A message about a Renaissance artist. Renaissance art

During difficult times for Italy, the short-lived “golden age” of the Italian Renaissance began - the so-called High Renaissance, the highest point of the flowering of Italian art. The High Renaissance thus coincided with the period of fierce struggle of Italian cities for independence. The art of this time was permeated with humanism, faith in the creative powers of man, in the unlimited possibilities of his capabilities, in the reasonable structure of the world, in the triumph of progress. In art, the problems of civic duty, high moral qualities, heroic deeds, the image of a beautiful, harmoniously developed, strong in spirit and body hero man who managed to rise above the level of everyday life came to the fore. The search for such an ideal led art to synthesis, generalization, to the disclosure of general patterns of phenomena, to the identification of their logical relationship. The art of the High Renaissance abandons particulars and insignificant details in the name of a generalized image, in the name of the desire for a harmonious synthesis of the beautiful aspects of life. This is one of the main differences High Renaissance from early.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first artist to clearly embody this difference. Leonardo's first teacher was Andrea Verrocchio. The figure of an angel in the teacher’s painting “Baptism” already clearly demonstrates the difference in the artist’s perception of the world past era and a new era: no frontal flatness of Verrocchio, the finest light and shadow modeling of volume and extraordinary spirituality of the image. . Researchers date the “Madonna of the Flower” to the time of Verrocchio’s departure from the workshop (“ Madonna Benoit", as it was called before, after the owners). During this period, Leonardo was undoubtedly influenced for some time by Botticelli. From the 80s of the 15th century. Two unfinished compositions by Leonardo have survived: “The Adoration of the Magi” and “St. Jerome." Probably in the mid-80s, “Madonna Litta” was also created using the ancient tempera technique, in whose image the type of Leonardo’s female beauty was expressed: heavy, half-lowered eyelids and a subtle smile give the Madonna’s face a special spirituality.

Combining scientific and creative principles, possessing both logical and artistic thinking, Leonardo spent his whole life engaged in scientific research along with the fine arts; distracted, he seemed slow and left behind little art. At the Milanese court, Leonardo worked as an artist, scientific technician, inventor, mathematician and anatomist. The first major work he performed in Milan was “Madonna of the Rocks” (or “Madonna of the Grotto”). This is the first monumental altar composition of the High Renaissance, interesting also because it fully expressed the features of Leonardo's style of writing.

Most great job Leonardo in Milan, the highest achievement of his art was the painting of the wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie on the subject of “The Last Supper” (1495-1498). Christ in last time meets with his students at dinner to announce to them the betrayal of one of them. For Leonardo, art and science existed inseparably. While engaged in art, he did scientific research, experiments, observations, he went through perspective into the field of optics and physics, through problems of proportions - into anatomy and mathematics, etc. “The Last Supper” completes a whole stage in the artist’s scientific research. It is also a new stage in art.

Leonardo took time off from studying anatomy, geometry, fortification, land reclamation, linguistics, versification, and music to work on “The Horse,” an equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, for which he first of all came to Milan and which he performed in the early 90s full size in clay. The monument was not destined to be embodied in bronze: in 1499 the French invaded Milan and Gascon crossbowmen shot the equestrian monument. In 1499, the years of Leonardo’s wanderings began: Mantua, Venice and, finally, the artist’s hometown of Florence, where he painted the cardboard “St. Anna with Mary on her lap,” from which he creates an oil painting in Milan (where he returned in 1506)

Another one was started in Florence by Leonardo painting work: portrait of the merchant del Giocondo's wife Mona Lisa, which has become one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Portrait of Mona Lisa Gioconda is a decisive step towards the development of Renaissance art

For the first time, the portrait genre became on the same level as compositions on religious and mythological themes. Despite all the undeniable physiognomic similarities, Quattrocento’s portraits were distinguished by, if not external, then internal constraint. The majesty of the Mona Lisa is conveyed by the mere juxtaposition of her emphatically voluminous figure, strongly pushed out to the edge of the canvas, with a landscape with rocks and streams visible as if from afar, melting, alluring, elusive and therefore, despite all the reality of the motif, fantastic.

In 1515, at the suggestion of the French king Francis I, Leonardo left for France forever.

Leonardo was the greatest artist of his time, a genius who opened new horizons of art. He left behind few works, but each of them was a stage in the history of culture. Leonardo is also known as a versatile scientist. His scientific discoveries For example, his research in the field of aircraft is of interest in our age of astronautics. Thousands of pages of Leonardo's manuscripts, covering literally every field of knowledge, testify to the universality of his genius.

The ideas of monumental art of the Renaissance, in which the traditions of antiquity and the spirit of Christianity merged, found their most vivid expression in the work of Raphael (1483-1520). In his art, two main tasks found a mature solution: the plastic perfection of the human body, expressing the inner harmony of a comprehensively developed personality, in which Raphael followed antiquity, and a complex multi-figure composition that conveys all the diversity of the world. Raphael enriched these possibilities, achieving amazing freedom in depicting space and the movement of the human figure in it, impeccable harmony between the environment and man.

None of the Renaissance masters perceived the pagan essence of antiquity as deeply and naturally as Raphael; It is not without reason that he is considered the artist who most fully connected ancient traditions with Western European art of the modern era.

Rafael Santi was born in 1483 in the city of Urbino, one of the centers of artistic culture in Italy, at the court of the Duke of Urbino, in the family of a court painter and poet, who was the first teacher of the future master

The early period of Raphael’s work is perfectly characterized by a small painting in the form of a tondo “Madonna Conestabile”, with its simplicity and laconism of strictly selected details (despite the timidity of the composition) and the special, inherent in all of Raphael’s works, subtle lyricism and a sense of peace. In 1500, Raphael left Urbino for Perugia to study in the workshop of the famous Umbrian artist Perugino, under whose influence The Betrothal of Mary (1504) was written. The sense of rhythm, the proportionality of plastic masses, spatial intervals, the relationship between figures and background, the coordination of basic tones (in “Betrothal” these are golden, red and green in combination with a soft blue sky background) create the harmony that appears already in early works Raphael and distinguishes him from the artists of the previous era.

Throughout his life, Raphael searched for this image in the Madonna; his numerous works interpreting the image of the Madonna earned him worldwide fame. The merit of the artist, first of all, is that he was able to embody all the subtlest shades of feelings in the idea of ​​motherhood, to combine lyricism and deep emotionality with monumental grandeur. This is visible in all his Madonnas, starting with the youthfully timid “Madonna Conestabile”: in the “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna with the Goldfinch”, “Madonna in the Armchair” and especially at the pinnacle of Raphael’s spirit and skill - in the “Sistine Madonna”.

“The Sistine Madonna” is one of Raphael’s most perfect works in terms of language: the figure of Mary and Child, strictly silhouetted against the sky, is united by a common rhythm of movement with the figures of St. The barbarians and Pope Sixtus II, whose gestures are addressed to the Madonna, as are the views of two angels (more like putti, which is so characteristic of the Renaissance), are in the lower part of the composition. The figures are also united by a common golden color, as if personifying the Divine radiance. But the main thing is the type of face of the Madonna, which embodies the synthesis of the ancient ideal of beauty with the spirituality of the Christian ideal, which is so characteristic of the worldview of the High Renaissance.

The Sistine Madonna is a late work by Raphael.

At the beginning of the 16th century. Rome takes over cultural center Italy. The art of the High Renaissance reaches its greatest flowering in this city, where, by the will of the patronizing popes Julius II and Leo X, artists such as Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael simultaneously work.

Raphael paints the first two stanzas. In the Stanza della Segnatura (room of signatures, seals) he painted four fresco-allegories of the main spheres of human spiritual activity: philosophy, poetry, theology and jurisprudence. (“The School of Athens”, “Parnassus”, “Disputa”, “Measure, Wisdom and Strength” "In the second room, called the "Stanza of Eliodorus", Raphael painted frescoes on historical and legendary scenes glorifying the popes: "The Expulsion of Eliodorus"

It was common for the art of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance to depict sciences and arts in the form of individual allegorical figures. Raphael solved these themes in the form of multi-figure compositions, sometimes representing real group portraits, interesting both for their individualization and typicality

The students also helped Raphael in painting the Vatican loggias adjacent to the Pope’s rooms, painted according to his sketches and under his supervision with motifs of ancient ornaments, drawn mainly from newly discovered ancient grottoes (hence the name “grotesques”).

Raphael performed works of various genres. His gift as a decorator, as well as a director and storyteller, was fully manifested in a series of eight cardboards for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel on scenes from the life of the apostles Peter and Paul (“A Miraculous Catch of Fish,” for example). These paintings throughout the 16th-18th centuries. served as a kind of standard for classicists.

Raphael was also the greatest portrait painter of his era. (“Pope Julius II”, “Leo X”, the artist’s friend the writer Castiglione, the beautiful “Donna Velata”, etc.). And in his portrait images, as a rule, internal balance and harmony prevail.

At the end of his life, Raphael was disproportionately loaded with a variety of works and orders. It’s even hard to imagine that all this could be done by one person. He was a central figure in the artistic life of Rome; after the death of Bramante (1514), he became the chief architect of the Cathedral of St. Peter, was in charge of archaeological excavations in Rome and its environs and the protection of ancient monuments.

Raphael died in 1520; his premature death was unexpected for his contemporaries. His ashes are buried in the Pantheon.

Third greatest master The High Renaissance - Michelangelo - far outlived Leonardo and Raphael. The first half of his creative career occurred during the heyday of the art of the High Renaissance, and the second during the Counter-Reformation and the beginning of the formation of Baroque art. Of the brilliant galaxy of artists of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo surpassed everyone with the richness of his images, civic pathos, and sensitivity to changes in public mood. Hence the creative embodiment of the collapse of Renaissance ideas.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) In 1488 in Florence he began to carefully study ancient sculpture. His relief “Battle of the Centaurs” is already a work of the High Renaissance in its internal harmony. In 1496, the young artist left for Rome, where he created his first works that brought him fame: “Bacchus” and “Pieta”. Literally captured by the images of antiquity. “Pieta” opens a whole series of works by the master on this subject and puts him forward among the first sculptors of Italy.

Returning to Florence in 1501, Michelangelo, on behalf of the Signoria, undertook to sculpt the figure of David from a block of marble damaged before him by an unlucky sculptor. In 1504, Michelangelo completed the famous statue, which the Florentines called the “Giant” and placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchia, the city hall. The opening of the monument turned into a national celebration. The image of David inspired many Quattrocento artists. But Michelangelo portrays him not as a boy, as in Donatello and Verrocchio, but as a young man in the full bloom of his strength, and not after a battle, with a giant’s head at his feet, but before the battle, at the moment of the highest tension of strength. In the beautiful image of David, in his stern face, the sculptor conveyed the titanic power of passion, unyielding will, civil courage, and the boundless power of a free man.

In 1504, Michelangelo (as already mentioned in connection with Leonardo) begins to work on the painting of the “Hall of the Five Hundred” in the Palazzo Signoria

In 1505, Pope Julius II invited Michelangelo to Rome to build his tomb, but then refused the order and ordered a less grandiose painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Palace.

Michelangelo worked alone on the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from 1508 to 1512, painting an area of ​​about 600 square meters. m (48x13 m) at a height of 18 m.

Michelangelo dedicated the central part of the ceiling to scenes of sacred history, starting from the creation of the world. These compositions are framed by the same painted cornice, but creating the illusion of architecture, and are separated, also by picturesque rods. Picturesque rectangles emphasize and enrich the real architecture of the ceiling. Under the picturesque cornice, Michelangelo painted prophets and sibyls (each figure is about three meters), in lunettes (arches above the windows) he depicted episodes from the Bible and the ancestors of Christ as simple people engaged in everyday affairs.

The nine central compositions unfold the events of the first days of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, the global flood, and all these scenes, in fact, are a hymn to the person inherent in him. Soon after the completion of work in Sistine, Julius II died and his heirs returned to the idea of ​​a tombstone. In 1513-1516. Michelangelo performs the figure of Moses and slaves (captives) for this tombstone. The image of Moses is one of the most powerful in the work of the mature master. He invested in him the dream of a wise, courageous leader, full of titanic strength, expression, will-qualities, so necessary then for the unification of his homeland. The slave figures were not included in the final version of the tomb.

From 1520 to 1534, Michelangelo worked on one of the most significant and most tragic sculptural works - on the tomb of the Medici (Florentine church of San Lorenzo), expressing all the experiences that befell both the master himself and his hometown, and the whole country as a whole. Since the late 20s, Italy was literally torn apart by both external and internal enemies. In 1527, mercenary soldiers defeated Rome, Protestants plundered Catholic shrines eternal city. The Florentine bourgeoisie overthrows the Medici, who ruled again from 1510

In a mood of severe pessimism, in a state of increasing deep religiosity, Michelangelo works on the Medici tomb. He himself built an extension to the Florentine church of San Lorenzo - a small but very high room, covered with a dome, and decorated two walls of the sacristy (its interior) with sculptural tombstones. One wall is decorated with the figure of Lorenzo, the opposite with Giuliano, and below at their feet there are sarcophagi decorated with allegorical sculptural images - symbols of fast-flowing time: “Morning” and “Evening” in Lorenzo’s tombstone, “Night” and “Day” in Giuliano’s tombstone .

Both images - Lorenzo and Giuliano - do not have a portrait resemblance, which is why they differ from the traditional solutions of the 15th century.

Paul III, immediately after his election, began to persistently demand that Michelangelo fulfill this plan, and in 1534, interrupting work on the tomb, which he completed only in 1545, Michelangelo left for Rome, where he began his second work in the Sistine Chapel - to the painting "The Last Judgment" (1535-1541) - a grandiose creation that expressed the tragedy of the human race. The features of the new artistic system appeared even more clearly in this work by Michelangelo. The creative judgment, the punishing Christ is placed in the center of the composition, and around him in a rotating circular motion are depicted sinners casting themselves into hell, the righteous ascending to heaven, and the dead rising from their graves to God's judgment. Everything is full of horror, despair, anger, confusion.

Painter, sculptor, poet, Michelangelo was also a brilliant architect. He completed the staircase of the Florentine Laurentian Library, designed the Capitol Square in Rome, erected the Pius Gate (Porta Pia), and since 1546 he has been working on the Cathedral of St. Peter, begun by Bramante. Michelangelo owns the drawing and drawing of the dome, which was executed after the master’s death and is still one of the main dominant features in the city’s panorama.

Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 89. His body was taken at night to Florence and buried in the oldest church in his hometown of Santa Croce. The historical significance of Michelangelo's art, its impact on his contemporaries and on subsequent eras can hardly be overestimated. Some foreign researchers interpret him as the first artist and architect of the Baroque. But most of all he is interesting as a bearer of the great realistic traditions of the Renaissance.

Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, nicknamed Giorgione (1477-1510), is a direct follower of his teacher and a typical artist of the High Renaissance. He was the first on Venetian soil to turn to literary themes and mythological subjects. Landscape, nature and the beautiful naked human body became for him a subject of art and an object of worship.

Already in the first known work, “Madonna of Castelfranco” (circa 1505), Giorgione appears as a fully established artist; The image of the Madonna is full of poetry, thoughtful dreaminess, permeated with that mood of sadness that is characteristic of all female images of Giorgione. Over the last five years of his life, the artist created his best works, executed in oil technique, the main one in the Venetian school at that time. . In the 1506 painting “The Thunderstorm,” Giorgione depicts man as a part of nature. A woman nursing a child, a young man with a staff (who can be mistaken for a warrior with a halberd) are not united by any action, but are united in this majestic landscape general mood, general state of mind. The image of “Sleeping Venus” (circa 1508-1510) is permeated with spirituality and poetry. Her body is written easily, freely, gracefully, it is not without reason that researchers talk about the “musicality” of Giorgione’s rhythms; it is not without sensual charm. "Rural Concert" (1508-1510)

Titian Vecellio (1477?-1576) - greatest artist Venetian Renaissance. He created works on both mythological and Christian subjects, worked in the portrait genre, his coloristic talent is exceptional, his compositional inventiveness is inexhaustible, and his happy longevity allowed him to leave behind a rich creative heritage that had a huge influence on his descendants.

Already in 1516 he became the first painter of the republic, from the 20s - the most famous artist of Venice

Around 1520, the Duke of Ferrara ordered him a series of paintings in which Titian appears as a singer of antiquity, who was able to feel and, most importantly, embody the spirit of paganism (“Bacchanalia”, “Feast of Venus”, “Bacchus and Ariadne”).

Rich Venetian patricians commissioned Titian to create altarpieces, and he created huge icons: “The Assumption of Mary”, “Madonna of Pesaro”

"The Presentation of Mary into the Temple" (c. 1538), "Venus" (c. 1538)

(group portrait of Pope Paul III with nephews Ottavio and Alexander Farnese, 1545-1546)

He still writes a lot on ancient subjects (“Venus and Adonis”, “The Shepherd and the Nymph”, “Diana and Actaeon”, “Jupiter and Antiope”), but increasingly turns to Christian themes, to scenes of martyrdom in which pagan cheerfulness, ancient harmony is replaced by a tragic attitude (“The Flagellation of Christ”, “Penitent Mary Magdalene”, “St. Sebastian”, “Lamentation”),

But at the end of the century, the features of an approaching new era in art, a new artistic direction, are already obvious here. This can be seen in the work of two major artists of the second half of this century - Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto.

Paolo Cagliari, nicknamed Veronese (he was born in Verona, 1528-1588), was destined to become the last singer of the festive, jubilant Venice of the 16th century.

: “Feast in the House of Levi” “Marriage in Cana of Galilee” for the refectory of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore

Jacopo Robusti, known in art as Tintoretto (1518-1594) (“tintoretto”-dyer: the artist’s father was a silk dyer). "The Miracle of St. Mark" (1548)

(“The Rescue of Arsinoe”, 1555), “Introduction into the Temple” (1555),

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580, Villa Cornaro in Piombino, Villa Rotonda in Vicenza, completed after his death by students according to his design, many buildings in Vicenza). The result of his study of antiquity was the books “Roman Antiquities” (1554), “Four Books on Architecture” (1570-1581), but antiquity was a “living organism” for him, according to the fair observation of the researcher.

The Dutch Renaissance in painting begins with the "Ghent Altarpiece" by the brothers Hubert (died 1426) and Jan (c. 1390-1441) van Eyck, completed by Jan van Eyck in 1432. Van Eyck improved oil technology: oil made it possible to convey brilliance, depth, richness in a more versatile way objective world, attracting the attention of Dutch artists, its colorful sonority.

Of the many Madonnas by Jan van Eyck, the most famous is the “Madonna of Chancellor Rollin” (circa 1435)

(“Man with a Carnation”; “Man in a Turban”, 1433; portrait of the artist’s wife Margaret van Eyck, 1439

Dutch art owes a lot in solving such problems to Rogier van der Weyden (1400?-1464) “The Descent from the Cross” - typical work Vayden.

In the second half of the 15th century. accounts for the work of a master of exceptional talent, Hugo van der Goes (circa 1435-1482) “The Death of Mary”).

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), creator of dark mystical visions, in which he also turns to medieval allegorism, “The Garden of Delights”

The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was, undoubtedly, the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, nicknamed Muzhitsky (1525/30-1569) (“Kitchen of the Skinny”, “Kitchen of the Fat”). The “Winter Landscape” from the cycle “The Seasons” (other title - “Hunters in the Snow”, 1565), “The Battle of Carnival and Lent” (1559).

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528).

“The Feast of the Rosary” (another name is “Madonna with the Rosary”, 1506), “The Horseman, Death and the Devil”, 1513; "St. Jerome" and "Melancholia",

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), "The Triumph of Death" ("Dance of Death") portrait of Jane Seymour, 1536

Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)

Renaissance Lucas Cranach (1472-1553),

Jean Fouquet (circa 1420-1481), Portrait of Charles VII

Jean Clouet (c. 1485/88-1541), son of François Clouet (c. 1516-1572) - the most major artist France 16th century portrait of Elizabeth of Austria, circa 1571, (portrait of Henry II, Mary Stuart, etc.)

The beginning of Renaissance painting is considered to be the era of Ducento, i.e. end of the 13th century. The Proto-Renaissance is still closely connected with the medieval Romanesque. Gothic and Byzantine traditions. Artists of the late XIII - early XIV centuries. are still far from scientific study of the surrounding reality. They express their ideas about it, also using conventional images of the Byzantine pictorial system - rocky hills, symbolic trees, conventional turrets. But sometimes the appearance of architectural structures is so accurately reproduced that this indicates the existence of sketches from life. Traditional religious characters begin to be depicted in a world endowed with the properties of reality - volume, spatial depth, material substance. The search begins for methods of transmission on the plane of volume and three-dimensional space. The masters of this time revived the principle of light and shadow modeling of forms, known from antiquity. Thanks to it, figures and buildings acquire density and volume.

Apparently, the first to use ancient perspective was the Florentine Cenni di Pepo (information from 1272 to 1302), nicknamed Cimabue. Unfortunately, his most significant work - a series of paintings on themes from the Apocalypse, the life of Mary and the Apostle Peter in the Church of San Francesco in Assisi has reached us in an almost destroyed state. His altar compositions, which are located in Florence and in the Louvre Museum, are better preserved. They also go back to Byzantine prototypes, but they clearly show the features of a new approach to religious painting. Cimabue returns from Italian painting of the 13th century, which adopted Byzantine traditions, to their immediate origins. He felt in them what remained inaccessible to his contemporaries - the harmonious principle and the sublime Hellenic beauty of the images.

Great artists appear as bold innovators who reject the traditional system. Such a reformer in Italian painting of the 14th century should be recognized Giotto di Bondone(1266-1337). He is the creator of a new pictorial system, the great transformer of all European painting, the true founder of new art. This is a genius who rises high above his contemporaries and many of his followers.

A Florentine by birth, he worked in many cities in Italy: from Padua and Milan in the north to Naples in the south. The most famous of Giotto's works that have come down to us is the cycle of paintings in the Arena Chapel in Padua, dedicated to the gospel stories about the life of Christ. This unique pictorial ensemble is one of the landmark works in the history of European art. Instead of disparate individual scenes and figures characteristic of medieval painting, Giotto created a single epic cycle. 38 scenes from the life of Christ and Mary (“Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth”, “Kiss of Judas”, “Lamentation”, etc.) through the language of painting are connected into a single narrative . Instead of the usual golden Byzantine background, Giotto introduces a landscape background. The figures no longer float in space, but find solid ground under their feet. And although they are still inactive, they show a desire to convey the anatomy of the human body and the naturalness of movement.

The reform carried out by Giotto in painting made a deep impression on all his contemporaries. Unanimous reviews of him as a great painter, an abundance of customers and patrons, honorary commissions in many cities in Italy - all this suggests that his contemporaries perfectly understood the significance of his art. But the coming generations imitated Giotto like timid students, borrowing details from him.

Giotto's influence acquired its strength and fruitfulness only a century later. The Quattrocento artists accomplished the tasks set by Giotto.

The glory of the founder of painting Quattrocento belongs to the Florentine artist Masaccio, who died very young (1401-1428). He was the first to solve the main problems of Renaissance painting - linear and aerial perspective. In his frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the Florentine church of Santa Maria del Carmine, figures painted according to the laws of anatomy are connected with each other and with the landscape.

The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine became a kind of academy where generations of artists who were influenced by Masaccio studied: Paolo Uccello, Andrei Castagno, Domenico Veniziano and many others up to Michelangelo.

The Florentine school remained leading in Italian art for a long time. There was also a more conservative movement within it. Some artists of this movement were monks, which is why in the history of art they were called monastic. One of the most famous among them was fra (i.e. brother - the address of monks to each other) Giovanni Beato Angelico da Fiesole(1387-1455). His images of biblical characters are written in the spirit of medieval traditions; they are full of lyricism, calm dignity and contemplation. His landscape backgrounds are imbued with the sense of joie de vivre characteristic of the Renaissance.

One of the most prominent artists of the Quattrocento - Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510) - exponent of the aesthetic ideals of the court of the famous tyrant, politician, philanthropist, poet and philosopher Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed the Magnificent. The court of this uncrowned sovereign was a center of artistic culture, uniting famous philosophers, scientists, and artists.

The early Renaissance lasted about a century. It ends with the High Renaissance, which lasts only about 30 years. Rome became the main center of artistic life at this time.

By the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. refers to the beginning of a long-term foreign intervention in Italy, the fragmentation and enslavement of the country, the loss of independence of free cities, and the strengthening of the feudal-Catholic reaction. But a patriotic feeling grew among the Italian people, promoting political activity and the growth of national self-awareness, the desire for national unification. This rise of popular consciousness created a wide folk basis High Renaissance culture.

The end of the Cinquecento is associated with 1530, when the Italian states lost their freedom, becoming the prey of powerful European monarchies. The socio-political and economic crisis of Italy, which is based not on the industrial revolution, but on international trade, has been prepared for a long time. The discovery of America and new trade routes deprived Italian cities of advantages in international trade. But, as is known, in the history of culture, periods of flowering of art do not coincide with the general socio-economic development of society. And in a period of economic decline and political enslavement, in difficult times for Italy, a short-lived century of the Italian Renaissance began - the High Renaissance. It was at this time that the humanistic culture of Italy became a worldwide property and ceased to be a local phenomenon. Italian artists began to enjoy the pan-European popularity that they truly deserved.

If the art of the Quattrocento is analysis, searches, discoveries, the freshness of a youthful worldview, then the art of the High Renaissance is the result, synthesis, wise maturity. The search for an artistic ideal during the Quattrocento period led art to generalization, to the discovery of general patterns. The main difference between the art of the High Renaissance is that it abandons particulars, details, details in the name of a generalized image. All experience, all searches for predecessors are compressed by the great masters of the Cinquecento in a grandiose generalization.

The realistic method of High Renaissance artists is unique. They are convinced that the significant can only exist in a beautiful shell. Therefore, they strive to see only exceptional phenomena that rise above everyday life. Italian artists created images of heroic personalities, beautiful and strong-willed people.

This was the era of the Renaissance titans, which gave world culture the work of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. In the history of world culture, these three geniuses, despite all their dissimilarity and creative individuality, personify the main value of the Italian Renaissance - the harmony of beauty, power and intelligence. The fates of these artists (whose powerful human and artistic individuality forced them to act as rivals and to treat each other with hostility) had much in common. All three were formed in the Florentine school, and then worked at the courts of patrons of the arts, mainly the popes. Their life is evidence of the change in society's attitude towards the creative personality of the artist, which is characteristic of the Renaissance. Masters of art became noticeable and valuable figures in society; they were rightly considered the most educated people of their time.

This characteristic, perhaps more than other figures of the Renaissance, suits Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519). He combined artistic and scientific genius. Leonardo was a scientist who studied nature not for the sake of art, but for the sake of science. That is why so few completed works of Leonardo have reached us. He started paintings and abandoned them as soon as the problem seemed clearly formulated to him. Many of his observations anticipate the development of European science and painting by entire centuries. Modern scientific discoveries fuel interest in his sci-fi engineering drawings. Leonardo's theoretical reflections on colors, which he outlined in his Treatise on Painting, anticipate the main premises of impressionism of the 19th century. Leonardo wrote about the purity of the sound of colors only on the light side of an object, about the mutual influence of colors, about the need for painting in the open air. These observations by Leonardo are not used at all in his painting. He was more of a theorist than a practitioner. Only in the 20th century did the active collection and processing of his huge manuscript heritage (about 7,000 pages) begin. Its study will undoubtedly lead to new discoveries and explanations of the mysteries of the legendary creativity of this Renaissance titan.

A new stage in art was the painting of the wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie on the subject of the Last Supper, which was painted by many Quattrocento artists. "The Last Supper" - the cornerstone classical art, it implemented the High Renaissance program. It influences with absolute thoughtfulness, coherence of parts and the whole, and the power of its spiritual concentration.

Leonardo worked on this work for 16 years.

One of the most famous paintings in the world was Leonardo's La Gioconda. This portrait of the merchant del Giocondo’s wife has attracted attention for centuries, hundreds of pages of commentary have been written about it, it has been stolen, forged, copied, and witchcraft powers have been attributed to it. The elusive expression on Mona Lisa's face defies accurate description and reproduction. The slightest change in shades (which may simply depend on the lighting of the portrait) in the corners of the lips, in the transitions from the chin to the cheek, changes the character of the face. In different reproductions, Gioconda looks slightly different, sometimes a little softer, sometimes more ironic, sometimes more thoughtful. There is elusiveness in the very appearance of Mona Lisa, in her penetrating gaze, as if inextricably following the viewer, in her half-smile. This portrait became a masterpiece of Renaissance art. For the first time in the history of world art, the portrait genre stood on the same level as compositions on a religious theme.

The ideas of monumental art of the Renaissance found vivid expression in creativity Rafael Santi(1483-1520). Leonardo created classic style, Raphael approved and popularized it. Raphael's art is often defined as the "golden mean". His composition surpasses everything that was created in European painting with its absolute harmony of proportions. For five centuries, Raphael's art has been perceived as the highest reference point in the spiritual life of mankind, as one of the examples of aesthetic perfection. Raphael's work is distinguished by classic qualities - clarity, noble simplicity, harmony. In its entirety, it is connected with the spiritual culture of the Renaissance.

The most outstanding of Raphael's monumental works are the paintings of the Vatican apartments of the pope. Multi-figure large-scale compositions cover all the walls of three halls. Raphael's students helped him in painting. The best frescoes, such as the “School of Athens,” he executed with his own hands. The subjects of the painting included fresco allegories of the main spheres of human spiritual activity: philosophy, poetry, theology and justice. In Raphael's paintings and frescoes there is an ideally sublime image Christian images, ancient myths and human history. He knew how to combine the values ​​of earthly existence and ideal ideas like no other of the Renaissance masters. The historical merit of his art is that he connected two worlds into one - the Christian world and the pagan world. From that time on, the new artistic ideal was firmly established in the religious art of Western Europe.

The bright genius of Raphael was far from the psychological depth into the inner world of man, like Leonardo, but he was even more alien to the tragic worldview of Michelangelo. In the work of Michelangelo, the collapse of the Renaissance style was marked and the sprouts of a new artistic worldview emerged. Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475-1564) lived a long, difficult and heroic life. His genius manifested itself in architecture, painting, poetry, but most clearly in sculpture. He perceived the world plastically; in all areas of art he is primarily a sculptor. The human body seems to him the most worthy subject of depiction. But this is a man of a special, powerful, heroic breed. Michelangelo's art is dedicated to the glorification of the human fighter, his heroic activities and suffering. His art is characterized by gigantomania, a titanic beginning. This is the art of squares, public buildings, and not palace halls, art for the people, and not for court aristocrats.

The most ambitious of his works was the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo accomplished a truly titanic work - within four years he alone painted an area of ​​about 600 square meters. meters. Day after day, he wrote at a height of 18 meters, standing on scaffolding and throwing his head back. After finishing the painting, his health was completely undermined, and his body was disfigured (his chest fell in, his body arched, his goiter grew; for a long time the artist could not look straight ahead and read while raising a book above his head). The grandiose painting is dedicated to scenes of sacred history, starting from the creation of the world. Michelangelo painted about 200 figures and figurative compositions on the ceiling. Never and nowhere has there been anything comparable to Michelangelo's plan in scope and integrity. On the vault of the Sistine Chapel, he created a hymn in praise of heroic humanity. His heroes are living people, there is nothing supernatural about them, but at the same time, they are wonderful, powerful, titanic personalities. The Quattrocento masters, long before Michelangelo, illustrated various episodes of church tradition on the walls of the chapel; Michelangelo wanted to represent the fate of humanity before redemption on the vault.

Any idea that the picture is a plane disappears. The figures move freely in space. Michelangelo's frescoes break through the plane of the wall. This illusion of space and movement was a huge achievement of European art. Michelangelo's discovery that decoration can push forward or force back walls and ceilings later exploits the decorative arts of the Baroque.

Art, true to the traditions of the Renaissance, continues to live in the 16th century in Venice, the city that retained its independence the longest. In this rich patrician-merchant republic, which had long maintained trade relations with Byzantium and the Arab East, oriental tastes and traditions were processed in their own way. The main impact of Venetian painting is in its extraordinary color. The love of color gradually led the artists of the Venetian school to a new pictorial principle. The volume and materiality of the image are achieved not by cut-off modeling, but by the art of color modeling.

The names of Renaissance artists have long been surrounded by universal recognition. Many judgments and assessments about them have become axioms. And yet, treating them critically is not only the right, but also the duty of art history. Only then does their art retain its true meaning for posterity.

Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca was until recently the least known and recognized. The influence of the Florentine masters of the early 15th century on Piero della Francesca, as well as his reciprocal influence on his contemporaries and successors, especially on the Venetian school, has been rightly noted. However, the exceptional, outstanding position of Piero della Francesca in Italian painting is not yet sufficiently realized. Presumably, over time, his recognition will only increase.

Piero della Francesca (c. 1420-1492) Italian artist and theorist, representative of the Early Renaissance

His largest and most beautiful work is a cycle of frescoes on the theme “The History of the Cross” in Arezzo (1452-1466). The work was carried out according to the will of the local merchant Bacci. Perhaps a clergyman, the executor of the will of the deceased, took part in the development of the program. Piero della Francesca relied on the so-called “Golden Legend” of J. da Voragine. He also had predecessors among artists. But the main idea obviously belonged to him. The artist's wisdom, maturity and poetic sensitivity clearly shine through in him.

Hardly the only pictorial cycle in Italy of that time, “The History of the Cross,” has a double meaning. On the one hand, everything is presented here that is told in the legend about how the tree from which the Calvary cross was made grew, and how its miraculous power later manifested itself. But since the individual paintings are not in chronological order, this literal meaning seems to recede into the background. The artist arranged the paintings in such a way that they give an idea of ​​different forms of human life: about the patriarchal - in the scene of the death of Adam and in the transfer of the cross by Heraclius, about the secular, court, urban - in the scenes of the Queen of Sheba and in the Finding of the cross, and finally about the military, battle - in the "Victory of Constantine" and in the "Victory of Heraclius". In essence, Piero della Francesca covered almost all aspects of life. His cycle included: history, legend, life, work, pictures of nature and portraits of contemporaries. In the city of Arezzo, in the church of San Francesco, politically subordinate to Florence, there was the most remarkable fresco cycle of the Italian Renaissance.

The art of Piero della Francesca is more real than ideal. A rational principle reigns in him, but not rationality, which can drown out the voice of the heart. And in this respect, Piero della Francesca personifies the brightest, most fruitful forces of the Renaissance.

Andrea Mantegna

Mantegna's name is associated with the idea of ​​a humanist artist, in love with Roman antiquities, armed with extensive knowledge of ancient archaeology. All his life he served the Dukes of Mantua d'Este, was their court painter, carried out their instructions, served them faithfully (although they did not always give him what he deserved). But deep down in his soul and in art he was independent, devoted to his high the ideal of ancient valor, fanatically faithful to his desire to give his works a jeweler's precision. This required an enormous effort of spiritual strength. Mantegna's art is harsh, sometimes cruel to the point of mercilessness, and in this it differs from the art of Piero della Francesca and approaches Donatello.

Andrea Mantegna. Self-portrait in the Ovetari Chapel

He glorifies Roman valor, almost better than the Romans themselves did. His heroes are armored and statuary. His rocky mountains are precisely carved by a sculptor’s chisel. Even the clouds floating across the sky seem to be cast from metal. Among these fossils and castings, battle-hardened heroes act, courageous, stern, persistent, devoted to a sense of duty, justice, and ready for self-sacrifice. People move freely in space, but when they line up in a row, they form something like stone reliefs. This world of Mantegna does not enchant the eye; it chills the heart. But one cannot help but admit that it was created by the artist’s spiritual impulse. And therefore, the decisive importance here was the artist’s humanistic erudition, not the advice of his learned friends, but his powerful imagination, his passion bound by will and confident skill.

Before us is one of the significant phenomena in the history of art: great masters, by the power of their intuition, stand in line with their distant ancestors and accomplish what later artists who studied the past, but were unable to equal it, failed to do.

Sandro Botticelli

Botticelli was discovered by the English Pre-Raphaelites. However, even at the beginning of the 20th century, with all the admiration for his talent, they did not “forgive” him for deviations from generally accepted rules - perspective, light and shade, anatomy. Subsequently, it was decided that Botticelli had turned back to the Gothic. Vulgar sociology summed up its explanation for this: the “feudal reaction” in Florence. Iconological interpretations established Botticelli's connections with the circle of Florentine Neoplatonists, especially evident in his famous paintings "Spring" and "Birth of Venus".

Self-portrait of Sandro Botticelli, fragment of the altar composition "Adoration of the Magi" (circa 1475)

Reading modern scholarly comments on this painting, it is difficult to believe that the artist himself could delve so deeply into the mythological plot in order to come up with all sorts of subtleties in the interpretation of figures, which even today cannot be understood at a glance, but in the old days, apparently, were understood only in Medici mug. It is more likely that they were suggested to the artist by some erudite and he managed to achieve the fact that the artist began to interlinearly translate the verbal sequence into the visual one. The most delightful thing about Botticelli's painting is the individual figures and groups, especially the group of the Three Graces. Despite the fact that it has been reproduced an infinite number of times, it has not lost its charm to this day. Every time you see her, you experience a new attack of admiration. Truly, Botticelli managed to communicate to his creatures eternal youth. One of the scholarly commentators on the painting suggested that the dance of the graces expresses the idea of ​​harmony and discord, which the Florentine Neoplatonists often spoke about.

Botticelli owns unsurpassed illustrations for " Divine Comedy"Whoever has seen his sheets will invariably remember them when reading Dante. He, like no one else, was imbued with the spirit of Dante's poem. Some of Dante's drawings have the character of an accurate graphic liner to the poem. But the most beautiful are those where the artist imagines and composes in the spirit of Dante. There are more of these among the illustrations of paradise. It would seem that painting paradise was the most difficult for Renaissance artists, who so loved the fragrant earth, Botticelli does not renounce the Renaissance perspective, spatial impressions, depending on the viewer’s point of view. in paradise, he rises to convey the non-perspective essence of the objects themselves. His figures are weightless, light penetrates them, space exists outside of earthly coordinates. The bodies fit into a circle, as if in a symbol of the celestial sphere.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo is one of the generally recognized geniuses of the Renaissance. Many consider him the first artist of that time, in any case, his name first of all comes to mind when it comes to the remarkable people of the Renaissance. And that is why it is so difficult to deviate from the usual opinions and consider his artistic heritage with an unbiased mind.

Self-portrait where Leonardo portrayed himself as an old sage. The drawing is kept in the Royal Library of Turin. 1512

Leonardo was a great scientist, an insightful thinker, a writer, the author of the Treatise, and an inventive engineer. His comprehensiveness raised him above the level of most artists of that time and at the same time set him a difficult task - to combine a scientific analytical approach with the artist’s ability to see the world and directly surrender to feeling. This task subsequently occupied many artists and writers. For Leonardo, it took on the character of an insoluble problem.

Let us forget for a while everything that the wonderful myth about the artist-scientist whispers to us, and let us judge his painting the way we judge the painting of other masters of his time. What makes his work stand out from theirs? First of all, vigilance of vision and high artistry of execution. They bear the imprint of exquisite craftsmanship and the finest taste. In his teacher Verrocchio’s painting “The Baptism,” the young Leonardo painted one angel so sublimely and sublimely that next to him the pretty angel Verrocchio seems rustic and base. Over the years, “aesthetic aristocracy” intensified even more in Leonardo’s art. This does not mean that at the courts of sovereigns his art became courtly and courtly. In any case, his Madonnas can never be called peasant women.

He belonged to the same generation as Botticelli, but spoke disapprovingly, even mockingly, of him, considering him behind the times. Leonardo himself sought to continue the search for his predecessors in the art. Not limiting himself to space and volume, he sets himself the task of mastering the light-air environment that envelops objects. This meant the next step in the artistic comprehension of the real world, and to a certain extent opened the way for the colorism of the Venetians.

It would be wrong to say that his passion for science interfered with Leonardo's artistic creativity. The genius of this man was so enormous, his skill so high, that even an attempt to “stand up to the throat of his song” could not kill his creativity. His gift as an artist constantly broke through all restrictions. What is captivating in his creations is the unmistakable fidelity of the eye, the clarity of consciousness, the obedience of the brush, and the virtuosic technique. They captivate us with their charms, like an obsession. Anyone who has seen La Gioconda remembers how difficult it is to tear yourself away from it. In one of the halls of the Louvre, where she found herself next to the best masterpieces of the Italian school, she triumphs and proudly reigns over everything that hangs around her.

Leonardo's paintings do not form a chain, like many other Renaissance artists. In his early works, like Benoit's Madonna, there is more warmth and spontaneity, but even in it the experiment makes itself felt. "Adoration" in the Uffizi - and this is an excellent underpainting, a temperamental, lively image of people reverently turned to an elegant woman with a baby on her lap. In "Madonna of the Rocks" the angel, a curly-haired youth looking out from the picture, is charming, but the strange idea of ​​​​transferring the idyll into the darkness of the cave is repellent. The famous “Last Supper” has always delighted in its apt characterization of the characters: gentle John, stern Peter, and the villainous Judas. However, the fact that such lively and excited figures are arranged three in a row, on one side of the table, looks like an unjustified convention, violence against living nature. Nevertheless, this is the great Leonardo da Vinci, and since he painted the picture this way, it means he intended it this way, and this mystery will remain for centuries.

Observation and vigilance, to which Leonardo called artists in his Treatise, do not limit his creative capabilities. He deliberately tried to spur his imagination by looking at the walls, cracked from age, in which the viewer could imagine any plot. In the famous Windsor drawing of sanguine "Thunderstorm" by Leonardo, what was revealed to his gaze from some mountain peak was conveyed. A series of Windsor drawings on the theme global flood- evidence of a truly brilliant insight of the artist-thinker. The artist creates signs that have no answer, but which evoke a feeling of amazement mixed with horror. The drawings were created by the great master in some kind of prophetic delirium. Everything is said in them in the dark language of John’s visions.

Leonardo's internal discord in his declining days makes itself felt in two of his works: the Louvre "John the Baptist" and the Turin self-portrait. In the late Turin self-portrait, the artist, who has reached old age, looks at himself in the mirror with an open gaze from behind his frowning eyebrows - he sees in his face the features of decrepitude, but he also sees wisdom, a sign of the “autumn of life.”

Sandro Botticelli(March 1, 1445 - May 17, 1510) - a deeply religious man, worked in all the major churches of Florence and in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, but remained in the history of art primarily as the author of large-format poetic canvases on subjects inspired by classical antiquity - "Spring" and "Birth of Venus". .

For a long time, Botticelli was in the shadow of the Renaissance giants who worked after him, until he was rediscovered in the mid-19th century by the British Pre-Raphaelites, who revered the fragile linearity and spring freshness of his mature canvases as the highest point in the development of world art.

Born into the family of a wealthy city dweller, Mariano di Vanni Filipepi. Received a good education. He studied painting with the monk Filippo Lippi and adopted from him that passion in depicting touching motifs that distinguishes historical paintings Lippi. Then he worked for the famous sculptor Verrocchio. In 1470 he organized his own workshop..

He adopted the subtlety and precision of lines from his second brother, who was a jeweler. He studied for some time with Leonardo da Vinci in Verrocchio's workshop. The original feature of Botticelli’s own talent is his inclination towards the fantastic. He was one of the first to introduce ancient myth and allegory into the art of his time, and worked with particular love on mythological subjects. Particularly impressive is his Venus, who floats naked on the sea in a shell, and the gods of the winds shower her with rain of roses and drive the shell to the shore.

The frescoes he began in 1474 in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican are considered Botticelli's best creation. He completed many paintings commissioned by the Medici. In particular, he painted the banner of Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the 1470-1480s, the portrait became an independent genre in the work of Botticelli (“Man with a Medal,” c. 1474; “Young Man,” 1480s). Botticelli became famous for his subtle aesthetic taste and such works as “The Annunciation” (1489--1490), “Abandoned” (1495--1500), etc. In last years Botticelli apparently abandoned painting throughout his life.

Sandro Botticelli is buried in the family tomb in the Church of Ognisanti in Florence. According to his will, he was buried near the grave of Simonetta Vespucci, who inspired the most beautiful images masters

Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci(April 15, 1452, the village of Anchiano, near the town of Vinci, near Florence - May 2, 1519 - great Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer, one of the largest representatives of High Art Renaissance, a shining example of the "universal man".

Our contemporaries know Leonardo primarily as an artist. In addition, it is possible that da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us. However, da Vinci himself, at different periods of his life, considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He gave fine arts not very much time and worked quite slowly. Therefore, Leonardo’s artistic heritage is not large in quantity, and a number of his works have been lost or severely damaged. However, his contribution to the world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that it gave Italian Renaissance. Thanks to his works, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage of its development. The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively rejected many of the conventions of medieval art. This was a movement towards realism and much had already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, and greater freedom in compositional solutions. But in terms of painting, working with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the object, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing. The most conventional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. .

Leonardo realized and implemented a new painting technique. His line has the right to be blurry, because that’s how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level. . renaissance painting Botticelli Renaissance

Rafael Santi(March 28, 1483 - April 6, 1520) - great Italian painter, graphic artist and architect, representative of the Umbrian school..

The son of the painter Giovanni Santi underwent initial artistic training in Urbino with his father Giovanni Santi, but already in at a young age ended up in the workshop outstanding artist Pietro Perugino. It was the artistic language and imagery of Perugino’s paintings, with their attraction to a symmetrical, balanced composition, clarity of spatial solutions and softness in color and lighting, that had a primary influence on the style of the young Raphael.

It is also necessary to stipulate that Raphael’s creative style included a synthesis of the techniques and findings of other masters. At first, Raphael relied on the experience of Perugino, and later, in turn, on the findings of Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, Michelangelo. .

Early works (“Madonna Conestabile” 1502-1503) are imbued with grace and soft lyricism. The earthly existence of man, the harmony of spiritual and physical strength glorified in the paintings of the rooms of the Vatican (1509-1517), achieving an impeccable sense of proportion, rhythm, proportions, euphony of color, unity of figures and majestic architectural backgrounds..

In Florence, having come into contact with the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael learned from them the anatomically correct depiction of the human body. At the age of 25, the artist ends up in Rome, and from that moment begins the period of the highest flowering of his creativity: he performs monumental paintings in the Vatican Palace (1509-1511), including the master’s undisputed masterpiece - the fresco “The School of Athens”, writes altar compositions and easel paintings, distinguished by the harmony of concept and execution, works as an architect (for some time Raphael even directed the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral). In a tireless search for his ideal, embodied for the artist in the image of the Madonna, he creates his most perfect creation - the “Sistine Madonna” (1513), a symbol of motherhood and self-denial. Raphael's paintings and murals were recognized by his contemporaries, and Santi soon became a central figure in the artistic life of Rome. Many noble people of Italy wanted to become related to the artist, including Raphael’s close friend Cardinal Bibbiena. The artist died at the age of thirty-seven from heart failure. The unfinished paintings of the Villa Farnesina, the Vatican loggias and other works were completed by Raphael's students in accordance with his sketches and drawings.

One of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance, whose paintings are characterized by an emphasized balance and harmony of the whole, balanced composition, measured rhythm and delicate use of color capabilities. Impeccable command of the line and the ability to generalize and highlight the main thing made Raphael one of the most outstanding masters of drawing of all time. Raphael's legacy served as one of the pillars in the formation of European academicism. Adherents of classicism - the Carracci brothers, Poussin, Mengs, David, Ingres, Bryullov and many other artists - extolled Raphael's legacy as the most perfect phenomenon in world art...

Titian Vecellio(1476/1477 or 1480s-1576) - Italian Renaissance painter. Titian's name ranks with such Renaissance artists as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Titian painted paintings on biblical and mythological subjects; he also became famous as a portrait painter. Kings and popes, cardinals, dukes and princes placed orders for him. Titian was not even thirty years old when he was recognized as the best painter of Venice.

According to his place of birth (Pieve di Cadore in the province of Belluno), he is sometimes called da Cadore; also known as Titian the Divine...

Titian was born into the family of Gregorio Vecellio, a statesman and military leader. At the age of ten he was sent with his brother to Venice to study with the famous mosaic artist Sebastian Zuccato. A few years later he entered the workshop of Giovanni Bellini as an apprentice. He studied with Lorenzo Lotto, Giorgio da Castelfranco (Giorgione) and a number of other artists who later became famous.

In 1518, Titian painted the painting “The Ascension of Our Lady”, in 1515 - Salome with the head of John the Baptist. From 1519 to 1526 he painted a number of altars, including the altarpiece of the Pesaro family.

Titian lived a long life. Until his last days he did not stop working. Titian painted his last painting, Lamentation of Christ, for his own tombstone. The artist died of the plague in Venice on August 27, 1576, having become infected from his son while caring for him.

Emperor Charles V summoned Titian to his place and surrounded him with honor and respect and said more than once: “I can create a duke, but where can I get a second Titian?” When one day the artist dropped his brush, Charles V picked it up and said: “It is an honor even for the emperor to serve Titian.” Both the Spanish and French kings invited Titian to live at their court, but the artist, having completed his orders, always returned to his native Venice. A crater on Mercury was named in honor of Titian. .

Renaissance (Renaissance). Italy. 15-16th century. Early capitalism. The country is ruled by rich bankers. They are interested in art and science.
The rich and powerful gather around them the talented and wise. Poets, philosophers, artists and sculptors have daily conversations with their patrons. For a moment it seemed that the people were ruled by wise men, as Plato wanted.
They remembered the ancient Romans and Greeks. Who also built society free citizens. Where main value- a person (not counting slaves, of course).
Renaissance is not just copying the art of ancient civilizations. This is a mixture. Mythology and Christianity. Realism of nature and sincerity of images. Physical beauty and spiritual beauty.
It was just a flash. The High Renaissance period is approximately 30 years! From the 1490s to 1527 From the beginning of the heyday of Leonardo's creativity. Before the sack of Rome.

The mirage of an ideal world quickly faded. Italy turned out to be too fragile. She was soon enslaved by another dictator.
However, these 30 years determined the main features of European painting for 500 years to come! Up to impressionists.
Realism of the image. Anthropocentrism (when a person is main character and hero). Linear perspective. Oil paints. Portrait. Scenery…
It’s incredible, but during these 30 years several brilliant masters worked at once. Which at other times are born once every 1000 years.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian are the titans of the Renaissance. But we cannot fail to mention their two predecessors. Giotto and Masaccio. Without which there would be no Renaissance.

1. Giotto (1267-1337)

Paolo Uccello. Giotto da Bondogni. Fragment of the painting “Five Masters of the Florentine Renaissance.” Early 16th century. Louvre, Paris.

14th century Proto-Renaissance. Its main character is Giotto. This is a master who single-handedly revolutionized art. 200 years before the High Renaissance. If it were not for him, the era of which humanity is so proud would hardly have come.
Before Giotto there were icons and frescoes. They were created according to Byzantine canons. Faces instead of faces. Flat figures. Failure to comply with proportions. Instead of a landscape there is a golden background. Like, for example, on this icon.

Guido da Siena. Adoration of the Magi. 1275-1280 Altenburg, Lindenau Museum, Germany.

And suddenly frescoes by Giotto appear. On them volumetric figures. Faces of noble people. Sad. Mournful. Surprised. Old and young. Different.

Giotto. Lamentation of Christ. Fragment

Giotto. Kiss of Judas. Fragment

Giotto. Saint Anne

Frescoes by Giotto in the Church of Scrovegni in Padua (1302-1305). Left: Lamentation of Christ. Middle: Kiss of Judas (fragment). Right: Annunciation of St. Anne (Mother Mary), fragment.
Giotto's main work is the cycle of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. When this church opened to parishioners, crowds of people poured into it. Because they have never seen anything like this.
After all, Giotto did something unprecedented. He seemed to translate biblical stories in simple understandable language. And they have become much more accessible to ordinary people.

Giotto. Adoration of the Magi. 1303-1305 Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.

This is precisely what will be characteristic of many Renaissance masters. Laconic images. Lively emotions of the characters. Realism.
Between the icon and the realism of the Renaissance."
Giotto was admired. But his innovations were not developed further. The fashion for international gothic came to Italy.
Only after 100 years will a master appear, a worthy successor to Giotto.
2. Masaccio (1401-1428)

Masaccio. Self-portrait (fragment of the fresco “St. Peter on the Pulpit”). 1425-1427 Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

Early 15th century. The so-called Early Renaissance. Another innovator is entering the scene.
Masaccio was the first artist to use linear perspective. It was designed by his friend, the architect Brunelleschi. Now the depicted world has become similar to the real one. Toy architecture is a thing of the past.

Masaccio. Saint Peter heals with his shadow. 1425-1427 Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

He adopted Giotto's realism. However, unlike his predecessor, he already knew anatomy well.
Instead of blocky characters, Giotto has beautifully built people. Just like the ancient Greeks.

Masaccio. Baptism of neophytes. 1426-1427 Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy.

Masaccio. Expulsion from Paradise. 1426-1427 Fresco in the Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

Masaccio lived a short life. He died, like his father, unexpectedly. At 27 years old.
However, he had many followers. Masters of subsequent generations went to the Brancacci Chapel to study from his frescoes.
Thus, Masaccio’s innovations were taken up by all the great titans of the High Renaissance.

3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. 1512 Royal Library in Turin, Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the titans of the Renaissance. Which had a tremendous impact on the development of painting.
It was he who raised the status of the artist himself. Thanks to him, representatives of this profession are no longer just artisans. These are creators and aristocrats of the spirit.
Leonardo made a breakthrough primarily in portraiture.
He believed that nothing should distract from the main image. The gaze should not wander from one detail to another. This is how his famous portraits appeared. Laconic. Harmonious.

Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an ermine. 1489-1490 Czertoryski Museum, Krakow.

Leonardo's main innovation is that he found a way to make images... alive.
Before him, characters in portraits looked like mannequins. The lines were clear. All details are carefully drawn. The painted drawing could not possibly be alive.
But then Leonardo invented the sfumato method. He shaded the lines. Made the transition from light to shadow very soft. His characters seem to be covered with a barely perceptible haze. The characters came to life.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris.

Since then, sfumato will be included in the active vocabulary of all the great artists of the future.
There is often an opinion that Leonardo, of course, is a genius. But he didn’t know how to finish anything. And I often didn’t finish paintings. And many of his projects remained on paper (by the way, in 24 volumes). And in general he was thrown either into medicine or into music. And at one time I was even interested in the art of serving.
However, think for yourself. 19 paintings. And he is the greatest artist of all time. And some are not even close to greatness. At the same time, having painted 6,000 canvases in his life. It is obvious who has the higher efficiency.

4. Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Daniele da Volterra. Michelangelo (fragment). 1544 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor. But he was universal master. Like his other Renaissance colleagues. Therefore, his pictorial heritage is no less grandiose.
He is recognizable primarily by his physically developed characters. Because he portrayed a perfect man. In which physical beauty means spiritual beauty.
That’s why all his heroes are so muscular and resilient. Even women and old people.

Michelangelo. Fragment of the fresco "The Last Judgment"

Michelangelo. Fragments of the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican.
Michelangelo often painted the character naked. And then he added clothes on top. So that the body is as sculpted as possible.
He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel himself. Although these are several hundred figures! He didn’t even allow anyone to rub paint. Yes, he was a loner. Possessing a cool and quarrelsome character. But most of all he was dissatisfied with... himself.

Michelangelo. Fragment of the fresco “The Creation of Adam”. 1511 Sistine Chapel, Vatican.

Michelangelo lived a long life. Having survived the decline of the Renaissance. For him it was a personal tragedy. His later works are full of sadness and sorrow.
In general, Michelangelo's creative path is unique. His early works are a celebration of the human hero. Free and courageous. In the best traditions ancient Greece. What's his name David?
In the last years of life these are tragic images. Intentionally rough-hewn stone. It’s as if we are looking at monuments to the victims of 20th century fascism. Look at his Pietà.

Michelangelo. David

Michelangelo. Pieta Palestrina

Michelangelo's sculptures at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Left: David. 1504 Right: Palestrina's Pietà. 1555
How is this possible? One artist in one life went through all stages of art from the Renaissance to the 20th century. What should subsequent generations do? Well, go your own way. Realizing that the bar is set very high.

5. Raphael (1483-1520)

Raphael. Self-portrait. 1506 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Raphael was never forgotten. His genius has always been recognized. And during life. And after death.
His characters are endowed with sensual, lyrical beauty. It is his Madonnas that are rightfully considered the most beautiful female images ever created. Their outer beauty reflects and spiritual beauty heroines. Their meekness. Their sacrifice.

Raphael. Sistine Madonna. 1513 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany.

Fyodor Dostoevsky said the famous words “Beauty will save the world” specifically about the Sistine Madonna. This was his favorite painting.
However, sensual images are not Raphael’s only strong point. He thought through the compositions of his paintings very carefully. He was an unsurpassed architect in painting. Moreover, he always found the simplest and most harmonious solution in organizing space. It seems that it cannot be any other way.

Raphael. Athens School. 1509-1511 Fresco in the Stanzas of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican.

Raphael lived only 37 years. He died suddenly. From a caught cold and medical error. But his legacy is difficult to overestimate. Many artists idolized this master. Multiplying his sensual images in thousands of his canvases.

6. Titian (1488-1576).

Titian. Self-portrait (fragment). 1562 Prado Museum, Madrid.

Titian was an unsurpassed colorist. He also experimented a lot with composition. In general, he was a daring and brilliant innovator.
Everyone loved him for such brilliance of his talent. Called “The King of Painters and the Painter of Kings.”
Speaking about Titian, after every sentence I want to put Exclamation point. After all, it was he who brought dynamics to painting. Pathos. Enthusiasm. Bright color. The radiance of colors.

Titian. Ascension of Mary. 1515-1518 Church of Santa Maria Gloriosi dei Frari, Venice.

By the end of his life he had developed unusual technique letters. The strokes are fast. Thick. Pasty. I applied the paint either with a brush or with my fingers. This makes the images even more alive and breathing. And the plots are even more dynamic and dramatic.

Titian. Tarquin and Lucretia. 1571 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.

Doesn't this remind you of anything? Of course, this is Rubens' technique. And the technique of 19th century artists: Barbizons and Impressionists. Titian, like Michelangelo, would go through 500 years of painting in one lifetime. That's why he's a genius.

***
Renaissance artists are artists of great knowledge. To leave such a legacy, you had to know a lot. In the field of history, astrology, physics and so on.
Therefore, every image of them makes us think. Why is this depicted? What is the encrypted message here?
Therefore, they almost never made mistakes. Because they thoroughly thought through their future work. Using all your knowledge.
They were more than artists. They were philosophers. Explaining the world to us through painting.
That is why they will always be deeply interesting to us.