Masterpieces of world culture author unknown. Masterpieces of Chinese culture
What is the difference between Malevich's Black Square and Vasya Vatnikov's red circle with green polka dots? I dare say nothing. True, any esthete will tell you (despite the fact that Malevich himself noted that his picture does not mean anything) about the deepest hidden meaning of the work. However, the same can be said about Vasya Vatnikov's red circle with green polka dots: the circle of peas symbolizes the vicious circle of being, and so on. So why is the price of two completely uninteresting paintings, other things being equal, so different? The answer to this question is to be found in the field of science known as Ethology rather than in art.
1. Aesthetic pleasure from the picture.
It is logical to assume that the picture, like any other product creative expression, is designed to deliver aesthetic pleasure from the contemplation of a masterpiece, for which people allegedly pay millions. However, if you look deeper, it becomes clear that aesthetic pleasure is the last thing that affects the cost of the canvas. It doesn't count at all. After all, if the main value of a masterpiece lies in how it looks and, due to this, affects a person, then why do its copies cost a penny, unlike the original? Therefore, the masterpiece itself, the image itself - does not cost anything, it costs only the exclusivity of the canvas. Or is something lost when copying, which actually makes a masterpiece a masterpiece? Hardly, especially given today's copying technology, as well as the high skill of artists (if we are talking about redrawing). There is only one conclusion: the price of a painting is generally not affected by what is commonly called artistic value. Artistic value is worth a penny. And here it is clearly a matter of exclusivity.
2. Is there any aesthetic pleasure from a masterpiece at all, and how strong is it?
Apparently, even the very aesthetic pleasure from all sorts of black squares, people also came up with themselves. An example of this is Van Gogh, who during his lifetime sold only one painting, and that one was bought from him out of pity. Why were his paintings of no interest to anyone during his lifetime? Probably because no one experienced pleasure, delight and admiration from his "skill". And no one saw the point in them, and if he was in them, then no one cared about it.
But suddenly, some time after his death, his paintings suddenly begin to deliver the strongest aesthetic pleasure to the broad masses, and acquire a certain deep meaning that millions of aesthetes admire. Somehow this is strange! How is it that at one point in time no one likes your paintings, but suddenly, as if by magic, the whole world falls in love with your paintings? By the way, this applies to most artists, there is even a saying: recognition comes to an artist after death. For some reason, great poets, like Pushkin and Vysotsky, and writers like Orwell and Bulgakov, it comes during their lifetime, but to great artists only after death. Something is wrong here.
If you considered a certain girl scary 20 years ago, then she will be so for you today. He also enjoyed viewing pictures. The fact that at one time the artist’s paintings are not pleasing to the eye, and then abruptly begin to please, only confirms what was described in the paragraph above: the artistic value of the canvas is of no interest to anyone and does not play any role in the value of the painting, as well as in recognizing it as a masterpiece. Aesthetic pleasure in most cases is simply invented by the audience. The quality of the canvas can only be assessed professional artist, and this is a very limited category of the population, and certainly they are not buying such paintings for such money.
Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, Yellow. The price of the painting is 86.9 million dollars.
Received aesthetic pleasure from the picture? Even if they received; even if some super-complex drawing styles were used to create this Mui Ne, this cannot even cost thousands of dollars, no matter how deep, supposedly, the meaning is invested in it. The price of this painting is equal to the price of the materials spent on its creation + an extra charge for the work. True, with such work, it is clearly worth a penny. I have a painter in the entrance somehow slipshodly completed his work - the result was a reconstruction of Rothko's works. Only the painter is paid much less.
From the first two points, it turns out that neither the aesthetic pleasure of viewing the picture, nor the artistic value in the price formation play any role. For copies of paintings cost a penny. So, it's all about exclusivity and limited circulation - this is one and two - the point is whose brush the work belongs to. At the time of Van Gogh there was not a single worthy artist? Why is it that his paintings are worth millions, and the rest are not needed by anyone for nothing? Why in today's Russia, the paintings of Nikos Safronov cost thousands of times more than equally high-quality (and often more) works by thousands of other artists?
3. Exclusivity of the canvas.
Man, as you know, is a social animal, and for all animals living together in a community, the issue of status plays an extremely important role, because. status determines how other members of the community will treat this individual. Every animal community uses various tools- the size of the genitals, tail, mane, the volume of the roar and much more. Since a person has gone quite far from animals in terms of the complexity of the community in which he lives, then a person has much more tools for demonstrating status. Status is important in absolutely every social stratum of the population and in each of its groups, regardless of the number of individuals. Even people who verbally completely reject consumerism (suppose skinheads or punks) are completely dependent on this instinct. And status in the first place can be achieved precisely through consumption. For example, every skinhead of the 90s dreamed of reptiles with white laces - such an outfit demonstrated his high status among the primates around him. And for punks, measured by the steepness of the Iroquois - this feature of demonstrating status is generally removed from the wild like tracing paper.
For richer people, to demonstrate status, they serve, for example, expensive cars, yachts and aircraft. It is not enough for a very rich person to buy just a cool yacht - it must be the largest in the world. why does he need the largest private yacht in the world, most of whose functions he will not even use? The yacht is called just stand and show his status. All!
But the most expensive things in the world are exclusive or limited edition. For a very rich person, a Mercedes is no longer enough to demonstrate status, because. Many people have Mercedes. You could observe a simplified version of this mechanism on the example of the behavior of human females: how she rejoices when she has acquired expensive, beautiful clothes, but how upset she is if suddenly her work colleague came in exactly the same blouse. She lost exclusivity, and with this loss she averaged out in status, which was the reason for grief. In order to avoid such incidents, a very rich person buys a limited edition watch for crazy money, which is essentially no different from other cool watches, except for its exclusivity. Those. he pays for exclusivity. Rolex watches, for example, also serve this purpose. If Rolexes are given away to everyone for free, then they will lose their value and become useless to anyone, just as Montana watches once became unnecessary.
Hence the scandals with Peskov's super-expensive watches. They use these blues as a means of demonstrating status. If Peskov's watches were released in an unlimited series, they would cost a thousand times cheaper. Artistic masterpieces are used in the same way. The main thing is not what is drawn - even if it is a frank bucket. The main thing is to have an exclusive that no one else has! Hence the high price for originals and low for copies. Peskov comes to visit the Patriarch, looks - and his watch is even cooler. What remains to be done by the unfortunate Peskov in his grief? Buy for your private collection painting for $50 million. In this regard, art is the most effective method status demonstrations: the watch may be a limited edition, but someone in the world still has it. But no one has the original of such a picture. What is painted on it? Yes, hell will understand, the main thing is that only I have!
It is especially interesting that all those complex rules that a product must comply with are created by the experts themselves together with the manufacturers of the product and cannot be objectively assessed by the consumer. the functionality of such a product is a secondary criterion - remove the value contained on them in the form of trademarks from many exclusive products - and most of them immediately lose their high value.
It remains only to understand what criteria are used to select candidates for future masterpieces? Why exactly the dauber of Rothko, Lucho Fontano, Barnet Newmon, and not the painter from my entrance? Why Nikas Safronov and not an artist from the Arbat?
4. Exclusivity of the artist.
Consider the example of the same Rothko. When Rothko first started painting, there was no art market at all. These were the first post-war years, Europe lay in ruins, the early enthusiasm of the first patrons of the beginning of the century had already been washed away by the Great Depression, and American artists were left entirely to themselves - in a country that, for their reasons, had neither its own tradition, nor its own mythology, nor culture. No galleries, no curators, no collectors, no critics. It was impossible even to convincingly formulate what now needs to be written: the old paradigms have long since departed, giving way to the European avant-garde, but the avant-garde has not been able to justify itself. And then Rothko appears with his freaking - the founder of the painting of the abstract field. What favorably distinguished Rothko from thousands of other artists, and NORMAL artists? He was the first to start exhibiting this here. Those. exclusive. Plus, the cost of paintings is affected by the tragedy of the artist's life. And Rothko cut his veins with a razor. Hence, years after his death, and the cost of paintings. It was exclusive in its specificity. Specificity not as an artist (his work to fine arts have nothing to do), but as a person.
You probably noticed that few people are interested in normal artists? The main hype around frankly traveled, such as Frida, Van Gogh, and so on.
By the way, Van Gogh! In all his hard life, he never sold a single painting of his (more precisely, one, and even that one was bought out of pity). But still he continued to write and draw with the frenzy of a fanatic. And if a dilemma arose before him - to starve or to draw, then he chose drawing ... In one of the psychoses, he even chopped off his ear. His biography clearly stands out from the background of many other contemporaries. He is an excellent candidate for celestial arts. He was raised, singled out from the mass of artists for his torment and passion for painting, and everything else for blurring the eyes and minds of the townsfolk.
Those. Roughly speaking, for a long time in the world of art there has been a circle of people who sell the townsfolk the status of a "masterpiece" in relation to almost any picture of any artist, and those townsfolk give them money for this. In fact, it is not the paintings themselves that are worth the money, but the biographies of the selected artists. And another nuance: the future success of the artist and the cost of his paintings is also influenced by who will be the first to buy his painting. If a billionaire, then this automatically raises the status of the author and, accordingly, the cost of his paintings. An excellent example of this is Nikas Safronov.
5. The ingenuity of the artist, or competent marketing.
It is impossible to think of a more brilliant example than Nikas Safronov! most expensive picture this artist's "Dreams of Italy" is worth $106,000. There is nothing special in Safronov's paintings, such dreams of Italy - tens of thousands lie in the galleries. But only one is worth a hundred thousand dollars. Why? As I wrote in the last paragraph, one of critical factors The status of the artist's paintings lies in who owns his paintings. Safronov in the 90s worked in the theater of the authoritative show business figure Donatas Bonionis, through whom he had the opportunity to contact Russian pop stars and well-known political figures, to whom, taking the opportunity, he gave self-portraits. So his paintings ended up in the homes of the elites. And so that they would be there for sure, he painted celebrities only as nobles, kings, etc.
And then it went like this: “Wow. A picture of some Safronov hangs at Pugacheva's house. Apparently he's cool. Find me his number - I’ll buy it too, ”the oligarch, or politician, admired. So Safronov became the "Great" artist.
The clearest example of such a feature you could observe during the exhibition of one artist in Moscow (I don’t remember who exactly). Everyone didn’t care about her from the high bell tower, when suddenly she was visited by ... Putin. The next day, a gigantic line of those wishing to join the high artistic value lined up at the gallery. It's just that Putin, with his campaign, showed a flock of primates that the exhibition of paintings by this artist is a status event, that's all.
6. Pictures and Stock Exchange
“Masterpieces” for their private owners, in addition to show-offs, are banknotes of a very large (and, as the owner hopes, growing) denomination. This is a specific financial instrument in which money is invested when there is a lot of this extra money. For example, one can recall Japanese collectors who began to buy works of art and rare things around the world just when the CBA rate became obscenely low.
Well, you can trade them, like on the stock exchange: you buy a painting and wait for its price to grow. And how much it will increase depends on how much it and its author will be promoted, how much deep meaning invented for her. By the way, the price is growing not only because of the hard life of the author, as mentioned above, but also because of the difficult history of the painting itself. So, from time to time, some crazy people attack the paintings, dousing them with paint. In the same Louvre, this is already generally the norm. The paradox is that after such attacks, the paint is, of course, erased, but the paintings are rapidly growing in price, because they have such a history: they attacked the painting, doused it with paint, miraculously saved it. Personally, I am inclined to believe that such attacks are organized directly by the owners of the paintings (physical, or legal), so that this asset continues to grow in value.
If the unbelievable suddenly happens and the price of paintings starts to plummet, I assure you that all their owners will instantly forget about their unsurpassed historical value, and will maniacally start selling them, as happens with illiquid securities on the market.
I am in no way saying that any of these artists are bad: no, they are all talented in their own way. Even Nikas Safronov, who among experts is subjected to the most severe criticism. In any case, in my life I will not draw the way he draws. This is about something else. It's about the reasons for the inadequate cost of painting. And it seems to me that I described the whole process of price formation, and most importantly, the reasons that prompt the consumer to form such prices, more than convincingly! And the quality of the picture, its artistic value and aesthetic pleasure from contemplation have nothing to do with the cost. And if someone starts rubbing you about it, then he is just a starball.
The buildings in El Giza, with their grandiosity and apparent uselessness, amazed the imagination already in antiquity, which best conveys Arabic proverb: "Everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids." 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.
HANGING GARDENS OF SEMIRAMIS - gardens in the palace of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (c. BC), which he ordered to break for his beloved wife, the Median princess. The gardens were located on a wide four-tiered tower. The terrace platforms were built of stone slabs covered with a layer of reeds and filled with asphalt. Next came the laying of two rows of bricks fastened with plaster and lead slabs, which did not let water into the lower floors of the garden. All this complex structure was covered with a thick layer of fertile earth, which made it possible to plant the largest trees here. The tiers rose in ledges, connected by wide staircases with slabs of pink and white. Every day, thousands of slaves pumped water from deep wells to the top into numerous canals, from where it flowed down to the lower terraces. The murmur of water, the shade and coolness among the trees seemed a miracle.
OLYMPIAN ZEUS - a statue of Zeus by the Greek sculptor Phidias. The statue was placed in the cult center of the Olympic sanctuary - the temple of Zeus, in the sacred grove of Altise. The exposed parts of the body were lined with ivory plates, the robes were cast in gold, and the base of the sculpture was wooden. The height of the statue reached approx. 17 m. If the god "rose", his height would far exceed the height of the temple itself. In his hand, the Thunderer held a statue of Nike (a symbol of victory). The throne of Zeus was also made of gold and ivory. The back, armrests and foot were decorated with ivory reliefs, golden images of the gods and goddesses of Olympus. The lower walls of the throne were covered with drawings of Panen, his legs with images of dancing Nik. Zeus's feet, shod in golden sandals, rested on a bench decorated with golden lions. In front of the pedestal of the statue, the floor was paved with dark blue Eleusinian stone, a basin carved into it for olive oil was supposed to save the ivory from drying out. The light that penetrated the doors of the dark temple, reflected from the smooth surface of the liquid in the pool, fell on the golden clothes of Zeus and illuminated his head; it seemed to those who entered that the radiance emanated from the very face of the deity.
MAUSOLEUM IN HALICARNASS - the tomb of King Mausolus of Caria (died in 353 BC). The mausoleum was famous not only for the grandeur of its architecture, but also for the collection of sculptures of the base of the pyramid, on which Greek type the temple and another pyramid were adorned with reliefs with scenes of Amazonomachy by the most famous sculptors of the 4th century. BC e. Leochar, Skopas, Briaxis and Timothy. The almost untouched mausoleum stood for about a year in the middle of the deserted city until the 15th century, when it was dismantled by the crusaders, who reinforced it with plates of their stronghold on the Aegean Sea, the castle of St. Petra (modern Bodrum in Turkey). It was within the walls of the fortress and the surrounding houses that in 1857 the English archaeologist C. T. Newton discovered relief slabs from the base of the tomb (currently british museum in London and the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul), statues of Mausolus and his wife Artemisia (who continued to build their common tomb after the death of the king) and a colossal chariot that crowned the entire structure.
TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS (Artemision) in Ephesus is one of the most famous and revered pilgrimage centers of the ancient world. The temple of the goddess was built in the 6th century. BC e. architect Hersiphron of Knossos. During one of the sieges, the inhabitants of Ephesus stretched a rope from the temple to the city, thereby turning it into an inviolable sanctuary. The glory of Artemision was so great that people from all over the Greek ecumene placed their savings in it. July 21, 356 BC e. the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, the main shrine of the Greeks of Asia Minor, was burned by Herostratus. When Alexander the Great approached the city 25 years later, he wished to restore the temple in all its splendor. The architect Alexandra Deinocrates, who supervised the work, retained his previous plan, only raised the building to a higher stepped base. The temple occupied a huge area of 110 x 55 m, the height of the Corinthian columns (there were 127), a double row surrounding the structure, was also grandiose about 18 m; the roof of Artemision was covered with marble tiles. One of the sights of the building were 36 columns, decorated at the base with reliefs almost in human height.
FAROS LIGHTHOUSE (Lighthouse of Alexandria) - a lighthouse on the eastern shore of about. Pharos within the boundaries of Alexandria, the Hellenistic capital of Egypt. The builder of this miracle of technology, the first and only in everything Greek world a lighthouse of colossal proportions was Sostratus of Knidos. Travelers who saw the lighthouse wrote about the ingeniously arranged statues that adorned the lighthouse tower: one of them always pointed to the sun along its entire path and lowered its hand down when it set, the other beat every hour day and night, the third one could find out the direction wind. The amazing building stood until the 14th century, but even in its already badly destroyed form, its height was approx. 30 m. At present, only the base of the lighthouse has been preserved, entirely built into a medieval fortress (now the base of the Egyptian fleet).
COLOSS OF RHODES - a giant statue of Helios by the sculptor Hares on the island of Rhodes. The statue of the god towered right at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and was visible to swimmers already from the neighboring islands, the height of the statue was approx. 35 m, i.e., almost three times higher than The Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg. At the base, the statue was made of clay with a metal frame, finished with bronze sheets on top. To work on the image of the god directly at the site of its installation, Chares used a cunning technique: with the gradual elevation of the sculpture, the earthen hill around it also rose; the hill was subsequently torn down, and the statue in its entirety was revealed to the astonished inhabitants of the island. It took 500 talents of bronze and 300 talents of iron to make a grandiose monument (about 13 and about 8 tons, respectively). " Bronze Horseman»
"The Eighth Wonder of the World" The most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang The most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang - this, of course, is the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang The most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang Emperor Qin ShihuanThe most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shihuan The most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin ShihuanThe most important thing in this wonder of the world is Of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang The Eighth Wonder of the World is located in the center of China. The exposition of this wonder of the world is located in the northern spurs of Mount Lishan east of the city of Xi'an and consists of funeral statues of warriors and horses from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. This is by no means ordinary museum exposition, for the ensemble consists of three huge crypts. The total exposition area is more than 20 thousand square meters. In three crypts, there are more than seven thousand figures, more than two hundred chariots and a huge amount of bronze weapons. The museum was created during excavations, that is, directly at the place where the burial was discovered. The most important thing in this wonder of the world is, of course, the scale laid down by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shihuan, who managed to unite the disparate principalities of China into a single state more than two thousand years ago. The perspicacious lord, trying to get into immortality during his lifetime, began to build for himself a huge tomb near the city of Chang'an in western China, and it later became a tomb in which funeral statues of warriors and horses were found. Twenty years ago, this ancient monument was included by UNESCO in the Catalog of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Masterpieces of world culture through the eyes of a general from the poem " Railway". - I was recently in the walls of the Vatican, I wandered around the Colosseum for two nights, I saw St. Stephen in Vienna, What ... did the people create all this? Excuse me for this impudent laugh, Your logic is a bit wild. Or is Apollo Belvedere for you Worse than an oven pot? Here are your people, these terms and baths, A miracle of art - he pulled everything away! .. -Your Slav, Anglo-Saxon and German Do not create - destroy the master, Barbarians! A wild crowd of drunkards!
1. Vatican. The Vatican is a grandiose architectural complex, where temples, palaces and fortifications are combined with works of garden and park art. The solemn entrance to the Vatican is St. Peter's Square framed by colonnades. The colonnades lead to St. Peter's Cathedral, the largest Catholic church in the world. In the palaces of the Vatican are located worldwide famous museums antique sculpture, and in the Vatican gardens, the casino of Pius V and the building of the Vatican Pinakothek, where works of Italian painting XIV XVII centuries.
4. Apollo Belvedere. Statue of Apollo marble roman copy bronze original work ancient Greek sculptor Leohara (c. BC, Pio-Clementino Museum, Vatican). The name comes from the Belvedere Palace in the Vatican where the statue is on display. For a long time considered the pinnacle of Greek art.
Electronic resources: Big Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius. DVD-ROM. - M.: LLC Cyril and Methodius, CD Global Deejays / SoundofSanFrancisco (Progress) mp3.
1. Introduction.
Over the millennia, a vibrant culture has developed in China.
The culture of China was influenced by the attitude towards nature, as an organic whole, living according to its own laws.
It was nature and the laws of its development that were at the center of creative searches, which for a long time determined the features of the development of all types of art without exception. Human life in China was commensurate with the life of nature, its cycles, rhythms, states. In Greece, man was "the measure of all things", but in China he is only a small particle of nature.
Confucianism and Buddhism have influenced Chinese culture. Many Chinese achievements date back to the Middle Ages.
China has surpassed all countries of the world,
In all arts he reached the heights.
2. Masterpieces of Chinese architecture.
The peculiarity of Chinese architecture is that the architects could find the most picturesque and natural place for architecture. On the top of the mountains, monasteries rise, Chinese temples and pagodas are built in hard-to-reach places, stone steles rise along the edges of the roads, luxurious palaces of emperors are erected in the center of noisy cities.
It stretches along the northwestern border for 5 km The great Wall of China. Its construction dates back to the 4th-3rd centuries, completed in the 15th century. Its purpose is to protect the Chinese state from the raids of nomadic tribes from the north. A road 5-8 meters wide was laid along its top to advance the troops. This building was designed to protect the power of the Chinese state.
One of the most popular buildings pagoda - a memorial tower erected in honor of the deeds of great people.
The pagoda is distinguished by grandiose dimensions and reaches a height of 50 meters. The appearance of the pagoda is simple, it almost does not use decorative decoration. hallmark pagodas are pointed roof edges. This lightens the building and emphasizes the aspiration upwards.
The 64-meter-high Dayanta Pagoda (Big Wild Goose Pagoda) is one of the finest examples of Chinese style architecture. The name of the pagoda goes back to the legend of the famous pilgrim, who, during his journey from India to China, was helped to find his way by wild geese. They indicated the place for the construction of the pagoda. Dayanta, against the backdrop of a vast mountain range, rises above the outskirts of the city of Xi'an - the former capital of the Chinese state. Seven floors separated from each other by cornices narrow towards the top of the pagoda, emphasizing its aspiration to the sky. That is why from a distance it gives the impression of heaviness and massiveness.
Due to the elongated proportions, the pagoda seems light and graceful.
The illusion of height is created by windows rounded at the top. In the simple and straight lines of the pagoda, the architect was able to express the sublime spiritual impulse and greatness of his time.
Buddhist cave temples located in the mountains became an unusual phenomenon in architecture. Cave Buddhist
Monastery Yungang belongs to the masterpieces of world architecture. A rock 60 meters high stretches for almost 2 km, in which over 20 caves are located at different heights. Some of them reach a height of 15 m. And they are deepened into the depths of the rock by 9-10 m. Each of the caves is dedicated to a particular Buddhist god. Inside there are many images of sculptures and reliefs on the themes of Buddhist tales and legends. Outside, the rock is decorated with sculptural monuments, bas-reliefs, statues. The cave temple is striking in its grandeur.
The main form of religious and residential buildings in China is a rectangular pavilion, the main feature of which is carved brackets supporting the roof. A high 2, 3, 4 pitched roof is a characteristic element of Chinese Architecture. Inside the building is divided into 2 or 3 naves, and outside it has a gallery with pillars that also support the roof.
Such a roof protected from snow and rain. The slopes of the roof had a strict curved shape, its ends were bent upwards. Ceramic figurines depicting fantastic animals and dragons were fixed on the roof ridges, and later bells were hung up.
The emblem of China has become Sky Temple in Pekin. The 2-tier conical roof, glazed with blue tiles, the conical roofs represent a dazzling mountain peak.
The grandiose complex is dedicated to the most ancient religious cults associated with harvesting. In which heaven and earth were revered. It was this circumstance that determined the originality of the architectural design. Walled, it includes 3 main shrines: Round in plan, the wooden Temple of Prayer for the Harvest, the Temple of the Vault of Heaven and the white marble altar, where sacrifices were made to the spirits of Heaven. There is a lot of symbolism in this architectural temple: the square territory of the palace symbolizes the Earth, temple buildings and the altar. Framed by a round terrace - a sign of the Sun, the pointed tops of conical roofs represent
A continuous cycle of movements of natural elements. The viewer slowly passes between the arches, climbing the numerous steps, gradually getting used to the rhythm of the ensemble, comprehending its beauty and grandeur.
The garden and park art of China has become world famous.
A true masterpiece of landscape gardening art - Benhai complex in Beijing.
The symmetrical layout of the Imperial Garden includes hills made of massive boulders, bamboo groves, plantings of rare trees and shrubs.
houses with goldfish. The names of the pavilions reflect the most important periods of the agricultural cycle (ten thousand autumns, ten thousand springs) - plowing and harvesting. About 700 mosaic panels made of multi-colored pebbles adorn the garden and park complex. They depict picturesque landscapes, exquisite plants, mythological heroes, scenes from theater and opera productions.
In the Imperial Garden there is a collection of stones of the most bizarre shapes brought from different parts of China.
Next to these unusual exhibits, pine trees turn green in winter and unfading bamboo rustles, and wild meihua plum and white-pink peonies bloom magnificently in spring. At the beginning of autumn, the cinnamon tree exudes the aroma, chrysanthemums captivate with their beauty.
3. Sculpture of China.
Sculpture has always been popular in China. It expressed the idea of power and unlimited power, back in the 3rd century. BC, when the Qin state was formed.
During archaeological excavations in the Shaanxi province, a 10,000-strong army made of terracotta was found in the underground corridors of the burial complexes. Soldiers and officers, archers and foot soldiers, chariots and horsemen. life size, with full military equipment, demonstrated the power of the emperor, who created the first Chinese state.
All the figures are full of expression, plausibility and variety of movements. The military leaders are depicted frozen in solemn poses, the archers are pulling a tight bowstring, the soldiers, kneeling on one knee, are preparing to slay an invisible enemy. In the coloring, the hierarchy of ranks escaped. Also, 130 clay chariots, 500 sculpted horses were found. The clay army, built in battle formation, faithfully guarded the peace of its ruler.
Funerary plastic art was further developed in the art of the 7th-13th centuries. The funeral ensemble near Xi'an, the capital of the Chinese Empire, was decorated with sculptural works in which scenes of court life were reproduced. Graceful dancers in the rhythms of dance, fashionistas in bright clothes, jugglers and musicians, servants and nomads.
A characteristic feature is the connection of the sculpture with the Buddhist religion. Here you can see the terrible guards of the entrance, trampling dragons, Buddhist saints, a monumental image of the Buddha. One of the most perfect sculptures is a 25-meter statue Buddha Vairochanna.(Lords of Cosmic Light), carved into the mountains in the Lunmen cave.
4. Genres of Chinese painting.
The desire to comprehend the universal laws of being and the interconnection of phenomena through the private is a characteristic feature of Chinese painting. It is mainly represented by vertical and horizontal scrolls made of silk and paper. Vertical scrolls were hung on the walls and did not exceed 3 m. Horizontal scrolls were intended for long viewing and reached several meters .Unfolding such a scroll, the viewer, as it were, went on a journey.
Pictures were usually painted with ink or mineral paints, accompanied by calligraphic inscriptions.
The artist either quoted poetry or composed poetry himself.
Chinese painting is represented by various genres: landscape, domestic, portrait, historical and domestic. Of particular interest are images such as “mountains-water”, “flowers-birds”. Chinese artists were able to express the idea of the limitlessness of the world. In the majestic image of the world of mountains, forests and rivers, you can see small figures of travelers. They are in no hurry, just contemplate the beauty.
On the mountain top
I spend the night in an abandoned temple.
I can touch the twinkling stars with my hand.
I'm afraid to speak loudly
With earthly words
I am the inhabitants of the sky
I dare not disturb peace
Li Bo. "Temple on top of the mountain."
This is how the Chinese poet Li Bo expressed the harmony of man and nature.
Landscape painting in China is not rich in colors. Often it is monochrome, but there are so many shades and combinations in it. The artists have achieved great skill in conveying aerial perspective. The format and compositional solution of the painting is carefully thought out. For the image of a chain of mountains, a horizontal scroll format was chosen, for a mountainous area with pointed pine tops, a vertical one.
“It is impossible to give trees without a number: it is more important to show how slender and lovely the mountains are. Among the rocks, overhanging and dangerous steeps, it would be good to shelter a strange tree. Distant mountains must be lowered and laid out, while nearby groves must be allowed to emerge abruptly.
There are many symbols in the landscapes of Chinese artists: a couple of ducks symbolized family happiness, a pheasant - a successful career, a lotus flower - a symbol of purity, flexible bamboo - wisdom and resistance to life's adversities, a pine tree - an allegory of longevity, a blossoming meihua plum - a symbol of nobility and stamina.
One of the soulful artists of the lyrical landscape is Guo Xi. It is in the variability of nature that its beauty lies.
Exquisitely simple and laconic is Ma Yun's monochrome painting Ducks, Rocks and Meihua.
The portrait genre is one of the oldest in Chinese painting. It has been known since the 5th century. BC e., associated with the cult of ancestors. The image of the poet Li Bo is embodied in the portrait of Liang Kai.
Art is almost as old as humanity itself, and countless unique works have been created over the centuries of our existence.
It would probably be too bold to make a list of the most outstanding masterpieces, because the criteria for evaluating creativity are too subjective. That is why our rating contains paintings and sculptures that are certainly the most recognizable in the world, which does not mean at all that they are somehow better than other brilliant works.
What creations are the most famous? Find out right now! Perhaps you are not familiar with everyone, and it's time to test your erudition and horizons.
