A Norman by birth, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was born in Les Andelys, a small town on the banks of the Seine. Young Poussin was provided with a good education and the opportunity to study the initial stages of an artist's art. He learned more about the secrets of craftsmanship after moving to Paris, where he studied with masters.
Portrait painter Ferdinand Van Elle became the young painter's first mentor, and later Poussin studied with the master who painted churches, Quentin Varenne, and the court artist Georges Lallemand, who adhered to the relatively new style of Mannerism at that time. Copying paintings by recognized masters of painting also helped him “get better”; he could freely do this in the Louvre.
The first period of creativity in Italy
In 1624, the name of Poussin was already known among connoisseurs of painting, and he himself was increasingly fascinated by the work of Italian masters. Deciding that he had learned everything he could from his French mentors, Poussin moved to Rome. In addition to Italian painting, Poussin also highly valued poetry, largely thanks to his acquaintance with Giambattista Marino, a representative of gallant poetry. They became friends in Paris, and Nikola illustrated his friend’s poem “Adonis.” From the early Parisian period of the artist’s work, only illustrations have survived to this day.
Poussin studied mathematics and anatomy, sculptures from antiquity served him as models for sketches, and scientific works Durer and da Vinci helped in understanding how the proportions of the human body should be transferred to artistic art. He acquired theoretical knowledge in geometry, optics, and the laws of perspective.
Carracci, Titian, Raphael and Michelangelo - the works of these masters deeply impressed the French painter. The first years of his life in Rome were a time of searching for his own style, and his work was then characterized by sharp angles, dark tones and an abundance of shadows. Later he art style changed, the color scheme became warmer, and the elements of the paintings were subordinated to a single center. The theme of creativity of that time was heroic stories and actions of ancient mythology.
Commissioned by one of Poussin’s Roman patrons, Cassiano del Pozzo, the artist created a series of paintings called “The Seven Sacraments,” and “The Destruction of Jerusalem” and “The Rape of the Sabine Women” brought him wider fame. He added modern trends to the mythological themes of his paintings, streamlining the composition and moving the action to the foreground of the picture. Poussin strove to achieve naturalness in the positions of the characters and to give their gestures and facial expressions clear meaning. Harmony and unity with nature, characteristic of ancient myths, inspired the artist; this can be seen in the paintings “Venus and the Satires”, “Diana and Endymion”, “The Education of Jupiter”.
Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” served as the basis for “The Kingdom of Flora”; the picture became a kind of hymn to the rebirth and spring renewal of nature. The theoretical knowledge acquired earlier allowed him to accurately follow the accepted laws of composition, and warm, clear colors made the paintings truly alive (“Tancred and Erminia”, “Venus and the Shepherds”). Additional accuracy was given to the images by preliminary preparation: he made models of wax figures, and before starting to work on the painting, he experimented with the play of light and the position of these figures.
Parisian intrigues and return to Rome
The most successful years in Poussin's career were the years he spent working on decorating the Louvre Gallery at the invitation of Cardinal Richelieu (second half of the 30s). Having received the title of the first royal painter, he worked on both the gallery and many other commissions. Such success did not increase his popularity among fellow painters, and those who also applied for work at the Louvre were especially dissatisfied.
The intrigues of ill-wishers forced the artist to leave Paris and in 1642 move to Rome again. During this period of creativity (until the 50s), the Bible and the Gospel became the source of themes for Poussin’s paintings. If in the early works natural harmony reigned, now the heroes of the paintings are biblical and mythological characters who have won victory over their passions and have the power of will (Coriolanus, Diogenes). The iconic painting of that period is “The Arcadian Shepherds,” which compositionally speaks of the inevitability of death and the peaceful acceptance of this awareness. This painting became an example of classicism; the artist’s style acquired a more restrained character, not as emotionally lyrical as in the works of the first Roman period. The contrast of several colors became predominant in the color scheme.
The artist did not have time to complete his last work, “Apollo and Daphne,” but it was in his paintings that French classicism was formed.
In the 2nd half of the 17th century in France, classicism became the official direction in art. However, in sculpture and painting it is more difficult than in architecture; there is an even greater influence of the Baroque. Nevertheless, classicism gained its position.
As already mentioned, classicism arose on the crest of the social upsurge of the French nation and the French state. The basis of the theory of classicism was rationalism, and antiquity served as the aesthetic ideal. Only the beautiful and sublime, according to ancient ideals, were proclaimed works of classicism.
The creator of the movement of classicism in French painting of the 17th century was Nicolas Poussin. Already in his student years, Poussin became interested in the art of the Renaissance and antiquity. He went to improve his skills in Italy, took lessons in Venice and Rome, involuntarily admiring the Baroque painting of Caravaggio.
The themes of Poussin's paintings are varied: mythology, history, New and Old Testaments. Poussin's heroes are people strong characters and majestic actions, a high sense of duty to society and the state. His paintings are poetically sublime; measure and order reign in everything. The coloring is based on the consonance of strong, deep tones. However, Poussin's best works are devoid of cold rationality.
In the first period of his creativity, he wrote a lot on ancient subjects. The unity of man and nature, a happy, harmonious worldview are characteristic of his paintings of this period. His sensual element becomes orderly, reasonable, everything has acquired the features of heroic, sublime beauty.
In the 40s, a turning point was observed in his work. It is associated with a move to Paris, to the court of Louis XVIII, where the modest and profound artist was very uncomfortable. At this time, the theme of death, frailty and the futility of the earthly breaks into Poussin’s paintings. The lyrical spontaneity leaves the paintings, and a certain coldness and abstraction appears.
IN last years Poussin's best works of life are landscapes. He created a wonderful cycle of paintings, “The Seasons,” which has a symbolic meaning and personifies the periods of earthly human existence.
Poussin borrowed the characters in this picture from the poem “Metamorphoses” by the Roman poet Ovid.
Polyphemus is a Cyclops, a scary-looking one-eyed giant who lived in Sicily, was distinguished by a bad temper and destroyed everything that came to hand. He did not engage in crafts, but lived from what nature provided and tended herds. One day he fell in love with the sea nymph Galatea. She was his complete opposite, and not only in appearance. Cyclops in ancient mythology personify destructive forces, and nymphs - creative, so Polyphemus could not count on reciprocity. Galatea loved Akidas, the son of the forest god Pan.
Tamed by his sublime feelings, the giant stopped crushing rocks, breaking trees and sinking ships. Having sat down on a coastal rock, he began to play his hundred-voice pipe. Before, the pipe made terrible sounds. Now a beautiful song poured out of her, and the nymphs, enchanted by the melody, stopped laughing at Polyphemus. Their eternal suitors, satyrs, fertility deities with horse tails, horns and hooves, calmed down; the river god listened, sitting down on a stone. Nature itself became silent, listening to the music, and peace and harmony reigned in it. This is the philosophy of Poussin’s landscape: the world looks so wonderful when order replaces chaos. (By the way, although the heroes are from myth, the nature on the canvas is real, Sicilian).
Meanwhile, the Cyclops, deceived in his hopes, again gave free rein to his evil temper. He waylaid his opponent and crushed him with a rock. The saddened Galatea turned her beloved into a transparent river.
Once, while in a state of depression, Poussin painted an allegory called “The Dance of Human Life.”
The artist depicted four women representing pleasure, wealth, poverty and labor. They dance in a round dance to the accompaniment of a lyre played by an old man. This is Chronos, known to the Romans as Saturn. According to Greek myth, Chronos was the king of the gods before Zeus. He was predicted to be overthrown by his own son. Not wanting to give up power, he came up with a unique way out of the situation: as soon as his wife had a child, Chronos swallowed him. One day his wife deceived him: instead of the baby Zeus, she slipped a swaddled stone to her husband. Zeus was secretly transported to the island of Crete, where he grew up, after which he overthrew his father and reigned on Olympus.
In this myth, Chronos symbolizes the merciless time, absorbing what it itself has created. And Poussin needed it in the picture to say: time passes, he doesn’t care, and wealth is replaced by poverty, pleasure by work.
On the left in the picture herma(pillar) with two-faced Janus. This is an exclusively Roman deity. It was in his honor that the month of January was named. Janus was depicted with two faces looking in different directions, since it was believed that he knew both the past and the future. “So it was and will be,” Poussin apparently thought as he wrote out the herm.
The background for the round dance is a flat, serene landscape. The sun god Helios rides across the sky in a golden chariot. He makes this journey every day - after all, the sun rises every day - and sees from above the affairs of gods and people, but does not interfere in anything. With his presence on the canvas, Helios is intended to remind that eternal nature is indifferent to human sorrows and joys. Pushkin’s lines on this matter are remarkable:
And again at the tomb entrance
The young one will play with life
And indifferent nature
Shine with eternal beauty.
Here Poussin conveys philosophical reflections on the themes of death and the frailty of existence. The action takes place only in the foreground, as if in relief. A young man and a girl accidentally came across a tombstone with the inscription “And I was in Arcadia,” i.e. “And I was young, handsome, happy and carefree - remember about death!” The figures of young people look like ancient sculptures. Carefully selected details, embossed patterns, balance of figures in space, even diffused lighting - all this creates a certain sublime structure, alien to everything vain and transient. Stoic humility before fate and wise acceptance of death make the worldview of classicism similar to antiquity.
The plot is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Silenus, educator and companion of the god of viticulture and winemaking Bacchus, was captured by the peasants and brought to Midas, king of Phrygia. He released Silenus, and Bacchus granted the king, at his request, the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. But when even food began to turn into gold, the king repented of his greed and begged for mercy.
Bacchus took pity on Midas and ordered him to wash himself in the river Pactolus. Midas entered the river and immediately got rid of the unfortunate gift, and Pactolus became gold-bearing.
The painting depicts the moment when the kneeling Midas thanks Bacchus for liberation from the fatal gift. In the background by the river a man can be seen kneeling, apparently searching for gold in the river sand.
Confirmation is a Sacrament in which, through anointing with myrrh, the powers of God’s grace are communicated to the baptized person to strengthen him in spiritual life.
It is performed by a priest or bishop by anointing the forehead and other parts of the body with myrrh and pronouncing the words “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Confirmation is performed on a person only once in a lifetime, usually after the Sacrament of Baptism.
In the picture, the Sacrament of Confirmation takes place of small children brought by their mothers. Now the priest is anointing the forehead of one child with myrrh, and nearby a mother and daughter are preparing for the Sacrament, kneeling. The priest persuades one child that nothing bad will happen, everything will be fine. The picture conveys a mood of excitement, solemnity, and a sense of participation in a great event.
Meleager is the son of the ruler of the Calydonian kingdom in Aetolia. He grew up to be a brave, handsome young man and went to Colchis with the Argonauts. While he was away, his father forgot to bring the annual tribute to Diana, and the goddess, as punishment for this, sent a monstrous boar to his kingdom, which devoured people and devastated the fields. Returning from the campaign, Meleager gathered all the brave men of Greece and organized a big hunt, during which they were going to catch or kill a boar.
Many heroes responded to Meleager’s call, including the beautiful Atalanta. This princess led a life full of adventures, because when she was born, her father, upset that a daughter was born instead of the long-awaited son, ordered her to be taken to Mount Parthenum and given to be devoured by wild animals. But the hunters passing by saw a bear feeding a baby who was not at all afraid of her, and, taking pity on the girl, they brought her to their home and raised her to be a real hunter.
The Great Calydonian Hunt was led by Meleager and Atalanta, who fell in love with each other. They bravely pursued the beast, and other hunters galloped after them. The boar ran, and then Atalanta inflicted a mortal wound on him, but, dying, the beast almost killed her herself if Meleager had not arrived in time and finished him off.
When Moses spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai talking with God, the people of Israel were tired of waiting for him. They needed a new guide to lead the way and show them the way to the Promised Land. And they asked Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, to create an image pagan god to worship him.
Aaron collected gold jewelry from all the women and cast it into a golden calf.
He placed an altar in front of the polished body that shone brightly in the sun. Everyone looked at him like he was a miracle. Aaron promised to have a big celebration the next day. The next day everyone dressed up in festive attire. Aaron made a burnt offering on the altar. After this, everyone began to eat, drink, dance around the golden calf and praise Aaron for the appearance of a beautiful golden god among them.
The Lord saw all this, became very upset and ordered Moses to go down to the people, for they were doing an unrighteous thing. “Your people have become corrupt,” He said to Moses, “which you brought out of the land of Egypt.”
When Moses saw the dancing around the golden calf, he was inflamed with anger, went up to the altar and threw the calf into the fire.
Then he separated those who recognize the laws of the Lord from those who do not recognize them. The sons of Levi killed those who wanted to serve the golden calf. After which the Lord ordered Moses to lead the people further.
An excellent musician and singer, Orpheus conquered with his talent not only people, but even the gods and nature itself. He was married to the beautiful nymph Eurydice, whom he loved immensely. But the happiness did not last long. Eurydice was bitten by a poisonous snake, and Orpheus was left alone.
From the grief that fell on him, Orpheus fell into deep depression. He sang sad songs in honor of his deceased wife. Trees, flowers and herbs mourned Eurydice with him. Desperate, Orpheus went to the underground kingdom of the dead of the god Hades, where the souls of the dead went, to try to rescue his beloved from there.
Having reached the terrible underground river Styx, Orpheus heard the loud groans of the souls of the dead. The carrier Charon, who transported souls to the other side, refused to take him with him. Then Orpheus stroked the strings of his golden cithara and began to sing. Charon listened and nevertheless transported the singer to Hades.
Without stopping playing and singing, Orpheus bowed before God underground kingdom. In the song, he talked about his love for Eurydice; life without her has lost its meaning.
The entire kingdom of Hades froze, everyone listened to the sad confession of the singer and musician. Everyone was touched by Orpheus' sadness. When the singer fell silent, silence reigned in the kingdom of gloomy Hades. Then Orpheus turned to Hades with a request to return his beloved Eurydice to him, promising to return here with his wife upon first request. when the time comes.
Hades listened to Orpheus and agreed to fulfill his request, although he had never done such a thing before. But at the same time he set a condition: Orpheus must not look back and turn to Eurydice throughout the entire journey, otherwise Eurydice will disappear
The loving couple set off on their way back. Hermes showed the way with a lantern. And then the kingdom of light appeared. Out of joy that they would soon be together again, Orpheus forgot about his promise to Hades and looked around. Eurydice held out her hands to him and began to walk away.
Orpheus was petrified with grief. For a long time he sat on the bank of the underground river, but no one came to him. He lived for three years in deep sorrow and sorrow, and then his soul went to the kingdom of the dead to his Eurydice.
Narcissus is a wonderful young man whose parents predicted that he would live to a ripe old age. but will never see his face. Narcissus grew up to be a young man of extraordinary beauty; many women sought his love, but he was indifferent to everyone. When Narcissus rejected the passionate love of the nymph Echo, she dried up from grief so that only her voice remained. The rejected women demanded that the goddess of justice punish Narcissus. Nemesis heeded their pleas.
One day, returning from a hunt, Narcissus looked into an unclouded source and saw his reflection for the first time, and was so delighted with it that he passionately fell in love with it, with his reflection. He could not tear himself away from seeing himself and died of self-love.
The gods turned Narcissus into a flower called narcissus.
The painting is based on a plot from the Old Testament. King Solomon was distinguished by his sound judgment, excellent memory, extensive knowledge, and considerable patience. He listened carefully to people and helped with wise advice. He considered refereeing to be his most important responsibility. And the fame of his fair trial spread throughout Jerusalem.
There lived two young women in Jerusalem, each with an infant child. They lived together and slept together. One day, in a dream, a woman accidentally crushed her child, and he died. Then she took the living baby from her sleeping neighbor and put him on her bed, and placed the dead one on her. In the morning, the second woman saw a dead baby near her and refused to accept him as her own, immediately seeing that he was a stranger. She accused her neighbor of deception and forgery.
However, the other woman did not want to admit it and insisted on her own, not wanting to give up the living baby. They argued for a long time and finally went to Solomon so that he could judge them.
Solomon listened to each one. After that, he ordered the servant to bring a sword and said: “My decision is this. There are two of you, one living child. Cut him in half, and let each one be comforted by his half.” One said: “Let it be neither for me nor for you, cut it.” And the other one said: “Give her the child, just don’t chop it.”
Solomon immediately realized who the mother of the living child was and who was the deceiver. He told his guards: “Give the child to the mother who did not want him to die. She real mother child",
Jerusalem Temple - religious building, center religious life Jewish people between the 10th century BC. and 1st century AD It was an object of pilgrimage for all Jews three times a year.
In 66 - 73 there was an anti-Roman uprising. While suppressing this uprising, the Roman army led by Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. From the very beginning of the siege, hostilities concentrated around the temple.
The siege and fighting lasted five months. However, repeated attempts by the Romans to capture the wall of the temple courtyard were unsuccessful until Titus ordered the temple gates to be set on fire. The temple was on fire. The rebels holding the temple fought until the end when flames engulfed the building. many of them threw themselves into the fire. The temple burned for 10 days, and then Jerusalem was reduced to ruins. The Temple Mount, on which the temple stood, was plowed up. Almost 100,000 thousand inhabitants were captured by the Romans.
According to the stories of Roman historians, mostly men lived in Rome, because... neighboring tribes did not want to marry their daughters to poor Roman grooms. Then Romulus organized a holiday and invited the neighbors of the Sabines along with their families. During the holiday, the Romans suddenly rushed at the unarmed guests and kidnapped their girls.
Outraged neighbors started a war. The Romans easily defeated the Latins who attacked Rome. However, the war with the Sabines was much more difficult. With the help of the daughter of the head of the Capitol fortress Tarpeia, the Sabines took possession of the Capitol. The fight continued for a very long time.
The Sabines, under the command of King Titus Tatius, finally defeated the Romans and put them to flight. Romulus appealed to the gods and promised to build a temple to Jupiter Stator (the Founder) if he stopped the fleeing. However, the situation was saved by the previously abducted Sabine women, who, together with their newborn children, with loose hair and torn clothes, rushed between the fighters and began to beg to stop the battle.
The Sabines agreed, and the Romans agreed too. An eternal peace was concluded, according to which the two peoples united into one state under the supreme leadership of Titus Tatius and Romulus. The Romans had to bear, in addition to their name, the Sabine name - Quirites, the religion became common.
In the center of the picture is the Nereid Amphitrite, the wife of Neptune. She sits on a bull, whose body ends in a fish tail, surrounded by a large retinue. Two Nereids respectfully support Amphitrite's elbow and pink veil, and two Tritons trumpet her glory.
The figure of Neptune is shifted to the edge of the picture to the left. With one hand he controls three swiftly racing horses, and with the other he holds a trident, a traditional attribute of the god of the seas. His gaze is turned to the beautiful Amphitrite.
Even further to the left, above the figure of Neptune, we see the chariot of the goddess of love Aphrodite, accompanied by cupids and holding a lit torch.
Other cupids shower the main characters with flowers of roses and myrtle, symbolizing the love attraction and marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite.
One of the cupids is aiming his bow at Neptune, and the arrows of the second have already reached the man, who is carrying away a beautiful nymph on his shoulders. But who is represented in this kidnapping scene? The man’s face is not visible, it is covered with his hand, and therefore we can assume that the Nereid Galatea and the Cyclops Polyphemus, who was considered the son of Neptune, in love with her, are depicted here. And his gesture becomes clear to us: the Cyclops was outwardly ugly, and the artist avoided depicting ugliness in his painting.
Self-portrait. 1650
In his self-portrait, Nicolas Poussin portrayed himself as a thinker and creator. Next to him is the profile of the Muse, as if personifying the power of antiquity over him. And at the same time, this is an image of a bright personality, a man of his time. The portrait embodies the program of classicism with its commitment to nature and idealization, the desire to express the high civil ideals that Poussin’s art served.
Nicolas Poussin is a French artist, founder of the classicism style. Turning to the themes of ancient mythology, ancient history, the Bible, he revealed the themes of his contemporary era. With his works he raised a perfect personality, showing and singing examples of high morality and civic valor.
Nicolas Poussin was born on May 5, 1594 in Normandy, near the town of Le Andely. His father, a veteran of the army of King Henry IV (1553-1610), gave his son a good education. Since childhood, Poussin attracted attention with his penchant for drawing. At the age of 18 he goes to Paris to study painting. Probably his first teacher was the portrait painter Ferdinand Van Elle (1580-1649), the second was the historical painter Georges Lallemand (1580-1636). Having met the valet of the Dowager Queen Marie de' Medici, the keeper of the royal art collections and library, Poussin had the opportunity to visit the Louvre and copy paintings by Italian artists there. In 1622, Poussin and other artists were commissioned to paint six large paintings based on scenes from the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier (not preserved).
In 1624 Nicolas Poussin went to Rome. There he studied the art of the ancient world, the works of masters of the High Renaissance. In 1625-1626 he received an order to paint the painting “The Destruction of Jerusalem” (not preserved); later he painted a second version of this painting (1636-1638, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).
In 1627, Poussin painted the painting “The Death of Germanicus” (Rome, Palazzo Barberini) based on the plot of the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, which he considers a programmatic work of classicism; it shows the farewell of legionnaires to a dying commander. The death of a hero is perceived as a tragedy public importance. The theme is interpreted in the spirit of the calm and stern heroism of the ancient narrative. The idea of the painting is service to duty. The artist arranged figures and objects in a shallow space, dividing it into a number of plans. This work revealed the main features of classicism: clarity of action, architectonics, harmony of composition, opposition of groups. The ideal of beauty in Poussin’s eyes consisted in the proportionality of the parts of the whole, in external orderliness, harmony, and clarity of composition, which would become characteristic features of the master’s mature style. One of the features of Poussin’s creative method was rationalism, which was reflected not only in the plots, but also in the thoughtfulness of the composition.
In the period 1629-1633, the themes of Poussin's paintings changed: he less often painted paintings on religious themes, turning to mythological and literary subjects.
Narcissus and Echo, around 1629
Rinaldo and Armida. 1635
The plot of the picture is borrowed from the poem of the 16th century Italian poet Torquato Tasso “Jerusalem Liberated”. The sorceress Armida puts to sleep the young knight Rinaldo, who went on a crusade. She wants to kill the young man, but, captivated by his beauty, she falls in love with Rinaldo and takes him to her enchanted gardens. Poussin, the head of classical painting, interprets the medieval legend in the spirit of ancient myth. Completeness of composition and unity of rhythmic structure are the main features of Poussin’s art. The coloring reveals the influence of Titian, whose work Poussin was interested in during these years. The painting is a pair with “Tancred and Erminia”, stored in the State Hermitage.
Tancred and Erminia. 1630 - 40
The leader of the Amazons, Erminia, in love with the knight Tancred, finds him wounded after a duel with the giant Argant. The squire Vafrin lifts Tancred's motionless body from the ground, and Erminia, in an unbridled outburst of love and compassion, cuts off her hair with a sword in order to bandage the knight's wounds. Almost everything on the canvas is calm - Tancred lies powerless on the ground, Vafrin is frozen above him, the horses are motionless, Argant’s body is stretched out in the distance, the landscape is deserted and deserted. But Erminia’s pathetic movement bursts into this frozen silence, and everything around lights up with the reflected light of her uncontrollable spiritual ascent. The stillness becomes tense, strong and deep spots of color clash with each other in sharp contrasts, glimpses of an orange sunset in the sky become threatening and alarming. Erminia's excitement is conveyed to every detail of the picture, every line and highlight.
In 1640Poussin's popularityattracted the attention of Louis XIII (1601-1643) and, at his persistent invitation, Poussin came to work in Paris, where he received an order from the king to paint pictures for his chapels in Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain.
In the fall of 1642, Poussin again left for Rome. The themes of the paintings of this period were the virtues and valor of rulers, biblical or ancient heroes.
The generosity of Scipio. 1643
In the second half of the 40s, Poussin created the cycle “Seven Sacraments”, in which he revealed the deep philosophical meaning of Christian dogmas: “Landscape with the Apostle Matthew”, “Landscape with the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos” (Chicago, Institute of Arts).
End 40-x - early 50s - one of the fruitful periods in Poussin’s work: he painted the paintings “Eliazar and Rebecca”, “Landscape with Diogenes”, “Landscape with a High Road”, “The Judgment of Solomon”, “The Ecstasy of St. Paul”, "Arcadian Shepherds", second self-portrait.
Landscape with Polyphemus. 1648
IN last period creativity (1650-1665) Poussin increasingly turned to landscape, his characters were associated with literary and mythological subjects.
In the summer of 1660, he created a series of landscapes “The Four Seasons” with biblical scenes symbolizing the history of the world and humanity: “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Winter”.
Poussin's landscapes are multifaceted, the alternation of plans was emphasized by stripes of light and shadow, the illusion of space and depth gave them epic power and grandeur. As in historical paintings, the main characters are usually located in the foreground and are perceived as an integral part of the landscape.
The master’s last, unfinished painting is “Apollo and Daphne” (1664).
The love story of Apollo and Daphne is told by Ovid. Daphne gave her word to maintain chastity and remain celibate, like the goddess Artemis. Apollo, who sought the love of the beautiful nymph, caused her horror. It was as if she saw in him, through the blinding beauty, the ferocity of the wolf. But in the soul of God, heated by the refusal, the feeling flared up more and more.
Why are you running from me, nymph? - he shouted, trying to catch up with her. - I'm not a robber! Not a wild shepherd! I am Apollo, son of Zeus! Stop!
Daphne continued to run as hard as she could. The chase is getting closer, the girl can already feel Apollo’s hot breath behind her. Don't leave! And she prayed to Father Penei for help:
Father
! Help your daughter! Hide me or change my appearance so that this beast does not touch me!
As soon as these words were spoken, Daphne felt that her legs were becoming stiff and sinking into the ground up to her ankles. The folds of clothes damp from sweat turn into bark, arms stretch out into branches: the gods turned Daphne into a laurel tree. In vain Apollo hugged the beautiful laurel; out of grief, he henceforth made it his favorite and sacred plant and decorated his head with a wreath woven from laurel branches.
By order of Apollo, the nymph's companions killed the son of the Peloponnesian king Oenomaus, Leucippus, who was in love with her and pursued her dressed in a woman's dress so that no one could recognize him.
Daphne, an ancient plant deity, entered the circle of Apollo, losing her independence and becoming an attribute of god. Before the Delphic oracle began to belong to Apollo, in its place was the oracle of the land of Gaia, and then Daphne. And later in Delphi victoriescompetitors were given laurel wreaths. Callimachus mentions the sacred laurel on Delos. The Homeric hymn speaks of oracles from the laurel tree itself. At the festival of Daphnephorius in Thebes, laurel branches were carried.
November 19, 1665NikolaPoussin died.INvery muchthe significance of his work for the history of painting. French artists before him were traditionally familiar with the art of Renaissance Italy. But they were inspired by the works of the masters of Italian mannerism, baroque, and caravaggism. Poussin was the first French painter to embrace the tradition of the classical style of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Clarity, consistency and orderliness of visual techniques, ideological and moral orientation of artPoussinlater his work made it a standard for the Academy of Painting and Sculpture of France, which began developing canons,aesthetic standardsand generally binding rules of artistic creativity.
Landscape with Diana and Orion. 1660 - 64
Diana - goddess of vegetation, obstetrician, personification of the moon, was identified with Artemis and Hecate. She was called Trivia - “goddess of three roads” (her image was placed at crossroads), which was also interpreted as a sign of Diana’s supreme power: in heaven, on earth and underground.
The sanctuaries of Diana are known on Mount Tifatina in Campania (hence the epithet Diana Tifatina) and in the Aricia region in a grove on Lake Nemi. Diana was considered the patron goddess of the Latin Union, and with the transition of primacy in this union to Rome, King Servius Tullius founded the Temple of Diana on the Aventine, which became a favorite place of worship for those who came from Latins, plebeians and slaves who moved to Rome or were captured; The anniversary of the founding of the temple was considered a holiday for slaves - servorum dies. This ensured Diana's popularity among the lower classes, who made up the numerous colleges of her admirers.
The temple of Diana on the Aventine is associated with a legend about an extraordinary cow, the owner of which was predicted that whoever sacrificed it to Diana in this temple would ensure power over Italy for his city. King Servius Tullius, having learned about this prediction, took possession of a cow by cunning, sacrificed it and attached its horns to the temple.
Diana was considered the personification of the moon, just as her brother Apollo was identified with the sun in late Roman antiquity. Subsequently she was identified with Nemesis and the Carthaginian heavenly goddess Celeste. In the Roman provinces, under the name of Diana, native goddesses were revered - “mistresses of the forest,” mother gods, givers of plant and animal fertility.
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Nicolas Poussin born in 1594 in the Norman town of Les Andelys. Already in his youth he received a good general education and then began to study painting. At the age of 18 he went to Paris, where he continued his studies under the guidance of the then famous portrait painter Van Elle, and then with other masters. Visits where he copied paintings by Italians of the Renaissance helped him greatly to hone his technique.
During this period, Poussin gained some recognition. To further improve his skills, he went to Rome, which at that time was the Mecca for painters from all countries. Here he continued to hone his knowledge by studying treatises and, studying in detail and measuring the proportions of ancient sculptures, communicating with other artists. It was during this period that his work acquired the features of classicism, one of the pillars of which Nicolas Poussin is still considered one of the pillars.
The artist drew inspiration from the works of classical and modern poets, in theatrical performances, in philosophical treatises, in biblical themes. But even canonical subjects allowed him to depict the reality around him, filling his canvases with impeccably executed characteristic images, landscapes and plans. The artist’s skill and already established personal style brought him recognition in Rome; people began to invite him to paint cathedrals and commissioned him to paint canvases on classical and historical subjects. It is to this period that the programmatic canvas “The Death of Germanicus” dates back, bringing together all the features inherent in European classicism.
In 1639, at the invitation of Poussin, he again came to Paris to decorate the Louvre Gallery. A year later, Louis XIII, impressed by the artist’s talent, appointed him as his first painter. Poussin was recognized at court, and they began vying to order paintings from him for their castles and galleries. But the intrigues of the envious local artistic elite forced him to leave Paris again in 1642 and go to Rome. Here he lived until the end of his days, and the last years of his life, of course, became the most fruitful stage in his creativity. At this time, Poussin began to pay more attention to depicting the surrounding nature, spending a lot of time drawing from life. Of course, one of the best embodiments of this trend in his work was the “Seasons” cycle, completed shortly before his death. Like other paintings by the artist, these canvases harmoniously combined naturalism and idealism, which throughout Nicolas Poussin’s creative life did not leave his works.
The artist died in the fall of 1665 in Rome.
Poussin's creativity for the history of painting is difficult to overestimate. He is the founder of such a painting style as classicism. French artists before him were traditionally familiar with the art of the Italian Renaissance. But they were inspired by the works of the masters of Italian mannerism, baroque, and caravaggism. Poussin was the first French painter to embrace the tradition of the classical style of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Turning to themes of ancient mythology, ancient history, and the Bible, Poussin revealed the themes of his contemporary era. With his works he raised a perfect personality, showing and singing examples of high morality and civic valor. The clarity, consistency and orderliness of Poussin’s visual techniques, the ideological and moral orientation of his art later made his work a standard for the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which began developing aesthetic norms, formal canons and generally binding rules of artistic creativity (the so-called “academicism”).
Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665 · famous French artist, founder of the classicism style. Turning to themes of ancient mythology, ancient history, and the Bible, Poussin revealed the themes of his contemporary era. With his works he raised a perfect personality, showing and singing examples of high morality and civic valor.
France 17th century was an advanced European state, which provided it with favorable conditions for the development of national culture, which became the successor to Italy of the Renaissance. The views of Descartes (1596–1650), widespread at that time, influenced the development of science, philosophy, literature, and art. Descartes - a mathematician, natural scientist, creator of philosophical rationalism - tore philosophy away from religion and connected it with nature, arguing that the principles of philosophy are derived from nature. Descartes erected into law the principle of the primacy of reason over feeling. This idea formed the basis of classicism in art. The theorists of the new style said that “classicism is a doctrine of reason.” Symmetry, harmony, and unity were proclaimed as the conditions for artistry. According to the doctrine of classicism, nature should have been shown not as it is, but as beautiful and reasonable; the classics at the same time declared that what is true to be beautiful, calling for learning this truth from nature. Classicism established a strict hierarchy of genres, dividing them into “high,” which included historical and mythological, and “low,” which included everyday life.
Nicolas Poussin was born in 1594 in Normandy, near the town of Les Andelys. His father, a veteran of the army of King Henry IV (1553–1610), gave his son a good education. Since childhood, Poussin attracted attention with his penchant for drawing. At the age of 18 he goes to Paris to study painting. Probably his first teacher was the portrait painter Ferdinand Van Elle (1580–1649), the second was the history painter Georges Lallemand (1580–1636). Having met the valet of the Dowager Queen Marie de' Medici, the keeper of the royal art collections and library, Poussin had the opportunity to visit the Louvre to copy paintings by Italian artists. In 1622, Poussin and other artists were commissioned to paint six large paintings based on scenes from their life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier (not preserved).
In 1624 Poussin went to Rome. There he studies the art of the ancient world, the works of masters of the High Renaissance. In 1625–1626 he received an order to paint the painting “The Destruction of Jerusalem” (not preserved), but later he painted a second version of this painting (1636–1638, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).
In 1627, Poussin painted the painting “The Death of Germanicus” (Rome, Palazzo Barberini) based on the plot of the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, which he considers a programmatic work of classicism; it shows the farewell of legionnaires to a dying commander. The death of a hero is perceived as a tragedy of public importance. The theme is interpreted in the spirit of the calm and stern heroism of the ancient narrative. The idea of the painting is service to duty. The artist arranged figures and objects in a shallow space, dividing it into a number of plans. This work revealed the main features of classicism: clarity of action, architectonics, harmony of composition, opposition of groups. The ideal of beauty in Poussin’s eyes consisted in the proportionality of the parts of the whole, in external orderliness, harmony, and clarity of composition, which would become characteristic features of the master’s mature style. One of the features of Poussin’s creative method was rationalism, which was reflected not only in the plots, but also in the thoughtfulness of the composition.
Poussin painted easel paintings mainly of medium size. In 1627–1629 he completed a number of paintings: “Parnassus” (Madrid, Prado), “The Inspiration of a Poet” (Paris, Louvre), “The Salvation of Moses”, “Moses Purifying the Waters of Marah”, “Madonna Appearing to St. James the Elder” (“Madonna on a Pillar”) (1629, Paris, Louvre). In 1629–1630, Poussin created the Descent from the Cross, remarkable in its power of expression and the most vitally truthful (St. Petersburg, Hermitage).
In the period 1629–1633, the themes of Poussin’s paintings changed: he less often painted paintings on religious themes, turning to mythological and literary subjects. "Narcissus and Echo" (c. 1629, Paris, Louvre), "Selena and Endymion" (Detroit, Art Institute). Particularly noteworthy is the cycle of paintings based on Torquatto Tasso’s poem “Jerusalem Liberated”: “Rinaldo and Armida” (c. 1634, Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). The idea of the frailty of man and the problems of life and death formed the basis of the early version of the painting “The Arcadian Shepherds” (1632–1635, England, Chasworth, private collection), to which he returned in the 50s (1650, Paris, Louvre). On the canvas “Sleeping Venus” (c. 1630, Dresden, Picture Gallery), the goddess of love is represented as an earthly woman, while remaining an unattainable ideal. The painting “Kingdom of Flora” (1631, Dresden, Picture Gallery), based on the poems of Ovid, amazes with the beauty of its pictorial embodiment of ancient images. This is a poetic allegory of the origin of flowers, which depicts heroes of ancient myths transformed into flowers. Poussin soon painted another version of this painting - “The Triumph of Flora” (1631, Paris, Louvre).
In 1632 Poussin was elected a member of the Academy of St. Luke.
Poussin's enormous popularity in 1640 attracted the attention of Louis XIII (1601–1643) to his work, at whose invitation Poussin came to work in Paris. The artist received an order from the king to paint pictures for his chapels in Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain.
In the fall of 1642, Poussin again left for Rome. The themes of his paintings of this period were the virtues and valor of rulers, biblical or ancient heroes: “The Generosity of Scipio” (1643, Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). In his canvases he showed perfect heroes, faithful to civic duty, selfless, generous, while demonstrating the absolute universal ideal of citizenship, patriotism, and spiritual greatness. Creating ideal images based on reality, he consciously corrected nature, accepting the beautiful from it and discarding the ugly.
In the second half of the 40s, Poussin created the cycle “Seven Sacraments”, in which he revealed the deep philosophical meaning of Christian dogmas: “Landscape with the Apostle Matthew”, “Landscape with the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos” (Chicago, Institute of Arts).
The end of the 40s - the beginning of the 50s was one of the fruitful periods in Poussin’s work: he painted the paintings “Eliazar and Rebecca”, “Landscape with Diogenes”, “Landscape with a High Road”, “The Judgment of Solomon”, “The Ecstasy of St. Paul” ", "Arcadian Shepherds", second self-portrait.
In the last period of his creativity (1650–1665), Poussin increasingly turned to landscape; his characters were associated with literary and mythological subjects: “Landscape with Polyphemus” (Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). In the summer of 1660, he created a series of landscapes “The Four Seasons” with biblical scenes symbolizing the history of the world and humanity: “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Winter”. Poussin's landscapes are multifaceted, the alternation of plans was emphasized by stripes of light and shadow, the illusion of space and depth gave them epic power and grandeur. As in historical paintings, the main characters are usually located in the foreground and are perceived as an integral part of the landscape. The last, unfinished canvas of the master - "Apollo and Daphne"(1664).
The significance of Poussin's work for the history of painting is enormous. French artists before him were traditionally familiar with the art of Renaissance Italy. But they were inspired by the works of the masters of Italian mannerism, baroque, and caravaggism. Poussin was the first French painter to adopt the tradition of the classical style of Leonardo da Vincia Raphael. The clarity, consistency and orderliness of Poussin’s visual techniques, the ideological and moral orientation of his art later made his work a standard for the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which began developing aesthetic norms, formal canons and generally binding rules of artistic creativity.
Georges de Latour. St. Sebastian, mourned by St. Irina. 1640-1650s
Latour's highest achievements include “St. Sebastian, mourned by St. Irina" (Berlin). In silence late at night, illuminated only by the bright flame of a candle, the mournful figures of women mourning him drooped over the prostrate body of Sebastian, pierced by arrows. The artist was able to convey here not only the general feeling that unites all participants in the action, but also the shades of this feeling in each of the four mourners - numb frozenness, mournful bewilderment, bitter crying, tragic despair. But Latour is very restrained in showing suffering - he does not allow exaggeration anywhere, and the stronger the impact of his images, in which not so much faces as movements, gestures, the very silhouettes of figures acquired enormous emotional expressiveness. New features are captured in the image of Sebastian. His beautiful, sublime nudity embodies the heroic principle, which makes this image similar to the creations of the masters of classicism.
In this picture, Latour moved away from the everyday coloring of images, from the somewhat naive elementaryness inherent in his earlier works. The former chamber-like coverage of phenomena, the mood of concentrated intimacy, were replaced here by greater monumentality, a sense of tragic grandeur. Even Latour’s favorite motif of a burning candle is perceived differently, more pathetically - its huge flame, carried upward, resembles the flame of a torch.
An extremely important place in the realistic painting of France in the first half of the 17th century. occupies the art of Louis Le Nain. Louis Le Nain, like his brothers Antoine and Mathieu, worked mainly in the field of the peasant genre. The depiction of the life of peasants gives the Lenens' works a bright democratic coloring. Their art was forgotten for a long time, and only from the mid-19th century. began studying and collecting their works.
The Lenain brothers - Antoine (1588-1648), Louis (1593-1648) and Mathieu (1607-1677) - were natives of the city of Lana in Picardy. They came from a petty bourgeois family. Their youth spent in their native Picardy gave them their first and most vivid impressions of rural life. Having moved to Paris, the Lenens remained alien to the noise and splendor of the capital. They had a common workshop, headed by the eldest of them, Antoine. He was also the direct teacher of his younger brothers. In 1648, Antoine and Louis Lenain were admitted to the newly created Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
Antoine Lenain was a conscientious but not very gifted artist. In his work, which was dominated by portraiture, there is still a lot that is archaic; the composition is fragmented and frozen, the characteristics are not diverse (“Family Portrait”, 1642; Louvre). Antoine's art marked the beginning of the creative searches of his younger brothers, and above all the largest of them, Louis Le Nain.
Louis Le Nain's early works are close to those of his older brother. It is possible that Louis traveled to Italy with Mathieu. The Caravaggist tradition had a certain influence on the formation of his art. Since 1640, Louis Le Nain has shown himself to be a completely independent and original artist.
Georges de La Tour depicted people from the people in his works on religious subjects. Louis Le Nain directly addressed the life of the French peasantry in his work. Louis Le Nain's innovation lies in a fundamentally new interpretation of the life of the people. It is in the peasants that the artist sees the best sides of man. He treats his heroes with a feeling of deep respect; His scenes of peasant life, where majestically calm, dignified, modest, unhurried people act, are filled with a sense of rigor, simplicity and truthfulness.
In his canvases, he unfolds the composition on a plane like a relief, placing the figures within certain spatial boundaries. Revealed by a clear, generalized contour line, the figures are subject to a thoughtful compositional design. An excellent colorist, Louis Le Nain subordinates a restrained color scheme to a silver tone, achieving softness and sophistication of colorful transitions and relationships.
The most mature and perfect works of Louis Le Nain were created in the 1640s.
Louis Lenain. Visiting grandma. 1640s
The breakfast of the poor peasant family in the painting “A Peasant Meal” (Louvre) is meager, but what a sense of self-esteem are imbued with these workers, intently listening to the melody that the boy plays on the violin. Always restrained, little connected with each other by action, Lenain’s heroes are nevertheless perceived as members of a collective, united by a unity of mood and a common perception of life. His painting “Prayer Before Dinner” (London, National Gallery) is imbued with poetic feeling and sincerity; the scene of a visit to an old peasant woman by her grandchildren is depicted strictly and simply, without any shade of sentimentality, in the Hermitage painting “A Visit to Grandmother”; solemnly full of calm cheerfulness, classically clear “The Horseman's Halt” (London, Victoria and Albert Museum).
Louis Lenain. Thrush family. 1640s
In the 1640s. Louis Le Nain also creates one of his best works, “The Family of the Thrush” (Hermitage). An early, misty morning; a peasant family goes to the market. The artist depicts these with warm feeling ordinary people, their open faces: a milkmaid aged from work and hardship, a tired peasant, a fat-cheeked, sensible boy, and a sickly, fragile, serious girl beyond her years. Plastically completed figures clearly stand out against a light, airy background. The landscape is wonderful: a wide valley, a distant city on the horizon, an endless blue sky covered with a silvery haze. With great skill, the artist conveys the materiality of objects, their textural features, the dull shine of a copper can, the hardness of rocky soil, the roughness of simple homespun clothes of peasants, and the shaggy hair of a donkey. The brushstroke technique is very diverse: smooth, almost enamel writing is combined with free, reverent painting.
Louis Lenain. Forge. 1640s
The highest achievement of Louis Le Nain can be called his Louvre “Forge”. Usually Louis Le Nain portrayed peasants during meals, rest, and entertainment; here the object of his depiction was a labor scene. It is remarkable that it was in work that the artist saw the true beauty of man. We will not find in the works of Louis Le Nain images that would be as full of strength and pride as the heroes of his “Forge” - a simple blacksmith surrounded by his family. There is more freedom, movement, and sharpness in the composition; the former even, diffused lighting was replaced by contrasts of chiaroscuro, enhancing the emotional expressiveness of the images; there is more energy in the stroke itself. Going beyond traditional plots, appealing to new topic contributed in this case to the creation of one of the earliest impressive images of labor in European fine art.
In the peasant genre of Louis Le Nain, imbued with a special nobility and a clear, as if purified perception of life, the sharp social contradictions of that time are not reflected in direct form. Psychologically, his images are sometimes too neutral: a sense of calm composure seems to absorb all the diversity of his characters’ experiences. Nevertheless, in the era of the cruelest exploitation of the masses, which brought the life of the French peasantry almost to the level of life of animals, in the conditions of powerful popular protest growing in the depths of society, the art of Louis Le Nain, which affirmed human dignity, moral purity and moral strength of the French people, had great progressive significance .
During the period of further strengthening of absolutism, the realistic peasant genre did not have favorable prospects for its development. This is confirmed by the example of the creative evolution of the youngest of the Lenins, Mathieu. Being fourteen years younger than Louis, he essentially belonged to a different generation. In his art, Mathieu Le Nain gravitated towards the tastes of noble society. He began his career as a follower of Louis Le Nain (“Peasants in a Tavern”; Hermitage). Subsequently, the themes and the entire character of his work change dramatically - Mathieu paints portraits of aristocrats and elegant genre scenes from the life of “good society.”
A large number of provincial artists belonged to the movement of “painters of the real world”, who, significantly inferior to such masters as Georges de La Tour and Louis Le Nain, managed to create living and truthful works. Such are, for example, Robert Tournier (1604 - 1670), the author of the strict and expressive painting “The Descent from the Cross” (Toulouse, Museum), Richard Tassel (1580 - 1660), who painted a sharp portrait of the nun Catherine de Montholon (Dijon, Museum) , and others.
In the first half of the 17th century. realistic trends are also developing in the field of French portraiture. The largest portrait painter of this time was Philippe de Champaigne (1602 - 1674). Flemish by birth, he spent his entire life in France. Being close to the court, Champagne enjoyed the patronage of the king and Richelieu.
Champagne began his career as a master of decorative painting; he also painted paintings on religious subjects. However, Champagne's talent was most widely revealed in the field of portraiture. He was a kind of historiographer of his time. He owns portraits of members of the royal house, statesmen, scientists, writers, and representatives of the French clergy.
Philippe de Champagne. Portrait of Arnaud d'Andilla. 1650
Among Champagne's works, the most famous is the portrait of Cardinal Richelieu (1636, Louvre). The cardinal is depicted in full height; it seems to slowly pass in front of the viewer. His figure in a cardinal's robe with wide flowing folds is outlined with a clear and distinct outline against the background of brocade drapery. The rich tones of the pinkish-red robe and golden background set off the cardinal’s thin, pale face and his mobile hands. For all its pomp, the portrait, however, is devoid of external bravura and is not overloaded with accessories. Its true monumentality lies in the feeling of inner strength and composure, in the simplicity of the artistic solution. Naturally, Champagne’s portraits, devoid of a representative character, are distinguished by even greater severity and life-like persuasiveness. Among the best works of the master is the portrait of Arnaud d'Andilly (1650), located in the Louvre.
Both the artists of classicism and the “painters of the real world” were close to the advanced ideas of the era - a high idea of the dignity of man, the desire for an ethical assessment of his actions and a clear perception of the world, cleared of everything random. Because of this, both directions in painting, despite the differences between them, were in close contact with each other.
Classicism acquired leading importance in French painting from the second quarter of the 17th century. The work of its greatest representative, Nicolas Poussin, is the pinnacle French art 17th century.
Poussin was born in 1594 near the city of Andely in Normandy into a poor military family. Very little is known about Poussin's youth and his early work. Perhaps his first teacher was the wandering artist Quentin Varen, who visited Andeli during these years, a meeting with whom was decisive in determining the young man’s artistic vocation. Following Varenne, Poussin secretly leaves his hometown from his parents and goes to Paris. However, this trip does not bring him luck. Only a year later he returns to the capital for the second time and spends several years there. Already in his youth, Poussin reveals great determination and an indefatigable thirst for knowledge. He studies mathematics, anatomy, ancient literature, and gets acquainted with the works of Raphael and Giulio Romane from engravings.
In Paris, Poussin meets with the fashionable Italian poet Cavalier Marino and illustrates his poem “Adonis”. These illustrations that have survived to this day are the only reliable works by Poussin from his early Parisian period. In 1624 the artist left for Italy and settled in Rome. Although Poussin was destined to live almost his entire life in Italy, he passionately loved his homeland and was closely associated with the traditions of French culture. He was alien to careerism and not inclined to seek easy success. His Life in Rome was devoted to persistent and systematic work. Poussin sketched and measured ancient statues, continued his studies in science and literature, and studied treatises by Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci and Durer. He illustrated one of the copies of Leonardo's treatise; Currently, this most valuable manuscript is in the Hermitage.
Poussin's creative quest in the 1620s. were very difficult. The master went a long way towards creating his artistic method. Ancient art and Renaissance artists were his highest models. Among the Bolognese masters of his time, he valued the most strict of them, Domenichino. Although he had a negative attitude toward Caravaggio, Poussin still did not remain indifferent to his art.
Throughout the 1620s. Poussin, having already embarked on the path of classicism, often sharply went beyond its scope. His paintings such as “The Massacre of the Innocents” (Chantilly), “The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus" (1628, Vatican Pinakothek), are marked by features of closeness to Caravaggism and Baroque, a well-known reduction of images, and an exaggerated dramatic interpretation of the situation. Unusual for Poussin in its heightened expression in conveying the feeling of heartbreaking grief is the Hermitage “Descent from the Cross” (c. 1630). The drama of the situation here is enhanced by the emotional interpretation of the landscape: the action takes place against the backdrop of a stormy sky with reflections of a red, ominous dawn. A different approach characterizes his works, executed in the spirit of classicism.
The cult of reason is one of the main qualities of classicism, and therefore none of the great masters of the 17th century. the rational principle does not play such a significant role as in Poussin. The master himself said that the perception of a work of art requires concentrated thinking and hard work of thought. Rationalism is reflected not only in Poussin’s purposeful adherence to the ethical and artistic ideal, but also in the visual system he created. He built a theory of so-called modes, which he tried to follow in his work. By mode, Poussin meant a kind of figurative key, a sum of techniques of figurative-emotional characterization and compositional and pictorial solutions that were most consistent with the expression of a certain theme. Poussin gave these modes names based on the Greek names for various modes of musical structure. So, for example, the theme of moral achievement is embodied by the artist in strict, severe forms, united by Poussin in the concept of the “Dorian mode”, themes of a dramatic nature - in the corresponding forms of the “Phrygian mode”, joyful and idyllic themes - in the forms of the “Ionian” and “Lydian” frets Strength Poussin's works are achieved as a result of these artistic techniques: a clearly expressed idea, clear logic, and a high degree of completeness of the plan. But at the same time, the subordination of art to certain stable norms, the introduction of rationalistic aspects into it also represented a great danger, since this could lead to the predominance of an unshakable dogma, the deadening of the living creative process. This is exactly what all the academicians came to, following only the external methods of Poussin. Subsequently, this danger confronted Poussin himself.
Poussin. Death of Germanicus. 1626-1627
One of the characteristic examples of the ideological and artistic program of classicism can be Poussin’s composition “The Death of Germanicus” (1626/27; Minneapolis, Institute of Arts). Here the very choice of the hero is indicative - a courageous and noble commander, a stronghold of the best hopes of the Romans, poisoned on the orders of the suspicious and envious Emperor Tiberius. The painting depicts Germanicus on his deathbed, surrounded by his family and loyal soldiers, overcome by a general feeling of excitement and sorrow.
Very fruitful for Poussin’s work was his fascination with the art of Titian in the second half of the 1620s. Appeal to the Titian tradition contributed to the revelation of the most vibrant sides of Poussin's talent. The role of Titian’s colorism was also great in the development of Poussin’s artistic talent.
Poussin. Kingdom of Flora. Fragment. OK. 1635
In his Moscow painting “Rinaldo and Armida” (1625-1627), the plot of which is taken from Tasso’s poem “Jerusalem Liberated”, an episode from the legend of medieval chivalry is interpreted rather as a motif from ancient mythology. The sorceress Armida, having found the sleeping crusader knight Rinaldo, takes him to her magical gardens, and Armida’s horses, pulling her chariot through the clouds and barely restrained by beautiful girls, look like the horses of the sun god Helios (this motif is later often found in Poussin’s paintings). The moral height of a person is determined for Poussin by the compliance of his feelings and actions with the reasonable laws of nature. Therefore, Poussin’s ideal is a person living united happy life with nature. The artist dedicated such paintings of the 1620s-1630s to this theme as “Apollo and Daphne” (Munich, Pinakothek), “Bacchanalia” in the Louvre and the London National Gallery, and “The Kingdom of Flora” (Dresden, Gallery). He resurrects the world of ancient myths, where dark satyrs, slender nymphs and cheerful cupids are depicted in unity with the beautiful and joyful nature. Never later in Poussin's work do such serene scenes, such charming scenes appear. female images.
The construction of paintings, where plastically tangible figures are included in the overall rhythm of the composition, has clarity and completeness. Particularly expressive is the always clearly defined movement of the figures, this, in Poussin’s words, “body language.” The color scheme, often saturated and rich, is also subject to a thoughtful rhythmic relationship of colorful spots.
In the 1620s. one of Poussin’s most captivating images was created - the Dresden “Sleeping Venus”. The motif of this painting - the image of a goddess immersed in sleep surrounded by a beautiful landscape - goes back to the examples of the Venetian Renaissance. However, in this case, the artist received from the Renaissance masters not the ideality of the images, but their other essential quality - enormous vitality. In Poussin’s painting, the very type of goddess, a young girl with a face pinkened from sleep, with a slender, graceful figure, is full of such naturalness and some special intimacy of feeling that this image seems snatched straight from life. In contrast to the serene peace of the sleeping goddess, the thunderous tension of a sultry day is felt even more strongly. In the Dresden painting, Poussin’s connection with Titian’s colorism is more palpable than anywhere else. In comparison with the overall brownish, rich dark gold tone of the painting, the shades of the goddess’s naked body stand out especially beautifully.
Poussin. Tancred and Erminia. 1630s
The Hermitage painting “Tancred and Erminia” (1630s) is dedicated to the dramatic theme of the love of the Amazon Erminia for the crusader knight Tancred. Its plot is also taken from Tasso's poem. In a desert area, on rocky soil, Tancred, wounded in a duel, is stretched out. Supports him with caring tenderness true friend Waffrin. Erminia, having just dismounted from her horse, rushes to her lover and, with a quick swing of her sparkling sword, cuts off a strand of her blond hair to bandage his wounds. Her face, her gaze riveted on Tancred, her rapid movements slim figure inspired by a great inner feeling. The emotional elation of the heroine’s image is emphasized by the color scheme of her clothes, where the contrasts of gray-steel and deep blue tones sound with increased force, and the general dramatic mood of the picture finds its echo in the landscape filled with the fiery brilliance of the evening dawn. Tancred's armor and Erminia's sword reflect all this richness of colors in their reflections.
Subsequently, the emotional moment in Poussin’s work turns out to be more connected with the organizing principle of the mind. In works of the mid-1630s. the artist achieves a harmonious balance between reason and feeling. The image of a heroic, perfect person as the embodiment of moral greatness and spiritual strength acquires leading importance.
Poussin. Arcadian shepherds. Between 1632 and 1635
An example of a deeply philosophical development of a theme in Poussin’s work is given by two versions of the composition “The Arcadian Shepherds” (between 1632 and 1635, Chasworth, collection of the Duke of Devonshire, see ill. and 1650, Louvre). The myth of Arcadia, the land of serene happiness, was often embodied in art. But Poussin in this idyllic plot expressed the deep idea of the transience of life and the inevitability of death. He imagined shepherds unexpectedly seeing a tomb with the inscription “And I was in Arcadia...”. At the moment when a person is filled with a feeling of cloudless happiness, he seems to hear the voice of death - a reminder of the fragility of life, of the inevitable end. In the first, more emotional and dramatic London version, the confusion of the shepherds is more clearly expressed, as if they suddenly appeared in the face of death invading their bright world. In the second, much later Louvre version, the faces of the heroes are not even clouded; they remain calm, perceiving death as a natural pattern. This thought is embodied with particular depth in the image of the beautiful young woman, the appearance of which the artist gave features of stoic wisdom.
Poussin. Poet's inspiration. Between 1635 and 1638
The Louvre painting “The Inspiration of a Poet” is an example of how an abstract idea is embodied by Poussin in deep, powerful images. Essentially, the plot of this work seems to border on allegory: we see a young poet crowned with a wreath in the presence of Apollo and the muse, but the least of all in this picture is allegorical dryness and far-fetchedness. The idea of the painting - the birth of beauty in art, its triumph - is perceived not as abstract, but as a concrete, figurative idea. Unlike those common in the 17th century. allegorical compositions, the images of which are united externally rhetorically, the Louvre painting is characterized by an internal unification of images by a common structure of feelings, the idea of the sublime beauty of creativity. The image of the beautiful muse in Poussin’s painting brings to mind the most poetic female images in the art of classical Greece.
The compositional structure of the painting is in its way exemplary for classicism. It is distinguished by great simplicity: the figure of Apollo is placed in the center, on both sides of him the figures of the muse and the poet are symmetrically located. But there is not the slightest dryness or artificiality in this decision; minor, subtle displacements, turns, movements of figures, a tree pushed to the side, a flying cupid - all these techniques, without depriving the composition of clarity and balance, introduce into it that sense of life that distinguishes this work from the conventionally schematic creations of academicians who imitated Poussin.
In the process of developing the artistic and compositional concept of Poussin’s paintings great importance had his wonderful drawings. These sepia sketches, executed with exceptional breadth and boldness, based on the juxtaposition of spots of light and shadow, play a preparatory role in transforming the idea of a work into a complete pictorial whole. Alive and dynamic, they seem to reflect all the richness creative imagination the artist in his search for a compositional rhythm and emotional key that corresponds to the ideological concept.
In subsequent years, the harmonic unity of the best works of the 1630s. is gradually lost. In Poussin's painting the features of abstraction and rationality are growing. The brewing crisis of creativity intensifies sharply during his trip to France.
Poussin's fame reaches the French court. Having received an invitation to return to France, Poussin delays the trip in every possible way. Only a coldly commanding personal letter from King Louis XIII forces him to obey. In the fall of 1640, Poussin left for Paris. A trip to France brings the artist a lot of bitter disappointment. His art meets fierce resistance from representatives of the decorative baroque movement, led by Simon Vouet, who worked at the court. A network of dirty intrigues and denunciations of “these animals” (as the artist called them in his letters) entangles Poussin, a man of impeccable reputation. The whole atmosphere of court life inspires him with disgust. The artist, according to him, needs to break out of the noose that he put around his neck in order to again engage in real art in the silence of his studio, because “if I stay in this country,” he writes, “I will have to turn into a dirty guy, like to others who are here." The royal court fails to attract a great artist. In the fall of 1642, Poussin, under the pretext of his wife’s illness, left back for Italy, this time for good.
Poussin's work in the 1640s. marked by the features of a deep crisis. This crisis is explained not so much by the indicated facts of the artist’s biography, but primarily by the internal contradictions of classicism itself. The living reality of that time was far from meeting the ideals of rationality and civic virtue. The positive ethical program of classicism began to lose ground.
While working in Paris, Poussin was unable to completely abandon the tasks assigned to him as a court artist. The works of the Parisian period are cold, official in nature, they clearly express the features of Baroque art aimed at achieving external effect (“Time saves Truth from Envy and Discord”, 1642, Lille, Museum; “The Miracle of St. Francis Xavier”, 1642, Louvre) . It was this kind of work that was subsequently perceived as examples by the artists of the academic camp, led by Charles Lebrun.
But even in those works in which the master strictly adhered to the classicist artistic doctrine, he no longer achieved the previous depth and vitality of the images. The rationalism, normativity, predominance of an abstract idea over feeling, and the desire for ideality characteristic of this system receive a one-sided exaggerated expression in him. An example is “The Generosity of Scipio” at the Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin (1643). Depicting the Roman commander Scipio Africanus, who renounced his rights to the captive Carthaginian princess and returned her to her groom, the artist glorifies the virtue of the wise military leader. But in this case, the theme of the triumph of moral duty received a cold, rhetorical embodiment, the images lost their vitality and spirituality, the gestures were conventional, the depth of thought was replaced by artificiality. The figures seem frozen, the coloring is motley, with a predominance of cold local colors, the painting style is distinguished by an unpleasant slickness. Similar features characterize those created in 1644-1648. paintings from the second cycle of “Seven Sacraments”.
The crisis of the classicist method affected primarily Poussin's subject compositions. Already from the late 1640s. The artist's highest achievements are manifested in other genres - portraits and landscapes.
One of Poussin's most significant works dates back to 1650 - his famous Louvre self-portrait. For Poussin, an artist is, first of all, a thinker. In an era when the portrait emphasized the features of external representativeness, when the significance of the image was determined by the social distance separating the model from mere mortals, Poussin sees the value of a person in the strength of his intellect, in creative power. And in the self-portrait the artist maintains strict clarity compositional construction and clarity of linear and volumetric solutions. With its depth of ideological content and remarkable completeness, Poussin’s “Self-Portrait” significantly surpasses the works of French portrait painters and belongs to the best portraits of European art of the 17th century.
Poussin's fascination with landscape is associated with change. his worldview. There is no doubt that Poussin lost that integral idea of man, which was characteristic of his works of the 1620-1630s. Attempts to embody this idea in plot compositions of the 1640s. led to failures. Poussin's imagery system from the late 1640s. is built on different principles. In the works of this time, the artist’s focus is on the image of nature. For Poussin, nature is the personification of the highest harmony of existence. Man has lost his dominant position in it. He is perceived only as one of the many creations of nature, the laws of which he is forced to obey.
Walking around Rome, the artist, with his characteristic inquisitiveness, studied the landscapes of the Roman Campania. His immediate impressions are conveyed in wonderful landscape drawings from life, distinguished by their extraordinary freshness of perception and subtle lyricism.
Poussin's picturesque landscapes do not have the same sense of spontaneity that is inherent in his drawings. In his paintings, the ideal, generalizing principle is more strongly expressed, and nature in them appears as a bearer of perfect beauty and grandeur. Saturated with great ideological and emotional content, Poussin’s landscapes belong to the highest achievements of the popular painting of the 17th century. the so-called heroic landscape.
Poussin's landscapes are imbued with a sense of the grandeur and greatness of the world. Huge piled rocks, clumps of lush trees, crystal clear lakes, cool springs flowing among stones and shady bushes are combined in a plastically clear, holistic composition based on the alternation of spatial plans, each of which is located parallel to the plane of the canvas. The viewer's gaze, following the rhythmic movement, embraces the space in all its grandeur. The color scheme is very restrained; most often it is based on a combination of cold blue and bluish tones of the sky and water and warm brownish-gray tones of soil and rocks.
In each landscape the artist creates a unique image. “Landscape with Polyphemus” (1649; Hermitage) is perceived as a broad and solemn hymn to nature; her mighty grandeur conquers in the Moscow “Landscape with Hercules” (1649). Depicting John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos (Chicago, Institute of Arts), Poussin refuses the traditional interpretation of this plot. He creates a landscape of rare beauty and strength of mood - a living personification of beautiful Hellas. The image of John in Poussin’s interpretation resembles not a Christian hermit, but an ancient thinker.
In his later years, Poussin even embodied thematic paintings in landscape forms. This is his painting “The Funeral of Phocion” (after 1648; Louvre). The ancient hero Phocion was executed by the verdict of his ungrateful fellow citizens. He was even denied burial in his homeland. The artist presented the moment when slaves carry the remains of Phocion out of Athens on a stretcher. Temples, towers, and city walls stand out against the background of blue sky and green trees. Life goes on as usual; a shepherd is grazing his flock, on the road oxen are pulling a cart and a horseman is rushing. The beautiful landscape with particular poignancy makes you feel the tragic idea of this work - the theme of man’s loneliness, his powerlessness and frailty in the face of eternal nature. Even the death of the hero cannot overshadow her indifferent beauty. If previous landscapes affirmed the unity of nature and man, then in “The Funeral of Phocion” the idea of contrasting the hero and the world around him appears, which personifies the conflict between man and reality characteristic of this era.
The perception of the world in its tragic inconsistency was reflected in Poussin’s famous landscape cycle “The Four Seasons,” executed in the last years of his life (1660 -1664; Louvre). The artist poses and solves in these works the problem of life and death, nature and humanity. Each landscape has a certain symbolic meaning; for example, “Spring” (in this landscape Adam and Eve are represented in paradise) is the flowering of the world, the childhood of humanity, “Winter” depicts the flood, the death of life. Poussin’s nature in the tragic “Winter” is full of greatness and strength. The water gushing onto the earth with inexorable inevitability absorbs all living things. There is no escape anywhere. A flash of lightning cuts through the darkness of the night, and the world, gripped by despair, appears as if petrified in immobility. In the feeling of chilling numbness that permeates the picture, Poussin embodies the idea of approaching merciless death.
The tragic “Winter” was last work artist. In the fall of 1665, Poussin dies.
The significance of Poussin's art for his time and subsequent eras is enormous. His true heirs were not the French academicians of the second half of the 17th century, but the representatives of revolutionary classicism of the 18th century, who were able to express the great ideas of their time in the forms of this art.
If in Poussin's work various genres found their deep implementation - historical and mythological painting, portrait and landscape, then other masters of French classicism worked mainly in one genre. As an example, we can name Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), the largest representative of classicist landscape along with Poussin.
Claude Jelle was born in Lorraine (Lorraine in French), hence his nickname Lorraine. He came from a peasant family. Orphaned at an early age, Lorren went to Italy as a boy, where he studied painting. Almost all of Lorrain's life, with the exception of a two-year stay in Naples and a short visit to Lorraine, was spent in Rome.
Lorrain was the creator of the classic landscape. Individual works of this kind appeared in the art of Italian masters of the late 16th and early 17th centuries - Annibale Carracci and Domenichino. The German painter Elsheimer, who worked in Rome, made a great contribution to landscape painting. But only Lorrain developed the landscape into a complete system and turned into an independent genre. Lorrain was inspired by the motives of real Italian nature, but he transformed these motives into an ideal image that corresponds to the norms of classicism. Unlike Poussin, who perceived nature in heroic terms, Lorrain is primarily a lyricist. He has a more directly expressed living feeling, a shade of personal experience. He loves to depict the boundless expanses of the sea (Lorrain often painted sea harbors), wide horizons, the play of light at sunrise or sunset, predawn fog, and deepening twilight. For early landscapes Lorrain is characterized by some overload of architectural motifs, brownish tones, strong contrasts of lighting - for example, in “Campo Vaccino” (1635; Louvre), depicting a meadow on the site of an ancient Roman forum, where people wander among ancient ruins.
Claude Lorrain. Seascape with Acis and Galatea. 1657
Lorrain entered his creative heyday in the 1650s. From this time on, his best works appeared. This is, for example, “The Rape of Europe” (c. 1655; A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts). The compositions of the mature Lorrain do not depict - with a few exceptions - any specific landscape motif. They create a kind of generalized image of nature. The Moscow picture shows a beautiful azure bay, the shore of which is bordered by hills of calm outlines and transparent clumps of trees. The landscape is flooded with bright sunlight, only in the center of the bay there is a light shadow from a cloud on the sea. Everything is full of blissful peace. Human figures do not have such an important meaning in Lorrain as in Poussin’s landscapes (Lorrain himself did not like to paint figures and entrusted their execution to other masters). However, an episode from the ancient myth about the abduction of the beautiful girl of Europe by Zeus, who turned into a bull, interpreted in an idyllic spirit, corresponds to the general mood of the landscape; the same applies to other paintings by Lorrain - nature and people are presented in them in a certain thematic relationship. To the best works of Lorrain of the 1650s. refers to the Dresden composition “Acis and Galatea” of 1657.
In Lorrain's later work, the perception of nature becomes more and more emotional. He is interested, for example, in changes in the landscape depending on the time of day. The main means of conveying mood are light and color. Thus, in the paintings stored in the Leningrad Hermitage, in a kind of complete cycle, the artist embodies the subtle poetry of “Morning”, the clear peace of “Noon”, the foggy golden sunset of “Evening”, the bluish darkness of “Night”. The most poetic of these paintings is “Morning” (1666). Everything here is shrouded in the silvery-blue haze of the beginning dawn. The transparent silhouette of a large dark tree stands out against the brightening sky; Antique ruins are still immersed in the gloomy shadow - a motif that introduces a shade of sadness into the clear and quiet landscape.
Lorrain is also known as an engraver-etcher and as a draftsman. Particularly remarkable are his landscape sketches from life, which were carried out by the artist while walking around the outskirts of Rome. In these drawings, Lorrain's inherent emotional and direct sense of nature was reflected with exceptional brightness. These sketches, made in ink and washes, are distinguished by their amazing breadth and freedom of painting style, the ability to achieve strong effects using simple means. The motifs of the drawings are very diverse: now it is a landscape of a panoramic nature, where a few bold brush strokes create the impression of endless breadth, now a dense alley, and the rays of the sun, breaking through the foliage of the trees, falling on the road, now just a stone overgrown with moss on the river bank, then, finally , a completed drawing of a majestic Building surrounded by a beautiful park (“Villa Albani”).
Lorrain's paintings remained for a long time - until the beginning of the 19th century - models for masters of landscape painting. But many of his followers, who accepted only his external visual techniques, lost a truly living sense of nature.
Lorrain's influence is also felt in the work of his contemporary Gaspard Duguay (1613-1675), who contributed to classic landscape elements of excitement and drama, especially in conveying the effects of disturbing storm lighting. Among Duguay's works, the most famous are the landscape cycles in the Roman palaces of Doria Pamphili and Colonna.
Eustache Lesueur (1617-1655) joined the classical direction. He was a student of Vouet and helped him with decorative work. In the 1640s. Lesueur was strongly influenced by the art of Poussin.
LeSueur's work is an example of the adaptation of the principles of classicism to the requirements that court and clerical circles set for art. In his largest work, the murals of the Lambert Hotel in Paris, Lesueur tried to combine the principles of the aesthetic doctrine of classicism with purely decorative effects. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in his large cycle “The Life of St. Bruno" (1645 -1648, Louvre), commissioned by church circles, has features of closeness to the Baroque movement, reflected in the sugary idealization of images and in the general spirit of Catholic fanaticism that permeates this entire cycle. Lesueur's art is one of the first symptoms of the degeneration of the classicist movement into court academicism.
In the second half of the 17th century. The absolute monarchy in France reaches its greatest economic and political power and external prosperity.
The process of centralization of the state was finally completed. After the defeat of the Fronde (1653), the king's power strengthened and assumed an unlimited, despotic character. In an anonymous pamphlet of opposition literature of the late 17th century. Louis XIV is called the idol to whom all of France was sacrificed. In order to strengthen the economic position of the nobility, important measures were taken. An economic system was implemented based on wars of conquest and the consistent implementation of a policy of mercantilism; This system was called Colbertism - named after Colbert, the king's first minister. The royal court was the political center of the country. His residence was magnificent country residences, and above all (from the 1680s) the famous Versailles. Life at court was spent in endless celebrations. The focus of this life was the personality of the sun king. His awakening from sleep, morning toilet, lunch, etc. - everything was subject to a certain ritual and took place in the form of solemn ceremonies.
The centralizing role of absolutism was also reflected in the fact that around the royal court in the second half of the 17th century. Essentially all the cultural forces of France were gathered. The most prominent architects, poets, playwrights, artists, and musicians created according to the orders of the court. The image of Louis XIV, either as a magnanimous monarch or as a proud winner, served as a theme for historical, allegorical, battle paintings, for ceremonial portraits and for tapestries.
Various trends in the art of France were henceforth leveled in the “grand style” of the noble monarchy. The artistic life of the country was subjected to the strictest centralization. Back in 1648, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was established. The founding of the Academy had a positive significance: for the first time, the activities of artists were freed from the oppression of the guild system and an orderly system of art education was created. But from the very beginning of its existence, the activities of the Academy were subordinated to the interests of absolutism. In 1664, in accordance with new tasks, Colbert reorganized the Academy, turning it into a state institution, entirely at the service of the court.
Classical landscape in French paintingXVIIcentury.
In the 17th century, after a period of bloody civil wars and economic devastation, the French people faced the task of further national development in all areas of economic, political and cultural life. Under conditions of absolute monarchy - under Henry IV and especially in the second quarter of the 17th century. under Richelieu, the energetic minister of the weak-willed Louis XIII, a system of state centralization was laid out and strengthened. As a result of a consistent struggle against feudal opposition, effective economic policies and strengthening of its international position, France achieved significant success, becoming one of the most powerful European powers.
The establishment of French absolutism was based on the brutal exploitation of the masses. Richelieu said that the people are like a mule, which is used to carrying heavy loads and is spoiled more by long rest than by work. The French bourgeoisie, whose development absolutism patronized with its economic policy, was in a dual position: it strove for political dominance, but due to its immaturity it could not yet take the path of breaking with royal power and leading the masses, because the bourgeoisie was afraid of them and was interested in maintaining the privileges granted to it by absolutism. This was confirmed in the history of the so-called parliamentary Fronde (1648-1649), when the bourgeoisie, frightened by the powerful upsurge of the popular revolutionary element, committed direct betrayal and compromised with the nobility.
Absolutism predetermined many characteristic features in the development of French culture in the 17th century. Scientists, poets, and artists were attracted to the royal court. In the 17th century, grandiose palace and public buildings were erected in France, and majestic urban ensembles were created. But it would be wrong to reduce all the ideological diversity of French culture of the 17th century. only to express the ideas of absolutism. The development of French culture, being associated with the expression of national interests, was more complex, including trends that were very far from official requirements.
The creative genius of the French people showed itself brightly and multifacetedly in philosophy, literature and art. The 17th century gave France the great thinkers Descartes and Gassendi, luminaries of dramaturgy Corneille, Racine and Moliere, and in the plastic arts such great masters, like the architect Hardouin-Mansart and the painter Nicolas Poussin.
The acute social struggle left a definite imprint on the entire development of French culture at that time. Social contradictions manifested themselves, in particular, in the fact that some leading figures of French culture found themselves in a state of conflict with the royal court and were forced to live and work outside France: Descartes went to Holland, and Poussin spent almost his entire life in Italy. Official court art in the first half of the 17th century. developed mainly in the forms of pompous baroque. In the struggle against official art, two artistic lines emerged, each of which was an expression of the advanced realistic trends of the era. The masters of the first of these movements, who received the name peintres de la realite from French researchers, that is, painters of the real world, worked in the capital, as well as in provincial art schools, and despite all their individual differences, they were united by one common feature: avoiding ideal forms, they turned to the direct, immediate embodiment of the phenomena and images of reality. Their best achievements relate primarily to everyday picture and portrait; Biblical and mythological subjects were also embodied by these masters in images inspired by everyday reality.
But the most profound reflection of the essential features of the era appeared in France in the forms of the second of these progressive movements - in the art of classicism.
The specifics of various areas of artistic culture determined certain features of the evolution of this style in drama, poetry, architecture and fine arts ah, but with all these differences, the principles of French classicism have a certain unity.
Under the conditions of an absolutist system, a person’s dependence on social institutions, on state regulation and class barriers should have been revealed with particular acuteness. In literature, in which the ideological program of classicism found its most complete expression, the theme of civic duty, the victory of the social principle over the personal principle, becomes dominant. Classicism contrasts the imperfections of reality with the ideals of rationality and severe discipline of the individual, with the help of which the contradictions of real life must be overcome. The conflict between reason and feeling, passion and duty, characteristic of the dramaturgy of classicism, reflected the contradiction between man and the world around him that was characteristic of this era. Representatives of classicism found embodiment of their social ideals in Ancient Greece and Republican Rome, just as ancient art was the personification of aesthetic norms for them.
At the beginning of the 17th century, after the period of civil wars and the associated well-known decline in cultural life, in the fine arts, as in architecture, one could observe the struggle of the remnants of the old with the sprouts of the new, examples of following inert traditions and bold artistic innovation.
Most interesting artist During this time there was an engraver and draftsman, Jacques Callot (c. 1592-1635), who worked in the first decades of the 17th century. He was born in Nancy, in Lorraine, and as a young man went to Italy, where he lived first in Rome and then in Florence, where he remained until his return to his homeland in 1622.
A very prolific artist, Callot created more than one thousand five hundred engravings, extremely varied in their themes. He had to work at the French royal court and the ducal courts of Tuscany and Lorraine. However, the brilliance of court life did not obscure from him, a subtle and keen observer, the diversity of the surrounding reality, full of sharp social contrasts, replete with cruel military upheavals.
Callot is an artist of a transitional era; The complexity and contradictions of his time explain the contradictory features in his art. Remnants of mannerism are also noticeable in Callot's works - they affect both the artist's worldview and his visual techniques. At the same time, Callot’s creativity gives shining example penetration of new, realistic trends into French art.
Callot worked in the etching technique, which he perfected. Usually the master used repeated etching when engraving, which allowed him to achieve particularly clear lines and hardness of the design.
Jacques Callot. Etching from the “Beggars” series. 1622
Jacques Callot. Cassander. Etching from the series “Three Pantaloons”. 1618
In the works of Callot of the early period, elements of fantasy are still strong. They are reflected in the desire for bizarre plots, for exaggerated grotesque expressiveness; The artist's skill sometimes takes on the character of self-sufficient virtuosity. These features are especially evident in the series of engravings of 1622 - “Bally” (“Dancing”) and “Gobbi” (“Humpbacks”), created under the influence of the Italian comedy of masks. Works of this kind, still largely superficial, testify to the artist’s somewhat one-sided search for external expressiveness. But in other series of engravings, realistic tendencies are already more clearly expressed. This is a whole gallery of types that the artist could directly see on the streets: townspeople, peasants, soldiers (the Capricci series, 1617), gypsies (the Gypsies series, 1621), tramps and beggars (the Beggars series, 1622). These small figures, executed with exceptional sharpness and observation, have extraordinary mobility, acute character, and expressive postures and gestures. With virtuosic artistry, Kaldo conveys the elegant ease of a gentleman (the Capricci series), the clear rhythm of the dance in the figures of Italian actors and their antics (the Bally series), the ponderous stiffness of the provincial aristocracy (the Lorraine Nobility series), and senile figures in rags (the "Beggars")
Jacques Callot. Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. Etching. 1632-1633
The most meaningful in Callot's work are his multi-figure compositions. Their themes are very diverse: they depict court festivities (“Tournament in Nancy”, 1626), fairs (“Fair in Impruneta”, 1620), military triumphs, battles (panorama “The Siege of Breda”, 1627), hunts (“The Great Hunt” , 1626), scenes on mythological and religious subjects (“Martyrdom of St. Sebastian”, 1632-1633). In these relatively small sheets, the master creates a broad picture of life. Callot's engravings are panoramic in nature; the artist looks at what is happening as if from afar, which allows him to achieve the widest spatial coverage, to include in the image huge masses of people, numerous diverse episodes. Despite the fact that the figures (and even more so the details) in Callot’s compositions are often very small in size, they were executed by the artist not only with remarkable precision in drawing, but also fully possess vitality and character. However, Callot's method was fraught with negative aspects; individual characteristics of the characters, individual details often become elusive in the total mass of numerous participants in the event, the main thing is lost among the secondary. It is not without reason that they usually say that Callot looks at his scenes as if through inverted binoculars: his perception emphasizes the artist’s distance from the event depicted. This specific feature of Callot is not a formal device at all; it is naturally connected with his artistic worldview. Callot worked in an era of crisis, when the ideals of the Renaissance had lost their strength, and new positive ideals had not yet established themselves. Callot's man is essentially powerless before external forces. It is no coincidence that the themes of some of Callot's compositions acquire a tragic overtones. Such, for example, is the engraving “The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian." The tragic beginning in this work lies not only in its plot solution - the artist presented numerous shooters, calmly and prudently, as if at a target at a shooting range, shooting arrows at Sebastian tied to a post - but also in the feeling of loneliness and powerlessness that is expressed in showered with a cloud of arrows on a tiny, difficult to distinguish figure of a saint, as if lost in a huge boundless space.
Callot reaches his greatest poignancy in two series of “Disasters of War” (1632-1633). With merciless truthfulness, the artist showed the suffering that befell his native Lorraine, captured by royal troops. The engravings of this cycle depict scenes of executions and robberies, punishment of looters, fires, victims of war - beggars and cripples on the roads. The artist tells in detail about the terrible events. There is no idealization or sentimental pity in these images. Callot does not seem to express his personal attitude to what is happening; he seems to be a dispassionate observer. But the very fact of objectively showing the disasters of war contains a certain direction and progressive meaning of this artist’s work.
At the early stage of French absolutism in court art, the baroque direction was of predominant importance. Initially, however, since there were no significant masters in France, the royal court turned to famous foreign artists. For example, in 1622, Rubens was invited to create monumental compositions that decorated the newly built Luxembourg Palace.
Gradually, along with foreigners, French masters began to emerge. At the end of the 1620s. Simon Vouet (1590-1649) received the honorary title of “first artist of the king”. For a long time, Vue lived in Italy, working on church paintings and on orders from patrons. In 1627 he was summoned by Louis XIII to France. Many of the paintings created by Vouet have not survived to this day and are known from engravings. He owns pompous compositions with religious, mythological and allegorical content, designed in bright colorful tones. Examples of his works include “St. Charles Borromean" (Brussels), "Bringing to the Temple" (Louvre), "Hercules among the gods of Olympus" (Hermitage).
Vouet created and led the official, court movement in French art. Together with his followers, he transferred the techniques of Italian and Flemish Baroque to French monumental decorative painting. Essentially, the creativity of this master was not enough on its own. Vouet's appeal to classicism in his later works was also reduced to purely external borrowings. Devoid of true monumentality and strength, sometimes cloyingly sugary, superficial and striving for external effect, the art of Vouet and his followers was weakly connected with the living national tradition.
In the struggle against the official direction in the art of France, a new realistic movement was formed and strengthened - peintres de la realite (“painters of the real world”). The best masters of this movement, who turned in their art to a concrete image of reality, created humane, dignified images of the French people.
At the early stage of development of this movement, many of the masters who joined it were influenced by the art of Caravaggio. For some, Caravaggio turned out to be an artist who largely predetermined their themes and artistic techniques themselves, while other masters were able to more creatively freely use the valuable aspects of the Caravaggist method.
Among the first of them was Valentin (actually, Jean de Boulogne; 1594-1632). In 1614 Valentin arrived in Rome, where his activities took place. Like other Caravaggists, Valentin painted paintings on religious subjects, interpreting them in a genre spirit (for example, “The Denial of Peter”; Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), but his large-figure genre compositions are most famous. Depicting motifs traditional for Caravaggism in them, Valentin strives for a more acute interpretation of them. An example of this is one of his best paintings, “Card Players” (Dresden, Gallery), where the drama of the situation is effectively played out. The naivety of the inexperienced young man, the composure and self-confidence of the sharper playing with him, and the especially sinister appearance of his accomplice wrapped in a cloak, giving signs from behind the young man’s back, are expressively shown. In this case, chiaroscuro contrasts are used not only for plastic modeling, but also to enhance the dramatic tension of the picture.
Georges de Latour (1593-1652) was one of the outstanding masters of his time. Famous in his time, he was later completely forgotten; The appearance of this master was revealed only recently.
So far, the artist’s creative evolution remains largely unclear. Few biographical information, preserved about Latour, are extremely fragmentary. Latour was born in Lorraine near Nancy, then moved to the city of Lunéville, where he spent the rest of his life. There is an assumption that in his youth he visited Italy. Latour was strongly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, but his work went far beyond simply following the techniques of Caravaggism; In the art of the Luneville master, the original features of the emerging national French painting of the 17th century found expression.
Latour painted mainly on religious subjects. The fact that he spent his life in the provinces left its mark on his art. In the naivety of his images, in the shade of religious inspiration that can be sensed in some of his works, in the emphasized static nature of his images and in the peculiar elementarity of his artistic language, echoes of the medieval worldview are still felt to some extent. But in his best works the artist creates images of rare spiritual purity and great poetic power.
Georges de Latour. Christmas. 1640s
One of Latour’s most lyrical works is the painting “Nativity” (Rennes, Museum). It is distinguished by its simplicity, almost stinginess of artistic means and at the same time the deep truthfulness with which a young mother is depicted, cradling her child with thoughtful tenderness, and an elderly woman who, carefully covering a burning candle with her hand, peers into the features of a newborn. Light in this composition takes on great importance. Dispelling the darkness of the night, he highlights with plastic tactility clear, extremely generalized volumes of figures, peasant-type faces and the touching figure of a swaddled child; under the influence of light, the deep, richly colored tones of clothes light up. Its even and calm radiance creates an atmosphere of solemn night silence, broken only by the measured breathing of a sleeping child.
Close in its mood to “Christmas” is the Louvre’s “Adoration of the Shepherds”. The true appearance of the French peasants, their beauty simple feeling the artist embodies with captivating sincerity.
Georges de Latour. St. Joseph the Carpenter. 1640s
Georges de Latour. Appearance of the angel St. Joseph. 1640s
Latour's paintings on religious themes are often interpreted in a genre spirit, but at the same time they are devoid of a touch of triviality and everyday life. Such are the already mentioned “Nativity” and “Adoration of the Shepherds”, “Penitent Magdalene” (Louvre) and Latour’s true masterpieces - “St. Joseph the Carpenter" (Louvre) and "The Appearance of the Angel of St. Joseph" (Nantes, Museum), where an angel - a slender girl - touches the hand of Joseph, who is dozing off by a candle, with a gesture that is both powerful and gentle. The feeling of spiritual purity and calm contemplation in these works raises Latour's images above everyday life.
