Baroque in the culture of the 17th century

Baroque (Italian barocco - “bizarre”, “strange”, “prone to excess”, port. perola barroca - “pearl of irregular shape” - a characteristic of European culture of the 17th-18th centuries.

Baroque era

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

Baroque features

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

Baroque man

Baroque man rejects naturalness, which is identified with savagery, unceremoniousness, tyranny, brutality and ignorance. The Baroque woman values ​​her pale skin and wears an unnatural, elaborate hairstyle, a corset and an artificially widened skirt with a whalebone frame. She's wearing heels.

And the ideal man in the Baroque era becomes a cavalier, a gentleman - from the English. gentle: “soft”, “gentle”, “calm”. He prefers to shave his mustache and beard, wear perfume and wear powdered wigs. What is the use of force if now they kill by pressing trigger musket.

Galileo first points a telescope to the stars and proves the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (1611), and Leeuwenhoek discovers tiny living organisms under a microscope (1675). Huge sailing ships ply the vastness of the world's oceans, erasing the white spots on geographical maps peace. Travelers and adventurers became the literary symbols of the era.

Baroque in sculpture

Sculpture is an integral part of the Baroque style. The greatest sculptor and recognized architect of the 17th century was an Italian Lorenzo Bernini(1598-1680). Among his most famous sculptures are the mythological scenes of the abduction of Proserpina by the god of the underworld Pluto and the miraculous transformation of the nymph Daphne into a tree, pursued by the god of light Apollo, as well as an altar group "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" in one of the Roman churches. The last of them, with its clouds carved from marble and the clothes of the characters as if fluttering in the wind, with theatrically exaggerated feelings, very accurately expresses the aspirations of the sculptors of this era.

In Spain, during the Baroque era, wooden sculptures predominated; for greater verisimilitude, they were made with glass eyes and even a crystal tear; real clothes were often put on the statue.

Baroque in architecture

For Baroque architecture ( L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy, B. F. Rastrell and in Russia, Jan Christoph Glaubitz in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) are characterized by spatial scope, unity, and fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms. Often there are large-scale colonnades, an abundance of sculpture on the facades and in the interiors, volutes, a large number of bracings, arched facades with bracing in the middle, rusticated columns and pilasters. Domes take on complex shapes, often multi-tiered, like those of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Characteristic Baroque details - telamon (Atlas), caryatid, mascaron.

Baroque in the interior

The Baroque style is characterized by ostentatious luxury, although it retains such an important feature of the classical style as symmetry.

Wall painting (one of the types of monumental painting) has been used in decorating European interiors since early Christian times. It became most widespread during the Baroque era. The interiors used a lot of color and large, richly decorated details: a ceiling decorated with frescoes, marble walls and parts of the decor, gilding. Color contrasts were typical - for example, a marble floor decorated with tiles in a checkerboard pattern. Extensive gilded decorations were a characteristic feature of this style.

Furniture was a piece of art, and was intended almost exclusively for interior decoration. Chairs, sofas and armchairs were upholstered in expensive, richly colored fabric. Huge beds with canopies and flowing bedspreads and giant wardrobes were widespread. The mirrors were decorated with sculptures and stucco with floral patterns. Southern walnut and Ceylon ebony were often used as furniture materials.

The Baroque style is not suitable for small spaces, since massive furniture and decorations take up a large amount of space.

Baroque fashion

The fashion of the Baroque era corresponds in France to the period of the reign of Louis XIV, the second half of the 17th century. This is the time of absolutism. Strict etiquette and complex ceremonies reigned at court. The costume was subject to etiquette. France was a trendsetter in Europe, so other countries quickly adopted French fashion. This was the century when a general fashion was established in Europe, and national characteristics faded into the background or were preserved in folk peasant costume. Before Peter I, European costumes were also worn by some aristocrats in Russia, although not everywhere.

The costume was characterized by stiffness, splendor, and an abundance of decorations. The ideal man was Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” a skilled horseman, dancer, and marksman. He was short, so he wore high heels.

Baroque in painting

The Baroque style in painting is characterized by dynamism of compositions, “flatness” and splendor of forms, aristocracy and originality of subjects. The most character traits Baroque - catchy floridity and dynamism; a striking example is creativity Rubens And Caravaggio.

Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), who was nicknamed after his birthplace near Milan Caravaggio, is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created in late XVI V. a new style in painting. His paintings on religious subjects resemble realistic scenes contemporary author life, creating a contrast between the times of late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly outlining their characteristics. Followers and imitators of Caravaggio, who were initially called Caravaggists, and the movement itself was called Caravaggism, such as Annibale Carracci(1560-1609) or Guido Reni(1575-1642), adopted the riot of feelings and characteristic manner of Caravaggio, as well as his naturalism in depicting people and events.

Introduction

The Italian word "baroque" literally means "strange", "bizarre". This name is very consistent with the peculiarities of the stylistic direction in European art from the late 16th century to the mid-18th century. In the history of art of the 19th and especially the 20th centuries, the term “Baroque” began to designate all European art of the 17th and 18th centuries. (Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Artist)

Modern art theorists tend to separate formal manifestations in Baroque art from its life-affirming pathos, and then general history artistic forms in art can appear as a contrast between baroque and classicism. (Germaine Bazin "Baroque" and "Rococo")

Classicism refers to the style and direction in art of the 17th - 19th centuries. The philosophical basis of classicism was the idea of ​​a reasonable pattern of the world, the primacy of reason and social duty in people's lives, and a beautiful, ennobled culture. The art of classicism is characterized by a desire to express great social content and lofty heroic and moral ideals. (Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Artist)

The German theorist Wölfflin described the formal characteristics of each of these two directions. He believed that classical art is addressed to nature - it is the art of observation, its goal is to find behind external manifestations the deep truth that determines the universal order of things. Classicism is distinguished by simplicity and clarity; its parts that make up the integrity are self-sufficient, they are static and closed within their boundaries. On the contrary, the Baroque artist strives to display the entire diversity of the phenomenon, to comprehend the flow in continuous renewal, his compositions are dynamic, open and tend to break out of their boundaries, the elements from which they are composed are connected by a single organic action and cannot be removed from one another.

The Baroque's penchant for pathos leads the masters of this movement to choose dramatic subjects, to depict suffering and vivid emotions, life and death in their most dramatic manifestations, while the artists of classicism strive to show a person in complete control of himself.

Classicism became the culmination of classical art, which inspired many artists even during the period of the highest flowering of the Baroque, those very ideas. Which formed the basis of French aesthetics and determined artistic tastes in England. (Germain Bazin "Baroque" and "Rococo").

Baroque

The art of "Baroque" took shape and flourished in Italy, where the largest architect and sculptor L. Bernini worked, the painter, the head of democratic realism Caravaggio, the followers of academicism, the Carracci brothers, etc. The style was designed to glorify and promote the power of the nobility and the church, it expressed progressive ideas about unity, boundlessness and diversity of the world, about its complexity and variability. The fundamental feature of the “Baroque” can be considered its desire for a synthesis of arts, combining architecture, sculpture, painting and decorative art into one ensemble. Synthesis classical arts, included monumental art, characteristic of the Baroque, Rococo, and Classicism styles of Russian artistic culture of the second half of the 18th century.

IN fine arts Baroque is dominated by masterly decorative compositions of a religious, mythological or allegorical nature, ceremonial portraits emphasizing privilege social status person.

The peculiarity of "Baroque" is not the observance of Renaissance harmony for the sake of a more emotional contact with the viewer. Compositional effects, expressed in bold contrasts of scale, color, light and shadow, became of great importance. But at the same time, Baroque artists strive to achieve rhythmic and color unity, the picturesqueness of the whole.

"Baroque" became widespread in Flanders (famous representatives of the "Baroque" in Flanders - P. P. Rubens, F. Sneijdars, J. Jordaens, A. Van Dyck), in Spain, Portugal, southern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, western Ukraine, Lithuania. In France, "Baroque" merged with classicism into a single lush style.

In Russia, the reforms of Peter 1, the growth and strengthening of the noble monarchy in the first half of the 18th century contributed to the flourishing of Baroque art, which reflected not only the desire of the nobility for a new way of life, but also broad public sentiment, a sense of pride in the successes of the state and the people. Russian Baroque architecture reached a majestic scope, great integrity, and dynamism in the urban and suburban ensembles of St. Petersburg, Peterhof (Petrodvorets), Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), Moscow - architects V. Rastrelli, D. Ukhtomsky, S. Chevokinsky. Fine arts turned to secular public issues, to the image statesman. In the portraits, the pomp of the compositions was combined with the authenticity of the character’s characteristics (sculpture by K.B. Rastrelli, painting by I.N. Nikitin, A.P. Antropov).

One of the dominant styles in European architecture and art of the late 16th - mid-18th centuries, “Baroque” established itself in the era of intensive formation of nations and national states (mainly absolute monarchies). Baroque embodied new ideas about the unity, boundlessness and diversity of the world, about its dramatic complexity and eternal variability; interest in the real environment, in the natural elements surrounding man, “Baroque” replaced the humanistic artistic culture of the Renaissance and the sophisticated subjectivism of the art of mannerism. Abandoning the ideas inherent in classical Renaissance culture about harmony and the strict laws of existence, about the limitless possibilities of man, his will and reason, Baroque aesthetics was built on the collision of man and the world, ideal and sensual principles, reason and the power of irrational forces. Man in Baroque art appears as a multifaceted personality, with a complex inner world, involved in the cycle and conflicts of the environment.

Baroque art is characterized by grandiosity, pomp and dynamics, pathetic elation, intensity of feelings, a passion for spectacular spectacles, a combination of the illusory and the real, a strong contrast of scales and rhythms, materials and textures, light and shadow.

The synthesis of Baroque arts, which is comprehensive in nature and affects almost all layers of society (from the state and aristocracy to the urban lower classes and partly the peasantry), is characterized by a solemn, monumental - decorative unity that amazes the imagination with its scope. A city ensemble, a street, a square, a park, an estate - began to be understood as an artistic whole developing in space, unfolding before the viewer in a variety of ways. Baroque palaces and churches, thanks to the luxurious, bizarre plasticity of the facades, the restless play of chiaroscuro, complex curvilinear plans, and outlines acquired picturesqueness and dynamism and seemed to blend into the surrounding space. The ceremonial interiors of Baroque buildings were decorated with multicolor sculpture, modeling, and carvings. Mirrors and paintings illusorily expanded the space, and the painting of the ceilings created the illusion of open vaults. The idealization of images is combined with violent dynamics, unexpected compositional and optical effects, reality with fantasy, religious affectation with emphasized sensitivity, and often with acute naturalness and materiality of forms, bordering on illusory. In Baroque works of art, real objects and materials are included in pairs (statues with real hair and teeth, chapels made of bones, etc.).

In painting great importance acquire an emotional, rhythmic and coloristic unity of the whole, often a relaxed freedom of stroke; in sculpture, a picturesque fluidity of form, a sense of variability in the formation of an image, a richness of aspects and impressions.

In Italy - the birthplace of the Baroque - some of its premises and techniques appeared in the 16th century in the easel and decorative painting of Correggio, the work of Caravaggio, the buildings of G. Vignola (a type of early Baroque church), and the sculpture of Giambologna. The Baroque style found its most complete and vivid embodiment in the works of the architect and sculptor L. Bernini, the architect F. Borromini, and the painter Pietro da Cortona, full of religious and sensual affectation. Later, the Italian Baroque evolved to the fantastic buildings of G. Guarini, the bravura painting of S. Rosa and A. Magnasco, the dizzying lightness of the paintings of G.B. Tiepopo. In Flanders, the worldview born of the Dutch bourgeois revolution of 1566-1602 introduced powerful life-affirming realistic principles into Baroque art (the paintings of P. P. Rubens, Van Dyck, J. Jordaens). In 17th century Spain, some Baroque features appeared in the ascetic architecture of the school of H.B. de Herrera, in the realistic painting of J. de Ribera and F. Zurbaran, the sculpture of J. Montanez. In the 18th century, in the buildings of H.B. de Churreguera Baroque forms reached unusual complexity and decorative sophistication (even more hypertrophied in the “ultra-Baroque” countries of Latin America). The Baroque style received a unique interpretation in Austria, where it was combined with Rococo tendencies (architects I.B. Fischer von Erlach and I.L. Hildebran, painter F.A. Maulberich), and the absolute states of Germany (architects and sculptors B. Neumann , A. Schlüter, M.D. Peppeman, the Azam brothers, the Dinzehofer family, who also worked in the Czech Republic), in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, West. Ukraine, Lithuania. In France, where classicism became the leading style in the 17th century, baroque remained a side trend until the middle of the century, but with the complete triumph of absolutism, both directions merged into a single pompous large style (the decoration of the halls of Versailles, the painter C. Leburn). The concept of “baroque” sometimes wrongfully extends to the entire artistic culture, including phenomena that are far from baroque in content and style (for example, “Naryshensky baroque” or “Moscow baroque” in Russian architecture). In many European countries, vibrant national realistic schools developed, based both on the techniques of Caravaggism and on the local artistic traditions of realism. They expressed themselves most clearly in the unique unique creativity great masters (D. Velazquez in Spain, F. Hals, J. Wermeer of Delfot, Rembrandt in Holland, etc.), fundamentally different, and sometimes deliberately opposed to the artistic concepts of the Baroque.

The Baroque era was marked everywhere by the rise of monumental art and decorative and applied art, closely interconnected with architecture. In the first half of the 18th century, Baroque evolved to the graceful lightness of the Rococo style, corresponded and intertwined with it, and from the 1770s. everywhere being replaced by classicism.

Classicism

Having entered a period of decline at the end of the 17th century, classicism was revived during the Enlightenment in the 18th century.

New Enlightenment classicism existed throughout the 18th century with Enlightenment realism, and by the end of the century it again became the dominant artistic movement.

The main theme of the art of classicism is the triumph of public principles over personal principles, duty over feeling. Classicism is characterized by strict organization of logical, clear and harmonious images. He was, however, characterized by features of utopianism, idealization and clarity of images, which grew during periods of his crisis, when classicism was associated with reactionary by social forces. The architecture of classicism is characterized by clarity and geometric correctness of volumes and regularity of layout. Porticoes, colonnades, statues, and reliefs stand out on the surface of the walls.

The development of classicism is largely connected with the Academies of Arts in Paris, St. Petersburg, etc. In the second half of the century, classicism was revived in France, Germany, and Russia. At this time he was associated with the ideals of enlightenment, and at the end of the 18th century with the ideas of the Great french revolution.

Enlightenmentists in many ways continue the traditions of classicism of the 17th century. They found close to the position of a person expressed in classicism, consciously relating to the world to himself, capable of subordinating his aspirations and passions to social and moral duty, the pathos of civilization, and the rationalistic concept of artistic creativity.

However, the socio-political orientation of educational classicism is changing. In the traditions of classicism, Voltaire creates tragedies imbued with the struggle against religious fanaticism, absolutist oppression, and the pathos of freedom. The appeal to antiquity, as to the world of ideal prototypes, which constituted the essence of classicism, including the Enlightenment, had deep roots in the ideology of the Enlightenment. Where enlighteners sought to penetrate beyond the external empire of life, to go beyond the boundaries of private life, they found themselves, as a rule, in the world of ideal abstractions, because in all their aging they proceeded from the isolated individual and sought the essence of man not in the social conditions of his existence, not in history, but in abstractly understood human nature.

The literature of the Great French Revolution, which clothed heroic aspirations in ancient myths and legends (the works of M.J. Chenier and others). Within the confines of antiquity, the leaders of the revolution, according to the glory of K. Marx, “found ideals and art forms, illusions they need to hide from themselves

himself to the bourgeois-limited content of his struggle in order to maintain his inspiration at the height of the great historical tragedy."

Under the influence of French literature, classicism also developed in other European countries: in England (A. Pop, J. Addison), Italy (V. Alfieri, partly Ugo Fosoclo), in Germany (I.K. Gottsched). Gottsched's classicist works, entirely French-oriented examples, did not leave a significant mark on German literature, and only in the second half of the 18th century did a new German classicism emerge as an original artistic phenomenon (Weimar classicism).

Unlike French, it brings to the fore moral and aesthetic problems. Its foundations were laid by I.I. Winkelman, but he reached his highest peak with I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller during the period of their creativity. The “noble simplicity”, harmony and artistic perfection of the Greek classics, which arose in the conditions of polis democracy, German poets opposed the squalor of German reality and the entire modern civilization, which cripples man. Schiller and partly Goethe sought in art the main means of educating a harmonious personality and, turning to antiquity, sought to create a new, modern literature high style, capable of performing this task.

During the era of the Napoleonic Empire, classicism lost its living progressive content. He was characterized by external official pomp and show, cold and dead academicism. Nevertheless, as an epigonian movement, it existed in France until the 30-40s. 19th century.

In the mid-18th century, a new direction emerged, corresponding to Enlightenment classicism in literature and developing initially in polemics with Rococo. In architecture, rigid planning schemes are now increasingly abandoned, they strive to emphasize the constructive meaning of the order, special attention is paid to the interior and flexible layout of a comfortable residential building. The ideal setting for a new type of classicist building is the landscape environment of an “English” park.

The classicism of the 18th century was greatly influenced by the development of archaeological knowledge about Greek and Roman antiquity (especially the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii), as well as the theoretical works of I.I. Winkelman, I.V. Goethe, F. Schiller. In French architecture of this era, architectural types emerge: an exquisitely intimate mansion, a laconically monumental public building, an open city square (architects J.A. Gabriel, J.J. Souflot). Civil pathos and lyrical dreaminess are combined in different ways in the plastic arts of J.B. Pigalya, E.M. Falconet, J.A. Houdon, historical and mythological painting by J.M. Vienna, decorative landscapes Yu. Robber. On the eve of the great French revolution in architecture there arose a desire for severe lapidary forms, for impressive didactic images; architects increasingly turned to the motifs of the Greek archaic, the art of Ancient Egypt, sometimes to a rootless system (buildings and projects by K.N. Ledoux, E.L. Bulle , J.J. Lequet). These searches (also marked by the influence of Piranesi's architectural etchings) served as the starting point for late classicism, or Empire style.

In the visual arts, the logical development of the plot, a clear balanced composition, a planned generalized contour line, and a clear modeling of volume have acquired the main importance. Color played a subordinate role and served to highlight semantic accents, emphasizing the leading role of linear-volumetric construction.

In the painting of classicism, the largest representative revolutionary direction there was J. David, whose work is full of courageous drama and solemnity of the figurative structure. During the era of Napoleon 1, the features of lush representationalism intensified in French Empire architecture, often leading to excessive detailing, which was also reflected in decorative and applied arts. The painting of late classicism, despite the appearance of individual major masters (Ingres), is expressed in an officially apologetic direction.

In sculpture (J.B. Pigalle, E.M. Falconet, J.A. Houdon in France, Gottfried Schadow in Germany, B. Thorvaldsen in Denmark, A. Canova in Italy, M.I. Kozlovsky, I.P. Martos, F.F. Shchedrin in Russia), drawing, engraving - the ideas of civic heroism, public duty, educational ideals of noble simplicity and calm greatness were expressed in strict, clear forms, inspired by ancient and Renaissance art, often in works on ancient subjects. Architectural decoration and decorative art were based on ancient models.

Classicism, established in Russian architecture, played the role of a dominant trend in Russia for more than half a century. Its basis was the Enlightenment aesthetics of rationalism, dictating the dominance of the rational principle in artistic creativity, as opposed to expression and the sensual principle, primarily characteristic of Baroque art.

However, classicism did not become an all-encompassing style in the 18th century; in the middle of this century, a romantic direction was formed and began to develop according to its own laws, closely connected with the aesthetics of sentimentalism and the cult of the “natural” person, living in unity with nature and free from all kinds of oppression.

In European architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries, two styles - Baroque and Classicism - developed in parallel. Classicism was called the "neo-Greek" or "Pompeian" style. The desire to adhere to classicism in architecture was also called “Paladianism”.

In France, classicism is the style of “Louis 16”; in Spain, classicism was associated with the name of the architect Herrera Juan Batista De and was called “Erresco”.

The evolution of the architectural style of Classicism at the end of the 18th century led to its degeneration into Empire architecture. The transitional style was the “style of the French Directory”.

IN Russian state architectural style Classicism came at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries and took a strong position, displacing Russian Baroque. Classicism, being supported as the official style of the imperial family, quickly spread to Russian capitals and its provincial centers.

New palace complexes for members of the imperial family were designed and built in a new architectural style. The same style was replicated in the provinces, in large and small estate buildings of the Russian nobility.

As in other European countries, in Russian Empire a new architectural style - Classicism, acquired some character, which made it possible to subsequently introduce such a thing into circulation in theoretical architecture scientific concept like Russian Classicism.

Russian classicism is characterized by the following features:

Application in development overall composition buildings of classical Greek order schemes in the form of colonnades, porticos, fronts;

Recognition of symmetry signs as the basis for developing the architectural composition of temples, palaces and other types of buildings;

The use of strict rectangular outlines of plans and facades of buildings of all types;

The use of classical sculptural forms in exterior and interior architecture.

Just as in European architecture, in Russia the architectural style of classicism evolved into the Empire style - a Russian derivative of the French "empire".

Baroque art (17th century).

Main features of Baroque:

· Main features of Baroque:

· Contrasts in everything, inconsistency

· Pomp, pretentiousness, theatricality, desire to surprise, piling up of details

· Dynamism (cult of movement)

· Pathetic (exaggerated emotionality)

·Priority of personal

· Shift in proportions, loss of harmony and symmetry

The most common version of the origin of the term "Baroque" comes from a Spanish word that means an irregularly shaped pearl. The main features of Baroque are pomp, solemnity, splendor, dynamism, and life-affirming character. Baroque art is characterized by bold contrasts of scale, light and shadow, color, and a combination of reality and fantasy. It is especially necessary to note in the Baroque style the fusion of various arts in a single ensemble - a synthesis of architecture, sculpture, painting and decorative arts. This desire for a synthesis of arts is a fundamental feature of the Baroque. The Baroque style was intended to glorify and propagate the power of government, the nobility and the church, but at the same time it expressed progressive ideas about the complexity of the universe, the boundlessness and diversity of the world, its variability. Man in Baroque art is perceived as part of the world, as a complex personality experiencing dramatic conflicts.

In Baroque works there is a stormy, rapid rhythm of the beat of life itself, emotional outburst, exaggeration in expressing feelings. If in the art of the Renaissance the earthly, physical and spiritual principles were organically combined, then in the Baroque we see their conflict. The elements of nature and the elements of spirit are in constant conflict. Baroque art is pathetic art. The Baroque image is always active in relation to the viewer, it captures his senses, appeals to his emotions.

By the 17th century, few could believe in Pico della Mipandolda's declaration: man creates himself and his own destiny and is free to rise to the level of a god-like being. Humanity has become convinced that the individual himself is at the mercy of time. This sense of time, flow, changeability is a characteristic feature of the worldview of the coming era. Man does not think of himself in terms of stability, as was the case in the Renaissance and especially in the Middle Ages. “The whole world is an eternal swing,” says Michel Montaigne. - I am unable to fix the object I am depicting. He wanders, staggering and disorderly, for this is how he was created by nature. I take him as he is in front of me at the moment when he occupies me. And I don’t paint him motionless.”

The personality itself is subject to the law of variability. She is far from omnipotent and is not the center of the universe and the pinnacle of the universe. Not omnipotent, but interesting in her changes. These transitory aspects are what Baroque artists strive to capture.

Having abandoned the ideas inherent in classical Renaissance culture about harmony and the strict laws of existence, about the limitless possibilities of man, his will and reason, Baroque aesthetics was built on the antitheses of man and the world, ideal and sensual principles, reason and the power of irrational forces. Man in Baroque art no longer appears as the center of the Universe, but as a multifaceted personality, with complex world experiences involved in the cycle of events. Baroque art was also influenced by anti-feudal peasant and plebeian movements, bourgeois revolutions, which introduced into it a stream of democratic rebellious aspirations

Architecture.

Peculiarities: complex shape, asymmetry, curvilinearity, abundance of stucco, use of the order for decorative purposes.

The main form of art is architecture. In the Renaissance there was equality between the arts. In Baroque, the dominant is determined by architecture.

Baroque architectural forms are the opposite of strict geometry. The centric is replaced by a lingering one, the circle is replaced by an oval, the square is replaced by a rectangle, the clarity of clear proportions is replaced by a variety of architectural volumes. The buildings are richly decorated with sculpture and stucco. Traditional order forms are used, but they are changed in such a way that they create a feeling of broken proportions. Baroque originated in Italy. It was here that the main features of the style were formed. Catholic cathedrals are distinguished by a variety of forms and splendor of decoration. But innovation is especially clearly visible in the ensembles of parks, squares and streets. The architects created a new planning system, giving the streets a straight line and ending them with squares. It was in Rome that the system of three streets - rays diverging from the square - was first implemented. Street intersections were marked with obelisks, and squares were decorated with fountains. Creation of architectural ensembles - main merit baroque.

Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475 - 1564). For the first time, elements of the Baroque style are found in Michelangelo in his Laurenziano Library and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The use of curved lines, changing the meaning of a wall, the use of architectural details - all of these innovative techniques by Michelangelo will form the basis of the principles of the Baroque style. Michelangelo can be called the last architect of the Renaissance and the first architect of the Baroque.

Lorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680). Architect, sculptor, painter, decorator. Considered the creator of the Baroque. The works amaze with their spatial scope, pomp and splendor of decoration, bold perspective effects, and holistic synthesis of the arts. He organically combined architecture and sculpture, used gilding, various materials, and lighting effects. (Ensemble of the square of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, interior in Roman churches).

Giacomo della Porta. Church of Il Gesu in Rome.

Francesco Borromin. Church of San Carlo in Rome.

Sculpture.

Features: dynamism, chiaroscuro, creation of sculptural groups, pathetic.

Baroque architecture cannot be imagined without sculpture. According to its purpose, Baroque sculpture is divided into cult and secular. Cult sculpture was created on a biblical subject, mainly scenes of miracles and martyrdom (individual statues, sculptural groups, relief compositions, sculptural tombstones). The dynamism, spectacular poses, and outbursts of passion in these sculptures are not at all reminiscent of medieval ascetics and noble heroes Renaissance. Secular sculpture is represented by ceremonial portraits of monarchs and nobility, sculptures for city fountains and garden and park sculpture. A typical feature of Baroque sculpture is interaction with the environment - water, air, light, walls and gardens. These works are lost in the museum environment; they require an architectural frame. In addition, the craftsmen sought to overcome the passivity of the material, to spiritualize and imbue stone and bronze with emotions.

The material is subject to the artistic environment.

Bernini: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, interior of St. Peter's Basilica, David, Louis XXIV, Trevi Fountain.

Painting.

Features: sensitive hero, pathetic, asymmetry, complexity of composition, rich color, contrast of light and shadow, complex angles, diagonal composition.

The main customers were the Catholic Church (the Counter-Reformation pushed for the search for new ways to attract believers and establish the primacy of Catholicism in Europe) and the royal courts (the absolutist monarchies that had developed in most European countries demanded praise). Baroque, with its elements of exaggeration, expression, and pathos, served these purposes perfectly. Features of Baroque painting are complex form and composition (most often diagonal), an abundance of different angles, the cult of movement, richness of color and contrast of color and shadow. The color becomes dominant, so the clear three-dimensionality of the forms is blurred. Compared to the Renaissance, new genres appeared: historical scenes, battles, hunting scenes, triumphs, allegories, landscapes and still lifes. Of the portraits, the most popular is the ceremonial portrait.

Fresco painting goes on to the ceilings of churches and palaces. In them, new painting techniques could be used most clearly. For lampshades, the genre of triumph or allegory with an abundance of characters was most often chosen.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640). Flemish painter-monumentalist, graphic artist, architect-decorator, designer of theatrical performances, scientist-humanist. Rubens is the embodiment of the Baroque spirit, the darling of happiness and the favorite of fortune. In his works he instilled popular freedom, admiration for a healthy body and human strength. His works are distinguished by sensuality, dedicated to glorifying the beauty of life, the joy of being. He worked in the genres of mythological and allegorical painting, portraiture. He wrote a lot on biblical subjects. As a true Baroque artist, Rubens depicted naked bodies in strong, excited movement and, wherever possible, introduced motifs of fight, struggle, pursuit, and intense physical effort.

“Hunting Scenes”, “Perseus and Andromeda”, “The Union of Earth and Water”, “The Raising of the Cross” and “The Descent from the Cross”, “The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus”, “Portrait of a Chambermaid”.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (1606 - 1669). Dutch artist and engraver, representative realistic direction in the Baroque. In Holland, as a Protestant country, its own type of painting has developed:

There is no development of monumental and decorative art

Types developed small paintings(the so-called "Little Dutchmen")

Popular genres are portrait, landscape, still life, as well as everyday genre

Religious painting is deprived of its mystical origin and is interpreted as a realistic, everyday story

A non-ceremonial type of portrait is developing

The main theme of Rembrandt's art is human life in its decisive moments. He posed in his works the problem of moral meaning human life. Unlike numerous works of the Baroque era, in Rembrandt's paintings and engravings one can find deep philosophical ideas, which are expressed in simple and clear images. In all his works there is the truth of life, not always pretty. He worked in various genres. The most successful are paintings of biblical scenes and portraits. In biblical stories, he looked for eternal generalizing images, choosing plots where the heroes can show the highest spiritual impulses. His images are psychologically multifaceted, he is able to convey the subtlest emotional impulses - in this Rembrandt remains an unattainable peak in world painting. Among the pictorial means of expression, we can highlight the famous Rembrandt chiaroscuro and the complex interaction of color and light. There is little external action in Rembrandt's paintings. The emphasis is on the internal content of the image or event. Even in portraits, he creates a psychological characteristic that can replace the hero’s biography.

"Return prodigal son", "Self-portrait with Saskia on her knees", "Night Watch", "Danae", "Portrait of an Old Man in Red".

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In the 17th century, Italy was no longer the advanced country it had been during the Renaissance. The country was fragmented into small principalities, engulfed in constant civil strife, captured by foreign domination. Having remained aloof from the main economic centers as a result of great geographical discoveries, Italy in the 17th century was experiencing a deep crisis. However, the level, one might say the degree, of artistic life, the intense spiritual work of the nation, the tone of culture do not always depend on the level of economic and political development. Often, in some inexplicable way, in the cruelest, most unsuitable conditions, on the most rocky, unfavorable soil, a beautiful flower of high culture and stunning art blooms. This happened in Italy at the end of the 16th century - early XVII centuries, when Rome, relying on centuries-old cultural tradition, responded to changes 30–40 years earlier than other European countries historical era, on the new problems that the new era posed to European culture. For a short period of time, Italy revived its influence on the artistic life of the continent, and it was here that the first works of the new Baroque style appeared. This is where his character and spirit are formed. Baroque in Italy became a logical continuation of the achievements of art of previous eras, for example, the late work of Michelangelo or Italian architecture of the last quarter of the 16th century. The principles of Baroque art were first formed in the architecture of Rome, which was the center of development of architectural thought at the turn of the century and attracted a huge number of masters from different countries.

The image of the Il Gesu Church turned out to be so relevant, close to the spirit of the era, and reflecting new features of the worldview, that it became a prototype for many Catholic churches Italy, as well as throughout Europe.

Church of Il Gesu

An example is the church of Santa Susanna, built at the very turn of the century by the architect Carl Moderna. Its façade is somewhat more compact than that of Il Gesu; all forms and details are united by a common upward rhythm, which is not interrupted by the entablature separating the tiers. On the contrary, the front of the first floor seems to be repeated in the energetic rise of the main pediment. The rhythm, starting at the foot of the columns of the first tier, is actively picked up by the rhythm of the pilasters of the second floor. This unification of the entire facade in a single energetic rhythm is emphasized by the repetition of order elements on different scales, as well as two volutes that have become iconic details of the era. The richness of the facade is enhanced by the active plasticity of the Corinthian capitals, blooming with lush acanthus leaves and flowers. Thanks to the volumetric cartouches and reliefs, as well as thanks to the statues placed in the niches of the façade, the plasticity is enhanced.

Santa Susanna

All these details, their complex dynamic interaction, surface tension and light and shade contrasts enhance the decorative expressiveness of the facade. The wall turns into a single architectural mass endowed with plasticity and dynamics, and as if subordinate to the laws of organic existence. It is no coincidence that we are now dwelling in such detail on the analysis of the architecture of these monuments of Baroque architecture. They already crystallize in their entirety the characteristic features and details that would develop in European architecture of the 17th century, manifesting themselves to a greater or lesser extent in different national schools. The key monument of this era, on the one hand, summing up the results of previous development, and on the other hand, ushering in the beginning of a new post-Renaissance stage, is the Church of Il Gesu, built according to the design of Vignola in 1568. The most striking part of the church - the facade - was completed 10 years later according to the design of the architect Jacom della Porta (Fig. 1). The basilical plan of the church is slightly modified in accordance with the needs and requirements of Catholic worship. The central nave with a semi-domed space dominating it and an accented altar part is framed on the sides by small chapels into which the side naves are turned. Such divisions of the internal space do not in any way affect the exterior of the temple, or the organization of its facade, on which all means of architectural design and decoration are concentrated. The two tiers of the facade are united by huge volutes, one of the favorite elements of Baroque architecture. The order on the facade does not reflect the internal division of the interior. Rather, he simply rhythmically organizes the wall - he is saturated with its rhythms and internal energy. This restrained, rich energy is also imparted by the semicircular pediment above the central portal, reminiscent in its outline of a curved bow, ready to be fired or straightened, as well as semicircles framed by the windows.

We will see the characteristic plasticity, activity, and dynamism of the facade that we examined in the temple in an even more pronounced version in other works of Italian baroque temple architecture of the 17th century, for example in the Church of Sant'Ignazio, built in the mid-17th century by the architect Allegradi, in the Church of Sant'Agnese of the mid-century and Church of Santa Maria in Compitelli by architects Carlo Rainaldi and Borromini. I would especially like to note the spatial activity of Baroque architecture and its connection with the surrounding space of the square, street, and city.

Santa Maria in Compitelli

In addition to the expressiveness of the plasticity of the facade itself, a large role in the communication of the building with environment the staircase plays a role, such as the staircase of the eastern façade of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built in 1673 by the architect Carlo Rainaldi, already mentioned by us. This famous staircase, rising in three steps to the walls of the temple, seems to continue the semicircular protrusion of the eastern apse outward, connecting the building with the space surrounding it.

Santa Maria Maggiore

Detailed semicircular, curved, elastic forms were loved by Baroque architecture, close to its rhythm that actively broadcasts itself outward, as for example in the church of Santa Maria della Pace, mid-17th century by architect Pietro de Cortona, where the lower tier of the facade bends into the outside with an elastic arc the space of the street, the portico takes on a semicircular outline.

Santa Maria de la Pace.

This energetic arc is repeated in the large central window of the second floor and in the semicircular pediment, inscribed in the triangular pediment that crowns the building. Another famous staircase in Baroque architecture is the Royal Staircase or the so-called “Scala Regia” built by Lorenzo Bernini in 1663–1666, it connects the Cathedral of St. Peter's and the Vatican Palace. In this building, Bernini resorts to a perspective trick, to a play on the generally characteristic Baroque architecture. As you move away from the lower landing, the staircase narrows, and the columns placed on its steps come closer and decrease in height. The steps themselves also received different heights. All this creates a special effect. The staircase seems much higher than it actually is.

It creates the impression of a huge scale and great length, which in turn makes the pope’s entrance and appearance in the cathedral during the service especially impressive.

Built in form in its most extreme expression, Baroque principles were embodied in the work of the architect Francesco Borromini. In the works of this master, the expression of forms reaches its maximum strength, and the plasticity of the wall acquires an almost sculptural activity. Beautiful illustration These words may be the facade of the church of San Carlo alle Cuatro Fontane in Rome, built in 1634–1667. This temple is located on the corner of two streets converging on the square of four fountains, and at the same time Borromini main facade The church does not take it to the square, but turns it into one of the narrow streets.

San Carlo alle Cuatro Fontane

This technique creates a very interesting point of view of the church, diagonally, from the side, with an enhanced play of chiaroscuro. In addition, this arrangement of the façade in relation to the interior space of the building completely confuses the viewer. The exterior says nothing about the interior; it exists as if on its own, regardless of the organization of the internal space. This represents a significant change in 17th century architecture. Unlike Renaissance architecture, where the structure of the building was always clear and clearly legible. The order also ceases to play a constructive role in Baroque architecture. It becomes only a decorative detail that serves to express the architectural appearance of the building. This is clearly seen in the example of the facade of the church of San Carlo alle Cuatro Fontane, where the order loses the logic of the architectonics. In both the first and second tiers of the facade we see round columns, instead of traditional pilasters on the second floor. In this facade we actually do not see the wall; it is all filled with various decorative elements. The wall dissolves, as if the whole thing is playing with waves, now protruding as round columns-protrusions, now bending, as if going deeper inside with semicircular, rectangular niches-windows. The entablatures bend inward and outward, the divisions are not completed, the entablature of the second floor is torn in the center, where an oval cartouche is placed, which is supported by two flying angels. The complex dynamics of the facades and intense plasticity of the exteriors of Borromini’s churches are continued in the interiors of his temples, for example in the Church of Sant’Ivo 1642–1660. In plan it is a rectangle, where niches of different shapes alternate between the triangular projections of the walls. It seems that the interior is devoid of internal logic; it is not symmetrical, impetuous and directed upward, where it is crowned with a complex star-shaped dome.

The domes of Baroque churches usually had a complex architectural and decorative design, combining caissons of various shapes and sizes, and sculptural decoration, which enhanced the impression of movement and soaring forms. We will see such a synthesis of arts, characteristic of the Baroque, where architecture, sculpture and painting serve the single purpose of expressiveness of the work. best works Baroque architecture. Remarkable monuments of secular architecture - palazzos, palaces of the nobility, city and country residences, villas were created in Italy by Baroque architects.

Perhaps the most striking example of such a structure can be the Barberini Palazzo in Rome 1625–1663, in the construction of which the best architects of 17th century Italy took part: Carlo Moderno, Lorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, Pietro de Cortona. The external and internal layout of the palace is Baroque spatial. From the street side, the extended wings form a front courtyard in front of the main façade of the palazzo, which is designed in the best restrained traditions of Baroque architecture. In the interior, thanks to the enfilade structure of the space, it opens up to the viewer gradually, like solemn scenes in a theatrical performance. Baroque inherits from previous eras the typology of a country villa, a residence of the nobility, which turns into a solid Baroque ensemble with a terraced park on the hillside connected by stairs and ramps. The beloved Baroque dynamics are also expressed in the frequent use of flowing water surfaces in ensembles - cascades, ponds, grottoes, fountains, in combination with sculptural small architectural forms, with natural and trimmed greenery. For example, this is the Villa Aldobrandini in Foscatti, architects Giacoma della Porta and Carlo Moderno.

Villa Borghese

Villa Pamphili, created in the mid-17th century by the architect Alegardi, and Villa Borghese, built in the first half of the 17th century by the architect Vasanzio Frimi. This ensemble character of Baroque architecture turned out to be very popular and necessary in the 17th century, when medieval cities began to be rebuilt, when projects for redevelopment of individual parts of urban spaces arose. For example, according to the plan of Domenico Fontano, the main entrance to Rome from the north was connected with the most significant ensembles of the city. Three straight streets diverged radially from Piazza del Popollo, and the space of the square was united by two identical domed churches designed by Rainaldi, symmetrically placed on the corners, as well as obelisks and fountains. The detailed three-ray city planning system, which first appeared in Italy, would become popular in Europe in the 17th–18th centuries. We can see its embodiment even in the layout of St. Petersburg.

It is no coincidence that St. Peter's Square in Rome, designed by Lorenzo Bernini in 1657–1663, is recognized as the best architectural ensemble of Italy in the 17th century.

Square of St. Petra

In this project, the architect solved several problems at once. Firstly, this is the creation of a solemn approach to the cathedral - the main temple of the Catholic world, as well as the design of the space in front of it, intended for religious ceremonies and celebrations. Secondly, this is the achievement of the impression of compositional unity of the cathedral, a building built over two centuries by different architects different styles. And Bernini copes brilliantly with both tasks. From the façade, built at the beginning of the 17th century by the architect Carlo Moderna, two galleries extend and then turn into a colonnade, which, according to Bernini, “embraces the square like open arms.” The colonnade becomes like a continuation of the Moderna façade, developing its motifs. In the center of the huge square there is an obelisk, and fountains on the sides of it fix its transverse axis. When moving through the square, the viewer perceives the cathedral as a changing series of views and perspectives in a complex movement and development of impressions. The façade appears in front of the viewer at the moment of immediate approach to him, when he finds himself in front of a trapezoidal square in front of the façade of the cathedral itself. In this way, the stunning grandeur of the cathedral is prepared by the gradual increase in the dynamics of movement as you move through the square.

Late Baroque architecture in Italy did not produce similar monuments equivalent to the works of early and mature Baroque in their artistic quality and height of style. Architects of the last third of the 17th century early XVIII They vary the techniques of Baroque architecture in many ways, often exaggerating forms, overloading, overly complicating plasticity and rhythms. One of the best samples Later Baroque architecture is the work of the architect Guarino Guarini, who worked mainly in northern Italy. The Church of San Lorenzo in Turin, which amazes with the pretentiousness and redundancy of its forms, is one of his most typical works.

Sant Lorenzo in Turin.

Baroque architecture in Italy created stunning works that had a huge influence on the entire European culture of the 17th century.

Baroque is one of significant styles in the cultural life of Europe. It achieved its greatest popularity in countries such as Germany, Spain, Russia, and France. Italy is considered its homeland. The Baroque era spans about two centuries - from the late 16th to the mid-18th century.

TO distinctive features This style includes pomposity, solemnity and pomp. Moreover, Baroque covers not only artistic creativity, literature and painting, but also the way of thinking of a person, his existence, and also, to some extent, science.

The works of this time are expressive and expressive, they are characterized by sophistication of forms, the creation of illusory space, as well as a bizarre play of shadow and light.

The Baroque era gave birth to science. It was at this time that biology, anatomy, physics and chemistry, and other disciplines began to develop. Previously, their study was cruelly punished by church ministers.

Wars, epidemics of various diseases, such as plague and smallpox, led to the fact that people felt unprotected and confused. His future was uncertain. More and more minds were engulfed by various superstitions and fears. At the same time, the church splits into two religious camps - Protestants and Catholics, which also gives rise to many squabbles and battles.

All this leads to a new understanding of the Lord as the Creator of the universe. God was considered only as the creator of daily things, while man controlled the living and inanimate.

The Baroque era is also characterized by active colonization - English settlements are formed in the Old and New Worlds.

The architecture of that time was rich in colonnades and an abundance of various decorations on the facades and in the interior. Multi-tiered domes of a complex, multi-level structure also predominate. To the most famous architects of that time include Michelangelo Buonarroti, Carlo Maderna, Nikolai Sultanov.

The painting of this era is dominated by religious and mythological motives, as well as ceremonial portraits. Quite often the paintings depicted the Madonna surrounded by angels. Most of the Baroque era - Michelangelo Merisi, Iasento Rigo, Peter Paul Rubens.

It was at this time that such things as opera and fugue were born. The music becomes more expressive. Composers of the Baroque era - Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Giovanni Gabrieli. As you can see, many outstanding personalities worked at that time.

The Baroque era is one of the most significant in the history of human development. It was at this time that new styles emerged in literature, music, painting, and architecture. New views on religion and man are being formed. New directions in science are emerging. Despite some pomposity, this period gave world culture many cultural monuments, which are highly valued in our time. The names of masters and artists of the Baroque era still resound throughout the world.

The logical continuation of this style was Rococo, which was formed in the first half of the 18th century. He managed to maintain his position until the end of the 18th century.