Introduction

In the 19th century, painting, wider and deeper than other types of fine art, solves complex and urgent worldview problems, plays an active role in public life, being often associated with social and national liberation movements; importance in painting XIX century has received sharp criticism social reality. At the same time, throughout the 19th century, academic canons, far from life, were officially cultivated in painting, an abstract idealization of images, naturalistic tendencies arose that ignored the independent expression of the expressive means of painting. In the struggle against the rationality and abstractness of the official salon-academic painting, romanticism painting develops with its emotional intensity, active interest in the dramatic events of history and the present, the display of strong human passions, the energy of the pictorial language, the dynamics of constructions, the contrast of light and shadow, and the saturation of color.

In connection with these trends, it was relevant to consider the work of a representative of these two styles at once, the Russian painter Karl Bryullov.

The object of research is the styles of classicism and romanticism in art.

The subject of the research is the work of Karl Bryullov.

The purpose of the study is to identify and describe the classical and romantic combination of styles in his work.

Research objectives:

1. Make a theoretical analysis on the research topic.

2. Compare existing style directions.

3. Describe the work of Karl Bryullov.

4. Identify and analyze the points of contact between the two directions in the works of the artist.

The methodological basis of the work is the works of M. Alenov, E. Atsarkina, T.V. Balitskaya, I.N. Bocharova and others.

Work structure. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of references (11 items), an application.

Chapter 1 is devoted to describing the characteristic features of classicism and romanticism in painting.

Chapter 2 is devoted to the main stages of the activities of Karl Bryullov. Section 2.1 discusses the stage of the artist's training in classical art at the Academy of Arts. Section 2.2 traces the emergence of the Italian genre in the work of Karl Bryullov. Section 2.3 describes portraiture.

Chapter 3 is devoted to identifying a harmonious combination artistic movements on the example of the works of the painter.

In conclusion, the results of the study are presented.

Classicism and romanticism in painting

Classicism (from Latin classicus - exemplary) is a style and trend in literature and art of the 17th - early 19th centuries, which turned to the ancient heritage as a norm and an ideal model. formed in the 17th century. in France. In the 18th century classicism was associated with the Enlightenment; based on the ideas of philosophical rationalism, on ideas about the rational laws of the world, about the beautiful ennobled nature, he strove to express a great social content, lofty heroic and moral ideals, to a strict organization of logical, clear and harmonious images. art is distinguished by a logical development of the plot, clarity, balance of the composition.

Romanticism (French romantisme from Latin romanum Roman from Roma - Rome) is one of the two, along with Classicism, fundamental trends in artistic thinking.

Romanticism was the first artistic movement in which the awareness of creative personality as a subject artistic activity. Romantics openly proclaimed the triumph of individual taste, complete freedom of creativity. Giving decisive importance to the creative act itself, destroying the obstacles that held back the freedom of the artist, they boldly equated the high and the base, the tragic and the comic, the ordinary and the unusual. Romanticism captured all spheres of spiritual culture: literature, music, theater, philosophy, aesthetics, philology and other humanities, plastic arts. But at the same time, it was no longer the universal style that classicism was. Unlike the latter, romanticism had almost no state forms its expression (therefore, it did not significantly affect the architecture, affecting mainly landscape gardening architecture, on the architecture of small forms and on the direction of the so-called pseudo-Gothic). Being not so much a style as a social art movement, romanticism opened the way further development art in the 19th century, which took place not in the form of comprehensive styles, but in the form separate currents and directions.

Painting, as an exponent of the prevailing concepts of art, in all countries experienced different periods, changing its direction. But nowhere was the history of painting characterized so clearly as in France in different eras, depending on life and aspirations. modern society. In the past and present centuries, several different styles succeed each other in France after a more or less prolonged struggle between the two trends - the previous one and its successor. Such a struggle was not only a silent competition between paintings at exhibitions, but was accompanied by heated discussions in the press, agitated society and changed its views on the relationship of art to reality.

Classicism, as one of the heirs of antiquity, of course, attributed to high genre paintings that were painted on historical and mythological subjects. They quite clearly traced the drama, the sacrifice of their personal interests for the common good.

Romanticism had no definite, limiting and constraining rules, the individuality of the artists was so free that some of them are even known only for their virtuosity, others took scenes simply from the works of the latest fashion writers and lived by someone else's fiction, by all means.

bryullov painting classicism romanticism

Classicism (fr. classicisme, from lat. classicus - exemplary) - art style and aesthetic direction in European culture XVII-XIX centuries

Classicism is based on the ideas of rationalism, which found a vivid expression in the philosophy of Descartes. A work of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. Interest for classicism is only eternal, unchanging - in each phenomenon, he seeks to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random individual signs. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into high (ode, tragedy, epic) and low (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strictly defined features, mixing of which is not allowed.

Romanticism (fr. romantisme) is an ideological and artistic direction in European and American culture late XVIII century - the first half of the XIX century. It is characterized by the assertion of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, spiritualized and healing nature. Spread to various areas human activity. In the 18th century, everything that was strange, picturesque, and existing in books, and not in reality, was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.

Classicism of the 18th - early 19th centuries (in foreign art history it is often referred to as neoclassicism), which became a common European style, was also formed mainly in the bosom of French culture strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. In architecture, new types of exquisite mansion, front public building, an open city square (Gabrielle Jacques Ange and Souflot Jacques Germain), the search for new, unordered forms of architecture, the desire for harsh simplicity in the work of Ledoux Claude Nicolas anticipated the architecture of the late stage of classicism - Empire. Civic pathos and lyricism combined in plastic (Pigalle Jean Baptiste and Houdon Jean Antoine), decorative landscapes (Robert Hubert). The courageous drama of historical and portrait images inherent in the works of the head of French classicism, the painter Jacques Louis David. In the 19th century, the painting of classicism, despite the activities of individual major masters, such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, degenerates into an official apologetic or pretentiously erotic salon art. international center European classicism The 18th - early 19th century was Rome, where the traditions of academism dominated, with their characteristic combination of nobility of forms and cold idealization ( German painter Anton Raphael Mengs, sculptors: Italian Canova Antonio and Dane Thorvaldsen Bertel). The architecture of German classicism is characterized by the severe monumentality of the buildings of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, for the contemplative-elegiac mood of painting and plastic art - portraits of August and Wilhelm Tischbein, sculpture by Johann Gottfried Schadow. In English classicism, the antiquities of Robert Adam, the Palladian park estates of William Chambers, the exquisitely austere drawings of J. Flaxman and the ceramics of J. Wedgwood stand out. Own versions of classicism developed in artistic culture Italy, Spain, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, USA; an outstanding place in the history of world art is occupied by Russian classicism of the 1760s-1840s.

manticism as a method and direction in artistic culture was a complex and controversial phenomenon. In every country he had a bright national expression. Romantics occupied various public and political positions in society. They all rebelled against the results of the bourgeois revolution, but they rebelled in different ways, since each had his own ideal. But with all the many faces and diversity, romanticism has stable features:

All of them came from the denial of the Enlightenment and the rationalistic canons of classicism, which fettered the creative initiative of the artist.

They discovered the principle of historicism (enlighteners judged the past anti-historically for them there was "reasonable" and "not reasonable"). We saw human characters in the past, shaped by their time. Interest in the national past gave rise to a mass of historical works.

Interest in folk culture, folklore. In the era of romanticism, collections of folk songs, fairy tales (tales of the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) were published.

Interest in strong personality, which opposes itself to the whole world around and relies only on itself. - Attention to inner world person.

Developing in many countries, romanticism everywhere acquired a bright national identity due to local historical traditions and conditions.

Education

It is generally believed that neoclassicism is a consequence of the saturation that the baroque produces to a certain extent. In the case of the Canary Islands, it is appropriate to make some clarifications. From the second half of XVIII V. the presence at the Court of an elite from the archipelago provided a cultural connection between the privileged minority of the Canary Islands and the erudite circles of Madrid, which was reflected in the renewal of the views of the elite towards cosmopolitanism. On the other hand, remoteness from the mother country influenced the fact that there was little ideological control in the Canary Islands; texts prohibited in the rest of the state were freely distributed here. To this must be added the mobility of the few but influential inhabitants of the islands, who came into contact with new trends that appeared outside of Spain, strengthening this connection upon returning from travel. Circles and societies (especially the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country) were the "engine" of change not only in the artistic, but also in the scientific, economic, agricultural and industrial aspects.

However, the Enlightenment has always been a minority culture in relation to religious tradition, consistent with the ideas of the Inquisition, which were influenced by the lower clergy and religious orders associated with the Baroque tradition.

Moreover, the Enlightenment themselves were far from accepting a truly academic reading of the neoclassical style; they were unable to base their ideas on theoretical and ideological convictions. In most cases, this was an imitation of what was called the neoclassical style. This is evidenced by the controversy regarding the order of the columns that Juan Nepomuseno Verdugo wanted to use in the future Cathedral of Los Remedios in La Laguna. The Marquis of Villanueva del Prado approved the decision to remove the base, as was done in Paris. And the senior priest Pedro Bencomo demanded to leave them, because Ventura Rodriguez did so. Basically, in the absence of a theoretical basis and firm convictions, we can talk about the existence of neoclassical architecture in the Canary Islands, but not as a product of ideology, but almost always as a result of imitation. One of the first buildings in this style is the Cathedral of Santiago de los Caballeros (Santiago de los Caballeros) in Galdara with a successful spatial solution, but its facade is more reminiscent of mannerism than the new trends of neoclassicism.

And yet, some architects at this time are already beginning to use new techniques. Diego Nicolás Eduardo, the builder who laid the foundations for the change of tastes, completed one of the finest buildings of the time. Creating a sketch of the future cathedral in Las Palmas, he was inspired by the Granada Cathedral - the work of Cano in the Baroque style. However, he decided to follow the path of abandoning all kinds of decorations and adopting strict and simple forms.

Of course, such creators were in the minority. The architectural panorama of the Canary Islands was mainly limited to the works of masters who did not have professional titles. There was a group of conservative orientation, their knowledge of the new style was very superficial. One example is Juan Pérez de Leon, who oversaw the construction of the Church of San Sebastian (Iglesia de San Sebastián) in Agüimes, designed by Diego Nicolás Eduardo. Where the architect showed his creativity, poor-quality execution of the work is found.

Military engineers played a decisive role in changing the style, but they worked only in certain places on the archipelago, where their influence is felt.

Of the great masters of that time, four names can be named, and none of them had an official title. The most important figure is Diego Nicolás Eduardo, who studied at the Academy of San Fernando and at the Artillery Academy of Segovia. He was well aware of the theories that existed at that time (there was a treatise of Tosca in his library) and applied them with complete freedom of embodiment. So, to emphasize the uniqueness of the interior of the cathedral in Las Palmas, he used the techniques of Atlantic Gothic.

Clarity of ideas distinguishes an architect like Juan Nepomuseno, a military man who studied at the Academy of Engineers. He played a significant role in the construction of the facade of the cathedral in La Laguna, and somewhat later completed the original and elegant facade of the building of the Municipality (Ayuntamiento) of the city.

Antonio José Eduardo and José Lujan Pérez are authors of less elegant works. The first, whose work can be seen in Galdar, brings to our attention too academic examples, the result of a shallow acquaintance with the architecture of that time. The second architect was primarily a sculptor; he completed the western facade of the cathedral of Gran Canaria in a very meager solution. Choirs are interesting in his performance - in the freedom of compositional architectural thought, the influence of his teacher Eduardo is read.

Due to the trend towards the liberalization of the islands, at this time, the work of national-level professionals appeared in the local architectural panorama. The most famous example is, without a doubt, Ventura Rodriguez's project for the reconstruction of the Concepción Cathedral (Templo de la Concepción) in La Orotava. Also noteworthy are Manuel Martin and Joaquin Rodriguez, the designers of the new Cathedral in Candelaria (Templo de Candelaria). Probably the first also belongs to the magnificent project of the chapel for the La Laguna Cathedral created a little earlier. Together with the updates of the drawings, in which the influence of Ventura Rodriguez is guessed, the question of the location of the choir on the choir (one of the most controversial topics during the Enlightenment) becomes relevant at this time.

None of the above projects came to fruition, but worse, the planners had to destroy them, depriving later generations of necessary knowledge about a continuous line of development and continuity of style. Two educational centers have been established in the Canary Islands. One of them was formed by the commander of the army, the Marquis de la Cañada, in 1779 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to train mid-level officials; due to the remoteness of the islands, they performed the functions of engineers, possessing initial knowledge. The second center was created with the support of the Academy by the priest of the Cathedral of the Canaries, Jeronimo de Roo, in 1782. Thanks to him, the islands received considerable autonomy in the field of construction, and the Academy met its needs in terms of the distribution of official titles in the field of public construction. Both schools did not last long: the first closed after five years, the second a year earlier, but then it turned into a Drawing School, which existed under the protection of the king and the Academy.

In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the situation developed in such a way that the leadership of the engineering corps was located here. This was the reason for the presence of military engineers in the city, who over the years forged strong bonds of friendship with local families. Sometimes thanks to this, they were engaged in their professional construction activities with “non-military facilities”. An example is the friendship between Matias Rodriguez Carta and engineer Francisco Rodriguez Gonzalez, which most likely influenced architectural features Palace Carta (Palacio de Carta) in La Candelaria Square (Plaza de La Candelaria).

Houses such as the Almacenes El Globo house (Casa de los Almacenes El Globo) are different from traditional schemes. Undoubtedly, the influence of neoclassicism is here. The builders did not see the need to use Greco-Roman elements to implement new rational forms based on rigor and asceticism. This is what distinguishes the work of military engineers. If the work with stone in the construction of residential buildings in the Canary archipelago was not an innovation, then the very type of its use is changing. Broad links are now being established between the form of a building and its functions. Naturally, there remains the need to create different canons and comply with new rules. External monumentality is also associated with the laws of rationalism. Over the years, traditional architecture has become an example of rationalism.

On La Palma, despite long stay there is Juan Nepomuceno Verdugo, the key figure in the change of tastes is not him, but Presbyter José Joaquín Martín de Justa. The education he received in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the beginning of the 19th century allowed him to become intimately acquainted with the trends of the Enlightenment. Upon his return to Santa Cruz de La Palma, a versatile educated, he became here one of the best designers and initiators of the process of architectural renewal. His first work - the house of Jose García Carballo (Casa de Jose García Carballo) in 1811 represents neoclassical architecture: three levels, a pediment as almost the only decoration and much more ... Otherwise, his work is characterized by modesty (stone cornices, windows with gentle arches ...) ; traditional elements(balcony, Venetian window) are not on the main facade.

During the reconstruction of the church of El Salvador (El Salvador), the usual ornament was not used at all. Second major representative of classicism on La Palma, Presbyter Manuel Diaz, together with Martin de Justa, removed most of the Flemish and Baroque altarpieces, instead placing modest examples of neoclassicism in the church. The most striking stylistic changes can be observed in the transformation of the vaults of the cathedral: the Mudéjar style roof is becoming a thing of the past.

In the first half of the XIX century. Santa Cruz de La Palma is gradually developing into a large neoclassical city. Those residents who do not rebuild their houses change their facades; there is a tendency to straight straight lines. In general, this trend was in line with fashion trends. The interior decoration of the houses remained the same: the traditional Canarian courtyard was preserved. Only in late XIX century, with the advent of the use of new materials, such as iron and glass, alternatives to traditional methods appear in some houses.

Romantic classicism

The appearance of Manuel de Oraa in the Canary archipelago in 1847 marked a change in construction techniques traditional dwellings. He received his first assignments in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and, as a municipal architect, he was able to innovate construction without any problems. An important role was also played by his personal authority, originality of personality and wide connections with the upper class of Canarian society. If we trace the chronological order of Oraa's works, it is not always possible to speak of a direct progressive line of style evolution.

Romantic classicism- the style that prevailed in architecture in the second half of the 19th century had its own characteristics and variations in the Canary Islands:

In Santa Cruz de Tenerife:

The facade is a very modest work, with a minimum of ornamentation and austerity.

In some areas, special elements of the facade are distinguished (window and doorways).

The use of hewn stone becomes permanent, which before that was rather accidental.

To Las Palmas de Gran Canaria:

More expressive facades than in Tenerife, using ornamentation.

Fine work with stone, which even made it possible to call the masons of Gran Canaria to other islands.

Unhewn stone ornaments as decorative forms.

Common trends can be identified on both islands:

The canon of the execution of door and window openings acquires a unique harmony and stretches vertically.

The use of iron becomes ubiquitous - both in the structure of the building and for decoration.

Examples of the architecture of this time represent both adherence to strict academicism and free variations. Among the great engineers of the archipelago, there is a conceptual maturity, which gave great freedom in work.

In the second half of the XIX century. in the largest Canarian cities, there is a phenomenon of complete renovation in the field of building construction. Architecture enters the path of service to society; design features are now closely linked to the public function of the building. The new administrative center of the Canary archipelago - Santa Cruz de Tenerife - requires the construction of buildings that would house various government institutions and officials. The new bourgeoisie, in turn, also requires the creation of various centers. New status cities attract a whole stream of migrants here, and also allows the implementation of new building models.

Therefore, in less than 40 years, all the necessary types of public institutions that meet the requirements of the bourgeoisie, as well as new administrative centers, appear here. In addition, a large-scale construction of private houses is unfolding - both on personal initiative and thanks to various construction organizations.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a large city that also competed for the title of capital. Gradually, the infrastructure reaches the appropriate level here, and in some respects, in subsequent years, Las Palmas even surpasses Santa Cruz de Tenerife. At this time, the face of the city is changing, largely thanks to the engineer Manuel de Leon and Falcon. A successful policy leads to the renewal of the city: avenues, markets, theaters, squares, bridges and countless buildings appear on personal and administrative initiative.

On La Palma, the second period of classicism was not so brilliant. Romantic classicism lacked here those qualities that were inherent in architecture in the previous 50 years. In general, the masters maintained their characteristic style here, but on a smaller scale. The style turned out to be already outdated and repeated the old options without offering anything new. However, there were also transformations in the canon of door and window openings, and stone was used less and less, it was replaced by wood.

The most striking figure of this period is Felipe de Paz Perez. Self-taught, he built a considerable number of buildings on La Palma and even participated in the construction of the building of the Municipality (Ayuntamiento) in Santa Cruz de La Palma. The problem was that he had to withstand the onslaught of masters who were unfairly awarded titles and merits.

The quality of Felipe de Paz's work can be seen in the way he modified the sketches of the capital's market square, Plaza del Mercado, by Luis B. Pereira. Felipe de Paz proposed a very free classicism, close to the ideas of Manuel de Oraa. Later, in his work, classicism was replaced by eclecticism, as can be seen in the design of the Hospital de Dolores (Hospital de Dolores).

The crisis of classicism was a natural consequence of the historical situation that developed in Europe in the first decades of the 19th century. At the beginning of the century, wars blazed in Europe, causing a surge of high patriotic feelings. The victory over Napoleonic France did not bring calm: the rise of national liberation movements, alternating periods of revolutions and restorations contributed to the widespread fermentation of minds.

“The current century,” wrote the Decembrist P.I. Pestel, is marked by revolutionary thoughts from one thing! end of Europe to the other, from Portugal to Russia, and excluding united state... The spirit of transformation makes minds bubbling everywhere, so to speak.”

Aroused by the revolutions and warmed up by the war, the intensity of passions under the conditions of reactionary political regimes, which were established as a result of the restoration of the monarchy, could not find a worthy social application. In addition, in the reigning legal order, the mind was quite clearly marked by its bourgeois essence. Between it and those lofty ideals that were proclaimed by the philosophers of the Enlightenment of the 18th century and inscribed on banners French Revolution, the abyss lay. This caused a critical review of the essence of many ideas and principles of enlightenment and their artistic display. Therefore, it is quite natural that as soon as the proclamation of the “kingdom of reason” by the rationalist philosophy of the Enlightenment collapsed, they were also questioned. artistic principles classicism in many aspects associated, as noted above, with the enlightenment of the 18th century.

Caused by a huge upheaval in the social and spiritual life of Europe, romanticism reflected the complexly unstable state of that transitional era, when a struggle unfolded between two social formations Dying feudalism and young, growing capitalism. Hence the “complex and always more or less obscure reflection of everything characteristic of romanticism: shades, feelings and moods that embrace society in transitional eras, but its main note is the expectation of something new, anxiety before the new, a hasty, nervous desire to know this new” .

Classicism gravitated towards the expression of “eternal truths of “eternal beauty”, to balance and harmony. In contrast to it, the art of the era of romanticism sought to know the world and man in all their diversity, to capture the variability of the world, the transitional states of nature, the subtlest shades of the movements of the soul. Romanism greatly expanded both the thematic boundaries of art and the range of means of artistic expression, the hierarchy of arts established by classicism and artistic genres, while those of them in which the aesthetics of romanticism found its most complete expression began to develop especially rapidly. Variety of genres, search for new, more diverse, flexible and emotionally rich art forms became the most important features of the creative creed of romanticism.

Romanticism was a powerful ideological and artistic trend that covered all areas of spiritual life / Europe, was reflected in religion, philosophy, politics. This movement was especially fully and vividly embodied in literature, music and painting, constituting a whole "epoch of romanticism" in their history. The dispute between the “romantics” and the “classics” that unfolded in literary and artistic criticism of the 1820s and 11830s played important role in the fate of literature and art, helping to overcome the outdated aesthetic norms of classicism and paving the way for new, progressive phenomena artistic life.

In various areas of artistic creativity romantic tendencies appeared differently. But the general "spirit of transformation" inherent in romanticism was expressed in a persistent desire to overcome canonical rigidity. artistic techniques classicism and create a more diverse and more flexible system of means of aesthetic expression. This militant "anti-canonism" of the Romantics was also reflected in those new architectural views that began to take shape in the 1830s.

The aesthetic program put forward by romanticism in its emotional and ideological orientation was already completely different than the one professed by classicism. The ideals of "calm" and " noble simplicity”, the program unification of the architectural language of classicism, romantics perceived “scholasticism, which prescribes buildings to be ranked according to one measure and built according to one taste”.

“Architecture,” Gogol argued, “should be as capricious as possible: take on a stern appearance, show a cheerful expression, breathe antiquity, shine with news, pour terror, sparkle with beauty, be either gloomy, like a day engulfed in a thunderstorm with thunder clouds, or clear, like the morning in the sunshine."

Developing the romantic concept of the spiritual and emotional fullness of architecture. Gogol contrasts the "monotony" and "scholasticism" of classicism with "inspired gloomy" gothic architecture, which "gives more revelry to the artist", and the architecture of the East, "which was created by imagination alone, oriental imagination, hot, wonderful." Paying tribute to the works of architects Ancient Greece, full of "slimness and simplicity", he condemned the classic architects for distorting the essence of Attic architecture, turning its techniques into fashion.

P. Ya. Chaadaev expressed similar thoughts. In one of his "philosophical letters", published in 1832 in the magazine "Telescope", he contrasted "Greek style" with "Egyptian and Gothic style." According to Chaadaev, the first "refers to the material needs of a person", the other two - "to his moral needs", because they have "a common ideal character, very clearly manifested in some kind of uselessness or, better, in the exceptional idea of ​​​​a monument, which is especially dominates them." Chaadaev, like Gogol, was attracted by the special spirituality and emotional tension of Gothic. “It seems to me that the Gothic tower is worthy special attention, as one of the most beautiful creations of the imagination,” wrote the author of Philosophical Letters, “it, like a mighty and beautiful thought, aspires to heaven alone, carries you away from the earth and takes nothing from the earth, belongs to a special order of ideas and does not stem from the earthly : a most wonderful vision, without beginning or cause on earth.

The opposition of the "spiritual" to the "earthly", so clearly felt in this passage from Chaadaev's "philosophical writing", is very characteristic of the aesthetics of romanticism, especially on final stage its development. According to one of the ideologists of romanticism, the German philosopher F.-W. Schelling, those were the years when "the human spirit was uninhibited, considered itself entitled to everything that exists to oppose its real freedom and ask not about what is, but what is possible."

The looseness of the human spirit and at the same time the desire to delve into the "secrets of the soul", heightened attention to human personality, to the unique, individual both in the human character and in the phenomena of life - the most important features of the aesthetic program of romanticism. The heroes of Beethoven, Byron, Pushkin, Lermontov passionately assert their human individuality, their right and ability to resist society, the "crowd", fate itself. V. S. Turchin in the book “The Age of Romanticism in Russia” notes that “if late classicism acquired an increasingly state character, then young romanticism appealed to individual consciousness, being interested in the fate of a person who entered the new century.”

Romantic poets painfully felt "the tightness of the limits of classic poetry" and saw "freedom of choice and presentation as the primary goal of romantic poetry." Similar statements were made in the 1830s by architects and aestheticians, who, reflecting on the fate of architecture, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to critically revise the “five rules of the Vignolovs” and other canons of classicism.

The pathos of romantic individualism was also reflected in architecture, but very indirectly, in accordance with the peculiarities of its artistic and figurative structure. The problem of the relationship between the general and the individual, translated into the language of architectural forms, turned into a relationship between the canonical norm and originality. In contrast to the normativity of classicism, romanticism put forward the principle of free choice of artistic techniques.

In the same 1834, when Gogol's "Arabesques" were published, on May 8, at the solemn act of the Moscow Palace Architectural School, the young architect M. D. Bykovsky delivered a speech "On the groundlessness of the opinion that Greek or Greco-Roman architecture can be that the beauty of architecture is based on the five known ranks, that is, on the canons of the five orders developed by the architects of antiquity and the Renaissance.

The essence of the new views that Bykovsky expressed in his speech is clear from its very title. His theoretical position corresponds to the aesthetics of romanticism, which considered it unacceptable to restrict the freedom of artistic creativity with a system of canonical rules. “It will seem strange to everyone,” Bykovsky argued, “that the elegant can be subordinated to the same, ubiquitous and by no means unchanged formulas,” although, he noted, such an opinion, “so false in its beginnings ... has already taken root and solemnly gravitates over the finest works the human spirit." Bykovsky saw the reason for such an uncreative, mechanical repetition of the canonical forms of architecture of the past in a misunderstanding that "the history of the architecture of any nation is closely connected with the history of its own philosophy." Each era develops its own architectural style that meets its spiritual needs and the customs of a given nation, so the repetition of the compositional techniques of "one chosen century”is, according to Bykovsky, “a reckless intention to suppress the fine arts.” According to him, “just as inconsistent with common sense is the assessment of the dignity of the beauty of art by means of a linear measure and the idea that the columns of this or that order alone should determine all the dimensions of the building, all the strength of its character.”

Historicism became the most important feature of public consciousness in the first decades of the 19th century: the centuries-old path of development of society and culture began to be regarded as a single process in which each link had its own specific historical meaning. Paying tribute to the ancient era, which created monuments that were exceptional in their artistic perfection, historians and art historians of the new generation sought to explore and realize the significance of subsequent eras in common process development of world culture. Combining the worldview principles of historicism with a romantic passion for antiquity and exoticism, the aesthetics of those years called on contemporaries to become the spiritual heirs of all wealth. human culture created by both the West and the East. “Tired of the monotony of classicism,” the Moscow Telegraph magazine wrote in 1825, “the brave minds of Europeans dare to fly in all other directions ... We want to know and comprehend the spirit of all mankind.”

The growing interest in antiquities, in the Middle Ages, led to the appearance of a number of buildings "in the Gothic style." In Russian architecture, along with romantic neo-Gothic, other trends arose, connected with the appeal to the architectural traditions of ancient Russian architecture and the experience of folk, folklore architecture. Growing interest in art, characteristic of the artistic life of Russia and all of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century ancient egypt and to the exoticism of the East caused the emergence of various kinds of "oriental" trends in architecture.

Just as in literature, music, and painting, romanticism sharply expanded thematic boundaries, “introduced medieval themes, exotic themes, folklore themes,” in architecture it led to the emergence of a number of stylistic trends that differ significantly in their artistic settings from the architecture of classicism.

New artistic outlook, born of romanticism, the desire to know and comprehend the "spirit of all mankind", the growing awareness that modern culture should become the heir to the culture of all previous eras, led to the conclusion that "all kinds of architecture, all styles."

Formulating new architectural principles from the standpoint of romantic aesthetics, N.V. Gogol in the article cited above argued that “the city must consist of diverse masses if we want it to please the eyes. Let it combine more diverse flavors. Let it rise in the same street: both gloomy Gothic, and oriental burdened with luxury, and colossal Egyptian, and Greek imbued with a slender size. Romanticism played a very important role in the overall process of the artistic evolution of architecture. Acting as the ideological opponent of the aging classicism, romanticism actively contributed to the departure of architecture from the creative method that underlay classicism. On the other hand, the program "anti-canonism" of the Romantics and the new architectural concept put forward by them, based on the appeal to the heritage of "all styles", contributed to the development of a new creative method, which became the leading one in the architecture of the middle and second half of the 19th century, and determined the artistic and stylistic features eclecticism.

The result of the development of this new creative method was the formation in the architecture of the 1820-1830s of a number of style directions. One of them was the stylistic Neo-Gothic, which turned out to be perhaps the most consistent embodiment of the artistic ideals of romanticism in the architecture of that period.