Outstanding Dutch artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. Dutch school of painting of the 15th century. What do the symbols mean in a secular portrait and how to look for them
Art of the Netherlands 15th century The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the beginning of the 15th century. The first paintings that can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Both of them - Hubert (died 1426) and Jan (about 1390-1441) - played a decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Jan was apparently a very educated man, he studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, and carried out some diplomatic assignments for the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, in whose service, by the way, his trip to Portugal took place. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the brothers’ paintings made in the 20s of the 15th century, and among them such as “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beyningen), “ Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), "Saint Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).
Robeo Kampen Dutch painter. Worked in Tournai. The identity of Robert Campin is shrouded in mystery. Identified by art historians with the so-called Master of Flemalle, the author of a whole group of paintings. Being associated with the traditions of Dutch miniatures and sculpture of the 14th century, Kampen was the first among his compatriots to take steps towards the artistic principles of the Early Renaissance. Kampen’s works (triptych “Annunciation”, Metropolitan Museum of Art; “Werl’s Altar”, 1438, Prado, Madrid) are more archaic than the works of his contemporary Jan van Eyck, but stand out for the democratic simplicity of their images and their penchant for everyday interpretation of plots. The images of saints in his paintings are usually placed in cozy city interiors with lovingly reproduced details of the setting. The lyricism of images and elegant coloring based on contrasts of soft local tones are combined in Kampen with a sophisticated play of folds of clothing, as if carved in wood. One of the first portrait painters in European painting (“Portrait of a Man”, Art Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem, paired portraits of spouses, National Gallery, London). Kampen's work influenced many Dutch painters, including his student Rogier van der Weyden.
Rogier van der Weyden Dutch painter (aka Rogier de la Pature. He probably studied in Tournai with Robert Campin; from 1435 he worked in Brussels, where he directed a large workshop, in 1450 he visited Rome, Florence, Ferrara. Early paintings and altars of Van der Weyden shows the influence of Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin. The work of Rogier van der Weyden, one of the greatest masters of the early northern Renaissance, is characterized by a peculiar reworking of the artistic techniques of Jan van Eyck in his religious compositions, the characters of which are located in interiors with views opening to distant ones. plans, or on conventional backgrounds, Rogier van der Weyden focuses on the images of the foreground, without giving of great importance accurately conveying the depth of space and everyday details of the environment. Rejecting the artistic universalism of Jan van Eyck, the master in his works concentrates on the inner world of a person, his experiences and spiritual mood. The paintings of the artist Rogier van der Weyden, which in many ways still retain the spiritualistic expression of late Gothic art, are characterized by a balanced composition, softness of linear rhythms, emotional richness of a refined and bright local color (“Crucifixion”, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; “Christmas”, middle part “ Altar of Bladelin”, circa 1452 -1455, Picture Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem; “Adoration of the Magi”, Alte Pinakothek, Munich; “Descent from the Cross”, circa 1438, Prado Museum, Madrid). The portraits of Rogier van der Weyden (“Portrait of a Young Woman,” National Gallery of Art, Washington) stand out for their graphic laconicism and acute identification of the model’s characteristics.
Hus Hugo van der Dutch Renaissance painter. He worked mainly in Ghent, from 1475 - in the Rodendal monastery. Around 1481 visited Cologne. The work of Hus, who continued the traditions of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden in Dutch art, is characterized by a tendency towards courageous truthfulness of images and intense drama of action. In his compositions, somewhat conventional in spatial structure and large-scale relationships of figures, full of subtle, lovingly interpreted details (fragments of architecture, patterned robes, vases with flowers, etc.), the artist Hugo van der Goes introduced many brightly individual characters, united by a common experience, often giving preference to sharp-characterized common people. The backdrop for Huss’s altar images is often a poetic landscape, subtle in its colorful gradations (“The Fall,” circa 1470, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Hus's painting is characterized by careful plastic modeling, flexibility of linear rhythms, cold, refined coloring based on the consonances of gray-blue, white and black tones (the triptych “Adoration of the Magi” or the so-called Portinari altar, circa 1474–1475, Uffizi; “Adoration of the Magi” and “Adoration of the Shepherds”, Art Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem). Features characteristic of late Gothic painting (the dramatic ecstasy of images, the sharp, broken rhythm of the folds of clothing, the intensity of contrasting, sonorous colors) appeared in “The Assumption of Our Lady” (Municipal Art Gallery, Bruges).
Memling Hans (about 1440 -1494) Dutch painter. Studied perhaps with Rogier van der Weyden; from 1465 he worked in Bruges. In the works of Memling, who combined in his work the features of late Gothic and Renaissance art, everyday, lyrical interpretation of religious subjects, soft contemplation, harmonious composition, is combined with the desire to idealize images, canonize the techniques of Old Netherlandish painting (triptych “Our Lady with Saints”, 1468, National gallery, London; painting of the shrine of St. Ursula, 1489, Hans Memling Museum, Bruges; altar with the “Last Judgment,” circa 1473, Church of the Virgin Mary, Gdansk; triptych of the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Memling Museum, Bruges). Memling’s works, among which “Bathsheba” stands out, a life-size depiction of a naked female body, rare in the art of the Netherlands (1485, Baden-Württemberg Museum, Stuttgart), and portraits that accurately recreate the appearance of the model ( male portrait, Mauritshuis, The Hague; portraits of Willem Morel and Barbara van Vlanderberg, 1482, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels), are distinguished by their elongated proportions, graceful linear rhythms, and festive coloring based on soft contrasts of red, blue, faded green and brown tones.
Hieronymus van Aken Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Bosch, was born in 's-Hertogenbosch (died there in 1516), that is, away from the main art centers Netherlands. His early works are not without a hint of some primitiveness. But already they strangely combine a sharp and disturbing sense of the life of nature with cold grotesqueness in the depiction of people. Bosch responds to the trend contemporary art- with its craving for the real, with its concretization of the image of a person, and then - the reduction of its role and significance. He takes this tendency to a certain extent. In Bosch's art satirical or, better said, sarcastic images of the human race appear.
Quentin Masseys One of the greatest masters of the first third of the century is Quentin Masseys (born around 1466 in Louvep, died in 1530 in Antwerp). Early works Quentin Masseys bear the distinct imprint of old traditions. His first significant work is a triptych dedicated to Saint Anne (1507 - 1509; Brussels, Museum). The scenes on the outer sides of the side doors are distinguished by restrained drama. The images, which are little developed psychologically, are majestic, the figures are enlarged and closely composed, the space seems compacted. The attraction to the life-real principle led Masseys to create one of the first genre, everyday paintings in the art of modern times. We mean the painting “The Money Changer with his Wife” (1514; Paris, Louvre). At the same time, the artist’s constant interest in a generalized interpretation of reality prompted him (perhaps the first in the Netherlands) to turn to the art of Leonardo da Vinci (“Mary with Child”; Poznan, Museum), although here we can talk more about borrowing or imitation .
Jan Gossaert The Dutch painter studied in Bruges, worked in Antwerp, Utrecht, Middelburg and other cities, and visited Italy in 1508 -1509. In 1527, Gossaert traveled to Flanders with Lucas van Leyden. The founder of Romanism in Dutch painting of the 16th century, Gossaert sought to master the achievements of the Italian Renaissance in composition, anatomy, perspective: turning to ancient and biblical subjects, he often depicted nude figures against the backdrop of ancient architecture or in a natural environment, conveyed with the careful and subject-matter typical of Dutch art detail (“Adam and Eve”, “Neptune and Amphitrite”, 1516, both in the Art Gallery, Berlin; “Danae”, 1527, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The portraits of Jan Gossaert (diptych depicting Chancellor Jean Carondelet, 1517, Louvre, Paris) are closest to the artistic traditions of the Dutch school.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, nicknamed Peasant (between 1525 and 1530-1569), developed as an artist in Antwerp (he studied with P. Cook van Aelst), visited Italy (1551-1552), and was close to the radical thinkers of the Netherlands. Taking a mental glance creative path Bruegel, it should be recognized that he concentrated in his art all the achievements of Dutch painting of the previous era. The unsuccessful attempts of late Romanism to reflect life in generalized forms, and Aertsen's more successful but limited experiments in exalting the image of the people, entered into a powerful synthesis in Bruegel. Actually, the desire for realistic specification, which emerged at the beginning of the century creative method, merging with the deep ideological insights of the master, brought tremendous results to Dutch art.
Savary Roelant Flemish painter, one of the founders of the animalistic genre in Dutch painting. Born in Courtray in 1576. Studied with Jan Brueghel the Velvet. Painting by Saverey Roulant “Orpheus”. Orpheus is depicted in a rocky landscape near a river, surrounded by numerous exotic forest animals and birds, enchanted by the sweet sounds of his violin. Saverey seems to be enjoying the lush and detailed landscape with a variety of flora and fauna here. This fantastic and idealized view is executed in a manneristic manner, but it was inspired by the alpine landscape that the painter Roelant Savery saw during his trip to Switzerland in the early 1600s. The artist painted several dozen paintings depicting Orpheus and the Garden of Eden, giving these favorite subjects a magical character. Lively and full of detail, Saverey's paintings are marked by the influence of Jan Brueghel. He died in 1639 in Utrecht.
Difference from Italian art Dutch art acquired a more democratic character than Italian art. It has strong features of folklore, fantasy, grotesque, sharp satire, but its main feature is a deep sense of the national uniqueness of life, folk forms of culture, way of life, morals, types, as well as the display of social contrasts in the life of various strata of society. The social contradictions in the life of society, the reign of hostility and violence in it, the diversity of opposing forces exacerbated the awareness of its disharmony. Hence the critical tendencies of the Dutch Renaissance, manifested in the heyday of expressive and sometimes tragic grotesque in art and literature, often hidden under the guise of a joke “to speak the truth to kings with a smile.” Another feature of the Dutch artistic culture The Renaissance - the stability of medieval traditions, which largely determined the character of Dutch realism of the 15th and 16th centuries. Everything new that was revealed to people over a long period of time was applied to the old medieval system of views, which limited the possibilities for the independent development of new views, but at the same time forced them to assimilate the valuable elements contained in this system.
Difference from Italian art Dutch art is characterized by a new, realistic vision of the world, an affirmation of the artistic value of reality as it is, an expression of the organic connection between man and his environment, and an understanding of the possibilities that nature and life give to man. In depicting a person, artists are interested in the characteristic and special, the sphere of everyday and spiritual life; Dutch painters of the 15th century enthusiastically captured the diversity of people's individualities, the inexhaustible colorful richness of nature, its material diversity; they subtly felt the poetry of everyday things, unnoticed but close to people, and the coziness of lived-in interiors. These features of the perception of the world manifested themselves in Dutch painting and graphics of the 15th and 16th centuries in everyday genre, portrait, interior, landscape. They revealed the typical Dutch love for details, the concreteness of their depiction, narration, subtlety in conveying moods, and at the same time an amazing ability to reproduce a holistic picture of the universe with its spatial boundlessness.
Difference from Italian art The change that took place in the art of the first third of the 15th century was most fully reflected in painting. Her greatest achievement is associated with the emergence of easel painting in Western Europe, which replaced the wall paintings of Romanesque churches and Gothic stained glass windows. Easel paintings on religious themes were originally actually works of icon painting. In the form of painted folds with Gospel and biblical stories they decorated the altars of churches. Gradually in altar compositions Secular subjects began to be included, which subsequently acquired independent significance. Easel painting separated from icon painting and became an integral part of the interiors of wealthy and aristocratic houses. For Dutch artists, the main means of artistic expression is color, which opens up the possibility of recreating visual images in their colorful richness with extreme tangibility. The Dutch were sensitive to the subtle differences between objects, reproducing the texture of materials, optical effects - the shine of metal, the transparency of glass, the reflection of a mirror, the refraction features of reflected and scattered light, the impression of the airy atmosphere of a landscape receding into the distance. As in Gothic stained glass, the tradition of which played an important role in the development of pictorial perception of the world, color served as the main means of conveying the emotional richness of the image. The development of realism caused a transition in the Netherlands from tempera to oil paint, which made it possible to more illusively reproduce the materiality of the world. The improvement of the oil painting technique known in the Middle Ages and the development of new compositions are attributed to Jan van Eyck. The use of oil paint and resinous substances in easel painting, its application in a transparent, thin layer on the underpainting and white or red chalk primer emphasized the saturation, depth and purity of bright colors, expanded the possibilities of painting - made it possible to achieve richness and variety in color, the finest tonal transitions. The enduring painting of Jan van Eyck and his method continued to live almost unchanged in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the practice of artists in Italy, France, Germany and other countries.
Northern Renaissance painting. The generally accepted but conditional concept of “Northern Renaissance” (c. 1500 - between 1540 and 1580) is applied, by analogy with the Italian Renaissance, to the culture and art of Germany, the Netherlands, and France; One of the main features of the artistic culture of these countries is its genetic link with late Gothic art.
In the 15th century Dutch painting took the leading place among the Northern European art schools: the works of R. Kampen, Jan van Eyck, D. Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, Rogier van der Weyden, H. Memling are marked by a pantheistic worldview, close attention to every detail and every phenomenon of life; the deep symbolic meaning hidden behind them underlies the broadly generalized paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch.
Portrait (A. Mohr, J. van Scorel), landscape (I. Patinir), and everyday genre (Luke of Leyden) received independent development in the Dutch art of the Renaissance. Romanism became a unique phenomenon, whose masters tried to combine the artistic techniques of Italian art with the Dutch tradition.
In Germany, the first features of the new art appeared in the 1430s. (L. Moser, H. Mulcher, K. Witz), and the Renaissance itself, the art of which was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Reformation and the events of the Peasants' War of 1524-1526, began at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. and ended already in the 1530-1540s. (paintings and graphics by Albrecht Durer, M. Grunewald, Lucas Cranach the Elder, A. Altdorfer, H. Holbein the Younger).
Cheerful and graceful style French Renaissance most clearly manifested in the paintings and pencil portraits of J. Fouquet (also known as an outstanding master of miniatures).
The features of the Renaissance received a peculiar refraction in the art of England, where, under the influence of H. Holbein the Younger, who worked in London, a national school of portraiture was formed (N. Hilliard), and Spain, whose artists (A. Berruguete, D. de Siloe, L. de Morales) used experience Italian painting to create your own, harsh and expressive style. Certain features, individual elements or techniques of Renaissance art are found in the artistic culture of Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and other European countries.
Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder personify with their work the early, middle and late stages of Dutch Renaissance painting. A. Dürer, Grunewald (M. Niethardt), L. Cranach the Elder, H. Holbein the Younger established the principles of the new art in Germany.
Individual, authorial creativity is now replacing medieval anonymity. The theory of linear and aerial perspective, proportions, problems of anatomy and light and shadow modeling is of great practical importance. The center of Renaissance innovations, the artistic “mirror of the era” was the illusory life-like painting; in religious art it replaces the icon, and in secular art it gives rise to independent genres of landscape, everyday painting, and portrait (the latter played a primary role in the visual affirmation of the ideals of the humanistic virtu).
Danube school, a movement in painting and graphics in Southern Germany and Austria in the 1st half of the 16th century. The Danube school includes early paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, works by A. Altdorfer (see first slide “The Battle of Alexander the Great at Issus” 1529), W. Huber and other artists, distinguished by freedom of artistic imagination, vivid emotionality, and pantheistic perception nature, forest or river landscape, interest in the fabulous and legendary coloring of the plot; They also stand out for their dynamic, impetuous manner of writing, sharp expressiveness of the drawing, and intensity of color schemes. The trends of Renaissance art are intertwined in the Danube school with the traditions of late Gothic. Dürer's work determined the leading direction of art German Renaissance. His influence contemporary artists, including the artists of the Danube School, was great; it even penetrated into Italy and France. Simultaneously with Dürer and after him, a galaxy of major artists appeared. Among them were Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), who deeply felt the harmony of nature and man, and Matthias Gotthardt Neithardt, known as Matthias Grunewald (c. 1475-1528), endowed with enormous power of imagination, associated with mystical folk teachings and the Gothic tradition. His work is imbued with the spirit of rebellion, desperate frenzy or exultation, high intensity of feelings and painful expression of color and light that flares up, then fades, then goes out, then flaming.
The art of wood and metal engraving, which became truly widespread during the Reformation, gains its final intrinsic value. Drawing from a working sketch turns into a separate type of creativity; the individual style of stroke, stroke, as well as texture and the effect of incompleteness (non-finito) are beginning to be valued as independent artistic effects.
Monumental painting also becomes picturesque, illusory and three-dimensional, gaining greater visual independence from the mass of the wall.
All types of fine art now in one way or another violate the monolithic medieval synthesis (where architecture dominated), gaining comparative independence. Types of absolutely round statues, equestrian monuments, and portrait busts (in many ways reviving the ancient tradition) are being formed, and a completely new type of solemn sculptural and architectural tombstone is emerging.
The ancient order system predetermines new architecture, the main types of which are the harmoniously clear in proportions and at the same time plastically eloquent palace and temple (architects are especially fascinated by the idea of a temple building centric in plan). The utopian dreams characteristic of the Renaissance do not find full-scale embodiment in urban planning, but they latently inspire new ones. architectural ensembles, whose scope emphasizes “earthly”, centrically-perspectively organized horizontals, and not the Gothic vertical aspiration upward. Various types decorative arts, as well as fashions acquire a special, in their own way, “pictorial” picturesqueness. Among ornaments, the grotesque plays a particularly important semantic role.
Netherlands. Genre motifs gradually penetrated into the religious subjects of Dutch painting; within the framework of the decorative and refined style of late Gothic art, specific details accumulated and emotional accents intensified. The leading role in this process was played by miniature painting, which became widespread in the 13th-15th centuries at the courts of the French and Burgundian aristocracy, which gathered around itself talented craftsmen from city guilds. Among them, the Dutch were widely known (the Limburg brothers, the master of Marshal Boucicault). Books of hours (more precisely, books of hours - a kind of prayer books, where prayers dedicated to a certain hour are arranged by month) began to be decorated with scenes of work and entertainment in different seasons and the corresponding landscapes. With loving care, the masters captured the beauty of the world around them, creating highly artistic works, colorful, full of grace (Turin-Milan Book of Hours 1400-1450). Miniatures appeared in historical chronicles depicting historical events and portraits. In the 15th century it spreads portraiture. Throughout the 16th century, everyday painting, landscape, still life, and paintings on mythological and allegorical subjects emerged as independent genres.
Since the 40s of the 15th century, in Dutch painting, on the one hand, elements of narrative have intensified, on the other - dramatic action and moods. With the destruction of patriarchal ties that cemented the life of medieval society, the sense of harmony, order and unity of the world and man disappears. A person realizes his independent life significance, he begins to believe in his mind and will. His image in art becomes more and more individually unique, in-depth, his innermost feelings and thoughts and their complexity are revealed. At the same time, a person discovers his loneliness, the tragedy of his life, his destiny. Anxiety and pessimism begin to appear in his appearance.
This new concept of the world and a person who does not believe in the strength of earthly happiness is reflected in tragic art Rogier van der Weyden(around 1400-1464), in his compositional paintings on religious subjects ("The Descent from the Cross", Madrid, Prado) and wonderful psychological portraits, the greatest master which he was.
In the first quarter of the 15th century, a radical revolution took place in the development of Western European painting - easel painting appeared. Historical tradition connects this coup with the activities of the brothers van Eyck- the founders of the Dutch school of painting, the founders of realism in the Netherlands, who summarized in their work the searches of the masters of late Gothic sculpture and miniatures of the late 14th - early 15th centuries.
The Ghent Altarpiece is a large two-tiered multi-part fold - rows of paintings and hundreds of figures are united in it by idea and architectonics. The content of the compositions is drawn from the Apocalypse, the Bible and gospel texts. However, medieval plots seem to be rethought and interpreted in specific living images. The theme of glorifying the deity, his creation, reflections on the destinies of humanity, the idea of the unity of humanity and nature, a feeling of enlightenment, admiration for the diversity of forms of the world found perfect pictorial expression here for the first time in Dutch art. In the lower tier of the fold there is “Adoration of the Lamb”. The composition is designed as a majestic crowd scene in a landscape, the space of which here has increased perspective - the gaze is directed into the depths of the landscape.
The upper tier of the fold depicts the celestial spheres inhabited by celestial beings: in the center, on golden thrones exceeding human height, the God the Father in the royal tiara, Mary and John the Baptist. Illuminated in the side doors sunlight singing and playing music angels.
The artist also solves the problem of depicting the naked human body in a new way. In the image of Adam there are no traces of the influence of ancient classics, on the basis of which the Italians painted a nude figure that was ideal in its proportions. Construction human figure in van Eyck it corresponds only to this particular individuality. This new, more direct vision of man is an important discovery in Western European art.
In his mature years, Jan van Eyck creates works in which the emotionality and detailed narrative characteristic of the Ghent Altarpiece are replaced by the laconicism of integral monumental altar compositions. They consist of two or three figures surrounded by a “multiple” environment, beautiful and expensive objects, subordinated to the harmony of the whole. The characters and their environment are united not by plot action, but by a common contemplative mood and internal concentration. “Madonna of Chancellor Rolin”, “Madonna of Canon van der Paele” Van Eyck abandons the type of heroic profile portrait characteristic of miniaturists of the late 14th century and Italian painters of the 15th century. Overcoming alienation and isolation portrait images Italians, Jan van Eyck turns the face of the person being portrayed in three-quarters, emphasizing the depth of the image, brings it closer to the viewer, usually places his hands in a foreshortened view, and enlivens the background with the play of chiaroscuro. "Portrait of Cardinal Albergati", "Timothy", "Man in a Red Turban".
A special place not only in the work of Jan van Eyck, but also in all Dutch art of the 15th and 16th centuries belongs to the “Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife.” The artist pushes the boundaries of a purely portrait image, turning it into a wedding scene, into a kind of apotheosis of marital fidelity, the symbol of which is the dog depicted at the feet of the couple.
Robert Campin. Flemal master. Being associated with the traditions of Dutch miniatures and sculpture of the 14th century, Kampen was the first among his compatriots to take steps towards the artistic principles of the Early Renaissance. Kampen's works (triptych "Annunciation", "Wehrl Altar") are more archaic than the works of his contemporary Jan van Eyck, but they stand out for the democratic simplicity of their images and their penchant for everyday interpretation of plots. The images of saints in his paintings are usually placed in cozy city interiors with lovingly reproduced details of the setting. The lyricism of images and elegant coloring based on contrasts of soft local tones are combined in Kampen with a sophisticated play of folds of clothing, as if carved in wood. One of the first portrait painters in European painting ("Portrait of a Man", paired portraits of spouses).
"Madonna and Child". she is depicted in a homely setting - it seems that she has just put down a book to feed the baby. All details are depicted in great detail; The cityscape seen through the window is as clear and precise as the figures in the foreground, and the pages of the book, the decoration on the hem of the Madonna's dress and the reed fireplace screen are painstakingly rendered.
Rogier van der Weyden(around 1400-1464). Emphasis on feelings and emotions of faces. The work of Rogier van der Weyden is characterized by a peculiar reworking of the artistic techniques of Jan van Eyck. In his religious compositions, the characters of which are located in interiors with distant views, or against conventional backgrounds, Rogier van der Weyden focuses on the images of the foreground, without attaching much importance to the accurate rendering of the depth of space and everyday details of the setting. Rejecting the artistic universalism of Jan van Eyck, the master in his works concentrates on the inner world of a person, his experiences and spiritual mood. The paintings of the artist Rogier van der Weyden, which in many ways still retain the spiritualistic expression of late Gothic art, are characterized by a balanced composition, soft linear rhythms, emotional richness of a refined and bright local color (“Crucifixion”, “Nativity”, the middle part of the “Bladelin Altar”, “Adoration” Magi", Old Pinakothek, "Descent from the Cross").
The Gothic stream in Roger's work is especially clear in two small triptychs - the so-called "Altar of Mary" ("Lamentation", on the left - "Holy Family", on the right - "Appearance of Christ to Mary") and the later - "Altar of St. John" ("Baptism", on the left - "The Birth of John the Baptist" on the right - "The Execution of John the Baptist", Berlin). Roger's creativity in much to a greater extent, than the work of Jan van Eyck, is connected with the traditions of medieval art and is imbued with the spirit of strict church teaching.
Painting by artist Rogier van der Weyden "The Descent from the Cross". The behavior of the characters, full of grief and sorrow, makes this picture one of the most exciting in the history of art and one of the masterpieces of 15th century painting. Details such as the tears streaming down Mary Magdalene's face and the way the fabric of her robe falls away as she mournfully clasps her hands show that Van der Weyden was an astute observer of life. And yet the composition as a whole, with the figures huddled in the foreground, near the frame, as if they were placed in a shallow box, resembles a living picture from a Christmas procession rather than an accurate depiction of a real event. By making individual participants in a dramatic event bearers of various shades of feelings of grief, the artist refrains from individualizing the images, just as he refuses to transfer the scene to a real, concrete setting.
Hugo van der Goes(around 1435-1482). The work of Hus, who continued the traditions of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden in Dutch art, is characterized by a tendency towards courageous truthfulness of images and intense drama of action. In his compositions, somewhat conventional in spatial structure and large-scale relationships of figures, full of subtle, lovingly interpreted details (fragments of architecture, patterned robes, vases with flowers, etc.), the artist Hugo van der Goes introduced many brightly individual characters, united by a common experience, often giving preference to sharp-characterized common people. The background for Hus's altar images is often a poetic landscape, subtle in its colorful gradations ("The Fall"). Hus's painting is characterized by careful plastic modeling, flexibility of linear rhythms, cold, refined coloring based on the harmonies of gray-blue, white and black tones (the triptych "Adoration of the Magi" or the so-called Portinari altar, "Adoration of the Magi" and "Adoration of the Shepherds", Picture Gallery , Berlin-Dahlem). Features characteristic of late Gothic painting (the dramatic ecstasy of images, the sharp, broken rhythm of the folds of clothing, the intensity of contrasting, sonorous colors) appeared in the “Assumption of Our Lady” (Municipal Art Gallery, Bruges).
"The Fall." The half-lizard, half-man, serpent in this depiction of the Fall of Adam and Eve anxiously watches as Eve, bashfully covered by a thoughtfully planted iris, reaches out to the Tree of Knowledge for the second apple, having tasted a piece of the first. The care with which every leaf, blade of grass, and curl of hair is drawn is amazing. (The unusual braid on the back of the serpent’s head is noteworthy.)
Memling Hans(around 1440-1494). In the works of Memling, who combined in his work the features of late Gothic and Renaissance art, everyday, lyrical interpretation of religious subjects, soft contemplation, harmonious composition, is combined with the desire to idealize images, canonize the techniques of Old Netherlandish painting (triptych "Our Lady with Saints", an altar with " The Last Judgment"; triptych of the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria,). Memling's works, among which stand out "Bathsheba", a rare life-size depiction of a naked female body in the art of the Netherlands, and portraits that accurately recreate the appearance of the model (portrait of a man, Mauritshuis, The Hague; portraits of Willem Morel and Barbara van Vlanderberg), are distinguished by their elongated proportions, grace of linear rhythms.
Painting by Hans Memling "The Descent from the Cross", Granada diptych, left wing. A moving moment in Christian history is reduced to a painfully simple image of three people supporting the body of Christ and a fragment of a ladder resting on a cross. The figures are twisted in the space of the foreground, while the landscape in the distance represents a visible, but not volumetrically perceived part of the composition.
Bosch Hieronymus. Painting is entertaining(about 1450/60-1516), Hieronymus Bosch in his multi-figure compositions, paintings on the themes of folk sayings, proverbs and parables ("The Temptation of St. Anthony", triptychs "Garden of Delights", "Adoration of the Magi", "Ship of Fools") combined a sophisticated medieval fantasy, grotesque demonic images generated by boundless imagination with folklore, satirical and moralizing tendencies, with realistic innovations unusual for the art of his era. Poetic landscape backgrounds, bold life observations, aptly captured by the artist Hieronymus Bosch folk types and everyday scenes, paved the way for the formation of the Dutch everyday genre and landscape; the desire for irony and allegory, for the embodiment in a grotesque-satirical form of a broad picture of folk life contributed to the formation of the creative style of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and other artists.
Bosch's style is unique and has no analogues in the Dutch painting tradition. The painting of Hieronymus Bosch is not at all similar to the work of other artists of the time, such as Jan van Eyck or Rogier van der Weyden. Most of the subjects of Bosch's paintings are associated with episodes from the life of Christ or saints opposing vice, or are gleaned from allegories and proverbs about human greed and nonsense.
The vivid authenticity of Bosch's works, the ability to depict the movements of the human soul, the amazing ability to draw a rich man and a beggar, a merchant and a cripple - all this gives him a very important place in the development of genre painting.
Bosch's art reflected the crisis moods that gripped Dutch society in conditions of increasing social conflicts late 15th century. At this time, the old Dutch cities (Bruges, Tent), bound by narrow local economic regulations, lost their former power, their culture faded away. In the work of some artists there was a noticeable decline in the artistic level; archaizing tendencies or a tendency to get carried away with insignificant everyday details appeared, which hampered the further development of realism.
Durer(Durer) Albrecht (1471-1528), German painter, draftsman, engraver, art theorist. The founder of the art of the German Renaissance, Dürer studied jewelry making from his father, a native of Hungary, painting - in the workshop of the Nuremberg artist M. Wolgemut (1486-1489), from whom he adopted the principles of Dutch and German late Gothic art, became familiar with the drawings and engravings of early Italian masters Renaissance (including A. Mantegna). During these same years, Dürer was strongly influenced by M. Schongauer. In 1490-1494, during the obligatory journeys along the Rhine for a guild apprentice, Dürer made several easel engravings in the spirit of late Gothic, illustrations for the “Ship of Fools” by S. Brant, etc. The influence of humanistic teachings on Dürer, intensified as a result of his first trip to Italy (1494-1495), manifested itself in the artist’s desire to master scientific methods of understanding the world, to in-depth study of nature, in which his attention was attracted by the most seemingly insignificant phenomena ("Bush of Grass", 1503, Albertina Collection, Vienna), and complex problems of connection in nature with color and the light-air environment ("House by the Pond", watercolor, circa 1495-1497, British Museum, London). Dürer asserted a new Renaissance understanding of personality in portraits of this period (self-portrait, 1498, Prado).
Durer expressed the mood of the pre-Reformation era, the eve of powerful social and religious battles, in a series of woodcuts "Apocalypse" (1498), in artistic language which organically merged the techniques of German late Gothic and Italian Renaissance art. The second trip to Italy further strengthened Dürer's desire for clarity of images, orderliness of compositional structures ("Feast of the Rosary", 1506, careful study of the proportions of the naked human body ("Adam and Eve", 1507, Prado, Madrid). At the same time, Dürer did not lose ( especially in graphics) vigilance of observation, subject expressiveness, vitality and expressiveness of images characteristic of the art of late Gothic (cycles of woodcuts "Great Passion", circa 1497-1511, "Life of Mary", circa 1502-1511, "Little Passion", 1509 -1511). The amazing precision of the graphic language, the finest development of light-air relationships, the clarity of line and volume, the most complex philosophical underlying content are distinguished by three “masterful engravings” on copper: “Horseman, Death and the Devil” (1513) - an image of unwavering adherence to duty, steadfastness before trials of fate; “Melancholy” (1514) as the embodiment of the inner conflict of the restless creative spirit of man; “Saint Jerome” (1514) - the glorification of humanistic inquisitive research thought. By this time, Dürer had won an honorable position in his native Nuremberg and gained fame abroad, especially in Italy and the Netherlands (where he traveled in 1520-1521). Dürer was friends with the most prominent humanists in Europe. Among his customers were rich burghers, German princes and Emperor Maximilian I himself, for whom he, among other major German artists made pen drawings for the prayer book (1515).
In a series of portraits of the 1520s (J. Muffel, 1526, J. Holzschuer, 1526, both in the art gallery, Berlin-Dahlem, etc.), Dürer recreated the type of man of the Renaissance era, imbued with a proud consciousness of the self-worth of his own personality, charged with intense spiritual energy and practical purposefulness. An interesting self-portrait of Albrecht Durer at the age of 26 wearing gloves. The model's hands lying on a pedestal are a well-known technique for creating the illusion of intimacy between the subject and the viewer. Dürer could have learned this visual trick from works such as Leonard's Mona Lisa, which he saw during a trip to Italy. The landscape seen through an open window is a feature common to northern artists such as Jan Van Eyck and Robert Campin. Dürer revolutionized Northern European art by combining the experience of Dutch and Italian painting. The versatility of his aspirations was also evident in Dürer’s theoretical works (“Guide to Measuring...”, 1525; “Four Books on Human Proportions,” 1528). Dürer’s artistic quest was completed by the painting “The Four Apostles” (1526, Alte Pinakothek, Munich), which embodies four character-temperaments of people bound by a common humanistic ideal of independent thought, willpower, and perseverance in the struggle for justice and truth.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
4 hours of classroom work and 8 hours of independent work
Lecture84. Painting in GermanyXV - XVI centuries.
4 hours of lecture work and 4 hours of independent work
Lectures
1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke.
2. Painting in Germany in the second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner.
3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher.
4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer.
5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. The phenomenon of reformation.
1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke
General characteristics Renaissance art in Germany in the 15th century. In German painting of the 15th century, three stages can be distinguished: the first - from the beginning of the century to the 1430s, the second - until the 1470s. and the third - almost until the end of the century. German masters created works in the form of church altars.
During the period 1400-1430s. German altars open up to the audience a beautiful Celestial world, beckoning people to it as some kind of extreme entertaining tale. This can be confirmed by the painting “Garden of Eden”, created by an anonymous Upper Rhine master around
1410-1420s
It is believed that the door of the altar of St. Thomas with the scene “Adoration of the Magi of the Infant Christ” was made by Master Franke from Hamburg, who was active in the first third of the 15th century. The fabulousness of the gospel event.
2. Painting in Germany, second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner
At the stage of the 1430-1470s. works of fine art in Germany are filled with plastically voluminous human figures immersed in an artistically designed space. Visualizations
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
various facets of the picture characters' condolences are exposed to the earthly sufferings of Christ, most often presented as a person equal to other people, experiencing many torments of earthly existence. Expressive realism of sensory events Holy Scripture taking into account the audience's intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as if it were their own. During these years, the artists Hans Mulcher and Konrad Witz worked very interestingly in the German cities of Basel and Ulm.
A citizen of the city of Ulm, Hans Multscher is known as a painter and sculptor. The master's sculptural works include the decoration of the front windows of the Ulm Town Hall (1427) and the plastic design of the western facade of the Ulm Cathedral (1430-1432). Dutch influence, which allows us to draw a conclusion about the artist’s stay and training in Tours. Of Mulcher's paintings, two altars survive in fragments. The master’s most significant work is the “Wurzach Altar” (1433-1437), from which eight doors have survived depicting the life of Mary on the outside and the Passion of Christ on the inside. From the “Štercin Altar of the Virgin Mary” (1456-1458) only a few side doors and individual carved wooden figures have survived to this day.
The painting “Christ before Pilate” is a fragment of the interior of the “Wurzach Altar”. Different attitudes of the characters to the depicted action. Another panel of the “Wurzach Altar” is the painting “The Resurrection of Christ”.
A native of Swabia and a citizen of the city of Basel, Konrad Witz is known as the author of twenty altar panels. All of them demonstrate the influence on the artist of the work of such Dutch masters as Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden. Witz's works are characterized by the desire to achieve, through light and shadow modeling, a realistically detailed rendering of the flesh of things and spatial clarity.
In 1445-1446. Konrad Witz, while in Geneva, commissioned Cardinal François de Mies to perform “The Altarpiece of St. Peter’s Basilica.” Painting of the reverse side of the altar “Wonderful Catch”.
The artistic space of the work, combining two gospel stories, “A Wonderful Catch” and “Walking on the Waters,” visualizes the reasons that do not allow one to achieve a religious connection with the Almighty. Human sinfulness, loss of faith in the Lord.
IN first half of the 15th century The works of German painters of the city of Cologne were distinguished by their originality, especially altar paintings,
created by Stefan Lochner. Research has shown that in his original work the artist relied on the achievements of the French-Flemish miniature of the Limburg brothers with its refinement and exquisite colorism, as well as the local Cologne tradition represented by the Master of St. Veronica. Lochner especially often painted paintings depicting the Mother of God with the Child Christ. In this regard, the most famous painting Stefan Lochner is "Mary in Pink"
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
garden" (c. 1448). The originality of the composition of the painting is in the form of a ring-shaped curved line.
3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher
During the period 1460-1490s. The process of creating works of fine art in Germany was influenced by the Italian Trecento Renaissance (primarily the works of Simone Martini) and the work of the Dutch masters Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes. The problem of visualizing the range of feelings.
One of the leading German painters of the second half of the 15th century. was Martin Schongauer. The artist was initially destined for a career as a priest. Schongauer studied painting with Caspar Isenmann in Colmar. The drawing in the manner of Rogier van der Weyden confirms the fact that Schongauer was in Burgundy.
The work “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1475-1480). A visual expression of the spiritual sincerity of the heroes of the pictorial action. In the event depicted by Schongauer, the main attention is paid to how sincere all the heroes are in their actions and thoughts.
The work of Michael Pacher. The artist studied in Pustertal and also made an educational trip to Northern Italy, which is clearly evidenced by the Italianized plastic language of his works.
Among the best paintings of Michael Pacher is the “Altar of the Church Fathers” (1477-1481). The painting “The Prayer of St. Wolfgang” is the upper part of the right outer wing of the “Altar of the Church Fathers”.
The artistic space of the work demonstrates that it was the sincerity and sincerity of the prayer of the Bishop of Regensburg that contributed to Wolfgang’s divine inclusion in the rank of Saints and the ascent of his soul to the heights of the Heavenly World.
4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer
Fine art of Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries - the highest stage German Renaissance, the best periods of creativity of Albrecht Dürer and Niethart Gotthard (Matthias Grünewald), Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger. Often a separate and even naturalistically resolved single motive is raised to the level of the idea of the general and universal. In artistic creations, rational and mystical principles coexist.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Matthias Grunewald is one of the largest painters of the German “enthusiastic” Renaissance, whose work is connected with the regions of Germany located along the banks of the Main and the middle Rhine. It is known that the artist alternately worked in Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg, Mainz, Frankfurt, Halle, and Isenheim.
The task is to visualize the features of simple-minded sympathy, empathy, identification, acceptance of the torment of the suffering Christ as one’s own pain. The artist’s sharing of the views of Thomas a à Kempis. In Grunewald's time, Thomas a à Kempis's book On the Imitation of Christ was so popular that it was second only to the Bible in the number of editions.
Matthias Grunewald's most significant work was the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), created for the Church of St. Anthony in Isenheim.
The altar consists of a shrine with a sculpture and three pairs of doors - two movable and one fixed. Various transformations with the altar doors entail the movement of scenes of the incarnation and sacrifice of the Savior.
IN When closed, the central part of the altar represents the scene of the Crucifixion of Christ. At the end there is a picturesque depiction of the “Entombment”, and on the side doors there are “Saint Anthony” and “Saint Sebastian”.
IN In general, the religious events depicted on the altar doors visualize the idea of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the chosen leaders of the Christian Church for the atonement of human sins, visually express the Catholic prayer “Agnus Dei” - “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Expressive realism of the events of Holy Scripture, taking into account the audience's intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as their own. The edges of condolences. Traditions of Dutch masters. Means of conveying realistically detailed flesh of things
And spatial clarity.
The artistic space of the painting “The Crucifixion of Christ” represents Jesus Christ nailed to the cross with several others standing by. The Savior is huge and horribly disfigured. The depicted body of Christ testifies to the savage torment to which the Messiah was subjected. It is completely covered with hundreds of terrible wounds. Jesus was nailed to the cross with giant nails that literally broke His hands and feet. The head is disfigured by the sharp thorns of a crown of thorns.
To the left of the cross of Calvary are depicted John the Evangelist, supporting the Madonna, weakened from long prayer, and the sinner Mary Magdalene, who, kneeling at the foot of the cross, turns to the Savior in passionate prayer.
To the right of the figure of Christ is John the Baptist and the Lamb of God. The presence of John the Baptist in the “Crucifixion” scene gives the theme of Golgotha an additional dimension, recalling the redemption for which Christ’s sacrifice was made. The gospel event is presented with such expressive power that it cannot leave anyone indifferent.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It is not for nothing that next to the figure of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus Christ there is an inscription: “He must increase, I must decrease.”
With the doors of the Isenheim Altar open, the central panel of the work represents the scene of the Glorification of Mary, to the left of which is the Annunciation, and to the right is the Resurrection of Christ.
Compositionally and coloristically, the painting “Glorification of Mary” is divided into two parts, each of which manifests its own special event in the glory of the Madonna.
The picturesque work “The Resurrection of Christ”, with the doors of the “Isenheim Altar” open, located next to the painting “Glorification of Mary”, represents the Savior in the guise of a knight ascended above the earth in the radiance of mystical light. Knight Christ, having risen from the dead, by the very fact of the Resurrection won an all-out victory over the armed warriors. The symbolism of the lid of the sarcophagus where the body of the Savior was imprisoned. The meaning of the act of rolling away the stone of Christ's tomb. The slab of the tomb from which the Lord arose as a tablet containing the record of the Old Testament Law. The personification of victory over adherents of the Old Testament principles symbolizes the triumph of the Gospel Law.
The construction of the “Isenheim Altarpiece” facilitates not only the opening, but also the additional movement of the picturesque doors, which reveals the sculptural part of the work with statues of St. Augustine, St. Anthony and St. Jerome, as well as the predella with sculpted half-figures of Christ and the twelve apostles. On the back of the inner doors, on the one hand, the scene “Conversation of St. Anthony with St. Paul the Hermit” is depicted, and on the other, “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”
The artistic space of the painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”
The work of Lucas Cranach the Elder - court painter of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as a wonderful graphic artist. Cranach is considered the creator and largest representative of the Saxon art school. Simultaneously with his creative activity The master performed important municipal work in Wittenberg: he owned a tavern, a pharmacy, a printing house, and a library. Cranach was even a member of the city council, and in the period from 1537 to 1544. was elected burgomaster of Wittenberg three times.
Despite the fact that many of Lucas Cranach the Elder's significant works were lost during the Reformation and the fire that devastated Wittenberg in 1760, the works that have survived to this day reflect the diversity of the master's talent. He painted excellent portraits and also created paintings on religious and mythological subjects. There are numerous famous nudes by Cranach - Venus, Eve, Lucretia, Salome, Judith. When creating his works, the master used themes from contemporary humanistic sources.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The artistic space of Lucas Cranach's painting "The Punishment of Cupid". The goddess of love is called upon with her naked beauty to wash the human soul from the evil of sinful filth, to rid human hearts of callousness and fossilization. The task is to arouse crystal clear love energy, thereby snatching the human soul from the sticky mud of everyday profaneness. Features of the spiral composition of the work.
The work "Martin Luther", performed in 1529, reveals Lucas Cranach the Elder as an excellent portrait painter.
The great German reformer of the Catholic Church is depicted communicating with God in “righteous everyday life.”
The work of Albrecht Durer, the great German painter, graphic artist and engraver of the late 15th – first third of the 16th centuries. Dürer's work is characterized by:
1. Fluctuation of professional interest from generalized philosophical images to strictly naturalistic visual representations;
2. The scientific basis of the activity, a combination of practical skills with deep and precise knowledge (Dürer is the author of the theoretical treatises “Guide to Measuring with Compass and Ruler” and “Four Books on Human Proportions”);
3. The discovery of new possibilities for creating graphic and pictorial works (engraving, which before him was understood as a black drawing on a white background, Dürer turned into a special type of art, the works of which, along with black and white colors, are characterized by a huge number of intermediate shades);
4. The discovery of new artistic genres, themes and subjects (Dürer was the first in Germany to create a work of landscape genre (1494), the first in German art to depict a naked woman (1493), the first to present himself naked in a self-portrait (1498), etc.);
5. Prophetic pathos of artistic creations.
Two years before his death, Albrecht Dürer created his famous pictorial diptych “The Four Apostles” (1526), which he treasured very much.
The artistic space of the left picture of the diptych represents the apostles John and Peter, and the right – the apostles Paul and Mark.
The depicted apostles personify human temperaments. Evangelist John, presented as young and calm, visualizes a sanguine temperament. Saint Peter, depicted as old and tired, symbolizes a phlegmatic temperament. Evangelist Mark, shown in impetuous movement with sparkling eyes, personifies the choleric temperament. St. Paul, shown gloomy and wary, signifies a melancholic temperament.
The work is like a most skillful analytical mirror of human souls. Visual representation of the full spectrum of temperaments.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
On the other hand, the work is a visual evidence of the truth of the appearance of the prophets, spreading the Christian faith on behalf of the Lord, and not the Devil. Portrait characteristics of the apostles.
Both paintings at the bottom of the image contain specially selected texts from the New Testament, carefully executed on behalf of Dürer by the calligrapher Neiderfer.
The diptych "Adam and Eve", created by Dürer in 1507, like the work "The Four Apostles", consists of two relatively independent works of painting. The artistic space of the right picture represents Eve standing near the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and receiving a red pouring apple from the tempting serpent. The artistic space of the left painting represents Adam with a fruiting branch of an apple tree in his hand.
A reminder to people of the sinfulness of every person, a warning about the fatal consequences of original sin.
The copper engraving “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513) is one of Albrecht Dürer’s best graphic works. The artistic space of the work represents a mounted knight in heavy armor, whose path is being tried to be blocked by Death and the Devil.
The plot of the engraving is correlated with the treatise of Erasmus of Rotterdam “Manual of the Christian Warrior” (1504) - a moral and ethical teaching in which the author appeals to all the knights of Christ with an appeal not to be afraid of difficulties if the road is blocked by terrible, deadly demons. A demonstration of the power of the soul, tirelessly striving for the Spirit of God, which no one and nothing in the world can prevent, not even Death and the Devil.
An extremely original phenomenon of the German Renaissance at the beginning of the 16th century. became the activity of the artists of the “Danube School” (German: Donauschule), who discovered the genre of romantically fantastic landscape with their work. In the paintings of the “Danubians” the idea of the need to unify human life with the life of nature, its natural rhythm of existence and a panentheistic organic connection with God was visualized.
The leading master of the “Danube School” was Albrecht Altdorfer. Research has shown that the development of the artist’s creative method was influenced by the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Albrecht Durer.
A representative work of the initial stage of Altdorfer’s work was the painting “Prayer for the Cup,” executed by the master in the early 1510s. The artistic space of the work, sensually revealing the gospel plot, represents nature as a kind of sensitive living organism that actively reacts to events occurring in the human world.
Around the beginning of the 1520s. Significant changes occurred in Altdorfer's artistic activity. Central theme
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The master’s creativity began to visualize the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God. The painting “Landscape with a Bridge” (1520s) is indicative of this stage of the artist’s activity. Central theme– visualization of the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God.
The pinnacle of Altdorfer’s art was the painting “The Battle of Alexander the Great,” created by the master in 1529 by order of Duke William of Bavaria.
The artistic space of the work represents a panorama of the Universe. The divine elements of solar fire, heavenly air, ocean water and rocky earth are depicted as living according to the single law of the Universe, constantly and quite rigidly in contact with each other. However, this is not a destructive battle of the elements among themselves, but the principle of their natural interaction. The principle of natural interaction of elements living according to a single law of the Universe.
5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. Phenomenon of the Reformation
The history of the Renaissance in Germany ended suddenly. By 1530-1540 in fact everything was over. The Reformation played a disastrous role here. Some Protestant movements directly came out with iconoclastic slogans and determination to destroy monuments of art as handmaidens of the ideas of Catholicism. In those German lands where religious primacy passed to Protestantism, they soon abandoned the picturesque design of churches altogether, which is why most artists lost the basis of their existence. Only by the middle of the 16th century. in Germany there has been some revival of artistic activity, and even then in areas that have remained faithful to Catholicism. Here, as in the Netherlands, Romanism develops.
In the second half XVI century fine arts Germany actively joined the general mannerist flow of Western European painting. However, now the examples of German art were shaped not by local masters, but by Dutch and Flemish artists invited to work in the country.
The work of Hans Holbein the Younger - German painter and graphic artist. Like his brother Ambrosius, Hans Holbein began his education in his father's workshop.
In the initial period of his creativity, the master was influenced by the works of Matthias Grunewald, whom he personally met in Isenheim in 1517. Equally, Italian influence is felt in Holbein’s initial works, despite the fact that there is no evidence of the artist visiting Italy. The work “The Crucifixion” dates back to the initial period of Hans Holbein’s work.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Many of Holbein's works, created in Germany, fell victim to reformist "iconoclasm" in February 1529. This was the main reason that it was in that year that the master finally settled in England. In England, Holbein worked mainly as a portrait painter at the London court, gradually gaining a reputation as the most important portrait painter in Northern Europe.
Beginning in 1536, the artist entered the service of King Henry VIII, for whom he made many trips to the continent in order to create portraits of princesses considered as possible suitable parties.
Portraits of the English period mainly depict members royal family and representatives of the highest aristocracy.
The work “Henry VIII” (c. 1540s) belongs to the best portrait creations of the master. In addition to portraits, the master completed many wall paintings, as well as sketches of costumes and utensils. Holbein's true masterpiece was his woodcut "Dance of Death", created in 1538.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. Dutch portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destinies. Series: From the history of world art. M. Art 1972 198 p. ill. Hardcover, encyclopedic format.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. M. Dutch portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destinies.
The Dutch Renaissance is perhaps an even more vibrant phenomenon than the Italian one, at least from the point of view of painting. Van Eyck, Bruegel, Bosch, later Rembrandt... Names that certainly left a deep imprint in the hearts of people who saw their canvases, regardless of whether you feel admiration for them, as before “Hunters in the Snow,” or rejection, as before "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The harsh, dark tones of the Dutch masters differ from the light and joyful creations of Giotto, Raphael and Michelangelo. One can only guess how the specifics of this school were formed, why it was there, to the north of prosperous Flanders and Brabant, that a powerful center of culture arose. Let's keep quiet about this. Let's look at the specifics, at what we have. Our source is the paintings and altars of famous artists Northern Renaissance, and this material requires a special approach. In principle, this needs to be done at the intersection of cultural studies, art history and history.
A similar attempt was implemented by Natalia Gershenzon-Chegodaeva (1907-1977), the daughter of the most famous literary critic in our country. In principle, she is quite a famous person, in her circles, first of all, with her excellent biography of Pieter Bruegel (1983), the above-mentioned work also belongs to her. To be honest, this is a clear attempt to go beyond the boundaries of classical art criticism - not just talk about artistic styles and aesthetics, but try to trace the evolution of human thought through them...
What features do images of humans have in earlier times? There were few secular artists; monks were not always talented in the art of drawing. Therefore, often, images of people in miniatures and paintings are very conventional. Paintings and any other images had to be painted as it should be, in all respects obeying the rules of the century of emerging symbolism. By the way, this is why tombstones (also a kind of portraits) did not always reflect the true appearance of a person, but rather showed him as he needed to be remembered.
Dutch portrait art breaks through such canons. Who are we talking about? The author examines the works of such masters as Robert Compen, Jan Van Eyck, Rogier Van der Weyden, Hugo Van der Goes. These were true masters of their craft, living by their talent, performing work to order. Very often the customer was the church - in conditions of illiteracy of the population, painting is considered the most important art, the city dweller and peasant not trained in theological wisdom had to explain the simplest truths on their fingers, and artistic image filled this role. This is how such masterpieces as the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck arose.
The customers were also rich townspeople - merchants, bankers, guild members, and nobility. Portraits appeared, single and group. And here - a breakthrough for that time - an interesting feature of the masters was discovered, and one of the first to notice it was the famous agnostic philosopher Nikolas of Cusa. Not only did artists, when creating their images, paint a person not conventionally, but as he is, they also managed to convey his inner appearance. A turn of the head, a glance, a hairstyle, clothes, a curve of the mouth, a gesture - all this is amazing and exactly also showed the character of the person.
Of course, this was an innovation, no doubt. The aforementioned Nikola also wrote about this. The author connects the painters with the innovative ideas of the philosopher - respect for the human person, the knowability of the surrounding world, the possibility of its philosophical knowledge.
But here a completely reasonable question arises: is it possible to compare the work of artists with the thought of an individual philosopher? In spite of everything, Nicholas of Cusa in any case remained in the bosom of medieval philosophy; in any case, he relied on the fabrications of the same scholastics. What about master artists? We know practically nothing about their intellectual life; did they have such developed connections with each other, and with church leaders? That's the question. Without a doubt, they had continuity with each other, but the origins of this skill still remain a mystery. The author does not specialize in philosophy, but rather fragmentarily talks about the connection between the traditions of Dutch painting and scholasticism. If Dutch art is original and has no connection with Italian humanities, where did it come from? artistic traditions, and their features? Vague reference to “national traditions”? Which? This is a question...
In general, the author perfectly, as befits an art critic, talks about the specifics of each artist’s work, and quite convincingly interprets the aesthetic perception of the individual. But as for the philosophical origins, the place of painting in the thought of the Middle Ages, it is very sketchy; the author did not find an answer to the question about the origins.
Bottom line: the book has a very good selection of portraits and other works of the early Dutch Renaissance. It’s quite interesting to read about how art historians work with such a fragile and ambiguous material as painting, how they note the smallest features and specific features of style, how they connect the aesthetics of a painting with time... However, the context of the era is visible, so to speak, from a very, very long perspective .
Personally, I was more interested in the question of the ideological and artistic origins of this specific movement. This is where the author failed to convincingly answer the question posed. The art critic defeated the historian; before us is, first of all, a work of art history, that is, rather, for great lovers of painting.
Heterogeneous in ethnic, economic and political respects, speaking various dialects of Romance and Germanic origin, these provinces and their cities did not create a single nation state until the end of the 16th century. Along with the rapid economic growth, the democratic movement of free trade and craft cities and the awakening of national self-awareness in them, a culture blossoms, in many ways similar to the Italian Renaissance. The main centers of new art and culture were the rich cities of the southern provinces of Flanders and Brabant (Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Tournai, and later Antwerp). Urban burgher culture with its cult of sober practicality developed here next to the lush culture of the princely court, which grew on French-Burgundian soil. Therefore, it is not surprising that Dutch painting took the leading place among the Northern European art schools of the 15th century: artists Jan van Eyck, Robert Kampen, Jos van Gent, Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts, Hieronymus Bosch, Albert Ouwater, Hugo van der Goes, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, Jacques Darais, Hertgen tot Sint-Jans and other painters (see below in the text).
The peculiarities of the historical development of the Netherlands determined the peculiar coloring of art. Feudal foundations and traditions were preserved here until the end of the 16th century, although the emergence of capitalist relations, which broke class isolation, led to a change in the assessment of the human personality in accordance with real place, which she began to occupy in life. Dutch cities did not gain the political independence that commune cities had in Italy. At the same time, thanks to the constant movement of industry into the countryside, capitalist development penetrated into deeper layers of society in the Netherlands, laying the foundations for further national unity and the strengthening of the corporate spirit that bound certain social groups together. The liberation movement was not limited to cities. The decisive fighting force in it was the peasantry. The fight against feudalism therefore acquired more acute forms. At the end of the 16th century it grew into a powerful Reformation movement and ended with the victory of the bourgeois revolution.
Dutch art acquired a more democratic character than Italian art. It has strong features of folklore, fantasy, grotesque, sharp satire, but its main feature is a deep sense of the national uniqueness of life, folk forms of culture, way of life, customs, types, as well as the display of social contrasts in the life of various strata of society. The social contradictions in the life of society, the reign of hostility and violence in it, the diversity of opposing forces exacerbated the awareness of its disharmony. Hence the critical tendencies of the Dutch Renaissance, manifested in the flowering of expressive and sometimes tragic grotesque in art and literature, often hiding under the guise of a joke “to speak the truth to kings with a smile” (Erasmus of Rotterdam. “A word of praise for stupidity”). Another feature of the Dutch artistic culture of the Renaissance is the stability of medieval traditions, which largely determined the character of Dutch realism of the 15th and 16th centuries. Everything new that was revealed to people over a long period of time was applied to the old medieval system of views, which limited the possibilities for the independent development of new views, but at the same time forced them to assimilate the valuable elements contained in this system.
Interest in the exact sciences, ancient heritage and the Italian Renaissance appeared in the Netherlands already in the 15th century. In the 16th century, with the help of his “Sayings” (1500), Erasmus of Rotterdam “unraveled the secret of the mysteries” of the erudites and introduced living, free-loving ancient wisdom into everyday use wide circles"uninitiated". However, in art, turning to the achievements of the ancient heritage and the Italians of the Renaissance, Dutch artists followed their own path. Intuition replaced the scientific approach to depicting nature. The development of the main problems of realistic art - mastering the proportions of the human figure, constructing space, volume, etc. - was achieved through acute direct observation of specific individual phenomena. In this, the Dutch masters followed the national Gothic tradition, which, on the one hand, they overcame, and on the other, they rethought and developed towards a conscious, purposeful generalization of the image, and the complication of individual characteristics. The successes achieved by Dutch art in this direction prepared the achievements of realism of the 17th century.
Unlike Italian, Dutch Renaissance art did not come to establish the unlimited dominance of the image of the perfect titanic man. As in the Middle Ages, man seemed to the Dutch to be an integral part of the universe, woven into its complex spiritual whole. The Renaissance essence of man was determined only by the fact that he was recognized as the greatest value among the multiple phenomena of the universe. Dutch art is characterized by a new, realistic vision of the world, an affirmation of the artistic value of reality as it is, an expression of the organic connection between man and his environment, and an understanding of the possibilities that nature and life give to man. In depicting a person, artists are interested in the characteristic and special, the sphere of everyday and spiritual life; Dutch painters of the 15th century enthusiastically captured the diversity of people's individualities, the inexhaustible colorful richness of nature, its material diversity; they subtly felt the poetry of everyday things, unnoticed but close to people, and the coziness of lived-in interiors. These features of the perception of the world manifested themselves in Dutch painting and graphics of the 15th and 16th centuries in the everyday genre, portraits, interiors, and landscapes. They revealed the typical Dutch love for details, the concreteness of their depiction, narration, subtlety in conveying moods, and at the same time an amazing ability to reproduce a holistic picture of the universe with its spatial boundlessness.
New trends manifested themselves unevenly in various types art. Architecture and sculpture developed within the Gothic style until the 16th century. The turning point that took place in the art of the first third of the 15th century was most fully reflected in painting. Her greatest achievement is associated with the emergence of easel painting in Western Europe, which replaced the wall paintings of Romanesque churches and Gothic stained glass windows. Easel paintings on religious themes were originally actually works of icon painting. In the form of painted folding frames with gospel and biblical scenes, they decorated the altars of churches. Gradually, secular subjects began to be included in altar compositions, which later acquired independent significance. Easel painting separated from icon painting and became an integral part of the interiors of wealthy and aristocratic houses.
For Dutch artists, the main means of artistic expression is color, which opens up the possibility of recreating visual images in their colorful richness with extreme tangibility. The Dutch were sensitive to the subtle differences between objects, reproducing the texture of materials, optical effects - the shine of metal, the transparency of glass, the reflection of a mirror, the refraction features of reflected and scattered light, the impression of the airy atmosphere of a landscape receding into the distance. As in Gothic stained glass, the tradition of which played an important role in the development of pictorial perception of the world, color served as the main means of conveying the emotional richness of the image. The development of realism caused a transition in the Netherlands from tempera to oil paint, which made it possible to more illusively reproduce the materiality of the world.
The improvement of the oil painting technique known in the Middle Ages and the development of new compositions are attributed to Jan van Eyck. The use of oil paint and resinous substances in easel painting, its application in a transparent, thin layer on the underpainting and white or red chalk primer emphasized the saturation, depth and purity of bright colors, expanded the possibilities of painting - made it possible to achieve richness and variety in color, the finest tonal transitions. The enduring painting of Jan van Eyck and his method lived on almost unchanged in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the practice of artists in Italy, France, Germany and other countries.
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