Classicism (from the Latin classicus - “exemplary”) is an artistic movement (current) in the art and literature of the 17th - early 19th centuries, which is characterized by high civic themes and strict adherence to certain creative norms and rules. In the West, classicism was formed in the struggle against the magnificent Baroque. The influence of classicism on the artistic life of Europe in the 17th - 18th centuries. was widespread and long-lasting, and in architecture continued into the 19th century. Classicism, as a specific artistic movement, tends to reflect life in ideal images that gravitate toward the universal “norm” and model. Hence the cult of antiquity in classicism: classical antiquity appears in it as an example of perfect and harmonious art.

Writers and artists often turn to images of ancient myths (see Ancient literature).

Classicism flourished in France in the 17th century: in drama (P. Corneille, J. Racine, J. B. Moliere), in poetry (J. Lafontaine), in painting (N. Poussin), in architecture. At the end of the 17th century. N. Boileau (in the poem “Poetic Art”, 1674) created a detailed aesthetic theory of classicism, which had a huge impact on the formation of classicism in other countries.

The clash of personal interests and civic duty underlies the French classic tragedy, which reached ideological and artistic heights in the works of Corneille and Racine. Corneille's characters (Sid, Horace, Cinna) are courageous, stern people, driven by duty, completely subordinating themselves to serving the interests of the state. Showing contradictory mental movements in their heroes, Corneille and Racine made outstanding discoveries in the field of depicting the inner world of man. Imbued with the pathos of exploring the human soul, the tragedy contained a minimum of external action and easily fit into the famous rules of the “three unities” - time, place and action.

According to the rules of the aesthetics of classicism, which strictly adheres to the so-called hierarchy of genres, tragedy (along with ode and epic) belonged to the “high genres” and was supposed to develop especially important social problems, resorting to ancient and historical subjects, and reflect only the sublime heroic aspects. “High genres” were opposed to “low” ones: comedy, fable, satire, etc., designed to reflect modern reality. La Fontaine became famous in the fable genre in France, and Moliere in the comedy genre.

In the 17th century, permeated with the advanced ideas of the Enlightenment, classicism was imbued with passionate criticism of the orders of the feudal world, protection of natural human rights, and freedom-loving motives. It is also distinguished by its great attention to national historical subjects. The largest representatives of educational classicism are Voltaire in France, J. W. Goethe and J. F. Schiller (in the 90s) in Germany.

Russian classicism originated in the second quarter of the 18th century, in the works of A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Trediakovsky, M. V. Lomonosov, and reached development in the second half of the century, in the works of A. P. Sumarokov, D. I. Fonvizina, M. M. Kheraskova, V. A. Ozerova, Ya. B. Knyazhnina, G. R. Derzhavina. It presents all the most important genres - from ode and epic to fable and comedy. A remarkable comedian was D.I. Fonvizin, the author of the famous satirical comedies “The Brigadier” and “The Minor.” Russian classicist tragedy showed a keen interest in national history (“Dimitri the Pretender” by A.P. Sumarokov, “Vadim Novgorodsky” by Ya.B. Knyazhnin, etc.).

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. classicism both in Russia and throughout Europe is experiencing a crisis. He increasingly loses touch with life and withdraws into a narrow circle of conventions. At this time, classicism was subjected to sharp criticism, especially from the romantics.

Time of occurrence.

In Europe- XVII - early XIX century

The end of the 17th century was a period of decline.

Classicism was revived in the Age of Enlightenment - Voltaire, M. Chenier and others. After the Great French Revolution, with the collapse of rationalist ideas, classicism went into decline, and romanticism became the dominant style of European art.

In Russia- in the 2nd quarter of the 18th century.

Place of origin.

France. (P. Corneille, J. Racine, J. Lafontaine, J. B. Moliere, etc.)

Representatives of Russian literature, works.

A. D. Kantemir (satire “On those who blaspheme the teaching”, fables)

V.K. Trediakovsky (novel “Riding to the Island of Love”, poems)

M. V. Lomonosov (poem “Conversation with Anacreon”, “Ode on the day of the accession to the throne of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, 1747”

A. P. Sumarokov, (tragedies “Khorev”, “Sinav and Truvor”)

Ya. B. Knyazhnin (tragedies “Dido”, “Rosslav”)

G. R. Derzhavin (ode “Felitsa”)

Representatives of world literature.

P. Corneille (tragedies “Cid”, “Horace”, “Cinna”.

J. Racine (tragedies of Phaedrus, Mithridates)

Voltaire (tragedies "Brutus", "Tancred")

J. B. Moliere (comedies “Tartuffe”, “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”)

N. Boileau (treatise in verse “Poetic Art”)

J. Lafontaine (fables).

Classicism from fr. classicisme, from lat. classicus - exemplary.

Features of classicism.

• The purpose of art- moral influence on the education of noble feelings.
• Reliance on ancient art(hence the name of the style), which was based on the principle of “imitation of nature.”
• The basis is the principle rationalism((from the Latin “ratio” - reason), a view of a work of art as an artificial creation - consciously created, intelligently organized, logically constructed.
• Cult of the mind(belief in the omnipotence of reason and that the world can be reorganized on a rational basis).
• Headship state interests over personal, the predominance of civil, patriotic motives, the cult of moral duty. Affirmation of positive values ​​and the state ideal.
• Main conflict classic works - this is the struggle of the hero between reason and feeling. A positive hero must always make a choice in favor of reason (for example, when choosing between love and the need to completely devote himself to serving the state, he must choose the latter), and a negative one - in favor of feeling.
• Personality is the highest value of existence.
• Harmony content and form.
• Compliance with rules in a dramatic work "three unities": unity of place, time, action.
• Dividing heroes into positive and negative. The hero had to embody one character trait: stinginess, hypocrisy, kindness, hypocrisy, etc.
• Strict hierarchy of genres, mixing of genres was not allowed:

"high"- epic poem, tragedy, ode;

“middle” - didactic poetry, epistles, satire, love poem;

"low"- fable, comedy, farce.

• Purity of language (in high genres - high vocabulary, in low genres - colloquial);
• Simplicity, harmony, logic of presentation.
• Interest in the eternal, unchanging, the desire to find typological features. Therefore, images are devoid of individual features, since they are designed primarily to capture stable, generic, characteristics that are enduring over time.
• Social and educational function of literature. Education of a harmonious personality.

Features of Russian classicism.

Russian literature mastered the stylistic and genre forms of classicism, but also had its own characteristics, distinguished by its originality.

• The state (and not the individual) was declared the highest value) in conjunction with faith in the theory of enlightened absolutism. According to the theory of enlightened absolutism, the state should be headed by a wise, enlightened monarch, requiring everyone to serve for the good of society.
• General patriotic pathos Russian classicism. Patriotism of Russian writers, their interest in the history of their homeland. They all study Russian history, write works on national and historical topics.
• Humanity, since the direction was formed under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment.
• Human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that are opposed to reason, but at the same time amenable to education.
• Affirmation of the natural equality of all people.
• Main conflict- between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie.
• The works are centered not only on the personal experiences of the characters, but also on social problems.
• Satirical focus- an important place is occupied by such genres as satire, fable, comedy, which satirically depict specific phenomena of Russian life;
• The predominance of national historical themes over ancient ones. In Russia, “antiquity” was domestic history.
• High level of development of the genre odes(from M.V. Lomonosov and G.R. Derzhavin);
• The plot is usually based on a love triangle: the heroine - the hero-lover, the second lover.
• At the end of a classic comedy, vice is always punished and good triumphs.

Three periods of classicism in Russian literature.

1. 30-50s of the 18th century (the birth of classicism, the creation of literature, the national language, the flourishing of the ode genre - M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarkov, etc.)
2. 60s - end of the 18th century (the main task of literature is the education of a person as a citizen, the service of a person for the benefit of societies, exposing the vices of people, the flourishing of satire - N.R. Derzhavin, D.I. Fonviin).
3. The end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century (the gradual crisis of classicism, the emergence of sentimentalism, the strengthening of realistic tendencies, national motifs, the image of an ideal nobleman - N.R. Derzhavin, I.A. Krylov, etc.)

Material prepared by: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna.

A work of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself.

Of interest to classicism is only the eternal, the unchangeable - in each phenomenon it strives to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random individual characteristics. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism takes many rules and canons from ancient art (Aristotle, Horace).

Directions of classicism in architecture: Palladianism, Empire style, Neo-Greek, “Regency style”.

The main feature of the architecture of classicism was the appeal to the forms of ancient architecture as a standard of harmony, simplicity, rigor, logical clarity and monumentality. The architecture of classicism as a whole is characterized by regularity of layout and clarity of volumetric form. The basis of the architectural language of classicism was the order, in proportions and forms close to antiquity. Classicism is characterized by symmetrical axial compositions, restraint of decorative decoration, and a regular city planning system.

The emergence of the classicism style

In 1755, Johann Joachim Winckelmann wrote in Dresden: “The only way for us to become great, and if possible inimitable, is to imitate the ancients.” This call to renew modern art, taking advantage of the beauty of antiquity, perceived as an ideal, found active support in European society. The progressive public saw in classicism a necessary contrast to court baroque. But the enlightened feudal lords did not reject imitation of ancient forms. The era of classicism coincided in time with the era of bourgeois revolutions - the English one in 1688, the French one 101 years later.

The architectural language of classicism was formulated at the end of the Renaissance by the great Venetian master Palladio and his follower Scamozzi.

The Venetians absolutized the principles of ancient temple architecture to such an extent that they even applied them in the construction of such private mansions as Villa Capra. Inigo Jones brought Palladianism north to England, where local Palladian architects followed Palladian principles with varying degrees of fidelity until the mid-18th century.

Historical characteristics of the classicism style

By that time, satiety with the “whipped cream” of the late Baroque and Rococo began to accumulate among the intellectuals of continental Europe.

Born of the Roman architects Bernini and Borromini, Baroque thinned out into Rococo, a predominantly chamber style with an emphasis on interior decoration and decorative arts. This aesthetics was of little use for solving large urban planning problems. Already under Louis XV (1715-74), urban planning ensembles were built in Paris in the “ancient Roman” style, such as the Place de la Concorde (architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel) and the Church of Saint-Sulpice, and under Louis XVI (1774-92) a similar “noble Laconism" is already becoming the main architectural direction.

From Rococo forms, initially marked by Roman influence, after the completion of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1791, a sharp turn was made towards Greek forms. After the liberation wars against Napoleon, this “Hellenism” found its masters in K.F. Schinkel and L. von Klenze. Facades, columns and triangular pediments became the architectural alphabet.

The desire to translate the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art into modern construction led to the desire to completely copy an ancient building. What F. Gilly left as a project for a monument to Frederick II, by order of Ludwig I of Bavaria, was carried out on the slopes of the Danube in Regensburg and received the name Walhalla (Walhalla “Chamber of the Dead”).

The most significant interiors in the classicist style were designed by the Scot Robert Adam, who returned to his homeland from Rome in 1758. He was greatly impressed by both the archaeological research of Italian scientists and the architectural fantasies of Piranesi. In Adam’s interpretation, classicism was a style hardly inferior to rococo in the sophistication of its interiors, which gained it popularity not only among democratically minded circles of society, but also among the aristocracy. Like his French colleagues, Adam preached a complete rejection of details devoid of constructive function.

The Frenchman Jacques-Germain Soufflot, during the construction of the Church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, demonstrated the ability of classicism to organize vast urban spaces. The massive grandeur of his designs foreshadowed the megalomania of the Napoleonic Empire style and late classicism. In Russia, Bazhenov moved in the same direction as Soufflot. The French Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Etienne-Louis Boullé went even further towards developing a radical visionary style with an emphasis on abstract geometrization of forms. In revolutionary France, the ascetic civic pathos of their projects was of little demand; Ledoux's innovation was fully appreciated only by the modernists of the 20th century.

The architects of Napoleonic France took inspiration from the majestic images of military glory left by imperial Rome, such as the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus and Trajan's Column. By order of Napoleon, these images were transferred to Paris in the form of the triumphal arch of Carrousel and the Vendôme Column. In relation to monuments of military greatness from the era of the Napoleonic wars, the term “imperial style” is used - Empire. In Russia, Carl Rossi, Andrei Voronikhin and Andreyan Zakharov proved themselves to be outstanding masters of the Empire style.

In Britain, the empire style corresponds to the so-called. “Regency style” (the largest representative is John Nash).

The aesthetics of classicism favored large-scale urban planning projects and led to the streamlining of urban development on the scale of entire cities.

In Russia, almost all provincial and many district cities were replanned in accordance with the principles of classicist rationalism. Cities such as St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Warsaw, Dublin, Edinburgh and a number of others have turned into genuine open-air museums of classicism. A single architectural language, dating back to Palladio, dominated throughout the entire space from Minusinsk to Philadelphia. Ordinary development was carried out in accordance with albums of standard projects.

In the period following the Napoleonic Wars, classicism had to coexist with romantically tinged eclecticism, in particular with the return of interest in the Middle Ages and the fashion for architectural neo-Gothic. In connection with Champollion's discoveries, Egyptian motifs are gaining popularity. Interest in ancient Roman architecture is replaced by reverence for everything ancient Greek (“neo-Greek”), which was especially pronounced in Germany and the USA. German architects Leo von Klenze and Karl Friedrich Schinkel built up, respectively, Munich and Berlin with grandiose museum and other public buildings in the spirit of the Parthenon.

In France, the purity of classicism is diluted with free borrowings from the architectural repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque (see Beaux Arts).

Princely palaces and residences became the centers of construction in the classicist style; Marktplatz (marketplace) in Karlsruhe, Maximilianstadt and Ludwigstrasse in Munich, as well as construction in Darmstadt, became especially famous. The Prussian kings in Berlin and Potsdam built primarily in the classical style.

But palaces were no longer the main object of construction. Villas and country houses could no longer be distinguished from them. The scope of state construction included public buildings - theaters, museums, universities and libraries. To these were added buildings for social purposes - hospitals, homes for the blind and deaf-mute, as well as prisons and barracks. The picture was complemented by country estates of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, town halls and residential buildings in cities and villages.

The construction of churches no longer played a primary role, but remarkable buildings were created in Karlsruhe, Darmstadt and Potsdam, although there was a debate about whether pagan architectural forms were suitable for a Christian monastery.

Construction features of the classicism style

After the collapse of the great historical styles that had survived centuries, in the 19th century. There is a clear acceleration in the process of architecture development. This becomes especially obvious if we compare the last century with the entire previous thousand-year development. If early medieval architecture and Gothic spanned about five centuries, the Renaissance and Baroque together covered only half of this period, then classicism took less than a century to take over Europe and penetrate overseas.

Characteristic features of the classicism style

With a change in the point of view on architecture, with the development of construction technology, and the emergence of new types of structures in the 19th century. There was also a significant shift in the center of world development of architecture. In the foreground are countries that did not experience the highest stage of Baroque development. Classicism reaches its peak in France, Germany, England and Russia.

Classicism was an expression of philosophical rationalism. The concept of classicism was the use of ancient form-formation systems in architecture, which, however, were filled with new content. The aesthetics of simple ancient forms and a strict order were put in contrast to the randomness and laxity of architectural and artistic manifestations of the worldview.

Classicism stimulated archaeological research, which led to discoveries about advanced ancient civilizations. The results of the archaeological expeditions, summarized in extensive scientific research, laid the theoretical foundations of the movement, whose participants considered ancient culture to be the pinnacle of perfection in the art of construction, an example of absolute and eternal beauty. The popularization of ancient forms was facilitated by numerous albums containing images of architectural monuments.

Types of classicism style buildings

The character of architecture in most cases remained dependent on the tectonics of the load-bearing wall and the vault, which became flatter. The portico becomes an important plastic element, while the walls outside and inside are divided by small pilasters and cornices. In the composition of the whole and details, volumes and plans, symmetry prevails.

The color scheme is characterized by light pastel tones. White color, as a rule, serves to identify architectural elements that are a symbol of active tectonics. The interior becomes lighter, more restrained, the furniture is simple and light, while the designers used Egyptian, Greek or Roman motifs.

The most significant urban planning concepts and their implementation in nature at the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries are associated with classicism. During this period, new cities, parks, and resorts were founded.

Classicism in architecture and urban planning.

The main feature of the architecture of classicism was the appeal to the forms of ancient architecture as a standard of harmony, simplicity, rigor, logical clarity and monumentality. The architecture of classicism as a whole is characterized by regularity of layout and clarity of volumetric form. The basis of the architectural language of classicism was the order, in proportions and forms close to antiquity. Classicism is characterized by symmetrical axial compositions, restraint of decorative decoration, and a regular system of city planning.

The architectural language of classicism was formulated at the end of the Renaissance by the great Venetian master Palladio and his follower Scamozzi.

The Venetians absolutized the principles of ancient temple architecture to such an extent that they even applied them in the construction of such private mansions as Villa Capra. Inigo Jones brought Palladianism north to England, where local Palladian architects followed Palladian principles with varying degrees of fidelity until the mid-18th century.

In Venice, Palladio, commissioned by the Church, completed several projects and built a number of churches (San Pietro in Castello, 1558; cloister of the church of Santa Maria della Carita [now the Accademia Museum]; façade of the church of San Francesco della Vigna, 1562; San Giorgio Maggiore on the same island, 1565 [completed by V. Scamozzi by 1610]; "Il Redentore", that is, [the church of] the Savior, on the island of Giudecca, 1576-1592; Santa Maria della Presentatione, or "Le Citelle"; Santa Lucia, dismantled in mid-19th century during the construction of a railway station). If Palladio's villas as a whole are united by the impression of harmony and tranquility of forms, then in his churches the main thing is the dynamics of forms, sometimes excited pathos.

Robert Adam (working in collaboration with his brother James) became the most sought after architect in Britain. Connoisseurs of beauty admired the freedom with which he combined classical elements previously considered incompatible. A fresh approach to the arrangement of familiar architectural techniques (thermal window, serliano) testified to Adam’s deep penetration into the essence of ancient art. Buildings: Kedleston Hall, Syon House, Register House, Osterley Park.

Classicism in painting.

The few paintings of Agostino Carracci (the best of them are the frescoes in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, executed together with Brother Annibale, “The Communion of St. Jerome” and “The Assumption of the Virgin” in the Pinacoteca of Bologna) are distinguished by the correctness of the drawing and a light, cheerful color.

Agostino was a more famous engraver than his brother Annibale. Imitating Cornelis Cort, he achieved great heights in the skill of engraving. The most famous of his engravings are: “The Crucifixion” (with Tintoretto, 1589), “Aeneas and Anchises” (with Barocchio, 1595), “The Virgin and Child” (with Correggio), “The Temptation of St. Anthony", "St. Jerome" (with Tintoretto), as well as some engravings from his own works.

Claude Lorrain with great skill depicted the play of the sun's rays at different hours of the day, the freshness of the morning, the midday heat, the melancholic flicker of twilight, the cool shadows of warm nights, the shine of calm or slightly swaying waters, the transparency of clean air and the distance covered with light fog. In his work, two styles can be distinguished: paintings dating back to the early period of his activity are painted strongly, thickly, in warm colors; later ones - more smoothly, in a coldish tone. The figures with which his landscapes are usually animated.

Lorrain, unlike Poussin, went beyond the metaphysical (read academic) landscape. Light is always important in his work. He is the first to study the problem of solar illumination, morning and evening; the first who became seriously interested in the atmosphere and its light saturation. His work influenced the development of European landscape painting, in particular William Turner

Classicism in music

Music of the classical period, or music of classicism, refers to the period in the development of European music between approximately 1730 and 1820 (see "Time Frames of Periods in the Development of Classical Music" for more detail on the issues associated with distinguishing these frames). The concept of classicism in music is firmly associated with the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, called the Viennese classics and who determined the direction of further development of musical composition.

A distinctive feature of Mozart's work is the amazing combination of strict, clear forms with deep emotionality. The uniqueness of his work lies in the fact that he not only wrote in all the forms and genres that existed in his era, but also left works of lasting significance in each of them. Mozart's music reveals many connections with different national cultures (especially Italian), nevertheless it belongs to the national Viennese soil and bears the stamp of the creative individuality of the great composer.

Mozart is one of the greatest melodists. Its melody combines the features of Austrian and German folk songs with the melodiousness of the Italian cantilena. Despite the fact that his works are distinguished by poetry and subtle grace, they often contain melodies of a masculine nature, with great dramatic pathos and contrasting elements. The most popular operas were “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute”.

Questions and tasks:

1) Classicism (French classicisme, from Latin classicus - exemplary) - artistic style and aesthetic direction in European art of the 17th-19th centuries.

There are two stages in the development of classicism: the 17th century. and XVIII - early XIX centuries. In the 18th century

Classicism is based on the ideas of rationalism, which were formed simultaneously with the same ideas in the philosophy of Descartes. A work of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. Of interest to classicism is only the eternal, the unchangeable - in each phenomenon it strives to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random individual characteristics. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism takes many rules and canons from ancient art (Aristotle, Horace).

Classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into high (ode, tragedy, epic) and low (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strictly defined characteristics, the mixing of which is not allowed.

How a certain direction was formed in France, in the 17th century. French classicism affirmed the personality of man as the highest value of existence, freeing him from religious and church influence.

Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, music - classicism is represented.

2) From a monument building they come to a building expressing a certain social function, the unity of such functions creates an urban organism, and its structure is the coordination of these functions. Since social coordination is based on the principles of rationality, urban plans become more rational, that is, they follow clear rectangular or radial geometric patterns that consist of wide and straight streets, large square or circular areas. The idea of ​​the relationship between human society and nature is expressed in the city by the introduction of wide areas of greenery, most often parks near palaces or gardens of former monasteries that became state-owned after the revolution. Reducing architecture only to the fulfillment of urban planning tasks entails simplification and typification of its forms.

3) The architect of classicism rejects the “whipped cream” of baroque and insists on the standards of harmony, rigor, logical clarity and monumentality. Actually, for him there was no question whether art was objective or not. Of course, objectively, but he himself serves eternity and everything that is unchangeable. Hence the focus on the order system, regularity of layout and symmetry. Man, as we remember, this sounds proud. And regularity and clarity is precisely what distinguishes human creation from the spontaneous asymmetry of nature. For buildings and parks, all this meant the appearance of rows of columns stretching into perspective, perfectly trimmed bushes and tens of meters of perfect sculptures. And curls, architectural folds and ruffles are from the evil one. The architect of classicism was most often a tourist and traveled to Italy and Greece to look at the ruins, works of Palladio, Scamozzi and drawings by Piranesi, and then carried this knowledge to his own country. This, in particular, happened with Inigo Jones, who was responsible for the introduction of classicism in Britain, and with Robert Adam, who changed the face of Scotland. The Germans Leo von Klenze and Karl Friedrich Schinkel, having gone crazy over the beauty of the Parthenon, built up Munich and Berlin in the neo-Greek spirit with grandiose museums and other public buildings.

The French Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Etienne-Louis Boullé created their own versions of classicism: the first increasingly mastered the spaces around the building, while Ledoux and Boullé were carried away by the radical geometrization of forms. The French (and after them the Russians), of all Europeans, turned out to be the most sensitive to the luxury of imperial Rome and, without hesitation, copied triumphal arches and columns.

4) See question #3.

5) A distinctive feature of Mozart’s work is the amazing combination of strict, clear forms with deep emotionality. The uniqueness of his work lies in the fact that he not only wrote in all the forms and genres that existed in his era, but also left works of lasting significance in each of them. Mozart's music reveals many connections with different national cultures (especially Italian), nevertheless it belongs to the national Viennese soil and bears the stamp of the creative individuality of the great composer.

6) Nicolas Poussin. Master of hammered, rhythmic composition. He was one of the first to appreciate the monumentality of local color.

Born in Normandy, he received his initial artistic education in his homeland, and then studied in Paris, under the guidance of Quentin Varenne and J. Lallemand. In 1624, already a fairly well-known artist, Poussin went to Italy and became close friends in Rome with the poet Marino, who instilled in him a love of studying Italian poets, whose works provided Poussin with abundant material for his compositions. After Marino's death, Poussin found himself in Rome without any support. His circumstances improved only after he found patrons in the person of Cardinal Francesco Barberini and Cavalier Cassiano del Pozzo, for whom he wrote The Seven Sacraments. Thanks to a series of these excellent paintings, Poussin was invited by Cardinal Richelieu to Paris in 1639 to decorate the Louvre Gallery. Louis XIII elevated him to the title of his first painter. In Paris, Poussin had many orders, but he formed a party of opponents in the persons of the artists Vouet, Brequier and Mercier, who had previously worked on decorating the Louvre. The Vue school, which enjoyed the patronage of the queen, was especially intriguing against him. Therefore, in 1642, Poussin left Paris and returned to Rome, where he lived until his death.

Poussin was especially strong in landscape. Taking advantage of the results achieved in this type of painting by the Bolognese school and the Dutch living in Italy, he created the so-called “heroic landscape”, which, being arranged in accordance with the rules of a balanced distribution of masses, with its pleasant and majestic forms, served as a stage for him to depict an idyllic golden age . Poussin's landscapes are imbued with a serious, melancholic mood. In depicting figures, he adhered to the antiquities, through which he determined the further path that the French school of painting followed after him. As a history painter, Poussin had a deep knowledge of drawing and a gift for composition. In the drawing he is distinguished by strict consistency of style and correctness.

“The Generosity of Scipio”, “The Shepherds of Arcadia”, “Tancred and Erminia”.

The generosity of Scipio.

A painting based on the capture of New Carthage (modern Cartagena), the Spanish stronghold of the Punics during the Second Punic War, which Scipio captured along with countless treasures, hostages from Spanish tribes and a large supply of provisions. By the way, I captured it in one day.

Actually, Scipio’s generosity lay in the fact that he freed the hostages and organized their sending home, and also preserved the honor of noble girls from these Spanish tribes, which won the friendship and favor of many Spaniards who went over to the side of Rome.

No. 21 Worldview foundations in educational culture. Enlightenment in Europe and America

The formation of a new ideology is associated with the formation of a new social stratum. Convinced of the ideas of rationalism, educated. Not aristocrats. They note the poverty and humiliation of the people, the decomposition of the upper strata and set themselves the goal of changing the situation, using a scientific worldview that can influence the mass mood. (They are troublemakers and slaves)

They advocate for the recognition of individual rights, and this is how natural law doctrines appear. They appear in the teachings of Hobbes, Locke, and Grotius in the 18th century. Hobbes's original idea of ​​natural law is that human nature is evil and selfish. “Man is a wolf to man,” the natural state is “a war of all against all.” In this war, man is guided by his natural law - the law of force. Natural law is opposed to natural laws, which are the rational moral principle of man. Laws of self-preservation and satisfaction of needs. Since the war of all against all threatens humanity with self-destruction, there is a need to change the state of nature to a civil one. A social contract must be concluded. People voluntarily cede some of their rights and freedoms to the state and agree to comply with the laws. Thus the natural law of force is replaced by the harmony of natural and civil laws. Thus, the state is a necessary condition for culture. Locke believed that the truth of social life lies not in the state, but in man himself. People unite in society to guarantee a person's natural rights. This, according to Locke, is the right to life, property, and work. Labor and property give people freedom and equality. The state is obliged to protect the free private life of a person. From the very beginning, natural law theories had an anti-church and anti-feudal orientation, as the natural origin of law was emphasized. Which opposes the theory of divine right in which religion is the source of the feudal state and social inequality. The term enlightenment is used for the first time by Aviary. Priority in the development of education belongs to France. And Herder, together with Voltaire, came up with this hat - enlightenment. Kant wrote that enlightenment is a way out of a person’s state of minority, in which he was voluntarily. A minor of one's own free will is one whose causes lie not in deficiencies of reason, but in a lack of determination and courage to use it without the guidance of someone else. The motto of enlightenment according to Kant is to have the courage to use your own mind.

The ideas of enlightenment are based on the ideas of rationalism. It is no coincidence that literature and art glorify reason, the power of the human mind - this is an optimistic worldview. Belief in the power of the human mind. Pauvillon - “Wonders of the Human Mind.” At the center of the Enlightenment concept of man is the idea of ​​a natural man, and Daniel Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe” - a man in a state of nature - played a huge role in its formation. This is a story about the life of humanity, which has passed the path from savagery to civilization. It is the natural state that educates Robinson. J.-J. took over the baton from him. Rousseau. In a treatise on reasoning about the sciences and arts, he reports that natural man is enlightened, but not by the sciences and arts, which despots need to break the resistance of people. Civilization was able to create only happy slaves; Rousseau contrasts them with the savages of America. Relying only on hunting, they are invincible. No yoke can be placed on people who have no needs. Rousseau also develops the concept of the natural man in treatises on the origin and foundations of inequality between people and on the social contract. The origin of inequality is explained historically. Voltaire and Montesquieu sharply criticized the idea of ​​the sacred power of the clergy. God discredited himself because for a long time his name was used by oligarchs to deceive the people and strengthen their power. Then the enlighteners worked on developing social utopias.

First, the reconstruction of society is built, and then the theory of a universal society. Everyone tried to determine the natural state of man, which was seen in the social reality of material well-being. Rousseau believed that in a state of material well-being and wealth, human abilities develop, ideas expand, feelings are ennobled, and the soul is elevated.

Claude Helvetius formulated the concept of virtue, which for him is measured by usefulness, and not by self-denial, as it was in Christian morality. That is, a person should enjoy life, and not serve God with the self-denial characteristic of a Christian. This idea was supported by the English educator Bentham, who believed that virtue should be based on personal benefit, taking into account the public interests of society. Thus begins a new stage in the development of enlightenment, which in general has undergone evolution: from scattered attempts to establish the idea of ​​enlightenment, to the unification of the forces of enlighteners; from Walter's deism to the atheism of Denis Diderot. From the idea of ​​an enlightened monarchy, a passion for the English system to the development of a revolutionary change in the French social system to the establishment of the idea of ​​a republic, the principle of equality. The most important slogan is “Freedom, equality, fraternity.” In general, educators create a harmonious picture of the world because it is optimistic. The idea of ​​universality, world culture is being formed. The most famous was Johann Herder. He affirms the equality of cultures of different peoples and eras. At the same time, the ground appears for the development of Eurocentrism. For a long time, Europeans did not know foreign cultures, and when they conquered the peoples of America and Australia, they acted as conquerors. They ignored the culture of their enemies. Whereas with the development of the idea of ​​universality, comparing cultures as equals, however, one’s own turns out to be more important, superior to someone else’s. The development of Rousseau's ideas by the French revolution testified to a new attitude towards man, therefore, in social terms, ideas began to appear that contradicted the ideas of slavery.

Thomas Pen's Rights of Man was published in 1791.

"A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Ounstonecraft, 1792. Denmark was the first country to ban slavery. Then in 1794 France banned it. In 1807, slavery was abolished in the British Empire. The ideas of the Enlightenment determined the development of American culture. Philadelphia becomes the center of education in America; the first library in America and the first legal journal were created here. The first medical school and hospital, the educational activities of Benjamin Franklin, who formulated the classical principles of bourgeois morality, are associated with this city. A hero of modern times is a person who owes everything only to himself. He is characterized by sobriety of mind, rationality, focus on real life, with its material joys. It is to him that many aphorisms speak of bourgeois culture and bourgeois morality: “Time is money,” “Thrift and work lead to wealth,” etc.

The educational culture is based on the ideas of Cottan Mather and Jonathan Edwards.

The ideology of enlightenment contributed to the development of education. Enlightenmentists believe that education in the spirit of modern science, modern knowledge can improve people's lives; it is no coincidence that Diderot united the efforts of the enlighteners Voltaire and Montesquieu to create an explanatory dictionary or Encyclopedia of Sciences, Arts and Crafts.

Gradually, a more favorable situation for obtaining an education is developing in America than in the old world. This explains the appearance of the founding fathers of the republic.

Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independence. He became the American interpreter of Locke's teachings. He saw the purpose of the state as protecting human rights: the rights to life, property, freedom, happiness. The people can overthrow the state. The main thing is to distribute power correctly. Freedom is intertwined with responsibilities.

Disappointment in the ideals of enlightenment was expressed in Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels - a satire on the ideas of enlightenment. Swift doubted scientific progress.

The Age of Enlightenment lasted about 100 years, then came the reaction to the results of the French Revolution. The thinking part of European humanity felt that the ideal of man, formed by the culture of renaissance, did not correspond to reality.

№22,23 Romanticism as a cultural paradigm, Romanticism in Europe

In the 18th century, pre-romanticism was formed, a special role in the formation of which was played by J. - J. Rousseau, primarily with the famous confession. The age of reason began to speak about the primacy of feeling, about the originality and uniqueness of each person. In Germany, romanticism is fueled by the ideas of the literary and social movement “Storm and Drang”. The works of early Goethe, Schiller. Important sources include the philosophy of Fichte with his absolutization of creative freedom. And Arthur Schopenhauer with his idea of ​​a blind, unreasonable will that creates the world according to its own will. The reality seemed unfavorable, sometimes terrible, and this could not be corrected by reason. The worldview of romantics is irrational. The idea of ​​the existence of otherworldly forces is a product of fantasy, not controlled by the enlightenment mind. This trend manifested itself in the work of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It reflects new themes, questions the worship of the human rational principle, the belief in original humanity. Human affairs cast deep doubt on previous assertions. Goya refuses to divide life into right and wrong, high and low. The experience of the new era, shaken by revolution and wars, refuted the idea that the dark and light principles are incompatible. Life turned out to be more complicated and everything that exists - people, history, man, with his dreams, fantasies, are involved in a continuous process of change and formation. On the one hand, Goya shows courage, perseverance, greatness of soul, on the other hand, he knows how to show crime, inhumanity. Romanticism arises as a reaction to the French Revolution, to the idea of ​​their cult of reason. And also the reason for its development is the national liberation movement. Initially, the term romanticism was used in the literature of the German-Roman peoples; later it covered music and the visual arts. The idea of ​​dual worlds, that is, the comparison and contrast of the real and depicted worlds, became fundamental to romantic art. Real life or the prose of life, with its lack of spirituality and utilitarianism, is regarded as an illusion unworthy of man, opposed to the real world. The affirmation of the development of a beautiful ideal as a reality realized at least in dreams is the main feature of romanticism. Modern reality is rejected as the repository of all vices, so the romantic runs away from it. Escape is carried out in the following directions:

1. Going into nature, therefore nature is a tuning fork of emotional experiences, the embodiment of real freedom, hence the interest in the countryside, criticism of the city. Interest in folklore, ancient myths, tales, epics.
2. Escape to exotic countries, bourgeois civilization unspoiled in the opinion of romantics.
3. In the absence of a real territorial address of flight, it is invented, constructed in the imagination.
4. Escape to another time. Most of all, romanticism strives to escape into the Middle Ages. There is a beautiful knightly ideal there.

It is in the life of the heart that romantics see the opposite of the heartlessness of the outside world. A romantic portrait, a self-portrait, develops in painting. The heroes of the portraits are extraordinary creative personalities. Poets, writers who have an extraordinary inner world. The image of the inner world becomes dominant. One of the first images of a free personality was embodied by the writer and poet Byron, “The Journey and Pilgrimage of Chaid Harold.” The image of a free personality was called the Byronic hero. He is characterized by such traits as loneliness and self-centeredness. Free from society, this hero is unhappy. Independence is more valuable to him than comfort and peace. The theme of loneliness is reflected in the work of Caspar David Friedrich when he depicts lonely human figures against the backdrop of nature. Hector Berlioz becomes the founder of French. In this regard, it becomes a fantastic symphony. Fantastic is the reflection of the inner world of the lyrical hero, a lonely, unrecognized fugitive poet, tormented by unrequited love. The romantic worldview was expressed in two versions: 1) the world seemed to be an endless, faceless cosmic subjectivity, the Creative energy of the spirit being the beginning of the creation of world harmony. This is characterized by a pantheistic image of the world, optimism, and sublime feeling. 2) Human subjectivity is considered, which is in conflict with the outside world. This attitude is characterized by pessimism.

National forms of romanticism, if they have common features, are original. So German romanticism is serious, mystical. In Germany, the theory and aesthetics of romanticism took shape (Fichte, Schopenhauer). At the same time, masterpieces in music and literature are born here, aimed at self-deepening. French romanticism is impetuous and freedom-loving. First of all, it manifested itself in genre painting. In historical and everyday painting, in the genre of portraiture, in novelism. Sentimental, sensual English novelism used fantastic, allegorical, symbolistic forms of depicting the world, irony, and the grotesque.

The founder of French romanticism is Theodore Géricault. He overcomes the influence of classicism, his works reflect the diversity of nature. Introducing human living into the composition, Gericault strives for the most vivid disclosure of a person’s inner experiences and emotions. Having retained the classicist craving for generalization and heroic images, Gericault for the first time in French painting embodied a keen sense of the conflict of the world. He embodies the dramatic phenomena of modernity, strong passion. Geriot's early works reflected the heroics of the Napoleonic Wars. “Officer of the mounted rangers of the imperial guard going on the attack,” “Wounded cuirassier leaving the battlefield.” Dynamic composition and color. One of the central works of Gericault is “The Raft of Medusa”. It was written on a topical story about the lost frigate “Medusa”. Gericault gives a historical, symbolic meaning to a private event. The work reveals a complex range of feelings. From complete despair to complete apathy and passionate hope for salvation. The idea of ​​a romantic artist as a free, independent person, a deeply emotional person. Géricault expressed this in a series of his portraits. (Portrait of twenty-year-old Delacroix) and self-portraits. The series of portraits of mentally ill people is significant. Géricault's tradition was taken up by Eugene Delacroix. “Dante and Virgil” or “Dante’s Boat”) The same passion and protest against all violence marked his later works. “Massacre on Yosa” or “Greece on the ruins of Messalonga”) Reflects the events of the defense of the Greeks from the Turkish invasion. “Freedom on the Barricades” was written on the topic of contemporary events. Its romantic, revolutionary symbolism is expressed by the allegorical figure of freedom, with developing knowledge in hand. A number of works are inspired by travel through North Africa. “Algerian women in their chambers”, “Jewish wedding in Morocco”, “Lion hunt in Morocco”. Delacroix was fond of racing and horses. Delacroix paints portraits of composers (Chopin, Paganini). The expression of romanticism in German painting was the work of K.D. Friedrich. Already in his early works the complete mystical atmosphere of his art was determined. These are such paintings as “Hun Tomb in the Snow”, Cross in the Mountains”, “Monk by the Sea”. He depicts the viewer as a figure detachedly contemplating the landscape. A mysteriously silent nature is revealed to this contemplator. Various symbols of supernatural existence. (Sea horizon, mountain peak, ship, distant city, travel crucifix, cross, cemetery) For Friedrich, nature is the bearer of deep, religious experiences. The landscape was used as a means of displaying deep emotional experiences. There are four ages of life in the programmatic work. Figures of people of various ages are depicted on a deserted Arctic shore and four ships approaching the shore. This is how the artist depicted the passage of time, the passage of time, the doomed mortality of man. The scene itself against the backdrop of sunset evokes a keen sense of melancholy nostalgia. The title of another work speaks for itself, “The Collapse of Hope.” The Pre-Raphaelites are a brotherhood of English artists. (Rosetti, Milles, Hunt). Economic crises and revolutions of the 1840s did not affect England. This is the heyday of British capitalism. The aesthetic dictate of England. The name Pre-Raphaelites appeared due to the fact that members of the society worshiped the art of the pre-Cinquecento. They rely primarily on Quattrocento and Trecento. Pre-Raphaelite painting became a reaction to the pragmatism of the bourgeois world and was a critique of capitalism from the standpoint of beauty. This is an attempt to create a better reality based on spiritual, physical, social harmony. The divine meaning of ideal beauty, the universal meaning of existence, high spirituality are revealed in the nature surrounding humans and everyday life. Interest in the Middle Ages was due to the desire for religious renewal. “The Bride” - Rosetti, the image of femininity appears. Hunt’s paintings are permeated with symbolism. “The Hired Shepherd” The death’s head is a symbol of retribution, the apple is a symbol of temptation. "Woke Shame" Hunt. The “Lamp of the World” depicts Christ walking. "The Scapegoat" is an allegory of Christ in the desert. Milles “Christ in his parents’ house”, the painting was also called “carpenter’s workshop”. Romanticism in America arose under the influence of European culture. There was a tendency to romanticize the American Revolution, which was presented as a path to the highest degree of development and placed the United States at the head of world progress. Thus, the exclusivity of America's path was asserted. The biographical genre is developing. Washington became the first hero. The father of American biography is Gerard Sparks. He created 12 volumes on Washington, 10 volumes on Franklin. The rapid industrialization of the northern states was destroying the traditional.

No. 24 Value system and culture of industrial society

Democratic principles in social structure, development of experimental science and industrialization. This was created back in the 17th century. The result of the industrial revolution was the emergence of industrial society. The ideals of which are labor, production, science, education, democracy. Saint-Simon dreams of a society organized like a huge factory headed by industrialists and scientists. The factory at this time changed the manufactory, leading to an unprecedented increase in the productivity of social labor. The introduction of technical innovations was accompanied by the consolidation of enterprises and the transition to the production of mass, standardized products. Mass production led to urbanization. (urban growth) The United States has demonstrated the prospect of accelerated development of capitalism. The process became all-encompassing and more homogeneous; history was being transformed into world history. The formation of culture as unity, diversity of national cultures and art schools. Traditional countries, such as Japan, are also included in this process. The problem of cultural dialogue acquires a special flavor. A new value system is emerging. Sensitivity is based on benefit, prosperity, comfort. Progress is identified with economic progress. At the same time, the principle of benefit transforms the concept of truth. The essence is what is convenient and useful. Etiquette takes on a utilitarian character. Regulation of relationships between free partners through means of purchase and sale. The seller must be polite and courteous, but the buyer is not. Attention is paid only to those who are useful. Relationships are formalized.

The term “classicism” translated from Latin means “exemplary” and is associated with the principles of imitation of images.

Classicism arose in the 17th century in France as a movement outstanding in its social and artistic significance. In its essence, it was associated with absolute monarchy and the establishment of noble statehood.

This direction is characterized by high civic themes and strict adherence to certain creative norms and rules. Classicism, as a certain artistic movement, tends to reflect life in ideal images that gravitate toward a certain “norm” or model. Hence the cult of antiquity in classicism: classical antiquity appears in it as an example of modern and harmonious art. According to the rules of the aesthetics of classicism, which strictly adhered to the so-called “hierarchy of genres,” tragedy, ode and epic belonged to the “high genres” and were supposed to develop especially important problems, resorting to ancient and historical subjects, and display only the sublime, heroic aspects of life. “High genres” were opposed to “low” ones: comedy, fable, satire and others, designed to reflect modern reality.

Each genre had its own theme (selection of themes), and each work was built according to the rules developed for this purpose. Mixing techniques of various literary genres in a work was strictly prohibited.

The most developed genres during the period of classicism were tragedies, poems and odes.

Tragedy, as understood by the classicists, is a dramatic work that depicts the struggle of a personality outstanding in its spiritual strength against insurmountable obstacles; such a struggle usually ends in the death of the hero. Classical writers based the tragedy on the clash (conflict) of the hero’s personal feelings and aspirations with his duty to the state. This conflict was resolved by the victory of duty. The plots of the tragedy were borrowed from the writers of ancient Greece and Rome, and sometimes taken from historical events of the past. The heroes were kings and generals. As in Greco-Roman tragedy, the characters were portrayed either positive or negative, with each person representing one spiritual trait, one quality: positive courage, justice, etc. , negative - ambition, hypocrisy. These were conventional characters. Life and the era were also conventionally depicted. There was no correct depiction of historical reality, nationality (it is unknown where and when the action takes place).

The tragedy had to have five acts.

The playwright had to strictly observe the rules of the “three unities”: time, place and action. The unity of time required that all the events of the tragedy fit within a period of no more than one day. The unity of place was expressed in the fact that all the action of the play took place in one place - in the palace or in the square. Unity of action presupposed an internal connection of events; in the tragedy nothing unnecessary was allowed that was not necessary for the development of the plot. The tragedy had to be written in solemn and majestic verses.

The poem was an epic (narrative) work that presented an important historical event in poetic language or glorified the exploits of heroes and kings.

Ode is a solemn song of praise in honor of kings, generals, or victories won over enemies. The ode was supposed to express the author’s delight and inspiration (pathos). Therefore, it was characterized by elevated, solemn language, rhetorical questions, exclamations, appeals, personification of abstract concepts (science, victories), images of gods and goddesses and conscious exaggerations. In terms of the ode, “lyrical disorder” was allowed, which was expressed in a deviation from the harmony of presentation of the main theme. But this was a conscious, strictly considered retreat (“proper disorder”).

The doctrine of classicism was based on the idea of ​​the dualism of human nature. The greatness of man was revealed in the struggle between the material and the spiritual. The personality was affirmed in the fight against “passions” and freed from selfish material interests. The rational, spiritual principle in a person was considered as the most important quality of personality. The idea of ​​the greatness of the mind that unites people found expression in the creation of the theory of art by the classicists. In the aesthetics of classicism, it is seen as a way of imitating the essence of things. “Virtue,” wrote Sumarokov, “we do not owe to our nature. Morals and politics make us, by the measure of enlightenment, reason and purification of hearts, useful to the common good. Without this, people would have destroyed each other long ago without a trace.”

Classicism is urban, metropolitan poetry. There are almost no images of nature in it, and if landscapes are given, they are urban; pictures of artificial nature are drawn: squares, grottoes, fountains, trimmed trees.

This direction is formed, experiencing the influence of other pan-European trends in art that are directly in contact with it: it starts from the aesthetics of the Renaissance that preceded it and confronts the Baroque art that actively coexists with it, imbued with the consciousness of the general discord generated by the crisis of the ideals of the past era. Continuing some traditions of the Renaissance (admiration for the ancients, faith in reason, the ideal of harmony and proportion), classicism was a kind of antithesis to it; behind the external harmony it hides the internal antinomy of the worldview, which makes it similar to the Baroque (for all their deep differences). The generic and the individual, the public and the personal, reason and feeling, civilization and nature, which appeared (in a trend) in the art of the Renaissance as a single harmonious whole, are polarized in classicism and become mutually exclusive concepts. This reflected a new historical state, when the political and private spheres began to disintegrate, and social relations began to turn into a separate and abstract force for humans.

For its time, classicism had a positive meaning. Writers proclaimed the importance of a person fulfilling his civic duties and sought to educate a citizen; developed the question of genres, their composition, and streamlined the language. Classicism dealt a crushing blow to medieval literature, full of faith in the miraculous, in ghosts, which subordinated human consciousness to the teachings of the church.

Enlightenment classicism was formed earlier than others in foreign literature. In works devoted to the 18th century, this trend is often assessed as the “high” classicism of the 17th century that had fallen into decline. This is not entirely true. Of course, there is a continuity between enlightenment and “high” classicism, but enlightenment classicism is an integral artistic movement that reveals the previously untapped artistic potential of classicist art and has educational features.

The literary doctrine of classicism was associated with advanced philosophical systems that represented a reaction to medieval mysticism and scholasticism. These philosophical systems were, in particular, the rationalist theory of Descartes and the materialist doctrine of Gassendi. The philosophy of Descartes, who declared reason to be the only criterion of truth, had a particularly great influence on the formation of the aesthetic principles of classicism. In Descartes' theory, materialistic principles, based on the data of the exact sciences, were uniquely combined with idealistic principles, with the assertion of the decisive superiority of the spirit, thinking over matter, being, with the theory of the so-called “innate” ideas.

The cult of reason underlies the aesthetics of classicism. Since every feeling in the minds of adherents of the theory of classicism was random and arbitrary, the measure of a person’s value was for them the compliance of his actions with the laws of reason. Above all else in a person, classicism placed the “reasonable” ability to suppress personal feelings and passions in the name of one’s duty to the state. Man in the works of the followers of classicism is, first of all, a servant of the state, a person in general, for the rejection of the inner life of the individual naturally followed from the principle of subordination of the particular to the general proclaimed by classicism. Classicism depicted not so much people as characters, images and concepts. Typification was therefore carried out in the form of mask images, which were the embodiment of human vices and virtues. Equally abstract was the setting outside of time and space in which these images operated. Classicism was ahistorical even in those cases when it turned to the depiction of historical events and historical figures, because writers were not interested in historical authenticity, but in the possibility through the mouth of pseudo-historical heroes of eternal and general truths, eternal and general properties of characters, supposedly inherent in people of all times and peoples.

The theorist of French classicism Nicolas Boileau, in his treatise “Poetic Art” (1674), outlined the principles of classicist poetics in literature as follows:

But then Malherbe came and showed the French

A simple and harmonious verse, pleasing to the muses in everything,

He ordered harmony to fall at the feet of reason

And by placing the words, he doubled their power.

Having cleansed our language from rudeness and filth,

He developed a discerning and faithful taste,

I carefully followed the ease of the verse

And line breaks were strictly prohibited.

Boileau argued that in a literary work everything should be based on reason, on deeply thought-out principles and rules.

The theory of classicism manifested in its own way the desire for truth in life. Boileau declared: “Only the truthful is beautiful” and called for imitation of nature. However, both Boileau himself and the majority of writers united under the banner of classicism invested a limited meaning in the concepts of “truth” and “nature”, determined by the socio-historical essence of this literary movement. Calling to imitate nature, Boileau did not mean all nature, but only “beautiful nature,” which in fact led to the depiction of reality, but embellished, “ennobled.” Boileau's code of poetry protected literature from the penetration of the democratic current into it. And it is very characteristic that for all his friendship with Moliere, Boileau condemned him for the fact that he often deviated from the aesthetic requirements of classicism and followed the artistic experience of the folk theater. Classicism recognized the ancient Greek and Roman classics as the highest authorities in matters of poetic art, who provided eternal and immutable solutions to ideological and artistic problems, declaring their works “models” to follow. The poetics of classicism relied heavily on the mechanical and historically learned rules of ancient poetics (Aristotle and Horace). In particular, the rules of the so-called three unities (time, place and action) that are obligatory for the playwright of the school of classicism go back to the ancient tradition.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) is the most significant representative of English representative classicist poetry.

In his “Essay on Criticism” (1711), relying on Boileau’s “Poetic Art” and Horace’s “Science of Poetry,” he generalized and developed classicist principles with extraordinary insight for a young man in an enlightening spirit. He considered “imitation of nature” as imitation of an ancient model. Adhering to the concepts of “measure,” “appropriateness,” and “plausibility,” he, as an educational humanist, called for a reasonable, “natural” life. Pope considered taste to be innate, but becoming correct under the influence of education, and, therefore, inherent in a person from any class. He opposed the pompous style of the Baroque adherents, but the “simplicity” of the language in his understanding appeared as the “clarity” and “appropriateness” of the style, and not the expansion of the vocabulary and the democratization of expressions. Like all educators, Pope had a negative attitude towards the “barbarian” Middle Ages. In general, Pope went beyond the strict classicist doctrine: he did not deny the possibility of deviation from ancient rules; he recognized the influence of “genius” and “climate” on the appearance of masterpieces of art not only in Ancient Greece and Rome. By opposing the twelve-syllable verse, he contributed to the final approval of the heroic couplet. In his Essay on Criticism, Pope addressed not only general problems - selfishness, wit, humility, pride, etc. , - but also private questions, including the motives for the behavior of critics.

French classicism reached its highest flowering in the tragedies of Corneille and Racine, in the fables of La Fontaine and the comedies of Molière. However, the artistic practice of these luminaries of French literature of the 17th century often diverged from the theoretical principles of classicism. So, for example, despite the inherent one-linearity in the depiction of a person, they managed to create complex characters full of internal contradictions. The preaching of public “reasonable” duty is combined in the tragedies of Corneille and Racine with an emphasis on the tragic inevitability of the suppression of personal feelings and inclinations. In the works of La Fontaine and Moliere - writers whose work was closely connected with the humanistic literature of the Renaissance and folklore - democratic and realistic tendencies are deeply developed. Because of this, a number of Moliere's comedies are essentially and externally connected with the dramatic theory of classicism.

Moliere believed that comedy has two tasks: to teach and to entertain. If comedy is deprived of its edifying effect, it will turn into empty ridicule; if you take away its entertainment functions, it ceases to be a comedy, and its moralizing goals will also not be achieved. In a word, “the imperative of comedy is to correct people by amusing them.”

Moliere's ideas about the tasks of comedy do not fall outside the circle of classicist aesthetics. The task of comedy, as he imagined it, was “to give on stage a pleasant portrayal of common shortcomings.” He shows here a characteristic tendency among classicists towards the rationalistic abstraction of types. Moliere's comedies touch on a wide range of problems of modern life: relations between fathers and children, education, marriage and family, the moral state of society (hypocrisy, greed, vanity, etc.), class, religion, culture, science (medicine, philosophy), etc. . This complex of themes is resolved using Parisian material, with the exception of Countess d'Escarbagna, which takes place in the provinces. Moliere takes plots not only from real life; he draws them from ancient (Plautus, Terence) and Renaissance Italian and Spanish drama (N. Barbieri, N. Secchi, T. de Molina), as well as from the French medieval folk tradition (fablio, farces).

Racine Jean is a French playwright whose work represents the pinnacle of French classic theater. Racine Sutyaga's only comedy was staged in 1668. In 1669, the tragedy Britannic was performed with moderate success. In Andromache, Racine first used a plot structure that would become common in his later plays: A pursues B, who loves C. A version of this model is given in Britannica, where the criminal and innocent couples confront each other: Agrippina and Nero - Junia and Britannicus. The following year's production of Berenice, in which Racine's new mistress, Mademoiselle de Chanmelet, played the title role, became one of the greatest mysteries in literary history. It was argued that in the images of Titus and Berenice, Racine brought out Louis XIV and his daughter-in-law Henrietta of England, who allegedly gave Racine and Corneille the idea of ​​writing a play on the same plot. Nowadays, the version that seems more reliable is that the love of Titus and Berenice was reflected in the king’s brief but stormy romance with Maria Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, whom Louis wanted to put on the throne. The version of the rivalry between the two playwrights is also disputed. It is possible that Corneille learned of Racine's intentions and, in accordance with the literary mores of the 17th century, wrote his tragedy Titus and Berenice in the hope of gaining the upper hand over his rival. If this is so, he acted rashly: Racine won a triumphant victory in the competition.

La Fontaine Jean De (1621–1695), French poet. In 1667, the Duchess of Bouillon became La Fontaine's patroness. Continuing to compose poems that were quite free in content, in 1665 he published his first collection, “Stories in Verse,” followed by “Fairy Tales and Stories in Verse” and “The Love of Psyche and Cupid.” Remaining a protégé of the Duchess of Bouillon until 1672 and wanting to please her, La Fontaine began writing Fables and published the first six books in 1668. During this period, his friends included N. Boileau-Dépreo, Madame de Sevigne, J. Racine and Molière. Ultimately coming under the patronage of the Marquise de la Sablière, the poet completed the publication of twelve books of Fables in 1680 and in 1683 was elected a member of the French Academy. Lafontaine died in Paris on April 14, 1695.

Stories in verse and short poems by La Fontaine are now almost forgotten, although they are full of wit and represent an example of the classicist genre. At first glance, the lack of moral edification in them is in clear contradiction with the essence of the genre. But with a more thoughtful analysis, it becomes clear that many of the fables of Aesop, Phaedrus, Nevle and other authors in La Fontaine’s arrangement have lost their edifying meaning, and we understand that behind the traditional form are hidden not entirely orthodox judgments.

La Fontaine's fables are remarkable for their variety, rhythmic perfection, skillful use of archaisms (reviving the style of the medieval Romance of the Fox), sober view of the world and deep realism. An example is the fable “The Wolf and the Fox on Trial Before the Monkey”:

The Wolf made a request to the Monkey,

In it he accused Lisa of deception

And in theft; The fox's temperament is known,

Sly, cunning and dishonest.

And so they call Lisa to court.

The case was dealt with without lawyers, -

The Wolf accused, the Fox defended herself;

Of course, everyone stood for their own benefits.

Themis never, according to the judge,

Never before has a case been so complicated...

And the Monkey thought, groaned,

And after arguments, shouts and speeches,

Knowing the morals of both the Wolf and the Fox very well,

She said: “Well, both of you are wrong;

I've known you for a long time...

I will read my verdict now:

The wolf is to blame for the falseness of the accusation,

The fox is guilty of robbery.”

The judge decided that he would be right

Punishing those who have a thieves' temperament.

In this fable, real people are represented under the guise of animals, namely: the judge, the plaintiff and the defendant. And, what is very important, it is the people of the bourgeoisie who are depicted, and not the peasants.

French classicism was most clearly manifested in drama, but also in prose, where the requirements for compliance with aesthetic standards were less strict, it created a unique genre inherent to it - the genre of aphorism. In France in the 17th century, several aphorist writers appeared. These are those writers who did not create either novels, stories, or short stories, but only short, extremely condensed prose miniatures or wrote down their thoughts - the fruit of life observations and reflections.

In Russia, the formation of classicism occurs almost three-quarters of a century later than it took shape in France. For Russian writers, Voltaire, a representative of contemporary French classicism, was no less an authority than such founders of this literary movement as Corneille or Racine.

Russian classicism had many similarities with Western classicism, in particular with French classicism, since it also arose during the period of absolutism, but it was not a simple imitation. Russian classicism originated and developed on original soil, taking into account the experience that had accumulated before its established and developed Western European classicism.

The peculiar features of Russian classicism are the following: firstly, from the very beginning, Russian classicism has a strong connection with modern reality, which in the best works is illuminated from the point of view of advanced ideas.

The second feature of Russian classicism is the accusatory and satirical current in their work, conditioned by the progressive social ideas of writers. The presence of satire in the works of Russian classic writers gives their work a vitally truthful character. Living modernity, Russian reality, Russian people and Russian nature are to a certain extent reflected in their works.

The third feature of Russian classicism, due to the ardent patriotism of Russian writers, is their interest in the history of their homeland. They all study Russian history, write works on national and historical topics. They strive to create fiction and its language on a national basis, to give it their own, Russian face, and pay attention to folk poetry and the folk language.

Along with the general features inherent in both French and Russian classicism, the latter also exhibits such features that give it the character of national originality. For example, this is an increased civic-patriotic pathos, a much more pronounced accusatory-realistic tendency, less alienation from oral folk art. Everyday and ceremonial cants of the first decades of the 18th century largely prepared the development of various genres of lyric poetry in the middle and second half of the 18th century.

The main thing in the ideology of classicism is state pathos. The state, created in the first decades of the 18th century, was declared the highest value. The classicists, inspired by Peter's reforms, believed in the possibility of its further improvement. It seemed to them to be a reasonably structured social organism, where each class fulfills the duties assigned to it. “Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate science,” wrote A.P. Sumarokov. The state pathos of Russian classicists is a deeply contradictory phenomenon. It reflected progressive trends associated with the final centralization of Russia, and at the same time - utopian ideas coming from a clear overestimation of the social possibilities of enlightened absolutism.

The establishment of classicism was facilitated by four major literary figures: A.D. Kantemir, V.K. Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov and A.P. Sumarokov.

A.D. Kantemir lived in an era when the first foundations of the modern Russian literary language were just being laid; his satires were written according to the syllabic system of versification, which was already outlived at that time, and nevertheless the name of Cantemir, in the words of Belinsky, “has already outlived many ephemeral celebrities, both classical and romantic, and will still outlive many thousands of them,” as Cantemir “ the first in Rus' to bring poetry to life.” “Symphony on the Psalter” is the first printed work of A. Cantemir, but not his first literary work in general, which is confirmed by the authorized manuscript of a little-known translation by Antiochus Cantemir entitled “Mr. Philosopher Constantine Manassis Synopsis Historical,” dated 1725.

In the “Translation of a Certain Italian Letter,” made by A. Cantemir only one year later (1726), the vernacular is no longer present in the form of random elements, but as the dominant norm, although the language of this translation was called by Cantemir, out of habit, “famous -Russian."

The rapid transition from Church Slavonic vocabulary, morphology and syntax to vernacular as the norm of literary speech, which can be traced in the earliest works of A. Cantemir, reflected the evolution of not only his individual language and style, but also the development of the linguistic consciousness of the era and the formation of Russian literary language as a whole.

The years 1726-1728 should include the work of A. Cantemir on poems on a love theme that have not reached us, about which he later wrote with some regret in the second edition of the IV satire. During this period, Antioch Cantemir showed an intense interest in French literature, which is confirmed both by the above-mentioned “Translation of a Certain Italian Letter” and by Cantemir’s notes in his calendar of 1728, from which we learn about the young writer’s acquaintance with French satirical magazines of the English model like “ Le Mentor moderne”, as well as with the work of Moliere (“The Misanthrope”) and the comedies of Marivaux. The work of A. Cantemir on the translation into Russian of Boileau’s four satires and the writing of the original poems “On a Quiet Life” and “On Zoila” should also be attributed to this period.

A. Cantemir's early translations and his love lyrics were only a preparatory stage in the poet's work, the first test of strength, the development of language and style, manner of presentation, his own way of seeing the world.

Poems from philosophical letters

I respect the law here, obeying the rights;

However, I am free to live according to my rules:

The spirit is calm, now life goes on without adversity,

Every day I learn to eradicate my passions

And looking at the limit, this is how I establish life,

Serenely I direct my days to the end.

I don’t miss anyone, there’s no need for penalties,

Happy to have shortened the days of my desires.

I now recognize the corruption of my age,

I don’t wish, I’m not afraid, I expect death.

When you show your mercy to me irrevocably

Show me, then I will be completely happy.

In 1729, the poet began a period of creative maturity, when he quite consciously focused his attention almost exclusively on satire:

In a word, I want to grow old in satires,

But I can’t not write: I can’t stand it.

(IV satire, I ed.)

Cantemir's first satire, “On those who blaspheme the teaching” (“To your mind”), was a work of great political resonance, since it was directed against ignorance as a specific social and political force, and not an abstract vice; against ignorance “in an embroidered dress”, opposing the reforms of Peter I and the Enlightenment, against the teachings of Copernicus and printing; ignorance militant and triumphant; vested with the authority of state and church authorities.

Pride, laziness, wealth - wisdom prevailed,
Ignorance and knowledge have already taken root;
He is proud under his miter, he walks in an embroidered dress,
It judges the red cloth, manages the shelves.
Science is torn, trimmed in rags,
Of all the noblest houses, knocked down with a curse.

Contrary to the preface to the satire, in which the author tried to assure the reader that everything in it was “written for fun” and that he, the author, “did not imagine anyone as a particular person,” Cantemir’s first satire was directed against well-defined and “particular” individuals, - these were enemies of the cause of Peter and the “learned squad”. “The character of the bishop,” Kantemir wrote in one of the notes to the satire, “although described by an unknown person by the author, has many similarities with D***, who in external ceremonies appointed the entire high priesthood.” Making fun of a clergyman in satire, whose entire education is limited to mastering the “Stone of Faith” by Stefan Yavorsky, Cantemir unambiguously pointed to his own ideological position - a supporter of the “learned squad”. The images of churchmen created by Cantemir corresponded to very real prototypes, and yet these were generalization images, they excited minds, reactionary churchmen of new generations continued to recognize themselves in them, when the name of Antioch Cantemir became part of history and when the names of Georgy Dashkov and his associates were betrayed complete oblivion.

If Cantemir gave examples of Russian satire, then Trediakovsky owns the first Russian ode, which was published as a separate brochure in 1734 under the title “Solemn Ode on the surrender of the city of Gdansk” (Danzig). It glorified the Russian army and Empress Anna Ioannovna. In 1752, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, the poem “Praise to the Izhera land and the reigning city of St. Petersburg” was written. This is one of the first works glorifying the northern capital of Russia.

In addition to victorious and laudable ones, Trediakovsky also wrote “spiritual” odes, that is, poetic transcriptions (“paraphrases”) of biblical psalms. The most successful of them is the paraphrase “The Second Songs of Moses,” which began with the verses:

Wonmi oh! The sky and the river

Let the earth hear the words of the mouth:

Like rain I will flow with words;

And they will fall like dew to a flower,

My broadcasts to the valleys.

Very heartfelt poems are “Poems of Praise for Russia,” in which Trediakovsky finds clear and precise words to convey both his immense admiration for the Fatherland and longing for his native land.

I’ll start sad poems on the flute,

In vain to Russia through distant countries:

For all this day is her kindness to me

There is little desire to think with the mind.

Russia mother! my endless light!

Allow me, I beg your faithful child,

Oh, how you sit on the red throne!

Russian sky you are the sun is clear

Others are painted with golden scepters,

And precious is the porphyry, mitre;

You decorated your scepter with yourself,

And the Lyceum honored the crown with light...

“Epistola from Russian poetry to Apollin” (to Apollo) dates back to 1735, in which the author gives an overview of European literature, paying special attention to ancient and French. The latter is represented by the names of Malherbe, Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, Voltaire. The solemn invitation of “Apolline” to Russia symbolized the introduction of Russian poetry to centuries-old European art.

The next step in introducing the Russian reader to European classicism was the translation of Boileau’s treatise “Poetic Art” (Trediakovsky’s “Science of Poetry”) and Horace’s “Epistle to the Pisoes”. Not only “exemplary” writers are presented here, but also poetic “rules”, which, according to the firm conviction of the translator, Russian authors are obliged to follow. Trediakovsky highly appreciated Boileau's treatise, considering it the most perfect guide in the field of artistic creativity. “His pietistic science,” he wrote, “seems to be superior to everything, both in the reasoning of the composition of verses and the purity of language, and in the reasoning ... of the rules proposed in it.”

In 1751, Trediakovsky published his translation of the novel “Argenida” by the English writer John Barclay. The novel was written in Latin and belonged to the number of moral and political works. The choice of Trediakovsky is not accidental, since the problems of “Argenida” resonated with the political tasks facing Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. The novel glorified “enlightened” absolutism and severely condemned any opposition to the supreme power, from religious sects to political movements. These ideas corresponded to the ideology of early Russian classicism. In the preface to the book, Trediakovsky pointed out that the state “rules” set out in it are useful for Russian society.

In 1766, Trediakovsky published a book entitled “Tilemachis, or the Wanderings of Tilemachus, son of Odysseus, described as part of an ironic poem” - a free translation of the novel by the early French educator Fenelon “The Adventures of Telemachus”. Fenelon wrote his work in the last years of the reign of Louis XIV, when France suffered from devastating wars, which resulted in the decline of agriculture and crafts.

The historical and literary significance of "Tilemakhida", however, lies not only in its critical content, but also in the more complex tasks that Trediakovsky set himself as a translator. In essence, it was not a question of translation in the usual sense of the word, but of a radical reworking of the book genre itself. Trediakovsky created, based on Fenelon’s novel, a heroic poem modeled on the Homeric epic and, in accordance with his task, he called the book not “The Adventures of Telemachus”, but “Tilemachis”.

Converting the novel into a poem, Trediakovsky introduces a lot of things that were not in Fenelon’s book. Thus, the beginning of the poem reproduces the beginning characteristic of the ancient Greek epic. Here is the famous “I sing”, and an appeal to the muse for help, and a brief summary of the content of the work. Fenelon's novel is written in prose, Trediakovsky's poem in hexameter. The style of Fenelon's novel has been just as radically updated. According to A. N. Sokolov, “Fenelon’s compressed, strict prose, stingy with prosaic embellishments, did not meet the stylistic principles of the poetic epic as a high genre... Trediakovsky poetizes Fenelon’s prose style.” For this purpose, he introduces into “Tilemachida” complex epithets that are so characteristic of the Homeric epic and completely absent in Fenelon’s novel: honey-streaming, multi-streamed, sharply stern, prudent, bleeding. There are more than a hundred such complex adjectives in Trediakovsky’s poem. Based on the model of complex epithets, complex nouns are created: luminosity, warfare, good neighborliness, splendor.

Trediakovsky carefully preserved the educational pathos of Fenelon's novel. If in “Argenida” we were talking about the justification of absolutism, which suppresses all kinds of disobedience, then in “Tilemachida” the supreme power becomes the subject of condemnation. It talks about the despotism of rulers, about their addiction to luxury and bliss, about the inability of kings to distinguish virtuous people from self-interested people and money-grubbers, about flatterers who surround the throne and prevent monarchs from seeing the truth.

I asked him, what does royal sovereignty consist of?

He answered: the king has power over the people in everything,

But the laws have power over him in everything, of course.

“Tilemakhida” evoked different attitudes towards itself both among contemporaries and descendants. In “Tilemakhide” Trediakovsky clearly demonstrated the variety of possibilities of the hexameter as an epic verse. Trediakovsky’s experience was later used by N. I. Gnedich when translating the Iliad and V. A. Zhukovsky when working on the Odyssey.

Lomonosov's first work concerning the problems of language was the Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry (1739, published in 1778), written in Germany, where he substantiates the applicability of syllabic-tonic versification to the Russian language.

According to Lomonosov, each literary genre should be written in a certain “calm”: “high calm” is “required” for heroic poems, odes, “prosaic speeches about important matters”; middle - for poetic messages, elegies, satires, descriptive prose, etc.; low - for comedies, epigrams, songs, “writings of ordinary affairs.” “Shtili” were ordered, first of all, in the field of vocabulary, depending on the ratio of neutral (common to Russian and Church Slavonic languages), Church Slavonic and Russian colloquial words. “High calm” is characterized by a combination of Slavicisms with neutral words, “middle calm” is built on the basis of neutral vocabulary with the addition of a certain number of Slavicisms and colloquial words, “low calm” combines neutral and colloquial words. Such a program made it possible to overcome the Russian-Church Slavic diglossia, still noticeable in the first half of the 18th century, and to create a single stylistically differentiated literary language. The theory of the “three calms” had a significant influence on the development of the Russian literary language in the second half of the 18th century. right up to the activities of N.M. Karamzin’s school (from the 1790s), which set a course for bringing the Russian literary language closer to the spoken one.

Lomonosov’s poetic heritage includes solemn odes, philosophical odes-reflections “Morning Reflection on God’s Majesty” (1743) and “Evening Reflection on God’s Majesty” (1743), poetic arrangements of psalms and the adjacent Ode selected from Job (1751) , unfinished heroic poem by Peter the Great (1756–1761), satirical poems (Hymn to the Beard, 1756–1757, etc.), philosophical “Conversation with Anacreon” (translation of Anacreontic odes combined with his own answers to them; 1757–1761), heroic the idyll of Polydor (1750), two tragedies, numerous poems on the occasion of various festivals, epigrams, parables, translated poems.

The pinnacle of Lomonosov’s poetic creativity are his odes, written “just in case” - in connection with significant events in the life of the state, for example, the accession to the throne of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II. Lomonosov used ceremonial occasions to create bright and majestic paintings of the universe. The odes are replete with metaphors, hyperboles, allegories, rhetorical questions and other tropes that create the internal dynamics and sound richness of the verse, imbued with patriotic pathos and reflections on the future of Russia. In an Ode on the day of Elizabeth Petrovna’s accession to the All-Russian throne (1747), he wrote:

Sciences nourish youths,

Joy is served to the old,

In a happy life they decorate,

In case of an accident they take care of it.

Classicism marked an important stage in the development of Russian literature. At the time of the establishment of this literary trend, the historical task of transforming versification was solved. At the same time, a solid beginning was laid for the formation of the Russian literary language, which eliminated the contradiction between the new content and the old forms of its expression, which was clearly revealed in the literature of the first three decades of the 18th century.

As a literary movement, Russian classicism was distinguished by its internal complexity and heterogeneity, due to the difference in ideological and literary-artistic features of the work of its founders. The leading genres that were developed by representatives of classicism during the period of establishment of this literary movement were, on the one hand, ode and tragedy, which propagated the ideals of enlightened absolutism in positive images, on the other, satirical genres that fought against political reaction, against enemies of enlightenment, against social vices and etc.

Russian classicism did not shy away from national folklore. On the contrary, in the perception of the tradition of folk poetic culture in certain genres, he found incentives for his enrichment. Even at the origins of the new direction, when undertaking a reform of Russian versification, Trediakovsky directly refers to the songs of the common people as a model that he followed in establishing his rules.

In the purely artistic field, Russian classicists faced such complex tasks that their European brothers did not know. French literature of the mid-17th century. already had a well-developed literary language and secular genres that had developed over a long time. Russian literature at the beginning of the 18th century. had neither one nor the other. Therefore, it was the share of Russian writers of the second third of the 18th century. The task fell not only of creating a new literary movement. They had to reform the literary language, master genres unknown until that time in Russia. Each of them was a pioneer. Kantemir laid the foundation for Russian satire, Lomonosov legitimized the ode genre, Sumarokov acted as the author of tragedies and comedies. In the field of literary language reform, the main role belonged to Lomonosov.

The creative activity of Russian classicists was accompanied and supported by numerous theoretical works in the field of genres, literary language and versification. Trediakovsky wrote a treatise entitled “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems,” in which he substantiated the basic principles of the new, syllabic-tonic system. Lomonosov, in his discussion “On the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language,” carried out a reform of the literary language and proposed the doctrine of “three calms.” Sumarokov in his treatise “Instructions for those who want to be writers” gave a description of the content and style of classicist genres.

Russian classicism of the 18th century. went through two stages in its development. The first of them dates back to the 30-50s. This is the formation of a new direction, when one after another genres unknown to that time in Russia are born, the literary language and versification are reformed. The second stage falls on the last four decades of the 18th century. and is associated with the names of such writers as Fonvizin, Kheraskov, Derzhavin, Knyazhnin, Kapnist. In their work, Russian classicism most fully and widely revealed its ideological and artistic possibilities.

The uniqueness of Russian classicism lies in the fact that in its formation era it combined the pathos of serving the absolutist state with the ideas of the early European Enlightenment. In France in the 18th century. absolutism had already exhausted its progressive possibilities, and society was facing a bourgeois revolution, which was ideologically prepared by the French enlighteners. In Russia in the first decades of the 18th century. absolutism was still at the head of progressive transformations for the country. Therefore, at the first stage of its development, Russian classicism adopted some of its social doctrines from the Enlightenment. These include, first of all, the idea of ​​enlightened absolutism. According to this theory, the state should be headed by a wise, “enlightened” monarch, who in his ideas stands above the selfish interests of individual classes and demands from each of them honest service for the benefit of the whole society. An example of such a ruler for Russian classicists was Peter I, a unique personality in intelligence, energy and broad political outlook.

Unlike French classicism of the 17th century. and in direct accordance with the Age of Enlightenment in Russian classicism of the 30s -50s, a huge place was given to sciences, knowledge, and enlightenment. The country has made a transition from church ideology to secular one. Russia needed accurate knowledge useful to society. Lomonosov spoke about the benefits of science in almost all his odes. Cantemir’s first satire, “To Your Mind. On those who blaspheme the teaching." The very word “enlightened” meant not just an educated person, but a citizen, to whom knowledge helped to realize his responsibility to society. “Ignorance” implied not only a lack of knowledge, but at the same time a lack of understanding of one’s duty to the state. In Western European educational literature of the 18th century, especially at the later stage of its development, “enlightenment” was determined by the degree of opposition to the existing order. In Russian classicism of the 30s and 50s, “enlightenment” was measured by the measure of civil service to the absolutist state. Russian classicists - Kantemir, Lomonosov, Sumarokov - were close to the struggle of enlighteners against the church and church ideology. But if in the West it was about defending the principle of religious tolerance, and in some cases atheism, then Russian enlighteners in the first half of the 18th century. denounced the ignorance and rude morals of the clergy, defended science and its adherents from persecution by church authorities. The first Russian classicists were already aware of the educational idea about the natural equality of people. “The flesh in your servant is one-person,” Cantemir pointed out to the nobleman beating the valet. Sumarokov reminded the “noble” class that “born from women and from ladies / Without exception, the forefather of all is Adam.” But this thesis at that time had not yet been embodied in the demand for the equality of all classes before the law. Cantemir, based on the principles of “natural law,” called on the nobles to treat the peasants humanely. Sumarokov, pointing to the natural equality of nobles and peasants, demanded that the “first” members of the fatherland through education and service confirm their “nobility” and commanding position in the country.

If in Western European versions of classicism, and especially in the system of genres of French classicism, the dominant place belonged to the dramatic genre - tragedy and comedy, then in Russian classicism the dominant genre shifts to the area of ​​lyricism and satire.

Common genres with French classicism: tragedy, comedy, idyll, elegy, ode, sonnet, epigram, satire.