Plan of the ideal city of the renaissance. urban planning in renaissance italy

In the Renaissance, architects gradually formed an attitude towards the structure as part of the whole, which must be able to link with the surrounding space, be able to find a contrasting mutually beneficial combination of diverse structures. The culture of urban planning of the Renaissance took shape gradually and in various ensembles - in Piazza San Marco in Venice, in the ensemble of the Educational House of the Silkworm Workshop, architect. Brunelleschi and others. Of great importance was the use of arcades and colonnades along the streets, which gave the urban development noticeable features of commonality (Uffizi Street in Florence, architect Vasari).

Gradually, in the understanding of architects, the idea of ​​the city as a single whole, in which all parts are interconnected, matured. The new firearms made the medieval stone fortifications defenseless. This predetermined the appearance of walls with earthen walls along the perimeter of cities.bastionsand determined the star shape of the line of city fortifications. Cities of this type appear in the 2/3 of the 16th century. A renaissance idea is being formed"ideal city"the most convenient city to live in.

In the organization of the urban area, Renaissance architects followed 3 main principles:
1. class settlement (for the noble - the central and best parts of the city);
2. professional-group resettlement of the rest of the population (artisans of related professions are nearby);
3. division of the city territory into residential, industrial, commercial and public complexes.
The layout of "ideal cities" must necessarily be regular or radial-circular, but the choice of layout should be determined by natural conditions: relief, body of water, river, winds, etc.

Palma Nuova, 1593

Usually in the center of the city there was a main public square with a castle or with a town hall and a church in the middle. Trade or cult areas of district significance in radial cities were located at the intersection of radial streets with one of the ring highways of the city.
These projects also included significant improvement - greening the streets, creating channels for rainwater runoff and sewerage. The houses had to have certain ratios of height and distance between them for the best insolation and ventilation.
Despite their utopian nature, the theoretical developments of the “ideal cities” of the Renaissance had some influence on the practice of urban planning, especially when building small fortifications in a short time(Valetta, Palma Nuova, Granmichele- to. 16-17 centuries).

The age of the city has reached its splendid heyday, but there are already signs that it is dying. The century was stormy and cruel, but inspiring. It originated from city-states Ancient Greece(3 thousand years before the Renaissance), which gave rise to the ideal of a free man who rules himself. Because, in fact, such a city consisted of a group of people who, after many generations of quarrels and civil strife, developed an effective system of self-government. This system varied from city to city. In any of them, the number of people capable of claiming full citizenship has always been small. The mass of the inhabitants remained in a more or less servile position and exercised their rights only through violent and cruel uprisings against the higher strata. Nevertheless, throughout Europe, in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands especially, there was some social agreement about the aims, if not the methods, of government, namely the structure of society, in which the rulers were chosen by some of the ruled. From this civic concept began endless bloody wars. The price that citizens paid for their freedom was measured by their willingness to take up arms in defense of their city against its rivals.

The true voice of the city was the great bell on the city hall or cathedral who sounded the alarm when armed residents of a hostile city approached. He called on all who were able to hold weapons to the walls and to the gates. The Italians turned the bell into a kind of mobile temple, some kind of secular Ark, which led the armies into battle. In a battle with neighboring cities for possession of a piece of arable land, in a battle against an emperor or a king for civil rights, in a battle against hordes of wandering soldiers ... During these battles, life in the city froze. All able-bodied men, from fifteen to seventy years old without exception, broke away from normal activities to fight. So in the end, for the sake of economic survival, they began to hire professionals who knew how to fight, while civil power, meanwhile, was concentrated in the hands of one of the prominent citizens. Since he controlled money and weapons, this citizen was gradually transformed into the ruler of a once free city. In those countries that recognized the central monarchy, the city was reconciled to the throne (simply from exhaustion). Some cities, such as London, retained greater autonomy. Others found themselves completely absorbed in the structure of the monarchy. Nevertheless, throughout the Renaissance, cities continued to exist as living units, performing most of the functions that modern society come under the jurisdiction of the central government. They were neither industrial, bedroom districts, nor amusement parks, which many of them later became, but organic structures that combined human flesh and building stone into their own recognizable rhythm of life.

Cities with which Europe was studded like formal clothes precious stones, by the Renaissance were already ancient. They passed from century to century, maintaining a surprisingly regular shape and constant size. Only in England they did not feel symmetrical, because, with rare exceptions, English cities were not built according to a predetermined plan, but grew from modest settlements, and their structure was formless, as the building was attached to the building in the most disorderly way. On the Continent the trend continued to start new cities rather than expand old ones to unmanageable proportions. In Germany alone, 2,400 cities were founded in 400 years. True, by today's standards it is difficult to say whether these were small towns or large villages. Orange in France had only 6,000 inhabitants until the 19th century. And a city with a quarter of a million inhabitants was considered simply a giant, and there were few of them. The population of Milan, the capital of the duchy, was 200 thousand people, that is, twice the population of its main rival, Florence (see Fig. 53, photo 17), so size was not at all a measure of power.

Rice. 53. Florence at the end of the 15th century From a modern woodcut

Reims, place of coronations, large shopping mall, had 100 thousand inhabitants, and Paris something about 250 thousand. The population of most European cities could be estimated at 10-50 thousand people. Even the losses from the plague did not affect the population for a long time. The number of victims of the plague has always been exaggerated, although, perhaps, in a few months it carried away about a quarter of the inhabitants. However, after a generation, the city returned to its usual level of population. The surplus of inhabitants flowed to new cities. The Italian model, when several towns, united by military or commercial ties, are attached to big city, to varying degrees, can be traced throughout Europe. In such a federation, the system of government and local customs inherent in each city was zealously observed, but the collection of taxes and protection was controlled from the center city.

The city grew like a tree, keeping its shape but growing in size, and the city walls, like cut rings, marked the milestones of its growth. Just outside the city walls lived the poor, beggars, outcasts of all kinds, who built their huts around the walls, creating a disgusting mess of miserable streets. Sometimes they were dispersed by the energetic municipality, but more often they were allowed to remain where they were until some plan loomed. Wealthy residents settled outside the city in villas in the middle of large estates, protected by their own walls. When, finally, economic necessity or civic pride demanded the expansion of the city, another ring of walls was erected around. They seized new land and left additional space for development. And the old walls continued to stand for several more centuries, if they were not predatoryly dismantled for the construction of new buildings. Cities resumed their form, but did not pursue new building materials, so that the same piece of brick or hewn stone could be in half a dozen different buildings in a thousand years. You can still see traces of the disappeared old walls, because later they turned into ring roads or, less often, into boulevards.

The fortress walls set the shape and determined the size of the city. In the Middle Ages, they served as a powerful protection for the inhabitants, who had supplies of water and food. A military leader who was about to besiege a city should have prepared for many months of waiting until the enemy ran out of supplies. The walls were kept in order at the public expense, and, whatever else fell into disrepair, they were taken care of first of all. The collapsed wall was a sign of a ruined city, and the first task of the victorious invader was to wipe it off the face of the earth. Unless he was going to live there. However, gradually the fortress walls lost their significance, which was reflected in the way cities began to be depicted. In the 16th century, the top view was widely used, the plan, where special importance was attached to the streets. They were painted in the border of houses. Important buildings were highlighted. But gradually everything was formalized, made flat, and the plan became more accurate, although less spectacular and picturesque. But before the plan came into use, the city was depicted as if a traveler, approaching, sees it from afar. It was rather a work of art, on which the city appeared, as in life, with walls, towers, churches, pressed close to each other, like one huge castle (see Fig. 54).

Rice. 54. City wall as a military structure. Nuremberg in 1493. From a modern engraving

Such cities exist to this day, such as Verona, located on a hillside. In their plan, the drawing laid down by the builders is clearly visible. In the south, especially in Italy, large, tower-like houses dominated, giving the urban landscape the appearance of a petrified forest. These houses were remnants of a more violent age, when feuds between families and factions tore apart the cities. Then those who could build higher, higher, even higher gained an advantage over their neighbors. Skillful city government succeeded in reducing their numbers, but many still sought to elevate themselves in this way, endangering the internal security of the city and greedily depriving the narrow streets of air and light.

Rice. 55. City gate, where duties are collected from all goods arriving in the city

The city gates that cut through the walls (see fig. 55) played a double role. They performed not only a defensive function, but also contributed to the city's income. Guards were placed around them, collecting a fee on everything that was brought into the city. Sometimes these were products Agriculture, a crop harvested from the surrounding fields, orchards and orchards. And sometimes - exotic spices brought from thousands of miles - everything at the gate was subject to customs inspection and duties. At one time, when the Florentine customs had fallen dangerously low, one of the officials suggested doubling the number of gates and thereby doubling their profitability. At a meeting in the city council, he was ridiculed, but this thoughtless proposal stemmed from the belief that the city was an independent entity. The villagers hated these extortions, receiving only dubious promises of armed protection for them. They went to all sorts of tricks, just to avoid paying. Sacchetti has a very true-sounding story about a peasant who hid chicken eggs in his baggy pants to fool the guards. But those, warned by the enemy of the peasant, forced him to sit down while they examined the cargo. The result is clear.

In cities, gates played the role of eyes and ears. They were the only point of contact with the outside world. It was from the outside world that the threat came, and the guards at the gate meticulously reported to the ruler about the arrival and departure of foreigners and all sorts of strangers in general. In free cities, closed gates were a symbol of independence. The late traveler, who arrived after sunset, was forced to spend the night outside the city walls. Hence the custom to build hotels outside, at the main gate. The gate itself was like a small fortress. They housed a garrison guarding the city. Huge castles that towered over medieval cities were, in fact, a simple continuation of the main fortress gate-houses.

However, the absence of a building plan in medieval cities was more apparent than real. It is true: the streets twisted aimlessly, circled, made loops, even dissolved into some courtyards, but after all, they were not supposed to provide a direct transition from one point of the city to another, but to create a frame, scenery for public life. The stranger, having passed through the city gates, could easily find his way to the center of the city, because the main streets radiated from the central square. "Piazza", "place", "platz", "square", whatever it was called in the local language, was the direct heir to the Roman forum, a place where anxious people gathered during the days of war and where they wandered, having fun, in Peaceful time. Again, only England did not have such a meeting place. The British preferred to expand the main street into a market. It served the same purpose, but lacked a sense of cohesion and unity, and with increased traffic lost its importance as a central meeting place. However, on the continent, this echo of Ancient Rome continued to exist.

Rice. 56. Piazza (square) San Marco, Venice

It could have been a modest, unpaved area, shaded by trees, perhaps surrounded by shabby houses. And it could be huge, amazing, like the main squares in Siena or Venice (see Fig. 56), could be planned so that it seemed like a huge hall without a roof. However, no matter how she looked, she remained the face of the city, the place where the inhabitants gathered, and the vital organs of the city, the centers of government and justice, lined up around her. Somewhere else there could be another, naturally formed center: for example, a cathedral with auxiliary buildings, usually built on a small square. From the main gate, a fairly wide straight and clean road led to the square, then to the cathedral. At the same time, away from the center, the streets became, as it were, peripheral veins serving local needs. They were deliberately made narrow - both to provide passers-by protection from the sun and rain, and in order to save space. Sometimes the top floors of buildings were only a few feet apart. The narrowness of the streets also served as protection during wars, because the first action of the attackers was to gallop through them before the inhabitants had time to erect barriers. Troops could not maintain military order by marching on them. Under such circumstances, a hostile mob, armed with simple boulders, could successfully prevent the passage of professional soldiers. In Italy, streets began to be paved as early as the 13th century, and by the 16th century all the main streets of most European cities were paved. There was no separation between pavement and pavement, because everyone either rode or walked. Crews began to appear only in XVI century. Gradually, wheeled traffic grew, the streets straightened to make it easier for him to pass, and then pedestrians were taken care of, further emphasizing the difference between rich and poor.

Renaissance cities were united by one common feature: they grew and developed spontaneously, as needed. Only the city walls were planned, which were laid and built as a whole, and inside the city, only the size of a particular building set the layout of the adjacent territory. The cathedral determined the structure of the whole district with adjoining streets and squares, but in other places houses appeared as needed or were rebuilt from existing ones. Even the very concept of city planning was absent until the second half of the 15th century, when the ideas of the Roman architect Vitruvius Polio were revived. Vitruvius was the architect of August Rome, and his work On Architecture dates from about 30 BC. He was not one of the famous architects, but his book was the only one on this subject, and it pleased the world, obsessed with antiquity. Discoveries in architecture were made in the same way as in geography: the ancient author gave impetus to minds capable of their own creativity and research. People who believe they are following Vitruvius have in fact used his name to frame their own theories. Vitruvius considered the city as a self-sufficient unit, which should be planned, like a house, all parts of which are subordinate to the whole. Sewerage, roads, squares, public buildings, proportions of building sites - everything has its own place in this plan. The first treatise based on the concept of Vitruvius was written by the Florentine Leon Battista Alberti. It was published in 1485, only thirteen years after his death, and led a long line of works that stretched until the 19th century, works that had a huge impact on urban planning. Most of these works were amazingly, even too exquisitely, illustrated. Given the mathematical basis of this cult, it is not surprising that the followers took everything to the extreme. The city was invented, just like a problem in geometry, not paying attention to human and geographical factors. Theoretical perfection led in practice to lifeless dryness.

Rice. 57. Palma Nova, Italy: a strict urban plan

Just fortunate that only a few cities were built in accordance with the principles of Vitruvius. Every now and then there was a need, more often a military one, in a new city. At times it could be built according to this new theory (for example, Palma Nova (see fig. 57) in the Venetian state). For the most part, however, architects had to content themselves with partial development, because they rarely had the opportunity to completely demolish the old buildings and rebuild in their place. The architect faced passive resistance, suffice it to recall how Leonardo da Vinci's proposal to build satellite settlements around Milan was met. The terrible plague of 1484 claimed 50,000 inhabitants, and Leonardo wanted to build ten new cities with 5,000 houses and settle there 30,000 people, "in order to defuse too much crowding of people who have huddled in herds like goats ... filling every corner of space with stench and sowing seeds infection and death. But nothing of the kind was done, because neither monetary gain nor military advantages were foreseen in this. And the ruler of Milan chose to spend the gold on decorating his own court. This was the case throughout Europe. Cities have already taken shape and there is no room left for large-scale planning. Rome was the only exception to this rule.

The first city of Christianity in the Middle Ages fell into decay. The peak of his misfortunes was the transfer of the papacy to residence in Avignon in 1305. For more than a hundred years, there has not been a power in the Eternal City strong enough to restrain the ambitions of the great families and the brutal savagery of the crowd. Other cities of Italy grew prettier and prospered, while Rome was covered with mold and collapsed. The city of Augusta was built firmly, it survived and did not succumb to the attacks of time and the raids of the barbarians, but died at the hands of its own citizens. The wars were partly to blame, but mainly the fact that massive ancient buildings were a source of ready-made building materials. In 1443 the great schism ended, and the papacy was again established in Rome. For the first time, Pope Nicholas V drew attention to the deplorable state of the Eternal City. He understood that in order to recognize Rome as the capital of the world, it needs to be rebuilt (see Fig. 58). An enormous task! The city once held about a million people - the largest number of inhabitants up to 19th century. Before the industrial revolution, which led to the expansion of construction, no European city could compare in size with the Rome of Augustus. And in 1377 it had only about 20 thousand inhabitants. Seven of its hills were abandoned, the population preferred to live on the swampy banks of the Tiber. Cattle roamed the deserted streets lined with ruined houses. The forum lost its former glory and bore the nickname "Campo Vacchino", that is, "Cow Field". Dead animals were never cleaned up, and they rotted where they died, adding the smell of smoldering and rot to the filthy slush underfoot. There was no city in Europe that sank so low from such great heights.

Rice. 58. Panorama of Rome in 1493, with St. Peter's (above). From a modern engraving in Schedel's book "The Chronicle of the World"

More than 160 years have passed since Pope Nicholas V conceived his reconstruction, and until the time when Bernini completed the colonnade at St. Peter's Cathedral, more than 160 years have passed. And all the popes who ruled during that century and a half, from the virtuous to the vicious, from the most learned Nicholas to the depraved Alexander Borgia, shared a passion that breathed new life into the first of all the cities of the Renaissance, a love of art and architecture, a desire to transform ancient city to the worthy capital of Christendom.

The list of names of architects and artists who worked there sounds exactly like a roll call of fame: Alberti, the first of the Vitruvians, Bramante, Sangallo, Bernini, Raphael, Michelangelo and many others who fell into the shadow of the great, but are able to decorate the court of any ruler. Some of what has been done is regrettable: for example, the destruction of the ancient St. Peter's Cathedral in order to build a new Bramante temple in its place caused a storm of protests. But absolute papal authority was enough to complete one of the greatest urban projects in history. The result was not just a magnificent monument to some ruler. A number of benefits went to ordinary citizens: water supply improved, the ancient sewerage system was restored, the threat of fires and plague sharply decreased.

The city was a stage on which, in front of all honest people, what was happening now in the silence of offices took place. Details striking in their variability were striking: the irregularity of buildings, the eccentric styles and variegation of costumes, the countless goods that were produced right on the streets - all this gave the Renaissance city a brightness that is absent in the monotonous monotony of modern cities. But there was also a certain homogeneity, a fusion of groups that proclaimed internal unity cities. In the 20th century, the eye has become accustomed to the divisions created by urban sprawl: pedestrian and car traffic take place in different worlds, industry is separated from commerce, and both are separated by space from residential areas, which, in turn, are subdivided according to the wealth of their inhabitants. A city dweller can live his whole life without seeing how the bread he eats is baked or how the dead are buried. The larger the city became, the more a person moved away from his fellow citizens, until the paradox of loneliness in the midst of a crowd became an ordinary phenomenon.

In a walled city of, say, 50,000 people, where most of the houses were wretched shacks, the lack of space encouraged people to spend more time in public. The shopkeeper sold goods almost from the stall, through a small window. The shutters of the first floors were made on hinges in order to quickly recline, forming a shelf or table, that is, a counter (see Fig. 60). He lived with his family in the upper rooms of the house and, only having become significantly richer, could he keep a separate store with clerks, and live in a garden suburb.

Rice. 60. City traders, including: a clothing and textile merchant (left), a barber (center) and a confectioner (right)

A skilled craftsman also used the lower floor of the house as a workshop, sometimes putting his products up for sale right there on the spot. Craftsmen and merchants were very inclined to show herd behavior: each city had its own Tkatskaya Street, Myasnitsky Ryad, and its own Rybnikov Lane. And if there was not enough space in small crowded rooms, or even just in good weather, trade moved to the street, which became indistinguishable from the market. Dishonest people were punished publicly, in the square, in the same place where they earned their living, that is, in public. They were tied to a pillory, and worthless goods were burned at their feet or hung around their necks. A vintner who sold bad wine was forced to drink a large amount of it, and the rest was poured over his head. Rybnik was forced to sniff rotten fish or even smeared his face and hair with it.

At night, the city was plunged into complete silence and darkness. Even where there was no obligatory "hour of extinguishing the fires", the wise man tried not to go out late and after dark sat safely behind strong doors with bolts. A passer-by, caught by the guards at night, had to prepare to convincingly explain the reason for his suspicious walk. There were no such temptations that could lure an honest man from home at night, because public entertainment ended at sunset, and the townsfolk adhered to the hoarding habit of going to bed at sunset. Tallow candles were available, but still quite expensive. And foul-smelling wicks soaked in rags of fat were also used sparingly, because fat cost more than meat. The working day, which lasted from dawn to dusk, left little strength for a stormy night of fun. With the widespread development of printing, it became a custom in many homes to read the Bible. Another domestic entertainment was music-making for those who could afford to purchase a musical instrument: a lute, or a viol, or a flute, as well as singing for those who did not have money for it. Most people spent the brief hours of leisure between dinner and bedtime in conversation. However, the lack of evening and night entertainment was more than made up during the day at public expense. Frequent church holidays reduced the number of working days per year to a figure, perhaps lower than today.

Rice. 61. Religious procession

Fasting days were strictly observed and supported by the force of law, but holidays were understood literally. They not only included the liturgy, but turned into wild fun. These days, the solidarity of the townspeople was clearly manifested in crowded religious processions, religious processions(see fig. 61). There were few observers then, because everyone wanted to take part in them. Albrecht Dürer witnessed a similar procession in Antwerp, and his artist's eye gazed with delight at the endless procession of colors and shapes. It was on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin, “... and the whole city, regardless of rank and occupation, gathered there, each dressed in the best dress according to his rank. All guilds and estates had their own signs by which they could be recognized. In the intervals they carried huge expensive candles and three long old Frankish trumpets of silver. There were also drums and pipes made in the German style. They blew and beat loudly and noisily ... There were goldsmiths and embroiderers, painters, masons and sculptors, joiners and carpenters, sailors and fishermen, weavers and tailors, bakers and tanners ... truly workers of all kinds, as well as many artisans and different people, earning their own living. They were followed by archers with rifles and crossbows, horsemen and foot soldiers. But in front of all of them were religious orders ... A large crowd of widows also took part in this procession. They supported themselves by their labor and observed special rules. They were dressed from head to toe in white clothes, sewn especially for this occasion, it was sad to look at them ... Twenty people carried the image of the Virgin Mary with our Lord Jesus, luxuriously dressed. In the course of the procession, many wonderful things were shown, magnificently presented. They pulled wagons on which stood ships and other structures, full of people in masks. They were followed by a troupe, representing the prophets in order and scenes from the New Testament ... From beginning to end, the procession lasted more than two hours until it reached our house.

The miracles that so delighted Dürer in Antwerp would have fascinated him in Venice and Florence, because the Italians treated religious holidays as an art form. At the feast of Corpus Christi in Viterbo, in 1482, the whole procession was divided into sections, each of which was responsible for some cardinal or the highest dignitary of the church. And each strove to outdo the other by decorating his plot with costly draperies and providing it with a stage on which the mysteries were played, so that, as a whole, it formed into a series of plays about the death and resurrection of Christ. The stage used in Italy for the performance of the mysteries was the same as in all of Europe: a three-story structure, where the upper and lower floors served respectively as Heaven and Hell, and the main middle platform depicted the Earth (see Fig. 62).

Rice. 62. Scene for the presentation of mysteries

Most of all attention was attracted by the complex stage mechanism, which allowed the actors to soar and float in the air. There was one scene in Florence which consisted of a suspended ball, surrounded by angels, from which, at the right moment, a chariot appeared and descended to earth. Leonardo da Vinci made an even more complex machine for the Dukes of Sforza, which showed the movement celestial bodies, and each carried its own guardian angel.

Secular processions in Italy reenacted the great triumphs of classical Rome and were named after them. Sometimes they were arranged in honor of the arrival of some sovereign or famous military leader, sometimes just for the sake of a holiday. The glorious names of the great Romans were revived in memory, they were represented in togas and laurel wreaths and transported around the city in chariots. They especially liked to depict allegories: Faith conquered Idolatry, Virtue exterminated Vice. Another favorite representation is the three ages of man. Every earthly or supernatural event was played out in great detail. The Italians did not work on the literary content of these scenes, preferring to spend money on the pomp of the spectacle, so that all allegorical figures were straightforward and superficial creatures and only proclaimed high-sounding empty phrases without any conviction, thus passing from performance to performance. But the splendor of the scenery and costumes delighted the eye, and that was enough. In no other city in Europe did civic pride manifest itself so brightly and with such brilliance as in the annual ritual of the wedding with the sea, which was performed by the ruler of Venice, a strange mixture of commercial arrogance, Christian gratitude and Eastern symbolism. This ritual festival begins in 997 after the birth of Christ, when the Doge of Venice before the battle made a libation of wine, pouring it into the sea. And after the victory, it was celebrated on the next Ascension Day. A huge state barge, called the Bucentaur, was rowed to the same point in the bay, and there the doge threw a ring into the sea, declaring that by this action the city was married to the sea, that is, to the elements that made it great (see. Fig. 63).

Rice. 63. "Bucentaur" Venetian

"Bucentaur" majestically participated in all civil ceremonies. Solemn processions in other cities moved in the dust in the heat, and the Venetians glided along the smooth surface of their great sea road. The Bucentaur was refitted from a battle galley, which swept all the enemies of Venice from the Adriatic. She retained the powerful and vicious ramming prow of a warship, but now the upper deck was trimmed with scarlet and gold brocade, and a garland of golden leaves stretched along the side sparkled dazzlingly in the sun. On the prow was a human-sized figure of Justice with a sword in one hand and scales in the other. The sovereigns who came to visit were escorted on this ship to the island city, surrounded by countless small boats, also decorated with rich fabrics and garlands. The guest was brought to the very door of the residence allotted to him. No wonder the Venetian carnivals, staged with the same splendid disregard for expense, resplendent with the same sensual, almost savage taste for bright colors, attracted visitors from all over Europe. During these days, the city's population doubled. Apparently, the fashion for masquerades went from Venice, which then spread to all the courtyards of Europe. Other Italian cities introduced masked actors into the mysteries, but it was the entertainment-loving Venetians with their commercial acumen who appreciated the mask as a piquant addition to the carnival.

The military competitions of the Middle Ages continued almost unchanged into the Renaissance, although the status of their participants somewhat decreased. So, for example, the fishmongers of Nuremberg staged their own tournament. Archery competitions were very popular, although the bow as a weapon disappeared from the battlefield. But the most beloved were the holidays, the roots of which went back to pre-Christian Europe. Failing to eradicate them, the Church, so to speak, christened some of them, that is, appropriated them, while others continued to live in an unchanged form, both in Catholic and Protestant countries. The greatest of these was May Day, the pagan meeting of spring (see Fig. 64).

Rice. 64. May Day celebration

On this day, both the poor and the rich traveled and went out of town to pick flowers, dance and feast. To become May Lord was a great honor, but also an expensive pleasure, because all the festive expenses fell on him: it happened that some men disappeared from the city for a while to evade this honorary role. The holiday brought to the city a particle of the countryside, life in nature, so close and so far away. Throughout Europe, the change of seasons was celebrated with festivities. They differed from each other in details and names, but the similarities were stronger than the differences. The Lord of Disorder still reigned on one of the winter days - the direct heir of the Roman saturnalia, which, in turn, was a relic of the prehistoric winter solstice festival. Again and again they tried to eradicate it, but it was revived in local carnivals with jesters, warriors and dancers in disguise, which first appeared to the world in cave drawings. The time has come, and the holidays of a thousand years ago easily fit into the life of cities, where the roar of printing presses and the noise of wheeled carriages marked the beginning of a new world.

The main cities of Europe were connected by a very efficient postal system. A simple layman could freely use it ... if he was not afraid that his letters would be read. The authorities who organized the mail were interested in espionage almost as much as in establishing communication between cities and countries. Despite the terrible state of the roads, the number of vehicles increased. The wave of pilgrimage reached an unprecedented height, and when the flow of pilgrims began to subside, merchants took their place, because trade was actively developing. State officials were ubiquitous, the tramp of soldiers' boots on the march did not subside for a minute. Travelers going about their business are no longer a rarity. People like the restless Erasmus moved from one scientific center to another in search of a place and means of subsistence. Some even saw travel as a means of education combined with pleasure. In Italy arose new school local history writers who recommended the inquisitive to visit interesting places. Many traveled on horseback, but carriages had already begun to appear (see fig. 65), rumored to have been first invented in Kotz or Kosice (Hungary).

Rice. 65. German carriage 1563. Long-distance travel required at least 4 horses

Most of these carriages were made for show - they were extremely uncomfortable. The body was hung on belts, which in theory were supposed to serve as springs, but in practice turned the trip into a series of nauseating dives and swings. The average speed was twenty miles a day, depending on the quality of the roads. It took at least six horses to pull the carriage through the thick winter mud. They were very sensitive to the bumps they often encountered along the way. Once in Germany, such a pothole formed that three carriages fell into it at once, and this cost the life of one unfortunate peasant.

Roman roads were still the main arteries of Europe, but even their splendor could not resist the predation of the peasants. When material was needed to build a barn or barn, or even a house, the villagers with habitual readiness turned to large stocks of already hewn stone, which, in fact, was the road. As soon as the upper layers of the road surface were removed, the weather and transport completed the rest. In a few regions, there were orders to preserve and maintain roads outside the cities. In England, a miller who suddenly needed clay for repairs dug a hole 10 feet across and eight feet deep, and then threw it away. The pit filled with rainwater, a traveler fell into it and drowned. Called to account, the miller said that he had no intention of killing anyone, there was simply nowhere else to get clay. He was released from custody. However, the ancient custom prescribed to make roads of minimum width: in one place it was supposed to allow two carts to pass each other, in the other - to pass a knight with a spear at the ready. In France, where Roman roads ran through forests, their width was increased from 20 feet to about seventy-eight, as a precaution against brigands, who became more and more numerous as expensive freight traffic increased. A wise man always traveled in company, and everyone was armed. The lone traveler was regarded with suspicion, and he could well end up in a local prison if he did not name worthy reasons for his stay in this region.

Travel across Europe, even under favorable circumstances, could take several weeks. Therefore, roadside hotels - inns (see Fig. 66) have acquired such importance.

Rice. 66. Main common room of a roadside hotel

It could be a large establishment, such as the famous Bull Hotel in Padua, where up to 200 horses were housed in the stables, or it could be a tiny, fetid tavern for the careless and naive. In Austria, an innkeeper was captured, who, as it was proven, over the years killed more than 185 guests and accumulated considerable wealth from this. However, most contemporaries paint a quite friendly picture. The nice lady, portrayed by William Caxton in the first guidebook, was supposed to make a pleasant impression on travelers after a tiring day spent on the road. Caxton had his book printed in 1483.

Among other things, she supplied his monolingual countrymen with enough French phrases to inquire about how to get out of the city, hire a horse and get a lodging for the night. The conversation in the hotel cited there is more polite than informative, but it shows us what situations were repeated every evening in all the cities of Europe.

“God bless you, lady.

- Welcome, boy.

– Can I get a bed here?

- Yes, good and clean, [even if] there are a dozen of you.

No, there are three of us. Can you eat here?

- Yes, in abundance, thank God.

“Bring us food and give the horses hay and dry them well with straw.”

Travelers ate, prudently checked the bill for the meal and asked to add its cost to the morning calculation. Then follows:

“Take us to bed, we are tired.

“Jeanette, light a candle and show them upstairs to that room. And bring them hot water to wash their feet, and cover them with a feather bed.”

Judging by the conversation, this is a first-class hotel. Travelers are served dinner on the table, they obviously did not bring food with them, although this was the custom. They are escorted to bed with a candle and provided with warm water. Perhaps, if they were lucky, they could get a bed for each, and not share it with some stranger. But whether it was a luxurious hotel, in which guests were also offered entertainment, or a simple hut near the city wall, the traveler could rest in it for several hours, protected not only from bad weather and wild animals, but also from his fellow humans.

The Renaissance is one of the most important periods in cultural development humanity, because it is at this time that the foundations of a fundamentally new culture arise, that wealth of ideas, thoughts, symbols arises that will be actively used by subsequent generations in the future. In the XV century. in Italy, a new image of the city is being born, which is being developed more like a project, a future model than a real architectural embodiment. Of course, in Renaissance Italy they did a lot of beautification of cities: they straightened streets, leveled facades, spent a lot of money on creating pavements, etc. Architects also built new houses, fitting them into empty spaces, or, in rare cases, erected them instead of demolished old ones. buildings. On the whole italian city in reality, it remained medieval in its architectural landscape. It was not a period of active urban planning, but it was at this time that urban issues began to be recognized as one of the critical areas cultural building. Many interesting treatises appeared about what a city is and not only as a political, but also as a sociocultural phenomenon. How does a new city appear in the eyes of the Renaissance humanists, different from the medieval one?

In all their urban planning models, projects and utopias, the city first of all freed itself from its sacred prototype - heavenly Jerusalem, the ark, symbolizing the space of human salvation. In the Renaissance, the idea of ​​an ideal city arose, which was created not according to the divine prototype, but as a result of the individual creative activity of the architect. The famous L. B. Alberti, author of the classic Ten Books on Architecture, claimed that original architectural ideas often come to him at night, when his attention is distracted and he has dreams in which things appear that do not reveal themselves during wakefulness. This secularized description of the creative process is quite different from the classical Christian acts of seeing.

The new city appeared in the works of Italian humanists corresponding not to the heavenly, but to the earthly regulations in its social, political, cultural and domestic purpose. It was built not on the principle of sacred-spatial contraction, but on the basis of a functional, completely secular spatial delimitation, and was divided into spaces of squares, streets, which were grouped around important residential or public buildings. Such a reconstruction, although actually carried out to a certain extent, for example, in Florence, was realized to a greater extent in the visual arts, in the construction of Renaissance paintings and in architectural projects. The Renaissance city symbolized the victory of man over nature, the optimistic belief that the "allocation" of human civilization from nature into its new man-made world had reasonable, harmonious and excellent foundations.

The Renaissance man is a prototype of the civilization of the conquest of space, who completed with his own hands what turned out to be unfinished by the creator. That is why, when planning cities, architects were fond of creating beautiful projects, based on the aesthetic significance of various combinations of geometric shapes, in which it was necessary to place all the buildings necessary for the life of the urban community. Utilitarian considerations faded into the background, and the free aesthetic play of architectural fantasies subjugated the consciousness of the city planners of that time. The idea of ​​free creativity as the basis for the existence of the individual is one of the most important cultural imperatives of the Renaissance. Architectural creativity in this case also embodied this idea, which was expressed in the creation of building projects that looked more like some intricate ornamental fantasies. In practice, these ideas were implemented primarily in the creation different kind stone pavements, which were covered with slabs of regular shape. It was them, as the main innovations, that the townspeople were proud of, calling them "diamond".

The city was originally conceived as an artificial product, opposing the naturalness of the natural world, because, unlike the medieval city, it subjugated and mastered the living space, and did not just fit into the terrain. Therefore, the ideal cities of the Renaissance had a strict geometric shape in the form of a square, cross or octagon. According to the apt expression of I. E. Danilova, the architectural projects of that time, as it were, were superimposed from above on the area as a seal of domination human mind to which everything is subject. In the era of the New Age, man sought to make the world predictable, reasonable, to get rid of the incomprehensible game of chance or fortune. Thus, L. B. Alberti, in his work “On the Family”, argued that reason plays a much greater role in civil affairs and in human life than fortune. The famous theorist of architecture and urban planning spoke about the need to test and conquer the world, extending the rules of applied mathematics and geometry to it. From this point of view, the Renaissance city was the highest form of conquering the world, space, because urban planning projects involved the reorganization of the natural landscape as a result of imposing a geometric grid of delineated spaces on it. It, unlike the Middle Ages, was an open model, the center of which was not the cathedral, but the free space of the square, which opened from all sides with streets, with views into the distance, beyond the city walls.

Modern specialists in the field of culture are paying more and more attention to the problems of the spatial organization of Renaissance cities, in particular, the theme of the city square, its genesis and semantics are actively discussed at various international symposiums. R. Barth wrote: “The city is a fabric consisting not of equivalent elements in which their functions can be listed, but of elements that are significant and insignificant ... In addition, I must note that everything greater value they begin to give meaningful emptiness instead of the emptiness of the meaningful. In other words, the elements become more and more significant not in themselves, but depending on their location.

The medieval city, its buildings, the church embodied the phenomenon of closeness, the need to overcome some physical or spiritual barrier, whether it be a cathedral or a palace similar to a small fortress, this is a special space separated from the outside world. Penetration there always symbolized familiarization with some hidden secret. The square, on the other hand, was a symbol of a completely different era: it embodied the idea of ​​openness not only upwards, but also to the sides, through streets, alleys, windows, etc. People always entered the square from an enclosed space. In contrast, any square created the feeling of an instantly opened and open space. City squares, as it were, symbolized the very process of liberation from mystical secrets and embodied openly desacralized space. L. B. Alberti wrote that the most important decoration of cities was given by the position, direction, correspondence, placement of streets and squares.

These ideas were supported by the real practice of the struggle for the liberation of urban spaces from the control of individual family clans, which took place in Florence in the XIV and XV centuries. F. Brunelleschi during this period of time designs three new squares in the city. Tombstones of various noble persons are removed from the squares, markets are rebuilt accordingly. The idea of ​​open space is embodied by L. B. Alberti in relation to the walls. He advises using colonnades as often as possible in order to emphasize the conventionality of the walls as being an obstacle. That is why the arch at Alberti is perceived as the opposite of the locked city gates. The arch is always open, as if it serves as a frame for opening views and thus connects the urban space.

Renaissance urbanization does not imply the closeness and isolation of urban space, but, on the contrary, its distribution outside the city. The aggressive offensive pathos of the "conqueror of nature" is demonstrated by the projects of Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Yu. M. Lotman wrote about this spatial impulse, characteristic of his treatises. Martini fortresses in most cases have the shape of a star, which is bared in all directions by the corners of walls with bastions that are strongly extended outwards. This architectural solution was largely due to the invention of the cannonball. The cannons, which were mounted on bastions far advanced into space, made it possible to actively counteract the enemies, hit them at a great distance and prevent them from reaching the main walls.

Leonardo Bruni, in his laudatory works on Florence, presents us rather than a real city, but an embodied sociocultural doctrine, for he is trying to "correct" the urban layout and describe the location of buildings in a new way. As a result, the Palazzo Signoria turns out to be in the center of the city, from which, as a symbol of urban power, rings of walls, fortifications, etc., wider than in reality, diverge. In this description, Bruni departs from the closed model of a medieval city and tries to embody a new idea the idea of ​​urban expansion, which is a kind of symbol of a new era. Florence seizes nearby lands and subjugates vast territories.

Thus, the ideal city in the XV century. is conceived not in a vertical sacralized projection, but in a horizontal socio-cultural space, which is understood not as a sphere of salvation, but as a comfortable living environment. That is why the ideal city is depicted by artists of the 15th century. not as some distant goal, but from within, as a beautiful and harmonious sphere of human life.

However, it is necessary to note certain contradictions that were initially present in the image of the Renaissance city. Despite the fact that during this period magnificent and comfortable dwellings of a new type, created primarily “for the sake of the people”, appeared during this period, the city itself is already beginning to be perceived as a stone cage, which does not allow the development of a free creative human personality. The urban landscape can be perceived as something that contradicts nature, and, as you know, it is nature (both human and non-human) that is the subject of aesthetic admiration for artists, poets and thinkers of that time.

The beginning of the urbanization of the socio-cultural space, even in its primary, rudimentary and enthusiastically perceived forms, already aroused a feeling of ontological loneliness, abandonment in the new, “horizontal” world. In the future, this duality will develop, turning into an acute contradiction of the cultural consciousness of modern times and leading to the emergence of utopian anti-urban scenarios.

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Renaissance art

Renaissance- this is the heyday of all the arts, including the theater, and literature, and music, but, undoubtedly, the main among them, which most fully expressed the spirit of its time, was the fine arts.

It is no coincidence that there is a theory that the Renaissance began with the fact that artists were no longer satisfied with the framework of the dominant "Byzantine" style and, in search of models for their work, were the first to turn to to antiquity. The term "Renissance" (Renaissance) was introduced by the thinker and artist of the era itself, Giorgio Vasari ("Biography of famous painters, sculptors and architects"). So he called the time from 1250 to 1550. From his point of view, this was the time of the revival of antiquity. For Vasari, antiquity appears in an ideal way.

In the future, the content of the term has evolved. The revival began to mean the emancipation of science and art from theology, a cooling towards Christian ethics, the birth of national literatures, the desire of man for freedom from the restrictions of the Catholic Church. That is, the Renaissance, in essence, began to mean humanism.

REVIVAL, RENAISSANCE(French renais sance - rebirth) - one of the greatest eras, turning point in the development of world art between the Middle Ages and the new time. The Renaissance covers the XIV-XVI centuries. in Italy, XV-XVI centuries. in other European countries. This period in the development of culture received its name - Renaissance (or Renaissance) in connection with the revival of interest in ancient art. However, the artists of that time not only copied old patterns, but also put a qualitatively new content into them. The Renaissance should not be considered an artistic style or direction, since in this era there were various artistic styles, trends, currents. The aesthetic ideal of the Renaissance was formed on the basis of a new progressive worldview - humanism. The real world and man were proclaimed the highest value: Man is the measure of all things. The role of the creative person has especially increased.

The humanistic pathos of the era was best embodied in art, which, as in previous centuries, aimed to give a picture of the universe. What was new was that they tried to unite the material and the spiritual into one whole. It was difficult to find a person indifferent to art, but preference was given to fine arts and architecture.

Italian painting of the 15th century mostly monumental (frescoes). Painting occupies a leading place among the types of fine arts. It most fully corresponds to the Renaissance principle of "imitating nature." A new visual system is formed on the basis of the study of nature. He made a worthy contribution to the development of understanding of volume, its transmission with the help of chiaroscuro the painter Masaccio. The discovery and scientific substantiation of the laws of linear and aerial perspective significantly influenced the further fate of European painting. A new plastic language of sculpture is being formed, its founder was Donatello. He revived the free-standing round statue. His best work is the sculpture of David (Florence).

In architecture, the principles of the ancient order system are resurrected, the importance of proportions is raised, new types of buildings are being formed (city palace, country villa, etc.), the theory of architecture and the concept of an ideal city are being developed. The architect Brunelleschi built buildings in which he combined the ancient understanding of architecture and the traditions of the late Gothic, achieving a new figurative spirituality of architecture, unknown to the ancients. During the high Renaissance, the new worldview was best embodied in the work of artists who are rightfully called geniuses: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione and Titian. The last two thirds of the 16th century called late Renaissance. At this time, the crisis covers art. It becomes regulated, courtly, loses its warmth and naturalness. However, individual great artists - Titian, Tintoretto continue to create masterpieces during this period.

The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the art of France, Spain, Germany, England, and Russia.

The rise in the development of the art of the Netherlands, France and Germany (XV-XVI centuries) is called the Northern Renaissance. The work of the painters Jan van Eyck, P. Brueghel the Elder is the pinnacle of this period in the development of art. In Germany, A. Dürer was the greatest artist of the German Renaissance.

The discoveries made during the Renaissance in the field of spiritual culture and art were of great historical significance for the development of European art in subsequent centuries. Interest in them continues to this day.

The Renaissance in Italy went through several stages: early Renaissance, high Renaissance, late Renaissance. Florence became the birthplace of the Renaissance. The foundations of the new art were developed by the painter Masaccio, the sculptor Donatello, and the architect F. Brunelleschi.

The first to create paintings instead of icons was the largest master of the Proto-Renaissance Giotto. He was the first to strive to convey Christian ethical ideas through the depiction of real human feelings and experiences, replacing symbolism with the depiction of real space and specific objects. On the famous frescoes of Giotto in Arena Chapel in Padua you can see quite unusual characters next to the saints: shepherds or a spinner. Each individual person in Giotto expresses quite definite experiences, a definite character.

In the era of the early Renaissance in art, the development of the ancient artistic heritage takes place, new ethical ideals are formed, artists turn to the achievements of science (mathematics, geometry, optics, anatomy). The leading role in the formation of the ideological and stylistic principles of the art of the early Renaissance is played by Florence. In the images created by such masters as Donatello, Verrocchio, the equestrian statue of the condottiere Gattamelata David by Donatello dominates the heroic and patriotic principles ("St. George" and "David" by Donatello and "David" by Verrocchio).

Masaccio was the founder of Renaissance painting.(murals in the Brancacci Chapel, "Trinity"), Masaccio was able to convey the depth of space, connected the figure and landscape with a single compositional idea, and gave individuals portrait expressiveness.

But the formation and evolution of the pictorial portrait, which reflected the interest of the Renaissance culture in man, are associated with the names of the artists of the Umrbi school: Piero della Francesca, Pinturicchio.

The work of the artist stands apart in the early Renaissance Sandro Botticelli. The images he created are spiritualized and poetic. Researchers note the abstraction and refined intellectualism in the artist’s works, his desire to create mythological compositions with complicated and encrypted content (“Spring”, “The Birth of Venus”). One of Botticelli’s biographers said that his Madonnas and Venuses give the impression of loss, causing us a feeling of indelible sadness... Some of them lost the sky, others - the earth.

"Spring" "Birth of Venus"

The culmination in the development of the ideological and artistic principles of the Italian Renaissance is High Renaissance. The founder of the art of the High Renaissance is Leonardo da Vinci - great artist and scientist.

He created whole line Masterpieces: "Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda") Strictly speaking, the very face of the Gioconda is distinguished by restraint and calmness, the smile that created her world fame and which later became an indispensable part of the works of the Leonardo school is barely noticeable in it. But in the softly melting haze that envelops the face and figure, Leonardo managed to make feel the boundless variability of human facial expressions. Although the eyes of Gioconda look attentively and calmly at the viewer, due to the shading of her eye sockets, one might think that they are slightly frowning; her lips are compressed, but barely perceptible shadows are outlined near their corners, which make you believe that every minute they will open, smile, speak. The very contrast between her gaze and the half-smile on her lips gives an idea of ​​the contradictory nature of her experiences. It was not in vain that Leonardo tortured his model with long sessions. Like no one else, he managed to convey shadows, shades and halftones in this picture, and they give rise to a feeling of quivering life. No wonder Vasari thought that on the neck of the Mona Lisa you can see how a vein is beating.

In the portrait of Gioconda, Leonardo not only perfectly conveyed the body and the air environment enveloping it. He also put into it an understanding of what the eye needs in order for a picture to produce a harmonious impression, which is why everything looks as if the forms are naturally born one from the other, as happens in music when a tense dissonance is resolved by a harmonious chord. Gioconda is perfectly inscribed in a strictly proportional rectangle, her half-figure forms something whole, folded hands give her image completeness. Now, of course, there could be no question of the bizarre curls of the early Annunciation. However, no matter how softened all the contours, the wavy lock of the Gioconda's hair is in tune with the transparent veil, and the hanging fabric thrown over the shoulder finds an echo in the smooth windings of the distant road. In all this, Leonardo shows his ability to create according to the laws of rhythm and harmony. “In terms of technique, Mona Lisa has always been considered something inexplicable. Now I think I can answer this riddle,” says Frank. According to him, Leonardo used the technique he developed "sfumato" (Italian "sfumato", literally - "disappeared like smoke"). The trick is that objects in the paintings should not have clear boundaries, everything should be smoothly transitioning from one to another, the outlines of objects are softened with the help of the light-air haze surrounding them. The main difficulty of this technique lies in the smallest strokes (about a quarter of a millimeter) that are not accessible for recognition either under a microscope or using X-rays. Thus, it took several hundred sessions to paint a da Vinci painting. The image of the Mona Lisa consists of about 30 layers of liquid, almost transparent oil paint. For such jewelry work, the artist apparently had to use a magnifying glass. Perhaps the use of such a laborious technique explains the long time spent working on the portrait - almost 4 years.

, "The Last Supper" makes a lasting impression. On the wall, as if overcoming it and taking the viewer into the world of harmony and majestic visions, the ancient gospel drama of deceived trust unfolds. And this drama finds its resolution in a general impulse directed towards the main character - a husband with a mournful face, who accepts what is happening as inevitable. Christ had just said to his disciples, "One of you will betray me." The traitor sits with the others; the old masters depicted Judas seated separately, but Leonardo brought out his gloomy isolation much more convincingly, shrouding his features with a shadow. Christ is submissive to his fate, full of consciousness of the sacrifice of his feat. His tilted head with lowered eyes, the gesture of his hands are infinitely beautiful and majestic. A charming landscape opens through the window behind his figure. Christ is the center of the whole composition, of all that whirlpool of passions that rage around. His sadness and calmness are, as it were, eternal, natural - and this is the deep meaning of the drama shown. He was looking for the sources of perfect forms of art in nature, but N. Berdyaev considers him responsible for the coming process of mechanization and mechanization of human life, which tore a person from nature.

Painting achieves classical harmony in creativity Raphael. His art evolves from the early chilly Umbrian images of Madonnas (Madonna Conestabile) to the world of "happy Christianity" of Florentine and Roman works. "Madonna with a Goldfinch" and "Madonna in an Armchair" are soft, humane and even ordinary in their humanity.

But the image of the "Sistine Madonna" is majestic, symbolically connecting the heavenly and earthly worlds. Most of all, Raphael is known as the creator of gentle images of Madonnas. But in painting, he embodied both the ideal of the Renaissance universal man (portrait of Castiglione), and the drama of historical events. The Sistine Madonna (c. 1513, Dresden, Art Gallery) is one of the artist's most inspired works. Written as an altarpiece for the church of the monastery of St. Sixtus in Piacenza, this painting, in terms of design, composition and interpretation of the image, differs significantly from the Madonnas of the Florentine period. Instead of an intimate and earthly image of a beautiful young maiden condescendingly following the amusements of two babies, here we have a wonderful vision that suddenly appeared in the sky because of a curtain pulled back by someone. Surrounded by a golden radiance, solemn and majestic, Mary walks through the clouds, holding the Christ child in front of her. Left and right kneel before her St. Sixtus and St. Barbara. The symmetrical, strictly balanced composition, the clarity of the silhouette and the monumental generalization of the forms give the Sistine Madonna a special grandeur.

In this picture, Raphael, perhaps to a greater extent than anywhere else, managed to combine the life-like veracity of the image with the features of ideal perfection. The image of the Madonna is complex. The touching purity and naivety of a very young woman are combined in him with firm determination and heroic readiness for sacrifice. This heroism makes the image of the Madonna related to the best traditions of Italian humanism. The combination of the ideal and the real in this picture brings to mind the well-known words of Rafael from a letter to his friend B. Castiglione. “And I will tell you,” Raphael wrote, “that in order to write a beauty, I need to see many beauties ... but due to a lack ... in beautiful women, I use some idea that comes to my mind. Whether it has any perfection, I do not know, but I try very hard to achieve it. These words shed light on creative method artist. Proceeding from reality and relying on it, at the same time he strives to raise the image above everything accidental and transient.

Michelangelo(1475-1564) - undoubtedly one of the most inspired artists in the history of art and, along with Leonardo da Vinci, the most powerful figure of the Italian high renaissance. As a sculptor, architect, painter and poet, Michelangelo had an enormous influence on his contemporaries and on subsequent Western art in general.

He considered himself a Florentine - although he was born on March 6, 1475 in the small village of Caprese near the city of Arezzo. Michelangelo deeply loved his city, its art, culture and carried this love to the end of his days. He spent most of his mature years in Rome, working for the popes; however, he left a will, in accordance with which his body was buried in Florence, in a beautiful tomb in the church of Santa Croce.

Michelangelo completed the marble sculpture Pieta(Lamentation of Christ) (1498-1500), which is still in its original location - in St. Peter's Cathedral. This is one of the most famous works in the history of world art. The pieta was probably completed by Michelangelo before he was 25 years old. This is the only work he has signed. The young Mary is depicted with the dead Christ on her knees, an image borrowed from northern European art. Mary's look is not so sad as solemn. This is the highest point of creativity of the young Michelangelo.

No less significant work of the young Michelangelo was a giant (4.34 m) marble image David(Academy, Florence), executed between 1501 and 1504, after returning to Florence. Hero Old Testament depicted by Michelangelo in the form of a handsome, muscular, naked young man who looks anxiously into the distance, as if evaluating his enemy - Goliath, with whom he has to fight. The lively, tense expression of David's face is characteristic of many of Michelangelo's works - this is a sign of his individual sculptural manner. The David, Michelangelo's most famous sculpture, has become a symbol of Florence and was originally placed in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall. With this statue, Michelangelo proved to his contemporaries that he not only surpassed all contemporary artists, but also the masters of antiquity.

Painting on the vault of the Sistine Chapel In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II to fulfill two orders. The most important was the fresco painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Working lying on high scaffolding right under the ceiling, Michelangelo created the most beautiful illustrations for some biblical stories between 1508 and 1512. On the vault of the papal chapel, he depicted nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, beginning with the Separation of Light from Darkness and including the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Flood. Around the main paintings alternate images of prophets and sibyls on marble thrones, other Old Testament characters and the forefathers of Christ.

To prepare for this great work, Michelangelo made a huge number of sketches and cardboards, on which he depicted the figures of the sitters in a variety of poses. These regal, powerful images prove the artist's masterful understanding of human anatomy and movement, which gave impetus to a new direction in Western European art.

Two other excellent statues, Bound Prisoner and Death of a Slave(both c. 1510-13) are in the Louvre, Paris. They demonstrate Michelangelo's approach to sculpture. In his opinion, the figures are simply enclosed within the marble block, and it is the artist's job to free them by removing the excess stone. Often Michelangelo left the sculptures unfinished, either because they were no longer needed or simply because they lost their interest for the artist.

Library of San Lorenzo The project of the tomb of Julius II required architectural study, but Michelangelo's serious work in the architectural field began only in 1519, when he was ordered to facade the Library of St. Lawrence in Florence, where the artist returned again (this project was never implemented). In the 1520s he also designed the elegant entrance hall of the Library adjoining the church of San Lorenzo. These structures were completed only a few decades after the death of the author.

Michelangelo, an adherent of the republican faction, participated in the years 1527-29 in the war against the Medici. His responsibilities included the construction and reconstruction of the fortifications of Florence.

Medici Chapels. After living in Florence for a rather long period, Michelangelo completed between 1519 and 1534 the commission of the Medici family to erect two tombs in the new sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo. In a hall with a high domed vault, the artist erected two magnificent tombs against the walls, intended for Lorenzo De Medici, Duke of Urbino and for Giuliano De Medici, Duke of Nemours. Two complex graves were conceived as representations of opposite types: Lorenzo - a person enclosed in himself, a thoughtful, withdrawn person; Giuliano, on the contrary, is active, open. Above the grave of Lorenzo, the sculptor placed allegorical sculptures of Morning and Evening, and above the grave of Giuliano - allegories of Day and Night. Work on the Medici tombs continued after Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1534. He never visited his beloved city again.

Last Judgment

From 1536 to 1541, Michelangelo worked in Rome on painting the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The largest fresco of the Renaissance depicts the day of the Last Judgment. Christ, with a fiery lightning in his hand, inexorably divides all the inhabitants of the earth into the saved righteous, depicted on the left side of the composition, and sinners descending into Dante's hell (left side of the fresco). Strictly following his own tradition, Michelangelo originally painted all the figures nude, but a decade later some Puritan artist "dressed" them as the cultural climate became more conservative. Michelangelo left his own self-portrait on the fresco - his face is easily guessed on the skin torn from the Holy Martyr Apostle Bartholomew.

Although during this period Michelangelo had other pictorial commissions, such as painting the chapel of St. Paul the Apostle (1940), first of all he tried to devote all his strength to architecture.

Dome of St. Peter's Cathedral. In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican, which was under construction. The building was built according to the plan of Donato Bramante, but Michelangelo ultimately became responsible for the construction of the altar apse and for the development of the engineering and artistic solution for the dome of the cathedral. The completion of the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral was the highest achievement of the Florentine master in the field of architecture. During his long life, Michelangelo was a close friend of princes and popes, from Lorenzo de Medici to Leo X, Clement VIII, and Pius III, as well as many cardinals, painters and poets. The character of the artist, his position in life is difficult to unambiguously understand through his works - they are so diverse. Except perhaps in poetry, in his own poems, Michelangelo more often and more deeply turned to questions of creativity and his place in art. A large place in his poems is given to the problems and difficulties that he had to face in his work, and personal relationships with the most prominent representatives of that era. One of the most famous poets of the Renaissance, Lodovico Ariosto wrote an epitaph for this famous artist: "Michele is more than a mortal, he is a divine angel."

Sergey Khromov

Although not a single ideal city was embodied in stone, their ideas found life in real cities renaissance...

Five centuries separate us from the period when architects first addressed the issues of rebuilding the city. And these same questions are acute for us today: how to create new cities? How to rebuild the old ones - to fit separate ensembles into them or demolish and rebuild everything? And most importantly - what idea to lay in a new city?

The masters of the Renaissance embodied those ideas that had already sounded in ancient culture and philosophy: the ideas of humanism, the harmony of nature and man. People again turn to Plato's dream of an ideal state and an ideal city. The new image of the city is born first as an image, as a formula, as an idea, which is a bold claim for the future - like many other inventions of the Italian Quattrocento.

In the urban planning of the Renaissance, theory and practice develop in parallel. New buildings are being built and old ones are being rebuilt, architectural ensembles and treatises are being written at the same time, dedicated to architecture, planning and fortifying cities. Among them are the famous works of Alberti and Palladio, schemes of the ideal cities of Filarete, Scamozzi and others. The idea of ​​the authors is far ahead of the needs of practical construction: they describe not finished projects, according to which you can plan a specific city, and a graphically depicted idea, the concept of the city. Reasoning about the location of the city from the point of view of economy, hygiene, defense, aesthetics is given. Searches are being made for optimal plans for residential areas and urban centers, gardens and parks. Questions of composition, harmony, beauty, proportion are studied. In these ideal constructions, the planning of the city is characterized by rationalism, geometric clarity, centric composition and harmony between the whole and the parts. And, finally, what distinguishes the architecture of the Renaissance from other eras is the person standing in the center, at the heart of all these constructions. Attention to the human person was so great that even architectural structures likened human body as a standard of perfect proportions and beauty.

Theory

In the 50s of the XV century. The treatise "Ten Books on Architecture" by Leon Alberti appears. It was, in essence, the first theoretical work of the new era on this topic. It deals with many issues of urban planning, ranging from site selection and city planning to building typology and decor. Of particular interest are his arguments about beauty. Alberti wrote that "beauty is a strict proportionate harmony of all parts, united by what they belong to - such that nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse." In fact, Alberti was the first to proclaim the basic principles of the Renaissance urban ensemble, linking the ancient sense of proportion with the rationalistic beginning of a new era. The given ratio of the height of the building to the space located in front of it (from 1:3 to 1:6), the consistency of the architectural scales of the main and secondary buildings, the balance of the composition and the absence of dissonant contrasts - these are the aesthetic principles of Renaissance urban planners.

The ideal city excited many great people of the era. Thought about him and Leonardo da Vinci. His idea was to create a two-level city: the upper level was intended for pedestrian and surface roads, and the lower one was for tunnels and canals connected with the basements of houses, through which freight transport moves. Known for his plans for the reconstruction of Milan and Florence, as well as the project of a spindle city.

Another prominent city theorist was Andrea Palladio. In his treatise "Four Books on Architecture" he reflects on the integrity of the urban organism and the relationship of its spatial elements. He says that "a city is nothing but a kind of big house, and vice versa, a house is a kind of small city." About the urban ensemble, he writes: “Beauty is the result of beautiful shape and the correspondence of the whole to the parts, of the parts to each other, and also of the parts to the whole. A prominent place in the treatise is given to the interior of buildings, their dimensions and proportions. Palladio is trying to organically connect the outer space of the streets with the interior of houses and courtyards.

Near the end of the 16th century. many theorists were attracted by the issues of retail space and fortifications. So, Giorgio Vasari Jr. in his ideal city pays a lot of attention to the development of squares, shopping arcades, loggias, palazzos. And in the projects of Vicenzo Scamozzi and Buanayuto Lorrini, issues of fortification art occupy a significant place. This was a response to the order of the time - with the invention of explosive shells, the fortress walls and towers were replaced by earthen bastions, taken out of the city boundaries, and the city began to resemble a multi-beam star in its outlines. These ideas were embodied in the actually built fortress of Palmanova, the creation of which is attributed to Scamozzi.

Practice

Although not a single ideal city was embodied in stone, with the exception of small fortress cities, many of the principles of its construction were embodied in reality already in the 16th century. At that time, in Italy and other countries, straight wide streets were laid, connecting important elements of the urban ensemble, new squares were created, old ones were rebuilt, and later parks and palace ensembles with a regular structure appeared.

Despite the fact that the art of the Renaissance was sufficiently opposed to the art of the Middle Ages, it easily and organically fit into medieval cities. In their practical activities, Renaissance architects used the principle of "building a new one without destroying the old." They managed to create surprisingly harmonious ensembles not only from buildings of the same style, as can be seen in the squares of Annuziata in Florence (designed by Filippo Brunelleschi) and the Capitol in Rome (designed by Michelangelo), but also to combine buildings from different times into one composition. So, on the square of St. Mark in Venice, medieval buildings are combined into an architectural and spatial ensemble with new buildings of the 16th century. And in Florence, from Piazza della Signoria with the medieval Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi Street, designed by Giorgio Vasari, harmoniously follows. Moreover, the ensemble of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Brunelleschi's reconstruction) perfectly combines three architectural style: Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance.

The city of the Middle Ages and the city of the Renaissance

The ideal city of the Renaissance appeared as a kind of protest against the Middle Ages, expressed in the development of ancient urban planning principles. Unlike the medieval city, which was perceived as a kind, albeit imperfect, likeness of the "Heavenly Jerusalem", the embodiment of not a human, but a divine plan, the city of the Renaissance was created by a human creator. Man did not just copy what already existed, he created something more perfect and did it in accordance with the "divine mathematics". The city of the Renaissance was created for man and had to correspond to the earthly world order, its real social, political and everyday structure.

The medieval city is surrounded by powerful walls, fenced off from the world, its houses are more like fortresses with a few loopholes. The city of the Renaissance is open, it does not defend itself from the outside world, it controls it, subjugates it. The walls of buildings, delimiting, unite the spaces of streets and squares with courtyards and rooms. They are permeable - they have many openings, arcades, colonnades, driveways, windows.

If the medieval city is the placement of architectural volumes, then the city of the Renaissance is to a greater extent the distribution of architectural spaces. The center of the new city is not the building of the cathedral or the town hall, but the free space of the main square, open both up and to the sides. They enter the building and exit out onto the street and the square. And if the medieval city is compositionally drawn to its center - it is centripetal, then the city of the Renaissance is centrifugal - it is directed towards external world.

The medieval city follows the natural landscape, using it for its own purposes. The city of the Renaissance is rather a work of art, a "geometry game". The architect modifies the terrain by superimposing a geometric grid of drawn spaces on it. Such a city has a clear shape: a circle, a square, an octagon, a star; even the rivers are straightened in it.

The medieval city is vertical. Here everything is directed upwards, to the heavens - distant and inaccessible. The city of the Renaissance is horizontal, the main thing here is perspective, aspiration into the distance, towards new horizons. For a medieval person, the path to Heaven is an ascension, achievable through repentance and humility, renunciation of everything earthly. For the people of the Renaissance, this is an ascent through gaining their own experience and comprehending the Divine laws.

The dream of an ideal city gave impetus to the creative searches of many architects not only of the Renaissance, but also of later times, it led and illuminated the path to harmony and beauty. The ideal city always exists inside the real city, as different from it as the world of thought from the world of facts, as the world of imagination from the world of fantasy. And if you know how to dream the way the masters of the Renaissance did, then you can see this city - the City of the Sun, the City of Gold.

The original article is on the site of the magazine "New Acropolis".