Renaissance paintings. Works of Italian Renaissance artists

The Renaissance, or Renaissance, is a historical milestone in European culture. This is a fateful stage in the development of world civilization, which replaced the darkness and obscurantism of the Middle Ages and preceded the emergence of the cultural values ​​of the New Time. The Renaissance heritage is characterized by anthropocentrism - in other words, an orientation towards Man, his life and activities. Distancing itself from church dogmas and themes, art acquired a secular character, and the name of the era refers to the revival of ancient motifs in art.

The Renaissance, whose roots originated in Italy, is usually divided into three stages: early (“quattrocento”), high and later. Let us consider the features of the creativity of the great masters who worked in those ancient but significant times.

First of all, it should be noted that the creators of the Renaissance not only engaged in “pure” fine art, but also proved themselves to be talented researchers and discoverers. For example, an architect from Florence named Filippo Brunelleschi described a set of rules for constructing linear perspective. The laws he formulated made it possible to accurately depict the three-dimensional world on canvas. Along with the embodiment of progressive ideas in painting, its ideological content itself has changed - the heroes of the paintings have become more “earthly”, with pronounced personal qualities and characters. This even applied to works on topics related to religion.

Outstanding names of the Quattrocento period (second half of the 15th century) - Botticelli, Masaccio, Masolino, Gozzoli and others - rightfully secured their place of honor in the treasury of world culture.

During the High Renaissance (the first half of the 16th century), the entire ideological and creative potential of artists was fully revealed. A characteristic feature of this time is the reference of art to the era of antiquity. Artists, however, do not blindly copy ancient subjects, but rather use them to create and develop their own unique styles. Thanks to this, fine art acquires consistency and rigor, giving way to a certain frivolity of the previous period. Architecture, sculpture and painting of this time harmoniously complemented each other. Buildings, frescoes, and paintings created during the High Period of the Renaissance are true masterpieces. The names of universally recognized geniuses shine: Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarotti.

The personality of Leonardo da Vinci deserves special attention. They say about him that he is a man far ahead of his time. Artist, architect, engineer, inventor - this is not a complete list of the incarnations of this multifaceted personality.

The modern man in the street knows Leonardo da Vinci primarily as a painter. His most famous work is the Mona Lisa. Using her example, the viewer can appreciate the innovation of the author’s technique: thanks to his unique courage and relaxed thinking, Leonardo developed fundamentally new ways of “revitalizing” an image.

Using the phenomenon of light scattering, he achieved a decrease in the contrast of minor details, which raised the realism of the image to a new level. The master paid remarkable attention to the anatomical accuracy of the embodiment of the body in painting and graphics - the proportions of the “ideal” figure are recorded in “Vitruvian Man”.

The second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century is usually called the Late Renaissance. This period was characterized by very diverse cultural and creative trends, so it is difficult to judge it unambiguously. The religious trends of southern Europe, embodied in the Counter-Reformation, led to abstraction from the celebration of human beauty and ancient ideals. The contradiction of such sentiments with the established ideology of the Renaissance led to the emergence of Florentine mannerism. Painting in this style is characterized by a contrived color palette and broken lines. The Venetian masters of that time - Titian and Palladio - formed their own directions of development, which had few points of contact with the manifestations of the crisis in art.

In addition to the Italian Renaissance, attention should be paid to the Northern Renaissance. Artists living north of the Alps were less influenced by ancient art. Their work shows the influence of Gothic style, which persisted until the advent of the Baroque era. The great figures of the Northern Renaissance are Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The cultural heritage of the great Renaissance artists is priceless. The name of each of them is reverently and carefully preserved in the memory of mankind, since the person who bore it was a unique diamond with many facets.

August 7th, 2014

Students of art universities and people interested in art history know that at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries there was a sharp change in painting - the Renaissance. Around the 1420s, everyone suddenly became much better at drawing. Why did the images suddenly become so realistic and detailed, and why did light and volume appear in the paintings? No one thought about this for a long time. Until David Hockney picked up a magnifying glass.

Let us find out what he discovered...

One day he was looking at the drawings of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, the leader of the French academic school of the 19th century. Hockney became interested in seeing his small drawings on a larger scale, and he enlarged them on a photocopier. That's how he stumbled upon the secret side of the history of painting since the Renaissance.

Having made photocopies of Ingres's small (about 30 centimeters) drawings, Hockney was amazed at how realistic they were. And it also seemed to him that Ingres’s lines were something to him
remind. It turned out that they reminded him of Warhol's works. And Warhol did this - he projected a photo onto a canvas and outlined it.

Left: detail of Ingres's drawing. Right: Warhol drawing of Mao Zedong

Interesting stuff, says Hockney. Apparently, Ingres used Camera Lucida - a device that is a structure with a prism that is mounted, for example, on a stand to a tablet. Thus, the artist, looking at his drawing with one eye, sees the real image, and with the other - the actual drawing and his hand. The result is an optical illusion that allows you to accurately transfer real proportions onto paper. And this is precisely the “guarantee” of the realism of the image.

Drawing a portrait using a camera lucida, 1807

Then Hockney became seriously interested in this “optical” type of drawings and paintings. In his studio, he and his team hung hundreds of reproductions of paintings created over the centuries on the walls. Works that looked "real" and those that didn't. Arranging by time of creation and region - north at the top, south at the bottom, Hockney and his team saw a sharp change in painting at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. In general, everyone who knows even a little about the history of art knows this - the Renaissance.

Maybe they used the same camera-lucida? It was patented in 1807 by William Hyde Wollaston. Although, in fact, such a device was described by Johannes Kepler back in 1611 in his work Dioptrice. Then maybe they used another optical device - a camera obscura? It has been known since the time of Aristotle and is a dark room into which light enters through a small hole and thus in the dark room a projection of what is in front of the hole is obtained, but inverted. Everything would be fine, but the image that is obtained when projected by a pinhole camera without a lens, to put it mildly, is not of high quality, it is not clear, it requires a lot of bright light, not to mention the size of the projection. But high-quality lenses were almost impossible to make until the 16th century, since there were no ways to obtain such high-quality glass at that time. Business, thought Hockney, who by that time was already struggling with the problem with the physicist Charles Falco.

However, there is a painting by Jan Van Eyck, a master from Bruges, a Flemish painter of the early Renaissance, that contains a clue. The painting is called "Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple."

Jan Van Eyck "Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple" 1434

The painting simply shines with a huge amount of detail, which is quite interesting, because it was painted only in 1434. And a clue as to how the author managed to make such a big step forward in the realism of the image is the mirror. And also a candlestick - incredibly complex and realistic.

Hockney was bursting with curiosity. He got a copy of such a chandelier and tried to draw it. The artist was faced with the fact that such a complex thing is difficult to draw in perspective. Another important point was the materiality of the image of this metal object. When depicting a steel object, it is very important to position the highlights as realistically as possible, as this gives great realism. But the problem with these highlights is that they move when the viewer's or artist's eye moves, meaning they are not easy to capture at all. And a realistic depiction of metal and glare is also a distinctive feature of Renaissance paintings; before that, artists had not even tried to do this.

By recreating an accurate 3D model of the chandelier, Hockney's team ensured that the chandelier in the Arnolfini Portrait was drawn accurately in perspective with a single vanishing point. But the problem was that such precise optical instruments as a camera obscura with a lens did not exist until about a century after the painting was created.

Fragment of Jan Van Eyck's painting "Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple" 1434

The enlarged fragment shows that the mirror in the painting “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple” is convex. This means there were also mirrors on the contrary - concave. Moreover, in those days such mirrors were made in this way - a glass sphere was taken, and its bottom was covered with silver, then everything except the bottom was cut off. The back side of the mirror was not darkened. This means that Jan Van Eyck’s concave mirror could be the same mirror that is depicted in the painting, just from the reverse side. And any physicist knows that such a mirror, when reflected, projects a picture of what is being reflected. This is where his friend physicist Charles Falco helped David Hockney with calculations and research.

A concave mirror projects an image of the tower outside the window onto the canvas.

The clear, focused part of the projection measures approximately 30 square centimeters - which is exactly the size of the heads in many Renaissance portraits.

Hockney outlines the projection of a man on canvas

This is the size, for example, of the portrait of “Doge Leonardo Loredan” by Giovanni Bellini (1501), the portrait of a man by Robert Campin (1430), the actual portrait of Jan Van Eyck “a man in a red turban” and many other early Dutch portraits.

Renaissance Portraits

Painting was a highly paid job, and naturally, all business secrets were kept in the strictest confidence. It was beneficial for the artist that all uninitiated people believed that the secrets were in the hands of the master and could not be stolen. The business was closed to outsiders - the artists were members of the guild, and it also included a variety of craftsmen - from those who made saddles to those who made mirrors. And in the Guild of Saint Luke, founded in Antwerp and first mentioned in 1382 (then similar guilds opened in many northern cities, and one of the largest was the guild in Bruges, the city where Van Eyck lived) there were also masters making mirrors.

This is how Hockney recreated how a complex chandelier from a Van Eyck painting could be painted. It is not at all surprising that the size of the chandelier Hockney projected exactly matches the size of the chandelier in the painting “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple.” And of course, the highlights on the metal - on the projection they stand still and do not change when the artist changes position.

But the problem is still not completely solved, because the advent of high-quality optics, which is needed to use a camera obscura, was 100 years away, and the size of the projection obtained using a mirror is very small. How to paint paintings larger than 30 square centimeters? They were created like a collage - from many points of view, it was like a spherical vision with many vanishing points. Hockney understood this because he himself made such pictures - he made many photo collages that achieve exactly the same effect.

Almost a century later, in the 1500s it finally became possible to obtain and process glass well - large lenses appeared. And they could finally be inserted into a camera obscura, the principle of operation of which had been known since ancient times. The camera obscura lens was an incredible revolution in visual art because the projection could now be any size. And one more thing, now the image was not “wide-angle”, but approximately of a normal aspect - that is, approximately the same as it is today when photographed with a lens with a focal length of 35-50mm.

However, the problem with using a pinhole camera with a lens is that the forward projection from the lens is a mirror image. This led to a large number of left-handed painters in the early stages of the use of optics. Like in this painting from the 1600s from the Frans Hals Museum, where a left-handed couple is dancing, a left-handed old man is shaking his finger at them, and a left-handed monkey is looking under the woman’s dress.

Everyone in this picture is left-handed

The problem is solved by installing a mirror into which the lens is directed, thus obtaining the correct projection. But apparently, a good, smooth and large mirror cost a lot of money, so not everyone had it.

Another problem was focusing. The fact is that some parts of the picture, at one position of the canvas under the projection rays, were out of focus and not clear. In the works of Jan Vermeer, where the use of optics is quite obvious, his works generally look like photographs, you can also notice places out of “focus”. You can even see the pattern that the lens produces - the notorious “bokeh”. Like here, for example, in the painting “The Milkmaid” (1658), the basket, the bread in it and the blue vase are out of focus. But the human eye cannot see “out of focus.”

Some parts of the picture are out of focus

And in light of all this, it is not at all surprising that a good friend of Jan Vermeer was Anthony Phillips van Leeuwenhoek, a scientist and microbiologist, as well as a unique master who created his own microscopes and lenses. The scientist became the artist's posthumous steward. This suggests that Vermeer depicted his friend on two canvases - “Geographer” and “Astronomer”.

In order to see any part in focus, you need to change the position of the canvas under the projection rays. But in this case, errors in proportions appeared. As you can see here: the huge shoulder of "Anthea" by Parmigianino (circa 1537), the small head of "Lady Genovese" by Anthony Van Dyck (1626), the huge legs of a peasant in a painting by Georges de La Tour.

Errors in proportions

Of course, all artists used lenses differently. Some were for sketches, some were composed from different parts - after all, now it was possible to make a portrait, and finish everything else with another model or even with a mannequin.

There are almost no drawings left by Velazquez. However, his masterpiece remained - a portrait of Pope Innocent 10th (1650). There is a wonderful play of light on the pope's mantle - obviously silk. Blikov. And to write all this from one point of view, it took a lot of effort. But if you make a projection, then all this beauty will not run away anywhere - the highlights no longer move, you can paint with those wide and fast strokes like Velasquez’s.

Hockney reproduces Velazquez's painting

Subsequently, many artists were able to afford a camera obscura, and it ceased to be a big secret. Canaletto actively used the camera to create his views of Venice and did not hide it. These paintings, due to their accuracy, allow us to talk about Canaletto as a documentarian. Thanks to Canaletto, you can see not just a beautiful picture, but also the story itself. You can see what the first Westminster Bridge in London looked like in 1746.

Canaletto "Westminster Bridge" 1746

British artist Sir Joshua Reynolds owned a camera obscura and apparently didn't tell anyone about it, because his camera folds up and looks like a book. Today it is in the London Science Museum.

Camera obscura disguised as a book

Finally, at the beginning of the 19th century, William Henry Fox Talbot, using a camera lucida - the one in which you have to look with one eye and draw with your hands, cursed, deciding that such an inconvenience must be ended once and for all, and became one of the inventors of chemical photography, and later a popularizer who made it mass.

With the invention of photography, painting's monopoly on the realism of a picture disappeared; now photography has become a monopolist. And here, finally, painting freed itself from the lens, continuing the path from which it turned in the 1400s, and Van Gogh became the forerunner of all art of the 20th century.

Left: Byzantine mosaic from the 12th century. Right: Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait of Monsieur Trabuc, 1889.

The invention of photography is the best thing that happened to painting in its entire history. It was no longer necessary to create exclusively real images; the artist became free. Of course, it took the public a century to catch up with artists in their understanding of visual music and stop thinking people like Van Gogh were “crazy.” At the same time, artists began to actively use photographs as “reference material.” Then people like Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian avant-garde, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock appeared. Following painting, architecture, sculpture and music also liberated themselves. True, the Russian academic school of painting is stuck in time, and today in academies and schools it is still considered a disgrace to use photography as an aid, and the highest feat is considered to be the purely technical ability to paint as realistically as possible with bare hands.

Thanks to an article by journalist Lawrence Weschler, who was present during the research of David Hockney and Falco, another interesting fact is revealed: the portrait of the Arnolfini couple by Van Eyck is a portrait of an Italian merchant in Bruges. Mr. Arnolfini is a Florentine and, moreover, he is a representative of the Medici bank (practically the masters of Florence during the Renaissance, they are considered patrons of the art of that time in Italy). What does this mean? The fact that he could easily have taken the secret of the Guild of St. Luke - the mirror - with him to Florence, where, as is believed in traditional history, the Renaissance began, and artists from Bruges (and, accordingly, other masters) are considered “primitivists.”

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the Hockney-Falco theory. But there is certainly a grain of truth in it. As for art critics, critics and historians, it’s hard to even imagine how many scientific works on history and art actually turned out to be complete nonsense, but this changes the entire history of art, all their theories and texts.

The facts of the use of optics do not in any way detract from the talents of artists - after all, technology is a means of conveying what the artist wants. And vice versa, the fact that these paintings contain the most real reality only adds weight to them - after all, this is exactly what people of that time, things, premises, cities looked like. These are the real documents.

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

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

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

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

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

In Florence, Leonardo began another painting: a portrait of the merchant del Giocondo's wife, Mona Lisa, which became one of the most famous paintings in the world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sistine Madonna is a late work by Raphael.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528).

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

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

Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)

Renaissance Lucas Cranach (1472-1553),

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

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

Renaissance painting constitutes the golden fund of not only European but also world art. The Renaissance period replaced the dark Middle Ages, subordinate to the core of church canons, and preceded the subsequent Enlightenment and the New Age.

It is worth calculating the duration of the period depending on the country. The era of cultural flourishing, as it is commonly called, began in Italy in the 14th century, and then spread throughout Europe and reached its apogee by the end of the 15th century. Historians divide this period in art into four stages: Proto-Renaissance, early, high and late Renaissance. Italian Renaissance painting is, of course, of particular value and interest, but French, German, and Dutch masters should not be overlooked. It is about them in the context of the time periods of the Renaissance that will be discussed further in the article.

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance period lasted from the second half of the 13th century. to the 14th century It is closely connected with the Middle Ages, in the late stage of which it originated. The Proto-Renaissance is the predecessor of the Renaissance and combines Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic traditions. The trends of the new era appeared first in sculpture, and only then in painting. The latter was represented by two schools of Siena and Florence.

The main figure of the period was the artist and architect Giotto di Bondone. The representative of the Florentine school of painting became a reformer. He outlined the path along which it further developed. The features of Renaissance painting originate precisely in this period. It is generally accepted that Giotto managed to overcome the style of icon painting common to Byzantium and Italy in his works. He made the space not two-dimensional, but three-dimensional, using chiaroscuro to create the illusion of depth. The photo shows the painting “The Kiss of Judas”.

Representatives of the Florentine school stood at the origins of the Renaissance and did everything to bring painting out of the long medieval stagnation.

The Proto-Renaissance period was divided into two parts: before and after his death. Until 1337, the brightest masters worked and the most important discoveries took place. Afterwards, Italy is hit by a plague epidemic.

Renaissance Painting: Briefly about the Early Period

The Early Renaissance covers a period of 80 years: from 1420 to 1500. At this time, it has not yet completely departed from past traditions and is still associated with the art of the Middle Ages. However, the breath of new trends is already felt; masters are beginning to turn more often to elements of classical antiquity. Ultimately, artists completely abandon the medieval style and begin to boldly use the best examples of ancient culture. Note that the process went rather slowly, step by step.

Bright representatives of the early Renaissance

The work of the Italian artist Piero della Francesca entirely belongs to the early Renaissance period. His works are distinguished by nobility, majestic beauty and harmony, accurate perspective, soft colors filled with light. In the last years of his life, in addition to painting, he studied mathematics in depth and even wrote two of his own treatises. His student was another famous painter, Luca Signorelli, and the style was reflected in the works of many Umbrian masters. In the photo above is a fragment of a fresco in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, “The History of the Queen of Sheba.”

Domenico Ghirlandaio is another prominent representative of the Florentine school of Renaissance painting of the early period. He was the founder of a famous artistic dynasty and the head of the workshop where young Michelangelo began. Ghirlandaio was a famous and successful master who was engaged not only in fresco painting (Tornabuoni Chapel, Sistine), but also in easel painting (“Adoration of the Magi”, “Nativity”, “Old Man with Grandson”, “Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni” - pictured below).

High Renaissance

This period, in which the style developed magnificently, falls on 1500-1527. At this time, the center of Italian art moved to Rome from Florence. This is connected with the ascension to the papal throne of the ambitious, enterprising Julius II, who attracted the best artists of Italy to his court. Rome became something like Athens during the time of Pericles and experienced an incredible growth and construction boom. At the same time, there is harmony between the branches of art: sculpture, architecture and painting. The Renaissance brought them together. They seem to go hand in hand, complementing each other and interacting.

Antiquity is studied more thoroughly during the High Renaissance and reproduced with maximum accuracy, rigor and consistency. Dignity and tranquility replace flirtatious beauty, and medieval traditions are completely forgotten. The pinnacle of the Renaissance is marked by the work of three of the greatest Italian masters: Raphael Santi (the painting “Donna Velata” in the image above), Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (“Mona Lisa” in the first photo).

Late Renaissance

The Late Renaissance covers the period from the 1530s to the 1590s to the 1620s in Italy. Art critics and historians reduce the works of this time to a common denominator with a large degree of convention. Southern Europe was under the influence of the Counter-Reformation that triumphed in it, which perceived with great caution any free-thinking, including the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity.

In Florence, there was a dominance of Mannerism, characterized by artificial colors and broken lines. However, he reached Parma, where Correggio worked, only after the death of the master. Venetian painting of the late Renaissance had its own path of development. Palladio and Titian, who worked there until the 1570s, are its brightest representatives. Their work had nothing to do with new trends in Rome and Florence.

Northern Renaissance

This term is used to describe the Renaissance throughout Europe, outside of Italy in general and in German-speaking countries in particular. It has a number of features. The Northern Renaissance was not homogeneous and was characterized by specific features in each country. Art historians divide it into several directions: French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, English, etc.

The awakening of Europe took two paths: the development and spread of a humanistic secular worldview, and the development of ideas for the renewal of religious traditions. Both of them touched, sometimes merged, but at the same time they were antagonists. Italy chose the first path, and Northern Europe - the second.

The Renaissance had virtually no influence on the art of the north, including painting, until 1450. From 1500 it spread throughout the continent, but in some places the influence of late Gothic remained until the advent of the Baroque.

The Northern Renaissance is characterized by a significant influence of the Gothic style, less close attention to the study of antiquity and human anatomy, and a detailed and careful writing technique. The Reformation had an important ideological influence on him.

French Northern Renaissance

The closest thing to Italian is French painting. The Renaissance was an important stage for French culture. At this time, the monarchy and bourgeois relations were actively strengthening, the religious ideas of the Middle Ages faded into the background, giving way to humanistic tendencies. Representatives: Francois Quesnel, Jean Fouquet (pictured is a fragment of the master's "Melen Diptych"), Jean Clouse, Jean Goujon, Marc Duval, Francois Clouet.

German and Dutch Northern Renaissance

Outstanding works of the Northern Renaissance were created by German and Flemish-Dutch masters. Religion continued to play a significant role in these countries, and it greatly influenced painting. The Renaissance took a different path in the Netherlands and Germany. Unlike the works of Italian masters, the artists of these countries did not place man at the center of the universe. Throughout almost the entire 15th century. they portrayed him in the Gothic style: light and ethereal. The most prominent representatives of the Dutch Renaissance are Hubert van Eyck, Jan van Eyck, Robert Campen, Hugo van der Goes, the German - Albert Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Holbein, Matthias Grunewald.

The photo shows a self-portrait of A. Durer from 1498.

Despite the fact that the works of northern masters differ significantly from the works of Italian painters, they are in any case recognized as priceless exhibits of fine art.

Renaissance painting, like all culture as a whole, is characterized by a secular character, humanism and so-called anthropocentrism, or, in other words, a primary interest in man and his activities. During this period, there was a real flowering of interest in ancient art, and its revival took place. The era gave the world a galaxy of brilliant sculptors, architects, writers, poets and artists. Never before or since has cultural flourishing been so widespread.

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

Of the Renaissance masters of the mid and second half of the 15th century, it is necessary to dwell on four: Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci. They were contemporaries of the widespread establishment of seigneuries and dealt with princely courts, but this does not mean that their art was entirely princely. They took from the lords what they could give them, paid with their talent and zeal, but remained the successors of the “fathers of the Renaissance,” remembered their behests, increased their achievements, strived to surpass them, and indeed sometimes surpassed them. During the years of gradual reaction in Italy, they created wonderful art.

Piero della Francesca

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

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

Piero della Francesca owned all the achievements of the “new art” created by the Florentines, but did not stay in Florence, but returned to his homeland, to the province. This saved him from patrician tastes. He gained fame with his talent; princes and even the papal curia gave him assignments. But he did not become a court artist. He always remained true to himself, his calling, his charming muse. Of all his contemporaries, he is the only artist who did not know discord, duality, or the danger of slipping onto the wrong path. He never sought to compete with sculpture or resort to sculptural or graphic means of expression. Everything is said in his language of painting.

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

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

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

Andrea Mantegna

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

Andrea Mantegna. Self-portrait in the Ovetari Chapel

Early frescoes by Mantegna in the Eremitani Church of Padua on the life of St. James and his martyrdom are wonderful examples of Italian mural painting. Mantegna did not at all think about creating something similar to Roman art (the painting that became known in the West after the excavations of Herculaneum). Its antiquity is not the golden age of mankind, but the iron age of emperors.

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

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

Sandro Botticelli

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

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

One of the most authoritative interpreters of "Spring" Botticelli admitted that this picture remains a charade, a labyrinth. In any case, it can be considered established that when creating it, the author knew the poem “Tournament” by Poliziano, in which Simonetta Vespucci, the beloved of Giuliano de’ Medici, is glorified, as well as ancient poets, in particular, the opening lines about the kingdom of Venus in Lucretius’ poem “On the Nature of Things” . Apparently he also knew the works of M. Vicino, which were popular in Florence in those years. Motifs borrowed from all these works are clearly discernible in the painting acquired in 1477 by L. de' Medici, cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. But the question remains: how did these fruits of erudition come into the picture? There is no reliable information about this.

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

Botticelli owns unsurpassed illustrations for the Divine Comedy. Anyone who has seen his sheets will invariably remember them when reading Dante. He, like no one else, imbued with the spirit of Dante's poem. Some of the drawings to Dante are in the nature of an accurate graphical subscript to the poem. But the most beautiful are those where the artist imagines and composes in the spirit of Dante. These are the most common among illustrations of heaven. It would seem that painting paradise was the most difficult thing for Renaissance artists, who so loved the fragrant earth and everything human. Botticelli does not renounce the Renaissance perspective, spatial impressions depending on the viewer's angle of view. But in paradise he rises to the transfer of the non-perspective essence of the objects themselves. His figures are weightless, shadows disappear. Light penetrates them, space exists outside of earthly coordinates. The bodies fit into a circle as a symbol of the celestial sphere.

Leonardo da Vinci

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

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

Even his contemporaries admired the universality of his personality. However, Vasari already expressed regret that Leonardo paid more attention to his scientific and technical inventions than to artistic creativity. Leonardo's fame reached its apogee in the 19th century. His personality became some kind of myth; he was seen as the embodiment of the “Faustian principle” of all European culture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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