BAROQUE, LITERATURE- the literature of an ideological and cultural movement known as Baroque, which affected various spheres of spiritual life and developed into a special artistic system.

The transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque was a long and controversial process, and many features of the Baroque were already ripening in mannerism (the stylistic movement of the late Renaissance). The origin of the term is not entirely clear. Sometimes it is traced to a Portuguese term that means “a pearl of a bizarre shape,” sometimes to a concept denoting a type of logical syllogism. There is no consensus on the content of this concept; the interpretation remains ambiguous: it is defined as a cultural era, but is often limited to the concept of “artistic style.” In domestic science, the interpretation of Baroque as a cultural movement, characterized by the presence of a certain worldview and artistic system, is affirmed.

The emergence of the Baroque was determined by a new worldview, a crisis of the Renaissance worldview, and the rejection of its great idea of ​​a harmonious and grandiose universal personality. For this reason alone, the emergence of the Baroque could not be associated only with forms of religion or the nature of power. The basis of the new ideas that determined the essence of the Baroque was an understanding of the complexity of the world, its deep contradictions, the drama of life and the destiny of man; to some extent, these ideas were influenced by the strengthening of the religious quest of the era. The features of the Baroque determined the differences in worldview and artistic activity a number of its representatives, and within the established artistic system coexisted very few artistic movements similar to each other.

Baroque literature, like the entire movement, is characterized by a tendency towards complexity of forms and a desire for grandeur and pomp. Baroque literature comprehends the disharmony of the world and man, their tragic confrontation, as well as the internal struggles in the soul of an individual. Because of this, the vision of the world and man is most often pessimistic. At the same time, the Baroque in general and its literature in particular is permeated by faith in reality spiritual origin, the greatness of God.

Doubt about the strength and steadfastness of the world led to its rethinking, and in Baroque culture the medieval teaching about the frailty of the world and man was intricately combined with the achievements new science. Ideas about the infinity of space have led to a radical change in the vision of the world, which is acquiring grandiose cosmic proportions. In the Baroque, the world is understood as eternal and majestic nature, and man - an insignificant grain of sand - is simultaneously merged with it and opposed to it. It is as if he dissolves in the world and becomes a particle, subject to the laws of the world and society. At the same time, in the minds of the Baroque figures, man is subject to unbridled passions that lead him to evil.

Exaggerated affectivity, extreme exaltation of feelings, the desire to know the beyond, elements of fantasy - all this is intricately intertwined in the worldview and artistic practice. The world, as understood by the artists of the era, is torn and disordered, man is just a pathetic toy in the hands of inaccessible forces, his life is a chain of accidents and, for this reason alone, represents chaos. Therefore, the world is in a state of instability, it is characterized by an immanent state of change, and its patterns are elusive, if at all comprehensible. Baroque, as it were, splits the world: in it the earthly coexists next to the heavenly, and the base coexists next to the sublime. This dynamic, rapidly changing world is characterized not only by impermanence and transience, but also by the extraordinary intensity of existence and the intensity of disturbing passions, the combination of polar phenomena - the grandeur of evil and the greatness of good. The Baroque was also characterized by another feature - it sought to identify and generalize the laws of existence. In addition to recognizing the tragedy and contradictory nature of life, representatives of the Baroque believed that there was a certain higher divine intelligence and that everything had hidden meaning. Therefore, we must come to terms with the world order.

In this culture, and especially in literature, in addition to focusing on the problem of evil and the frailty of the world, there was also a desire to overcome the crisis, to comprehend the highest rationality, combining both good and evil principles. Thus, an attempt was made to remove contradictions; man’s place in the vast expanses of the universe was determined by the creative power of his thoughts and the possibility of a miracle. With this approach, God was presented as the embodiment of the ideas of justice, mercy and higher reason.

These features manifested themselves more clearly in literature and fine arts. Artistic creativity gravitated towards monumentality; it strongly expressed not only the tragic principle, but also religious motifs, themes of death and doom. Many artists were characterized by doubts, a sense of the frailty of existence and skepticism. Characteristic arguments are that life after death is preferable to suffering on a sinful earth. For a long time, these features of literature (and indeed of the entire Baroque culture) made it possible to interpret this phenomenon as a manifestation of the Counter-Reformation and to associate it with the feudal-Catholic reaction. Now such an interpretation has been decisively rejected.

At the same time, in the Baroque, and above all in literature, various stylistic trends clearly emerged, and individual trends diverged quite widely. The rethinking of the nature of Baroque literature (as well as Baroque culture itself) in recent literary studies has led to the fact that two main stylistic lines are distinguished in it. First of all, an aristocratic baroque emerged in literature, in which a tendency toward elitism and the creation of works for the “elect” emerged. There was something else, democratic, so-called. “grassroots” baroque, which reflected the emotional shock of the broad masses of the population in the era in question. It is in the lower baroque that life is depicted in all its tragic contradictions; this movement is characterized by rudeness and often playing with base plots and motives, which often led to parody.

Descriptiveness is of particular importance: artists sought to depict and present in detail not only the contradictions of the world and man, but also the contradictions of human nature itself and even abstract ideas.

The idea of ​​the variability of the world gave rise to extraordinary expressiveness of artistic means. A characteristic feature of Baroque literature is the mixing of genres. Internal inconsistency determined the nature of the depiction of the world: its contrasts were revealed, and instead of the Renaissance harmony, asymmetry appeared. Emphasized attentiveness to a person’s mental structure revealed such features as exaltation of feelings, emphasized expressiveness, and a display of deepest suffering. Baroque art and literature are characterized by extreme emotional intensity. Another important technique is the dynamics that flowed from the understanding of the variability of the world. Baroque literature knows no peace and statics; the world and all its elements are constantly changing. For her, the Baroque becomes typical of a suffering hero who is in a state of disharmony, a martyr of duty or honor, suffering turns out to be almost his main property, a feeling of the futility of earthly struggle and a feeling of doom appears: a person becomes a toy in the hands of forces unknown and inaccessible to his understanding.

In literature one can often find an expression of fear of fate and the unknown, an anxious expectation of death, a feeling of the omnipotence of anger and cruelty. Characteristic is the expression of the idea of ​​the existence of a divine universal law, and human arbitrariness is ultimately restrained by its establishment. Because of this, the dramatic conflict also changes in comparison with the literature of the Renaissance and Mannerism: it represents not so much the hero’s struggle with the world around him, but rather an attempt to comprehend divine destiny in a collision with life. The hero turns out to be reflective, turned to his own inner world.

Baroque literature insisted on freedom of expression in creativity; it was characterized by unbridled flights of fantasy. Baroque strived for excess in everything. Because of this, there is an emphasized, deliberate complexity of images and language, combined with the desire for beauty and affectation of feelings. The baroque language is extremely complicated, unusual and even deliberate techniques are used, pretentiousness and even pomposity appear. The feeling of the illusory nature of life and the unreliability of knowledge led to the widespread use of symbols, complex metaphors, decorativeness and theatricality, and determined the appearance of allegories. Baroque literature constantly confronts the real and the imaginary, the desired and the real; the problem of “to be or to seem” becomes one of the most important. The intensity of passions led to the fact that feelings supplanted reason in culture and art. Finally, the Baroque is characterized by a mixture of the most diverse feelings and the appearance of irony, “there is no phenomenon so serious or so sad that it cannot turn into a joke.” The pessimistic worldview gave rise not only to irony, but also caustic sarcasm, grotesquery and hyperbole.

The desire to generalize the world has pushed the boundaries artistic creativity: Baroque literature, like fine art, gravitated towards grandiose ensembles, at the same time one can notice a tendency towards the process of “cultivation” of the natural principle in man and nature itself, subordinating it to the will of the artist.

The typological features of the Baroque also determined the genre system, which was characterized by mobility. Characteristic is the bringing to the fore, on the one hand, of the novel and drama (especially the genre of tragedy), on the other, the cultivation of poetry that is complex in concept and language. Pastoral, tragicomedy, and novel (heroic, comic, philosophical) become predominant. A special genre is burlesque - comedy, parodying high genres, roughly grounding the images, conflict and plot moves of these plays. In general, in all genres a “mosaic” picture of the world was built, and in this picture imagination played a special role, and incompatible phenomena were often combined, metaphor and allegory were used.

Baroque literature had its own national specifics. It largely determined the emergence of individual literary schools and movements - Marinism in Italy, concepcionism and cultism in Spain, the metaphysical school in England, precision, libertineism in France.

First of all, the Baroque arose in those countries where the power of the Catholic Church increased most: Italy and Spain.

In relation to the literature of Italy, we can talk about the origin and development of Baroque literature. The Italian Baroque found its expression first of all in poetry. Its founder in Italy was Gianbattista Marino (1569–1625). A native of Naples, he lived a stormy, adventurous life and gained European fame. His worldview was characterized by a fundamentally different vision of the world compared to the Renaissance: he was quite indifferent in matters of religion, he believed that the world consists of contradictions that create unity. Man is born and doomed to suffering and death. Marino used the usual literary forms The Renaissance, first of all, was a sonnet, but filled it with other content, and at the same time searched for new linguistic means in order to amaze and stun the reader. His poetry used unexpected metaphors, similes and images. A special technique - a combination of contradictory concepts such as “scientific ignorant” or “rich beggar”, is also inherent in Marino and such a Baroque feature as an understanding of the grandeur of the natural world, the desire to connect the cosmic principle with the human (collection Lyra). His largest works are the poem Adonis(1623) and Massacre of the innocents. Both mythological and biblical stories were interpreted by the author in an emphatically dynamic manner, they were complicated by psychological conflicts and were dramatic. As a Baroque theorist, Marino propagated the idea of ​​unity and consubstantiality of all arts. His poetry gave rise to the school of marineism and received a wide response across the Alps. Marino connected Italian and French cultures, and his impact on French literature is such that it was experienced not only by followers of the Baroque in France, but even by one of the founders of French classicism, F. Malherbe.

Baroque acquires particular significance in Spain, where baroque culture manifested itself in almost all areas of artistic creativity and touched all artists. Spain, in the 17th century. experiencing decline, being under the rule not so much of the king as of the church, gave a special mood to baroque literature: here the baroque acquired not only a religious, but also a fanatical character, the desire for the otherworldly, emphasized asceticism, was actively manifested. However, this is where the influence of folk culture is felt.

Spanish Baroque turned out to be an unusually powerful movement in Spanish culture due to the special artistic and cultural ties between Italy and Spain, specific internal conditions, and the peculiarities of the historical path in the 16th–17th centuries. The golden age of Spanish culture was associated primarily with the Baroque, and it manifested itself to the maximum extent in literature, focusing on intellectual elite (cm. SPANISH LITERATURE). Some techniques were already used by artists of the late Renaissance. In Spanish literature, the Baroque found its expression in poetry, prose, and drama. In Spanish poetry of the 17th century. Baroque gave rise to two movements that fought among themselves - cultism and conceptism. Proponents of the first contrasted the disgusting and unacceptable real world with the perfect and beautiful world created by human imagination, which only a few can comprehend. Adherents of cultism turned to Italian, the so-called. The "dark style", which is characterized by complex metaphors and syntax, turned to the mythological system. The followers of conceptism used an equally complex language, and a complex thought was clothed in this form, hence the polysemy of each word, hence the play on words and the use of puns characteristic of conceptists. If Gongora belonged to the first, then Quevedo belonged to the second.

The earliest Baroque manifestation was in the work of Luis de Góngora y Argote, whose works were published only after his death ( Essays in the verses of the Spanish Homer, 1627) and brought him fame as the greatest poet of Spain. The greatest master of the Spanish Baroque, he is the founder of “cultism” with its learned Latin words and complexity of forms with very simple plots . Gongora's poetics were distinguished by their desire for ambiguity; his style was replete with metaphors and hyperboles. He achieves exceptional virtuosity, and his themes are usually simple, but are revealed in an extremely complicated manner; complexity, according to the poet, is artistic medium strengthening the impact of poetry on the reader, not only on his feelings, but also on his intellect. In his works ( The Tale of Polyphemus and Galatea, Loneliness) he created the Spanish Baroque style. Góngora's poetry quickly gained new supporters, although Lope de Vega was in opposition to it. No less significant for the development of Spanish Baroque is the prose legacy of F. Quevedo (1580–1645), who left a large number of satirical works that show a disgusting, ugly world that acquires a distorted character through the use of the grotesque. This world is in a state of flux, fantastic, unreal and wretched. Drama plays a special role in Spanish Baroque. Mostly Baroque masters worked in the genre of tragedy or drama. Tirso de Molina (Frey Gabriel Telles) made a significant contribution to the development of Spanish drama. He created about 300 plays (86 have survived), mostly religious dramas (auto) and comedies of manners. A master of masterfully developed intrigue, Tirso de Molina became the first author to develop the image of Don Juan in world literature. His Seville mischief maker or stone guest not only is it the first development of this plot, but is also designed in the Baroque spirit with extreme naturalism in the last scene. The work of Tirso de Molina seemed to throw a bridge from mannerism to baroque; in many ways, he opened the path that the playwrights of the Calderon school took, building their own artistic system, a synthesis of mannerism and baroque.

Calderon became a classic master of Baroque drama. In all his dramas he used a logically coherent and thought-out composition down to the smallest detail, maximizing the intensity of the action, concentrating it around one of the characters, and expressive language. His heritage is associated with Baroque dramaturgy. In his work, the pessimistic principle found its ultimate expression, primarily in religious and moral-philosophical works. The pinnacle is the play Life is a dream, where the Baroque worldview received its most complete expression. Calderon showed the tragic contradictions of human life, from which there is no way out, except by turning to God. Life is portrayed as excruciating suffering, any earthly blessings are illusory, the boundaries of the real world and dreams are blurred. Human passions are frail, and only the awareness of this frailty gives knowledge to a person.

The Spanish 17th century was entirely baroque in literature, just like in Italy. It to a certain extent summarizes, enhances and emphasizes the experience of all Baroque Europe.

In the Netherlands, the Baroque is established almost undividedly, but here the trait characteristic of Italy and Spain is almost absent: aspiration towards God, religious frenzy. Flemish Baroque is more physical and rough, permeated with impressions of the surrounding everyday material world, or is addressed to the contradictory and complex spiritual world person.

The Baroque affected German culture and literature much more deeply. Artistic techniques, the Baroque worldview spread in Germany under the influence of two factors. 1) The atmosphere of the princely courts of the 17th century, which in everything followed the elite fashion of Italy. Baroque was driven by the tastes, needs and sentiments of the German nobility. 2) German Baroque was influenced by the tragic situation of the Thirty Years' War. Because of this, in Germany there was an aristocratic baroque along with a folk baroque (the poets Logau and Gryphius, the prose writer Grimmelshausen). The largest poets in Germany were Martin Opitz (1597–1639), whose poetry was quite close to the poetic forms of the Baroque, and Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664), whose work reflected both the tragic upheavals of war and the theme of frailty and futility of all earthly things, typical of Baroque literature. joys. His poetry was polysemantic, used metaphors, and reflected the deep religiosity of the author. The largest German novel of the 17th century is associated with the Baroque. Simplicissimus H. Grimmelshausen, where the suffering of the people during the war years was captured with stunning power and tragedy. Baroque features were fully reflected in it. The world in the novel is not just a kingdom of evil, it is chaotic and changeable, and changes occur only for the worse. The chaos of the world also determines the destiny of man. The fate of man is tragic, man is the embodiment of the variability of the world and existence. The Baroque worldview manifested itself to an even greater extent in German drama, where tragedy is bloody and depicts the most savage crimes. Life here is seen as a vale of sorrow and suffering, where any human undertakings are futile.

Much less baroque was inherent in the literature of England, France, and the Dutch Republic. In France, elements of Baroque clearly appeared in the first half of the 17th century, but after the Fronde, Baroque in French literature was replaced by classicism, and as a result, the so-called “grand style” was created. Baroque in France took such specific forms that there is still debate about whether it existed there at all. Its elements are already inherent in the work of Agrippa d'Aubigné, who in Tragic poems expressed horror and protest against the cruelty of the surrounding world and in The Adventures of Baron Fenest posed the problem of “to be or to seem.” Subsequently, in the French Baroque, admiration and even depiction of the cruelty and tragedy of the world are almost completely absent. In practice, Baroque in France turned out to be associated, first of all, with such a common feature (inherited from Mannerism) as the desire for illusoryness. French authors sought to create a fictional world, far from the rudeness and absurdity of real reality. Baroque literature turned out to be associated with mannerism and dates back to the novel by O. d "Yurfe Astraea(1610). Precious literature arose, which required maximum abstraction from everything base and crude in real life, and was detached from prosaic reality. The principles of pastoralism were affirmed in the exquisite novel, as well as emphatically refined, complicated and flowery speech. The language of precision literature widely used metaphors, hyperboles, antitheses and periphrases. This language was clearly formed under the influence of Marino, who visited the French court. Literary salons became vehicles for a precise, pompous language. Representatives of this trend include, first of all, M. de Scuderi, author of novels Artamen or the great Cyrus(1649) and Clelia. Baroque received a different life during the Fronde, in the work of the so-called freethinking poets, in which the features of mannerism and baroque are intertwined (Cyrano de Bergerac, Théophile de Viau). The burlesque poem is widely distributed, where there is a dissonance of style and content (exalted heroes in low, rude circumstances). Baroque tendencies appeared in the dramaturgy of the first half of the 17th century, where pastorals and tragicomedies triumphed, which reflected ideas about the diversity and variability of existence and an appeal to dramatic conflicts (A. Hardy).

In France, the Baroque found its expression in the work of one of the greatest philosophers of the 17th century, thinker and stylist B. Pascal. He expressed in France all the tragedy of the Baroque worldview and its sublime pathos. Pascal, a brilliant natural scientist, turned to Jansenism (a movement in Catholicism condemned by the church) in 1646 and published a series of pamphlets Letters from a provincial. In 1670 it was published Thoughts, where he spoke about the dual nature of man, manifested in both glimpses of greatness and insignificance, a blatant contradiction of his nature. The greatness of a man is created by his thought. Pascal's worldview is tragic, he talks about the boundless spaces of the world, firmly believes in the expediency of the world order and contrasts the greatness of the world with the weakness of man. It is he who owns the famous Baroque image - “Man is a reed, but he is a thinking reed.”

In England, baroque tendencies were most clearly manifested in the theater after Shakespeare and literature. A special version has emerged here, which combines elements of Baroque and classicism literature. Baroque motifs and elements most affected poetry and drama. English theater of the 17th century. did not give the world baroque playwrights who could be compared with the Spanish ones, and even in England itself their work is not comparable in scale to the talents of the poet J. Donne or R. Burton. In dramaturgy, Renaissance ideals were gradually combined with the ideas of mannerism, and the last playwrights of the pre-revolutionary era were closely associated with baroque aesthetics. Baroque features can be found in late drama, especially in Fr. Beaumont and J. Fletcher, J. Ford ( Broken heart, Perkin Warbeck), F. Massinger ( Duke of Milan), from individual playwrights of the Restoration era, in particular in Saved Venice T. Otway, where the exaltation of passion is revealed, and the heroes have the features of baroque martyrs. In the poetic heritage, under the influence of the Baroque, the so-called “metaphysical school” took shape. Its founder was one of the greatest poets of the era, J. Donne. He and his followers were characterized by a penchant for mysticism and sophisticated, complex language. For greater expressiveness of paradoxical and pretentious images, not only metaphors were used, but also a specific technique of versification (use of dissonance, etc.). Intellectual complexity coupled with internal turmoil and dramatic feelings determined the rejection of social issues and the elitism of this poetry. After the revolution during the Restoration era English literature Baroque and classicism coexist; often the works of individual authors combine elements of both artistic systems. This is typical, for example, for most important work the greatest of the English poets of the 17th century. – Paradise Lost J. Milton. Epic poem Lost heaven(1667) was distinguished by a grandeur unprecedented in the literature of the era, both in time and in space, and the image of Satan, a rebel against the established world order, was characterized by gigantic passion, disobedience and pride. Emphasized drama, extraordinary emotional expressiveness, allegorism of the poem, dynamism, extensive use of contrasts and oppositions - all these features Paradise Lost brought the poem closer to baroque.

Baroque literature created its own aesthetic and literary theory, which generalized the already existing artistic experience. The most famous works of B. Gracian Wit or the art of a sophisticated mind(1642) and Aristotle's spyglass E. Tesauro (1655). In the latter, in particular, the exceptional role of metaphor, theatricality and brightness, symbolism, and the ability to combine polar phenomena are noted.

Irina Elfond

Literature:

Golenishchev-Kutuzov I.N. Literature of Spain and Italy of the Baroque era. In the book: – Romance Literatures . M., 1975
Stein A.L. Spanish Baroque Literature. M., 1983
Whipper Yu.B. Baroque in Western Europe literature XVII centuries. -In the book: Creative destinies and history. M., 1990
XVII century in European literary development. St. Petersburg, 1996
Foreign literature of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism. M., 1998
History of foreign literature in the 17th century. M., 1999
Silyunas V.Yu. Lifestyle and art styles (Spanish Mannerist and Baroque theater). St. Petersburg, 2000
Pakhsaryan N.T. History of foreign literature of the 17th–18th centuries. M., 2001
Baroque and classicism in the history of world culture. M., 2001
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Today let's look at the most interesting art style of Baroque. Its emergence was influenced by two important events of the Middle Ages. Firstly, this is a change in ideological ideas about the universe and man associated with epochal scientific discoveries that time. And secondly, with the need for those holding power to imitate their own greatness against the backdrop of material impoverishment. And the use of an artistic style that glorifies the power of the nobility and the church was just right. But against the backdrop of mercantile goals, the spirit of freedom, sensuality and self-awareness of man as a doer and creator broke through into the style itself.

- (Italian barocco - bizarre, strange, prone to excess; port. perola barroca - pearl with a vice) - a characteristic of European culture of the 17th-18th centuries, the center of which was Italy. The Baroque style appeared in the 16th-17th centuries in Italian cities: Rome, Mantua, Venice, Florence. The Baroque era is considered to be the beginning of the triumphant march of “Western civilization.” opposed classicism and rationalism.

In the 17th century, Italy lost its economic and political power. Foreigners - the Spaniards and the French - begin to rule its territory. But exhausted Italy has not lost the height of its position - it still remains the cultural center of Europe. The nobility and the church needed their power and wealth to be seen by everyone, but since there was no money for new buildings, they turned to art to create the illusion of power and wealth. This is how Baroque emerged in Italy.

Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamism of images, a desire for grandeur and splendor, for a combination of reality and illusion. During this period, thanks to the discoveries of Copernicus, the idea of ​​the world as a rational and constant unity, as well as of man as the most intelligent being, changed. As Pascal put it, man began to recognize himself as “something in between everything and nothing,” “one who captures only the appearance of phenomena, but is unable to understand either their beginning or their end.”

The Baroque style in painting is characterized by dynamism of compositions, “flatness” and splendor of forms, aristocracy and originality of subjects. The most character traits Baroque - catchy floridity and dynamism. A striking example is creativity with its riots of feelings and naturalism in the depiction of people and events.

Caravaggio is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. a new style in painting. His paintings on religious subjects resemble realistic scenes contemporary author life, creating a contrast between the times of late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly outlining their characteristics.

In Italian Baroque painting, different genres developed, but mainly they were allegories and the mythological genre. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea del Pozzo, and the Carracci brothers (Agostino and Lodovico) succeeded in this direction. The Venetian school became famous, where the genre of vedata, or city landscape, gained great popularity. The most famous author of such works is the artist.

Rubens combined in his paintings the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, scholarship and spirituality. In addition to Rubens, another master of the Flemish Baroque achieved international recognition -. With the work of Rubens, a new style came to Holland, where it was picked up by. In Spain, Diego Velazquez worked in the manner of Caravaggio, and in France - Nicolas Poussin, in Russia - Ivan Nikitin and Alexey Antropov.

Baroque artists discovered new techniques for art in the spatial interpretation of form in its ever-changing life dynamics, and intensified their life position. The unity of life in the sensory-bodily joy of being, in tragic conflicts forms the basis of beauty in Baroque art. Idealized images are combined with violent dynamics, reality with fantasy, and religious affectation with emphasized sensuality.

Closely associated with the monarchy, aristocracy and the church, Baroque art was intended to glorify and propagate their power. At the same time, it reflected new ideas about the unity, boundlessness and diversity of the world, about its dramatic complexity and eternal variability, interest in the environment, in the human environment, in the natural elements. Man no longer appears as the center of the Universe, but as a multifaceted personality, with a complex world of experiences, involved in the cycle and conflicts of the environment.

In Russia, the development of Baroque falls on the first half XVIII V. Russian Baroque was free from the exaltation and mysticism characteristic of Catholic countries, and had a number of national characteristics, such as a sense of pride in the successes of the state and people. In Baroque architecture, it reached a majestic scale in the city and estate ensembles of St. Petersburg, Peterhof, and Tsarskoye Selo. In the fine arts, freed from medieval religious shackles, they turned to secular social themes, to the image of a human activist. Baroque everywhere evolves to the graceful lightness of the Rococo style, coexists and intertwines with it, and since the 1760s. replaced by classicism.

Introduction

Currently, interest in the problems of the complex world of art, the need to understand its place and role in the broad context of culture, is becoming relevant. Orientation-value changes in modern history They force us to have a new attitude towards science and culture, and to see art not only as a self-sufficient means of understanding reality, but also as a way of valuable comprehension of the world, self-awareness of culture. Baroque appeared in Italy at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, as a papal style. But Baroque soon became popular outside of Rome and the Vatican throughout Europe and lasted until the 18th century. It was used to decorate the palaces of noble families. In France, during the time of Louis XIV, Baroque became especially widespread.

The term "baroque" is translated as "bizarre, strange, pretentious." Its origin is not entirely clear; in everyday life this word is still used as a synonym for strange, bizarre, unusual, pretentious, unnatural. Jewelers used this term to designate non-standard pearls that baroque masters knew how to use for decorative purposes. “The Time of Baroque” includes many styles and movements (Mannerism, Classicism, Baroque and Rococo) and the “Baroque Style”. There must really be something bizarre and strange in this style, even if experts differ greatly in their assessment of it. Some believe that Baroque art is incorrect, tense, cumbersome, and contradicts the harmonious and life-affirming art of the Renaissance. Others see in the Baroque grandeur, plasticity, and the pursuit of beauty and therefore consider it more of a continuation of the Renaissance. There is a third opinion: baroque art is a late, crisis stage different eras in artistic culture. At the same time, many scientists insist that the crisis stage of the Renaissance is not yet baroque; they give it a special name - mannerism. However, even experts do not always dare to say with certainty whether the author belongs to the Renaissance, Mannerism or Baroque.

The work consists of an introduction, main part, conclusion and bibliography.

1. Characteristics of the epochal Baroque style

"Everyone - style" - These words of the famous French scientist Buffon perfectly characterize the main aesthetic views man of the Baroque era. This style cannot be confused with any other style. Baroque- the embodiment of the era in which he appeared. In Baroque two concepts are combined, namely: style and lifestyle.

The culture of the 17th century embodies the complexity of this time. It is difficult to find a century that would produce so many brilliant names in all areas of human culture. Europe of the 17th century - This is the era of manufacturing and the water wheel - the engine. The development of manufacturing production gave rise to the need for scientific developments. Scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler made fundamental changes in views on the biblical picture of the universe. The developments of Leibniz, Newton, and Pascal revealed the inconsistency of medieval nature. All this allowed us to make a lot of discoveries and inventions. Algebra and analytical geometry were created, differential equations and integral calculus were discovered in mathematics, and a number of the most important laws in physics, chemistry, and astronomy were formed.

For the spiritual life of society in the 17th century. Great geographical and natural scientific discoveries were of great importance: Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America, Vasco da Gamma's discovery of the sea route to India, Magellan's circumnavigation of the world, Copernicus's discovery of the Earth's motion around the Sun, Galileo's research. New knowledge destroyed previous ideas about the unchanging harmony of the world, about limited space and time commensurate with man.

Formation of the historical Baroque style, first of all, is associated with a crisis of ideals Italian Renaissance in the middle of the 16th century. and the rapidly changing “picture of the world” at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. At the same time, the new art of the Baroque style grew out of the forms of Classicism of the Renaissance. The previous century in Italy was so strong artistically that its ideas, despite all the tragic collisions, could not suddenly disappear; they continued to have a significant influence on the minds of people. And the masterpieces of art of the “High Renaissance” - works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael - seemed unattainable. This is the essence of all the contradictions of the “Baroque era”. It was a time of painful changes in worldview, unexpected turns of human thought, partly caused by great geographical and natural scientific discoveries.

Ideological basis new style there was a weakening of spiritual culture and the spiritual power of religion, a split in the church (into Protestants and Catholics), a struggle between different creeds reflecting the interests of different classes: Catholicism expressed feudal tendencies, Protestantism - bourgeois. At the same time, the state acquired a greater role, and accordingly there was a struggle between religious and secular principles.

Worldview foundations of style arose as a result of shocks, such as they were in the 16th century. Reformation and the teachings of Copernicus. The idea of ​​the world, established in antiquity, as a rational and constant unity, as well as the Renaissance idea of ​​man as the most intelligent being, changed. Man began to recognize himself as “something in between everything and nothing,” as Pascal put it, “someone who captures only the appearance of phenomena, but is unable to understand either their beginning or their end.”

In 1445, I. Gutenberg laid the foundation for book printing, in 1492, X. Columbus discovered America, Vasco da Gama in 1498 - the sea route to India. In 1519-1522 Magellan made the first circumnavigation of the world, and by 1533 Copernicus's discovery of the Earth's motion around the Sun began to gain recognition. The research of Galileo, Kepler and Newton’s “celestial mechanics” destroyed the previous conventional ideas about a closed and motionless world, in the center of which was the Earth and man himself. What previously seemed absolutely clear, unshakable and eternal began to literally crumble before our eyes. Until this time, people, for example, were absolutely sure that the Earth was a flat saucer, and the Sun set over its edge, which is why it became dark at night. Now they have begun to convince us that the Earth is not a pancake, but a ball, and even revolves around the Sun. This contradicted the visual impressions. The man continued to see as before: the flat, motionless earth and the movement of celestial bodies above his head. He felt the hardness of material objects, but scientists began to prove that this was just an appearance, and in fact - nothing more than many pulsating centers of electrical forces. There was a lot to be confused about.

True, Kepler's laws were consistent with the Pythagorean theory of music of the Celestial Spheres, and Newton was in no hurry to make his discoveries public. But, one way or another, these sciences came into conflict with experience and the visible image of the world. An irrevocable psychological breakdown occurred - the basis of the future Baroque style. At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. discoveries in the field of natural and exact sciences have significantly shaken the image of a complete, motionless and harmonious universe, in the center of which is the “crown of Creation” - man himself.

If quite recently, during the Renaissance, the humanist scientist Picodella Mirandola argued in his “Speech on the Dignity of Man” that man, located at the very center of the world, is omnipotent and can “observe everything and own whatever he wants,” then in the 17th century Blaise Pascal wrote his famous words: man is just a “thinking reed”, his lot is tragic, since, being on the verge of two abysses of “infinity and non-existence”, he is unable to grasp with his mind either one or the other, and turns out to be something in between everything and nothing. He captures only the appearance of phenomena, for he is incapable of knowing either their beginning or end.” And these are the words of a great mathematician! What contradictory judgments on the same subject! Even earlier, in the first third of the 16th century, people began to acutely feel the contradictions between appearance and knowledge, ideal and reality, illusion and truth. It was during these years that views developed according to which the more implausible a work of art is, the more sharply it differs from what is observed in life, the more interesting and attractive it is from an artistic point of view.

Foreigners - the Spaniards and the French - are beginning to rule the territory of Italy. They dictate the terms of politics, etc. Exhausted Italy has not lost the height of its cultural positions - it remains the cultural center of Europe. She is rich in spiritual powers. Power in culture was manifested by adaptation to new conditions. The center of the Catholic world is Rome. Because of these circumstances, the nobility and the church need their strength and wealth to be seen by all. There was no money to build a palazzo; the nobility turned to art to create the illusion of power and wealth. A style that can elevate becomes popular, which is how in the 16th century arose in Italy Baroque.

The Baroque era rejects traditions and authorities as superstitions and prejudices. Everything that is “clearly and distinctly” thought or has a mathematical expression is true, says the philosopher Descartes. Therefore, Baroque is also the century of Reason and Enlightenment. It is no coincidence that the word “baroque” is sometimes raised to designate one of the types of inferences in medieval logic - to baroco. The first European park appears in Versailles, where the idea of ​​a forest is expressed extremely mathematically: linden alleys and canals seem to be drawn with a ruler, and the trees are trimmed in the manner of stereometric figures. For the first time, the uniformed armies of the Baroque era paid great attention to “drill” - the geometric correctness of formations on the parade ground.

Distinctive features of Baroque are spatial scope, pomp, splendor and luxury. Note that the variability and play of images of this style can be compared to the sea shell, after which this style was named. Exquisite luxury, splendor and superiority are returning to the decoration of houses after simplicity and minimalism in interior decoration.

The Baroque era gives rise to a huge amount of time for entertainment: instead of pilgrimages - the promenade (walks in the park); instead of knightly tournaments - “carousels” (horse rides) and card games; instead of mystery plays there is theater and masquerade balls. You can also add the appearance of swings and “fire fun” (fireworks). In the interiors, portraits and landscapes took the place of icons, and music turned from spiritual into a pleasant play of sound.

Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamic images, affectation, the desire for grandeur and splendor, for combining reality and illusion, for the fusion of arts (city and palace and park ensembles, opera, religious music, oratorio); at the same time - a tendency towards autonomy of individual genres (concerto grosso, sonata, suite in instrumental music).

Thus, the Baroque style slowly matured to suddenly explode. In this era, several opposing stylistic trends were destructive, all of them were unstable and “inconsistent with reality.” In this circumstance, the key to understanding the words of I. Grabar: “The High Renaissance is already three-quarters of Baroque.” Every day it became clearer that Alberti was “not quite what is needed”, that even Bramante was already a little pedantic and “dry” and that the abracadabra of the famous “golden cut” and the mathematics of proportions given in the façade of his “ Cancelleria."

And only when the frantic Michelangelo opened his Sistine ceiling and took up the Capitoline buildings, everyone understood what everyone was sick with and what they hid in their hearts... and a new style - Baroque - was created.”

2. Characteristics of the national Baroque style

In the 17th century, Rome was the capital of the world in the field of art, attracting artists from all over Europe, so Baroque art soon spread beyond the boundaries of the “eternal city”. The Baroque style took its deepest roots outside of Italy in Catholic countries. In every country, Baroque art was fueled local traditions. In some countries it became more extravagant, such as in Spain and Latin America, where a style of architectural decoration called churrigueresco developed; in others it was muted in favor of more conservative tastes. The Baroque style is becoming widespread in Spain, Germany, Belgium (Flanders), the Netherlands, Russia, and France.

In Catholic Flanders Baroque art flourished in the work of Rubens, to Protestant Holland it had a less noticeable impact. True, Rembrandt's mature works, extremely lively and dynamic, are clearly marked by the influence of Baroque art.

In France it expressed itself most clearly in the service of the monarchy, and not the church. Louis XIV understood the importance of art as a means of glorifying royal power. His advisor in this area was Charles Lebrun, who supervised the artists and decorators working at Louis's palace at Versailles. Versailles, with its grandiose combination of lavish architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative and landscape art, was one of the most impressive examples of the fusion of the arts.

For Baroque architecture(L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy, B.F. Rastrelli in Russia) are characterized by spatial scope, unity, and fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms. Baroque architecture gravitates towards the solemn “grand style”, towards emphasized monumentality, is based on the idea of ​​complexity, diversity, variability of the world, reflects the greatness of the Pope and the Catholic Church, as well as the power and luxury of monarchs and large aristocracy. At this time, Catholic churches, city and country palace and park ensembles were erected - the square in front of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, country villas in Italy.

The main features of the buildings are a complex curvilinear plan and line outlines, the whimsicality of the plastic facades, the use of complex, diverse and picturesque forms based on an oval, ellipse and semicircle, semicircular windows, broken pediments, paired columns and pilasters, massive grand staircases, the spatial scope of the complexes, a fusion of arts (architecture, sculpture, painting), interior decorativeness, the use of mirrors in interior design. The order is used as a decorative plastic form along with sculpture. The properties of the buildings are extreme picturesqueness (pretentiousness), contrast, tension, dynamism of images and fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms, a desire for deliberate splendor, for combining reality and illusion. Often there are large-scale colonnades, an abundance of sculpture on the facades and in the interiors, volutes, a large number of bracings, arched facades with bracing in the middle, rusticated columns and pilasters. Domes take on complex shapes, often multi-tiered, like those of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Characteristic Baroque details - telamon (Atlas), caryatid, mascaron.

In Italian architecture the most prominent representative of Baroque art was Carlo Maderna(1556-1629), who broke with mannerism and created his own style. His main creation is the façade of the Roman church of Santa Susanna (1603). The main figure in the development of Baroque sculpture was Lorenzo Bernini, whose first masterpieces executed in the new style date back to approximately 1620. The Coranaro Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Victoria (1645-1652) is considered the quintessence of the Baroque, an impressive fusion of painting, sculpture and architecture. . Bernini's most prominent Italian contemporaries during this mature Baroque period were the architect Borromini both artist and architect Pietro da Cortona. Somewhat later Andrea del Pozzo (1642-1709) worked; his painted ceiling in the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome (Apotheosis of St. Ignatius of Loyola) is the culmination of the Baroque tendency towards pompous splendor. Spanish Baroque, or according to the local churrigueresco (in honor of the architect Churriguera), which also spread to Latin America. Its most popular monument is the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, which is also one of the most revered churches in Spain. In Latin America, Baroque mixed with local architectural traditions; this is its most elaborate version, and they call it ultra-baroque. In France the Baroque style expressed more modestly than in other countries. Previously, it was believed that the style did not develop here at all, and Baroque monuments were considered monuments of classicism. The term "baroque classicism" is sometimes used in relation to French and English versions of Baroque. Now the Palace of Versailles along with the regular park, the Luxembourg Palace, the building of the French Academy in Paris and other works are considered to be French Baroque. They do have some classicist features. In Belgium An outstanding Baroque monument is the Grand Place ensemble in Brussels. Rubens' house in Antwerp, built according to the artist's own design, has Baroque features. Baroque in Russia appears in the 17th century (“Naryshkin baroque”, “Golitsyn baroque”). In the 18th century, during the reign of Peter I, the so-called “Petrine baroque” (more restrained) began to develop in St. Petersburg and its suburbs in the work of D. Trezzini, and reached its peak during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in the work of S.I. Chevakinsky and B. Rastrelli. In Germany An outstanding Baroque monument is the New Palace in Sans Souci (authors: I.G. Bühring, H.L. Manter) and the Summer Palace there (G.W. von Knobelsdorff).

The largest and most famous Baroque ensembles in the world: Versailles (France), Peterhof (Russia), Aranjuez (Spain), Zwinger (Germany), Schönbrunn (Austria).

Baroque style in painting characterized by the dynamism of compositions, “flatness” and splendor of forms, aristocracy and originality of plots. The predominant plots were based on a dramatic conflict - religious, mythological or allegorical in nature. Ceremonial portraits are created to decorate interiors.

The peculiarity of the Baroque is that it does not adhere to Renaissance harmony for the sake of a more emotional contact with the viewer. Great importance acquired compositional effects expressed in bold contrasts of scale, color, light and shadow. But at the same time, Baroque artists strive to achieve rhythmic and color unity, the picturesqueness of the whole.

At the origins of Baroque art in painting are two great Italian artist - Caravaggio And Annibale Carracci, who created the most significant works in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Italian painting of the late 16th century is characterized by unnaturalness and stylistic uncertainty. Caravaggio and Carracci, with their art, restored its integrity and expressiveness.

In Italian Baroque painting Various genres developed, but mainly they were allegories and the mythological genre. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea del Pozzo, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and the Carracci brothers succeeded in this direction. The Venetian school became famous, where the genre of vedata, or city landscape, gained great popularity. The most famous author of such works is D.A. Canaletto. No less famous are Francesco Guardi and Bernardo Bellotto. Canaletto and Guardi painted views of Venice, while Bellotto (a student of Canaletto) worked in Germany. He owns many views of Dresden and other places. Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan school) and Alessandro Magnasco wrote fantastic landscapes. The latter belongs to architectural types, and is very close to it French artist Hubert Robert, who worked at a time when interest in antiquity and Roman ruins flared up. Their works depict ruins, arches, colonnades, ancient temples, but in a somewhat fantastic form, with exaggerations. Heroic paintings were painted by Domenichino, and picturesque parables by Domenico Fetti. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) at the beginning of the 17th century. studied in Italy, where he learned the style of Caravaggio and Carraci, although he arrived there only after completing a course of study in Antwerp. He happily combined the best features of the painting schools of the North and South, merging in his canvases the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, scholarship and spirituality.

Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio) (1571-1610) is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. new style in painting. His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author’s contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The characters are depicted in twilight, from which rays of light capture the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly outlining their characteristics. Caravaggio's followers and imitators adopted Caravaggio's exuberance and distinctive manner, as well as his naturalism in depicting people and events.

In France Baroque features are inherent in the ceremonial portraits of Iasinte Rigaud. His most famous work is a portrait of Louis XIV. The work of Simon Vouet and Charles Lebrun, court artists who worked in the genre of ceremonial portraiture, is characterized as “baroque classicism.” The real transformation of baroque into classicism is observed in the paintings of Nicolas Poussin. The Baroque style in Spain received a more rigid, strict embodiment, embodied in the works of such masters as Velazquez, Ribera and Zurbaran. They adhered to the principles of realism. By that time, Spain was experiencing its “Golden Age” in art, while being in economic and political decline.

For the art of Spain Characterized by decorativeness, capriciousness, sophistication of forms, dualism of the ideal and the real, the physical and the ascetic, heap and stinginess, the sublime and the ridiculous. Among the representatives: Domenico Theotokopouli (El Greco). He was deeply religious, so his art presents numerous variants of religious subjects and celebrations: “The Holy Family”, “Apostles Peter and Paul”, “The Descent of the Holy Spirit”, “Christ on Maslenitsa Mount”. El Greco was a magnificent portrait painter- he interpreted what was depicted as unreal, fantastic, imaginary. Hence the deformation of figures (Gothic elements), extreme coloristic contrasts with a predominance dark colors, play of chiaroscuro, sense of movement. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) is a magnificent master of psychological portraiture and character painter. His paintings are distinguished by the multi-figure complexity of their compositions, multi-frame nature, extreme detail, and excellent mastery of color.

Heyday Flemish Baroque falls on 1st floor. XVII century. Rubens became the legislator in the new style. IN early period Baroque style is perceived by Rubens through the prism of Caravaggio’s paintings - “The Elevation of the Cross”, “The Descent from the Cross”, “The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus”. The transition to the mature phase of the artist’s work was a large commission for the cycle of paintings “The Life of Marie de’ Medici.” The paintings are theatrical, allegorical, and the brushwork is expressive. Rubens demonstrates the incredible life-affirming power of the Baroque; his portraits, especially women, reveal this inexhaustible source of joy for him. In the last period of his work, Rubens continues the theme of bacchanalia - “Bacchus” - an openly bodily perception of life. In addition to Rubens, another master of the Flemish Baroque, van Dyck (1599-1641), achieved recognition.

With the work of Rubens, the new style came to Holland, where it was taken up by Frans Hals (1580/85-1666), Rembrandt (1606-1669) and Vermeer (1632-1675). In Spain, Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) worked in the manner of Caravaggio, and in France - Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665), who, not satisfied with the Baroque school, laid the foundations of a new movement in his work - classicism.

In Holland Several schools of painting emerged, uniting major masters and their followers: Franz Hals in Haarlem, Rembrandt in Amsterdam, Vermeer in Delft. In the painting of this country, Baroque had a unique character, focusing not on the emotions of the audience, but on their calm, rational attitude to life. Rembrandt emphasized this in the following words: “Sky, earth, sea, animals, people - all this serves for our exercise.”

3. Characteristics of individual styles

Baroque architecture is characterized by spatial scope, unity, and fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms. Brilliant center architecture baroque became Catholic Rome.

The Italian sculptor and architect is considered the “Father of Baroque” Michelangelo Buonarroti- Medici Chapel in Florence (1520-1534).

The Great Michelangelo with the power and expression of his individual style, he instantly destroyed all the usual ideas about the “rules” of drawing and composition. The powerful figures he painted on the ceiling visually “destroyed” the pictorial space allocated for them; they did not correspond either to the script or to the space of the architecture itself. Everything here was anti-classical. G. Vasari, the famous chronicler of the Renaissance, astonished as others were, called this style “bizarre, extraordinary and new.”

Other works of Michelangelo: the architectural ensemble of the Capitol in Rome, the interior of the Medici Chapel and the vestibule of the Library of San Lorenzo in Florence - demonstrated classicist forms, but everything in them was covered with extraordinary tension and excitement. Old elements of architecture were used in a new way, first of all, not in accordance with their constructive function. So in the lobby of the San Lorenzo library, Michelangelo did something completely inexplicable. The columns are double, but hidden in the recesses of the walls and do not support anything, so their capitals look like some kind of strange endings. The console volutes hanging underneath them do not perform any function at all. There are imaginary, blind windows on the walls. But the most surprising thing is the lobby staircase. According to the witty remark of J. Burckhardt, “it is only suitable for those who want to break their necks.” There are no railings on the sides where necessary. But they are in the middle, but too low to lean on. The outer steps are rounded with completely useless curls at the corners. The staircase itself fills almost all the free space of the lobby, which generally contradicts common sense; it does not invite, but only blocks the entrance.

In the design of St. Peter's Cathedral (1546), Michelangelo, in contradiction to Bramante who began construction, subordinated the entire architectural space to the central dome, making the structure dynamic. Bunches of pilasters, double columns, and ribs of the dome depict a coordinated, powerful upward movement. In comparison with the sketches of Michelangelo, the executor of the project was Giacomo della Porta in 1588-1590. strengthened this dynamics by sharpening the dome; he made it not hemispherical, as was customary in Renaissance art, but elongated, parabolic.

The advent of the Baroque era meant the return of romance to the architecture of Christian churches. In this sense, O. Spengler’s statement about the evolution of Michelangelo’s work is noteworthy: “From the deepest dissatisfaction with the art on which he wasted his life, his ever-unsatisfied need for expression broke the architectonic canon of the Renaissance and created the Roman Baroque... And in the person of Michelangelo, the sculptor “ the history of European sculpture has ended.” Really, Michelangelo - the true "father of Baroque", since in his statues, buildings, and drawings there is, at the same time, a return to the spiritual values ​​of the Middle Ages and the consistent discovery of new principles of formation. This brilliant artist, having exhausted the possibilities of classical plasticity, in the late period of his work created expressive forms that had never been seen before. His titanic figures are depicted not according to the rules of plastic anatomy, which served as the norm for the same Michelangelo just ten years ago, but according to other, irrational shaping forces, brought to life by the imagination of the artist himself.

One of the first signs of Baroque art: redundancy of means and confusion of scales. In the art of Classicism, all forms are clearly defined and delimited from each other. "Sistine Plafond" That's why Michelangelo is the first work of the Baroque style, that in it there was a collision of figures drawn, but sculptural in tactility, and an incredible architectural frame painted on the ceiling, not at all consistent with the real space of architecture. The sizes of the figures also mislead the viewer; they do not harmonize, but are dissonant even with the picturesque, illusory space created for them by the artist.

"Genius of Baroque" J.L. Bernini(1598-1680). Bernini's largest architectural work was the completion of many years of construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome and the design of the square in front of it (1656-1667). In the interior of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, over the tomb of the Apostle Peter, he erected a huge, exorbitantly enlarged tent - a ciborium 29 m high (the height of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome). From a distance, a tent made of blackened and gilded bronze on four twisted columns with “curtains” and statues from the nave of the cathedral seems just a toy, a quirk of interior decoration. But up close, it stuns and overwhelms, turning out to be a colossus of inhuman proportions, which is why the dome above it seems immeasurable, like the sky.

The two mighty wings of the monumental colonnade, built according to his design, closed the vast space of the square. Radiating from the main, western facade of the cathedral, the colonnades first form a trapezoid shape, and then turn into a huge oval, emphasizing the special mobility of the composition, designed to organize the movement of mass processions. 284 columns and 80 pillars 19 m high make up this four-row covered colonnade, 96 large statues crown its attic. As you move across the square and change your point of view, it seems that the columns are either moving closer together or moving apart, and the architectural ensemble seems to unfold before the viewer. Decorative elements are skillfully included in the design of the square: the shaky strings of water of two fountains and the slender Egyptian obelisk between them, which accentuate the middle of the square. But in the words of Bernini himself, the square, “like open arms,” captures the viewer, directing his movement towards the façade of the cathedral, decorated with grandiose attached Corinthian columns” that tower and dominate this entire solemn Baroque ensemble. Emphasizing the spatiality of the general solution of the complex-shaped square and the cathedral, Bernini also defined the main point of view of the cathedral, which at a distance is perceived in its majestic unity.

Bernini knew well and took into account the laws of optics and perspective. From a distant point of view, shrinking in perspective, the angled colonnades of the trapezoidal square are perceived as straight, and the oval square is perceived as a circle. These same properties of artificial perspective were skillfully applied in the construction of the main Royal Staircase connecting St. Peter's with the Papal Palace. It makes a grandiose impression thanks to the precisely calculated gradual narrowing of the flight of stairs, the coffered ceiling and the reduction of the columns framing it. By enhancing the effect of the perspective reduction of the staircase going deeper, Bernini achieved the illusion of increasing the size of the staircase and its length.

Bernini's skill as a decorator was demonstrated in all its splendor when decorating the interior of the Cathedral of St. Petra. He highlighted the longitudinal axis of the cathedral and its center - the space under the dome with a luxurious bronze ciborium (canopy, 1624-1633), in which there is not a single calm contour. All forms of this decorative structure are agitated. Twisted columns rise steeply to the dome of the cathedral; With the help of textured variety, bronze imitates lush fabrics and fringed trim.

In fine arts This period was dominated by plots based on dramatic conflict, - religious, mythological or allegorical in nature. Ceremonial portraits are created to decorate interiors. A feature of the Baroque is the non-compliance with Renaissance harmony for the sake of a more emotional contact with the viewer. Compositional effects, expressed in bold contrasts of scale, color, light and shadow, became of great importance. But at the same time, Baroque artists strive to achieve rhythmic and color unity, the picturesqueness of the whole. Baroque painting is characterized by dynamism, “flatness” and splendor of forms; the most characteristic features of Baroque are catchy floridity and dynamism; A striking example is Rubens, Caravaggio.

Rubens Peter Paul(1577-1640) - Flemish painter, draftsman, head of the Flemish school of Baroque painting. In life, Rubens embodied the baroque ideal of a virtuoso, focused on the external side of things, for whom the whole world was a stage. Contradictions of the era Rubens reconciled seemingly irreconcilable opposites in painting. His enormous intellect and powerful vital energy allowed him to create, on the basis of various borrowings, a holistic, unique style, in which the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, scholarship and spirituality are amazingly fused. His epic canvases thus define the scale and style of mature Baroque painting. They are full of sparkling, inexhaustible energy and inventiveness, and are, like his heroic nude figures, the personification of a sense of love for life. The depiction of such a rich existence on such a scale required an expansion of the arena of action, which only baroque with its theatricality - in the best sense of the word - could provide. The sense of drama was inherent in Rubens to the same extent as in Bernini. The Raising of the Cross, the first major altar image, testifies to how much he owed to Italian art. Muscular figures, detailed to show them off physical strength and passion of feelings, reminiscent of the images of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo and the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese by Annibale Carracci, and in the manner of lighting the picture there is something from Caravaggio. Nevertheless, the panel owes much of its success to Rubens's astonishing ability to combine Italian influences with Dutch ideas, giving them a modern sound in the process of creation. In scale and concept, the painting is more heroic than any other northern work, but it is still impossible to imagine its appearance without “The Descent from the Cross” by Rogier van der Weyden.

Rubens is an equally detail-oriented Flemish realist, as can be seen in details such as the foliage, armor and dog in the foreground. These varied elements, brought together with the highest skill, form a composition of enormous dramatic power. An unstable, menacingly swaying pyramid of bodies in a typically baroque manner breaks the boundaries of the frame, creating in the viewer a feeling of participation in this action.

In the 1620s, Rubens' dynamic style reached its peak in enormous decorative works on orders from churches and palaces. The most famous is the cycle of paintings made by Rubens for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris and dedicated to the glorification of life path Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII. Everything here is connected by a single rhythm of circular movement: heaven and earth, historical figures and allegorical characters, even drawing and painting, since Rubens used similar pictorial sketches when preparing his compositions. Unlike artists of previous eras, he preferred to develop his paintings in relation to light and color from the very beginning (most of his drawings are figure studies or portrait sketches). Such a holistic vision, at the origins of which, although still without obvious achievements, were the great Venetians, was the most valuable in Rubens' legacy for painters of subsequent generations.

Michelangelo Merisi, who was nicknamed after his birthplace near Milan Caravaggio, is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. new style in painting.

Already in the first works completed in Rome, he appears as a bold innovator; he challenged the main artistic trends of that era - mannerism and academicism, contrasting them with the harsh realism and democracy of his art. Caravaggio's hero is a man from the street crowd, a Roman boy or youth, endowed with rough sensual beauty and the naturalness of a thoughtless, cheerful existence; Caravaggio's hero appears either in the role of a street merchant, a musician, a simple-minded dandy, listening to a crafty gypsy, or in the guise and with the attributes of the ancient god Bacchus. These inherently genre characters, bathed in bright light, are brought close to the viewer, depicted with emphasized monumentality and plastic palpability.

The period of creative maturity opens a cycle of monumental paintings dedicated to St. Matthew. In the first and most significant of them - “The Calling of the Apostle Matthew” - having transferred the action of the Gospel legend to a semi-basement room with bare walls and a wooden table, making it participants from the street crowd, Caravaggio at the same time built an emotionally strong dramaturgy of the great event - the invasion the light of Truth into the very depths of life. “Funeral light” penetrating into a dark room after Christ and St. entered there. Peter, highlights the figures of people gathered around the table and at the same time emphasizes the miraculous nature of the appearance of Christ and St. Peter, his reality and at the same time unreality, snatching from the darkness only part of the profile of Jesus, the thin hand of his outstretched hand, the yellow cloak of St. Peter, while their figures dimly emerge from the shadows

His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author’s contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly outlining their characteristics. The art of Caravaggio had a huge influence on the work of not only many Italian, but also leading Western European masters XVII century - Rubens, Jordaens, Georges de Latour, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Rembrandt.

Thus, Baroque artists discovered new techniques for art in the spatial interpretation of form in its ever-changing life dynamics, and intensified their life position. The unity of life in the sensory-physical joy of being, in tragic conflicts forms the basis of beauty in Baroque art.

Conclusion

Thus, Baroque is a characteristic of European culture of the 17th-18th centuries, the center of which was Italy and then spread throughout Western Europe. The Baroque era is considered to be the beginning of the triumphant march of “Western civilization.”

Its appearance was a historically natural process, prepared by all previous development. The style found its implementation differently in various countries, revealing their national characteristics. At the same time had common features, typical for all European art and for all European culture:

1. Church dogmatism, which led to increased religiosity;

2. Increasing the role of the state, secularism, the struggle of two principles;

3. Increased emotionality, theatricality, exaggeration of everything;

4. Dynamics, impulsiveness;

It will not be an exaggeration to say that “Baroque” is one of the most elaborate, lush styles.

The Baroque style is fully consistent with the lifestyle characteristic of that era. This is a style based on the use of classical order forms, brought to a state of dynamic tension, sometimes reaching convulsions.

The Baroque period contributed to the formation of national art schools with its own characteristics (Flanders, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany).

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Rice. 1 - Piazza in front of St. Peter's Basilica, designed by Lorenzo Bernini

Rice. 2 - Michelangelo. Fragment of the vault Sistine Chapel

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Art (Baroque art.), a style of European art and architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries. At different times, the term “Baroque” was given different meanings—“bizarre,” “strange,” “prone to excess.” At first it had an offensive connotation, implying absurdity, absurdity (perhaps it goes back to the Portuguese word meaning an ugly pearl). Currently, it is used in art historical works to define the style that dominated European art between Mannerism and Rococo, that is, from approximately 1600 to the beginning of the 18th century. From Baroque mannerism, art inherited dynamism and deep emotionality, and from the Renaissance - solidity and splendor: the features of both styles harmoniously merged into one single whole.

Baroque. (Clementinum Library, Prague, Czech Republic).

The most characteristic features - flashy floridity and dynamism - corresponded to the self-confidence and aplomb of the newly powerful Roman Catholic Church. Outside of Italy, the Baroque style took its deepest roots in Catholic countries, and, for example, in Britain its influence was insignificant. At the origins of the tradition of Baroque art in painting are two great Italian artists - Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci, who created the most significant works in the last decade of the 16th century - the first decade of the 17th century.

Baroque is an artistic movement that developed at the beginning of the 17th century. Translated from Italian, the term means “bizarre”, “strange”. This direction affected various types of art and, above all, architecture. What are the characteristic features of Baroque literature?

A little history

Leading position in public and political life Europe in the seventeenth century was occupied by the church. Evidence of this are outstanding architectural monuments. It was necessary to strengthen church power with the help artistic images. Something bright, pretentious, even somewhat intrusive was required. Thus was born a new artistic movement, the birthplace of which was the then Cultural Center Europe - Italy.

This trend began its development in painting and architecture, but later expanded to other forms of art. Writers and poets have not remained aloof from new trends in culture. A new direction was born - baroque literature (emphasis on the second syllable).

Works in the Baroque style were intended to glorify power and the church. In many countries this direction was developed as a kind of court art. However, later varieties of Baroque were identified. Specific features of this style also appeared. The Baroque developed most actively in Catholic countries.

Main features

The aspirations of the Catholic Church to strengthen its power were best suited to art, the characteristic features of which were grace, pomp, and sometimes exaggerated expressiveness. In literature there is attention to sensuality and, oddly enough, the physical principle. A distinctive feature of Baroque art is the combination of the sublime and the earthly.

Varieties

Baroque literature is a collection that can be contrasted with classicism. Moliere, Racine and Corneille created their creations in accordance with strict standards. In the works written by representatives of such a movement as baroque literature, there are metaphors, symbols, antitheses, and gradation. They are characterized by illusory nature and the use of various means of expression.

Baroque literature subsequently divided into several varieties:

• Marinism;
• Gongorism;
• conceptism;
• euphuism.

There is no point in trying to understand the features of each of the listed areas. A few words should be said about what the stylistic features of Baroque literature are and who its main representatives are.

Baroque aesthetics

During the Renaissance, the idea of ​​humanism began to appear in literature. The dark medieval worldview was replaced by an awareness of the value of the human person. Scientific, philosophical and social thought was actively developing. But first, such a direction as baroque literature appeared. What is this? We can say that baroque literature is a kind of transitional link. It replaced Renaissance poetics, but did not deny it.

At the heart of Baroque aesthetics is the clash of two opposing views. The works of this artistic movement intricately combine faith in human capabilities and belief in the omnipotence of the natural world. They reflect both ideological and sensory needs. What is the main theme in the works created within the framework of the “Baroque literature” movement? Writers did not give preference to a particular point of view regarding a person’s place in society and the world. Their ideas fluctuated between hedonism and asceticism, earth and heaven, God and the devil. One more characteristic feature Baroque literature is the return of ancient motifs.

Baroque literature, examples of which can be found not only in Italian, but also in Spanish, French, Polish and Russian cultures, is based on the principle of combining the incongruous. The authors combined in their work various genres. Their main task was to surprise and stun the reader. Strange pictures, unusual scenes, a jumble of various images, a combination of secularism and religiosity - all these are features of Baroque literature.

Worldview

The Baroque era does not abandon the humanistic ideas characteristic of the Renaissance. But these ideas take on a certain tragic connotation. A person is filled with conflicting thoughts. He is ready to fight his passions and the forces of the social environment.

An important idea of ​​the baroque worldview is also the combination of the real and the fictional, the ideal and the earthly. Authors who created their works in this style often showed a tendency toward disharmony, grotesqueness, and exaggeration.

An external feature of Baroque art is a special understanding of beauty. Pretentiousness of forms, pomp, splendor are the characteristic features of this direction.

Heroes

A typical character in Baroque works is a person with a strong will, nobility, and the ability to think rationally. For example, the heroes of Calderon - a Spanish playwright, one of the brightest representatives of baroque literature - are gripped by a thirst for knowledge and a desire for justice.

Europe

Representatives of Italian Baroque literature are Jacopo Sannadzoro, Tebeldeo, Tasso, Guarini. The works of these authors contain pretentiousness, ornamentalism, word game and attraction to mythological subjects.

The main representative of the Baroque is Luis de Gongora, after whom one of the varieties of this artistic movement is named.

Other representatives are Baltasar Gracian, Alonso de Ledesmo, Francis de Quevedo. It should be said that, having originated in Italy, Baroque aesthetics later received active development in Spain. The features of this literary movement are also present in prose. It is enough just to remember the famous “Don Quixote”. Cervantes's hero resides partly in a world he has invented. The misadventures of the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance are reminiscent of the journey of a Homeric character. But in the book of the Spanish writer there is grotesqueness and comedy.

A monument to Baroque literature is Grimelsshausen's Simplicissimus. This novel, which may seem rather eccentric and not without comedy to contemporaries, reflects tragic events in the history of Germany, namely the Thirty Years' War. The plot centers on a simple young man who is on an endless journey and experiences both sad and funny adventures.

In France during this period, predominantly “precious literature” was popular.

In Poland, Baroque literature is represented by such names as Zbigniew Morsztyn, Vespasian Kochowski, Waclaw Potocki.

Russia

S. Polotsky and F. Prokopovich - representatives of the Baroque Russian literature. This direction has become, in a sense, official. Baroque literature in Russia found its expression primarily in court poetry, but it developed somewhat differently than in Western European countries. The fact is that, as you know, the Baroque replaced the Renaissance, which was almost unknown in Russia. The literary movement discussed in this article differed little from the artistic movement inherent in the culture of the Renaissance.

Simeon of Polotsk

This poet sought to reproduce various concepts and ideas in his poems. Polotsky gave poetry logic and even brought it somewhat closer to science. Collections of his works remind encyclopedic dictionaries. His works are mainly devoted to various social issues.

What poetic works does the modern reader perceive? Certainly more recent ones. What is dearer to Russian people - Baroque literature or the Silver Age? Most likely, the second one. Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Gumilyov... The creations that Polotsky created can hardly bring pleasure to the current lover of poetry. This author wrote a number of moralizing poems. It is quite difficult to perceive them today due to the abundance of outdated grammatical forms and archaisms. “A certain man is a wine drinker” is a phrase, a meaning that not every contemporary of ours will understand.

Baroque literature, like other forms of art in this style, encouraged freedom of choice of means of expression. The works were distinguished by the complexity of their forms. And, as a rule, there was pessimism in them, caused by the conviction of man's powerlessness against external forces. At the same time, awareness of the frailty of the world was combined with the desire to overcome the crisis. With the help, an attempt was made to cognize the higher mind, to comprehend the place of man in the vastness of the universe.

The Baroque style was the product of political and social upheavals. It is sometimes perceived as an attempt to restore the medieval worldview. However, this style occupies an important place in the history of literature, primarily because it became the basis for the development of later trends.