Painting- the image on the plane of pictures of the real world, transformed by the creative imagination of the artist; singling out the elementary and most popular aesthetic feeling - the feeling of color - into a special sphere and turning it into one of the means of artistic development of the world.
In ancient painting, the ratio of the depicted phenomena was not so much spatial as semantic. On the island of Cham (Australia, Gulf of Carpentaria), in an ancient cave on a white wall, kangaroos are painted in black and red paint, pursued by thirty-two hunters, of which the third in order is twice as tall as the rest, as it depicts a leader.
For the sake of semantic emphasis, ancient Egyptian artists also depicted the figure of a military leader several times larger than the figures of his warriors. These were the first compositional accents of painting, which did not know perspective. In ancient times, graphics and painting were close not only to each other, but also to literature. Ancient Chinese and ancient Egyptian painting and graphics are related by narrative. A picture is a chain of events, a story unfolded in a series of figures. Already at this early stage of development, painting expresses on the plane different points of view on the subject. The artists of Ancient Egypt painted both eyes on a face depicted in profile, and the painters of South Melanesia depict planes hidden from direct view: a disk is drawn over the head of a person, indicating the back of the head, or a double face that conveys a “circular look”. The ancient artist did not perceive the beauty of the landscape.
The ancient artist knows well the anatomy of not only an animal, but also a person. Gymnastics, music and fine arts, which feel the beauty and strength of the human body, are involved in the upbringing of a warrior, which has deep socio-historical roots. The Olympic Games and sculptural images of heroes perform similar social and aesthetic functions: the education of warriors necessary for the slave-owning democracy - the defenders of Hellas and the miners of slaves for its economic development.
Medieval painting gave a conventionally flat image of the world. The composition emphasized not the remoteness of the object from the eye of the observer, but its meaning and significance. The same features are inherent in Russian icon painting. The Middle Ages still does not know the anatomical difference between an adult and a child: in the paintings, the Christ Child is an adult in reduced sizes. Medieval fine art peers into the inner world of a person, penetrates deep into his spirit. The cult of the beauty of the naked body is being replaced by a fashion for draping the body, falling to the floor of clothes. The monastic attire is characteristic, hiding the outlines of a person's figure, making his appearance shapeless and sexless.
The Renaissance resurrects the cult of the naked body, emphasizing not only its beauty and power, but also its sensual appeal. The joy of being, the spiritual and sensual enjoyment of life shine through in painting, which glorifies the beauty of the female body, its Georgen's chastity, Rubens' splendor, Titian's earthly and heavenly beauty, El Grecian spirituality.
Painting in the system of art forms of the Renaissance plays a leading role. Artists affirm the universal significance of painting, which, like literature, does not need to be translated into another language, Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “... if the poet serves the mind through the ear, then the painter through the eye, more worthy of feeling ... The picture is so much more useful and beautiful, like it more ... Choose a poet who would describe the beauty of a woman to her lover, and choose a painter who would depict her, and you will see where nature will incline the amorous judge.
Geniuses always appear in the most necessary area of social practice. And it is no coincidence that the Renaissance gave such great artists as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Titian.
The anti-ascetic, anti-scholastic pathos of the era, the impulse to the richness of life, to its spiritual and sensual joys, find their full expression precisely in painting (“Spring” by Botticelli). The artists convey the age-related anatomy of a person (the child in the arms of the Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci is not a dwarf, but really a baby), they reveal the dynamic anatomy of a person at different rates and sharpness, angles, directions of movement (the ceiling frescoes of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel).
In the Renaissance, detailed principles of perspective-spatial composition developed. The arrangement of the figures in the picture revealed their life relationships. The Renaissance opened the laws of perspective, or even more broadly - free possession of space. The idea of perspective was developed by Brunelleschi and Alberti, who taught to organize space in a painting according to the principles of a truncated pyramid formed by rays coming from objects to our eye. The mastery of space is indicated not only by the construction of perspective (for example, in Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper), but also by the creation of a "dematerialized" space.
In the 19th century the already outlined process of delimitation of painting and graphics is completed. The specifics of graphics are linear relationships, the reproduction of the shape of objects, the transfer of their illumination, the ratio of light and shadow. Painting captures the correlation of the colors of the world, in color and through color it expresses the essence of objects, their aesthetic value, calibrates their social purpose, their correspondence to the environment. The process of delimitation of painting and graphics is completed by the Impressionists. They do not convey anything outside of color, everything linear is secondary to them; not a drawing, but the color ratios of the depicted objects become the main bearer of aesthetic meaning. Painting acquires independence from drawing, which was previously its main goal, and approaches music, moving away from literature.
In the twentieth century the nature of painting changes dramatically. It is influenced by photography, cinema, television, the breadth and variety of impressions of a modern person who perceives reality from great heights, and at high speeds, and from unexpected angles, and from variable, moving points of view. The intellectual and psychological world of man deepens. The advent of photography and its mastery of color posed new challenges for painting. A photograph can now simply capture an object as a keepsake. In the painting of the twentieth century. the role of the subjective principle increases, the significance of personal vision, individual perception of life becomes more acute (recall Grabar's "March Snow").
The meaning-forming elements of painting are the processed flat base, the correct edges of the picture and the frame (these elements were absent in rock art). In modern times, painting appeared that did not depict deep space and was not framed. Its analogue was a sculpture without a pedestal - suspended or standing on the ground. Parts of the pictorial plane, the place of the image of the object on it, have a sign meaning. In the portrait by Munch, the subject immersed in himself is located slightly to the side in empty space. This creates an artistic and semantic effect of sadness and alienation, which enhances the pose of the person being portrayed.
Architecture. When a person learned to make tools, his dwelling was no longer a hole or a nest, but an expedient building, which gradually acquired an aesthetic appearance. Construction has become architecture.
Architecture is the formation of reality according to the laws of beauty when creating buildings and structures designed to serve human needs in housing and public spaces. Architecture creates a closed utilitarian-artistic developed world, delimited from nature, resisting the natural environment and allowing people to use the humanized space in accordance with their material and spiritual needs. The architectural image expresses the purpose of the building and the artistic concept of the world and personality, a person's idea of himself and the essence of his era.
Architecture is art and buildings have a certain style. Thanks to architecture, an integral part of the "second nature" arises - the material environment, which is created by the labor of a person and in which his life and activity take place.
Architecture gravitates towards ensemble. Its buildings skillfully fit into the natural (natural) or urban (urban) landscape. For example, the Moscow State University building fits well into the landscape of the Sparrow Hills, from where you can see the capital and the receding expanses of the Central Russian plain. The former CMEA building (now the City Hall building), which looks like an open book, is successfully inscribed in the urban landscape of Moscow.
Forms of architecture are determined: 1) naturally (depend on geographical and climatic conditions, on the nature of the landscape, the intensity of sunlight, seismic safety); 2) socially (depending on the nature of the social system, aesthetic ideals, utilitarian and artistic needs of society; architecture is more closely connected with the development of productive forces, with the development of technology than other arts).
Architecture - and art, and engineering, and construction, requiring a huge concentration of collective efforts and material resources (St. Isaac's Cathedral, for example, was built by half a million people over the course of forty years). Architectural works are created for centuries. The creator of the "stone book" and its "reader" are the people. A work of architecture is a huge stone symphony, a powerful creation of the people, like the Iliad, an amazing result of the combination of all the forces of an entire era.
Even in ancient times, architecture interacted with monumental sculpture, painting, mosaics, and icons. In this synthesis, architecture dominates. Sometimes literature in the form of a quotation from a literary text enters into a relationship of subordination with architecture and sculpture. There is a known case of a subordinate interaction of music with architecture: one of the Burmese pagodas is hung with bells that create a silver cloud of the lightest and most gentle ringing around the structure. Organ music was subordinated to Gothic cathedrals.
The basis of the architectural composition is the three-dimensional structure, the organic interconnection of the elements of a building or an ensemble of buildings. The scale of the building is semiotically significant and largely determines the nature of the artistic image, its monumentality or intimacy. Architecture does not reproduce reality visually, but is expressive. Rhythm, the ratio of volumes, lines - the means of its expressiveness. One of the modern artistic structures is arrhythmia in rhythm, dissonance in harmony (for example, an ensemble of buildings in the city of Brazil).
Architecture originated in ancient times, at the highest stage of barbarism, when the laws of not only necessity, but also beauty begin to operate in construction.
In ancient Egypt, huge tombs were built (the height of the pyramid of Cheops in Giza is about 150 m), temples with many powerful columns (in the temple of Amun in Karnak, the height of the columns is 20.4 m and the diameter is 3.4 m). This architecture is characterized by the geometric clarity of forms, the absence of articulations, the disproportion between the scale of the building and the person, and monumentality that overwhelms the personality. Grandiose structures were created not to meet the material needs of the people, but in the name of spiritual and religious goals and served the cause of the social organization of the Egyptians under the despotic power of the pharaoh.
In Ancient Hellas, architecture acquires a democratic appearance. Religious buildings (for example, the Parthenon temple) affirm the beauty, freedom, and dignity of a Greek citizen. There are new types of public buildings - theaters, stadiums, schools. Architects follow the humanistic principle of beauty formulated by Aristotle: beauty is neither too big nor too small. Man here acts as a measure of the beauty and scale of the building, which, unlike the buildings of Ancient Egypt, does not suppress, but exalts the individual, which corresponded to the social goals of Athenian democracy. The architects of ancient Greece created an order system that played a big role in the development of architecture. In ancient Rome, arched and vaulted structures made of concrete were widely used. New types of structures appeared: forums, triumphal arches, reflecting the ideas of statehood, military power.
In the Middle Ages, architecture became the leading and most widespread art form, whose images were accessible even to illiterate people. In the gothic cathedrals aspiring to the sky, the religious impulse to God and the people's passionate earthly dream of happiness were expressed.
Renaissance architecture develops on a new basis the principles and forms of ancient classics.
Classicism canonized the compositional techniques of antiquity.
From the end of the 16th to the middle of the 18th century, in the era of the formation of national states, accompanied by wars, the baroque developed (a large number of stucco decorations, the complexity of divisions and spatial relationships, splendor, exaltation, contrast of forms). Baroque buildings served to glorify and affirm absolutism (such is the Palace of Versailles) and Catholicism (for example, the Roman church of Santa Maria della Vittoria).
At the beginning of the XVIII century. in France, the Rococo style arose and spread throughout Europe (for example, Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam) as an expression of the tastes of the aristocracy (decoration, whimsical ornamentation of form, deliberate asymmetry and complexity of winding lines, and in the interior - rich murals and large mirrors that create the impression lightness and intangibility of the walls).
In the second half of the XVIII century. Rococo gives way to Empire - a monumental, majestic style based on the traditions of classicism and the style of the era of the Roman emperors. It expresses military power and sovereign grandeur of power (for example, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, surpassing the arches of the ancient world, or the Vendome column, repeating Trajan's column in Rome).
Achievements of Russian architecture are imprinted in the Kremlin, fortifications, palaces, religious and civil buildings. Russian architecture is rich in original national creations (the bell tower of Ivan the Great, St. Basil's Cathedral, wooden buildings with their clear design solutions and rich ornamental forms, such as the churches in Kizhi). "Russian Baroque" asserted the unity of the Russian state, the rise of national life (the creations of Rastrelli: the Winter Palace and ensembles of Tsarskoe Selo).
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the principles of Russian classicism are developed: clarity and expressiveness of the architectural image, simple constructive and artistic means. In the 19th century eclecticism is established.
In the twentieth century new types of buildings appear: industrial, transport, administrative high-rise buildings and residential areas. Their construction is carried out by industrial methods using new materials and standard prefabricated elements. This changes the aesthetic criteria and opens up new expressive means in architecture (in urban planning, for example, the problem of artistic expressiveness of mass building arises).
Ornamentation, which Soviet architecture sinned in the 30s - 50s, hindered its development. Refusal of embellishment reduced the cost of construction, increased its scale and pace, directed the creative thought of architects in search of simple, expressive architectural solutions proper. In this regard, the House of Film Veterans, a complex of buildings on Novy Arbat in Moscow, is indicative.
Sculpture- spatial and visual art, mastering the world in plastic images, which are imprinted in materials that can convey the life image of phenomena.
Sculptural works are carved from marble, granite and other stone, carved from wood, molded from clay. Soft materials are considered temporary; when working with them, further casting into more durable ones is usually assumed - cast iron, bronze. In our time, the number of materials suitable for sculpture has expanded: works of steel, concrete, and plastic have arisen.
Man is the main, but not the only subject of sculpture. Animalists create figures of animals. A round sculpture can only recreate the details of the human environment. Such types of sculpture as bas-relief and high relief are close to painting and graphics, and the image of the landscape is available to them.
Sculpting always conveys movement. Even complete rest is perceived in sculpture as an internal movement, as a state that lasts, extended not only in space, but also in time. The sculptor has only one moment of action at his disposal, but bearing the stamp of everything that preceded and followed. This gives the sculpture a dynamic expressiveness. The sculptural image of a dead person conveys the hidden movement spilled in the body, his eternal rest and the last efforts of the struggle, frozen forever. This is the image of the dead Christ, lying on the lap of the Mother of God, in the sculpture "Pieta" by Michelangelo. The movement sleeps in the body of God the Son, falling from the knees of the mother and at the same time, as it were, resisting this lifeless fall.
The perception of sculpture always unfolds sequentially in time, which is used in the sculptural composition and helps to convey movement. A circular view, a change in position, a viewing angle reveal its different sides in a three-dimensional image.
Monumentality is one of the possibilities of sculpture, providing it with synthesis with architecture.
In the very nature of sculpture lies a broad generalization. Pushkin noted that a painted sculpture makes less impression than a one-color sculpture; coloring takes away its generalization.
The means of figurativeness and expressiveness of sculpture are light and shadow. The planes and surfaces of the sculpted figure, reflecting light and casting shadows, create a spatial play of forms that aesthetically affects the audience.
Bronze sculpture allows a sharp separation of light and shadow, while marble, which is permeable to light rays, allows you to convey a subtle play of light and shade. This feature of marble was used by ancient artists; so, the delicate pinkish, slightly translucent marble of the statue of Venus de Milo amazingly conveys the tenderness and elasticity of a woman's body.
Sculpture is one of the oldest art forms, dating back to the Paleolithic era. In the course of the development of ancient society, on the basis of magical realities arising from practical needs (syncretic and ritual pre-artistic images in nature), a sign system was born, which then contributed to the artistic and figurative reflection of the world. For example, a stone that personified an animal and served as a target for inflicting wounds (“rehearsal” of hunting) is replaced by a natural stuffed animal, and then its sculptural image.
In ancient Egypt, sculpture was associated with the cult of the dead: the belief that the soul is alive as long as the image of a person exists made it necessary to create durable sculptures from the strongest materials (Lebanese cedar, granite, red porphyry, basalt). Monumentality, some simplification of forms, and a tendency towards static figures are inherent in ancient Egyptian sculpture.
In ancient Greece, sculpture reached the highest level. It is no coincidence that Hegel associated the classical (antique) period of art with sculpture. In ancient sculpture, there is always a feeling of inner freedom. The hero is at ease and retains his inner dignity, even suffering does not distort, does not disfigure his face, does not violate the harmony of the image (for example, "Laocoon").
The Middle Ages developed monumental forms of sculpture in synthesis with architecture. Gothic sculpture combined naturalistic detail with decorative and dynamic figures that conveyed an intense spiritual life. Illusory-phantasmagoric, allegorical images also appear (for example, the chimeras of Notre Dame Cathedral).
Sculptors in the Renaissance created a gallery of brightly individualized images of strong-willed, enterprising, active people.
Baroque sculpture (XVII century) was solemn, pompous, parade, full of bizarre play of light and shadow, boiling swirling masses.
The sculpture of classicism, on the contrary, is rationalistic, calm, majestic, nobly simple. In the XVIII century. sculpture gravitates towards the socio-psychological portrait characteristics of a person.
In the 19th century realism flourishes in sculpture: images acquire aesthetic versatility, historical concreteness, everyday and psychological characteristics.
In the twentieth century sculptors give a generalized, sometimes symbolic, interpretation of sculptural images. Sculpture deepens the psychological content of the image, expanding the possibilities of expressing the spiritual life of the era in plastic.
Architecture (lat. architectura, from the Greek roots αρχι and τεκτονική - builder, construction, architecture, building art), the art of designing and constructing buildings and other structures that create a materially organized environment that people need for their life and activities, in accordance with the purpose, modern technical capabilities and aesthetic views of society. There is an essential difference between architecture, painting and sculpture: architecture uses almost exclusively geometric forms and only in ornamentation resorts to organic forms; painting and sculpture, on the other hand, depict mainly animal and plant forms, and only in accessories do they turn to architectural, that is, geometric forms.
In its subordination to well-known mathematical laws in the field of proportions, architecture comes closest to music, which also obeys mathematical laws in the field of sound ratios; in this sense, architecture is very aptly called "stone" or "frozen" music. Each work of art contains two main elements - an abstract idea and its material representation, that is, in other words, essence and form. The combination of these elements into one consonant whole is the goal of art; and if this goal is achieved, then the work can certainly be called elegant. Consequently, any elegant architectural work should, by its external representation, fully reveal the internal meaning and purpose of the building. By virtue of this law, it is impossible, for example, to give a church the external appearance of a theater or to give a one-story building inside a two-story facade.
As an art form, architecture enters the sphere of spiritual culture, aesthetically forms the environment of a person, expresses public ideas in artistic images. The historical development of society determines the functions and types of structures (buildings with organized internal space, structures that form open spaces, ensembles of structures and other real estate), technical structural systems, and the artistic structure of architectural structures. In architecture, arts and crafts, design - those types of plastic arts where it is impossible to single out the subject of the image - the genre classification is replaced by typological divisions based on the functions of the work (in architecture, types of a palace, temple, residential building, etc. are distinguished, in turn divided into many subtypes). The architectural organization of the space of settlements, the creation of cities, suburban cottage settlements, the planning of small-scale architecture, the regulation of settlement systems have emerged as a special area - urban planning.
In architecture, functional, technical, aesthetic principles (usefulness, strength, beauty) are interconnected. The purpose, functions of an architectural structure determine its plan and volumetric-spatial structure, construction equipment - the possibility, economic feasibility and specific means of its creation, building ceramics - materials and ceramic products used in construction. By appointment, ceramic materials and products are divided into the following types: wall products, roofing products, floor elements; products for facade cladding, products for internal wall cladding, aggregates for lightweight concrete, thermal insulation products, sanitary ware, floor tiles, road bricks.
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Wall products include bricks, hollow stones and panels made from them. Roofing products - tiles. Floor elements; products for facade cladding are face bricks, small-sized and other tiles, typesetting panels, architectural and artistic details. Products for internal wall cladding - glazed tiles and shaped parts for them (cornices, corners, figured windows, belts). Aggregates for lightweight concrete - expanded clay, agloporite. Heat-insulating products - cellular ceramics, perlite ceramics, etc. The figurative and aesthetic beginning of architecture is associated with its social function and is manifested in the formation of a three-dimensional and structural structure of a building. The expressive means of architecture are composition, tectonics, scale, proportions, rhythm, plasticity of volumes, texture and color of materials, synthesis of the arts, etc. industrial construction methods.
(Latin sculptura, from sculpo - I cut out, carve), sculpture, plastic, a type of fine art, the works of which have a three-dimensional, three-dimensional shape and are made of solid or plastic materials. Sculpture, sculpting, plastic art - in the broad sense of the word, the art of creating from clay, wax, stone, metal, wood, bone and other materials the image of a person, animals and other objects of nature in their tactile, bodily forms. Sculpture mainly depicts a person, less often animals, its main genres are portrait, historical, everyday, symbolic, allegorical images, animalistic and mythological genre. The artistic and expressive means of sculpture are the construction of a three-dimensional form, plastic modeling (molding), the development of a silhouette, texture, and in some cases also color.
There are round sculpture (statue, group, figurine, bust), viewed from different sides, and relief (a type of sculpture in which the image is convex or recessed in relation to the background plane, the main types are bas-relief and high relief). Monumental sculpture (monuments, monuments) is associated with the architectural environment, is distinguished by the significance of ideas, a high degree of generalization, and large size; monumental and decorative sculpture includes all types of decoration of architectural structures (atlantes, caryatids, friezes, park, fountain and pediment sculpture); easel sculpture has dimensions close to nature or smaller, and a specific in-depth content.
Regarding the material and method of execution of the image, sculpture, in the broadest sense of the word, is divided into several branches: modeling, or modeling - the art of working with a soft substance, such as wax and clay; foundry, or toreutics - the art of making a statue from molten metal; glyptics, or sculpture in the strict sense, is the art of carving an image out of stone, metal, wood, and solid matter in general; the genres of sculpture can, in addition, include engraving, carving on hard and precious stones and making stamps for coins and medals (medallery art). Sculpture materials - metal, stone, clay, wood, gypsum, etc. Methods of their processing - modeling, carving, casting, forging, chasing, etc.
Architecture . The architecture of Rome is fundamentally different from Greek. The Greeks carved from solid marble blocks, and the Romans erected walls of brick and concrete, and then with the help of brackets they hung marble cladding, attached columns and profiles. Architectural monuments conquer with their power. Designed for huge numbers of people: basilicas, baths, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, libraries, markets and places of worship: temples, altars, tombs. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses, canals). The ideological center was the temple, located in the middle of the narrow side of a rectangular square on its main axis. City squares were decorated with triumphal arches in honor of military victories, statues of emperors and prominent public people of the state. Arched and vaulted forms have become common in bridges and aqueducts. The Colosseum (75-80 AD) is the largest amphitheater in Rome, intended for gladiator fights and other competitions.
Sculpture . In the field of monumental sculpture, the Romans were left behind the Greeks. The best was the sculptural portrait. It has developed since the beginning of the 1st century. BC e. The Romans closely studied the face of a person with its unique features. The Greeks sought to depict the ideal, the Romans - to accurately convey the features of the original. The eyes of many statues are made of colored enamel. The Romans were the first to use monumental sculpture for propaganda purposes: they installed equestrian and foot statues in the forums (squares) - monuments to outstanding personalities.
Painting . Little has survived. Palaces and public buildings were decorated with wall paintings and paintings, stories of mythology, landscape sketches. The walls were painted to look like colored marble and jasper. A common type was mosaics and processing, precious metals and bronze. Artists depicted scenes from everyday life and still lifes. Frescoes that covered the walls of the houses of the nobility Ornamental painting of interiors (1st century BC). The Romans painted household furniture and utensils. In the 3rd century Christian art appears in the form of murals in the catacombs in Rome. According to the plot, the murals are connected with the Christian religion - biblical scenes, images of Christ and the Mother of God, but in terms of artistic form they are at the level of ancient murals. During the construction of Christian churches, the development of monumental painting continued. Frescoes and mosaics adorned the apses, domes, end walls of the main nave of basilicas. The art of mosaics was widely developed; it was used to decorate walls and floors in the houses of wealthy Romans, and later Christian churches. The easel pictorial portrait was very common, but we know this only from literary sources, since the works of the republican artists Maya, Sapolis and Dionysiades and the works of others have not been preserved. Portraits fit into a round frame and looked like medallions
If we outline the main stages in the history of ancient Roman art, then in general terms they can be represented as follows. The most ancient (VII - V centuries BC) and republican eras (V century BC, I century BC) - the period of formation of Roman art.
The heyday of Roman art falls on the I-II centuries. AD From the end of the reign of Septimius Severus, the crisis of Roman art begins.
Romanesque art
In the 10th century, at the turn of the millennium, a single pan-European style, Romanesque, first appeared in art. It remained dominant in medieval Western Europe throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. The term "Romanesque style" appeared in the 19th century. (by analogy with the concept of "Romance languages") and meant "Roman". The Romanesque style in art inherited a lot from Byzantine architecture. architectural the buildings of this time were mostly stone, with vaulted ceilings, and in the Middle Ages such structures were considered Romanesque (built according to the Roman method), in contrast to wooden buildings. It was most classically distributed in the art of Germany and France. Raids and battles were the elements of life at that time. This harsh era gave rise to moods of militant ecstasy and a constant need for self-defense. It is a castle-fortress or a temple-fortress. The artistic concept is simple and strict. Three large churches on the Rhine are considered examples of late and perfect Romanesque architecture: the city cathedrals in Worms, Speyer and Mainz. The architectural decor is very restrained, the plastic is rather heavy. But, having entered the temple, a whole world of exciting images opens up, capturing the soul of the Middle Ages. Art in medieval Europe became the work of people from the lower class. They introduced a religious feeling into their creations, but it was not the same for the "higher" and "lower". We will understand little in medieval art if we do not feel its connection with the whole system of life of the "lower classes". They sympathized with Christ because he suffered, the Mother of God was loved because they saw in her an intercessor for people, in the terrible judgment they saw the ideal of an earthly judgment over oppressors and deceivers.
Terrible Judgment. Tympanum of Saint Lazare Cathedral in Autun (1130-1140);
Eve. Fragment of the relief of the bronze doors of the Church of St. Michael in Gildesheim (1008-1015)
Royal Portal of the Cathedral of Chartres (circa 1135-1155)
Architectural monuments of the Romanesque style are scattered throughout Western Europe, but most of them are in France. These are the church of Saint Martin in Tours, the church of Notre Dame in Clermont, the masterpiece of Romanesque architecture - the church of Notre Dame la Grande in Poitiers. In the French Romance, several local schools have developed. So the Burgundian school was distinguished by the monumentality of the composition, the Poitou school was rich in sculptural decoration, and the Norman school was distinguished by strict decoration.
Sculptures of saints in Romanesque churches are devoid of of any canons, often unprepossessing and squat, have simple and expressive faces. In this, Romanesque sculpture differs from Byzantine sculpture, which created more refined and spiritualized images. Along with the gospel images and scenes in Romanesque sculpture, plots from ancient and medieval history coexisted, and there were images of real people. At the same time, sculptural compositions were sometimes saturated with the fruits of folk fantasy - then they contained images of various fantastic creatures and forces of evil (for example, asps).
Fine examples of applied art have been preserved from the Romanesque era. A place of honor among them is occupied by the famous 70-meter carpet from Bayeux, which is associated with the name of the English Queen Matilda. The scenes embroidered on it tell of the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066.
Painting Romanesque style was exclusively ecclesiastical in content and flat, denying the three-dimensionality of space and figures. She, like sculpture, was subordinated to architecture. The most common type of painting technique was fresco, and stained glass (painting from colored pieces of glass) also began to spread.
9. Gothic -Gothic replaced the Romanesque style, gradually replacing it. Gothic originated in the middle of the 12th century in northern France, in the 13th century it spread to the territory of modern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, and England. Gothic penetrated into Italy later, with great difficulty and a strong transformation, which led to the emergence of "Italian Gothic". At the end of the 14th century, Europe was engulfed by the so-called international Gothic. Gothic penetrated into the countries of Eastern Europe later and stayed there a little longer - until the 16th century.
Architecture. The city cathedral became the leading architectural type: the frame system of Gothic architecture (lancet arches rest on pillars; the lateral thrust of the cross vaults laid out on ribs is transmitted by flying buttresses to buttresses) made it possible to create interiors of cathedrals unprecedented in height and vastness, to cut through the walls with huge windows with multi-colored stained-glass windows. The aspiration of the cathedral upward is expressed by giant openwork towers, lancet windows and portals, curved statues, and complex ornamentation. Portals and altar barriers were completely decorated with statues, sculptural groups, and ornaments. The portals were dominated by three themes of sculptural decoration: the Last Judgment, the cycle dedicated to Mary, and the cycle associated with the patron of the temple or the most revered local saint. Sculptures of fantastic animals (chimeras, gargoyles) were placed on the facades and roof. All this had a strong emotional impact on believers. Lyricism and tragedy, sublime spirituality and social satire, fantastic grotesque and accurate life observations were organically intertwined in the art of Gothic. Outstanding works of Gothic architecture are: in France - Notre Dame Cathedral, cathedrals in Reims, Amiens, Chartres; in Germany - the cathedral in Cologne; in England - Westminster Abbey (London), etc.
Sculpture. The main features that characterize Gothic sculpture can be summarized as follows: firstly, the dominance in artistic concepts of the abstract beginning is replaced by interest in the phenomena of the real world, religious themes retain their dominant position, but its images change, endowed with features of deep humanity.
At the same time, the role of secular plots is increasing, and the plot begins to occupy an important place, although not immediately. Secondly, round plastic appears and plays a dominant role, although relief also exists.
The Last Judgment remained one of the most common subjects in Gothic, but the iconographic program is expanding. Interest in man and attraction to the anecdotal of the story found expression in the depiction of scenes from the life of the saints. An outstanding example of depicting legends about saints is the tympanum "The History of St. Stephen" dated from the last quarter of the 13th century on the portal of Notre Dame Cathedral.
The inclusion of real motifs is also characteristic of many small reliefs. As in Romanesque churches, images of monsters and fantastic creatures, the so-called chimeras, occupy a large place in Gothic cathedrals.
Painting. In the Middle Ages, painting became one of the most important forms of art. Changes in the life of society and new techniques gave artists the opportunity to create realistic works imbued with deep humanism, which were destined to make a real revolution in Western European art. The cheerful and graceful style in the visual arts was most clearly manifested in the portrait (painting and pencil) of such remarkable masters as J. Fouquet (also known as an outstanding master of miniature), J. and F. Clouet, Cornel de Lyon.
From 2800 BC e. until 2300 BC e. in the Cyclades, thirty tiny islands in the Aegean Sea in Greece, a style defined as "Cycladic art" was born. Characteristic features of this style were predominantly female figures with slightly bent knees, hands folded under the chest, with flat heads. The dimensions of Cycladic art ranged from human-sized statues to small figurines, no more than a few centimeters in height. It is reasonable to assume that idolatry was very common.
Cycladic sculptures at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Cycladic idol
"Flute Player", National Archaeological Museum. Athens
"Violin", 2800 BC, British Museum, London
Cycladic art has become a source of inspiration for many contemporary artists who appreciate the restraint and sophistication of simple lines and geometry, minimalism. The influence of Cycladic art can be seen in the works of Modigliani, especially in his sculpture "Female Head", as well as in the work of other artists, including Picasso.
Amedeo Modigliani, Head, 1910, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Cycladic figurine and Modigliani
Pablo Picasso, Woman, 1907, Picasso Museum, Paris
Giorgio de Chirico, Hector and Andromache
Henry Moore
Constantin Brancusi, Muse, 1912
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Hans Arp
Barbara Hepworth
Alberto Giacometti
Two weeks ago in New York, I visited an exhibition dedicated to Italian Futurism. The avant-garde movements of the early 20th century are my special love. The world was changing rapidly, people tried to keep up with the times, sometimes ahead, sometimes not keeping up with progress, and all this chaos gave rise to many interesting artistic decisions and directions. To understand futurism, you need to know the history of its creation, as well as remember the historical context of the countries in which this movement was especially developed: Italy and Russia of those years.
Destroy the old, wash away museums, old experience and authorities to open the world to the new: cars, speed, aggression. In order to present at once the basic postulates of this new movement, here are a few quotations from Marinetti's Manifesto, published in Le Figaro, February 20, 1909:
- We say: our beautiful world has become even more beautiful - now it has speed. Under the trunk of a racing car, exhaust pipes snake and spit fire. Its roar is like a machine-gun burst, and no Nika of Samothrace can be compared in beauty with it.
- We want to sing of a man at the helm of a car who throws a spear of his spirit over the Earth, in its orbit.
We will destroy museums, libraries, educational institutions of all kinds, we will fight against moralism, feminism, against any opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
To be a futurist is to be modern, young and rebellious. An industrial metropolis, cars and speed - adherents of futurism celebrate destruction and glorify war. They seek to breathe new life into an old, static culture.
In Russia, in 1912, a manifesto also appeared, accompanying the first poetry collection Slap in the Face of Public Taste, which accompanied the Russian Manifesto of the same name. Compare postulates:
- The past is tight. The Academy and Pushkin are more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs. Throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and so on. and so on. from the ship Modernity.
- Wash your hands that have touched the filthy slime of books written by those innumerable Leonid Andreevs. To all these Maxim Gorky, Kuprin, Blok, Sologub, Averchenko, Cherny, Kuzmin, Bunin and so on. and so on. - All you need is a cottage on the river. Such an award is given by fate to tailors. From the height of skyscrapers we look at their insignificance!
In my opinion, the Russian manifesto carries a more destructive charge than the Italian one, and it is not surprising - such were the moods in the country before the revolution.
Futurism originates in literature, but very soon it takes on other forms: painting, politics, even advertising. The energy of youth and speed overflows with these young revolutionaries; it is impossible to remain indifferent to the charge of energy that they carry. If it seems to you that you think progressively, relax - the futurists have already thought of everything before you.
And with this knowledge I come to the exhibition of Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim, 1909-1944.
In total, the exhibition presents seven themes, I will show the most memorable fragments from each of them presented at the exhibition.
Theme one: Heroic futurism. This phase lasted until 1916. The beginning of the futuristic movement is distinguished by an atmosphere of optimism, dynamism and rhythm. Futurists sought to convey dynamics in different ways. For example, Giacomo Balla studied in detail and tried to depict the universal dynamics through the stratification of movement, for example, through the image of the dispersion of light (the picture is not shown in the exhibition):
Giacommo Balla, Iridescent Interpenetration No. 7, 1912
The visual vocabulary of Giacomo Balla consisted of combining the principles of dynamics and synchronicity, with an attempt to convey an atmosphere of light, sound and smells.
Two other futurists, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini, sought to depict the effect of movement through an object. Boccioni conveyed movement through a sports body, combining the figure of a person and the surrounding landscape. Move away from the screen and you will see how the picture below will turn into the image of a cyclist flying at great speed (the picture is not shown in the exhibition):
Umberto Boccioni, Dinamismo di un ciclista” 1913
Severini, my favorite Italian futurist, creates his concept of depicting dynamics through the shifting of space in the picture, through fragmentation, connecting displaced and disproportionate space, adding a fragmented mosaic effect to everyday objects (he borrowed this idea from the cubists).
I can admire this picture for hours, looking at the bizarre interweaving of the landscape, the rushing train and the village. Even if you don't get carried away by this magic of fragments the first time, think about how you would depict the movement of a high-speed train (not a high-speed train, but its movement) and compare with what Severini did:
G. Severini "Ambulance train rushing through the city", 1915
I also want to mention the picture of Carr, the funeral of the anarchist Galli. The subject of the picture was a skirmish at the funeral of Angelo Galli, who was killed by the police in a strike. The government feared that the anarchists would make a political demonstration out of the funeral and forbade them from entering the cemetery. Skirmishes could not be avoided, the anarchists began to resist, and the police brutally cracked down on them. The artist was present at this scene; and his work is full of vivid memories of a cruel scene and chaos: the movement of bodies, the clash of anarchists and police, black flags flying in the air. The artist would later write in his memoirs: “I saw before me a coffin covered with red carnations, swaying dangerously on the shoulders of the people carrying the coffin. I saw restless horses, clubs and spears, clashes, and it seemed to me that at any moment the corpse would fall to the ground and be trampled by the horses”…
Carlo Carrà, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (Funerali dell'anarchico Galli), 1910–11
Theme two. Words-in-freedom, or, as in the Russian manifesto, “word-innovation”. As I already wrote, futurism began with poetry and its key invention is the free form of poetry. Following Marinetti, the Futurists free words from their usual form, destroy syntax, cancel punctuation, eliminate adjectives and adverbs, use verbs in an indefinite form, insert musical and mathematical symbols into poetry, use onomatopoeia (onomatopoeia). Such poems are read as literature, experienced as visual art, and performed as dramatic works. Futurists publish them in a variety of formats and recite at special evenings (Futurist serate). Marinetti introduced the idea of form-free poetry, many futurists invented their own interpretations. Mayakovsky’s “Ladder” is most familiar to us as this part of the Futurists’ work, but there were others: Balla with phonovisual constructions, Fortunato Depero and the abstract language of sounds (onomalingua), Carlo Carr’s circular structure with a whirlwind of voices and sounds.
Francesco Cangiullo, Piedigrotta. Book (Milan: Edizioni futuriste di Poesia, 1916)
Theme three. Architecture. Futurism, with its rejection of tradition and outrageousness, could only exist within the city, and the Futurists reveled in the modern city. Many architects proposed their designs for metropolitan areas, using new materials and industrial methods. Futuristic projects have a soaring look, lightness, modernity, with an emphasis on speed and the smooth operation of transport systems (air and rail transport should seamlessly fit into urban architecture). Their projects were not destined to become reality, with the exception of a few futuristic structures erected for temporary fairs according to sketches by Enrico Prampolini. Compare sketch and reality:
Enrico Prampolini, Design for hall, decorations, and furnishings for Aeronautica Company: Plan for Milan Triennial Installation, ca. 1932–33
The Futurist Pavilion at the exhibition in the Parco Valentino in Turin (1928) was designed by Enrico Prampolini.
Then their ideas were not destined to come true, but now look at modern cities - is this not the dream of the futurists?
Theme four. Reconstructing the universe. Poetry, literature, painting - this was not enough. In order to move the old ideals and live in the new time, it was necessary to change every detail of the everyday world. In 1915, Balla and Depero, already familiar to us, write another manifesto, which I especially love for its title: "Reconstruction of the Universe." Using habitually aggressive language, they call for the reconstruction of every object in the world around them, demanding even futuristic toys. A futurist should be surrounded by a futuristic environment, new clothes, new design of premises, new furniture, dishes and clothes. Balla and Depero created such spaces in their lives: one rebuilt a house in Rome, the other a studio in his hometown of Roverto. The exhibition featured many items in futuristic design: ceramics, services, vests and suits. Now it all looks pretty funny and certainly does not correspond to the futuristic vision of design that we are used to. For me, futuristic design is Dutch and Scandinavian. But if the futurists hadn't turned to such minutiae then, who knows if we would have got modern design (as well as architecture) in the form in which it is now?
What surprises me most here is the scale: from speeds and planes to tea sets. How can so much and so little coexist in one idea? It seems to me that nationality is of great importance here, the aesthetics of everyday life are important to Italians, but in Russian futurism everything ended at the level of global ideas, without tea sets.
Gerardo Dottori, Cimino home dining room set, early 1930s
Theme five. Arte meccanica, or the aesthetics of machines. After the First World War, new artists came to futurism, bringing new qualities, one of which was the aesthetics of mechanical objects. I can’t say that this is something fundamentally new in futurism, since initially the movement was based on the glorification of progress and speed. The new members of the movement emphasized the Futurists' enduring interest in mechanical objects. The powerful train depicted in the painting by Ivo Panadji rolls diagonally at you, which enhances the effect of presence (hello 3D fans!), You hear the deafening whistle of the train, the loud work of the motor. Panaji doesn't paint a picture, he conveys a sensory experience. The artistic techniques used here convey movement, speed and power. Look at this picture, it conveys the trajectory of the train in fragments (like Severini), or, more simply, as in animation, in parts:
Ivo Pannaggi, Speeding Train (Treno in corsa), 1922
Topic six. Aeropittura or painting inspired by flight. Soaring or diving, sometimes simply abstract, aerial painting appeared in 1930, at a late stage of futurism. Airplanes fit perfectly into the idea of the cult of cars in futurism, both as a symbol of progress and as the embodiment of speed, so they immediately shift the focus to themselves, leaving cars and trains behind. In addition, aircraft open up new perspectives on familiar objects due to new, previously unseen viewing angles. Air painting starts with a simple documenting of flights, and moves on to the depiction of soaring in space. It represents a new approach to the world, which combined speed, technology, war, and national pride. In the early thirties in Italy, it is clear that nationalist sentiments were very strong, and the power and technical equipment of the Italian army spurred the futurists to increase national pride. It would seem that the futurists had everything to become official art in fascist Italy - this is the glorification of progress, and the worship of aggression and war, and the denial of the old world, and destruction. One nuance interfered: Hitler could not stand “degenerate art” (any non-classical art), and eventually forced Mussolini to get rid of the favoritism of the futurists.
Gerardo Dottori, Aerial Battle over the Gulf of Naples or Infernal Battle over the Paradise of the Gulf, 1942
Topic seven. Photo. Futurists could not ignore the photograph, which they began to adapt from 1911. The Bragaglia brothers sought to bring the painting to life and developed a whole method of capturing movement: photodynamism. The movement of the figure in their photographs usually goes from right to left, with blurred stages of the beginning of the movement. After these experiments, the futurists left photography until the 1930s, until Marinetti, in collaboration with Tato, in his next manifesto (no one else had so many manifestos!) declared photography an excellent tool for eliminating barriers between art and life, since with With the help of a camera, one can both create art and explore its social function (however, Tato used the camera for diametrically opposite purposes, his works expressed ideological support for the fascist regime).
Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Waving (Salutando), 1911
In 1944, the founder and ideological inspirer of futurism, Marinetti, dies. With his death, futurism also ceases to exist. Russian futurism began to disappear even earlier, in the late 1920s, with the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, and finally outlived itself with the death of Mayakovsky and the emigration of the main authors (nevertheless, in Russia, futurism was more a literary trend than a painting one). Authors who started with futurism joined other trends.
What did futurism bring to humanity? Outrageous and aggressive manner, characteristic of futurism, helped to popularize and glorify progress. The modern development of art owes a lot to futurism: their merits include the liberation of poetry from the usual form, poetic performances, a new look at the image of movement, fragmentation of speed. The denial of authority is always a search for a new one, always an expansion of a familiar view of the world around us. The search for new ideals and the creation of new norms helps humanity not to stand still, it helps to develop. And of course - the chanting of the “beautiful far away”, progress, the power of human thought, for this desire for an ideal world, special thanks to them.
