process began precisely in the era of the Northern Renaissance.

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

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

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

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

Renaissance period

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

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

International (court) Gothic

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

Pre-Renaissance period (Proto-Renaissance)

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

Early Renaissance

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

High Renaissance, or "Golden Age"

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

Late Renaissance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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