The appearance of the term “Renaissance” (Renaissance) dates back to the 16th century. Wrote about " renaissance"Arts of Italy - the first historiographer of Italian art, a great painter, author of the famous "Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects" (1550) - Giorgio Vasari.

This concept originates from the historical concept widespread at that time, according to which the Middle Ages were characterized by constant barbarism and ignorance that followed the fall of the great civilization of the classical archaic.

If we talk about the medieval period as something simple in the development of culture, then it is necessary to take into account the assumptions of historians of that time about art. It was believed that art, which in ancient times flourished in the ancient world, found its first revival to a new existence precisely in their time.

Spring/ Sandro Botticelli

In the initial understanding, the term “renaissance” was interpreted not so much as the name of an entire era, but rather the exact time (usually the beginning of the 14th century) of the appearance of a new art. Only after a certain period did this concept acquire a broader interpretation and began to designate in Italy and other countries the era of formation and flourishing of a culture in opposition to feudalism.

Now the Middle Ages are not considered a break in the history of European artistic culture. In the last century, a thorough study of the art of the Middle Ages began, which has greatly intensified in the last half century. It led to its revaluation and even showed that renaissance art owes a lot to the medieval era.

But one should not talk about the Renaissance as a trivial continuation of the Middle Ages. Some modern Western European historians have made attempts to blur the line between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but have never found confirmation in historical facts. In fact, an analysis of the cultural monuments of the Renaissance indicates a rejection of most of the basic beliefs of the feudal worldview.

Allegory of love and time/ Agnola Bronzino

Medieval asceticism and insight into everything worldly is being replaced by an insatiable interest in the real world with the grandeur and beauty of nature and, of course, in man. Belief in the superpowers of the human mind as the highest criterion of truth led to the precarious position of the untouchable primacy of theology over science, so characteristic of the Middle Ages. The subordination of the human personality to church and feudal authorities is replaced by the principle of the free development of individuality.

Members of the newly minted secular intelligentsia paid all attention to human aspects as opposed to the divine and called themselves humanists (from the concept of the times of Cicero “studia hmnanitatis”, meaning the study of everything connected with the nature of man and his spiritual world). This term is a reflection of a new attitude to reality, the anthropocentrism of Renaissance culture.

A wide range of creative impulses was opened during the period of the first heroic onslaught on the feudal world. People of this era have already abandoned the networks of the past, but have not yet found new ones. They believed that their possibilities were limitless. It was from this that the birth of optimism, which is so characteristic of Renaissance culture.

Sleeping Venus/ Giorgione

A cheerful character and endless faith in life gave rise to a belief in the infinite possibilities for the mind and the possibility of personality development harmoniously and without barriers.
Fine art of the Renaissance in many respects it contrasts with the medieval one. European artistic culture developed in the development of realism. This leaves an imprint both on the spread of images of a secular nature, the development of landscape and portraiture, close to the genre interpretation of sometimes religious subjects, and on the radical renewal of the entire artistic organization.

Medieval art was based on the idea of ​​the hierarchical structure of the universe, the culmination of which was outside the circle of earthly existence, which occupied one of the last places. There was a devaluation of earthly real connections and phenomena in time with space, since the main task of art was to visually personify the scale of values ​​​​created by theology.

During the Renaissance, the speculative artistic system fades away, and in its place comes a system that is based on knowledge and an objective image of the world that appears to man. That is why one of the main tasks of Renaissance artists was the issue of reflecting space.

In the 15th century, this issue was comprehended everywhere, with the only difference that the north of Europe (the Netherlands) moved towards the objective construction of space in stages through empirical observations, and the foundation of Italy already in the first half of the century was based on geometry and optics.

David/ Donatello

This assumption, which gives the possibility of constructing a three-dimensional image on a plane that would be oriented towards the viewer, taking into account his point of view, served as a victory over the concept of the Middle Ages. A visual depiction of a person reveals the anthropocentric orientation of the new artistic culture.

The culture of the Renaissance clearly demonstrates the characteristic connection between science and art. A special role was assigned to the cognitive principle in order to depict the world and people fairly truthfully. Of course, the search for support for artists in science led to the stimulation of the development of science itself. During the Renaissance, many artist-scientists appeared, led by Leonardo da Vinci.

New approaches to art also dictated a new manner of depicting the human figure and conveying actions. The former idea of ​​the Middle Ages about the canonicity of gestures, facial expressions and permissible arbitrariness in proportions did not correspond to an objective view of the world around us.

For the works of the Renaissance, the behavior of a person is inherent, subject not to rituals or canons, but to psychological conditioning and the development of actions. Artists are trying to bring the proportions of figures closer to reality. They go to this in different ways, so in the northern countries of Europe this happens empirically, and in Italy the study real forms occurs in conjunction with the knowledge of the monuments of classical antiquity (the north of Europe is introduced only later).

The ideals of humanism permeate Renaissance art, creating the image of a beautiful, harmoniously developed person. Renaissance art is characterized by titanism of passions, characters and heroism.

Renaissance masters create images that embody a proud awareness of one's own powers, the limitlessness of human possibilities in the field of creativity and true faith in the freedom of one's will. Many works of Renaissance art are consonant with this expression of the famous Italian humanism Pico della Mirandola: “Oh, the wondrous and sublime purpose of a person who is given the opportunity to achieve what he strives for and to be what he wants.”

Leda and the Swan/ Leonardo da Vinci

If the character of fine art was largely determined by the desire to reflect reality truthfully, then an appeal to the classical tradition played an important role in the formation of new architectural forms. This consisted not only in the recreation of the ancient order system and in the renunciation of Gothic configurations, but also in classical proportionality, anthropocentric character new architecture and in the design of centric buildings in temple architecture, where the interior space was easily visible.

In the field of civil architecture, many new creations were created. Thus, during the Renaissance, multi-story city public buildings: town halls, universities, houses of merchant guilds, educational institutions, warehouses, markets, warehouses received more elegant decoration. A type of city palace, or otherwise palazzo, appeared - the house of a wealthy burgher, as well as a type of country villa. New systems of facade decoration are being formed, a new structural system of a brick building is being developed (preserved in European construction until the 20th century), combining brick and wooden floors. City planning problems are being resolved in a new way, and city centers are being reconstructed.

The new architectural style came to life with the help of developed craft construction techniques prepared by the Middle Ages. Basically, Renaissance architects were directly involved in the design of a building, directing its implementation in reality. As a rule, they also had a number of other specialties related to architecture, such as: sculptor, painter, and sometimes decorator. The combination of skills contributed to the growth of the artistic quality of the structures.

If we compare it with the Middle Ages, when the main customers of works were large feudal lords and the church, now the circle of customers is expanding with the change social composition. Guild associations of artisans, merchant guilds and even private individuals (nobles, burghers), along with the church, quite often give orders to artists.

The social status of the artist also changes. Despite the fact that artists are in search and enter the workshops, they often receive awards and high honors, take places in city councils and carry out diplomatic assignments.
There is an evolution in man's attitude towards fine art. If earlier it was on the level of craft, now it is on a par with the sciences, and works of art for the first time begin to be considered as the result of spiritual creative activity.

Last Judgment/ Michelangelo

The emergence of new techniques and art forms was provoked by expanding demand and an increase in the number of secular customers. Monumental forms are accompanied by easel forms: painting on canvas or wood, sculpture made of wood, majolica, bronze, terracotta. Constantly growing demand for works of art led to the appearance of wood and metal engravings - the most inexpensive and most popular form of art. This technique made it possible for the first time to reproduce images in large numbers.
One of the main features Italian Renaissance there is a widespread use of the traditions of ancient heritage that are not dying in the Mediterranean region. Here, interest in classical antiquity appeared very early - even in the works of artists of the Italian Proto-Renaissance from Piccolo and Giovanni Pisano to Ambrogio Lorszetti.

The study of antiquity in the 15th century became one of the key tasks of humanistic studies. There is a significant expansion of information about the culture of the ancient world. Many manuscripts of previously unknown works by ancient authors were found in the libraries of old monasteries. The search for works of art made it possible to discover many ancient statues, reliefs, and, over time, fresco paintings of Ancient Rome. They were constantly studied by artists. Examples include the surviving news of Donatello and Brunelleschi’s trip to Rome to measure and sketch monuments of ancient Roman architecture and sculpture, the works of Leon Battista Alberti, Raphael’s study of newly discovered reliefs and painting, and how the young Michelangelo copied ancient sculpture. The art of Italy was enriched (due to the constant appeal to antiquity) with a mass of new techniques, motifs, and forms for that time, at the same time giving a shade of heroic idealization, which was completely absent in the works of artists Northern Europe.

There was another main feature of the Italian Renaissance - its rationalism. Many people worked on the formation of the scientific foundations of art. Italian artists. Thus, in the circle of Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Donatello, the theory of linear perspective was formed, which was then outlined in the 1436 treatise by Leon Battista Alberti “The Book of Painting”. A large number of artists participated in the development of the theory of perspective, in particular Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca, who wrote the treatise “On Pictorial Perspective” in 1484-1487. It is in it that, finally, one can see attempts to apply mathematical theory to the construction of the human figure.

It is also worth noting other cities and regions of Italy that played a prominent role in the development of art: in the 14th century - Siena, in the 15th century - Umbria, Padua, Venice, Ferrara. In the 16th century, the diversity of local schools faded (the only exception being the original Venice) and for some period the leading artistic forces of the country concentrated in Rome.

Differences in the formation and development of art in individual regions of Italy do not interfere with the creation and subordination of a general pattern, which allows us to outline the main stages of development Italian Renaissance. Modern art history divides the history of the Italian Renaissance into four stages: Proto-Renaissance (late 13th - first half of the 14th century), Early Renaissance (15th century), High Renaissance (late 15th - first three decades of the 16th century) and Late Renaissance (mid and second half of the 16th century) .

Italian Renaissance (25:24)

A wonderful film by Vladimir Ptashchenko, released as part of the Masterpieces of the Hermitage series

Urban planning and the city as an object of special research attracted the interest of many leading architects. Less significant is considered to be Italy's contribution to the field of practical urban planning. By the beginning of the 15th century. The city-communes of Central and Northern Italy were long-established architectural organisms. In addition, republics and tyrannies of the 15th and 16th centuries. (excluding the largest ones - like Florence, Milan, Venice and, of course, papal Rome) did not have sufficient funds to create new large ensembles, especially since all attention continued to be paid to the construction or completion of cathedrals as the main religious center of the city. Few holistic urban developments, such as the Pienza city centre, combine new trends with medieval building traditions.

Still, the generally accepted point of view somewhat underestimates the changes that took place in the 15th-16th centuries. in Italian cities. Along with attempts to theoretically comprehend what has already been practically done in the field of urban planning, one can also note attempts to put into practice the existing theoretical urban planning ideas. For example, in Ferrara a new district was built with a regular street network; an attempt to simultaneously create an integral urban organism was made in the cities of Bari, Terra del Sole, Castro, as well as in some others.

If in the Middle Ages the architectural appearance of the city took shape in the process of creativity and construction activities of the entire population of the city, then in the Renaissance, urban construction more and more reflected the aspirations of individual customers and architects.

With the growing influence of the richest families, their personal demands and tastes increasingly affected the architectural appearance of the city as a whole. Great importance in the construction of palaces, villas, churches, tombs, loggias, there was a desire either to perpetuate and glorify oneself, or competition in wealth and splendor with neighbors (Gonzaga - d'Este, d'Este - Sforza, etc.) and an invariable desire to live luxuriously . Along with this, the customers showed a certain concern for the improvement of the city, allocating funds for the reconstruction of its ensembles, for the construction public buildings, fountains, etc.

A significant part of the palace and temple construction fell during the years of economic crisis associated with the loss of eastern markets and was carried out at the expense of already collected wealth, which was unproductive capital during the period of decline of crafts and trade. The most famous and renowned architects, artists, and sculptors were involved in the construction, who received large funds to carry out the work assigned to them and were able, by satisfying the personal requirements of customers, to demonstrate their creative individuality to a greater extent.

That is why the Italian cities of the Renaissance are rich in original, dissimilar architectural ensembles. However, being works of the same era with well-established aesthetic views, these ensembles were based on common principles of composition.

The new requirements for the volumetric-spatial organization of the city and its elements were based on a meaningful, critical perception of medieval traditions, on the study of monuments and compositions of antiquity. The main criteria were clarity of spatial organization, a logical combination of the main and the secondary, the proportional unity of structures and spaces surrounding them, the interconnection of individual spaces, and all this on a scale commensurate with humans. The new culture of the Renaissance, at first slightly, and then more and more actively penetrated into urban planning. The medieval city, which was the basis of the cities of the Renaissance, could not be significantly modified, therefore, only reconstruction work was carried out on its territory, individual public and private buildings were built, which sometimes required some planning work; the growth of the city, which slowed down somewhat in the 16th century, usually occurred due to the expansion of its territory.

The Renaissance did not make obvious changes to the layout of cities, but significantly changed their volumetric-spatial appearance, solving a number of urban planning problems in a new way.

Fig.1. Ferrara. Schematic plan of the city: 1 - Castle d'Este; 2 - Ariosto Square; 3 - Carthusian monastery; 4 - Church of Santa Maria Nuova degli Aldighieri; 5 - Church of San Giuliano; c - Church of San Benedetto; 7 - Church of San Francesco; 8 - Palazzo dei Diamanti; 9 - cathedral

Fig.2. Verona. Schematic plan of the city: 1 - Church of San Zeno; 2 - Church of San Bernardino; 3 - area of ​​hospitals and Fort San Spirito; 4 - Gran Guardia Vecchia; 5 - Castello Vecchio; 6 - Palazzo Malfatti; 7 - Piazza delle Erbe; 8 - Piazza dei Signori; 9 - Santa Anastasia Square; 10 - cathedral; 11 - bishop's palace; 12 - antique amphitheater; 13 - Palazzo Pompeii; 14 - Palazzo Bevilacqua

One of the first examples of a new layout at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. may be Ferrara (Fig. 1). Its northern part was built up according to the project of Biagio Rossetti (mentioned 1465-1516). The main lines of the new street network connected the entrance gates of the fortifications he built. The intersections of the streets were accented by palaces (Palazzo dei Diamanti, etc.) and churches, built by the same architect or under his direct supervision. The medieval center with the moated Castle d'Este, the Palazzo del Comune and other buildings of the 12th-15th centuries, as well as the adjacent craft and trading part of the city, remained untouched. The new part of the city, built up at the direction of d’Este with houses of a certain number of storeys, acquired a more secular, aristocratic character and its straight, wide streets with Renaissance palaces and churches gave Ferrara a different appearance from the medieval city. No wonder Burckhardt wrote that Ferrara is the first modern city in Europe.

But even without planning new areas, the builders of the Renaissance with the greatest skill used all the elements of improvement and small architectural forms of the city, from canals to arcades, fountains and paving ( A typical example dating back to the 15th century is the well in the cathedral square in Pienza; in the 16th century the role of the fountain in ensembles becomes more complex (for example, the fountains installed by Vignola in Rome, Viterbo and in the villas located in their vicinity ) - for the general improvement and aesthetic enrichment of the architectural appearance of even tiny towns or individual ensembles. In a number of cities, such as Milan and Rome, streets were straightened and widened.

Canals were built not only for irrigating fields, but also in cities (for defense, transport, water supply, flood protection, for production - wool washing, etc.), where they formed a well-planned system (Milan), often including dams and sluices, and associated with urban defensive structures (Verona, Mantua, Bologna, Livorno, etc., Fig. 2, 3, 5, 21).

Street arcades, also found in the Middle Ages, sometimes stretched along entire streets (Bologna, Fig. 4) or along the sides of the square (Florence, Vigevano, Fig. 7).

The Renaissance left us with wonderful urban complexes and ensembles, which can be divided into two main groups: ensembles that developed historically (they relate mainly to the 15th century), and ensembles created at the same time or over a number of construction periods, but according to the plans of one architect , sometimes completely completed during the Renaissance (mainly in the 16th century).

A remarkable example of ensembles of the first group is the ensemble of San Marco and Piazzetta squares in Venice.

In the first half of the 15th century. Parts of the Doge's Palazzo were built, overlooking both the Piazzetta and the San Marco Canal. The marble paving of Piazza San Marco, which later united it with the Piazzetta, dates back to the beginning of the same century. At the beginning of the 16th century. the reconstruction work of the city's central square attracts the most prominent architects: Bartolomeo Bon increases the height of the campanile from 60 to 100 m and crowns it with a tent roof; Pietro Lombardo and others build the Old Procuration and the clock tower; in 1529, the stalls were removed from the Piazzetta, opening up views of the lagoon and the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. The Piazzetta plays an important role as a spatial transition from the expanse of the lagoon to the central square, emphasizing its size and compositional importance in the structure of the city. Then Sansovino expands the square to the south, placing the building of the Library he built on the Piazzetta, 10 m from the campanile, and builds the Loggetta tower at the foot of the tower. By the end of the 16th century. Scamozzi builds New Procurations. However, the western side of the square was completed only at the beginning of the 19th century.

The development of Piazza San Marco on the shore of the lagoon at the mouth of the Grand Canal is determined both functionally - the convenience of delivering goods to the site of the main Venetian fairs and disembarking honored guests in front of the palace and cathedral - and artistically: the main, front square of the city is solemnly revealed to those approaching from the sea and is like a reception hall for the city; like the ensemble of squares of ancient Miletus, San Marco Square showed visitors how rich and beautiful the capital of the Venetian Republic was.

A new attitude towards a building as part of a whole, the ability to connect buildings with the space surrounding them and find a contrasting, mutually beneficial combination of different structures led to the creation of one of the best ensembles not only of the Renaissance, but also of world architecture.

The high architectural culture of Venice was also evident in the gradually emerging ensembles of Piazza Santi Giovanni e Paolo (with the Colleoni monument by Verrocchio) and the city's shopping center.

An example of the sequential development of an ensemble is the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, as well as the complex of central squares in Bologna, where by this time interesting urban planning traditions had developed.

Fig.5. Bologna. Schematic plan of the city: 1 - Malpighi area; 2 - Ravenna Square; 3 - Piazza Maggiore; 4 - Neptune area; 5 - Arkiginnasio Square; 6 - Church of San Petronio; 7 - Palazzo Publico; 8 - Palazzo Legata; 9 - Palazzo del Podesta; 10 - portico dei Banchi; 11 - Palazzo dei Notai; 12 - Palazzo Archiginnasio; 13 - Palazzo del Re Enzo; 14 - Mercantia; 15 - Isolani palaces; 16 - Church of San Giacomo; 17 - Casa Grassi; 18- Palazzo Fava; 19 - Palazzo Armorini; 20-Collegio di Spagna; 21 - Palazzo Bevilacqua; 22 - Palazzo Tanari

The layout of Bologna has preserved the imprints of its centuries-old history (Fig. 5). The city center dates back to the time of the Roman military camp. The radiating streets of the eastern and western regions grew in the Middle Ages, connecting the ancient gates (not preserved) with the gates of the new (14th century) fortifications.

The early development of guild production of fine dark red bricks and terracotta building parts, as well as the proliferation of arcades along the sides of many streets (they were built before the 15th century), gave the urban development a noticeable communal character. These features also developed during the Renaissance, when the City Council paid great attention to construction (see the standard designs of houses for the suburbs, developed by decision of the Council, with primitive porticoes that were supposed to form street arcades - Fig. 6).

Piazza Maggiore, located in the heart of the old city, overlooked by the huge castle-like Palazzo Publico, which united a number of public buildings of the medieval commune, and the cathedral - throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. received an organic connection with the main street through Neptune Square (the fountain that gave it its name was built by G. da Bologna in the 16th century) and significantly changed its appearance in the spirit of the new style: in the 15th century. Fioravante worked here, rebuilding the Palazzo del Podesta, and in the 16th century. - Vignola, who united the buildings on the eastern side of the square with a common facade with a monumental arcade (portico dei Banchi).

The second group of ensembles, completely subordinated to a single compositional plan, includes mainly architectural complexes of the 16th and subsequent centuries.

Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, despite the uniform nature of its development, is an example of an ensemble of an intermediate type, since it was not conceived by one master. However, the simple, light and at the same time monumental arcade of the Brunellesco Orphanage (1419-1444) determined the appearance of the square; a similar arcade was repeated on the western side in front of the monastery of Servi di Maria (Sangallo the Elder and Baccio d'Agnolo, 1517-1525). The later portico in front of the church of Santissima Annunziata (Giovanni Caccini, 1599-1601) is higher than the two side ones and, together with the equestrian monument to Ferdinand I (G. da Bologna, 1608) and fountains (1629), testifies to new trend in the construction of ensembles: to emphasize the role of the church and to identify the dominant compositional axis.

With the accumulation of wealth, the most influential representatives of the young bourgeoisie sought to earn the recognition of their fellow citizens by decorating their hometown, and at the same time to express their power through architecture, building themselves magnificent palaces, but also donating money for the reconstruction and even complete reconstruction of their parish church, and then erecting there are other buildings in his parish. For example, unique groups of buildings arose around the Medici and Rucellai palaces in Florence; the first included, in addition to the palace, the Church of San Lorenzo with a chapel - the Medici tomb and the Laurenziana Library, the second consisted of the Rucellai Palace with a loggia opposite it and the Rucellai Chapel in the Church of San Pancrazio.

From the construction of a group of buildings of this kind, there was one step left to the creation, at the expense of the “father of the city,” of an entire ensemble that would decorate his hometown.

An example of such reconstruction is the Fabriano Center, where Pope Nicholas V and his entourage moved during the plague epidemic in Rome. The reconstruction of Fabriano was entrusted in 1451 to Bernardo Rossellino. Without changing the configuration of the central square, which still remained closed in medieval style, Rosselino tries to somewhat streamline its development by enclosing the sides with porticos. Framing the square with galleries that focus the viewer’s attention on the austere Palazzo Podesta crowned with battlements indicates that the main thing on it, despite the pope’s arrival in the city, remains this ancient civil building. The reconstruction of the center of Fabriano is one of the first urban planning attempts of the Renaissance to organize the space of the square according to the principle of regularity.

Another example of a one-time reconstruction of the central square and indeed the entire city is Pienza, where only part of the work envisaged by Bernardo Rossellino was carried out.

Piazza Pienza, with a clear division of the buildings located there into main and secondary ones, with a regular outline and deliberate expansion of the territory of the square towards the cathedral to create free space around it, with patterned paving separating the trapezoidal square itself from the street running along it, with carefully the thoughtful color scheme of all the buildings framing the square is one of the most characteristic and widely known ensembles of the 15th century.

An interesting example is the regular development of a square in Vigevano (1493-1494). The square on which the cathedral stands and the main entrance to the Sforza Castle was located was surrounded by a continuous arcade, above which stretched a single façade, decorated with paintings and colored terracotta (Fig. 7).

The further development of ensembles went in the direction of increasing their isolation from the public life of the city, since each of them was subordinated to a private task and solved with a clearly expressed individuality, isolating it from its environment. Squares of the 16th century. were no longer public squares of the early Renaissance commune cities, intended for ceremonial processions and holidays. Despite the complexity of the spatial compositions and the far-open perspectives, they primarily played the role of an open vestibule in front of the main structure. As in the Middle Ages, although with a different spatial organization and compositional construction techniques, the square was again subordinated to the structure - the leading building of the ensemble.

Among the first ensembles of the 16th century, in which previously outlined compositional techniques were consciously applied in a single plan, were the Belvedere complex in the Papal Vatican, then the square in front of the Farnese Palace in Rome (the ensemble's plan also included the unrealized bridge across the Tiber), the Roman Capitol and complex of the expanded Pitti Palazzo with Boboli Gardens in Florence.

The rectangular Piazza Farnese, completed in the mid-16th century, as well as the palace begun by Antonio de Sangallo the Younger and completed by Michelangelo, are entirely subordinated to the principle of axial construction, which has not yet been proven in the ensemble of Santissima Annunziata.

Three short parallel streets lead to Piazza Farnese from Campo di Fiori, the middle of which is wider than the side ones, which seems to predetermine the symmetry of the ensemble. The portal of the Farnese Palace coincides with the axis of the garden portal and the center of the rear loggia. The composition of the ensemble was completed by the installation of two fountains (Vignola took bronze baths from the Baths of Caracalla for them), placed symmetrically to the main entrance and slightly shifted to the eastern side of the square. This arrangement of fountains seems to free up space in front of the palace, turning the city square into a kind of atrium in front of the residence of a powerful family (cf. the central square in Vigevano).

One of the most remarkable examples of an architectural ensemble not only of the 16th century. in Italy, but throughout world architecture is the Capitol Square in Rome, created according to Michelangelo’s plan and expressing the socio-historical significance of this place (Fig. 9).

The central location of the Palace of Senators with its tower and double staircase, the trapezoidal shape of the square and the staircase-ramp leading to it, the symmetry of the side palaces, finally, the paving pattern of the square and the central location of the equestrian sculpture - all this reinforced the significance of the main structure and the dominant axis of the ensemble, emphasizing the importance and the self-sufficient position of this square in the city, from which there was a wide view of Rome spread out at the foot of the hill. The opening of one side of the square, its clearly defined orientation towards the city while simultaneously subordinating the space of the square to the main building - this is a new feature introduced by Michelangelo into the architecture of urban ensembles.

The works that significantly modified Rome, resurrecting it from the ruins of the Middle Ages, had a significant influence on the architecture of Italy and all of Europe. The ensembles of the Renaissance, scattered throughout the territory of the ancient capital, were much later embraced by the city and included as its elements in a single system, but they were the backbone that determined the further architectural and spatial organization of Rome as a whole.

The ruins of the ancient city predetermined the scale and monumentality of the streets and buildings of the leading ensembles. Architects studied and mastered the principles of regular ancient urban planning compositions. New paths in urban planning were based on a conscious search for better, more convenient and rational layouts, on reasonable reconstructions of old buildings, on a thoughtful synthesis of fine arts and architecture (Fig. 9, 10).

Outstanding architects of the Renaissance - Brunellesco, Alberti, Rossellino, Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Michelangelo - conceived a series of grandiose transformations of cities. Here are some of these projects.

In 1445, for the anniversary of 1450, significant reconstruction work was planned in Rome for the Borgo district. The authors of the project (Rosselino and, possibly, Alberti) apparently envisaged defense structures and improvement of the city, reconstruction of the Borgo quarters and a number of churches. But the project required large expenses and remained unfulfilled.

Leonardo da Vinci witnessed the misfortune that befell Milan - the plague epidemic of 1484-1485, which killed more than 50 thousand inhabitants. The spread of the disease was facilitated by overcrowding, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the city. The architect proposed a new layout of Milan inside the expanding city walls, where only important citizens would remain, obliged to rebuild their possessions. At the same time, according to Leonardo, twenty smaller cities with 30 thousand inhabitants and 5000 houses each should have been founded near Milan. Leonardo considered it necessary: ​​“To divide this huge crowd of people, who, like sheep in a herd, spread a bad smell and represent a fertile ground for epidemics and death.” Leonardo's sketches included roads on two levels, viaducts on the approaches from rural areas, an extensive network of canals providing a constant supply of fresh water to cities and much more (Fig. 11).

In those same years, Leonardo da Vinci worked on a plan for the reconstruction, or rather the radical restructuring of Florence, enclosing it in a regular decahedron of walls and laying along its diameter, using the river, a grandiose canal, equal in width to the Arno (Fig. 12). The project of this canal, which included a series of dams and smaller diversion channels serving to flush all the streets of the city, was clearly utopian in nature. Despite the social (class) settlement in the city proposed by Leonardo, the architect sought to create healthy and comfortable living conditions for all residents of Florence.

After the fire that destroyed the market near the Rialto Bridge in Venice in 1514, Fra Giocondo created a project for the reconstruction of this area. The quadrangular island, framed by canals, had a quadrangular shape and was to be built around the perimeter with two-story shops. In the center there was a square with four arched gates on the sides. The centricity of the composition was emphasized by the church of San Matteo located in the middle.

Fra Giocondo's proposals from an urban planning point of view were interesting and new, but remained unfulfilled.

Michelangelo, defending the freedom of his beloved Florence and apparently wanting to preserve the spirit of democracy that was so inherent in it earlier, proposed a project for the reconstruction of its center. In all likelihood, the prototype for the new square was the public centers of antiquity, which were the peristyles of the polis.

Michelangelo intended to surround the Piazza della Signoria with galleries, hiding all the previously built palaces, chambers of commerce, guild and guild houses and emphasizing with their uniformity the grandeur of the Palace of the Signoria. The gigantic scale of the Loggia dei Lanzi, which was to serve as the motif for the arcade of these galleries, and the monumental arched ceilings of the streets opening onto the square, corresponded to the scale of the Roman forums. The Dukes of Florence did not need such restructuring; what was more important was the construction of the Uffizi with transitions from the administration of the duchy - Palazzo Vecchio - to the personal chambers of the rulers - Palazzo Pitti. The great master's project was also not realized.

The examples of projects given, as well as the work carried out, indicate that a new idea of ​​the city as a whole was gradually maturing: a whole in which all parts are interconnected. The idea of ​​the city developed in parallel with the emergence of the idea of ​​a centralized state, of autocracy, which could in the new historical conditions implement smart urban redevelopment. The development of urban planning clearly expressed the specificity of the Renaissance culture, where art and science were inextricably welded together, which predetermined the realism of art new era. Being one of the most important types of social activity, urban planning required significant scientific, technical and specific artistic knowledge from the architects of the Renaissance. The redevelopment of cities was largely associated with changing combat techniques, the introduction of firearms and artillery, which forced the reconstruction of the defensive structures of almost all medieval cities. A simple belt of walls, which usually followed the terrain, was replaced by walls with bastions, which determined the star-shaped perimeter of the city walls.

Cities of this type appeared starting from the second third of the 16th century, and testify to the successful development of theoretical thought.

The contribution of the masters of the Italian Renaissance to the theory of urban planning is very significant. Despite the inevitable utopianism in the formulation of these problems under the conditions of that time, they were nevertheless developed with great courage and completeness in all treatises and theoretical documents of the 15th century, not to mention urban planning fantasies in the visual arts. Such are the treatises of Filarete, Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and even Polifilo’s fantastic novel “Hypnerotomachia” (published in 1499) with their diagrams of an ideal city, as well as numerous notes and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

The treatises of the Renaissance on architecture and urban planning were based on the need to meet the needs of urban redevelopment and were based on the scientific and technical achievements and aesthetic views of their time, as well as on the study of the newly discovered works of ancient thinkers, especially Vitruvius.

Vitruvius considered the issues of urban planning and development from the point of view of convenience, health and beauty, which was quite consistent with the new views of the Renaissance.

Completed reconstructions and unrealized urban transformation projects also stimulated the development of urban planning science. However, the difficulties of radical transformations in the already established cities of Italy gave urban planning theories a utopian character.

Urban theories and projects of ideal cities of the Renaissance can be divided into two main stages: from 1450 to 1550 (from Alberti to Pietro Cataneo), when the problems of urban planning were considered very broadly and comprehensively, and from 1550 to 1615 (from Bartolomeo Ammanati to Vincenzo Scamozzi), when issues of defense and at the same time aesthetics began to prevail.

Treatises and projects of cities in the first period paid a lot of attention to the issues of choosing terrain for the location of cities, the tasks of their general reorganization: resettlement of residents according to professional and social characteristics, planning, improvement and development. Of no less importance during this period was the solution of aesthetic problems and architectural and spatial organization of both the city as a whole and its elements. Gradually, towards the end of the 15th century, more and more importance was given to issues of general defense and the construction of fortifications.

Reasonable and convincing judgments about the choice of the location of cities were completely inapplicable in practice, because new cities were rarely built, moreover, in places predetermined by economic development or strategy.

The architects' treatises and their projects express the new worldview of the era that gave birth to them, where the main thing is caring for a person, but a chosen, noble and rich person. The class stratification of Renaissance society accordingly gave rise to science, which served the benefit of the propertied class. The best areas of the ideal city were allocated for the settlement of the “nobles”.

The second principle of organizing the urban area is the professional group settlement of the rest of the population, which indicates the significant influence of medieval traditions on the judgments of architects of the 15th century. Craftsmen of related professions had to live in close proximity to each other, and their place of residence was determined by the “nobility” of their craft or profession. Traders, money changers, jewelers, moneylenders could live in the central area near the main square; shipbuilders and rope operators had the right to settle only in the outer quarters of the city, behind the ring street; masons, blacksmiths, saddlers, etc. had to build near the entrance gate to the city. Craftsmen, necessary for all segments of the population, such as hairdressers, pharmacists, tailors, had to be distributed evenly throughout the city.

The third principle of city organization was the distribution of territory into residential, industrial, commercial, and public complexes. They provided for a reasonable connection with each other, and sometimes a combination, for the most complete service of the city as a whole and the use of its economic and natural data. This is the project of the ideal city of Filarete - “Sforzinda”.

The layout of cities, according to urban planning theorists, had to be regular. Sometimes the authors chose a radial-ring one (Filarete, F. di Giorgio Martini, Fra Giocondo, Antonio da Sangallo Jr., Francesco de Marchi, Fig. 13), sometimes an orthogonal one (Martini, Marchi, Fig. 14), and a number of authors proposed projects , combining both systems (Peruzzi, Pietro Cataneo). However, the choice of layout was usually not a purely formal, mechanical event, since most authors determined it primarily by natural conditions: terrain, the presence of reservoirs, rivers, prevailing winds, etc. (Fig. 15).

There was usually a main public square in the center of the city, first with a castle and then with the town hall and cathedral in the middle. Trade and religious areas of regional significance in radial cities were located at the intersection of radial streets with one of the city’s ring or bypass highways (Fig. 16).

The territory of the city should have been landscaped, according to the architects who created these projects. The overcrowding and unsanitary conditions of medieval cities, the spread of epidemics that destroyed thousands of citizens, forced us to think about the reorganization of development, about basic water supply and maintaining cleanliness in the city, about its maximum improvement, at least within the city walls. The authors of theories and projects proposed to defuse the development, straighten the streets, lay canals along the main ones, and recommended to do everything possible to green the streets, squares and embankments.

Thus, in the imaginary “Sforzinda” by Filaret, the streets were supposed to slope towards the outskirts of the city to drain rainwater and flush with water from a reservoir in the city center. Navigation canals were provided along the eight main radial streets and around the squares, which ensured the silence of the central part of the city, where the entry of wheeled vehicles was to be prohibited. The radial streets were to be landscaped, while the main ones (25 m wide) were framed by galleries along the canals.

Leonardo da Vinci's urban planning ideas, expressed in his numerous sketches, speak of an exceptionally broad and bold approach to the problems of the city and at the same time point to specific technical solutions to these problems. Thus, he established the ratio of the heights of buildings and the gaps between them for the best insolation and ventilation, developed streets with traffic at different levels (the upper ones - illuminated by the sun and free from traffic - were intended for the “rich”).

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in his project proposed a perimeter development of neighborhoods with a well-ventilated, green interior space. Here, apparently, the ideas of improvement and improvement of the urban area, expressed by Leonardo da Vinci, were developed.

Sketches of houses in ideal city Francesco de Marchi bear a clear influence of previous eras, or, rather, retain the character of the development dominant in the cities of the Renaissance, inherited from the Middle Ages - narrow, multi-storey buildings with the upper floors brought forward (see Fig. 16).

Along with the indicated functional and utilitarian problems, a significant place in the projects of ideal cities of architects of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Aesthetic issues of the volume-spatial organization of the city are also occupied. In the treatises, the authors repeatedly return to the fact that the city should be decorated with beautiful streets, squares and individual buildings.

Speaking about houses, streets and squares, Alberti repeatedly mentioned that they should be consistent with each other both in size and in appearance. F. di Giorgio Martini wrote that all parts of the city should be organized wisely, that they should be in relation to each other in proportions similar to the parts of the human body.

The streets of ideal cities were often framed by arcades with complex arched passages at their intersections, which had, in addition to functional (shelter from rain and scorching sun), purely artistic significance. This is evidenced by the proposals of Alberti, the project of an oval city and the central rectangular square of the city by F. de Marchi and others (see Fig. 14).

Since the end of the 15th century, the method of centric composition of cities (Fra Giocondo) gradually gained increasing importance in the work of architects who worked on the schemes of ideal cities. The idea of ​​the city as a single organism, subordinate to a common plan, by the 16th century. dominates the theory of urban planning.

An example of such a solution is the ideal city of Peruzzi, surrounded by two walls and built according to a radial scheme, with a uniquely designed bypass highway in the shape of a square. Defensive towers, located both in the corners and in the center of the composition, reinforce the centricity of the location of not only the main building itself, but also the entire city as a whole.

The drawing of the ideal city by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, with its star-shaped walls and radial streets with a common ring-shaped highway, resembles the city of Filarete. However, the round square with a round building in the center is a further development of the plans of the predecessors of Antonio da Sangallo Jr. and, as it were, continues the idea of ​​centric composition in relation to the city. This was not the case either in the radial city of Filaret (the center is a complex of asymmetrically located rectangular squares), or in the radial and serpentine cities of Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

The last representative of the Renaissance theorists who comprehensively covered all issues of urban planning was Pietro Cataneo, a famous builder of fortifications, who in 1554 began publishing his treatise on architecture in parts. Cataneo lists five main conditions that, in his opinion, must be taken into account when designing and constructing a city: climate, fertility, convenience, opportunity for growth and the best defense. From the point of view of defense, the author of the treatise considers polygonal cities to be the most appropriate, arguing that the shape of the city is derived from the size of the territory they occupy (the smaller the city, the simpler its configuration). However, Cataneo composes the internal space of the city, regardless of its external configuration, from rectangular and square residential blocks. The idea of ​​autocracy also dominates him: for the ruler of the city, Cataneo envisaged the creation of a calm and well-protected castle, both from internal and external enemies.

Since the middle of the 16th century. Issues of urban planning and ideal cities were no longer the subject of special works, but were covered in treatises on general issues of architecture. These treatises vary already known techniques of planning and volumetric composition. In the second half of the 16th century. the purely external side of the design of the project and the drawing of details become almost an end in itself (Buonaiuto Lorini, Vasari). Sometimes only individual elements of the city were developed without taking into account its overall scheme (Ammanati). The same trends are emerging by the middle of the 16th century. and in the practice of urban planning.

Palladio's treatise on architecture (1570) is the last theoretical work of the 15th century, which contains many interesting and deep judgments also about urban planning. Just like Alberti, Palladio did not leave behind a project for an ideal city and in his treatise he expresses only wishes about how the streets should be planned and built up, what the city's squares should be like and what impression its individual buildings and ensembles should make.

The last representatives of Italian urban planning theorists were Vasari the Younger and Scamozzi.

Giorgio Vasari the Younger, when creating his city project (1598), put aesthetic goals at the forefront. In its general plan the principles of regularity and strict symmetry stand out in relief (Fig. 17).

At the beginning of the 17th century. (1615) Vincenzo Scamozzi turned to designing ideal cities. It can be assumed that when designing the city, he, unlike Vasari, proceeded from fortification considerations. The author regulates to some extent both the settlement of the city and its trade and craft organization. However, Scamozzi's layout is still mechanistic and is not organically connected either with the shape of the dodecagonal plan or with the scheme of defensive structures. This is just a beautifully drawn diagram master plan. The ratio of the sizes of the areas, each separately and in comparison with each other, has not been found. The drawing lacks the subtle proportioning that is found in Vasari’s project. The squares of the city of Scamozzi are too large, due to which the whole scheme loses the scale, which Palladio warned against, saying that the square in the city should not be too spacious. It should be noted that in the town of Sabbioneta, in the planning and development of which Scamozzi, on behalf of Gonzago, took an active part, the scale of the streets and squares was chosen very convincingly. Scamozzi adheres to the same technique of composition of the central square, which was outlined by Lupicini and Lorini. He does not build it up, but places the main buildings on the territory of the blocks adjacent to the square, so that their main facades face the square. This technique is typical of the Renaissance and it is legitimized by urban planning theorists and in the schemes of ideal cities.

During the period of general economic decline and social crisis of the mid-16th century. in urban planning theory, secondary issues begin to prevail. A comprehensive consideration of the city's problems is gradually disappearing from the field of view of the masters. They resolved particular issues: the composition of peripheral areas (Ammanati), a new system of development of the center (Lupicini, Lorini), careful development of the design of defensive structures and the general plan (Maggi, Lorini, Vasari), etc. Gradually, with the loss of a broad approach to development As functional and artistic tasks in urban planning science and practice grow, professional decline is also brewing, which is reflected in aesthetic formalism and the arbitrariness of some planning decisions.

The theoretical teachings of the Renaissance on urban planning, despite their utopian nature, still had some influence on the practice of urban planning. It was especially noticeable during the construction of fortifications in small port and border fortified cities built in Italy in the 16th and even 17th centuries. in an extremely short time frame.

Almost all the most prominent architects of this period took part in the construction of these fortresses: Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Sanmicheli, Michelangelo and many others. Among the numerous fortresses built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, the city of Castro near Lake Bolsena, built in 1534-1546, should be noted. by order of Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese). Sangallo designed and implemented the entire city, highlighting and placing especially the palaces of the pope and his entourage, public buildings with spacious galleries, a church, and a mint. For the rest, according to Vasari, he also managed to create sufficient amenities. Castro was destroyed in 1649 and is known mainly from the master’s sketches.

The centric composition of ideal cities was not ignored by the architects who created large architectural complexes where the residence of the feudal lord should dominate. This is how the town of Caprarola was created by Vignola, in fact - only the approach to the Farnese Palace. Narrow streets, low houses, small churches - like the foothills of the magnificent Farnese Castle. The cramped and modest nature of the town emphasizes the grandeur and monumentality of the palace. This logically simple scheme expresses with utmost clarity the author’s intention, who was able to use the contrasting combination so common in the architecture of the Renaissance to show the main and the secondary.

Almost simultaneously in Malta, which since 1530 belonged to the Order of the Knights of Malta, the Italians built the fortified city of La Valletta, founded in honor of the victory over the Turks (1566). The city was founded on a cape, washed by bays cutting deep into the island and protected by forts framing the entrances to the harbor. From a defense point of view, the city's territory was chosen extremely wisely. The fortification belt consisted of powerful walls and high bastions, surrounded by deep ditches carved into the rock on which the city rested. The defensive structures had exits directly to the sea, and in the northeastern part an artificial inner harbor was created, enclosed within a ring of city walls. The initially conceived rectangular plan was not fully implemented, since the city had a rocky foundation, which made it difficult to trace the streets and build the houses themselves (Fig. 18).

From northeast to southwest, the city was cut through by a main longitudinal street running from the main mainland gate to the square in front of the Valletta citadel. Parallel to this main highway, three more longitudinal streets were laid symmetrically on both sides, intersected by transverse streets located perpendicular to the main ones; they were not passable, as they were stairs carved into the rock. The layout of the streets was carried out in such a way that from the longitudinal highways it was possible to observe from each intersection along four streets intersecting at right angles the appearance of the enemy, i.e., here one of the basic principles underlying the design of ideal cities was fully observed, in particular , voiced by Alberti.

The geometric rigidity of the plan was softened by the complex shape of the defensive structures and the placement of a number of small blocks, the size of which depended on the free space in the peripheral areas of the city, determined by the complexity of the coastal terrain and the location of the city walls. Valletta was almost simultaneously built up with very similar residential buildings of equal height, with a small number of windows in the form of loopholes. Construction took place along the perimeter of the blocks, and the rest of the residential blocks were landscaped. Corner houses necessarily had residential towers equipped with defensive platforms, where a supply of stones and other means of defense against an enemy who had broken into the city was kept.

In fact, Valletta was one of the first, almost fully realized ideal cities of the Renaissance. Its general appearance indicates that specific natural conditions, the objectives of a specific strategy, convenient communication with harbors and many other conditions dictated directly by life, forced the city to be built not in the form of an abstract scheme with a bizarre pattern of squares and intersections, but in the form of a rational, economical scheme, significantly adjusted by the requirements of reality during the construction process.

In 1564, Bernardo Buontalenti built the fortified city of Terra del Sole on the northern border of Romagna (near Forli), an example of the implementation of an ideal Renaissance city with a regular plan. The outlines of the fortifications, the plan of the city itself, and the location of the center are close to the drawings of Cataneo (Fig. 19).

Bernardo Buontalenti was one of the most prominent city planners and fortifiers of his time, who managed to comprehensively solve the problem of constructing a fortified city. This comprehensive view of the city as a single organism is also confirmed by his work in Livorno.

The star-shaped shape of the fortress, bypass canals, orthogonal layout, axial construction of the main square, framed by galleries and being the threshold of the cathedral - all this suggests that Livorno is the implementation of the ideal city of the Renaissance. Only the presence of a winding coastline and the structure of the port somewhat violate the geometric correctness of the ideal scheme (Fig. 20, 21).

Fig.22. On the left is Palma Nuova, 1595; on the right - Grammichele (aerial photo)

One of the last real-life ideal cities of the Renaissance is the northeastern Venetian fortified city of Palma Nuova. The author of the project is unknown (presumably Lo Rini or Scamozzi). According to Merian, a German geographer of the 17th century, Palma Nuova was founded by the Venetians in 1593 and completed in 1595.

The general plan of the city, surrounded by powerful defensive structures, shows the radial diagram of ideal cities of the Renaissance (Fig. 22) and is closest in design to the Lorini project of 1592.

The plan of Palma Nuova is a hectagon with eighteen radial streets leading to a ring road located very close to the center; six of them overlook the hexagonal-shaped main square. The skill of the author of the project is reflected in the placement of streets, thanks to which the combination of the pentagon of the outer perimeter of the walls and the hexagon of the central square of the city seems completely organic.

Twelve squares were designed in front of each bastion and entrance gate, and six additional intra-district squares were created at the intersection of the third ring highway with radial streets that do not go to the central square.

If the layout of the streets of Palma Nuova was carried out almost exactly according to the project, then the defensive structures were erected much more powerful than envisaged. The development of the city is not entirely regular and is very diverse, but this does not violate the inherent internal order of Palma Nuova.

The centricity of the composition is emphasized by the simplest means: the hexagonal square is lined with greenery and had in the center, instead of the unconstructed main building, a flagpole, to which the axes of all the radial streets facing the square were oriented.

Under the influence of the urban planning theories of the Renaissance, the layout of Grammichele in Sicily was created, laid out in the shape of a hexagon in 1693 (Fig. 22).

In general, the history of Italian urban planning of the 15th-16th centuries, which left us a number of architectural ensembles of world significance and many smaller complexes and urban centers full of unique charm, still presents a rather motley picture.

Until the second half of the 15th century, while cities still enjoyed some independence, the traditions of the Middle Ages were strong in urban planning, although architects tried to give established cities a new, usually more regular appearance.

From the middle of the 15th century. Along with the public customer in the person of the city, the individual customer, who has the means, power, individual taste and requirements, is becoming increasingly important. The performer was no longer the workshop, but the architect. He's still in to a greater extent, than the customer, had his own individuality, a unique talent, a certain creative credo and significant powers from the customer. Therefore, despite greater economic, social and cultural unity than in the Middle Ages, the cities of Italy of that period are very individual and dissimilar.

From the second quarter of the 16th century. With the development of centralized states, with the streamlining of the idea of ​​autocracy, the requirements for the city as an integral organism are becoming more and more clearly outlined.

All this time, in parallel with the practical activities of the architects, who built only by order of the lords, the science of urban planning was developing, expressed, as a rule, in treatises on ideal cities, their fortifications, the beauty of their composition and many other related issues. However, these ideas were not always translated into reality, so urban planning practically developed in two directions: the construction of a number of large ensembles in already existing cities and the construction of fortified cities in the most vulnerable territories of individual states and duchies of Italy.

From the very beginning of the Renaissance, every element of the city and ensemble was thought out comprehensively, not only from the functional, but also from the artistic side.

Simplicity and clarity of spatial organization - rectangular areas of often multiple ratios, framed by galleries (Carpi, Vigevano, Florence - Piazza Santissima Annunziata); logical selection of the main thing, when, without losing their individuality, all the buildings of the ensemble were formed into an integral composition (Pienza, Bologna, Venice); proportional and large-scale uniformity of structures and spaces surrounding them, emphasizing the significance of a particular structure (the setting of the cathedral in Pienza, the trapezoidal square in front of the cathedral in Venice); separation and combination of individual spaces, interconnected and subordinate to each other (the central squares of Bologna, Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Piazzetta, Piazza San Marco in Venice); extensive use of fountains, sculpture and small forms (columns on the Piazzetta, masts in front of the cathedral and the Colleoni monument in Venice, the Gattamelata monument in Padua, the Neptune Fountain in Bologna, the Marcus Aurelius monument on the Capitol in Rome) - these are the main techniques for the composition of an architectural ensemble, widely used during the Renaissance in Italy. And, although life did not allow for a radical overhaul and restructuring of existing cities, the central ensembles of many of them received a new, truly Renaissance look.

Gradually, the masters of the Renaissance began to strive for uniformity in the construction of entire complexes (Florence, Vigevano, Carpi, Venice, Rome) and went further, complicating the architectural and spatial composition and solving complex tasks inclusion of new representative ensembles in the city's development (Capitol, St. Peter's Cathedral).

In the second half of the 16th century. a new understanding of the ensemble has emerged: it arises around one structure, usually with a symmetrical construction. The simplicity and clarity of the previous compositions is gradually replaced by sophisticated techniques of architectural and spatial organization. The square is increasingly interpreted as an open vestibule, as a subordinate space opening up to the representative buildings of the feudal nobility or the church. Finally, there is a desire to take into account the movement of the viewer and, accordingly, introduce new elements of dynamic development into the ensemble (Capitol in Rome) - a technique developed already in the next era.

Changes also occur in the urban planning theories developed by Renaissance architects. If in the XV and first half of the XVI centuries. these theories covered the problem of the city comprehensively, then in the second half of the 16th century. the authors focus primarily on private issues, without losing, however, the idea of ​​the city as a single organism.

We see that the Renaissance gave impetus not only to the development of urban planning ideas, but also to the practical construction of more comfortable and healthy cities, and prepared cities for a new period of existence, for the period of capitalist development. But the short duration of this era, rapid economic decline and the strengthening of feudal reaction, the establishment of a monarchical regime in a number of areas and foreign conquests interrupted this development.

Chapter “Results of the development of Italian architecture in the XV-XVI centuries,” section “Renaissance Architecture in Italy,” encyclopedia “General History of Architecture. Volume V. Architecture of Western Europe of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance". Executive editor: V.F. Marcuson. Authors: V.F. Marcuzon (Results of the development of architecture), T.N. Kozina (Urban planning, ideal cities), A.I. Opochinskaya (Villas and gardens). Moscow, Stroyizdat, 1967

The city's century had reached a brilliant peak, but there were already signs that it was dying. The century was stormy and cruel, but inspiring. It traced its origins to the city-states of Ancient Greece (3 thousand years before the Renaissance), which gave rise to the ideal of a free man who rules himself. Because, in essence, such a city consisted of a group of people who, after many generations of quarrels and civil strife, developed an effective system of self-government. This system varied from city to city. In any of them, the number of people able to claim full citizenship was always small. The mass of the inhabitants remained in a more or less slave position and exercised their rights only through violent and brutal uprisings against the upper strata. Nevertheless, throughout Europe, in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands especially, there was a kind of social agreement regarding the goals, if not the methods of government, namely regarding the structure of society, in which rulers were chosen by some of the ruled. From this civil concept began endless bloody wars. The price that citizens paid for their freedom was measured by their willingness to take up arms in defense of their city against its rivals.

The true voice of the city was the great bell on the city hall or cathedral, which sounded the alarm when the armed inhabitants of a hostile city approached. He called on everyone capable of holding weapons to the walls and to the gates. The Italians turned the bell into a kind of mobile temple, a kind of secular Ark that led armies into battle. In a battle with neighboring cities for ownership of a piece of arable land, in a battle against an emperor or king for civil rights, in a battle against hordes of wandering soldiers... During these battles, life in the city came to a standstill. All healthy men, from fifteen to seventy years old, without exception, took time off from normal activities to fight. So, in the end, for the sake of economic survival, they began to hire professionals who knew how to fight, while civil power was concentrated in the hands of one of the prominent citizens. Since he controlled money and weapons, this citizen gradually transformed into the ruler of the once free city. In those countries where a central monarchy was recognized, the city reconciled with the throne (simply out of exhaustion). Some cities, such as London, retained greater autonomy. Others found themselves completely absorbed into the structure of the monarchy. Nevertheless, throughout the Renaissance, cities continued to exist as living, functioning units, performing most of the functions that in modern society fall under the jurisdiction of a central government. They were neither the industrial communities, nor the residential areas, nor the amusement parks that many of them later became, but organic structures that combined human flesh and the stone of buildings into their own recognizable rhythm of life.

City shape

The cities with which Europe was studded, like ceremonial clothing with precious stones, were already ancient by the Renaissance. They passed from century to century, maintaining a surprisingly regular shape and constant size. Only in England there was no sense of symmetry in them, because, with rare exceptions, English cities were not built according to a pre-developed plan, but grew from modest settlements, and their structure was shapeless, since building was added to building in the most random way. The tendency on the continent continued to be to found new cities rather than to expand old ones to unmanageable proportions. In Germany alone, 2,400 cities were founded in 400 years. True, by today's standards it is difficult to say whether these were small towns or large villages. Orange in France had only 6 thousand inhabitants until the 19th century. And the city with a quarter of a million inhabitants was considered simply a giant, and there were few of them. The population of Milan, the capital of the duchy, was 200 thousand people, that is, twice the population of its main rival, Florence (see Fig. 53, photo 17), so size was not at all a measure of power.

Rice. 53. Florence at the end of the 15th century. From a modern woodcut

Reims, the place of coronations, a large shopping center, had 100 thousand inhabitants, and Paris something like 250 thousand. The population of most European cities could be estimated at 10–50 thousand people. Even losses from the plague did not affect the population for long. The number of victims of the plague has always been exaggerated, although it probably killed about a quarter of the inhabitants in a few months. However, within a generation the city returned to its usual level of population. Surplus residents flowed to new cities. The Italian model, when several towns united by military or trade ties are attached to a large city, can be traced to one degree or another throughout Europe. In such a federation, the system of government and local customs inherent in each city were jealously observed, but tax collection and defense were controlled from the center city.

The city grew like a tree: maintaining its shape, but increasing in size, and the city walls, like rings on a cut, marked the milestones of its growth. Just outside the city walls lived the poor, the beggars, the outcasts of all kinds, who built their huts around the walls, creating a disgusting confusion of miserable streets. Sometimes they were dispersed by an energetic municipality, but more often they were allowed to remain in place until some plan emerged. Wealthy residents settled outside the city in villas among large estates, protected by their own walls. When economic necessity or civic pride finally demanded the expansion of the city, another ring of walls was erected around it. They took over new land and left additional space for development. And the old walls continued to stand for several more centuries, unless they were rapaciously dismantled for the construction of new buildings. Cities resumed their form, but did not pursue new building materials, so that the same piece of brick or cut stone could end up in half a dozen different buildings in a thousand years. You can still see traces of the old walls that disappeared, because they were later turned into ring roads or, less often, boulevards.

The fortress walls set the shape and determined the size of the city. In the Middle Ages, they served as powerful protection for residents who had supplies of water and food. A commander preparing to besiege a city had to prepare for many months of waiting until the enemy's supplies ran out. The walls were maintained at public expense, and whatever else fell into disrepair, they were taken care of first. A collapsed wall was a sign of a ruined city, and the first task of the victorious invader was to wipe it off the face of the earth. Unless he intended to live there. However, gradually the fortress walls lost their significance, which was reflected in the way cities began to be depicted. In the 16th century, a top view was widely used, a plan where special meaning given to the streets. They were painted around the edges of houses. Important buildings were especially noted. But gradually everything was formalized, made flat, and the plan became more accurate, although less spectacular and picturesque. But before the plan came into use, the city was depicted as if a traveler, approaching, sees it from afar. It was rather a work of art, in which the city appeared as in life, with walls, towers, churches, pressed close to each other, like one huge castle (see Fig. 54).

Rice. 54. The city wall as a military structure. Nuremberg in 1493 From a modern engraving

Such cities still exist today, such as Verona, located on a hillside. Their plan clearly shows the pattern laid down by the builders. In the south, especially in Italy, large, tower-like houses dominated the cityscape, giving the cityscape the appearance of a petrified forest. These houses were remnants of more cruel century, when civil strife between families and factions tore cities apart. Then those who could build higher, higher, even higher gained an advantage over their neighbors. The skillful city government succeeded in reducing their numbers, but many still sought to exalt themselves in this way, threatening the internal security of the city and greedily depriving the narrow streets of air and light.

Rice. 55. City gates, where duties are collected on all goods arriving in the city

The city gates that cut through the walls (see Fig. 55) played a dual role. They performed not only a defensive function, but also contributed to the city’s income. Guards were stationed near them, collecting duties on everything that was brought into the city. Sometimes it was products agriculture, harvest collected from surrounding fields, gardens and vegetable gardens. And sometimes exotic spices brought thousands of miles away, all subject to customs inspection and duties at the gate. At one time, when Florentine customs duties fell to a dangerous level, one of the officials proposed doubling the number of gates and thereby doubling their profitability. At a meeting in the city council he was ridiculed, but this thoughtless proposal stemmed from the belief that the city was an independent entity. The villagers hated these exactions, receiving for them only dubious promises of armed protection. They resorted to all sorts of tricks to avoid payment. Sacchetti has a very true-sounding short story about a peasant who hid chicken eggs in his baggy pants to deceive the guards. But those, warned by the peasant’s enemy, forced him to sit down while they inspected the cargo. The result is clear.

In cities, gates played the role of eyes and ears. They were the only point of contact with the outside world. It was from the outside world that the threat came, and the guards at the gate scrupulously reported to the ruler about the arrival and departure of foreigners and all kinds of strangers in general. In the free cities, closed gates were a symbol of independence. A late traveler, arriving after sunset, was forced to spend the night outside the city walls. This is where the custom arose of building hotels outside, at the main gate. The gate itself looked like a small fortress. A garrison lived in them, guarding the city. The huge castles that towered over medieval cities were essentially simple extensions of the main fortress gate-houses.

However, the lack of a development plan in medieval cities was more apparent than real. It’s true: the streets wound aimlessly, circled, made loops, even dissolved into some courtyards, but they were not supposed to provide a direct transition from one point of the city to another, but to create a frame, the scenery of public life. A stranger, having passed through the city gates, could easily find his way to the city center, because the main streets radiated out from the central square. The "piazza", "place", "platform", "plaza", whatever it was called in the local language, was a direct descendant of the Roman forum, a place where anxious people gathered in days of war and where they wandered, having fun, in times of peace . Again, only in England there was no such gathering place. The British preferred to expand the main street into a market. It served the same purpose, but lacked a sense of cohesion and unity, and as traffic increased, it lost its importance as a central meeting place. However, on the continent this echo of Ancient Rome continued to exist.

Rice. 56. Piazza San Marco, Venice

It might have been a modest, unpaved area, shaded by trees, perhaps surrounded by peeling houses. Or it could be huge, striking the imagination, like the main squares in Siena or Venice (see Fig. 56), it could be planned in such a way that it seemed like a huge hall without a roof. However, no matter how she looked, she remained the face of the city, the place where residents gathered, and the city’s vital organs, centers of government and justice were built around it. Somewhere else there could be another, naturally formed center: for example, a cathedral with auxiliary buildings, usually built in a small area. From the main gate, a fairly wide, straight and clean road led to the square, then to the cathedral. At the same time, away from the center, the streets became, as it were, peripheral veins serving local needs. They were deliberately made narrow - both to provide passers-by with protection from the sun and rain, and to save space. Sometimes the top floors of buildings were only a few feet apart. The narrowness of the streets also served as protection during wars, because the first action of the attackers was to gallop along them before the residents had time to erect barriers. Troops could not maintain military order while marching through them. Under such circumstances, a hostile crowd armed with simple cobblestones could successfully prevent the passage of professional soldiers. In Italy, streets began to be paved in the 13th century, and by the 16th century all the main streets of most European cities were paved. There was no division between pavement and sidewalk, because everyone either rode or walked. Crews began to appear only in the 16th century. Gradually, wheeled transport expanded, the streets straightened out to make it easier for them to travel, and then pedestrians were taken care of, further emphasizing the difference between rich and poor.

Cult of Vitruvius

Renaissance cities had one thing in common: they grew and developed spontaneously, as needed. Only the city walls were planned, which were laid out and built as a single whole, and inside the city only the size of a particular building determined the layout of the surrounding area. The cathedral determined the structure of the entire area with adjacent streets and squares, but in other places houses appeared as needed or were rebuilt from existing ones. Even the very concept of citywide planning was absent until the second half of the 15th century, when the ideas of the Roman architect Vitruvius Polio were revived. Vitruvius was the architect of Augustan Rome, and his work On Architecture dates from about 30 BC. He was not one of the famous architects, but his book was the only one on this issue, and it appealed to a world obsessed with antiquity. Discoveries in architecture were made in the same way as in geography: the ancient author gave impetus to minds capable of their own creativity and research. People who believed they were following Vitruvius actually used his name to inform their own theories. Vitruvius viewed the city as a self-sufficient unit that should be planned, like a house, all parts of which are subordinate to the whole. Sewerage, roads, squares, public buildings, proportions of construction sites - everything occupies its specific place in this plan. The first treatise based on the concept of Vitruvius was written by the Florentine Leon Battista Alberti. It was published in 1485, just thirteen years after his death, and led a long line of works that stretched into the 19th century, works that had a huge impact on urban planning. Most of these works were amazingly, even too exquisitely illustrated. Considering the mathematical basis of this cult, it is not surprising that the followers took everything to the extreme. The city was invented like a geometry problem, without paying attention to human and geographical factors. Theoretical perfection led in practice to lifeless dryness.

Rice. 57. Palma Nova, Italy: strict urban plan

It is simply fortunate that few cities were built according to Vitruvius' principles. Every now and then a need arose, often military, for a new city. At times it could be built according to this new theory (for example, Palma Nova (see Fig. 57) in the Venetian state). However, in general, architects had to be content with partial construction, because they were rarely given the opportunity to completely demolish old buildings and build anew in their place. The architect faced passive resistance; just remember how Leonardo da Vinci’s proposal to build satellite settlements around Milan was met. The terrible plague of 1484 carried away 50 thousand inhabitants, and Leonardo wanted to build ten new cities with 5 thousand houses and settle 30 thousand people there, “in order to relieve the too great crowding of people, huddled in herds like goats... filling every corner of space with a stench and sowing seeds infection and death." But nothing of the kind was done, because neither monetary gain nor military advantages were foreseen. And the ruler of Milan chose to spend gold on decorating his own court. This was the case throughout Europe. Cities have already formed and there is no room left for large-scale planning. The only exception to this rule was Rome.

The first city of Christianity fell into decline in the Middle Ages. The peak of his misfortunes was the transfer of the papacy to Avignon in 1305. For more than a hundred years in the Eternal City there was no government strong enough to restrain the ambitions of the great families and the brutal savagery of the crowd. Other cities in Italy grew beautiful and prospered, but Rome became moldy and destroyed. The city of Augustus was built firmly, it withstood and did not succumb to the attacks of time and the raids of barbarians, but it perished at the hands of its own citizens. The wars were partly to blame, but mainly the fact that massive ancient buildings were a source of ready-made building materials. In 1443 the great schism ended and the papacy was reestablished in Rome. Pope Nicholas V first drew attention to the deplorable state of the Eternal City. He realized: in order to recognize Rome as the capital of the world, it must be rebuilt (see Fig. 58). A huge task! The city once accommodated about a million people - the largest number of inhabitants until the 19th century. Until the Industrial Revolution, which led to the expansion of construction, no European city could match the size of Augustan Rome. And in 1377 there were only about 20 thousand inhabitants. Its seven hills stood abandoned; the population preferred to live on the swampy banks of the Tiber. The cattle wandered through the deserted streets, bordered by the ruins of houses. The forum lost its former glory and bore the nickname “Campo Vacchino”, that is, “Field of Cows”. No one cleaned up the dead animals, and they rotted where they died, adding the smell of decay and rot to the vile muck underfoot. There was no city in Europe that had fallen so low from such great heights.

Rice. 58. Panorama of Rome in 1493, with St. Peter's Basilica (above). From a modern engraving in Schedel’s book “Chronicle of the World”

More than 160 years passed from the moment Pope Nicholas V conceived his reconstruction to the time Bernini completed the colonnade at St. Peter's Basilica. And all the popes who reigned in this century and a half, from the virtuous to the vicious, from the most learned Nicholas to the depraved Alexander Borgia, shared the passion that breathed new life into the first of all cities of the Renaissance, the love of art and architecture, the desire to transform the ancient city into a worthy capital of the Christian peace.

The list of names of architects and artists who worked there sounds like a roll call of glory: Alberti, the first of the Vitruvians, Bramante, Sangallo, Bernini, Raphael, Michelangelo and many others who fell into the shadow of the greats, but could decorate the court of any ruler. Some of what was done is regrettable: for example, the destruction of the ancient St. Peter's Basilica in order to build a new temple of Bramante in its place caused a storm of protests. But absolute papal power was enough to complete one of the greatest urban planning projects in history. The result was not just a magnificent monument to some ruler. Ordinary townspeople also received a number of benefits: the water supply improved, the ancient sewage system was restored, and the threat of fires and plague sharply decreased.

City life

The city was the stage on which, in front of all the honest people, happened what is now happening in the silence of offices. The details were striking in their variability: the irregularity of the buildings, the eccentric styles and diversity of costumes, the countless goods that were produced right on the streets - all this gave the Renaissance city a brightness that was absent in the monotony of modern cities. But there was also a certain homogeneity, a fusion of groups that proclaimed the internal unity of the city. In the 20th century, the eye has become accustomed to the divisions created by urban sprawl: pedestrian and vehicular traffic occur in different worlds, industry is separated from commerce, and both are separated by space from residential areas, which in turn are subdivided according to the wealth of their inhabitants. A city dweller can live his whole life without seeing how the bread he eats is baked or how the dead are buried. The larger the city became, the more people moved away from their fellow citizens, until the paradox of being alone in the middle of a crowd became commonplace.

In a walled city of, say, 50,000 people, where most of the houses were miserable shacks, the lack of space encouraged a desire to spend more time in public. The shopkeeper sold goods practically from a stall, through a small window. The shutters of the first floors were made on hinges in order to quickly fold back, forming a shelf or table, that is, a counter (see Fig. 60). He lived with his family in the upper rooms of the house and only after becoming significantly rich could he keep a separate store with clerks, and live in a garden suburb.

Rice. 60. City merchants, including: a clothing and dry goods merchant (left), a barber (center) and a pastry chef (right)

A skilled craftsman also used the lower floor of the house as a workshop, sometimes presenting his products for sale on the spot. Craftsmen and traders were very inclined to show herd behavior: each city had its own Tkatskaya Street, Myasnitsky Row, and its own Rybnikov Lane. And if there was not enough space in small crowded rooms, or even just in good weather, trade moved to the street, which became indistinguishable from the market. Dishonest people were punished publicly, in the square, in the same place where they earned their living, that is, in public. They were tied to the pillory, and worthless goods were burned at their feet or hung around their necks. A wine merchant who sold bad wine was forced to drink a large amount of it, and the rest was poured on his head. The fishmonger was forced to sniff rotten fish or even smeared it on his face and hair.

At night the city plunged into complete silence and darkness. Even where there was no mandatory “lights-out hour,” the wise man tried not to go out late and sat safely behind strong doors with bolts after dark. A passerby caught by guards at night had to be prepared to convincingly explain the reason for his suspicious walk. There were no temptations that could lure an honest person out of the house at night, because public entertainment ended at sunset, and the inhabitants adhered to the hoarding habit of going to bed at sunset. Tallow candles were available, but still quite expensive. And foul-smelling wicks soaked in the fat of the rags were also used sparingly, because fat was more expensive than meat. The working day, which lasted from dawn to dusk, left little energy for a stormy night of fun. With the widespread development of printing, reading the Bible became a custom in many homes. Another home entertainment was playing music for those who could afford to buy a musical instrument: a lute, or a viol, or a flute, as well as singing for those who did not have money for it. Most people spent the brief hours of leisure between dinner and bedtime in conversation. However, the lack of evening and night entertainment was more than made up for during the day at public expense. Frequent church holidays reduced the number of working days per year to a figure perhaps lower than today.

Rice. 61. Religious procession

Fasting days were strictly observed and supported by the force of law, but holidays were taken literally. They not only included liturgy, but also turned into wild fun. These days, the unity of the townspeople was clearly manifested in crowded religious processions and religious processions (see Fig. 61). There were few observers then, because everyone wanted to take part in them. Albrecht Dürer witnessed a similar procession in Antwerp, and his artist's eye gazed with pleasure at the endless procession of colors and shapes. It was on the day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, “...and the whole city, regardless of rank and occupation, gathered there, each dressed in the best dress according to his rank. All guilds and classes had their own signs by which they could be recognized. In between they carried huge expensive candles and three long Old Frankish silver trumpets. There were also drums and pipes made in the German style. They blew and beat loudly and noisily... There were goldsmiths and embroiderers, painters, masons and sculptors, joiners and carpenters, sailors and fishermen, weavers and tailors, bakers and tanners... truly workers of all kinds, as well as many artisans and different people, earning their living. Behind them came archers with rifles and crossbows, horsemen and infantrymen. But before all of them there were religious orders... A large crowd of widows also took part in this procession. They supported themselves by their labor and followed special rules. They were dressed from head to toe in white clothes, sewn specially for this occasion, it was sad to look at them... Twenty people carried an image of the Virgin Mary with our Lord Jesus, luxuriously dressed. As the procession progressed, many wonderful things were shown, magnificently presented. They pulled vans on which stood ships and other structures full of masked people. Behind them walked a troupe, depicting the prophets in order and scenes from the New Testament... From beginning to end, the procession lasted more than two hours until it reached our house.”

The miracles that so delighted Dürer in Antwerp would have fascinated him in Venice and Florence, because the Italians treated religious festivals as a form of art. At the feast of Corpus Christi in Viterbo, in 1482, the entire procession was divided into sections, each of which was the responsibility of a cardinal or the highest dignitary of the church. And each strove to outdo the other by decorating his site with costly draperies and furnishing it with a stage on which the mysteries were performed, so that the whole thing amounted to a series of plays about the death and resurrection of Christ. The stage used in Italy for the performance of mysteries was the same as throughout Europe: a three-story structure, where the upper and lower floors served as Heaven and Hell, respectively, and the main middle platform depicted Earth (see Fig. 62).

Rice. 62. Stage for the presentation of mysteries

What attracted the most attention was the complex stage mechanism, which allowed the actors to seem to float and swim in the air. There was one scene in Florence that consisted of a suspended ball surrounded by angels, from which a chariot would emerge at the right moment and descend to the ground. Leonardo da Vinci made an even more complex machine for the Sforza Dukes, which showed the movement of the celestial bodies, each carrying its own guardian angel.

Secular processions in Italy reenacted the great triumphs of classical Rome and took their names. Sometimes they were held in honor of the arrival of some sovereign or famous military leader, sometimes just for the sake of a holiday. The glorious names of the great Romans were revived in memory, they were presented in togas and laurel wreaths and transported around the city in chariots. They especially loved to depict allegories: Faith defeated Idolatry, Virtue destroyed Vice. Another favorite idea is the three ages of man. Every earthly or supernatural event was played out in every detail. The Italians did not work on the literary content of these scenes, preferring to spend money on the pomp of the spectacle, so that all allegorical figures were straightforward and superficial creatures and only proclaimed pompous empty phrases without any conviction, thus moving from performance to performance. But the splendor of the sets and costumes was a feast for the eyes, and that was enough. In no city in Europe did civic pride manifest itself so clearly and with such brilliance as in the annual ritual of wedding with the sea, which was performed by the ruler of Venice, a strange mixture of commercial arrogance, Christian gratitude and Eastern symbolism. This ritual celebration dates back to 997 after the Nativity of Christ, when the Doge of Venice before the battle poured a libation of wine into the sea. And after the victory, it was celebrated on the next Ascension Day. The huge state barge, called the Bucentaur, was rowed to the same point in the bay, and there the Doge threw a ring into the sea, declaring that by this action the city was married to the sea, that is, to the element that had made it great (see. Fig. 63).

Rice. 63. “Bucentaur” Venetian

"Bucentaur" majestically participated in all civil ceremonies. Solemn processions in other cities moved in the dust in the heat, while the Venetians glided along the surface of their great sea road. "Bucentaur" was converted from a war galley, which swept out all the enemies of Venice from the Adriatic. She retained the powerful and angry ram of the warship, but now the upper deck was decorated with scarlet and gold brocade, and a garland of golden leaves stretched along the side sparkled dazzlingly in the sun. On the bow stood a human-sized figure of Justice with a sword in one hand and scales in the other. The sovereigns who came to visit were transported on this ship to the island city, surrounded by countless small boats, also decorated with rich fabrics and garlands. The guest was brought to the very doors of the residence assigned to him. It is not surprising that the Venetian carnivals, staged with the same magnificent disregard for expense, sparkling with the same sensual, almost savage predilection for bright colors, attracted visitors from all over Europe. During these days, the city's population doubled. Apparently, the fashion for masquerades began in Venice, which then spread to all the courts of Europe. Other Italian cities introduced masked actors into the mysteries, but it was the fun-loving Venetians with their commercial acumen who appreciated the mask as a piquant addition to the carnival.

Military competitions of the Middle Ages continued almost unchanged into the Renaissance, although the status of their participants decreased somewhat. For example, fishermen in Nuremberg organized their own tournament. Archery competitions were very popular, although the bow as a weapon disappeared from the battlefield. But the most beloved holidays remained, the roots of which went back to pre-Christian Europe. Having failed to eradicate them, the church, so to speak, baptized some of them, that is, appropriated them, while others continued to live in an unchanged form, both in Catholic and Protestant countries. The greatest of these was May Day, the pagan meeting of spring (see Fig. 64).

Rice. 64. May Day Celebration

On this day, both the poor and the rich went outside the city to pick flowers, dance and feast. Becoming Lord of May was a great honor, but also an expensive pleasure, because all the holiday expenses fell on him: it happened that some men disappeared from the city for a while to avoid this honorable role. The holiday brought to the city a piece of the countryside, life in nature, so close and so far. Throughout Europe, the change of seasons was celebrated with folk festivals. They differed from each other in details and names, but the similarities were stronger than the differences. As before, on one of the winter days, the Lord of Disorder reigned - the direct heir of the Roman Saturnalia, which, in turn, was a relic of the prehistoric festival of the winter solstice. Again and again they tried to eradicate it, but it was revived in local carnivals with jesters, warriors and dancers in the guises that first appeared to the world in cave paintings. The time has come, and the holidays of a thousand years ago easily fit into the life of the cities, where the roar of printing presses and the noise of wheeled carriages marked the beginning of a new world.

Travelers

The main cities of Europe were connected by a very efficient postal system. A simple man in the street could freely use it... if he was not afraid that his letters would be read. The authorities who organized the post office were almost as interested in espionage as they were in establishing communications between cities and countries. Despite the terrible condition of the roads, the number of vehicles increased. The wave of pilgrimage has reached unprecedented heights, and when the flow of pilgrims began to subside, merchants came to take their place, because trade was actively developing. Government officials were omnipresent, the tramp of soldiers' boots on the march did not subside for a minute. Travelers going about their business are no longer a rarity. People like the restless Erasmus moved from one scientific center to another in search of space and livelihood. Some even saw travel as a means of education combined with pleasure. In Italy, a new school of local history writers arose, who recommended that the curious visit interesting places. Many traveled on horseback, but carriages had already begun to appear (see Fig. 65), rumored to have been first invented in Kotz or Kosice (Hungary).

Rice. 65. German carriage 1563 For long journeys at least 4 horses were required

Most of these carriages were made for show - they were extremely inconvenient. The body was suspended by straps, which in theory were supposed to serve as springs, but in practice turned the ride into a series of sickening dives and swings. The average speed was twenty miles a day, depending on the quality of the roads. At least six horses were required to pull the carriage through the thick winter mud. They were very sensitive to the bumps that often occurred along the way. Once in Germany there was such a pothole that three carriages fell into it at once, and it cost the life of one unfortunate peasant.

The Roman roads were still the main arteries of Europe, but even their splendor could not resist the predation of the peasants. When material was needed to build a barn or stable, or even a house, the villagers with their usual readiness turned to large reserves of already hewn stone, which, in fact, was the road. As soon as the top layers of the road surface were removed, the weather and traffic did the rest. In a few regions there were orders for the preservation and maintenance of roads outside cities. In England, one miller, who suddenly needed clay for repairs, dug a hole 10 feet across and eight feet deep, and then abandoned it. The hole filled with rainwater, and a traveler fell into it and drowned. The miller called to account said that he had no intention of killing anyone, there was simply nowhere else to get clay. He was released from custody. However, ancient custom prescribed that roads be made of a minimum width: in one place it had to allow two carts to pass each other, in another - a knight with a spear at the ready could pass. In France, where Roman roads ran through forests, their width was increased from 20 feet to about seventy-eight—a precaution against bandits, who became more and more numerous as expensive freight traffic increased. A wise man always traveled in company, and everyone was armed. The lone traveler was treated with suspicion, and he could well end up in a local prison if he did not give worthy reasons for his stay in this region.

Travel across Europe, even under favorable circumstances, could take several weeks. Therefore, roadside hotels - inns (see Fig. 66) acquired such importance.

Rice. 66. Main common room of a roadside inn

It could be a large establishment, such as the famous Bull Hotel in Padua, where the stables housed up to 200 horses, or it could be a tiny, stinking tavern for the careless and naive. In Austria, a hotel keeper was captured who, as it was proven, had killed more than 185 guests over the years and amassed considerable wealth from it. However, most contemporaries paint a completely friendly picture. The fine lady depicted by William Caxton in the first guidebook was supposed to make a pleasant impression on travelers after a tiring day on the road. Caxton published his book in 1483.

Among other information, she provided his monolingual countrymen with enough French phrases to ask about how to leave the city, hire a horse and get accommodation for the night. The conversation in the hotel there is more polite than informative, but it shows us what situations were repeated every night in all the cities of Europe.

“God bless you, lady.

- Welcome, boy.

-Can I get a bed here?

– Yes, good and clean, [even if] there are a dozen of you.

- No, there are three of us. Can I eat here?

- Yes, in abundance, thank God.

“Bring us food and give the horses some hay and dry them well with straw.”

The travelers ate, wisely checked the bill for the meal and asked to add its cost to the morning calculation. Then follows:

“Take us to bed, we’re tired.

“Jeanette, light a candle and lead them upstairs to that room.” And bring them hot water to wash their feet, and cover them with a feather bed.”

Judging by the conversation, this is a hotel upper class. Travelers are served dinner on the table; they obviously did not take food with them, although this was the custom. They are escorted to bed with a candle and provided with warm water. Perhaps, if they were lucky, they could have a bed for each of them, rather than sharing it with some stranger. But whether it was a luxurious hotel, which also offered entertainment to guests, or a simple hut near the city wall, a traveler could rest in it for several hours, protected not only from the weather and wild animals, but also from his fellow humans.

Renaissance art in Italy (XIII-XVI centuries).

IN COMPILATION OF THE PAGE, MATERIALS ARE USED FROM RESOURCE http://artclassic.edu.ru

Features of Renaissance art in Italy.

The art of the Renaissance arose on the basis of humanism (from the Latin humanus - “humane”) - a movement of social thought that originated in the 14th century. in Italy, and then during the second half of the 15th and 16th centuries. spread to other European countries. Humanism proclaimed man and his good as the highest value. Followers of this movement believed that every person has the right to freely develop as an individual, realizing their abilities. The ideas of humanism were most fully and vividly embodied in art, the main theme of which was a beautiful, harmoniously developed person with unlimited spiritual and creative potential. Humanists were inspired by antiquity, which served for them as a source of knowledge and a model of artistic creativity. The great past of Italy, constantly reminding itself, was perceived at that time as the highest perfection, while the art of the Middle Ages seemed inept and barbaric. The term "renaissance", which arose in the 16th century, meant the birth of a new art that revived classical ancient culture. However, the art of the Renaissance owes much to the artistic tradition of the Middle Ages. The old and the new were in indissoluble connection and confrontation. With all the contradictory diversity of its origins, the art of the Renaissance is marked by deep and fundamental novelty. It laid the foundations of European culture of the New Age. All major types of art - painting and graphics, sculpture, architecture - have changed enormously.
In architecture, creatively reworked principles of ancient architecture were established. order system , new types of public buildings emerged. Painting was enriched by linear and aerial perspective, knowledge of the anatomy and proportions of the human body. Earthly content penetrated into the traditional religious themes of works of art. Interest in ancient mythology, history, everyday scenes, landscapes, and portraits increased. Along with the monumental wall paintings that decorated architectural structures, a painting appeared; Oil painting arose.
Art has not yet ceased to be a craft, but the creative individuality of the artist, whose activity at that time was very diverse, has already come to the fore. The universal talent of the Renaissance masters is amazing - they often worked simultaneously in the fields of architecture, sculpture and painting, combining their passion for literature, poetry and philosophy with the study of the exact sciences. The concept of a creatively rich, or “Renaissance” personality subsequently became a household word.
In the art of the Renaissance, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man were closely intertwined. Its cognitive meaning was inextricably linked with sublime poetic beauty; in its desire for naturalness, it did not stoop to petty everyday life. Art has become a universal spiritual need.
The formation of Renaissance culture in Italy took place in economically independent cities. In the rise and flowering of Renaissance art, a large role was played by the Church and the magnificent courts of the uncrowned sovereigns - the ruling wealthy families who were the largest patrons and customers of works of painting, sculpture and architecture. The main centers of Renaissance culture were first the cities of Florence, Siena, Pisa, then Padua, Ferrara, Genoa, Milan and, last of all, in the second half of the 15th century, wealthy merchant Venice. In the 16th century Rome became the capital of the Italian Renaissance. From this time on, all other cultural centers, except Venice, lost their former importance.
In the era of the Italian Renaissance, it is customary to distinguish several periods:

Proto-Renaissance (second half of the XIII-XIV centuries),

Early Renaissance (XV century),

High Renaissance (end of the 15th - first third of the 16th century)

Late Renaissance (last two thirds of the 16th century).

Proto-Renaissance

In Italian culture of the XIII-XIV centuries. Against the backdrop of the still strong Byzantine and Gothic traditions, features of a new art began to appear, which would later be called the art of the Renaissance. Therefore, this period of its history was called Proto-Renaissance(from the Greek “protos” - “first”, i.e. prepared the offensive of the Renaissance). There was no similar transition period in any of the European countries. In Italy itself, proto-Renaissance art arose and developed only in Tuscany and Rome.
Italian culture intertwined features of old and new. The last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the new era, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), created the Italian literary language. What Dante started was continued by other great Florentines of the 14th century - Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), the founder of European lyric poetry, and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), the founder of the novella (short story) genre in world literature. The pride of the era are the architects and sculptors Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio and the painter Giotto di Bondone .
Architecture
Italian architecture for a long time followed medieval traditions, which was expressed mainly in the use of a large number of Gothic motifs. At the same time, Italian Gothic itself was very different from the Gothic architecture of northern Europe: it gravitated toward calm large forms, even light, horizontal divisions, and wide wall surfaces. In 1296, construction began in Florence Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Arnolfo di Cambio wanted to crown the altar part of the cathedral with a huge dome. However, after the death of the architect in 1310, construction was delayed; it was completed already during the Early Renaissance. In 1334, according to Giotto's design, construction began on the cathedral's bell tower, the so-called campanile - a slender rectangular tower with floor-by-floor horizontal divisions and graceful Gothic windows, the pointed arched shape of which remained in Italian architecture for a long time.
Among the most famous city palaces is the Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria) in Florence. It is believed to have been built by Arnolfo di Cambio. It is a heavy cube with a high tower, lined with rusticated hard stone. The three-story facade is decorated with paired windows set in semicircular arches, which gives the entire building an impression of restrained severity. The building defines the appearance of the old city center, encroaching on the square with its stern bulk.
Sculpture
Earlier than in architecture and painting, artistic quests emerged in sculpture, and above all in the Pisan school, the founder of which was Niccolò Pisano (around 1220 - between 1278 and 1284). Niccolò Pisano was born in Puglia, southern Italy. It is believed that he studied sculpting in the southern schools, where the spirit of revival of the classical traditions of antiquity flourished. Without a doubt, Niccolo studied the sculptural design of late Roman and early Christian sarcophagi. The earliest known work of the sculptor is a hexagonal marble pulpit, made by him for the baptistery in Pisa (1260), became an outstanding work of Renaissance sculpture and had a huge influence on its further development. The main achievement of the sculptor is that he was able to give volume and expressiveness to the forms, and each image has bodily power.
From the workshop of Niccolò Pisano came remarkable masters of Proto-Renaissance sculpture - his son Giovanni Pisano and Arnolfo di Cambio, also known as an architect. Arnolfo di Cambio (circa 1245 - after 1310) gravitated towards monumental sculpture, in which he used his life observations. One of the best works he completed together with father and son Pisano is fountain in Piazza Perugia(1278). Fonte Maggiore, decorated with numerous statues and reliefs, has become the pride of the city. It was forbidden to give water to animals from it, to take water into wine barrels or into unwashed dishes. The city museum preserves fragments of reclining figures made by Arnolfo di Cambio for the fountain. In these figures, the sculptor was able to convey all the richness of the movements of the human body.
Painting
In the art of the Italian Renaissance, wall painting occupied a dominant place. It was made using fresco technique. Using paints prepared in water, they painted either on wet plaster (fresco itself) or on dry plaster - this technique is called “a secco” (translated from Italian as “on dry”). The main binder of plaster is lime. Because It took a little time for the lime to dry; fresco painting had to be done quickly, often in parts, between which connecting seams remained. From the second half of the 15th century. the fresco technique began to be supplemented with a secco painting; the latter allowed for slower work and allowed for finishing of parts. Work on the paintings was preceded by the production of synopias - auxiliary drawings applied under the fresco on the first layer of plaster. These drawings were made with red ocher, which was extracted from clay near the city of Sinop, located on the Black Sea coast. Based on the name of the city, the paint was called Sinope, or sinopia, and later the drawings themselves began to be called the same. Sinopia was used in Italian painting from the 13th to the mid-15th century. However, not all painters resorted to synopia - for example, Giotto di Bondone, the most prominent representative of the Proto-Renaissance era, did without them. Gradually, synopia was abandoned. From the middle of the 15th century. Cardboards - preparatory drawings made on paper or fabric in the size of future works - have become widespread in painting. The contours of the design were transferred to wet plaster using coal dust. It was blown through holes pierced in the contour and pressed into the plaster with some sharp instrument. Sometimes synopias from a sketch turned into a finished monumental drawing, and cardboards acquired the significance of independent works of painting.

Cimabue (actually Cenni di Pepo, c. 1240 - c. 1302) is considered the founder of the new Italian style of painting. Cimabue was famous in Florence as a master of solemn altar paintings and icons. His images are characterized by abstraction and staticity. And although Cimabue followed Byzantine traditions in his work, in his works he tried to express earthly feelings and soften the rigidity of the Byzantine canon.
Piero Cavallini (between 1240 and 1250 - around 1330) lived and worked in Rome. He is the author of the mosaics of the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere (1291), as well as the frescoes of the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (circa 1293). In his works, Cavallini gave shapes volume and tangibility.
Cavallini’s achievements were adopted and continued Giotto di Bondone(1266 or 1267 - 1337), the greatest artist of the Proto-Renaissance. The name of Giotto is associated with a turn in the development of Italian painting, its break with medieval artistic canons and traditions of Italo-Byzantine art of the 13th century. Giotto's most famous works are the paintings of the Arena Chapel in Padua (1304-06). The frescoes are distinguished by their clarity, uncomplicated storytelling, and the presence of everyday details that add vitality and naturalness to the scenes depicted. Rejecting the church canon that dominated the art of that time, Giotto depicts his characters as similar to real people: with proportional, squat bodies, round (rather than elongated) faces, correct eye shape, etc. His saints do not hover above the ground, but stand firmly on it with both feet. They think more about earthly things than about heavenly things, experiencing completely human feelings and emotions. For the first time in the history of Italian painting, the state of mind of the characters painting conveyed by facial expressions, gestures, and posture. Instead of the traditional golden background, Giotto's frescoes depict a landscape, an interior, or sculptural groups on the facades of basilicas.
In the second half of the 14th century. The pictorial school of Siena comes first. The largest and most refined master of Siena painting of the 14th century. was Simone Martini (c. 1284-1344). Simone Martini's brush is the first in the history of art to depict a specific historical event with a portrait of a contemporary. This image " Condotiera Guidoriccio da Fogliano"in the Hall of Mappamondo (Map of the World) in the Palazzo Publico (Siena), which became the prototype for numerous future equestrian portraits. The altarpiece “The Annunciation” by Simone Martini, now kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, enjoys well-deserved fame.

Features of the Renaissance. Proto-Renaissance

Features of the Renaissance

Early Renaissance

In the 15th century Italian art took a dominant position in the artistic life of Europe. The foundations of humanistic secular (i.e., non-ecclesiastical) culture were laid in Florence, which pushed Siena and Pisa into the background. Political power here belonged to merchants and artisans; several wealthy families, constantly competing with each other, had the strongest influence on city affairs. This struggle ended at the end of the 14th century. victory of the Medici banking house. Its head, Cosimo de' Medici, became the unofficial ruler of Florence. Writers, poets, scientists, architects, and artists flocked to the court of Cosimo de' Medici. The Renaissance culture of Florence reached its peak under Lorenzo de' Medici, nicknamed the Magnificent. Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts and sciences, the creator of Plato's Academy, where the outstanding minds of Italy, poets and philosophers gathered, where refined debates were held, elevating the spirit and mind.

Architecture

Under Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici, a real revolution took place in the architecture of Florence: extensive construction took place here, significantly changing the appearance of the city. The founder of Renaissance architecture in Italy was Filippo Brunelleschi(1377-1446) - architect, sculptor and scientist, one of the creators of the scientific theory of perspective. Brunelleschi's greatest engineering achievement was the construction of the dome Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Thanks to his mathematical and technical genius, Brunelleschi managed to solve the most difficult problem for his time. The main difficulty that faced the master was caused by the gigantic size of the span of the middle cross (42 m), which required special efforts to facilitate the expansion. Brunelleschi solved the problem by using an ingenious design: a light hollow dome consisting of two shells, a frame system of eight load-bearing ribs connected by encircling rings, a skylight that closes and loads the vault. The dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore became the predecessor of numerous domed churches in Italy and other European countries.

Brunelleschi was one of the first in Italian architecture to creatively comprehend and originally interpret the ancient order system ( Ospedale degli Innocenti (foundling shelter), 1421-44), laid the foundation for the creation of domed churches based on the ancient order ( Church of San Lorenzo ). The creation by Brunelleschi commissioned by a wealthy Florentine family became a true pearl of the Early Renaissance. Pazzi Chapel(started in 1429). The humanism and poetry of Brunelleschi's creativity, the harmonious proportionality, lightness and grace of his buildings, which retain connections with the Gothic traditions, the creative freedom and scientific validity of his plans determined Brunelleschi's great influence on the subsequent development of Renaissance architecture.

One of the main achievements of Italian architecture of the 15th century. was the creation of a new type of city palaces-palazzos, which served as a model for public buildings of later times. Features of the 15th century palazzo are a clear division of the enclosed volume of the building into three floors, an open courtyard with summer floor-by-floor arcades, the use of rustication (stone with a roughly rounded or convex front surface) for facing the facade, as well as a strongly extended decorative cornice. A striking example of this style is the capital construction of Brunelleschi’s student Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (1396-1472), court architect of the Medici family, - Palazzo Medici - Riccardi (1444-60), which served as a model for the construction of many Florentine palaces. Close to Michelozzo's creation Palazzo Strozzi(founded in 1481), which is associated with the name of the architect and sculptor Benedetto da Maiano (1442-97).

A special place in the history of Italian architecture occupies Leon Battista Alberti(1404-72). A comprehensively gifted and widely educated man, he was one of the most brilliant humanists of his time. His range of interests was unusually diverse. He covered morality and law, mathematics, mechanics, economics, philosophy, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture. A brilliant stylist, Alberti left numerous works in Latin and Italian. In Italy and abroad, Alberti gained fame as an outstanding art theorist. The famous treatises “Ten Books on Architecture” (1449-52), “On Painting”, “On the Statue” (1435-36) belong to his pen. But Alberti's main vocation was architecture. In his architectural work, Alberti gravitated towards bold, experimental solutions, innovatively using the ancient artistic heritage. Alberti created a new type of city palace ( Palazzo Rucellai ). In religious architecture, striving for grandeur and simplicity, Alberti used motifs of Roman triumphal arches and arcades in the design of facades ( Church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, 1472-94). The name Alberti is rightfully considered one of the first among the great cultural creators of the Italian Renaissance.

Sculpture

In the 15th century Italian sculpture, which acquired an independent meaning independent of architecture, is flourishing. The practice of artistic life begins to include orders for the decoration of public buildings; art competitions are held. One of these competitions - for the manufacture of bronze of the second northern doors of the Florentine Baptistery (1401) - is considered a significant event that opened new page in the history of Italian Renaissance sculpture. The victory was won by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1381-1455).

One of the most educated people of his time, the first historian of Italian art, a brilliant draftsman, Ghiberti devoted his life to one type of sculpture - relief. Ghiberti considered the main principle of his art to be balance and harmony of all elements of the image. The pinnacle of Ghiberti's creativity was eastern doors of the Florentine Baptistery (1425-52), immortalizing the name of the master. The decoration of the doors includes ten square compositions made of gilded bronze (“ Creation of Adam and Eve"), with their extraordinary expressiveness reminiscent of paintings. The artist managed to convey the depth of space, saturated with pictures of nature, human figures, and architectural structures. With the light hand of Michelangelo, the eastern doors of the Florentine Baptistery began to be called "The Gates of Heaven"

Ghiberti's workshop became a school for a whole generation of artists, in particular, the famous Donatello, the great reformer of Italian sculpture, worked there. The work of Donatello (c. 1386-1466), which absorbed the democratic traditions of the culture of Florence in the 14th century, represents one of the peaks of the development of the art of the Early Renaissance. It embodied the search for new, realistic means of depicting reality, characteristic of Renaissance art, and close attention to man and his spiritual world. The influence of Donatello's work on the development of Italian Renaissance art was enormous.

The second generation of Florentine sculptors gravitated towards a more lyrical, peaceful, secular art. The leading role in it belonged to the della Robbia family of sculptors. The head of the family, Lucca della Robbia (1399/1400 - 1482), became famous for his use of glaze techniques in circular sculpture and relief. The technique of glaze (majolica), known since ancient times to the peoples of Western Asia, was brought to the Iberian Peninsula and the island of Majorca (where its name came from) in the Middle Ages, and then widely spread in Italy. Lucca della Robbia created medallions with reliefs on a deep blue background for buildings and altars, garlands of flowers and fruits, majolica busts of the Madonna, Christ and saints. The cheerful, elegant, kind art of this master received well-deserved recognition from his contemporaries. His nephew Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525) also achieved great perfection in the majolica technique ( reliefs on the façade of the Ospedale degli Innocenti).

Painting

The huge role that Brunelleschi played in Early Renaissance architecture, and Donatello in sculpture, belonged to Masaccio (1401-1428) in painting. Masaccio died young, not reaching the age of 27, and nevertheless managed to do a lot in painting. The famous art historian Whipper said: “Masaccio is one of the most independent and consistent geniuses in the history of European painting, the founder of new realism...” Continuing the search for Giotto, Masaccio boldly breaks with medieval artistic traditions. In fresco "Trinity"(1426-27), created for the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Masaccio used full perspective for the first time in wall painting. In the paintings of the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence (1425-28) - the main creation of his short life - Masaccio gives the images unprecedented life-like persuasiveness, emphasizes the physicality and monumentality of his characters, masterfully conveys the emotional state and psychological depth of the images. In fresco "Expulsion from Paradise" the artist solves the most difficult task for his time of depicting a naked human figure. The stern and courageous art of Masaccio had a huge impact on the artistic culture of the Renaissance.

The development of Early Renaissance painting was ambiguous: artists followed their own, sometimes different, paths. The secular principle, the desire for a fascinating narrative, and a lyrical earthly feeling found vivid expression in the works of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-69), a monk of the Carmelite Order. A charming master, the author of many altar compositions, among which the painting is considered the best « Adoration of the Child » , created for the chapel in Palazzo Medici - Riccardi, Filippo Lippi managed to convey in them human warmth and poetic love for nature.

In the middle of the 15th century. painting in Central Italy experienced a rapid flourishing, a striking example of which is creativity Piero della Francesca(1420-92), the greatest artist and art theorist of the Renaissance. The most wonderful creation of Piero della Francesca - cycle of frescoes in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, which are based on the legend of the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross. The frescoes, arranged in three tiers, trace the history of the life-giving cross from the very beginning, when the sacred tree grows from the seed of the tree of paradise of the knowledge of good and evil on the grave of Adam ("Death of Adam") and until the end, when the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius solemnly returns the Christian relic to Jerusalem (« Battle between Heraclius and Khosroes » ). The work of Piero della Francesca went beyond the local painting schools and determined the development of Italian art as a whole.

In the second half of the 15th century, many talented craftsmen worked in Northern Italy in the cities of Verona, Ferrara, and Venice. Among the painters of this time, the most famous is Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), a master of easel and monumental painting, draftsman and engraver, sculptor and architect. The artist’s pictorial style is distinguished by the chasing of forms and designs, the rigor and truthfulness of generalized images. Thanks to the spatial depth and sculptural nature of the figures, Mantegna achieves the impression of a real scene frozen for a moment - his characters look so three-dimensional and natural. Mantegna lived most of his life in Mantua, where he created his most famous work - "Camera degli Sposi" painting in the country castle of the Marquis L. Gonzaga. Using only the means of painting, he created here a luxurious Renaissance interior, a place for ceremonial receptions and holidays. Mantegna's art, which was extremely famous, influenced all of Northern Italian painting.

A special place in the painting of the Early Renaissance belongs to Sandro Botticelli(actually Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), who was born in 1445 in Florence into the family of a wealthy leather tanner. In 1459-64. the young man studies painting from the famous Florentine master Filippo Lippi. In 1470 he opened his own workshop in Florence, and in 1472 he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke.

Botticelli's first creation was the composition "Force", which he completed for the commercial court of Florence. The young artist quickly won the trust of customers and gained fame, which attracted the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the new ruler of Florence, and became his court master and favorite. Botticelli completed most of his paintings for the houses of the Duke and other noble Florentine families, as well as for churches, monasteries and public buildings in Florence.

Second half of the 1470s and 1480s. became a period of creative flourishing for Botticelli. For the main façade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella he writes the composition “ Adoration of the Magi" - a kind of mythologized group portrait of the Medici family. A few years later, the artist creates his famous mythological allegory “Spring”.

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV ordered a group of painters, among whom was Botticelli, to decorate his chapel with frescoes, which later received the name “Sistine.” Botticelli painted frescoes in the Sistine Chapel " Temptation of Christ », « Scenes from the Life of Moses », « Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron" Over the next few years, Botticelli completed a series of 4 frescoes based on short stories from Boccaccio’s Decameron, and created his most famous mythological works (“Birth of Venus”, “ Pallas and Centaur"), as well as several altar compositions for Florentine churches (" Coronation of the Virgin Mary », « Altar of San Barnaba"). Many times he turned to the image of the Madonna (“ Madonna del Magnificat », « Madonna with pomegranate », « Madonna with a book"), also worked in the portrait genre (" Portrait of Giuliano Medici", "Portrait of a young woman", "Portrait of a young man").

In the 1490s, during the period of social movements and mystical sermons of the monk Savonarola that shook Florence, moralizing notes and drama appeared in Botticelli’s art (“Slander”, “ Lamentation of Christ », « Mystical Christmas"). Under the influence of Savonarola, in a fit of religious exaltation, the artist even destroyed some of his works. In the mid-1490s, with the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the expulsion of his son Pietro from Florence, Botticelli lost his fame as a great artist. Forgotten, he quietly lives out his life in the house of his brother Simon. In 1510 the artist died.

Botticelli's exquisite art with elements of stylization (i.e. generalization of images using conventional techniques - simplification of color, shape and volume) is considered one of the pinnacles of the development of painting. Botticelli's art, unlike most of the Early Renaissance masters, was based on personal experience. Exceptionally sensitive and sincere, Botticelli went through a difficult and tragic path of creative quest - from a poetic perception of the world in his youth to mysticism and religious exaltation in adulthood.

EARLY RENAISSANCE

EARLY RENAISSANCE

High Renaissance

The High Renaissance, which gave humanity such great masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian, Bramante, covers a relatively short period of time - the end of the 15th and the first third of the 16th centuries. Only in Venice did the flowering of art continue until the middle of the century.

Fundamental changes associated with the decisive events of world history and the successes of advanced scientific thought have endlessly expanded people's ideas about the world - not only about the earth, but also about space. The perception of the world and the human personality seems to have become larger; in artistic creativity this was reflected not only in the majestic scale of architectural structures, monuments, solemn fresco cycles and paintings, but also in their content and expressiveness of images. The art of the High Renaissance is a living and complex artistic process with dazzlingly bright ups and subsequent crises.

Donato Bramante.

The center of High Renaissance architecture was Rome, where, on the basis of previous discoveries and successes, a single classical style emerged. The masters creatively used the ancient order system, creating structures whose majestic monumentality was in tune with the era. The largest representative of High Renaissance architecture was Donato Bramante (1444-1514). Bramante's buildings are distinguished by their monumentality and grandeur, harmonious perfection of proportions, integrity and clarity of compositional and spatial solutions, and free, creative use of classical forms. Bramante's highest creative achievement is the reconstruction of the Vatican (the architect actually created a new building, organically incorporating scattered old buildings into it). Bramante is also the author of the design of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. With his work, Bramante determined the development of architecture in the 16th century.

Leonardo da Vinci.

In the history of mankind it is not easy to find another person as brilliant as the founder of the art of the High Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519). The comprehensive nature of the activities of this great artist, sculptor, architect, scientist and engineer became clear only when the scattered manuscripts from his legacy were examined, numbering over seven thousand sheets containing scientific and architectural projects, inventions and sketches. It is difficult to name an area of ​​knowledge that his genius would not touch. Leonardo's universalism is so incomprehensible that the famous biographer of Renaissance figures Giorgio Vasari could not explain this phenomenon except by heavenly intervention: “Whatever this man turned to, his every action bore the stamp of divinity.”

In his famous “Treatise on Painting” (1498) and other notes, Leonardo paid great attention to the study of the human body, information on anatomy, proportions, the relationship between movements, facial expressions and the emotional state of a person. Leonardo was also interested in the problems of chiaroscuro, volumetric modeling, linear and aerial perspective. Leonardo paid tribute not only to the theory of art. He created a number of magnificent altar images and portraits. Leonardo's brush belongs to one of the most famous works of world painting - “Mona Lisa” (“La Gioconda”). Leonardo created monumental sculptural images, designed and built architectural structures. Leonardo remains to this day one of the most charismatic personalities of the Renaissance. A huge number of books have been dedicated to him, his life has been studied in detail. And yet, much in his work remains a mystery and continues to excite people’s minds.

Rafael Santi.

The art of Raphael Santi (1483-1520) also belongs to the peaks of the Italian Renaissance. In the history of world art, the work of Raphael is associated with the idea of ​​sublime beauty and harmony. It is generally accepted that in the constellation of brilliant masters of the High Renaissance, it was Raphael who was the main bearer of harmony. The tireless striving for a bright, perfect beginning permeates all of Raphael’s work and constitutes its inner meaning. His works are unusually attractive in their natural grace (“ Sistine Madonna"). Perhaps this is why the master gained such extraordinary popularity among the public and had many followers among artists at all times. Raphael was not only an amazing painter and portrait painter, but also a monumentalist who worked in fresco techniques, an architect, and a master of decor. All these talents manifested themselves with particular force in his paintings of the apartments of Pope Julius II in the Vatican (“School of Athens”). In the art of the brilliant artist, a new image of the Renaissance man was born - beautiful, harmonious, perfect physically and spiritually.

Michelangelo Buonarotti.

Contemporary Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael was their eternal rival - Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest master of the High Renaissance - sculptor, painter, architect and poet. This titan of the Renaissance began his creative path with sculpture. His colossal statues became a symbol of a new man - a hero and fighter (“David”). The master erected many architectural and sculptural structures, the most famous of which is the Medici Chapel in Florence. The splendor of these works is built on the colossal tension of the characters’ feelings ( Sarcophagus of Giuliano Medici). But Michelangelo’s paintings in the Vatican, in the Sistine Chapel, are especially famous, in which he proved himself to be a brilliant painter. Perhaps no one in world art, neither before nor after Michelangelo, has created characters so strong in body and spirit (“ Creation of Adam"). The huge, incredibly complex fresco on the ceiling was painted by the artist alone, without assistants; it remains to this day an unsurpassed monumental work of Italian painting. But in addition to painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the master, already in old age, created the fiercely inspired “Last Judgment” - a symbol of the collapse of the ideals of his great era.

Michelangelo worked a lot and fruitfully in architecture, in particular, he supervised the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral and the ensemble Capitol Square in Rome. The work of the great Michelangelo constituted an entire era and was far ahead of its time; it played a colossal role in world art, in particular, it influenced the formation of the principles of the Baroque.

Giorgione and Titian.

Venice, where painting flourished, added a bright page to the history of the art of the High Renaissance. Giorgione is considered the first master of the High Renaissance in Venice. His art is completely special. The spirit of clear harmony and some special intimate contemplation and dreaminess reigns in it. He often painted delightful beauties, real goddesses. Usually this is a poetic fiction - the embodiment of an unrealizable dream, admiration for a romantic feeling and a beautiful woman. His paintings contain a hint of sensual passion, sweet pleasure, unearthly happiness. With the art of Giorgione, Venetian painting acquired pan-Italian significance, establishing its artistic characteristics.

Titian in went down in the history of Italian art as a titan and the head of the Venetian school, as a symbol of its heyday. The breath of a new era - stormy, tragic, sensual - was manifested with particular force in the work of this artist. Titian's work is distinguished by its exceptionally wide and varied coverage of types and genres of painting. Titian was one of the founders of monumental altar painting, landscape as an independent genre, and various types of portraits, including ceremonial ones. In his work, ideal images coexist with bright characters, tragic conflicts with scenes of jubilant joy, religious compositions with mythological and historical paintings.

Titian developed a new painting technique that had an exceptional influence on the further development of world fine art until the 20th century. Titian belongs to the greatest colorists of world painting. His paintings shine with gold and a complex range of vibrating, luminous undertones of color. Titian, who lived for almost a century, experienced the collapse of Renaissance ideals; the master's work half belongs to the Late Renaissance. His hero, entering the fight against hostile forces, dies, but retains his greatness. The influence of Titian's great workshop affected all Venetian art.

HIGH RENAISSANCE

HIGH RENAISSANCE

Late Renaissance

In the second half of the 16th century. In Italy, the decline of the economy and trade was growing, Catholicism entered into a struggle with humanistic culture, art was experiencing a deep crisis. It strengthened anti-Renaissance tendencies, embodied in mannerism. However, Mannerism almost did not affect Venice, which in the second half of the 16th century became the main center of Late Renaissance art. In line with the high humanistic Renaissance tradition, in new historical conditions, the work of the great masters of the Late Renaissance, enriched with new forms, developed in Venice - Palladio, Veronese, Tintoretto.

Andrea Palladio

The work of the northern Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80), based on a deep study of ancient and Renaissance architecture, represents one of the peaks in the art of the Late Renaissance. Palladio developed the principles of architecture, which were developed in the architecture of European classicism of the 17th-18th centuries. and received the name Palladianism. The architect outlined his ideas in the theoretical work “Four Books on Architecture” (1570). Palladio's buildings (mainly city palaces and villas) are full of graceful beauty and naturalness, harmonious completeness and strict orderliness, are distinguished by clarity and expediency of planning and organic connection with the environment ( Palazzo Chiericati). The ability to harmoniously connect architecture with the surrounding landscape was demonstrated with particular force in Palladio’s villas, imbued with an elegiacally enlightened sense of nature and marked by classical clarity and simplicity of form and composition ( Villa Capra (Rotunda)). Palladio created the first monumental theater building in Italy, the Teatro Olimpico. Palladio's influence on the development of architecture in subsequent centuries was enormous.

Veronese and Tintoretto...

The festive, life-affirming character of the Venetian Renaissance was most clearly manifested in the work of Paolo Veronese. A muralist, he created magnificent decorative ensembles of wall and ceiling paintings with many characters and interesting details. Veronese created own style: his spectacular, spectacular paintings are full of emotion, passion and life, and the heroes, the Venetian nobility, are usually located in patrician palaces or against the backdrop of luxurious nature. They are carried away by grandiose feasts or enchanting celebrations (“Marriage at Cana”). Veronese was the master of merry Venice, its triumphs, the poet of its golden splendor. Veronese had an exceptional gift as a colorist. His colors are permeated with light, intense and not only give objects color, but themselves transform into an object, turning into clouds, fabric, a human body. Because of this, the real beauty of figures and objects is multiplied by the beauty of color and texture, which produces a strong emotional impact on the viewer.

The complete opposite of Veronese was his contemporary Tintoretto (1518-94), the last major master of the Italian Renaissance. The abundance of external artistic influences dissolved in the unique creative individuality of Tintoretto. In his work he was a gigantic figure, the creator of a volcanic temperament, violent passions and heroic intensity. His work was a great success among his contemporaries and subsequent generations. Tintoretto was distinguished by a truly inhuman capacity for work and tireless quest. He felt the tragedy of his time more acutely and deeply than most of his contemporaries. The master rebelled against established traditions in the fine arts - adherence to symmetry, strict balance, staticity; expanded the boundaries of space, filled it with dynamics, dramatic action, and began to express human feelings more clearly. 1590 g . The art of mannerism departs from the Renaissance ideals of a harmonious perception of the world. A person finds himself at the mercy of supernatural forces. The world appears unstable, shaky, in a state of decay. Mannerist images are full of anxiety, restlessness, and tension. The artist moves away from nature, strives to surpass it, following in his work a subjective “inner idea”, the basis of which is not the real world, but the creative imagination; the means of execution is “beautiful manner” as the sum of certain techniques. Among them are the arbitrary elongation of figures, a complex serpentine rhythm, the unreality of fantastic space and light, and sometimes cold, piercing colors.

The largest and most gifted master of mannerism, a painter of complex creative fate, was Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556). In his famous painting " Descent from the Cross“The composition is unstable, the figures are pretentiously broken, the light colors are harsh. Francesco Mazzola, nicknamed Parmigianino (1503-40), loved to amaze the viewer: for example, he wrote his “ Self-portrait in a convex mirror" Deliberate deliberateness distinguishes his famous painting “ Madonna with a long neck ».

The Medici court painter Agnolo Bronzino (1503-72) is famous for his ceremonial portraits. They echoed the era of bloody atrocities and moral decline that engulfed the highest circles of Italian society. Bronzino’s noble customers seem to be separated from the viewer by an invisible distance; the rigidity of their poses, the impassivity of their faces, the richness of their clothes, the gestures of their beautiful ceremonial hands - all this is like an outer shell hiding an inner flawed life. In the portrait of Eleanor of Toledo with her son (c. 1545), the inaccessibility of the cold, aloof image is enhanced by the fact that the viewer's attention is completely absorbed by the flat large pattern of the duchess's magnificent brocade clothing. The type of court portrait created by the Mannerists influenced the portrait art of the 16th-17th centuries. in many other European countries.

The art of mannerism was transitional: the Renaissance was passing away, and the time was coming for a new all-European artistic style - Baroque.

Art of the Northern Renaissance.

The countries of Northern Europe did not have their own ancient past, but the Renaissance period stands out in their history: from the turnXV – XVIthrough the second halfXVIIcentury. This time is distinguished by the penetration of Renaissance ideals into various spheres of culture and the gradual change in its style. As in the birthplace of the Renaissance, in the art of the Northern Renaissance, interest in the real world changed the forms of artistic creativity. However, the art of the northern countries was not characterized by the pathos of Italian painting, glorifying the power of the titanic man. The burghers (as wealthy townspeople were called) valued integrity, loyalty to duty and word, and the sanctity of the marital vow and home. In burgher circles, their own ideal of a person was formed - clear, sober, pious and businesslike. The art of the burghers poetizes the ordinary average person and his world - the world of everyday life and simple things.

Masters of the Renaissance in the Netherlands.

New features of Renaissance art appeared primarily in the Netherlands, which was one of the richest and most industrialized countries in Europe. Because of its extensive international connections, the Netherlands absorbed new discoveries much more quickly than other Nordic countries.

The Renaissance style in the Netherlands opened Jan Van Eyck(1390-1441). His most famous work is Ghent Altarpiece, on which the artist began to work together with his brother, and continued to work independently after his death for another 6 years. The Ghent altarpiece, created for the city cathedral, is a two-tier fold, on 12 boards of which there are pictures of everyday, everyday life (on the outer boards, which were visible when the fold was closed) and festive, jubilant, transformed life (on the inner doors, which appeared open during church holidays). This is a monument of art glorifying the beauty of earthly life. Van Eyck's emotional feeling - "the world is like paradise", every particle of which is beautiful - is expressed clearly and clearly. The artist relied on many observations from nature. All figures and objects have three-dimensional volume and weight. The Van Eyck brothers were among the first to discover the possibilities oil painting; from this time on, it begins to gradually replace tempera.

In the second half of XVcentury, full of political and religious strife, complex, unique art stands out in the art of the Netherlands Hieronymus Bosch(1450?-1516). This is a very curious artist with an extraordinary imagination. He lived in his own and terrible world. In Bosch's paintings there is a condensation of medieval folklore ideas, grotesque montages of the living and the mechanical, the terrible and the comic. In his compositions, which had no center, there is no main character. The space in several layers is filled with numerous groups of figures and objects: monstrously exaggerated reptiles, toads, spiders, terrible creatures in which parts of different creatures and objects are combined. The purpose of Bosch's compositions is moral edification. Bosch does not find harmony and perfection in nature; his demonic images remind of the vitality and omnipresence of world evil, the cycle of life and death.

The man in Bosch's paintings is pitiful and weak. Thus, in the triptych " A cart of hay"The artist reveals the history of humanity. The left wing tells the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, the right one depicts Hell and all the horrors that await sinners here. The central part of the picture illustrates the popular proverb “The world is a haystack, everyone takes from it what he manages to grab.” Bosch shows how people fight over a piece of hay, die under the wheels of a cart, and try to climb onto it. On top of the cart, having renounced the world, lovers sing and kiss. There is an angel on one side of them, and a devil on the other: who will win? Creepy creatures are dragging the cart into the underworld. God looks at all the actions of people with bewilderment. The painting is imbued with an even more gloomy mood. Carrying the cross": Christ carries his heavy cross surrounded by disgusting people with bulging eyes and gaping mouths. For their sake, the Lord sacrifices himself, but his death on the cross will leave them indifferent.

Bosch had already died when another famous Dutch artist was born - Pieter Bruegel the Elder(1525-1569), nicknamed Muzhitsky for his many paintings depicting the life of peasants. Bruegel took folk proverbs and the everyday worries of ordinary people as the basis for many of his subjects. The completeness of the images of the paintings " Peasant wedding" And " Peasant dance"carries the power of the folk element. Even Bruegel’s paintings of biblical scenes are populated by the Netherlands, and the events of distant Judea take place against the backdrop of snow-covered streets under the dim sky of his native country (“ Sermon of John the Baptist"). Showing the seemingly unimportant, secondary, the artist speaks about the main thing in people's lives, recreates the spirit of his time.

Small canvas " Hunters in the snow"(January) from the series "Seasons" is considered one of the unsurpassed masterpieces of world painting. Tired hunters with dogs return home. Together with them, the viewer enters the hill, from which a panorama of a small town opens. Snow-covered banks of the river, thorny trees frozen in the clear frosty air, birds fly, sit on tree branches and roofs of houses, people are busy with their daily affairs. All these seemingly little things, together with the blue sky, black trees, and white snow, create in the picture a panorama of the world that the artist passionately loves.

Bruegel's most tragic painting " Parable of the Blind"Written by the artist shortly before his death. It illustrates the Gospel story: “if a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit.” Perhaps this is an image of humanity, blinded by its desires, moving towards its destruction. However, Bruegel does not judge, but, comprehending the laws of relationships between people with each other, with the environment, penetrating into the essence of human nature, he reveals to people themselves, their place in the world.

Painting of Germany during the Renaissance.

The features of the Renaissance in the art of Germany appear later than in the Netherlands. The flowering of German humanism, secular sciences and culture falls in the early yearsXVIV. This was a short period during which German culture gave the world the highest artistic values. These include, first of all, the work Albrecht Durer(1471-1528) - the most important artist of the German Renaissance.

Dürer is a typical representative of the Renaissance; he was a painter, an engraver, a mathematician, and an engineer, and wrote treatises on fortification and art theory. On self-portraits he appears intelligent, noble, focused, full of deep philosophical thoughts. In his paintings, Dürer is not content with formal beauty, but strives to give a symbolic expression of abstract thoughts.

A special place in Dürer’s creative heritage belongs to the “Apocalypse” series, which includes 15 large woodcuts. Dürer illustrates predictions from the “Revelation of John the Evangelist”, for example, the leaf “ Four Horsemen“symbolizes terrible disasters - war, pestilence, famine, unjust judgment. The premonition of change, difficult trials and disasters expressed in the engravings turned out to be prophetic (the Reformation and the Peasant and Religious Wars that followed it soon began).

Another remarkable artist of that time was Lucas Cranach the Elder(1472-1553). His paintings are kept in the Hermitage " Madonna and Child under the Apple Tree" And " Female portrait" In them we see a woman’s face, depicted in many of the master’s paintings (it is even called “Cranach’s”): a small chin, narrow eyes, golden hair. The artist carefully designs jewelry and clothing, his paintings are a feast for the eyes. The purity and naivety of the images once again make you look at these paintings. Cranach was a wonderful portrait painter; he created images of many famous contemporaries - Martin Luther (who was his friend), Duke Henry of Saxony and many others.

But the most famous portrait painter of the Northern Renaissance, without a doubt, can be recognized as another German painter Hans Holbein the Younger(1497-1543). For a long time he was the court artist of the English king HenryVIII. In his portrait, Holbein perfectly conveys the imperious nature of the king, who is unfamiliar with doubt. Small, intelligent eyes on a fleshy face reveal him as a tyrant. Portrait of Henry VIII was so reliable that it frightened people who knew the king. Holbein painted portraits of many famous people of that time, in particular the statesman and writer Thomas More, the philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam and many others.

The development of Renaissance culture in Germany, the Netherlands, and some other European countries was interrupted by the Reformation and the religious wars that followed it. Following this, the time came for the formation of new principles in art, which entered the next stage of its development.

The Renaissance is one of the most important periods in the cultural development of mankind, for it was at this time that the foundations of fundamentally new culture, a wealth of ideas, thoughts, symbols arises that will be actively used by subsequent generations. In the 15th century In Italy, a new image of the city is being born, which is being developed more as a project, a future model, than a real architectural embodiment. Of course, in Renaissance Italy they did a lot of improvement of cities: they straightened streets, leveled facades, spent a lot of money on creating pavements, etc. Architects also built new houses, fitting them into empty spaces, or, in rare cases, erected them instead of demolished old ones buildings In general, the Italian city in reality remained medieval in its architectural landscape. This was not a period of active urban development, but it was at this time that urban issues began to be recognized as one of the most important areas of cultural construction. Many interesting treatises have appeared on what a city is, not only as a political, but also as a sociocultural phenomenon. How does a new city, different from the medieval one, appear in the eyes of Renaissance humanists?

In all their urban planning models, projects and utopias, the city was first of all freed from its sacred prototype - the heavenly Jerusalem, the ark, symbolizing the space of human salvation. During the Renaissance, the idea of ​​an ideal city arose, which was created not according to a divine prototype, but as a result of the individual creative activity of the architect. The famous L. B. Alberti, author of the classic “Ten Books on Architecture,” argued that original architectural ideas often come to him at night, when his attention is distracted and he has dreams in which things appear that do not reveal themselves during wakefulness. This secularized description of the creative process is quite different from classical Christian acts of vision.

The new city appeared in the works of Italian humanists as corresponding not to heavenly, but to earthly regulations in its social, political, cultural and everyday purposes. It was built not on the principle of sacred-spatial contraction, but on the basis of a functional, completely secular spatial distinction, and was divided into spaces of squares and streets, which were grouped around important residential or public buildings. Such reconstruction, although actually carried out to a certain extent, for example in Florence, was realized to a greater extent in the fine arts, in the construction of Renaissance paintings and in architectural projects. The Renaissance city symbolized the victory of man over nature, the optimistic belief that the “separation” of human civilization from nature into its new man-made world had reasonable, harmonious and beautiful grounds.

Renaissance man is a prototype of the civilization of conquering space, who with his own hands completed what was left unfinished by the creator. That is why, when planning cities, architects were keen on creating beautiful projects, based on the aesthetic significance of various combinations of geometric shapes, in which it was necessary to place all the buildings necessary for the life of the urban community. Utilitarian considerations faded into the background, and the free aesthetic play of architectural fantasies subjugated the consciousness of the city planners of that time. The idea of ​​free creativity as the basis for the existence of an individual is one of the most important cultural imperatives of the Renaissance. Architectural creativity in this case also embodied this idea, which was expressed in the creation of construction projects that were more like some kind of intricate ornamental fantasies. In practice, these ideas were realized primarily in the creation of various types of stone pavements, which were covered with slabs of the correct shape. These were the main innovations that the townspeople were proud of, calling them “diamond.”

The city was initially conceived as an artificial work, opposed to the naturalness of the natural world, because, unlike the medieval one, it subjugated and mastered the living space, and did not simply fit into the terrain. Therefore, the ideal cities of the Renaissance had a strict geometric shape in the form of a square, cross or octagon. As I. E. Danilova aptly put it, the architectural projects of that time were, as it were, superimposed on the terrain from above as a stamp of the dominance of the human mind, to which everything is subject. In the modern era, man sought to make the world predictable, reasonable, and get rid of the incomprehensible game of chance or fortune. Thus, L. B. Alberti, in his work “On the Family,” argued that reason plays a much greater role in civil affairs and in human life than fortune. The famous theorist of architecture and urban planning spoke about the need to test and conquer the world, extending the rules of applied mathematics and geometry to it. From this point of view, the Renaissance city represented the highest form of conquest of the world and space, for urban planning projects involved the reorganization of the natural landscape as a result of the imposition of a geometric grid of delineated spaces on it. It, unlike the Middle Ages, was an open model, the center of which was not the cathedral, but the free space of the square, which opened on all sides with streets, with views into the distance, beyond the city walls.

Modern specialists in the field of culture are paying more and more attention to the problems of spatial organization of Renaissance cities, in particular, the topic of the city square, its genesis and semantics are actively discussed at various kinds of international symposiums. R. Barth wrote: “The city is a fabric consisting not of equivalent elements in which their functions can be listed, but of elements, significant and insignificant... Moreover, I must note that more and more importance is beginning to be attached to significant emptiness instead emptiness of the significant. In other words, elements become increasingly significant not in themselves, but depending on their location.”

The medieval city, its buildings, the church embodied the phenomenon of closedness, the need to overcome some physical or spiritual barrier, be it a cathedral or a palace similar to a small fortress, this is a special space separated from the outside world. Penetration there has always symbolized familiarization with some hidden secret. The square was a symbol of a completely different era: it embodied the idea of ​​openness not only upwards, but also to the sides, through streets, alleys, windows, etc. People always entered the square from a closed space. Any area created, by contrast, the feeling of an instantly open and open space. City squares seemed to symbolize the very process of liberation from mystical secrets and embodied a frankly desacralized space. L. B. Alberti wrote that the most important decoration of cities was given by position, direction, correspondence, and placement of streets and squares.

These ideas were supported by the real practice of the struggle for the liberation of urban spaces from the control of individual family clans, which took place in Florence in the 14th and 15th centuries. During this period, F. Brunelleschi designed three new squares in the city. Tombstones of various noble persons are removed from the squares, and markets are rebuilt accordingly. The idea of ​​openness of space is embodied by L. B. Alberti in relation to walls. He advises using colonnades as often as possible in order to emphasize the conventionality of walls as something that is an obstacle. That is why Alberti’s arch is perceived as the opposite of a locked city gate. The arch is always open; it serves as a frame for the opening views and thereby connects the urban space.

Renaissance urbanization does not imply the closedness and isolation of urban space, but, on the contrary, its spread outside the city. The aggressive offensive pathos of the “conqueror of nature” is demonstrated by the projects of Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Yu. M. Lotman wrote about this spatial impulse, characteristic of his treatises. Martini fortresses in most cases have the shape of a star, which is flared in all directions by the corners of walls with bastions that are strongly extended outward. This architectural solution was largely due to the invention of the cannonball. The guns, which were installed on bastions extended far into space, made it possible to actively counteract enemies, hit them at a great distance and prevent them from reaching the main walls.

Leonardo Bruni, in his laudatory works dedicated to Florence, appears before us rather than a real city, but an embodied sociocultural doctrine, for he is trying to “correct” the urban layout and describe the location of buildings in a new way. As a result, the Palazzo Signoria appears in the center of the city, from which, as a symbol of the city’s power, diverge wider than in reality rings of walls, fortifications, etc. In this description, Bruni moves away from the closed model of the medieval city and tries to embody a new idea the idea of ​​urban expansion, which is a kind of symbol of the new era. Florence seizes nearby lands and subjugates vast territories.

Thus, the ideal city in the 15th century. is conceived not in a vertical sacralized projection, but in a horizontal sociocultural space, which is understood not as a sphere of salvation, but as a comfortable living environment. That is why the ideal city is depicted by artists of the 15th century. not as some distant goal, but from within, as a beautiful and harmonious sphere of human life.

However, it is necessary to note certain contradictions that were initially present in the image of the Renaissance city. Despite the fact that during this period, magnificent and comfortable dwellings of a new type appeared, created primarily “for the sake of the people,” the city itself was already beginning to be perceived as a stone cage that did not allow the development of a free, creative human personality. An urban landscape can be perceived as something that is contrary to nature, and, as is known, it is nature (both human and non-human) that is the subject of aesthetic admiration by artists, poets and thinkers of that time.

The beginning of urbanization of the sociocultural space, even in its primary, rudimentary and enthusiastically perceived forms, was already awakening a feeling of ontological loneliness, abandonment in the new, “horizontal” world. In the future, this duality will develop, turning into an acute contradiction in the cultural consciousness of modern times and leading to the emergence of utopian anti-urban scenarios.

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Theory of culture. Culturology in the system of socio-humanitarian knowledge. Basic cultural theories and schools of our time. Dynamics of culture. History of culture. Ancient civilization is the cradle of European culture. Culture of the European Middle Ages. Current problems of modern culture. National faces of culture in a globalizing world. Languages ​​and cultural codes.

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