Botero political theory. Botero Political Theory Society: Public Figures

Giovanni Botero(Italian Giovanni Botero; 1533, Bene Vagienna, Piedmont, Italy - June 23, 1617, Turin) - Italian political writer, specialist in political geography, lawyer, traveler, figure of the Counter-Reformation, Jesuit (since 1581).

Biography

Born into a poor family. Thanks to his uncle, the Jesuit Giovenale Botero, in 1559 he entered the Jesuit college in Palermo. A year later, after the death of his uncle, he continued his studies at the Roman College.

In 1560-1569 he studied and then taught rhetoric at the Jesuit colleges in Amelia and Macerata.

In 1565, Botero was sent to teach philosophy and rhetoric at the Jesuit colleges in France, particularly in Billom and Paris. Because of the Huguenot wars and after he showed himself too zealously in an anti-Spanish protest, he was recalled from France.

From 1569 to 1580 he lectured at the colleges of Milan, Genoa and Turin, then again in Milan.

In 1574 he was ordained a priest.

In December 1580, due to freely interpreted doctrinal teachings, Botero was summoned for interrogation to the papacy and expelled from the Jesuit order. For some time he served as vicar in Luino. In 1582 he received a theological education at the University of Pavia.

Subsequently, in 1582-1584, he was surrounded by the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, and was a member of the congregation founded by this cardinal. Carlo Borromeo introduced his servant to the church administration, which is in close contact with the nobility of northern Italy.

In 1585, on behalf of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I, he made a diplomatic trip to France. After its completion, he moved to Milan. There he became the tutor of the young Count Federico Borromeo, the nephew of Carlo Borromeo. In September 1586, accompanying the pupil, he left for Rome.

In 1587-1598 he was the secretary of Federico Borromeo, when he became a cardinal. In this capacity, he made a number of diplomatic trips to various Italian states.

In 1599, Botero returned to the Savoy dynasty, where he remained tutor to the three sons of Charles Emmanuel II.

He spent 1603-1606 at the Spanish court, where he was sent by the Duke of Savoy. Visited Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Burgos, Valencia, Aranjuez and Tordesillas.

As secretary and adviser to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, D. Botero was a member of four conclaves. This helped him in writing the treatise "Service of the Cardinal" ("Dell'ufficio del Cardinale") (1599) on the mechanisms of the exercise of power.

From 1610, he gradually ceased to participate in political activities, took up literary activities, wrote treatises.

Proceedings

D. Botero is the author of the influential work "The Good of the State" ("Della ragion di Stato", 1589), which reflected a new point of view on princely power and in which he was the first to introduce the concept of "state interest", where he argued that princely power must in one form or another be adapted to the needs of the subjects, and that the princes must make every effort to win the love and respect of the people. The idea of ​​such justice was born in Botero's mind as a result of familiarization with Thomistic thought based on the ideas of Thomas Aquinas and with the natural law prevalent in the Jesuit college system, which was heavily influenced by the Dominican theologian Francisco de Vitoria and the scholastic philosopher Domingo de Soto. In this work, Botero argued against the immoral political philosophy associated with Machiavelli's The Prince. Thus, Botero was a forerunner of the ideas of later liberal philosophers such as John Locke and Adam Smith.

In 1588, he first published Delle cause della grandezza delle citt, a work that anticipated the work of Thomas Malthus.

The greatest fame and popularity of Botero was brought by the historical geographical work “Universal Relations” (“Relazioni Universali”), which, in fact, was a description of the entire known world at that time. Written in 1591-1595, four parts were published in one book in 1596. It went through many editions and translations. Its Polish translations in 1609 and 1613 became more popular than the "Chronicles of the World" by Marcin Bielski. In the descriptions of countries, he tried to critically analyze data on the population and its distribution. In his theoretical ideas about the population, Botero proceeded from the wide ability of the population to reproduce, restrained, in his opinion, by epidemics, wars and famine. He attached great importance to the colonies, the possibility of outflow of the population in them. Based on information gleaned from the messages of ambassadors, missionaries and other travelers, Botero compiled a brief description of the Muscovite state and its population at the end of the 16th century.

Literature

• Demographic encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Chief editor D.I. Valentey. 1985.

1. 1 2 data.bnf.fr: open data platform - 2011.
2. 1 2 3 German National Library, Berlin State Library, Bavarian State Library, etc. Record #118942824 // General Regulatory Control - 2012-2016.

And the already mentioned Giovanni Botero(http://www.filosofia.unina.it/ragiondistato/botero.html) in his book he simply and clearly writes that Moscow in the 16th century. was elected center three republican entities: Volodimeria(= Vladimirskaya Rus, she is also "Nizovsky cities" in the interfluve of the Oka and Volga), Novogorodiya(+ Nizhny Novgorod - Yaroslavl - Tver - Bely - Novgorod - Pskov) and actually Muscovy(= Zamoskovensky cities - from Vyazma and Mozhaisk to Serpukhov and Kolomna) and that is why it was until the second half of the 16th century. third possession, and not by the cunning intent of Ivan Kalita ...
Page 204

Yes, and the kingdom of Muscovy 1613 - 1645. cannot be named, strictly speaking. And the reader, I hope, will still be surprised to see the title page of the book of John Mayr in 1630, on which is written in black and white " Republic of Muscovy and City"! (These are the same "cities" that were discussed above!)
Page 215

The Italian political theorist Giovanni Botero, in a treatise on government, published in 1589 in Venice, wrote:

"A well-known precaution is to sow the greatest amount of discord in enemy or neighboring countries. It is necessary to keep in touch with advisers, nobles, generals and people who have influence with the ruler. The purpose of this is to convince them not to take up arms against us or turn it into another direction, making them harmless by the slow execution of their intentions, or even inducing us to help us by communicating their plans. country) character of rebellion, treason or rebellion, then so much the better. We can be more secure in peace with ourselves if we break the peace with our enemies. The method that we should use against the enemies of the faith is the same that Elizabeth, who claims the title Queen of England, used against the Catholic King of Flanders (i.e. Philip II. - E. Ch.) and the most Christian King of France. Fanning, as far as she could, the enmity and heresy that arose in their countries, and providing assistance with advice and money, she kept the fire away from her own home. Thus, by giving support in Scotland to persons dissatisfied with Queen Mary, or ill-disposed towards the French party, or infected with heresy, she not only secured herself against the Scottish kingdom, but actually took possession of it.

Fernando Botero is the most recognizable Latin American artist, even a person who is far from the art of the twentieth century, but who has at least once seen at least one of his works, will immediately recognize his works.

Fernando Botero (photo)

Botero depicts exclusively fat people, everyone is fat - people, horses, dogs, even apples. Influential art critic Roberta Smith disparagingly called them "rubber inflated dolls".

"With forms, volumes, I try to influence people's feelings and sensuality," the artist justifies himself, "meaning by sensuality not only voluptuousness and eroticism."

Of course, we are familiar with the puffy beauties of Rubens and Kustodiev. This is a classic, it is a priori beauty and a pronounced individuality. Botero is different. If the artist positioned himself as a cartoonist or parodist, everything would be clear. St. Petersburg Mitki, who work in approximately the same technique, do not claim to be the main artists of the planet. Preparing this material, I tried to answer the question for myself: what prompted the artist to do, in fact, physiological ugliness with his style, the highlight of his handwriting. The version of one of the authors of the article that this happened by accident, when the artist depicted a giant musical instrument in a still life, sounds unconvincing. I did not find an answer to my question, I was only convinced that the painting and sculpture of Botero in the world are recognized too seriously, as they say, "for a lot of money." The author takes advantage of this by releasing a huge number of works, always returning to the same plots and themes. Because of this, the “growth of the master” is not visible in his paintings, if you do not know the years of creation of many works, then paintings painted with a difference of 10-15 years look like works made in one year. To show you this, I used a huge amount of Botero's work in the post. But first, let's get to know the artist himself.

Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero self-portrait
Fernando Botero Self Portrait with Flag

Colombian artist, master of painting in the grotesque-traditionalist direction, close to "naive art". On his colorful canvases, kitsch and folk color coexist with the Italian Renaissance and colonial baroque.

Fernando Botero was born in the city of Medellin (Colombia), known in the world for its drug cartel, in the family of a businessman. His family lost their fortune, and his father died when the future artist was still very young. He attended the School of the Jesuit Order.
His childhood dream was to become a bullfighter. In 1944 he was sent for several months to the school of matadors (fixing these impressions in his first drawings dedicated to bullfighting).

F. Botero Fight 1988

F. Botero Four torero dwarfs 1988

F. Botero Torrero 1991
F. Botero Picador 2002

F.Botero Bullfight 1991

F.Botero Pica 1997

However, at the age of 15, he surprised all his family with the news that he intended to become an artist, which did not fit at all in the rules of his conservative family, where art could be a hobby, but not a profession. Arriving in Bogota (1951), he met local avant-garde artists who were inspired by Mexican revolutionary art.

Botero, as an illustrator, gradually ensured that his drawings on various topics made out articles in the newspaper El Colombiano. But then he decided to leave for Europe in search of new knowledge.
Traveled to Spain (1952). This was his first trip outside his homeland. He reached Spain by ship. Already in Madrid, he enrolled in the art school of San Fernando, was shocked by the painting of D. Velazquez and F. Goya.
In his work there are numerous reminiscences of Velasquez and Goya.

F.Botero Self-portrait dressed as Velasquez 1986 Bayeler Gallery, Zurich

After some time he came to Florence, where he studied at the Academy of San Marco (1953-1954) with Professor Bernard Berenson. There he became acquainted with Italian Renaissance art.
Later, in 1952, he returned to his homeland and organized his first vernissage at the Leo Mathis Gallery. But, in general, the young artist did not stand out among hundreds of his talented compatriots. His paintings were so heterogeneous that visitors at first thought that this was an exhibition of several artists. The range of artists who influenced his first paintings ranged from Paul Gauguin to the Mexican painters Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. True, the young autodidact from the Andes town had never seen the original works of these artists, as, indeed, of others. His acquaintance with painting was limited to reproductions from books.
In the same 1952, he took part in the competition of the National Art Salon, where he won second place with his work "By the Sea". In 1956 he visited Mexico.

Developed his characteristic style in the second half of the 1950s. Until 1955, his main subjects were ordinary men and horses, then he had not yet discovered either the "fat women" or the monumental sculptures to which he owes his worldwide fame. They "came" as if by chance, when one day in Bogota in his "Still Life with Mandolin" the instrument suddenly acquired unprecedented dimensions. And from that moment on, Botero found his subject. I did not find a mandolin, so I present the same one, but a guitar and another still life.

F. Botero Guitar On a chair
F. Botero Still life with watermelon

Elements of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance-Baroque, as well as the Latin American Baroque, coupled with iso-folklore and kitsch in the spirit of "naive art" and even features of primitivism, made up a bizarre fusion in Botero's work.
Objects and figures appear in his paintings and drawings as emphatically lush, self-satisfied swollen, sleeping in peace - this magical trance resembles the provincially stagnant and at the same time "magical" atmosphere of the stories of H. L. Borges and the novels of G. G. Marquez .

F. Botero Lovers 1968

F. Botero Male model in the studio 1972
F.Botero Maiden 1974

CYCLE "STREET"

F. Botero Street 1965
F. Botero Street 1979

F. Botero Street 2000

In no other topic do Botero show voluminous forms as aggressively as in nude female images; no other motif of his artistic world remains so long in memory as these overweight figures with exaggeratedly full hips and legs. It is they who evoke the strongest feelings in the viewer: from rejection to admiration.

F. Botero Letter 1976

F.Botero Beach

F. Botero Seated woman 1976
F. Botero In the bedroom 1984

F. Botero Bather
F. Botero In the bathroom 1989

F. Botero At the window 1990
F. Botero Seated woman 1997

Despite the fact that Botero most often refers to the genre portrait, the theme of crime, military conflicts and bullying also appears in his work.
The gentle humor characteristic of his art is sometimes replaced by satire - anti-clerical, for example, Dead Bishops (1965, Gallery of Modern Art, Munich) or aimed at Latin American military dictatorships, such as the Official Portrait of the Military Junta (1971, private collection, New York). I did not find these paintings, but the reproductions presented below reflect the given theme.

F. Botero I walk in the hills 1977
F.Botero Cardinal 1998

FROM THE CYCLES "MILITARY DICTATURE" AND "MAFIA"

F. Botero Untitled 1978

F. Botero Death of Pablo Escobar

In the late 90s, Botero painted a series of paintings addressing the ruthlessness and cruelty of warring gangs that sell drugs (remember that Colombia is a country where even the entrance to a haberdashery store is guarded by a powerful spotted handsome man with a gun).

FROM THE SERIES "MAFIA"

F. Botero Massacre of the Innocents 1999

F. Botero Massacre in Colombia 2000

F.Botero Hunter 1999
F. Botero Widow 1997

F. Botero Demonstration 2000
F. Botero Consolation 2000

Botero did not bypass the supreme power of Colombia, referring to this topic three times. I am personally interested in the fate of these canvases and the opinion of those portrayed about the work of the artist.

F. Botero President 1987
F. Botero First Lady 2000

F. Botero President 1989
F. Botero First Lady 1989

Botero always responds to what is happening in the world. Recently, he created a series of paintings that tell about the bullying of the US military over prisoners in the Iraqi prison "Abu Ghraib". The Abu Ghraib series, according to Botero, continues the theme of cruelty and violence in the world. Below are some of the works from this series.

But back to the biography of the artist!
In 1964, Botero married Gloria Sea, who subsequently bore him three children. Later they moved to Mexico, where they experienced great financial difficulties. It is appropriate to place the artist's works dedicated to love and family here.

F. Botero Love 1982

F. Botero Sleep 1982

F.Botero Family 1989
F.Botero Para 1995

F. Botero Family 1996
F. Botero Colombian family 1999

F.Botero Picnic 1999

F. Botero Love couple

This was followed by a divorce, and then the artist moved to New York, sometimes going to Paris. The money quickly ran out, and his knowledge of English left much to be desired. Then the artist remembered his "European" experience and began, as then, to rewrite great works, which he then sold to visitors to museums and galleries.
Some of his works are freer in their style of writing, but in any case, the plots go back to classical, well-known images, although they invariably acquire a parodic character. I deliberately put the originals with Botero's paintings so that you can feel the difference.

F.Botero Mona Lisa 1977
Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa 1503-05

F. Botero Mademoiselle Riviere Ingra 1979
Jean Dominique Ingres Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere 1805

F. Botero Imitation of Piero della Francesca 1988
Piero dela Francesca Portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro second half of the 15th century

F. Botero Sunflowers 1977
Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers 1888

At the same time, Botero worked on his own works, seeking to be accepted into the Malbro Gallery, which happened in 1970, where the artist appeared for the whole world. Soon Botero returned to Europe, and this time his arrival was triumphant. Since 1983 he lived in the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta.
Here are his themes and plots in the 80s.

F. Botero Ball in Colombia 1980

F. Botero Man drinking orange juice 1987

F. Botero British Ambassador 1987
F. Botero In the park

F.Botero Adam 1989
F. Botero Eva 1989

F. Botero Melancholia 1989
F. Botero Ballerina at the barre

Botero creates in different countries of the world: in his house in Paris he paints large canvases, in Tuscany (Italy) spends the summer with his sons and grandchildren, creates his huge sculptures,
on the Cote d'Azur of Monte Carlo, creates his smallest works in watercolor and ink, in New York he paints larger paintings in pastels and watercolors.
His conquest of Paris ended a fifteen-year struggle for success and turned Master Fernando Botero into one of the most important living artists in the world.
In 1992, Jacques Chirac, then the mayor of Paris, chose Botero, not even a Frenchman, to put together an exclusive exhibition on the Champs Elysées during the campaigns to beautify Paris. No artist has ever received such an honor before.
Since then, various cities around the world have invited Fernando Botero to give their celebrations more scope when showing his works. So it was in Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, Florence and many others. Other cities have purchased his works for very large sums, while others are in line.
On the other hand, how, if not caricatures, at best, friendly caricatures, can his portraits of famous artists be called?

F. Botero Picasso. Paris. 1930th year. 1998
F. Botero Portrait of P. Picasso 1999

F. Botero Portrait of J. Ingres 1999
F. Botero Portrait of E. Delacroix 1998

F. Botero Portrait of G. Courbet 1998
F. Botero Portrait of G. Giacometti 1998

His works are listed as one of the most expensive in the world, such as the painting "Breakfast on the Grass". This is a paraphrase of the famous canvas of the same name by the founder of impressionism Edouard Manet, written by Fernando Botero in 1969. Only if in Manet dressed men were in the company of naked women, in Botero the monumental lady is dressed, and the man lay down naked on the grass and smokes a cigarette. At Sotheby`s, the painting was sold for one million US dollars.

F. Botero Breakfast on the grass 1969

At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. became the most famous of the Latin American artists of his generation. Already, Botero's creative heritage is huge - it is almost 3 thousand paintings and more than 200 sculptures, as well as countless drawings and watercolors.
In Russia there is his work "Still Life with Watermelon" (1976-1977), donated by the author to the Hermitage State Museum and exhibited in the Hall of Art of Europe and America of the 20th century.

F. Botero Still life with watermelon 1976-77 Hermitage

Since 1973, he has been increasingly involved in sculpture, varying in it all the same hypertrophied-magnificent figures of people and animals. Botero's characters don't seem "puffy", they are heavy and petrified. That is why the Colombian master is famous for his sculpture no less than painting: bronze and marble are the most suitable materials for his giant figures.
These works adorned many cities of the world (Medellin, Bogota, Paris, Lisbon, etc.) in the form of original heroic-comic monuments.

F. Botero Roman Warrior
F.Botero Ruka (Madrid)

F. Botero Adam
F. Botero Cat (Barcelona)

F.Botero Para (Darmstadt)

The artist's generosity is legendary in Colombia. For example, he donated a collection of paintings estimated at $60 million to the Museum of Fine Arts of Bogotá. As a gift to his native city of Medellin, the artist donated 18 sculptures from exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, New York, Chicago, and almost a hundred paintings that formed the basis of the Arts Square exposition. In total, the artist's gift to Colombian collections exceeded $100 million. Not without reason, the Semana magazine, influential in Colombia, named Fernando Botero among the ten most popular personalities.

Four evenings "spent" with Botero's painting somehow reconciled me with the artist's work. Either because I recognized myself in some of the heroes of Botero, or because there were so many paintings that they no longer aroused surprise and misunderstanding. In the same way, at one time I did not fall in love, but with my mind I accepted the square women of Picasso. And I would like to finish the post with the "series" of double paintings collected from Botero, which I mentioned at the beginning.

F. Botero Cat on the roof 1976
F.Botero Thief 1980

F. Botero A man on a horse
F. Botero Man on a horse 1998

F. Botero Abduction of Europe 1995
F. Botero Abduction of Europe 1998

F. Botero Dancers
F. Botero Dancers 2000

Materials taken from websites.

Giovanni Botero was born c. 1544 in the northern Italian principality of Piedmont. He studied at the Jesuit College in Palermo until the age of 15. A year later, Botero moved to the College of Rome (Roman College). In 1565 he was sent to teach philosophy and rhetoric at Jesuit colleges in France, first at Billom, then at Paris.

In the second half of the 16th century, religious wars in France tore it apart, and Botero acutely felt the consequences of a split within the country, staying in Paris in 1567-1569. After he showed himself too zealously in an anti-Spanish protest, Botero was recalled to Italy (Italy). In the 1570s, he rushed from one Jesuit college to another. In 1580, because of freely interpreted doctrinal teachings, Botero was summoned for interrogation to the papacy and expelled from the Jesuit order.

Giovanni became personal assistant to Bishop Carlo Borromeo in Milan. The bishop introduced his servant to the church administration, which is in close contact with the nobility of northern Italy. After Carlo's death in 1584, Botero continued to serve under Federico, Carlo's nephew. However, Giovanni spent most of 1585 in France on behalf of Charles Emmanuel I (Charles Emmanuel I).

In 1588 he first published "On the Causes of the Greatness of Cities" ("Delle cause della grandezza delle città"), a work that anticipated the writings of Thomas Malthus.

A year later, Botero completed his most famous work, "The Reason of State" ("Della ragion di Stato" / "State good"), where he argued that princely power should be in one form or another consistent with the needs of subjects, and that princes need make every effort to win the love and respect of people. The idea of ​​such justice was born in Botero's mind as a result of his familiarity with Thomistic thought and with the natural law prevalent in the Jesuit college system, which was strongly influenced by the Dominican theologian Francisco de Vitoria and the scholastic philosopher Domingo de Soto. ).

In the 1590s, Botero continued to remain in the service of Federico Borromeo, who in 1595 became archbishop of Milan. Giovanni, moving during this period in the high society of Rome (Rome) and Milan, wrote another famous work of his, "Relazioni Universali", published in four volumes in 1591-1598. The fifth volume was published at the end of the 19th century.

Work for Federico Borromeo came to an end in 1599, and Botero returned to the Savoy dynasty, where he remained tutor to the three sons of Charles Emmanuel. Giovanni went on three trips to Spain (Spain) from 1603 to 1607, during which, no doubt, he communicated with close advisers of Philip III (Philip III), who conveyed his ideas to the closest person of Philip IV (Philip IV) , Count-Duke of Olivares (Conde-Duque de Olivares).

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Olivares probably used Botero's The Reason of State to outline a general strategy for the preservation of the Spanish Empire in his famous Memorial on the Union of Arms. There is evidence that Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, one of the most staunch political supporters of Catholic reform and a leading figure in the Thirty Years' War, discussed "The Reason of State" with his advisors.

Giovanni Botero died in 1617.