N.A. Belousova
The art of the 18th century (in Italian, settecento) represented the final stage of the centuries-old evolution of the great classical art of Italy. This is the time of the pan-European popularity of Italian artists. Petersburg, Madrid, Paris, London, Vienna, Warsaw - there was not a single European capital where Italian masters were not invited, wherever they, fulfilling orders of the royal courts and nobility, did not work as architects and sculptors, frescoists or theater decorators, landscape or portrait painters.
It would be wrong to explain such a wide resonance of Italian artistic culture in this period by the fact that its masters took the path of fundamentally new artistic discoveries, as was the case in the Renaissance and in the 17th century. Rather, it can be said that Italian masters were sometimes inferior in terms of the historical perspective of their achievements to artists of other countries, for example, France and England. Moreover, Italian architects and painters were closer than the artists of other national schools to the nature of figurative thinking and the language of forms of the masters of the previous, 17th century. The pan-European success of the Italians was promoted primarily by the extremely high general level of their art, which absorbed the centuries-old fruitful traditions of the great preceding eras, then the uniformly high development of all types of plastic arts and the presence in Italy of a large number of gifted masters.
The most valuable achievements of Italian art of the 18th century associated not only with architecture and monumental and decorative painting, where such a great master as Tiepolo played a decisive role, but also with various genres of easel painting (primarily with an architectural landscape), with theatrical and decorative art and with graphics. In addition to the ideologically substantive sides, a bright and imaginative reflection of the era, its main advantages were in an exceptionally high artistic quality, virtuoso painting skills, thanks to which the prestige of the brilliant Italian maestria remained extremely high.
One of the reasons for the wide spread of Italian masters throughout Europe was also the fact that they could not fully find their use in their homeland. Exhausted by wars, Italy turned from the late 17th - early 18th century. not only to a politically fragmented, but also to an almost devastated country. Its southern part was subordinated to the Spanish Bourbons; Tuscany was ruled by members of the House of Habsburgs, Lombardy was in the hands of Austria. The feudal order that prevailed on lands belonging to the clergy and aristocracy, rising prices, low wages of workers employed in factories, all caused discontent and ferment among the masses, resulting in unorganized uprisings of the poor, which could not succeed in the conditions of the subordination of the country to foreigners and due to its economic backwardness. Only the Venetian Republic and the Papal States with its capital Rome have retained their state independence. It was Venice and Rome that played the most prominent role in the spiritual and artistic life of 18th century Italy.
Although in comparison with the brilliant heyday of the 17th century, Italian architecture of the 18th century shows a certain decline, it nevertheless provided many interesting solutions. Even in the harsh economic conditions of this century, Italians have retained their inherent passion for the construction of enormous stately structures, as well as the monumental language of architectural forms. And yet, in the splendor of individual glorified monuments of this time, one can feel more a kind of inertia of the former grandiose scope of construction activity, rather than an organic conformity to the conditions of reality. This dependence on the past, expressed in Italy more strongly than in many other national art schools in Europe, was reflected here, in particular, in the predominant role of the Baroque style, which very slowly retreated before the shoots of new classicist architecture.
A close, essentially inextricable link with the architecture of the 17th century. especially noticeable in the monuments of Rome. Roman architects of the first half of the 18th century retained the large urban planning scale of their thinking. More modest than before, economic opportunities were used by them to create separate large structures that worthily completing a number of famous architectural complexes and ensembles.
In the 18th century, the facades of two famous early Christian basilicas of Rome - San Giovanni in Laterano (1736) and Santa Maria Maggiore (1734-1750) were erected, which occupy a dominant position in the architecture of the adjacent squares. The builder of the facade of the Lateran basilica, Alessandro Galilei (1691-1736), chose the facade of the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter, created by Carlo Maderno. But, unlike the latter, he gave a more artistic solution to a similar theme. In its two-storey facade with huge rectangular and arched openings and a colossal order of semi-columns and pilasters, the severity and clarity of massive architectural forms is more sharply shaded than in Maderny's by the restless movement of the huge statues crowning the facade. The exterior of the Church of the Saita Maria Maggiore, whose façade was designed by Ferdinando Fuga (1699-1781), testifies to the relief and tranquility of Baroque architectural forms. Fuga was also the builder of the ornate Palazzo del Consulta (1737), an example of 18th century Roman palace architecture. Finally, the façade of the Church of Santa Croce in Jeruzalemme provides an example of a brightly individual solution of a Baroque church façade in an aspect that has fascinated many Italian architects since the time of Gesu.
In the Roman architecture of this time, one can also find an example of a square, which is, as it were, a kind of open lobby in front of a church building. Such is the very small square of Sant'Ignazio, where, in contrast to the curvilinear outlines of the surrounding brick facades, the whimsical elegance of its forms, standing closer to the rococo than to the baroque, the impressive stone massif of the facade of the church of Sant'Ignazio, built in the previous century, stands out.
Among the most breathtaking monuments in Rome is the famous Spanish Steps, built by architects Alessandro Specchi (1668-1729) and Francesco de Sanctis (c. 1623-1740). The principle of a picturesque terrace composition, developed by Baroque architects when creating palace and park ensembles, was first used here in urban development. Broken along a steep slope, a wide staircase unites into an integral ensemble located at the foot of the hill Piazza de España with highways passing through the square, located on the top of this hill in front of the two-tower façade of the Church of San Trinita dei Monti. The grandiose cascade of steps, sometimes merging into a single rushing stream, or branching into separate marches that run down from top to bottom along a complex curved channel, is distinguished by exceptional picturesqueness and richness of spatial aspects.
The decorative tendencies of the late Baroque triumph in the famous Trevi Fountain (1732-1762), designed by the architects Niccolo Salvi (c. 1697-1751). The pompous facade of Palazzo Poli is used here as a backdrop for a huge wall fountain and is perceived as a kind of architectural decoration, inextricably linked with sculpture and violently rushing water streams.
The royal palace in Caserta near Naples, built by Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773), should be named as one of the most interesting structures in the southern regions of Italy. This multi-storey building, grandiose in its scale, is a gigantic square in plan with cross-like buildings intersecting inside it, which form four large courtyards. At the intersection of the buildings, there is a colossal two-tier lobby in which huge galleries and majestic grand staircases converge on different sides.
In more historically promising forms, architecture developed in the northern regions of Italy - in Piedmont and Lombardy, where progressive trends are more clearly revealed in the economy and culture. The largest architect here was Filippo Juvara (1676-1736), a native of Sicily, who worked in Turin, Rome and other cities and finished his creative way in Spain. Yuvara is the author of many diverse buildings, but in general, the evolution of his work follows from magnificent compositionally complex structures to greater simplicity, restraint and clarity of the architectural language. His early style is the façade of the Palazzo Madama in Turin (1718-1720). More ease and freedom in the so-called hunting castle of Stupinigi near Turin (1729-1734) - a huge country palace, extremely complex and whimsical in its plan (which is attributed to the French architect Beaufran). The strongly elongated low wings of the palace contrast with the high central building set at their intersection, crowned with a whimsical dome, over which the figure of a deer rises. Another famous building of Yuvara - the monastery and the church of Superga in Turin (1716-1731), unusually spectacularly located on a high hill - foreshadows a turn towards classicism in its forhms.
In its finished forms, classicism is most clearly expressed in the work of the Milan architect Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808), of whose many buildings the most famous is the Teatro della Scala in Milan (1778). This is one of the first theater buildings in European architecture designed for a huge number of spectators (its hall can accommodate over three and a half thousand people), which later became a model for many modern opera houses in terms of its architectural and technical qualities.
Since the 1680s. The Venetian Republic, exhausted by wars, having lost its dominance in the Mediterranean in the struggle against the Turks, began to lose its possessions in the East one after another, and its economic decline became obvious and inevitable. In addition, the aristocratization and stagnation of the forms of the state apparatus gave rise to acute social contradictions and repeated attempts on the part of the bourgeois-democratic part of Venetian society to change this regime through radical projects of its reorganization. But although these attempts did not have significant success, one should not think that Venice has completely exhausted its possibilities. Here the new bourgeoisie grew stronger, a layer of the intelligentsia grew, due to which the culture of the Venetian Settecento was imbued with complex and contradictory phenomena. A particularly striking example in this respect is not so much painting as the literature and drama of that time.
Venice has retained its own peculiar splendor of life, which in the 18th century. even acquired some kind of feverish character. Holidays, carnivals, masquerades, when all estates in the city were equalized and under the mask it was impossible to distinguish a patrician from a plebeian, continued almost throughout the year and attracted crowds of travelers to Venice, among whom were kings, representatives of the nobility, musicians, artists, actors, writers and just adventurers.
Along with Paris, Venice set the tone for the literary, theatrical and musical life of the 18th century. As in the 16th century, and now it remained an important center of printing. There were seventeen drama and opera theaters, music academies, four women's orphanages - "conservatories", which were transformed into excellent music and vocal schools. Venice surpassed Naples and Rome with its musical triumphs, creating unsurpassed schools of organ and violin playing, flooding the international musical world of that time with its amazing singers. Outstanding composers and musicians lived and worked here. The theaters of Venice were overcrowded, church services, where the monastery choirs and solo nuns sang, were attended as theaters. In Venice and Naples, along with the dramatic theater, a realistic comic opera was also developed, reflecting urban life and customs. The outstanding master of this genre, Galuppi, was close in the spirit of his work to the greatest playwright of the 18th century. Carlo Goldoni, whose name was associated with a new stage in the history of European theater.
Goldoni radically transformed the comedy of masks, pouring new content into it, giving it a new stage design, developing two main dramatic genres: a comedy of mores from bourgeois-noble life and a comedy from folk life. Despite the fact that Goldoni acted as an enemy of the aristocracy, his plays enjoyed great success in Venice at one time, until he was ousted from the Venetian stage by his ideological opponent - the playwright and poet, impoverished Venetian Count Carlo Gozzi. The latter again turned to the legacy of the improvised comedy of masks in his romantic theatrical plays (fiabach) - The Love for Three Oranges, Princess Turandot, and The Deer King. However, the main role in the development of Italian drama did not belong to them, but to Goldoni's comedies, whose realistic work was associated with new enlightenment ideas.
The theatrical art of Venice was also reflected in the nature of its architecture and especially decorative painting. The development of the latter was in no small measure associated with a huge demand for magnificent theatrical and decorative paintings of churches and especially palaces not only among the Venetian nobility, but also outside Italy. But along with this direction in Venetian painting, a number of other genres also developed: everyday genre, urban landscape, portrait. Like Galuppi's operas and Goldoni's comedies, they reflected the everyday life and festivities of Venetian life.
The link between the art of the 17th and 18th centuries in Venice is the work of Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734). The author of numerous monumental and easel compositions, he largely relied on the traditions of Paolo Veronese, an example of which can be found in such works as "Madonna and Child with Saints" (1708; Venice, Church of San George Maggiore) and "Magnanimity of Scipio" ( Parma, University), even iconographically dating back to the 16th century. Although he paid tribute to the official pathos of the Baroque, his creations are more lively and attractive than most of the Italian painters of this trend. His temperamental painting manner, bright colors combined with heightened theatricality of images made him popular not only in Venice, but also abroad, in particular in England, where he worked with his nephew and student, the landscape painter Marco Ricci (1679-1729).
The latter usually painted landscapes in compositions by Sebastiano Ricci, and such a joint work of both masters was a large painting "Allegorical Tomb of the Duke of Devonping" (Birmingham, Barberra Institute), reminiscent of a magnificent backstage and theatrical scenery. Landscape works by Marco Ricci himself are compositions that are romantic in mood, executed in a wide pictorial manner; in them you can catch some features of commonality with the landscapes of Salvator Rosa and Magnasco.
The initial stage of Venetian painting of the 18th century. presents the work of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1683-1754). He studied with the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi, adopting his lively, distinctive manner of painting with extensive use of chiaroscuro. The fresh and powerful impact of Caravaggio's realism is also reflected in his paintings. Piazzetta is restrained and refined in its palette, which is dominated by deep colors that sometimes seem to be glowing from within - chestnut-red, brown, black, white and gray. In his altarpiece in the Gesuati church in Venice - “St. Vincent, Hyacinth and Lorenzo Bertrando "(c. 1730), with three figures of saints arranged diagonally upward - the black, white and gray tunics of his characters form a color scheme striking in their harmony and subtle monochromaticity.
Other compositions on religious themes - “St. Jacob, led to execution ”and the ceiling in the Venetian church of San Giovanni e Paolo (1725-1727) were also performed by the artist in a wide painting manner. Piazzetta-artist of the transition period; the pathos of his paintings on religious subjects and at the same time full-blooded realism and vitality of images, deep chiaroscuro, spirituality and mobility of all painting fabric, juicy hot colors, and sometimes exquisite color combinations - all this partly brings his art closer to that direction of the Italian school of the 17th century. presented by Fetti, Liss and Strozzi.
Many genre paintings belong to the Piazzetta brush, however, the everyday principle is poorly expressed in them, their images are invariably covered with a romantic haze and fanned with a subtle poetic feeling. Even such a purely genre interpretation of the biblical plot, as, for example, in his "Rebekah at the Well" (Milan, Brera), acquires a lyric-romantic connotation from Piazzetta. Leaning in fright on the edge of a stone basin, clutching a shiny copper jug \u200b\u200bto her chest, Rebekah looks with dismay at the servant of Abraham, who offers her a pearl thread. His shaded figure in chestnut brown clothing contrasts with the shimmery gold, golden pink and white tones that form the colorful silhouette of Rebekah's figure. The heads of cows, a dog and a camel cut off by a frame on the left side of the picture, the picturesque figures of peasant women behind Rebekah (one of them with a shepherd's staff) add a pastoral tint to the picture.
The most famous genre compositions of the Piazzetta include "The Fortune Teller" (Venice, Academy). He also owns a number of portraits.
Piazzetta's work, however, is not limited to his paintings. He is the author of magnificent drawings, among which there are preparatory sketches and completed compositions, executed in pencil and chalk. Most of them are female and male heads, depicted either face-to-face, or in profile or three-quarter turns, interpreted in a volumetric black-and-white manner, striking in their extraordinary vitality and instantaneous accuracy of the captured appearance ("A Man in a Round Hat", "Standard Bearer and a Drummer", Venice, Accademia, see illustrations).
The grandiose scope of the Settecento's monumental and decorative art is primarily associated with the name of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), whose style was formed under the influence of his teacher Piazzetta and Sebastiano Ricci. Enjoying great fame during his lifetime, Tiepolo worked not only in Italy, but in Germany and Spain. His compositions also adorned the royal palaces and estates in Russia in the 18th century. Using the best traditions of decorative painting of the Renaissance and the 17th century, Tiepolo greatly strengthened the theatrical and spectacular side in his work, combining it with a lively perception of reality. Never losing her feeling, Tiepolo combined a keen sense of real phenomena with those principles of convention that are characteristic of monumental and decorative painting. These interpenetrating principles determined the originality of his artistic language. However, the features of life's truth in the depiction of individual events and characters were not combined in Tiepolo's work with an in-depth psychological disclosure of artistic images, which generally led to a certain repetition of certain techniques and constituted a limited aspect of his art.
The artist's fertility was inexhaustible; its brilliant creative activity lasted more than half a century. Tiepolo's brush belongs to a huge number of frescoes, altar images, easel paintings, many drawings; he was also one of the most remarkable masters of etching.
An example of the early period of Tiepolo's activity, which began working around 1716, is the frescoes in the Venetian church degli Scalzi -
“Apotheosis of St. Teresa "(1720-1725), where he first introduced his new spatial and decorative solutions, a number of easel paintings on mythological themes (among them the large canvas" The Rape of the Sabine Women ", c. 1720; Hermitage) and especially ten huge decorative panels painted by the artist to decorate the palace of the Venetian patrician Dolphino (c. 1725).
Five canvases from this series - "The Triumph of the Emperor", "Muzio Scovola in the Camp of Porsenna", "Coriolanus Under the Walls of Rome" and others - are in the Hermitage collection. The strong and expressive transfer of heroic subjects, the plastic, vitally convincing interpretation of the figures, the spatial pictorial composition built on bright colorful contrasts with the use of light and shadow effects, testify to the early ripening skill of Tiepolo.
Frescoes in the archbishop's palace in Udine, painted mainly on biblical themes, date from 1726. Thirty-year-old Tiepolo appears in them already as an experienced artist with remarkable coloristic skills, examples of which are "The Appearance of the Angel to Sarah", "The Appearance of Three Angels to Abraham" and especially the fresco "The Sacrifice of Abraham"; in the poses and gestures of the biblical characters, they resemble a magnificent performance.
Turning to easel painting, Tiepolo creates equally impressive decorative compositions, such as the one painted in the late 1730s. a large three-part painting for the Church of San Alvise in Venice - "The Way to Golgotha", "The Scourging of Christ" and "The Wedding of Thorns", where bright and brilliant colors are replaced by gloomy and deep colors, the composition becomes more spatial and dynamic, and the vitality of its images is expressed even more stronger than in frescoes.
The brilliant flowering of Tiepolo's decorative talent began in the early 1740s, when he painted a number of mythological paintings, among them The Triumph of the Amphitrite (Dresden) - the sea goddess, serenely reclining on a chariot in the form of a shell, which horses and sea gods rush rapidly across turquoise green waves. The red cloak of Amphitrite, stretched by the wind, like a sail, stands out as a bright spot in the general refined color scheme.
In the 1740-1750s. Tiepolo creates one after another wonderful decorative cycles, altar images and small easel paintings. The families of the Venetian patricians, as well as monasteries and churches, compete among themselves to possess the works of his brush.
The artist turned the dizzyingly high church plafonds into bottomless heavenly spaces with swirling clouds, where light-winged angels and saints hovered over the heads of the worshipers. Religious and mythological themes were replaced by lavish festivities, weddings, feasts and triumphs. In his compositions, the artist achieved amazing effects of "daylight" lighting by correlating white tones with pale blue and gray tones, and deep spatial pauses separating architectural forms and streams of human figures from each other created a feeling of airy lightness and weightlessness. The subtle, delicate harmony of its colors, the vivid sense of color, the dynamism of the compositions, the inexhaustible pictorial fantasy, the bold solution of the most difficult promising problems - all this amazed Tiepolo's contemporaries as much as it surprises us now.
Between 1740-1743 he wrote huge ceiling compositions for the Venetian churches of Gesuati, degli Scalzi, scuola del Carmine and others. It is worth dwelling on the painting of the Church of degli Scalzi - the most grandiose in size and the most majestic fresco, executed during these years by Tiepolo together with the artist Mengozzi Colonna, who was a quadratist, that is, a painter who performed ornamental parts and architectural painting in Tiepolo's compositions. The interior of the church, built by Longena in the 17th century, was distinguished by purely Baroque splendor, equivalently completed by the magnificent Tiepolo plafond with the huge composition "The Transfer of the Madonna's House to Loreto" (this plafond was destroyed in 1918). The painting on the ceiling, as if continuing the real architectural decoration of the church walls, framed a huge fresco built on the comparison of light plans of varying intensity and depth, which created the illusion of an endless heavenly space illuminated by light. The image unfolded almost parallel to the plane of the ceiling, and not into its depth, as decorators of the 17th century did. By placing the main scene of the "Transfer" not in the center of the plafond, but at its edge, and leaving the rest of the space almost empty, Tiepolo achieves the complete illusion of a rapid air flight of a mass of human figures. Some of the figures are separated from the central stage and placed against the background of the fresco frame, such as the figure personifying heresy and falling headlong on the viewer. With these effects, the artist, as it were, connects the heavenly scene with the real interior of the church. Such pictorial illusions of sight corresponded to the nature of the Venetian worship of the 18th century, which was a kind of ceremonial church performance, imbued with secular rather than religious sentiments.
The period after 1745 includes the remarkable frescoes by Tiepolo in the Venetian Palazzo Labia, where the artist comes closest to the decorative principles of Veronese. Two frescoes, located on opposite walls of the Great Hall, depict "The Feast of Antony and Cleopatra" and "The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra." A number of allegorical figures are displayed on the ceiling.
Entering the spacious ballroom of the Palazzo Labia, the viewer loses the feeling of a real architectural space, because its limits are pushed apart by picturesque decorations that have turned the walls of the Venetian palazzo into a magnificent theatrical show. Tiepolo skillfully used the wall space between two doors and two windows above them, thus combining real architecture with illusory. In the "Feast" scene, the steps, on which a dwarf is depicted with his back to the viewer, lead to a wide marble terrace with a Corinthian-style colonnade and choirs, in the shadow of which they feast egyptian queen and a Roman general. Cleopatra, wanting to prove to Antony her contempt for wealth, throws the priceless pearl into a glass of vinegar, where it must dissolve without a trace. The ratio of human figures to the perspective construction of the scene is conveyed flawlessly. The composition, saturated with light and air, is built along two intersecting diagonals, leading the viewer's eyes into depth; the viewer is as if invited to enter the terrace and take part in the feast. It is interesting that the middle of the fresco is not filled with figures - the artist here gives a spectacular spatial pause.
As much as this fresco is filled with tranquility, so all the figures in the "Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra" are engulfed in movement. Without pursuing the goal of being faithful to the historical truth, Tiepolo turns his heroes rather into actors dressed, moreover, in the Venetian fashion of the 16th century. These episodes from the story of Antony and Cleopatra provided such gratifying material for Tiepolo's creative imagination that he left many versions of them in his monumental and easel canvases. Such are the "Feast of Antony and Cleopatra" in the museums of Melbourne, Stockholm and London, "Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra" in Edinburgh and Paris.
In the 50s and 60s, Tiepolo's painting skills reached tremendous heights. Its color becomes unusually refined and takes on delicate shades of cream, gold, pale gray, pink and lilac.
His frescoes in the episcopal palace in Würzburg date from this period (see Art in Germany). Working there for three years, between 1751 and 1753, Tiepolo creates magnificent decorative paintings, fully coordinating them with the architectural concept of the palace. Their pompous theatrical character corresponds to the fantastic and somewhat pretentious architectural and sculptural decoration of the imperial hall. The plafond depicts Apollo in a chariot rushing Beatrice of Burgundy across the clouds to her fiancé Frederick Barbarossa. A similar motif was encountered more than once among the decorators of the 17th century. (at Guercino, Luca Giordano and others), but nowhere did he achieve such a spatial coverage, such a radiant bottomlessness of the atmosphere, such brilliance in conveying the movement of floating figures.
Above the cornice of the short wall of the hall, skillfully using lighting, Tiepolo places a fresco depicting the marriage of Barbarossa. In a complex interior composition with motifs in the spirit of Veronese, he presents a crowded wedding ceremony, written in sonorous and joyful colors - blue-blue, crimson, yellow, green, silver-gray.
In addition to these frescoes, Tiepolo painted a huge, about 650 sq. m, a plafond above the palace staircase, where Olympus was depicted. He seemed to “break through” the undivided surface of the ceiling, turning it into an endless celestial space. Placing Apollo among the rushing clouds, he depicted personifications of different parts of the world along the cornice around the walls - Europe in the form of a woman surrounded by allegorical figures of sciences and arts (some characters were given a portrait character; among them he depicted himself, his son Giovanni Domenico and assistants), America, Asia and Africa with images of animals and peculiar architectural motives. This plafond is also one of the pinnacles of 18th century decorative art.
Upon his return to Venice, Tiepolo, who was at the zenith of his fame, became president of the Venice Academy of Painting and for two years directed its activities.
Among the best creations of Tiepolo's decorative genius are his frescoes in Vicenza in the Villa Valmarana, dating back to 1757, where the artist worked with his students and his son Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804). In the paintings of this villa, where Tiepolo turns to new decorative solutions, his style acquires a special sophistication and splendor. The artist now builds his compositions parallel to the plane of the wall, returning again to the traditions of Veronese. The wall plane turns into an antique peristyle, through the columns of which a view of the beautiful landscape opens. Large spatial pauses between figures, an abundance of light, white, lemon-yellow, pale pink, pale purple, light brown, emerald green tones of his palette give the picturesque ensemble of Villa Valmarana a clear and joyful character, imbued with a brightly vital feeling of images of antique and Renaissance poetry.
The frescoes in the main hall of the villa - the so-called Palazzo - depict the scene, The Sacrifice of Iphigenia and related episodes. The other three rooms were frescoed on themes borrowed from Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, and the Renaissance poems Furious Roland Ariosto and Jerusalem Liberated by Torquato Tasso. In all these scenes there is a lot of movement, lightness, grace and emotionality, prompted by the drama of the literary plots chosen by Tiepolo.
It is interesting that the great German poet Goethe, having visited this villa, immediately noted the presence of two styles in it - "refined" and "natural". The latter is especially expressed in the work of Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, who in 1757 painted a number of rooms in the neighboring "Guest House" (the so-called Forestiere). For a long time, the work of father and son Tiepolo went under the same name; now the features of the creative image of the young Tiepolo were more clearly defined. So, in his frescoes of the Villa Valmarana, the genre and everyday principle is more pronounced, as opposed to the style of his father. Such are his paintings "Peasant Dinner" or "Peasants on Vacation" with wide landscape backgrounds, or the beautiful "Winter Landscape" depicting two magnificently dressed Venetian women. Other walls feature carnival episodes that vividly illustrate the mores of 18th century Venetian life. Tiepolo the Younger also painted genre paintings in the Palazzo Rezzonico in Venice. However, some of his genre works are considered to have been performed jointly with his father. His best achievements include a series of brilliant etchings, each sheet of which depicts an episode of the flight of Joseph and Mary with the baby to Egypt.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo himself is also known as a portrait painter. His portraits by Antonio Riccobono (c. 1745; Rovigo, Concordi Academy), Giovanni Querini (c. 1749; Venice, Querini-Stampaglia Museum) are very vivid and expressive in character.
Around 1759, Tiepolo painted a large altarpiece “St. Tekla saves the city of Este from the plague ”(Cathedral in Este), created in a different coloristic key than his secular compositions. Deep dark tones emphasize the dramatic tension of this scene, the images of which were created under the influence of the great Venetian painter of the 16th century. Tintoretto.
Tiepolo spent the last years of his life in Madrid, by order of the Spanish king Charles III, painting the ceiling of his palace. A huge fresco "Triumphs of the Spanish Monarchy" (1764-1766) is painted on the ceiling of the throne room. As in Würzburg, the plafond is transformed into a heavenly space, framed by figurative compositions that represent the Spanish colonies and provinces. However, it is performed in a more flat manner than the early decorative cycles.
A special area of \u200b\u200bcreativity of Tiepolo is made up of his drawings, brilliant in their artistry. Executed by a sanguine or a feather with a wash, they are distinguished by the generality of their forms, intense dynamics and - for all the sketchy fluency of the graphic manner - great dramatic expressiveness. Often they serve as preparatory sketches for individual parts of his large compositions, sometimes they have an independent meaning. His drawings of male heads, rendered unusually plastic, are marked by a sense of truth in life and rare observation. He also has sharp and expressive caricatures of the clergy, of the Venetian dandies, of the characters of the comedy of masks.
In the technique of etching, Tiepolo performed various mythological, allegorical and romantic scenes, the meaning of which almost defies disclosure. They contain images of astrologers, people in oriental robes, gypsies, warriors. Characterized by an extremely picturesque cut-and-shadow manner, these etchings had a certain influence on the graphics of the greatest Spanish painter of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Francisco Goya.
Bound by his time, Tiepolo could not rise in his work to that high measure of humanity, depth and integrity, which was characteristic of the great masters of the Renaissance. The appearance of many of his heroes is based on life observations, an example of which is a number of his female characters - Cleopatra, Armida, Amphitrite, - almost always going back to the same real prototype - the daughter of the Venetian gondolier Christine, but not distinguished by true inner significance. The content side of his bright and festive art is embodied not so much in the expressiveness of individual images and characters, but in the whole complex of pictorial and plastic motives, in their amazing richness and sophistication.
Tiepolo's painting was not properly appreciated in the 19th century, since it was far from the artistic tasks that were solved in the art of this century. Only later did Tiepolo take a worthy place in the history of art as one of the brilliant masters of the 18th century, who created his own style and pictorial and decorative system, which completed the centuries-old evolution of monumental painting of the classical artistic eras.
For Italian painting of the 18th century. it was characterized by its division into genres. Everyday genre, landscape, portrait became widespread in it, and artists each specialized in their own kind of art. Thus, the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi (1702-1785) chose the image of small gallant scenes, visits, masquerades, concerts, gambling houses, dance lessons, folk entertainment, charlatans, and rare animals as his specialty. Not always correct in drawing, sometimes quite elementary in terms of color, Longhi's small-sized paintings - "Dance Lesson" (Venice, Academy), "Behind the Toilet" (Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico), "Rhino" (ibid.) - were used significant success. His narrative painting, which Goldoni called his muse's sister, brought to us the peculiar and poetic spirit of the "age of the mask", carefree street life, intrigue, frivolity and entertainment, characteristic of Venice of this time.
The Italian portrait was presented by a number of masters, of which the most significant was Giuseppe Ghislandi, who was then named (after his conversion to monasticism) Fra Galgario (1655-1743). A native of Bergamo, he worked for a long time in Venice, where he studied the works of Giorgione, Titian and Veronese. His brush belongs to numerous, mainly male portraits, which combine the external representativeness and methods of psychological characterization inherent in baroque portraits, with the grace, grace and elegance inherent in the 18th century. A remarkable colorist who has mastered the best traditions of Venetian painting, Ghislandi portrayed nobles posing for him in wigs, huge triangular hats and rich, embroidered with gold camisoles, using bright crimson, purple, green and yellow tones in his painting. But he never overshadowed the realistic essence of the portrait image with this splendor.Each of his portraits is deeply individual, be it a man's portrait, where a model is very vividly depicted - a cavalier with an arrogant face, full sensual lips and a large nose (Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum), or an elegant full-length portrait of Count Vialetti, or a self-portrait painted in dark "Rembrandt" colors, or a charming portrait of a boy (1732; Hermitage).
Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813) - the son of Pietro Longhi - is known mainly as a portrait painter. Giving his models a ceremonial, festive look, he seeks to characterize them through the furnishings that surround them. This is the portrait of the famous composer Domenico Cimarosa (Vienna, Liechtenstein gallery). He is depicted in a lush satin cloak, with a score in his hands, turning to the viewer a haughty and beautiful, but devoid of deep expressiveness, a young face framed by a white wig. Next to him on the table is a viola d "cupid, a violin, a flute, a horn and an inkwell with a feather. The portrait of Goldoni (Venice, Correr Museum) is written in the same spirit: the famous playwright is depicted in a ceremonial costume, surrounded by the attributes of his profession.
The Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) began her career as a miniaturist, but gained wide fame for her numerous pastel portraits. Its coloring was distinguished by great tenderness and some fading of tones, which was explained by the specificity of the pastel technique. All her life she painted portraits and poetic allegories. Without pursuing the goal of achieving complete similarity, she extremely flattered her models, giving them sometimes a sentimental aristocratic character, thanks to which she enjoyed great success among the European nobility of the 18th century. and was elected a member of the French and Venetian Academies.
But the most significant phenomenon among the various genres of Venetian painting of the 18th century was the urban landscape, the so-called veduta (that is, the view), which combined the elements of an architectural picture and the landscape itself.
Venetian species painting was primarily a perspective painting, reproducing real motives of the urban landscape. However, each of the Vedutists had their own artistic language and their own pictorial vision, therefore, despite the well-known repetition and borrowing of motives from each other, they were never boring and the same. In love with the beauty of Venice, they became its true biographers and portrait painters, conveying the subtle poetic charm of its appearance, capturing in countless paintings, drawings and prints squares, canals dotted with gondolas, embankments, palaces, festive promenades and poor neighborhoods.
The origins of the Venetian lead should be sought in 15th-century painting, in the works of Gentile Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio, but then the city landscape did not play an independent role and served as a background for the artist only for holiday chronicles and narrative compositions.
At the beginning of the 18th century. Luca Carlevaris creates a type of Venetian urban landscape, which, however, compared to the works of subsequent Vedutists, was rather primitive in nature. The real master in this area was Antonio Canale, nicknamed Canaletto (1697-1768).
The son and apprentice of the theater artist Bernardo Canale, Antonio left Venice for Rome and got acquainted with the work of Roman landscape painters and theater designers, mainly Pannini and the Bibbiena family. His style was formed very early and did not undergo any pronounced changes along the way of its development. Already in the early work of Cahaletto "Scuola del Carita" (1726), the principles of his artistic perception were clearly expressed. There is little movement in his urban landscapes, there is nothing illusory, changeable and unstable in them, nevertheless they are very spatial; colorful tones form plans of varying intensity, softened in their contrast by chiaroscuro. Canaletto paints views of lagoons, marble Venetian palaces, stone lace of arcades and loggias, rusty-red and grayish-pink walls of houses, reflected in the rich green or bluish water of canals, along which gondolas decorated with gold glide and fishing boats scurry, and the embankments are crowded with people , one can see idle nobili in white wigs, monks in cassocks, foreigners and working people. With a precise, almost director's calculation, Canaletto groups small genre mise-en-scenes; in them he is vitally reliable, sometimes even prosaic and extremely scrupulous in conveying details.
The Grand Canal in Venice (Florence, Uffizi), The Square in front of the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice (Dresden), The Stonemason's Courtyard (1729-1730; London, National Gallery) are among the best works of Canaletto. Among his paintings, which are in Soviet museums, one should name "Reception of the French Embassy in Venice" (Hermitage) and "Departure of the Doge to be betrothed to the Adriatic Sea" (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts).
Having gained wide popularity since the 30s. as an artist who knows no equal in his genre, Canaletto was invited in 1746 to London, where, commissioned by English patrons of art, he painted a number of city landscapes, in which his color, devoid of bright and plastic black and white lighting, loses its former sonority and variety, becoming more subdued and local. These are "View of Whitehall", "City of London under the arch of Westminster Bridge", "Holiday on the Thames" and a number of others.
In addition to painting, Canaletto paid great attention to engraving, which between 1740-1750. received a brilliant development in Venice. Almost all Venetian landscape painters - Marco Ricci, Luca Carlevaris, Canaletto, Bellotto - were great masters of etching. That which was sometimes lacking in Canaletto's large canvases - movement, the spirituality of the entire pictorial fabric - fully appeared in his etchings, imbued with a real poetic feeling. Using a masterful linear technique in them, achieving deep and soft black-and-white transitions by means of fine parallel shading of varying intensity, Canaletto simultaneously made the paper “work”, interrupting slightly wavy horizontal strokes with light verticals or shading light places with them. And the heavens, and the clouds floating on them, as if driven by a light breeze, and the water, and the trees come to life in his engravings. Fast and bold contours, cursory strokes give life authenticity and reality to his "Port in Dolo" - a small square on the shore of a water basin, along which a young couple moves - a gentleman in a wig and a camisole, leading a lady in a lush dress by the arm, involuntarily recall viewer romantic images of Manon Lescaut and the cavalier des Grieux from the story of Abbot Prevost.
Bernardo Bellotto (1720-1780) - nephew and pupil of Canaletto - was also one of the prominent Vedutists of the 18th century. A clear perspective distribution of plans, an extremely large, almost photographic accuracy in reproducing nature, the somewhat smoothed surface of his paintings give them a certain lifelessness, caused to a certain extent by the fact that Bellotto widely used camera obscura reflections in his works. His urban vedias are not distinguished by the breadth of artistic generalization, they have little mood, movement, airiness, but they are of great artistic and documentary value. In addition to Italy, from 1746 to 1766 he worked at the courts in Vienna and Dresden, and from 1768 he was a court painter in Poland, where he created many views of Warsaw. By the thoroughness of the details depicted, it can be assumed that these ids give a more or less accurate idea of \u200b\u200bthe architecture, cityscape and life of that time.
The Venetian painting of the Settecento shone with another name - Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), an excellent artist who brought the great coloristic traditions of Venetian painting to almost the 19th century.
He was a student of his older brother, Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1698 / 99-1760), a gifted painter, in whose workshop he worked for almost half of his life. Elder Guardi, who created several altarpieces: “Death of St. Joseph "(Berlin); "Madonna and Child with Saints" (church in Vigo d "Anaunia), apparently with the participation of the younger brother, in his manner came into contact with Sebastiano Ricci and Piazzetta.
The early works of Francesco Guardi include several altar paintings - "The Crucifixion" (Venice, private collection), "Lamentation" (Munich). However, the most significant work of this period is the oil painting of an organ in the Church of Arcangelo Raphael in Venice, depicting scenes from the life of Tobias (c. 1753). A number of subject and compositional motives for this painting were borrowed by the artist from other Italian painters, but the bold and unusual coloristic solution turns it into a completely original work. Distant, like shimmering landscapes, overflows of luminous pink, purple, reds, lemon, golden-orange, gray and blue tones, fragility and vibration of shadows, whimsicality, almost capriciousness of colorful juxtapositions distinguish its picturesque system. Among all the Venetian masters, Guardi most of all shows a penchant for conveying the air environment, elusive atmospheric changes, the light play of sunlight, the humid Vyurian air of the lagoons, painted in the finest color shades. With light, as if trembling strokes of the brush, Guardi not only sculpted the form, but also achieved extraordinary mobility and spirituality of the entire pictorial surface of the picture as a whole.
The painting "Alexander in front of the body of Darius" (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), which is a free copy of a painting by an Italian painter of the 17th century, belongs to the same years. Langetti. It is difficult to imagine a more non-classical interpretation of the antique plot. However, Guardi's bravura picturesqueness and the real whirlwind of his light blue, red, dark brown, greenish colorful spots do not obscure the clear compositional construction of the picture in the form of an ellipse, which is intersected by the diagonally located body of Darius - the semantic center of the composition.
But the most important side of Guardi's work is associated with the development of landscape painting, when from the 1740s. under the influence of Marieschi and Canaletto, whose drawings he copied for a long time, he began to work in the field of architectural landscape. Following Canaletto, Guardi at the same time strove to overcome the linear-perspective design of his lead.
In 1763, on the occasion of the beginning of the reign of the new Doge Alvise IV Mocenigo, marked by a series of brilliant festivities, Guardi painted twelve large Venetian leads, almost certainly using the Canaletto compositions engraved by Brustolon for his paintings. Such borrowings, as we can see, were encountered in Guardi's painting practice more than once, but this did not diminish the dignity of his paintings; Guardi's airy-color interpretation transformed dry and authentic leads into images of Venice, full of awe, movement and life.
Guardi was a great master of drawing. His main technique is pen drawings, sometimes tinted with watercolors. In them he sought above all movement and instantaneousness of impression. Earlier drawings are marked with rocaille motives, the lines are rounded, whimsical and flexible, the movement is exaggerated, in the later ones much more generalization appears; ink and bistrom washings give them incomparable picturesqueness. Many of them are made directly from nature - they capture running clouds, the movement of water, the sliding of gondolas, their incorrect reflections, temperamental and bold turns of figures. Buildings, stairs, loggias, colonnades are outlined with unfinished, bravura, steep strokes crossing each other. Both the airy grace of Venetian architecture and its constructiveness were conveyed by the artist with an amazing sense of line, both discontinuous and generalized.
The most characteristic artistic techniques of Guardi in his painting include free variations on the same theme he loved, the so-called capriccios. He finds more and more new motives for his constant "model", he writes Venice, which he did not leave all his life, at various hours of the day, discovering more and more colorful nuances, giving his landscapes either a romantic look, or painting them in sad tones of lyrical meditation ...
In the 1770s, Guardi reached the pinnacle of his craft. With thin and free strokes, he paints squares, canals, streets, dilapidated buildings, outskirts and poor quarters of Venice, its secluded courtyards, deserted lagoons, quiet alleys, unexpectedly ending in a wide shaded arch, from the arch of which, like a giant transparent drop, hangs a glass lantern, as if melting in the rosy evening air ("City View"; Hermitage). Essentially, Guardi transformed the type of stage lead? who reigned in Venetian painting of the mid-18th century, in a landscape of the finest lyrical sound, imbued with a deeply personal experience.
By 1782, there are two large series of "Festivities", performed by Guardi on official orders. The first of them consisted of four canvases dedicated to the stay of Pope Pius VI in the Venetian Republic, the second was painted in honor of the visit of the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, to Venice and included five paintings. Four of them have survived - "Ball at the San Benedetto Theater" (Paris), "Gala Concert" (Munich), "Banquet" (Paris), "Feast on St. Mark "(Venice).
The Gala Concert is one of the artist's most brilliant works. This picture captures the elusive, which was especially inherent in Guardi's skill, and conveys the spirit of the gallant celebration of the 18th century. Here the music itself seems to be heard, flying off the light bows of the female violin orchestra. In the soft flickering of candles illuminating the high ballroom, warm air seems to be swaying in waves; luxurious ladies' dresses, painted in a whirlwind of trembling luminous colorful strokes, flash in blue, red, yellow, brown, silver-gray tones. With light strokes of the brush, Guardi marks faces, wigs and hats, sometimes with transparent, sometimes pasty spots, denotes figures.
In 1784 Guardi, fulfilling the official order of the procurator of the republic, painted the painting "The Rise of a Balloon in Venice" (Berlin), depicting an event extraordinary for that time. Using a familiar motive, Guardi places in the foreground a shaded stone canopy, under which curious spectators crowd, and framed by the columns, a pinkish cloudy sky with a swinging balloon is seen.
In his later works, Guardi came to the greatest generalization and conciseness of pictorial means. One of the artist's last excellent paintings, The Venetian Lagoon (c. 1790; Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum), executed in a restrained but rich in shades of color palette, depicts nothing but a deserted bay with several gondolas and a flowing humid air, in which the outlines of churches and palaces visible in the distance seem to melt.
Modest, devoid of external effect, small paintings by Guardi were not sufficiently appreciated in their time and remained in the shadows next to the works of Tiepolo, full of brilliance and splendor. It was only many decades later that the true significance of his works was revealed, which are not only outstanding Settecento monuments, but also foreshadows of many achievements of the realistic landscape in the art of the 19th century.
Simultaneously with the Venetian school, which occupied a leading position in the art of the Settecento, other schools of Italy also developed.
The largest representative of the Neapolitan school was Francesco Solimena (1657-1747), in his style associated with the late Baroque painting of the 17th century. Experiencing the influence of Lanfranco, Luca Giordano, Pietro da Cortona and Preti, Solimena worked mainly in the field of decorative painting, painting Neapolitan churches with frescoes (San Paolo Maggiore, San Domennco Maggiore, Gesu Nuovo). He also painted altar images, paintings on religious and allegorical themes and portraits.
Solimena's spectacular painting style with its dark brown spots contrasting with yellow and lilac tones and strokes of red, his dynamic compositions at the same time bear the imprint of a peculiar chill, as in the depiction of the characters, whose impulses are devoid of the passionate pathos that distinguished the images of baroque masters of the previous century, and in color, where a general lilac-gray tone slips.
Among his students, Giuseppe Bonito (1707-1789) should be noted. Working at first in the spirit of Solimena, Bonito later moved away from him in the direction of the genre, but could not finally break with the principles of the decorative style. The subjects of his paintings, bright but somewhat cold in color, are mainly carnival scenes.
In the first half of the 18th century. among the various artistic trends in Italy, a clearly delineated democratic genre arose in its content. This trend, which was named by researchers as pittura della realita (painting of the real world), united many masters who turned to the depiction of everyday life and chose various everyday and common scenes as the subjects of their paintings. Simultaneously with Bonito, the Neapolitan Gasparo Traversi (worked between 1732 and 1769), a bright and interesting artist influenced by the art of Caravaggio, worked. It is distinguished by sharp chiaroscuro, relief molding of the form, lively, sharp composition, temperamental turns of figures. Among his best works are Wounded (Venice, Brass collection), Secret Letter (Naples, Capodimonte Museum), Drawing Lesson (Vienna).
We also find masters of this direction in Lombardy, including Bergamo and Brescia. Among them are Giacomo Francesco Chipper, or Todeskini, obviously of German origin, but who worked all his life in Italy, and Lkopo Ceruti (worked in the second quarter of the 18th century). The first is the author of numerous genre paintings of unequal quality, depicting shoemakers, musicians, card players, women at work. Jacopo Ceruti was the most prominent representative of this trend. The characters in his paintings are almost always people of labor. Among his best works is The Washerwoman, a young woman washing clothes in a stone pool; her face with huge sad eyes is turned to the viewer (Brescia, Pinakothek). "Beggar Negro", "Young Man with a Pipe", "Woman Weaving a Basket" - all these images, conveyed with lively observation, are distinguished by great strength and a sense of artistic truth. Other Lombard painters include Francesco Londonio, who worked in Milan. In Rome in the first half of the 18th century. Antonio Amorosi, the author of scenes from the life of the common people, stands out.
In general, however, the development of this trend in Italy was short-lived - its democratic tendencies did not find the proper response and support in the social and artistic environment of that time.
The artistic life of Rome was in its own way no less intense than in Venice. Since the beginning of the 18th century, Rome has become a true international artistic center, where not only people of art, but also scientists, archaeologists, prominent historians and writers of that time flocked.
Excavations of Ancient Rome, Herculaneum, Pompeii, the temples of Paestum in southern Italy opened up before the eyes of the people of that time the treasures of ancient art, which became available for review. Inspired by the spirit of romantic discoveries and surprises, Italy irresistibly attracted young artists of all countries and nationalities, for whom a trip to Rome became a cherished dream, and receiving the Rome Prize was the highest award after years of apprenticeship spent within the walls of the academies. A very significant role in acquaintance with the history of ancient art was played by the works of the famous German art historian Winckelmann, a passionate enthusiast of ancient culture, an eyewitness to great archaeological discoveries, to the description of which he devoted a number of his works. The most generalizing of them was his book "History of the Art of Antiquity" (1764), where for the first time the general course of development of Greek art was traced, the character of which Winckelmann defined in terms of "noble simplicity and tranquil grandeur." Despite a number of errors and incorrect assessments of the social and ideological essence of Greek art, an idea of \u200b\u200bwhich Winckelmann could get mainly from Roman copies from Greek originals, his book was a true discovery for the people of the 18th century.
Therefore, it was not surprising that the Italian artists of the Roman school could not pass by antique motifs in their work. One of them was Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), who wrote a number of compositions on mythological and religious subjects, distinguished by some sweetness of images and cold colors - "Thetis gives Achilles to Chiron for education" (1771), "Hercules at the Crossroads" (1765) (both - the Hermitage), "The Penitent Magdalene" (Dresden, Art Gallery).
The French Academy also played an important role in the artistic life of Rome, gathering around itself young painters, artistic activity which was more lively and fruitful than the lifeless, artificially-programmed work of the Roman neoclassicists, headed by the German painter Raphael Mengs. Among the French masters, the painters Vien, Hubert Robert, Fragonard, Subleira, David, the sculptor Pageou, the architect Soufflot and a number of others worked in Rome. In addition, there was a colony of German artists. Many of the French masters developed the motives of the classical landscape, already in the 17th century. represented by the largest French painters who lived in Italy - Poussin and Claude Lorrain. The Venetian Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788), the author of idyllic landscapes, as well as the representative of the Roman school, the well-known "ruin painter" Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1697-1764), who depicted not only the Roman Vedas, but also various outstanding events of their time, as well as the interiors of churches.
The majestic ruins of the Colosseum, dilapidated colonnades in Pompeii and Paestum, mausoleums, obelisks, reliefs, statues gave boundless scope to the artistic imagination and attracted painters, draftsmen and engravers who performed free compositions based on antique motifs combined with scenes from everyday life. “Rome, even being destroyed, teaches,” wrote Hubert Robert on one of his paintings. These landscapes enjoyed immense success among the Roman and French nobility and, like the Venetian Vedutes, became widespread in the art of the 18th century.
But the most outstanding phenomenon in the field of this genre was creativity famous master architectural drawing, archaeologist and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), who inspired generations of artists and architects with his architectural fantasies. A Venetian by birth, he lived almost his entire life in Rome, where he was attracted by "an irresistible desire to study and see those famous cities where so many great deeds were done, and to paint their monuments - witnesses of the great past," as his biographer writes.
Deeply fascinated by the study of the architectural heritage of Italy, Piranesi also got acquainted with the work of the large and ramified family of theater architects and decorators Bibbien, who came from Bologna, but who worked after the example of most Settecentist masters in addition to Italy in various European cities - Bayreuth, Vienna, Prague and others. Their treatises and teachings on perspective illusionism, as well as the decorative works of Andrea Pozzo,
Pannini, the Valeriani brothers, had a great influence on him. In the works of Piranesi, the style of the late Roman baroque is almost closely aligned with the style of emerging classicism. Interest in theatrical and decorative compositions contributed to the rooting in his works of perspective-perspective perception of space and deep contrasting chiaroscuro.
One of his early works, published in 1745 and 1760, is a suite of fourteen large prints "Dungeons" ("Carceri") depicting endless multi-storey vaulted rooms crossed by beams, stairs, galleries, drawbridges, where in the contrasts of darkness and light, blocks, levers, ropes, wheels, chains hanging from the ceilings in a bizarre way alternate with fragments of antique columns, friezes and bas-reliefs. These fantastic compositions, probably inspired by contemporary Piranesi theatrical scenery, are distinguished by the immense scope, but nevertheless, the architecturally crystallized space clearly outlined in its details.
Piranesi's talent for architecture could not actively express itself in the real construction of Italy at that time. “The modern architect has no choice but to express his own ideas with just drawings,” Piranesi wrote, creating his “imaginary architecture” in separate etching series. Its main cycles are devoted to the majestic buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.
Not striving for an accurate archaeological reconstruction of the monuments of ancient architecture, Piranesi, in addition to free interpretation, surrounded them with a special romantic aura, which caused sharp reproaches and attacks on him from contemporary scientists and archaeologists. His etchings are more like memorials to the great past of Rome, which he worshiped with unquenchable passion.
In 1747 Piranesi published a series of etchings "Views of Rome", in which he achieves an extraordinary monumentality of the architectural image due to the maximum approximation of the depicted buildings to the foreground, shown, moreover, from a very low point of view. Small figures of people seem small and insignificant in comparison with huge columns and arches. Always working in the etching technique, Piranesi softened the contours with deep black-velvet shadows that add extraordinary picturesqueness to all his compositions. In the images of Roman bridges, he especially emphasizes the power of ancient Roman buildings, conveying their proud grandeur. The etching “Castle of St. Angel in Rome. "
The monumental four-volume suite "Roman Antiquities", published in 1756, is distinguished by an amazing breadth in terms of coverage of the material. Among the most remarkable works of Piranesi is his last suite of etchings with views of the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon in Paestum. The Piranesi engraving needle works wonders here, giving these compositions the deepest picturesqueness thanks to the harmonious distribution of light and soft black velvet shadows. The diversity of points of view is even more striking here: giant colonnades appear before the viewer from different angles, distant shots seem to be drowning in soft and warm air, the foreground, free and light, devoid of any clutter typical of Piranesi, is successfully filled with staff - under the shadow of dilapidated columns artists have settled down and lovers of antiquity wander around. After Piranesi's death, part of the unfinished engravings of this cycle were completed by his son Francesco (c. 1758 / 59-1810), who adopted the graphic style of his father.
The artistic results achieved by the masters of the Roman school in the 18th century were generally less significant than those of Venice. But her main merit was to promote the ideas of ancient art. And they, in turn, having received a new social acuity, saturated with deep content and high civic pathos, served as a powerful stimulus for the work of the leading European masters on the eve of a new era, which opened with the French bourgeois revolution of 1789.
Posted on: August 30, 2014Italian art and painting
The history of Italian art is the art of Italy itself in time and space. After the Etruscan civilization, and especially after the Roman Republic and Empire, which dominated this part of the world for centuries, Italy took center stage in European art during the Renaissance. Italy also showed european artistic dominance in the 16th and 17th centuries thanks to artistic direction of the Baroque. She reestablished her strong presence in the international art scene since the mid-19th century through such movements as macchiaioli, futurism, metaphysics, Novecento, spacialism, arte povera and transavant-garde.
Italian art has influenced some of the major movements over the centuries, giving rise to many great creators, including painters and sculptors. Today Italy occupies an important place in the international art scene with several major art galleries, museums and exhibitions; significant centers of art in this country include its capital - Rome, as well as Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, Turin and other cities.
Raphael's Triumph of Galatea
Etruscan art
Etruscan bronze figures and terracotta funerary reliefs are examples of the powerful traditions of Central Italy, which had waned by the time Rome began building her empire on the peninsula. The Etruscan paintings that have survived to this day are mainly wall frescoes from burials, mainly from Tarquinia. It is the most important example of Italian pre-Roman visual art known to scholars.
The frescoes are executed in the painting technique on top of fresh plaster, this was done so that when the plaster dries, the picture becomes part of the plaster and an integral part of the wall, which helps it to preserve so well (and indeed, almost all of the surviving Etruscan and Roman paintings are represented only by frescoes). Colors were created from stones and minerals of different colors, which were ground and mixed with each other, small brushes were made from animal hair (even the best brushes were made from ox hair). From the middle of the 4th century BC. began using chiaroscuro to depict depth and volume. Sometimes scenes from everyday life are depicted, but more often these are traditional mythological scenes. The concept of proportion does not appear in any of the surviving frescoes, and we often find depictions of animals or people with some disproportionate body parts. One of the most famous Etruscan frescoes is the painting of the Tomb of the Lionesses in Tarquinia.
Roman art
Rome under Emperor Constantine, photo: Campus Martius, public domain
The Etruscans were responsible for the construction of Rome's early monumental buildings. Roman temples and houses replicated Etruscan models with great accuracy. Elements of Etruscan influence on Roman temples included the podium and emphasis on the façade at the expense of the other three sides of the building. Large Etruscan houses were grouped around a central hall in much the same way that Roman large city houses were later built around the atrium. The influence of Etruscan architecture gradually waned during the republican period due to influences (especially Greek ones) from other parts of the world. The very architecture of the Etruscans came under the influence of the Greeks, so when the Romans adopted the Greek styles, they did not become alien to their culture. During the time of the republic, there was probably a constant assimilation of architectural trends mainly from the Hellenistic world, but after the fall of Syracuse in 211 BC. Greek art poured into Rome. In the 2nd century BC, the stream of these works and, more importantly, Greek masters, continued to enter Rome, having a decisive influence on the development of Roman architecture. By the end of the republic, when Vitruvius wrote his scholarly work on architecture, Greek theory of architecture and examples of architectural work prevailed over everything else.
As the empire expanded, Roman architecture spread over large areas, it was used in the creation of both public buildings and some large private buildings. In many areas, elements of style, especially decoration, fell under the influence of local tastes, but the architecture remained recognizably Roman. Local architectural styles have been influenced to varying degrees by Roman architecture, and in many regions, Roman and local elements are found in combination in the same building.
By the 1st century AD, Rome had become the largest and most developed city in the entire world. The ancient Romans came up with new technologies to improve the sanitary control systems of cities, roads and buildings. They developed a system of aqueducts that brought fresh water to the city through pipes, and built a sewer system that removed the city's waste. The richest Romans lived in large houses with gardens. Most of the population, however, lived in tenements made of stone, concrete, or limestone. The Romans developed new technologies and used materials such as the volcanic soil from Pozzuoli, a village near Naples, to make their cement stronger and stronger. This cement allowed them to build large concrete apartment buildings called insuls.
Statue known as August of Prima Port, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Wall paintings adorned the homes of the rich. The paintings often depicted garden landscapes, events from Greek and Roman mythology, historical scenes or scenes from everyday life. The Romans decorated the floors with mosaics - designs or patterns created from small colored tiles. The richly colored paintings and mosaics helped make the rooms of Roman houses visually larger and brighter, and also flaunt the wealth of the owner.
In the Christian era of the late empire, in the years 350-500. AD, murals, mosaic ceilings and floors, and funerary sculptures flourished, while full-size 360-degree sculpture and painting faded gradually, most likely for religious reasons. When Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople), oriental influences began to influence Roman art, giving birth to the Byzantine style of the late empire. When Rome was ravaged in the 5th century, artisans moved to and found work in the Eastern capital. Almost 10,000 workers and craftsmen worked on the creation of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, it was the final chord of Roman art under the Emperor Justinian I, who also ordered the creation of the famous mosaics of Ravenna.
Medieval art
Throughout the Middle Ages, Italian art mainly included architectural decorations (frescoes and mosaics). Byzantine art in Italy consisted of very formal and sophisticated decoration with standardized calligraphy and striking use of color and gold. Until the 13th century, art in Italy was almost entirely regional, it came under the influence of external European and Eastern currents. After approx. 1250 the art of different regions developed general characteristics, therefore, there was a certain unity and deep originality.
Byzantine art
After the fall of its western capital, the Roman Empire lasted for another 1000 years under the leadership of Constantinople. Byzantine masters were involved in important projects throughout Italy, and Byzantine painting styles can be seen right up to the 14th century.
Gothic art
The Gothic period marks the transition from medieval art to the Renaissance, characterized by styles and attitudes that developed under the influence of the Dominican and Franciscan monastic orders, founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi, respectively.
It was a time of religious controversy within the church. The Franciscan and Dominican orders were founded as an attempt to resolve these disputes and bring the Catholic Church back to basics. The early years of the Franciscans are particularly remembered for the mercy of Saint Francis, and the Dominicans are remembered as the order that bears the greatest responsibility for the rise of the Inquisition.
Gothic architecture originated in northern Europe and spread south to Italy.
Renaissance art
In the Middle Ages, painters and sculptors tried to give their works a religious character. They wanted viewers to focus on the deep religious meaning of their paintings and sculptures. But the artists and sculptors of the Renaissance, like the writers of this era, strove to depict people and nature in a realistic manner. Medieval architects designed huge cathedrals in order to emphasize the greatness of God and to subdue the human spirit. Renaissance architects designed buildings whose proportions were based on the proportions of the human body, and their decorations imitated ancient patterns.
Art of the 1300s and early 1400s
In the early 1300s, the Florentine painter Giotto became the first painter to depict nature realistically. He created magnificent frescoes (painting on wet plaster) for churches in Assisi, Florence, Padua and Rome. Giotto attempted to create realistic figures that show real emotions. He portrayed many of his characters in real life.
A remarkable group of Florentine architects, painters and sculptors created their work in the early 1400s. Among them were the painter Masaccio, the sculptor Donatello and the architect Filippo Brunelleschi.
Masaccio's best work was a series of frescoes, which he created around 1427 in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. These murals show biblical scenes of emotional tension realistically. In these works, Masaccio used the Brunelleschi system to create linear perspective.
Donatello in his sculptures tried to depict the dignity of the human body with realistic and often dramatic details. His masterpieces include three statues of the biblical hero David. In the version completed in the 1430s, David Donatello is depicted as a graceful, naked youth, shown moments after he killed the giant Goliath. The work, which stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) high, was the first large free-standing nude sculpture in Western art since antiquity.
Brunelleschi was the first Renaissance architect to revive the ancient Roman style of architecture. In his projects, he used arches, columns and other elements of classical architecture. One of its most famous buildings is the beautifully and harmoniously built Pazzi Chapel in Florence. This chapel, construction of which began in 1442 and finished around 1465, was one of the first buildings to be built in the new Renaissance style. Brunelleschi was also the first Renaissance creator to master linear perspective, a mathematical system with which artists could demonstrate space and depth on a flat surface.
Art of the late 1400s and early 1500s
Prominent representatives of the art of the late 1400s and early 1500s were three masters. They were Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.
Michelangelo was an outstanding painter, architect and poet. In addition, he has been called the greatest sculptor in history. Michelangelo was a master of depicting the human body. For example, his famous statue of the leader of the Israelite people, Moses (1516), gives an extraordinary impression of physical and spiritual power. These qualities are also evident in the frescoes on biblical and classical subjects that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. These frescoes, painted from 1508 to 1512, belong to the greatest works Renaissance art.
Michelangelo's David
Palazzo Pitti
Academy of Fine Arts Gallery
National Museum Bargello
National Museum of San Marco
National Archaeological Museum of Florence
Opera del Duomo Museum
Palazzo Vecchio
Orsanmichele Museum
Gem Processing Workshop
Palazzo Rosso
Palazzo Bianco
Palazzo Reale
Pinakothek Brera
Poldi Pezzoli Museum
Sforza castle
Pinakothek Ambrosiana
National Archaeological Museum of Naples
City Museum of Padua
G. Palermo
Palazzo Abatellis
National Gallery of Parma
Magnani Rocca Foundation
G. Perugia
National Museum of Umbria
National Museum of San Matteo
Prato City Museum
Cathedral Museum
G. Reggio Calabria
National Museum of Magna Graecia
Capitoline Museums
Montemartini Center
National Roman Museum
Doria Pamphilj Gallery
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Corsini
Etruscan National Museum
Castel Sant'Angelo (Castel Sant'Angelo)
Spada Gallery
National Pinakothek of Siena
Palazzo Publico
Siena Cathedral Museum (Duomo Works Museum)
Sabauda Gallery
Palazzo Reale ( Royal Palace)
Palazzo Madama
G. Urbino
National Gallery of the Marche
G. Venice
Academy Gallery
Ca "d" Oro
Scuola San Rocco
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni
Some gems of Italian art
The Tempest by Giorgione
Renaissance (Renaissance). Italy. XV-XVI centuries. Early capitalism. The country is ruled by wealthy bankers. They are interested in art and science.
The rich and influential gather the talented and the wise around them. Poets, philosophers, painters and sculptors have daily conversations with their patrons. For a moment it seemed that people were ruled by sages, as Plato wanted.
They remembered the ancient Romans and Greeks. They also built a society of free citizens, where the main value is a person (not counting slaves, of course).
Renaissance is not just copying the art of ancient civilizations. This is confusion. Mythology and Christianity. Realism of nature and soulfulness of images. Physical and spiritual beauty.
It was just a flash. The High Renaissance is about 30 years old! From the 1490s to 1527 Since the beginning of the flowering of creativity Leonardo. Before the sack of Rome.
The mirage of an ideal world quickly faded. Italy turned out to be too fragile. She was soon enslaved by another dictator.
However, these 30 years have determined the main features of European painting for 500 years ahead! Up to .
Realism of the image. Anthropocentrism (when the center of the world is Man). Linear perspective. Oil paints. Portrait. Scenery…
It is incredible, but in these 30 years several brilliant masters worked at once. At other times, they are born one in 1000 years.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian are titans of the Renaissance. But one cannot fail 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". The beginning of the 16th century. ... XIV 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, which mankind 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. Non-observance of proportions. Instead of a landscape, there is a gold background. As, for example, in this icon.
Guido da Siena. Adoration of the Magi. 1275-1280 Altenburg, Lindenau Museum, Germany. And suddenly Giotto's frescoes appear. They have three-dimensional figures. The faces of noble people. Old and young. Sad. Sorrowful. Surprised. Different.
Frescoes by Giotto in the Church of Scrovegni in Padua (1302-1305). Left: Lamentation over Christ. Middle: Kiss of Judas (detail). Right: Annunciation to St. Anne (Mother Mary), detail.
Giotto's main creation is a cycle of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. When this church opened to parishioners, crowds of people poured into it. They had never seen anything like this.
After all, Giotto did something unheard of. He translated biblical stories in 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 Renaissance masters. Laconic images. Lively emotions of the characters. Realism.
Read more about the frescoes of the master in the article.
Giotto was admired. But they did not develop further his innovation. The fashion for international gothic came to Italy.
Only 100 years later will a worthy successor of Giotto appear.
2. Masaccio (1401-1428)
Masaccio. Self-portrait (fragment of the fresco "St. Peter in the pulpit"). 1425-1427 Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy. The beginning of the 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 a thing of the past.
Masaccio. Saint Peter heals with his shadow. 1425-1427 Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy. He adopted Giotto's realism. However, unlike his predecessor, he already knew anatomy well.
Instead of Giotto's lumpy characters, they are beautifully built people. Just like the ancient Greeks.
Masaccio. Baptism of the neophytes. 1426-1427 Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy. 
Masaccio. Expulsion from Paradise. 1426-1427 Fresco in Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy. Masaccio lived a short life. He died, like his father, unexpectedly. At the age of 27.
However, he had many followers. Masters of the next generations went to the Brancacci Chapel to learn from his frescoes.
So the innovation of Masaccio was taken up by all the great artists 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. He influenced the development of painting in a colossal way.
It was da Vinci 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. Laconic. 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 the images ... alive.
Before him, the characters in the portraits looked like mannequins. The lines were crisp. All details are carefully traced. The painted drawing could not be alive in any way.
Leonardo invented the sfumato method. He shaded the lines. Made the transition from light to shadow very soft. His characters seem to be covered with a barely perceptible haze. The characters came to life.
... 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris. 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 did not know how to bring anything to the end. And he often did not finish painting. And many of his projects remained on paper (by the way, in 24 volumes). And in general, he was thrown into medicine, then into music. 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. And someone does not even come close in greatness, while having written 6,000 canvases in a lifetime. It is obvious who has higher efficiency.
About the most famous painting read the wizard in the article.
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 versatile master. Like his other Renaissance counterparts. Therefore, his pictorial heritage is no less grandiose.
He is recognizable primarily by his physically developed characters. He portrayed a perfect person in whom physical beauty means spiritual beauty.
Therefore, all of his characters are so muscular and hardy. Even women and old people.
Michelangelo. Fragments of the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican.
Michelangelo often painted the character naked. And then I was finishing on top of the clothes. So that the body is as prominent as possible.
He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel alone. Although these are several hundred figures! He didn't even let anyone rub the paint. Yes, he was unsociable. He had a cool 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. Survived the extinction of the Renaissance. It was a personal tragedy for him. His later works are full of sorrow and sorrow.
In general, Michelangelo's creative path is unique. His earliest work is a glorification of the human hero. Free and courageous. In the best traditions of Ancient Greece. Like his David.
IN last years life is tragic images. A deliberately rough hewn stone. As if before us are monuments to the victims of 20th century fascism. Look at his Pieta.
Sculptures by Michelangelo at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Left: David. 1504 Right: Pieta of Palestrina. 1555 g.
How is this possible? One artist in one of his life went through all the stages of art from the Renaissance to the XX century. What should the next generations do? Go your own way. Realizing that the bar has been set very high.
5. Raphael (1483-1520)
... 1506 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Raphael was never forgotten. His genius has always been recognized: both during life and after death.
His characters are endowed with sensual, lyrical beauty. It is he who is rightfully considered the most beautiful female images ever created. The external beauty reflects the spiritual beauty of the heroines. Their meekness. Their sacrifice.
Raphael. ... 1513 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany. Fyodor Dostoevsky said the famous words “Beauty will save the world” by Fr. This was his favorite painting.
Sensual imagery is not Raphael's only strength, however. He very carefully thought out the composition of his paintings. He was the consummate 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. School of Athens. 1509-1511 Fresco in the stanzas of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican. Raphael lived only 37 years old. He died suddenly. From caught cold and medical error. But his legacy is hard to overestimate. Many artists idolized this master. And they multiplied his sensual images in thousands of their canvases ..
Titian was a consummate colorist. He also experimented a lot with composition. In general, he was a daring innovator.
For such a brightness of talent, everyone loved him. Called “the king of painters and painter of kings”.
Speaking of Titian, I want to put an exclamation mark after each sentence. After all, it was he who brought dynamics to painting. Pathos. Enthusiasm. Bright coloring. Radiance 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. Fast, thick strokes. He applied the paint with a brush, then with his 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. Does this remind you of anything? Of course, this is a technique. And the technique of artists of the XIX century: Barbizonians and. Titian, like Michelangelo, will go through 500 years of painting in one of his life. That's why he is a genius.
Read about the famous masterpiece of the master in the article.
Renaissance artists are knowledgeable. There was a lot to learn to leave such a legacy. In the field of history, astrology, physics, and so on.
Therefore, each of their images makes us think. What is it depicted for? What is the encrypted message here?
They were almost never wrong. Because they thoroughly thought out their future work. We used all the baggage of our knowledge.
They were more than artists. They were philosophers. They explained the world to us through painting.
That is why we will always be deeply interested in them.
In contact with
Until the 13th century, Byzantine tradition prevailed in Italy, hostile to any free development or individual understanding. Only during the 13th century, the petrified scheme of the image was revived in the work of some great artists, primarily Florence.
A new, reality-oriented perception of the harmony of colors and a deeper expression of feelings appears. Among the artists of the 13-14 centuries, such as Ercole de Roberti, Francesco Francia, Jacopo de Barbari can be voiced.
Iatlianskaya living 15th - 16th centuries
During this period, such a style of painting as Mannerism was widespread. It is characterized by a departure from the unity and harmony of man with nature, everything material and spiritual, this is how he stands in opposition to the Renaissance.
The big center of painting is Venice. Titian's contribution largely determined 16th century Venetian painting, both in the artist's artistic achievement and in his productivity. He equally mastered all genres, shone in religious, mythological and allegorical compositions, created numerous breathtaking portraits. Titian followed the stylistic directions of his time and in turn influenced them.
Veronese and Tintoretto - in contrast to these two artists, the duality of Venetian painting of the mid-16th century is revealed, the calm manifestation of the beauty of earthly existence at the end of the Renaissance in Veronese, the assertive movement and extreme otherworldlyness, and in some cases also the exquisite temptation of a secular nature, in the work of Tintoretto. In Veronese's paintings, one does not feel any problems of that time, he writes everything as if it could not be otherwise, as if life is beautiful the way it is. The scenes depicted in his paintings lead a "real" existence that does not allow for any doubts.
Quite differently for Tintoretto, everything he writes is filled with intense action, dramatically mobile. Nothing is immutable for him, things have many sides and can manifest themselves in different ways. The contrast between deeply religious and secular-piquant, at least elegant, paintings, as evidenced by his two creations "The Salvation of Arsinoe" and "The Struggle of the Archangel Michael with Satan", draws our attention to the peculiarity of mannerism inherent not only to the Venetian Tintoretto, but also seen by us from the origin of the traditions of Correggio Parmigianino.
17th century Italian painting
This century is marked as a time of increasing Catholicism, church consolidation. The heyday of painting in Italy was associated, as in previous centuries, with the division into separate local schools, which was a consequence of the political situation in this country. The Italian Renaissance was understood as the starting point of a far-reaching quest. There are artists from the Roman and Bolognese schools. These are Carlo Dolci from Florence, Procaccini, Nuvolone and Pagani from Milan, Alessandro Turchi, Pietro Negri and Andrea Celesti from Venice, Ruoppolo and Luca Giordano from Naples. The Roman school shines with a whole series of paintings to the parables of the New Testament by Domenico Fetti, learned from the examples of Caravaggio and Rubens.
Andrea Sacchi, a student of Francesco Albani, represents a distinctly classical movement in Roman painting. Classicism, as a movement opposite to the Baroque, has always existed in Italy and in France, but had different weight in these countries. This direction is represented by Carlo Maratto, a pupil of Sacchi. One of the main representatives of the classicist trend was Domenichino, who studied under Denis Calvart and Caracci in Bologna.
Pier Francesco Mola, under the influence of Guercino, was much more baroque, stronger in the interpretation of light and shadow, in the transfer of a brownish-warm tone. He was also influenced by Caravaggio.
In the 17th century, the expressively developed forms of the Baroque with its inherent sense of "naturalness" and in the depiction of miracles and visions, staged, however, theatrically, erased, as it were, the boundaries between reality and illusion.
Realism and classicism-tendencies are characteristic of this era, regardless of whether they are compared to the Baroque or perceived as components of this style. Salvator Rosa from Naples was a very influential landscape painter. His works were studied by Alessandro Magnasco, Marco Ricci, the Frenchman Claude-Joseph Vernet.
Italian painting made a powerful impression on the whole of Europe, but Italy, in turn, was not free from the opposite influence of the masters of the North. An example of following the genus of Wauverman's painting, but with an individually developed and easily recognizable handwriting, is Michelangelo Cherkvocci with his "Robbery after the Battle". He developed as an artist in Rome under the influence of the Haarlem-born, Rome-based Peter van Lahr.
If Venetian painting of the 17th century gives the impression of an intermezzo, an interlude between the great past of the 15th and 16th centuries and the upcoming heyday in the 18th century, then in the person of Bernardo Strozzi, Genoese painting has a top-ranked artist who brought essential accents to the picture of Baroque painting in Italy.
18th century Italian painting
As in previous centuries, individual schools of Italian painting had their own face in the 18th century, although the number of really significant centers declined. Venice and Rome were a great hotbed for the development of art in the 18th century, Bologna and Naples also had their own outstanding achievements. Thanks to the masters of the Renaissance, Venice was in the 17th century a high school for artists from other cities in Italy and all of Europe in general, who studied here Veronese and Tintoretto, Titian and Giorgione. These are, for example, Johann Lis and Nicola Rainier, Domenico Fetti, Rubens and Bernardo Strozzi.
The 18th century begins with such artists as Andrea Celesti, Piero Negri, Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. The most characteristic expression of his originality is given by the paintings of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Antonio Canal and Francesco Guardi. The magnificent decorative scope of Tiepolo's works is vividly expressed in his monumental frescoes.
Bologna, with its convenient links to Lombardy, Venice and Florence, is the center of Emilia, the only city in this area that has nominated outstanding masters in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1119, the oldest university in Europe with a renowned law faculty was founded here, the spiritual life of the city significantly influenced the Italian painting of the 18th century.
The most attractive are the works of Giuseppe Maria Crespi, especially the series "The Seven Sacraments of the Church" executed in 1712. The painting school of Bologna has a European artist in the person of Crespi. His life dates back half to the 17th and half to the 18th century. As a pupil of Carlo Chignani, who in turn studied with Francesco Albani, he mastered the academic artistic language that distinguished Bolognese painting since the time of Carracci. Crespi visited Venice twice, teaching himself and inspiring others. Especially Pianzetta, it seems, remembered his works for a long time.
Bolognese painting of the early 18th century, different from that of Crespi, is represented by Gambarini. The cold color and drawn clarity, the attractive and anecdotal content of his paintings, make him, in comparison with Crespi's strong realism, more likely to be attributed to the academic school.
In the person of Francesco Solimena, Neapolitan painting had its representative recognized throughout Europe. In Roman painting of the 18th century, a classic tendency manifests itself. Artists such as Francesco Trevisani, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni and Giovanni Antonio Butti are examples of this. The 18th century was the century of Enlightenment. Aristocratic culture in all areas in the first half of the 18th century experienced a brilliant heyday of the late Baroque, manifested in court festivities, magnificent operas and in princely deeds.
TADDEO DI BARTOLO TADDEO DI BARTOLO
Born about 1362 in Sien (?), Died in 1422 in the same place. Siene school. Perhaps he studied with Giacomo di Mino de Pelliccio; was influenced by Andrea Vanni and especially Bartolo di Fredi. He worked in Siena, San Gimignano, Genoa, Pisa, Perugia, Volterra.
St. Paul
Tempera on wood. 22.5X17.5. GE 9753. Part of the predella. On the book in the hands of St. Paul: ad roma / nos (to the Romans).
"St. Paul "was considered a work of an unknown XIV century artist from Cienne, until M. Laclotte (orally) attributed it, quite convincingly, to Taddeo di Bartolo.
In a small fragment, a planar solution of forms characteristic of Taddeo di Bartolo is manifested, combined with a rich color. The artist, subtly sensing the color, compares the red cloak, embroidered along the edge with gold ornament, with the reddish beard and hair of Paul, with the cold surface of the sword.
A close analogy to the Hermitage painting is the predella from the collection. H. L. Moses in New York (repr .: Berenson 1968, pi. 477).
Five figures are included in the New York predella, of which are especially close to St. Paul, the one in the center, and the figure of St. Andrew. The position of the heads, the drawing of the eyes, eyebrows, mouth, wrinkles on the forehead are similar. The ornaments on the edge of the cloak and halos are the same. Origin: post, 1954 from the East Department of the State Hermitage. Earlier: sobr. Uspensky.
In the guidebooks and catalogs of the Hermitage of the mid-19th century. no mention is made of works prior to the Renaissance. No wonder in 1859 A. I. Somov noted: "The ancient Florentine school, the ancestor of all local schools in Italy, does not exist in our Hermitage."
Madonna from the scene "Annunciation"
Tempera on wood. 122 × 41. GE 5521. Pair to GE 5522. The top is rounded.
Below on the pedestal signature: LVCE OPVS
Angel from the scene "Annunciation"
Tempera on wood. 122 × 41. ГЭ 5522. Paired to ГЭ 5521. The top is rounded.
Gospel of Luke, I, 26-38.
Apparently, the paintings were the doors of a triptych. This conclusion can be made on the basis of the composition: when juxtaposed, the doors do not coincide in terms of the perspective solution, thus forcing us to assume the presence of a connecting link, that is, the central part of the altar.
Upon receipt, the paintings were listed as the work of an unknown Italian artist
XV century Then they tried to decipher the signature as the name of the Lombard master Luca Chiverchio. The present attribution was made by Vsevolozhskaya (1972) on the basis of stylistic similarities with such works by Luca Baudo as Adoration of the Child (City Museum, Savona), The Nativity of Christ (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan). The Nativity of Christ is dated 1501 and has the same short signature as the Hermitage sash. The artist used a similar signature in the late period of his work. By analogy with the Milanese painting, the Hermitage works can also be dated to 1500-1501.
Origin: post, in 1925 from the Shuvalov Palace Museum in Leningrad. Earlier: sobr. Counts Shuvalovs in St. Petersburg.
This was the case not only with the Florentine, but also with other Italian schools. This was explained by the fact that until the beginning of the 20th century, that is, during the approximately 150-year existence of the museum, the official leadership showed almost no interest in the so-called “primitives”.
The term "primitives" is used in relation to the earliest works of Italian painting. This definition is conditional and not entirely successful; in this case, it does not mean elementary, simplicity. Rather, one should turn to a different meaning of the Italian word - root, original. Then it will become clear that one must bear in mind the basis, those sources from which the art of the Renaissance gradually arose.
The Hermitage possesses primitives primarily thanks to Russian collectors, especially the Stroganov Counts - Pavel Sergeevich and Grigory Sergeevich. The brothers' love for art was hereditary: their ancestor A.S. Stroganov, a philanthropist and passionate collector, helped Catherine II complete the Hermitage.
D1. S. Stroganov in the middle of the last century was carried away by the works of the early Renaissance. Describing his collection in St. Petersburg, the director of the Berlin Museum, Professor GF Wagen emphasized that PS Stroganov "belongs to those rare collectors who ... appreciate the spiritual content of paintings of the XIV and XV centuries." After death
PS Stroganov in 1912, Lippi's "Adoration of the Child" of the Philippines "was transferred to the Hermitage, which occupies a worthy place in the permanent exhibition of Italian art.
The collection of GS Stroganov was in Rome, where he lived for many years. Grigory Sergeevich was well versed in painting: he himself identified the author of "Madonna from the scene" Annunciation "", naming the name of Simone Martini. This panel of the diptych, as well as Fra Angelico's reliquary, was donated to the Hermitage in 1911 by the heirs of G. S. Stroganov, who intended to bequeathed to the museum most of his belongings.
In 1910, the formation of a small section of primitives was facilitated by the transfer from the Russian Museum to the Hermitage of some paintings purchased on the initiative of Prince G.G. Gagarin in the 60s. XIX century. for the museum at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Now it was already possible to say: “In the VI hall, ... three or four primitives, of which one, like Giotto, is really wonderful ... We have not represented this era of Italian painting at all ... from now on, teachers who read the history of art according to our models can begin her not with Beato Angelico, but from the very inception of Italian painting. "
St. James the Younger
Oil on wood. 68,7X43. GE 4109. Part of the polyptych.
On the halo: SANCTVS IACOBVS When the painting was in the collection of Count GS Stroganov, Wagen (1864), describing it, called the depicted Saint James the elder. However, he lacks one of the main attributes of Jacob the Elder - the shell, the symbol of the pilgrim. Rather, Jacob the Younger is represented, who was likened to Christ in type; he is like that in the Hermitage painting. The attributes - a staff and a book - are typical of Jacob the Younger.
Wagen (1864) wrote that he did not know
artist Niccolo Orvietand - under this name the picture was listed in the collection. GS Stroganov - and added that the transmission of nnkarnata resembles Niccolo Alunno. The German researcher noted the talent of the author of “St. Jacob ”both as a draftsman and as a colorist.
Hark (1896) attributed the painting to Bergognone and attributed it to the late stage of the master's work. He believed that the name Npkkolo Orvietani could be the name of the customer, and not the name of the artist.
Bergognone's attribution is confirmed by comparison with such paintings by the master as “St. Elizabeth with St. Francis "and" St. Peter the Martyr with St. Christopher "(Ambrozpana, Milan). Face type of St. Jacob is the same. that St. Francis, and curly hair and ornaments along the edge of the cloak are repeated in the image of St. Christopher. The Hermitage sash can be dated to ca. 1500. Origin: post, in 1922 from the Stroganov Palace Museum in Petrograd. Earlier: sobr. Count G.S.Stroganov in St. Petersburg. Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958 s. 69; Cat. 1976, p. 76.
Coronation of Mary
Tempera on wood. 120X75. GE 6662.
The plot dates back to the "Golden Legend" by Jacopo da Vorajina (circa 1230-1298). The scene of the coronation of the Marip appears in Italian art in 1270/80 and becomes a favorite theme in 14th century Venetian painting. A certain compositional scheme was developed: Christ and Mary are seated on a throne, behind which heaven and angels are often depicted. All this is also present in the Hermitage painting, where, however, Christ is shown without a crown (a rare motif), but with a scepter in his hands. The coronation of the Madonna was simultaneously perceived as her glorification. Mary's prayer gesture brings the theme of intercession into the glorification scene.
The painting entered the Hermitage as a work by an unknown Italian artist of the 14th century. In Cat. 1958 and 1976 came in as the work of Caterino Veneziano (?). Pallucchini (1964) assumed that The Coronation of the Madonna may refer to an early stage in the activities of Donato, who was still imitating Paolo Venezpano.
The Hermitage painting is stylistically close both to the works done by Catherine himself (The Coronation of Mary, Academy, Venice; The Coronation of Mary, triptych, Academy, Venice), and those that were created jointly with Donato (The Coronation of Mary, Galeria Cuerinp - Stampalia, Venice). However, the types of faces (especially angels), more strongly marked by the Byzantine tradition, suggest that the work can be more closely related to the work of Caterino Veneziano.
Origin: post, in 1923 from the State Russian Museum Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 109; Cat. 1976, p. 101
The founders of humanism, rooted in the 13th century, were Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). Based on antiquity, the new worldview turned its gaze to man. Thus, humanism opposed the church-theological attitude to the world. However, for the XIV century. a certain gap between humanistic thought and art, which has not yet become secular, is characteristic. Here humanism will reap the fruits only with the onset of the early Renaissance (15th century).
XIV century. took place under the sign of the struggle of cities against the feudal lords; it was the cities that became the centers of a new culture. In fragmented Italy, which it remained throughout its centuries-old history (up to the middle of the 19th century), during the Trecento period, Florence played a leading role in the political, economic and cultural spheres.
Giotto (1267-1337) is often called the father of Western European painting. Sometimes, in comparison with his work, any Florentine painter of the 14th century is considered, sometimes these masters are generally called "Jottists", although the influence of one, even the most brilliant, artist cannot be decisive for a whole century. But it is difficult to overestimate the innovation of Giotto, who decisively broke with the arbitrariness of ties and the conventionality of the scene of Byzantine painting. Between the works of Giotto and the viewer, a new relationship emerges, different from the previous period of art, when an icon, mosaic or fresco contained the idea of \u200b\u200bgreatness, incomprehensibility of a deity, and thus the figurative embodiment existed according to its own laws, not based on specific realities.
Giotto was the first to give religious subjects a life-giving persuasion. In his laconic paintings, created in Florence, Padua, Assisi, the narrative unfolds not on a plane, but in depth, and the characters grieved or rejoiced like mere mortals. Such painting could not but shake contemporaries.
After Giotto, it was possible to fill with new details and develop the solutions he proposed, retreat from his searches, find oblivion in Gothic retrospectives, as it would happen on the verge of the 14th-15th centuries, but it was no longer possible to radically change the general line of development of painting.
Giotto is primarily a monumentalist, his easel works have survived very little. Only a few museums in the world can be proud of owning them. The Hermitage, unfortunately, does not belong to this number.
In our museum, Florentine painting is presented from the middle of the XIV century. This is the moment when, after a series of past catastrophes - the economic crisis, uprisings, the terrible plague epidemic in 1348 - a reassessment of values \u200b\u200btakes place: the increased religiosity dictated a return to the "icon". Jott's humanity for some time again gave way to the abstract solemnity and restraint of the saints, in which the masters strove to emphasize the significance and high hierarchical position they occupied in the heavenly spheres. Not a single Florentine master of the 14th century. cannot be compared with Dia Otto. Only at the beginning of the Quattrocento will the new reformer Masaccio (1401-1428), one of the founders of the early Renaissance, appear. And all the more decisive is the revolution that took place at the turn of the two centuries - the XIV and XV, if we recall that along with the painting of Masaccio there was an international Gothic style, refined and sophisticated, which came from the court-knightly circles of northern Europe, that in the same city they continued to work with this artist later followers of Giotto, and such a master as Bicci di Lorenzo (1373-1452), much revered by Masach. as if he did not notice the shifts that took place in Florentine art, still likening the flat figures of the saints to elegant appliqués against the background of corduroy fabrics.
For all the independence of the Florentine school, she herself received impulses from other artistic centers, and became a source of influence for her.
Crucifixion with Mary and John
Tempera on wood. 62X31. GE 277. In a Gothic setting.
The Crucifixion refers to a relatively small number of works by the artist, executed with miniature care. Despite the fact that the figures are presented on a gold background, Pietro achieves a certain depth of space due to their location. The laconic composition is interpreted emotionally, conveying the deep but restrained sorrow of Mary and John. The echoes of the artist's acquaintance with Giotto's paintings are felt in a certain massiveness of the figures.
Above the crucifix, in a triangular ending, a pelican is depicted feeding its chicks with its blood - a symbol of the atoning sacrifice of Christ (see: Reau L. Iconographie de 1'art chretien. Paris, 1955, 1, p. 95).
The painting entered the Hermitage as a work of an unknown XIV-century artist from Sien, in Cat. 1912-1916 included with the same attribution in Cat. 1958 - Ambrogio Lorenzetti School. The authorship of Pietro Lorenzetti was established by Vsevolozhskaya (1981) on the basis of a stylistic comparison with the right wing of the triptych (Museum, Dijon) and Pietro's Crucifixion (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan). The Crucifixion with Mary, John and Mary Magdalene (National Pinakothek, Siena, inv. No. 147, 82 × 42.5) in composition and proportions is a close analogy to the Hermitage painting; the figure of the crucified Christ is repeated in both cases almost unchanged. In Cat. 1976 "Crucifixion" by analogy with the altar from Dijon is dated 1335-1340. Based on the comparison with the Crucifixion from the National Pinakothek in Siena, it seems more convincing to date the Hermitage painting to the second half of the 1320s (see: Mostra di opere d'arte restaurate nelle province di Siena e Grosetto. Genova, 1981, p. 47).
Origin: post, in 1910 from the State Russian Museum. Previously: MAX in St. Petersburg, acquired for the Academy of Arts by Vice-President Prince G. G. Gagarin Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1912-1916, No. 1944; Cat. 1958 s. 123; Cat. 1976, p. 106 Literature: Vsevolozhskaya 1981, No. 3
Close relationships existed between Florence and the second largest city of Tuscany - Siena. In a sense, these two schools are antipodes. In Florence, with its constant striving for democratic freedoms, monumental art took shape, tongue-speaking simple and clear, interest in space prevailed here. In the conditions of aristocratic Siena, easel works were preferred to monumental painting, they strove for elegance, decorativeness, and color harmony. Siena learned the lessons of Gothic more easily than Florence.
The greatest master of the Cienne school of the first half of the 14th century, Simone Martini (circa 1284-1344), by his temperament was a heartfelt lyric poet in painting. Like no one else, Simone managed to make the line an expressive means of conveying not only forms, but also moods. In Martini's works, color is marked by a richness of finely selected combinations of typically Cienne festivity.
The exhibition displays a fold of the diptych depicting the Madonna from the scene "Annunciation" by Simone. According to V. N. Lazarev, “... this precious icon, which is one of the pearls in the Hermitage collection. the purity of its lyrical sound and the melodiousness of its lines can only be compared with the best sonnets of Petrarch. "
Along with Simone Martini, the brothers Lorenzetti, Pietro (worked from 1306-1348) and Amrojo (mentioned 1321-1348), played an outstanding role in the development of Cienne painting. Perhaps both of them were victims of the "black death", which claimed more than half of the inhabitants of Tuscany. There is an assumption that the brothers headed a large workshop, the works of which were widely known in Sien. Based on the achievements of the Florentines, Lorenzetti directed attention to the perspective expansion of space, to the exact way of expressing thoughts in artistic images; both were distinguished by the ability to lead a lyrical story, to create a fascinating story based on impressions of the surrounding life. It is worth noting that Ambrogio demonstrated in the Allegory of Good Government, one of the famous frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico, an interest in antiquity that was not so frequent for painters of that time.
In the second half of the trecento, Siena did not put forward a single artist of the scale of Simone Martini or the Lorenzetti brothers. During this period, Npkolo di Ser Sozzo worked (1340-1360s), whose work was "discovered" only in the 30s. of our century. The works of this master are few, and all the more important because the Madonna and Child by Piccolo was discovered relatively recently in the Hermitage funds. Having experienced the influence of Martini and Lorenzetti, Ser Sozzo undoubtedly had contact with Florentine culture, which is confirmed by the thing in our collection. In it, plasticity, balance of composition, monumentality of figures are organically combined with a purely Sienna color scheme, delicate and bright.
One of the first representatives of international Gothic in Siena, Bartolo di Fredi (worked from 1353-1410), was in charge of an actively working workshop. Describing the features of this common European style of the verge of two centuries, A. Ershi wrote: “The nobility's longing for the past was reflected not only in the subjects of the ordered paintings, but also in the style of painting, since the Gothic, which was already in decline, was being revived. They expected from art to praise the romantic (in the original sense of the word) perception of life, turned to the past - to chivalrous novels; waiting for compensation, reward for lost positions in real life, and this often led to unbridled exaggeration. The result was a cult of stunning luxury, idealization, deliberately distorting reality, and a stylized language - that is, everything that characterizes international Gothic. "
Madonna and Child; four saints
Tempera on wood. 40X16. GE 6665, pair to GE 6666.
Left wing of the diptych.
On the scroll in John's hands there is a half-erased inscription: EC1 / VOX / .. .NA / TI. / ES / RT.S (vox cla- mantis in deserto) (/ Be / a voice crying in the wilderness). Gospel of Matthew 3, 3.
Crucifixion; four saints
Tempera on wood. 40 × 16. GE 6666, paired with GE 6665.
Right wing of the diptych.
Among the saints on the left wing of the diptych can be identified St. Nicholas, St. Christopher, John the Baptist. On the right is St. Francis and St. Helena.
Likhachev (1911) considered the diptych to be an Italian work of the 14th century, Talbot Riche (1940) - the work of the Venetian school of the 13th century, Lazarev (1954, 1965) referred the fold to the group of monuments "occupying a separate place in Venetian painting of the first half of the 14th century." and connected it with the works of masters, whose starting point was miniature painting. The diptych combines Byzantine features (the type of Madonna with a baby playing on her hands, a row arrangement of figures) with Gothic (elongation of proportions). Lazarev brought the Hermitage fold closer to icons depicting scenes from the life of Christ: one of them is kept in the City Museum of Trieste, the other in the State Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Kiev.
Pallucchini (1964), conditionally calling the artist "Master of the Leningrad Diptych", did not see a connection between the Hermitage work and the icon from Trieste, but agreed that the diptych was created in the same vein as the painting from Kiev, as well as the triptych from the Archaeological Museum in Spo-summer.
In Cat. 1958 and 1976 the diptych was listed as the work of an unknown artist of the 13th century school of Rimini.
Origin: post, in 1923 from the State Russian Museum. Earlier: sobr. N.P. Likhachev in St. Petersburg.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 141; Cat. 1976, p. 116
A typical example of International Gothic in the exhibition is a polyptych made, perhaps, in the immediate circle of one of the most significant adherents of this style, Gentile da Fabriano (circa 1370-1427), who worked in different centers of Italy. The fragile fragility of the contours distinguishes the figures of five exquisitely elegant saints against the shining background, and the color scheme of the altar is magnificent with the unexpectedness of color combinations.
After the activities of Giotto, the Byzantine tradition became one of the most conservative components of the trecento. But it was she who stubbornly followed the Venetian painting of the XIV century.
The rich patrician republic, the "pearl of the Adriatic", connected the West with the East thanks to trade routes. Her constant contacts with Byzantium led to the fact that Venice perceived the aesthetics of Byzantine painting easily and organically, as something of her own, and not introduced from the outside. Greek craftsmen constantly worked in the city, in particular, they mainly worked on the mosaic decorations of the Cathedral of San Marco.
Among the Venetian artists, Paolo Veneziano creatively interpreted the Byzantine heritage (worked 1333-1358). Perhaps one of the followers of Paolo made the "Youth of Christ in the Jerusalem Temple." If we compare this fragment with the works of the Florentine and Sienese schools, then one can feel how much we are again immersed in medieval images and representations. It is this work, in our opinion, that serves as a clear illustration of the exact characterization of the medieval thinking of M. Dvořák. Such an embodiment of the "incomprehensibility of divine thought" is the boy Christ in the picture, which is in relation to the surrounding people and the building of the temple, sipping this ratio, you understand that it is Christ who is above everything, under everything, outside everything, in everything. "
Such an embodiment of the incomprehensibility of divine thought is in the picture the youth Christ, which is expressed in his relationship with the surrounding people and the building of the temple. Evaluating this ratio, you understand that it is Christ who is above everything, under everything, outside everything, in everything.
The expression of the Hermitage icon was appreciated at its true worth in art history literature: “At the present time I do not know of any other such work that could be compared with a small board, the only part of the surviving polyptych depicting Christ among the Wise Men, kept in the Hermitage's reserves: a unique fragment in its own way in expressive power, almost Cimabueva, ”wrote R. Pallucchini.
When you get acquainted with the works of the Venetian school exhibited at the exhibition - and all of them mainly relate to the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries - you have to wonder how quickly by the end of the 15th - early 16th centuries Venice caught up with, and in many respects and outstripped the leading school of the Quattrocento - Florence.
Obviously, at present, the features and significance of the Pisa school of painting of the XIV century have not yet been fully identified. The opinion continues to exist that Pisa gravitated towards the art of other cities at this time. But Pisa experienced the main flowering of painting in the previous, XIII century. It is to this period that one of the earliest monuments in the exhibition belongs - a cross with the image of the Crucifixion by Ugolino di Tedice (worked in the second half of the 13th century). This cross confirms that on the soil of Tuscany, Ppza absorbed and transformed the Byzantine forms that penetrated here.
The beginning of the early Renaissance is rightly associated with the support found by Italian masters in ancient art. But not only antiquity was the source of the Renaissance. Without the preparation passed in the XIV century, the emergence of a new system of thinking, a new art, would have been impossible. The Renaissance absorbed not only antiquity, but also the naturalism of the Gothic and the traditions of Byzantine painting. No matter how Byzantium transformed various forms, "the human figure, which was in the center of interest of ancient artists, remained the main subject of the image for the Byzantines."
Trecento was by no means "inept" as Vasarn imagined. Italy had to go through this century to open a new page in the history of art, which we associate with the highest achievements of human genius.
This exposition could not have been carried out without the enormous work done by the restorers of the Hermitage. I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to all of them, especially TD Chizhova. They, having removed the old recordings and multi-layer varnish, returned the paintings there. where possible, pristine freshness and brilliance of colors.
FOPPA, VINCENZO FOPPA, VINCENZO
Born in Bresse around 1430, died 1515/16 in Milan. Lombard School. Influenced by Donato de'Bardi, Mantegna, Bellini, Bramante. He worked in Pavia, Breshe, Bergamo, Milan.
St. Stephen
Tempera on wood. 89 × 34. GE 7772, paired with GE 7773.
The panel of the polyptych.
On the halo: SANCVS STEFANVS PROMAR- TIRVS.
archangel Michael
Tempera on wood. 91 × \u200b\u200b34. GE 7773, paired with GE 7772.
The panel of the polyptych.
On a halo: SANCTVS MICH .. .ANGELVS INTER. ..
The doors of the polyptych belong to the early period of Foppa, one of the largest representatives of the Lombard school during its transition from Gothic to Renaissance art. In this work, the artist tried to combine the traditional lessons of Lombard art with advanced trends. dutch painting... In iconographic terms, the calmly standing figures of the saints easily fit into the usual scheme, while the problem of light is perceived freshly and directly. With interest, characteristic of the Dutch, Foppa conveys the play of light on the metal armor of the Archangel Michael, and his softer glide along the sharp folds of the Dalmatian of St. Stefan.
As Medica (1986) proved, the doors from the Hermitage were part of the same polyptych as two boards depicting John the Baptist and St. Dominica from a private collection in Bergamo. The sizes of the fragments are the same, the golden halos are the same. It is especially significant that the low parapet, in front of which each saint stands, is located at the same level. The artist, as it were, implies a single space for all figures. Obviously, in the center of the polyptych was the Madonna and Child, to which John the Baptist points out.
Medica names St. Stephen “St. Stefan ”by Donato de'Bardi (collection of Cicogna Mozzoni, Milan, repr .: Zeri F. Diari di lavoro 2. Torino, 1976, fig. 41).
Medica dates all the valves to about 1462 and rightly notes in them the combination of the Lombard tradition with the Dutch influences, which the young Fopp perceived through his study of the samples of Donato de'Bardi.
The doors entered the Hermitage as a work of an unknown Lombard artist of the 15th century, then they began to be considered a work! circle of Bergognone. In Cat. 1958 and 1976 are included as works of the Foppa school. This attribution was made by Vsevolozhskaya (1981) based on a comparison with the polyptych di Santa Maria della Grazia (Brera, Milan, inv. No. 307) and “St. Catherine and St. Agnes ”(Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, inv. No. 37.706). Vsevolozhskaya was the first to draw attention to the similarity between the Hermitage saints and “St. Dominic "from a private collection. in Bergamo.
Origin: post, 1921 via GMF. Earlier: sobr. N. Roerich in St. Petersburg; collection Colonel Modjardini in Florence (according to a previously existing inscription on the back of one of the doors).
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 203; Cat. 1976, p. 146
Literature: Vsevolozhskaya 1981, No. 33. 34; Medica M. Quattro tavole per un polittico di Vincenzo Foppa. - Paragone, 1986, 431-433, p. 12-14
FUNGAI, BERNARDINO FUNGAI, BERNARDINO
Born in 1460 in Siena, died in 1516 in the same place. Siene school. He studied with Giovanni di Paolo, was influenced by Francesco di Giorgio, Pietro di Domenico, Perugino, Signorelli. He worked mainly in Siena.
The magnanimity of Scipio Africanus
Wood, oil, tempera. 62X166. GE 267. Casson board.
Below the figures are the names of the characters: SPONSVS; LVCEIVS; SCIPIO; LVCEI FILIA. Above figure: LELIVS.
The plot is borrowed from the "Roman History" by Titus Livy. According to Livy, the general is Publich! Cornelius Scipio (235-185 BC), nicknamed African, after the capture of New Carthage, returned the captive girl to her fiancé Allucius, and gave the ransom offered by his parents for his daughter to Allucius in the form of a wedding gift.
Following the tradition of painting cassons (dowry chests), Fungai combined three episodes of different times in one scene. In the center, Scipio Africanus returns the bride to the groom, on the left, Allucius leads the horsemen placed at the disposal of the magnanimous commander, on the right, the warriors lead the captive to Scipio.
The action takes place against the backdrop of a detailed landscape that is influenced by the Umbrian school. Picture at poitaliana a Pietroburgo .- 'L'Arte, 1912, fasc. 2, p. 123-124; Voinov 1922, p. 75; Weigelt C. Die sienesische Malerei des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts. Firenze-Mtinchen, 1930, S. 73, 111; Marie R., van. 1924, 2, p. 90-92; Lazarev 1959, p. 284-285, approx. 264; Italian painting of the 13th-18th centuries 1964, No. 2; Berenson 1968, p. 119; Vsevolozhskaya 1981, No. 4, 5
step was listed as the work of an unknown Umbrian artist. In Cat. 1922 was included as the work of the Pinturicchio circle. Fungai may have been influenced by Pinturicchio when he worked in Siena in 1508-1512. Based on the influence of Pinturicchio, the casson wall is dated to the late period of Fungai's work - 1512-1516. The currently existing attribution, accepted by all researchers, was made (orally) by O. Siren.
Paired with the "Generosity of Scipio Africanus" casson board "Death of Sofonisba" is kept in the Pushkin Museum. Both compositions are built on the same principle and the central figures are repeated almost completely. Origin: post, in 1902 from the collection. F. Russova in St. Petersburg
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1907-1912, No. 1892; Cat. 1958, p. 206; Cat. 1976, p. 147-148 Exhibitions: 1922 Petrograd, No. 48 Literature: Thieme U. - Becker F. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler. Leipzig, 1916, S. 587; Voinov 1922, p. 77; Borenius T. Unpablisched Cassone Panels III. - The Burlington Magazine, 1922, April, p. 189-190; Schu-bring P. Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruhrenaissance. Leipzig, 1923, 1, S. 138, 355; Berenson 1932, p. 211; Marie R., van. 1937, 16, p. 481; Pigler A. Barockthemen. Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Iconographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Budapest, 1956, 2, S. 404; Italian painting of the 13th-18th centuries 1964, no. 29, 30; Berenson 1968, p. 150; Vsevolozhskaya 1981, No. 45; Italian Cassoni from the Art Collections of the Soviet Museums. Leningrad, 1983, no. 15-19
PAOLO VENETZIANO (MAESTRO PAOLO), follower
PAOLO VENEZIANO (MAESTRO PAOLO)
56. The youth Christ in the Jerusalem temple
Tempera on wood. 25X18.5. GE 6670. Fragment of a polyptych. Gospel of Luke, 2, 42-52 Following the laws of Byzantine painting, the artist does not create a closed space in which the action takes place. Christ is depicted simultaneously in the temple and outside it - he dominates everything and everyone. There is not and cannot be a single point from which the scene would be perceived, since it is focused not so much on the real as on the inner vision of the one who is looking at it. But with the general tendencies that characterize the Byzantine trend in Venetian painting of the XIV century, the master conveys the intensity of passions in the highest degree expressively - the despair that seized the elders, p. 3; Venturi L. Saggio sulle opere d'arte italiana a Pietroburgo. - L'Arte, 1912, fasc. 2-3, p. 123; Reinach S. Repertoire de peintures dn Moyen Age et de la Renaissance (1280-1580). Paris, 1922, 5, p. 314; Meiss 1951, p. 169; Meiss M. Notes on Three linked sienese styles. - The Art Bulletin, 1963, 45, March, p. 47; Klesse 1967, S. 249; De Benedictis 1979, p. 24, 96 whom the youth Christ surpassed in wisdom, the attention with which Mary and Joseph listen to the words of Christ.
Lazarev (orally) identified the painting as the work of Lorenzo Veneziano; in Cat. The 1958 and 1976 work is included as the work of Paolo Veneziano (?). Pallucchini (1964), who first published the fragment, also believed that its author was associated with Paolo Veneziano and worked at the beginning of the second half
XIV century. The artist undoubtedly discovers points of contact with Paolo Veneziano, and in particular with the polyptych of the master from the Academy in Venice (Inventory No. 16), with which Pallucchini pointed out the connection (1964). However, unlike the creator of the Venetian polyptych, the author of the Hermitage fragment remained alien to the innovations of the Gothic style. Origin: post, in 1923 from the State Russian Museum. Earlier: until 1914 collection. NP Likhachev in St. Petersburg Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 148; Cat. 1976, p. 120
Literature: Pallucchini 1964, p. 56
UNKNOWN ARTIST OF THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL OF THE LATE XIV-EARLY XV CENTURY.
Scenes from the life of Christ and Mary
Tempera on wood. 42X54 (framed 50X61.5]. GE 4158
Upper row: Annunciation (Gospel of Luke, 1, 26-38); Meeting of Mary with Elizabeth (Gospel of Luke, 2, 39-56); The Nativity of Christ (Gospel of Luke 2, 6-7); Bringing to the temple (Gospel of Luke, 2, 22-38); The youth Christ in the Jerusalem temple (Gospel of Luke, 2, 41-52); Prayer for the cup (Gospel from Matthew, 26, 36-44; from Mark, 14, 32-42; from Luke, 22, 39-46). Middle row: The Scourging of Christ (the Gospel of Mark, 15, 15; from John, 19, 1); Desecration of Christ (Gospel of Matthew, 27, 28-30; from Mark, 15, 17-19; from John, 19, 2-3); Carrying of the cross (Gospel of Matthew, 27, 31-32; from Mark, 15, 20; from Luke, 23, 26; from John, 19, 16-17); Crucifixion with Mary and John.
Bottom row: Resurrection of Christ; Ascension of Christ (Gospel of Mark, 16, 19; Luke, 24, 51); The descent of St. Spirit (Acts of the Apostles, 2, 1-4); The Ascension of the Madonna (LA CXVII, 1), The Coronation of the Madonna (LA CXVII, 1).
In fifteen scenes (five in each row), the artist, in a somewhat naive manner, with love for a detailed and entertaining story, presented various episodes from the story of Christ and Mary.
Judging by the manner of execution, this minor master worked in Florence at the end of the 15th century. He was undoubtedly influenced by Baldovinetti, Rosselli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Botticelli. For example, a wall with cypresses visible behind it is a motif that goes back to a number of works by Baldovinetti. The figure of Mary is, in general terms, close to the Madonna in the "Annunciation" by Baldovinetti (Uffizi, Florence).
St. Bernardpn Siena
Tempera on wood. 41 × 31 (in the Gothic frame 49 × 36). GE 4767. Part of a polyptych.
On a scroll in the hand of St. Bernardine: Pater manifestavi nomen tuum hminbs (Father, I revealed your name to men). Gospel of John, 17, 6.
In Cat. 1922 and in Cat. 1957 and 1976 the saint was not identified. St. Bernardine of Siena in the attire of the Order of St. Francis, of which he became a member in 1402. Iconographically, this is the house of an elderly ascetic monk, in this case he is identified by one of his attributes: an inscription on a scroll with words from the Gospel of John (see: Kaf tal G. Saints in Italian Art . Iconography of the saints in Central and South Italian Schools of painting. Florence, 1965, p. 198).
In Cat. 1922 the painting was attributed to a North Italian artist (?) Of the late 15th century. It seems that the author of the Hermitage fragment could have been a Sienne master who worked in the middle of the 15th century, and not only because one of the most popular Siena saints is depicted, but also because the interpretation of the image and forms gives reason to assume that the author of the painting could touch with the Sano di Pietro circle.
Origin: post, in 1920
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 142; Cat.
1976, p. 116
Exhibitions: 1922 Petrograd, No. 15 Literature: Voinov 1922, p. 76
Scenes from the life of St. Juliana di Collalto
Tempera on wood. 73 × 64.5 (the size of each stamp is 28 × 30). GE 6366. Part of a polyptych.
In the upper left hallmark above the heads of the nuns: VEATA / GVLIANA. Above the head of Christ: IC.XC. In the upper right mark between the angel and St. Juliana: BEA / TA GVLI / ANA. Above the group that Juliana is in: BEATA / GVLIANA. In the lower right stamp above the deceased Juliana: VEATA GVLIANA.
Pallucchini (1964) suggested that the Hermitage fragment was the left side of a polyptych previously located in the church of St. Biagio and Cataldo on the island of Giudecca, and its central part was a board with the figure of St. Juliana (private collection, Venice, repr .: Pallucchini 1964, fig. 599).
Several episodes from the history of St. Juliana. Giuliana di Collalto (1186-1262) - historical person, founder and first abbess of the monastery of St. Viaggio and Cataldo on the island of Giudecca. The beginning of the cult of the saint dates back to the end of the 13th century.
In the upper left stigma, the saint receives bread from Christ, which saved the nuns from hunger. In the upper right stamp, the figure of Juliana is repeated twice: she prays to the angel for the healing of the nun, who broke her arm on the tombstone, and here she herself heals the young man. The artist depicted him holding a third, broken, with his already healthy hands. The lower hallmark on the right shows the construction of the monastery. The last episode relates to the posthumous history of the saint. After her body was buried in the cemetery church of the monastery, a mysterious light became visible over the tomb. The sarcophagus was opened in 1290 and found that Juliana's remains were not affected by decay, her body was transferred to the monastery, and people, coming to the tomb, began to heal. A married couple with a sick child is presented.
The plot of the fragment was correctly defined by Pallucchini (1984), who attributed the painting to the master Donato, the relatively conservative artist of the circle, Paolo Veneziano, and dated it to the 1360s. Before that, in the Hermitage “Scenes from the Life of St. Juliana ”, received as a work of an unknown Italian artist of the 14th century, were included in Cat. 1958 as Scenes from the Life of St. Julites ”by the Padua master Giusto di Giovanni de Menabuoi (?). V. Lazarev (orally) considered that the Hermitage painting should be excluded from the circle of Paolo Veneziano. This opinion was also shared by Muraro (1970).
Origin: post, in 1923 from the State Russian Museum. Earlier: sobr. NP Likhachev in St. Petersburg Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 94; Cat. 1976, p. 116
UNKNOWN ARTIST OF THE VENETIAN SCHOOL XIV CENTURY
St. Philip and St. Helena
Tempera on wood. 64 × 39. GE 6704. Pair to GE 6705
On a gold background, near the halos, the names of the saints: .S / F / I / LI / P SCA / LE / NA.
Lawrence and St. Elizabeth
Tempera on wood. 64 × 39. GE 6705. Pair to GE 6704
On a gold background near the halos, the names of the saints: S / L / A / VR / EN / CI / VS S / EL. / BE / TA.
The figures of the saints were made by an artist striving for monumentality, clear sound of bright colors. Sharp contours accentuate the harsh treatment of folds.
There is a group of works, which include the "Saints" from the collection. The Hermitage. They were written, apparently, by an artist associated with the workshop (mosaic) at the Cathedral of San Marco (Lazarev 1954, 1965). These works include The Last Judgment (Museum of Art, Worcester, Massachusetts), Francis of Assisi, Unknown Saint, St. Catherine, St. Nicholas ”(Galleria Sabauda, \u200b\u200bTurin). Pallucchini (1964) conditionally called the artist "The Master of the Last Judgment", considering that this is one of the most interesting personalities of the Venetian school of the second quarter of the 14th century.
Lazarev (1965) admitted the possibility that the "Last Judgment" and the "Saints" from the Hermitage and Galeria Sabauda were originally a single altar. Davis (1974) did not see sufficient grounds for such an assumption.
By analogy with The Last Judgment (see: Devies 1974), the Hermitage fragments could have been executed between 1325 and 1350.
UNKNOWN ARTIST OF THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XV CENTURY
Madonna and child, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Vincent Ferrer
Tempera on wood. GE 6663.180 × 169.5 On the book of St. Vincent: Timet / edeus / etdat / eilliho / nores./ quia / venit / horaim / dicii / eius. (Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come). Revelation of John, 14, 7. Above the head of the Madonna, under the overlaid frame, are the remains of a Greek inscription in red paint: MP 0V (Mother of God). There are also strokes of paint - a test palette of the artist, who picked up color combinations. In the lower part of the frame - the coat of arms of the Venetian Matteo da Medio; the coat of arms is inscribed in a circle, on the remaining part of the field there is the motive of "squirrel fur". The name of Matteo da Medio is inscribed in two circles on the sides of the coat of arms: MTTV DMO. On the step of the throne on the right side, a man, separated from us for centuries, scratched a drawing of a sailing ship.
This type of composition - the Madonna with the child enthroned and the saints standing on the sides of it, received the name of the "sacred conversation" ("sacra conversazione"). The image was given outside of a real situation, without specific motivation, as something timeless, eternal. The central figure (as in the Hermitage painting) could be distinguished in size, which emphasized its supremacy and significance; lateral (their number could be different) - as equivalent. This type of composition, filled with new content, will exist throughout the Renaissance.
In Cat. 1958 the saint on the right side of the painting was incorrectly named Dominic. The text from the Revelation of John on the book and the gesture pointing to Christ in the mandorla indicate that St. Vincent Ferrer (see: Kaftal G. Saints in Italian Art. Iconography of the saints in Central and South Italian Schools of Painting. Florence, 1965; see also: Kaftal 1978).
Likhachev (1911) considered the icon a rare example of the activity of the Cretan-Venetian school of the XIV century. Schweinfurt (1930) was inclined to believe that the painting could be included among the Venetian works of the XIV century. At the same time, he noted the still very close relationship between Venetian artists and Italian Byzantine workshops in the territory of Venice. Bettini (1933) added that the icon marks a division between Venetian and Cretan traditions.
Lazarev (1954, 1959) attributed the painting to the workshop of Katerino and Donato, dating back to the 1370s. Pallucchini (1964) explained the difference he saw in the manner between the central and lateral figures by the fact that the Madonna could have been performed by Donato, and the saints perhaps by Caterino.
G. Fiocco (orally) attributed the painting to Jacobello di Bonomo. With this attribution, the painting is included in Cat. 1958, and in Cat. 1976 - as the work of an unknown Venetian artist
XIV century.
The Correr Museum in Venice contains an icon depicting the Madonna and Child Enthroned (61X48), which repeats the compositional composition of the central part of the Hermitage work. In the museum's catalog, it is attributed to an artist of the Cretan-Venetian school of the early 15th century. (see: Mariacher C. II Museo Correr di Venezia. Pinti dal XIV al XV secolo. Venezia, 1957, pp. 131-132).
In the collection. Willamsen in Copenhagen there is "Madonna and Child", compositionally close to the central part of the Hermitage painting. Dated 1325 (see: Willumsen J. E. La jeunesse du peintre el Greco. Essai sur la transformation de l'artiste byzantin en peintre europeen. Paris, 1927, 1, p. 75).
Pallucchini (1964) believed that the icon from the Correr Museum repeats the Hermitage in a more fractional and decorative manner, and the icon from the collection. Willamsen, in turn, is a repetition of the version from the Correr Museum.
A painting from the Hermitage could hardly have been created earlier than the first half of the 15th century, as Kaftal rightly dated it (1978). The basis for this dating can be the image of St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), canonized in 1455. He could have been depicted before canonization, but hardly during his lifetime already in the form of a saint standing at the throne of the Madonna.
Thus, the creator of the Hermitage icon rather repeated the previously established composition with the image of the Madonna and Child, and works from the Correr Museum and sobr. Willamsen is preceded, not repeated, by the central part of the Hermitage work.
Miracle with a host
Tempera on wood. 15X35. ГЗ 7657. Part of the predella.
Upon entering the Hermitage, the subject of the painting was defined as genre, and under the name "Shop" it was included in Cat. 1958.
The correct interpretation of the plot belongs to Gukovsky (1965, 1969). As a source, he turned to The Image of One of the Miracles of the Body of Christ, a book published in Florence at the end of the 15th century. and currently known in three copies (one in the Corsini library, Rome; two in the Trivulzio collection, Milan). The book is sixteen pages long and is a kind of "script" of one of those performances that were often performed in Florence during the Renaissance.
The Hermitage painting depicts three episodes. On the left side, Gulslmo Jambekkari, having drunk wine, loses money in the osteria. On the right side, Gulelmo's wife comes to the Jewish usurer to redeem the dress her husband had pledged. The usurer Manuel demands that the woman bring him a host in return (a wafer for the sacrament). It is also shown how Manuel burns the host he brought on the brazier, pierces it with a sword, and a miracle occurs: the wafer, symbolizing the body of Christ, begins to bleed.
The woodcut illustrating the Image of One of the Miracles of the Body of Christ, which Gukovsky compared with the Hermitage fragment, is very close to the right side of the painting, so he assumed that the engraving served as a prototype for the pictorial solution (repr .: Goukovsky 1969, fig. 2).
Gukovsky believed that, due to its small size, this work could be a predella of a small portable altar, but rather served as a decoration for furniture.
According to Gukovsky, the author of The Miracle with the Host was either Uchello or one of the artists in his workshop. However, this contradicts the comparison with the predella of Uchello on the plot "Desecration of the Host" (National Gallery, Urbino). The clarity and novelty in the construction of space in Uchello is very different from the more conservative solution of space in the Hermitage work. Origin: post, in 1933 from the collection. BN Chicherin in Leningrad.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 142; Cat. 1976, p. 117
Literature: Gukovsky M. A. The So-called "Shop" of the Hermitage and its probable author. - Abstracts of the reports of the scientific session dedicated to the results of the work of the State Hermitage in 1965. L, -M., 1966, p. 39-41; Goukovsky M. A. A representatione of the Host: a puzzling painting in the Hermitage and its possible author. - The Art Bulletin, 1969, 101, p. 170-173
Triptych Master of Imola
He worked in the first half of the 15th century. Emilia's school. Influenced by Venetian masters and Lombard miniaturists. A group of works by this master, close in style to Antonio Alberti, was distinguished by Padovani on the basis of the similarity with the triptych "Madonna and Child, St. Christina and Peter the Martyr "from the collection. The Pinakothek of Imola (see: Padovani 1976, pp. 49-50).
Madonna and Child with John the Baptist and Abbot Anthony
Tempera on wood. 43.5 × 29.5 cm. GE 9751 At the bottom right on the Madonna's cloak there is an illegible forged signature and date of the ISCC. In the upper left corner on the scroll of the prophet Isaiah: Iae .. .ppfte. In the upper right corner on the scroll of the prophet David: Davt ppfte. On the book in the hands of the god-father: Ego sum / lux mn / di qui sequitn / me n..ambu / lat i te / nebr; s. (I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness). The Gospel of John, 8, 12. On a scroll in the hands of John the Baptist: Esse agnus dei (Behold the lamb of God). Gospel of John 1,
29, 36. On the same scroll, the remains of the letters of his name: OGAh.
The signature and date date back to the 19th century, which proves the presence of zinc oxide in the paint. Below, under a layer of varnish, on which the signature and date are located, they are not repeated.
The composition is built in such a way that the ornamental three-part frame separates the prophets from the rest of the characters; thus, it is shown that the prophets Isaiah and David precede Christ and at the same time predict his appearance in the world.
God the Father points to the baby, explaining with a gesture to whom the Gospel lines inscribed on the book are addressed.
The painting came as a work of an unknown 15th-century Northern Italian artist. Can be defined as the work of the Master of the triptych Imola, as it reveals a close resemblance to a number of paintings attributed to him. This is "Christmas" (in 1910 it was at the antique dealer Paolini in Rome; repr .: Padovani 1976, fig. 38); The Adoration of the Magi (collection of Kister, Kreutzlingen, repr .: Padovani 1976, fig. 39); Madonna of Humility (Cassa di Risparmio, Ferrara, repr .: Padovani 1976, fig. 33).
Not only individual details are repeated, but, what is much more important, in all these works there is a single stylistic beginning. A provincial artist, like the Master of the Imola triptych, working already in the first half of the 15th century, prefers an unpromising solution of space. The figures are characterized by strict verticalism, slightly softened by a slight tilt of the heads, the faces are drawn rigidly and carefully. Ruby red is often introduced as a color accent (in the Hermitage painting, these are the robes of the Father God and the Baptist).
The date - 1430th, - proposed by Padovani for "Nativity" and "Adoration of the Magi", by analogy can be adopted for "Madonna and Child with Saints."
MASTER OF THE MARRIED DATINI MAESTRO DEI CONIUGI DATINI
He worked in the second half of the XIV century. Florentine school.
Blessing Christ
Tempera on wood. Diam. 43 (tondo). GE 270. Upper part of the painted cross.
In the XIV century. in Tuscany and, in particular, in Florence, painted crosses with the image of a crucifix were widespread. Often at the top they were decorated with medallions with a half-figure of the blessing Christ. The Hermitage tondo also had this purpose. Iconographically, the blessing Christ belongs to the type of Christ Pantocrator (see: Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie. Rom; Freiburg; Basel; Wien, 1968, 1, S. 392-394).
Tondo entered the Hermitage as a work of an unknown Tuscan master of the 14th century. circle of Giotto. According to the information given in Cat. 1922, Ainalov attributed tondo to Tommaso Giottino, and Lipgart to Bernardo Daddi. Lazarev (1928) believed that the work was performed under the direct influence of Giotto, and dated it to the 20s of the XIV century.
In Cat. The 1958 and 1976 fragment entered as the work of the Giotto school: Ambrogio di Bondone (?). Corti (1971) published the Hermitage Tondo as a work of an unknown Florentine master of the second half
XIV century. Boskovich (1975) included him in the list of paintings by Pietro Nelli. Tartuferi (1984) agreed with this attribution. As an analogy, he cited a medallion depicting a blessing Christ, completing the "Crucifixion" from the church of San Donato in Poggio, Pieve, school of Pietro Nelli. Noting the much higher quality of the painting from the Hermitage, Tartuferi pointed out the similarities in the treatment of hair, clothing and ornamentation. On this basis, he suggested that the masters proceeded from one prototype, moreover, perhaps from one drawing.
Bellozi (1984) attributed the Hermitage tondo to an artist whom he conditionally called “Master of the Datini Married Couple” based on the painting “Trinity” (Capitoline Museum, Rome), which bears the coat of arms of a merchant from Prato, Francesco Datini, and he himself, his wife and receptionist the daughter is shown kneeling at the foot of the crucifix. For the Capitoline painting, Bellosi suggested a date around 1400. In his opinion, the "Master of the Datini Wife" could be either Tommaso del Mazzo, who collaborated with Pietro Nelli, and later, around 1391, with Niccolo di Pietro Gerini, or Giovanni di Tano Fei, worked for the Datini family. The similarity between God the Father in the Capitoline painting and the blessing Christ in the Hermitage tondo is so great that the belonging of both works to the same master is beyond doubt. Bellosi's hypothesis seems to be quite convincing. Origin: post, in 1910 from the State Russian Museum. Previously: MAX in St. Petersburg
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 93; Cat. 1976, p. 91
Exhibitions: 1922 Petrograd, No. 3 Literature: Prokhorov 1879, No. 2; Voinov 1922, p. 76; Lasareff 1928, p. 25-26; Corti G. Sul commercio dei quadri a Firenze verso la fine del secolo XIV. Commentari, 1971, 22, p. 86; Boskovits 1975, p. 420; Tartuferi A. Due croci di-pinte poco note del Trecento Fiorentino. - Arte Cristiana, 1984, gennaio - febbraio, p. 6; 12 nota 16; Bellosi L. Tre note in margine a uno studio sull'arte a Prato. - Prospettiva, Aprile 1983 - Gennaio 1984, 33-36, p. 46
MASTER OF CROWN MARIA FROM CHRIST CHURCH
MAESTRO DELL'INCORONAZIONE CHRIST CHURCH
He worked in the second half of the XIV century. Florentine school. This conventional name was proposed by Offner (1981) for the works of an unknown follower of the Chione brothers, which Offner grouped around the Coronation of Mary from Christ Church in Oxford.
Coronation of the Marin
Tempera on wood. 78.5X49.7. GE 265. The top is rounded
On the scroll of John: ECC / E / AG / NVS / VOX (Behold the lamb ... the voice of [crying in the wilderness]). Gospel of John, 1, 29; from Matthew 3, 3. At the bottom of the board between the coats of arms of the Florentine families Seristorp and Gerardeschi: AVE. GRATIA. PLENA DOMIN ... (Rejoice, grace-filled! Lord ...). Luke 1,
28. On the back of the board is an inscription that is currently only readable in infrared rays: Les armes… sont de la maison de Seristori… autres sont de Gherardeschi de florence. Ecole de Toscane (This is the coat of arms of the house of Seristori, another Gherardeschi from Florence. Tuscan school).
The upper semicircular board, which depicts a crucifixion with Mary, John, St. Francis and St. Dominic, was connected to the base by a later overhead frame.
The central composition represents the coronation of Mary according to the type that developed in the Florentine painting of the second half of the 14th century. This corresponds to the arrangement of the figures of Christ and Mary, sitting (without a visible throne) against the background of richly ornamented fabric, the sharp end of the crown, the isolation of the main characters from the saints by a certain conventional frame to which the drapery is attached.
According to Ofner (1981), St. Paul, St. Matthew, the unknown saint, St. Bartholomew, John the Baptist, St. Louis of Toulouse (on the left side of the composition); St. Andrew, St. Peter, St. Catherine, two holy bishops, St. Jacob (on the right side of the composition), two angels playing music.
The painting was received as a work by an unknown Florentine artist of the 14th century. Lazarev (1959) considered that she could be attributed to the Bionde school. Ofner (1981) attributed her to the Master of Crowning Mary of Christ Church. The closest analogy to the Hermitage painting is The Coronation of the Madonna from the former. collection Luijpe Bellini in Florence (repr .: Offner 1981, fig. 53). In both paintings, the type of faces, fabric patterns, musical instruments in the hands of angels are repeated.
Origin: post, in 1899, donated by ex. Director of the Hermitage I. A. Vsevolozhsky. Earlier: sobr. Baron P.K.Meyendorff in St. Petersburg.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1900-1916, No. 1851 Literature: Lazarev 1959, p. 296, approx. 311; Offner 1981, p. thirty
Master from Fucecchio
He worked in the middle of the 15th century. Florentine school. The pseudonym for this artist, whose works were most often included in the list of works by Francesco d'Antonio, was proposed by van Marle (see: Marie R., van. 1937, 16, p. 191-192). He was influenced by the early works of Masaccio and the Sienese painters. Collaborated with Paolo Schiavo. The Fucecchio Masters are sometimes associated with the Master of Casson degli Adimari.
Madonna and child with two angels
Tempera on wood. 49 × 35. GE 4113 Upon entering the Hermitage, the painting was included in the inventory as a work by Giovanni Boccati da Camerino.
"Madonna and Child with Two Angels" is a close analogy to the works attributed to the work of the Master from Fucecchio. In his paintings, a very special type of woman's face is repeated with a straight nose, a small, capriciously contoured mouth, and a round chin like an apple (Madonna and Child with Angels, location unknown, rep: Fremantle 1975, no. 1142; Madonna and Child and angels ", reproduced in the same place, no. 1143; in the latter case, the gesture of the baby holding the mother by the neck is repeated). The figures of angels crossing their arms on their chest, with their grace and subtlety of contours, confirm the master's contact with the samples of Xienne art.
Origin: post, in 1922 from the Stroganov Palace Museum in Petrograd.
Master from maradi
He worked at the end of the 15th century. Florentine school. The pseudonym was proposed by Dzern on the basis of a group of works in the Badia del Borgo church near Marradi (see: Zeri F. La mostra “Arte in Valdesa a Cerialdo.” - Bollettino d'Arte, 1963, 48, luglio - settembre, p. 249, note 15). The master from Marradi is the circle painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, who worked around 1475 in Florence and its environs. He painted cassons, while discovering points of contact with the art of Bartolomeo di Giovanni. At a later stage of his work (around 1490) he was influenced by Piero della Francesca.
Madonna in glory
Tempera on canvas. 80 × 48. GE 4129 Madonna is represented in glory, in mandorla, surrounded by cherubim. Iconographically, this type of composition is closely related to the "Ascension of the Madonna", when Mary was often depicted also sitting, in a strictly frontal position, with folded hands, in a mandorla supported by angels (for example, Antonio Veneziano's fresco "Ascension of the Madonna", Monastery of San Tommaso, Pisa ).
The painting entered the Hermitage as a work of an unknown Florentine master of the second half of the 15th century.
The currently existing attribution was offered orally independently of each other by M. Laclotte and E. Fey.
The closest analogy to "Madonna in Glory" is a painting on the same plot from the collection. Courtauld Institute in London (repr .: Fahy E. Some Early Italian Pictures in the Gambier-Parry Collection. - The Burlington Magazine, 1967, March, p. 135, ill. 31). The similarity of the pictorial manner manifests itself in the interpretation of the Madonna's face, in the transfer of round, dense clouds and mandorla in the form of thin golden rays, in the interpretation of the folds of clothing. However, the pose of Mary in the Hermitage painting differs from that of the Madonna in the London collection.
Origin: post, in 1926 from the Stroganov Palace Museum in Leningrad
St. Christopher
Tempera on wood. 108 × 46. GE 5504. The end is lancet. Panel of the polyptych.
On the sphere in the baby's hand: ASIA / AFRICA / EVROPA.
According to legend, St. Christopher carried the infant Christ across the river. The artist shows an interest in detail, characteristic of the later followers of Giotto: he depicts various fish swarming in the water (they symbolize evil forces), showing, along with an eel and a stingray, a fantastic toothy fish with a fin reminiscent of a bird's wing. Baby to hold on to the shoulder of St. Christopher, grabbed a lock of his hair.
At the 1922 exhibition “St. Christopher "was exhibited as a work of an unknown (North Italian?) Artist of the middle of the XIV century. The catalog of the same exhibition contains the opinion of Lipgart, who considered the fragment to be the work of Gaddi's circle. Voinov (1922) also attributed the work to the Tuscan school, attributing it to the circle of Giotto.
Perhaps M. Gregory (orally, 1985) was right in suggesting that the author of this panel of the polyptych could have been Lorenzo di Bicci; this does not contradict Liphart's attribution.
A certain stylistic affinity of “St. Christopher "discovers from" St. Michael ”on the altar door from the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Loro Chuffenna (repr .: Fremantle 1975, fig. No. 848). The similarity can be noted in the formulation of the figure and in the interpretation of the forms, especially the legs, slightly translucent through short clothes. In both cases, a short cloak is depicted with a peculiar pattern of folds at the bottom.
The Hermitage fragment was created by an artist who knew his craft well: he skillfully achieves the impression of volumetric figures, somewhat rigidly but clearly models the face, hair, and clothing. All this does not contradict the manner of Lorenzo, but the stylistic leveling of the art of Giotto's later followers makes it impossible to finally insist on the name of Lorenzo di Bicci. Origin: post, 1919 from the Department of Monument Protection. Earlier: sobr. A. K. Rudanovsky in St. Petersburg Exhibitions: 1922 Petrograd, № 17 Literature: Voinov 1922, p. 76
Madonna and child, saints n angels
Tempera on wood. 52 × 36.5 (in the Gothic frame - 92X54, the frame is covered with new gold). GE 5505
On a scroll in John's hand: ESSE AG ... (Behold the lamb]). Gospel of John 1, 29, 36
The Madonna is depicted sitting on a throne with a baby in her arms, near the throne on the right side of the composition are St. Peter, Archangel Michael, St. Elizabeth and the Angel; on the left - St. Christopher, John the Baptist, St. Catherine and the Angel. In the upper part - Christ at the Last Judgment.
The painting, which entered the museum as a work of an unknown Cienne master of the early 14th century, bears a resemblance to works attributed either to Pietro JIorenzetti or to the so-called Master of the Dijon Altarpiece. Under this pseudonym Diold (see: Dewald ET Pietro Lorenzetti. - Art Studies, 1929, p. 154-158) grouped a number of works stylistically close to the triptych from the Museum in Dijon (44X50). Previously, they were mainly attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti, and later many scholars continued to consider the altar as his work (see: Laclotte M. De Giotto a Bellini. Les primitifs italiens dans les Musees de France. Mai - Juillet 2e ed. Editions des Musees Nationaux, 1956 , p. 11-12). In Cat. 1922 it is noted that, according to Lipgart, the author of the Hermitage painting is Pietro Lorenzetti. Lazarev (1959) considered it to be the early work of the Master of the Dijon Altarpiece. In Cat. 1958 Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels is included as a work of the Master of the Dijon Altarpiece, and Cat. 1976 - as belonging to the circle of Pietro Lorenzetti.
Yielding in quality, the Hermitage work in many ways (compositionally, in type, understanding of space) resembles, in addition to the Dijon altar, “Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels” (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, 55X26), “Madonna and Child” (coll. Bernson, Florence) Pietro Lorenzetti and Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore); most researchers attribute the Baltimore painting to Pietro Lorenzetti.
It seems possible to attribute the Hermitage painting to the circle of Pietro Lorenzetti and date it to the late 1330s - early 1340s.
St. Romuald
Tempera on wood. 122.5X42.5. GE 271, paired with GE 274. Part of the polyptych.
Apostle Andrew
Tempera on wood. 122X42. GE 274, paired with GE 271. Part of the polyptych.
In 1910, three fragments arrived from the State Russian Museum to the Hermitage, which in Cat. 1912 were included as works by an unknown 14th century Florentine master.
Two boards - "Apostle Andrew" and "St. Romuald "- remained in the Hermitage, the third -" Madonna and Child with Angels "- in 1924 was transferred to the Pushkin Museum (pnv. No. 176, 164 × 92).
Although in Cat. 1912, all three parts of the polyptych were reproduced side by side, it is not known whether it was recognized that they constitute a single altarpiece. Subsequently, Lazarev (1928, p. 31), who defined the Moscow painting as a work of Christiani, did not consider the panels with the images of the saints as belonging to the same polyptych. Later (1959) he attributed them to the school of Nardo di Cione, possibly Giottino. According to Lazarev's attribution, the valves were included in Cat. 1958 as Nardo di Cione's work with a question.
To a small oeuvre Christiani Ofner (Offner R. A ray of light on Giovanni del Biondo and Niccolo di Tommaso. - Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 1956, 7, S. 192.) added two paintings - “St. Bartholomew "and" St. Dominic ”from the Bandini Museum in Fiesole (122 × 42.6 each).
Finally, Zeri (1961) correctly attributed Christiani's works to the Hermitage and, on the basis of Ofner's article, completely reconstructed a five-part polyptych, the central part of which is in the Pushkin Museum, two left wings in the Hermitage, and two right ones in the Bandini Museum. The fact that they form a single whole is proved not only by formal moments - the same size of the side panels, the ornament of the fabric under the feet of the saints, the three-quarter turn of the figures towards the center - but also the stylistic features of Giovanni di Bartolomeo's art. Slightly elongated figures, in which, however, there is nothing of the fragility of the Gothic, are distinguished by sculptural clarity of volumes and almost completely fill the space. The folds of clothes lie in a geometrically verified rhythm. The logical balance marks not only the compositional construction, but also the color scheme of the polyptych. St. Romuald and St. Dominic's, closing the altar, are bright white (in Dominic's they are still shaded with a black cloak), and the elegant brocade cloak of St. Bartholomew is in harmony with the greenish-pink dress of St. Andrew.
Dzeri (1961) believed that it was not St. Romuald, and St. Benedict. St. Romuald is the founder of the Order of the Camaldules, who followed the rules of the Order of St. Benedict. Both could be presented in a white monastic robe with a staff and a book in their hands. Origin: post, in 1910 from the State Russian Museum. Previously: MAX in St. Petersburg, acquired for MAX by the vice-president of the Academy of Arts, Prince G.G. Gagarin in the 1860s.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1912, no. 1976, 1975; Cat. 1958, p. 140; Cat. 1976, p. 89-90 Exhibitions: 1920 Petrograd; 1922 Petrograd, No. 9, 10 (the saints in the exhibition catalog are named incorrectly - St. James and St. Bernardine).
Madonna and child enthroned, St. Nicholas, St. Lawrence, John the Baptist, and St. Jacob the Younger
Tempera on wood. 132 × 162. GE 6443. Five-part half-story.
On the step of the throne, the signature: IOHAS B .. .THOL FECIT. On the scroll of John the Baptist: ECCE / AGN / DEI / qui / toli .. ./pec…/ (Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin [of the world]). The Gospel of John, 1, 29 Despite the signature, the author of the polyptych was not immediately identified; drops of paint layer on the crack in the middle of the signature made it difficult to read. Only the first word is clearly read - Giovanni and the last - made (fecit).
Upon entering the museum, the polyptych was identified as a work of a Tuscan master of the XIV century, then - Giovanni Menabuop.
There are three signed works by Giovanni di Bartolomeo: the polyptych "John the Evangelist and Eight Scenes from His Life" (Church of San Giovanni Fuoricivitas, Pistoia, dated 1370); "Madonna and Child with Six Angels" (Municipal Museum, Pistoia), "Madonna and Child" (collection of Rivetti, Biella, date. 1390).
At present, this group of works can be added to the Hermitage polyptych, which reveals a stylistic affinity with a number of Christiani's works, but what is especially important is that the signature on it coincides with the artist's signature on the polyptych from Pistoia. A stylistic comparison shows that the Hermitage polyptych was created somewhat later than the Pnstoi one, possibly in the second half of the 1380s. The artist strove for a strict balance of geometrized forms and for pure sonorous color combinations.
Crucifixion with Mary and John
Tempera on wood. 85,5X52,7 (in the Gothic frame-103 × 57,7). GE 4131 On the tablet of the cross: I.N.R.I. Below on the frame: PATER NOSTER QVIES INCIELIS SAN-TIFI (Our Father who art in heaven). Gospel of Matthew 6, 9
In the manuscript catalog of the collection of Count PS Stroganov (1864) "The Crucifixion" was listed as the work of an unknown follower of Giotto of the XIV century.
MI Shcherbacheva (orally) attributed the painting to Giovanni dal Ponte; this attribution is reflected in Cat. 1958 and 1976.
However, the author of "The Crucifixion" is not Giovanni dal Ponte, who was strongly influenced by Lorenzo Monaco and developed the Gothic traditions in the painting of Florence, but Niccolò di Pietro Gerini. This artist, according to Lazarev, “introduces the Jottesque tradition in the 15th century. like no one else, contributing to its degeneration into an academic system, lifeless and schematic "(Lazarev
1959, p. 92).
It was precisely the limitedness of the artist's repertoire in the field of composition, types and gestures that made it easier to determine the name of the author of the Hermitage work, which is a direct analogy to “The Crucifixion with Mary and John and St. Francis "(National Pinakothek, Siena, inv. No. 607, 122 × 64).
The most significant difference between the Leningrad and Siena paintings boils down to the fact that in the latter the Madonna and John do not stand, but sit at the foot of the cross and the figure of St. Francis embracing a crucifix.
Niccolo di Pietro Gerini appears as a late follower of Giotto. The conventionality of the space and the golden background especially clearly contrasts with the emphasized solution of volumes.
Boskovich dated the Sienese painting 1390-1395 (Boskovits 1975, p. 415). The same dating can be adopted for the Hermitage work, which belongs to the mature style of the master, distinguished by a delicate elaboration of color and a clear pattern. Origin: post, in 1926 from the Stroganov Palace Museum. Earlier: sobr. Count PS Stroganov, acquired in 1855 in Rome from Troyes for 200 francs.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 90; Cat. 1976, p. 89.
Literature: Kustodieva T. "Crucifixion with Mary and John" Niccolo di Pietro Jerini. - SGE, 1984, [issue] 49, p. 4-5
GIOVANNI DI BARTOLOMEO CRISTIANI
He worked in 1367-1398, was born in Pistoia. Florentine school. Influenced by Mazo di Banco and Nardo di Chpone.
Evangelist Matthew (?), St. Nicholas (?), St. Victor (?), St. Louis of Toulouse, Evangelist Mark
Tempera on wood. 94 × 29 (size of each sash). GE 5501.
Five-part polyptych. All five boards have one inventory number.
It is not known how the polyptych looked in its original form, and whether all the doors have come down to us. In this work - in the setting of the figures, in the grace with which the movements of the heads and hands are conveyed, in the predilection for richly ornamented fabrics, in an extremely refined color scheme - the features of international Gothic are clearly felt.
Benois in the preface to Cat. 1922 wrote about the belonging of five saints "to some first-class master from the circle of influence Gentile da Fabrpano (it is possible that we have the work of the master himself)." This opinion seems quite convincing, especially after the recent restoration, which revealed the chromatic richness and subtlety of color.
Gentile da Fabriano (circa 1370-1427) was one of the greatest exponents of the International Gothic style. He worked in the areas of Marche, Venice, Breshe, Florence, Siena, Rome.
In Cat. 1922 cites the opinions of various researchers about the authorship of the Hermitage work. Zharnovsky spoke in favor of Gentile himself, Ainalov - the Umbrian Bopfpleya. Lipgart believed that the polyptych could have been created by Pietro di Domenico Montepulciano. Voinov (1922) took the painting to the circle of Gentile da Fabriano.
In Cat. The 1958 and 1976 polyptych is included as a work by an unknown artist of the 15th century Dalmatian-Venetian school, indicating that this work is close to the circle of the Venetian master Michele Giambono, who was also influenced by Gentile da Fabrpano.
Obviously, the idea of \u200b\u200bproximity to Giambono was suggested by the polyptych of this artist from the City Museum in Fano or the fold of the polyptych depicting St. Jacob (signed) from the collection. Academy in Venice. In these works there is a certain similarity with the Hermitage in the setting of figures on a stand of a peculiar configuration and in the treatment of folds, however, a different type of faces, and the figures themselves are squat and heavy.
The names of the two saints depicted are beyond doubt: they are St. Louis of Toulouse (or Anjou) is a French bishop in a mantle decorated with royal lilies and with a crown at his feet, as well as the Evangelist Mark, near whom a small lion can be seen.
The definition of the remaining saints is controversial. Saint with a millstone in his hands in Cat. 1958 and 1976 named Victor. But none of the Italian saints with this name had a millstone as an attribute. A rare French saint, Victor Marseilles, could have been represented with a millstone, but he was portrayed as a knight with a banner, resembling St. George. Among the saints venerated in Italy, Panteleimon could be represented with a millstone. But it was usually emphasized that he was primarily a healer, and in his hands this dark-haired young man held a box of pills, like St. Cosma and St. Damian.
According to compositional logic, a couple of St. The mark must be one of the evangelists. Since, besides the pen and the book, the saint has no other attributes, this is most likely Matthew: when all four evangelists were depicted, Matthew, as a rule, held the book.
The holy bishop is named in Cat. 1958 and 1976 by Nikolai, which is quite possible, although for complete confidence there are not enough gold balls usual for Nikolai.
Origin: post, in 1919. Earlier: sobr. A.A. Voeikova in St. Petersburg.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 142; Cat. 1976, p. 117.
Exhibitions: 1920 Petrograd, p. five; 1922 Petrograd, No. 23-27.
Literature: Voinov 1922, p. 76
Mentioned from 1392 to 1411. A student of his father, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, worked in his workshop. Influenced by Spinello Aretino, with whom he collaborated, and Lorenzo Monaco. He worked mainly in Florence and San Gimignano, as well as in Cortona.
Nativity of christ
Canvas (translated from wood in 1909 by I. Vasiliev), tempera. 213 × 102. GE 4153.
On the halo of the Madonna: QVIA EX TE ORTVS EST SOL IVSTICIE CRIST (for the sun of justice has risen from you). On the lapel of the dress: ЕТ BENEDICTVS FRV (blessed is the fruit). On the cuff of the sleeve: TYI IHS ([your womb] is Jesus). The Gospel of Luke, 1, 42. On a scroll in the hands of the angels: GLORIA IN EXCSIS DEO (Glory to God in the highest). Gospel according to Luke, 19, 38; Luke 2, 8-20.
In the Inventory of the Stroganov Palace in 1922 (No. 409), the painting was listed as the work of an unknown person german artist... Obviously, this idea was inspired by the fabulous atmosphere in which the action takes place, and the somewhat harsh in some cases (Joseph's clothes) interpretation of folds, resembling woodcarving in shape.
Upon admission to the Hermitage, the painting was assigned to the North Italian school of the end
XV - early XVI centuries, and in Cat. 1958 included as attributed to Spanzotti, painter of the Piedmont school. Finally, D. Romano (1970) named the name of the true creator of the work - Gandolfino da Roreto - and praised the painting.
Following the tradition of the Piedmontese school, Gandolfino interprets the nativity of Christ as a scene taking place among the ruins in the presence of little angels.
Dilapidated architecture with antique elements, perhaps, symbolizes paganism, which is being replaced by Christianity. Latin inscriptions included in the ornament of Mary's dress and inscribed on a scroll in the hands of soaring angels glorify the newborn. The artist shows a great interest in details (in particular, the filled pouch on the belt of St. Joseph), many of them are endowed with symbolic meaning. Joseph holds a staff with a head in the form of a salamander - one of the symbols of Christ (Gospel of Luke, 12, 49). The ancient idea of \u200b\u200bthe invulnerability of the salamander in fire and its sexlessness led to the fact that in the art of the Renaissance it began to be perceived as the personification of chastity (see: Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie. Rom; Freiburg; Basel; Wien, 1972, 4, S. 11). Thistle is a hint of the original sin, which Christ is destined to atone for.
In terms of composition, images and architecture, the Hermitage painting is close to the work on the same subject from the Church of Santa Maria Nuova in Asti.
Origin: post, in 1926 from the Stroganov Palace Museum in Leningrad.
Hermitage catalogs: Cat. 1958, p. 181: Cat. 1976, p. 83.
Exhibitions: 1984 Leningrad, No. 2 Literature: Romano G. Casalese del Cinquecento. L'avvento del manierismo in una citta padana. Torino, 1970, p. 22
Madonna and child with angels
Tempera on canvas (translated from wood in 1860 by Tabuntsov). 94.5 × 82.5 cm. GE 276.
On the halo of the Madonna: AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DO ... (Hail, Marnya, blessed one, [God be with you]). The Gospel of Luke, I, 28. On the halo of a baby: VERE FILIIO AISUM AUE (True son, glory). On a scroll in the hands of a baby: Ego s / um lux / mundi / veritas / et vita (I am the light of the world ... truth and life). Gospel of John, 8, 12; 14, 6.
In the type of faces of the Madonna and angels, in the rhythmic structure of the composition, the influence of Simone Martini is undoubtedly felt. However, the understanding of the form is different, the volumes are modeled not so softly, the contour becomes clearer and more dominant. The painting was slated for Cat. 1916 (numbered 1999) as the work of an unknown Florentine artist of the 14th century, but was not included in this catalog.
Shcherbacheva (1941) correctly determined that the work was created by a Sienese master
XIV century. She considered its author Nado Ceccarelli and dated "Madonna and Child with Angels" to the 1350s. More convincing seems to be the opinion of M. Laclotte and M. Longjon, who (orally) consider the painting to be the work of Bartolo di Fredi.
The attribution of Bartolo di Fredi is confirmed by comparison with such works of the artist as “St. Lucia ”(Metropolitan Museum, New York) and“ Adoration of the Magi ”(National Pinakothek, Siena). The style can be dated to approx. 1390.
Origin: post, in 1910 from the State Russian Museum. Previously: MAX in St. Petersburg, acquired for MAX by vice-president of the Academy of Arts, Prince G.G. Gagarin in the 1860s.
Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels.
On the back of the board: Crucifixion with Mary and John
Tempera on wood. 151X85. GE 8280. The top is pointed.
Signature on the steps of the throne: ANTONIVS DE- FLORENTIA. On Mary's halo: AVE MARIA GRATIA (Hail Mary, blessed). Gospel according to Luke 1, 28.
On the halo of the Baptist: S IOVANES BAT ... On a scroll in the hand of St. John: ESSE ANGN .. (Se agn [ets]). The Gospel of John, 1, 29, 36. On the halo of St. bishop (inaudible): S LIE .. .VS .. .PIS. On the back of the board: on the cross: INRI. On Maria's halo: VIRGO MARIA. On the halo of John: IOVANES VANG ... At the triangular end in the scene of the Annunciation: AVE. MARIA. GRATIA. PLENA (Hail Mary, blessed).
The painting is a banner that the faithful carried during religious processions.
On the obverse, in a triangular end, is the blessing Christ surrounded by seraphim. On the reverse side at the foot of the crucifix, in addition to the traditional figures - Mary and John - there are two more monks in white robes with hoods that cover their faces so that only the eyes are visible through the slit. On the shoulders of each of them - a whip for self-flagellation. Zeri (1980), based on the image of the monks, believed that the banner belonged to the Capuchin order.
Above the crucifix in a triangular ending, there is a scene of the Annunciation, the composition of which is entirely a repetition of Fra Angelico's work on the same subject from the parish church of Monte Carlo in Tuscany.
Despite the presence of the signature, it remains unclear who was the author of the Hermitage banner. There were several artists named Antonio da Firenze. Shcherbacheva (1957) suggested that the author of the icon was Antonio da Firenze, who worked in the late 15th - early 16th centuries. (died about 1504-1506). In 1472 this Florentine master moved to Venice. Staying in the north of Italy, Shcherbacheva explained the combination of features coming from Masaccio, Masolino, Fra Angelico, Castagno with a purely Venetian addiction to the richness of ornamental motifs, a sonorous colorful palette, and a golden background.
Fiocco (1957) believed that the nature of painting did not allow the banner to be carried far beyond 1440. He saw Antonio da Franz as an artist influenced by Castagno II, who worked as a mosaicist in the middle of the 15th century. in Venice.
Dzeri (1960) juxtaposed the Hermitage icon with the triptych Madonna and Child, St. bishop n of st. Catherine "(collection of Bernson. Florence), identifying Antonio da Firenze with Antoppo di Jacopo, mentioned in the lists of the guild of St. Luke in 1415, and then in documents 1416, 1433, 1442. Dzeri's point of view seems to be the most convincing. It was supported by Gukovsky (1981). Origin: post, in 1936 through LGZK. Earlier: sobr. M.P.Botkin in St. Petersburg.