Artistic symbols of different countries of the world. Artistic symbols of the peoples of the world
Poetic symbols of the countries of the world
Flora and fauna as symbols of countries
Fill in the diagram
The name of the country,
artistic symbol
Russia
Bear
Birch
Birch Grove
What are you sad about, birch grove?
What thought weighs on your mind?
I look at the light through the thick flowering crowns
And I listen to your green noise.
You rustle the leaves anxiously,
Hurrying to open my whole soul again.
And I shake my head too
Unable to calm the bitter thoughts.
Here in Rus' there is no limit to sorrows...
Let's be quiet, dear, let's stand.
And everything you wanted to tell
I understand and so I'm on your tears.
Byvshev Alexander
under my window
covered with snow,
Exactly silver.
On fluffy branches
snow border
Brushes blossomed
White fringe.
And there is a birch
In sleepy silence
And the snowflakes are burning
In golden fire
A dawn, lazy
Walking around,
sprinkles branches
New silver.
Sergey Yesenin
Japan
Fujiyama
Sakura
Japanese crane
japanese pheasant
haiku (or haiku)
- haiku (or haiku) - This special type a Japanese poem consisting of one three lines. For the most part, it is philosophical and does not rhyme. Of course, such a theme as cherry blossoms could not go unnoticed. Therefore, I suggest reading a few haiku about sakura.
Is she sad
What rising sun following
Under the sakura gently dreams
There are no strangers between us
We are all brothers to each other
Under cherry blossoms
The spring night has passed
White dawn turned around
A sea of cherry blossoms
China
Panda
Peony
Australia
Kangaroo
Canada
Beaver
Maple
India
Lotus
Bengal tiger
Peacock
England
a lion
Rose
Thailand
Indian elephant
Mongolia
Mongolian horse
USA
bald eagle
Mustang
United Arab Emirates
Falcon
Germany
Cornflower
MHK Grade 8 LESSON No. _5_
Theme: Artistic symbols of the peoples of the world.
Goals: 1) To introduce students to the artistic symbols of the peoples of the world, reveal the meaning of the image of Russian birch in poetry, painting and music
2) Improve the sense of language, the skill of expressive reading.
3) Cultivate love for the poetic word, the ability to carefully and thoughtfully treat the word when reading poetic works, cultivate a sense of love for the motherland, nature.
During the classes:
Organizing time
Updating students' knowledge on the topic:
Not really
A) The novel "Life and amazing Adventures Robinson Crusoe" wrote English writer D. Defoe? (Yes).
B) the word "civilization" in ancient Greek sounds like "civil, public, state"? (no, from Latin and other Romans).
C) Civilization - the level of material and spiritual development society (yes).
D) Culture is associated with the word "cult" and means reverence, worship (yes).
E) In Ozhegov’s dictionary, the word “culture” has the following meaning: Processing, care, cultivation” and “mental and moral education” (no, in V. Dahl’s dictionary)
E) The concept of "civilization" is broader than the concept of "culture" (yes)
G) Culture is a temporary concept, and civilization is universal (no, on the contrary)
H) We call a cultured person someone who acts in accordance with the norms of thinking and behavior accepted in society (yes)
I) image cultured person even in the era of antiquity, he tried to recreate Pythagoras (no, Plato)
K) Is Confucius a Japanese thinker? (no, Chinese)
L) Did the artist Hieronymus Bosch live in the 15th century in the Netherlands? (Yes)
Define the concept of MHC
Which god was the patron of the arts, what were the names of his assistants?
Student posts about I. Bosch
III. Studying new topic:
I can’t imagine Russia without a birch, -
she is so bright in Slavic,
that, perhaps, in centuries different
from a birch - all Rus' was born.
Oleg Shestinsky
1. Presentation of the topic and objectives of the lesson. Today in the lesson we will do a little trip around the world and get acquainted with the artistic symbols of the peoples of the world, take a walk through the “country of birch chintz” and, of course, plunge into our native Kalmyk expanses, familiar to us from childhood.
2. Learning new material.
Teacher: There are more than 250 countries on our planet, where several thousand different peoples live, each of which has its own traditions and traditions. characteristics. Probably, you have heard such combinations more than once: “German accuracy”, “French gallantry”, “African temperament”, “coldness of the British”, “irascibility of Italians”, “hospitality of Georgians”, etc. Behind each of them are characteristics and features that have developed in a certain people over the years.
Well, in artistic culture? Are there such stable images and features in it? Undoubtedly. Every nation has its own simoxen, reflecting artistic ideas about the world.
Imagine you have arrived in an unfamiliar country. What will interest you first of all? Of course, what language is spoken here? Which sights will be shown first? What do they worship and what do they believe? What legends, myths and legends are told? How do they dance and sing? And many many others.
What, for example, will be shown to you if you visit Egypt?
Student: The ancient pyramids, considered one of the wonders of the world and have long become the artistic symbol of this country.
Student: On the rocky plateau of the desert, casting clear shadows on the sand, for more than forty centuries there have been three huge geometric bodies- impeccably correct tetrahedral pyramids, the tombs of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Mykerin. Their original lining has long been lost, the burial chambers with sarcophagi have been plundered, but neither time nor people have been able to disturb their ideally stable shape. The triangles of the pyramids against the blue sky are visible from everywhere, as a reminder of Eternity.
Teacher: If you have a meeting with Paris, you will certainly want to climb to the top of the famous Eiffel Tower, which has also become an artistic symbol of this amazing city. What do you know about her?
Student: Built in 1889 as a decoration of the World Exhibition, it initially aroused indignation and indignation among the Parisians. Contemporaries vying with each other shouted:
Student: By the way, at that time it was the tallest building in the world, its height was 320 meters! The technical data of the tower are amazing even today: fifteen thousand metal parts connected by more than two million rivets form a kind of "iron lace". Seven thousand tons rests on four pillars and exerts no more pressure on the ground than a man sitting on a chair. She was going to be demolished more than once, and she proudly towers over Paris, providing an opportunity to admire the sights of the city from a bird's eye view...
Teacher: And what are the artistic symbols of the USA, China, Russia?
Student: Statue of Liberty for USA, Imperial Palace forbidden city» for China, the Kremlin for Russia.
Teacher: But many peoples have their own special, poetic symbols. Tell us about one of them?
Student: Bizarrely curved branches of undersized cherry - sakura - a poetic symbol of Japan.
If you ask:
What is the soul
Islands of Japan?
In the aroma of mountain cherries
At dawn.
Teacher: What is so attractive about cherry blossoms in Japan? Maybe an abundance of white and pale pink sakura petals on bare branches that have not yet had time to be covered with greenery?
The beauty of the flowers faded so quickly!
And the beauty of youth was so fleeting!
Life has passed in vain...
Watching the long rain
And I think: as in the world everything is not forever!
Komachi (Translated by A. Gluskina)
Student: The poet is attracted by the beauty of impermanence, the fragility and transience of life. Cherry blossoms quickly and youth is fleeting.
Teacher: Which artistic technique does the author use?
Student: Personification. A cherry blossom for a poet is a living being capable of experiencing the same feelings as a person.
Teacher:
Spring mist, why did you hide
Cherry flowers that are now flying around
On the slopes of the mountains?
Not only shine is dear to us, -
And the fading moment is worthy of admiration!
Tsurayuki (Translated by V. Markova)
Teacher: Comment lines.
Student: Cherry blossom petals never fade. Whirling merrily, they fly to the ground at the slightest breath of the breeze and cover the ground with flowers that have not yet had time to wither. The moment itself is important, the fragility of flowering. This is the source of beauty.
Teacher: The white-trunked birch has become an artistic poetic symbol of Russia.
I love Russian birch
Either bright or sad
In a bleached sarafan,
With handkerchiefs in pockets
With beautiful clasps
With green earrings.
I love her elegant
That clear, seething,
That sad, crying.
I love Russian birch.
Bent low under the wind
And bends, but does not break!
A. Prokofiev.
Teacher: Already in adulthood, Igor Grabar said: “What could be more beautiful than a birch, the only tree in nature, the trunk of which is dazzlingly white, while all other trees in the world have dark trunks. Fantastic, supernatural tree, fairy tale tree. I passionately fell in love with the Russian birch and for a long time almost painted it alone.
Teacher: The theme of the Motherland is closely intertwined with the image of the birch. Each Yesenin line is warmed by a feeling of boundless love for Russia.
Birch
White birch
Under my window.
covered with snow,
Exactly silver.
On fluffy branches
snow border
Brushes blossomed
White fringe.
And there is a birch
In sleepy silence
And the snowflakes are burning
In golden fire
A dawn, lazy
Walking around,
Showers branches
New silver. 1913
Teacher. White birches touch the soul not only of ours, but also of foreigners. After visiting Moscow, the famous football player Pele was asked what impressed and liked him more in Russia. He answered: "Birches".
Teacher: Hundreds of years will pass, but the birch will symbolize our immortal and mighty homeland.
Now let's turn to the artistic symbols of our small homeland- Kalmykia.
What do you think will be the symbol of Kalmyk?...
Caspian rose of Russia
2010 declared the year of the saiga in Kalmykia
Table: filled in during the lesson.
A country
artistic symbol
Homework - write a message about any artistic image of the peoples of the world.
PYRAMIDS
Student: On the rocky plateau of the desert, casting clear shadows on the sand, for more than forty centuries there have been three huge geometric bodies - perfectly regular tetrahedral pyramids, the tombs of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Mykerin. Their original lining has long been lost, the burial chambers with sarcophagi have been plundered, but neither time nor people have been able to disturb their ideally stable shape. The triangles of the pyramids against the blue sky are visible from everywhere, as a reminder of Eternity.
EIFFEL TOWER 1
Disciple: Built in 1889 as a decoration of the World Exhibition, at first it aroused the indignation and indignation of the Parisians. Contemporaries vying with each other shouted:
“We are protesting against this column of bolted sheet iron, against this ridiculous and dizzying factory chimney, erected to glorify industrial vandalism. The construction of this useless and monstrous Eiffel tower in the very center of Paris is nothing but a profanation ... "
Interestingly, this protest was signed very famous figures cultures: composer Charles Gounod, writers Alexandre Dumas, Guy de Maupassant... The poet Paul Verlaine said that this "skeletal tower would not last long", but his gloomy forecast was not destined to come true. The Eiffel Tower is still standing and is a marvel of engineering.
EIFFEL TOWER 2
Student: By the way, at that time it was the tallest building in the world, its height was 320 meters! The technical data of the tower are amazing even today: fifteen thousand metal parts connected by more than two million rivets form a kind of "iron lace". Seven thousand tons rests on four pillars and exerts no more pressure on the ground than a man sitting on a chair. She was going to be demolished more than once, and she proudly towers over Paris, providing an opportunity to admire the sights of the city from a bird's eye view...
SAKURA
Student: Bizarrely curved branches of undersized cherry - sakura - a poetic symbol of Japan.
If you ask:
What is the soul
Islands of Japan?
In the aroma of mountain cherries
At dawn.
Norinaga (Translated by V. Sanovich)
BIRCH
I love Russian birch
Either bright or sad
In a bleached sarafan,
With handkerchiefs in pockets
With beautiful clasps
With green earrings.
I love her elegant
That clear, seething,
That sad, crying.
I love Russian birch.
Bent low under the wind
And bends, but does not break!
A. Prokofiev.
BIRCH
White birch
Under my window.
covered with snow,
Exactly silver.
On fluffy branches
snow border
Brushes blossomed
White fringe.
And there is a birch
In sleepy silence
And the snowflakes are burning
In golden fire
A dawn, lazy
Walking around,
Showers branches
New silver.
TULIPS
Come to Kalmykia in April - you will see how the steppe blooms. Tulips cover it with a continuous carpet. Yellow, red, pink and even black! And the smell... dizzying.
As they say locals: "Tulips - they are like horses, they do not grow in one place. This year here, next year - in another place. Sometimes you even have to look for them."
The Tulip Festival is the awakening of the steppe. This holiday is very short: tulips bloom for 10 days, no more, and then the scorching, hot summer begins.
In Kalmykia, April is the time of tulips. The earth is gaining strength, comes to life, filled with new colors and sounds.
The victory of the sun and heat was crowned with a scarlet tulip crown.
LOTUS
An amazing thing, always when they talk about the Lotus, they believe that this is the flower of Egypt and there is even a legend that the God of the Sun Ra appeared from the Lotus flower, giving the Earth light and warmth. At the heart of the legends about the lotus are the ideas of mankind about fertility and life, about longevity and health. Nevertheless, Kalmykia can also boast that it has vast expanses where and the "queen of the rivers" Volga, where this flower, called the "Caspian rose", blooms beautifully and pleases the eye.
Lotus
Head down sleepy
Under the fire of daylight,
Quiet lotus fragrant
Waiting for shimmering nights.
And just floats
In the sky a gentle moon,
He raises his head
Waking up from sleep.
Shines on fragrant sheets
His pure tears dew,
And he trembles with love
Sadly looking up at the sky.
G. Heine
saigas
In Kalmykia, 2010 WAS declared the Year of the Saiga. The decree on this was signed on the last day of autumn by the head of the republic, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Its purpose is to preserve the population of the European saiga, one of the most ancient surviving representatives of the relict fauna, to intensify the activities of nature conservation structures in the Republic of Kalmykia, and to develop a set of measures to improve the efficiency of saiga conservation.
Kalmykia - the center of Buddhism in Europe
On December 27, 2005, a new Buddhist temple was opened in the center of Elista with the highest statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in Europe. This temple, built thanks to the efforts of the head of the Republic of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Shajin Lama of Kalmykia Telo Tulku Rinpoche, as well as the entire people of Kalmykia, in the coming years will become the center for the study of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as a place of pilgrimage for numerous followers of this religion in Russia and European countries. The temple was erected on a site blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his visit to Kalmykia in November 2004.
Artistic symbols of the peoples of the world - what are they? Imagine that you have arrived in an unfamiliar country. What will primarily interest you? Which sights will be shown to you first? What do the people of this country worship and believe in? What legends, myths and legends are told? How do they dance and sing? And many many others. And many many others.
Egypt - PYRAMIDS The pyramids are built on the left western bank of the Nile (West realm of the dead) and towered over everything city of the dead countless tombs, pyramids, temples. EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS, the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. The largest of them are the pyramids of Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin in El Giza in ancient times were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The erection of the pyramid, in which the Greeks and Romans already saw a monument to the unprecedented pride of kings and cruelty, which doomed the entire people of Egypt to senseless construction, was the most important cult act and was supposed to express, apparently, the mystical identity of the country and its ruler.
The largest of the three The largest of the three pyramids of Cheops. the Pyramid of Cheops. Its height was originally 147 m, Its height was originally 147 m, and the length of the side of the base was 232 m, and the length of the side of the base was 232 m. For its construction, 2 million 300 thousand huge stone blocks were required, average weight of which 2.5 tons. The slabs were not fastened with mortar, only an extremely precise fit holds them. In ancient times, the pyramids were lined with polished white limestone slabs, their tops were covered with copper slabs that sparkled in the sun (only the pyramid of Cheops preserved the limestone lining, the Arabs used the coating of other pyramids in the construction of the White Mosque in Cairo). For its construction, 2 million 300 thousand huge stone blocks were required, the average weight of which is 2.5 tons. The slabs were not fastened with mortar, only an extremely precise fit holds them. In ancient times, the pyramids were lined with polished white limestone slabs, their tops were covered with copper slabs that sparkled in the sun (only the pyramid of Cheops preserved the limestone lining, the Arabs used the coating of other pyramids in the construction of the White Mosque in Cairo).
Near the pyramid of Khafre rises one of the largest statues of antiquity and our time, a figure of a lying sphinx carved from the rock with portrait features of Pharaoh Khafre himself. Near the pyramid of Khafre rises one of the largest statues of antiquity and our time, a figure of a lying sphinx carved from the rock with portrait features of Pharaoh Khafre himself. Pyramid of Khafre Khafre
America - Statue of Liberty Statue of Liberty - bird's eye view STATUE OF LIBERTY is a colossal sculpture located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The statue in the form of a woman with a burning torch in her right hand raised symbolizes freedom. The author of the statue french sculptor F. Bartholdi. The statue was donated by France to the United States in 1876 for the centenary of US independence.
Japan - sakura SAKURA, a type of cherry (cherry serrate). It grows and is cultivated as an ornamental plant mainly on Far East(the tree is the symbol of Japan). The flowers are pink, double, the leaves are purple in spring, green or orange in summer, purple or brown in autumn. The fruits are inedible. SAKURA, a type of cherry (cherry serrate). It grows and is cultivated as an ornamental plant mainly in the Far East (the tree is a symbol of Japan). The flowers are pink, double, the leaves are purple in spring, green or orange in summer, purple or brown in autumn. The fruits are inedible.
Sakura is considered to be the artistic symbol of Japan. Sakura is considered to be the artistic symbol of Japan. beautiful flowers pink, double, leaves purple in spring, green or orange in summer, purple or brown in autumn. Beautiful flowers are pink, double, the leaves are purple in spring, green or orange in summer, purple or brown in autumn. Under the sakura branches, lovers make wishes and kiss. Under the sakura branches, lovers make wishes and kiss. flower image cherry blossoms It is also used on national Japanese costumes. The image of a blossoming cherry is also used on national Japanese costumes. The sakura flower is a living creature that can experience the same feelings as a person. The sakura flower is a living creature that can experience the same feelings as a person.
China - Great Wall of China GREAT WALL OF CHINA, a fortress wall in Northern China; grand architectural monument Ancient China. GREAT WALL OF CHINA, a fortress wall in Northern China; grandiose monument of architecture of Ancient China. The length, according to some assumptions, is about 4 thousand km, according to others, over 6 thousand km. 10 m. Built mainly in the 3rd century BC. e. Completely restored section of the Great Chinese wall near Beijing. height 6.6 m, in some areas up to 10 m. Built mainly in the 3rd century BC. e. A section of the Great Wall of China near Beijing has been completely restored.
Novodevichy Convent In honor of the birth of the heir, the future Tsar Ivan IV, in 1532 in Kolomenskoye, near Moscow, on the high steep bank of the Moskva River, the Church of the Ascension was erected. Its construction marks the appearance of new aacentric stone hipped temples, dynamically directed upwards. Nearby, in the village of Dyakovo, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist was built, which is distinguished by unusual architecture. In honor of the birth of the heir, the future Tsar Ivan IV, in 1532 in Kolomenskoye near Moscow, on the high steep bank of the Moscow River, the Church of the Ascension was erected. Its construction marks the appearance of new aacentric stone hipped temples, dynamically directed upwards. Nearby, in the village of Dyakovo, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist was built, which is distinguished by unusual architecture. The event was the construction of the Intercession Cathedral on the south side of Red Square on the moat, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral. The event was the construction of the Intercession Cathedral on the south side of Red Square on the moat, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral.
St. Basil's Cathedral One of the most famous churches in Moscow, built under the name of the Pokrovsky Cathedral in honor of the victory over the Kazan Khanate on the feast of the Intercession of the Virgin. Subsequently, the attached church of St. Basil the Blessed gave the name to the whole temple. Variegated coloring reflects the tastes of later times (17th century). The temple was originally painted red and white paint. Intercession Cathedral was conceived as the first citywide cathedral built outside the walls of the Kremlin, and was supposed to symbolize the unity of the tsar with the people. One of the most famous churches in Moscow, built under the name of the Pokrovsky Cathedral in honor of the victory over the Kazan Khanate on the feast of the Intercession of the Virgin. Subsequently, the attached church of St. Basil the Blessed gave the name to the whole temple. Variegated coloring reflects the tastes of later times (17th century). The temple was originally painted in red and white. Intercession Cathedral was conceived as the first citywide cathedral built outside the walls of the Kremlin, and was supposed to symbolize the unity of the tsar with the people.
The Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin The old part of Moscow has a radial-circular layout. The historical core of Moscow is the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin, next to it is Red Square. The old part of Moscow has a radial-circular layout. The historical core of Moscow is the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin, next to it is Red Square.
Belfry "Ivan the Great" important event was the construction of new brick walls and towers of the Kremlin, which were built in six of the eighteen towers were passage gates. The Kremlin was turned into one of the most powerful European fortresses. An important event was the erection of new brick walls and towers of the Kremlin, which were built in six towers out of eighteen had passage gates. The Kremlin was turned into one of the most powerful European fortresses.
More than two hundred and fifty countries, several thousand nationalities, nationalities, peoples - large and small - exist and interact with each other on planet Earth. And each of them has its own features, customs and traditions, formed over the centuries. character traits. There are also artistic symbols peoples of the world, reflecting their idea of being, religion, philosophy and other knowledge and concepts. IN different countries Oh, they differ from each other, possessing the uniqueness and originality inherent in this or that piece of the planet. They do not depend directly on state power, but are sometimes formed during changes of authorities and rulers by the people themselves. What are the artistic symbols of the peoples of the world in the generally accepted sense of the word?
Symbol
Roughly speaking, a symbol is a hypertrophied sign. That is, an image, as a rule, schematic and conditional, of an object, animal, plant, or concept, quality, phenomenon, idea. It differs from the sacred context, the moment of normativity and social or religious-mystical spirituality, expressed in the image (as a rule, schematically and simplified).
Artistic symbols of the peoples of the world
Probably each country has its own man-made miracles" made by humans. It was not in vain that the “seven miracles” were singled out in the old days, which were considered, of course, original artistic symbols (the first list was folded, as they say, by Herodotus in the fifth century BC). new era- it had only three miracles). They included the gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus, and others. The list has varied over the centuries: some names have been added, others have disappeared. Many artistic symbols of the peoples of the world have not survived to this day. After all, in fact, there were at all times among various peoples an immeasurable number. Just the number seven was considered sacred, magical. Well, time has preserved today only a few symbols of the peoples of the world.
Essential variety, or semantic modification, artistic image, but also its spiritual core is art Symbol, acting in the aesthetics of one of the significant categories. Inside the image, it is that essential component that is difficult to isolate at the analytical level, which purposefully erects spirit of the recipient spiritual reality, not contained in the work of art itself. For example, in the already mentioned "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh, the actual artistic image is primarily formed around the visual image of a bouquet of sunflowers in a ceramic jug, and for most viewers it may be limited to this. At a deeper level of artistic perception in recipients with heightened artistic and aesthetic susceptibility, this primary image begins to unfold into an artistic symbol that absolutely defies verbal description, but it is he who opens the gate for the viewer's spirit to some other realities, fully realizing aesthetic event of this picture. The symbol as a deep completion of the image, its essential artistic and aesthetic (non-verbalized!) content testifies to the high artistic and aesthetic significance of the work, the high talent or even genius of the master who created it. Countless works of art of an average (albeit good) level, as a rule, have only an artistic image, but not a symbol. They do not bring the recipient to higher levels spiritual reality, but are limited to the emotional-psychological and even physiological levels of the recipient's psyche. Almost most of the works of realistic and naturalistic trends, comedies, operettas, all mass art are at this level - they have artistic imagery, but are devoid of artistic symbolism. It is typical only for high art of any kind and sacred cult works of high artistic quality.
Along with this, in world art there are whole classes of works of art (and sometimes whole huge eras - for example, art ancient egypt), in which the artistic image is practically reduced to a symbolic one. Absolute examples of such art are Gothic architecture, Byzantine-Russian icon the period of its heyday (XIV-XV centuries for Rus') or the music of Bach. Many other specific works of art can be cited from almost all of its types and periods of history, in which symbolic artwork, or artistic symbol. Here it is a concretely designed sensually perceived reality, more directed than the image, referring the recipient to the spiritual reality in the process of non-utilitarian, spiritually active contemplation of the work. In the process of aesthetic communication with a symbol, a unique super-dense figurative-semantic substance of aesthetic being-consciousness arises, which has the intention to deploy into another reality, into a holistic spiritual cosmos, into a fundamentally non-verbalized multi-level semantic space, its own field of meanings for each recipient, immersion in which gives him aesthetic pleasure, spiritual joy, a feeling of pleasure from feeling a deep unmerged merging with this field, dissolving in it while maintaining personal self-awareness and intellectual distance.
In the artistic-semiotic field, the symbol is somewhere between the artistic image and the sign. Their difference is observed in the degrees of isomorphism and semantic freedom, in the orientation towards various levels perception of the recipient, in the level of spiritual and aesthetic energy. The degree of isomorphism concerns mainly external form corresponding semantic structures and decreases from the mimetic (in the narrow sense of the term mimesis) artistic image (here it reaches upper limit in what is referred to as similarity) through an artistic symbol to a conventional sign, which, as a rule, is generally devoid of isomorphism in relation to the signified. The degree of semantic freedom is the highest for a symbol and is largely determined by a certain “identity” (Schelling), “balance” (Losev) of the “idea” and the external “image” of the symbol. In the sign and artistic image, it is lower, because in the sign (= in the philosophical symbol, and at the level of art - identical to the sign in terms of functions allegories) it is essentially limited by an abstract idea that prevails over the image, and vice versa in the artistic image. In other words, in the sign (equal to allegory) the rational idea, and in the images of (classical) art, a sufficiently high degree of isomorphism with the prototype limit the semantic freedom of these semiotic formations in comparison with the artistic symbol.
Accordingly, they are oriented to different levels of perception: the sign (allegory) - to the purely rational, and the artistic image and symbol - to the spiritual and aesthetic. In this case, the symbol (everywhere, as in the case of the image, we are talking O artistic symbol) has a sharper focus on the highest levels of spiritual reality than an image, the artistic and semantic field of which is much wider and more diverse. Finally, the level of spiritual-aesthetic (meditative) energy of a symbol is higher than that of an image; he seems to accumulate myth energy, one of the emanations of which, as a rule, acts. The symbol is more intended for recipients with increased spiritual and aesthetic susceptibility, which was well felt and expressed in their texts by theorists of symbolism and Russian religious thinkers of the early twentieth century, which we have already seen repeatedly and which we will dwell on here.
The symbol contains in itself in a folded form and reveals to consciousness something that is in itself inaccessible to other forms and methods of communication with the world, being in it. Therefore, it can in no way be reduced to the concepts of reason or to any other (other than itself) methods of formalization. The meaning in a symbol is inseparable from its form, it exists only in it, shines through it, unfolds from it, because only in it, in its structure, something is contained that is organically inherent (belonging to the essence) symbolized. Or, as A.F. Losev, “the signifier and the signified here are mutually reversible. The idea is given concretely, sensually; visually, there is nothing in it that would not be in the image, and vice versa.
If an artistic symbol differs from a philosophical symbol (= sign) at the semantic level, then it differs to some extent from cultural, mythological, religious symbols essentially, or substantially. An artistic or aesthetic symbol is a dynamic, creative mediator between the divine and the human, truth and appearance (appearance), idea and phenomenon at the level of spiritual and aesthetic experience, aesthetic consciousness (i.e. at the semantic level). In the light of an artistic symbol, holistic spiritual worlds are opened to consciousness, not explored, not revealed, not pronounceable and not described in any other way.
In turn, religious-mythological symbols (or general cultural, archetypal) have in addition substantial or at least energy in common with what is symbolized. Christian thought has approached the essence of such an understanding of the symbol since the time of patristics, but it was most clearly expressed and formulated by Fr. Pavel Florensky, relying on the experience of patristics, on the one hand, and on the theories of his contemporaries-symbolists, especially his teacher Vyach. Ivanova, on the other.
He was convinced that "in the name - the named, in the symbol - the symbolized, in the image - the reality of the depicted present, and that's because the symbol There is symbolized" 277. In the work "Imeslavie as a philosophical premise" Florensky gave one of the most capacious definitions of a symbol, which shows its dual nature: "Being, which is greater than itself, is the basic definition of a symbol. A symbol is something that is that which what is not itself, greater than it, and yet essentially manifested through it.We reveal this formal definition: a symbol is such an entity, the energy of which, fused or, more precisely, merged with the energy of some other, more valuable entity in this respect, carries in this way in itself this latter.
Symbol, according to Florensky, fundamentally antinomic, those. unites things that exclude each other from the point of view of one-dimensional discursive thinking. Therefore, its nature is difficult to comprehend by a person of modern European culture. However, for the thinking of ancient people, the symbol did not present any difficulty, being often the main element of this thinking. Those personifications of nature in folk poetry and in the poetry of antiquity, which are now perceived as metaphors, are by no means such, - Florensky believed, - this is precisely symbols in the above sense, and not "decorations and seasonings of style", not rhetorical figures. "... For the ancient poet, the life of the elements was not a phenomenon of style, but a businesslike expression of the essence." For a modern poet, only in moments of special inspiration “these deep layers of spiritual life break through the crust of the worldview of our time, which is alien to them, and the poet speaks to us in intelligible language about a life that is incomprehensible to us with all the creatures of our own soul” 279.
The symbol, in the understanding of Fr. Paul, has "two thresholds of receptivity" - upper and lower, within which he still remains a symbol. The upper one protects the symbol from "exaggeration of the natural mysticism of matter", from "naturalism", when the symbol is completely identified with the archetype. Antiquity often fell into this extreme. The New Age is characterized by going beyond the lower limit, when the subject connection between the symbol and the archetype is broken, their common substance-energy is ignored, and the symbol is perceived only as a sign of the archetype, and not as a material-energy carrier.
The symbol, Florensky is convinced, is “a phenomenon outside the innermost essence”, the discovery of the essence itself, its embodiment in external environment. It is in this sense, for example, in sacred and secular symbolism that clothing acts as a symbol of the body. Well, the ultimate manifestation of such a symbol in art is, according to Florensky and the ancient fathers of the Church, icon as an ideal sacral artistic phenomenon, endowed with the energy of the archetype.
The result in the field of philosophical searches for understanding the artistic symbol was summed up in a number of works A.F. Losev, just like Florensky, who considered himself symbolist. In The Dialectic of Artistic Form, he shows, as we have seen, the ontology of the unfolding of an expressive series from the Primordial One into eidos – myth – symbol – personality etc. The symbol, therefore, in the early Losev appears as an emanation, or expression, myth. "Finally under symbol I understand that side mythe, which is specially expressive. The symbol is the semantic expressiveness of the myth, or the outward face of myth"280. With the help of the symbol, the essential expression for the first time reaches the level of external manifestation. Myth, as the basis and deep life of consciousness, reveals itself outside in the symbol and actually composes it (the symbol) vital basis, its meaning, its essence. Losev deeply feels this dialectic of myth and symbol and seeks to fix it as accurately as possible on the verbal level. “The symbol is the eidos of myth, the myth is like the eidos, the face of life. Myth is the inner life of a symbol, the element of life that gives birth to its face and external appearance. So, in the myth, the essential meaning, or eidos, found a deep embodiment in the "element of life", and in the symbol it acquired an external expression, those. actually appeared in artistic reality.
Losev dealt with the problem of the symbol throughout his life. In one of his later works, The Problem of the Symbol and Realist Art (1976), he gives the following extended summary of his research:
"1) The symbol of a thing is indeed its meaning. However, this is such a meaning that constructs it and generates it modelly. At the same time, it is impossible to stop either on the fact that the symbol of a thing is its reflection, or on the fact that the symbol of a thing gives rise to the thing itself. And in In both cases, the specificity of the symbol is lost, and its relationship with the thing is interpreted in the style of metaphysical dualism or logicism, long gone in history.The symbol of a thing is its reflection, but not passive, not dead, but one that carries strength and power in itself. reality itself, since once the received reflection is processed in consciousness, analyzed in thought, cleared of everything random and insignificant and comes to a reflection of not just the sensual surface of things, but their internal laws.In this sense, one must understand that the symbol of a thing gives rise to a thing "Generates" in this case means "understands the same objective thing, but in its internal regularity, and not in the chaos of random heaps. " This generation is only penetration into the deep and regular basis of the things themselves, represented in sensory reflection, only very vague, indefinite and chaotic.
2) The symbol of a thing is its generalization. However, this generalization is not dead, not empty, not abstract and not fruitless, but one that allows, or rather, even commands to return to generalized things, introducing a semantic regularity into them. In other words, the generality that exists in the symbol, implicite, already contains everything symbolized, even if it is infinite.
3) The symbol of a thing is its law, but such a law that generates things in a semantic way, leaving intact all their empirical concreteness.
4) The symbol of a thing is the regular ordering of a thing, but given in the form general principle semantic construction, in the form of a generating model.
5) The symbol of a thing is its internal-external expression, but it is designed according to the general principle of its construction.
6) The symbol of a thing is its structure, but not solitary or isolated, but charged with a finite or infinite series of corresponding individual manifestations of this structure.
7) The symbol of a thing is its sign, however, not dead and motionless, but giving birth to numerous, and perhaps countless regular and single structures, designated by it in general view as an abstractly given ideological imagery.
8) The symbol of a thing is its sign, which has nothing in common with the immediate content of those singularities that are designated here, but these distinct and opposing designated singularities are determined here by that general constructive principle that turns them into a single-divided wholeness, directed in a certain way.
9) The symbol of a thing is the identity, the interpenetration of the signified thing and the ideological imagery that signifies it, but this symbolic identity is a single-divided wholeness, determined by one or another single principle that generates it and turns it into a finite or infinite series of various naturally obtained singularities, which merge into the general identity of the principle or model that gave rise to them as in a certain common for them limit ". 282
In the history of aesthetic thought, the classical concept of the symbol was most fully developed by the symbolists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as we have already discussed above. In the twentieth century the concept of a symbol occupies a prominent place in hermeneutic aesthetics. In particular, G.G. Gadamer believed that the symbol is to some extent identical game; it does not refer the perceiver to something else, as many symbolists believed, but it embodies its meaning in itself, it itself manifests its meaning, like the work of art based on it, i.e. is an "increase of being". Thus, Gadamer marks the destruction of the traditional classical understanding of the symbol and outlines new non-classical approaches to it, on the semantic variations of which the aesthetics of postmodernism and many art practices of the second half of the 20th century will be based.
In non-classical aesthetics, the traditional categories of artistic image And symbol are often superseded and replaced by the concept simulacrum- “likeness”, which does not have any prototype, archetype. Some thinkers of the postmodern orientation retain the concepts of the symbol and the symbolic, but are filled in the spirit of the structural psychoanalytic theory with non-traditional content. In particular, J. Lacan comprehends the symbolic as the primary universal in relation to being and consciousness, generating the entire semantic universe of symbolic speech, as the only real and accessible to human perception, generating the person himself by the act of naming him.
Canon
For a number of epochs and trends in art, where the artistic symbol rather than the image was predominant, a prominent role in the creative process was played by canonical artistic thinking, the normization of creativity, the canonization of the system of visual and expressive means and principles. Hence, first of all, at the level of implicit aesthetics canon became one of the essential categories of classical aesthetics, defining a whole class of phenomena in the history of art. Usually it means a system of internal creative rules and norms that prevail in art in some historical period or in some artistic direction and fix the main structural and constructive laws of specific types of art.
Canonicality is primarily inherent in ancient and medieval art. The canon of proportions was established in plastic from Ancient Egypt human body, which was rethought by the ancient Greek classics and theoretically fixed by the sculptor Polykleitos (5th century BC) in the treatise "Canon" and practically embodied in the statue "Dorifor", also called "Canon". The system of ideal proportions of the human body developed by Polykleitos became the norm for antiquity and, with some changes, for artists of the Renaissance and classicism. Vitruvius applied the term "canon" to the set of rules for architectural creativity. Cicero used the Greek word "canon" to denote a measure of the style of oratory. In patristics canon the totality of texts of the Holy Scriptures, legalized by church councils, was called.
In the visual arts of the East and European Middle Ages, especially in the cult, the iconographic canon was established. Developed in the process of centuries-old artistic practice, the main compositional schemes and the corresponding elements of the image of certain characters, their clothes, postures, gestures, landscape or architecture details have been around since the 9th century. were fixed as canonical and served as models for artists of the countries of the Eastern Christian area until the 17th century. Byzantine song and poetry also obeyed its own canons. In particular, one of the most complex forms of Byzantine hymnography (8th century) was called "canon". It consisted of nine songs, each of which had a specific structure. The first verse of each song (irmos) was almost always composed on the basis of themes and images taken from Old Testament, in the rest of the poems, the themes of irmos developed poetically and musically. In Western European music from the XII-XIII centuries. under the name "canon" a special form of polyphony is being developed. Its elements were preserved in music until the 20th century. (by P. Hindemith, B. Bartok, D. Shostakovich and others). The canonical standardization of art in the aesthetics of classicism is well known, often developing into formalistic academicism.
The problem of the canon was put on a theoretical level in aesthetic and art studies only in the 20th century; most productive in the works of P. Florensky, S. Bulgakov, A. Losev, Yu. Lotman and other Russian scientists. Florensky and Bulgakov considered the problem of the canon in relation to icon painting and showed that the iconographic canon consolidated the centuries-old spiritual-visual experience of mankind (the conciliar experience of Christians) in penetrating into the divine world, which maximally released “the creative energy of the artist to new achievements, to creative ups and downs” 283 . Bulgakov saw in the canon one of the essential forms of "Church Tradition".
Losev defined the canon as "a quantitative and structural model of a work of art of such a style, which, being a certain socio-historical indicator, is interpreted as the principle of constructing a known set of works" 284 . Lotman was interested in the information-semiotic aspect of the canon. He believed that the canonized text is organized not according to the model of natural language, but “according to the principle of musical structure”, and therefore acts not so much as a source of information as its activator. The canonical text reorganizes the subject's information in a new way, "recodes his personality" 285 .
The role of the canon in the process of the historical existence of art is twofold. Being the bearer of the traditions of certain artistic thinking and the corresponding artistic practice, the canon at the structural and constructive level expressed the aesthetic ideal of a particular era, culture, people, artistic direction, etc. This is its productive role in the history of culture. When the aesthetic ideal and the whole system of artistic thinking changed with the change of cultural and historical eras, the canon of a bygone era became a brake on the development of art, preventing it from adequately expressing the spiritual and practical situation of its time. In the process of cultural and historical development, this canon is overcome by new creative experience. In a particular work of art, the canonical scheme is not the bearer of the artistic meaning itself, which arises on its basis (in "canonical" arts, thanks to it) in every act of artistic creation or aesthetic perception, in the process of the formation of an artistic image.
The artistic and aesthetic significance of the canon lies in the fact that the canonical scheme, fixed somehow materially or existing only in the mind of the artist (and in the perception of the carriers of this culture), being constructive basis of an artistic symbol, as if it provokes a talented master to concretely overcome it within her by the system itself of little noticeable, but artistically significant deviations from it in the nuances of all elements of the pictorial and expressive language. In the psyche of the perceiver, the canonical scheme aroused a stable complex of information traditional for his time and culture, and specific artistically organized variations of the elements of the form prompted him to peer deeply into a seemingly familiar, but always somewhat new image, to the desire to penetrate into its essential, archetypal grounds, to the discovery of some still unknown of its spiritual depths.
The art of the New Age, starting from the Renaissance, is actively moving away from canonical thinking towards a personal-individual type of creativity. The "cathedral" experience is being replaced by the individual experience of the artist, his original personal vision of the world and the ability to express it in artistic forms. And only in fast-culture, starting with pop art, conceptualism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, in the system of artistic and humanitarian thinking, principles close to canonical, some simulacra canon at the level of the conventional principles of creativity, when in the areas of art production and its verbal description (the latest art hermeneutics), peculiar canonical techniques and types of creation of art products and their verbal support are formed. Today one could talk about the "canons", or rather the quasi-canons of pop art, conceptualism, "new music", "advanced" art criticism, philosophical and aesthetic discourse, etc., the meaning of which is available only to those "initiated" in the "rules games” within these canonical-conventional spaces and is closed from all other members of the community, no matter at what level of spiritual-intellectual or aesthetic development they are.
Style
Another significant category in the philosophy of art and in art history is style. In fact it is more free in the forms of manifestation and a kind of modification canon, more precisely - fairly stable for a certain period in the history of art, a specific direction, trend, school or one artist, difficult to describe a multi-level system of principles of artistic thinking, ways of figurative expression, figurative and expressive techniques, constructive and formal structures and so on. In the XIX-XX centuries. this category was vigorously developed by many art historians and theorists, aestheticians, and philosophers. The school of art critics G. Wölfflin, A. Riegl and others understood by style a fairly stable system of formal features and elements of the organization of a work of art (flatness, volume, picturesqueness, graphic quality, simplicity, complexity, open or closed form, etc.) and on this basis considered it is possible to consider the whole history of art as a supra-individual history of styles (“the history of art without names” - Wölfflin). A.F. Losev defined style as "the principle of constructing the entire potential of a work of art on the basis of its various supra-structural and extra-artistic assignments and its primary models, felt, however, immanently by the artistic structures of the work" 286 .
U. Spengler in The Decline of Europe, he paid special attention to style, as one of the main and essential characteristics of culture, its certain epochal stages. For him, style is a “metaphysical sense of form”, which is determined by the “atmosphere of spirituality” of a particular era. It does not depend on personalities, nor on the material or types of art, or even on the directions of art. As a kind of metaphysical element of this stage of culture, the “great style” itself creates personalities, trends, and eras in art. At the same time, Spengler understands style in a much broader sense than artistic and aesthetic. "Styles follow one another, like waves and pulses. They have nothing in common with the personality of individual artists, their will and consciousness. On the contrary, it is style that creates the most type artist. Style, like culture, is a primordial phenomenon in the strictest Goetheian sense, no matter the style of the arts, religions, thoughts, or the style of life itself. Like "nature", style is an ever-new experience of a waking person, his alter ego and mirror image in the surrounding world. That is why in the general historical picture of any culture there can be only one style - style of this culture 287 . At the same time, Spengler does not agree with the rather traditional classification of “great styles” in art history. He, for example, believes that Gothic and Baroque are not different styles: "these are youth and old age of the same set of forms: the maturing and mature style of the West" 288 . Modern Russian art historian V.G. Vlasov defines style as "the artistic meaning of form", as sensation“an artist and a spectator of the comprehensive integrity of the process of artistic shaping in historical time and space. Style is the artistic experience of time. He understands style as "a category of artistic perception" 289 . And this series of rather different definitions and understandings of style can be continued 290 .
Each of them has something in common and something that contradicts other definitions, but on the whole it is felt that all researchers adequately feel(intrinsically understand) the deep essence of this phenomenon, but cannot accurately express it in words. This once again indicates that style, like many other phenomena and phenomena of artistic and aesthetic reality, is a relatively subtle matter so that it can be more or less adequately and unambiguously defined. Here, only some circular descriptive approaches are possible, which will eventually create in the reader's perception some fairly adequate idea of what is actually being discussed.
At the level cultural epochs and art trends, researchers talk about the art styles of Ancient Egypt, Byzantium, Romanesque, Gothic, Classicism, Baroque, Rococo, Art Nouveau. During periods of blurring of the global styles of an era or a major trend, they talk about the styles of individual schools (for example, for the Renaissance: the styles of the Sienese, Venetian, Florentine and other schools) or the styles of specific artists (Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Bergman, etc.).
In the history of art, major styles arose, as a rule, in synthetic eras, when the main arts were formed to some extent on the principle of some kind of unification around and on the basis of the leading art, which was usually architecture. Painting, sculpture, applied arts, sometimes the music was guided by it, i.e. on the system of principles for working with form and artistic image (principles of organizing space, in particular) that is emerging in architecture. It is clear that the style in architecture and other forms of art (just like the style of life or the style of thinking - they also talk about such styles) was formed historically and intuitively, extraconsciously. No one has ever set himself a specific task: to create such and such a style, distinguished by such and such features and characteristics. In fact, the "big" style is a complexly mediated optimal artistic display and expression at the macro level (the level of an entire epoch or a major artistic movement) of certain essential spiritual, aesthetic, ideological, religious, social, subject-practical characteristics of a certain historical community of people, a specific ethno-historical stage of culture; a kind of macrostructure of artistic thinking, adequate to a certain socio-cultural, ethno-historical community of people. The specific materials of art, the technique and technology of their processing in the creative process can also have some influence on the style.
Style is, to some extent, a materially fixed, relatively definite system of figurative-expressive principles of artistic thinking, well and accurately perceived by all recipients with a certain level of artistic flair, aesthetic sensitivity, “sense of style”; this is some more or less clearly felt tendency towards a holistic artistic shaping, expressing deep spiritual and plastic intuitions (collective artistic unconscious, plastic archetypes, protoforms, cathedral experiences, etc.) of a particular era, historical period, direction, creative personality, rising to feeling the spirit of their time; it is, figuratively speaking, aesthetic handwriting eras; optimal for a given era (directions, schools, personalities) aesthetic display model(system of characteristic principles of organization artistic means and methods of expression), internally spiritualized vital for this era non-verbalized principles, ideals, ideas, creative impulses from the highest levels of reality. If there is no this spirituality, the style disappears. Only its external traces remain: manner, system of receptions.
Style, for all the tangibility of a highly developed aesthetic sense of its presence in certain works of art, even for "great" stylistic phenomena is not something absolutely definite and "pure". With the presence and predominance of an integral set of certain dominant stylistic characteristics in it, almost every work of this style always contains elements and features that are random for it, alien to it, which not only does not detract from the “stylishness” of this work, but rather, on the contrary, enhances its artistic value. activity, its concrete vitality as an aesthetic phenomenon of this particular style. So, for example, the presence of many Romanesque elements in the monuments of Gothic architecture only emphasizes the expression of the Gothic originality of these monuments.
In conclusion of the conversation about style, I will try to give brief description one of the "big" styles, showing at the same time the insufficiency of such a verbal description. Let's take, for example, gothic- one of the largest international styles of developed European art (brief characteristics of stylistic features classicism And baroque can be found above (Section One. Ch. I. § 1), where they appear as descriptions of the features of the artistic and aesthetic consciousness of the corresponding trends in art).
Gothic (the term comes from “Goths” - a generalized naming by the Romans of European tribes that conquered the Roman Empire in the 3rd-5th centuries, a synonym for “barbarians”; as a characteristic of art, Renaissance thinkers began to apply to medieval art in a mockingly derogatory sense), which dominated in Western European art in the XIII-XV centuries, arose as the highest, ultimate and most adequate stylistic form of artistic expression of the spirit itself Christian culture in its Western modification (in the East - in the Orthodox area - a similar expression was the Byzantine style that flourished in Byzantium and the countries of its spiritual influence - especially active among the South Slavic peoples and in Ancient Rus'). It was formed primarily in architecture and spread to other types of art, mainly related to Christian worship and the lifestyle of medieval Christian townspeople.
The deep meaning of this style lies in the consistent artistic expression of the essence of the Christian worldview, which consists in affirming the priority of the spiritual principle in man and the Universe over the material, with internal deep respect for matter as a carrier of the spiritual, without and outside of which it cannot exist on Earth. Gothic has reached in this regard, perhaps, the best possible in Christian culture. The overcoming of matter, material, materiality by spirit, spirituality was realized here with amazing power, expression and consistency. This was especially difficult to implement in stone architecture, and it was here that the Gothic masters reached the height of perfection. way painstaking work Many generations of builders, guided by some kind of unified cathedral artistic mind of their time, consistently sought out ways to completely dematerialize the heavy stone structures of the temple vaults in the process of transition from the cross vault to the rib vault, in which the expression of constructive tectonics was completely replaced by artistic plasticity.
As a result, the heaviness of the material (stone) and construction techniques aimed at overcoming its physical properties are completely hidden from those entering the temple. The Gothic temple is transformed by purely artistic means (by organizing the internal space and the external plastic appearance) into a special sculptural and architectural phenomenon of the essential transformation (transformation) of the earthly space-time continuum into a completely different space - more sublime, extremely spiritualized, irrational-mystical in its internal orientation . Ultimately, all the main artistic and expressive (and they are also constructive and compositional) techniques and elements that together create the Gothic style work for this.
These include thin graceful complexly profiled columns (unlike massive Romanesque pillars), ascending to an almost inaccessible height to the weightless lancet vaults, asserting the predominance of the vertical over the horizontal, dynamics (ascension, erection) over static, expression over rest. In the same direction, countless lancet arches and vaults work, on the basis of which the internal space of the temple is actually formed; huge lancet windows filled with colored stained-glass windows, creating an indescribable constantly vibrating and changing light-color surreal atmosphere in the temple; elongated naves, leading the spirit of the viewer along a narrow, visually upward and far-reaching path to the altar (spiritually they also contribute to ascension, erection upward, into another space); carved lancet multi-leaf closing altars with Gothic images of the central gospel events and characters and openwork lancet altar structures - retables (French Retable - behind the table). In the same lancet-elongated form, the seats in the altar and the temple, service and applied items, and temple utensils are made.
Gothic temples outside and inside are filled with a huge amount of three-dimensional sculpture, made, like Gothic painting, in a manner close to naturalistic, which was also emphasized in the Middle Ages by the realistic coloring of sculptures. Thus, a certain spatial-environmental opposition was created between the extremely irrational architecture aspiring to mystical distances and the earthly plasticity and painting that organically flow into it constructively, but oppose it in spirit. At the artistic level (and this is a characteristic feature of the Gothic style), the essential antinomy of Christianity was expressed: the unity of opposite principles in man and the earthly world: spirit, soul, spiritual and matter, body, bodily.
At the same time, one cannot speak in the literal sense of the naturalism of Gothic sculpture and painting. This is a special, artistically inspired naturalism, filled with subtle artistic matter, elevating the spirit of the perceiver to the spiritual and aesthetic worlds. With the peculiar naturalism of facial expressions and gestures of seemingly statuary rows of Gothic statues, the richness and artistic plasticity of the folds of their clothes, which are subject to some physically unconditioned forces, are striking; or the exquisite line of bending of the bodies of many Gothic still standing figures - the so-called Gothic curve (S-shaped bend of the figure). Gothic painting is subject to some peculiar laws of special color expression. Many almost naturalistically (or illusory-photographically) written out faces, figures, clothes in altar paintings amaze with their superreal unearthly power. An outstanding example in this regard is the art of the Dutch artist Rogier van der Weyden and some of his students.
The same stylistic features are characteristic of appearance Gothic temples: sculptural, aspiration upward of the whole appearance due to the lancet forms of arches, vaults, all the small architectural elements, and finally, the huge arrows crowning the temples of openwork, as if woven from stone lace, towers for purely decorative and architectural purposes; geometrically accurate window rosettes and decorative, countless ornamental decorations, contrasting within a single whole architectural organism with the semi-naturalistic plasticity of sculptures and frequent floral ornaments from branches with leaves. Organic nature and a mathematically verified and geometrically prescribed form form in Gothic an integral highly artistic and highly spiritual image, orienting, aspiring, elevating the spirit of a believer or aesthetic subject to other realities, to other levels of consciousness (or being). If we add to this the sound atmosphere (the acoustics in Gothic churches are excellent) of the organ and church choir performing, for example, Gregorian chant, then the picture of some essential features of the Gothic style will be more or less complete, although far from sufficient.
