School encyclopedia. School encyclopedia The most famous painter of the 17th century

The 18th century is a period in which colossal transformations took place in all spheres: political, social, public. Europe introduces new genres into Russian painting: landscape, historical, everyday life. The realistic direction of painting becomes predominant. A living person is a hero and bearer of the aesthetic ideals of that time.

The 18th century entered the history of art as the time of pictorial portraits. Everyone wanted to have their own portrait: from the queen to an ordinary official from the provinces.

European trends in Russian painting

Famous Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to follow Western fashion at the behest of Peter I, who wanted to Europeanize Russia. He attached great importance to the development of fine arts and even planned to build a specialized educational institution.

Russian artists of the 18th century mastered new techniques of European painting and depicted on their canvases not only kings, but also various boyars, merchants, patriarchs, who tried to keep up with fashion and often commissioned local artists to paint a portrait. At the same time, the artists of that time tried to enrich the portraits with household items, elements of the national costume, nature, and so on. Attention was focused on expensive furniture, large vases, luxurious clothes, interesting poses. The image of people of that time is perceived today as a poetic story by artists about their time.

And yet, the portraits of Russian artists of the 18th century differ from the portraits of invited foreign painters in a striking contrast. It is worth mentioning that artists from other countries were invited to train Russian artists.

Types of portraits

The beginning of the 18th century was marked by the appeal of portrait painters to semi-ceremonial and chamber views. Portraits of painters of the second half of the 18th century give rise to such types as front, semi-ceremonial, chamber, intimate.

The front one differs from others in the image of a person in full growth. Glitter of luxury - both in clothes and in household items.

A semi-front view is an image of a knee-length or waist-length model.

If a person is depicted on a neutral background up to the chest or waist, then this type of portrait is called chamber.

The intimate look of the portrait suggests an appeal to the inner world of the hero of the picture, while the background is ignored.

portrait images

Often, Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to embody the customer's idea of ​​himself in a portrait image, but in no way a real image. It was important to take into account the public opinion about this or that person. Many art historians have long concluded that the main rule of that time was to depict a person not so much as he really was, or as he would like to be, but as he could be in his best reflection. That is, in the portraits of any person they tried to portray as an ideal.

First artists

Russian artists of the 18th century, whose list is generally small, are, in particular, I. N. Nikitin, A. P. Antropov, F. S. Rokotov, I. P. Argunov, V. L. Borovikovsky, D G. Levitsky.

Among the first painters of the 18th century are the names of Nikitin, Antropov, Argunov. The role of these first Russian artists of the 18th century was insignificant. It was reduced only to writing a huge number of royal images, portraits of Russian nobles. Russian artists of the 18th century - masters of portraits. Although often they simply helped foreign craftsmen paint the walls of a large number of palaces and make theatrical scenery.

The name of the painter Ivan Nikitich Nikitin can be found in the correspondence of Peter I with his wife. His brush belongs to the portrait of the king himself, Chancellor G. I. Golovin. There is nothing artificial in his portrait of the outdoor hetman. Appearance is not altered by a wig or court attire. The artist showed the hetman as he does in real life. It is in the truth of life that the main advantage of Nikitin's portraits lies.

Antropov's work is preserved in the images of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv and portraits in the Synod. These works are distinguished by the artist's penchant for yellow, olive colors, because he is a painter who studied with the master of icon painting. Among his famous works are portraits of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter I, Princess Trubetskoy, Ataman F. Krasnoshchekov. Antropov's work combined the traditions of original Russian painting of the 17th century and the canons of the fine arts of the Petrine era.

Ivan Petrovich Argunov is a famous serf portrait painter of Count Sheremetyev. His portraits are graceful, the poses of the people depicted by him are free and mobile, everything in his work is precise and simple. He is the creator of a chamber portrait, which will later become intimate. Significant works of the artist: the Sheremetyevs, P. B. Sheremetyev in childhood.

You should not think that at that time no other genres existed in Russia, but the great Russian artists of the 18th century created the most significant works in the portrait genre.

The pinnacle of the 18th century was the work of Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky. The person in the portraits of artists is worthy of admiration, attention and respect. Humanity of feelings is a hallmark of their portraits.

Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735-1808)

Almost nothing is known about Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov, an 18th-century Russian artist from the serfs of Prince I. Repnin. This artist writes portraits of women softly and airily. Inner beauty is felt by Rokotov, and he finds the means to embody it on canvas. Even the oval shape of the portraits only emphasizes the fragile and elegant appearance of women.

The main genre of his work is a half-dress portrait. Among his works are portraits of Grigory Orlov and Peter III, Princess Yusupova and Prince Pavel Petrovich.

Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822)

The famous Russian artist of the 18th century, Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky, a student of A. Antropov, was able to sensitively capture and recreate in his paintings the mental states and characteristics of people. Depicting the rich, he remains truthful and unbiased, his portraits exclude obsequiousness and lies. His brush owns a whole gallery of portraits of great people of the 18th century. It is in the ceremonial portrait that Levitsky reveals himself as a master. He finds expressive poses, gestures, showing noble nobles. Russian history in faces - this is how Levitsky's work is often called.
Paintings belonging to the brush of the artist: portraits of M. A. Lvova, E. I. Nelidova, N. I. Novikov, the Mitrofanovs.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825)

Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries are distinguished by their appeal to the so-called sentimental portrait. The artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky paints pensive girls, who are depicted in his portraits with light colors, they are airy and innocent. His heroines are not only Russian peasant women in traditional dress, but also respected ladies of high society. These are portraits of Naryshkina, Lopukhina, Princess Suvorova, Arsenyeva. The pictures are somewhat similar, but it is impossible to forget them. is distinguished by the amazing subtlety of the transmitted characters, the almost elusive features of emotional experiences and the feeling of tenderness that unites all the images. In his works, Borovikovsky reveals all the beauty of a woman of that time.

The legacy of Borovikovsky is very diverse and extensive. There are in his work both ceremonial portraits, as well as miniature and intimate canvases. Among the works of Borovikovsky, the most famous were the portraits of V. A. Zhukovsky, G. R. Derzhavin, A. B. Kurakin and Paul I.

Paintings by Russian artists

Paintings of the 18th century by Russian artists are written with love for a person, his inner world and respect for moral virtues. The style of each artist, on the one hand, is very individual, on the other hand, it has several common features with others. This moment determined the very style that emphasizes the character of Russian art in the 18th century.

Most 18th century Russian artists:

1. "Young Painter" Second half of the 1760s The author Ivan Firsov is the most enigmatic artist of the 18th century. The painting depicts a boy in a uniform who paints a portrait of a little beautiful girl.
2. “Farewell of Hector to Andromache”, 1773 Author Anton Pavlovich Losenko. The last painting of the artist. It depicts a scene from the sixth canto of Homer's Iliad.
3. "Stone bridge in Gatchina near Connetable Square", 1799-1801. Author Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin. The picture shows a landscape view.

And still

Russian artists of the 18th century still tried to reveal the truth and the true characters of people, despite the conditions of serfdom and the wishes of wealthy customers. The portrait genre in the 18th century embodied the specific features of the Russian people.

Undoubtedly, it can be said that, no matter how much the art of the 18th century was influenced by European culture, it nevertheless led to the development of national Russian traditions.

Despite the developed specialization, the 17th century of Russian painting became the century of art, not handicraft forgery. Outstanding icon painters lived in Moscow. They were registered in the department of the Icon Chamber of the Icon Order.

Simvon Ushakov. Savior Not Made by Hands.

At the end of the 17th century, they began to work as masters of the Icon Shop of the Armory. At the beginning of the 17th century, Procopius Chirin achieved great success. Chirin was a native of Novgorod. His icons are made in soft colors, the figures are outlined along the contour with a golden border, whitewashed with the finest assist.

Another remarkable Russian painter of the 17th century was Nazariy Savin. Savin preferred figures of elongated proportions, narrow shoulders and long beards. In the 30s of the 17th century, Savin led a group of icon painters who wrote the deesis feast and prophetic rites for the iconostasis of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Virgin and in the Moscow Kremlin.

Ivan 4 Vasilyevich the Terrible.

In the middle of the 17th century, great work was carried out to restore the ancient murals. The new murals of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, retained the scheme of the previous one, and were completed in the shortest possible time. Ivan Panssein supervised the work. Artists under his leadership wrote 249 complex compositions, and 2066 faces.

In the 17th century of Russian painting, a special desire of artists stood out, the desire for a realistic depiction of a person. In Russia, such a phenomenon as secular painting begins to spread. Secular painters of the 17th century depicted kings, generals, and boyars. In the 17th century, in the culture of Russia, including in painting, a process of “secularization” took place. More and more secular motives penetrate the life of Russian society. Russia has embarked on a new path, on the threshold of a new era in its history.

In painting, the established traditions of writing have largely been preserved. The church council of 1667 strictly regulated the themes and images, the charter of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich demanded the same. Parsings were written from him:

Zealously condemned any deviations from the canons in the depiction of the holy ideologues of the Old Believers Avvakum.

The activities of the painters were led by the Armory of the Kremlin, which became in the 17th century. the artistic center of the country, where the best masters were attracted.

For 30 years, the painting business was headed by Simon Ushakov (1626-1686). A characteristic feature of his work was a close interest in the image of the human face. Under his hand, ascetic faces acquired living features. This is the icon "Savior not made by hands".

His other work is widely known - "Planting the Tree of the All-Russian State". Against the backdrop of the Cathedral of the Dormition, the figures of Ivan Kalita and Metropolitan Peter are placed, watering a large tree, on the branches of which medallions with portraits of princes and kings are fixed. On the left side of the picture is Alexei Mikhailovich, on the right - his wife with children. All images are portraits. Ushakov's brush also belongs to the "Trinity" icon, on which realistic details appear. Simon Ushakov had a great influence on the development of Russian painting.

A remarkable phenomenon in Russian art of the XVII century. became the school of Yaroslavl masters. Traditional church and biblical scenes on their frescoes are beginning to be depicted in the images of familiar Russian life. The miracles of the saints fade into the background before ordinary phenomena. Particularly characteristic is the composition "Harvest" in the church of Elijah the Prophet, as well as frescoes in the church of John the Baptist. Yaroslavl painters were also among the "pioneers" in the development of the landscape.

Another example of a secular genre that reflected an interest in the human personality was the spread of "parsun" writing - portrait images. If in the first half of the century "parsuns" were still performed in a purely icon-painting tradition (images of Ivan IV, M. Skopin-Shuisky),

then in the second they began to take on a more realistic character ("parsins" of the tsars Alexei Mikhailovich, Fyodor Alekseevich, the steward G.P. Godunov).

Mikhail Fedorovich, Tsar, the first of the Romanov dynasty.

Parsun of the last Rurikovich in the male line - the son of Ivan the Terrible.

Patriarch Nikon

Patriarch Nikon under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the second wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and another of her parsuna

Naryshkin.

Patriarch Nikon with the brethren of the Resurrection Monastery

Portrait of the steward I.I. Chemodanov. 1690s.

BG

Evdokia Lopukhina - the bride of Peter Alekseevich

Portrait of the steward F.I. Verigin. 1690s.

Group portrait of the participants of the Russian embassy to England. 1662.

Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina

Wedekind Johann. Portrait of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.

Holland

Cape Albert Gerrits was a Dutch painter and etcher.

He studied with his father, the artist J. Keip. His artistic style was influenced by the painting of J. van Goyen and S. van Ruysdael. Worked in Dordrecht. The early works of Cuyp, close to the paintings of J. van Goyen, are monochrome. He paints hilly landscapes, country roads running into the distance, poor peasant huts. The paintings are most often made in a single yellowish tone.

Ruisdael Jacob van
(1628/1629-1682)

Ruisdal Jacob van (1628/1629-1682) - Dutch landscape painter, draftsman, etcher. He probably studied with his uncle, the painter Salomon van Ruysdael. Visited Germany (1640-1650s). He lived and worked in Haarlem, in 1648 he became a member of the painters' guild. From 1656 he lived in Amsterdam, in 1676 he received the degree of doctor of medicine in the Treasury and entered the list of Amsterdam doctors.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
(1606-1669)

Born in Leiden to a miller's family. The father's affairs during this period were going well, and he was able to give his son a better education than other children. Rembrandt entered the Latin school. He studied poorly and wanted to paint. Nevertheless, he finished school and entered Leiden University. A year later, he began taking painting lessons. His first teacher was J. van Swanenburg. After staying in his studio for more than three years, Rembrandt went to Amsterdam to the historical painter P. Lastman. He had a strong influence on Rembrandt and taught him the art of engraving. Six months later (1623) Rembrandt returned to Leiden and opened his own workshop.

Terborch Gerard
(1617-1681)

Terborch Gerard (1617-1681), famous Dutch painter. Born in Zwolle in a wealthy burgher family. His father, brother and sister were artists. Terborch's first teachers were his father and Hendrik Averkamp. His father made him copy a lot. He created his first work at the age of nine. At the age of fifteen, Terborch went to Amsterdam, then to Haarlem, where he came under the strong influence of Fr. Khalsa. Already at that time he was famous as a master of the everyday genre, he most willingly painted scenes from the life of the military - the so-called "guardrooms".

Foreign Artists XVII (17th century)

Canaletto's first teacher was his father, theater decorator B. Canale, whom he helped design performances in theaters in Venice. He worked in Rome (1717-1720, early 1740s), Venice (since 1723), London (1746-1750, 1751-1756), where he performed works that formed the basis of his work. He painted veduts - urban landscapes, depicted streets, buildings, canals, boats sliding on the sea waves.

Manyasco Alessandro
(1667-1749)

Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) was an Italian painter, genre and landscape painter. He studied with his father, the artist S. Magnasco, then with the Milanese painter F. Abbiati. His style was formed under the influence of the masters of the Genoese school of painting, S. Rosa and J. Callo. Lived and worked in Milan, Florence, Genoa.

Foreign Artists XVII (17th century)

Watteau Antoine, an outstanding French painter, whose work is associated with one of the significant stages in the development of everyday painting in France. The fate of Watteau is unusual. Neither in France nor in neighboring countries was there in the years when he wrote his best things, not a single artist capable of competing with him. The titans of the seventeenth century did not live to see the age of Watteau; those who, following him, glorified the eighteenth century, became known to the world only after his death. In fact, Fragonard, Quentin de La Tour, Perronneau, Chardin, David in France, Tiepolo and Longhi in Italy, Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough in England, Goya in Spain - all this is the middle, or even the end of the 18th century.

Lorrain Claude
(1600-1682)

Lorrain Claude (1600-1682) - French painter. At an early age he worked in Rome as a servant for A. Tassi, then became his student. The artist began to receive large orders in the 1630s, his customers were Pope Urban VIII and Cardinal Bentivoglio. Since that time, Lorrain has become popular in Roman and French art connoisseurs.

One of the dominant styles is baroque: it is a flamboyant impetuous style, manifested in pomp and excess. Michelangelo da Caravaggio can be considered the founder of the Baroque, which originated in Italy.

The first and most prominent representative of the church baroque was the artist known as El Greco. The work of de Silva Velasquez is considered the pinnacle of Spanish art of the golden age of the Baroque.

The greatest representatives of Flemish painting of the 17th century are Peter Rubens and Rembrandt.

At the beginning of the 18th century, a new style, rococo, occupied a leading position. The name of this direction comes from the French word meaning "pattern of stones and shells." A characteristic feature of the new direction was the departure from real life to an invented world, which was vividly expressed in the work of the best representatives of the style.

One of the representatives of the first period of French Rococo is Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, Nicolas Lancret. The portrait genre was developed in the work of Jean Nattier.

In Italian Rococo, Giovanni Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi, Pietro Longhi were a prominent representative of the style.

In the second half of the 18th century, the light, refined Rococo style in painting was replaced by classicism with its deep content and striving for an ideal standard. Representatives of French classicism of the mid-18th century are Joseph Marie Vien, Jacques Louis David. Representatives of German classicism - Anton Mengs, Anton Graff, Franz Maulberch.

At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, two artistic trends emerged in Italian painting: one is associated with the art of Caravaggio, the second with the work of the Caracci brothers. The activities of these masters not only largely determined the nature of Italian painting. But it also had an impact on the art of all European art schools of the 17th century.

The essence of Caravaggio's reform was the completely unconditional recognition of the aesthetic value of reality, which he turned to depict in his painting. Caravaggio's experiments at an early stage of creativity are one of the sources for the development of everyday genre painting in the art of the 17th century, for example, the painting "The Fortuneteller".

Caravaggio "Fortuneteller"

However, in painting on traditional subjects, Caravaggio remains true to himself - he "translated" the Sacred History into the vernacular. The art of Caravaggio gave rise to a whole trend - caravagism, which became widespread not only in Italy, but also in Spain, Flanders, Holland, and France.

Caravaggistes are called both true followers who comprehended the essence of Caravaggio's reform (Orazio Gentileschi, Giovanni Serodine), and numerous imitators who borrow motives and techniques from the artist's works.

In Italy in the 17th century, the expressively developed form of the Baroque, with its inherent sense of "naturalness", seemed to blur the line between illusion and reality. Classicism and realism, the tendencies characteristic of that era, were opposed to the baroque style or other components of this style. The great landscape painter Salvator Rosa, Alessandro Magnasco, Giovanni Serodine, Domenico Fetti - this is a far from complete list of Caravaggio's followers.

The Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610) is the greatest master of realistic art of the 17th century. He becomes a true heir of the Renaissance, being a rebel in art and in life he boldly breaks academic canons. In the picture of his early work “The Fortune Teller”, he describes a woman in a white jacket, who predicts a young man dressed in a silk camisole and in a hat with an ostrich feather his fate.

The artist's heroes are ordinary people, he tries to dress them up in beautiful clothes and make them as pretty as possible. In Caravaggio's painting "The Assumption of Mary", the apostles, heartbroken and gathered around the deceased Mother of God, first of all attract attention. The Virgin lies in scarlet robes, her arms drooped limply, her eyes are closed, a pale appearance, emphasized by the applied scarlet color, typical of the works of Caravaggio.

Those who came to say goodbye to the deceased crowded in the room. The bald heads of men bowed in mournful silence, some, grieving, wipes away a tear. A grieving girl sits on a small chair. Broken by grief, she put her head in her hands and wept.

The most interesting of all is the caravaggist Giovanni Serodine (1600-1630). Born in northern Italy, studying in Rome, and carried away by caravagism, the young man developed his own style of painting.

In Christ Preaching in the Temple, harsh light brings out Serodina's expressive palette, dominated by brownish and reddish tones. The dramatic lighting effect anticipates Rembrandt's paintings. Serodine paints with rapid, strong strokes, giving his images a dramatic intensity, and color and light give organic pictorial unity.

Along with the realistic art of the Caravaggio style, another artistic phenomenon also emerged in the 17th century, such as Bologna academicism, which arose in close connection with the formation of a new style in architecture and painting - baroque. The artists succeeded in this - the brothers Agostino and Annibale Caracci and their brother Lodovico Caracci. The brothers tried to use the Renaissance heritage, Annibale Caracci was especially talented. He was actually the leading figure in the new current. Annibale Caracci created a solemn monumental art, especially used in the paintings of churches, palaces and altarpieces. A new altar type of painting is being created, for example, Madonna appearing to St. Luke.

Reproduction of Annibale Caracci "Madonna Appearing to Saint Luke".

The Tuscan artist Orazio Gentileschi (1565-1639), who was born in Pisa, forever retained the features of Tuscan culture: a taste for sophisticated draperies, clear forms, and cold colors. He was also an imitator of Caravaggio, but paid more attention to the idyllic rendering of images, as, for example, in the painting "Rest on the Flight into Egypt"

Photo of a painting by Orazio Gentileschi "Rest on the Flight into Egypt"

Genre-realistic searches were most clearly expressed in the work of the artist Domenico Fetti (1589-1623). Fetti paid tribute to both realistic caravagism and baroque painting; in his work, the influence of the Venetian painters Rubens and the landscape painter Elsheimer is most noticeable. Fetty himself emerged as an excellent colorist, painting in small vibrating strokes and enlivening canvases of bluish-green and brownish-gray paint colors. He tends to write genre-lyrical images more, interpreting religious images, as, for example, in the painting "The Parable of the Lost Drachma".

Reproduction of "The Parable of the Lost Drachma" painting by Domenico Fetti.

Simply and poetically, the artist tells about the parable with the lost drachma. In an almost empty room, a young woman, silently, bowed in search of a coin. A small lamp placed on the floor illuminates the figure and part of the room, while forming a whimsical oscillating shadow on the floor and wall. At the borders of the contact of light and shadows, the golden, white and red colors of the painting light up. The picture seems to be warmed by soft lyricism.

The name of Salvatore Rosa from Naples (1615-1673) is often associated with ideas about the so-called romantic landscapes and, in general, about the characteristic "romantic" direction in painting of the 17th century.

The picturesque work of Salvator Rosa is very uneven and contradictory. He worked in a variety of genres - historical, portrait, battle and landscape, and he also painted paintings on religious subjects. Many of his works are, as it were, dependent on academic art. Others testify to the passion for caravagism. Such, for example, is the painting “The Prodigal Son”, which depicts a kneeling young shepherd next to sheep and a cow. The dirty heels of the kneeling prodigal son, depicted right in the foreground, are very reminiscent of Caravaggio's tricks.

Photo of the painting by Salvator Rosa "The Prodigal Son"

The romantic description of the landscape and genre scenes in Rose's work was, as it were, an opposition to the official baroque academic painting.

The creative activity of the Carracci brothers attracted young artists to them in Bologna and Rome, who continued the ideas of Carracci in monumental-decorative and landscape painting. Of his students and associates, the most famous are Guido Reni and Domenichino. In their work, the style of Bologna academicism reaches its final canonization.

Guido Reni (1575-1642) is known as the author of many religious as well as mythological works, skillfully executed, but boring and sentimental. The name of this gifted artist has become synonymous with everything boring, lifeless and false that was in academic painting.

Photo of Guido Reni's painting "Aurora".

This beautiful composition, full of light grace and movement, is painted in a cold range of silver-gray, blue and gold and well characterizes the sophistication and conventionality of Reni's style, which is very different from the rough plasticity and rich colors of the sensual images of the Carracci brothers.

The features of the elements of classicism are most fully reflected in the work of another representative of Bologna academism, Tsampieri Domenico, or Domenichino (1581 - 1641). As a student of Annibale Carracci, he assisted him in painting the Farnese galleries; Domenichino was renowned for his famous fresco cycles in Rome and Naples. Most of his works stand out little from the work of other artists of the academic style. Only those paintings where more space is given to landscapes are not devoid of poetic freshness, for example, Diana's Hunt.

Photo of the painting by Domenichino "Hunting Diana"

The artist depicted in the picture a competition of nymphs in shooting accuracy, as described in the Aeneid by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. One arrow was supposed to hit a tree, another - a ribbon, and a third - a soaring bird. Diana, demonstrated her skills, and does not hide her joy, shaking her bow and quiver in the air.

Italy, playing a leading role in the painting, architecture and culture of Western European countries during the Renaissance, is gradually losing it by the end of the 17th century. But for a long time she was recognized by everyone as the trendsetter of artistic taste, and for several centuries whole crowds of art pilgrims arrived in Italy, while powerful new schools appeared on the artistic arena of European countries.

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