from lat. classicus, lit. - belonging to the first class of Roman citizens; in a figurative sense - exemplary) - arts. direction and the corresponding aesthetic. theory, the emergence of which dates back to the 16th century, the heyday - to the 17th century, the decline - to the beginning of the 19th century. K. is the first trend in art in the history of modern times, in which aesthetic. theory preceded art. practice and dictated her own laws. Aesthetics K. normative and reduced to the following. provisions: 1) the basis of the arts. creativity is the mind, the requirements of which must be subject to all components of art-va; 2) the purpose of creativity is the knowledge of the truth and its disclosure in an artistic and visual form; there can be no divergence between beauty and truth; 3) art must follow nature, "imitate" it; what is ugly in nature must become aesthetically acceptable in art; 4) the claim is moral by its very nature and by the whole system of arts. works affirm the moral ideal of society; 5) cognitive, aesthetic. and ethical the quality of the claim-va dictate a certain. art system. techniques, to-rye best contribute to practical. implementation of the principles of K.; the rules of good taste determine the features, norms and limits of each type of art and each genre within a given type of art; 6) art. the ideal, according to the theorists of K., is embodied in antique. claim-ve. Therefore the best way to achieve the arts. perfection - to imitate classical models. claims of antiquity. Name "K." comes from the principle of imitation of antique adopted by this direction. classics. K. is partly characteristic of ancient aesthetics: the theorists of imperial Rome came forward with demands to imitate the Greek. samples, be guided in the claim by the principles of reason, etc. The cult of antiquity re-emerges in the Renaissance, when interest in antiquity intensifies. culture, partly destroyed, partly forgotten in the Middle Ages. Humanists studied the monuments of antiquity, seeking to find support in the pagan worldview of antiquity in the struggle against spiritualism and scholasticism of the Middle Ages. feud. ideology. "In the manuscripts saved during the fall of Byzantium, in antique statues dug out of the ruins of Rome, a new world appeared before the astonished West - Greek antiquity; the ghosts of the Middle Ages disappeared before its bright images" (Engels F., see Marx K. and Engels F., Op. , 2nd ed., vol. 20, pp. 345–46). The most important for the formation of aesthetic. The theory of humanism of the Renaissance had the study of treatises on the poetics of Aristotle and Horace, to-rye were accepted as a set of indisputable laws of art. In particular, it received great development already in the 16th century. the theory of drama, especially tragedy, and the theory of epic. poems, to which priority attention is paid in the surviving text of Aristotle's Poetics. Minturpo, Castelvetro, Scaliger, and other commentators on Aristotle laid the foundations for the poetics of Carnival and established the arts typical of this art. directions of the rules of composition of drama and epic, as well as other literature. genres. In picture art-wah and architecture is turning from the Gothic of the Middle Ages to the style of Antich. samples, which is reflected in the theoretical. works on claims, in particular Leon Battista Alberti. In the Renaissance, however, the aesthetic K.'s theory experienced only the initial period of its formation. It was not recognized as obligatory, and arts. practice has largely deviated from it. As in literature, drama, and depict. art-wah and architecture, arts. the achievements of antiquity were used to the extent that they corresponded to the ideological and aesthetic. aspirations of figures of art-va humanism. In the 17th century there is a transformation of K. into an indisputable doctrine, following a swarm becomes mandatory. If the initial stage of the formation of K. takes place in Italy, then the design of K. into a complete aesthetic. doctrine took place in France in the 17th century. Socio-political. the basis of this process was the regulation of all spheres of life, carried out by the absolutist state. Cardinal Richelieu created the Academy in France (1634), which was entrusted with monitoring the purity of the French. language and literature. The first document that officially approved the doctrine of K. was "The Opinion of the French Academy on the tragicomedy (P. Corneille)" Cid "" ("Les sentiments de l´Acad? Mie fran? Aise sur la tragi-com? Die du Cid", 1638 ), where the rules of the three unities in drama (the unity of place, time and action) were proclaimed. Simultaneously with the approval of K. in literature and the theater, he also conquered the spheres of architecture, painting and sculpture. In France, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture is being created, at meetings of which the rules of K. are formulated and in plastic. claim-wah. France in the 17th century K. finds its classic. form not only by virtue of state. support, but also due to the general nature of the development of the spiritual culture of that time. The defining moment of the content of the claim-va K. was the idea of establishing statehood. It arose as a counterbalance to feuds. separatism and in this respect was a progressive principle. However, the progressiveness of this idea was limited, because. it boiled down to an apology for the monarchic. autocracy. The bearer of the principle of statehood was the absolute monarch, and in his person the person was embodied. ideal. The seal of this concept lies on the entire claim of K., to-ry was even sometimes called later "court K.". Although the court of the king was indeed the center from where the ideological. directives to the lawsuit, K. as a whole was by no means only a noble-aristocratic. lawsuit. Aesthetics K. is under means. influenced by the philosophy of rationalism. Ch. French representative. rationalism of the 17th century. R. Descartes had a decisive influence on the formation of aesthetic. doctrine K. Ethic. K.'s ideals were aristocratic only in appearance. Their essence was humanistic. ethics, recognizing the need for a compromise with the absolutist state-tion. However, within the limits available to them, the supporters of K. fought against the vices of the nobility and monarchy. society and brought up the consciousness of morals. the responsibility of everyone to society, including the king, who was also portrayed as a person who abandoned personal interests in the name of the interests of the state. Such was the first form of the civic ideal available at that stage of societies. development, when the rising bourgeoisie was still not strong enough to oppose the absolutist state. On the contrary, using its ext. contradictions, primarily the struggle of the monarchy against the willfulness of the nobility and the Fronde, the leading figures of the bourgeois-democratic. cultures supported the monarchy as a centralizing state. beginning capable of moderating feud. oppression, or at least put it into some kind of framework. If in some types and genres of art and literature external pomposity, elation of form prevailed, then in others freedom was allowed. According to the nature of the estate state, art also had a hierarchy of genres, which were divided into higher and lower. Among the lower ones were comedy, satire, fable in literature. However, it was in them that the most democratic ideas were developed. trends of the era (Molière's comedies, Boileau's satires, La Fontaine's fables). But even in the high genres of literature (tragedy), both contradictions and advanced morals affected. ideals of the era (early Corneille, Racine's work). In principle, K. claimed that he created the aesthetic. a theory imbued with an all-encompassing unity, but in practice arts. the culture of the era is characterized by conspicuous contradictions. The most important of these was the constant discrepancy between the modern. content and antich. the shape into which it was squeezed. Heroes of classicist tragedies, despite the antich. names were French in the 17th century. by way of thinking, morals and psychology. If occasionally such a masquerade was beneficial for covering attacks against the authorities, then at the same time it prevented the direct reflection of modern. reality in the "high genres" classic. lawsuit. Therefore, the greatest realism is characteristic of the lower genres, to which the image of "ugly" and "base" was not forbidden. Compared with the many-sided realism of the Renaissance, K. represented a narrowing of the sphere of life covered by art. culture. However, the aesthetic theory K. deserves the merit of revealing the importance of the typical in the art-ve. True, the principle of typification was understood in a limited way, because its implementation was achieved at the cost of losing the individual principle. But the essence of life phenomena and human. characters receives in K. such an incarnation, which makes it really possible both cognitive and educate. the function of works. Their ideological content becomes clear and precise, the intelligibility of ideas gives the works of art a direct ideological. character. The lawsuit turns into a tribune of moral, philosophical, religious. and politic. ideas. Feudal Crisis. monarchy gives rise to a new form of anti-feud. ideologies - enlightenment. There is a new variation of this art. directions - the so-called. educational K., to-ry is characterized by the preservation of all aesthetic. principles of K. 17th century. The poetics of the Enlightenment C., as it was finally formulated by Boileau (the poetic treatise "The Art of Poetry" - "L´art po?tique", 1674), remains a code of inviolable rules for the enlighteners - the classicists, headed by Voltaire. New in K. 18th century. is primarily its socio-political. orientation. An ideal civil hero arises, who cares not for the welfare of the state, but for the welfare of society. Not serving the king, but caring for the people becomes the center of the moral and political. aspirations. The tragedies of Voltaire, Cato by Addison, the tragedies of Alfieri, to some extent, and Russian. 18th century classicists (A. Sumarokov) affirm life concepts and ideals that conflict with the principles of feuds. statehood and abs. monarchy. This civic stream in France is transformed in France on the eve of and during the first bourgeoisie. revolution in K. Republican. The reasons that led to the renewal of K. in the period of Franz. bourgeois revolutions were deeply revealed by Marx, who wrote: “In the classically strict traditions of the Roman Republic, the gladiators of bourgeois society found the ideals and artistic forms, the illusions they need in order to hide from themselves the bourgeois-limited content of their struggle in order to keep their inspiration at the height of a great historical tragedy" ("The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", see p. Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 8, p. 120). For republican K. period of the first bourgeois. Revolution was followed by K. Napoleonic Empire, who created the Empire style. All this was a historical masquerade covering the bourgeois. content of the social upheaval then taking place. K. 18th century freed from certain features of dogmatism inherent in the poetics of the 17th century. It was during the Enlightenment, in connection with a deeper study of art, the classic. antiquity cult of antiquity in plastic. the lawsuit is gaining especially great development. In Germany, Winckelmann, and then Lessing, establish that the aesthetic. the charm of the monuments of antiquity is connected with the political. building the Greek polis: only democracy and the psychology of a free citizen can give rise to such a beautiful art. Since that time in it. theoretical thought affirms the idea of a connection between the aesthetic. ideal and political freedom, which was most clearly expressed in F. Schiller's "Letters on Aesthetic Education" ("?ber die? sthetische Erziehung lier Menschen, in einer Reihe von Briefen", 1795). However, for him this idea appears in an idealistically perverted form: civil freedom is achieved through aesthetic. education. This formulation of the question was associated with the backwardness of Germany and the lack of prerequisites for the bourgeois. coup. However, in this form, the late German. classicism, the so-called. Weimar classicism of Goethe and Schiller was a progressive, albeit limited, ideological art. phenomenon. In general, K. was an important stage in the development of artistic practice and theoretical. thoughts. In antique the shell was clothed with the advanced bourgeois-democratic. the ideology of the rise of the bourgeoisie. society. The fettering nature of the doctrinaire teachings of the classicists was already clear at the end of the 17th century, when Saint-Evremond rebelled against it. In the 18th century Lessing inflicted crushing blows precisely on the dogmatic. elements of K., while protecting, however, the “soul” of K., his beautiful ideal of a free, harmoniously developed person. This was the core of the Weimar classicism of Goethe and Schiller. But in the first third of the 19th century, after the victory and approval of the bourgeois. building in the West. Europe, K. is losing its significance. The collapse of enlightenment illusions about the advent of the kingdom of reason after the victory of the bourgeoisie. revolution makes clear the illusory nature of the classic. ideal in the realm of bourgeois. prose. Historical the role of the overthrow of K. was performed by the aesthetics of romanticism, which opposed the dogmas of K. The struggle against K. reached its greatest acuteness in France at the end of 1820 - early. 1830, when the romantics won graduate. victory over K. like art. direction and aesthetic. theory. This, however, did not mean the complete disappearance of K.'s ideas in the claim. At the end of the 19th century, as well as in the 20th centuries. aesthetic movements Zap. Europe there are relapses. ideas, the roots of which go back to K. They are anti-realistic. and aesthetic character ("neoclassical" tendencies in French poetry of the 2nd half of the 19th century) or serve as a mask for ideological. reactions, eg. in the theories of the decadent T. S. Eliot after the 1st World War. The most stable were aesthetic. K.'s ideals in architecture. Classic the style of architecture was repeatedly reproduced in architectural construction in the 1930s and 40s, for example. in the development of architecture in the USSR. Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., On Art, vol. 1–2, M., 1957; Plekhanov G. V., Art and Literature, [Sat. ], M., 1948, p. 165–87; Kranz [E. ], Experience in Philosophy of Literature. Descartes and French Classicism, trans. [from French. ], St. Petersburg, 1902; Lessing G. E., Hamburg dramaturgy, M.–L., 1936; Pospelov G. N., Sumarokov and the problem of Russian. classicism, "Uch. Zap. Moscow State University", 1948, no. 128, book. 3; Kupreyanov E. H., On the issue of classicism, in the book: XVIII century, Sat. 4, M.–L., 1959; Ernst F., Der Klassizismus in Italien, Frankreich und Deutschland, Z., 1924; Peyre H., Qu'est-ce que le classicisme?, P., 1942; Kristeller P. O., The classics and Renaissance thought, Camb., (Mass.), 1955. A. Anikst. Moscow.
Classicism
Classicism(from Latin classicus - exemplary) - the artistic style of European art of the 17th-19th centuries, one of the most important features of which was the appeal to ancient art as the highest model and reliance on the traditions of the high Renaissance. The art of classicism reflected the ideas of the harmonious structure of society, but in many respects lost them in comparison with the culture of the Renaissance. The conflicts of the individual and society, ideal and reality, feelings and reason testify to the complexity of the art of classicism. The artistic forms of classicism are characterized by strict organization, balance, clarity and harmony of images.
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.
At the head of the direction is the Paris Academy of Arts, which owns the creation of a set of artificial dogmatic rules and supposedly unshakable laws of the composition of the picture. This Academy also established rationalistic principles for depicting emotions (“passions”) and the division of genres into “high” and “low”. The “high” genres included historical, religious and mythological genres, while the “low” genres included portrait, landscape, everyday genre, and still life.
As a certain direction, it was formed in France in the 17th century. French classicism freed a person from religious and church influence, asserting the individual as the highest value of being. Russian classicism not only adopted the Western European theory, but also enriched it with national characteristics.
Classicism was formed as an antagonistic direction in relation to the magnificent and virtuoso art of the Baroque. But when, in the second half of the 17th century, classicism became the official art of the absolutist monarchy, it absorbed elements of the baroque. This manifested itself in the architecture of Versailles, in the work of the painter Ch. Lebrun, the sculptures of F. Girardon, and A. Coisevox.
In the middle of the 18th century, against the backdrop of the enlightenment movement, on the eve of the French Revolution, a new trend of classicism arose, opposing itself to the art of the Rococo and the work of epigones - academicians. A feature of this trend was the manifestation of the features of realism, the desire for clarity and simplicity, the reflection of the educational ideal of “natural humanity”.
The period of late classicism - Empire - falls on the first third of the 19th century. It is distinguished by splendor and splendor, expressed in architecture and applied art. This period is distinguished as independent.
IN painting classicism, the logical unfolding of the plot, a clear balanced composition, a clear transfer of volume, the subordinate role of color with the help of chiaroscuro, the use of local colors (N. Poussin, K. Lorrain) acquired the main importance. Clear
The demarcation of plans in landscapes was also revealed with the help of color: the foreground had to be brown, the middle one - green, and the far one - blue.
At the beginning of the 17th century, young foreigners flocked to Rome to get acquainted with the heritage of antiquity and the Renaissance. The most prominent place among them was taken by the Frenchman Nicolas Poussin, in his paintings, mainly on the themes of ancient antiquity and mythology, who gave unsurpassed examples of geometrically accurate composition and thoughtful correlation of color groups. The themes of Poussin's canvases are diverse: mythology, history, the New and Old Testament. The heroes of Poussin are people of strong characters and majestic deeds, a high sense of duty to society and the state. The public purpose of art was very important to Poussin. All these features are included in the emerging program of classicism. Another Frenchman, Claude Lorrain, in his antiquity landscapes of the environs of the "eternal city" streamlined the pictures of nature by harmonizing them with the light of the setting sun and introducing peculiar architectural scenes.
The discovery of “genuine” ancient painting during the excavations of Pompeii, the deification of antiquity by the German art historian Winckelmann, and the cult of Raphael, preached by the artist Mengs, who was close to him in terms of views, breathed new breath into classicism in the second half of the 18th century (in Western literature this stage is called neoclassicism). The largest representative of the "new classicism" was Jacques-Louis David; his extremely laconic and dramatic artistic language served with equal success to promote the ideals of the French Revolution ("Death of Marat") and the First Empire ("Dedication of Emperor Napoleon I").
In the 19th century, classicism painting enters a period of crisis and becomes a force holding back the development of art, not only in France, but also in other countries. The artistic line of David was successfully continued by Ingres, while maintaining the language of classicism in his works, he often turned to romantic subjects with oriental flavor; his portrait work is marked by a subtle idealization of the model. Artists in other countries (like, for example, Karl Bryullov) also imbued classically shaped works with the spirit of reckless romanticism; this combination is called academism. Numerous art academies served as its breeding grounds.
Sculpture the era of classicism is distinguished by rigor and restraint, coherence of forms, calmness of poses, when even movement does not violate formal isolation (E. Falcone, J. Houdon).
The impetus for the development of classical sculpture in the middle of the 18th century was the works of Winckelmann and archaeological excavations of ancient cities, which expanded the knowledge of contemporaries about ancient sculpture. On the verge of baroque and classicism, such sculptors as Pigalle and Houdon fluctuated in France. Classicism reached its highest embodiment in the field of plastic art in the heroic and idyllic works of Antonio Canova, who drew inspiration mainly from the statues of the Hellenistic era (Praxiteles). In Russia, Fedot Shubin, Mikhail Kozlovsky, Boris Orlovsky, Ivan Martos gravitated towards the aesthetics of classicism.
Public monuments, which became widespread in the era of classicism, gave sculptors the opportunity to idealize the military prowess and wisdom of statesmen. Loyalty to the ancient model required sculptors to depict models naked, which was in conflict with accepted norms.
Morals. To resolve this contradiction, the figures of modernity were at first depicted by sculptors of classicism in the form of naked ancient gods: Under Napoleon, the issue was resolved by moving to the image of modern figures in ancient togas (such are the figures of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly in front of the Kazan Cathedral).
Private customers of the era of classicism preferred to perpetuate their names in tombstones. The popularity of this sculptural form was facilitated by the arrangement of public cemeteries in the main cities of Europe. In accordance with the classical ideal, the figures on tombstones, as a rule, are in a state of deep rest. Sculpture of classicism is generally alien to sharp movements, external manifestations of such emotions as anger.
Late, Empire classicism, represented primarily by the prolific Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen, is imbued with a rather dry pathos. The purity of lines, the restraint of gestures, the impassivity of expressions are especially valued. In the choice of role models, the emphasis shifts from Hellenism to the archaic period. Religious images are coming into fashion, which, in the interpretation of Thorvaldsen, make a somewhat chilling impression on the viewer. The tomb sculpture of late classicism often bears a slight touch of sentimentality.
main feature architecture classicism was an appeal to the forms of ancient architecture as a standard of harmony, simplicity, rigor, logical clarity and monumentality. The architecture of classicism as a whole is characterized by the regularity of planning and the clarity of volumetric form. The basis of the architectural language of classicism was the order, in proportions and forms close to antiquity. Classicism is characterized by symmetrical axial compositions, restraint of decorative decoration, and a regular system of city planning.
The architectural language of classicism was formulated at the end of the Renaissance by the great Venetian master Palladio and his follower Scamozzi.
The most significant interiors in the style of classicism were designed by the Scot Robert Adam, who returned to his homeland from Rome in 1758. He was greatly impressed by both the archaeological research of Italian scientists and the architectural fantasies of Piranesi. In the interpretation of Adam, classicism was a style that was hardly inferior to rococo in terms of sophistication of interiors, which gained him popularity not only among democratic-minded circles of society, but also among the aristocracy. Like his French colleagues, Adam preached a complete rejection of details devoid of a constructive function.
The architects of Napoleonic France drew inspiration from the majestic images of military glory left by imperial Rome, such as the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus and Trajan's Column. By order of Napoleon, these images were transferred to Paris in the form of the triumphal arch of Carruzel and the Vendôme column. In relation to the monuments of military greatness of the era of the Napoleonic wars, the term "imperial style" - Empire style is used. In Russia, Karl Rossi, Andrey Voronikhin and Andrey Zakharov showed themselves to be outstanding masters of the Empire style. In Britain, the Empire corresponds to the so-called. "Regency style" (the largest representative is John Nash).
The aesthetics of classicism favored large-scale urban development projects and led to the ordering of urban development on the scale of entire cities. In Russia, almost all provincial and many county towns were replanned in
Compliance with the principles of classic rationalism. Such cities as St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Warsaw, Dublin, Edinburgh and a number of others have turned into genuine open-air museums of classicism. Throughout the space from Minusinsk to Philadelphia, a single architectural language, dating back to Palladio, dominated. Ordinary building was carried out in accordance with the albums of standard projects.
Literature. The French poet Francois Malherbe (1555-1628), who reformed the French language and verse and developed poetic canons, is considered the founder of the poetics of classicism. The leading representatives of classicism in dramaturgy were the tragedians Corneille and Racine (1639-1699), whose main subject of creativity was the conflict between public duty and personal passions. "Low" genres also reached high development - fable (J. La Fontaine), satire (Boileau), comedy (Molière 1622-1673).
Classicism of the 18th century developed under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment. The work of Voltaire (1694-1778) is directed against religious fanaticism, absolutist oppression, filled with the pathos of freedom. The goal of creativity is to change the world for the better, to build society itself in accordance with the laws of classicism. From the positions of classicism, the Englishman Samuel Johnson surveyed contemporary literature, around whom a brilliant circle of like-minded people formed.
In Russia, classicism originated in the 18th century, after the transformations of Peter I. Lomonosov carried out a reform of Russian verse, developed the theory of "three calms", which was essentially an adaptation of French classical rules to the Russian language. The images in classicism are devoid of individual features, as they are intended primarily to capture stable generic features that do not pass over time, acting as the embodiment of any social or spiritual forces.
Classicism in Russia developed under the great influence of the Enlightenment - the ideas of equality and justice have always been the focus of attention of Russian classic writers. Therefore, in Russian classicism, genres that imply a mandatory authorial assessment of historical reality have received great development: comedy (D. I. Fonvizin), satire (A. D. Kantemir), fable (A. P. Sumarokov, I. I. Khemnitser), ode (Lomonosov, G. R. Derzhavin).
CLASSICISM (from the Latin classicus - exemplary), style and artistic direction in literature, architecture and art of the 17th - early 19th centuries, classicism is successively associated with the Renaissance; occupied, along with baroque, an important place in the culture of the 17th century; continued its development during the Enlightenment. The origin and spread of classicism is associated with the strengthening of the absolute monarchy, with the influence of the philosophy of R. Descartes, with the development of the exact sciences. The basis of the rationalist aesthetics of classicism is the desire for balance, clarity, logic of artistic expression (largely perceived from the aesthetics of the Renaissance); belief in the existence of universal and eternal, not subject to historical changes, the rules of artistic creativity, which are interpreted as skill, mastery, and not a manifestation of spontaneous inspiration or self-expression.
Having perceived the idea of creativity, which goes back to Aristotle, as an imitation of nature, the classicists understood nature as an ideal norm, which had already been embodied in the works of ancient masters and writers: an orientation towards “beautiful nature”, transformed and ordered in accordance with the unshakable laws of art, thus, implied imitation antique samples and even competition with them. Developing the idea of art as a rational activity based on the eternal categories of "beautiful", "expedient", etc., classicism, more than other artistic trends, contributed to the emergence of aesthetics as a generalizing science of beauty.
The central concept of classicism - plausibility - did not imply an accurate reproduction of empirical reality: the world is recreated not as it is, but as it should be. The preference for the universal norm as "due" to everything private, random, concrete corresponds to the ideology of the absolutist state expressed by classicism, in which everything personal and private is subject to the indisputable will of state power. The classicist depicted not a specific, single person, but an abstract person in a situation of a universal, non-historical moral conflict; hence the orientation of the classicists to ancient mythology as the embodiment of universal knowledge about the world and man. The ethical ideal of classicism presupposes, on the one hand, the subordination of the personal to the general, of passions to duty, reason, and resistance to the vicissitudes of life; on the other - restraint in the manifestation of feelings, compliance with the measure, appropriateness, the ability to please.
Classicism strictly subordinated creativity to the rules of the genre-style hierarchy. "High" (for example, epic, tragedy, ode - in literature; historical, religious, mythological genre, portrait - in painting) and "low" (satire, comedy, fable; still life in painting) genres were distinguished, which corresponded to a certain style, circle of themes and heroes; a clear delineation of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the base, the heroic and the mundane was prescribed.
From the middle of the 18th century, classicism was gradually replaced by new trends - sentimentalism, pre-romanticism, romanticism. The traditions of classicism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were resurrected in neoclassicism.
The term "classicism", which goes back to the concept of classics (exemplary writers), was first used in 1818 by the Italian critic G. Visconti. It was widely used in the polemics of the classicists and romantics, and among the romantics (J. de Stael, V. Hugo, and others) it had a negative connotation: classicism and the classics, imitating antiquity, were opposed to innovative romantic literature. In literary criticism and art history, the concept of "classicism" began to be actively used after the works of scientists of the cultural-historical school and G. Wölfflin.
Stylistic trends similar to the classicism of the 17th-18th centuries are seen by some scientists in other eras; in this case, the concept of "classicism" is interpreted in a broad sense, denoting a stylistic constant that is periodically updated at various stages of the history of art and literature (for example, "ancient classicism", "Renaissance classicism").
N. T. Pakhsaryan.
Literature. The origins of literary classicism are in normative poetics (Yu. Ts. Scaliger, L. Castelvetro, etc.) and in Italian literature of the 16th century, where a genre system was created, correlated with the system of language styles and oriented towards ancient samples. The highest flowering of classicism is associated with French literature of the 17th century. The founder of the poetics of classicism was F. Malherbe, who regulated the literary language on the basis of live colloquial speech; the reform he carried out was secured by the French Academy. In the most complete form, the principles of literary classicism were set forth in the treatise "Poetic Art" by N. Boileau (1674), who summarized the artistic practice of his contemporaries.
Classical writers treat literature as an important mission of translating into words and conveying to the reader the requirements of nature and reason, as a way of "teaching while entertaining." The literature of classicism is striving for a clear expression of significant thought, meaning (“... meaning always lives in my creation” - F. von Logau), it refuses stylistic sophistication, rhetorical embellishments. The classicists preferred laconicism to verbosity, simplicity and clarity to metaphorical complexity, decentness to extravagant. Following the established norms did not mean, however, that the classicists encouraged pedantry and ignored the role of artistic intuition. Although the rules were presented to the classicists as a way to keep creative freedom within the boundaries of reason, they understood the importance of intuitive insight, forgiving talent for deviation from the rules, if it was appropriate and artistically effective.
The characters of the characters in classicism are built on the allocation of one dominant feature, which contributes to their transformation into universal universal types. Favorite collisions are the clash of duty and feelings, the struggle of reason and passion. At the center of the works of the classicists is a heroic personality and, at the same time, a well-bred person who stoically strives to overcome his own passions and affects, to curb or at least realize them (like the heroes of the tragedies of J. Racine). Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" plays the role of not only a philosophical and intellectual, but also an ethical principle in the attitude of the characters of classicism.
At the heart of literary theory, classicism is a hierarchical system of genres; the analytical dilution in various works, even artistic worlds, of "high" and "low" heroes and thus is combined with the desire to ennoble "low" genres; for example, to rid satire of coarse burlesque, comedy of farcical features (Moliere's "high comedy").
The main place in the literature of classicism was occupied by drama based on the rule of three unities (see The theory of three unities). Tragedy became its leading genre, the highest achievements of which are the works of P. Corneille and J. Racine; in the first, the tragedy acquires a heroic character, in the second, a lyrical one. Other "high" genres play a much smaller role in the literary process (the unsuccessful experience of J. Chaplin in the genre of the epic poem is later parodied by Voltaire; solemn odes were written by F. Malherbe and N. Boileau). At the same time, the "low" genres were developing significantly: the heroic-comic poem and satire (M. Renier, Boileau), the fable (J. de La Fontaine), and the comedy. Genres of small didactic prose are cultivated - aphorisms (maxims), "characters" (B. Pascal, F. de La Rochefoucauld, J. de La Bruyère); oratorical prose (J. B. Bossuet). Although the theory of classicism did not include the novel in the system of genres worthy of serious critical reflection, M. M. Lafayette's psychological masterpiece The Princess of Cleves (1678) is considered an example of a classicist novel.
At the end of the 17th century, there was a decline in literary classicism, but the archaeological interest in antiquity in the 18th century, the excavations of Herculaneum, Pompeii, the creation by I. I. Winkelman of the ideal image of Greek antiquity as “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” contributed to its new rise in the Enlightenment. The main representative of the new classicism was Voltaire, in whose work rationalism, the cult of reason served to justify not the norms of absolutist statehood, but the right of the individual to be free from the claims of church and state. Enlightenment classicism, actively interacting with other literary trends of the era, relies not on "rules", but rather on the "enlightened taste" of the public. The appeal to antiquity becomes a way of expressing the heroism of the French Revolution of the 18th century in the poetry of A. Chenier.
In France in the 17th century, classicism developed into a powerful and consistent artistic system, and had a noticeable impact on baroque literature. In Germany, classicism, having arisen as a conscious cultural effort to create a “correct” and “perfect” poetic school worthy of other European literatures (M. Opitz), on the contrary, was drowned out by the baroque, whose style was more in line with the tragic era of the Thirty Years War; the belated attempt of I. K. Gottsched in the 1730s and 40s to direct German literature along the path of the classicist canons caused fierce controversy and was generally rejected. An independent aesthetic phenomenon is the Weimar classicism of J. W. Goethe and F. Schiller. In the UK, early classicism is associated with the work of J. Dryden; its further development proceeded in line with the Enlightenment (A. Pope, S. Johnson). By the end of the 17th century, classicism in Italy existed in parallel with Rococo and sometimes intertwined with it (for example, in the work of the poets of Arcadia - A. Zeno, P. Metastasio, P. Y. Martello, S. Maffei); Enlightenment classicism is represented by the work of V. Alfieri.
In Russia, classicism was established in the 1730s-1750s under the influence of Western European classicism and the ideas of the Enlightenment; however, it clearly traces the connection with the baroque. Distinctive features of Russian classicism are pronounced didacticism, accusatory, socially critical orientation, national-patriotic pathos, reliance on folk art. One of the first principles of classicism was transferred to Russian soil by A. D. Kantemir. In his satires, he followed I. Boileau, but, creating generalized images of human vices, he adapted them to domestic reality. Kantemir introduced new poetic genres into Russian literature: transcriptions of psalms, fables, a heroic poem (“Petrida”, not finished). The first example of a classic laudatory ode was created by V. K. Trediakovsky ("Ode Solemn on the Surrender of the City of Gdansk", 1734), who accompanied it with the theoretical "Reasoning about the ode in general" (both of which followed Boileau). The influence of baroque poetics marked the odes of M. V. Lomonosov. The most complete and consistent Russian classicism is represented by the work of A. P. Sumarokov. Having outlined the main provisions of the classicist doctrine in the Epistle on Poetry (1747), written in imitation of Boileau's treatise, Sumarokov sought to follow them in his works: tragedies oriented towards the work of the French classicists of the 17th century and the dramaturgy of Voltaire, but addressed mainly to the events of national history; partly - in comedies, the model for which was the work of Moliere; in satires, as well as fables that brought him the glory of the "northern Lafontaine". He also developed the song genre, which was not mentioned by Boileau, but was included by Sumarokov himself in the list of poetic genres. Until the end of the 18th century, the classification of genres proposed by Lomonosov in the preface to the collected works of 1757 - “On the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language”, retained its significance, which correlated the theory of three styles with specific genres, linking a heroic poem, an ode, solemn speech; with the middle - tragedy, satire, elegy, eclogue; with low - comedy, song, epigram. An example of a heroic poem was created by V. I. Maikov (“Elisha, or the Irritated Bacchus”, 1771). The first completed heroic epic was Rossiyada by M. M. Kheraskov (1779). At the end of the 18th century, the principles of classic dramaturgy manifested themselves in the works of N. P. Nikolev, Ya. B. Kniazhnin, V. V. Kapnist. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, classicism was gradually replaced by new trends in literary development associated with pre-romanticism and sentimentalism, but retained its influence for some time. Its traditions can be traced in the 1800s-20s in the work of Radishchev poets (A. Kh. Vostokov, I. P. Pnin, V. V. Popugaev), in literary criticism (A. F. Merzlyakov), in literary and aesthetic program and genre-stylistic practice of the Decembrist poets, in the early work of A. S. Pushkin.
A. P. Losenko. "Vladimir and Rogneda". 1770. Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).
N. T. Pakhsaryan; T. G. Yurchenko (classicism in Russia).
Architecture and fine arts. The tendencies of classicism in European art were already outlined in the 2nd half of the 16th century in Italy - in the architectural theory and practice of A. Palladio, the theoretical treatises of G. da Vignola, S. Serlio; more consistently - in the writings of G. P. Bellori (17th century), as well as in the aesthetic standards of the academicians of the Bologna school. However, in the 17th century, classicism, which developed in an acutely polemical interaction with the Baroque, only in French artistic culture developed into an integral stylistic system. Classicism of the 18th - early 19th centuries was also predominantly formed in France, which became a pan-European style (the latter is often referred to as neoclassicism in foreign art history). The principles of rationalism underlying the aesthetics of classicism determined the view of a work of art as the fruit of reason and logic, triumphing over the chaos and fluidity of sensually perceived life. Orientation to a reasonable beginning, to enduring patterns, also determined the normative requirements of the aesthetics of classicism, the regulation of artistic rules, a strict hierarchy of genres in the visual arts (the “high” genre includes works on mythological and historical subjects, as well as “ideal landscape” and ceremonial portrait; to “ low" - still life, everyday genre, etc.). The activities of the royal academies founded in Paris - painting and sculpture (1648) and architecture (1671) - contributed to the consolidation of the theoretical doctrines of classicism.
The architecture of classicism, in contrast to the baroque with its dramatic conflict of forms, energetic interaction of volume and spatial environment, is based on the principle of harmony and internal completeness, both in a separate building and in an ensemble. The characteristic features of this style are the desire for clarity and unity of the whole, symmetry and balance, the certainty of plastic forms and spatial intervals that create a calm and solemn rhythm; a system of proportioning based on multiple ratios of integers (a single module that determines the patterns of shaping). The constant appeal of the masters of classicism to the heritage of ancient architecture meant not only the use of its individual motifs and elements, but also the comprehension of the general laws of its architectonics. The basis of the architectural language of classicism was the architectural order, proportions and forms closer to antiquity than in the architecture of previous eras; in buildings, it is used in such a way that it does not obscure the overall structure of the building, but becomes its subtle and restrained accompaniment. The interiors of classicism are characterized by clarity of spatial divisions, softness of colors. Widely using perspective effects in monumental and decorative painting, the masters of classicism fundamentally separated the illusory space from the real one.
An important place in the architecture of classicism belongs to the problems of urban planning. Projects of "ideal cities" are being developed, a new type of regular absolutist city-residence (Versailles) is being created. Classicism strives to continue the traditions of antiquity and the Renaissance, laying in the basis of its decisions the principle of proportionality to a person and, at the same time, a scale that gives the architectural image a heroic-elevated sound. And although the rhetorical splendor of palace decor comes into conflict with this dominant trend, the stable figurative structure of classicism preserves the unity of style, no matter how diverse its modifications in the process of historical development.
The formation of classicism in French architecture is associated with the works of J. Lemercier and F. Mansart. The appearance of buildings and construction techniques at first resemble the architecture of castles of the 16th century; a decisive turning point occurred in the work of L. Levo - first of all, in the creation of the palace and park ensemble of Vaux-le-Vicomte, with a solemn enfilade of the palace itself, imposing murals by Ch. Lebrun and the most characteristic expression of new principles - the regular parterre park of A. Le Nôtre. The eastern facade of the Louvre, realized (since the 1660s) according to the plan of C. Perrault, became the programmatic work of classicism architecture (it is characteristic that the projects of J. L. Bernini and others in the Baroque style were rejected). In the 1660s, L. Levo, A. Le Nôtre and Ch. Lebrun began to create an ensemble of Versailles, where the ideas of classicism are expressed with particular completeness. Since 1678, the construction of Versailles was led by J. Hardouin-Mansart; according to his designs, the palace was significantly expanded (wings were added), the central terrace was converted into the Mirror Gallery - the most representative part of the interior. He also built the Grand Trianon Palace and other buildings. The ensemble of Versailles is characterized by a rare stylistic integrity: even the jets of fountains were combined into a static form, similar to a column, and trees and shrubs were trimmed in the form of geometric shapes. The symbolism of the ensemble is subordinated to the glorification of the "Sun King" Louis XIV, but its artistic and figurative basis was the apotheosis of reason, imperiously transforming the natural elements. At the same time, the emphasized decorativeness of the interiors justifies the use of the stylistic term “baroque classicism” in relation to Versailles.
In the 2nd half of the 17th century, new planning techniques were developed that provided for the organic connection of urban development with elements of the natural environment, the creation of open areas that spatially merge with a street or embankment, ensemble solutions for the key elements of the urban structure (Louis the Great Square, now Vendôme, and Victory Square ; the architectural ensemble of the Les Invalides, all - J. Hardouin-Mansart), triumphal entrance arches (Saint-Denis gate designed by N. F. Blondel; all - in Paris).
The traditions of classicism in France of the 18th century were almost not interrupted, but in the 1st half of the century the rococo style prevailed. In the middle of the 18th century, the principles of classicism were transformed in the spirit of the aesthetics of the Enlightenment. In architecture, the appeal to "naturalness" put forward the requirement for constructive justification of the order elements of the composition, in the interior - the need to develop a flexible layout of a comfortable residential building. The landscape (landscape) environment became the ideal environment for the house. The rapid development of knowledge about Greek and Roman antiquity (excavations of Herculaneum, Pompeii, etc.) had a huge impact on the classicism of the 18th century; The works of J. I. Winkelmann, J. W. Goethe, and F. Militsia made their contribution to the theory of classicism. In the French classicism of the 18th century, new architectural types were defined: an exquisitely intimate mansion (“hotel”), a front public building, an open square connecting the main thoroughfares of the city (Louis XV Square, now Place de la Concorde, in Paris, architect J. A. Gabriel; he also built the Petit Trianon Palace in the Versailles Park, combining the harmonic clarity of forms with the lyrical refinement of the drawing). J. J. Souflot carried out his project of the Sainte-Genevieve church in Paris, based on the experience of classical architecture.
In the era preceding the French Revolution of the 18th century, architecture manifested a striving for severe simplicity, a bold search for the monumental geometrism of a new, orderless architecture (K. N. Ledoux, E. L. Bulle, J. J. Lekeu). These searches (noted also by the influence of the architectural etchings of G. B. Piranesi) served as the starting point for the late phase of classicism - the French Empire (1st third of the 19th century), in which magnificent representativeness is growing (Ch. Percier, P. F. L. Fontaine , J. F. Chalgrin).
English Palladianism of the 17th and 18th centuries is in many respects related to the system of classicism, and often merges with it. Orientation to the classics (not only to the ideas of A. Palladio, but also to antiquity), strict and restrained expressiveness of plastically clear motives are present in the work of I. Jones. After the "Great Fire" of 1666, K. Wren built the largest building in London - St. Paul's Cathedral, as well as over 50 parish churches, a number of buildings in Oxford, marked by the influence of ancient solutions. Extensive urban plans were realized by the middle of the 18th century in the regular development of Bath (J. Wood the Elder and J. Wood the Younger), London and Edinburgh (the Adam brothers). The buildings of W. Chambers, W. Kent, J. Payne are associated with the flourishing of country park estates. R. Adam was also inspired by Roman antiquity, but his version of classicism takes on a softer and more lyrical appearance. Classicism in Great Britain was the most important component of the so-called Georgian style. At the beginning of the 19th century, features similar to the Empire style appeared in English architecture (J. Soane, J. Nash).
In the 17th - early 18th century, classicism was formed in the architecture of Holland (J. van Kampen, P. Post), which gave rise to a particularly restrained version of it. Cross-links with French and Dutch classicism, as well as with the early baroque, affected the short flowering of classicism in the architecture of Sweden in the late 17th and early 18th centuries (N. Tessin the Younger). In the 18th and early 19th centuries, classicism also established itself in Italy (G. Piermarini), Spain (J. de Villanueva), Poland (J. Kamsetzer, H. P. Aigner), and the USA (T. Jefferson, J. Hoban). The strict forms of the Palladian F. W. Erdmansdorf, the “heroic” Hellenism of K. G. Langhans, D. and F. Gilly, and the historicism of L. von Klenze are characteristic of the German classicism architecture of the 18th - 1st half of the 19th century. In the work of K. F. Shinkel, the harsh monumentality of images is combined with the search for new functional solutions.
By the middle of the 19th century, the leading role of classicism was coming to naught; it is replaced by historical styles (see also Neo-Greek style, Eclecticism). At the same time, the artistic tradition of classicism comes to life in the neoclassicism of the 20th century.
Fine art of classicism is normative; its figurative structure is characterized by clear signs of social utopia. The iconography of classicism is dominated by ancient legends, heroic deeds, historical plots, that is, interest in the fate of human communities, in the "anatomy of power." Not satisfied with a simple "portrait of nature", the artists of classicism strive to rise above the concrete, the individual - to the universally significant. The classicists defended their idea of artistic truth, which did not coincide with the naturalism of Caravaggio or the Little Dutch. The world of rational deeds and bright feelings in the art of classicism rose above the imperfect everyday life as the embodiment of a dream of the desired harmony of being. Orientation to the lofty ideal gave rise to the choice of "beautiful nature". Classicism avoids the casual, the deviant, the grotesque, the crude, the repulsive. The tectonic clarity of classical architecture corresponds to a clear delimitation of plans in sculpture and painting. The plastic of classicism, as a rule, is designed for a fixed point of view, it is distinguished by the smoothness of forms. The moment of movement in the poses of figures usually does not violate their plastic isolation and calm statuary. In classical painting, the main elements of form are line and chiaroscuro; local colors clearly reveal objects and landscape plans, which brings the spatial composition of the painting closer to the composition of the stage.
The founder and greatest master of classicism of the 17th century was the French artist N. Poussin, whose paintings are marked by the loftiness of the philosophical and ethical content, the harmony of the rhythmic structure and color.
The "ideal landscape" (N. Poussin, C. Lorrain, G. Duguet), which embodied the dream of the classicists of the "golden age" of mankind, was highly developed in the painting of classicism of the 17th century. The most significant masters of French classicism in sculpture of the 17th - early 18th centuries were P. Puget (heroic theme), F. Girardon (search for harmony and laconism of forms). In the second half of the 18th century, French sculptors again turned to socially significant themes and monumental solutions (J. B. Pigalle, M. Clodion, E. M. Falcone, J. A. Houdon). Civic pathos and lyricism were combined in the mythological painting of J. M. Vienne, the decorative landscapes of J. Robert. The painting of the so-called revolutionary classicism in France is represented by the works of J. L. David, whose historical and portrait images are marked by courageous drama. In the late period of French classicism, painting, despite the appearance of individual major masters (J. O. D. Ingres), degenerates into official apologetic or salon art.
Rome became the international center of classicism in the 18th - early 19th centuries, where the academic tradition dominated in art with a combination of nobility of forms and cold, abstract idealization, often for academicism (painters A. R. Mengs, J. A. Koch, V. Camuccini, sculptors A. Kakova and B. Thorvaldsen). In the visual art of German classicism, contemplative in spirit, the portraits of A. and V. Tishbein, the mythological cartoons of A. Ya. Karstens, the plastic art of I. G. Shadov, K. D. Raukh stand out; in arts and crafts - furniture by D. Roentgen. In Great Britain, the classicism of graphics and sculpture by J. Flaxman are close, in the arts and crafts - ceramics by J. Wedgwood and the masters of the factory in Derby.
A. R. Mengs. "Perseus and Andromeda". 1774-79. Hermitage (St. Petersburg).
The heyday of classicism in Russia dates back to the last third of the 18th - 1st third of the 19th century, although already the beginning of the 18th century was marked by a creative appeal to the urban planning experience of French classicism (the principle of symmetrical-axial planning systems in the construction of St. Petersburg). Russian classicism embodied a new historical stage in the flourishing of Russian secular culture, unprecedented for Russia in scope and ideological fullness. Early Russian classicism in architecture (1760-70s; J. B. Vallin-Delamot, A. F. Kokorinov, Yu. M. Felten, K. I. Blank, A. Rinaldi) still retains the plastic enrichment and dynamics of forms characteristic of baroque and rococo.
The architects of the mature era of classicism (1770-90s; V. I. Bazhenov, M. F. Kazakov, I. E. Starov) created the classic types of the capital's palace-estate and comfortable residential building, which became models in the extensive construction of suburban noble estates and in the new, front building of cities. The art of the ensemble in suburban park estates is a major contribution of Russian classicism to world artistic culture. The Russian variant of Palladianism arose in manor construction (N. A. Lvov), and a new type of chamber palace developed (C. Cameron, J. Quarenghi). A feature of Russian classicism is the unprecedented scale of state urban planning: regular plans were developed for more than 400 cities, ensembles of the centers of Kaluga, Kostroma, Poltava, Tver, Yaroslavl, etc. were formed; the practice of "regulating" city plans, as a rule, successively combined the principles of classicism with the historically established planning structure of the old Russian city. The turn of the 18th-19th century was marked by the largest urban development achievements in both capitals. A grandiose ensemble of the center of St. Petersburg was formed (A. N. Voronikhin, A. D. Zakharov, J. F. Thomas de Thomon, later K. I. Rossi). On other urban planning principles, “classical Moscow” was formed, which was built up during its restoration after the fire of 1812 with small mansions with cozy interiors. The beginnings of regularity here were consistently subordinated to the general pictorial freedom of the spatial structure of the city. The most prominent architects of late Moscow classicism are D. I. Gilardi, O. I. Bove, A. G. Grigoriev. The buildings of the 1st third of the 19th century belong to the Russian Empire style (sometimes called Alexander classicism).
In the visual arts, the development of Russian classicism is closely connected with the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (founded in 1757). Sculpture is represented by “heroic” monumental-decorative plasticity, which forms a finely thought-out synthesis with architecture, monuments filled with civic pathos, tombstones imbued with elegiac enlightenment, easel plasticity (I.P. Prokofiev, F.G. Gordeev, M.I. Kozlovsky, I. P. Martos, F. F. Shchedrin, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, S. S. Pimenov, I. I. Terebenev). In painting, classicism was most clearly manifested in the works of the historical and mythological genre (A. P. Losenko, G. I. Ugryumov, I. A. Akimov, A. I. Ivanov, A. E. Egorov, V. K. Shebuev, early A. A. Ivanov, in scenography - in the work of P. di G. Gonzago). Some features of classicism are also inherent in the sculptural portraits of F. I. Shubin, in painting - portraits of D. G. Levitsky, V. L. Borovikovsky, landscapes of F. M. Matveev. In the decorative and applied art of Russian classicism, artistic modeling and carved decor in architecture, bronze products, cast iron, porcelain, crystal, furniture, damask fabrics, etc., stand out.
A. I. Kaplun; Yu. K. Zolotov (European fine arts).
Theater. The formation of theatrical classicism began in France in the 1630s. The activating and organizing role in this process belonged to literature, thanks to which the theater established itself among the "high" arts. The French saw samples of theatrical art in the Italian "learned theater" of the Renaissance. Since the court society was the legislator of tastes and cultural values, the court ceremonial and festivities, ballets, and ceremonial receptions also influenced the stage style. The principles of theatrical classicism were worked out on the Paris stage: in the Mare theater headed by G. Mondori (1634), in the Palais-Cardinal built by Cardinal Richelieu (1641, from 1642 the Palais-Royal), whose arrangement met the high requirements of Italian stage technology ; in the 1640s, the Burgundy Hotel became the site of theatrical classicism. Simultaneous decoration gradually, by the middle of the 17th century, was replaced by a picturesque and uniform perspective decoration (palace, temple, house, etc.); a curtain appeared, which rose and fell at the beginning and at the end of the performance. The scene was framed like a painting. The game took place only on the proscenium; the performance was centered by several figures of protagonist characters. An architectural backdrop, a single scene of action, a combination of acting and pictorial plans, a common three-dimensional mise-en-scene contributed to the creation of the illusion of plausibility. In stage classicism of the 17th century, there was the concept of the “fourth wall”. “He acts like this,” F. E. a'Aubignac wrote about the actor (“The Practice of the Theater”, 1657), “as if the audience does not exist at all: his characters act and speak as if they really are kings, and not Mondori and Belrose, as if they were in the palace of Horace in Rome, and not in the Burgundy hotel in Paris, and as if they were seen and heard only by those who are present on the stage (i.e., in the depicted place).
In the high tragedy of classicism (P. Corneille, J. Racine), the dynamics, entertainment and adventure plots of the plays by A. Hardy (the repertoire of the first permanent French troupe of V. Leconte in the 1st third of the 17th century) were replaced by static and in-depth attention to the spiritual the world of the hero, the motives of his behavior. The new dramaturgy required changes in the performing arts. The actor became the embodiment of the ethical and aesthetic ideal of the era, creating a close-up portrait of his contemporary with his acting; his costume, stylized as antiquity, corresponded to modern fashion, plastic obeyed the requirements of nobility and grace. The actor had to have the pathos of a speaker, a sense of rhythm, musicality (for the actress M. Chanmele, J. Racine inscribed notes over the lines of the role), the art of eloquent gesture, the skills of a dancer, even physical strength. The dramaturgy of classicism contributed to the emergence of a school of stage recitation, which combined the entire set of performing techniques (reading, gesture, facial expressions) and became the main expressive means of the French actor. A. Vitez called the recitation of the 17th century "prosodic architecture". The performance was built in the logical interaction of monologues. With the help of the word, the technique of excitation of emotion and its control was worked out; the success of the performance depended on the strength of the voice, its sonority, timbre, possession of colors and intonations.
"Andromache" by J. Racine in the Burgundy hotel. Engraving by F. Chauveau. 1667.
The division of theatrical genres into "high" (tragedy in the Burgundy hotel) and "low" (comedy in the "Palais Royal" of the time of Molière), the emergence of roles fixed the hierarchical structure of the theater of classicism. Remaining within the boundaries of "ennobled" nature, the performance pattern and outlines of the image were determined by the individuality of the major actors: J. Floridor's manner of recitation was more natural than that of the excessively posing Belrose; M. Chanmelet was characterized by a sonorous and melodious "recitation", and Montfleury did not know equal in the affects of passion. The concept that developed later on the canon of theatrical classicism, which consisted of standard gestures (surprise was depicted with hands raised to shoulder level and palms facing the audience; disgust - with the head turned to the right, and hands repelling the object of contempt, etc.) , refers to the era of decline and degeneration of style.
In the 18th century, despite the decisive retreat of the theater towards educational democracy, the actors of the Comedie Francaise A. Lecouvreur, M. Baron, A. L. Lequin, Dumesnil, Cleron, L. Preville developed the style of stage classicism in accordance with tastes and demands era. They departed from the classic norms of recitation, reformed the costume and made attempts to direct the play, creating an ensemble of actors. At the beginning of the 19th century, at the height of the struggle of the romantics with the tradition of the “court” theater, F.J. Talma, M.J. ”and sought-after style. The traditions of classicism continued to influence the theatrical culture of France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and even later. The combination of the styles of classicism and modernity is characteristic of the game of J. Mounet-Sully, S. Bernard, B.C. Coquelin. In the 20th century, the French director's theater became closer to the European one, the stage style lost its national specificity. Nevertheless, significant events in the French theater of the 20th century correlate with the traditions of classicism: the performances of J. Copeau, J. L. Barraud, L. Jouvet, J. Vilard, Vitez's experiments with the classics of the 17th century, productions by R. Planchon, J. Desart and etc.
Having lost the importance of the dominant style in France in the 18th century, classicism found successors in other European countries. J. W. Goethe consistently introduced the principles of classicism in the Weimar theater led by him. The actress and entrepreneur F. K. Neuber and the actor K. Eckhoff in Germany, the English actors T. Betterton, J. Quinn, J. Kemble, S. Siddons propagandized classicism, but their efforts, despite personal creative achievements, turned out to be ineffective and, ultimately were rejected. Stage classicism became the object of a pan-European controversy, and thanks to the German, and after them the Russian theorists of the theater, it received the definition of "false classical theater".
In Russia, the classicist style flourished at the beginning of the 19th century in the work of A. S. Yakovlev and E. S. Semyonova, later manifested itself in the achievements of the St. Petersburg theater school in the person of V. V. Samoilov (see the Samoilovs), V. A. Karatygin (see Karatygin), then Yu. M. Yuriev.
E. I. Gorfunkel.
Music. The term "classicism" in relation to music does not imply an orientation towards ancient samples (only monuments of ancient Greek musical theory were known and studied), but a series of reforms designed to put an end to the remnants of the Baroque style in musical theater. Classicist and baroque tendencies were inconsistently combined in the French musical tragedy of the 2nd half of the 17th - 1st half of the 18th century (the creative collaboration of the librettist F. Kino and composer J. B. Lully, operas and opera-ballets by J. F. Rameau) and in Italian opera seria, which occupied a leading position among the musical and dramatic genres of the 18th century (in Italy, England, Austria, Germany, Russia). The heyday of the French musical tragedy came at the beginning of the crisis of absolutism, when the ideals of heroism and citizenship of the period of the struggle for a nationwide state were replaced by the spirit of festivity and ceremonial officialdom, an attraction to luxury and refined hedonism. The sharpness of the conflict of feeling and duty typical of classicism in the context of a mythological or knightly-legendary plot of a musical tragedy decreased (especially in comparison with tragedy in a drama theater). The norms of classicism are associated with the requirements of genre purity (lack of comedy and everyday episodes), unity of action (often also place and time), a “classical” 5-act composition (often with a prologue). The central position in musical drama is occupied by recitative - an element closest to rationalistic verbal-conceptual logic. In the intonational sphere, declamatory-pathetic formulas (interrogative, imperative, etc.) associated with natural human speech predominate, at the same time, rhetorical and symbolic figures characteristic of baroque opera are excluded. Extensive choral and ballet scenes with fantastic and pastoral-idyllic themes, a general orientation towards spectacle and entertainment (which eventually became dominant) were more in line with the traditions of the Baroque than with the principles of classicism.
Traditional for Italy were the cultivation of singing virtuosity and the development of a decorative element inherent in the opera seria genre. In line with the requirements of classicism put forward by some representatives of the Roman Academy "Arcadia", the northern Italian librettists of the early 18th century (F. Silvani, J. Frigimelica-Roberti, A. Zeno, P. Pariati, A. Salvi, A. Piovene) were expelled from serious opera comic and everyday episodes, plot motifs associated with the intervention of supernatural or fantastic forces; the circle of plots was limited to historical and historical-legendary, moral and ethical issues were brought to the fore. At the center of the artistic concept of the early opera seria is an exalted heroic image of a monarch, less often a statesman, courtier, epic hero, demonstrating the positive qualities of an ideal personality: wisdom, tolerance, generosity, devotion to duty, heroic enthusiasm. The 3-act structure, traditional for Italian opera, was preserved (5-act dramas remained experiments), but the number of actors was reduced, intonational expressive means, overture and aria forms, and the structure of vocal parts were typified in music. The type of dramaturgy, entirely subordinated to musical tasks, was developed (from the 1720s) by P. Metastasio, whose name is associated with the pinnacle stage in the history of the opera seria. In his stories, the classicist pathos is noticeably weakened. The conflict situation, as a rule, arises and deepens due to the protracted "delusion" of the main actors, and not due to a real conflict of their interests or principles. However, a special predilection for an idealized expression of feelings, for the noble impulses of the human soul, albeit far from strict rational justification, ensured the exceptional popularity of Metastasio's libretto for more than half a century.
The culmination in the development of musical classicism of the Age of Enlightenment (in the 1760s and 70s) was the creative collaboration of K.V. Gluck and librettist R. Calcabidgi. In Gluck's operas and ballets, classicist tendencies were expressed in an emphasis on ethical issues, the development of ideas about heroism and generosity (in the musical dramas of the Parisian period, in a direct appeal to the theme of duty and feeling). The norms of classicism also corresponded to genre purity, the desire for maximum concentration of action, reduced to almost one dramatic collision, a strict selection of expressive means in accordance with the tasks of a particular dramatic situation, the utmost limitation of a decorative element, a virtuoso beginning in singing. The enlightening nature of the interpretation of the images was reflected in the interweaving of the noble qualities inherent in the classic heroes, with the naturalness and freedom of expression of feelings, reflecting the influence of sentimentalism.
In the 1780s and 1790s, revolutionary classicist tendencies, reflecting the ideals of the French Revolution of the 18th century, found expression in the French musical theater. Genetically connected with the previous stage and represented mainly by the generation of composers who followed the Gluckian opera reform (E. Megul, L. Cherubini), revolutionary classicism emphasized, first of all, the civic, tyrannical pathos that had previously been characteristic of the tragedies of P. Corneille and Voltaire. In contrast to the works of the 1760s and 70s, in which the resolution of the tragic conflict was difficult to achieve and required the intervention of external forces (the tradition of "deus ex machina" - Latin "God from the machine"), for the works of the 1780s and 1790s, a characteristic denouement became through a heroic deed (denial of obedience, protest, often an act of retribution, the murder of a tyrant, etc.), which created a vivid and effective release of tension. This type of dramaturgy formed the basis of the genre of "rescue opera", which appeared in the 1790s at the intersection of the traditions of classicist opera and realistic philistine drama.
In Russia, in the musical theater, original manifestations of classicism are rare (the opera “Cefal and Prokris” by F. Araya, the melodrama “Orpheus” by E. I. Fomin, the music by O. A. Kozlovsky for the tragedies of V. A. Ozerov, A. A. Shakhovsky and A. N. Gruzintseva).
In relation to comic opera, as well as instrumental and vocal music of the 18th century, not related to theatrical action, the term "classicism" is used to a large extent conditionally. It is sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to the initial stage of the classical-romantic era, gallant and classical styles (see the article Vienna Classical School, Classics in Music), in particular to avoid judgment (for example, when translating the German term "Klassik" or in expression "Russian classicism" applied to all Russian music of the 2nd half of the 18th - early 19th centuries).
In the 19th century, classicism in the musical theater gave way to romanticism, although certain features of classicist aesthetics were sporadically revived (by G. Spontini, G. Berlioz, S. I. Taneyev, and others). In the 20th century, classicist artistic principles were revived again in neoclassicism.
P. V. Lutsker.
Lit.: General works. Zeitler R. Classizismus und Utopia. Stockh., 1954; Peyre H. Qu'est-ce que le classicisme? R., 1965; Bray R. La formation de la doctrine classique en France. R., 1966; Renaissance. Baroque. Classicism. The problem of styles in Western European art of the XV-XVII centuries. M., 1966; Tapie V. L. Baroque et classicisme. 2 ed. R., 1972; Benac H. Le classicisme. R., 1974; Zolotov Yu. K. Moral foundations of action in French classicism of the 17th century. // Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Ser. literature and language. 1988. V. 47. No. 3; Zuber R., Cuénin M. Le classicisme. R., 1998. Literature. Vipper Yu. B. Formation of classicism in French poetry in the early 17th century. M., 1967; Oblomievsky D. D. French classicism. M., 1968; Serman I. Z. Russian classicism: Poetry. Drama. Satire. L., 1973; Morozov A. A. The fate of Russian classicism // Russian literature. 1974. No. 1; Jones T. W., Nicol B. Neo-classical dramatic criticism. 1560-1770. Camb., 1976; Moskvicheva G. V. Russian classicism. M., 1978; Literary manifestos of Western European classicists. M., 1980; Averintsev S. S. Ancient Greek Poetics and World Literature // Poetics of Ancient Greek Literature. M., 1981; Russian and Western European classicism. Prose. M., 1982; L'Antiquité gréco-romaine vue par le siècle des lumières / Éd. R. Chevalier. Tours, 1987; Classic im Vergleich. Normativität und Historizität europäischer Klassiken. Stuttg.; Weimar, 1993; Pumpyansky L.V. On the history of Russian classicism // Pumpyansky L.V. Classical tradition. M., 2000; Genetiot A. Le classicisme. R., 2005; Smirnov A. A. Literary theory of Russian classicism. M., 2007. Architecture and fine arts. Gnedich P. P. History of Arts. M., 1907. T. 3; he is. Art history. Western European Baroque and Classicism. M., 2005; Brunov N.I. Palaces of France in the 17th and 18th centuries. M., 1938; Blunt A. Francois Mansart and the origins of French classical architecture. L., 1941; idem. Art and architecture in France. 1500 to 1700. 5th ed. New Haven, 1999; Hautecoeur L. Histoire de l'architecture classique en France. R., 1943-1957. Vol. 1-7; Kaufmann E. Architecture in the age of Reason. Camb. (Mass.), 1955; Rowland V. The classical tradition in western art. Camb. (Mass.), 1963; Kovalenskaya N. N. Russian classicism. M., 1964; Vermeule S. S. European art and the classical past. Camb. (Mass.), 1964; Rotenberg E. I. Western European art of the 17th century. M., 1971; he is. Western European painting of the 17th century. Thematic principles. M., 1989; Nikolaev E.V. Classical Moscow. M., 1975; Greenhalgh M. The classical tradition in art. L., 1978; Fleming J. R. Adam and his circle, in Edinburgh and Rome. 2nd ed. L., 1978; Yakimovich A. K. Classicism of the Poussin era. Fundamentals and principles // Soviet art history'78. M., 1979. Issue. 1; Zolotov Yu. K. Poussin and freethinkers // Ibid. M., 1979. Issue. 2; Summerson J. The classical language of architecture. L., 1980; Gnudi C. L'ideale classico: saggi sulla tradizione classica nella pittura del Cinquecento e del Seicento. Bologna, 1981; Howard S. Antiquity restored: essays on the afterlife of the antique. Vienna, 1990; The French Academy: classicism and its antagonists / Ed. J Hargrove. newark; L., 1990; Arkin D. E. Images of architecture and images of sculpture. M., 1990; Daniel S. M. European classicism. St. Petersburg, 2003; Karev A. Classicism in Russian painting. M., 2003; Bedretdinova L. Ekaterininsky classicism. M., 2008. Theatre. Celler L. Les décors, les costumes et la mise en scène au XVIIe siècle, 1615-1680. R., 1869. Gen., 1970; Mantius K. Moliere. Theater, public, actors of his time. M., 1922; Mongredien G. Les grands comediens du XVIIe siècle. R., 1927; Fuchs M. La vie théâtrale en province au XVIIe siècle. R., 1933; About the theatre. Sat. articles. L.; M., 1940; Kemodle G. R. From art to theatre. Chi., 1944; Blanchart R. Histoire de la mise en scène. R., 1948; Vilar J. On the theatrical tradition. M., 1956; History of the Western European Theatre: In 8 vols. M., 1956-1988; Velekhova N. In disputes about style. M., 1963; Boyadzhiev G. N. The Art of Classicism // Questions of Literature. 1965. No. 10; Leclerc G. Les grandes aventures du theater. R., 1968; Mints N. V. Theatrical collections of France. M., 1989; Gitelman L. I. Foreign acting art of the XIX century. St. Petersburg, 2002; History of foreign theater. SPb., 2005.
Music. Materials and documents on the history of music. 18th century / Under the editorship of M. V. Ivanov-Boretsky. M., 1934; Buken E. Music of the epoch of Rococo and Classicism. M., 1934; he is. Heroic style in opera. M., 1936; Livanova T. N. On the way from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment of the 18th century. // From the Renaissance to the XX century. M., 1963; she is. The problem of style in music of the 17th century. // Renaissance. Baroque. Classicism. M., 1966; she is. Western European music of the 17th-18th centuries. in the arts. M., 1977; Liltolf M. Zur Rolle der Antique in der musikalischen Tradition der französischen Epoque Classique // Studien zur Tradition in der Musik. Munch., 1973; Keldysh Yu. V. The problem of styles in Russian music of the 17th-18th centuries. // Keldysh Yu. V. Essays and research on the history of Russian music. M., 1978; Lutsker P.V. Style problems in musical art at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. // Epochal milestones in the history of Western art. M., 1998; Lutsker P. V., Susidko I. P. Italian opera of the 18th century. M., 1998-2004. Ch. 1-2; Kirillina L. V. Gluck's reformist operas. M., 2006.
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Architectural classicism is a return to ancient architecture, which was considered the standard of rigor, harmony, monumentality and, at the same time, conciseness. Buildings in the style of classicism are characterized by clarity of form and regularity of planning. As a basis, the architects took an order, which in its proportions resembled an antique one, and besides, they used symmetrical-axial compositions and were quite restrained in decorating.
Where did classicism come from?
This well-known style came from Venice, where it was formulated by two famous masters - Palladio and Scamizzi - at the very end of the Renaissance. The principles of ancient temple architecture formed the basis of Venetian architecture. It was on them that the projects of the most famous private mansions were based.
A little later, thanks to the efforts of Inigo Jones, classicism was transferred to England, where it existed until about the middle of the 18th century. Such a success of the new style was predetermined, since the baroque and rococo had already literally fed up the tastes of European intellectuals. A completely different style was to replace pomposity and luxury when solving urban problems. And it was found in imitation of the ancient Roman and ancient Greek canons. This is how the most famous architectural ensembles were born - the Place de la Concorde and the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
Society, having heard the call to renew the art of modernity with the charm of antiquity, very actively heeded it and fully supported the new architectural style. Progressive classicism, opposed to court baroque, fully corresponded to the spirit of that time - the era of bourgeois revolutions, when new trends came to replace the established, outdated political regime.
Basics of classicism
Most of all, classicism manifested itself during the construction of princely residences, although the latter could already be called the main object of architecture and construction with a big stretch. In those days, country houses and villas were built in huge numbers, and from the point of view of state scale, public buildings were also actively built: universities, libraries, museums and theaters. Classicism also showed itself in the construction of hospitals, houses for people with disabilities and even barracks and prisons.
In those years, temple construction had already lost its significance, although in fairness it should be noted that, nevertheless, the most famous religious buildings were erected in Darmstadt, Karlsruhe and Potsdam. But even today there is an active debate about how the architectural forms in the pagan style correspond to similar Christian monasteries.
