Romanesque and Gothic styles in the architecture of the Middle Ages. Gothic Architectural Style Message on Gothic Romanesque Style
GOU SOSH No. 000 ZOUDO OF MOSCOW
ROMANSKY AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURAL STYLES:
COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
Design work on MHK
11 "B" class
Supervisor:
teacher of history, social studies, law, MHC
MOSCOW 2010
INTRODUCTION. 3
CHAPTER 1. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROMANSKY STYLE. 5
CHAPTER 2. FEATURES OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. nine
CHAPTER 3. ROMANSKY AND GOTHIC STYLES - UNITY AND OPPOSITE. 17
CONCLUSION. 21
Literature. 22
Appendix. 23
INTRODUCTION
I have always been interested in the Middle Ages. Romanesque and Gothic styles evoked admiration and an inexplicable feeling of secret, unusual, great.
Subject relevant. Many Romanesque churches and Gothic cathedrals are under the supervision and protection of the state, some are the property of UNESCO.
I decided to get to know this topic in more detail on the examples of cathedrals built in these styles and pleasing to the eye of a person to the present.
Object of study- General history, the era of the Middle Ages.
Subject of study- Medieval European art, masterpieces of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
Target– to systematize, generalize and expand knowledge about the Romanesque and Gothic artistic styles in their comparative characteristic, explore the most famous and significant Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals.
Tasks:
search, selection, systematization of material on the chosen subject;
Describe the features of Romanesque and Gothic architecture;
· get acquainted with the most outstanding Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals of France, Germany, England, Italy;
to find out the influence of the Romanesque style on the Gothic style;
determine the place and role of these styles in history;
study works of art poets and writers (legends, tales) dedicated to this topic;
· Create a computer presentation using Power Point to illustrate the provisions of the project.
Research methods: description, comparison, comprehensive analysis of sources, systematization and generalization of the information received.
Hypothesis: the gothic style arose through evolution Romanesque architecture and meant its transition to a new, higher stage of development.
The Romanesque style dominated Western Europe in the 10th-12th centuries. (in a number of places - and in the XIII century), one of the most important stages in the development of medieval European art. The main type of art of the Romanesque style is architecture, mainly church.
The Romanesque style developed in the era of feudal fragmentation, and therefore the functional purpose of Romanesque architecture is defense. The motto of the Romanesque style, "My home is my fortress", equally determined the architectural features of both secular and religious buildings and corresponded to the lifestyle of the Western European society of that time.
The formation of Romanesque architecture was facilitated by the great role of monasteries as centers of pilgrimage and centers of culture, spreading unified artistic forms. At the monasteries, the first workshops appeared with specialists of various profiles necessary for the construction of a temple or cathedral. The first building artels were monastic. Their secularization began towards the end of the Romanesque period, when the construction of cities began throughout Europe.
Gothic style is an artistic style that was the final stage in the development of medieval art in the countries of Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe (between the middle of the 12th century and the 15th-16th centuries). Gothic developed in countries dominated by the Catholic Church, and under its auspices, the feudal-church foundations were preserved in the ideology and culture of the Gothic era.
A special place in Gothic art was occupied by the cathedral - the highest example of the synthesis of architecture, sculpture and painting.
Gothic reflected cardinal changes in the structure of medieval society. The Gothic cathedral is of undoubted interest. Notre Dame Cathedral, Cologne Cathedral, St. Vitus Cathedral and others delight with grandeur and beauty and are considered to be true gems of Gothic architecture.
The practical significance lies in the fact that the materials of the project can be used in the lessons of the MHC, extracurricular activities.
CHAPTER 1
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROMANSKY STYLE
Romanesque style (from lat. romanus- Roman) developed in Western European art of the X-XII centuries, one of the most important stages in the development of medieval European art.
The Romanesque style completely rejected the proportional canons and forms of ancient architecture, its inherent arsenal of ornamental and decorative means. The little that survived from the architectural details of ancient origin was extremely heavily transformed and coarsened.
The term "Romanesque" appeared in early XIX century, when the connection between the architecture of the XI-XII centuries and ancient Roman architecture was established. In general, the term is conditional and reflects only one, not the main, side of art. However, it has come into common use. The main type of art of the Romanesque style is architecture, mainly church (stone temple, monastic complexes). Its development was associated with monumental construction, which began in Western Europe at the time of the formation and flourishing of feudal states, the revival of economic activity and the new growth of culture and art. monumental architecture Western Europe originated in the art of the barbarian peoples. These are, for example, the tomb of Theodoric in Ravenna (526-530), church buildings of the late Carolingian era - the court chapel of Charlemagne in Aachen (795-805), the church in Gernrod of the Ottonian period with its plastic integrity of large masses (second half of the 10th century). Combining classical and barbarian elements, distinguished by severe grandeur, she prepared the formation of the Romanesque style, which further purposefully developed over two centuries.
Romanesque architecture was formed as a result of the combination of original local and Byzantine forms. It was the earliest stage in the development of Western European architecture. New types of buildings were defined - a feudal castle, city fortifications, large city churches, cathedrals. There was also a new type of urban residential building.
The severity and power of Romanesque structures were generated by concerns about their strength. The builders limited themselves to simple and massive forms of stone, which impress with their power, inner strength, combined with external calmness.
The most famous monuments of the Gothic style.
France
Cathedral in Chartres, XII-XIV centuries.
· Cathedral in Reims, 1211-1330, where French kings were crowned.
· Cathedral in Amiens, 1218-1268.
· Cathedral of Notre Dame, 1163 - XIV century.
Cathedral at Bourges, 1194
Germany
· Cologne Cathedral, 1248 - XIX century.
· Münster Cathedral in Ulm, 1377-1543.
England
Canterbury Cathedral XII-XIV centuries, the main temple of the English kingdom
· Cathedral of Westminster Abbey XII-XIV centuries. in London
Salisbury Cathedral 1220-1266
Exeter Cathedral 1050
· Cathedral in Lincoln to. XI century.
Cathedral in Gloucester XI-XIV centuries.
Czech Republic
· Gothic architecture of Prague
St. Vitus Cathedral (1344-1929)
It is difficult to find suitable words to describe the impressions of a Gothic cathedral. They are tall and reach for the sky with endless arrows of towers and turrets, wimpers, phials, pointed arches. The walls are not felt, as if they do not exist. Arches, galleries, towers, some areas with arcades, huge windows, farther and farther - an infinitely complex, openwork game of openwork forms. And all this space is inhabited - the cathedral is inhabited both inside and outside by a mass of sculptures. They occupy not only portals and galleries, but they can also be found on the roof, cornices, under the arches of chapels, on spiral staircases, appear on drainpipes, on consoles. In a word, a Gothic cathedral is a whole world. He really absorbed the world of a medieval city.
CHAPTER 3
ROMANSKY AND GOTHIC STYLES - UNITY AND OPPOSITE
ROMAN STYLE
Dominant and trendy colors: brown, red, green, white.
lines: cooper, semicircular, straight, horizontal and vertical.
The form: rectangular, cylindrical.
: semicircular frieze, repeating geometric or floral design; halls with exposed ceiling beams and supports in the center.
Constructions: stone, massive, thick-walled; wooden plastered with a visible skeleton.
Window: rectangular, small, in stone houses - arched.
doors: plank, rectangular with massive hinges, a lock and a deadbolt.
GOTHIC STYLE
Dominant and trendy colors: yellow, red, blue.
lines: lancet, forming a vault of two intersecting arcs, ribbed repeating lines in the decoration of houses.
The form: rectangular in terms of the building; lancet arches, turning into pillars.
Characteristic elements of the interior: a fan vault with supports or a coffered ceiling and wooden wall panels in the decoration of apartments; leafy complex ornament; halls are high, narrow and long, or wide with supports in the center.
Constructions: frame, openwork, stone; elongated upward, lancet arches; underlined skeleton structures.
Window: elongated upwards often with multi-colored stained-glass windows; on the top of the building there are sometimes round decorative windows.
doors: lancet ribbed arches of doorways; oak paneled doors.
The creative searches of Gothic architects were focused on the creation of a grandiose city cathedral, which at the same time met the requirements of the church, raised the prestige of the French kingdom, glorified the French kings, embodied the strengthening and flourishing of a new urban culture, and expressed the most sublime and daring hopes and aspirations of the age. The appearance of the Gothic cathedral makes a deep impression. It rises above the city like a huge magnificent ship. With each tier of the western facade - portals, windows, sculptural galleries and balustrades - a powerful upward movement of architectural forms is growing. Thrown up into the heavens, the cathedral does not weigh its weight on the swarming city below, but rises and soars above it.
The development of the Gothic style in Ile-de-France is striking in its speed, unity and purposefulness. The experience gained by French masters in the second half of the 12th century, and the experimental nature of early Gothic construction, made it possible by the first half of the 13th century to create the most brilliant and perfect examples of Gothic. Audacity of aspirations, creative courage, the strength of a spiritual impulse accompanied its creators throughout the existence of the Gothic style. Witnesses of the first steps of Gothic architecture were not indifferent to the emergence of a new style.
Historical and literary documents of the second half of the 12th century are rich in the remarks of contemporaries about new tastes in architecture and art. Opinions about the emerging style were then divided. Like any innovation, Gothic was condemned by some and liked by others. However, all contemporaries agreed on one thing - in the striking novelty of the Gothic style, unlike anything that existed before.
Although the largest Romanesque churches could successfully compete with the Gothic cathedrals in size and grandeur of the interior space, witnesses of the emergence of Gothic immediately saw in it a significant innovation, a new artistic style and tried to determine its stylistic features. The stiffness and isolation of the Romanesque statues gave way to the mobility of the figures, their appeal to each other and to the viewer.
As the main differences between the new Gothic church of the abbey of Saint-Denis and the old Romanesque basilica, Abbot Suger calls:
Spatiality (the choir is “ennobled by the beauty of length and width”);
verticalism (the wall of the central nave “suddenly rises up”);
Saturation with light (“the amazing and endless light of the most sacred windows”).
Gervasius of Canterbury, comparing the old Romanesque building with the new Gothic cathedral being built, notes the difference between the two structures:
the nobility of the forms of the new building;
a significant increase in the length of the pillars (while maintaining their previous thickness), that is, the height of the temple;
· the subtlety of the new carving and sculptural work in comparison with the unpretentiousness of the former sculptural design;
vaults are equipped with ribs (arcuatae) and capstones;
· “a vault made of stone and light tufa”, and not “a wooden ceiling, decorated with excellent paintings”;
· the high height of the new building - just the height of the windows.
The description of Gervasius indicates that contemporaries were able to reasonably and subtly judge the changes taking place in architecture and art and imagine what the difference between the old and new styles was, and were inclined to oppose them.
A modern researcher cannot fail to note the closest ties that link Gothic with the entire previous development of medieval art, and above all its close relationship with the art of the Romanesque era. The entire two centuries of Romanesque experience in building and decorating churches and the complete establishment of the majestic Romanesque system artistic thinking were necessary for the emergence of the Gothic style.
Gothic architects followed the plan of the church building developed in the Romanesque era and the scheme of its internal divisions, and on the basis of the Romanesque iconographic tradition, a harmonious iconographic system of the 13th century grew up. Indeed, even the most superficial comparison of the basic artistic principles of the Gothic and Romanesque eras shows the complexity of their relationship with each other.
Gothic developed on the basis of the Romanesque style, but contradicted it at every step, putting forward its own system of architectural and artistic thinking. Therefore, it is not surprising the emergence of Gothic and the development of a new style in the territory of Ile-de-France. Not only the most important political and economic reasons played a role here, but also the fact that Ile-de-France was one of the weakest links in the chain of Romanesque architectural schools. In the 12th century, it was one of the few areas where the Romanesque style did not take shape and was not finally established, and where archaic architectural forms continued to hold on: simple wooden flat coverings, powerful square pillars, static isolation of the internal space. The weakness of the Romanesque traditions of Ile-de-France allowed the young style to quickly consolidate and develop in an atmosphere of creative research, free from the oppressive power of old rooted artistic ideas.
Gothic cathedrals are not only high, but also very long: for example, Chartres is 130 meters long, and the transept is 64 meters long, and it takes at least half a kilometer to walk around it. And from every point the cathedral looks different. Unlike the Romanesque church with its clear, easily visible forms, the Gothic cathedral is boundless, often asymmetrical and even heterogeneous in its parts: each of its facades with its own portal is individual.
Notre Dame Cathedral is located in the center of the French capital, on the Ile de la Cité. Notre Dame de Paris - located on the site where the Basilica of St. Stephen used to be. The cathedral intricately intertwined various architectural styles and images: the Romanesque style (with its massiveness), the Gothic style (which gives the building space and simplicity).
CONCLUSION
In the development of European architecture of the early Middle Ages, two periods can be distinguished, two styles: Romanesque (XI-XII centuries) and Gothic (XIII-XV centuries). The second of these two stages - Gothic - arose through the evolution of Romanesque architecture and meant its transition to a new, higher stage of development.
Both Romanesque and Gothic architecture developed in the same, basically socio-historical conditions. Compositional techniques were also common in principle. The main difference between these styles was that the Romanesque was characterized by a special massiveness of structures, while the Gothic structures acquired a more perfect frame character, lighter in a number of structures.
The whole two centuries of Romanesque experience in building and decorating churches and the complete establishment of the majestic system of Romanesque artistic thinking were necessary for the appearance of the Gothic style.
Gothic developed on the basis of the Romanesque style, but contradicted it at every step, putting forward its own system of architectural and artistic thinking.
Opinions about the Gothic style were then divided. Like any innovation, Gothic was condemned by some and liked by others. However, all contemporaries agreed on one thing - in the striking novelty of the Gothic style, unlike anything that existed before.
A comparison of the basic artistic principles of the Gothic and Romanesque eras shows the complexity of their relationship with each other.
If Romanesque architecture was based on ancient ideas about the laws of construction and the relationship of structural elements in an architectural structure, adjoining the Roman building tradition, the Gothic era offers a new architectural solution and creates a new constructive system that breaks the old ideas about the technical possibilities of architecture and follows its own architectural logic.
The bold and complex frame construction of the Gothic cathedral, which embodied the triumph of the daring human engineering, made it possible to overcome the massiveness of the Romanesque buildings, lighten the walls and vaults, and create a dynamic unity of the interior space. In Gothic, there is an enrichment and complication of the synthesis of arts, an expansion of the system of plots, which reflected medieval ideas about the world.
Medieval monuments of art in Western Europe constantly remind of its relatively recent barbarian past, which manifests itself either in the motif of a pre-Christian wicker ornament, or in the figure of a fantastic creature peeking out of the vegetable plexus of a Romanesque capital or looking from the heights of a Gothic cathedral.
Used Books
1. Collars and art. - Minsk: LLP "Harvest", 1996.
2., Smirnov on world artistic culture. - M .: Publishing and book trading center A3, 1997.
3., Khurumov artistic culture. – M.: Intellect-Centre, 2008.
4. Rapack artistic culture. - M .: Humanitarian publishing center VLADOS, 2007.
5. Romanesque architecture. Romanesque art.
http://*****/architec041.html
6. Gothic style of architecture. http://revolution. *****/construction/_0.html
Appendix
Roman style
Gothic style
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Target: to acquaint classmates with the features of medieval culture on the example of Romanesque and Gothic styles in art.
In the Middle Ages, new styles and trends in architecture began to appear and develop very actively.
Romanesque style (from lat. romanus - Roman)- the artistic style that dominated Western Europe (and also affected some countries of Eastern Europe) in the 11th-12th centuries (in a number of places - in the 13th century), one of the most important stages in the development of medieval European art. Most fully expressed in architecture.
The main role in the Romanesque style was given to severe fortress architecture: monastic complexes, churches, castles.
Romanesque buildings are characterized by a combination of a clear architectural silhouette and laconic exterior decoration - the building has always harmoniously blended into the surrounding nature, and therefore looked especially solid and solid. This was facilitated by massive walls with narrow window openings and stepped-in-depth portals. Such walls carried a defensive purpose.
The main buildings during this period were the temple-fortress and the castle-fortress. The main element of the composition of the monastery or castle is the tower - donjon. Around it were the rest of the buildings, made up of simple geometric shapes - cubes, prisms, cylinders.
Features of the architecture of the Romanesque Cathedral:
The plan is based on an early Christian basilica, that is, a longitudinal organization of space
Enlargement of the choir or the eastern altar of the temple
Increasing the height of the temple
Replacing the coffered (cassette) ceiling with stone vaults in the largest cathedrals. The vaults were of several types: box, cross, often cylindrical, flat along the beams (typical of Italian Romanesque architecture).
Heavy vaults required powerful walls and columns
The main motive of the interior - semicircular arches
The rational simplicity of the design, composed of individual square cells - grass.
Romanesque sculpture entered its heyday from 1100, obeying, like Romanesque painting, architectural motifs. It was mainly used in the external decoration of cathedrals. The reliefs were most often located on the western facade, where they were located around the portals or placed on the surface of the facade, on archivolts and capitals. The figures in the middle of the tympanum had to be larger than the corner ones. In friezes, they acquired squat proportions, on bearing pillars and columns - elongated. Depicting religious subjects, Romanesque artists did not seek to create the illusion of the real world. Their main task was to create symbolic image universe in all its glory. Also, Romanesque sculpture carried the task of reminding believers of God, the sculptural decoration amazes with an abundance of fantastic creatures, and is distinguished by the expression and echoes of pagan ideas. Romanesque sculpture conveyed excitement, confusion of images, tragic feelings, detachment from everything earthly.
Particular attention was paid to the sculptural decoration of the western facade and the entrance to the temple. Above the main perspective portal, there was usually a tympanum with a relief depicting the scene of the Last Judgment; in addition to the tympanum, reliefs on the facade were decorated with archivolts, columns, portals, which depicted apostles, prophets and Old Testament kings.
Existing examples of Romanesque painting include decorations architectural monuments, such as columns with abstract ornaments, as well as wall decorations with images of hanging fabrics. Picturesque compositions, in particular narrative scenes based on biblical stories and from the life of saints, were also depicted on the wide surfaces of the walls. In these compositions, which predominantly follow Byzantine painting and mosaics, the figures are stylized and flat, so that they are perceived more as symbols than as realistic representations. Mosaic, just like painting, was mainly a Byzantine technique and was widely used in the architectural design of Italian Romanesque churches, especially in the Cathedral of St. Mark (Venice) and in the Sicilian churches in Cefalu and Montreal.
Gothic- a period in the development of medieval art on the territory of Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe from the 12th to the 15th-16th centuries. Gothic came to replace the Romanesque style, gradually replacing it. The term "Gothic" is most often applied to a well-known style of architectural structures that can be briefly described as "eerily majestic". But gothic covers almost all works visual arts of this period: sculpture, painting, book miniature, stained glass, fresco and many others.
Gothic originated in the middle of the 12th century in northern France, in the 13th century it spread to the territory of modern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, and England. Gothic penetrated into Italy later, with great difficulty and a strong transformation, which led to the emergence of "Italian Gothic". At the end of the 14th century, Europe was engulfed by the so-called international Gothic. Gothic penetrated into the countries of Eastern Europe later and stayed there a little longer - until the 16th century.
For buildings and works of art containing characteristic Gothic elements, but created in the eclectic period (mid-19th century) and later, the term "neo-Gothic" is used.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the term "Gothic novel" began to mean literary genre the era of romanticism - the literature of secrets and horrors (the action of such works often unfolded in "Gothic" castles or monasteries). In the 1980s, the term "gothic" began to be used to refer to the musical genre that arose at that time ("gothic rock"), and then the subculture that formed around it ("gothic subculture").
The word comes from Italian. gotico - unusual, barbaric - (Goten - barbarians; this style has nothing to do with the historical Goths), and was first used as a swear word. For the first time, the concept in the modern sense was applied by Giorgio Vasari in order to separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. Gothic completed the development of European medieval art, having arisen on the basis of the achievements of Romanesque culture, and during the Renaissance (Renaissance), the art of the Middle Ages was considered "barbaric". Gothic art was cult in purpose and religious in subject matter. It appealed to the highest divine powers, eternity, the Christian worldview. Early, mature and late Gothic stand out.
The Gothic style mainly manifested itself in the architecture of temples, cathedrals, churches, monasteries. It developed on the basis of Romanesque, more precisely, Burgundian architecture. In contrast to the Romanesque style, with its round arches, massive walls and small windows, the Gothic style is characterized by pointed arches, narrow and high towers and columns, a richly decorated facade with carved details (wimpergi, tympanums, archivolts) and multi-colored stained-glass lancet windows. . All style elements emphasize the vertical.
The church of the monastery of Saint-Denis, designed by Abbot Suger, is considered the first Gothic architectural structure. During its construction, many supports and internal walls were removed, and the church acquired a more graceful appearance compared to the Romanesque "fortresses of God." In most cases, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris was taken as a model.
From Ile-de-France (France), the Gothic architectural style spread to Western, Central and Southern Europe - to Germany, England, etc. In Italy, it did not dominate for long and, as a "barbarian style", quickly gave way to the Renaissance; and since he came here from Germany, he is still called "stile tedesco" - German style.
In Gothic architecture, 3 stages of development are distinguished: early, mature (high gothic) and late (flaming gothic, variants of which were also the styles of manueline (in Portugal) and isabelino (in Castile).
With the advent of the Renaissance north and west of the Alps at the beginning of the 16th century, the Gothic style lost its significance.
Almost all the architecture of Gothic cathedrals is due to one major invention of the time - a new frame structure, which makes these cathedrals easily recognizable.
Characteristic features of the Romanesque and Gothic styles:
Romanesque period
Predominant and fashionable colors: brown, red, green, white;
Lines: cooper, semi-circular, straight, horizontal and vertical;
Shape: rectangular, cylindrical;
Characteristic elements of the interior: a semi-circular frieze, a repeating geometric or floral pattern; halls with open ceiling beams and supports in the center;
Structures: stone, massive, thick-walled; wooden plastered with a visible skeleton;
Windows: rectangular, small, in stone houses - arched;
Doors: plank, rectangular with massive hinges, a lock and a deadbolt
Gothic
Predominant and fashionable colors: yellow, red, blue;
Gothic style lines: lancet, forming a vault of two intersecting arcs, repeating ribbed lines;
Shape: rectangular in terms of the building; lancet arches turning into pillars;
Characteristic elements of the interior: Fan vault with supports or coffered ceiling and wooden wall panels; leafy complex ornament; halls are high, narrow and long, or wide with supports in the center;
Gothic style constructions: frame, openwork, stone; elongated upward, lancet arches; underlined skeleton structures;
Windows: elongated upwards often with multicolored stained-glass windows; on the top of the building there are sometimes round decorative windows;
Doors: lancet ribbed arches of doorways; oak paneled doors
Based on this, it is worth noting that, with all the diversity artistic means and stylistic features, the art of the Middle Ages has common characteristics:
Religious character ( Christian church- the only thing that united the scattered kingdoms of Western Europe throughout medieval history);
Synthesis various kinds art, where the leading place was given to architecture;
The focus of the artistic language on convention, symbolism and low realism, associated with the worldview of the era in which faith, spirituality, heavenly beauty were stable priorities;
Emotional beginning, psychologism, designed to convey the intensity of religious feelings, the drama of individual plots;
Nationality, because in the Middle Ages the people were the creator and spectator: the hands of craftsmen created works of art, erected temples in which numerous parishioners prayed. Used by the church for ideological purposes, cult art had to be accessible and understandable to all believers;
And personality (according to the teachings of the church, the hand of the master is directed by the will of God, whose instrument was the architect, stone cutter, painter, jeweler, stained glass artist, etc., the names of the masters who left the world masterpieces of medieval art are practically unknown).
Thus, The Middle Ages in Western Europe is a time of intense spiritual life, complex and difficult searches for worldview structures that could synthesize the historical experience and knowledge of the previous millennia. In this era, people were able to enter a new path of cultural development, different from what they knew in previous times. Trying to reconcile faith and reason, building a picture of the world based on the knowledge available to them and with the help of Christian dogmatism, the culture of the Middle Ages created new artistic styles, a new urban lifestyle, a new economy, and prepared people's minds for the use of mechanical devices and technology.
/ Romanesque and Gothic styles
Romanesque
emergence
This name appeared only around 1820, but it quite accurately determines that until the middle of the 13th century. elements of Roman - antique architecture were strongly felt.
Historical characteristic
The Romanesque period in Europe falls on the time of the domination of the feudal system, the basis of which was agriculture. Initially, all the lands belonged to the king, he distributed them among his vassals, and they, in turn, distributed it to the peasants for processing. For the use of land, everyone was obliged to pay taxes and bear military service. Tied to the land, the peasants kept the masters, who in turn served in the king's troops. Thus a complex interdependent relationship arose between masters and peasants, with the peasants at the bottom rung of the social ladder.
Since each feudal lord sought to expand his possessions, conflicts and wars were fought almost constantly. As a result, the central royal power was losing its positions, which led to the fragmentation of states. Expansionist aspirations were especially clearly expressed in the crusades and in the enslavement of the Slavic East.
Building features
Romanesque architecture uses a variety of building materials. In the early period, not only residential buildings, but monasteries and churches were built of wood, but the main building material in the Middle Ages was still stone. At first, it was used only in the construction of temples and fortresses, and later for secular buildings. Easily worked limestone, the deposits of which were located in the areas along the Loire, made it possible, due to its relative lightness, to cover small spans with vaults without the construction of bulky scaffolding. It was also used for ornamental masonry on exterior walls.
In Italy, there was a lot of marble, which was especially often used for wall cladding. Multi-colored marble of light and dark tones, used in various spectacular combinations, becomes feature Italian Romanesque architecture.
The stone was either hewn in the form of blocks, from which the so-called hewn masonry was made, or rubble, suitable for laying walls, when it was necessary to strengthen structures, lined with slabs and blocks of hewn stone from the outside. Unlike antiquity, in the Middle Ages, smaller stones were used, which were easier to get in the quarry and deliver to the construction site.
Where stone was lacking, brick was used, which was somewhat thicker and shorter than that used today. The brick of that time was usually very hard, badly burnt. Brick buildings of the Romanesque period have been preserved primarily in Italy, France, Germany and England.
Character traits
An important task of Romanesque building art was the transformation of a basilica with a flat wooden ceiling into a vaulted one. At first, small spans of the side aisles and apses were covered with a vault, later the main aisles were also covered with a vault. The thickness of the vault was sometimes quite significant, so the walls and pylons were designed thick with a large margin of safety. In connection with the need for large covered spaces and the development of technical building ideas, the design of the initially heavy vaults and walls began to be gradually lightened.
The vault makes it possible to cover larger spaces than wooden beams. The simplest in form and design is a cylindrical vault, which, without pushing the walls apart, presses on them from above with a huge weight, and therefore requires especially massive walls. This vault is most suitable for covering rooms with a small span, but it was also often used in the main nave - in France in the Provence and Auvergne regions (Notre Dame du Port Cathedral in Clermont). Later, the semicircular shape of the vault arch was replaced by a lancet one. Thus, the nave of the cathedral in Otun (beginning of the 12th century) is covered with an ogival vault with the so-called edge arches.
The basis for new types of vaults was the old Roman straight cross vault over a square room, obtained by crossing two half-cylinders. The loads arising from this arch are distributed along the diagonal ribs, and from them are transferred to four supports at the corners of the overlapped space. Initially, the ribs arising at the intersection of half-cylinders played the role of arches - they circled, which made it possible to lighten the entire structure (St.
If you increase the height of the vault so that the diagonal intersection curve from elliptical to semicircular, you can get the so-called elevated groin vault.
The vaults most often had solid masonry, which, as we said, required the construction of massive pylons. Therefore, the Romanesque composite pylon became a big step forward: semi-columns were added to the main pylon, on which the edge arches rested, and as a result, the expansion of the vault decreased. A significant constructive achievement was the distribution of the load from the vault to several specific points due to the rigid connection of transverse edge arches, ribs and pylons. The rib and edge arch become the frame of the vault, and the pylon becomes the frame of the wall.
At a later time, end (cheek) arches and ribs were laid out first. This design was called the ribbed cross vault. During the heyday of the Romanesque style, this vault became elevated, and its diagonal arch acquired a pointed shape (Church of the Holy Trinity in Cana, 1062 - 1066).
To cover the side aisles, instead of the cross vault, semi-cylindrical vaults were sometimes used, which are very often used in civil engineering. Romanesque structures are, first of all, an elevated rib vault, a pointed arch and the offset of oblique lateral braces from the vaults by a system of supports. They form the basis for the subsequent Gothic style in architecture.
Structure types
A significant role in the emergence, and especially in the spread of Romanesque art, was played by monastic orders, which arose in large numbers at that time, especially the Benedictine order, founded in the 6th century. in Monte Cassino, and the Cistercian order, which arose 100 years later. For these orders, building artels erected one building after another throughout Europe, accumulating more and more experience.
Monasteries, together with Romanesque churches, monastic or cathedral, parish or fortress churches, were an important part of public life during the Romanesque period. They were a powerful political and economic organization that influenced the development of all areas of culture. An example is the Cluniy monastery. At the end of the XI century. in Cluny was modeled after the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, a new monastery church was built, which was a huge five-nave basilica 130 m long. Its central nave was boldly covered with a 28-meter vault, which, however, collapsed after construction was completed.
The planning solution of the monasteries was based on universal schemes, but adapted to local conditions and the specific requirements of various monastic orders, which undoubtedly led to the enrichment of the palette of builders.
In Romanesque architecture, there were two main compositional types of church buildings. These are buildings that are longitudinal in plan, sometimes very simple, rectangular in shape with an apse attached to the east side, or basilicas; more rare are centric, round buildings with regularly placed apses.
The development of Romanesque architecture is characterized by changes in the organization of internal space and volume in general, especially in the most significant buildings of that time - basilicas. Along with the basilica organization of space, a new Romanesque type of space with the same naves or hall space is also used, especially popular in Germany, Spain and the French regions between the Loire and Garonne rivers.
In the most mature buildings of that period, the internal space is complicated by the apses of the transverse aisles, and the choir has a gallery with a system of radial chapels, for example in France and southern England (Norwich Cathedral, 1096 - 1150).
The inner space of the temples is formed by the connection of separate, in most cases square in terms of spatial blocks. Such a system is an important sign of a new understanding of the organization of internal space.
The degree of impact of basilica spaces on the visitor largely depended on the nature of the design of the walls and the method of overlapping. They used either a flat ceiling, usually beamed, or cylindrical vaults, sometimes transverse, as well as domes on sails. However, most of all, the then understanding of the organization of the internal space corresponded to the cross vault without ribs, which enriched the interior and streamlined it without violating the longitudinal character of the building.
The Roman plan is based on simple geometric relationships. The side nave is half the width of the main nave, and therefore for each square of the main nave plan there are two elements of the side naves. Between the two pylons, loaded with the vault of the main nave and the vaults of the side nave, there should be a pylon that perceives the load of the vaults of the side nave only. Naturally, he can be more slender. The alternation of massive and thinner pylons could create a rich rhythm, but the desire to eliminate the difference in the size of the pylons turned out to be stronger: when using a six-part vault, when all the pylons were loaded evenly, they were made of the same thickness. An increase in the number of identical supports creates the impression of a greater length of the internal space.
The apse has a rich decor, often decorated with "blind" arches, sometimes arranged in several tiers. The horizontal articulation of the main nave is formed by an arch and a belt of narrow high windows. The interior is decorated with paintings and enriched with overlays on the walls, "vanes", profiled ledges, architecturally processed columns and pylons.
The column retains the classical division into three parts. The surface of the column trunk is not always made smooth, very often the trunk is covered with an ornament. The capital is initially very simple in form (in the form of an inverted pyramid or cube) and is gradually enriched with various plant motifs, images of animals and figures.
Pylons, as well as columns, have a three-part division into a base, stem and capital. In the early period they are still very massive, and in the future they are lightened by changing the proportions and dissected surface treatment. Columns are used where the vault has a small span or low height in underground crypts or in windows where several narrow openings have been combined into a group.
The appearance of the Romanesque church corresponds to its internal solution. This architecture is simple but in the form of blocks, sometimes of considerable size with small windows. The windows were made narrow not only for constructive reasons, but because they began to be glazed only in the Gothic period.
As a result of a simple combination of volumes, various compositions arose. The dominant position is occupied by the volume of the main nave with a semicircular apse, with one or more transverse naves. Different types of towers are placed in different ways. Usually the bottom of them is installed on the facade, and the third, four - or octagonal - above the intersection of the main and transverse naves. The greatest attention is paid to the western facade, which is decorated with architectural details, and often with a portal with a sculptural relief. Just like the windows, the portal is formed by ledges due to the large thickness of the walls, in the corners of which columns and sometimes complex sculptures are installed. The part of the wall above the door lintel and under the arch of the portal is called the tympanum and is often decorated with rich relief. The upper part of the façade is dissected by an arched frieze, vanes and blind arcades. Side facades were given less attention. The height of Romanesque churches increases in the process of style development so that the height of the main nave from the floor to the heel of the vault usually reaches twice the width of the nave.
Development of urban settlements. The first cities in southern and western Europe appear on the site of former Roman military camps, which were military strongholds and administrative centers. They had a regular planning basis. A number of them existed in the early Middle Ages, but at that time they turned into shopping centers, which was predetermined by their placement at the intersection of main roads.
For European early feudal cities, which had a naturally developed planning scheme (Paris, Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main, Prague), heavily fortified residential buildings are characteristic. In the middle of the city, residential houses of feudal lords were erected in the form of fortresses or fortress towers.
Gothic
The emergence of the Gothic style
In the XI and XII centuries. as a result of the development of methods of cultivating the land in Central Europe crops have increased. In this regard, part of the rural population began to specialize in handicraft production and trade, freeing itself from the influence of feudal lords and creating independent communes. Thus, a new class arose within feudal society - the urban bourgeoisie, whose power was based on movable property, primarily on money. This class became the engine of economic and cultural progress.
Historical characteristics of the Gothic style
In the cities unfolded, having arisen in Northern France, extensive construction. The new architectural style was called Gothic. This name was proposed in the 15th century. Italian art theorists, who thus expressed their attitude towards the barbarian architecture of Western and Central Europe that seemed to them.
Although Gothic arose during the development of Romanesque architecture, in contrast to it and the subsequent architecture of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism, it is the only style that created a completely original system of forms and a new understanding of the organization of space and volumetric composition. The name "Gothic" does not correctly reflect the essence of this style. During the Renaissance, it was a derisive name invented by Italian art criticism for a creative style that arose north of the Alps. In France, this style was more accurately called "Style ogivat" (lancet style).
Building features of the Gothic style
The Gothic style used a variety of building materials. Residential and outbuildings were usually built of wood. Many significant secular and ecclesiastical buildings were built from the same material.
In areas with a lack of stone, brick construction developed (Lombardy, northern Germany, Poland). It produced shaped bricks for laying profiled pylons, windows and roses (round windows). But the main, most characteristic material for the Gothic, was stone - hewn and rubble. Rubble stone masonry, as a rule, especially in interiors, was plastered. Stone in Gothic architecture was used both to create a structure and for decorative decoration. Simultaneously with the construction of the building, work was carried out to decorate it with a complex and rich decor.
Gothic builders worked with stone differently from the ancient masters, who painstakingly worked huge stone blocks to erect often colossal structures. Medieval masons, with their extraordinary imagination and static flair, boldly construct large buildings in terms of area and height, which, in the process of Gothic development, become as light as possible, turning essentially into frame structures. In this case, relatively small processed stones are used. This frame system and its extremely important component - the ribbed vault - constitute the essence of the Gothic building art.
Ribbed vaults, built by local craftsmen from fine-grained limestone, were light and durable. The ribs were made of wedge-shaped stones. At the intersection of the ribs at the top point there was a four-sided "castle". When using light materials, such as chalk and limestone, in the masonry of the vault, the thickness of the vault and with large spans was relatively small - 30 - 40 cm.
The Gothic vault is much more perfect than the massive and heavy Romanesque. In the arch system, there is a clear division of efforts into ribs and canvas - stripping. In the development of the cross vault, the oldest element is stripping. The rib at the intersection of the surfaces of the vaults appeared later, which, as a result, completely changed the essence of the vaulted ceiling.
Characteristic features of the Gothic style
The characteristic features of the Gothic style are the verticality of the composition, the lancet beam, the complex frame system of supports and the ribbed vault. The advantage of using ribs is that the vault can be larger, thereby reducing the loads arising from it.
The repayment of these loads by a system of buttresses made it possible to make the walls thinner. The desire to minimize the massiveness of the structure led to the fact that, as a result of the introduction of the frame, the wall ceased to be a load-bearing element and became just a filling between the load-bearing pylons. As a result of its variability, the lancet vault was structurally superior to the semicircular vault in many positions. The massive masonry of the vault in the early Middle Ages was replaced by openwork stone structures, whose emphatically vertical supports and columns carry the static loads collected in a bundle to the foundations.
With the development of the Gothic style, the Gothic space changes significantly. If the Romanesque architecture of individual regions of Europe, diverse in its manifestations, developed in different ways, the new possibilities of the Gothic style are determined by one school, from where new creative ideas, with the help of the monastic orders of the Cistercians and Dominicans and the building artels working for them, spread to all accessible areas.
Already in the late Romanesque period, in the first half of the 12th century, elements of the new Gothic style appeared in the Île de France region. From this northern French region, where the Romanesque school lagged behind in development and where the influence of ancient traditions did not directly affect, a new powerful impulse emanates, opening the way for rich Gothic art. From France, Gothic spread to neighboring countries; back in the twelfth century. it appears in England, and in the next century in Germany, Italy and Spain.
Until the beginning of the XIV century. the basilica form prevailed. Over time, especially in cities, the hall form became the most common, the equal-sized naves of which merged inside into a single space. Along with the church mysteries, folk festivities, city meetings, theatrical performances were held in huge places of worship, and trade was carried out in them.
In the Middle Ages, new styles and trends in architecture began to appear and develop very actively.
Roman style
Romanesque style (from lat. romanus - Roman) - an artistic style that dominated Western Europe (and also affected some countries of Eastern Europe) in the XI-XII centuries (in a number of places - in the XIII century), one of the most important stages in the development of medieval European art. Most fully expressed in architecture.
The main role in the Romanesque style was given to severe fortress architecture: monastic complexes, churches, castles.
Romanesque buildings are characterized by a combination of a clear architectural silhouette and laconic exterior decoration - the building has always harmoniously blended into the surrounding nature, and therefore looked especially solid and solid. This was facilitated by massive walls with narrow window openings and stepped-in-depth portals. Such walls carried a defensive purpose.
The main buildings during this period were the temple-fortress and the castle-fortress. The main element of the composition of the monastery or castle is the tower - donjon. Around it were the rest of the buildings, made up of simple geometric shapes - cubes, prisms, cylinders.
Features of the architecture of the Romanesque Cathedral:
The plan is based on an early Christian basilica, that is, a longitudinal organization of space
Enlargement of the choir or the eastern altar of the temple
Increasing the height of the temple
Replacing the coffered (cassette) ceiling with stone vaults in the largest cathedrals. The vaults were of several types: box, cross, often cylindrical, flat along the beams (typical of Italian Romanesque architecture).
Heavy vaults required powerful walls and columns
The main motive of the interior - semicircular arches
The rational simplicity of the design, composed of individual square cells - grass.
Romanesque sculpture entered its heyday from 1100, obeying, like Romanesque painting, architectural motifs. It was mainly used in the external decoration of cathedrals. The reliefs were most often located on the western facade, where they were located around the portals or placed on the surface of the facade, on archivolts and capitals. The figures in the middle of the tympanum had to be larger than the corner ones. In friezes, they acquired squat proportions, on bearing pillars and columns - elongated. Depicting religious subjects, Romanesque artists did not seek to create the illusion of the real world. Their main task was to create a symbolic image of the universe in all its grandeur. Also, Romanesque sculpture carried the task of reminding believers of God, the sculptural decoration amazes with an abundance of fantastic creatures, and is distinguished by the expression and echoes of pagan ideas. Romanesque sculpture conveyed excitement, confusion of images, tragic feelings, detachment from everything earthly.
Particular attention was paid to the sculptural decoration of the western facade and the entrance to the temple. Above the main perspective portal, a tympanum was usually placed in relief depicting the scene of the Last Judgment. besides the tympanum, reliefs on the façade were decorated with archivolts, columns, portals depicting apostles, prophets and Old Testament kings.
Existing examples of Romanesque painting include decorations on architectural monuments, such as columns with abstract ornaments, as well as wall decorations with images of hanging fabrics. Picturesque compositions, in particular narrative scenes based on biblical stories and from the life of saints, were also depicted on the wide surfaces of the walls. In these compositions, which predominantly follow Byzantine painting and mosaics, the figures are stylized and flat, so that they are perceived more as symbols than as realistic representations. Mosaic, just like painting, was mainly a Byzantine technique and was widely used in the architectural design of Italian Romanesque churches, especially in the Cathedral of St. Mark (Venice) and in the Sicilian churches in Cefalu and Montreal.
Gothic
Gothic is a period in the development of medieval art in Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe from the 12th to the 15th-16th centuries. Gothic came to replace the Romanesque style, gradually replacing it. The term "Gothic" is most often applied to a well-known style of architectural structures that can be briefly described as "eerily majestic". But Gothic covers almost all works of fine art of this period: sculpture, painting, book miniature, stained glass, fresco and many others.
Gothic originated in the middle of the 12th century in northern France, in the 13th century it spread to the territory of modern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, and England. Gothic penetrated into Italy later, with great difficulty and a strong transformation, which led to the emergence of "Italian Gothic". At the end of the 14th century, Europe was engulfed by the so-called international Gothic. Gothic penetrated into the countries of Eastern Europe later and stayed there a little longer - until the 16th century.
For buildings and works of art containing characteristic Gothic elements, but created in the eclectic period (mid-19th century) and later, the term "neo-Gothic" is used.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the term "Gothic novel" began to denote the literary genre of the Romantic era - the literature of secrets and horrors (the action of such works often unfolded in "Gothic" castles or monasteries). In the 1980s, the term "gothic" began to be used to refer to the musical genre that arose at that time ("gothic rock"), and then the subculture that formed around it ("gothic subculture").
The word comes from Italian. gotico - unusual, barbaric - (Goten - barbarians; this style has nothing to do with the historical Goths), and was first used as a swear word. For the first time, the concept in the modern sense was applied by Giorgio Vasari in order to separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. Gothic completed the development of European medieval art, having arisen on the basis of the achievements of Romanesque culture, and during the Renaissance (Renaissance), the art of the Middle Ages was considered "barbaric". Gothic art was cult in purpose and religious in subject matter. It appealed to the highest divine powers, eternity, the Christian worldview. Early, mature and late Gothic stand out.
The Gothic style mainly manifested itself in the architecture of temples, cathedrals, churches, monasteries. It developed on the basis of Romanesque, more precisely, Burgundian architecture. In contrast to the Romanesque style, with its round arches, massive walls and small windows, the Gothic style is characterized by pointed arches, narrow and high towers and columns, a richly decorated facade with carved details (wimpergi, tympanums, archivolts) and multi-colored stained-glass lancet windows. . All style elements emphasize the vertical.
The church of the monastery of Saint-Denis, designed by Abbot Suger, is considered the first Gothic architectural structure. During its construction, many supports and internal walls were removed, and the church acquired a more graceful appearance compared to the Romanesque "fortresses of God." In most cases, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris was taken as a model.
From Ile-de-France (France), the Gothic architectural style spread to Western, Central and Southern Europe - to Germany, England, etc. In Italy, it did not dominate for long and, as a "barbarian style", quickly gave way to the Renaissance; and since he came here from Germany, he is still called "stile tedesco" - German style.
In Gothic architecture, 3 stages of development are distinguished: early, mature (high gothic) and late (flaming gothic, variants of which were also the styles of manueline (in Portugal) and isabelino (in Castile).
With the advent of the Renaissance north and west of the Alps at the beginning of the 16th century, the Gothic style lost its significance.
Almost all the architecture of Gothic cathedrals is due to one major invention of the time - a new frame structure, which makes these cathedrals easily recognizable.
For Western Europe 5th c. was typical luxury in architecture and sculpture, a departure from realistic image towards stylization and formalism. The plastic arts are increasingly moving away from the realistic orientation inherent in antiquity, acquiring an abstract and symbolic character.
The architecture of the buildings resembled Byzantine buildings. Feudal castles and church cathedrals were continuously built.
Church building especially increased about 1000 in connection with the expected, according to the teachings of the church, the end of the world. Since then it has been widely used a rock.
The weight of the stone vaults could only be supported by thick, powerful walls with few and narrow windows. This style is called romanesque. Example:
Notre Dame in Poitiers, cathedrals in Toulouse, Arles, Velez (France), cathedrals in Oxford, Winchester, Noritch (England), in Lund (Sweden).
For Romanesque sculptures characterized by a complete rejection of realism in the interpretation of nature and the human body.
Exclusively ecclesiastical in content was and Wall art- planar, denying the three-dimensionality of figures and perspective. Painting reflected class-hierarchical ideas about the world: the saints were depicted larger in size than the king, and the king - larger than his vassals and servants.
To 12th c. appears in France Gothic. gothic cathedral- tall and slender columns, assembled as if in bundles and intersecting at a great height, huge windows, decorated with bright multi-colored stained-glass windows. Characteristic trait - rising buildings. Ex: Westminster Abbey in London.
At 14. - "flaming gothic"- the buildings were decorated with the finest stone carving - stone lace. At the same time, in England, a transition is planned to "perpendicular style" in Gothic- stone walls turn at this time into narrow piers between windows.
Roman style
The Romanesque style (from _la. romanus - Roman) developed in Western European art of the 10th-12th centuries. He expressed himself most fully in architecture.
The term "Romanesque style" appeared in the 19th century, when the connection between the architecture of the 11th-12th centuries was established. with ancient Roman architecture (in particular, the use of semicircular arches, vaults). In general, the term is arbitrary and reflects only one, not the main, side of art. However, it has come into common use. The main type of art of the Romanesque style is architecture, mainly church (stone temple, monastic complexes).
Style characteristic
Romanesque buildings are characterized by a combination of a clear architectural silhouette and laconic exterior decoration - the building has always carefully blended into the surrounding nature and therefore looked especially solid and solid. This was facilitated by massive smooth walls with narrow window openings and stepped recessed portals.
The main buildings during this period were the temple-fortress and the castle-fortress. The main element of the composition of the monastery or castle is the tower - donjon. Around it were the rest of the buildings, made up of simple geometric shapes - cubes, prisms, cylinders.
In contrast to the eastern centric type, a type of temple called the basilica developed in the West. The most important feature of Romanesque architecture is the presence of a stone vault. Other characteristic features include thick walls, cut through with small windows, designed to receive a thrust from the dome, if any, the predominance of horizontal articulations over vertical ones, mainly circular and semicircular arches.
Notable Romanesque buildings
* Kaiser Cathedrals in Speyer, Worms and Mainz in Germany
* Liebmurg Cathedral in Germany
* Pisa Cathedral and part of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy
* Maria Laach Abbey in Germany
see also
* Henry Hobson Richardson - revived the Romanesque style in the 19th century
The specifics of Russian architecture.
It starts with the adoption of Christianity.
Kyiv architectural style- monumentality, many heads. Mosaic and frescoes (Cathedral of Kiev Sophia).
Novgorod style- stricter than Kiev in decoration, more powerful and more severe in construction. There are no bright mosaics in the interior, but only frescoes, but not as dynamic as in Kyiv, and an excess of decorations of pagan antiquity with a clearly visible pattern of yazelkovy writing (St. Sophia Cathedral).
It is based on Byzantine architecture: a cross-domed building, which is superimposed with hipped roof, stepped tiering, towering top, height, vertical aspiration and asymmetry.
In ancient times, temples were built in the form of a ship and a cross, and later - in the form of a star or a circle. Near the bell-flax.
Until the 17th century the temple was white with golden domes. After penetration into Russia, baroque - colored. ("Naryzhkin baroque").
Temple structure: divided into naves (longitudinal), extensions-semi-circles (apses) is divided into 3 parts: a vestibule, a middle part and an altar (in the east). The entrance to the altar is closed and separated from the middle part by an iconostasis (a partition decorated with icons in several tiers), in the middle of which there are the Royal Doors, along the edges - the northern and southern gates.
Inside: columns, mosaics, biblical scenes on the walls and ceiling, faces of saints, angels, crosses, icons, carved candlesticks.
Exterior finish: domes (odd number -1,3,5,7,9,13 ..- each has its own meaning), there are crosses on them. Decorations: belts, brows, two-story niches, arched belts, false pilasters , an odd number of domes.
Russian classicism
The works of Russian classicism constitute not only the most important chapter in the history of Russian and European architecture, but also our living artistic heritage. This heritage continues to live not as a museum value, but also as an essential element of the modern city. It is almost impossible to apply the name of architectural monuments to buildings and ensembles created in the 18th and early 19th centuries - they so firmly preserve their creative freshness, free from signs of old age.
The construction of a new capital for the 18th century was not only a huge political, military and national economic enterprise, but also a great nationwide cause, in the same sense in which the creation and strengthening of Moscow was the national cause of the Russian people in the 16th century.
Classicism as a system of international artistic culture
Without visible struggle and controversy, public tastes have changed in Russia. For five - seven years, Russian baroque as the dominant style was replaced by classicism; the end of the 1750s was still the heyday of the first, the middle of the 1760s was already the beginning of the wide distribution of the second. Baroque left before reaching the stage of decline, without wasting its artistic potential.
Classicism was accepted as a system of international artistic culture, within which a national version of the style developed. The era of cultural loneliness of Russian architecture, stretched for centuries, is over.
Among the reasons that accelerated the establishment of classicism in Russia, in addition to the enthusiasm of the educated layer of the Russian nobility for rational educational utopias, there were also practical reasons related to the expansion of the range of tasks of architecture. The development of industry and the growth of cities again, as in the time of Peter the Great, brought to the fore the problems of urban planning and the multiplying types of buildings needed for the increasingly complex urban life. But for shopping arcades or public places, the genre of major-festive architecture is inappropriate, beyond which the Baroque was unable to go; the splendor of the palace cannot be extended to the whole city. The artistic language of classicism was, unlike the baroque, universal. It could also be used in the construction of the most imposing palace buildings and for "philistine" dwellings, up to modest wooden houses on the outskirts.
Changes in the circle of architectural forms affected, first of all, the decor. The relation of the building to the urban space was rethought in a new way. However, classicism did not offer any fundamentally new schemes. The few variants of simple plans already used by the Russian Baroque continued to serve various functions.
It was important that along with the new style, new methods of creativity were finally approved. The harmonization of a work of architecture, its parts and the whole was no longer carried out with “size-1 and base” and not on scaffolding (where Rastrelli's employees sculpted or cut decorative elements from wood on the spot), at work on a design drawing. Thus, the division of labor, which replaced the former "artel", was finally sealed up. The idea and development of the form that bears the image became the work of one architect, acting as the author (although this was not soon accustomed to outside the profession, which is why so many questions remain related to the authorship of works of early classicism, including the largest ones, such as Pashkov house and palace of Razumovsky in Moscow or the Engineering Castle in St. Petersburg).
For the architectural form, predetermined in every detail by the project, the models were no longer so much buildings as their images, analogues of the design drawing. The norms of classicism were reduced to a strict system. All this together made it possible to fully and accurately master the style according to the drawings and texts of theoretical treatises, which was almost impossible for the baroque with its capricious individuality. Classicism therefore easily spread to the provinces. It became the style not only of monumental structures, but of the entire urban fabric. The latter turned out to be possible because classicism created a hierarchy of forms that made it possible to subordinate any structures to its norms, while expressing the place of everyone in the social structure.
There were few talented and skillful architects; they could not design all the buildings in many cities. The general character and level of architectural solutions was maintained through the use of exemplary projects carried out by the largest masters. They were engraved and sent to all cities of Russia.
Design became distinct from construction; this expanded the influence on the architecture of professional literature and bookishness in general. The role of the word in the formation of the architectural image has increased. Its connection with historical and literary images provided common understanding for well-read people (the enlightened layer of the nobility was united by a common circle of reading and book knowledge).
This made the style equally consistent with the intentions of the absolutist power and the ideas of its enlightened opposition, the tastes of the richest, most powerful nobles and the limited means of poor nobles.
Petersburg classicism was, first of all, the style of the official "state" culture. Its norms were based on the way of life of the imperial court and the great nobility, they were prescribed to state institutions. Here, the influence of the folk “out of style” culture on the professional activity of architects is not noticeable.
St. Petersburg strict classicism took shape as a completed version of the style in the 1780s. I.E. Starov (1745-1808) and Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817) were his typical masters. Their buildings were distinguished by clarity compositional technique, conciseness of volumes, perfect harmony of proportions within the limits of the classic canon, fine drawing of details. The images of the buildings they built are full of courageous strength and calm dignity.
The Tauride Palace (1783-1789) created by Starov is sternly solemn. Rejecting the enfilade baroque systems, the master, in accordance with the rationalistic logic of classicism, combined the premises into functional groups. The reception of the spatial organization of the whole, where the developed side wings, connected by transitions with a powerful central volume, form a deep front courtyard, comes from the Palladian villas. The location of the front halls highlights the deep axis of the composition, however, the giant Grand Gallery is elongated parallel to the facade, which removed the elementary simplicity of contrast.
The facades are freed from the shallow relief that divides the wall into panels and blades - the architect no longer follows the examples of French architecture of the middle of the century, the St. early works). Smooth white columns of resolutely protruding austere Doric porticoes, for the first time in Russian architecture, actually carry entablature. They stand out against the background of intensely colored smooth walls, cut through by openings without architraves. The contrast emphasizes the tectonics of the plastered brick wall. “Four times eighteen” columns in the double colonnades of the Great Gallery had Greco-Ionic capitals (later replaced by L. Russka with the usual Roman ones) - one of the first examples of turning to the Hellenic heritage for Russian classicism. Derzhavin wrote about the building of the Tauride Palace: “ancient elegant taste is its dignity; it is simple but majestic.” The palace became for contemporaries an ideal standard of a large building - St. Petersburg, Russian and at the same time European. His drawings were enthusiastically appreciated by Napoleon, who especially noted the Grand Gallery and the winter garden, as reported by Percier and Fontaine in the text of their published uvrazh "The Best Royal Palaces in the World".
The main stages in the development of classicism
So the Winter Palace, despite all the Rastrelli brilliance of its forms and the undeniably dominant importance of this building in the center of the capital, turned out to be architecturally subordinate to the General Staff Building. Not because the classical (or “Empire”) forms of this latter are “stronger” than the baroque forms of the palace, but because Rossi built not only some new large building opposite the Winter Palace, but also created a new architectural whole, a new ensemble, a new architectural unity. In this new unity, organized according to the laws of Rossi, and not Rastrelli, the work of the latter seemed to be included in the new composition and, as a result, subordinate to the building of Rossi, and not vice versa, although one does not have to talk about any formal "superiority" of Rossi over Rastrelli, the General Staff over the Winter Palace. Thus, the Zakharovsky Admiralty began to "hold" in its monumental hands the entire spatial organism of the central St. Petersburg squares. Thus, the relatively low building of the Stock Exchange attracted the nodal point of this center, which was previously located in the high-rise volume of the Peter and Paul Fortress. So, further, the monumental buildings of Quarenghi turned out to be included in the new ensembles and subordinate to them: the State Bank - in the orbit of the architectural impact of the Kazan Cathedral, the Horse Guards Manege - in the ensemble of the Senate Square, created by Zakharov, Rossi and Montferrand; The Academy of Sciences, the Catherine Institute, the Maltese Chapel are also completely subordinated to the new architectural environment. This happened not because all these buildings, built by outstanding masters of large classical form, are less significant than something that was created earlier or later in their neighborhood, but because, by their architectural nature, they were not designed for an organizing role in ensemble and the ensemble in general. Comparison of the Stock Exchange, designed by Quarenghi, with the Stock Exchange, built by Thomon, clearly demonstrates the difference between these two architectural approaches to the problem of the city: in one case, a self-contained architectural composition of the building, almost without regard for its future environment, in the other, a building that composes the urban ensemble .
During the completion of the spatial composition of the main parts of St. Petersburg, during the first decades of the 19th century, the architectural searches of the entire 18th century were synthesized, as it were, synthesized and submitted to new forms, a new style, imperiously imposing its imprint on the entire appearance of the city. By this time, Petersburg acquires its "strict, slender appearance", in the words of Pushkin. And no matter how we evaluate the achievements of late Petersburg classicism in terms of quality and formality in comparison with the achievements of Rastrelli, or Quarenghi, or Rinaldi, we must recognize the importance of the most important urban planning stage in the development of Petersburg precisely behind this final period.
Russian baroque
manifested itself in the redundancy of purely Russian architectural decorations: rows of zakomars and kokoshniks, columnar decorations, such as window openings, a combination of plaster with brickwork, gilding, and other decoration of domes. Then came the architecture of the so-called. "Naryshkin baroque" - clearly western orientation, with the use of lace stucco, faceted domes, columnar drums. The former striking difference between church architecture and secular architecture disappears. Of course, at this stage (the end of the 17th century) there are no direct analogues between the elements of Russian and Western Baroque: if the essence of Western Baroque is in the free flow of volumes, the smoothness of volute contours, then the "Naryshkin baroque" is a pile of multifaceted stands on a quadrifolia (four-petalled building in terms of ).
Western baroque was already brought under Peter by Italian and French masters.
In the first years of Peter's reign, the orientation towards the Protestant countries was reflected in the architecture of Domenico Trezzini, who sparingly used baroque forms, which gave a special charm to the appearance of the northern capital. Dry practicality changed the nature of Russian painting: the art department established in 1724 at the Academy of Sciences was called upon to subordinate art to the tasks of the scientific study of nature.
Further following the path of the sacralization of absolutism was reflected in the attraction of baroque and classicism masters to Russia. A frank desire to surpass Versailles in luxury was reflected in the creation of the French architect Leblon - Peterhof, Peter's country residence. The work of baroque masters no longer in demand in the West, especially the father and son Rastrelli, received full recognition in Russia. But the spirit of palace voluntarism was more in line with the Rococo style, to which the art of the 18th century gravitated.
During the Time of Troubles, Russia was in a state of ruin. Monumental architecture and painting did not develop, did not build new chambers, temples, did not write frescoes. Builders and painters left Moscow and other large cities. Separate easel icons (works by Stroganov masters) reflected the anxieties and torments of their time. Icon "Bogolyubskaya Mother of God" (n. 17th century), the image of Tsarevich Dmitry, Russian saints, monks, holy fools, crying out for the salvation of Russia. Stroganov school of icon painting (Prokopy Chirin and others): bitter pessimism, inferiority of images. The icons are presented in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, in the Novodevichy Convent. In addition, in Russian art of the 17th century. heroic, fighting motives appear. Rostov: an embroidered banner with the image of the Archangel Michael and Joshua in the Borisoglebsky Monastery. Icon "Archangel Michael the Voivode" (before 17th century). In the 17th century, after the expulsion of foreigners, ancient Russian architecture experienced a new upsurge. The Moscow Kremlin becomes a symbol of the greatness of Russia. Structures and walls are restored and receive additional decorative decoration. Spasskaya, Arsenalnaya corner, Moskvoretskaya corner, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya, Vodovzvodnaya corner and other towers are crowned with stone tents with the state emblem. The decorative stone top of the Spasskaya Tower was built on in 1625. English architect Christopher Galofey and Russian architect Bazhen Ogurtsov. The tented Russian form is successfully combined with Gothic motifs. The hipped tops of other Kremlin towers were erected in the 17th century. Russian builders. The Moscow Kremlin becomes one of the most original creations of architecture. The upper parts organically merge with their bases. In the 17th century many buildings were erected in the Kremlin: clerk's chambers, churches, monastery courtyards, boyar houses and courtyards. An overabundance of large and small buildings made the Kremlin cramped. Having lost the harmony and clarity of architectural development, the Moscow Kremlin acquired in the 17th century. fabulous beauty of the ancient Russian baroque. In 1636 the Terem Palace is being built (architects Bazhen Ogurtsov and Trofim Sharutin). The 3-storey stone building on the basement had a tiered character. White-stone painted architraves, gilded roofs with burdocks, cornices made up the rich decoration of the buildings.
The towers of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery also received a new look in the Old Russian Baroque style. Prototypes of Russian churches of the 17th century. were the Moscow Kremlin buildings (Assumption Cathedral in 1479, it. architect Aristotle Fiorovanti). On the basis of Moscow architecture, an all-Russian architecture is being created, instilling the concept of the territorial and political integrity of Russia. Inexhaustible inventions and creative inventions are full of the best examples of church architecture of the 1st floor. 17th century: Kazan Cathedral on the Kremlin Square, Trinity Church in Nikitniki built by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in Moscow. The vast building of the Patriarchal Court in the Kremlin (1655) with the Church of the Twelve Apostles, placed on the vaults of the exit gates, marked the beginning of the construction of bishops' houses and refectory chambers. The Great Cross Chamber of this structure was covered with a closed vault and did not have supporting pillars. In the 2nd floor 17th century stone architecture in Russia takes on a monumental scope and exceptional decorative effect. Tent temples are no longer being built. The architects develop the motifs of 5-domed and 9-domed churches: the pomp and splendor of the Trinity Church in Ostankino, the Church of St. Nicholas in Khamovniki (1679), the Intercession Cathedral in Izmailovo. All R. and 2nd floor. 17th century construction is underway in Yaroslavl, Uglich, Kostroma, and Rostov the Great.
Church of John Chrysostom, John the Baptist, Resurrection Cathedral in New Jerusalem near Moscow (2nd half of the 17th century). Pillars-bell towers, built on the model of Ivan the Great - in Savvino-Storozhevsky, New Jerusalem, Novodevichy and other monasteries. Old Russian architecture in bizarre forms, in elaborate decorations of buildings, is moving to the Baroque style. Church domes in the form of a military helmet take on forms close to an onion or a pear. Terracotta belts, tiles, round and keeled kokoshniks, pilasters, polychrome majolica. Old Russian baroque was related to Western European. New Jerusalem Monastery, Palace in Kolomenskoye (1681), Krutitsky Teremok in Moscow (1680).
Russian villages were built up with log huts covered with plank and thatch, with hearths without chimneys. In the 17th century there is an influence of stone architecture on wooden architecture, and earlier it was the other way around. Church in Kizhi (twenty-two heads), church in Vytegorsky poyust (seventeen heads). The motif of the traditional five domes comes from the architecture of the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals.
Reunion in the 17th century Ukraine with Russia caused a lively cultural ties between both peoples. A new trend in stone architecture, "Naryshkin baroque", successfully combines Russian and Ukrainian building techniques, as well as features of the Western European order system. The temple domes in the buildings of the "Naryshkin baroque" take the form of a royal gate or a crown. Belfry of the Novodevichy Convent, Church of the Intercession in Fili.
In the 2nd floor 17th century over-the-gate stone temples are being built - the upper floors of the holy gates of monasteries and kremlins. The gates of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, crowned with a temple, became known in Moscow as a result of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. In the middle of the 17th century kremlins lose their defensive purpose and become decorative.
Simeon Polotsky - (in the world Samuil Emelyanovich Petrovsky-Sitnianovich) (1629-1680) Belarusian and Russian public and church figure, writer. He argued with the leaders of the split. Teacher of the royal children. He taught at the school of the Zaikonospassky Monastery. Co-author of the project of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. One of the founders of Russian syllabic versification and dramaturgy.
Epiphany Slavinetsky - (? - 1675) Russian and Ukrainian figure and scientist. He wrote sermons, spiritual songs, book epic songs of philosophical content, the first scientific works. Compiler of Greek-Slavic-Latin and philological dictionaries.
Sculpture perild classics
The archaic period, during which the system of architectural orders was created, laid the foundation for Greek plastic art and painting, determined the paths for the further evolution of Hellenic culture. The next, classical, period in the history of ancient Greece was the heyday of its civilization, and the V-IV centuries. BC. - the time of the highest achievements. At this time, Athens came to the fore, which was largely due to the formation of democracy there. Ordinary citizens of the city get the opportunity to solve important issues of political life at the people's assembly. The idea of realizing oneself as citizens of the policy, and not just its inhabitants, was reflected primarily in the work of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, whose tragedies contributed to the successful development of the Greek theater. In many ways, it was the latter, being publicly available, that brought up patriotism and citizenship. In art, the ideal of a man-hero, perfect physically and morally, was fully embodied. Most of the sculptures have come down to us in late Roman copies. Of the surviving Greek originals, there is the famous statue of the "Delphic Charioteer", created around 470 BC. The young man is depicted full-length in a long tunic, intercepted by a belt at the waist, with reins in his hands. The flowing folds of his clothes are reminiscent of the flutes of a Doric column, but his face with eyes of colored stone acquires extraordinary liveliness, spirituality. This image, full of harmony, embodies the ideal of a perfect man, equal to the heroes of the epic.
During the period of the early classics, the masters of the 5th century. BC. successfully solve the problem of synthesis of architecture and sculpture. Both of them act as completely equal, complementary arts. The sculptural decoration of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (470-456 BC) is the best example of this.