In the art of which country did the Gothic style originate? The role of Gothic culture in medieval Europe

Gotica- period in development medieval art in Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe.

The word comes from Italian. gotico - unusual, barbaric - (Goten - barbarians; this style has nothing to do with the historical Goths), and was first used as an expletive. For the first time, the concept in the modern sense was used by Giorgio Vasari in order to separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages.

Origin of the term

However, there was nothing barbaric in this style: on the contrary, it is distinguished by great grace, harmony and observance of logical laws. More correct name it would be “lancet”, because The pointed form of the arc is an essential feature of Gothic art. And, indeed, in France, the birthplace of this style, the French gave it a completely appropriate name - “ogive style” (from ogive - arrow).

Three main periods:
— Early Gothic XII-XIII centuries.
— High Gothic — 1300-1420. (conditional)
- Late Gothic - XV century (1420-1500) is often called “Flaming”

Architecture

The Gothic style mainly manifested itself in the architecture of temples, cathedrals, churches, and monasteries. It developed on the basis of Romanesque, or more precisely, Burgundian architecture. In contrast to the Romanesque style, with its round arches, massive walls and small windows, the Gothic style is characterized by pointed arches, narrow and tall towers and columns, a richly decorated facade with carved details (vimpergi, tympanums, archivolts) and multi-colored stained glass lancet windows . All style elements emphasize verticality.

art

Sculpture played a huge role in creating the image of the Gothic cathedral. In France, she designed mainly its external walls. Tens of thousands of sculptures, from plinth to pinnacles, populate the mature Gothic cathedral.

Round monumental sculpture is actively developing in Gothic. But at the same time, Gothic sculpture is an integral part of the cathedral ensemble; it is part of the architectural form, since, together with architectural elements, it expresses the upward movement of the building, its tectonic meaning. And, creating an impulsive play of light and shadow, it, in turn, enlivens, spiritualizes the architectural masses and promotes their interaction with the air environment.

Painting. One of the main directions of Gothic painting was stained glass, which gradually replaced fresco painting. The technique of stained glass remained the same as in the previous era, but the color palette became much richer and more colorful, and the subjects were more complex - along with images of religious subjects, stained glass windows on everyday themes appeared. In addition, not only colored glass, but also colorless glass began to be used in stained glass.

The Gothic period saw the heyday of book miniatures. With the advent of secular literature (chivalrous novels, etc.), the range of illustrated manuscripts expanded, and richly illustrated books of hours and psalms were also created for home use. Artists began to strive for a more authentic and detailed reproduction of nature. Prominent representatives of Gothic book miniatures are the Limburg brothers, court miniaturists of the Duke of Berry, who created the famous “The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry” (circa 1411-1416).

Ornament

Fashion

Interior

Dressoir is a china cabinet, a piece of late Gothic furniture. Often covered with painting.

The furniture of the Gothic era is simple and heavy in the truest sense of the word. For example, for the first time, clothes and household items are beginning to be stored in closets (in antiquity, only chests were used for these purposes). Thus, by the end of the Middle Ages, prototypes of the main modern items furniture: wardrobe, bed, chair. One of the most common methods of making furniture was frame-panel knitting. The materials used in the north and west of Europe were mainly local wood species - oak, walnut, and in the south (Tyrol) and east - spruce and pine, as well as larch, European cedar, juniper.

Chapter "Gothic Art". General history of art. Volume II. Art of the Middle Ages. Book I. Europe. Authors: A.A. Guber, Yu.D. Kolpinsky; under the general editorship of Yu.D. Kolpinsky (Moscow, State Publishing House "Art", 1960)

The period, which received the name Gothic in the history of European art, is associated with the growth of trade and craft cities and the strengthening of feudal monarchies in some countries.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, medieval art in Western and Central Europe, especially church and civil architecture, reached its highest point. Slender, upward-looking huge Gothic cathedrals, uniting large masses of people in their premises, and proudly festive city halls affirmed the greatness of the feudal city - a large trade and craft center.

Exclusively widely and deeply developed in Western European art problems of synthesis of architecture, sculpture and painting. The images of the majestic architecture of the Gothic cathedral, full of dramatic expressiveness, received their development and further plot concretization in a complex chain of monumental sculptural compositions and stained glass windows filling the openings of huge windows. Stained glass painting, enchanting with its shimmering radiance of colors, and especially Gothic sculpture, imbued with high spirituality, most clearly characterize the flourishing visual arts medieval Western Europe.

In Gothic art, along with purely feudal ones, new, more progressive ideas, reflecting the growth of the medieval burghers and the emergence of a centralized feudal monarchy, acquired great importance. Monasteries were losing their role as leading centers of medieval culture. The importance of cities, merchants, craft guilds, as well as royal power as the main builders-customers and organizers of the country's artistic life increased.

Gothic masters widely turned to vivid images and ideas generated by folk imagination. At the same time, their art, more than Romanesque art, was influenced by a more rational perception of the world and the progressive tendencies of the ideology of that time.

In general, Gothic art, reflecting the deep and acute contradictions of the Epoch, was internally contradictory: it intricately intertwined the features of realism, deep and simple humanity of feeling with pious tenderness, and upsurges of religious ecstasy.

In Gothic art the share of secular architecture increased; it became more diverse in purpose, richer in forms. In addition to town halls and large premises for merchant guilds, stone houses were built for wealthy citizens, and a type of urban multi-story building was emerging. The construction of city fortifications, fortresses and castles was improved.

Nevertheless, the new, Gothic style of art received its classical expression in church architecture. The most typical Gothic church building was the city cathedral. Its grandiose dimensions, perfect design, and abundance of sculptural decoration were perceived not only as an affirmation of the greatness of religion, but also as a symbol of the wealth and power of the townspeople.

The organization of the construction business also changed - urban lay craftsmen, organized into workshops, built. Here, technical skills were usually passed down from father to son. However, there were important differences between masons and all other artisans. Every artisan - gunsmith, shoemaker, weaver, etc. - worked in his own workshop in a certain city. Artels of masons worked where large buildings were erected, where they were invited and where they were needed. They moved from city to city and even from country to country; A commonality arose between construction associations in different cities, and there was an intensive exchange of skills and knowledge. Therefore, Gothic no longer has the abundance of sharply different local schools that is characteristic of the Romanesque style. Gothic art, especially architecture, is distinguished by great stylistic unity. However, the significant features and differences in the historical development of each of the European countries determined significant originality in the artistic culture of individual peoples. It is enough to compare French and English cathedrals to feel the great difference between the external forms and the general spirit of French and English Gothic architecture.

The surviving plans and working drawings of the grandiose cathedrals of the Middle Ages (Cologne, Vienna, Strasbourg) are such that only well-trained craftsmen could not only draw them up, but also use them. In the 12th-14th centuries. A cadre of professional architects was created, whose training was at a very high theoretical and practical level for that time. Such are, for example, Villars de Honnencourt (the author of surviving notes, equipped with abundant diagrams and drawings), the builder of a number of Czech cathedrals, Petr Parler, and many others. The building experience accumulated by previous generations allowed Gothic architects to solve bold design problems and create a fundamentally new design. Gothic architects also found new means to enrich the artistic expressiveness of architecture.

It is sometimes considered that the distinctive feature of a Gothic design is the pointed arch. This is incorrect: it is already found in Romanesque architecture. Its advantage, known, for example, to the architects of the Burgundian school, was its smaller lateral expansion. Gothic masters only took this advantage into account and made wide use of it.

The main innovation introduced by the Gothic style architects is the frame system. Historically, this constructive technique arose from the improvement of the Romanesque cross vault. Already Romanesque architects in some cases laid out the seams between the formwork of the cross vaults with protruding stones. However, such seams then had a purely decorative meaning; the vault still remained heavy and massive. Gothic architects made these ribs (otherwise called ribs, or edges) the basis of a vaulted structure. The construction of the cross vault began by laying ribs from well-hewn and fitted wedge stones - diagonal (the so-called ogives) and end ribs (the so-called cheek arches). They created a kind of skeleton of the vault. The resulting strippings were filled with thin cut stones using circles.

Such a vault was much lighter than the Romanesque one: both the vertical pressure and lateral thrust were reduced. The ribbed vault rested with its heels on pillars-abutments, and not on the walls; its thrust was clearly identified and strictly localized, and it was clear to the builder where and how this thrust should be “extinguished.” In addition, the rib vault had a certain flexibility. The shrinkage of the soil, catastrophic for Romanesque vaults, was relatively safe for it. Finally, the rib vault also had the advantage that it made it possible to cover irregularly shaped spaces.

Having appreciated the merits of such a vault, Gothic architects showed great ingenuity in its development, and also used its design features for decorative purposes. So, sometimes they installed additional ribs running from the intersection point of the ogive to the arrow of the cheek arches - the so-called piers (EO, GO, FO, HO). Then they installed intermediate ribs supporting the rails in the middle - the so-called tiercerons. In addition, they sometimes connected the main ribs together with transverse ribs, the so-called counter-ribs. English architects began to use this technique especially early and widely.

Since there were several ribs for each abutment pillar, following the Romanesque principle, a special capital or console, or column, adjacent directly to the abutment, was placed under the heel of each rib. So the abutment turned into a bunch of columns. As in the Romanesque style, this technique clearly and logically expressed the main features of the design through artistic means. Later, however, Gothic architects laid out the stones of the abutments in such a way that the capitals of the columns were completely abolished, and the supporting column from the base of the abutment continued without interruption of the masonry to the very top of the vault.

The lateral thrust of the ribbed vault, strictly lacquered, in contrast to the heavy Romanesque vault, did not require massive support in the form of thickening the wall in dangerous places, but could be neutralized by special pillars-pylons - buttresses. The Gothic buttress is a technical development and further improvement of the Romanesque buttress. The buttress, as established by the Gothic architects, worked the more successfully the wider it was at the bottom. Therefore, they began to give the buttresses a stepped shape, relatively narrow at the top and wider at the bottom.

It was not difficult to neutralize the lateral thrust of the vault in the side naves, since their height and width were relatively small, and the buttress could be placed directly at the outer abutment pillar. The problem of lateral expansion of the vaults in the middle nave had to be solved completely differently.

Gothic architects used in such cases a special arch made of wedge stones, the so-called flying buttress; one end of this arch, spanned across the side naves, rested on the axles of the vault, and the other on the buttress. The place of its support on the buttress was strengthened by a turret, the so-called pinnacle. Initially, the flying buttress adjoined the sinuses of the vault at a right angle and, therefore, perceived only the lateral thrust of the vault. Later, the flying buttress began to be placed at an acute angle to the sinuses of the arch, and thus it partially took on the vertical pressure of the arch.

With the help of the Gothic frame system, great savings in material were achieved. The wall as a structural part of the building became redundant; it either turned into a light wall or was filled with huge windows. It became possible to build buildings of unprecedented height (under arches - up to 40 m and above) and to cover spans of great width. The pace of construction also increased. If there were no obstacles (lack of funds or political complications), then even grandiose structures were erected in a relatively short time; Thus, Amiens Cathedral was basically built in less than 40 years.

The building material was local mountain stone, which was carefully cut. Particular care was taken to fit the beds, that is, the horizontal edges of the stones, since they had to bear a large load. The Gothic architects used the binding mortar very skillfully, using it to achieve uniform load distribution. For greater strength, iron brackets reinforced with soft lead were installed in some places of the masonry. In some countries, such as Northern and Eastern Germany, where there was no suitable building stone, buildings were erected from well-shaped and fired bricks. At the same time, the masters masterfully created textured and rhythmic Effects, using bricks of various shapes and sizes and various masonry methods.

The masters of Gothic architecture introduced a lot of new things into the layout of the cathedral interior. Initially, one span of the middle nave corresponded to two links - the spans of the side naves. In this case, the main load fell on the abutments ABCD, while the intermediate abutments E and F performed secondary tasks, supporting the heels of the vaults of the side naves. The intermediate abutments were accordingly given a smaller cross-section. But from the beginning of the 13th century. Another solution became common: all the abutments were made identical, the square of the middle nave was divided into two rectangles, and each link of the side naves corresponded to one link of the middle nave. Thus, the entire longitudinal room of the Gothic cathedral (and often also the transept) consisted of a number of uniform cells, or herbs.

Gothic cathedrals were built at the expense of the townspeople, they served as a place for city meetings, and mystery plays were given in them; University lectures were given at Notre Dame Cathedral. Thus, the importance of the townspeople increased and the importance of the clergy (which, by the way, was not as numerous in cities as in monasteries) fell.

This phenomenon was also reflected in the plans of large cathedrals. In Notre Dame Cathedral, the transept is not outlined as sharply as in most Romanesque cathedrals, as a result of which the boundary between the choir sanctuary, intended for the clergy, and the main longitudinal part, accessible to everyone, is somewhat softened. In Bourges Cathedral there is no transept at all.

But such a layout is found only in early Gothic works. In the middle of the 13th century. In a number of states, a church reaction began. It especially intensified when new mendicant orders settled in universities. Marx notes that they “lowered the scientific level of the universities, scholastic theology again took a leading position” (K. Marx, Abstract of Green’s “History of the English People”, “Marx and Engels Archive”, vol. VIII, p. 344.). At that time, at the request of the church, a partition was installed in already built cathedrals, separating the choir from the public part of the building, and in newly built cathedrals a different layout was provided. In the main - longitudinal - part of the interior, instead of five, they began to build three naves; the transept is developing again, mostly three-aisled. The eastern part of the cathedral - the choir - began to be increased to five naves. Large chapels surrounded the eastern apse with a wreath; the middle chapel was usually larger than the others. However, in the architecture of Gothic cathedrals of that time, there was another trend, which ultimately reflected the growth of craft and trade guilds, the development of the secular principle, and a more complex and broader worldview. Thus, it became characteristic of Gothic cathedrals great wealth decor, the growth of features of realism, and at times, genre features in monumental sculpture.

At the same time, the initial harmonious balance of horizontal and vertical divisions by the 14th century. It is increasingly giving way to the upward thrust of the building, the rapid dynamics of architectural forms and rhythms.

The interiors of Gothic cathedrals are not only grander and more dynamic than the interiors of the Romanesque style - they indicate a different understanding of space. In Romanesque churches there was a clear distinction between the narthex, the longitudinal body, and the choir. In Gothic cathedrals, the boundaries between these zones lose their rigid definition. The space of the middle and side naves almost merges; the side naves are raised, the abutments occupy a relatively small space. The windows become larger, the spaces between them are filled with a frieze of arches. The tendency to merge internal space was most strongly manifested in the architecture of Germany, where many cathedrals were built according to the hall system, that is, the side naves were made the same height as the main one.

The appearance of Gothic cathedrals also changed greatly. The massive towers above the middle cross, characteristic of most Romanesque churches, have disappeared. But powerful and slender towers often flank the western facade, richly decorated with sculpture. The size of the portal has increased significantly.

Gothic cathedrals seem to grow before the eyes of the viewer. The tower of the Cathedral in Freiburg is very indicative in this regard. Massive and heavy at its base, it covers the entire western façade; but, rushing upward, it becomes more and more slender, gradually thins out and ends with a stone openwork tent.

Romanesque churches were clearly isolated from the surrounding space by the smooth walls. Gothic cathedrals, on the contrary, provide an example of complex interaction, the interpenetration of internal space and the external natural environment. This is facilitated by the huge window openings, the through carving of the tower tents, and the forest of buttresses topped with pinnacles. Great importance they also had carved stone decorations: cruciferous fleurons; stone thorns growing like flowers and leaves on the branches of a stone forest of buttresses, flying buttresses and tower spiers.

The ornament decorating the capitals has also undergone great changes. The geometric forms of the ornament of the capitals, dating back to the “barbarian” wickerwork, and the acanthus, which is ancient in origin, almost completely disappear. Gothic masters boldly turn to the motifs of their native nature: the capitals of Gothic pillars are decorated with lushly modeled leaves of ivy, oak, beech and ash.

The replacement of blank walls with huge windows led to the almost universal disappearance of monumental paintings, which played such a large role in Romanesque art of the 11th and 12th centuries. The fresco was replaced by stained glass - a unique type of painting in which the image is made up of pieces of colored painted glass, connected to each other by narrow lead strips and covered with iron fittings. Stained glass appeared, apparently, in the Carolingian era, but they received full development and distribution only during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic art.

Stained glass windows placed in the window openings filled the interior space of the cathedral with light, painted in soft and sonorous colors, which created an extraordinary artistic effect. The late Gothic pictorial compositions made using the tempera technique or colored reliefs decorating the altar and altar surrounds were also distinguished by the brightness of their colors.

Transparent stained glass windows, shining colors of altar painting, the shine of gold and silver of church utensils, contrasting with the restrained severity of the color of stone walls and pillars, gave the interior of the Gothic cathedral an extraordinary festive solemnity.

Both in the internal and especially in the external decoration of cathedrals, a significant place belonged to plastic arts. Hundreds, thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands of sculptural compositions, individual statues and decorations on portals, cornices, gutters and capitals directly merge with the structure of the building and enrich its artistic image.

The transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style in sculpture occurred somewhat later than in architecture, but then development occurred at an unusually rapid pace, and Gothic sculpture reached its highest peak within one century.

Although Gothic knew relief and constantly turned to it, the main type of Gothic sculpture was the statue.

True, Gothic figures are perceived, especially on facades, as elements of a single giant decorative and monumental composition. Individual statues or groups of statues, inextricably linked with the facade wall or with the pillars of the portal, are, as it were, parts of a large multi-figured relief. Nevertheless, when a city dweller on his way to the temple approached close to the portal, the overall decorative integrity of the composition disappeared from his field of vision, and his attention was attracted by the plastic and psychological expressiveness of the individual statues framing the portal and the gate reliefs, telling in detail about a biblical or evangelical event. In the interior, sculptural figures, if they were placed on consoles protruding from the pillars, were visible from several sides. Full movements, they differed in rhythm from the slender pillars directed upward and asserted their special plastic expressiveness.

Compared to Romanesque, Gothic sculptural compositions are distinguished by a clearer and more realistic presentation of the plot, a more narrative and edifying character and, most importantly, greater richness and direct humanity in the rendering. internal state. Improving specific artistic means the language of medieval sculpture (expression in the sculpting of forms, in the transmission of spiritual impulses and experiences, the sharp dynamics of the restless folds of draperies, strong light and shadow modeling, the sense of expressiveness of a complex silhouette covered in intense movement) contributed to the creation of images of great psychological persuasiveness and enormous emotional power.

In terms of the choice of subjects, as well as in the distribution of images, the giant Gothic sculptural complexes were subject to the rules established by the church. The compositions on the facades of cathedrals in their totality gave a picture of the universe according to religious ideas. It is no coincidence that the heyday of Gothic was the time when Catholic theology developed into a strict dogmatic system, expressed in the generalizing codes of medieval scholasticism - “Summa Theology” by Thomas Aquinas and “The Great Mirror” by Vincent of Beauvais.

The central portal of the western facade, as a rule, was dedicated to Christ, sometimes to the Madonna; the right portal is usually to the Madonna, the left - to a saint, especially revered in a given diocese. On the pillar dividing the doors of the central portal into two halves and supporting the architrave, there was a large statue of Christ, Madonna or saint. On the base of the portal, “months”, seasons, etc. were often depicted. On the sides, on the slopes of the walls of the portal, monumental figures of the apostles, prophets, saints, Old Testament characters, and angels were placed. Sometimes subjects of a narrative or allegorical nature were presented here: the Annunciation, the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, the Reasonable and Foolish Virgins, the Church and the Synagogue, etc.

The field of the gate tympanum was filled with high relief. If the portal was dedicated to Christ, the Last Judgment was depicted in the following iconographic version: Christ sits at the top, pointing to his wounds, on the sides are the Madonna and the Evangelist John (in some places he was replaced by John the Baptist), around are angels with the instruments of Christ’s torment and the apostles; in a separate zone, below them, an angel is depicted weighing souls; to the left (from the viewer) are the righteous entering heaven; on the right are demons capturing the souls of sinners and scenes of torment in hell; even lower - the opening of coffins and the resurrection of the dead.

When depicting the Madonna, the tympanum was filled with scenes: the Assumption, the Taking of the Madonna into heaven by angels and her heavenly coronation. In the portals dedicated to the saints, episodes from their lives unfold on the tympanums. On the archivolts of the portal, covering the tympanum, were placed figures that developed the main theme given in the tympanum, or images that were in one way or another ideologically related to the main theme of the portal.

The cathedral as a whole was like a religiously transformed image of the world collected in a single focus. But interest in reality and its contradictions imperceptibly invaded religious subjects. True, life conflicts, struggle, suffering and grief of people, love and sympathy, anger and hatred appeared in the transformed images of the gospel legends: the persecution of the great martyr by cruel pagans, the misfortunes of the patriarch Job and the sympathy of his friends, the cry of the Mother of God for her crucified son, etc.

And the motives for turning to everyday life were mixed with abstract symbols and allegories. Thus, the theme of labor is embodied in a series of months of the year, given both in the form of zodiac signs dating back to antiquity, and through the depiction of labors characteristic of each month. Labor is the basis of people's real lives, and these scenes gave the Gothic artist the opportunity to go beyond religious symbolism. Allegorical images of the so-called Liberal Arts, already widespread since the late Romanesque period, are also associated with ideas about labor.

The growing interest in the human personality, in its moral world, in the main features of its character was increasingly reflected in the individualized interpretation of biblical characters. The sculptural portrait also originated in Gothic sculpture, although these portraits were only in rare cases were made from life. Thus, to some extent, the memorial sculptures of church and secular rulers placed in the temple were of a portrait nature.

In late Gothic book miniatures, realistic tendencies were expressed with particular spontaneity, and the first successes were achieved in depicting landscapes and everyday scenes. It would, however, be wrong to reduce all aesthetic value, all the originality of the realistic basis of Gothic sculpture only adds to the features of a realistically accurate and concrete depiction of life phenomena. True, Gothic sculptors, embodying images of biblical characters in their statues, conveyed that feeling of mystical ecstasy and excitement that was not alien to them. Their feelings had a religious overtones and were closely associated with evil religious ideas. And yet, deep spirituality, extraordinary intensity and strength of manifestations of human moral life, passionate emotion and poetic sincerity of feeling largely determine the artistic truthfulness, value and unique aesthetic originality of Gothic sculptural images.

As new bourgeois relations grew and the centralized state developed and strengthened, humanistic, secular, and realistic tendencies grew and became stronger. By the 15th century In most countries of Western and Central Europe, progressive forces entered into an open struggle against the foundations of feudal society and its ideology. From that time on, the great Gothic art, gradually exhausting its progressive role, lost artistic merit and creative identity. A historically inevitable turning point was approaching in the development of European art - a turning point associated with overcoming the religious and conventionally symbolic framework that constrained the further development of realism, with the establishment of secular art, consciously realistic in its method. In a number of regions of Italy, where cities were able to achieve a relatively early and relatively complete victory over feudalism, Gothic did not fully develop, and the crisis of the medieval worldview and medieval art forms occurred much earlier than in other European countries. Already from the end of the 13th century. italian art entered into that phase of its development that directly prepared for a new artistic era - the Renaissance.

Gothic(Gothic style)- a historical artistic style that dominated Western European art from the 13th to the 15th centuries.

general characteristics style Gothic

Gothic style means huge windows, multi-colored stained glass, lighting effects. Giant openwork towers, emphasized verticality of all structural elements.

Characteristic elements in the interior design of churches are slender columns, complex vault shapes, openwork ornaments, rose-shaped windows and lancet vaults, lead-framed window glass, made of convex glass, but without curtains.

Fantastic Gothic designs, surpassing all previously existing ones, overcome the bulkiness of stone. As a result, the main features can be considered irrationalism, dematerialization, upward striving, mysticism, lightness, expressiveness.

Gothic is the crown of the Middle Ages, it is bright colors, gilding, the shine of stained glass, expression, prickly needles of spiers soaring into the sky, a symphony of light, stone and glass... The Gothic style characterizes the final stage of the development of medieval art in Western Europe. The fact of the birth of the Gothic style can be considered the culmination of the Romanesque style and at the same time its overcoming. For a long time, elements of both styles coexisted, and transition time XII century was of a revivalist nature.

The birthplace of the new style is Paris. Here, in 1136-1140, under the leadership of Abbot Suger (Suzher), two spans of the main nave of the church of the Abbey of Saint-Denis were erected. But building a Gothic temple is a task for generations. Notre Dame de Paris, founded in 1163, took more than two hundred years to build. The Roman Cathedral (length - 150 meters, height of the towers - 80 meters) was built from 1211 to the beginning of the 14th century, the Milan Cathedral - until the 19th century.

A paradoxical feature of the Gothic style, the perfect forms of which demonstrate irrationalism, dematerialization and the highest, mystical expression, is that the reason (but not the cause) of its emergence was technical achievements - the rational improvement of building construction. The history of Gothic architecture is the history of the rib and flying buttress. Relieving the walls of the load made it possible to cut them with huge windows - this stimulated the art of stained glass. The interior of the temple became tall and bright.

Style Features Gothic

Interiors designed in the Gothic style are distinguished by grandeur and grace. The walls cease to be a structural element, become lighter, are lined with wood or decorated with wall paintings of bright colors and wall tapestries. The plank and stone floors of the early Gothic interior were also later covered with carpets. Characteristic elements are openwork ornaments, stone lace carvings, and pointed vaults. Above the entrance, as a rule, there is a huge stained glass rose window. The window panes are lead-framed, convex glass, but without curtains. Wooden beam ceilings or with open rafters; possible decorative painting on the ceiling.

In the construction and decoration of Gothic buildings, mainly stone, marble, and wood were used (oak, walnut and spruce, pine, larch and European cedar, juniper). The decor used tiled mosaics and majolica.

Colored stained glass windows in the form of pointed arches are one of the most recognizable features of the Gothic style. Huge windows, for which the walls serve only as a light frame, multi-colored stained glass windows, lighting effects, and finally, a beautiful rose window - all this creates the unique “face” of the Gothic style.

Theologians attributed stained glass the ability to enlighten a person’s soul and keep him from evil. The origins of this type of fine art go back to late antiquity.

The unique effects of stained glass are explained by the transparency of its base - colored glass; the black paint used to draw the contours was opaque. In the ornamental areas of the stained glass window, red and blue tones dominate, in the narrative areas - white, various shades of purple, yellow and green.

“Gothic roses”, colorful stained glass windows, painted sculpture - all this speaks of the special role of color in the Middle Ages. In the interior design of Gothic style temples, rich red, blue, yellow, brown shades, as well as gold and silver threads. Purple, ruby, blue-black, carnation pink, and green shades were used for contrasting details.

Conclusion

The key point of Gothic architecture is the ever-flowing Divine light - a symbol of enlightenment and wisdom. Therefore, Gothic is the finest hour of stained glass.

Gothic is the first pan-European style.

Notre Dame Cathedral is the most impressive and, undoubtedly, the most remarkable monument of early Gothicism; it serves as its symbol and is perceived as one of the highest embodiments of French artistic genius. The western facade of Notre Dame - the horizontal competes with the vertical. this rivalry creates incomparable clarity and balance. The main facade of the five-nave basilica is light, and the height of the towers is completed in a thin, graceful spire (above the middle cross), rapidly rising to the sky. A huge openwork rose window shines in the center of the second tier above the pointed arches of the recessed portals directed upward. Gothic sculpture played a huge role in the Gothic temple, the overall appearance of which is born from a combination of architectural forms - statues or reliefs.

Chartres Cathedral is the pinnacle of French Mature Gothic and all French Gothic architecture. As in the Parisian Notre Dame Cathedral, the main facade is in three tiers, with an openwork rose in the middle and two powerful towers. But here the vertical easily and at the same time solemnly dominates the horizontal, the tiers are almost blurred, and the wall unconditionally capitulates to the grandiose skeleton of the finest architecture, which rushes upward without any tension. everything here is not only majestic, but also elegant, elegant, with full revelation of the internal logic and sense of proportion that was primordial for the Gallic mind. The light openwork bulk is a synthesis of architecture and sculpture, a festive symony of pointed arches, columns and blooming, fabulously magnificent sculptural decoration.

Saint Chapelle in Paris is the most delightful of the royal palace chapels 4. interior: instead of a wall there is an openwork frame of windows with sparkling clean stained glass windows. The music of color is happily combined here with the music of the most elegant architectural forms. Tall, light pillars pick up the equally light ribs of the vault, bringing their dynamics to the very floor. The rapidity of takeoffs and a fabulous symphony of colors create a kind of magically poetic mood in this temple.

2.Filippo Brunelleschi(1337-1446) - one of the greatest Italian architects of the 15th century. He opens new chapter in the history of architecture, the formation of the Renaissance style. the architect came into the world “to give a new form to architecture.”

Breaking with Gothic, Brunelleschi relied not so much on ancient classics as on the architecture of the Proto-Renaissance and the national tradition of Italian architecture, which preserved elements of classics throughout the Middle Ages. Brunelleschi's work stands at the turn of two eras: at the same time it completes the tradition of the Proto-Renaissance and lays the foundation for a new path in the development of architecture.

At the beginning of the 15th century, Florentine rulers, guild organizations and merchant guilds paid great attention to completing the construction and decoration of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Basically the building had already been erected, but the huge dome planned in the 14th century was not realized. Since 1404, Brunelleschi has been involved in the design of the dome. He eventually received an order to do the work; becomes a leader. The main difficulty that faced the master was caused by the gigantic size of the span of the middle cross (over 48 meters), which required special efforts to facilitate the expansion. Brunelleschi's innovation was that he raised the dome, making it pointed rather than flat, using frame ribs (8 ribs + additional) and a double shell inside and outside (with a void between them), i.e. the dome was made as light as possible. This work of the Florentine architect marked the beginning of the construction of domed churches of the Italian Renaissance, up to St. Peter's Basilica, topped by Michelangelo's dome.

The first monument of the new style and the most early work Brunelleschi's civil engineering work is the Orphanage House (Orphanage). At the first glance at this building, one is struck by its significant and fundamental difference from Gothic buildings. The emphasized horizontality of the facade, the lower floor of which is occupied by a loggia opening onto the square with nine arches, the symmetry of the composition, completed on the sides by two wider openings framed by pilasters - all evokes the impression of balance, harmony and peace. However, having approached the classical concept, Brunelleschi embodied it in full-fledged forms of ancient architecture. The light proportions of the columns, the grace and subtlety of the profiling of the cornices reveal the kinship of Brunelleschi’s creation with the version of the classics that the architecture of the Tuscan Proto-Renaissance brought to the late Middle Ages.

Pazzi Chapel (1430-1443). It is distinguished by the clarity of spatial composition, purity of lines, elegance of proportions and decoration. The centric nature of the building, all volumes of which are grouped around the dome space, the simplicity and clarity of architectural forms, the harmonious balance of parts make the Pazzi Chapel a concentration of the new principles of Renaissance architecture.

Ticket 10

1. Distinctive features of Romanesque and Gothic churches (with drawings).

2. The work of Piero della Francesca.

1. Romanesque buildings are characterized by a combination of a clear architectural silhouette and laconic exterior decoration - the building always fit harmoniously into the surrounding nature, and therefore looked especially durable and solid. This was facilitated by massive walls with narrow window openings and stepped-recessed portals. Such walls had a defensive purpose.

The main buildings during this period were the temple-fortress and the castle-fortress. The main element of the composition of a monastery or castle is the tower - the donjon. Around it were the rest of the buildings, made up of simple geometric shapes - cubes, prisms, cylinders.

Features of the architecture of the Romanesque cathedral:

§ The plan is based on an early Christian basilica, that is, a longitudinal organization of space

§ Enlargement of the choir or eastern altar of the temple

§ Increasing the height of the temple

§ Replacement of coffered (cassette) ceilings in the largest cathedrals stone vaults. The vaults were of several types: box, cross, often cylindrical, flat on beams (typical of Italian Romanesque architecture).

§ Heavy vaults required powerful walls and columns

§ The main motif of the interior is semicircular arches

§ Rational simplicity of the design, made up of individual square cells - grasses.

§ Pisa Cathedral, Italy

Chapel of Penitents.

The characteristic features of stylagotik are the verticality of the composition, pointed brightness, a complex frame system of supports and a ribbed vault. The advantage of using ribs is that the vault can be larger, thereby reducing the loads arising from it.

The absorption of these loads by the system of buttresses made it possible to make the walls thinner. The desire to minimize the massiveness of the structure led to the fact that as a result of the introduction of the frame, the wall ceased to be a load-bearing element and became just a filling between the load-bearing pylons. As a result of its variability, the pointed vault was structurally superior to the semicircular vault in many respects. The massive stone masonry of the vault in the early Middle Ages gave way to openwork stone structures, whose emphatically vertical supports and columns transfer static loads collected in a bundle to the foundations

2. Piero della Francesca(Italian Piero della Francesca); OK. 1420-1492, Italian artist and theorist, representative of the Early Renaissance. The works are distinguished by majestic solemnity, nobility and harmony of images, generality of forms, compositional balance, proportionality, accuracy promising constructions, full of light, soft, elegant colorful range.

In the period from 1446 to 1454, Pierrot created a style that, in its main features, was preserved in works dating back to the period of his creative maturity. It is characterized by conventionality in the depiction of hair and eyes (the famous almond-shaped eyes, borrowed from the characters of Domenico Veneziano) and the idealization of facial features. The tall figures are built according to the classical canon of Vitruvius proportions, but the female images have elongated, slightly curved necks and high foreheads - elements of the late Gothic ideal of beauty. In modeling the carnation, Piero della Francesca gives preference to soft tones and smooth transitions, as opposed to the sharp and dark shadows that Masaccio resorted to in his works. IN Flagellation of Christ Pierrot shows a clear reluctance to depict fast, abrupt or frequently repeated movements. This is primarily due to his temperament, but his study also played a role here. antique sculpture. The main action, the actual scourging of Christ, is depicted on the left in the background, while in the foreground on the right three characters stand in frozen poses with their backs to what is happening. The torturers of Christ seem impassive, stopped in their movement, like participants in a “living picture.” In paintings with strictly canonical iconography, Piero della Francesca proposed original coloristic solutions, giving preference to the use of cold tones and especially a large number of shades of blue.

Piero della Francesca builds large compositions, emphasizing the positions and actions of the characters with the help of spatial intervals, light and color accents.

In old age, Piero della Francesca abandoned painting, apparently due to deteriorating eyesight, and turned to mathematics. The most significant of his mathematical treatises, intended for artists and scientists, is About perspective in painting(De prospectiva pingendi).

"Portrait of Duke Federigo Montefeltro and Duchess Battista Sforza"

"The Story of the Queen of Sheba", Church of San Francesco in Arezzo.

Ticket 11

1. Gothic cathedral: image and design (architectural features, sculptural decor, stained glass).

The Gothic cathedral, with all the richness of its constituent elements, amazes with its extraordinary unity, both of the architectural plan and of the entire decorative system (exterior and interior). Moreover, this unity characterizes the Gothic style as a whole.

The very structure of the Christian church remains unshakable. Its internal skeleton is still the same, the same sequential arrangement of parts. No matter how much sculpture and carving the shell of the temple is decorated with, underneath it you will always find, at least in its rudimentary, initial state, a Roman basilica. It is located on earth according to an immutable law. These are the same two naves, intersecting in the form of a cross, the upper end of which, rounded by a dome, forms the choir; these are all the same permanent aisles for procession inside the temple or for chapels - a kind of side passages, with which the central nave communicates through the spaces between the columns. On this constant basis, the number of chapels, portals, bell towers, spiers varies endlessly, following the imagination of the century, people and art. Statues, stained glass windows, rosettes, arabesques, various decorations, capitals, bas-reliefs - it combines all this according to its own taste and its own rules.

Design of a Gothic cathedral Plan of a Gothic temple

Almost always two tiers of flying buttresses were built. The first, upper tier was intended to support roofs, which became steeper over time, and, therefore, heavier. The second tier of flying buttresses also counteracted the wind pressing on the roof. Pointed arches, which became more and more elongated and pointed as Gothic architecture developed, expressed the main idea of ​​Gothic architecture - the idea of ​​the temple aspiring upward.

The compositional and ideological concept of the sculptural decoration was subordinated to the program developed by theologians. The focus of the sculptural compositions was the portals, where large statues of apostles, prophets, and saints followed in lines, as if greeting visitors. Tympanums, arches of portals, spaces between them, galleries of the upper tiers, niches of turrets, and vimpergi were decorated with reliefs and statues. Many small figures and scenes were placed in archivolts, transepts, on consoles, plinths, pedestals, buttresses, and roofs. The capitals were entwined with leaves and fruits; half-bloomed leaves (crabs) quickly ran along the projections of the cornices, the ribs of the turrets, and the flying buttresses; the spiers were crowned with a flower (crucifer). The window frames were filled with carved openwork patterns. In the temple, a particle of the universe, they sought to embody the religious concept of human history with its sublime and base sides.

The design features of Gothic buildings did not require massive walls, and the external spaces between the pillars-buttresses were filled with huge lancet windows. The benefits of better lighting are obvious; It is useful, however, to remember the symbolic meaning that medieval people gave to light. The image of Christ as the “Light of the World” is very often found in painting and literature of that era. And this image was probably especially dear to Abbot Suger, who, among other characteristic elements of the future Gothic style, introduced stained glass windows to Saint-Denis. The use of colored glass for pictorial compositions in itself was not new. But only in the Gothic church did stained glass become a necessary element of church architecture. Stained glass can be defined as “transparent mosaic”. They indeed consisted of large pieces of colored glass. The outline of the stained glass window was first marked on a wooden board; The glass was cut to size, set into a lead rim, and finally all the pieces were joined together in an iron frame. Early stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals are distinguished by bright, intense colors, often red and blue, which were fixed by firing. By the middle of the 13th century. the colors become less intense and the paint is applied directly to the glass. Like other customers of the Middle Ages, Suger was extremely proud of his stained glass windows, seeing in them not only material and artistic value, but also a deep spiritual meaning.

Mantegna's work.

Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), one of the greatest Renaissance painters in Northern Italy. Mantegna combined the artistic aspirations of the Renaissance masters of the 15th century: a passion for antiquity, an interest in precision and meticulousness, even the smallest details, transmission natural phenomena and a wholehearted belief in linear perspective as a means of creating the illusion of space on a plane. His work became the link between the early Renaissance in Florence and the later flowering of art in Northern Italy.

Mantegna was born around 1431; in 1445 he was enrolled in the workshop of painters in Padua as the adopted son of Francesco Squarcione, a local artist and antiquarian, in whose workshop he worked until 1448. In 1449, Mantegna began painting frescoes in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua.

Mantegna's passion for perspective and ancient art is evident everywhere and in everything. Knowledge of the rules linear perspective he learned from the masters of the Tuscan school, directly from Donatello and other Florentine artists who were then working in Padua. In 1454, Mantegna married Nicolosa, daughter of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini.

In 1460, having accepted the invitation of the Marquis of Mantua, Lodovico Gonzaga, Mantegna settled at his court. He visited Tuscany and Rome, where, at the request of Pope Innocent VIII, he decorated his chapel with frescoes. Elevated to knighthood and occupying a high position at court, Mantegna served the Gonzaga family until the end of his life.

The master's passion for ancient classics again manifested itself in his painting “Saint Sebastian”. The saint is tied to an elegant Corinthian column, which apparently remains from a destroyed temple. Plants grow through the crevices of the stone, and fragments of antique marbles are scattered at the feet of the martyr.

For the office of Isabella d'Este, wife of Francesco Gonzaga, Mantegna wrote two compositions in mythological themes(the third remained unfinished): Parnassus (1497) and Minerva, expelling vices (1502). They show some softening of Mantegna's style, associated with a new understanding of the landscape.

Ticket 12

1.Roman sculptural portrait.

Roman sculptural portrait- one of the periods in the development of world portraiture, spanning approximately five centuries (1st century BC - 4th century AD), is characterized by extraordinary realism and the desire to convey the character of the depicted. The Roman portrait developed from death masks.

The development of the ancient Roman portrait was associated with increased interest in the individuality of an individual person. At the core artistic structure many ancient Roman portraits - a clear transfer of the unique features of the model. The difference from the ancient Greek portrait is that the Greeks sought to idealize a person.

The Roman sculptural portrait as an independent and unique artistic phenomenon can be clearly traced from the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. - the period of the Roman Republic. A characteristic feature of portraits of this period is extreme naturalism and verisimilitude in conveying facial features of what distinguishes a particular person from any other person. These trends go back to Etruscan art.

Characteristic psychological features of a portrait from the period of the Republic: “the external resemblance of the statue to the original and the special internal mood that brought all the images together, making them similar friend on a friend, as well as isolation, independence and immersion in the world of personal feelings and experiences"

Marcus Aurelius.

Antoninus Pius

2. Botticelli's later works.

Sandro Botticelli(Italian Sandro Botticelli, March 1, 1445 - May 17, 1510) - nickname of the Florentine artist Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi(Italian Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi), who brought the art of the Quattrocento to the threshold High Renaissance.

A deeply religious man, Botticelli worked in all the major churches of Florence and in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, but remained in the history of art primarily as the author of large-format poetic paintings on subjects inspired by classical antiquity - “Spring” and “The Birth of Venus”.

From the beginning of the 1490s. Botticelli's style has changed noticeably: the paintings have become smaller in scale; the painter, emphasizing the gestures and expressions of the characters, concentrated attention on their passionate impulse to action. This is a mysterious retreat from the idealization of naturalism of the 1480s.

In the 1490s, notes of drama appeared in Botticelli’s art (“Lamentation of Christ”, after 1490, Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan; “Slander”, after 1495, Uffizi). The sharp contrasts of bright color spots, the internal tension of the drawing, the dynamics and expression of the images indicate an extraordinary change in the artist’s worldview - towards greater religiosity and even a kind of mysticism. However, his drawings for Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (1492–1497, Engraving Cabinet, Berlin, and Vatican Library) with acute emotional expressiveness, they retain lightness of line and Renaissance clarity of images. Spring

Birth of Venus

Slander

1. Naumburg Cathedral is a magnificent example of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Construction of the cathedral began in 1210, but, as usual, lasted for long years, and early Gothic elements appeared in the appearance of the Romanesque style cathedral in the 13th–14th centuries.

The most interesting is the western choir of the cathedral, which is a striking example of the synthesis of mature Gothic architecture and sculpture with masterpieces of Gothic plastic art. The name of the artist who worked on the creation of the Western choir remains unknown to this day. What is known is that he came to Naumburg around 1240 and had enormous talent. Against the background of European Gothic of the 13th century, his works stand out for their striking realism, humane interpretation and courageous violation of the canons and norms of medieval art.

The “Master from Naumburg” spent ten years (1255-1265) building the western choir of Naumburg Cathedral in the early Gothic style. From the end of the 1240s, the master began to decorate the western choir with sculpture, so at the turn of the 1240s-1250s, a series of outstanding works of medieval European art appeared in the western choir of Naumburg Cathedral, which today have become recognized classics. The Naumburg master and his assistants completed the reliefs of the altar barrier of the western choir with the image of the “Passion of Christ”, the group “The Crucifixion with those present” and 12 statues of donors in the choir itself.

The barrier of the western choir (horizontal tier) is decorated with the cycle of reliefs “The Passion of Christ”. This is the first embodiment of the gospel narrative about the suffering and death of Christ in German monumental art.

The first relief, “The Last Supper,” reproduces the scene of a peasant meal - rough bowls, bread cut into thick slices. The Apostles are wide-cheeked, stocky, with no refinement. The figures of the gospel heroes are more reminiscent of German peasants who greedily, as if hungry for the day, pounced on food. Among them, two figures stand out sharply. In the center of the composition is Christ. His gaze, thoughtful and clear (how this can be depicted in stone is amazing). Participating in a common meal, he, however, is no longer here, he is in tomorrow, where trial and painful execution await him. Handing Judas a piece of bread, Christ carefully holds the wide sleeve with his other hand so as not to stain it. The thoughtful and bright image of Christ is echoed by the figure of a middle-aged, balding, bearded man sitting at the edge of the table. His look says the same thing: he understood the Teacher’s thoughts. And a poignant tragic note bursts into the atmosphere of the evening meal of strong, healthy men: this evening is the last.

In the relief “Christ before Pilate” (Pilate washes his hands), the master surprisingly vividly conveyed the furious rage of Christ’s enemies and Pilate’s doubts. But Christ is higher than them - in his figure one can see calm detachment, inner agreement with the will of the Father. The variety of characters and intensity of passions are stunningly conveyed.

The entrance group itself is made in the form of a crucifix. The sculpture of the crucified Christ himself seems surprising and completely uncharacteristic of medieval art. We see not an ideal image of the Savior, but a person who is no stranger to pain and torment. Christ is depicted as suffering, humane. The body of Christ is depicted in detail: a natural human figure, with a wound from the spear of the centurion Longinus, a face distorted by suffering, a fading gaze.

The pinnacle of creativity of the “Master of Naumburg” is the twelve figures of donors - the founders of Naumburg Cathedral. This is the first portrait gallery in the art of medieval Europe, amazing in the brightness of its depiction of characters, which has no analogues in any country. If in the creation of the altar barrier of the western choir the author showed himself as a master of dramatic storytelling, then in the statues of the founders of the temple his talent as an excellent portrait painter was revealed. The sculptures of Naumburg Cathedral are called the culmination of the development of German sculpture of the 13th century. Among the twelve sculptures of the western choir, made almost in human height, the most notable are famous portraits the powerful, cruel and intelligent Count of Meissen Ekkehard and his wife Uta - majestic, proud, and at the same time deeply feeling and reverent. The gallery of images, amazing in their brightness, is also represented by Ekkehard’s weak-willed and indecisive brother Hermann and his cheerful and smiling wife Reglinda, the sensitive and dreamy Welhelm, the personification of the evil stupidity of Timo von Kistritz.

In these works the artist was far ahead of his time. There is nothing like the Naumburg sculptures in European art of the 12th century.

The realism and emphasized “secularism” of the Naumburg sculptures prompted some researchers to look for a connection between them and the medieval heretical Waldensian movement. However, later studies refute these assumptions: the cathedral in Naumburg was an episcopal see, and the Bishop of Naumburg personally participated in the development of the decoration of the temple. This excludes the influence of the Waldensian heresy on the images famous sculptures Naumburg Cathedral.

The sculptures of Naumburg Cathedral are associated with French Gothic, and this is natural - the “Master from Naumburg” studied and worked in France. In many of the motifs of Naumburg Cathedral one can see the influence of the sculptural decoration of the Cathedral in Reims. However, the German artistic tradition is clearly present in the works of the Master of Naumburg.

To sum up, we can say that the most characteristic features of the German monumental sculpture The Middle Ages are the individualization of images and the dramatic nature of the narrative. The uniqueness of German plastic art is that it combines the features of true realism with expressiveness and even exaltation.

2. Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel- the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is the most famous cycle of frescoes by Michelangelo Buonarotti, created in 1508-1512 and considered one of the recognized masterpieces of High Renaissance art. The most difficult task set before him by Pope Julius II - Michelangelo, who called himself a sculptor, not a painter, had never had to carry out such a large-scale work in fresco technique - the master completed in record time and practically alone.

In 1508, despite the strong resistance of Michelangelo's opponents and rivals, especially Bramante, Raphael's friend and zealous defender from any attack on his glory, the powerful Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo from Florence to Rome to paint the plafond (ceiling) of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Four years earlier, Michelangelo the sculptor had become famous for his David, but he had little experience as a painter and even less in fresco technique. In any case, he never dealt with the curved vaults that make up a significant area in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo resisted this order, but in the end he complied with the pope's demands.

This titanic work took four years. Michelangelo made hundreds of drawings for her, many of which were masterpieces in themselves. The physical parameters of this creation, which the artist created virtually alone, are impressive: the area of ​​Michelangelo's paintings in the chapel is about 520 square meters. m. At first, he invited his fellow artists from Florence and invited them, as Vasari says in his biography of Michelangelo, “to write something as a model. Seeing how far their efforts were from his desires and not receiving any satisfaction, one morning he decided to knock down everything they had written and, locking himself in the chapel, stopped letting them in and receiving them at home. And since these jokes, in their opinion, went on for too long, they resigned themselves and returned to Florence in shame.”

You can often read that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the chapel while lying on his back. This is apparently a legend. Vasari speaks of the greatest inconvenience of work - the constantly “head thrown up,” in other words, Michelangelo worked standing up, forced to keep his head thrown up all the time. “He ruined his eyesight so much,” continues Vasari, “that for several months he could not read what was written or look at the drawings except from bottom to top.” Any tourist who has visited the Chapel will confirm that he left it with a sore head and neck, because, trying to look at the ceiling frescoes, he kept throwing his head back. One can imagine what Michelangelo felt after four years of such grueling work!

A separate topic is how it was technically possible to arrange scaffolding for painting such a large ceiling area. It is known that Bramante, whom the pope instructed to technically provide this possibility, decided to hang scaffolding (something like cradles) from the ceiling on ropes and for this he punched holes in the entire ceiling. When Michelangelo saw this, he naturally asked the question of how to fill these holes after the painting was done. Bramante replied that he would think about it later, but there was no other way to do it. “Michelangelo realized,” says Vasari, “that Bramante was either a small master of his craft or a small friend of his.” In the end, Michelangelo invented his own method: he installed the scaffolding on trestles so that they did not touch the walls. An artist's drawing has been preserved, giving an idea of ​​this. Moreover, already in our time, when the frescoes were being cleared, restorers built the scaffolding exactly as Michelangelo designed it.

Four years of exhausting work meant struggling with one’s own poor health, the pressure of financial difficulties, church problems, insufficient knowledge of the technique of fresco painting (at some point the frescoes began to become covered with mold, and this drove the artist into despair), and finally, Dad's annoying impatience and quarrelsomeness. “When meeting with Michelangelo, dad often reminded him: “Shouldn’t we make the chapel richer in colors and gold, because it’s poor,” says Vasari. To which Michelangelo answered simply: “Holy Father, in those days people did not wear gold on themselves, and those depicted there were never too rich, but they were holy people, because they despised wealth.”

Gothic art represents the next stage of development of medieval art after Romanesque. The name is conditional. It was synonymous with barbarism in the minds of Renaissance historians, who first used this term to characterize the art of the Middle Ages in general, without seeing its valuable aspects.

Gothic is a more mature art style of the Middle Ages than Romanesque. It amazes with unity and integrity artistic manifestations in all types of art. Religious in form, Gothic art is more sensitive than Romanesque to life, nature and man. It included in its circle the entire sum of medieval knowledge, complex and contradictory ideas and experiences. In the dreaminess and excitement of Gothic images, in the pathetic rise of spiritual impulses, in the tireless quest of its masters, new trends are felt - the awakening of the mind and feelings, passionate aspirations for beauty.

The increased spirituality of Gothic art, the growing interest in human feelings, in the highly individual, in the beauty of the real world, prepared the flowering of Renaissance art.

Gothic art is the art of flourishing trade and craft commune cities, which, at the cost of intense struggle, achieved a certain independence within the feudal world. It was caused by the new conditions of social life in Europe - the high rise of productive forces, the growing flame of grandiose peasant wars and victory by the beginning of the 13th century. communal revolutions. In some countries, royal power, based on an alliance with the cities, rose above the forces of feudal fragmentation.

Religion remained the main form of worldview, and the church continued to exert its influence on art. However, the needs of life in trade and craft cities gave rise to the desire for knowledge and constant quest. With the formation of city and church schools, the influence of monasteries on the masses began to weaken. Centers of science - universities - emerged in Bologna, Oxford, and Paris. They became the arena of religious disputes, centers of freethinking. Within the framework of scholastic philosophy, which tried to reconcile faith with reason, heretical teachings arose caused by the growth critical thinking, serious philosophical problems were posed, a lot of attention was paid general issues associated with the life of human society and the knowledge of man himself. The philosopher Pierre Abelard considered it necessary to prove religious dogmas with the help of reason; for him the main thing was “resistance to the authority of the church.” Scholasticism was permeated by an interest in experimental knowledge, clearly manifested in the activities of Roger Bacon. At the end of the 12th and 13th centuries. The teachings of the Arab philosophers Averroes and Avicenna, close to materialism, spread. Attempts were made to reconcile Christian dogmas and observations of reality. Real world was no longer completely denied, he was considered as a perfect creation of a deity. The tragic hopelessness that the church inspired in people was replaced by a lighter and more joyful perception of the beauty of the world. Harsh morals have softened. Instead, the self-awareness of the people grew. During the struggle, in the midst of the jacquerie, in the heated atmosphere of the cities, fighting for communal liberties, preaching the reform of the church, a consciousness of brotherhood and equality was born, succinctly expressed in the saying: “When Adam plowed and Eve spun, who was then a nobleman?”

In the court knightly environment of the 12th-14th centuries. a secular, deeply personal attitude towards the world arose. Along with the epic and chivalric romance, the love lyrics of the troubadours flourished - Provençal poetry, a sign of a new time. Individual feelings penetrated poetry. Developed urban literature, prone to vivid pictures of everyday life. In music, unison (one-voice) was replaced by polyphony. In powerful choral hymns, the city community directly expressed their feelings; in the mysteries, villagers and guild artisans acted out scenes from the Holy Scriptures. Comic theatrical genres arose: farces were performed in the squares, ridiculing the clergy, “unholy masses” and clownish processions were held in churches.

In medieval cities of the second half of the 12th and 13th centuries. new forms of architecture and fine art arose, more complex and multi-valued, they combined mysticism and rationalism, calm concentration and passionate impulses, sincere living feeling and dogmatism, a riot of imagination and a craving for uniformity, orderliness, aspiration to the world of dreams and keen observation, festive -beautiful and ordinary, ugly. In art, the desire arose to express the spiritual powers and abilities of man.

It is difficult to draw a clear chronological boundary between the Romanesque and Gothic styles. 12th century - the heyday of the Romanesque style; at the same time, since 1130 new forms appeared, marking the beginning of Gothic (early Gothic). Gothic style in Western Europe reached its heights (High Gothic) in the 13th century. The style died out in the 14th and 15th centuries. (flaming gothic).

IN different countries The Gothic style has peculiar features. However, this does not deny its commonality and internal unity. In France - the birthplace of Gothic - works of this style are characterized by clarity of proportions, a sense of proportion, clarity, and elegance of forms. In England, they are characterized by heaviness, congestion of compositional lines, complexity and richness of architectural decor. In Germany, Gothic acquired a more abstract, mystical, but passionate character in expression. In Spain, Gothic forms were enriched with elements Muslim art introduced by the Arabs. To Italy, where cities flourished by the end of the 13th century. created fertile ground for the emergence of the Proto-Renaissance culture; only individual, mainly decorative elements of Gothic style penetrated, not contradicting the principles of Romanesque architecture. But in the 14th century. Gothic style spread everywhere in Italy. Flamboyant Gothic reached its highest culmination in the Milan Cathedral (late 14th-15th centuries, completed at the beginning of the 19th century).

Architecture
The architectural appearance of the Western European free cities was determined for a long time by Gothic buildings - cathedrals, town halls, exchanges, covered markets, hospitals, residential buildings concentrated near the square, to which the narrow crooked streets of tanners, dyers, carpenters, weavers, etc. ran together. Construction was now carried out not only by the church, monasteries and private individuals, but also by the community (organized into workshops by professional artisans and architects). Between the construction teams traveling from city to city, there were connections, exchange of experience and knowledge. The most significant buildings, and above all cathedrals, were erected at the expense of the townspeople. Often many generations worked on the creation of one monument. Grandiose Gothic cathedrals differed sharply from Romanesque monastery churches. They were roomy, tall, elegant, and spectacularly decorated. Their forms were striking in their dynamism, lightness and picturesqueness. The slender silhouette of the cathedral with sharp spiers and towers determined the character of the city landscape. Following the cathedral, residential buildings rushed upward, the number of floors in them increased, and gable gable (pointed) roofs stretched upward. Closed by a ring of fortress walls, the city developed upward. Intended for a large crowd of lay people, the cathedral was the main social center of the city. In addition to divine services, city meetings were held here, debates took place, university lectures were given, and spiritual dramas - mysteries - were played out.

The design of the cathedral’s image revealed not only new ideas of the Catholic religion, but also new ideas about the world, and the increased self-awareness of the townspeople. The dynamic upward aspiration of all forms of the temple was generated by the idealistic “striving of the soul towards heaven”, an awakened longing for the universe and at the same time rational considerations caused by the cramped urban development. The cathedral towers served as a lookout and fire tower. Sometimes they were crowned with the figure of a rooster - a symbol of vigilance. To organize spacious interiors with space developing upward and deeper in the cathedral, a new structural vault system was used, complex and logical, testifying to the enormous progress of thought and technology.

The Gothic cathedral, compared to the Romanesque one, - new level in the development of the basilica type of construction, in which all elements began to obey a uniform system. The main difference of a Gothic cathedral is a stable frame system, in which the structural role is played by cross-rib lancet vaults, cut through a network of protruding ribs (laid out of stone), internal (columns, pillars) and external (buttresses) supports. The efforts of the architects were aimed at highlighting and strengthening the main, load-bearing skeleton of the building and lightening the vaulted ceilings to the limit. For this purpose, the distribution of gravity and arch thrust was changed. The main nave was now divided into a number of rectangular sections. Each of them was covered with intersecting pointed arches. The shape of the pointed arch reduced the expansion of the vault. Lightening its weight was facilitated by a network of ribs, dividing the vault into small sections filled with thinner vault shells than before.

From below, the load of the rib vault was carried by powerful pillars. For each pillar there were several ribs converging into a bundle; their weight was borne by the service columns surrounding the pillar. Most of the lateral thrust and part of its vertical pressure were transferred to the outward buttresses - pillars-pylons with the help of flying buttresses (open supporting semi-arches). Flying buttresses were thrown over the roofs of the side naves to the base of the arches of the central nave.

All this made it possible to cover wide spans and sections of space of various shapes, as well as raise the vault to dizzying heights. The temple was filled with light. The wall, freed from its supporting functions, was cut through with large lancet windows, niches, galleries, and portals, which lightened its weight and connected the interior of the temple with the surrounding space.
A characteristic feature of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, which largely determines the internal and external appearance of Gothic buildings. Repeated many times in the design of the vault, windows, portals, galleries, it enhances the lightness and energy of architectural forms with its dynamic outlines.

The Gothic cathedral inside makes a strong impression. Its interior - spacious, bright, designed for a crowded crowd - immediately opens up to the viewer and captivates with its rapid movement to the east, as main entrance is now on the western short side. The boundaries between the transept and the longitudinal space of the naves are almost erased. The chapels merge to form a continuous wreath; they are separated from the temple by a colonnade, in which the walls seem to dissolve. The vast space of the temple becomes united and easily visible, dynamic, giving rise to an endless change of visual impressions. The space of the immeasurably extended naves rapidly develops into depth - towards the altar, the choir, illuminated by a light that makes the whole atmosphere tremble; with an accelerating upward rhythm it rises under the canopy of light vaults. The gaze is led there by the movement of all the lines of pillars, ribs, columns, pointed arches, as if tending to infinity. Streams of multi-colored light flowing from above, from windows with colored glass, mix in space and play on the beams of columns. On holidays, the cathedral presented a particularly solemn spectacle: the voices of singing children and the sounds of the organ filled the space and gave rise to a mystical mood. They seemed to carry away into some unknown, enticing, spiritual world located beyond the earth and at the same time raised a person above the ordinary to the sublime, the perfect.

The appearance of the cathedral has also changed significantly, because the internal structure of the building is projected onto the external one; the internal divisions of the longitudinal part of the building are visible in its facade. The internal space seems to flow into the external. The image of the temple has lost its harsh isolation, and the temple seems to be facing the square. The role of the main western façade with monumental, richly decorated portals, which were previously located on the side walls, has increased. Tall, light towers, numerous vertical rods and spiers, pointed shapes of windows and portals with wimpergs (pointed ends above the windows and portals) gave the impression of uncontrollable upward movement and transformed the cathedral, according to Rodin, into “a symphony of light and shadow.” A complex system of sculptural decoration turned the stone wall into a kind of light lace; the contours became airy, as if dissolving into the environment. Colored windows occupying the upper part of the wall and through galleries contribute to the fact that the building seems to lose its materiality, but this does not deprive it of the impression of monumentality - the details are subordinated to a clear, logical and strict design.

Gotica- a period in the development of medieval art in Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe.

The word comes from Italian. gotico - unusual, barbaric - (Goten - barbarians; this style has nothing to do with the historical Goths), and was first used as an expletive. For the first time, the concept in the modern sense was used by Giorgio Vasari in order to separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages.

Origin of the term

However, there was nothing barbaric in this style: on the contrary, it is distinguished by great grace, harmony and observance of logical laws. A more correct name would be “lancet”, because. The pointed form of the arc is an essential feature of Gothic art. And, indeed, in France, the birthplace of this style, the French gave it a completely appropriate name - “ogive style” (from ogive - arrow).

Three main periods:
— Early Gothic XII-XIII centuries.
— High Gothic — 1300-1420. (conditional)
- Late Gothic - XV century (1420-1500) is often called “Flaming”

Architecture

The Gothic style mainly manifested itself in the architecture of temples, cathedrals, churches, and monasteries. It developed on the basis of Romanesque, or more precisely, Burgundian architecture. In contrast to the Romanesque style, with its round arches, massive walls and small windows, the Gothic style is characterized by pointed arches, narrow and tall towers and columns, a richly decorated facade with carved details (vimpergi, tympanums, archivolts) and multi-colored stained glass lancet windows . All style elements emphasize verticality.

art

Sculpture played a huge role in creating the image of the Gothic cathedral. In France, she designed mainly its external walls. Tens of thousands of sculptures, from plinth to pinnacles, populate the mature Gothic cathedral.

Round monumental sculpture is actively developing in Gothic. But at the same time, Gothic sculpture is an integral part of the cathedral ensemble; it is part of the architectural form, since, together with architectural elements, it expresses the upward movement of the building, its tectonic meaning. And, creating an impulsive play of light and shadow, it, in turn, enlivens, spiritualizes the architectural masses and promotes their interaction with the air environment.

Painting. One of the main directions of Gothic painting was stained glass, which gradually replaced fresco painting. The technique of stained glass remained the same as in the previous era, but the color palette became much richer and more colorful, and the subjects were more complex - along with images of religious subjects, stained glass windows on everyday themes appeared. In addition, not only colored glass, but also colorless glass began to be used in stained glass.

The Gothic period saw the heyday of book miniatures. With the advent of secular literature (chivalrous novels, etc.), the range of illustrated manuscripts expanded, and richly illustrated books of hours and psalms were also created for home use. Artists began to strive for a more authentic and detailed reproduction of nature. Prominent representatives of Gothic book miniatures are the Limburg brothers, court miniaturists of the Duke of Berry, who created the famous “The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry” (circa 1411-1416).

Ornament

Fashion

Interior

Dressoir is a china cabinet, a piece of late Gothic furniture. Often covered with painting.

The furniture of the Gothic era is simple and heavy in the truest sense of the word. For example, for the first time, clothes and household items are beginning to be stored in closets (in antiquity, only chests were used for these purposes). Thus, by the end of the Middle Ages, prototypes of basic modern pieces of furniture appeared: a wardrobe, a bed, an armchair. One of the most common methods of making furniture was frame-panel knitting. The materials used in the north and west of Europe were mainly local wood species - oak, walnut, and in the south (Tyrol) and east - spruce and pine, as well as larch, European cedar, juniper.