Classicism (from lat. сlassicus - exemplary) - art style and the direction in the art of Europe of the 17th - 19th centuries. It is based on the ideas of rationalism, the main goal of which is to educate the public on the basis of a certain ideal, model, which is similar to. Culture is such an example. ancient world. The rules, the canons of classicism were of paramount importance; they had to be observed by all artists working within the framework of this direction and style.

History of occurrence

As a direction, classicism embraced all types of art: painting, music, literature, architecture.

Classicism, whose main goal is to educate the public on the basis of a certain ideal and compliance with all generally accepted canons, is completely opposite, which denied all rules and was a rebellion against any artistic tradition in any direction.

In its development, classicism went through 3 stages:

1. early classicism(1760s - early 1780s);
2. Strict classicism(1780s - 1790s);
3. late classicism, which received the name (the first 30 years of the XIX century).

The photo shows the Arc de Triomphe in Paris - a prime example classicism.

Style features

Classicism is characterized by clear geometric shapes, high-quality materials, noble finishes and restraint. Majesty and harmony, grace and luxury - these are the main distinguishing features of classicism. later displayed in interiors in the style of minimalism.

General style features:

• smooth walls with soft floral motifs;
• elements of antiquity: palaces and columns;
• stucco;
• exquisite parquet;
• fabric wallpaper on the walls;
• elegant, graceful furniture.

A feature of the Russian classic style was calm rectangular shapes, restrained and at the same time diverse decoration, adjusted proportions, decent appearance, harmony and taste.

Exterior

External signs of classicist architecture are pronounced, they can be identified at first glance at the building.

• Designs: stable, massive, rectangular and arched. The compositions are clearly planned, strict symmetry is observed.
• Forms: clear geometry, volume and monumentality; statues, columns, niches, rotunda, hemispheres, pediments, friezes.
• Lines: strict; regular planning system; bas-reliefs, medallions, flowing pattern.
• Materials: stone, brick, wood, stucco.
• Roof: complex, intricate shape.
• Dominant colors: saturated white, green, pink, purple, sky blue, gold.
• Characteristic elements: discreet decor, columns, pilasters, antique ornaments, marble stairs, balconies.
• Window: semicircular, rectangular, elongated upwards, modestly decorated.
• Doors: rectangular, paneled, often decorated with statues (lion, sphinx).
• Decor: carving, gilding, bronze, mother-of-pearl, inlay.

Interior

In the interior of the premises of the era of classicism there is nobility, restraint and harmony. Nevertheless, all interior items do not look like museum pieces, but only emphasize the delicate artistic taste and respectability of the owner.

The room has correct form, filled with an atmosphere of nobility, comfort, warmth, exquisite luxury; not overloaded with details.

The central place in interior decoration is occupied by natural materials, mainly precious woods, marble, stone, silk.

• Ceilings: light high, often multi-level, with stucco, ornaments.
• Walls: decorated with fabrics, light, but not bright, pilasters and columns, stucco or painting are possible.
• Flooring: parquet made of valuable wood species (merbau, kamshi, teak, jatoba) or marble.
• Lighting: chandeliers made of crystal, stone or expensive glass; gilded chandeliers with plafonds in the form of candles.
• Mandatory attributes of the interior: mirrors, fireplaces, cozy low chairs, low tea tables, light carpets self made, paintings with antique scenes, books, massive floor vases stylized as antiquity, tripod flower stands.

Antique motifs are often used in the decor of the room: meanders, festoons, laurel garlands, strings of pearls. Expensive textiles are used for decoration, including tapestries, taffeta and velvet.

Furniture

Furniture of the Classicism era is distinguished by good quality and respectability, made of expensive materials, mainly of valuable wood. It is noteworthy that the texture of wood acts not only as a material, but also as decorative element. Furniture items are made by hand, decorated with carving, gilding, inlay, precious stones and metals. But the form is simple: strict lines, clear proportions. Dining room tables and chairs are made with elegant carved legs. Dishes - porcelain, thin, almost transparent, with a pattern, gilding. One of essential attributes furniture was considered a secretary with a cubic body on high legs.

Architecture

Classicism turned to the basics antique architecture, using not only elements and motifs, but also patterns in the design. The basis of the architectural language is the order with its strict symmetry, the proportionality of the created composition, the regularity of the layout and the clarity of the three-dimensional form.

Classicism is the complete opposite with its pretentiousness and decorative excesses.

Unfortified palaces, garden and park ensembles were created, which became the basis of the French garden with its straightened alleys, trimmed lawns in the form of cones and balls. Typical details of classicism are accentuated stairs, classic antique decor, domes in public buildings.

Late classicism (Empire) acquires military symbols ("Arc de Triomphe" in France). In Russia, the canon architectural style classicism can be called St. Petersburg, in Europe it is Helsinki, Warsaw, Dublin, Edinburgh.

Sculpture

In the era of classicism, public monuments embodying the military prowess and wisdom of statesmen became widespread. Moreover, the main solution for sculptors was the image model famous figures in the form of ancient gods (for example, Suvorov - in the form of Mars). It has become popular among private individuals to order sculptors tombstones to perpetuate their names. In general, the sculptures of the era are characterized by calmness, restraint of gestures, dispassionate expressions, and purity of lines.

Fashion

Interest in antiquity in clothing began to manifest itself in the 80s of the XVIII century. This was especially evident in women's suit. In Europe, a new ideal of beauty has emerged, celebrating natural forms and beautiful feminine lines. The finest smooth fabrics of light colors, especially white, came into fashion.

Women's dresses lost their frames, padding and petticoats and took the form of long, draped tunics, cut at the sides and intercepted by a belt under the bust. They wore skin-colored tights. Sandals with ribbons served as shoes. Hairstyles have been copied from antiquity. Powder still remains in fashion, with which the face, hands, and décolleté were covered.

Among the accessories, either kisei turbans decorated with feathers, or Turkish scarves or Kashmiri shawls were used.

From the beginning of the 19th century, ceremonial dresses began to be sewn with trains and a deep neckline. And in everyday dresses, the neckline was covered with a lace scarf. Gradually, the hairstyle changes, and the powder goes out of use. Short-cropped hair, twisted into curls, tied with a gold ribbon or decorated with a crown of flowers, comes into fashion.

Men's fashion evolved under the influence of the British. The English cloth tailcoat, redingote (outerwear resembling a frock coat), jabot and cuffs are becoming popular. It was in the era of classicism that men's ties came into fashion.

Art

In painting, classicism is also characterized by restraint and rigor. The main elements of the form are line and chiaroscuro. Local color emphasizes the plasticity of objects and figures, separates spatial plan paintings. The greatest master of the XVII century. – Lorrain Claude, famous for his “perfect landscapes”. Civic pathos and lyricism united in " decorative landscapes» French painter Jacques Louis David (XVIII century). Among Russian artists, one can single out Karl Bryullov, who combined classicism with (19th century).

Classicism in music is associated with such great names as Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, who determined the further development of musical art.

Literature

The literature of the era of classicism promoted the mind that conquered the senses. The conflict between duty and passion is the basis of the plot of a literary work. Language reforms were carried out in many countries and the foundations of poetic art were laid. Leading representatives of the direction - Francois Malherbe, Corneille, Racine. The main compositional principle of the work is the unity of time, place and action.

In Russia, classicism is developing under the auspices of the Enlightenment, the main ideas of which were equality and justice. Most bright representative literature of the era of Russian classicism - M. Lomonosov, who laid the foundations of versification. The main genre was comedy and satire. Fonvizin and Kantemir worked in this vein.

The "golden age" is considered the era of classicism for theatrical art, which developed very dynamically and improved. The theater was quite professional, and the actor on stage did not just play, but lived, experienced, while remaining himself. The theatrical style was proclaimed the art of recitation.

Personalities

Among the brightest classicists, one can also distinguish such names as:

• Jacques-Ange Gabriel, Piranesi, Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Bazhenov, Carl Rossi, Andrey Voronikhin, (architecture);
• Antonio Canova, Thorvaldsen, Fedot Shubin, Boris Orlovsky, Mikhail Kozlovsky (sculpture);
• Nicolas Poussin, Lebrun, Ingres (painting);
• Voltaire, Samuel Johnson, Derzhavin, Sumarokov, Chemnitzer (literature).

Video review of classicism

Conclusion

The ideas of the classicism era are successfully used in modern design. It preserves nobility and elegance, beauty and grandeur. The main features are wall paintings, drapery, stucco, natural wood furniture. There are few decorations, but they are all luxurious: mirrors, paintings, massive chandeliers. In general, the style even now characterizes the owner as a respectable, far from poor person.

Later, it still appears, which marked the arrival of a new era - this. was the combination of several modern styles, which include not only classical, but also baroque (in painting), ancient culture, and the Renaissance.

Introduction……………………………………………………………………

Baroque……………………………………………………………

Classicism………………………………………………………..

Romanticism…………………………………………………………

Realism…………………………………………………………….

Bibliography………………………………

Introduction.

The history of art is characterized by a change of different styles and directions.

Under artistic style understand the totality of all means of artistic expression, all creative techniques, which as a whole form a certain figurative system.

Style as one figurative system is based on the unity of the ideological content, which gives rise to the unity of all elements of the artistic form, all artistic and expressive means. Thus, the word "style" denotes that visible, tangible originality that catches the eye first of all and by which one can immediately determine the difference between one phenomenon in art and others.

These phenomena themselves are infinitely diverse: we can talk about the style of a single work or a group of works, about the style of an individual, author, about the style of certain countries, peoples, geographical regions.

However, most often the concept of "artistic style" denotes large, "historical" styles of certain eras, when the unity of socio-historical content determines the stable unity of artistic and figurative principles, means, and techniques.

In the field of art in second half of the 17th century. there was a flowering of style baroque, which was closely associated with the church and aristocratic culture of that time. It manifested tendencies to glorify life, all the richness of real life. Painting, sculpture, architecture, baroque music glorified and glorified monarchs, the church, and the nobility.

A different kind of aesthetic, opposed to the artistic means of the Baroque, was canonized in European art and literature. classicism. Closely associated with the culture of the Renaissance, classicism turned to the ancient norms of art as perfect models; rationalistic clarity and rigor were characteristic of it.

First half of the 19th century became a time of intensive development of spiritual culture. Among its diverse manifestations, the most noticeable distribution was romanticism with exceptional versatility. In the field of artistic creativity, he was clearly imprinted in the form of a trend in literature, fine arts, music, theater. At the same time, romanticism was a certain worldview: a romantic trend developed in the field of philosophical and aesthetic ideas, historical science, a romantic type of personality and behavior arose.

In the 30s and 40s XIX years V. along with romanticism in fiction and painting, the realism. The works of the realist writers Balzac, Stendhal, Dickens, Thackeray, and others are distinguished by their exceptionally wide coverage of reality and the predominance of social problems. The life of society in its most diverse manifestations, the way of life, customs, psychology of people belonging to different classes, have never received such a multifaceted reflection in literature.

Historical and cultural processes of the New Age - the development of capitalism, scientific and technological progress, a social system built on liberal democratic principles, the ideas and values ​​of the Enlightenment and positivism, the aesthetics of the great styles of the 17th-19th centuries (baroque, rococo, sentimentalism, classicism, romanticism, realism) - had a decisive influence on the formation of the modern world.

Baroque.

Baroque (Italian barocco - “vicious”, “loose”, “excessive”, port. perola barroca - “pearl is not correct form" (literally "pearl with vice"); there are other assumptions about the origin of this word) - a characteristic of the European culture of the XVII-XVIII centuries, the center of which was Italy. The baroque style appeared in XVI-XVII centuries in Italian cities: Rome, Mantua, Venice, Florence. The Baroque era is considered to be the beginning of the triumphal procession of "Western civilization". Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamic images, affectation, striving for grandeur and pomp, for combining reality and illusion, for the fusion of arts (urban and palace and park ensembles, opera, cult music, oratorio); at the same time - a tendency towards autonomy of individual genres (concerto grosso, sonata, suite in instrumental music).

The ideological foundations of the style were formed as a result of a shock, as they were in the 16th century. The Reformation and Copernicus. The notion of the world, established in antiquity, as a rational and constant unity, as well as the Renaissance idea of ​​man as a most rational being, has changed. Man began to recognize himself as "something in between everything and nothing" in Pascal's words, "one who catches only the appearance of phenomena, but is not able to understand either their beginning or their end."

The Baroque era gives rise to a huge amount of time for entertainment: instead of pilgrimages - the promenade (walks in the park); instead of jousting tournaments - "carousels" (horseback rides) and card games; instead of mysteries - theater and a masquerade ball. You can add the appearance of swings and "fiery fun" (fireworks). In the interiors, portraits and landscapes took the place of icons, and music turned from spiritual into a pleasant play of sound.

The Baroque era rejects tradition and authority as superstition and prejudice. Everything that is “clear and distinct” is thought or has a mathematical expression is true, declares the philosopher Descartes. Therefore, the baroque is still the age of Reason and Enlightenment. It is no coincidence that the word "baroque" is sometimes erected to designate one of the types of inferences in medieval logic - to baroco. The first European park appears in Versailles, where the idea of ​​the forest is expressed in the utmost mathematical way: linden alleys and canals seem to be drawn along a ruler, and the trees are trimmed in the manner of stereometric figures. Dressed for the first time in baroque army uniforms great attention they pay "drill" - the geometric correctness of constructions on the parade ground.

baroque man rejects naturalness, which is identified with savagery, arrogance, tyranny, brutality and ignorance - all that in the era of romanticism will become a virtue. The Baroque woman cherishes the pallor of her skin, she wears an unnatural, frilly hairstyle, a corset and an artificially extended skirt on a whalebone frame. She is in heels.

And the gentleman becomes the ideal of a man in the Baroque era - from the English. gentle: “soft”, “gentle”, “calm”. Initially, he preferred to shave his mustache and beard, wear perfume and wear powdered wigs. Why force, if now they kill by pulling the trigger of a musket. In the Baroque era, naturalness is synonymous with brutality, savagery, vulgarity and extravagance. For the philosopher Hobbes, the state of nature is a state characterized by anarchy and war of all against all.

Baroque is characterized by the idea of ​​ennobling nature on the basis of reason. The need is not tolerated, but “it is good to offer in pleasant and courteous words” (Youth, an honest mirror, 1717). According to the philosopher Spinoza, instincts no longer constitute the content of sin, but "the very essence of man." Therefore, the appetite is shaped in exquisite table etiquette(it was in the Baroque era that forks and napkins appeared); interest in the opposite sex - in a courteous flirtation, quarrels - in a sophisticated duel.

Baroque is characterized by the idea of ​​a sleeping God - deism. God is conceived not as a Savior, but as a Great Architect who created the world just as a watchmaker creates a mechanism. Hence such a characteristic of the Baroque worldview as mechanism. The law of conservation of energy, the absoluteness of space and time are guaranteed by the word of God. However, having created the world, God rested from his labors and does not interfere in the affairs of the Universe in any way. It is useless to pray to such a God - one can only learn from Him. Therefore, the true guardians of the Enlightenment are not prophets and priests, but natural scientists. Isaac Newton discovers the law of universal gravitation and writes the fundamental work "Mathematical Principles natural philosophy"(1689), and Carl Linnaeus systematizes biology "The System of Nature" (1735). Academies of Sciences and scientific societies are being established everywhere in European capitals.

The diversity of perception raises the level of consciousness - something like the philosopher Leibniz says. Galileo for the first time directs a telescope to the stars and proves the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (1611), and Leeuwenhoek discovers tiny living organisms under a microscope (1675). Huge sailboats plow the expanses of the world's oceans, erasing white spots on the geographical maps of the world. The literary symbols of the era are travelers and adventurers: Captain Gulliver and Baron Munchausen.

Athenais de Montespan

Baroque style in painting characterized by the dynamism of the compositions, the "flatness" and pomp of forms, the aristocracy and originality of the plots. Most character traits baroque - catchy flamboyance and dynamism; a striking example is the work of Rubens and Caravaggio.

Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), who was nicknamed Caravaggio from his birthplace near Milan, is considered the most significant master among the Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. a new style in painting. His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author's contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which the rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly writing out their specificity. The followers and imitators of Caravaggio, who were at first called caravaggists, and the current of caravagism itself, such as Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) or Guido Reni (1575-1642), adopted the riot of feelings and the characteristic manner of Caravaggio, as well as his naturalism in depicting people and events.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) early XVII V. studied in Italy, where he learned the style of Caravaggio and Carraci, although he arrived there only after completing his course in Antwerp. He happily combined best features painting schools of the North and South, merging in their canvases the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, learning and spirituality. In addition to Rubens, another master of the Flemish Baroque, van Dyck (1599-1641), achieved international recognition. With the work of Rubens, the new style came to Holland, where it was picked up by Frans Hals (1580/85-1666), Rembrandt (1606-1669) and Vermeer (1632-1675). In Spain, Diego Velasquez (1599-1660) worked in the style of Caravaggio, and in France, Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665), who, not satisfied with the Baroque school, laid the foundations of a new trend in his work - classicism.

For baroque architecture(L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy, B. F. Rastrelli in Russia, Jan Christoph Glaubitz in the Commonwealth) are characterized by spatial scope, fusion, fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms. Large-scale colonnades are often found, an abundance of sculptures on facades and in interiors, volutes, a large number of rake-outs, arched facades with a rake-out in the middle, rusticated columns and pilasters. Domes acquire complex shapes, often they are multi-tiered, like at St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Characteristic details of the Baroque - telamon (atlas), caryatid, mascaron.

In Italian architecture, the most prominent representative of the Baroque art was Carlo Maderna (1556-1629), who broke with Mannerism and created his own style. His main creation is the façade of the Roman church of Santa Susanna (1603). The main figure in the development of baroque sculpture was Lorenzo Bernini, whose first masterpieces executed in the new style date back to about 1620. Bernini is also an architect. He owns the decoration of the square of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome and the interiors, as well as other buildings. A significant contribution was made by D. Fontana, R. Rainaldi, G. Guarini, B. Longhena, L. Vanvitelli, P. da Cortona. In Sicily, after a major earthquake in 1693, a new style of late Baroque appeared - Sicilian Baroque.

The quintessence of the Baroque, an impressive fusion of painting, sculpture and architecture, is the Coranaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria (1645-1652).

The Baroque style is spreading in Spain, Germany, Belgium (then Flanders), the Netherlands, Russia, France, the Commonwealth. Spanish baroque, or local churrigueresco (in honor of the architect Churriguera), which also spread to Latin America. His most popular monument is the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, which is also one of the most revered churches in Spain by believers. In Latin America, baroque mixed with local architectural traditions, this is its most pretentious version, and it is called ultra-baroque.

In France, the baroque style is expressed more modestly than in other countries. Previously, it was believed that the style did not develop here at all, and baroque monuments were considered monuments of classicism. Sometimes the term "baroque classicism" is used in relation to the French and English versions of the baroque. Now the Palace of Versailles, along with a regular park, the Luxembourg Palace, the building of the French Academy in Paris, and other works are considered French Baroque. They really have some features of classicism. A characteristic feature of the Baroque style is the regular style in gardening art, an example of which is the park of Versailles.

Later, at the beginning of the 18th century. the French developed their own style, a kind of baroque - rococo. It manifested itself not in the external design of buildings, but only in interiors, as well as in the design of books, clothing, furniture, and painting. The style was distributed throughout Europe and in Russia.

In Belgium, the Grand Place ensemble in Brussels is an outstanding baroque monument. The Rubens House in Antwerp, built according to the artist's own design, has Baroque features.

Baroque appeared in Russia as early as the 17th century (“Naryshkin baroque”, “Golitsyn baroque”). In the 18th century, during the reign of Peter I, it was developed in St. Petersburg and its suburbs in the work of D. Trezzini - the so-called "Petrine baroque" (more restrained), and flourished in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in the work of S. I. Chevakinsky and B. Rastrelli.

In Germany, the outstanding baroque monument is the New Palace in Sanssouci (authors - I. G. Bühring, H. L. Manter) and the Summer Palace in the same place (G. W. von Knobelsdorff). The largest and most famous Baroque ensembles in the world: Versailles (France), Peterhof (Russia), Aranjuez (Spain), Zwinger (Germany), Schönbrunn (Austria). In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Sarmatian baroque and Vilna baroque styles became widespread, the largest representative was Jan Christoph Glaubitz. Among his famous projects- rebuilt Church of the Ascension of the Lord (Vilnius), St. Sophia Cathedral (Polotsk), etc.

Carlo Maderna Church of Saint Susanna, Rome

Classicism.

Classicism (French classicisme, from Latin classicus - exemplary) - an artistic style and aesthetic trend in European art of the 17th-19th centuries.

Classicism is based on the ideas of rationalism, which were formed simultaneously with the same ideas in the philosophy of Descartes. A work of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. Interest for classicism is only eternal, unchanging - in each phenomenon, he seeks to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random individual signs. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism takes many rules and canons from ancient art (Aristotle, Horace).

Classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into high (ode, tragedy, epic) and low (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strictly defined features, mixing of which is not allowed.

As a certain direction, it was formed in France in the 17th century. French classicism affirmed the personality of a person as the highest value of being, freeing him from religious and church influence. Russian classicism not only adopted the Western European theory, but also enriched it with national characteristics.

The main feature of the architecture of classicism there 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 Venetians absolutized the principles of ancient temple architecture so much that they applied them even in the construction of such private mansions as Villa Capra. Inigo Jones brought Palladianism north to England, where local Palladian architects followed Palladio's precepts with varying degrees of fidelity until the middle of the 18th century.

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 Frenchman Jacques-Germain Soufflot, during the construction of the Saint-Genevieve church in Paris, demonstrated the ability of classicism to organize vast urban spaces. The massive grandeur of his designs foreshadowed the megalomania of Napoleonic Empire and late Classicism. In Russia, moving in the same direction as Soufflet Bazhenov. The Frenchmen Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Etienne-Louis Boulet went even further towards the development of a radical visionary style with an emphasis on the abstract geometrization of forms. In revolutionary France, the ascetic civic pathos of their projects was of little use; Ledoux's innovation was fully appreciated only by modernists of the 20th century.

Bolshoi Theater in Warsaw.

Music of the Classical period or the music of classicism, refers to the period in the development of European music approximately between 1730 and 1820. The concept of classicism in music is steadily associated with the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, who are called the Viennese classics and determined the direction further development musical composition.

The impetus for the development of classical sculpture in the middle of the 18th century, Winckelmann's writings and archaeological excavations of ancient cities served, expanding 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 the sculptors to depict models naked, which was in conflict with accepted moral standards. To resolve this contradiction, the figures of modernity were at first depicted by sculptors of classicism in the form of naked ancient gods: Suvorov - in the form of Mars, and Polina Borghese - in the form of Venus. Under Napoleon, the issue was resolved by moving to the image of contemporary figures in antique togas (such are the figures of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly in front of the Kazan Cathedral).

Antonio Canova. Cupid and Psyche (1787-1793, Paris, Louvre)

architectural classicism baroque urban planning

The characterization of each developed style presents no special methodological difficulties. Another thing is analysis turning point between two specific styles, contradictory in its essence. How does such a fracture occur? We are not so much interested in the question - what causes it in a general sense, but in clarifying the basic patterns in the change of styles. In search of such regularities, we will consciously allow for some polemical sharpening of the formulations in order to bring out the proposed point of view more sharply. The transition from baroque to classicism was one of the fastest in changing styles of domestic architecture. The end of the 1750s is still the heyday of the Baroque. The middle of the 1760s was already the time of the wide spread of classicism. For an extremely short period of five to seven years, a complete change in aesthetic tastes takes place. Russian baroque architecture of the 18th century. was a historically conditioned, complex and peculiar phenomenon, which absorbed many traditions of Russian architecture of the 17th century, and a number of features of domestic architecture of the immediately preceding period - that is, the beginning of the 18th century, and the influence of contemporary architecture of the main European countries. These very different components, however, formed a strong alloy, which possessed features of unique originality. Both directions did not yet know their future names then, but the essence of stylistic differences, their boundaries are clearly visible in the examples of the best buildings created or designed almost in the same years. The emphatically juicy decorativeness and dynamism of the Baroque forms are opposed by the slightly dry rationalist architecture of early classicism. The most prominent buildings of the Russian baroque - the Winter Palace of B. F. Rastrelli and the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral of S. I. Chevakinskrgo, so typical in their overflowing bravura, were completed by 1762. At the same time, already in 1760 A. F. Kokorinov designs the Pleasure House near Oranienbaum - a work in which the principles of a new direction in architecture dominate. The plan, the silhouette, the entire volume of the building are very compact, with the dominance of horizontal lines emphasized. The details are made in classical forms oh and ratios. In the same year, A.F. Kokorinov, together with Zh.B. M. Wallen Delamotte create the first draft of the Bolshoi Gostiny Dvor In Petersburg. In this version, which became the basis for the final decision made two years later, the idea of ​​a majestic business building in its simplicity with a measured rhythm of two-story arcades dissected by modest pilasters of the Tuscan order was already laid down. In 1763-1764. projects are being developed for the Academy of Arts (A. F. Kokorinov and J.-B. Vallin Delamotte), Orphanages in Moscow (K. I. Blank) and St. Petersburg (Yu. M. Felten) - the first structures specially designed for educational purposes. Of these, the building of the Academy of Arts is the best work initial period Russian classicism. Being located on a responsible site, with its main facade facing the main waterway of the capital - the Neva River, it contributes to the architectural organization of a significant segment of the embankment. The building plan is based on a well-thought-out functional training process for artists: the main working areas are located along the outer perimeter of the building and around a huge circular courtyard, which provides them with good lighting. The surface of the walls is abundantly dissected, but the articulations with clearly defined order proportions are mainly planar in nature. A period of decline, gradual degradation did not precede the change in style. On the contrary, just at the moment of its highest flowering, the baroque turned out to be untenable for solving new problems, and buildings in the classicist style immediately appeared with surprising speed. Such speed in changing styles is not typical. It is, as already mentioned, a distinctive feature of this very turning point - from baroque to classicism - and was caused by the general situation, when artificially slowed down historical development began to strenuously make up for lost time. The concept of baroque as an integral style ceased not only to dominate architecture, but in general to have any significant influence on its further development. Separate features of the old system, although they appeared for some time in certain elements of the structures of early classicism, were only remnants that were gradually obsolete. Only in the provinces did Baroque forms continue to exist by inertia almost until late XVII I V. The historical prerequisites for a change in style include material and ideological factors. As the most important, it should be noted the significant increase in the military and political power of Russia, accompanied by the rapid growth of its economic potential.

No less important prerequisites for a change in style were the ideas of enlightenment, humanism, the ideals of the natural man, characteristic of all progressive thinking of the 18th century. The call to reason as the main criterion and measure of all achievements was heard louder and louder. The ideas of rationalism have been widely developed since the second half of the century.

In architecture, all these factors led to major changes. The economic prosperity of the country caused a rapid growth in construction in all areas. Changes in the ideological order required a significant expansion of architectural themes, a different figurative content. Never-before-seen themes and tasks arose continuously.

Meanwhile, Baroque architecture was distinguished by thematic narrowness. The sphere of architecture as an art was limited mainly to palace and religious construction. If it was necessary to create structures for a different purpose, then they were developed in the same, close to the palace, ceremonial, highly solemn forms, an example of which is the project of the Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg, proposed by F. B. Rastrelli in 1757.

The development of baroque forms along the path of their further complication could continue for quite a long time, but the very range of application of such forms could not be expanded in any way. The possibilities of style came into conflict with reality. This determined his fate.

By the middle of the 18th century, there was a need to create various types of new public buildings or such buildings that did not have any during the Baroque period. artistic value-- for example, industrial, warehouse, commercial buildings. New tasks also arose in housing construction. Finally, the city as a whole as a social unit received a significantly different characteristic than before and, in this regard, required a different planning and volumetric solution.

All this increase in demands was carried out on a scale gigantic country.

Traditional creative methods could not cope with such tasks. But this kind, although simpler, tasks already arose before architects at the beginning of the 18th century. The architecture of the time of Peter the Great is characterized by clear and practicable decisions based on clear rationalistic principles. The traditions of rationalism appeared in Russian architecture at the beginning of the 18th century, of course, not for the first time. These traditions have lived for a long time, but there were epochs that were especially favorable for their development, and such times when rationalism existed latently in architecture as a residual phenomenon of the previous period. Russian baroque of the second quarter of the 18th century. also did not escape the influence of the Petrine architecture that preceded it, and the rationalism of the latter entered some separate elements into the stylistic features of a direction that was opposite to it in essence.

Even in the work of the leading baroque master Rastrelli, elements of rationalism can be seen. So, for example, the fantastically rich and complex in form decorative decoration of the palace buildings of this architect does not violate the simplicity and clarity of plans.

In the works of D. V. Ukhtomsky and S. I. Chevakinsky, rationalistic tendencies are even more noticeable. It is worth remembering Ukhtomsky's project for the Invalid Home in Moscow, or the belfry of St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg, whose clear clarity of architecture is so different from the ebullient gaiety of the cathedral itself that some scholars did not even want to recognize it as the work of Chevakinsky. Both architects were students of I.K. Korobov, whose activities partially coincided with the Baroque period. However, among the masters of this time, Korobov, one of the glorious pensioners of Peter the Great, retained the most rationalistic orientation of his work. It was through Korobov that the traditions of rationalism were continued in the works of his numerous students and in the work of the youngest of them, A.F. Kokorinov, they were revived in a different artistic quality, rethought in the spirit of the tasks of the new architectural direction.

Rationalism as a striving for clarity, comprehensibility, logicality of the architectural image - everything as a whole and its individual components - became the main factor in the formation of a new style. Its principles demanded a particularly harmonious, logically coherent artistic concept. Such a concept had already been created earlier in the classical schools of architecture of antiquity and the Renaissance. The architects began to carefully study the heritage of antiquity (in its Roman interpretation, the only one available at that time) and the Renaissance. Close attention to the classics became, as it were, a secondary factor in the formation of the architecture of early Russian classicism.

Naturally, in the Russian conditions of those years, the study of the classical traditions of shaping could only take place through acquaintance with the theoretical works of Vitruvius, Andrea Palladio, Vignola, and with uvrazh, in which measured drawings or sketches of architectural monuments were placed. The insufficiency of this method of acquaintance was realized very soon. It is characteristic that if the young B.F. Rastrelli at one time traveled abroad no further than Germany, where he got acquainted only with the experience of contemporary German architecture, then already in the first half of the 1750s the idea arises of sending a submitter big hopes Gezel Kokorinov to Italy to study the architecture of antiquity and the Renaissance. Since 1760, the newly founded Academy of Arts began to regularly send its best pupils abroad, and charged them with the duty of familiarizing themselves with the monuments of architectural classics.

Finally, another factor influencing the formation of a new style in Russia was the connection of Russian architecture with the contemporary architecture of other countries, among which France was at that time the leading country in all areas of ideology.

For Russian architecture connection with french architecture became very significant in the first quarter of the 18th century, when J.-BA Leblon, invited to Russia, created here not only one of the fundamental plans for the planning of St. Petersburg, but also developed types of exemplary houses that largely determined the physiognomy of the young Russian capital.

The tendencies of rationalism, characteristic of that branch of French architecture, of which Leblon was a representative, coincided with the main direction of Russian architecture at the beginning of the 18th century. The change in the orientation of architecture in the post-Petrine period also led to a change in the nature of ties with French architecture. Rococo tricks began to enjoy the success, which in France itself by that time had suffered a serious defeat. Competition for the design of the main facade of the Church of St. Sulpicia in Paris heralded a turn in the development of architectural ideas. It was at this competition that the principles of Rococo decorativeism, brought by J. O. Meissonier to the highest degree sophistication, were rejected, and preference was given to the strict and classically clear composition of J. N. Servandoni, which was then, basically, carried out in 1733-1745.

Development public life in the 1750s led Russian architecture to focus on the advanced achievements of French architects. An important stage in the victory of classicism in France was the competition for the creation of Place Louis XV in Paris. As a result of several consecutive rounds of the competition (late 1740s - early 1750s), the project of J.A. Gabriel won, which marked the approval of new views on urban planning principles. For the first time in world history, the city square was decided in relation to and connection with the entire space of the city.

The success of J.-J. Soufflet at the St. Genevieve in Paris and Gabriel's construction of the intimate palace mansion Petit Trianon in Versailles already meant the final victory of the new trend in French architecture.

In Russia, the works of architectural theorists M. A. Laugier, J. F. Blondel, and others were studied with interest and attention. Blondel's idea was too obvious French national flavor and was still far from the consistent implementation of classical forms, which, among other reasons, played a role in the rejection of the project. But this was already an accident in the general course of history. From the end of the 1750s, it was the advanced French architecture that became closest to Russian architecture in terms of goals and aspirations.

Using the example of the transition from baroque to classicism, one can try to deduce some general patterns in the change in architectural styles.

The newly emerging style meets new requirements, and in this sense its path is always original and unexplored. The more innovative this neophyte is, the broader must be the traditions on which he relies. But at the same time, the emerging direction relates with quite understandable antagonism to the methods of its predecessor, which at a certain moment revealed their inconsistency. Therefore, each new style seeks support in the traditions of art not of the immediately preceding period, but of a more distant past, and above all in the traditions of the “grandfathers”. After all, the previous style also denied the direction that existed before it, which is why every time the "grandfather" traditions become the main source of borrowing.

Indeed, the Russian baroque architecture of the second third of the 18th century is much closer in spirit to the buildings of Rus' at the end of the 17th century than to the architecture of the era of Peter I.

For the same reason, the desire for enlightenment, utilitarianism and all-encompassing rationalism, characteristic of Petrine architecture, found its independent continuation in the architecture of classicism. Such an original building for the complex scientific institutions, as the Kunstkamera, conceived under Peter I, did not receive any further development during the Baroque period as a new type of building, or even repetitions, even simplified ones. Meanwhile, the architecture of classicism began precisely with the creation of a structure of this kind: the building of the Academy of Arts combined the highest art center, a museum, an educational institution of the “three most noble” arts with a boarding school and even a theater attached to it, artists’ workshops and residential apartments for teaching staff.

The Petrine era did not pay much attention to palace buildings, but gave great importance utilitarian construction, raising it to the level of real architecture. The Admiralty in St. Petersburg was decided not just as an industrial enterprise combined with a defensive structure, but as a monument to the naval power of Russia. The building was very low and the material - half-timbered - was not at all monumental, but the very idea of ​​​​a wide, 400 meters spread structure, marked in the center by a tower with a spire, was the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bgreat architecture.

One of the great masters of the Russian Baroque, S. I. Chevakinsky, in his position as an architect of the Admiralty Colleges, designed and built many utilitarian structures for the domestic fleet. But among these works of his there are no buildings similar to the Admiralty, significant in their architectural design. Having built the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, Chevakinsky created a joyful, jubilant hymn by means of architecture. Nevertheless, in utilitarian buildings, the era did not require anything from him but strength and usefulness.

It is characteristic that in the early 1760s, having started the project of a timber warehouse building on New Holland Island in St. Petersburg, Chevakinsky developed new technology storage of the forest, and also created a plan for the building, but did not cope with the figurative solution of the facades, and this part of the work was entrusted to the architect of the new direction - Wallen Delamotte.

Rationalism, which forms the basis of the concept of classicism, also found an echo in the traditions of architecture of the early 18th century, although, as noted earlier, Russian baroque architecture itself to some extent used these traditions.

Here I would like to emphasize that the most important traditions never die. They develop in an upward spiral. With each subsequent turn, part of the movement, relatively speaking, passes in the shadow. The prevailing style at that time only tolerates such a "shadowed" tradition, and often uses it even in the opposite sense.

Differences between baroque and classicism.

In the era of classicism, which followed the Baroque era, the role of polyphonic polyphony decreased and came to the fore homophonic polyphony
( from the Greek "homos" - "one", and "fone" - "sound", "voice")

Unlike polyphony, where all votes are equal, homophonic polyphony stands out one, performing main theme , and the rest play a role accompaniment(accompaniment). The accompaniment is usually a system of chords (harmonies). Hence the name of the new way of composing music - homophonic harmonic.

There is less ornamentation and ornamentation in music. The works have become more harmonious, clear in structure, especially those written in sonata form.

In the era baroque in a piece of music, each of the parts concentrated on the expression and disclosure one brightly drawn feelings, what was solved with the help of the presentation one topic that changed (varied) throughout the part, and in the era classicism in one part of the work revealed many emotions, which were expressed with the help of presentation and development two or more topics of various figurative content.

Early baroque music (1600-1654)

The development of Italian opera by an Italian composer can be considered a conditional transition point between the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643).

The composer was born in the Italian city of Cremona in the family of a doctor. As a musician, Monteverdi developed in his youth. He wrote and performed madrigals; played the organ, viola and other instruments. Monteverdi studied music composition with well-known composers of that time. In 1590, as a singer and musician, he was invited to Mantua, to the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga; later he led the court chapel. In 1612, Monteverdi left the service in Mantua and from 1613 settled in Venice. Largely thanks to Monteverdi in 1637, the world's first public opera house was opened in Venice. There, the composer led the chapel of the Cathedral of San Marco. Before his death, Claudio Monteverdi took holy orders.

Having studied the operatic work of Renaissance composers Peri and Caccini, Monteverdi created his own operatic works. Already in the first operas - "Orpheus" (1607) and "Ariadne" (1608) - the composer managed to convey deep and passionate feelings by musical means, to create a tense dramatic action. Monteverdi is the author of many operas, but only three have survived - "Orpheus", "Return of Ulysses to his homeland" (1640; based on the plot of the ancient Greek epic poem "Odyssey") and "Coronation of Poppea" (1642).

Monteverdi's operas harmoniously combine music and text. At the heart of the opera monologue - recitative (from it. recitare - "to recite"), in which recited every word, and the music flexibly and subtly conveys the shades of mood. Monologues, dialogues and choral episodes smoothly flow into each other, the action develops slowly (three or four acts in Monteverdi's operas), but dynamically. Important role the composer led the orchestra. In "Orpheus", for example, he used almost all the instruments known at that time. Orchestral music not only accompanies the singing, but itself tells about the events taking place on the stage and the experiences of the characters. First appeared in Orpheus overture(French ouverture, or Latin apertura - "opening", "beginning")- an instrumental introduction to a major piece of music. The operas of Claudio Monteverdi had a significant influence on Venetian composers and laid the foundations of the Venetian opera school. .

Monteverdi wrote not only operas, but also sacred music, religious And secular madrigals. He became the first composer who did not oppose polyphonic and homophonic methods - the choral episodes of his operas include polyphonic techniques.
In the work of Monteverdi, the new was combined with the old - the traditions of the Renaissance.

TO early XVIII V. formed opera school in Naples. Features of this school - increased attention to singing, the dominant role of music. It was in Naples that the bel canto vocal style(it. bel canto- "beautiful singing"). Bel canto is famous for its extraordinary beauty of sound, melody and technical perfection. A bel canto performer must be able to reproduce many shades of voice timbre, as well as masterfully convey numerous fast sequences of sounds superimposed on the main melody. - coloratura (it. coloratura - "decoration").

In the 18th century opera became the main type of musical art in Italy, which was facilitated by the high professional level of singers trained in conservatories(It. conservatorio, err lat. conserve - "protect") - educational institutions that trained musicians. By that time, four conservatories had been created in the centers of Italian opera - Venice and Naples. The popularity of the genre was also served by those opened in different cities country opera houses accessible to all walks of life. Italian operas were staged in the theaters of major European capitals, and composers from Austria, Germany and other countries wrote operas based on Italian texts.

A significant figure of the early baroque period, whose position was on the side of Catholicism, opposing the growing ideological, cultural and social influence of Protestantism, was Giovanni Gabrieli (1555-1612). His works belong to the style high revival"(the heyday of the Renaissance). However, some of his innovations in the field of instrumentation (appointment certain instrument own, specific tasks) clearly indicate that he was one of the composers who influenced the emergence of a new style.

One of the church's requirements for composing sacred music was that texts in works with vocals were picky. This required a move away from polyphony towards musical techniques, where the words came to the fore. The vocals became more complex, ornate compared to the accompaniment.

A great contribution to the dissemination of new techniques was made by German composer Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), trained in Venice. This is the most famous German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of the early baroque period along with D. Gabrieli and C. Monteverdi. He used new techniques in his work while serving as a choirmaster in Dresden.

Music of the mature baroque (1654-1707)

The period of centralization of supreme power in Europe is often called Absolutism. Absolutism reached its zenith under the French king Louis XIV. For all of Europe, the court of Louis was a role model. Including the music performed at the court. Increased availability musical instruments(this was especially true for keyboards) gave impetus to the development chamber music (from it. camera - "room") performed in small rooms or at home.

mature baroque is different from the early ubiquity of the new polyphonic style ( free writing) and increased separation musical forms especially in opera. As in literature, the emerging possibility of large-circulation printing musical works led to an expansion of the audience; the exchange between the centers of musical culture intensified.

In music theory, the mature Baroque is defined by composers' focus on harmony and attempts to create coherent systems of musical learning.
In subsequent years, this led to the emergence of many theoretical works. A remarkable example of such activity is the work of the late Baroque period - "Gradus ad Parnassum" (Russian. Steps to Parnassus), published in 1725 by Johann Joseph Fuchs(German Johann Joseph Fux) (1660-1741), Austrian theorist and composer. This work, which systematized the theory of counterpoint, almost to late XIX century was the most important tool for the study of counterpoint.

An outstanding representative of the court composers of the court of Louis XIV was Giovanni Battista Lulli (1632-1687). (Jean-Baptiste). Already at the age of 21, he received the title of "court composer of instrumental music." creative work Lully was strongly associated with the theater from the very beginning. Following the organization of the court chamber music and by composing "airs de cour" (court arias), he began writing ballet music. Myself Louis XIV danced in ballets, which were then the favorite entertainment of the court nobility. Lully was an excellent dancer. He happened to participate in productions, dancing with the king. He is known for his joint working with Moliere, for whose plays he wrote music. But the main thing in the work of Lully was still writing operas. Surprisingly, Lully created a complete type of French opera; the so-called lyrical tragedy in France (fr. tragedie lyrique), and reached an undoubted creative maturity in the very first years of his work at the opera house. Lully often used the contrast between the majestic sound of the orchestral section and the simple recitatives and arias. Lully's musical language is not very complex, but certainly new: the clarity of harmony, rhythmic energy, the clarity of articulation of form, the purity of texture speak of the victory of the principles of homophonic thinking. To a large extent, his success was also facilitated by his ability to select musicians for the orchestra, and his work with them (he himself conducted rehearsals). An integral element of his work was attention to harmony and the solo instrument.

Composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli(1653-1713) known for his work on the development of the concerto grosso genre (concerto grosso - "big concert"). Corelli was one of the first composers whose works were published and performed throughout Europe. Like the opera works by J.B. Lully, the concerto grosso genre is built on a contrasting juxtaposition of the sound of small solo orchestra groups and the sound of a full orchestra. The music is built on sharp transitions from loud to quiet parts, fast passages are opposed to slow ones. Among the followers of Arcangelo Corelli was Antonio Vivaldi, who later composed hundreds of works written in Corelli's favorite forms: trio sonatas and concertos.

IN England mature baroque marked by a brilliant genius Henry Purcell(1659-1695). He died young, at the age of 36, writing a large number of works and became widely known during his lifetime. Purcell was familiar with the work of Corelli and other Italian composers of the Baroque era. During his short life, Purcell wrote many vocal, instrumental, musical and theatrical works, the most significant of which is opera "Dido and Aeneas"(1689). This is the first English national opera. She was commissioned by a dance teacher from a boarding school for noble maidens. The private nature of the order influenced the appearance of the work: unlike the monumental operas of Monteverdi or Lully, Purcell's work small in size, action moves fast. The opera's libretto (written by Nicholas Tate) was based on heroic epic"Aeneid" by the Roman poet Virgil.

Virgil has one of the defenders of Troy - Aeneas, after the fall of the city, sets off to wander. A storm drives his ship to the shores of Africa; here he meets Dido, queen of Carthage. Dido fell in love with Aeneas and, when the hero left her at the behest of the gods, took her own life. In Purcell's opera, the herald who separated the heroes is sent not by the gods, but by the witches of the forest ( popular characters English folklore). Aeneas took deceit for a sacred duty to the gods and destroyed the most valuable thing - love.

Distinctive feature Purcell's work harmony. The composer had an amazing gift for creating perfect melodies - calm, majestic and impeccable in form. After Henry Purcell in English music until the 20th century. one can hardly name such brilliant masters.

Unlike the above composers Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was not a court composer. Buxtehude worked organist, first in Helsingborg (1657-1658), then in Elsinore (1660-1668), and then, starting from 1668, in the church of St. Mary in Lübeck. He earned not by publishing his works, but by performing them, and preferred composing music to church texts and performing his own organ compositions to the patronage of the nobility. His compositions for organ were distinguished by a wealth of imagination, an abundance of unexpected and colorful comparisons, and deep drama. this composer. Buxtehude's music is largely built on the scale of ideas, richness and freedom of fantasy, a penchant for pathos, drama, and somewhat oratorical intonation. His work had a strong influence on such composers as J. S. Bach and G. F. Telemann.

Late Baroque Music (1707-1760)

The exact line between mature and late Baroque is a matter of debate; she lies somewhere between 1680 and 1720. To a large extent, the complexity of its definition is the fact that in different countries styles changed out of sync; innovations already accepted as the rule in one place were fresh discoveries in another. Italy thanks to Arcangelo Corelli and his students Francesco Geminiani and Pietro Locatelli becomes the first country in which baroque transitions from mature to late period. An important milestone can be considered almost absolute dominance of tone as a structuring principle of composing music. This is especially evident in the theoretical work of Jean Philippe Rameau, who took Lully's place as the main French composer. At the same time, the appearance of the capital work of Johann Joseph Fuchs "Degree ad Parnassum" (1725), dedicated to polyphony strict style, testified to the presence in music two writing styles - homophonic-harmonic and polyphonic.

Forms, opened by the previous period, reached maturity and great variability the concerto, suite, sonata, concerto grosso, oratorio, opera and ballet no longer had sharply expressed national characteristics. Generally accepted schemes of works have been established everywhere: a repeating two-part form (AABB), a simple three-part form (ABC) and a rondo.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)- Italian composer, born in Venice.
In 1703 he received the rank of Catholic priest. On December 1st of the same year, he becomes maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale della Pieta orphanage in Venice for girls. Vivaldi's fame was brought not concert performances or connections at court, but publications of his work, including his trio sonatas, violin sonatas and concertos. They were published in Amsterdam and widely distributed throughout Europe. It is in these instrumental genres, while still developing (Baroque Sonata and Baroque Concerto), Vivaldi made his most significant contribution. Certain techniques are characteristic of Vivaldi's music: a three-part cyclic form for concerto grosso and the use of a ritornello in fast parts. Vivaldi composed over 500 concertos. He also gave programmatic titles to some of his works, such as the famous The Four Seasons. Vivaldi's career shows an increased opportunity for the composer to exist independently: on income from concert activity and publishing their writings.

Domenico Scarlatti(1685-1757) was one of the leading keyboard composers and performers of his time. He began his career as a court composer; first in Portugal, and from 1733 in Madrid, where he spent the rest of his life. His father Alessandro Scarlatti is considered the founder of the Neapolitan opera school. Domenico also composed operas and church music, but fame (already after his death) provided him with works for keyboards. Some of these works he wrote for his own pleasure, some - for his noble customers.

The most famous court composer of the Baroque era was Georg Friedrich Handel(1685-1759). He was born in Germany, studied in Italy for three years, but left London in 1711, where he began his brilliant and commercial career. successful career an independent opera composer performing commissions for the nobility. Possessing tireless energy, Handel processed the material of other composers, and constantly remade their own compositions. For example, he is known for reworking the famous oratorio "Messiah" so many times that there is no version now that can be called the original. Although his financial fortunes waxed and waned, his fame, based on published works for keyboards, ceremonial music, operas, concerto grossos and oratorios, continued to grow. After his death, he was recognized as a leading European composer, and was studied by musicians of the Classical era. During his lifetime, Handel wrote about 50 operas (Almira, Agrippina, Rinaldo, Julius Caesar, etc.), 23 oratorios (“Messiah”, “Samson”, “Judas Makovey”, “Hercules”), countless church chorales, organ concerts, as well as a number of entertainment works (“Music on the Water”, “Music for Royal Fireworks”).

One of the greatest composers baroque era - Johann Sebastian Bach was born
March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. During his life he composed more than 1000 works in various genres, except opera. But during his lifetime he did not achieve any significant success. Moving many times, Bach changed one not too high position after another: in Weimar he was a court musician at the Weimar Duke Johann Ernst, then became the caretaker of the organ in the church of St. Boniface in Arnstadt, a few years later accepted the position of organist in the church of St. Vlasia in Mühlhausen, where he worked for only about a year, after which he returned to Weimar, where he took the place of court organist and organizer of concerts. He held this position for nine years. In 1717, Leopold, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister, and Bach began to live and work in Köthen. In 1723 Bach moved to Leipzig, where he remained until his death in 1750.

JS Bach was well known in Germany during his lifetime as a composer, performer, teacher and father of the younger Bachs, primarily Carl Philipp Emmanuel. But in the last years of his life and after the death of Bach, his fame as a composer began to decline: his style was considered old-fashioned compared to the burgeoning classicism.

In 1802, Johann Nikolai Forkel published the first most complete biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1829, 79 years after the death of J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Berlin. The success of this concert revived interest in the work of J. S. Bach and became the reason for the emergence of a huge interest in Bach's music in Germany, and then throughout Europe.

Today, J.S. Bach is one of the most popular composers of all time: for example, in Cultureciosque.com's "Best Composer of the Millennium" vote, Bach took first place.

Le style c "est l" homme(“style is a person”). This maxim, due to Buffon, can be likened to a mathematical expression relating two variables. An independent variable, an argument, is a person, and style, as some ordered sequence of expressive practices, is a function. What a person - such is the style. With all the universality of this definition, it is necessary to take into account the historical context of the moment of its appearance - the Age of Enlightenment, with its concept of "natural man". The latter, as you know, is a direct development of the ideas of the 17th century, this beginning of the New Age, and its characteristic styles - classicism and baroque. We can say that these styles, their combinations, contain the project of the entire New Age, up to the present.

The concept itself style(from lat. stylus- stick) and a related concept stimulus(from lat. stimulus, lit. - a pointed stick, which was used to drive animals) etymologically is the best match with the principles of classicism. The preference for a straight line over any other is characteristic of Cartesian rationalism. The circle lost its ontological status along with Aristotelianism and gave way to the boundless, qualityless, absolutely calculable. “God,” argues Descartes, “is the only creator of all movements existing in the world, insofar as they exist at all and insofar as they are straightforward. However, different positions of matter turn these movements into irregular and curvilinear ones. In the same way, theologians teach us that God is the creator of all our actions, insofar as they exist and insofar as there is something good in them, but the various inclinations of our wills can make these actions vicious" ( Descartes R. Compositions: In 2 vols. M.: Thought, 1989. Vol.1. S.205). Such a statement should not be taken as an attempt to put a mask of orthodox theology on Galileo's inertial principle. It is no coincidence that Descartes touches on the fundamental question of the problem of evil and free will, and he does this quite in accordance with the views of St. Augustine. According to A.-I. Marru, "the paramount place that Augustine occupied in the French consciousness of the 17th century, nothing testifies better than the role he played in the development of Cartesianism" ( Marru A.-I. Saint Augustine and Augustinianism. Dolgoprudny: Vestkom, 1999. P. 185). Thus, between the rigorism of the “inner man” of St. Augustine, aspiring mystically and intellectually to God along the shortest path, during which he is not allowed to be distracted, and the rigorism of the “inner man” of Descartes, there is a commonality. It consists, firstly, in the constant need to overcome doubt through reason, led by the Almighty. Cartesian thesis "God is not a deceiver" guarantees the truth of the Method. Secondly, in the possibility of only approximately achieving the goal. For St. Augustine such was the comprehension of God, for Descartes - the achievement of dominance over nature through construction. This gives rise to a multitude of possibilities and probabilism Cartesianism ( Gaidenko P. The history of modern European philosophy in its connection with science. M .: University book, 2000. P. 130). Undoubtedly, the layout of the Versailles park by A. Le Nôtre ( Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 vols. M.: Artist. lit., 1987. V.3. P.488). This is both a man-made Eden and a visible embodiment of the laconic formula of absolutism, which belongs to Francis I: "Un roi, une foi, une loi". The triad “one king, one faith, one law” turns out to be consonant with the three-beam park composition, as well as the principle of the unity of time, place and action from N. Boileau’s Poetic Art with its strict hierarchy of genres.

The long coexistence of classicism and baroque can hardly be considered an accident. Such synchronicity indicates their interconnectedness, which, of course, does not eliminate significant differences in the features and genesis of the two styles. Baroque was the direct heir of the Renaissance, but the heir was clearly disappointed. Here is what, for example, A.F. Losev about Montaigne: “His “Experiments” are devoid of any system,<…>interspersed with ancient quotations, although from antiquity only the Stoics were close to him, and then only skeptics became close to him ”( Losev A.F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M.: Thought, 1978. P. 597). Montaigne was the forerunner of Descartes, but here we should note the mention of stoicism and skepticism as directly related to the Baroque style. If classicism proceeded from Augustianism in the form of a secularized dualism between nature and man, which should be removed by the monism of submission to some single (but not the only possible) form, then the Baroque proceeded from the universality of the Stoicist Logos, unity in the form of an organism saturated with the breath of pneuma. In the context of the same Augustianism, it emphasized the psychological complexity of the individual personality. In the view of the world, instead of the rigid monophonic hierarchy of universalism inherent in classicism, a polyphonic universalism of plasticity arose, declaring the possibility of multiple variations of the same form or theme. The non-stop running of Bach's fugue accompanies the "Faustian" man. As a phenomenon, the historical baroque preceded classicism, but in terms of a further perspective on the change of styles, it should be recognized as the heir rather than the predecessor of classicism. It is well known that the emergence of the Baroque is associated with the Counter-Reformation. The canons and goals of the Jesuit order found their expression precisely in the Baroque style. Suffice it to recall the main Jesuit temple of Il Gesu in Rome (1568-1584), built according to the project of G. Vignola. This may be the first typical project in the history of architecture, implemented in the spaces from Paraguay to Livonia. The main feature of the Baroque is its deceptiveness, simulativeness gave it the opportunity to turn the "soldiers of Jesus" - Protestants, with their inherent cult of labor, into their fans and enemies. “Baroque - as J. Deleuze notes - invents an endless production or an endless process of work. The problem is not how to complete the fold, but how to continue it, cross the ceiling with it, push it towards infinity. Delez J. Fold, Leibniz and Baroque. M.: Logos, 1997. P. 63). Therefore, complex forms and counterpoint, behind which the symmetry of numbers and functions is hidden, turned out to be able to glorify the virtues of the Puritans (for example, G. F. Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabee"). Appeal to the Old Testament plots is also characteristic of Baroque literature. "Paradise Lost" by J. Milton and "The Greatest Monster of the World" by P. Calderon. The theme of catastrophe, arising from the collision of free will and the Law, dominates the tragic genre of the era. At the same time, the understanding of the Law is very eclectic: it can be Old Testament, Gnostic and rationalistic. In the latter case, a coincidence with classicism is found. The Gnostic features of the Baroque found their expression in the passion for astrology and alchemy, as evidenced not only by the literature of the era. So I. Kepler never hid his commitment to astrology, it even served him as a means to earn a living. I. Newton preferred to remain silent on this score, as well as on his antitrinitarianism. However, the Newtonian program of physics is imbued not only with mathematics (in its rationalistic Cartesian understanding), but also with the spirit of alchemy, from which its creator managed to extract a lot scientific ideas (Dmitriev I.S. Unknown Newton. Silhouette on the background of the era. St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 1999). His famous response to the absolutely just reproaches of the Cartesians in the revival of the magical principle - "I do not invent hypotheses" - is nothing but a truism.

The desire for contrast and external plausibility through the use of various technologies, characteristic of the Baroque, stems from its deepest pessimism. “No matter how beautiful the comedy is in other parts,” Pascal wrote, “the last act is always bloody. They will throw earth on your head - and the end is forever! ( Pascal b. Thoughts. M.: REFL-book, 1994. P. 256). Hence the passion for still life and the exaggerated love of life of Rubens' nudes. Irony and the temptation of the artificial are trying to conjure death and seize power over the world from it in a picaresque way. In this sense, our modernity, with its passion for contrast and the synthetic (up to cloning), continues the baroque trend. “Stucco can be thought of - notes J. Baudrillard - as a triumphant rise in science and technology, but it is also, and, above all, associated with the Baroque<…>All technology and technocracy are already embedded here - the presumption of the ideal fakeness of the world, which finds expression in the invention of a universal substance and in the universal combinatorics of substances" ( Baudrillard J. Symbolic exchange and death. M.: Dobrosvet, 2000. P. 116).

The combination of rigid principles of classicism and flexible baroque can be seen in all subsequent styles. The dominance of one over the other is determined only by tactical considerations, which should ensure the greatest efficiency. “Do you know,” says Balzac’s Vautrin, this “Napoleon of penal servitude,” addressing the young Rastignac, “how they make their way here? It is necessary to crash into this human mass with a cannonball or penetrate like a plague. Classicism can be compared with the first, Baroque - with the second. Both of them were the tools of the New Age for the formation of the New Man. So the dominant of classicism can be seen in modernity with its projects of the futurists and Le Corbusier, his pathos of the serious. Postmodern prefers baroque techniques. Switches to the language of binary codes and deterministic chaos. Shows concern for the environment and covers the world with a web of information networks, simulating the "unbearable lightness of being."