Ideal cities of the renaissance in Italy. Artistic culture of the Renaissance
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Siberian State University means of communication
Department of "Philosophy"
ARTISTIC IMAGES OF THE RENAISSANCE
Essay
In the discipline "Culturology"
Head Designed
Professor student gr. D-111
Bystrova A.N. ___________ Kamyshova E.V.
(signature) (signature)
08.12.2012
(date of inspection) (date of submission for inspection)
year 2012
Introduction
The Renaissance is considered one of the brightest periods in the history of development. European culture. We can say that the revival is a whole cultural era in the process of transition from the Middle Ages to the new time, during which a cultural upheaval (a turning point, a shift) took place. Fundamental changes are associated with the eradication of mythology.
Despite the origin of the term Renaissance (fr. Renaissance, "Renaissance"), there was no revival of antiquity and could not be. Man cannot return to his past. The Renaissance, using the lessons of antiquity, introduced innovations. He did not bring back to life all ancient genres, but only those that were characteristic of the aspirations of his time and culture. The Renaissance combined a new reading of antiquity with a new reading of Christianity.
The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the connection between the modern era and the Renaissance - this is a revolution, first of all, in the system of values, in the assessment of everything that exists and in relation to it.
The main purpose of the work is to show the fundamental changes that have taken place in the worldview of the greatest figures of the era under consideration.
1. Culture of the Renaissance
XIII-XVI The centuries have been a time of great change in economics, politics and culture. The rapid growth of cities and the development of crafts, and later the transition to manufactory production, transformed the face of medieval Europe.
Cities came to the fore. Not long before this, the most powerful forces of the medieval world - the empire and the papacy - were in deep crisis. IN XVI century, the decaying Holy Roman Empire of the German nation became the scene of the first two anti-feudal revolutions - the Great Peasants' War in Germany and the Netherlands Uprising.
The transitional nature of the era, the process of liberation from medieval paths taking place in all areas of life, at the same time, the still underdevelopment of emerging capitalist relations could not but affect the characteristics of the artistic culture and aesthetic thought of that time.
According to A. V. Stepanov, all changes in the life of society were accompanied by a broad renewal of culture - the flourishing of natural and exact sciences, literature in national languages, and fine arts. Originating in the cities of Italy, this renewal then captured other European countries. The author believes that after the advent of printing, unprecedented opportunities opened up for the dissemination of literary and scientific works, and more regular and close communication between countries contributed to the penetration of new artistic trends.
This did not mean that the Middle Ages receded before new trends: traditional ideas were preserved in the mass consciousness. The church resisted new ideas, using a medieval means - the Inquisition. The idea of the freedom of the human person continued to exist in a society divided into classes. The feudal form of dependence of the peasants did not completely disappear, and in some countries (Germany, Central Europe) there was a return to serfdom. The feudal system showed quite a lot of vitality. Each European country lived it out in its own way and within its own chronological framework. Capitalism for a long time existed as a way of life, covering only part of the production in both the city and the countryside. However, the patriarchal medieval slowness began to recede into the past.
The great geographical discoveries played a huge role in this breakthrough. For example, in 1492. H. Columbus, in search of a way to India, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed near the Bahamas, discovering a new continent - America. In 1498 Spanish traveler Vasco da Gama, having rounded Africa, successfully brought his ships to the shores of India. WITH XVI V. Europeans are penetrating into China and Japan, of which they previously had only the most vague idea. From 1510, the conquest of America begins. IN XVII V. Australia was discovered. The idea of the shape of the earth has changed: the round-the-world trip of F. Magellan confirmed the conjecture that it has the shape of a ball.
Contempt for everything earthly is now replaced by an avid interest in the real world, in man, in the consciousness of the beauty and grandeur of nature, which could be proved by analyzing the cultural monuments of the Renaissance. The primacy of theology over science, indisputable in the Middle Ages, is shaken by faith in the unlimited possibilities of the human mind, which becomes the highest measure of truth. Emphasizing the interest in the human as opposed to the divine, representatives of the new secular intelligentsia called themselves humanists, deriving this word from the concept of " studia humanitanis ”, meaning the study of everything connected with human nature and his spiritual world.
For the works and art of the Renaissance, the idea of a free being with boundless creative possibilities. It is associated with anthropocentrism in the aesthetics of the Renaissance and the understanding of the beautiful, the sublime, the heroic. The principle of a beautiful artistic and creative human personality was combined by the theorists of the Renaissance with an attempt to mathematically calculate all kinds of proportions, symmetry, and perspective.
The aesthetic and artistic thinking of this era is based for the first time on human perception as such and on a sensually real picture of the world. Here, the subjectivist-individualistic thirst for life sensations is also striking, regardless of their religious and moral interpretation, although the latter, in principle, is not denied. The aesthetics of the Renaissance focuses art on the imitation of nature. However, in the first place here is not so much nature as the artist, who in his creative activity likened to God.
E. Chamberlin considers pleasure to be one of the most important principles for the perception of works of art, because this indicates a significant democratic trend as opposed to the scholastic "learning" of previous aesthetic theories.
The aesthetic thought of the Renaissance contains not only the idea of absolutization of the human individual as opposed to the divine personality in the Middle Ages, but also a certain awareness of the limitations of such individualism, based on the absolute self-affirmation of the individual. Hence the motives of tragedy, found in the works of W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes, Michelangelo, and others. This is the contradictory nature of a culture that has departed from ancient medieval absolutes, but due to historical circumstances has not yet found new reliable foundations.
The connection between art and science is one of the characteristic features of culture. Artists sought support in the sciences, often stimulating their development. The Renaissance is marked by the emergence of artists-scientists, among whom the first place belongs to Leonardo da Vinci.
Thus, one of the tasks of the Renaissance is the comprehension by man of a world filled with divine beauty. The world attracts a person because he is spiritualized by God. But in the Renaissance, there was another trend a person's feeling of the tragedy of his existence.
2. The image of the world and man in the works of great masters renaissance
The term "Renaissance" (a translation of the French term "Renaissance") indicates a connection new culture with antiquity. As a result of acquaintance with the East, in particular with Byzantium, during the era of the Crusades, Europeans became acquainted with ancient humanistic manuscripts, various monuments of ancient fine art and architecture. All these antiquities began to be partially transported to Italy, where they were collected and studied. But even in Italy itself there were many ancient Roman monuments, which also began to be carefully studied by representatives of the Italian urban intelligentsia. In Italian society, a deep interest arose in the classical ancient languages, ancient philosophy, history and literature. The city of Florence played a particularly important role in this movement. A number of outstanding figures of the new culture came out of Florence.
Using the ancient ideology, created once in the most lively, in the economic sense, cities of antiquity, the new bourgeoisie reworked it in its own way, formulating its new worldview, sharply opposite to the worldview of feudalism that prevailed before. The second name of the new Italian culture - humanism just proves this.
Humanistic culture put the man himself (humanus - human) in the center of its attention, and not the divine, otherworldly, as was the case in medieval ideology. Asceticism no longer had a place in the humanistic worldview. The human body, its passions and needs were not seen as something "sinful" that had to be suppressed or tortured, but as an end in itself, as the most important thing in life. Earthly existence was recognized as the only real one. The knowledge of nature and man was declared the essence of science. In contrast to the pessimistic motives that dominated the worldview of medieval scholastics and mystics, optimistic motives prevailed in the worldview and mood of the people of the Renaissance; they were characterized by faith in man, in the future of mankind, in the triumph of human reason and enlightenment. A galaxy of outstanding poets and writers, scientists and figures various kinds art participated in this great new intellectual movement. The glory of Italy was brought by such wonderful artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian.
The undoubted achievement of the Renaissance was the geometrically correct construction of the picture. The artist built the image using the techniques he developed. The main thing for painters of that time was to observe the proportions of objects. Even nature fell under mathematical tricks.
In other words, artists in the Renaissance sought to convey an accurate image, for example, of a person against the backdrop of nature. If compared with modern methods of recreating a seen image on some kind of canvas, then, most likely, a photograph with subsequent adjustment will help to understand what the Renaissance artists were striving for.
Renaissance painters believed that they had the right to correct the flaws of nature, that is, if a person had ugly facial features, the artists corrected them in such a way that the face became sweet and attractive.
Depicting biblical stories, Renaissance artists tried to make it clear that the earthly manifestations of man can be depicted more clearly if biblical stories are used. You can understand what the fall, temptation, hell or heaven is, if you start to get acquainted with the work of artists of that time. The same image of the Madonna conveys to us the beauty of a woman, and also carries an understanding of earthly human love.
Thus, in the art of the Renaissance, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man were closely intertwined. Its cognitive meaning was inextricably linked with sublime poetic beauty; in its striving for naturalness, it did not descend to petty everyday life. Art has become a universal spiritual need.
Conclusion
So, the Renaissance, or the Renaissance, is an era in the life of mankind, marked by a colossal rise in art and science. The Renaissance proclaimed man the highest value of life.
In art, the main theme was a person with unlimited spiritual and creative possibilities.The art of the Renaissance laid the foundations of the European culture of the New Age, radically changed all the main types of art.
In architecture, new types of public buildings have developed.Painting was enriched by linear and aerial perspective knowledge of the anatomy and proportions of the human body.Earthly content penetrated the traditional religious themes of works of art. Increased interest in ancient mythology, history, everyday scenes, landscape, portrait. There was a picture, there was a painting oil paints. The creative individuality of the artist took the first place in art.
In the art of the Renaissance, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man were closely intertwined.Art has become a universal spiritual need.
Undoubtedly, the Renaissance is one of the most beautiful eras in the history of mankind.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Kustodieva T.K. ITALIAN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE OF THE XIII-XVI CENTURIES (ESSAY-GUIDE) / Т.К. KUSTODIEVA, ART, 1985. 318 P.
- IMAGES OF LOVE AND BEAUTY IN THE CULTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE / L.M. BRAGINA, M., 2008. 309 P.
- Stepanov A.V. ART OF THE RENAISSANCE. ITALY XIV-XV CENTURIES / A.V. STEPANOV, M., 2007. 610 P.
- Stepanov A.V. ART OF THE RENAISSANCE. NETHERLANDS, GERMANY, FRANCE, SPAIN, ENGLAND / A.V. STEPANOV, AZBUKA-CLASSICS, 2009. 640 P.
- CHAMBERLIN E. THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE. LIFE, RELIGION, CULTURE / E. CHAMBERLIN, CENTERPOLYGRAPH, 2006. 240 P.
Introduction
Revival as a new worldview and a new art style originated in Italy at the end of the 14th century. The first urban planning ideas represented the city as an architectural unity according to a predetermined plan. Under the influence of these ideas, instead of narrow and crooked medieval alleys in Italian cities straight wider streets began to appear, built up with large buildings.
The layout and architecture of squares during the Renaissance took shape in the 15th-16th centuries. in Rome and others major cities Italy.
During this period, several cities were reconstructed here using new principles of urban planning. In most cases, palaces in such cities were located on the central squares, which sometimes represented the beginning of three-beam compositions.
Renaissance cities gradually acquired new features under the influence of social changes. However, due to private ownership of land and backward technology, it was impossible to quickly move from the old city to the new one. In all periods of the Renaissance, the main efforts of urban planners were directed to the development of the city center - the square and the nearest quarters. During the heyday of monarchical states in the XVIII century. the ensembles of the central squares of cities were given exceptional importance as their main decorations. City squares had mostly geometrically correct outlines.
If the architecture of ancient Greek and Roman squares was characterized by columns and porticos, then for the squares of the Renaissance period, arcades became new elements, developing simultaneously with the development of entire systems of squares.
In most medieval cities, decorative greenery was absent. Orchards were grown in the gardens of monasteries; orchards or vineyards of the townspeople were behind the city fortifications. in Paris in the 18th century. alleys, cropped greenery, flower garden parterres appear. However, the parks of palaces and castles were privately owned. Public gardens in most European cities appear only at the end of the 18th century.
Water basins in the Middle Ages, in essence, were an obstacle to the development of the city, dividing its districts, and served for narrow practical purposes. Since the 18th century rivers began to be used as connecting elements of cities, and in favorable conditions - as compositional axes. A vivid example is the wise urban planning use of the Neva and Nevka rivers in St. Petersburg. The construction of bridges and the construction of embankments consolidated this direction in urban planning.
During the medieval period, the skyline of the city was largely defined by the pointed spiers on city administrations, churches and public buildings. The silhouette of the city was defined by many small verticals and a few dominant ones. In connection with the new artistic understanding of the silhouette of the city, high medieval roofs were gradually eliminated, Renaissance buildings were completed with roofs with attics and balustrades.
With the increase in the scale of buildings and new types of coverings, the silhouette of the city is softened by domes of smooth outlines, which have received a dominant role in the panoramas of cities. Their change was greatly influenced by gardens and parks, the trees of which largely hide the buildings.
The architects of the Renaissance used strict means of expression in urban planning: harmonic proportions, the scale of a person as a measure of the surrounding architectural environment.
The ideological struggle of the emerging Italian bourgeoisie against medieval forms of religion, morality and law resulted in a broad progressive movement - humanism. Humanism was based on civic life-affirming principles: the desire to liberate the human personality from spiritual constraint, the thirst for knowledge of the world and the person himself and, as a result of this, the craving for secular forms of social life, the desire for knowledge of the laws and beauty of nature, for the all-round harmonious improvement of man. . These shifts in worldview led to a revolution in all spheres of spiritual life - art, literature, philosophy, science. In their activities, the humanists largely relied on ancient ideals, often reviving not only the ideas, but also the forms themselves, and the expressive means of ancient works. In this regard, the cultural movement of Italy in the XV-XVI centuries. called the renaissance, or resurrection
The humanistic worldview stimulated the development of the individual, increased its importance in public life. The individual style of the master played an increasing role in the development of art and architecture. The culture of humanism has put forward a whole galaxy of brilliant architects, sculptors, artists, such as Brunellesco, Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Palladio and others.
The desire to create an “ideal image of a person”, combined with the search for methods of artistic exploration of the world, led to a kind of cognitive realism of the Renaissance, based on a close union of art with a rapidly developing science. In architecture, the search for "ideal" forms of buildings, based on a complete and complete composition, has become one of its defining trends. Along with the development of new types of civil and religious buildings, the development of architectural thought is going on, there is an urgent need for theoretical generalizations of modern experience, especially historical and, above all, ancient.
Three era periods Italian Renaissance
Renaissance architecture in Italy is divided into three main periods: early, high and late. architectural center Early Renaissance was Tuscany with the main city - Florence. This period covers the second quarter and the middle of the 15th century. The beginning of the Renaissance in architecture is considered to be 1420, when the construction of the dome over the Florentine Cathedral began. Construction achievements, which led to the creation of a huge centric form, have become a kind of symbol of the architecture of the New Age.
1. Early Renaissance period
The early Renaissance in architecture is characterized, first of all, by the forms of buildings created by the famous architect engineer Filippo Brunellesco (first half of the 15th century). In particular, he used a light semicircular instead of a pointed arch in the Orphanage in Florence. The rib vault, characteristic of Gothic architecture, began to give way to a new design - a modified box vault. However, the lancet forms of the arch still continued to be used until the middle of the 16th century.
One of the outstanding buildings of Brunellesco was the huge dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, which had remained unfinished since the 14th century.
In the form of a large dome created by the architect, an echo of the Gothic lancet arch is noticeable. The span of the dome of this cathedral is large - 42m. The vaults of the dome, made of brick, rest on an octagonal base of logs sheathed with iron sheets. Thanks to the successful location of the cathedral on a hill and its high height (115m), its upper part, especially the dome, gives solemnity and originality to the architectural panorama of Florence.
Civil architecture occupied a significant place in the architecture of the Italian Renaissance. It primarily includes large city palaces (palazzo), which, in addition to housing, were intended for ceremonial receptions. Medieval palaces, gradually throwing off their harsh Romanesque and Gothic clothes with the help of marble cladding and sculpture, acquired a cheerful look.
The features of the Renaissance facades are huge arched window openings separated by columns, rustication of the first floors with stones, upper slabs, large projection cornices and finely traced details. Unlike austere facades, the architecture of well-lit interiors has a cheerful character.
For the decoration of the facades of the palaces of the early Renaissance, rustication was often used. Stones for rustication usually had an unworked (chipped) front surface with a cleanly hewn bordering path. The relief of rustication decreased with the increase in the number of floors. Later, the decoration with rustication was preserved only in the processing of socles and at the corners of buildings.
In the XV century. Italian architects often used the Corinthian order. Often there were cases of combining several orders in one building: for the lower floors - a Doric order, and for the upper floors - a composition of capitals, close in proportions and pattern to the Ionic type.
One of the examples of palace architecture of the mid-15th century. in Florence, the three-story Medici-Ricardi Palace, built according to the project of the architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo in the period 1444-1452, by order of Cosimo Medici, the ruler of Florence, can serve. According to the scheme of the facade of the Medici Palace, hundreds of palaces were later built in other cities.
A further development of the composition of the palace is the palazzo Rucchelai in Florence built in 1446–1451 designed by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472). Like the ancient Roman Colosseum, its facade is divided into floors by orders with a transition from the simplest Doric order in the lower tier to the more subtle and rich Corinthian order in the upper one.
The impression of lightening the building upwards, created in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi with the help of rustication of the walls, is expressed here in the form of a tiered system of orders lightening upwards. At the same time, the large crowning cornice is correlated not with the height of the upper tier, but with the height of the building as a whole, which is why the composition acquired the features of completeness and static. In the development of the facade are still saved traditional motifs: double arched windows coming from the medieval form of windows, rustication of the walls, the general monumentality of the cloud, etc.
Pazzi Chapel (1430-1443) - a domed building, set in the courtyard of the monastery. In the composition of the facade, an internal structure dissected by an order with the volume of the hall with a dome on sails dominating it was displayed. The colonnade, cut along the axis by an arch and completed by a finely dissected attic, is matched by cartelized pilasters on the inner wall of the loggia, and protruding articulations of arches on the vaulted ceiling.
The correspondence of orders and the repetition of small domes in the loggia and the altar part contribute to the organic connection of the facade with the interior. The walls inside are dissected by flat, but highlighted in color pilasters, which, continuing in the divisions of the vaults, give an idea of the logic of building space, the tectonic system. Developing three-dimensionally, the order emphasizes the unity and subordination of the main parts. The visual "framework" also characterizes the dissection of the dome from the inside, which is somewhat reminiscent of the structure of the Gothic nerve vaults. However, the harmony of order forms and the clarity of the tectonic structure, balance and commensurability with man speak of the triumph of new architectural ideals over the principles of the Middle Ages.
Along with Brunellesco and Michelozzo da Bartolomeo, other masters (Rosselino, Benedetto da Maiano, etc.), whose work was mainly associated with Tuscany and Northern Italy, also played an important role in the development of new architecture. Alberti, who built, in addition to the Palazzo Ruccellai, a number of large structures (the facade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, the Church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, etc.), completes this period.
2. Period High Renaissance
The period of the High Renaissance covers the end of the 15th - the first half of the 16th century. By this time, due to the movement of the main trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, Italy was experiencing a well-known economic decline and a reduction in industrial production. Often the bourgeoisie bought up land and turned into usurers and landowners. The process of feudalization of the bourgeoisie is accompanied by a general aristocratization of culture, the center of gravity is transferred to the court circle of the nobility: dukes, princes, popes. Rome becomes the center of culture - the residence of the popes, who are often elected from representatives of the humanistically minded aristocracy. Huge building work is underway in Rome. In this undertaking, undertaken by the papal court to raise their own prestige, the humanist community saw the experience of reviving greatness. ancient Rome and with it the greatness of all of Italy. At the court, who ascended the throne in 1503. The humanist of Pope Julius II was the work of the most prominent architects - among them Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Antonio da Sangallo and others.
In the architecture of this period, the main features and trends of the Renaissance receive their finished expression. The most perfect centric compositions are created. The type of urban palazzo is finally taking shape, which during this period acquires the features of a building not only private, but also public, and therefore, in a certain area, becomes the prototype of many subsequent public buildings. overcome the characteristic early period Revival contrast (between the architectural characteristics of the external appearance of the palazzo and its courtyard. Under the influence of a more systematic and archaeologically accurate acquaintance with ancient monuments, order compositions become more rigorous: along with Ionic and Corinthian orders, simpler and more monumental orders are widely used - Roman Doric and Tuscan, and a finely designed arcade on columns gives way to a more monumental order arcade.In general, the compositions of the High Renaissance acquire greater significance, rigor and monumentality.The problem of creating a regular urban ensemble is put on a real basis.Country villas are being built as integral architectural complexes.
The most important architect of this period was Donato d'Angelo Bramante (1444–1514). The Cancelleria building attributed to Bramante (the main papal office) in Rome - one of the outstanding palace buildings - is a huge parallelepiped with a rectangular courtyard surrounded by arcades. The harmonious composition of the facades develops the principles laid down in the Palazzo Ruccellai, but the overall rhythmic structure creates a more complex and solemn image. The first floor, treated as a basement, intensified the contrast with a lightweight top. Great importance acquired rhythmically arranged plastic accents in the composition, created by large openings and platbands framing them. The rhythm of horizontal articulations became even clearer.
Among the religious buildings of Bramante, a small chapel stands out in the courtyard of the monastery of San Pietro in Montrrio, called Tempietto. (1502) - a building located inside a rather cramped courtyard, which was supposed to be surrounded by a circular arcade in plan.
The chapel is a domed rotunda surrounded by a Roman Doric colonnade. The building is distinguished by the perfection of proportions, the order is interpreted strictly and constructively. In comparison with the centric buildings of the early Renaissance, where linear-planar wall development prevails (Pazzi Chapel), the volume of Tempietto is plastic: its ordered plasticity corresponds to the tectonic integrity of the composition. The contrast between the monolithic core of the rotunda and the colonnade, between the smoothness of the wall and the plasticity of deep niches and pilasters emphasizes the expressiveness of the composition, complete harmony and completeness. Despite its small size, Tempietto gives the impression of monumentality. Already by contemporaries of Bramante, this building was recognized as one of the masterpieces of architecture.
Being the chief architect at the court of Pope Julius II, Bramante from 1505. works to rebuild the Vatican. A grandiose complex of ceremonial buildings and solemn courtyards located at different levels was conceived, subordinate to a single axis, closed by the majestic exedra of the Belvedere. In this, in essence, the first Renaissance ensemble of such grandiose design, the compositional techniques of the ancient Roman forums were masterfully used. The papal residence was supposed to be connected with another grandiose building in Rome - the Cathedral of Peter, for the construction of which the Bramante project was also adopted. The perfection of the centric composition and the grandiose scope of the project of the Cathedral of Peter Bramante give reason to consider this work the pinnacle of the development of Renaissance architecture. However, the project was not destined to be realized in kind: during the life of Bramante, the construction of the cathedral was only begun, which from 1546, 32 years after the death of the architect, was transferred to Michelangelo.
He took part in the competition for the design of the Peter's Cathedral, as well as in the construction and painting of the buildings of the Vatican, together with Bramante great artist and the architect Raphael Santi, who built and painted the famous loggias of the Vatican, which received his name (“the loggias of Raphael”), as well as a number of remarkable structures, both in Rome itself and outside it (the construction and painting of the Villa Madama in Rome, the Pandolfini Palace in Florence and etc.).
One of the best students of Bramante - the architect Antonio da Sangallo Jr. - owns the project of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome , to a certain extent completed the evolution of the Renaissance palace.
In the development of its facade, there are no traditional rustication and vertical articulations. On the smooth, brick-plastered surface of the wall, wide horizontal belts running along the entire facade clearly stand out; as if leaning on them, there are windows with embossed architraves in the form of an antique “edicule”. The windows of the first floor, unlike the Florentine palaces, have the same dimensions as the windows of the upper floors. The building was freed from the fortress isolation, still inherent in the palaces of the early Renaissance. In contrast to the palaces of the 15th century, where the courtyard was surrounded by light arched galleries on columns, a monumental order arcade with semi-columns appears here. The order of the gallery is somewhat heavier, acquiring the features of solemnity and representativeness. The narrow passage between the yard and the street has been replaced by an open "vestibule", revealing the prospect of the front yard.
3. Late period Renaissance
The late period of the Renaissance is usually considered the middle and the end of the 16th century. At this time, the economic downturn continued in Italy. The role of the feudal nobility and Church Catholic organizations increased. To combat the reformation and all manifestations of an anti-religious spirit, the Inquisition was established. Under these conditions, humanists began to experience persecution. A significant part of them, pursued by the Inquisition, moved to the northern cities of Italy, especially to Venice, which still retained the rights of an independent republic, where the influence of the religious counter-reformation was not so strong. In this regard, during late Renaissance the most striking were two schools - the Roman and the Venetian. In Rome, where the ideological pressure of the counter-reformation strongly influenced the development of architecture, along with the development of the principles of the High Renaissance, there is a departure from the classics towards more complex compositions, greater decorativeness, a violation of the clarity of forms, scale and tectonicity. In Venice, despite the partial penetration of new trends into architecture, the classical basis of architectural composition was more preserved.
A prominent representative of the Roman school was the great Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). In his architectural works, the foundations of a new understanding of form, characteristic of this period, are laid, distinguished by great expression, dynamics and plastic expressiveness. His work, which took place in Rome and Florence, reflected with particular force the search for images capable of expressing the general crisis of humanism and the inner anxiety that the progressive circles of society then experienced before the impending forces of reaction. As a brilliant sculptor and painter, Michelangelo was able to find bright plastic means for expression in art. inner strength their heroes, the unresolved conflict of their spiritual world, titanic efforts in the struggle. In architectural creativity, this corresponded to the emphasized identification of the plasticity of forms and their intense dynamics. Michelangelo's order often lost its tectonic significance, turning into a means of decorating walls, creating enlarged masses that amaze a person with their scale and plasticity. Boldly violating the architectural principles familiar to the Renaissance, Michelangelo to a certain extent was the founder of a creative manner, which was subsequently picked up in the architecture of the Italian Baroque. To the largest architectural work Michelangelo refers to the completion after the death of Bramante of Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Michelangelo, taking as a basis a centric scheme close to Bramante's plan, introduced new features into its interpretation: he simplified the plan and generalized the interior space, made the supports and walls more massive, and added a portico with a solemn colonnade from the western facade. In the three-dimensional composition, the calm balance and subordination of the spaces of Bramante's project are translated into the emphasized dominance of the main dome and the under-dome space. In the composition of the facades, clarity and simplicity were replaced by more complex and large plastic forms, the walls are dissected by ledges and pilasters of a large Corinthian order with a powerful entablature and a high attic; between the pilasters, window openings, niches and various decorative elements (cornices, corbels, sandriks, statues, etc.) are placed, as it were, squeezed into the piers, giving the walls an almost sculptural plasticity.
In the composition of the Medici Chapel the church of San Lorenzo in Florence (1520), the interior and sculptures made by Michelangelo merged into a single whole. Sculptural and architectural forms are full of inner tension and drama. Their sharp emotional expressiveness prevails over the tectonic basis, the order is interpreted as an element of the artist's general sculptural conception.
One of the outstanding Roman architects of the late Renaissance is also Vignola, the author of the treatise “The Rule of Five Orders of Architecture”. The most significant of his works are the castle of Caprarola and the villa of Pope Julius II. . During the Renaissance, the type of villa undergoes significant development associated with a change in its functional content. Even at the beginning of the XV century. it was a country estate, often surrounded by walls, and sometimes even had defensive towers. By the end of the XV century. the villa becomes a place of country rest for wealthy citizens (Villa Medici near Florence), and from the 16th century. it often becomes the residence of large feudal lords and higher clergy. The villa loses its intimacy and takes on the character of a frontal frontal-axial structure, open to the surrounding nature.
The villa of Pope Julius II is an example of this type. Its strictly axial and rectangular composition descends in ledges down the mountainside, creating a complex game of open, semi-open and closed spaces located in various levels. The composition is influenced by the ancient Roman forums and courts of the Vatican.
The outstanding masters of the Venetian school of the late Renaissance were Sansovino, who built the building of the Library of San Marco in Venice (begun in 1536) - an important component of the remarkable ensemble of the Venetian center, and most bright representative the classical school of the Renaissance - the architect Palladio.
The activities of Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580) proceeded mainly in the city of Vicenza, not far from Venice, where he built palace buildings and villas, as well as in Venice, where he built mainly church buildings. His work in a number of buildings was a reaction to the anti-classical tendencies of the late Renaissance. In an effort to preserve the purity of classical principles, Palladio relies on the rich experience he gained in the process of studying the ancient heritage. He is trying to revive not only order forms, but entire elements and even types of buildings of the ancient period. Structurally truthful order portico becomes the main theme of many of his works.
At Villa Rotonda , built near Vicenza (begun in 1551), the master achieved exceptional integrity and harmony of the composition. Located on a hill and clearly visible from a distance, the four facades of the villa with porticos on all sides, together with the dome, form a clear centric composition.
In the center is a round domed hall, from which exits lead under the porticos. Wide portico staircases connect the building with surrounding nature. The centric composition reflects the general aspirations of Renaissance architects for the absolute completeness of the composition, clarity and geometricity of forms, the harmonious connection of individual parts with the whole, and the organic fusion of the building with nature.
But this “ideal” scheme of composition remained single. In the actual construction of numerous villas, Palladio paid more attention to the so-called three-part scheme, consisting of the main volume and one-story order galleries extending from it to the sides, serving to communicate with the services of the estate and organizing the front courtyard in front of the facade of the villa. It was this scheme of a country house that later had numerous followers in the construction of manor palaces.
In contrast to the free development of the volumes of country villas, Palladio's urban palaces usually have an austere and laconic composition with a large-scale and monumental main façade. The architect widely uses a large order, interpreting it as a kind of "column - wall" system. A striking example– palazzo Capitanio (1576), the walls of which are treated with columns of a large composite order with a powerful, loose entablature. The upper floor, expanded in the form of a superstructure (attic floor), gave the building completeness and monumentality,
Palladio also widely used in his city palaces the two-tier division of facades with orders, as well as an order placed on a high rusticated basement - a technique first used by Bramante and subsequently widely used in classicist architecture.
Conclusion
Modern architecture, when searching for forms of its own stylistic manifestation, does not hide that it uses historical heritage. Most often, she refers to those theoretical concepts and principles of shaping that in the past have achieved the greatest stylistic purity. Sometimes it even seems that everything that the 20th century lived before was returning in a new form and quickly repeating itself again.
Much of what a person cherishes in architecture appeals not so much to a scrupulous analysis of individual parts of an object, but to its synthetic, holistic image, to the sphere emotional perception. This means that architecture is art or, in any case, contains elements of art.
Sometimes architecture is called the mother of the arts, meaning that painting and sculpture developed for a long time in an inseparable organic connection with architecture. The architect and the artist have always had a lot in common in their work, and sometimes they got along well in one person. The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias is rightfully considered one of the creators of the Parthenon. The graceful bell tower of the main cathedral of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, was built "according to the drawing" of the great painter Giotto. Michelangelo, who was equally great as an architect, sculptor and painter. Raphael also successfully acted in the architectural field. Their contemporary painter Giorgio Vasari built the Uffizi Street in Florence. Such a synthesis of the talent of the artist and architect was found not only among the titans of the Renaissance, it also marked the new time. Applied artists Englishman William Morris and Belgian Van de Velde made a great contribution to the development modern architecture. Corbusier was a talented painter, and Alexander Vesnin a brilliant theater artist. Soviet artists K. Malevich and L. Lissitzky interestingly experimented with architectural form, and their colleague and contemporary Vladimir Tatlin became the author of the legendary project of the 111 International Tower. The author of the famous project of the Palace of Soviets, architect B. Iofan, is rightfully considered the co-author of the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" together with the remarkable Soviet artist Vera Mukhina.
Graphic representation and three-dimensional layout are the main means by which the architect seeks and defends his decisions. The discovery of linear perspective in the Renaissance actively influenced the spatial concept of the architecture of this time. Ultimately, the comprehension of the linear perspective led to the linking of the square, the stairs, the building into a single spatial composition, and after that to the emergence of gigantic architectural ensembles of baroque and high classicism. Many years later, the experiments of cubist artists had a great influence on the development of architectural form creation. They tried to depict the subject with different points vision, to achieve its three-dimensional perception by superimposing several images, to expand the possibilities of spatial perception by introducing the fourth dimension - time. This volume of perception served Starting point for the formal search for modern architecture, which opposed the flat screen of the facade with an intricate play of volumes and planes freely located in space.
Sculpture and painting did not immediately gain independence from architecture. At first they were just elements of an architectural structure. It took more than one century for the painting to separate from the wall or the iconostasis. At the end of the Renaissance, in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, sculptures still timidly crowd around the buildings, as if afraid to completely break with the facades. Michelangelo is the first to erect an equestrian statue in the center of Capitoline Square in Rome. The year is 1546. Since then, the monument, monumental sculpture acquires the rights of an independent element of the composition, organizing the urban space. True, the sculptural form still continues to live on the walls of the architectural structure for some time, but these last traces of the “former luxury” gradually disappear from them.
Corbusier affirms this composition of modern architecture with his characteristic certainty: “I do not recognize either sculpture or painting as decoration. I admit that both can evoke deep emotions in the viewer in the same way that music and theater affect you - it all depends on the quality of the work, but I am definitely against decoration. On the other hand, looking at an architectural work, and especially the platform on which it is erected, you see that certain places of the building itself and around it are certain intense mathematical places that turn out to be, as it were, the key to the proportions of the work and its environment. These are the places of the highest intensity, and it is in these places that the architect's definite purpose can be realized - whether in the form of a pool, or a block of stone, or a statue. We can say that in this place all the conditions are combined for a speech to be delivered, the speech of an artist, plastic speech.
The history of the Renaissance begins in Still this period is called the Renaissance. The Renaissance changed into culture and became the forerunner of the culture of the New Age. And the Renaissance ended in the XVI-XVII centuries, since in each state it has its own start and end date.
Some general information
Representatives of the Renaissance are Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio. They became the first poets who began to express lofty images and thoughts in a frank, common language. This innovation was received with a bang and spread to other countries.
Renaissance and art
The features of the Renaissance is that the human body has become the main source of inspiration and the subject of research for the artists of this time. Thus, emphasis was placed on the similarity of sculpture and painting with reality. The main features of the art of the Renaissance period include radiance, refined brushwork, the play of shadow and light, thoroughness in the process of work and complex compositions. For Renaissance artists, images from the Bible and myths were the main ones.
The similarity of a real person with his image on a particular canvas was so close that fictional character seemed alive. This cannot be said about the art of the 20th century.
The Renaissance (its main trends are briefly outlined above) perceived the human body as an endless beginning. Scientists and artists regularly improved their skills and knowledge by studying the bodies of individuals. At that time, the prevailing opinion was that man was created in the likeness and image of God. This statement reflected physical perfection. The main and important objects of Renaissance art were the gods.
Nature and beauty of the human body
Renaissance art paid great attention to nature. A characteristic element of the landscapes was a varied and lush vegetation. The skies of a blue-blue hue, which were pierced by the sun's rays that penetrated the clouds of white, were a magnificent backdrop for the soaring creatures. Renaissance art revered the beauty of the human body. This feature was manifested in the refined elements of the muscles and body. Difficult postures, facial expressions and gestures, well-coordinated and clear color palette characteristic of the work of sculptors and sculptors of the Renaissance period. These include Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and others.
Sergey Khromov
Although not a single ideal city was embodied in stone, their ideas found life in real cities of the Renaissance...
Five centuries separate us from the period when architects first addressed the issues of rebuilding the city. And these same questions are acute for us today: how to create new cities? How to rebuild the old ones - to fit separate ensembles into them or demolish and rebuild everything? And most importantly - what idea to lay in a new city?
The masters of the Renaissance embodied those ideas that had already sounded in ancient culture and philosophy: ideas of humanism, harmony of nature and man. People again turn to Plato's dream of an ideal state and ideal city. The new image of the city is born first as an image, as a formula, as an idea, which is a bold claim for the future - like many other inventions of the Italian Quattrocento.
The construction of the theory of the city was closely connected with the study of the heritage of antiquity and, above all, the entire treatise "Ten Books on Architecture" by Mark Vitruvius (second half of the 1st century BC), an architect and engineer in the army of Julius Caesar. This treatise was discovered in 1427 in one of the abbeys. The authority of Vitruvius was emphasized by Alberti, Palladio, Vasari. The greatest connoisseur of Vitruvius was Daniele Barbaro, who in 1565 published his treatise with his commentaries. In a work dedicated to Emperor Augustus, Vitruvius summarized the experience of architecture and urban planning in Greece and Rome. He considered the already classic questions of choosing a favorable area for the founding of the city, the placement of the main city squares and streets, and the typology of buildings. From an aesthetic point of view, Vitruvius advised adherence to ordination (following architectural orders), reasonable planning, observing the uniformity of rhythm and order, symmetry and proportionality, conformity of form to purpose and distribution of resources. |
In the urban planning of the Renaissance, theory and practice develop in parallel. New buildings are being built and old ones are being rebuilt, architectural ensembles and simultaneously written treatises on architecture, planning and fortification of cities. Among them are the famous works of Alberti and Palladio, schemes of the ideal cities of Filarete, Scamozzi and others. The idea of the authors is far ahead of the needs of practical construction: they describe not finished projects, according to which you can plan a specific city, and a graphically depicted idea, the concept of the city. Reasoning about the location of the city from the point of view of economy, hygiene, defense, aesthetics is given. Searches are being made for optimal plans for residential areas and urban centers, gardens and parks. Questions of composition, harmony, beauty, proportion are studied. In these ideal constructions, the planning of the city is characterized by rationalism, geometric clarity, centric composition and harmony between the whole and the parts. And, finally, what distinguishes the architecture of the Renaissance from other eras is the person standing in the center, at the heart of all these constructions. Attention to the human person was so great that even architectural structures likened human body as a standard of perfect proportions and beauty.
Theory
In the 50s of the XV century. The treatise "Ten Books on Architecture" by Leon Alberti appears. It was, in fact, the first theoretical work new era about this theme. It deals with many issues of urban planning, ranging from site selection and city planning to building typology and decor. Of particular interest are his arguments about beauty. Alberti wrote that "beauty is a strict proportionate harmony of all parts, united by what they belong to - such that nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse." In fact, Alberti was the first to proclaim the basic principles of the Renaissance urban ensemble, linking the ancient sense of proportion with the rationalistic beginning of a new era. The given ratio of the height of the building to the space located in front of it (from 1:3 to 1:6), the consistency of the architectural scales of the main and secondary buildings, the balance of the composition and the absence of dissonant contrasts - these are the aesthetic principles of Renaissance urban planners.
The ideal city excited many great people of the era. Thought about him and Leonardo da Vinci. His idea was to create a two-level city: the upper level was intended for pedestrian and surface roads, and the lower one was for tunnels and canals connected with the basements of houses, through which freight transport moves. Known for his plans for the reconstruction of Milan and Florence, as well as the project of a spindle city.
Another prominent city theorist was Andrea Palladio. In his treatise "Four Books on Architecture" he reflects on the integrity of the urban organism and the relationship of its spatial elements. He says that "the city is nothing but a certain big house, and vice versa, the house is a kind of small town. About the urban ensemble, he writes: "Beauty is the result of a beautiful form and the correspondence of the whole to parts, parts to each other and also parts to the whole." A prominent place in the treatise is given to the interior of buildings, their dimensions and proportions. Palladio is trying to organically connect the outer space of the streets with the interior of houses and courtyards.
Near the end of the 16th century. many theorists were attracted by the issues of retail space and fortifications. So, Giorgio Vasari Jr. in his ideal city pays a lot of attention to the development of squares, shopping arcades, loggias, palazzos. And in the projects of Vicenzo Scamozzi and Buanayuto Lorrini, issues of fortification art occupy a significant place. This was a response to the order of the time - with the invention of explosive shells, the fortress walls and towers were replaced by earthen bastions, taken out of the city boundaries, and the city began to resemble a multi-beam star in its outlines. These ideas were embodied in the actually built fortress of Palmanova, the creation of which is attributed to Scamozzi.
Practice
Although not a single ideal city was embodied in stone, with the exception of small fortress cities, many of the principles of its construction were embodied in reality already in the 16th century. At that time, in Italy and other countries, straight wide streets were laid, connecting important elements of the urban ensemble, new squares were created, old ones were rebuilt, and later parks and palace ensembles with a regular structure appeared.
| Ideal City by Antonio Filarete The city was an octagonal star in plan, formed by the intersection at an angle of 45 ° of two equal squares with a side of 3.5 km. In the protrusions of the star there were eight round towers, and in the "pockets" - eight city gates. The gates and towers were connected to the center by radial streets, some of which were shipping channels. In the central part of the city, on a hill, there was the main square, rectangular in plan, on the short sides of which there were supposed to be princely palace and the city cathedral, and along the long ones - judicial and city institutions. In the center of the square there was a pond and a watchtower. Two others adjoined the main square, with the houses of the most eminent residents of the city. Sixteen more squares were located at the intersection of radial streets with the ring street: eight shopping and eight for parish centers and churches. |
Despite the fact that the art of the Renaissance was sufficiently opposed to the art of the Middle Ages, it easily and organically fit into medieval cities. In their practical activities, Renaissance architects used the principle of "building a new one without destroying the old." They managed to create surprisingly harmonious ensembles not only from buildings of the same style, as can be seen in the squares of Annuziata in Florence (designed by Filippo Brunelleschi) and the Capitol in Rome (designed by Michelangelo), but also to combine buildings from different times into one composition. So, on the square of St. Mark in Venice, medieval buildings are combined into an architectural and spatial ensemble with new buildings of the 16th century. And in Florence, from Piazza della Signoria with the medieval Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi Street, designed by Giorgio Vasari, harmoniously follows. Moreover, the ensemble of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Brunelleschi's reconstruction) perfectly combines three architectural style: Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance.
The city of the Middle Ages and the city of the Renaissance
The ideal city of the Renaissance appeared as a kind of protest against the Middle Ages, expressed in the development of ancient urban planning principles. Unlike the medieval city, which was perceived as a kind, albeit imperfect, likeness of the "Heavenly Jerusalem", the embodiment of not a human, but a divine plan, the city of the Renaissance was created by a human creator. Man did not just copy what already existed, he created something more perfect and did it in accordance with the "divine mathematics". The city of the Renaissance was created for man and had to correspond to the earthly world order, its real social, political and everyday structure.
The medieval city is surrounded by powerful walls, fenced off from the world, its houses are more like fortresses with a few loopholes. The city of the Renaissance is open, it does not defend itself from the outside world, it controls it, subjugates it. The walls of buildings, delimiting, unite the spaces of streets and squares with courtyards and rooms. They are permeable - they have many openings, arcades, colonnades, driveways, windows.
If the medieval city is the placement of architectural volumes, then the city of the Renaissance is to a greater extent the distribution of architectural spaces. The center of the new city is not the building of the cathedral or the town hall, but the free space of the main square, open both up and to the sides. They enter the building and exit out onto the street and the square. And if the medieval city is compositionally drawn to its center - it is centripetal, then the city of the Renaissance is centrifugal - it is directed towards external world.
| Plato's ideal city In plan, the central part of the city was an alternation of water and earth rings. The outer water ring was connected to the sea by a channel 50 stadia long (1 stadia - ca. 193 m). The earthen rings separating the water rings had underground channels near the bridges adapted for the passage of ships. The largest water ring in circumference was three stadia wide, as was the earthen one following it; the next two rings, water and earth, were two stades wide; finally, the water ring encircling the island located in the middle was a stadia wide. |
The medieval city follows the natural landscape, using it for its own purposes. The city of the Renaissance is rather a work of art, a "geometry game". The architect modifies the terrain by superimposing a geometric grid of drawn spaces on it. Such a city has a clear shape: a circle, a square, an octagon, a star; even the rivers are straightened in it.
The medieval city is vertical. Here everything is directed upwards, to the heavens - distant and inaccessible. The city of the Renaissance is horizontal, the main thing here is perspective, aspiration into the distance, towards new horizons. For a medieval person, the path to Heaven is an ascension, achievable through repentance and humility, renunciation of everything earthly. For the people of the Renaissance, this is an ascent through gaining their own experience and comprehending the Divine laws.
The dream of an ideal city gave impetus to the creative searches of many architects not only of the Renaissance, but also of later times, it led and illuminated the path to harmony and beauty. The ideal city always exists inside the real city, as different from it as the world of thought from the world of facts, as the world of imagination from the world of fantasy. And if you know how to dream the way the masters of the Renaissance did, then you can see this city - the City of the Sun, the City of Gold.
The original article is on the site of the magazine "New Acropolis".
Italian architecture of the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento) opened new period in the development of European architecture, abandoning the dominant in Europe gothic art and by approving new principles that were based on the order system.
During this period, ancient philosophy, art and literature were purposefully and consciously studied. Thus, antiquity was layered on the strong centuries-old traditions of the Middle Ages, especially on Christian art, due to which the specifically complex nature of the culture of the Renaissance is based on the transformation and interweaving of pagan and Christian subjects.
Quattrocento is the time of experimental searches, when not intuition, as in the era of the Proto-Renaissance, but exact scientific knowledge came to the fore. Now art played the role of universal knowledge of the surrounding world, about which many scientific treatises of the 15th century were written.
The first theorist of architecture and painting was Leon Batista Alberti, who developed the theory of linear perspective, based on the true image in the picture of the depth of space. This theory formed the basis of new principles of architecture and urban planning aimed at creating an ideal city.
The masters of the Renaissance began to turn again to Plato's dream of an ideal city and an ideal state and embodied those ideas that were already the main ones in ancient culture and philosophy - the ideas of harmony between man and nature, the ideas of humanism. So, the new image of the ideal city was at first a certain formula, an idea, a bold claim for the future.
The theory and practice of Renaissance urban planning developed in parallel to each other. Old buildings were rebuilt, new ones were built, while at the same time treatises were written on architecture, fortification and redevelopment of cities. The authors of the treatises (Alberti and Palladio) were far ahead of the needs of practical construction, not describing finished projects, but presenting a graphically depicted concept, the idea of an ideal city. They also gave reasoning about how the city should be located in terms of defense, economy, aesthetics and hygiene.
Alberti was in fact the first to proclaim the basic principles of the ideal urban ensemble of the Renaissance, developed by synthesizing the ancient sense of proportion and the rationalistic approach of the new era. So, the aesthetic principles of the Renaissance city planners were:
- consistency of the architectural scales of the main and secondary buildings;
- the ratio of the height of the building and the space located in front of it (from 1:3 to 1:6);
- lack of dissonant contrasts;
- composition balance.
The ideal city was very exciting for many of the great masters of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci also thought about it, whose idea was to create a two-level city, where freight transport moved along the lower level, and ground and pedestrian roads were located on the upper level. Da Vinci's plans were also associated with the reconstruction of Florence and Milan, as well as with the drafting of the spindle city.
By the end of the 16th century, many theorists of urban planning were puzzled by the issue of defensive structures and commercial areas. So, the fortress towers and walls were replaced by earthen bastions, which were taken out of the city boundaries, due to which, in their outlines, the cities began to resemble a multi-beam star.
And although not a single ideal city was built in stone (except for small fortress cities), many principles for building such a city became a reality already in the 16th century, when straight wide streets began to be laid in Italy and many other countries that connected important elements of the urban ensemble.
