Page 1
Among the countries of Western Europe that had a developed feudal system of relations, in Germany the elimination of medieval foundations took the most tortuous, complicated path. Economically and politically, Germany developed in a contradictory and difficult manner; Its spiritual culture, and in particular its art, was no less controversial.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the same processes took place in Germany as in other European countries: the role of cities increased, manufacturing production developed, the burghers and merchants became increasingly important, and the medieval guild system disintegrated. Similar shifts took place in culture and in worldview: man’s self-awareness awakened and grew, his interest in studying reality, his desire to possess scientific knowledge, and the need to find his place in the world grew; There was a gradual secularization of science and art, their liberation from the age-old power of the church. The sprouts of humanism arose in the cities. The German people owned one of the greatest cultural achievements of the era - the largest contribution to the development of printing. However, spiritual changes took place in Germany more slowly and with greater deviations than in countries such as Italy and the Netherlands.
At the turn of the 14th - 15th centuries. in the German lands not only was there no tendency towards centralization of the country, but, on the contrary, its fragmentation intensified, which contributed to the survivability of feudal foundations. The emergence and development of the sprouts of capitalist relations in individual industries did not lead to the unification of Germany. It consisted of many large and small principalities and independent imperial cities, which led an almost independent existence and tried by all means to maintain this state of affairs. E Tim was also largely determined by the nature of class relationships. In his work “The Peasant War in Germany,” Engels characterizes the social life of Germany at the beginning of the 16th century: “. . . different classes of the empire - princes, nobles, prelates, patricians, burghers, plebeians and peasants - constituted an extremely chaotic mass with very diverse, mutually intersecting needs in all directions. “The hostile, narrow interests of the classes often led them to contradictions and mutual clashes, which interfered with the main thing cause - the fight against feudalism, overcoming medieval traditions in economics, politics, culture, way of life public life. The continuously growing general discontent, which at times erupted in the form of individual local uprisings, had not yet assumed the character of a nationwide revolutionary movement that swept Germany in the first decades of the 16th century.
The contradictions in the social development of Germany were reflected in German architecture of the 15th century. As in the Netherlands, there was not that decisive turn to new figurative content and a new language of architectural forms that characterizes the architecture of Italy. Although Gothic as the dominant architectural style was already on its way out, its traditions were still very strong; The vast majority of the buildings are from the 15th century. to one degree or another bears the imprint of its influence. The sprouts of the new were forced to make their way through a difficult struggle through the thickness of conservative layers.
The proportion of monuments of religious architecture in Germany in the 15th century was greater than in the Netherlands. The construction of grandiose Gothic cathedrals, begun in the previous century (for example, in Ulm), was still ongoing and completed. The new temple buildings, however, were no longer distinguished by such a scale. These were simpler churches, mostly of the hall type; naves of the same height in the absence of a transept contributed to the merging of their internal space into a single visible whole. Particular attention was paid to the decorative design of the vaults: vaults with mesh and other complex patterns predominated. Examples of such structures are the Church of Our Lady in Ingolstatt and the church in Anaberg. The extensions to old churches are also characterized by a single hall space - the choir of the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg and the choir of the Church of Our Lady in Esslingen. The architectural forms themselves acquired greater complexity and whimsicality in the spirit of “flaming” Gothic. The cloister of the cathedral in Eichstätt can be considered an example of the decorative richness of forms.
The architecture of the "German Renaissance", the significance of which we owe to the extensive research of Lübcke, Dohme, Bezold and Hoffmann, then to the photographs and publications of Orthwein and Schaeffer, Fritsch and others, cannot equal its Italian sister either in grandeur, or in logic and clarity. In the layout and body of the building, it retained the established forms. The Gothic cross vault with ribs and Gothic through carving dominated most of the few newly built churches that were now emerging in Germany. The extreme corner towers, during the transition from medieval castles to modern palaces, often marked the outer frame of magnificent princely residential buildings equipped with extensive courtyards, the staircases of which inside the outer towers, not to mention exceptions, were still spiral throughout the century. The houses of the townspeople retained their gables on the outside, and in northern Germany they had porches inside, indicating their origin from a Lower Saxon peasant house; in upper Germany, with richer buildings, they retained a courtyard, through which there is at least one arched gallery connecting the front part of the house with rear All these buildings become works of the German Renaissance mainly thanks to decorations imitating antique ones, thanks to pilasters and friezes decorated with symmetrical floral curls, vases, cupids and fabulous animals in the spirit of the Upper Italian early Renaissance and thanks to arbitrarily reworked Greco-Roman capitals, the bearers of which are often swollen below are “baluster” or “candelabra” columns. These new forms of decoration appear primarily on portals, lanterns, stair towers, and pediments. In the German Renaissance, however, from the very beginning there was no shortage of complex multi-story facades with pilasters and half-columns; unfortunately, from the very beginning he lacks only a sense of pure proportions and organic divisions, which manifests itself only in the second half of the century.
The strictest and most organic imitators of ancient art are, of course, those German architects who themselves visited Italy. Actually, the buildings erected in Germany by the Italians do not belong to the German Renaissance, such as, for example, the beautiful Belvedere pleasure palace in Prague (1536), surrounded by a gallery with semi-circular arcades, then the courtyard of the palace in Landsgut (1536-1547) in the style of the classical high Renaissance, and also the then pure palace portal (1555) on the Judenhof in Dresden, the buildings of Giovanni Maria Nosseni, described by Makovsky, especially his magnificent princely chapel (1585) in the cathedral in Freiberg and the magnificent Piast palace in Brega (1547), the Upper Italian builders of which However, with the assistance, of course, of German workers, they made so many concessions to German taste that we can classify it as a German Renaissance.
The truly German architecture of the Renaissance, whose acquaintance with Italian forms is based on the ornaments of engravings and artistic manuals, comes from the Italianized German ornamentation of the 16th century, first thoroughly illuminated by Lichtwark and more recently by Dery. Its sources at that time include woodcuts by Peter Flöttner (Flöttner, d. 1546), who was put forward by Haupt, not without a stretch, to the forefront of general development, after Reimers compiled a summary of his woodcuts and drawings, Domanig - medals, and Conrad Lange - all his works in general. The printed works that had the greatest influence were: a small book on art by Vogtherr (1537), “Moorish Ornament” by Flettner (1549), illustrations by the same Flettner to the German Vitruvius (1548) by Rivius, and, finally, a brilliant book on architecture by Wendel Ditterlin ( 1598), with full sails sailing to the wonderful land of the Baroque style.
Germany by the beginning of the 16th century. was fragmented into many dwarf states. It was a time of clashing interests of different classes and religious storms. The flowering of culture in Germany was not as organic as in Italy. There was no antique heritage of its own; antiquity became known only through processing by the Italians. In contrast to the increasingly secular art of Italy, in Germany religiosity is not diminished; humanist theologians advocate the renewal of the Catholic Church.
The “Seasons” cycle included six paintings, each of which was dedicated to two months. Preserved: "Harvest", "Haymaking", "Dark Day", "Hunters in the Snow" and "Return of the Herd"
Germany, being in the center of Europe, was exposed to external influences. Developing in the general mainstream of the European Renaissance, German art largely advanced in its own way. In the art of Germany XV-XVI centuries. reminiscences of the Gothic appeared. Local artistic traditions were important for the development of German art. Mystical writers of the XIII-XIV centuries. gave rich material to artists of the next two centuries.
The art of the German Renaissance took shape during one of the most dramatic periods in German history. In 1453, Byzantium fell. Heretical teachings spread. Many expected the end of the world in 1500.
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). The Renaissance in Germany is called the era of Durer. Dürer is the first German artist whose popularity was pan-European during his lifetime.
Albrecht Dürer, like many creators of the Renaissance, was a universal personality. His talent equally developed in engraving, painting, and art theory. His creative credo is expressed in the treatise “Four Books on Proportions”, in which he wrote, addressing the artist: “do not shy away from nature in the hope that you could find the best yourself, for you will be deceived, for, truly, art lies in nature: whoever knows how to discover it owns it.”
Dürer was born in Nuremberg into the family of a jeweler in 1471. He was the third child in a large family. Albrecht received his first drawing skills in his father's workshop, then studied with Michael Wolgemut for three years in the largest workshop in the city. On December 1, 1489, Dürer completed his studies and, according to the guild rules, went to travel around the cities of Germany. The wanderings lasted 4 years. In 1493, Dürer painted his first self-portrait, appearing as a dreamy young man with a flower in his hand. In the spring of 1494, Dürer was summoned by his father to Nuremberg, where he married the daughter of an influential Nuremberg burgher, mechanic and musician Hans Frey, 15-year-old Agnes.
Soon after the wedding, the artist went to Italy. During his stay in Italy, Dürer paid a lot of attention to the depiction of the naked body. Returning from Venice to Nuremberg, Dürer captured alpine mountains and the cities lying on his way in numerous watercolors (“View of Innsbruck” 1495, “View of Trient”).
Woodcut (from the Greek Xylon - wood and grapho - write) is a woodcut when a printing form is imprinted using letterpress printing - from the flat surface of a wooden board coated with paint.
1495-1500 - the beginning of independent activity, when, having returned from Italy, the artist simultaneously began to try himself in painting, wood engraving and copper engraving. Dürer created engravings on mythological, everyday and literary subjects. He works on altar images, giving them realistic authenticity. Dürer's portraits marked the beginning of the flowering of this genre in German painting. By the end of the 90s. his name becomes famous not only in Germany, but also in Europe, mainly due to the popularity of engravings. The main thing for Dürer at this time was woodcuts. He turned to the common single-sheet woodcut, and eventually moved on to creating a series of engravings, bound in the form of bound books with accompanying text on the back of the sheets. In the second half of the 90s. Dürer switches to a new technique: he introduces shading in shape with curving lines, uses intersecting strokes that give deep shadows. Among the best woodcuts of this period are “St. Catherine" 1498, series of engravings "Apocalypse". The descriptions of the disasters and destruction of mankind contained in the Apocalypse made a strong impression at that time. Dürer's illustrations reflect reformist sentiments. Babylon is papal Rome, and the characters are dressed in modern German and Venetian costumes. The series consists of 15 engravings, to which Dürer subsequently added a title page. Earlier sheets - “Opening of the Seventh Seal”, “Worship of the Father” are distinguished by the abundance of figures, in later ones - “Seven Lamps” - the figures are enlarged, the forms are interpreted more generally. The final page of "Heavenly Jerusalem" shows how an angel locks the defeated Satan in the underworld. Another angel shows John the Heavenly Jerusalem, which looks like a medieval city with massive gates and numerous towers.
The second series of woodcuts is called "Great Passions". It was completed only in 1510-1511. The first 7 leaves tell about the most tragic episodes of the life of Christ (“Prayer for the Cup”, “Flagellation”, “Behold the Man”, “Carrying the Cross”, “Mourning” and “Entombment”). One of the most popular sheets in the series was “Carrying the Cross,” in which Dürer presented Christ falling under the weight of the cross.
The subjects of copper engravings are varied. These are mythological, literary, and everyday stories. One of the most famous works is “The Prodigal Son”. Among the genre images is “Three Peasants”.
The engraving "Melancholy" of 1514 is one of Dürer's most mysterious works. It depicts a woman sitting alone in laurel wreath, personifying creative genius. She has a bunch of keys and a wallet on her side, a closed book on her lap, right hand compass is a symbol of geometry and construction art. On the wall behind the woman hang scales, an hourglass, a bell and a magic square. Durer's main character is a man whom the artist places at the center of the universe. Dürer creates a generalizing type of Renaissance man in Self-Portrait.
Etching (French eai fort - lit., strong vodka, i.e. Nitric acid) - a type of metal engraving, where the in-depth elements of the printing form are created by etching the metal with acids. The scratched recesses are filled with paint and the board is covered with moistened paper, receiving an imprint on a special machine.
1500, portrait of the Unknown 1504, portrait of Pirkheimer 1524. In the self-portrait of 1500, Dürer depicted himself in the image of Christ. Dürer placed his self-portraits in many paintings, he signed almost all of his major works with his full name, and put a monogram on engravings and even on drawings. In portraits, the influence of the Dutch school is reflected in the careful finishing of details; portraits are characterized by extraordinary expressiveness.
Dürer anticipated the emergence of the mood landscape; he believed that everything in nature is worthy of being captured - a piece of turf, a rabbit.
In the painting “The Four Apostles,” Durer created monumental figures of people full of self-esteem and confident in their strength.
In his theoretical works, Dürer divided craft, which is based on skill, and art, based on theory. In 1525, Dürer published “Guide to Measuring with Compasses and Ruler”, a year later - “Instructions for Strengthening Cities, Castles and Fortresses”, after Dürer’s death, which followed in 1528, his work “Four Books on Human Proportions” was published. .
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was born into a family of artists in Upper Franconia, studied with his father, then settled in Thuringia, becoming the court painter of the Saxon Elector. Cranach was familiar
with Luther, illustrated his works. Cranach's early works combine drama and lyricism. Everything in the landscapes is lovingly and carefully painted. In monumental altar compositions (“Altar of St. Catherine”, “Princely Altar”) the artist also uses genre motifs. His “Mary and Child” and “Venus” are close to Italian models, with which he was well acquainted. In portraits of his contemporaries, Cranach strove to convey in detail all the details of the external appearance.
In the last period of the master’s creativity, mythological and fairy-tale plots predominated, and features of mannerism appeared.
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480-1538), head of the "Danube School". Worked in Southern Germany and Austria. The themes of his paintings are biblical and mythological.
Altdorfer's drawings are full-fledged works of art. In 1510, “Forest Landscape with the Battle of St. George”, in which the desire for tonal painting is most fully expressed. The beginning of the master's maturity was marked by the creation of the altar of the St. Florian monastery near the Austrian city of Linz in 1516-1518. The height of the altar is 2 m 70 cm, there are 16 paintings on it. When the doors are closed, 4 paintings with scenes from the legend of St. Sebastians. When the first pair of doors opened, the viewer saw eight paintings depicting the passion of Christ.
Cranach and Luther knew each other; in 1522, Cranach used his own money to publish Luther’s work “The September Gospel”, providing it with engravings. The scenes “Entombment” and “Resurrection” were written on the outside of the doors. The top row consisted of night scenes and the Flagellation of Christ. The lower one included scenes in bright daylight. In all compositions the horizon line was at the same level. All scenes are permeated with a seething passion, sometimes hidden, sometimes bursting out. The dramatic intensity is especially evident in the almost Boschian grotesqueness. In all scenes, Christ is the sacrifice intended by God for slaughter. Color is the most remarkable feature of altar painting. In “The Prayer of the Cup,” red reflections are painted on a background of pure gold. Altdorfer's most amazing work is “The Battle of Alexander and Darius” 1529; in it the action takes place against the backdrop of a grandiose landscape shown from above.
In the work of the artists of the “Danube School”, but not only theirs, there is a unity of man with nature. Reliance on antiquity had a dual character in the German Renaissance. Artists willingly took subjects from ancient history and mythology. But ancient Greek and Roman plots are far from being solved in the ancient spirit.
Grunewald, this has been wrong since the 17th century. began to be called the largest German painter, the architect Matthias Niethardt (c. 1470-1528). Niethardt worked in Frankfurt am Main, Mainz, was a court painter of the Mainz
archbishops and electors. The artist’s work most fully expressed the national spirit, his worldview is close to that of the people, religious images are interpreted in the spirit of mystical heresies. Grunewald's creative style is characterized by drama and expression, a special relationship between color and light. Grunewald's most famous work, the Izengei Altar, was a monumental nine-part composition, complemented by a painted wooden sculpture. In the center of the composition is the scene of the crucifixion of Christ, filled with deep tragedy, conveying torment and pain.
Silver lead produces colorless, indelible lines
on primed or tinted paper. The drawing with a silver lead does not allow blots.
Lucarne (French lucarne) is a window opening of various shapes in a roof slope or dome.
Hotel (French hotel) - in French architecture - a city mansion, usually located on a relatively cramped area, moved deeper into the territory and fenced off from the street and neighboring areas by closed buildings of service outbuildings and high stone fences, forming a closed courtyard with a main entrance from the street. The garden is located behind the main building.
Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497-1543), a quarter of a century younger than Dürer, developed as an artist during the maturity of the Renaissance, becoming its most prominent figure. Holbein, of all the German artists, was closest to the Italian Renaissance. The artist's life is known only in the most general terms. In the house of Hans Holbein the Elder's father, famous painter, he comprehends the basics of painting. He wanders as an apprentice, in adulthood he works in France and the Netherlands, and from 1532 he remains to live in England, where he is patronized by Thomas More and Henry VIII. The strongest aspects of Holbein's talent were drawing and portraiture. Holbein's early portraits were created using the silver pencil technique; after 1522, the master more often resorted to softer materials - black and colored chalk pencils. The artist paints his later portraits on pink paper, which gives warmth to the human face.
Among the countries of Western Europe that had a developed feudal system of relations, in Germany the elimination of medieval foundations took the most tortuous, complicated path.
Economically and politically, Germany developed in a contradictory and difficult manner; Its spiritual culture, and in particular its art, was no less contradictory.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the same processes took place in Germany as in other European countries: the role of cities increased, manufacturing production developed, the burghers and merchants became increasingly important, and the medieval guild system disintegrated. Similar shifts took place in culture and worldview: a person’s self-awareness awakened and grew, his interest in studying reality, his desire to possess scientific knowledge, and the need to find his place in the world grew; There was a gradual secularization of science and art, their liberation from the age-old power of the church. The sprouts of humanism arose in the cities. The German people owned one of the greatest cultural achievements of the era - the largest contribution to the development of printing. However, spiritual changes took place in Germany more slowly and with greater deviations than in countries such as Italy and the Netherlands.
At the turn of the XIV and XV centuries. in the German lands not only was there no tendency towards centralization of the country, but, on the contrary, its fragmentation intensified, which contributed to the survivability of feudal foundations. The emergence and development of the sprouts of capitalist relations in individual industries did not lead to the unification of Germany. It consisted of many large and small principalities and independent imperial cities, which led an almost independent existence and tried by all means to maintain this state of affairs. The contradictions in the social development of Germany were reflected in German architecture of the 15th century. As in the Netherlands, there was not that decisive turn to new figurative content and a new language of architectural forms that characterizes the architecture of Italy. Although Gothic as a dominant architectural style was already on its way out, its traditions were still very strong; the vast majority of buildings of the 15th century. to one degree or another bears the imprint of its influence.
The share of monuments of religious architecture in Germany in the 15th century. was larger than in the Netherlands. The construction of grandiose Gothic cathedrals, begun in previous centuries (for example, the cathedral in Ulma), was still ongoing and completed. The new temple buildings, however, were no longer distinguished by such a scale. These were simpler churches, mostly of the hall type; naves of the same height in the absence of a transept (which is typical for this period) contributed to the merging of their internal space into a single visible whole. Particular attention was paid to the decorative design of the vaults: vaults with mesh and other complex patterns predominated. The extensions to the old ones are also characterized by a single hall space. The architectural forms themselves acquired greater complexity and whimsicality in the spirit of “flaming” Gothic. More importantly, however, is that more and more significant place in German architecture of the 15th century. Monuments of secular architecture are beginning to take over, in which, on the one hand, a continuation of the valuable traditions of civil Gothic architecture of previous centuries is revealed, and on the other hand, new, progressive trends find favorable soil for their development. These are, first of all, urban communal buildings, in which less dependence on the forms of church architecture than before is already noticeable.
In the architecture of residential buildings of representatives of the urban patriciate in Germany, as well as in the Netherlands, the revolution that was marked by the appearance in the cities of Italy of monumental palazzos belonging to the richest families has not yet occurred, but in comparison with the Middle Ages, innovations are noticeable - a more complex and free layout , the use of richly decorated pediments and bay window lanterns on the facades, and covered galleries in the courtyards.
German fine art in the 15th century was even more closely connected with the church. The weakening of its dependence on the church was expressed only in the fact that works of painting and sculpture were, to a certain extent, freed from the architectonic subordination to the church building. The images separated from the walls and concentrated in one place inside the cathedral, in the monumental altar structure. Thus, painting and sculpture gained the opportunity for relatively independent existence.
One of the achievements of German art of the 15th century. there was a rise in painting, which had been poorly developed in Germany in previous times. But few easel paintings were created during this period. The leading place was occupied by the altar image. History of German painting of the 15th century. is primarily the history of individual large altars, which usually included a number of compositions related by a common thematic concept.
The artistic life of Germany was characterized by great fragmentation. The disunity of individual regions of the country led to the emergence of many local centers of art. However, German art as a whole still had a certain unity. The most important thing was that the religious image lost its abstract spiritualistic character and approached life with all certainty. The main emphasis was shifted to the narrative beginning and to the expression of living human feelings in the religious plot. But all these innovations were not yet united by the unity of aesthetic views. Even within one work there was often no sense of integrity. The artists themselves did not have a specific criterion for assessing and perceiving the world.
The very few reliable works of artists that have reached us still make it possible to get an idea of the creative individuality of each of them. This indicates, among other things, the new position of the artist, that the medieval system of creativity, which erased the artistic individuality of individual masters, is now a thing of the past. The artist took a more honorable place in society, no longer being an ordinary guild artisan, but the head of a workshop and a respected burgher.
For the first half of the 15th century. The central figure of German painting and a real innovator was Konrad Witz (1400/10–1445/47), who worked in Konstanz and Basel, for the first time realistic quests took on a conscious and, to a certain extent, consistent character. Witz was the first of the German painters to try to solve the problem of the relationship between human figures and their surroundings - landscape or interior, beginning to interpret the picture as a deep, three-dimensional construction. For that time, these landscapes were a great innovation. What was new was that nature comes to the forefront here, and figures are included in the landscape. The artist is trying to give a hint of spatial extent from the foreground inwards. Color becomes one of the connecting elements in Vitsa’s paintings. Despite the usual for the 15th century. the dominance of local shades, the artist often introduces some dominant tone, for example, the gray color of the walls in the interiors, connecting all other colors. He also knows the use of halftones, which usually appear in the shadows. All this does not prevent Vitsu, according to the custom of that time, in some cases from introducing areas of gold into the backgrounds or surrounding the heads of saints with golden halos.
The same stylistic line continues in the second half of the 15th century. South Tyrolean master Michael Pacher from Bruneck (c. 1435–1498) – painter and sculptor, woodcarver. Two altars of his work are widely known - the altar of St. Wolfgang (finished in 1481, in the church of the town of St. Wolfgang) and the altar of the church fathers (finished ca. 1483, Munich). The searches outlined in the works of Witz find their continuation in Pacher’s work, rising to a higher level and taking on clearer forms.
For the development of realistic trends in German painting in the second half of the 15th century. The connection between individual masters and Dutch art, which was more focused in its advanced conquests at this time, is of certain significance. In the work of these artists there appears a tendency towards figurative integrity, compositional orderliness, and the subordination of individual details to the whole.
The largest of the masters of this family was the Upper Rhine painter and graphic artist Martin Schongauer (c. 1435–1491), known in the history of art primarily as an outstanding engraver. Schongauer's best work as a painter is “Madonna in the Pink Arbor” (1473). This painting is one of the most significant works of the early German Renaissance. The artist depicts here a symbolic motif beloved by late Gothic masters (the pink arbor was a symbol of paradise), but in his interpretation this motif does not contain anything naively idyllic, as, for example, in Lochner. The image lacks the harmony of Italian Madonnas; he seems restless and angular. Such inconsistency, contained within one work, is typical of the entire German Renaissance, constituting one of its main features.
Schongauer occupies an important place in the history of German Renaissance engraving. The flourishing of copper engraving began in the mid-15th century. Even earlier, wood engraving became widespread. Engraving was the most democratic form of art in Germany, performing a wide variety of functions, both religious and purely secular. It had the widest distribution and enjoyed great popularity among the people. Wood engraving from the 15th century. was still quite artisanal in nature. In the second half of the century, copper engraving reached significant artistic heights. The earliest prominent master in this field of art was the anonymous Master playing cards(40s of the 15th century). Several copies of his maps have been preserved in a number of manuscripts; In addition, there are several other engravings he made on religious themes, which are not devoid of a certain elegance and grace.
Schongauer is the first truly major master who played a decisive role in the further development of German engraving. More than a hundred of his engravings on copper have survived to this day. As in the painting described above, in his engravings on religious themes, Schongauer managed to create a number of significant images containing features of severity and dignity. They greatly increase realistic elements and use a lot of live impressions. We see in Schongauer a new, much more varied use of linear strokes, with which he achieves depth and transparency of shadows, using thin, delicate silvery shades. He created a number of excellent engravings on the themes of the life of Christ and Mary (“The Nativity of Christ”, “The Adoration of the Magi”, “Carrying the Cross”, etc.).
In the second half of the 15th century. The Nuremberg art school is developing. Dürer's teacher Michael Wolgemuth (1434–1519) headed a workshop that produced a huge number of custom-made altars. How creative individuality he is of little interest. Wolgemut's best works date from the early period (Hofer Altarpiece, 1405).
Its completion and at the same time the transition to a new stage of German painting of the 15th century. finds in the work of the founder of the Augsburg art school - Hans Holbein the Elder (c. 1465–1524), an artist who with the same right can be included in the history of German art of the 16th century. The early works of Holbein the Elder are entirely similar in style to German painting of the 15th century. (altar of Augsburg Cathedral, 1493; altar of St. Paul, 1508, Augsburg). As new features, we can note elements of a certain calmness and clarity, which are extremely enhanced in the artist’s later works, created clearly in the orbit of new trends. In the early works of Holbein the Elder, warm and deep tones dominate; later the color becomes lighter and colder. His most famous work is the altar of St. Sebastian (1510; Munich), created during the heyday of Dürer’s work. Correctly constructed figures, calm, clear expressions on faces, spatial orderliness, soft plastic forms, classical motifs in the architectural environment and ornamentation transfer this work into new world art of the High Renaissance.
Significant place in German art of the 15th century. occupied by sculpture. Its general character, as well as the one it went through in the 15th century. development path, close to German painting of that time. But in the sculpture the Gothic traditions are felt even more strongly; the development of realistic elements here encounters even more stubborn resistance from old, medieval ideas. The abstract symbolism of religious images still dominates here, the system of conventional gestures and attributes, and the conventional, sharply emphasized expression of faces are preserved. These Gothic features continued to exist throughout the 15th century, often completely subjugating the work of individual artists, especially in the more backward regions of Germany.
However, despite the vitality of Gothic traditions, even in German sculpture of the 15th century. Those great and profound changes in human consciousness that the Renaissance brought with it are beginning to take their toll. These changes are primarily reflected in its two most important features. The first of them is that the old Gothic forms become deliberate and exaggerated, as if born of the desire to preserve the old piety and naive exalted faith at all costs. However, due to the fact that medieval views had already been largely undermined by this time, the once organic forms of medieval Gothic now acquire a mechanical, artificial connotation, often turning into purely external, sophisticated and meaningless decorative techniques.
The second and most important feature of the sculpture of Germany in the 15th century is that individual manifestations of direct human feeling, the artist’s attention to the surrounding reality and to the living image of man, appear in it (mainly towards the end of the century). The artistic significance of German sculpture of the 15th century. nevertheless, it is precisely in this beginning of the destruction of the old, medieval artistic system, in the invasion of the dead routine of church art of the first timid glimpses of sincere life affirmation, the first signs of the expression of human feelings and desires, bringing art from heaven to earth.
The first third of the 16th century was for Germany the heyday of Renaissance culture, which took place in an atmosphere of intense revolutionary struggle. In response to the increasing pressure of princes and nobles on the peasantry in the second half of the 15th century, the rural population of Germany rose up to defend their interests. Peasant unrest, which was joined by the urban lower classes, by the end of the first quarter of the 16th century. grew into a powerful revolutionary movement that captured vast areas of the southwestern German lands. In a number of uprisings, the oppositional sentiments of the knighthood and the burgher population of the cities found their outcome. The days came when the German people united in a rush of struggle against common enemies - the princely power and Roman Catholicism.
Under these conditions, Luther's famous theses against the feudal church, published in 1517, "had a flaming effect like a lightning strike on a barrel of gunpowder." The revolutionary upsurge brought forward a number of remarkable personalities. One of the brightest pages of German history is associated with the names of the heroic leader of the peasant revolution Thomas Münzer, the leaders of the knightly uprisings Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten, and the head of the German reformation Martin Luther.
The beginning of the 16th century in Germany was marked by the flourishing of humanism and secular science, directed against the remnants of feudal culture. Interest in antiquity and ancient languages increased. All these phenomena took on unique forms in Germany. There was not that consistency of philosophical views that among Italian thinkers led to unconditional faith in the human mind. German art of the 16th century appears to us in the same way. And yet the fracture is felt in him with all its force. Some major creative individuals boldly pose and solve new artistic problems. Art in its best examples becomes an independent, independent area of culture, one of the means of understanding the world, a manifestation of the free activity of the human mind. As in other Western European countries, in Germany from the beginning of the 16th century. Secular architecture begins to play a leading role. A residential city mansion, a town hall or a trading house - these were the dominant types of buildings in this era. In the large German trading cities, which experienced their heyday at the beginning of the 16th century, a lot of construction was carried out.
Despite the variety of forms of German architecture of the Renaissance, associated with the fragmentation of the country and the presence of many more or less isolated regions, some general principles are clearly expressed in German architecture. The traditions of medieval Gothic architecture do not die in German architecture throughout the century, leaving their mark on the figurative structure of Renaissance buildings in Germany.
German Renaissance construction is based on two principles: utilitarian expediency in the organization of internal spaces and the greatest possible expressiveness and picturesqueness of external forms. The plan as an organizing principle in which the purposeful will of the architect is embodied is absent; it is formed as if spontaneously, depending on the needs of the owner and the purpose of the house. Wall projections, towers of various shapes and sizes, pediments, battlements, arches, stairs, cornices, dormer windows, richly ornamented portals, prominently projecting, sharply defined window frames, polychrome walls create a completely unique and extremely picturesque impression. Particular attention is paid to interior design, which in its spirit matches the appearance of the building. Elegant ornamented fireplaces, richly designed stucco ceilings, lined with wood and often painted walls give the interiors of German houses that picturesqueness that already in this era foreshadows the Baroque interior that was widely developed in Germany at a later time.
During a critical period in German history, at the end of the 15th century, the greatest artist of Germany, Albrecht Dürer, began his career. Dürer was one of those brilliant people-creators who come during the years of great fermentation of ideas, marking the transition to a new historical stage, and with their creativity transform previously chaotically scattered and spontaneously arising individual progressive phenomena into an integral system of views and artistic forms, from all fully expressing the content of the era and opening a new stage national culture. Dürer was one of those universal men of the Renaissance. Without joining any political group in the revolutionary struggle, Dürer, with the entire focus of his art, became the head of that powerful cultural movement that fought for the freedom of the human person. All his work was a hymn to man, his body and spirit, the strength and depth of his intellect. In this sense, Dürer can be considered one of the greatest humanists of the Renaissance. However, the image of man he created is deeply different from the Italian ideal, the ideal of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Dürer was a German artist, and his work is deeply national. He loved the people of his homeland, and the generalized ideal he created reproduced the appearance of the person he saw around him - stern, rebellious, full of inner strength and doubt, strong-willed energy and gloomy meditation, alien to calm and clear harmony.
Dürer's main teacher in his quest was nature. He also learned a lot from studying classic images antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. The artist’s love and attention to nature is evidenced by his persistent sketches from nature - the human face and body, animals, plants, landscapes, as well as his theoretical studies on the study of the human figure, to which he devoted whole line years. It is unlikely that he could have learned anything significant, except for painting techniques, from his teacher Wolgemut, who was devoid of any sublimity and depth.
Albrecht Dürer was born in 1471 in Nuremberg into the family of an artisan - a goldsmith. Dürer's father was from Hungary. Dürer received his initial artistic training from his father; in 1486 he entered Wolgemut's workshop. By 1490–1494 His journey through southern Germany and Switzerland dates back to 1494–1495. he visited Venice. The first works that have come down to us are drawings, engravings and several painted portraits. The earliest of them is the drawing “Self-Portrait” (1484) made in silver pencil. A deep sense of nature pervades Dürer's watercolor landscapes, apparently dating back to the early 1490s, during walks around Nuremberg, during a trip to southern Germany and Switzerland, and on the road to Venice. They are extremely new both in their free style of watercolor painting, based on the thoughtful integrity of color, and in the variety of compositional structures. These are “View of Innsbruck” (1494–1495; Vienna), “Sunset” (c. 1495; London), “View of Trient” (Bremen), “Landscape in Franconia” (Berlin).
Upon his return from Venice, Dürer completed a number of engravings on copper and on wood (on copper - “Love for Sale,” 1495–1496, “The Holy Family with a Grasshopper,” ca. 1494–1496, “Three Peasants,” ca. 1497 "The Prodigal Son", c. 1498; woodcuts - "Hercules", "Men's Bath"), in which the quest of the young master was clearly defined. These engravings, even in cases where they contain religious, mythological or allegorical subjects, primarily represent genre scenes with a pronounced local character. In all of them there is a living person contemporary to Durer, often of the peasant type, with a characteristic, expressive face, dressed in the costume of that time and surrounded by a precisely conveyed setting or landscape of a certain area. Much space is devoted to household details.
These engravings reveal a brilliant galaxy of graphic works by Durer, one of the greatest masters of engraving in world art. The artist is now fluent in his use of the chisel, using a sharp, angular and nervous stroke, with the help of which sinuous, tense contours are created, the form is sculpted plastically, light and shadows are conveyed, and space is built. The texture of these engravings with their subtle transitions of silvery tones is distinguished by amazing beauty and variety.
Dürer's first major work was a series of large format woodcuts of fifteen sheets on the theme of the Apocalypse (printed in two editions with German and Latin text in 1498). This work contains a complex interweaving of medieval views with experiences caused by the turbulent social events of those days. From the Middle Ages they retain allegory, symbolism of images, the intricacy of complex theological concepts, mystical fantasy; from modernity - a general feeling of tension and struggle, a clash of spiritual and material forces. The allegorical scenes include images of representatives of different classes of German society, living real people, filled with passionate and anxious feelings and active action. Particularly notable is the famous sheet depicting four apocalyptic horsemen with a bow, sword, scales and pitchfork, who prostrated the people who fled from them - a peasant, a city dweller and an emperor. There is no doubt that the four horsemen symbolize in the artist’s mind destructive forces - war, disease, divine justice and death, which spare neither ordinary people nor the emperor. These sheets, covered with a bizarre winding pattern of lines, permeated with a hot temperament, captivate with vivid imagery and the power of imagination. They are also extremely significant for their skill. Engraving is raised here to the level of great, monumental art.
In the 1490s. Dürer completed a number of significant paintings, of which portraits are of particular interest: two portraits of his father (1490; Uffizi and 1497; London); “Self-portraits” (1493; Louvre and 1498; Prado), “Portrait of Osvadt Krell” (1499; Munich). These portraits affirm a completely new attitude towards man, hitherto unknown to German art. The artist is interested in a person in himself, outside of any side ideas of a religious nature, and, first of all, as a specific personality. Dürer's portraits are invariably sharply individual. Dürer captures in them that unique, particular, characteristic that is contained in every human personality. Moments of general assessment are visible only in their special tension, nervousness, and a certain internal restlessness - that is, qualities that reflect the state of a thinking person in Germany at that difficult time, full of tragedy and unsettled quests.
Around 1496, Dürer’s first significant painting on a religious subject was created - the so-called Dresden Altarpiece, the middle part of which is occupied by a scene of Mary’s adoration of the infant Christ, and on the side doors there are figures of Saints Anthony and Sebastian. Here we can note all the same features: some remnants of the style of the 15th century, expressed in incorrect perspectives, sharp, pointed contours, the deliberate ugliness of a baby, and at the same time - increased attention to the image of a living, thinking person with a characteristic individual face.
These first paintings by Dürer are distinguished by a certain rigidity of painting style. They are dominated by a graphic, fractional pattern, clear, cold local tones, clearly separated from one another, and a somewhat dry manner of careful, smooth writing.
The year 1500 turns out to be a turning point in Dürer's work. Passionately seeking truth from the first creative steps in art, he now comes to the realization of the need to find those laws according to which impressions from nature should be transformed into artistic images. The external reason for the research he began was a meeting that took place around this time and made an irresistible impression on him with the Italian artist Jacopo de Barbari, who showed him a scientifically constructed image of the human body. Dürer greedily seizes on the information given to him. From that moment on, the mystery of the classical ideal of the human figure haunts him. He devoted many years to working on mastering it, subsequently summing up the results in the famous three “Books on Proportions,” on the compilation of which he worked for more than ten years starting in 1515.
The first figurative embodiment of these quests is the famous self-portrait of 1500 (Munich, Pinakothek), one of the artist’s most significant works, marking his full creative maturity. All elements of naive narrative disappear from this portrait; it does not contain any attributes, details of the situation, nothing secondary that distracts the viewer’s attention from the image of a person. Dürer's greatest creative honesty and his never-failing sincerity force him to introduce a tinge of anxiety and anxiety into this image. A slight fold between the eyebrows, concentration and emphasized seriousness of expression give the face a touch of subtle sadness. The full dynamics of the fractionally curly strands of hair framing the face are restless; thin expressive fingers seem to move nervously, fingering the fur of the collar.
Dürer's quest takes the form of experimental studies. Between 1500 and 1504 he completed a number of drawings of a naked human figure, the prototype for which was ancient monuments. The purpose of these drawings is to find the ideal proportions of the male and female body. The artistic embodiment of the results of Dürer's research is the 1504 copper engraving "Adam and Eve", into which the figures from his studio drawings are directly transferred. They are just placed in a fairytale forest and surrounded by animals. By this time, Dürer was becoming widely known. He becomes close to the circle of German humanist scientists - W. Pirkheimer and others. His scientific studies are in full swing. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer was interested in a wide variety of scientific issues. WITH youth and throughout his life he turned to the study of plants and animals (a number of his wonderful drawings with images of various herbs, flowers and animals have been preserved); he also studied construction and fortification.
Around 1500 Dürer completed several monumental commissioned works. The Paumgartner altarpiece, the Lamentation of Christ (both in the Munich Pinakothek), and the Adoration of the Magi (1504; Florence, Uffizi) are the first religious compositions of a purely Renaissance nature in German art. As in all of Durer’s works, these paintings strongly reflect the artist’s interest in a living person, in his state of mind. Landscape backgrounds are full of life. During these same years, Dürer began work on three large series of woodcuts (the so-called “Small” and “Great” passions of Christ and a series of scenes from the life of Mary), which he completed much later. All three series were published in the form of books with printed text in 1511.
By 1506–1507 refers to Dürer's second trip to Venice. Having gone through a significant path of creative quest, the mature artist could now more consciously perceive the impressions of the art of the Italian Renaissance. The works created by Dürer immediately after this trip are the only works masters whose artistic techniques are close to classical Italian examples. These are two paintings filled with peace and harmony on religious themes - “Feast of the Rosary” (1506; Prague) and “Madonna and Siskin” (1506; Berlin), “Portrait of a Venetian” (1506; Berlin) and “Adam and Eve” (1507; Prado). Of the later works, the “Madonna and Child” (1512; Vienna) retains the same features. All these paintings are characterized by figurative tranquility, balance of compositional structures, smoothness of rounded contours, smoothness of plastic processing of forms, essentially alien to Durer. The Madrid “Adam and Eve” is especially characteristic in this sense. All the angularity and nervousness of the usual Dürer figures disappeared from these images. There is nothing individual or unique about them. These are perfect images of beautiful human creatures, built on the principles of the classical canon, speaking about the highest human beauty based on the harmony of the physical and spiritual principles. Their gestures are distinguished by restraint and grace, their facial expressions are dreamy.
This style does not become dominant in Dürer's subsequent work. The artist soon returns to sharpened, brightly individualized images, imbued with drama and internal tension. However, now the properties are receiving a new quality. After all the theoretical research carried out by Dürer, after deeply experienced and reworked in his own work impressions from the monuments of the Italian Renaissance, his realism rises to a new, higher level. Durer's mature and late paintings and engravings acquire features of great generality and monumentality. In them, the connection with late Gothic art is significantly weakened and the truly humanistic principle, which has received a deeply philosophical interpretation, is strengthened.
In 1513–1514 Dürer created a number of works that mark the pinnacle of his creativity. These are primarily three copper engravings, the famous “Horseman, Death and the Devil” (1513), “St. Jerome" (1514) and "Melancholy" (1514). A small sheet of easel engraving is interpreted in these works as a large monumental work of art. Plot-wise, these three engravings are not related to each other, but they form a single figurative chain, since their theme is the same; they all embody the image of the human mind, each in a slightly different way.
The first sheet - “Horseman, Death and the Devil” - emphasizes the strong-willed principle in a person. Dressed in chain mail and a helmet, armed with a sword and a spear, a strong and calm rider rides on a powerful horse, not paying attention to the ugly devil who is trying to hold his horse, to the terrible death showing him the symbol of time - the hourglass, to what is under a human skull lies on the ground with a horse's feet. The horse's gait is uncontrollable and confident, the man's face is full of will and inner concentration.
"St. Jerome" embodies the image of clear human thought. In a room carefully reproducing the furnishings of a 16th-century German house, an old man with his head surrounded by a light halo sits at his desk. The sun's rays pour in from the window, filling the room with silvery light. An imperturbable silence reigns. A tamed lion and a dog are dozing on the floor.
The most impressive image is created in the third engraving - the famous “Melancholy”.
In this sheet, the symbolic principle is most prominent, giving rise to a wide variety of interpretations by scientists of many generations. At present, it is difficult to say exactly what meaning Durer put into all the objects presented here, the attributes of medieval science and alchemy, what the polyhedron and sphere, scales and bell, plane and jagged sword, hourglass, sleeping dog, numbers on a blackboard, writing with a stylus mean Amur; how the artist interpreted the traditional image of the planet Saturn for the allegory of Melancholy. But the image of a powerful woman - a winged genius, immersed in deep, concentrated thought - is so significant, so permeated with a feeling of limitless power human spirit that all these details are relegated to the background, and the humanistic principle comes first. It is characteristic that the external calm of this image does not hide the inner peace behind it. Melancholia's concentrated gaze, expressing a state of heavy thought, the restless rhythm of the folds of her clothes, the world of fantastic attributes that surrounds her on all sides - all this is extremely typical of the aesthetics of the German Renaissance.
These generalizing philosophical images were the result of many years of reflection by the artist, testifying to his deepest knowledge of man and life. Dürer's activities in these mature years continued to be very diverse. He performs many portraits in painting, engraving and drawing, and constantly sketches folk types. What remains from him is a whole series of images of peasants, most of which date specifically to these years (copper engravings - “Dancing Peasants”, 1514; “The Piper”, 1514; “At the Market”, 1519). At the same time he is studying decorative arts and book graphics, depicting in an engraving commissioned by Emperor Maximilian a grandiose triumphal arch(1515) and decorating his prayer book with drawings in the margins (1513).
In 1520–1521 Dürer traveled through the Netherlands. Judging by the artist’s meaningful diary that was preserved from this trip, he met with Dutch painters and looked closely at Dutch art with great interest. However, Dürer's work in subsequent years does not reflect the influence of Dutch art. At this time his own style reached the pinnacle of its development, and as an artist he continued to follow his own original path.
In a series of remarkable portraits made during 1510–1520, Dürer seemed to sum up the results of many years of study of the human personality. After all the searches for classical beauty and attempts to create ideal norms, he continues to be attracted to people as they were at that time in Germany, primarily a representative of the German intelligentsia - restless, anxious, internally contradictory, full of willful energy and spiritual strength. He writes about his teacher Wolgemut - a weak old man with a hooked nose and a face covered with parchment skin (1516; Nuremberg), the imperious and proud Emperor Maximilian (1519; Vienna), the young intellectual of that time Bernhard von Resten (1521; Dresden); masterfully outlines the character of Holzgauer (1526; Berlin).
The clearly defined individual similarity in all these portraits is invariably combined with a high idea of a person, expressed in a special moral significance and the stamp of deep thought lying on each face. There is not the slightest shade of piety in them, characteristic of portrait images of the 15th century. These are purely secular Renaissance portraits, in which the unique individuality of a person occupies the first place, and reason acts as a unifying universal principle. In all the techniques in which the aforementioned portraits were made, Dürer now works with equal perfection. In painting he achieves great softness and harmony of colorful combinations, in engraving - amazing subtlety and tenderness of texture, in drawing - laconicism and strict precision of line.
All of Dürer’s many years of searching find their conclusion in the wonderful “Four Apostles” (1526; Munich, Pinakothek). The artist found here a synthesis between the general philosophical principle in the assessment of humanity and the particular properties of the individual personality. When creating “The Apostles,” Durer was inspired by the images of the best people of his era, who represented the type of human fighter in those revolutionary years. It is enough to look at the tired, concentrated face of an old man with the forehead of Socrates - the Apostle Peter, or at the gaze of the Apostle Paul, burning with a rebellious inner fire, in order to feel in these majestic sages the bright individualities of living people. And at the same time, all four images are imbued with one high ethical principle, the most important for Durer - the power of the human mind.
Dürer's work had no direct successors, but his influence on German art was enormous and decisive. Dürer did not have a large workshop with many students. His reliable students are unknown. Presumably, primarily three Nuremberg artists are associated with him - the brothers Hans Sebald (1500-1550) and Bartel (1502-1540) Weham and Georg Lenz (c. 1500-1550), known mainly as masters of small format engravings (the so-called Kleinmeisters ; they also worked as painters). Their copper engravings, of high skill, are completely secular in nature and indicate the strong influence of Italian engraving.
The complexity of the era, which gave rise to contrasts and extremes in the field of culture and art, is perhaps most strongly reflected in the work of Dürer’s contemporary, Matthias Grunewald (died in 1528), a remarkable master, one of the largest painters in Germany. At first glance it may seem that Grunewald's art, in its own way, ideological content, as well as in terms of artistic qualities, lies outside the main path of development of the European Renaissance.
However, in reality this is not the case. This impression is due to the fact that Grunewald’s creative method is sharply different from the style of contemporary Italian art and from the classical tendencies felt in a number of Dürer’s works. But at the same time, the works created by Grunewald should be assessed as the most characteristic and, perhaps, the most nationally original phenomenon of the German Renaissance.
With no less strength than Dürer, Grunewald strives to solve the main problems of his time, and above all, to exalt the power of man and nature through art. But he goes a different route. The defining property of his art is the inextricable, blood connection with the spiritual past of the German people and with the psychology of the contemporary man from the lower classes. That is why Grunewald seeks answers to pressing questions exclusively in the sphere of traditional religious images that are familiar and understandable to the people, which he interprets not in terms of orthodox churchism (old Catholic or new Protestant), but in the spirit of mystical heresies that emerged from the depths of the popular opposition.
Grunewald's paintings of scenes from the Gospel legend carry ideas and feelings that are deeply in tune with those that lived in those turbulent days simple people Germany. Not a single German artist was able to express with such stunning power the contradictory states of anxiety, tension, horror, jubilation and joy, as Grunewald did in his works.
Art history knew nothing about Grunewald for a long time. His very name still remains conventional. Recently, scientists have found a number of documents that mention a certain Master Matthias, who apparently bore the double surname Gotthardt-Neithardt (it is possible that the name Gotthardt was the artist’s pseudonym, and Neithardt was his real surname). If we agree that all these scant archival references refer to one artist, then we will have to recognize him as a master who worked in Aschaffenburg, Seligenstadt (on the Main), Frankfurt am Main and died in Halle, who was the court artist of Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz. The most interesting indication relates to the fact that Grunewald had some connection with the peasant uprisings and was dismissed from service in 1526 for his sympathies for the revolutionary movement.
The range of the artist’s works is outlined much more clearly. His creative individuality is so uniquely original and his painting style is so bright that the works belonging to his brush are relatively easy to identify. Grunewald's main work is the famous Isenheim Altarpiece (finished c. 1516), currently located in Colmar. This is a huge structure consisting of nine paintings and colored wooden sculptures (made in 1505 by the Strasbourg sculptor Nikolaus Hagenauer).
The central part of the Isenheim altar is the scene of Golgotha. The artist put all the strength of his temperament into this image, trying to influence the viewer with utmost activity and shake his imagination. The face of the crucified Christ is distorted by death throes. The fingers and toes are cramped, the whole body is covered with bleeding wounds. The figures of the Mother of God, the Apostle John and Mary Magdalene express frenzied mental suffering, manifested in their painfully exalted movements. The main means of realizing a thematic concept for the artist is his inherent powerful pictorial power. Behind the scene of the crucifixion, a gloomy, deserted landscape opens up at night. Against its background, figures emerge convexly, as if sticking out from the picture. A flow of blood passes through the body of Christ from top to bottom, a peculiar echo of which is the numerous shades of red in the clothes of the standing figures. An unreal mysterious light spreads from the crucified body throughout the image.
The design of the Isenheim Altar is distinguished by its exceptional depth. The very image of human suffering is elevated to the level of generalized philosophical ideas. It sounds like an expression of the sorrow of all humanity, as a symbol of nationwide suffering. The impressive power of this work by Grunewald is increased by the fact that, along with the power of human feelings, it embodies the elemental force of nature, which bursts into each of the scenes presented by the artist.
The idea of the victory of light over darkness and the feeling of joyful rejoicing are expressed with no less force in the scenes of the Isenheim Altar. This is especially clear in the composition where the apotheosis of the Mother of God is presented. A cascade of golden rays falls from the sky onto the figure of Mary and the Child. The angels singing and playing musical instruments glorify them with a joyful song. Rainbow colors shimmer on the intricately patterned columns and carvings of the elegant chapel building, in front of which the Mother of God sits. A bright fairy-tale landscape opens to the right.
The scene of the “Resurrection of Christ” is striking from a picturesque point of view. The bright beginning also triumphs in it. Here Grunewald achieves a special picturesque effect. The body of Christ seems to dematerialize, dissolving in rays of light emanating from itself; the flowery halo surrounding the figure, composed of yellow, red and greenish tones, piercingly breaks the dark blue of the night, as if triumphing over it.
Grunewald’s most calm and balanced work, dating back to the late period of his work, is “The Meeting of St. Erasmus and Mauritius" (1521–1523; Munich). Allowing for some traditional conventions, such as golden halos around the heads of saints or the attribute of martyrdom in the hands of Erasmus, Grunewald at the same time depicts in this picture a life scene of a meeting between two luxuriously dressed people with individual, expressive faces. In the image of a majestic bishop, dressed in a sparkling gold brocade robe, he embodies the appearance of his patron, Archbishop Albrecht; The black man’s face was also copied from life.
Among Grunewald's other works, the most notable ones, dated 1503, are “The Flagellation of Christ” (Munich), “The Crucifixion” (Basel), “St. Cyriacus and St. Lawrence" (Frankfurt am Main), "Madonna" (1517/19, church in Stuppach). A number of his first-class drawings have been preserved, representing mainly preparatory material for paintings, as well as sketches of individual heads and figures.
A special movement of the German Renaissance, distinguished by a pronounced national identity, forms the work of the masters of the so-called Danube school, led by Altdorfer. In the art of these artists, the imprint of the instability of German artistic culture of the 16th century is also noticeable, largely living on the remnants of the past, combining new, realistically reasonable views of the world with confused irrational ideas.
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538) worked in Regensburg. No works have survived from the earliest years of his artistic life. In his mature period, he emerged as a master with a bright and original creative style. The naive simplicity of unvarnished human feelings and relationships, tinged with burgher sobriety, coexists in his works with a touch of peculiar romance and poetry folk tale. Altdorfer's best images are those that devote the most space to landscape.
In a number of paintings, the artist unfolds against the backdrop of a fabulous nature scenes of mythological or biblical content, likened to small short stories, filling them with hundreds of everyday or fantastic details. He builds complex spatial compositions,
in which he masterfully applies lighting effects. Altdorfer's works are easily recognized by their special pictorial style. The master works with a thin brush, applying nervous, sharp strokes; the texture of his painting, somewhat dry and motley, sparkles with greenish, red, yellow and blue dots.
The main features of Altdorfer’s work are fully revealed in one of his early works that have come down to us - “Rest on the Flight to Egypt” (1510; Berlin). A simple genre motif is woven into the bizarre setting of a folk tale. The night scene of Altdorfer’s painting “The Nativity of Christ” (1512; Berlin) gives the feeling of romantic poetry. Night lighting is masterfully conveyed. The ruins of a brick building, overgrown with flowers and herbs, where Mary and the baby and Joseph found shelter, are illuminated by yellowish reflections of moonlight. Bright hosts of angels hover in the dark sky. In Susanna's Bathing (1526; Munich), Altdorfer erects a motley multi-story fantastic building-palace, from which steps descend to terraces surrounded by balustrades, dotted with dozens of small figures. In the foreground, under the shade of a magnificent tree, are the heroes of the biblical legend. Another variation on the Christmas theme is given by “Holy Night” (Berlin) (ill. 343).
A kind of unique work of German art of the 16th century. Altdorfer’s painting “The Battle of Alexander the Great with Darius” (1529; Munich), which in its design represents something like a cosmic landscape, can be considered. The entire foreground of the picture is occupied by crowds of fighting troops, full of movement, horsemen with banners and spears. Behind them opens a vast landscape, in which the artist seems to strive to embody the image of the entire universe. A high horizon allows you to see vast distances with seas and rivers, mountains, forests and buildings. The sky is pierced by rays of light that illuminate the bizarre outlines of the clouds and cast bright spots on the ground, sharply highlighting individual details of the landscape and human figures.
Altdorfer's forest landscapes are completely innovative. These small paintings, made in an almost miniature technique, have a special charm. In the film “St. George in the Forest" (1510; Munich) the artist depicts a fabulous dense forest with gigantic trees covering the entire space of the sky. Small figurine of St. Georgia on horseback is completely absorbed by the centuries-old forest advancing on her. The dark blue distance is visible through the narrow gap between the trunks. The forest thicket shimmers with greenish, blue and red hues. Each leaf is carefully and skillfully outlined.
Altdorfer worked extensively and productively in the field of engraving, producing woodcuts and copper engravings. Interesting are his multicolor woodcuts, printed from several boards (for example, “Madonna”). IN later years he successfully resorted to the technique of etching; His etching landscapes stand out, distinguished by their lightness and delicate texture.
In some aspects of his work, and primarily in his keen interest in nature, the largest painter of Saxony, Lucas Cranach, approaches Altdorfer. Cranach (1472–1553) was born in the town of Cronach in Franconia. About the early years of the artist’s life, we only know that in 1500–1504. he was in Vienna; in 1504 Cranach was invited to Wittenberg to the court of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, and then until the end of his life he worked at the court of his successors. In Wittenberg, Cranach occupied the position of a prominent wealthy burgher, repeatedly served as burgomaster of the city, and stood at the head of an extensive workshop that produced a huge number of works, as a result of which it is not always possible to identify authentic paintings by the artist himself.
Cranach was on friendly terms with Luther and illustrated several of his works. The artist’s youthful works have not survived. In the earliest works that have come down to us, primarily in engravings, one can note signs of Cranach’s connection with the late Gothic traditions (woodcuts of 1502–1509 - “The Crucifixion”; “St. Jerome”, “The Temptation of St. Anthony” ), They do not yet have a correct perspective structure, they are overloaded with details, the images contain elements of fantasy; the drawing itself seems to be made up of intricate curly lines.
However, already in these works Cranach’s artistic individuality is outlined as one of the characteristic representatives of the German Renaissance of the Dürer era. His work, despite the abundance of religious and fairy tales, imbued with a sense of modernity. Throughout his career, the artist shows a keen interest in the people of his era: he is especially attracted to the portrait genre, interested in the way of life of various classes, and he pays special attention to costume and everyday details. We find in Cranach themes and plots generated by the ideas of contemporary humanists.
Attention to nature is characteristic of the master, starting from the earliest works that have reached us. The landscape plays a decisive role in his famous Berlin painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” 1504. Here we encounter the most vivid image native nature by Cranach. The northern forest is faithfully depicted, closely surrounding Mary and the Child and Joseph sitting in a flowering clearing. Like Altdorfer, Cranach lovingly conveys all the details of the landscape - trees, flowers, grass. He introduces elements of a genre narrative into the interpretation of the gospel legend, relegating the religious content to the background. He also departs from traditional methods of artistic interpretation of a church plot in “The Crucifixion” of 1503 (Munich).
The woodcuts created by Cranach are extremely interesting, reproducing scenes from the life of the court society of Wittenberg (a number of sheets from 1506–1509 depicting knightly tournaments, deer hunting, horsemen, etc.). The motifs observed by the artist at the court of the Wittenberg electors were also constantly introduced by him into paintings and graphic compositions on religious and mythological subjects.
One of the important features of Cranach is that he belongs to those German artists of the 16th century who showed interest in the achievements of contemporary classical art in Italy. In a number of his works, Cranach turns to classical techniques of conveying space and interpreting the human figure. He creates images of the Madonna, similar in type to Italian models (“Mary and Child”, Wroclaw), introduces elements of Renaissance architecture into the figured compositions (“Altar
St. Anna”, Frankfurt), tries to embody the ideal proportions of the naked body (“Venus”, 1509; Leningrad). However, Cranach's attitude to the examples of classical art he used is not as creative as Dürer's. In films of this kind, he usually does not go beyond a somewhat naive repetition of ready-made recipes. But Cranach's best works are characterized by a peculiar sophistication. The calm rhythm of soft rounded contours sometimes caresses the eye with its smooth movement; The exquisite detailing attracts the viewer's attention. The artist reveals a subtle sense of color. Avoiding sharp color contrasts, Cranach knows how to create exquisite combinations of tones. An example is the Moscow “Madonna and Child,” where the dark, heavy greenery of the bushes forms a beautiful colorful chord with a light green stripe of the background landscape and the blue distance.-
Of great interest are the portraits of Cranach, made by the master in the early and middle periods of his creativity. They most clearly reveal the realistic properties of his art. Among the best of them is “Portrait of Father Luther” (1530; Wartburg). Here is a vivid image of a man with a characteristic expressive face. The highest achievement of Cranach's portrait art is the profile image of Luther (1520–1521, copper engraving). It was made during the period of greatest closeness between Cranach and the head of the Reformation. The artist creates in it such a simple, serious image of a person that is no longer found in his art.
But already from the second decade of the 16th century. Other trends are growing in the master’s work.
In a number of his paintings on religious themes from 1515–1530, as well as in portraits, one can note his desire to follow the well-known template of the human figure - graceful, cutesy and conventional. In the years of growing reaction, which coincide with the last twenty years of Cranach's life, this line takes precedence in his work. Decorative techniques of depiction come to the fore, painting becomes petty and dry.
Associated with Augsburg in the initial period of its creative activity one of the great masters of the German Renaissance - Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543).
Holbein is an artist of a completely different type and temperament than Durer. As a man of the next generation, the son and student of a painter who had largely adopted the path of the High Renaissance, Holbein is much less associated with medieval traditions than Dürer. From a young age he was imbued with new, secular ideas; An ironic attitude towards the old church, interest in antiquity, love for knowledge, for books characterize his very first creative steps. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Holbein, together with his brother Ambrosius, an artist who died early, left hometown and moved to Basel. Here he immediately found himself in the immediate circle of Erasmus of Rotterdam, who was then in Basel. Basel was at that time a university city and a significant cultural center. The direction of Holbein's art was determined here very quickly. He immediately proved himself to be a major portrait painter, an outstanding book master and an excellent decorator. He turned to religious themes much less often than other artists, while surpassing them in a purely secular interpretation of plots.
Holbein's creative path is distinguished by clarity and certainty. Already in his early youthful works, for example in the portraits of the Basel burgomaster Meyer and his wife in 1516 (Basel), his characteristic attitude towards man is fully expressed. The traits of internal and external harmony, balance and tranquility, which Dürer so painfully sought, easily and naturally become the basis of Holbein’s images.
The best properties of Holbein's art are already evident in the early, Basel period of his work. An excellent example in this sense is the famous portrait of the young humanist Boniface Amerbach (1519; Basel) - one of Holbein’s best portrait images, showing all the attractiveness of his balanced, strong realism. This work creates the image of a representative of the new European intelligentsia, who emerged from the power of the church, comprehensively developed, physically beautiful and spiritually intact, surrounded by an aura of special nobility. The portrait is very well composed: the tree trunk and oak branch behind Amerbach’s shoulder against the sky give it a special airiness.
Holbein was one of the greatest graphic artists of his era. His drawings are full of unfading freshness. Especially good are the numerous portrait sketches that he works on throughout his life. The early years include the brilliant drawings “Portrait of Paracelsus” (1526) and “Portrait of an Unknown Man” (c. 1523), executed in black pencil and colored crayons. By their deep vitality and at the same time by their grace, precision and freedom, they can be called truly innovative.
The advanced character of Holbein's art with great strength. In 1516–1529. Holbein also worked hard on book ornamentation, creating many titles, vignettes, frames, and initials for humanistic and later reformist literature. In them, he acts as a first-class decorator, perfectly aware of classical ornament, and at the same time as a draftsman, fluent in the art of depicting the naked body. Holbein's art as a decorator attracted the attention of his contemporaries. The artist's earliest commissioned work of this kind (1515) was a painting of a table top (kept in a ruined state in the Zurich Museum), on the surface of which a number of amusing everyday scenes and allegorical images are presented. Between 1521 and 1530 Holbein completed several monumental wall paintings commissioned by the city authorities of Basel and individual residents of Basel and Lucerne.
Holbein also left many first-class pen and watercolor drawings for window painting, made plastically, freely and easily, characterized by complete liberation from the stiffness and angularity of the Middle Ages.
During these same Basel years there were a number of Holbein’s paintings with religious content. "Madonna of Mayor Meyer" is perhaps the most Italianizing of all religious compositions in the art of the German Renaissance. This is evidenced by its clear, somewhat dispassionate harmony, symmetrical construction with a highlighted main figure in the middle and an equal number of figures on the sides, ideal types of the Mother of God and the Child, calmly falling straight folds of clothing, thoughtful consistency of colorful combinations.
In 1526 Holbein made his first trip to England. Like all German artists of that time, he traveled a lot. He was apparently in Italy twice - in 1518–1519 and, possibly, in 1530–1531; he visited France and the Netherlands. This time he stayed in England for two years. Having become close to Thomas More, he was thereby introduced into the circle of the highest English intelligentsia. Between 1526 and 1528 he completed several works in London. From 1527, a preparatory pen drawing for the unrealized painting has been preserved, depicting the large family of Thomas More (Basel). In the same year, Holbein painted Thomas More himself (New York, Frick Museum), and in 1528 he painted a portrait of the German astronomer Kratzer (Paris).
In 1528 Holbein returned to Basel. However, he was not destined to stay here for long. In 1528–1529 Events unfolded in the city that greatly changed the way of life and working conditions for the artist. Religious strife led to the overthrow of Catholicism; Basel became a Protestant city. A wave of iconoclasm swept through, works of painting and sculpture were removed and destroyed from churches. Holbein remained in Basel until 1532. During this time he completed painting large hall Basel Town Hall, painted a portrait of his wife and children (1528–1529; Basel) and completed a large series of illustrations for the Bible (91 woodcuts, published in 1538).
In 1532, Holbein finally moved to England. The last eleven years of his life he devoted almost entirely to portraiture. Finding himself first in the circle of Germans living in London, he painted a number of portraits of German merchants. In 1536, Holbein became the court artist of the English king Henry VIII. From this time on, traits of decline began to appear to some extent in his art. Surrounded by a halo of European glory, he is too carried away by his high position, too amenable in his creativity to the demands, and sometimes to the whims of the English nobility. Holbein's widely known portraits of the last five years of his life: Henry VIII (1539–1540; Rome), Queen Jane Seymour (1536; Vienna), Christina of Denmark (1538; London), Edward Prince of Wales (1538–1539; New York) although and executed with great attention and virtuosity, at the same time they are distinguished by some dryness, monotony of characteristics and pettiness in the finishing of details. The most valuable thing that was created in the last years of Holbein's life were his portrait drawings, even more perfect than those he performed in his early years. The richest collection of these drawings, kept at the Palace of Windsor, shows Holbein as one of the best draftsmen in world art.
The significance of Holbein's work already during the artist's lifetime goes far beyond the borders of his homeland. His art played a particularly important role in the formation of English portraiture.
German sculpture in the 16th century. did not reach such a high level of development as painting and graphics. Among the sculptors of this century there were no artists equal to Dürer or Holbein. True, in sculpture the development of Renaissance elements encounters incomparably greater resistance from church Gothic traditions than in painting (especially since sculpture at this time was associated mainly with church orders). The religious struggle of the 16th century greatly complicated the development of plastic arts; One of the indirect consequences of the Reformation was attempts to strengthen traditional Catholic church sculpture. This led, in particular, to an extreme exaggeration of Gothic forms, often reaching the point of view in the works of church sculptors of the 16th century. to the point of monstrous ugliness.
The most interesting works of German sculpture of the 16th century. associated with those who, in one way or another, tried to develop the principles of Renaissance realism in their works. The centers of Renaissance movements in German sculpture of the 16th century. were the same advanced southern German cities in which the work of the greatest painters of the German Renaissance - Dürer and Holbein - developed. It was in Nuremberg and Augsburg that the largest German sculptors worked. Of greatest interest among all these masters is Peter Fischer the Elder (c. 1460–1529), who was born in Nuremberg and lived there all his life. In the bronze foundry inherited from his father, Peter Fischer, according to the ancient guild custom, worked together with his sons; he looks like such a modest artisan in his sculptural self-portrait, which is placed at the bottom of his main creation - the shrine of St. Sebald in the church of this saint in Nuremberg (1507–1519).
The sons of Peter Fischer the Elder continued and developed the clear and simple realistic principles of their father's art, although none of them could compare with him in the scale of talent. Their inclinations are still different; The most committed to the realistic quest of the Renaissance were the above-mentioned Peter Fischer the Younger, who worked a lot on the image of the naked human body (for example, in a bronze plaque depicting Orpheus and Eurydice; c. 1515), as well as Fischer’s third son, Hans (c. 1488–1550), author of a bronze figurine of a youth, extraordinary for the German Renaissance (c. 1530; Vienna), clearly dating back to Italian models. Fischer's fifth son, Paul (died 1531), owns one of the most famous statues of the German Renaissance - the so-called Nuremberg Madonna (wood, ca. 1525-1530), graceful and lyrical, retaining some traditional Gothic features.
The most striking German sculptor of the 15th century after Fischer the Elder. There was Adolf Daucher (c. 1460/65 – 1523/24), born in Ulm and from 1491 settled in Augsburg. He made vividly realistic busts on the benches for the choir of the Fugger Chapel in the Church of St. Anna in Augsburg (1512–1518; then in the Berlin Museum); His “Judith with the Head of Holofernes” is especially interesting for its vitality and plastic power. Realistic Renaissance principles, expressed without particular individual brightness, but quite consistently and clearly, are also characteristic of his large group “Lamentation of Christ” in the altar of the same chapel.
The Nuremberg master Adam Kraft (1455/60–1509) owns a series of reliefs depicting the “Way of the Cross” (1505–1508), in which genre realistic elements are extremely strong. The types and costumes are taken from the life surrounding the artist, the connection between the figures is built on real dramatic action, expressed naturally and simply, without Gothic exaggeration and convention. Kraft uses a purely secular everyday motif in the relief decorating the building of the city scales in Nuremberg (1497).
By the second half of the century, realistic trends in Nuremberg sculpture were fading away. Ancient and Renaissance images become the property of learned experts or courtiers flaunting their education. By the middle of the 16th century. In connection with the deep social and economic upheavals that Germany experienced at this time, the entire German culture in general and German art in particular came into a state of deep decline. In the second half of the 16th century, after the last masters of the German Renaissance left the stage, German art long years frozen in its progressive development.
In the XV - XVI centuries. in Germany there were still no prerequisites for a genuine national “revival”. Divided into a number of principalities, it retained its medieval fragmentation, there was no single internal market, and the early bourgeoisie, divided by conflicting economic interests, could not come out in solidarity to storm the feudal system. Moreover, frightened by the scale of the peasant uprisings in the first quarter of the 16th century, at the decisive moment she went over to the side of the princes. The ideological revolution common to Europe at that time took on a theological hue in Germany and resulted in a reformation movement, which fragmented the country along religious lines. There was no unity of the dominant social forces, there was no uniformity of typological and artistic requirements on the part of the construction initiative. This to a certain extent explains the absence in Germany of the 16th century. the dominant architectural type, in which, following the example of other countries, the original features of the emerging national style would clearly be reflected. If in the north of the country, with its rich Hanseatic cities, new architectural trends were reflected primarily in the buildings of the burghers - town halls and guild houses, then in the south and center they manifested themselves in the palace construction of the princes and the merchant patriciate who imitated them. Stylistic development was all the more devoid of unity because it was fed from two sources, not only different, but fundamentally opposite in the nature of tectonic thinking: if in the north the source of new trends was the architecture of Dutch cities, then in the south the palaces of the Italian nobility served as an example. Borrowed classicizing forms were long perceived by German masters in the spirit of long-standing artistic traditions of local applied art. There was a tendency to transform tectonically determined forms into ornamental motifs. For the architecture of Germany in the 16th century. overload with decorative elements and fragmented composition are typical. It immediately acquired a tone that anticipated the Baroque. The independent development of new architectural ideas was also hampered by the fact that in a number of economically leading areas the main construction continued to be carried out in half-timbered structures, the structural nature of which was irreconcilable with new tectonic concepts and decorative forms.
The transition from Gothic architecture to Renaissance was carried out extremely slowly. The first to spread classicizing forms were sculptors, artists, and engravers. Hans Holbein the Younger (1498-1543) painted the plastered facades of modest houses in Southern Germany with luxurious motifs of ancient architecture. Jeweler and medalist Peter Fletner (1485-1546) from Nuremberg, turning to architecture, he was one of the first to use Italian architectural forms (a fountain in Mainz, a hall in the Hirschvogel house in Nuremberg, 1534). Albrecht Durer (1471 -1528), artist and thinker, published treatises on urban planning and fortification art. Sculptor Lüder von Bentheim (1550-1612) studied Dutch architecture, which he took as a model when building the town hall in Bremen. From the end of the 16th century. professional builders began to visit Italy. Heinrich Schickhardt (1558-1634) even had a large library of treatises by Italian authors. Nuremberg architect Jacob Wolf(1571-1620), builder of Pellerhaus and the local town hall, was sent by the city council to Italy for two years to study. Undoubtedly, the greatest German master of his time, the Augsburg architect, was closely acquainted with Italian models Elias Hall(1573-1646).
In the XIV and XV centuries. German cities experienced a period of economic, political and cultural prosperity. Their wealth was reflected in the construction of huge city churches with high towers, magnificent town halls, grandiose city fortifications and, above all, the richly decorated homes of the propertied classes.
According to the growing desire for pomp and splendor, the appearance of buildings became richer. Initially a geometrically precise decorative pattern (masswerk) turned into a plane-filling ornament. In accordance with the penchant for naturalistic depiction in painting and sculpture, the ornament was enriched with motifs of foliage and intertwined branches. This trend was also consistent with the transformation of a simple cross rib vault into a complex reticulate, stellate and honeycomb vault.
During the XIV-XV centuries. burgher architecture arose in the economically leading cities of that time, characterized by comparative uniformity, independent of social status city dweller. The houses of the small elite of large merchants were no exception in this regard. Gothic traditions were still alive when in the second quarter of the 16th century. began to imitate Italian architectural forms.
The fragmentation of the country and the existence of a number of small principalities slowed down the transformation of the princely capitals into significant centers of economic, political and artistic life and, above all, made it impossible to create a single capital in Germany, the influence of which would spread throughout the country. Hence the peculiar feature of the German Renaissance, which consists in the fact that its development in individual, politically independent territories and even in individual cities was different.
The old trading towns, with their burgher architectural traditions and old craft skills, remained until the mid-16th century the leading driving force in art, as had been established since the 14th century. Not the castle, as in France, not the large city palace and centric building, as in Italy, but the burgher's residential house and the public buildings of the burghers, primarily the town hall, were the leading architectural types of the German Renaissance. These buildings influenced in the 16th century. for the buildings of nobles and princes. Only after 1550 did the princes show themselves to a greater extent as customers, attracting Italian artists to the country and thereby strengthening the influence of Italian architecture.
Construction technology itself progressed sluggishly. In the cities of Northern Germany back in the 15th century. unplastered brick buildings predominated, in southern Germany - plastered brick buildings combined with natural stone, decorated with paintings on the facade, and in the wooded mountainous regions of Central Germany - half-timbered buildings. These construction methods basically did not change in the 16th century, only plastering of buildings and cladding with natural stone began to be used more often.
More significant changes occurred in the half-timbering, which in the 16th and early 17th centuries. was going through a period of its technical and artistic flourishing. The largest half-timbered buildings reached a previously unprecedented monumentality at this time, such as the administrative building of the butcher shop (Knochenhaueramtshaus) in Hildesheim. The cladding of interior spaces with wooden panels became widespread, responding to the desire for opulence and comfort characteristic of that era.
The gradual transformation of Gothic forms, thus, occurred without significant changes in architectural principles and without much disruption of technical and artistic traditions. Gothic architecture is characterized by a frame system, buttresses protruding significantly from the outside of vaulted buildings, strongly articulated facades and wide window openings. During the late Gothic period, they tried to move the buttresses inside the building, limiting the width of the windows and increasing the surface of the walls. The horizontal lines of plinths and cornices gradually began to acquire greater importance. As a result of all this, horizontal divisions emerged within the Gothic architectural forms, approaching the principles of Italian Renaissance architecture.
The trend towards more complex architectural compositions, which had already been observed since the 14th century, continued to intensify. It was expressed not only in the multiplication of details and in the search for new decorative forms, but also in the division of the body of the building itself. They tried to enrich the simple rectangular shape of residential buildings and town halls with extensions, bay windows, tower staircases, transverse gables and complicate them with an irregular arrangement of windows. The most complex star-shaped and mesh vaults, the ribs of which were given difficult-to-construct bends and intersections, turned into a fantastic completion of the space of church interiors and front rooms. The architecture was dominated by dynamic contours, the contrast of calm planes and richly decorated parts and the harmonious interaction of diverse, freely distributed architectural elements. A striking example of such a late Gothic building is the Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) in Munich and Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen (1471-1525).
The period of early capitalism gave unusual weight and significance to the purely secular tasks that arose before architecture. For the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. Characteristic is the search for new original compositions.
The penetration of Italian architectural forms began in the second decade of the 16th century. primarily in Southern Germany with its largest financial center at the time, Augsburg. Around 1518, Italian influence was already so strong that at a meeting in the Saxon city of Annaberg, architects from Görlitz, Dresden and Magdeburg pledged to use “Italian” forms. Northern Germany was less affected by the wave of innovations than other parts of the country. Here the turning point began only after 1550.
At first, Italian architectural forms were used only to enrich the usual decorative forms of late Gothic. There was still no deeper insight into the tectonic essence of the borrowed motifs, as well as an understanding of the strict simplicity of space and volume of buildings of the Italian Renaissance.
Around the middle of the 16th century. It became customary to invite Italian architects and sculptors. Albrecht Dürer was the only German art theorist at that time. However, his works did not meet with a noticeable response. German architectural works of this time were only manuals for artisan builders, which gave examples and dimensional relationships for individual forms, but there was no systematic theory.
The first theoretical book on architecture appeared in German in 1548. It was a translation Vitruvius by a German physician and mathematician V. Rivius. During this period, the beauty of simple, large-scale buildings began to be given less importance. But the tendency towards a variety of forms and an excess of decoration in architecture is characteristic of the beginning of the 16th century. Refinement of divisions and a decrease in absolute sizes became phenomena characteristic of the following decades. Gothic elements and forms dating back to antiquity were mixed in a motley variety. The new was limited mainly to details and was drawn mainly from books of patterns of ornamentation. The compositional methods of the late Gothic were still in force.
Single architectural works closer to Italian buildings were created only in the second half of the 16th century, when travel in Italy and the works of Italian theorists introduced individual German architects to the architecture of the Renaissance in Italy, and Italian architects and sculptors invited by the ruling princes contributed to the rapprochement of German and Italian architecture. Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, many Dutch architects worked in port cities. French palace construction influenced the construction activities of German princes.
Before the compositional principles of German late Gothic had completely outlived their usefulness, the transition to Baroque had already begun in Germany. Renaissance architecture in the form in which it developed in Italy was almost non-existent in Germany.
In the XV and XVI centuries. The architectural appearance of cities, streets and squares changed mainly due to the reconstruction of some old buildings and the construction of new ones. The growing difference in income gradually deepened the difference between the residential areas of artisans and wealthy merchants. The desire to make maximum use of one's land has led to the fact that in larger cities, instead of two-story ones, they began to build three- and even four-story houses. As a result, the scale and spatial appearance of streets and squares changed. The growth of cultural demands, new hygienic ideas, as well as the demands of the increasing movement led to a number of improvements. Street paving began to be widely used. There was a desire to give the city visual appeal. City governments took particular care to free the facades of houses from many protruding roofs, awnings and basement entrances. The work of artisans on the street in front of their houses ceased to be practiced; it was moved inside the house or workshops were set up in the depths of the plots. Thanks to this, streets and squares began to give the impression of more clearly defined spaces. However, attempts to destroy bay windows and projections, especially in burgher houses, were unsuccessful. Moreover, in the XVI-XVII centuries. These bay windows became widespread in Germany, and the decoration of facades was mainly concentrated in them. Gradually, they began to pay more attention to maintaining the line of street facades and began to adhere to regulations on the permissible height of buildings. When building new houses and rebuilding old ones, they began to take measures to straighten the often very crooked streets. In large cities, city architects were appointed to supervise and manage construction, starting in the 15th century, and at the same time supervised the construction of public buildings.
All those factors that held German architecture of the 16th century. in the traditions of late Gothic, also determined the nature of German urban planning. The love for the lively variety of details and the dynamism of outlines has been preserved, as in the construction of individual buildings. In many cities, towers were built on the buildings of town halls and city churches.
Numerous images of cities from the 16th century have been preserved. The most famous and largest work of this kind is a series of copper engravings created in Frankfurt am Main by a native of the city of Basel Matthaus Merian (1593-1650) and his sons.
More significant changes in the old city layout in the 15th and 16th centuries. has not yet been produced. For the first time, the absolutist state apparatus of subsequent times was able to carry out such events. When the town of Görlitz was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1525, it was rebuilt, albeit in a Renaissance architectural style, but still following the old town plan dating back to the 13th century. Even after the destruction of Magdeburg by fire in 1631, an attempt was made to connect the squares and public buildings of the city new system wide streets failed.
New urban planning ideas arose primarily as a result of new construction tasks caused by changing social conditions. In 1446, by decision of the Nuremberg city council, seven rows of residential buildings were erected for poor weavers, who were called to the city in order to develop the weaving business. Here, for the first time, construction was carried out by the city council according to a single standard plan and, moreover, using the principle of line building.
In 1519 in Augsburg, on behalf of the then largest banking house, the Fuggers Thomas Krebs was built " Fuggerea" - a separate village with 106 dwellings for impoverished families of artisans (Fig. 1). The village consists of two-story houses for two families, also built according to a certain type, with a tiny garden behind the house. The streets of the village are straight, the overhangs of the roofs of the houses face the street. There is no division of any kind into the façade wall of the house facing the street. Such small villages with standard houses, intended for certain groups of the population, were subsequently erected in a number of other German cities.
The Fugger village gives an idea of the new ideas that developed in Germany from the end of the 15th century. They are also reflected in the theoretical project of the new city, published in 1527. Albrecht Durer(Fig. 2). It is characterized by rectilinear row building of streets, open at the ends, with small backyards of houses, as well as the construction of wells at street intersections. When determining the location of the dwellings of representatives of individual crafts in the city, Dürer proceeded entirely from functional and hygienic considerations.
A new urban planning technique is the location of the palace of the sovereign prince (rich patrician, burgher) in the center of the square city, whereas before that the castle of the feudal ruler was always located on the outskirts. The palace was to be surrounded by walls with gates opening towards the main streets. The market square with the town hall and other public buildings was located in front of the palace entrance. The church, which had stood in the center of the city for centuries, was moved by Dürer to the outskirts.
The next theoretical work on urban planning appeared only in 1583 - a treatise by the city architect of Strasbourg Daniel Speckle (1536-1589) on the construction of fortresses, with the appendix of a project for a fortified city. Speckle was already familiar with Italian theories and proposed a radial street system for his city, with a central square.
However, there was no need for new fortresses. German princes laid out new urban areas and entire cities for refugees - victims of religious persecution, in order to use their technical knowledge and production experience for the economic development of their own possessions. So, in 1599, Heinrich Schickhardt, by order of the prince, developed a plan for the construction of the city Freudenstadt in the Black Forest. Almost at the same time on the Main, near the city Hanau(Fig. 3), was founded for the expelled Dutch and Walloons new town, the plan of which was also created by an exiled Belgian architect Nicola Gillet . The town hall was built on the market square, where the main streets of the city intersect. Its location in the middle of the longitudinal side of the square was unusual for Germany. The axial position and visual relationship of the town hall and the church were also new. Thanks to its regular plan, precisely rectilinear streets, and the axial arrangement of public buildings in appropriately laid out squares, Hanau became the first Renaissance city built on German soil.
Hanau was followed Mannheim, Mulheim And Friedrichstadt am Eider, designed by the Dutch, and everywhere, as in Hanau, the city layout is subject to a rectangular system. In theoretical works of the 17th century. the focus was on Italian ideal cities and the ideas of De Marchi, Scamozzi and Palladio were repeated. In many projects, the princely castle is already interpreted as a nodal point of the composition, and the axes of the entire city are oriented towards it.
The development of German urban residential buildings dates back to the 13th-14th centuries. In the XV-XVI centuries. the layout of the house and its design did not undergo any significant changes, and the matter was limited to adapting the house to the increased needs of the owners (Fig. 4, 5). Local features are associated with the characteristics of Lower and Upper German peasant housing. As a rule, the prevailing tendency was to increase the initial number of premises by dividing them and increasing the number of floors. In Northern Germany, large vestibules, which have their origins in the Low German longitudinal open house, were for centuries the defining room of the town house as well. In case of need for premises, rooms and closets were fenced off in the vestibule, which was located on each floor. In the High German house, the floor arrangement had been practiced for a long time, and therefore the transition to a multi-storey residential building was much easier. Typically, the ground floor contained a workshop or retail space, above were living rooms, and above them were warehouses for goods and home storage rooms. A high roof with several floors was therefore a visible sign of burgher wealth. The dominant type was a house with a pediment facing the street. Only gradually in the XV-XVI centuries. houses began to turn their longitudinal façade towards the street. This change was limited primarily to Central and Southern Germany. This innovation took root in the Low German home only in the 17th century. Even where the roof ridge was turned and the view of the house from the street ended with a drainage line and a crowning cornice, they tried to preserve the old appearance of the burgher house by placing transverse gables on top. The latter have become one of the most favorite decorative motifs XVI century and often received rich plastic development. We also meet them on the buildings of town halls and even on the palaces of princes.
 |
 |
 |
 |
In Central and Southern Germany there are a large number of beautiful burgher houses of the 16th-17th centuries. with magnificent cut stone facades. As a rule, they are richly decorated with ornaments and figurative images. Buildings like Pellerhaus in Nuremberg (Fig. 6) and house number 30 on Neissestrasse in Görlitz, can be counted among the most significant artistic works of architecture of the German burghers.
Half-timbered construction reached its true heyday during the Renaissance. Half-timbered structures, which are a frame made of wooden posts and frames filled with clay and later brickwork, differed greatly from each other in individual German regions.
Subsequently, half-timbered structures became more complex in accordance with the general trend of enriching the architecture of buildings. Decorations in the form of braces, profiles, ornamental and figured carvings were placed on the protruding cross beams, at the ends of the beams and support brackets. In residential buildings, bright, variegated paint has long been used, which gave the burgher half-timbered house a cheerful look.
In Augsburg and other cities of Southern Germany, where plastered brick buildings predominated, facade painting with fantastic architecture (columns, balustrades) and figures began to be used. Brick houses in northern cities were also decorated. Cornices were used here, into which medallions with sculptural portraits were often inserted, and the windows were sometimes framed with terracotta slabs with rich ornaments and figures.
The portals of burgher houses everywhere became richer; they were decorated with the family coat of arms or the emblem of the profession of the owner of the house. Thus, the burghers violated the privilege of the nobility.
In northwestern Germany, the main living space of a burgher house was expanded by installing “lanterns” with windows facing in all directions, from which a convenient view of the street opened up and which became the preferred place of residence for the entire burgher family. In Southern and Central Germany the same result was achieved with the help of protruding bay windows. Lanterns and bay windows were located in accordance with the internal layout of the residential building and obeyed the dominant principle of the asymmetrical composition of XV and XVI. centuries They were also used in a monumentalized form in town halls, where the bay window ran through several floors and ended in a turret with a pointed helmet-shaped roof.
In the XV and XVI centuries. The interior of the burgher's house also changed. Furniture and household items have been improved. The walls and ceilings of commercial and residential premises were covered with wooden panels. Cushions were placed on the benches and chairs, and the floors were covered with carpets.
The increase in production and trade, changes in the balance of political forces, and the continuing differentiation of urban life led, from the 14th century, to the construction of a number of public buildings intended for a wide variety of purposes. In cities, specialized warehouses were built, covered markets and premises for city scales were erected. In connection with the expansion of the activities of city administrations, offices, meeting rooms, court rooms, guard rooms for the city guard, chambers for storing weapons of citizens, and arsenals began to be added to the buildings of existing town halls. Individual workshops began to build their own buildings as centers of their organization and social life. Finally, cities established their own schools, and in some cases even opened universities. The impoverishment of large groups of the urban population forced the establishment of urban almshouses and hospitals. Significant funds were also spent on the construction of city fortifications, for which back in the 15th century. monumental gates were erected.
Barns and markets were, as a rule, very simple buildings of considerable size. The majestic impression these buildings make is created solely by their architectural volume, dissected by only a few windows and covered with a high gable roof with a large number of dormers. Among the most impressive buildings of this type that have survived to this day is Customs (Mauthalle) in Nuremberg, 1498-1502 (Fig. 7). The half-timbered buildings of this kind were equally grandiose. The barn in Geislingen gives an idea of the high skill of the builders. The same power is found in individual city fortifications of that time, for example in the Holstentor gate, built in 1466-1478. architects A. Helmstede .
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Fig. 11. Cologne. Portico of the town hall, 1569-1573. Wilhelm Fernukken; Bremen. Town Hall, 1609-1614 Lüder von Bentheim; Leipzig. Town Hall, 1556-1557 Hieronymus Lotter; Emden. Town Hall, 1574-1576 Laurenz von Steenwinkel | |
 |
 |
Significant from an artistic point of view is Augsburg Arsenal, built by Elias Hall between 1602 and 1607. (Fig. 8). The main architectural emphasis, as in burgher residential buildings, is transferred here to the side topped by the pediment, where the means of architectural expressiveness developed in the early Italian Baroque are used.
Town halls, especially in the small towns of Central Germany, remained until the 15th century. relatively modest buildings, often made in picturesque half-timbered style. An attractive example of such a building, dating back to the end of the 15th century, is town hall in Michelstadt in Odenwald(Fig. 9).
A special role in the composition of these structures was played by towers in the center in front of the facade or at the corners of the buildings. Since the 15th century. Town Hall towers receive special meaning as a symbol of the greatness of the burgher class. The height of many of them was increased in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Typically, the originally constructed town hall building was rebuilt and expanded as the need for space increased, with the result that town halls were often extensive complexes of buildings, sometimes with courtyards.
One of the earliest German Renaissance buildings in general is town hall in Görlitz. The reconstruction, which determines the modern appearance of the town hall, was carried out after the great city fire of 1525.
In a buiding town hall in Rothenburg(Fig. 10) one can feel all the originality of the German Renaissance. Part of the Gothic building burned down and was replaced in 1572 by a new building, contrasting with the plain Gothic part. However, both parts form a coherent ensemble. The market side is dominated by arcades attached to the building and a wide external staircase.
Town Hall in Leipzig(Fig. 11), built in 1556-1557. burgomaster and architect Hieronymus Lotter, despite the early date of its construction, largely overcomes the Gothic tradition.
In areas of Germany that maintained closer economic relations with their western neighbors, Renaissance architectural ideas were borrowed more widely. Northern Germany was primarily influenced by the Netherlands. Town Hall in Emden(Fig. 11) was built in 1574-1576. Laurenz von Steenwinkel modeled after the Antwerp town hall. Echoes of the past are the gate, accentuated by a gable and a turret. The group of buildings erected under the influence of Dutch trends also includes town hall in Bremen(Fig. 11) after its reconstruction in 1609-1614. Lüder von Bentheim. The Gothic core of the building was built in 1405-1410. When rebuilding the town hall, the main architectural emphasis was transferred from the narrow ends of the building to its longitudinal façade facing the market square. The façade is symmetrically divided by a middle projection, topped with a pediment and two smaller side gables. Decorative details in Renaissance forms are abundant.
An example of a building close to examples of Italian Renaissance architecture is that destroyed during the Second World War portico of the town hall in Cologne, built in 1569-1573. (Fig. 11) Wilhelm Fernukken . The town hall in Augsburg (1615-1620, architect Elias Holl), which burned down during the Second World War, was an example of a masterful combination of Italian influences with German traditions.
An example of a large structure from the early 15th century. serves town hall in Nuremberg. In 1514-1522. city architect Hans Beheim the Elder to the original Gothic building with a large council hall, a wing with luxurious facades in the late Gothic character was added. In 1616-1622 this building was once again significantly expanded Jacob Wolf the Younger , this time in Italianized architectural forms. Three portals and tower-like superstructures on the roof serve as compositional contrasting accents.
The buildings erected by some workshops were often as large and rich as the town hall buildings. They usually included meeting rooms and sales areas with the necessary utility rooms. The armor and weapons of members of the workshop were kept here and there. An impressive monument to the wealth and strength of individual workshops was the unpreserved butcher shop building on the market square in Hildesheim(Fig. 12), built in 1529. This is one of the best achievements of German half-timbering.
Similar large workshop house created by clothiers in Braunschweig(Fig. 13) by re-extending a small main building. The eastern façade, built in 1591, is especially impressive. Balthasar Kircher . The horizontal division of the façade by strong cornices is balanced by a central axis. Sculptural decorations somewhat weaken the clarity of divisions. This beautiful building also serves as an example of independent creative processing of Renaissance ideas borrowed from Italy on German soil.
Late Gothic was the longest-lasting style in church construction. The Reformation did not have any profound impact on church architecture. Protestants used former Catholic churches for worship, and in the construction of new ones they adhered, just like Catholics, to the architectural forms of late Gothic back in the 17th century.
At the end of the 15th century. The predominant form was the usual hall church with three naves of equal height, which was better suited to a room intended for preaching than the basilica type. The appearance of the interior of these churches is determined by the same height of the naves, high columns, the most complex interweaving of ribs of star-shaped and reticulated vaults and lighting through large windows with colored glass.
The first German church building using forms borrowed from Italian Renaissance architecture is Fugger Chapel in Augsburg(1509-1518), which the banker Jacob Fugger built at the western facade of the Church of St. Anna as a tomb for her family.
Until the last quarter of the 16th century. There was no longer a single church building worth mentioning in Germany. Only after a certain consolidation of church differences had occurred did they begin to erect more or less significant church buildings again. At first, the order of the Jesuits, the bearer of the ideas of the Counter-Reformation, acted as the customer. The Jesuits used the architectural forms of the Italian Renaissance to promote the ideas and power of the Catholic Church. An example would be Michael's Church in Munich(1583-1595) - largely an imitation of the Church of Il Gesu in Rome.
However, in areas of Western Germany less accessible to southern influence, even the Jesuit Church in the 17th century. reflect the traditions of late Gothic. This is, for example, Jesuit Church in Cologne(Fig. 14), built Christophe Wamser in 1618-1627
In 1591, construction began in Würzburg University Church(Fig. 15), which, in comparison with other German churches, comes closest to the Renaissance ideal. However, this architecture imitating antiquity did not become widespread in Germany.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
Protestant church architecture faced a special task: to create a room where parishioners could listen to sermons, which constitute the most important part of Protestant worship. Architects were looking for new forms for this architecture, but these forms could not take root. Even in the most noteworthy new Protestant churches, the architects adhered to the tried and tested principle of the hall church. In the city churches in Bückeburg(1611-1615) (Fig. 16) the late Gothic gable facade is still preserved, but here Gothic elements are already mixed with forms characteristic of the early Baroque.
The burgher residential building and large city public buildings occupied a leading place in the development of German architecture until the second half of the 16th century, until this role passed to the architectural structures of the ruling princes.
Changes in the political superstructure, which determined the transition from the medieval feudal castle-fortress to the palace, occurred in Germany in the last quarter of the 15th century. and in the first half of the 16th century. The military-political significance of the old castle-fortresses, which gradually waned, led first to reconstruction and adaptation to the diverse needs of the vast court staff, and to the development of a new type of building. Just like in other European countries, a palace appeared in Germany. In its layout and in its architectural appearance, the palace reflected the new political interests of the feudal nobility, its desire for representativeness, as well as its new everyday requirements. Princely palaces, starting from the second half of the 16th century, belong to the number of large and artistically significant buildings of the German Renaissance.
Among the locks adapted to changing requirements, the most famous is Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen(Fig. 17). Here under the guidance Arnold von Westphalen A luxurious structure, begun in 1471, was erected. The body of the building is divided by projections and indentations, as well as towers. Extensive roof surfaces are broken by high dormer windows. Thanks to this, the building as a whole received a dynamic outline with a predominance of verticals. The courtyard facade is dominated by a magnificent stair tower set to the side. In the large, evenly spaced windows of the main rooms of the palace, the hard frame and hanging arches attract attention. These windows, as well as the horizontal lines of the cornices, reveal what happened at the end of the 15th century. profound internal changes in architecture, which prepared the ground in Germany for the borrowing of architectural forms of the Italian Renaissance.
The layout of the premises at Albrechtsburg Castle is still reminiscent of a medieval castle-fortress with its randomly arranged rooms. What is new is the arrangement of through floors of equal height. The grand appearance of the light-filled halls also marks a step forward compared to the gloomy rooms of the castles of previous centuries. The unique character of these halls is due to the exceptional wealth of star-shaped, reticulated and honeycomb vaults, which, perhaps, are not found in such variety in any other castle.
 |
|
 |
 |
| Fig. 17. Meissen. Albrechstburg Castle, begun in 1471 by Arnold von Westphalen. Western façade, interior, 1st and 2nd floor plans | |
An important monument of the early Renaissance in Germany is castle-palace Gartenfels near Torgau(Fig. 18), built on the basis of an old feudal castle with a courtyard; this castle underwent a radical reconstruction, carried out, starting in 1532, by the architect Conrad Krebs .
As a consequence of the strengthening of the power of the ruling princes as a result of the fierce class struggle of the first decades of the 16th century, after 1550, intensive construction of new and reconstruction of old feudal residences into a city palace began. The palace became a representative residential building for the nobility, which was now subject to new demands. This transformation entailed changes in the plan. If in a medieval castle individual rooms were sequentially connected to each other, now passages are arranged from which you can go to individual rooms without passing through others. In buildings with a courtyard, this function is performed by arcade galleries borrowed from Italy. The more magnificent forms of the courtyard façade compared to the external one correspond to the old tradition in castle architecture. What is new is the regular arrangement of rooms around a rectangular courtyard - a typical compositional technique of the Renaissance.
In the second half of the 16th century. was expanded and received such a rectangular plan Plassenburg Castle near Kulmbach (Fig. 19). On the courtyard sides there were open galleries with continuous arcades, reminiscent of the light, airy architecture of Italian palazzos. Staircase towers rise at the corners of the courtyard. The courtyard facades are richly decorated with thin reliefs in the manner of Italian grotesques and medallions with portraits of princes.
Large palace buildings arose in such princely residences as Munich, Stuttgart, Dresden, Wittenberg and Schwerin. As a rule, they are structures created as a result of the reconstruction and expansion of old medieval castles.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Fig.21. Dresden. The palace was rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century. General view from the "Description of Dresden", Vienna, 1680 and plan | |
Such an architectural complex, which is difficult to grasp at one glance, - residence in Munich(Fig. 20). The oldest part is the “New Fortress,” built like a fortified castle, in the northeastern part of the palace territory. Adjacent to it are parts of the palace that were built in the mid-16th century. First, a library with a glyptotek was built - a building that, by virtue of its intended purpose, occupies an important place in the cultural history of the 16th century. Library(Fig. 20), whose length reaches 69 m, is the largest secular interior of the German Renaissance. The building was covered with a single cylindrical vault, rhythmically dissected by strippings. The library building was followed by the so-called Grotto Courtyard, also built by the painter-architect Sustris. The residence buildings, which are located around the so-called Royal Court, were built by Elector Maximilian I (1597-1651). He connected them with the older parts of the palace into a single architectural complex. Wall painting, extremely common in southern Germany, compensated for the lack of division of elongated facades. The construction of the palace was completed in 1618.
A similar complex of buildings is palace in Dresden(Fig. 21). Here, too, the fortified castle was converted into a palace around the middle of the 16th century. under the direction of Kaspar Voigtfon Wierandt .
The most interesting, from the point of view of architectural history, part of the palace in Heidelberg, also an expanded feudal castle, is the so-called Otto-Heinrich Corps, built in 1556-1559. (Fig. 22). Forms imitating Italian, Dutch and German architectural motifs are fused into a single whole. The horizontal division of the façade predominates. The dimensions of the three floors decreasing with height (7.4; 5.0; 4.4 m) indicate familiarity with Serlio’s theory. In imitation of the rhythmic trestle of the main facade of the Roman Cancelleria Bramante, each pair of windows forms a group connected by pilasters, in the middle of which there is a niche for statues. The window itself is divided by a stand with a herm. The appearance of the building as a whole, despite the influence of Italian architecture, exemplifies the unbridled desire for richness of decoration that distinguishes most German palaces.
Around the same period, a Fürstenhof Palace in Wismar(Fig. 22). Built in 1553-1554. The main part of the building, with its strict horizontal division and uniform rows of windows, is reminiscent of Italian Renaissance palaces.
 |
 |
 |
Fig.22. Heidelberg. Otto Heinrich's Castle. Wing, 1556-1559 Mila in Thuringia. Palace, 1581 Wismar. Fürstenhof Palace, 1553-1554 Street facade |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Built in 1605-1610. Georg Widinger Aschaffenburg Castle(Fig. 23) - one of the most significant buildings of the German Renaissance. The corners of the building are accentuated by towers. Main facade It is no longer facing the courtyard, but outward. The elongated wings are dissected by massive cornices and regular rows of windows.
Along with these luxurious buildings erected by the ruling princes, numerous estates of the nobility were created, especially in the 16th century. Many of their features were borrowed from burgher residential buildings, from which they often differed only in their high location and larger size. An example is the Thuringian half-timbered palace in Mil(Fig. 22), built in 1581
A sign of significant changes that took place in the court life of the ruling princes were special buildings erected, starting from the 16th century, for knightly games and other court festivities. Castles also have extensive gardens. A unique work was built in the palace garden in Stuttgart " New entertainment pavilion"(Neyes Lusthaus) (Fig. 24), which was built in 1580-1593, but demolished in 1846.
For German architecture of the 16th century. Characteristic changes in late Gothic forms under the influence of new artistic views. The upward thrust typical of Gothic architecture has softened somewhat. Buildings often represented closed architectural volumes with large planes of walls, which were divided only by individual plastic accents. Decorative forms became more complex and enriched with various motifs, and this was given primary importance, while construction technology and the organization of construction remained unchanged. When the center of gravity of capitalist development is at a short time moved from Italy to southern Germany, decorative details borrowed from Italian Renaissance architecture were incorporated into the lavish decoration that overwhelmed German buildings. The sense of form only slowly changed, moving closer to Italian architectural concepts.
In the second and third quarter of the 16th century. a combination of late Gothic techniques and Italianizing forms arose, imitating ancient architecture, in which German traditions predominated.
In the second half of the 16th century, after the suppression of their opponents in the Peasant War, princes appeared to a greater extent as customers. The princely capitals became, along with old trading cities like Augsburg and Nuremberg, the most significant centers of architectural creativity. Italian Renaissance architectural forms are used to demonstrate growing political power. Thanks to this, the borrowing of Italian architectural forms and compositional ideas receives new and stronger impulses, but even at this phase of development, late Gothic reminiscences and folk features still play a role. Richly decorated gables, bay windows and portals, as in burgher houses and town halls, are also found as characteristic forms of many princely buildings. Only in the 17th century. Large architectural compositions with symmetrical construction and regular division were firmly established, with the last echoes of late Gothic merging with the advancing architectural ideas of the Baroque. The fragmentation of Germany into many small principalities created the conditions for various local trends, so that the architecture of this time represents a great variety, varying from principality to principality. Nevertheless, in the German architecture of the Renaissance, characteristic features emerged early, in particular the elaborateness of details. It was at this time that German builders created a number of structures of free composition. Even in those buildings that most closely resemble Italian models, such as in the town halls in Nuremberg and Augsburg or in the “Princely Court” in Wismar, the German predilection for the free grouping of architectural volumes and a dynamic silhouette makes itself felt.
Chapter “Architecture of Germany”, section “Renaissance Architecture in Western European Countries (outside Italy)”, encyclopedia “General History of Architecture. Volume V. Architecture of Western Europe of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance". Executive editor: V.F. Marcuson.