The undoubted achievement of the Renaissance was the geometrically correct design of the picture. The artist built the image using the techniques he developed. The main thing for painters of that time was to observe the proportions of objects. Even nature fell under the mathematical methods of calculating the proportionality of the image with other objects in the picture.
In other words, artists in the Renaissance sought to convey an accurate image, for example, of a person against the backdrop of nature. If compared with modern methods of recreating a seen image on some kind of canvas, then, most likely, a photograph with subsequent adjustment will help to understand what the Renaissance artists were striving for.
Renaissance painters believed that they had the right to correct the flaws of nature, that is, if a person had ugly facial features, the artists corrected them in such a way that the face became sweet and attractive.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Renaissance became such thanks to many creative personalities who lived at that time. The world-famous Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) created a huge number of masterpieces, the cost of which is estimated at millions of dollars, and connoisseurs of his art are ready to contemplate his paintings for a long time.
Leonardo began his studies in Florence. His first canvas, painted around 1478, is Benois Madonna. Then there were such creations as “Madonna in the Grotto”, “Mona Lisa”, the “Last Supper” mentioned above and a host of other masterpieces written by the hand of a titan of the Renaissance.
The severity of geometric proportions and the exact reproduction of the anatomical structure of a person - this is what Leonard da Vinci's painting is characterized by. According to his convictions, the art of depicting certain images on canvas is a science, and not just some kind of hobby.
Rafael Santi
Raphael Santi (1483 - 1520) known in the art world as Raphael created his works in Italy. His paintings are imbued with lyricism and grace. Raphael is a representative of the Renaissance, who depicted a man and his being on earth, loved to paint the walls of the Vatican cathedrals.
The paintings betrayed the unity of the figures, the proportional correspondences of space and images, the euphony of color. The purity of the Virgin was the basis for many of Raphael's paintings. His very first image of the Mother of God is the Sistine Madonna, which was painted by a famous artist back in 1513. The portraits that were created by Raphael reflected the ideal human image.
Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510) is also a Renaissance painter. One of his first works was the painting "The Adoration of the Magi". Subtle poetry and dreaminess were his original manners in the field of transferring artistic images.
In the early 80s of the XV century, the great artist painted the walls of the Vatican Chapel. The frescoes made by him are still amazing.
Over time, his paintings became characterized by the calmness of the buildings of antiquity, the liveliness of the depicted characters, the harmony of images. In addition, Botticelli's fascination with drawings for famous literary works is known, which also added only glory to his work.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) was an Italian painter who also worked during the Renaissance. What only this person known to many of us did not do. And sculpture, and painting, and architecture, as well as poetry. Michelangelo, like Raphael and Botticelli, painted the walls of the temples of the Vatican. After all, only the most talented painters of those times were involved in such responsible work as drawing images on the walls of Catholic cathedrals. More than 600 square meters of the Sistine Chapel he had to cover with frescoes depicting various biblical scenes. The most famous work in this style is known to us as The Last Judgment. The meaning of the biblical story is expressed fully and clearly. Such accuracy in the transfer of images is characteristic of the entire work of Michelangelo.
Renaissance (Renaissance). Italy. 15-16 centuries. early capitalism. The country is ruled by wealthy bankers. They are interested in art and science.
The rich and powerful gather the talented and wise around them. Poets, philosophers, painters and sculptors have daily conversations with their patrons. For a moment it seemed that the people were ruled by sages, as Plato wanted.
They remembered the ancient Romans and Greeks. Which also built a society of free citizens. Where the main value is a person (not counting slaves, of course).
The Renaissance is not just copying the art of ancient civilizations. This is a mixture. Mythology and Christianity. Realism of nature and sincerity of images. Physical beauty and spiritual beauty.
It was just a flash. The period of the High Renaissance is about 30 years! From the 1490s to 1527 From the beginning of the flowering of Leonardo's creativity. Before the sack of Rome.
The mirage of an ideal world quickly faded. Italy was too fragile. She was soon enslaved by another dictator.
However, these 30 years determined the main features of European painting for 500 years ahead! Up to impressionists.
Image realism. Anthropocentrism (when a person is the main character and hero). Linear perspective. Oil paints. Portrait. Scenery…
Incredibly, in these 30 years, several brilliant masters worked at once. Which in other times are born one in 1000 years.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian are the titans of the Renaissance. But it is impossible not to mention their two predecessors. Giotto and Masaccio. Without which there would be no Renaissance.
1. Giotto (1267-1337)
Paolo Uccello. Giotto da Bondogni. Fragment of the painting "Five Masters of the Florentine Renaissance". Early 16th century. Louvre, Paris.
14th century Proto-Renaissance. Its main character is Giotto. This is a master who single-handedly revolutionized art. 200 years before the High Renaissance. If not for him, the era that humanity is so proud of would hardly have come.
Before Giotto there were icons and frescoes. They were created according to the Byzantine canons. Faces instead of faces. flat figures. Proportional mismatch. Instead of a landscape - a golden background. As, for example, on this icon.
Guido da Siena. Adoration of the Magi. 1275-1280 Altenburg, Lindenau Museum, Germany.
And suddenly Giotto's frescoes appear. They have big figures. Faces of noble people. Sad. Mournful. Surprised. Old and young. Different.
Giotto. Lamentation for Christ. Fragment
Giotto. Kiss Judas. Fragment
Giotto. Saint Anna
Frescoes by Giotto in the Scrovegni Church in Padua (1302-1305). Left: Lamentation of Christ. Middle: Kiss of Judas (detail). Right: Annunciation of St. Anne (Mary's mother), fragment.
The main creation of Giotto is a cycle of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. When this church opened to parishioners, crowds of people poured into it. Because they've never seen anything like it.
After all, Giotto did something unprecedented. He kind of translated the biblical stories into a simple, understandable language. And they have become much more accessible to ordinary people.
Giotto. Adoration of the Magi. 1303-1305 Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.
This is what will be characteristic of many masters of the Renaissance. Laconism of images. Live emotions of the characters. Realism.
Between the icon and the realism of the Renaissance.
Giotto was admired. But his innovations were not further developed. The fashion for international gothic came to Italy.
Only after 100 years will a master appear, a worthy successor to Giotto.
2. Masaccio (1401-1428)
Masaccio. Self-portrait (fragment of the fresco "Saint Peter in the pulpit"). 1425-1427 The Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.
Early 15th century. The so-called Early Renaissance. Another innovator enters the scene.
Masaccio was the first artist to use linear perspective. It was designed by his friend, the architect Brunelleschi. Now the depicted world has become similar to the real one. Toy architecture is in the past.
Masaccio. Saint Peter heals with his shadow. 1425-1427 The Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.
He adopted the realism of Giotto. However, unlike his predecessor, he already knew anatomy well.
Instead of blocky characters, Giotto is beautifully built people. Just like the ancient Greeks.
Masaccio. Baptism of neophytes. 1426-1427 Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy.
Masaccio. Exile from Paradise. 1426-1427 Fresco in the Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.
Masaccio lived a short life. He died, like his father, unexpectedly. At 27 years old.
However, he had many followers. Masters of the following generations went to the Brancacci Chapel to learn from his frescoes.
So the innovations of Masaccio were picked up by all the great titans of the High Renaissance.
3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. 1512 Royal Library in Turin, Italy.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the titans of the Renaissance. Which colossally influenced the development of painting.
It was he who raised the status of the artist himself. Thanks to him, representatives of this profession are no longer just artisans. These are the creators and aristocrats of the spirit.
Leonardo made a breakthrough primarily in portraiture.
He believed that nothing should distract from the main image. The eye should not wander from one detail to another. This is how his famous portraits appeared. Concise. Harmonious.
Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an ermine. 1489-1490 Chertoryski Museum, Krakow.
The main innovation of Leonardo is that he found a way to make images ... alive.
Before him, the characters in the portraits looked like mannequins. The lines were clear. All details are carefully drawn. A painted drawing could not possibly be alive.
But then Leonardo invented the sfumato method. He blurred the lines. Made the transition from light to shadow very soft. His characters seem to be covered in a barely perceptible haze. The characters came to life.
Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris.
Since then, sfumato will enter the active vocabulary of all the great artists of the future.
It is often believed that Leonardo, of course, is a genius. But he couldn't complete anything. And he often didn't finish painting. And many of his projects remained on paper (by the way, in 24 volumes). In general, he was thrown into medicine, then into music. And even the art of serving at one time was fond of.
However, think for yourself. 19 paintings. And he is the greatest artist of all times and peoples. Some of them are not even close in size. At the same time, having written 6000 canvases in his life. Obviously, who has a higher efficiency.
4. Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Daniele da Volterra. Michelangelo (detail). 1544 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor. But he was a universal master. Like his other Renaissance colleagues. Therefore, his pictorial heritage is no less grandiose.
He is recognizable primarily by physically developed characters. Because he portrayed the perfect man. In which physical beauty means spiritual beauty.
Therefore, all his characters are so muscular, hardy. Even women and old people.
Michelangelo. Fragment of the fresco "The Last Judgment"
Michelangelo. Fragments of the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican.
Often Michelangelo painted the character naked. And then I added clothes on top. To make the body as embossed as possible.
He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel himself. Although this is a few hundred figures! He didn't even let anyone rub the paint. Yes, he was a loner. Possessing a steep and quarrelsome character. But most of all, he was dissatisfied with ... himself.
Michelangelo. Fragment of the fresco "Creation of Adam". 1511 Sistine Chapel, Vatican.
Michelangelo lived a long life. Surviving the decline of the Renaissance. For him it was a personal tragedy. His later works are full of sadness and sorrow.
In general, the creative path of Michelangelo is unique. His early works are the praise of the human hero. Free and courageous. In the best traditions of ancient Greece. Like his David.
In the last years of life - these are tragic images. A deliberately rough-hewn stone. As if we have before us monuments to the victims of fascism of the 20th century. Look at his "Pieta".
Michelangelo. David
Michelangelo. Pieta of Palestrina
Sculptures by Michelangelo at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Left: David. 1504 Right: Pieta of Palestrina. 1555
How is this possible? One artist in one lifetime went through all the stages of art from the Renaissance to the 20th century. What will the next generations do? Well, go your own way. Knowing that the bar has been set very high.
5. Raphael (1483-1520)
Raphael. Self-portrait. 1506 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
Raphael has never been forgotten. His genius has always been recognized. And during life. And after death.
His characters are endowed with sensual, lyrical beauty. It is his Madonnas that are rightfully considered the most beautiful female images ever created. Their external beauty reflects the spiritual beauty of the heroines. Their meekness. Their sacrifice.
Raphael. Sistine Madonna. 1513 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany.
The famous words "Beauty will save the world" Fyodor Dostoevsky said about the Sistine Madonna. It was his favorite picture.
However, sensual images are not Raphael's only strong point. He thought very carefully about the composition of his paintings. He was an unsurpassed architect in painting. Moreover, he always found the simplest and most harmonious solution in the organization of space. It seems that it cannot be otherwise.
Raphael. Athens school. 1509-1511 Fresco in the rooms of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican.
Rafael lived only 37 years. He died suddenly. From caught colds and medical errors. But his legacy cannot be overestimated. Many artists idolized this master. Multiplying his sensual images in thousands of his canvases.
6. Titian (1488-1576).
Titian. Self-portrait (detail). 1562 Prado Museum, Madrid.
Titian was an unsurpassed colorist. He also experimented a lot with composition. In general, he was a bold and bright innovator.
For such a brilliance of talent, everyone loved him. Called "King of painters and painter of kings".
Speaking of Titian, I want to put an exclamation point after each sentence. After all, it was he who brought dynamics to painting. Pathos. Enthusiasm. Bright color. Shine of colors.
Titian. Ascension of Mary. 1515-1518 Church of Santa Maria Gloriosi dei Frari, Venice.
Towards the end of his life, he developed an unusual writing technique. The strokes are fast. Thick. pasty. The paint was applied either with a brush or with fingers. From this - the images are even more alive, breathing. And the plots are even more dynamic and dramatic.
Titian. Tarquinius and Lucretia. 1571 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.
Doesn't this remind you of anything? Of course, this is the Rubens technique. And the technique of artists of the 19th century: Barbizon and Impressionists. Titian, like Michelangelo, will go through 500 years of painting in one lifetime. That's why he's a genius.
***
Renaissance artists are artists of great knowledge. To leave such a legacy, one had to know a lot. In the field of history, astrology, physics and so on.
Therefore, each of their images makes us think. Why is it shown? What is the encrypted message here?
Therefore, they are almost never wrong. Because they thoroughly thought out their future work. Using all the baggage of their knowledge.
They were more than artists. They were philosophers. Explaining the world to us through painting.
That is why they will always be deeply interesting to us.
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 ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which was a major order 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
Renaissance, which flourished in the XV-XVI centuries, served as a new stage in the development of art, and painting in particular. There is also a French name for this era - Renaissance. Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Michelangelo are some of the famous names that represent that time period.
Renaissance artists depicted the characters in their paintings as accurately and clearly as possible.
Psychological context was not originally included in the image. The painters set themselves the goal of achieving the liveliness of the depicted. Regardless of whether the dynamism of the human face or the details of the surrounding nature had to be conveyed with paints as accurately as possible. However, over time, in the paintings of the Renaissance, a psychological moment becomes clearly visible, for example, from portraits one could draw conclusions about the character traits of the depicted person.
Achieving the artistic culture of the Renaissance
The undoubted achievement of the Renaissance was geometrically correct design of the picture. The artist built the image using the techniques he developed. The main thing for painters of that time was to observe the proportions of objects. Even nature fell under the mathematical methods of calculating the proportionality of the image with other objects in the picture.
In other words, Renaissance artists sought to convey exact picture, for example, a person against the backdrop of nature. If compared with modern methods of recreating a seen image on some kind of canvas, then, most likely, a photograph with subsequent adjustment will help to understand what the Renaissance artists were striving for.
Renaissance painters believed they had the right to correct imperfections of nature, i.e., if a person had ugly facial features, the artists corrected them in such a way that the face became sweet and attractive.
Geometric approach in images leads to a new way of depicting spatiality. Before recreating images on canvas, the artist marked out their spatial arrangement. This rule eventually became fixed among the painters of that era.
The viewer was to be impressed by the images in the paintings. For example, Raphael achieved full compliance with this rule by creating the painting "Athenian School". The vaults of the building are striking in their height. There are so many spaces that you begin to understand what size this building has. And the depicted thinkers of antiquity with Plato and Aristotle in the middle indicate that in the ancient world there was a unity of various philosophical ideas.
Plots of paintings of the Renaissance
If you start to get acquainted with the painting of the Renaissance, you can draw an interesting conclusion. The plots of the paintings were based mainly on the events described in the Bible. More often, painters of that time depicted stories from the New Testament. The most popular image is Virgin and Child- little Jesus Christ. 
The character was so alive that people even worshiped these images, although the people understood that they were not icons, but they prayed and asked for help and protection. In addition to the Madonna, Renaissance painters were very fond of recreating images Jesus Christ, apostles, John the Baptist, as well as gospel episodes. For example, Leonardo da Vinci created the world-famous painting "The Last Supper".
Why Renaissance Artists Used Plots from the bible? Why didn't they try to express themselves by creating portraits of their contemporaries? Maybe they were trying in this way to portray ordinary people with their inherent character traits? Yes, the painters of that time tried to show people that man is a divine being.
Depicting biblical scenes, Renaissance artists tried to make it clear that the earthly manifestations of a person can be depicted more clearly if biblical stories are used at the same time. You can understand what the fall, temptation, hell or heaven is, if you start to get acquainted with the work of artists of that time. Same the image of the Madonna conveys to us the beauty of a woman, and also carries an understanding of earthly human love.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Renaissance became such thanks to many creative personalities who lived at that time. Known all over the world Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) created a huge number of masterpieces, the cost of which is estimated at millions of dollars, and connoisseurs of his art are ready to contemplate his paintings for a long time. 
Leonardo began his studies in Florence. His first canvas, painted around 1478, is "Madonna Benois". Then there were such creations as "Madonna in the Grotto", "Mona Lisa", the Last Supper mentioned above, and a host of other masterpieces written by the hand of a titan of the Renaissance.
The severity of geometric proportions and the exact reproduction of the anatomical structure of a person - this is what Leonard da Vinci's painting is characterized by. According to his convictions, the art of depicting certain images on canvas is a science, and not just some kind of hobby.
Rafael Santi
Raphael Santi (1483 - 1520) known in the art world as Raphael created his works in Italy. His paintings are imbued with lyricism and grace. Raphael is a representative of the Renaissance, who depicted a man and his being on earth, loved to paint the walls of the Vatican cathedrals.
The paintings betrayed the unity of the figures, the proportional correspondences of space and images, the euphony of color. The purity of the Virgin was the basis for many of Raphael's paintings. His very first image of Our Lady- This is the Sistine Madonna, which was painted by a famous artist back in 1513. The portraits that were created by Raphael reflected the ideal human image.
Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510) is also a Renaissance painter. One of his first works was the painting "The Adoration of the Magi". Subtle poetry and dreaminess were his original manners in the field of transferring artistic images.
In the early 80s of the XV century, the great artist painted walls of the Vatican Chapel. The frescoes made by him are still amazing.
Over time, his paintings became characterized by the calmness of the buildings of antiquity, the liveliness of the depicted characters, the harmony of images. In addition, Botticelli's fascination with drawings for famous literary works is known, which also added only glory to his work.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475 - 1564)- Italian artist who also worked during the Renaissance. What only this person known to many of us did not do. And sculpture, and painting, and architecture, as well as poetry.
Michelangelo, like Raphael and Botticelli, painted the walls of the temples of the Vatican. After all, only the most talented painters of those times were involved in such responsible work as drawing images on the walls of Catholic cathedrals.
Over 600 square meters of the Sistine Chapel he had to cover it with frescoes depicting various biblical scenes.
The most famous work in this style is known to us as "Last Judgment". The meaning of the biblical story is expressed fully and clearly. Such accuracy in the transfer of images is characteristic of the entire work of Michelangelo.
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With classical completeness, the Renaissance was realized in Italy, in the Renaissance culture of which there are periods: the Proto-Renaissance or the times of pre-Renaissance phenomena, (“the era of Dante and Giotto”, about 1260-1320), partially coinciding with the Ducento period (13th century), as well as Trecento (14 century), Quattrocento (15th century) and Cinquecento (16th century). More common periods are the Early Renaissance (14th-15th centuries), when new trends actively interact with the Gothic, overcoming and creatively transforming it.
As well as the High and Late Renaissance, of which Mannerism became a special phase. In the Quattrocento era, the Florentine school, architects (Filippo Brunelleschi, Leona Battista Alberti, Bernardo Rossellino and others), sculptors (Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, Antonio Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano), painters (Masaccio , Filippo Lippi, Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico, Sandro Botticelli) who created a plastically integral concept of the world with internal unity, which gradually spread throughout Italy (the work of Piero della Francesca in Urbino, Vittore Carpaccio, Francesco Cossa in Ferrara, Andrea Mantegna in Mantua, Antonello da Messina and the brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini in Venice).
It is natural that the time, which gave central importance to the “divine” human creativity, put forward in the art of personalities who, with all the abundance of talents of that time, became the personification of entire eras of national culture (personalities-“titans”, as they were romantically called later). Giotto became the personification of the Proto-Renaissance, the opposite aspects of the Quattrocento - constructive rigor and sincere lyricism - were respectively expressed by Masaccio and Angelico with Botticelli. The "titans" of the Middle (or "High") Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo are artists - symbols of the great milestone of the New Age as such. The most important stages of Italian Renaissance architecture - early, middle and late - are monumentally embodied in the works of F. Brunelleschi, D. Bramante and A. Palladio.
In the Renaissance, medieval anonymity was replaced by individual, authorial creativity. Of great practical importance is the theory of linear and aerial perspective, proportions, problems of anatomy and light and shade modeling. The center of Renaissance innovations, the artistic "mirror of the era" was an illusory-natural-like painting, in religious art it displaces the icon, and in secular art it gives rise to independent genres of landscape, everyday painting, portrait (the latter played a primary role in the visual affirmation of the ideals of the humanistic virtu). The art of printed engraving on wood and metal, which became truly massive during the Reformation, receives its final value. Drawing from a working sketch turns into a separate type of creativity; the individual manner of the brushstroke, stroke, as well as the texture and the effect of incompleteness (non-finito) are beginning to be valued as independent artistic effects. Monumental painting also becomes picturesque, illusory-three-dimensional, gaining more and more visual independence from the massif of the wall. All types of visual arts now somehow violate the monolithic medieval synthesis (where architecture dominated), gaining comparative independence. Types of an absolutely round statue requiring a special detour, an equestrian monument, a portrait bust are being formed (in many respects reviving the ancient tradition), a completely new type of solemn sculptural and architectural tombstone is being formed.
During the period of the High Renaissance, when the struggle for humanistic Renaissance ideals acquired a tense and heroic character, architecture and fine arts were marked by the breadth of public sound, synthetic generalization and the power of images full of spiritual and physical activity. In the buildings of Donato Bramante, Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo, perfect harmony, monumentality and clear proportion reached their apogee; humanistic fullness, a bold flight of artistic imagination, the breadth of coverage of reality are characteristic of the work of the greatest masters of fine art of this era - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian. From the second quarter of the 16th century, when Italy entered a time of political crisis and disappointment in the ideas of humanism, the work of many masters acquired a complex and dramatic character. In the architecture of the Late Renaissance (Giacomo da Vignola, Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Baldassare Peruzzi), there was an increased interest in the spatial development of the composition, the subordination of the building to a broad urban design; in public buildings, temples, villas, and palazzos that received a rich and complex development, the clear tectonics of the Early Renaissance was replaced by the intense conflict of tectonic forces (built by Jacopo Sansovino, Galeazzo Alessi, Michele Sanmicheli, Andrea Palladio). Painting and sculpture of the Late Renaissance were enriched by an understanding of the contradictory nature of the world, an interest in depicting dramatic mass action, in spatial dynamics (Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano); unprecedented depth, complexity, inner tragedy reached the psychological characteristics of images in the later works of Michelangelo and Titian.
Venetian school
The Venetian school, one of the main schools of painting in Italy, with its center in the city of Venice (sometimes also in the small towns of Terraferma, areas of the mainland adjacent to Venice). The Venetian school is characterized by the predominance of the pictorial principle, special attention to the problems of color, the desire to embody the sensual fullness and colorfulness of life. Closely connected with the countries of Western Europe and the East, Venice drew from a foreign culture everything that could serve as its decoration: the elegance and golden sheen of Byzantine mosaics, the stone surroundings of Moorish buildings, the fantasticness of Gothic temples. At the same time, its own original style in art was developed here, gravitating towards ceremonial colorfulness. The Venetian school is characterized by a secular, life-affirming beginning, a poetic perception of the world, man and nature, subtle colorism.
The Venetian school reached its greatest prosperity in the era of the Early and High Renaissance, in the work of Antonello da Messina, who opened up for his contemporaries the expressive possibilities of oil painting, the creators of ideally harmonic images of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione, the greatest colorist Titian, who embodied in his canvases the cheerfulness and colorfulness inherent in Venetian painting. plethora. In the works of the masters of the Venetian school of the second half of the 16th century, virtuosity in conveying the multicolored world, love for festive spectacles and a diverse crowd coexist with overt and hidden drama, an alarming sense of the dynamics and infinity of the universe (paintings by Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto). In the 17th century, the traditional interest of the Venetian school in the problems of color in the works of Domenico Fetti, Bernardo Strozzi and other artists coexists with the techniques of baroque painting, as well as realistic tendencies in the spirit of caravaggism. Venetian painting of the 18th century is characterized by the flourishing of monumental and decorative painting (Giovanni Battista Tiepolo), the everyday genre (Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Pietro Longhi), the documentary-accurate architectural landscape - veduta (Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Bernardo Belotto) and the lyrical, subtly conveying the poetic atmosphere daily life Venice cityscape (Francesco Guardi).
florentine school
Florence School, one of the leading Italian art schools of the Renaissance, based in the city of Florence. The formation of the Florentine school, which finally took shape in the 15th century, was facilitated by the flourishing of humanistic thought (Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Lico della Mirandola, etc.), which turned to the heritage of antiquity. The ancestor of the Florentine school in the era of the Proto-Renaissance was Giotto, who gave his compositions plastic persuasiveness and life authenticity.
In the 15th century, the founders of Renaissance art in Florence were the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, the sculptor Donatello, the painter Masaccio, followed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti, the sculptors Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, Desiderio da Settignano, Benedetto da Maiano and other masters. In the architecture of the Florentine school in the 15th century, a new type of Renaissance palazzo was created, and the search began for an ideal type of temple building that would meet the humanistic ideals of the era.
The fine arts of the Florentine school of the 15th century are characterized by a passion for the problems of perspective, the desire for a plastically clear construction of the human figure (works by Andrea del Verrocchio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno), and for many of its masters - a special spirituality and intimate lyrical contemplation (painting by Benozzo Gozzoli , Sandro Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi). In the 17th century the Florentine school falls into decay.
Reference and biographical data of the Small Bay Planet Art Gallery are prepared on the basis of materials from the History of Foreign Art (edited by M.T. Kuzmina, N.L. Maltseva), the Artistic Encyclopedia of Foreign Classical Art, and the Great Russian Encyclopedia.
