Sandro Botticelli(March 1, 1445 - May 17, 1510) - a deeply religious man, worked in all the major churches of Florence and in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, but remained in the history of art primarily as the author of large-format poetic canvases on subjects inspired by classical antiquity - "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus". .
For a long time, Botticelli was in the shadow of the giants of the Renaissance who worked after him, until he was rediscovered in the middle of the 19th century by the British Pre-Raphaelites, who revered the fragile linearity and spring freshness of his mature canvases as the highest point in the development of world art.
Born in the family of a wealthy citizen Mariano di Vanni Filipepi. Received a good education. He studied painting with the monk Filippo Lippi and took over from him that passion in depicting touching motifs that distinguishes Lippi's historical paintings. Then he worked for the famous sculptor Verrocchio. In 1470 he organized his own workshop..
He adopted the subtlety and precision of lines from his second brother, who was a jeweler. For some time he studied with Leonardo da Vinci in the workshop of Verrocchio. The original feature of Botticelli's own talent is his inclination towards the fantastic. He was one of the first to introduce ancient myth and allegory into the art of his time, and he worked with special love on mythological subjects. Especially spectacular is his Venus, who swims naked on the sea in a shell, and the gods of the winds shower her with a rain of roses, and drive the shell to the shore.
The best creation of Botticelli is considered to be the frescoes he began in 1474 in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. Completed many paintings commissioned by the Medici. In particular, he painted the banner of Giuliano Medici, brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the 1470-1480s, the portrait becomes an independent genre in the work of Botticelli ("Man with a Medal", ca. 1474; "Young Man", 1480s). Botticelli became famous for his delicate aesthetic taste and such works as The Annunciation (1489-1490), The Abandoned Woman (1495-1500), etc. In the last years of his life, Botticelli, apparently, left painting ..
Sandro Botticelli is buried in the family tomb in the Ognisanti church in Florence. According to the will, he was buried near the grave of Simonetta Vespucci, who inspired the most beautiful images of the master.
Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci(April 15, 1452, the village of Anchiano, near the town of Vinci, near Florence - May 2, 1519, - the great Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer, one of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance, a prime example of the "universal man" . .
Leonardo is primarily known to our contemporaries as an artist. In addition, it is possible that da Vinci could have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us. However, da Vinci himself at different periods of his life considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He did not devote much time to the fine arts and worked quite slowly. Therefore, the artistic heritage of Leonardo is not quantitatively large, and a number of his works have been lost or badly damaged. However, his contribution to world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that the Italian Renaissance gave. Thanks to his work, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage in its development. The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively abandoned many of the conventions of medieval art. It was a movement towards realism and much has already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, greater freedom in compositional decisions. But in terms of picturesqueness, work with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the subject, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing. The most conditional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. .
Leonardo realized and embodied a new painting technique. His line has the right to blur, because that's how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level. . renaissance painting botticelli renaissance
Rafael Santi(March 28, 1483 - April 6, 1520) - the great Italian painter, graphic artist and architect, representative of the Umbrian school ..
The son of the painter Giovanni Santi underwent an initial artistic training in Urbino with his father Giovanni Santi, but at a young age he ended up in the studio of the outstanding artist Pietro Perugino. It was the artistic language and imagery of Perugino's paintings, with their inclination towards a symmetrical balanced composition, clarity of spatial resolution and softness in the resolution of color and lighting, that had a primary influence on the manner of the young Raphael.
It is also necessary to stipulate that the creative style of Raphael included a synthesis of techniques and finds of other masters. At first, Raphael relied on the experience of Perugino, later in turn - on the findings of Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, Michelangelo. .
Early works ("Madonna Conestabile" 1502 - 1503) are imbued with grace, soft lyricism. He glorified the earthly existence of man, the harmony of spiritual and physical forces in the paintings of the rooms of the Vatican (1509-1517), achieving an impeccable sense of proportion, rhythm, proportions, harmony of color, unity of figures and majestic architectural backgrounds.
In Florence, having come into contact with the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael learned from them the anatomically correct image of the human body. At the age of 25, the artist goes to Rome, and from that moment begins the period of the highest flowering of his work: he performs monumental paintings in the Vatican Palace (1509--1511), among which is the undisputed masterpiece of the master - the fresco "Athenian School", writes altar compositions and easel paintings, distinguished by the harmony of design and execution, works as an architect (for some time Raphael even supervises the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral). In the tireless search for his ideal, embodied for the artist in the image of the Madonna, he creates his most perfect creation - the "Sistine Madonna" (1513), a symbol of motherhood and self-denial. The paintings and murals of Raphael were recognized by his contemporaries, and soon Santi became a central figure in the artistic life of Rome. Many noble people of Italy wanted to intermarry with the artist, including Raphael's close friend Cardinal Bibbiena. The artist died at the age of thirty-seven from heart failure. The unfinished paintings of the Villa Farnesina, the Vatican Loggias and other works were completed by Raphael's students according to his sketches and drawings.
One of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance, whose paintings are characterized by the emphasized balance and harmony of the whole, the balance of the composition, the regularity of the rhythm and the delicate use of the possibilities of color. Impeccable command of the line and the ability to generalize and highlight the main thing made Raphael one of the most outstanding masters of drawing of all time. The legacy of Raphael served as one of the pillars in the process of the formation of European academicism. Adherents of classicism - the Carracci brothers, Poussin, Mengs, David, Ingres, Bryullov and many other artists - extolled the legacy of Raphael as the most perfect phenomenon in world art ..
Titian Vecellio(1476/1477 or 1480s-1576) - Italian Renaissance painter. The name of Titian is on a par with such Renaissance artists as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Titian painted pictures on biblical and mythological subjects, he became famous as a portrait painter. He was commissioned by kings and popes, cardinals, dukes and princes. Titian was not even thirty years old when he was recognized as the best painter in Venice.
From his place of birth (Pieve di Cadore in the province of Belluno), he is sometimes called da Cadore; also known as Titian the Divine.
Titian was born into the family of Gregorio Vecellio, a statesman and military figure. At the age of ten, he was sent with his brother to Venice to study with the famous mosaicist Sebastian Zuccato. A few years later he entered the studio of Giovanni Bellini as an apprentice. He studied with Lorenzo Lotto, Giorgio da Castelfranco (Giorgione) and a number of other artists who later became famous.
In 1518, Titian paints the picture "The Ascension of the Mother of God", in 1515 - Salome with the head of John the Baptist. From 1519 to 1526 he paints a number of altars, including the altar of the Pesaro family.
Titian lived a long life. Until the last days he did not stop working. Titian wrote his last painting, Lamentation of Christ, for his own tombstone. The artist died of the plague in Venice on August 27, 1576, having contracted the disease from his son while caring for him.
Emperor Charles V summoned Titian to himself and surrounded him with honor and respect and said more than once: “I can create a duke, but where can I get a second Titian.” When one day the artist dropped his brush, Charles V picked it up and said: "It is honorable to serve Titian even to the emperor." Both the Spanish and French kings invited Titian to their place, to settle at court, but the artist, having completed the orders, always returned to his native Venice. A crater on Mercury was named in honor of Titian. .
The Renaissance began in Italy. It acquired its name due to the sharp intellectual and artistic flourishing that began in the 14th century and greatly influenced European society and culture. The Renaissance was expressed not only in paintings, but also in architecture, sculpture and literature. The most prominent representatives of the Renaissance are Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael.
In these times, the main goal of painters was a realistic depiction of the human body, so they mainly painted people, depicted various religious subjects. The principle of perspective was also invented, which opened up new opportunities for artists.
Florence became the center of the Renaissance, followed by Venice, and later, closer to the 16th century, Rome.
Leonardo is known to us as a talented painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer and architect of the Renaissance. For most of his life, Leonardo worked in Florence, where he created many masterpieces known throughout the world. Among them: "Mona Lisa" (otherwise - "Gioconda"), "Lady with an Ermine", "Madonna Benois", "John the Baptist" and "St. Anna with Mary and the Christ Child.
This artist is recognizable due to the unique style that he developed over the years. He also painted the walls of the Sistine Chapel at the personal request of Pope Sixtus IV. Botticelli painted famous paintings on mythological themes. Such paintings include "Spring", "Pallas and the Centaur", "The Birth of Venus".
Titian was the head of the Florentine school of artists. After the death of his teacher Bellini, Titian became the official, generally recognized artist of the Venetian Republic. This painter is known for his portraits on religious themes: "The Ascension of Mary", "Danae", "Earthly Love and Heavenly Love".
The Italian poet, sculptor, architect and artist depicted many masterpieces, of which is the famous statue of "David" made of marble. This statue has become a major attraction in Florence. Michelangelo painted the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which was a major commission from Pope Julius II. During the period of his work, he paid more attention to architecture, but gave us the "Crucifixion of St. Peter", "The Entombment", "The Creation of Adam", "The Soothsayer".
His work was formed under the great influence of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, thanks to whom he gained invaluable experience and skill. He painted the state rooms in the Vatican, representing human activity and depicting various scenes from the Bible. Among the famous paintings of Raphael are "Sistine Madonna", "Three Graces", "Saint Michael and the Devil".
Ivan Sergeevich Tseregorodtsev
August 7th, 2014
Students of art universities and people interested in art history know that at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, a sharp turning point took place in painting - the Renaissance. Around the 1420s, everyone suddenly became much better at drawing. Why did the images suddenly become so realistic and detailed, and why did the paintings have light and volume? Nobody thought about this for a long time. Until David Hockney picked up a magnifying glass.
Let's find out what he found...
One day he was looking at drawings by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, the leader of the French academic school of the 19th century. Hockney became interested in seeing his small drawings on a larger scale, and he enlarged them on a copier. That's how he stumbled upon the secret side of the history of painting since the Renaissance.
Having made photocopies of Ingres' small (about 30 centimeters) drawings, Hockney was amazed at how realistic they were. And it also seemed to him that Ingres' lines meant something to him.
remind. It turned out that they remind him of the work of Warhol. And Warhol did this - he projected a photo onto a canvas and outlined it.
Left: detail of an Ingres drawing. Right: Drawing by Mao Zedong Warhol
Interesting cases, says Hockney. Apparently, Ingres used Camera Lucida - a device that is a construction with a prism, which is attached, for example, to a tablet stand. Thus, the artist, looking at his drawing with one eye, sees the real image, and with the other - the actual drawing and his hand. It turns out an optical illusion that allows you to accurately transfer real proportions to paper. And this is precisely the "guarantee" of the realism of the image.
Drawing a portrait with a lucida camera, 1807
Then Hockney became seriously interested in this "optical" type of drawings and paintings. In his studio, he, along with his team, hung hundreds of reproductions of paintings created over the centuries on the walls. Works that looked "real" and those that didn't. Arranged by time of creation, and regions - north at the top, south at the bottom, Hockney and his team saw a sharp turning point in painting at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. In general, everyone who knows at least a little about the history of art knows - the Renaissance.
Maybe they used the same camera-lucida? It was patented in 1807 by William Hyde Wollaston. Although, in fact, such a device is described by Johannes Kepler back in 1611 in his work Dioptrice. Then maybe they used another optical device - a camera obscura? After all, it has been known since the time of Aristotle and is a dark room into which light enters through a small hole and thus in a dark room a projection of what is in front of the hole, but upside down, is obtained. Everything would be fine, but the image that is obtained when projecting a camera obscura without a lens, to put it mildly, is not of high quality, it is not clear, it requires a lot of bright light, not to mention the size of the projection. But high-quality lenses were almost impossible to make until the 16th century, because there was no way to make such high-quality glass at that time. Things, thought Hockney, who by then was already struggling with the problem with the physicist Charles Falco.
However, there is a painting by Jan van Eyck, a master from Bruges, a Flemish painter of the early Renaissance, in which a clue is hidden. The painting is called "Portrait of the Cheta Arnolfini".
Jan Van Eyck "Portrait of the Arnolfini" 1434
The picture simply shines with a huge amount of detail, which is quite interesting, because it was painted only in 1434. And a hint about how the author managed to make such a big step forward in the realism of the image is the mirror. And also a candlestick - incredibly complex and realistic.
Hockney was filled with curiosity. He got a copy of such a chandelier and tried to draw it. The artist was faced with the fact that such a complex thing is difficult to draw in perspective. Another important point was the materiality of the image of this metal object. When depicting a steel object, it is very important to place the highlights as realistically as possible, as this gives tremendous realism. But the problem with these highlights is that they move when the eye of the viewer or the artist moves, which means that it is not easy to capture them at all. And a realistic image of metal and glare is also a hallmark of Renaissance paintings, before that artists did not even try to do this.
By recreating an accurate 3D model of the chandelier, Hockney's team ensured that the chandelier in The Arnolfini was drawn in true perspective with a single vanishing point. But the problem was that such precise optical instruments as a camera obscura with a lens did not exist until about a century after the painting was created.
Fragment of the painting by Jan van Eyck "Portrait of the couple Arnolfini" 1434
The enlarged fragment shows that the mirror in the painting "Portrait of the Arnolfini" is convex. So there were mirrors on the contrary - concave. Even more so, in those days such mirrors were made in this way - a glass sphere was taken, and its bottom was covered with silver, then everything except the bottom was cut off. The back side of the mirror was not dimmed. This means that the concave mirror of Jan van Eyck could be the same mirror that is shown in the picture, just from the back. And any physicist knows what a mirror is, when reflected, it projects a picture of the reflected. This is where his friend, physicist Charles Falco, helped David Hockney with calculations and research.
A concave mirror projects an image of the tower outside the window onto the canvas.
The size of the clear, focused part of the projection is about 30 square centimeters - and this is just the size of the heads in many Renaissance portraits.
Hockney sketches a projection of a person on canvas
This is the size of, for example, the portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini (1501), the portrait of a man by Robert Campin (1430), Jan van Eyck's own portrait of a "man in a red turban" and many other early Dutch portraits.
Renaissance portraits
Painting was a highly paid job, and of course, all the secrets of the business were kept in the strictest confidence. It was beneficial for the artist that all uninitiated people believed that the secrets were in the hands of the master and could not be stolen. The business was closed to outsiders - the artists were in the guild, it also consisted of a variety of craftsmen - from those who made saddles to those who made mirrors. And in the Guild of Saint Luke, founded in Antwerp and first mentioned in 1382 (then similar guilds opened in many northern cities, and one of the largest was the guild in Bruges - the city where Van Eyck lived) there were also masters, making mirrors.
So Hockney recreated the way in which you can draw a complex chandelier from a painting by Van Eyck. Not surprisingly, the size of the Hockney-projected chandelier exactly matches the size of the chandelier in the painting "Portrait of the Arnolfini". And of course, the highlights on the metal - on the projection they stand still and do not change when the artist changes position.
But the problem is still not completely solved, because before the appearance of high-quality optics, which is needed to use the camera obscura, there were 100 years left, and the size of the projection obtained with the help of a mirror is very small. How to paint pictures larger than 30 square centimeters? They were created as a collage - from a variety of points of view, it turned out such a kind of spherical vision with many vanishing points. Hockney realized this because he himself was engaged in such pictures - he made many photo collages that achieve exactly the same effect.
Almost a century later, in the 1500s, it finally became possible to obtain and process glass well - large lenses appeared. And they could finally be inserted into a camera obscura, the principle of operation of which has been known since ancient times. The camera obscura with a lens was an incredible revolution in the visual arts, since now the projection could be of any size. And one more thing, now the image was not "wide-angle", but about a normal aspect - that is, about the same as it is today when photographing with a lens with a focal length of 35-50mm.
However, the problem with using a camera obscura with a lens is that the direct projection from the lens is specular. This led to a lot of left-handers in painting during the early stages of the use of optics. As in this painting from the 1600s from the Frans Hals Museum, where a left-handed couple dances, a left-handed old man threatens them with a finger, and a left-handed monkey peers under the woman's dress.
Everyone in this picture is left-handed.
The problem is solved by installing a mirror into which the lens is directed, thus obtaining the correct projection. But apparently, a good, even and large mirror cost a lot of money, so not everyone had it.
Another issue was focus. The fact is that some parts of the picture at one position of the canvas under the rays of the projection were out of focus, not clear. In the works of Jan Vermeer, where the use of optics is quite clearly visible, his works generally look like photographs, you can also notice places out of “focus”. You can even see the pattern that the lens gives - the notorious "bokeh". As for example here, in the painting "The Milkmaid" (1658), the basket, the bread in it and the blue vase are out of focus. But the human eye cannot see “out of focus”.
Some details of the picture are out of focus
And in the light of all this, it is not at all surprising that Antony Phillips van Leeuwenhoek, a scientist and microbiologist, as well as a unique master who created his own microscopes and lenses, was a good friend of Jan Vermeer. The scientist became the posthumous manager of the artist. And this suggests that Vermeer depicted exactly his friend on two canvases - "Geographer" and "Astronomer".
In order to see any part in focus, you need to change the position of the canvas under the projection rays. But in this case, errors in proportions appeared. As seen here: the huge shoulder of Anthea by Parmigianino (circa 1537), the small head of Anthony van Dyck's "Lady Genovese" (1626), the huge feet of a peasant in a painting by Georges de La Tour.
Errors in proportions
Of course, all artists used lenses in different ways. Someone for sketches, someone made up from different parts - after all, now it was possible to make a portrait, and finish everything else with a different model, or even with a mannequin.
There are almost no drawings left by Velasquez. However, his masterpiece remained - a portrait of Pope Innocent the 10th (1650). On the Pope's mantle - obviously silk - is a beautiful play of light. Glare. And to write all this from one point of view, it was necessary to try very hard. But if you make a projection, then all this beauty will not run away anywhere - the glare no longer moves, you can write with exactly those wide and quick strokes like Velazquez's.
Hockney reproduces a painting by Velasquez
Subsequently, many artists were able to afford the camera obscura, and this ceased to be a big secret. Canaletto actively used the camera to create his views of Venice and did not hide it. These paintings, thanks to their accuracy, allow us to speak of Canaletto as a documentary filmmaker. Thanks to Canaletto, you can see not just a beautiful picture, but also the story itself. You can see what the first Westminster Bridge was in London in 1746.
Canaletto "Westminster Bridge" 1746
British artist Sir Joshua Reynolds owned a camera obscura and apparently didn't tell anyone about it, as his camera folds up and looks like a book. Today it is in the London Science Museum.
Camera obscura disguised as a book
Finally, at the beginning of the 19th century, William Henry Fox Talbot, using a lucida camera - the one that you need to look into with one eye and draw with your hands, cursed, deciding that such an inconvenience should be done away with once and for all, and became one of the inventors of chemical photography, and later a popularizer who made it mass.
With the invention of photography, the monopoly of painting on the realism of the picture disappeared, now the photo has become a monopoly. And here, finally, painting was freed from the lens, continuing the path from which it turned in the 1400s, and Van Gogh became the forerunner of all art of the 20th century.
Left: Byzantine mosaic from the 12th century. Right: Vincent van Gogh "Portrait of Mr. Trabuk" 1889
The invention of photography is the best thing that has happened to painting in its entire history. It was no longer necessary to create exclusively real images, the artist became free. Of course, it took the public a century to catch up with artists in their understanding of visual music and stop thinking people like Van Gogh were "crazy". At the same time, artists began to actively use photographs as "reference material". Then there were such people as Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian avant-garde, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock. Following painting, architecture, sculpture and music were released. True, the Russian academic school of painting is stuck in time, and today it is still considered a shame in academies and schools to use photography to help, and the purely technical ability to draw as realistically as possible with bare hands is considered the highest feat.
Thanks to an article by journalist Lawrence Weschler, who was present during the research of David Hockney and Falco, another interesting fact is revealed: Van Eyck's portrait of the Arnolfini couple is a portrait of an Italian merchant in Bruges. Mr. Arnolfini is a Florentine and moreover, he is a representative of the Medici bank (practically the masters of Renaissance Florence, considered patrons of the art of that time in Italy). What does this say? The fact that he could easily take the secret of the Guild of St. Luke - a mirror - with him to Florence, in which, according to traditional history, the Renaissance began, and artists from Bruges (and, accordingly, other masters) are considered "primitives".
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the Hockney-Falco theory. But there is certainly a grain of truth in it. As for art historians, critics and historians, it is even difficult to imagine how many scientific works on history and art actually turned out to be complete nonsense, but this changes the entire history of art, all their theories and texts.
The facts of the use of optics do not in the least detract from the talents of artists - after all, technology is a means of conveying what the artist wants. And vice versa, the fact that there is a real reality in these pictures only adds weight to them - after all, this is exactly what the people of that time, things, premises, cities looked like. These are the real documents.
The peoples of Europe sought to revive the treasures and traditions lost due to endless extermination wars. Wars took people off the face of the earth, and the great things that people created. The idea of resurrecting the high civilization of the ancient world gave birth to philosophy, literature, music, the rise of the natural sciences and, above all, the flourishing of art. The era demanded strong, educated people who were not afraid of any work. It was in their midst that the emergence of those few geniuses who are called the "titans of the Renaissance" became possible. The ones we only call by their first names.
The Renaissance was primarily Italian. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was in Italy that art during this period reached its highest rise and flourishing. It is here that there are dozens of names of titans, geniuses, great and simply talented artists.
MUSIC LEONARDO.
What a lucky man! many will say about him. He was endowed with rare health, handsome, tall, blue-eyed. In his youth he wore blond curls, with a proud stature reminiscent of Donatella's St. George. He possessed unheard of and courageous strength, masculine prowess. He sang wonderfully, in front of the audience he composed melodies and poems. He played any musical instrument, moreover, he created them himself.
For the art of Leonardo da Vinci, contemporaries and descendants never found other definitions than "brilliant", "divine", "great". The same words apply to his scientific revelations: he invented a tank, an excavator, a helicopter, a submarine, a parachute, an automatic weapon, a diving helmet, an elevator, solved the most difficult problems of acoustics, botany, medicine, cosmography, created a project for a round theater, came up with a century earlier than Galileo, the clock pendulum, drew the current water skiing, developed the theory of mechanics.
What a lucky man! - many will say about him and begin to remember his beloved princes and kings, who were looking for acquaintances with him, spectacles and holidays that he invented as an artist, playwright, actor, architect, and had fun with them like a child.
However, was the indefatigable long-liver Leonardo happy, whose every day gave people and the world providence and insight? He foresaw the terrible fate of his creations: the destruction of the "Last Supper", the shooting of the monument to Francesca Sforza, low trade and vile theft of his diaries, workbooks. In total, only sixteen paintings have survived to this day. Few sculptures. But a lot of drawings, encoded drawings: like the heroes of modern science fiction, he changed the detail in his design, as if so that the other could not use it.
Leonardo da Vinci worked in different types and genres of art, but painting brought him the greatest fame.
One of Leonardo's earliest paintings is Madonna with a Flower or Benois Madonna. Already here the artist appears as a true innovator. He overcomes the boundaries of the traditional plot and gives the image a broader, universal meaning, which is maternal joy and love. In this work, many features of the artist's art were clearly manifested: a clear composition of figures and volume of forms, a desire for conciseness and generalization, and psychological expressiveness.
The painting “Madonna Litta” was a continuation of the started topic, where another feature of the artist’s work was clearly manifested – the play on contrasts. The theme was completed with the painting “Madonna in the Grotto”, which marks the ideal compositional solution, thanks to which the depicted figures of the Madonna, Christ and angels merge with the landscape into a single whole, endowed with calm balance and harmony.
One of the peaks of Leonardo's work is the Last Supper fresco in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria Della Grazie. This work impresses not only with its overall composition, but also with its precision. Leonardo not only conveys the psychological state of the apostles, but does so at the moment when it reaches a critical point, turns into a psychological explosion and conflict. This explosion is caused by the words of Christ: "One of you will betray me." In this work, Leonardo made full use of the method of concrete juxtaposition of figures, thanks to which each character appears as a unique individuality and personality.
The second pinnacle of Leonard's work was the famous portrait of Mona Lisa, or "La Gioconda". This work laid the foundation for the genre of psychological portrait in European art. When creating it, the great master brilliantly used the entire arsenal of means of artistic expression: sharp contrasts and soft undertones, frozen immobility and general fluidity and variability, the subtlest psychological nuances and transitions. The whole genius of Leonardo lies in the amazingly lively look of Mona Lisa, her mysterious and enigmatic smile, mystical haze covering the landscape. This work is one of the rarest masterpieces of art.
Everyone who saw the Gioconda brought from the Louvre in Moscow remembers the minutes of their complete deafness near this small canvas, the tension of all the best in oneself. Gioconda seemed to be a "Martian", a representative of the unknown - it must be the future, and not the past of the human tribe, the embodiment of harmony, which the world has not tired of and will never get tired of dreaming about.
There is much more to be said about him. Surprised that this is not fiction or fantasy. Here, for example, we can remember how he proposed to move the Cathedral of San Giovanni - such work amazes us, the inhabitants of the twentieth century.
Leonardo said: “A good artist must be able to paint two main things: a person and a representation of his soul. Or is it said about "Columbine" from the St. Petersburg Hermitage? Some researchers call it, and not the Louvre canvas, "La Gioconda".
The boy Nardo, that was his name in Vinci: the illegitimate son of a notary clerk, who considered birds and horses to be the best creatures on Earth. Beloved by all and lonely, bending steel swords and drawing hanged men. Invented a bridge across the Bosphorus and an ideal city, more beautiful than those of Corbusier and Niemeyer. Singing in a soft baritone voice and making the Mona Lisa smile. In one of the last notebooks, this lucky man wrote: "It seemed to me that I was learning to live, but I was learning to die." However, he then summed it up: "A life well lived is a long life."
Is it possible to disagree with Leonardo?
SANDRO BOTTICELLI.
Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence in 1445 in the family of a leather tanner.
The first original work by Botticelli is considered to be The Adoration of the Magi (circa 1740), where the main property of his original manner, dreaminess and subtle poetry, has already fully affected. He was gifted with an innate sense of poetry, but a clear touch of contemplative sadness shone through him literally in everything. Even Saint Sebastian, tormented by the arrows of his tormentors, looks at him thoughtfully and detachedly.
In the late 1470s, Botticelli became close to the circle of the actual ruler of Florence, Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed the Magnificent. In the luxurious gardens of Lorenzo, a society of people gathered, probably the most enlightened and talented in Florence. There were philosophers, poets, musicians. An atmosphere of admiration for beauty reigned, and not only the beauty of art, but also the beauty of life was valued. Antiquity, perceived, however, through the prism of later philosophical layers, was considered the prototype of ideal art and ideal life. Without a doubt, under the influence of this atmosphere, the first large painting by Botticelli "Primavera (Spring)" was created. This is a dreamlike, refined, marvelously beautiful allegory of the eternal cycle, the constant renewal of nature. It is permeated by the most complex and whimsical musical rhythm. The figure of Flora, decorated with flowers, dancing graces in the Garden of Eden, were images of beauty that had not yet been seen at that time and therefore made a particularly captivating impression. The young Botticelli immediately took a prominent place among the masters of his time.
It was the high reputation of the young painter that secured him an order for biblical frescoes for the Vatican Sistine Chapel, which he created in the early 1480s in Rome. He painted "Scenes from the Life of Moses", "The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Aviron", showing amazing compositional skill. The classical calmness of the ancient buildings, against which Botticelli unfolded the action, contrasts sharply with the dramatic rhythm of the depicted characters and passions; the movement of human bodies is complex, intricate, saturated with explosive power; one gets the impression of shaking harmony, defenselessness of the visible world before the rapid onslaught of time and human will. The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel for the first time expressed the deep anxiety that lived in the soul of Botticelli, which grew stronger over time. The amazing talent of Botticelli as a portrait painter was reflected in these frescoes: each of the many painted faces is completely original, unique and unforgettable ...
In the 1480s, returning to Florence, Botticelli continued to work tirelessly, but the serene clarity of the "Examples" was already far behind. In the middle of the decade he wrote his famous The Birth of Venus. Researchers note in the later works of the master a moralism, a religious exaltation that was unusual for him before.
Perhaps more significant than late painting, Botticelli's drawings of the 90s are illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. He painted with obvious and undisguised delight; the visions of the great poet are lovingly and carefully conveyed by the perfection of the proportions of numerous figures, the thoughtful organization of space, the inexhaustible resourcefulness in the search for visual equivalents of the poetic word...
Despite any mental storms and crises, Botticelli until the very end (he died in 1510) remained a great artist, the master of his art. This is clearly evidenced by the noble modeling of the face in the "Portrait of a Young Man", the expressive characterization of the model, leaving no doubt about her high human dignity, the master's solid drawing and his benevolent look.
Italy is a country that has always been famous for its artists. The great masters who once lived in Italy glorified art throughout the world. We can say for sure that if it were not for the Italian artists, sculptors and architects, the world would look very different today. The most significant in Italian art, of course, is considered. Italy in the Renaissance or Renaissance reached an unprecedented rise and prosperity. Talented artists, sculptors, inventors, real geniuses who appeared in those days are still known to every schoolchild. Their art, creativity, ideas, developments today are considered classics, the core on which world art and culture are built.
One of the most famous geniuses of the Italian Renaissance, of course, is the great Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519). Da Vinci was so gifted that he achieved great success in many areas of activity, including the visual arts and science. Another famous artist who is a recognized master is Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510). Botticelli's paintings are a real gift to mankind. Today, his dense are in the most famous museums in the world and are truly priceless. No less famous than Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli is Rafael Santi(1483-1520), who lived for 38 years, and during this time managed to create a whole layer of stunning painting, which became one of the brightest examples of the Early Renaissance. Another great genius of the Italian Renaissance is no doubt Michelangelo Buonarotti(1475-1564). In addition to painting, Michelangelo was engaged in sculpture, architecture and poetry, and achieved great results in these arts. The statue of Michelangelo called "David" is considered an unsurpassed masterpiece, an example of the highest achievement of the art of sculpture.
In addition to the artists mentioned above, the greatest artists of Italy of the Renaissance were such masters as Antonello da Messina, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto, Domenico Fetti, Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi and others. . All of them were a prime example of the delightful Venetian school of painting. The Florentine school of Italian painting includes such artists as: Masaccio, Andrea del Verrocchio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Benozzo Gozzoli, Sandro Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Piero di Cosimo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto.
To list all the artists who worked during the Renaissance, as well as during the late Renaissance, and centuries later, who became known to the whole world and glorified the art of painting, developed the basic principles and laws that underlie all types and genres of fine arts, perhaps it will take several volumes to write, but this list is enough to understand that the Great Italian Artists are the very art that we know, that we love and that we will appreciate forever!
Paintings by great Italian artists
Andrea Mantegna - Fresco in the Camera degli Sposi
Giorgione - Three Philosophers
Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa
Nicolas Poussin - The Magnanimity of Scipio
Paolo Veronese - Battle of Lepanto
