Coloring of medieval temple sculpture and parts of the interior. Gothic style in sculpture and painting

Gothic temple. Cologne

The second great style of the Middle Ages was Gothic. The Gothic style originated in France, and it was there that the most beautiful works of this style were created. From France, Gothic spread to other countries of Western Europe. The Gothic style dominated from the 12th to the 16th century, although it was abandoned in Italy already in the 15th century. The Gothic style received its name later from the Germanic tribe - "ready", although they had nothing to do with this style. This name was at first contemptuous and was supposed to mean everything wild and barbaric. Nowadays, the Gothic style is considered one of the most subtle, beautiful and amazing artistic phenomena.

Stained glass windows in a gothic church

Stained glass windows in a gothic church

Stained glass windows in a gothic church

The great Russian writer N.V. Gogol wrote so enthusiastically about Gothic: “Gothic architecture ... is a phenomenon that has never been produced by the taste and imagination of a person ... Everything is connected together in it: this forest of vaults spontaneously and high above the head, windows huge and narrow with innumerable changes and bindings, joining this terrifying colossality of a mass of the smallest, variegated decorations; this light web of carving, entangling with its net, wrapping it around from the foot to the end of the spitz and flying with it to the sky, greatness and at the same time beauty, luxury and simplicity, heaviness and lightness - these are such virtues that never, except this time, did not include architecture.

The interior of the temple - ribs, arches, stained glass windows.

Gothic is an artistic style that completed the development of medieval art in Western, Central and partly in Eastern Europe. Its origin and development are associated with the growth and wealth of monasteries, as well as the transformation of cities into major centers of trade and crafts. In the Romanesque era, the main purpose of castles and monasteries was to protect, shelter from the enemy, so the buildings were heavy, massive, and the main difficulty was the construction of strong and heavy ceilings.

reims cathedral

In the Gothic era, on the contrary, they sought to lighten the buildings, make them more elegant, slender. To achieve this lightness, Romanesque churches were completed in accordance with the requirements of the Gothic style. An example of the rebuilding of a Romanesque church is Notre Dame Cathedral in France. There were lancet, soaring up towers, lancet windows. But from the ponderous Romanesque architecture there remained a massive expanse of the wall, heavy towers, and restrained sculptural decoration. The Gothic church can be immediately recognized by the lancet (sharp at the top) arches of windows and doorways. Churches no longer look like fortresses, as in the Romanesque period, but easily rise to the sky with their slender, pointed towers - as if they were not made of stone at all.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

Gothic stained glass

Huge stained-glass windows - stained-glass windows - take up so much space that there are almost no walls left. The vaults support columns covered with semi-columns, resembling a bunch of some kind of stems. At the top, the semi-columns branch out and turn into ribs (ribs) that intertwine with each other. They were laid out either from carved stone or brick. The ribs supported the vaults, which were much thinner and lighter than the Romanesque ones. All parts of the building seem to rush up. As if soaring pointed towers sometimes cover the building like a forest. The impression of lightness and grace is enhanced by lace decorations made of carved stone. Whoever entered the church was greatly impressed by its spaciousness, height, and solemn majesty. A blazing red or intense blue light poured through the colored glass and made everything around mysterious and unearthly.

Chartres Cathedral in France

Gothic has left many beautiful monuments in various cities of Europe. France is considered the birthplace of Gothic. The cathedrals of Paris, Amiens and Reims - in France, the cathedrals of Cologne and Naumburg - in Germany, the cathedrals in Vienna, Prague brought worldwide fame. Gothic structures in Italy were often finished with multi-colored marble blocks of alternating colors: white, greenish, gray, sometimes pink. In the Gothic era, all of Western Europe was covered with picturesque feudal castles with numerous towers, battlements and drawbridges. The cities of that time were also surrounded by walls. The streets in the medieval city are narrow, and small houses are closely pressed against each other.

Cathedral in Salisbury, England.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

gothic cathedral

Sculptors have learned to convey the experiences of people, their characters.

Gothic sculpture was a significant step towards expressiveness and truthfulness in the transfer of nature. The reliefs became more convex, round (volumetric) sculpture appeared, as in Greece. Usually the figures are very tall, slender, elongated, smoothly curved, in long clothes with picturesquely laid folds. Postures are natural, inspired. Especially common at this time was the image of the Virgin (Madonna) with the Christ Child in her arms. Remarkable is the sculptural group of Count Eckehard and his wife Uta in the cathedral of the German city of Naumburg. The sculptor managed to convincingly convey the characters of people. Count Ekkehard is a typical feudal lord, imperious and resolute, calmly and with dignity. The complete opposite of him is gentle, fragile and charming Uta; some bright dream seemed to freeze on her face; a very natural gesture with which she pressed her cheek to the collar of her cloak.

Sculpture has become not only embossed, but also three-dimensional

Speaking about the medieval art of Western Europe, we will have to return to the end of the ancient world, to those times when, on the one hand, the Byzantine state was formed on the ruins of the unified Roman Empire, and on the other, the young states of the barbarians: the Ostrogothic on the Apennine Peninsula, the kingdom of the Visigoths on the Iberian Peninsula, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Britain, the state of the Franks on the Rhine and others.

The Frankish leader Clovis, who converted to Christianity, and his successors expanded the borders of the state, pushed back the Visigoths and soon became hegemons in Western Europe. But the Franks still remained real "barbarians", a society of farmers and warriors who knew neither luxury, nor servility, nor court ceremonies, who had no idea about philosophy and sciences, who could not read, who did not appreciate the monuments of ancient culture.

While the Byzantine sovereigns (basileus) sat on a golden horse surrounded by gilded statues of lions and golden singing birds, the kings of the Franks rode in wooden carts drawn by a pair of oxen, driven by a shepherd.

These "barbarians" did a great historical deed: they rejuvenated and revived the world. Sweeping away the decrepit Roman civilization, putting an end to slavery, they established a system where the basis was the labor of a free peasant. We take the word "barbarians" in quotation marks, since the later tradition made it synonymous with the ruthless destruction of culture, and real, historical barbarians were not only destroyers, but also the founders of a new culture.

Polychrome style. At an early stage, until the middle of the 6th century, the so-called polychrome style prevailed: gold objects were decorated with cloisonne enamel or inlaid with precious stones, mainly almandines, and sometimes with red glass. These objects made of precious materials served at that time as a people who did not conduct monetary exchange, instead of money.

"Abstract animal ornament". From the middle of the 6th century, the "polychrome style" was replaced by an "abstract animal ornament", flat, linear, made up of braid, which included images of individual parts of the bodies of animals - the head or mouth, paws or leg joint. Most likely, the braid had a magical meaning, as well as the “animal” components of the ornament.

Image of a person. Images of man appear in the art of the barbarians from the 7th century, and at first they were images not of Christian, but of Germanic mythology.

Thus, the famous relief from Hornhausen depicts a warrior with a spear riding a horse. A braided ornament stretches along the lower edge of the relief, signifying a serpentine monster trampled down by a warrior. Such figures of warriors are also often found on broaches of the 7th century. They testify to how slowly and at first superficially the barbarian peoples were Christianized, but also to the fact that in the 7th century their art had already approached the stage of representation, and the time was approaching when, like once ancient art, it could be used by biblical characters and events.

But this happened only after a hundred years. Back in the 8th century, even in the most thoroughly Christianized part of Europe, in Ireland and England, ornamentation prevailed over anthropomorphic Christian patterns.

Art of Ireland and England. In the 7th-8th centuries in Ireland and England, church culture reached a high level. There were monasteries where they knew Greek and Latin, where liturgical books were copied and decorated with miniatures. Sometimes in the miniatures of the Anglo-Irish gospels, the entire page is filled with rows of flat ribbon spirals. Sometimes almost the entire page is occupied by a huge capital letter, an initial very clearly outlined by ornament. The same reason for ornamental stylization is provided in these miniatures by the human figure, images of Christ or the evangelists. These were the first approaches to medieval art. The artistic tradition of the Middle Ages dates back to the end of the 8th-9th centuries.

Art of the Carolingian era.

In 800, Charlemagne, king of the Franks, was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III. Already in the 40s of the IX century, the empire of Charlemagne was divided between his descendants. For the first time, Europe, united by the power of one ruler, was presented as something integral and unified. Charlemagne relied in his reign on two social forces - the military class and the church, and in this way he laid the foundations for future social development. By endowing his commanders with the formation of a class of feudal lords, and by founding and strengthening monasteries, turning them into administrative and military centers, he introduced the church into the state system and concluded its alliance with secular power for many centuries.

The authority that would support the undertakings of Charlemagne was ancient Christian Rome. Therefore, he deliberately cultivated ancient forms of education among the nobility close to him: chronicles and biographies were created at his court, Latin was cleansed of barbaric impurities, becoming closer to the language of the Romans. Art followed Roman patterns. The centric palace chapel in Aehan, the favorite residence of Charlemagne, in many ways imitates the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna. Charlemagne built residences, decorating with frescoes depicting the deeds of ancient commanders and Frankish kings. In the monastic scriptoria, Roman miniatures with images of ancient philosophers were copied. In the gospels and bibles of the ninth century, the evangelists inherited the traits.

The images of the Evangelists in Carolingian miniatures were an important and promising innovation for European art. They meant the transition from barbarian ornamentation to fine and anthropomorphic art. Carolingian art, like early Christian art, needed antique clothing, but in essence it already served new goals and reflected the needs of a new, medieval reality. In the era of Charlemagne, stone construction became the norm. True, in part it was an imitation of the architecture of Rome.

Church buildings of the era have features that do not go back to antiquity, but are generated by new social and religious needs and point to the future. In the Carolingian era, crypts were widely used, intended for the storage of relics and the burial of noble clergy and secular persons. It was in the crypts that an element first appeared in this era, which later gained great importance in the ground parts of Romanesque churches - a ring bypass around the apse, which allowed pilgrims to view the relics.

The most important innovation of Carolingian architecture was the tower, which was almost never found in Mediterranean architecture, merged with the body of the building, growing both on the sides of the facade and above the intersection of the transept and nave.

Their upper parts, usually wooden, did not always harmonize with the masonry of the building, but thanks to the towers, the silhouette of the building was already outlined, which became typical for a Western European church in the Romanesque era.

Due to the variety of volumes combined in one building, the external appearance of the Carolingian temple is plastically enriched, one can even say that from that time it begins to play an important role in the aesthetic impression made by architecture.

Although the Carolingian era laid the foundations for the future social and cultural development of Europe, after its collapse, this development stopped for a whole century. In the 10th century, a new wave of invasions - the Normans from the north, the Arabs from the south and the Hungarians from the east - devastated most of the European countries. Cultural centers were ruined, construction activity almost stopped.

Art of the Ottonian era.

At that time, the eastern part of Germany - Saxony, was in the most favorable position, far from the big rivers along which the Normans embarked on their predatory raids. Here, from the beginning of the 10th century, the Saxon dynasty of kings reigned, and already in 962 one of them, Otto I, received the imperial crown in Rome.

Relying on the authority of Rome, Otto I and his followers did not have a consistent program for the revival of ancient traditions. The Saxon lands were very remote from Rome, and no traces of ancient civilization existed there. On the other hand, the Carolingian era left a sufficient number of valuable artistic ideas as a legacy to the art of the 10th century. Further strengthening of the position of the church led to the expansion of church construction.

The best Saxon churches are: the monastery church of St. Cyriacus in Gernrod and the Church of St. Michael in Gildesheim. These churches with smooth thick walls and massive towers have a severe menacing appearance. Preserving the main features of the early Christian basilica, the structure and wooden coverings, at the same time they inherited and developed something new that was contained in Carolingian architecture - the clarity of the outer, rectangular and cylindrical volumes of the transepts, apses, towers and, most importantly, the towers themselves at the facades.

The visual arts of the "Ottonian", as it is called, era was even more innovative than architecture. It is more difficult to notice traces of the influence of ancient forms in it, but one can see many specific features of medieval art quite clearly defined. They are especially noticeable in bronze reliefs.

The figurative system of these reliefs is also subordinated to the desire to make the cycle easily readable. The figures, large-headed, clumsy, with barely outlined features and baggy bodies, would have seemed primitive if not for the amazing eloquence of their gestures. Gesture, as well as posture, become the main means of expression in these reliefs.

In German miniatures of the 10th century, scenes appear illustrating episodes of Holy Scripture, and the figures in these scenes have the same expressiveness of gesture and in reliefs. The hands and fingers of the characters are even overly surprised, so that the meaning of the gesture is easier to perceive by the viewer.

The miniatures of the “Ottonian” era, made in monastic scriptoriums with a two- or three-century tradition of rewriting and decorating books, moreover, intended for the eyes of the emperor and the higher clergy, are distinguished by a much greater complexity of artistic language. Their images vividly testify to the spiritual power of the church. All these miniatures are full of gloomy pathos. The figures in them completely lose the volume inherited by the Carolingian era from antiquity.

They are drawn on the impenetrable plane of the golden background. In these post miniatures there are no buildings or plants that would characterize the scene.

In this art there is no hint of humanity, sincerity. It categorically and adamantly affirms the dogmas of faith.

Roman style. All the features of "Ottonian" art - the heaviness of the masses and the clarity of volumes in architecture, the expressiveness of gesture, the systematic sequence of narration and the pathos of spirituality in the visual arts - are already features of the Romanesque style, especially developed from the end of the 10th century.

The term “Romanesque” itself was introduced into scientific circulation at the beginning of the 19th century by French archaeologists, who saw the similarity of the discovered buildings with ancient Roman architecture, with its semicircular arches, etc.

The secular buildings of the Romanesque style are distinguished by massive forms, narrow window openings, and a significant height of the towers. The same features of massiveness are characteristic of temple structures, which were covered with wall paintings - frescoes from the inside, and brightly painted reliefs from the outside.

The knight's castle, the monastic ensemble, the church are the main types of Romanesque buildings that have come down to our time. Typical examples of Romanesque architecture are the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Poitiers, the cathedrals in Toulouse, Orstval, Oxford, Winchester, etc.

The painting and sculpture of the Romanesque type is characterized by a flat two-dimensional image, generalization of forms, violation of proportions in the image of figures, lack of portrait resemblance to the original, intense spiritual expressiveness. The images are rigorous, often extremely naive.

By the end of the XII century. Romanesque style is replaced by Gothic.

Sculpture. Most Romanesque sculpture was integrated into church architecture and served both structural, constructive and aesthetic purposes.

Therefore, it is difficult to talk about Romanesque sculpture without touching on church architecture.

Small-sized sculpture of the Romanesque era made of bone, bronze, gold was made under the influence of Byzantine models. Other elements of numerous local styles were borrowed from the crafts of the Middle East, known for imported illustrated manuscripts, bone carvings, gold objects, ceramics, fabrics. Motifs derived from the arts of the migrating peoples were also important, such as grotesque figures, images of monsters, intertwining geometric patterns, especially in areas north of the Alps. Large-scale stone sculptural decorations only became common in Europe in the 12th century. In the French Romanesque cathedrals of Provence, Burgundy, Aquitaine, many figures were placed on the facades, and the statues on the columns emphasized the vertical supporting elements.

Painting. Existing examples of Romanesque painting include decorations on architectural monuments, such as columns with abstract ornaments, as well as wall decorations with images of hanging fabrics. Picturesque compositions, in particular narrative scenes based on biblical stories and from the life of saints, were also depicted on the wide surfaces of the walls. In these compositions, which predominantly follow Byzantine painting and mosaics, the figures are stylized and flat, so that they are perceived more as symbols than as realistic representations. Mosaic, just like painting, was mainly a Byzantine technique and was widely used in the architectural design of Italian Romanesque churches, especially in the Cathedral of St. Mark (Venice).

Decorative art. Romanesque artists reached the highest level in illustrating manuscripts. In England, an important school of manuscript illustration arose already in the 7th century in Holy Island (Lindisfarne). The works of this school, exhibited in the British Museum (London), are distinguished by the geometric interlacing of patterns in capital letters, frames, and whole pages, which are called carpet, are densely covered with them. Drawings of capital letters are often animated by grotesque figures of people, birds, monsters.

Regional schools of manuscript illustration in southern and eastern Europe developed different specific styles, as can be seen, for example, in a copy of the Apocalypse of Beata (Paris, National Library) made in the middle of the 11th century in the monastery of Saint-Sever in Northern France. At the beginning of the 12th century, the illustration of manuscripts in the northern countries acquired common features, just as the same happened at that time with sculpture. In Italy, the Byzantine influence continued to dominate both in miniature painting and in wall paintings and mosaics.

Romanesque metalworking, a widespread art form, was used mainly to create church utensils for religious rituals. Many of these works are kept to this day in the treasuries of great cathedrals outside of France; French cathedrals were robbed during the French Revolution. Other metalwork from this period is early Celtic filigree jewelry and silverware; late products of German goldsmiths and silver things inspired by imported Byzantine metal products, as well as wonderful enamels, especially cloisonné and champlevé, made in the areas of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. Two famous metalworkers were Roger, a German known for his bronzes, and a French enameller, Godefroy de Claire.

The best-known example of a Romanesque textile work is an 11th-century embroidery called the Baia Tapestry. Other patterns have survived, such as church vestments and draperies, but the most valuable fabrics in Romanesque Europe were imported from the Byzantine Empire, Spain, and the Middle East and are not the product of local craftsmen.

AT medieval art Romanesque style, characteristic of the X-XII centuries, and Gothic (XII-XV centuries) successively replaced each other. The ideology and culture of the Middle Ages were based on feudal-church foundations. And Roman style, and Gothic developed in areas dominated by the Catholic Church. Art was cult in purpose and religious in subject matter. Hence the symbolic-allegorical nature of his artistic images.

If for the ancient Greeks and Romans the inner world and the bodily appearance of a person were only different sides of human essence, then in the minds of people of the Middle Ages, the soul and body were most often perceived as two opposite principles. Unlike the sculptors of antiquity, the masters of the early Middle Ages sought to convey not the bodily beauty of a person, but the sublime feelings of his soul.

The leading place in medieval art was occupied by architecture: castles, monasteries and cathedrals. The Romanesque castle was a massive fortress, often located in an impregnable place. Monotonous thick walls, small loophole windows, simple arched openings - the whole severe appearance of the castle corresponded to the lifestyle of those militant feudal lords who lived within its gloomy walls.

Born in the Gothic era, bold and complex frame structure the cathedral made it possible to overcome the massiveness of the buildings of the previous Romanesque period. The cathedral became the center of city life, where, along with worship, theological debates were held, mysteries were played, and meetings of citizens took place.

The huge, overwhelming space of the cathedral, the aspiration to the sky of its towers and vaults, subordination, the fusion of sculpture with architectural forms, the mysterious glow of stained-glass windows had a strong impact on believers.

During the Gothic period began to develop rapidly urban planning and civil architecture(residential buildings, town halls, guild houses, shopping malls, warehouses, city towers), urban architectural ensembles were formed, which included religious and secular buildings, fortifications, bridges, wells. Narrow Gothic facades of two to five-story residential buildings with high gables lined the streets and embankments.

The synthesis of the arts in Gothic is incomparably richer and more complex than in the Romanesque style, and the system of religious subjects is much broader, more harmonious, and more logical. It reflected all medieval ideas about the world. Sculpture was the main means of expression in Gothic. For the first time after antiquity, statues and sculptural groups received a rich artistic content - the stiffness and isolation of the pillar-like Romanesque statues was replaced by the mobility of the figures, their appeal to each other, to the viewer. Gothic sculpture, as if merged with the elongated forms of cathedrals, was characterized by a certain convention of the proportions of the human body, expressiveness of rhythms and silhouettes.

Church power affected the work of medieval artists, limiting their ability to create images close to everyday, real life. But the best Gothic creations testify to the high artistic taste of the nameless folk masters.

History of world and national culture Konstantinova S V

16. Painting, architecture and sculpture of the Middle Ages

Roman painting served as a model for miniaturists. The author of the medieval miniature is not just an illustrator, he is a talented storyteller who managed to convey both the legend and its symbolic meaning in one scene.

"Carolingian Renaissance" (from the French "revival") - this is how the researchers called the art of this era. In the era of the Carolingians, the art of miniature book illustration reached an extraordinary flowering. There were no miniature schools, but there were centers for the production of illustrated manuscripts at monasteries (for example, a book-writing workshop in Aachen).

Carolingian temples were decorated very modestly on the outside, but inside they shone with wall paintings - frescoes. Many researchers have noted the great importance of fine arts in a barbaric world where most people could not read.

The murals of the Romanesque period have practically not been preserved. They were edifying; the movements, gestures and faces of the characters were expressive, the images flat.

After the emergence in the V-VIII centuries. The states of the Germanic tribes were converted to Christianity. Stone Christian churches began to be erected. Churches were built on the model of Roman basilicas. The temple, which had the shape of a cross in plan, symbolized the way of the cross of Christ - the path of suffering. Since the X century. architects gradually changed the design of the temple - it had to meet the requirements of an increasingly complex cult. In the architecture of Germany at that time, a special type of church developed - majestic and massive. This is the cathedral in Speyer (1030–1092/1106), one of the largest in Western Europe.

The name "Gothic art" (from the word "Gothic", after the name of the Germanic tribe of the Goths) arose during the Renaissance. Gothic cathedrals differed significantly from the monastic churches of the Romanesque period. The Gothic cathedral is directed upwards: they began to use a new design of vaults here (the vault rests on arches, and those on pillars). The lateral pressure of the vault is transmitted to flying buttresses (outer semi-arches) and buttresses (outer supports of the building). The walls ceased to serve as a support for the vault, which made it possible to make many windows, arches, galleries in them, stained-glass windows appeared - images made up of colored glasses fastened together.

Sculpture also developed in the Middle Ages. On Frankish reliefs of the 7th-8th centuries. Christian martyrs are depicted. Since the X century. the first images of Christ, the Mother of God, saints appear. Sculpture in the Romanesque period in Germany was placed, as a rule, inside temples. It began to appear on facades only at the end of the 12th century.

From the book Ancient Greece author Lyapustin Boris Sergeevich

From the book History of World and National Culture author Konstantinova, S V

7. Music, Painting, Architecture and Sculpture of Ancient Egypt Egyptian musical culture is one of the most ancient in the world. Music accompanied all religious ceremonies, mass festivals. Musicians enjoyed great respect in society, they were considered relatives

From the book of the Etruscans [Genesis, religion, culture] author McNamara Ellen

10. Painting, architecture, sculpture and vase painting of ancient culture The era of classics, especially high (450–400 BC) did not tolerate models with flaws - everything must be perfect in a person. The reign of Emperor Nero, one of the most cruel rulers in Roman

From the book The Greatness of Ancient Egypt author Murray Margaret

12. Theater, painting, architecture, sculpture and arts and crafts of Japanese culture A special aesthetic function is performed in the theater by the magnificent, luxurious attire of actors and masks, which express the subtlest shades of human feelings with deep psychologism.

From the author's book

18. Painting, architecture and sculpture of the Renaissance. Major painters of the Northern Renaissance The fine arts, especially painting and sculpture, became the brightest page of the Italian Renaissance. Proto-Renaissance (XIII-early XIV centuries) - the threshold

From the author's book

20. Literature, Social thought, music, fashion, painting, architecture and sculpture of the modern era Man has ceased to be the measure of all things, as it was in the Enlightenment. The movement for gender equality was actively developing. Reducing the influence of religion on

From the author's book

22. Painting, architecture and sculpture of the 20th century Painting of the 20th century is very diverse and is represented by the following main areas: 1) avant-garde (impressionism, modern, cubism, fauvism); 2) realism; 3) pop art; 4) public art, etc. .The term "pop art" (English "popular,

From the author's book

31. Painting and architecture in Russia in the 16th century. In the 16th century. The themes of ancient Russian painting began to expand significantly. Much more often than before, artists turn to the plots and images of the Old Testament, to the instructive narratives of parables and, most importantly, to

From the author's book

39. Architecture and sculpture of the era of "palace coups" and Catherine's reign In the first half of the XVIII century. The dominant style in architecture was baroque. It is characterized by the creation of huge ensembles, distinguished by solemnity, splendor, an abundance of stucco,

From the author's book

45. Painting, Architecture and Sculpture of the Golden Age of Russian Culture (second half) On November 9, 1863, a large group of graduates of the Academy of Arts refused to write competitive works on a proposed theme from Scandinavian mythology. Finding themselves without workshops and without

From the author's book

47. Painting, Architecture and Sculpture of the Silver Age In the visual arts there was a realistic trend, represented by I. Repin, the Association of Traveling Exhibitions and avant-garde trends. One trend has been towards

From the author's book

49. Painting, architecture and sculpture of the 20-30s. XX century The development of art was also characterized by the existence of the struggle of various directions. The Association of Artists of the Revolution (AKhR, 1922) was the most massive art organization, which aimed to develop

From the author's book

54. Painting, architecture and sculpture in Soviet culture in the 1950s-1980s in the field of fine arts, a rigid educational and production system was established. The future artist must have passed

From the author's book

56. Literature, cinema, theater, media, painting, architecture and sculpture in Russia 1991–2003 Literature continues to develop. New names appear: 1) Petrushevskaya (new style - “gray on gray”); 2) Sorokin (“naturalism”); 3) Pelevin (modernism); 4) B. Akunin (detective

From the author's book

From the author's book

Sculpture and painting Egyptian art, like the art of other countries, developed unevenly. Not every period produced great artists and new trends in art, so it was necessary to identify the characteristic features of works of art,

The Middle Ages is a unique historical period. For each country, it began and ended at different times. For example, in Western Europe, the period from the 5th to the 15th centuries is considered the Middle Ages, in Russia - from the 10th to the 17th centuries, and in the East - from the 4th to the 18th centuries. Let us consider further what kind of spiritual heritage the creators of that era left us.

general characteristics

What was medieval art like? In short, it combined the spiritual quests of the masters who lived at that time. The main themes of their creations were determined by the church. It was she who then acted as the main customer. Meanwhile, the history of medieval art is connected not only with Christian dogmas. In the people's memory of that time, there were still signs of a pagan worldview. This can be seen in customs, folklore and rituals.

Music

Medieval art cannot be considered without it. Music was considered an integral element of the life of the people of that time. She always accompanied holidays, celebrations, birthdays. Among the most popular instruments were horns, flutes, bells, tambourines, whistles, drums. From the eastern countries, the lute came to the music of the Middle Ages. There were ritual features in the motives of that time. For example, at the beginning of spring, special music was composed, to which people drove away the spirits of winter and announced the onset of heat. At Christmas, the bells always sounded. He carried the good news of the coming of the Savior.

Roman style

It filled the medieval art of Western Europe in the 10th-12th centuries. In some areas, this style survived until the 13th century. It became one of the most important stages in the art of the Middle Ages. The Romanesque style combined Merovingian and Late Antique subjects, components of the period of the Great Migration. Byzantine and oriental elements entered the medieval art of Western Europe. The Romanesque style was born in the conditions of the development of feudalism and the spread of the ideology of the Catholic Church. The main construction, the creation of sculptures, the design of manuscripts was carried out by monks. The church has long been a source of dissemination of medieval art. The architecture was also iconic. The main distributors of the style at that time were the monastic orders. It was only towards the end of the 11th century that wandering artels of lay stonemasons began to emerge.

Architecture

Separate buildings and complexes (castles, churches, monasteries) in the Romanesque style were erected, as a rule, in rural areas. They dominated the environment, embodying the likeness of the "city of the Lord" or acting as a visual expression of the power of the feudal lord. Western medieval art was based on harmony. Clear silhouettes and compact forms of buildings seemed to repeat and complete the landscape. The main building material was natural stone. It perfectly harmonized with greenery and soil. The main feature of the buildings in the Romanesque style were massive walls. Their heaviness was emphasized by narrow window openings and recessed stepped portals (passages). One of the key elements of the composition was considered a high tower. Romanesque buildings were systems of stereometric simple volumes: prisms, cubes, parallelepipeds, cylinders. Their surface was dissected by galleries, vanes, arched friezes. These elements rhythmized the massiveness of the walls, but did not violate their monolithic integrity.

temples

They developed the types of centric and basilican churches inherited from early Christian architecture. In the latter, a tower or a lantern were integral elements. Each main part of the temple was created as a separate spatial structure. Both externally and internally, she was clearly separated from the rest. The overall impression was reinforced by vaults. They were predominantly cross, cylindrical or cross-rib. Domes were installed on some churches.

Distinctive features of decorative products

At the early stages in the Romanesque style, the main role belonged to By the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries, when the configuration of walls and vaults became more complex, monumental reliefs entered the temple decor. They decorated portals, and often completely facade walls. Inside the buildings, they were applied to the capitals of the columns. In the late Romanesque style, the flat relief is replaced by a higher and more saturated effect of light and shadow, but retaining an organic connection with the surface of the wall. The themes expressing the formidable and limitless power of God occupied a central place in painting and sculpture. The figure of Christ predominated in strictly symmetrical compositions. As for the narrative cycles on gospel and biblical themes, they took on a more dynamic and free character. Romanesque plastic differs in deviations from natural proportions. Due to this, the image of a person became the bearer of an overly expressive gesture or an element of ornament, without losing spiritual expressiveness along with this.

Gothic

This concept was introduced during the Renaissance. Gothic art was considered "barbaric". The heyday of the Romanesque style is considered X-XII centuries. When this period was defined, the chronological framework was limited for the Gothic. Thus, the early, mature (high) and late (flaming) stages were identified. The development of Gothic was intensive in those countries in which Catholicism dominated. She acted mainly as a cult art on religious themes and its purpose. Gothic was correlated with eternity, high irrational forces.

Formation features

The art of medieval stained glass, sculpture, architecture in the Gothic period inherited many elements from the Romanesque style. A separate place was occupied by the cathedral. The development of Gothic was influenced by cardinal changes in the social structure. At that time, centralized states began to form, cities grew and strengthened, secular forces began to advance - trade, crafts, urban, court and knightly circles. With the formation of social consciousness, the improvement of technology, the possibilities for aesthetic understanding of the world around us began to expand. New architectural trends began to take shape. Urban planning has become widespread. Secular and religious buildings, bridges, fortifications, and wells were present in urban architectural ensembles. In many cases, houses were erected on the main square of the city with arcades, storage and commercial premises on the ground floors. The main streets departed from it. Narrow facades of predominantly two-story houses (rarely three-story) with high gables lined up along them. Cities began to be surrounded by powerful walls, which were decorated with travel towers. Royal and began to gradually turn into entire complexes, including religious, palace and fortifications.

Sculpture

She acted as the main form of fine art. Cathedrals outside and inside were decorated with a large number of reliefs and statues. compared to the Romanesque, it was distinguished by dynamism, the appeal of the figures to each other and to the audience. Interest began to appear in natural natural forms, in human beauty and feelings. The themes of motherhood, sacrificial fortitude, and moral suffering began to be interpreted in a new way. Has undergone changes and the image of Christ. In Gothic, the theme of martyrdom began to come to the fore. In art, the cult of the Mother of God began to take shape. This happened almost at the same time with the worship of beautiful ladies. Often these two cults were intertwined. In many works, the Mother of God appeared in the form of a beautiful lady. At the same time, people retained faith in miracles, fabulous monsters, and fantastic animals. Their images can be found in the Gothic as often as in the Romanesque style.

India

This country is known throughout the world for its innumerable natural resources, magnificent handicrafts. From an early age, the children of the poor were accustomed to work. The education of the sons and daughters of the nobility began in the fifth year of their life. They were educated in schools attached to temples or at home. Children from the Brahmin caste were taught at home by a mentor. The child had to honor the teacher, obey him in everything. The sons of warriors and princes were trained in military affairs and the art of government. Some monasteries acted as educational centers. Teaching in them was carried out at the highest level. Such a center, for example, was the monastery in Noland. It functioned on income from a hundred villages, as well as on the gifts of the rulers. Observatories operated in some cities of medieval India. Mathematicians could calculate the volumes of bodies and the areas of figures, freely handle fractional numbers. Medicine was well developed in India. The books described the structure of the human body, internal organs. Indian doctors, using about 200 instruments and various painkillers, performed complex operations. To establish a diagnosis, doctors measured the patient's body temperature, pulse, visually examined the patient, paying attention to the color of the tongue and skin. Art and science in medieval India reached unprecedented heights.

stone sculpture

It served as an ornament of architecture. As a rule, sculpture was represented by decorative high reliefs. In them, all the figures were closely connected. Movements, gestures, postures of people look amazingly graceful and expressive. This is due to the influence on the development of sculpture of the art of dance, which has been widespread in India since antiquity. Even under Ashoka, they began to create cave cells and temples for hermits in the rocks. They were small in size and reproduced residential wooden buildings. In the northern regions of India, temples of an elongated oval (parabolic) shape were built. At their top they built an umbrella-lotus. In the south of the country, the temples had the shape of a rectangular pyramid. Inside, the rooms were dark and low. They were called shrines. Not everyone could enter them. The courtyards of the temples were decorated with sculptures depicting epic scenes or interpreting in a symbolic form the veneration of the god to whose glory the temple was erected. Subsequently, in India, especially in the south of the country, there were so many sculptural elements that religious buildings acted as pedestals for them. Such, for example, are the temples in Orissa, Konarak, Khajuraho.

classical works

During the Middle Ages, in most parts of India, net languages ​​\u200b\u200bare used to create them. At the same time, many poets wrote in Sanskrit. This literature was at first a reworking of classical models. However, over time, it becomes more refined and designed for the courtiers. Such a work, for example, was the poem "Ramacharita". Each of her verses has a double meaning, which can equate the deeds of King Rampal with the exploits of the epic Rama. In the Middle Ages, poetry mainly developed, but by the 12-13th century. began to appear and posture. The works were written in Sanskrit in the genre of framed stories - stories connected by one through plot. Such, for example, is the story of Kadambari. This work tells about two lovers who lived on earth twice in different guises. The satirical novel "The Adventure of 10 Princes" ridicules rulers, ascetics, dignitaries and even gods.

heyday

It falls on the IV-VI centuries. During that period, the northern part of India united into a powerful state. It was ruled by the kings of the Gupta dynasty. The medieval art developed in these areas spread to the southern territories. Buddhist monasteries and temples in Ajanta have preserved unique examples of that time. Since the 2nd century, 29 caves have appeared in this area over the next nine centuries. Their ceilings, walls, columns are painted with scenes of Buddhist legends and legends, decorated with carvings and sculptures. Ajanta acted as a center not only of religion, but also of art and science. At present, it symbolizes the greatness of the spirit of antiquity. Ajanta attracts many tourists from all over the world.