R. Klimov
The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the early 15th century.
Dutch (actually Flemish) masters back in the 14th century. enjoyed great fame in Western Europe, and many of them played an important role in the development of art in other countries (especially France). However, almost all of them do not leave the mainstream of medieval art. Moreover, the approach of a new era in painting is least noticeable. Artists (for example, Melchior Bruderlam, ca. 1360-after 1409) at best multiply the number of details observed in nature in their works, but their mechanical stringing in no way contributes to the realism of the whole.
The sculpture reflected glimpses of the new consciousness much more clearly. At the end of the 14th century. Klaus Sluter (d. c. 1406) made the first attempts to break the traditional canons. The statues of Duke Philip the Bold and his wife on the portal of the tomb of the Burgundian dukes in the Dijon monastery of Chanmol (1391-1397) are distinguished by their unconditional portrait credibility. Their placement on the sides of the portal, in front of the statue of the Mother of God, located in the center, testifies to the sculptor’s desire to unite all the figures and create from them some semblance of a scene of anticipation. In the courtyard of the same monastery, Sluter, together with his nephew and student Claus de Verve (c. 1380-1439), created the composition “Golgotha” (1395-1406), the pedestal of which has come down to us, decorated with statues (the so-called Well of the Prophets), is distinguished by the power of its forms and the drama of the idea. The statue of Moses, which is part of this work, can be considered among the most significant achievements of European sculpture of its time. Among the works of Sluyter and de Verves, the figures of mourners for the tomb of Philip the Bold (1384-1411; Dijon. Museum, and Paris, Cluny Museum) should also be noted, which are characterized by sharp, increased expressiveness in the conveyance of emotions.
And yet neither Klaus Sluger nor Klaus de Verve can be considered the founders of the Dutch Renaissance. Some exaggeration of expression, excessive literalness of portrait decisions and very weak individualization of the image make us see them as predecessors rather than pioneers of a new art. In any case, the development of Renaissance trends in the Netherlands proceeded in other ways. These paths were outlined in Dutch miniature paintings from the early 15th century.
Dutch miniaturists back in the 13th-14th centuries. enjoyed the widest popularity; many of them traveled outside the country and had a very strong influence on the masters, for example, in France. And it was precisely in the field of miniatures that a monument of crucial significance was created - the so-called Turin-Milan Book of Hours.
It is known that its customer was Jean, Duke of Berry, and that work on it began shortly after 1400. But not yet completed, this Book of Hours changed its owner, and work on it dragged on until the second half of the 15th century. In 1904, during the fire of the Turin National Library, most of it burned down.
In terms of artistic perfection and its significance for the art of the Netherlands, a group of sheets, created, apparently, in the 20s, stands out among the miniatures of the Book of Hours. 15th century Their author was called Hubert and Jan van Eyck or conventionally called the Chief Master of the Book of Hours.
These miniatures are unexpectedly real. The master depicts green hills with walking girls, a seashore with white capped waves, distant cities and a cavalcade of elegant horsemen. Clouds float across the sky in flocks; castles reflected in quiet waters river, under the bright arches of the church there is a service, in the room they are busy around the newborn. The artist's goal is to convey the endless, living, all-pervading beauty of the Earth. But at the same time, he does not try to subordinate the image of the world to a strict ideological concept, as his Italian contemporaries did. It is not limited to recreating a plot-specific scene. People in his compositions do not receive a dominant role and are not separated from the landscape environment, which is always presented with keen observation. In Baptism, for example, the characters are depicted in the foreground, and yet the viewer perceives the scene in its landscape unity: a river valley with a castle, trees and small figures of Christ and John. All color shades are marked by a rare fidelity to nature for their time, and due to their airiness, these miniatures can be considered an exceptional phenomenon.
It is very typical for the miniatures of the Turin-Milan Book of Hours (and more broadly for painting of the 20s of the 15th century) that the artist pays attention not so much to the harmonious and reasonable organization of the world, but to its natural spatial extent. Essentially, the features of an artistic worldview that are quite specific and have no analogues in modern European art are manifested here.
For the Italian painter of the early 15th century, the gigantic human figure seemed to cast its shadow on everything, subjugating everything. In turn, space was treated with emphatic rationalism: it had clearly defined boundaries, all three dimensions were clearly expressed in it, and it served as an ideal environment for human figures. The Dutchman is not inclined to see people as the center of the universe. For him, a person is only a part of the universe, perhaps the most valuable, but does not exist outside the whole. The landscape in his works never turns into a background, and the space is devoid of calculated orderliness.
These principles indicated the formation of a new type of worldview. And it is no coincidence that their development went beyond the narrow limits of the miniature and led to the renewal of the entire Dutch painting and the flowering of a special version of Renaissance art.
The first paintings, which, like the miniatures of the Turin Book of Hours, can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments, were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck.
Both of them - Hubert (d. 1426) and Jan (c. 1390-1441) - played a decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Jan was apparently a very educated man, he studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, and carried out some diplomatic assignments for the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, in whose service, by the way, his trip to Portugal took place. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the brothers’ paintings made in the 20s, and among them such as “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beyningen), “Madonna in the church" (Berlin), "St. Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).
In Jan van Eyck's painting “Madonna in the Church,” specific field observations take up an extremely large amount of space. Previous european art did not know such vitally natural images of the real world. The artist carefully draws the sculptural details, does not forget to light candles near the statue of the Madonna in the altar barrier, notes a crack in the wall, and shows the faint outlines of a flying buttress outside the window. The interior is filled with light golden light. The light glides along the church vaults, falls like sunbeams on the floor slabs, and flows freely into the doors that are open to meet it.
However, in this vitally convincing interior the master places the figure of Mary, with her head reaching the windows of the second tier. II, however, such a small-scale combination of figure and architecture does not give the impression of implausibility, because in van Eyck’s painting the relationships and connections that do not dominate are exactly the same as in life. The light that penetrates it is real, but it also gives the picture features of sublime enlightenment and imparts to the colors a supernatural intensity of sound. It is no coincidence that from Mary’s blue cloak and her red dress, a color echo sweeps across the entire church - these two colors flash in Mary’s crown, are intertwined in the attire of angels visible in the depths of the church, light up under the arches and on the crucifix crowning the altar barrier, and then crumble into small ones sparkles in the farthest stained glass window of the cathedral.
In Dutch art of the 20s. 15th century the greatest accuracy in conveying nature and human objects is combined with a heightened sense of beauty, and above all the color, colorful sonority of a real thing. The luminosity of color, its deep inner emotion and a kind of solemn purity deprive the work of the 20s. of any kind of everyday routine - even in those cases when a person is depicted in an everyday setting.
If the activity of the real beginning in the works of the 1420s. is a common sign of their Renaissance nature, then the indispensable emphasis on the miraculous enlightenment of all earthly things testifies to the perfect originality of the Renaissance in the Netherlands. This quality of Dutch painting received a powerful synthetic expression in the central work of the northern Renaissance - in the famous Ghent Altarpiece of the van Eyck brothers.
The Ghent Altarpiece (Ghent, Church of St. Bavo) is a grandiose, multi-part structure (3.435 X 4.435). When closed, it is a two-tier composition, the lower tier of which is occupied by images of statues of two Johns - the Baptist and the Evangelist, on either side of which there are kneeling customers - Iodocus Wade and Elizabeth Burlyut; the upper tier is dedicated to the scene of the Annunciation, which is crowned with the figures of sibyls and prophets, completing the composition.
Lower tier thanks to the image real people and the naturalness and tangibility of the statues, more than the top one, is connected with the environment in which the viewer is located. The color scheme of this tier seems dense and heavy. On the contrary, “The Annunciation” seems more detached, its color is light, and the space is not enclosed. The artist moves the heroes - the angel of the gospel and Mary offering thanksgiving - to the edges of the stage. And it frees up the entire space of the room and fills it with light. This light, to an even greater extent than in “Madonna in the Church,” has a dual nature - it introduces the sublime, but it also poetizes the pure comfort of ordinary everyday surroundings. And as if to prove the unity of these two aspects of life - the universal, sublime and the real, everyday - the central panels of the Annunciation are given a view of the distant perspective of the city and an image of a touching detail of household use - a washbasin with a towel hanging next to it. The artist diligently avoids the limitations of space. Light, even luminous, it continues outside the room, behind the windows, and where there is no window, there is a recess or niche, and where there is no niche, light falls sunbeam, repeating thin window sashes on the wall.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
4 hours of classroom work and 8 hours of independent work
Lecture84. Painting in GermanyXV - XVI centuries.
4 hours of lecture work and 4 hours of independent work
Lectures
1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke.
2. Painting in Germany in the second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner.
3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher.
4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer.
5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. The phenomenon of reformation.
1. Painting in Germany in the first third of the 15th century. The work of the Upper Rhine master, the work of Master Franke
general characteristics Renaissance art in Germany in the 15th century. In German painting of the 15th century, three stages can be distinguished: the first - from the beginning of the century to the 1430s, the second - until the 1470s. and the third - almost until the end of the century. German masters created works in the form of church altars.
During the period 1400-1430s. German altars open up to the audience a beautiful Mountain world, beckoning people to it like some extremely entertaining fairy tale. This can be confirmed by the painting “Garden of Eden”, created by an anonymous Upper Rhine master around
1410-1420s
It is believed that the door of the altar of St. Thomas with the scene “Adoration of the Magi of the Infant Christ” was made by Master Franke from Hamburg, who was active in the first third of the 15th century. The fabulousness of the gospel event.
2. Painting in Germany, second third of the 15th century. The work of Hans Mulcher, the work of Konrad Witz, the work of Stefan Lochner
At the stage of the 1430-1470s. works of fine art in Germany are filled with plastically voluminous human figures immersed in an artistically designed space. Visualizations
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
various facets of the picture characters' condolences are exposed to the earthly sufferings of Christ, most often presented as a person equal to other people, experiencing many torments of earthly existence. Expressive realism of the sensually revealed events of Holy Scripture, taking into account the audience’s intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as their own. During these years, the artists Hans Mulcher and Konrad Witz worked very interestingly in the German cities of Basel and Ulm.
A citizen of the city of Ulm, Hans Multscher is known as a painter and sculptor. The master's sculptural works include the decoration of the front windows of the Ulm Town Hall (1427) and the plastic design of the western facade of the Ulm Cathedral (1430-1432). Dutch influence, which allows us to draw a conclusion about the artist’s stay and training in Tours. Of Mulcher's paintings, two altars survive in fragments. Most significant work master - this is the “Wurzach Altar” (1433-1437), from which eight doors have been preserved depicting the life of Mary on the outside and the Passion of Christ on the inside. From the “Štercin Altar of the Virgin Mary” (1456-1458) only a few side doors and individual carved wooden figures have survived to this day.
The painting “Christ before Pilate” is a fragment of the interior of the “Wurzach Altar”. Different attitudes of the characters to the depicted action. Another panel of the “Wurzach Altar” is the painting “The Resurrection of Christ”.
A native of Swabia and a citizen of the city of Basel, Konrad Witz is known as the author of twenty altar panels. All of them demonstrate the influence on the artist of the work of such Dutch masters as Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden. Witz's works are characterized by the desire to achieve, through light and shadow modeling, a realistically detailed rendering of the flesh of things and spatial clarity.
In 1445-1446. Konrad Witz, while in Geneva, commissioned Cardinal François de Mies to perform “The Altarpiece of St. Peter’s Basilica.” Painting of the reverse side of the altar “Wonderful Catch”.
The artistic space of the work, combining two gospel stories, “A Wonderful Catch” and “Walking on the Waters,” visualizes the reasons that do not allow one to achieve a religious connection with the Almighty. Human sinfulness, loss of faith in the Lord.
IN first half of the 15th century The works of German painters of the city of Cologne were distinguished by their originality, especially altar paintings,
created by Stefan Lochner. Research has shown that in his original work the artist relied on the achievements of the French-Flemish miniature of the Limburg brothers with its refinement and exquisite colorism, as well as the local Cologne tradition represented by the Master of St. Veronica. Lochner especially often painted paintings depicting the Mother of God with the Child Christ. In this regard, the most famous painting by Stefan Lochner is “Mary in Pink”
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
garden" (c. 1448). The originality of the composition of the painting is in the form of a ring-shaped curved line.
3. Painting in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. The work of Martin Schongauer, the work of Michael Pacher
During the period 1460-1490s. The process of creating works of fine art in Germany was influenced by the Italian Trecento Renaissance (primarily the works of Simone Martini) and the work of the Dutch masters Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes. The problem of visualizing the range of feelings.
One of the leading German painters of the second half of the 15th century. was Martin Schongauer. The artist was initially destined for a career as a priest. Schongauer studied painting with Caspar Isenmann in Colmar. The drawing in the manner of Rogier van der Weyden confirms the fact that Schongauer was in Burgundy.
The work “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1475-1480). A visual expression of the spiritual sincerity of the heroes of the pictorial action. In the event depicted by Schongauer, the main attention is paid to how sincere all the heroes are in their actions and thoughts.
The work of Michael Pacher. The artist studied in Pustertal and also made an educational trip to Northern Italy, which is clearly evidenced by the Italianized plastic language of his works.
Among the best paintings of Michael Pacher is the “Altar of the Church Fathers” (1477-1481). The painting “The Prayer of St. Wolfgang” is the upper part of the right outer wing of the “Altar of the Church Fathers”.
The artistic space of the work demonstrates that it was the sincerity and sincerity of the prayer of the Bishop of Regensburg that contributed to Wolfgang’s divine inclusion in the rank of Saints and the ascent of his soul to the heights of the Heavenly World.
4. Painting in Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The work of Matthias Grunewald, the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, the work of Albrecht Dürer, the work of artists of the “Danube School”: Albrecht Altdorfer
The fine arts of Germany at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries are the highest stage of the German Renaissance, best periods the works of Albrecht Durer and Niethart Gotthart (Matthias Grunewald), Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger. Often a separate and even naturalistically resolved single motive is raised to the level of the idea of the general and universal. In artistic creations, rational and mystical principles coexist.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Matthias Grunewald is one of the largest painters of the German “enthusiastic” Renaissance, whose work is connected with the regions of Germany located along the banks of the Main and the middle Rhine. It is known that the artist alternately worked in Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg, Mainz, Frankfurt, Halle, and Isenheim.
The task is to visualize the features of simple-minded sympathy, empathy, identification, acceptance of the torment of the suffering Christ as one’s own pain. The artist’s sharing of the views of Thomas a à Kempis. In Grunewald's time, Thomas a à Kempis's book On the Imitation of Christ was so popular that it was second only to the Bible in the number of editions.
Matthias Grunewald's most significant work was the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), created for the Church of St. Anthony in Isenheim.
The altar consists of a shrine with a sculpture and three pairs of doors - two movable and one fixed. Various transformations with the altar doors entail the movement of scenes of the incarnation and sacrifice of the Savior.
IN When closed, the central part of the altar represents the scene of the Crucifixion of Christ. At the end, the “Entombment” is picturesquely shown, and on the side doors are “Saint Anthony” and “Saint Sebastian”.
IN In general, the religious events depicted on the altar doors visualize the idea of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the chosen leaders of the Christian Church for the atonement of human sins, visually express the Catholic prayer “Agnus Dei” - “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Expressive realism of the events of Holy Scripture, taking into account the audience's intense empathy for the suffering of Christ as their own. The edges of condolences. Traditions of Dutch masters. Means of conveying realistically detailed flesh of things
And spatial clarity.
The artistic space of the painting “The Crucifixion of Christ” represents Jesus Christ nailed to the cross with several others standing by. The Savior is huge and horribly disfigured. The depicted body of Christ testifies to the savage torment to which the Messiah was subjected. It is completely covered with hundreds of terrible wounds. Jesus was nailed to the cross with giant nails that literally broke His hands and feet. The head is disfigured by the sharp thorns of a crown of thorns.
To the left of the cross of Calvary are depicted John the Evangelist, supporting the Madonna, weakened from long prayer, and the sinner Mary Magdalene, who, kneeling at the foot of the cross, turns to the Savior in passionate prayer.
To the right of the figure of Christ is John the Baptist and the Lamb of God. The presence of John the Baptist in the “Crucifixion” scene gives the theme of Golgotha an additional dimension, recalling the redemption for which Christ’s sacrifice was made. The gospel event is presented with such expressive power that it cannot leave anyone indifferent.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It is not for nothing that next to the figure of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus Christ there is an inscription: “He must increase, I must decrease.”
With the doors of the Isenheim Altar open, the central panel of the work represents the scene of the Glorification of Mary, to the left of which is the Annunciation, and to the right is the Resurrection of Christ.
Compositionally and coloristically, the painting “Glorification of Mary” is divided into two parts, each of which manifests its own special event in the glory of the Madonna.
The picturesque work “The Resurrection of Christ”, with the doors of the “Isenheim Altar” open, located next to the painting “Glorification of Mary”, represents the Savior in the guise of a knight ascended above the earth in the radiance of mystical light. Knight Christ, having risen from the dead, by the very fact of the Resurrection won an all-out victory over the armed warriors. The symbolism of the lid of the sarcophagus, where the body of the Savior was imprisoned. The meaning of the act of rolling away the stone of Christ's tomb. The slab of the tomb from which the Lord arose as a tablet containing the record of the Old Testament Law. The personification of victory over adherents of the Old Testament principles symbolizes the triumph of the Gospel Law.
The construction of the “Isenheim Altarpiece” facilitates not only the opening, but also the additional movement of the picturesque doors, which reveals the sculptural part of the work with statues of St. Augustine, St. Anthony and St. Jerome, as well as the predella with sculpted half-figures of Christ and the twelve apostles. On the back of the inner doors, on the one hand, the scene “Conversation of St. Anthony with St. Paul the Hermit” is depicted, and on the other, “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”
The artistic space of the painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”
The work of Lucas Cranach the Elder - court painter of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as a wonderful graphic artist. Cranach is considered the creator and largest representative of the Saxon art school. Simultaneously with his creative activity, the master performed important municipal work in Wittenberg: he owned a tavern, a pharmacy, a printing house, and a library. Cranach was even a member of the city council, and in the period from 1537 to 1544. was elected burgomaster of Wittenberg three times.
Despite the fact that many of Lucas Cranach the Elder's significant works were lost during the Reformation and the fire that devastated Wittenberg in 1760, the works that have survived to this day reflect the diversity of the master's talent. He painted excellent portraits and also created paintings on religious and mythological subjects. There are numerous famous nudes by Cranach - Venus, Eve, Lucretia, Salome, Judith. When creating his works, the master used themes from contemporary humanistic sources.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The artistic space of Lucas Cranach's painting "The Punishment of Cupid". The goddess of love is called upon with her naked beauty to wash the human soul from the evil of sinful filth, to rid human hearts of callousness and fossilization. The task is to arouse crystal clear love energy, thereby snatching the human soul from the sticky mud of everyday profaneness. Peculiarities spiral composition works.
The work "Martin Luther", performed in 1529, reveals Lucas Cranach the Elder as an excellent portrait painter.
The great German reformer of the Catholic Church is depicted communicating with God in “righteous everyday life.”
The work of Albrecht Durer, the great German painter, graphic artist and engraver of the late 15th – first third of the 16th centuries. Dürer's work is characterized by:
1. Fluctuation of professional interest from generalized philosophical images to strictly naturalistic visual representations;
2. The scientific basis of the activity, a combination of practical skills with deep and precise knowledge (Dürer is the author of the theoretical treatises “Guide to Measuring with Compass and Ruler” and “Four Books on Human Proportions”);
3. The discovery of new possibilities for creating graphic and pictorial works (engraving, which before him was understood as a black drawing on a white background, Dürer turned into a special type of art, the works of which, along with black and white colors, are characterized by a huge number of intermediate shades);
4. The discovery of new artistic genres, themes and subjects (Dürer was the first in Germany to create a work of landscape genre (1494), the first in German art to depict a naked woman (1493), the first to present himself naked in a self-portrait (1498), etc.);
5. Prophetic pathos of artistic creations.
Two years before his death, Albrecht Dürer created his famous pictorial diptych “The Four Apostles” (1526), which he treasured very much.
The artistic space of the left picture of the diptych represents the apostles John and Peter, and the right – the apostles Paul and Mark.
The depicted apostles personify human temperaments. The Evangelist John, presented as young and calm, visualizes a sanguine temperament. Saint Peter, depicted as old and tired, symbolizes a phlegmatic temperament. Evangelist Mark, shown in impetuous movement with sparkling eyes, personifies the choleric temperament. St. Paul, shown gloomy and wary, signifies a melancholic temperament.
The work is like a most skillful analytical mirror of human souls. Visual representation of the full spectrum of temperaments.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
On the other hand, the work is a visual evidence of the truth of the appearance of the prophets spreading Christian doctrine on behalf of the Lord, not the Devil. Portrait characteristics of the apostles.
Both paintings at the bottom of the image contain specially selected texts from the New Testament, carefully executed on behalf of Dürer by the calligrapher Neiderfer.
The diptych "Adam and Eve", created by Dürer in 1507, like the work "The Four Apostles", consists of two relatively independent works of painting. The artistic space of the right picture represents Eve standing near the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and receiving a red pouring apple from the tempting serpent. The artistic space of the left painting represents Adam with a fruiting branch of an apple tree in his hand.
A reminder to people of the sinfulness of every person, a warning about the fatal consequences of original sin.
The copper engraving “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513) is one of Albrecht Dürer’s best graphic works. The artistic space of the work represents a mounted knight in heavy armor, whose path is being tried to be blocked by Death and the Devil.
The plot of the engraving is correlated with the treatise of Erasmus of Rotterdam “Manual of the Christian Warrior” (1504) - a moral and ethical teaching in which the author appeals to all the knights of Christ with an appeal not to be afraid of difficulties if the road is blocked by terrible, deadly demons. A demonstration of the power of the soul, tirelessly striving for the Spirit of God, which no one and nothing in the world can prevent, not even Death and the Devil.
An extremely original phenomenon of the German Renaissance at the beginning of the 16th century. became the activity of the artists of the “Danube School” (German: Donauschule), who discovered the genre of romantically fantastic landscape with their work. In the paintings of the “Danubians” the idea of the need to unify human life with the life of nature, its natural rhythm of existence and a panentheistic organic connection with God was visualized.
The leading master of the “Danube School” was Albrecht Altdorfer. Research has shown that the development of the artist’s creative method was influenced by the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Albrecht Durer.
A representative work of the initial stage of Altdorfer’s work was the painting “Prayer for the Cup,” executed by the master in the early 1510s. The artistic space of the work, sensually revealing the gospel plot, represents nature as a kind of sensitive living organism that actively reacts to events occurring in the human world.
Around the beginning of the 1520s. Significant changes occurred in Altdorfer's artistic activity. Central theme
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The master’s creativity began to visualize the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God. The painting “Landscape with a Bridge” (1520s) is indicative of this stage of the artist’s activity. The central theme is the visualization of the complexities of interaction between the world of divine nature and the world of man abandoned by God.
The pinnacle of Altdorfer’s art was the painting “The Battle of Alexander the Great,” created by the master in 1529 by order of Duke William of Bavaria.
The artistic space of the work represents a panorama of the Universe. The divine elements of solar fire, heavenly air, ocean water and rocky earth are depicted as living according to the single law of the Universe, constantly and quite rigidly in contact with each other. However, this is not a destructive battle of the elements among themselves, but the principle of their natural interaction. The principle of natural interaction of elements living according to a single law of the Universe.
5. Painting in Germany in the 16th century. Phenomenon of the Reformation
The history of the Renaissance in Germany ended suddenly. By 1530-1540 in fact everything was over. The Reformation played a disastrous role here. Some Protestant movements directly came out with iconoclastic slogans and determination to destroy monuments of art as handmaidens of the ideas of Catholicism. In those German lands where religious primacy passed to Protestantism, they soon abandoned the picturesque design of churches altogether, which is why most artists lost the basis of their existence. Only to mid-16th century V. in Germany there has been some revival of artistic activity, and even then in areas that have remained faithful to Catholicism. Here, as in the Netherlands, Romanism develops.
In the second half of the 16th century, the fine arts of Germany actively joined the general mannerist flow of Western European painting. However, now the samples German art It was formed not by local masters, but by Dutch and Flemish artists invited to work in the country.
The work of Hans Holbein the Younger - German painter and graphic artist. Like his brother Ambrosius, Hans Holbein began his education in his father's workshop.
In the initial period of his creativity, the master was influenced by the works of Matthias Grunewald, whom he personally met in Isenheim in 1517. Equally, Italian influence is felt in Holbein’s initial works, despite the fact that there is no evidence of the artist visiting Italy. The work “The Crucifixion” dates back to the initial period of Hans Holbein’s work.
TOPIC 25. ART OF PAINTING IN GERMANY XV-XVI CENTURIES.
Lecture 84. Painting in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Many of Holbein's works, created in Germany, fell victim to reformist "iconoclasm" in February 1529. This was the main reason that it was in that year that the master finally settled in England. In England, Holbein worked mainly as a portrait painter at the London court, gradually gaining a reputation as the largest portrait painter Northern Europe.
Beginning in 1536, the artist entered the service of King Henry VIII, for whom he made many trips to the continent in order to create portraits of princesses considered as possible suitable parties.
Portraits from the English period mainly depict members of the royal family and members of the high aristocracy.
The work “Henry VIII” (c. 1540s) belongs to the best portrait creations of the master. In addition to portraits, the master completed many wall paintings, as well as sketches of costumes and utensils. Holbein's true masterpiece was his woodcut "Dance of Death", created in 1538.
IN XVcentury the most significant Cultural Center Northern Europe -Netherlands , a small but rich country that includes the territory of present-day Belgium and Holland.
Dutch artistsXVcenturies, they mainly painted altars, painted portraits and easel paintings commissioned by wealthy citizens. They loved the scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Child Christ, often transferring religious scenes into real life settings. The numerous household items filling this environment for a person of that era contained an important symbolic meaning. For example, a washbasin and a towel were perceived as a hint of cleanliness and purity; shoes were a symbol of fidelity, a burning candle - marriage.
Unlike their Italian counterparts, Dutch artists rarely depicted people with classically beautiful faces and figures. They poeticized the ordinary, “average” person, seeing his value in modesty, piety and integrity.
At the head of the Dutch school of paintingXVcenturies worth of geniusJan van Eyck (around 1390-1441). Its famous"Ghent Altarpiece" opened a new era in the history of Dutch art. Religious symbolism is translated into reliable images of the real world.
It is known that the Ghent Altarpiece was started by Jan van Eyck's elder brother, Hubert, but the main work fell on Jan.
The doors of the altar are painted inside and outside. From the outside, it looks restrained and strict: all images are designed in a single grayish color scheme. The scene of the Annunciation, figures of saints and donors (customers) are depicted here. IN holidays the doors of the altar swung open and before the parishioners, in all the splendor of colors, paintings appeared, embodying the idea of atonement for sins and future enlightenment.
The nude figures of Adam and Eve are executed with exceptional realism, the most Renaissance in spirit images of the “Ghent Altarpiece”. The landscape backgrounds are magnificent - a typical Dutch landscape in the Annunciation scene, a sun-drenched flowering meadow with varied vegetation in scenes of the worship of the Lamb.
With the same amazing observation it is recreated the world and in other works of Jan van Eyck. Among the most striking examples is the panorama of the medieval city in"Madonna of Chancellor Rolin."
Jan van Eyck was one of the first outstanding portrait painters in Europe. In his work, the portrait genre acquired independence. In addition to paintings that represent the usual type of portrait, van Eyck’s brush belongs to a unique work of this genre,"Portrait of the Arnolfini couple." This is the first paired portrait in European painting. The couple are depicted in a small cozy room, where all things have a symbolic meaning, hinting at the sanctity of the marriage vow.
Tradition also connects the improvement of technology with the name of Jan van Eyck. oil painting. He applied layer after layer of paint onto the white primed surface of the board, achieving a special transparency of color. The image began to glow, as it were, from within.
In the middle and in the 2nd halfXVcenturies, masters of exceptional talent worked in the Netherlands -Rogier van der Weyden And Hugo van der Goes , whose names can be placed next to Jan van Eyck.
Bosch
On the edge XV- XVIcenturies, the social life of the Netherlands was filled with social contradictions. In these conditions complex art was bornHieronymus Bosch (near I 450- I 5 I 6, real name Hieronymus van Aken). Bosch was alien to the foundations of the worldview on which the Dutch school relied, starting with Jan van Eyck. He sees in the world a struggle between two principles, divine and satanic, righteous and sinful, good and evil. The products of evil penetrate everywhere: these are unworthy thoughts and actions, heresy and all kinds of sins (vanity, sinful sexuality, devoid of the light of divine love, stupidity, gluttony), the machinations of the devil, tempting holy hermits, and so on. For the first time the sphere of the ugly as an object artistic comprehension The painter is so captivated that he uses its grotesque forms. His paintings on the themes of folk proverbs, sayings and parables ("Temptation of St. An-tonia" , "Cart of Hay" , "Garden of Delights" ) Bosch populates with bizarre and fantastic images, at the same time creepy, nightmarish, and comical. Here the centuries-old tradition of folk laughter culture and motifs of medieval folklore come to the artist’s aid.
In Bosch's fiction there is almost always an element of allegory, an allegorical beginning. This feature of his art is most clearly reflected in the triptychs “The Garden of Pleasures,” which show the disastrous consequences of sensual pleasures, and “A Wagon of Hay,” the plot of which personifies the struggle of humanity for illusory benefits.
Bosch's demonology coexists not only with a deep analysis of human nature and folk humor, but also with a subtle sense of nature (in vast landscape backgrounds).
Bruegel
The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was creativityPieter Bruegel the Elder (around 1525/30-1569), closest to the sentiments of the masses during the era of the upcoming Dutch Revolution. Bruegel in highest degree possessed what is called national originality: all the remarkable features of his art were grown on the basis of original Dutch traditions (he was greatly influenced, in particular, by the work of Bosch).
For his ability to draw peasant types, the artist was called Bruegel “The Peasant.” All his work is permeated with thoughts about the fate of the people. Bruegel captures, sometimes in an allegorical, grotesque form, the work and life of the people, severe public disasters (“The Triumph of Death”) and the inexhaustible people’s love of life ("Peasant Wedding" , "Peasant Dance" ). It is characteristic that in paintings on gospel themes("Census in Bethlehem" , "Massacre of the innocents" , "Adoration of the Magi in the Snow" ) he presented the biblical Bethlehem in the form of an ordinary Dutch village. With deep knowledge folk life he showed the appearance and occupation of the peasants, a typical Dutch landscape, and even the characteristic masonry of houses. It is not difficult to see modern, and not biblical history in the “Massacre of the Innocents”: torture, executions, armed attacks on defenseless people - all this happened during the years of unprecedented Spanish oppression in the Netherlands. Other paintings by Bruegel also have symbolic meaning:"Land of Lazy People" , "Magpie on the Gallows" , "Blind" (a terrible, tragic allegory: the path of the blind, drawn into the abyss - isn’t this the life path of all humanity?).
The life of the people in Bruegel’s works is inseparable from the life of nature, in conveying which the artist showed exceptional skill. His"Snow Hunters" - one of the most perfect landscapes in all world painting.
As in other countries of Western Europe, the emergence of the Renaissance worldview in the Netherlands, which was under the rule of Burgundy until 1447 and then the Habsburgs, is associated with the development of production and trade, as well as with the growth of cities and the formation of the burghers. At the same time, feudal traditions were still strong in the country, so new things were introduced into Dutch art much more slowly than in Italian.
In Dutch painting of the Northern Renaissance, features of the Gothic style existed for a long time. Religion played a much larger role in the life of the Dutch than of the Italians. Man in the works of the Dutch masters did not become the center of the universe, as was the case with the artists of the Italian Renaissance. During almost the entire XV century. people in the paintings of the Netherlands were depicted in a gothic way as light and ethereal. The characters in Dutch paintings are always dressed, there is no sensuality in them, but there is also nothing majestic or heroic. If the Italian masters of the Renaissance painted monumental fresco paintings, the Dutch viewer preferred to admire small easel paintings. The authors of these works worked very carefully on every, even the smallest, detail of their canvases, which made these works interesting and very attractive to viewers.
In the 15th century in the Netherlands the art of miniature continued to develop, but already in the early 1420s. The first paintings appear, the authors of which were Jan van Eyck and his early deceased brother Hubert van Eyck, who became the founders of the Dutch art school.
Jan van Eyck
It was not possible to accurately determine the time of birth of Jan van Eyck, one of the most prominent representatives of the Dutch school of Renaissance painting. There is only speculation that van Eyck was born between 1390 and 1400. In the period from 1422 to 1428, the young painter fulfilled the order of Count of Holland John of Bavaria: he painted the walls of the castle in The Hague.
From 1427 to 1429 van Eyck traveled around the Iberian Peninsula. In 1428, after the death of John of Bavaria, the artist entered the service of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. The latter was able to appreciate not only the gift of the master painter, but also to reveal his diplomatic talent. Soon Van Eyck finds himself in Spain. The purpose of his visit was an order given by the Duke of Burgundy to arrange a wedding and paint a portrait of the bride. The artist, who also plays the role of a diplomat, brilliantly coped with the responsibilities assigned to him and completed the assignment. After some time, the portrait of the bride was ready. Unfortunately this work famous painter not preserved.
From 1428 to 1429 van Eyck was in Portugal.
Van Eyck's most significant work was the painting of the altar of the Church of St. Bavo in Bruges, completed together with his brother Hubert. Its customer was a rich man from Ghent, Jodocus Veidt. Later called Ghent, the altar, painted by the famous master, has a difficult fate. During the religious wars, in the 16th century, in order to save it from destruction, it was taken apart and hidden. Some fragments were even taken from the Netherlands to other countries of the world. And only in the 20th century they returned to their homeland, where they were collected. The altar again decorated the Church of St. Bavo. However, not all parts of the work were preserved. Thus, one of the original fragments stolen in 1934 was replaced with a good copy.
The general composition of the Ghent Altarpiece is made up of 25 paintings, the heroes of which are more than 250 characters. On the outer side of the altar doors in the lower part there are images of the customer, Jodocus Veidt and his wife, Isabella Borlut. The figures of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist are also located here. In the middle row the scene unfolds on the famous biblical story: Archangel Gabriel brings the good news to the Holy Virgin Mary about the imminent birth of Christ. The composition is distinguished by the unity of the color scheme used by the author: all paintings are designed in pastel grayish tones.
A distinctive feature of this painting is that the artist surrounds biblical characters with everyday realities. So, from the window of Mary’s chambers a city is visible that is completely different from Bethlehem. This is Ghent, on one of the streets of which the master painter’s contemporaries could easily recognize the house of the rich man Veidt. The household items surrounding Mary are not only filled with symbolic meaning (the washbasin and towel appear here as symbols of Mary’s purity, the three sashes of the window are a symbol of the eternal Trinity), but are also intended to bring what is happening closer to reality.
During religious holidays, the doors of the altar are opened, and an amazing picture appears before the viewer, telling about the structure of the world in the understanding of man of the 15th century. Thus, in the uppermost tier there are images of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, depicted in papal robes embroidered with gold, at his feet lies a crown - a symbol of Jesus Christ, in the center of the row is a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The faces of the Mother of God and John the Baptist are turned to them. Angels sing songs of praise to the Trinity. Van Eyck depicts them as young men dressed in richly decorated vestments. This series is closed by the figures of the ancestors of the human race - Adam and Eve.
The top row of the painting depicts a wide green meadow along which saints, prophets, apostles, warriors, hermits and pilgrims march towards the sacrificial Lamb. Some characters represent real people. Among them you can find the artist himself, as well as his brother Hubert and Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good. The landscape here is also interesting. All trees and small plants were painted by the master with extraordinary precision. It seems as if the artist decided to show off his knowledge of botany to the viewer.
In the background of the composition is the heavenly city of Jerusalem, symbolizing Christianity. However, for the master here it is more important to convey the similarity of the architectural structures of the fairy-tale city with the real buildings that existed in the time of van Eyck.
The overall theme of the composition sounds like a glorification of the harmony of the human world order. Scholars suggest that the possible literary source for this work by the famous artist was either The Revelation of John Chrysostom or The Golden Legend by Jacopo da Varagina.
Whatever the theme of van Eyck’s works, the main thing for the artist is to depict the real world as accurately and objectively as possible, as if transferred to the canvas, while conveying all its features. It was precisely this principle that turned out to be leading in the formation of a new technique of artistic depiction. It manifested itself especially clearly in the artist’s portrait works.
In 1431, the papal legate Cardinal Niccolo Albergati arrived in Burgundy on a visit. At the same time, Jan van Eyck sketched a portrait of the cardinal. During the work, corrections and additions were made to the drawing. It should be noted that the master here was more concerned not with the display of a person’s inner experiences, but with the most accurate rendering of his appearance, individual characteristics and lines of the face, figure, posture and facial expressions.
In the portrait of Cardinal Albergati, painted later in oils, the emphasis in the image shifts from detailing the person’s appearance to depicting his inner world. Now the character’s eyes become dominant to reveal the image, then the mirror human soul, which reflects feelings, experiences, thoughts.
How van Eyck's artistic method developed can be seen by comparing his previous works with the famous portrait of Timothy, painted in 1432. The viewer is presented with a thoughtful man with a gentle character. His gaze is directed into emptiness. However, it is precisely this view that characterizes van Eyck’s hero as an open, modest, pious, sincere and kind person.
An artist's talent cannot be static. The master must always be in search of new solutions and ways of expressing and depicting the world, including the inner world of man. This was Van Eyck. The next stage in the development of his work was marked by a portrait work called “The Man in a Red Turban” (1433). Unlike the character in the painting “Timofey,” the hero of this painting is endowed with a more expressive look. His eyes are turned to the viewer. The unknown person seems to be telling us his sad story. His look expresses very specific feelings: bitterness and regret about what happened.
“Timofey” and “The Man in the Red Turban” are significantly different from the works created by the master earlier: they feature psychological picture hero. At the same time, the artist is interested not so much in the spiritual world of a particular person, but in his attitude to reality. So, Timofey looks at the world thoughtfully, but the man in the turban perceives it as something hostile. However, this principle of depicting a person has long
time could not exist within the framework of Renaissance art, where the main idea was to clearly identify the individual features of the image and show its inner world. This idea becomes dominant in van Eyck's subsequent works.
Jan van Eyck. Portrait of a man in a red turban. 1433
In 1434, the artist painted one of his most famous works, “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple,” which, according to art historians, depicts the merchant from Lucca, representative of the House of Medici in Bruges, Giovanni Arnolfini, and his wife Giovanna.
In the background of the composition there is a small round mirror, the inscription above which states that one of the witnesses to the ceremony was the artist himself, Jan van Eyck.
The images created by the artist are extremely expressive. Their significance is highlighted more clearly by the fact that
that the author places his heroes in the most ordinary, at first glance, setting. The essence and meaning of the images is emphasized here through objects surrounding the characters and endowed with secret meaning. Thus, apples scattered on the windowsill and table symbolize heavenly bliss, crystal rosary on the wall - the embodiment of piety, a brush - a symbol of purity, two pairs of shoes - a sign of marital fidelity, a lit candle in a beautiful chandelier - a symbol of the deity who overshadows the sacrament of the wedding ceremony. A small dog standing at the feet of its owners also suggests the idea of fidelity and love. All these symbols of marital fidelity, happiness and longevity create a feeling of warmth and spiritual closeness, love and tenderness that unites spouses.
Of particular interest is Van Eyck’s painting “Madonna of Chancellor Rolin,” created in 1435. Small in size (0.66 × 0.62 m), the work gives the impression of the scale of space. This feeling is created in the painting due to the fact that through the arched vaults the artist shows the viewer a landscape with city buildings, a river and mountains visible in the distance.
As always with van Eyck, the setting (in this case, the landscape) surrounding the characters plays an important role in revealing their characters, even though the characters, interior and landscape do not form an integral unity here. The landscape with residential buildings placed opposite the figure of the chancellor is a secular principle, and the landscape with churches located behind Mary is a symbol of the Christian religion. The two banks of the wide river are connected by a bridge along which pedestrians walk and horseback rides. The personification of the reconciliation of spiritual and secular principles is the infant Christ sitting on Mary’s lap, blessing the chancellor.
The work that completed the period of formation of van Eyck’s creative method is considered to be the altar composition “Madonna of Canon van der Paele,” created in 1436. A distinctive feature of the images is their monumentality. The figures of the heroes now fill the entire space of the picture, leaving almost no space for the landscape or interior. In addition, in “The Madonna of Canon van der Paele” the main character is not the Madonna at all, but the customer of the painting himself. It is to him that Mary and St. turn. Donatus, with a pointing gesture, introduces St. to the audience. Georgy.
The method of depicting the main character also changes here.
This is no longer a simple contemplator expressing his attitude to the world. The viewer sees a person withdrawn into himself, deeply thinking about something very important. Similar images will become leading in Dutch art of subsequent times.
In his later works, van Eyck depicts even more specific images. An example of this is the painting “Portrait of Jan van Leeuw” (1436). The person depicted in the portrait is open to us. His gaze is directed at the viewer, who can easily recognize all the feelings of the hero. One has only to look into his eyes.
The last portrait of his wife, Margaret van Eyck, painted in 1439, is considered the pinnacle of the master’s work. Here, behind the heroine’s finely drawn appearance, her character is clearly visible. Never before has van Eyck's image been so objective. The colors used are also unusual for the artist: the red-violet fabric of the clothes, the smoky fur of the edge, the pink skin of the heroine and her pale lips.
Jan van Eyck died on July 9, 1441 in Bruges. His work, which influenced many subsequent masters, marked the beginning of the formation and development of Dutch painting.
A contemporary of the van Eyck brothers was Robert Campin, the author of decorative and pictorial works, the teacher of many painters, including the famous artist Rogier van der Weyden.
Altar compositions and portraits of Campin are distinguished by their desire for authenticity; the master tries to depict all objects so that they look like in reality.
The largest Dutch artist XV century there was Rogier van der Weyden, who painted dramatic altar scenes (“The Descent from the Cross,” after 1435) and expressive, spiritual portraits (“Portrait of Francesco d’Este,” 1450; “Portrait of a Young Woman,” 1455). Rogier van der Weyden opened the first large workshop in the Netherlands, where many famous Renaissance artists studied. The painter was widely known not only in his homeland, but also in Italy.
In the second half of the 15th century. in the Netherlands worked such artists as Jos van Wassenhove, who did a lot for the development of Dutch painting, the incredibly talented Hugo van der Goes, author of the famous Portinari altarpiece, Jan Memling, in whose work the features of the Italian Renaissance appear: garlands and putti, idealization of images, clarity and clarity of compositional structure (“Madonna and Child, Angel and Donors”).
One of the most brilliant masters of the Northern Renaissance of the late 15th century. was Hieronymus Bosch.
Hieronymus Bosch (Hieronymus van Aken)
Hieronymus van Aken, later nicknamed Bosch, was born between 1450-1460. in 's-Hertogenbosch. His father, two uncles and brother were artists. They became the first teachers of the aspiring painter.
Bosch's work is distinguished by grotesqueness and caustic sarcasm in the depiction of people. These tendencies are already evident in the artist’s early works. For example, in the painting “Extracting the Stone of Folly,” which depicts a simple operation performed by a healer on the head of a peasant, the painter ridicules the clergy, the insincerity and pretense of the clergy. The peasant's gaze is fixed on the viewer, turning him from an outside observer into an accomplice of what is happening.
Some of Bosch's works are original illustrations of folk tales and Christian legends. Such are his paintings “Ship of Fools”, “Temptation of St. Anthony”, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, “The Adoration of the Magi”, “The Mockery of Christ”. The subjects of these works are typical for the art of Flanders in the 15th-16th centuries. However, the grotesque figures of people and fantastic animals depicted here are unusual architectural structures, presented by the painter, distinguish Bosch’s paintings from the works of other masters. At the same time, these compositions clearly show the features of realism, which was alien to the fine arts of the Netherlands at that time. With precise strokes, the master makes the viewer believe in the reality and authenticity of what is happening.
In paintings dedicated to religious themes, Jesus almost always finds himself surrounded by people smiling maliciously and ambiguously. The same images are presented in the painting “Carrying the Cross”, the coloring of which is composed of pale and cold shades. From the monotonous mass of people, the figure of Christ stands out, painted in slightly warmer colors. However, this is the only thing that distinguishes it from others. The faces of all the characters have the same expression. Even the bright face of St. Veronica hardly distinguishes the heroine from other characters. In addition, the combination of bright, poisonous blue and yellow colors her headdress enhances the sense of ambiguity.
Of particular interest in Bosch’s work is the altar composition called “Haystack”. An allegorical picture of human life unfolds before the viewer. People are riding on a cart: being between an angel and a devil, in full view of everyone they are kissing, having fun, playing musical instruments, singing songs. The cart is followed by the pope and the emperor; the column is closed by people from the common people. The latter, wanting to become participants in the celebration of life, run ahead and, falling under the wheels of the cart, find themselves mercilessly crushed, never having time to understand the taste of human joys and pleasures. The overall composition is crowned by little Jesus, sitting on a cloud and raising his hands to the sky in prayer. The impression of realism of what is happening is created with the help of a landscape that is specific and authentic.
Hieronymus Bosch. Mockery of Christ
Bosch always introduces fantastic elements into his paintings. They are the main ones and reveal the artist’s intention. These are birds soaring in the sky with sails instead of wings; fish with horse hooves instead of fins; people born from tree stumps; heads with tails and a lot of other phantasmagoric images. Moreover, they are all unusually mobile in Bosch. Even the smallest creature is endowed with energy and is directed somewhere.
When looking at Bosch’s paintings, one gets the impression that the master decided to show everything that is base, gloomy, and shameful in this world. Humor has no place in these paintings. It is replaced by poisonous mockery and sarcasm, which clearly highlights all the shortcomings of the human world order.
In works dating back to the late period of the artist’s work, the dynamics weaken somewhat. However, the same boundlessness of the represented space and the multi-figure nature of the picture remain. This is exactly how one can characterize the painting, called “John on Patmos.” Particularly interesting is the fact that on the reverse side the master placed a wonderful landscape, striking in its beauty. The artist surprisingly managed to accurately convey here the transparency of the air, the curves of the river banks, and the soft blue color of the high sky. However, bright colors and precise contour lines give the work a tense, almost tragic character.
The main distinguishing feature of Bosch's work is the focus on man and his world, the desire to objectively express people's lives, their feelings, thoughts and desires. This was most fully reflected in the altar composition called “The Garden of Delights,” where human sins are shown without embellishment. The work is unusually dynamic. Entire groups of people pass in front of the viewer, which the author places in several tiers for better viewing. Gradually, the impression of continuously repeating, unidirectional movement of the figures is created, which enhances the tragic feeling and reminds the viewer of the seven circles of hell.
Bosch's artistic style was born from the conflict between reality and the ideals of medieval art. Many artists of that time, due to an understandable desire to embellish the gloomy, full of contradictions life was created by ideally beautiful images, far from the harsh reality. Bosch's work, on the contrary, was aimed at an objective depiction of the surrounding reality. Moreover, the artist sought to turn the world of people inside out and show its hidden side, thereby returning art to its deep philosophical and worldview meaning.
In The Adoration of the Magi, landscape plays one of the main roles. The main characters are shown here as part of a whole; they do not have independent meaning. More important for revealing the artist’s intention is what is located behind the figures of the characters - landscape paintings: horsemen, trees, a bridge, a city, a road. Despite its scale, the landscape creates the impression of emptiness, silence and hopelessness. However, this is the only thing that still has life and some meaning. The human figures here are static and insignificant, their movements, recorded at a certain moment, are suspended. The main character is precisely the landscape, spiritualized and therefore emphasizing even more sharply the emptiness, aimlessness and futility of human life.
In the composition “Prodigal Son”, pictures of nature and the main character form a certain unity. Means of expression here
The similarity of colors used by the author serves as a basis: the landscape and the human figure are painted in shades of gray.
In Bosch's later works, fantastic creatures are no longer given as much space as in more early works. Only here and there some strange figures still appear. However, these are not those energetic half-animals scurrying everywhere. Their size and activity are significantly reduced. The main thing now for the painter is to show the loneliness of a person in this world of cruel, soulless people, where everyone is busy only with themselves.
Hieronymus Bosch died in 1516. His work influenced the formation artistic method many wonderful masters, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The fantastic images of Bosch's works largely predetermined the emergence of the paintings of surrealist artists.
At the beginning of the 16th century. 15th century masters continued to live and work in the Netherlands. - Hieronymous Bosch and Gerard David, but already at this time features of the High Renaissance appeared in Dutch painting (albeit to a lesser extent than in Italian).
During this period, the Dutch economy experienced unprecedented prosperity. Industry developed rapidly, guild craft was replaced by manufacturing. The discovery of America made the Netherlands a major center of international trade. The self-awareness of the people grew, and with it national liberation tendencies intensified, which led to revolution in the last third of the 15th century.
One of the most significant masters of the first third of the 16th century. there was Quentin Masseys. The author of numerous altarpieces, he became perhaps the first creator of a genre work in Dutch painting, writing his famous painting“Changed with my wife” (1514). Masseys's brushes include wonderful portraits in which
the artist makes an attempt to convey the depth of a person’s inner world (portraits of Etienne Gardiner, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Peter Aegidius).
At the same time with Masseys in the Netherlands they were working on the so-called. novelists who turned to creativity Italian masters. In their works, novelists did not strive to reflect reality; their main goal was to create a monumental image of a person. The most significant representatives of this trend were Jan Gossaert, nicknamed Mabuse, and Bernard van Orley.
In the first third of the 16th century. have worked famous master of his era, one of the founders of European landscape painting, Joachim Patinir. His paintings of sweeping plains, rocky peaks and tranquil rivers included religious scenes with small human figures. Gradually, biblical motifs occupy less and less space in his landscapes (“Baptism”, “Landscape with the Flight to Egypt”). Patinir's painting had a great influence on artists of subsequent generations.
A contemporary of Patinir was the greatest master of this time, Luke of Leiden, who worked in the technique of engraving. His works are distinguished by their realism and compositional integrity, as well as deep emotionality (“Mohammed with the Murdered Monk,” 1508; “David and Saul,” 1509). Many of his engravings are characterized by elements of the everyday genre (“The Game of Chess,” “The Wife Brings Joseph’s Clothes to Potiphar”). Reliable and vital portrait images Luke of Leiden (" Portrait of a man", OK. 1520).
The everyday genre became widespread in painting in the second third of the 16th century. Artists who continued the traditions of Massys worked in Antwerp - Jan Sanders van Hemessen, who created many versions of “The Money Changers,” and Marinus van Roemerswaele, the author of “The Merry Society.” With their grotesque images, they also changed girls of easy virtue, these masters practically erased the line separating everyday and religious compositions.
The features of the everyday genre also penetrated into portraiture, the largest representatives of which were the Amsterdam artists Dirk Jacobs and Cornelis Teunissen. Natural poses and gestures make portrait images lively and convincing. Thanks to Jacobs and Teunissen, Dutch painting was enriched with a new, original genre, which became the group portrait.
During these years, Romanism continued to develop, the masters of which were Peter Cook van Aelst and Jan Scorel, who had numerous talents and abilities. He was not only a painter, but also a clergyman, musician, rhetorician, engineer, and custodian of the art collection of Pope Adrian VI.
The crisis of the Renaissance worldview that gripped the art of the Italian Renaissance in the second half of the 16th century also affected the Netherlands. In the 1550-1560s. In Dutch painting, the realistic direction continues to develop, acquiring national features. At the same time, Romanism intensified, in which elements of mannerism began to predominate.
Manneristic features are present in the paintings of the Antwerp artist Frans Floris. His biblical compositions amaze with excessive drama, complex angles and exaggerated dynamics (“The Deposition of Angels”, 1554; “ Last Judgment", 1566).
A prominent representative of realistic painting of this time was the Antwerp master Peter Aertsen, who painted mainly large-figure genre scenes and still lifes. He often combines both of these genres in his works, but one of them always prevails over the other. In the painting “Peasant Festival” (1550), still life plays a secondary role, and in “The Butcher Shop” (1551) objects have pushed the person into the background. Artsen's canvases are distinguished by great authenticity, although the artist strives to present the images of peasants as monumental and majestic (“Peasants at the Market”, 1550s; “Peasants at the Hearth”, 1556; “Dance Among the Eggs”, 1557). In the paintings “The Cook” (1559) and “The Peasant” (1561), with their obvious idealization of images, one can feel the author’s sincere sympathy for the common man.
The most significant master of realistic Dutch painting of the 16th century. became Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel (Breugel), nicknamed the Elder, or Peasant, was born between 1525 and 1530. In the early 50s. XVI century he lived in Antwerp, where he studied painting with P. Cook van Aelst. In the period from 1552 to 1553 the artist worked in Italy, and from 1563 in Brussels. While in the Netherlands, the painter met democratic and radical thinkers of the country. This acquaintance, perhaps, determined the thematic direction of the artist’s work.
Bruegel's early works are marked by the influence of the Mannerists and the artistic method of Hieronymus Bosch. For the most part, they are landscapes that embody the painter’s impressions from a trip to Italy and Alpine mountains, as well as paintings of nature in the Netherlands, the artist’s homeland. In these works, the author’s desire to show a large-scale, grandiose picture on a small-sized canvas is noticeable. This is his “Neapolitan Harbor”, which became the first seascape in the history of painting.
In his early works, the artist strives to express the infinity of space in which a person gets lost, becomes smaller, and becomes insignificant. Later, Bruegel’s landscape takes on a more actual sizes. The interpretation of a person living in this world also changes. The image of man is now endowed special significance and is not a figure that accidentally appeared on the canvas. An example of this is a painting created in 1557 and called “The Sower.”
In the work “The Fall of Icarus,” the main plot, expressing the idea that the death of one person will not stop the rotation of the wheel of life, is supplemented by several more. Thus, the scenes of plowing and the coastal landscape presented here serve as symbols of the regularity of human life and the majesty of the natural world. Although the painting is dedicated to an ancient myth, almost nothing reminds of the death of Icarus. Only by looking closely can you see the leg of the hero who fell into the sea. No one paid attention to the death of Icarus - not the shepherd admiring the beautiful view, not the fisherman sitting on the shore, not the peasant plowing his field, not the crew of the sailing ship heading out to the open sea. The main thing in the picture is not the tragedy of the ancient character, but the beauty of a person surrounded by beautiful nature.
All of Bruegel's works have a deep semantic content. They affirm the idea of orderliness and sublimity of the world order. However, it would be wrong to say that Bruegel’s works are optimistic. The pessimistic notes in the paintings are expressed by the special position taken by the author. It’s as if he is somewhere outside the world, observing life from the outside and detached from the images transferred to the canvas.
A new stage in the artist’s work was marked by the appearance in 1559 of the canvas “The Battle of Carnival and Lent.” The basis of the composition was made up of numerous crowds of revelers, mummers, monks and merchants. For the first time in Bruegel’s work, all attention is focused not on landscape paintings, but on the image of a moving crowd.
In this work, the author expressed a special worldview, characteristic of thinkers of that time, when the natural world was humanized and animated, and the human world, on the contrary, was likened, for example, to a community of insects. From Bruegel’s point of view, the human world is the same anthill, and its inhabitants are as insignificant and insignificant as they are small. The same are their feelings, thoughts, and actions. A painting depicting cheerful people nevertheless evokes gloomy and sad feelings.
The same mood of sadness marks the paintings “Flemish Proverbs” (1559) and “Children’s Games” (1560). The latter depicts children playing in the foreground. However, the perspective of the street shown in the picture is endless. This is what has the main meaning in the composition: people’s activities are as meaningless and insignificant as children’s games. This theme - the question of man's place in life - becomes the leading one in Bruegel's work in the late 1550s.
Since the 1560s. realism in Bruegel's paintings suddenly gives way to a bright and ominous fantasticality, the power of expression surpassing even the grotesque works of Bosch. Examples of such works are the paintings “The Triumph of Death” (1561) and “Mad Greta” (1562).
The Triumph of Death shows skeletons trying to destroy people. They, in turn, try to escape in a huge mousetrap. Allegorical images are filled with deep symbolic meaning and are intended to reflect the author’s worldview and worldview.
In "Mad Greta" people no longer hope for salvation from evil creatures, whose numbers are increasing. From nowhere, many of these sinister creatures appear, trying to take the place of people on earth. The latter, distraught, mistake the sewage spewed out by the giant monster for gold and, forgetting about the impending danger and crushing each other in the crowd, try to take possession of the “precious” bullion.
This composition shows for the first time the artist’s attitude towards people who are possessed by unbridled greed. However, this thought develops in Bruegel into deep discussions about the fate of all humanity. It should also be noted that, despite all the variety of fantastic elements, Bruegel’s paintings evoked an unusually acute sense of the concreteness and reality of what was happening. They were a unique reflection of the events taking place in the Netherlands at that time - the repressions carried out by the Spanish conquerors in the country. Bruegel was the first among artists to reflect on canvas the events and conflicts of his time, translating them into artistic and visual language.
Gradually powerful emotions and tragedy is replaced by Bruegel with quiet and sad reflections on the destinies of people. The artist again turns to real images. Now the main place in the composition is given to a large-scale landscape stretching far to the horizon. The author's sarcastic ridicule, characteristic of earlier works, turns here into warmth, forgiveness and understanding of the essence of the human soul.
At the same time, works appeared that were marked by a mood of loneliness, slight sadness and sadness. Among such paintings, “Monkeys” (1562) and “The Tower of Babel” (1563) occupy a special place. In the latter, in contrast to the previously painted painting of the same name, the main place is occupied by the figures of builders. If before the artist was more interested in the world of beautiful and perfect nature, now the semantic emphasis shifts to the image of man.
In such works as “The Suicide of Saul” (1562), “Landscape with the Flight into Egypt” (1563), “Carrying the Cross” (1564), the master overcomes the tragedy of the meaninglessness of human activity on earth. Here a completely new idea for Bruegel appears of the intrinsic value of human life. In this regard, the composition “Carrying the Cross” is of particular interest, where the well-known religious and philosophical plot is interpreted as a crowd scene with numerous figures of soldiers, peasants, children - ordinary people, watching with curiosity what is happening.
In 1565, a series of paintings was created that became true masterpieces of world painting. The canvases are dedicated to the seasons: “Gloomy day. Spring", "Harvest. Summer", "Return of the Herds. Autumn", "Hunters in the Snow. Winter". These compositions harmoniously present the author’s idea to express the majesty and at the same time the vital reality of the natural world.
With all authenticity, the master manages to capture living pictures of nature on canvas. The feeling of almost tangible reality is achieved through the artist’s use of paints of certain tones, which are original symbols of a particular time of year: reddish-brown shades of earth combined with green tones that form the landscape in the background of “Dark Day”; rich yellow, turning to brown in the composition “Harvest”; the predominance of red and all shades of brown in the painting “Return of the Herds”.
Bruegel's cycle is dedicated to the states of nature in different time of the year. However, to say that only the landscape occupies the artist’s main attention here would be incorrect. In all the paintings there are people who are presented by the artist as physically strong, passionate about some kind of activity: harvesting, hunting. A distinctive feature of these images is their fusion with the natural world. Human figures are not opposed to the landscape, they are harmoniously integrated into the composition. Their movement coincides with the dynamics of natural forces. Thus, the beginning of agricultural work is associated with the awakening of nature (“Dark Day”).
Very soon, realistic depictions of people and events became the leading direction in Bruegel’s art. The paintings “Census in Bethlehem”, “Massacre of the Innocents”, “Sermon of John the Baptist” that appeared in 1566 marked a new stage in the development of not only the artist’s work, but also the art of the Netherlands as a whole. The images depicted on the canvas (including biblical ones) were now called upon not only to personify universal concepts, but also to symbolize a specific social world order. Thus, in the painting “The Massacre of the Innocents,” the gospel plot serves as a kind of screen for depicting a real fact: an attack by one of the units of the Spanish army on a Flemish village.
A significant work last period The artist’s creative work was the painting “Peasant Dance”, created by Bruegel in 1567. The plot of the canvas is made up of dancing peasants, depicted by the master on an enlarged scale. It is important for the author not only to convey the atmosphere of the holiday, but also to realistically show the plastic movement of human bodies. Everything about a person interests the artist: his facial features, facial expressions, gestures, postures, and manner of movement. Each figure is drawn by the master with great attention and precision. The images created by Bruegel are monumental, significant and carry social pathos. The result is a picture that represents a huge, homogeneous mass of people, symbolizing the peasantry. This composition will become fundamental in the development of the folk peasant genre in Bruegel’s art.
What is the reason for the appearance folk theme in the artist's work? Art critics suggest that such works of his are a kind of response to the events then taking place in the Netherlands. The time of painting “Peasant Dance” coincides with the time of the suppression of the popular uprising, called “iconoclasm” (the rebels, led by Calvinists, destroyed icons and sculptures in Catholic churches). With this movement, which flared up in 1566, the revolution in the Netherlands began. The events shocked all the famous artist’s contemporaries to the core.
Historians and art critics also associate the appearance of another work by Bruegel, “The Peasant Wedding,” with iconoclasm. The images created here acquire an even larger scale, compared to the figures in the “Peasant Dance”. However, the peasants are endowed with exaggerated strength and power in the composition. Such idealization of the image was not typical for the artist’s earlier works. In the same picture, the author’s extraordinary goodwill towards the people depicted on the canvas was revealed.
The joyful, life-affirming mood of the above-mentioned works is soon replaced by pessimism and a feeling of unfulfilled hopes, reflected in the paintings “The Misanthrope”, “The Cripples”, “The Nest Thief”, “The Blind”. It is noteworthy that they were all written in 1568.
In “Blindness,” the foreground depicts figures of cripples. Their faces are terribly ugly. The souls of these people seem to be the same. These images are the personification of everything that is base on earth: greed, self-interest and malice. Their empty eye sockets are a symbol of people's spiritual blindness. The canvas takes on a pronounced tragic character. In Bruegel, the problem of spiritual emptiness, human insignificance grows to universal proportions.
The role of the landscape, which is presented by the author as a contrast to the world of people, is also significant in the composition.
The hills rising in the distance, the trees, the church - everything is filled with silence, calm and peace. People and nature seem to change places here. It is the landscape in the picture that expresses the idea of humanity, goodness, and spirituality. And the person himself turns out to be spiritually dead and lifeless here. The tragic notes are enhanced by the author’s use of light, cold colors. Thus, the basis of the color is light lilac colors with a steel tint, which enhance the feeling of hopelessness of the situation in which a person finds himself.
The last work of Bruegel the Elder was a work called “The Dance of the Gallows” (1568). In the picture, the viewer sees figures of people dancing not far from the gallows. This canvas became an expression of the artist’s complete disappointment in the contemporary world order and people; it conveys an understanding of the impossibility of returning to the former harmony.
Pieter Bruegel died on September 5, 1569 in Brussels. The great painter became the founder of the popular, democratic movement in the art of the Netherlands in the 16th century.
The Netherlands is a historical region occupying part of the vast lowlands on the northern European coast from the Gulf of Finland to the English Channel. Currently, this territory includes the states of the Netherlands (Holland), Belgium and Luxembourg.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Netherlands became a motley collection of large and small semi-independent states. The most significant among them were the Duchy of Brabant, the counties of Flanders and Holland, and the Bishopric of Utrecht. In the north of the country, the population was mainly German - Frisians and Dutch; in the south, the descendants of the Gauls and Romans - the Flemings and Walloons - predominated.
The Dutch worked selflessly with their special talent of “doing the most boring things without boredom,” as the French historian Hippolyte Taine put it about these people, completely devoted to everyday life. They did not know sublime poetry, but they revered the simplest things all the more reverently: a clean, comfortable home, a warm hearth, modest but tasty food. The Dutchman is accustomed to looking at the world as a huge house in which he is called upon to maintain order and comfort.
Main features of Dutch Renaissance art
Common to the art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the countries of Central Europe is the desire for a realistic depiction of man and the world around him. But these problems were solved differently due to the differences in the nature of cultures.For the Italian artists of the Renaissance, it was important to generalize and create an ideal, from the point of view of humanism, image of a person. Science played an important role for them - artists developed theories of perspective and the doctrine of proportions.
Dutch masters were attracted by the diversity of people's individual appearance and the richness of nature. They do not strive to create a generalized image, but convey what is characteristic and special. Artists do not use theories of perspective and others, but convey the impression of depth and space, optical effects and the complexity of light and shadow relationships through careful observation.
They are characterized by a love for their land and amazing attention to all the little things: to their native northern nature, to the peculiarities of everyday life, to the details of the interior, costumes, to the difference in materials and textures...
Dutch artists reproduce the smallest details with utmost care and recreate the sparkling richness of colors. These new painting problems could only be solved with the help of a new technique of oil painting.
The discovery of oil painting is attributed to Jan van Eyck. From the mid-15th century, this new “Flemish manner” replaced the old tempera technique in Italy. It is no coincidence that on the Dutch altars, which are a reflection of the entire Universe, you can see everything that it consists of - every blade of grass and tree in the landscape, architectural details of cathedrals and city houses, stitches of embroidered ornaments on the robes of saints, as well as a host of other, very small, details.
The art of the 15th century is the golden age of Dutch painting.
Its brightest representative Jan Van Eyck. OK. 1400-1441.
The greatest master of European painting:
opened a new era with his creativity Early Renaissance in Dutch art.
He was the court artist of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good.
He was one of the first to master the plastic and expressive capabilities of oil painting, using thin transparent layers of paint placed one on top of the other (the so-called Flemish style of multi-layer transparent painting).
Van Eyck's largest work was the Ghent Altarpiece, which he executed together with his brother.
The Ghent Altarpiece is a grandiose multi-tiered polyptych. Its height in the central part is 3.5 m, width when opened is 5 m.
On the outside of the altar (when it is closed) is the daily cycle:
- in the bottom row the donors are depicted - townsman Jodok Veidt and his wife, praying in front of the statues of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, patrons of the church and chapel.
- above is the scene of the Annunciation, with the figures of the Mother of God and the Archangel Gabriel separated by the image of a window in which the city landscape emerges.
The festive cycle is depicted on the inside of the altar.
When the altar doors open, a truly stunning transformation takes place before the viewer’s eyes:
- the size of the polyptych is doubled,
- the picture of everyday life is instantly replaced by the spectacle of earthly paradise.
- the cramped and gloomy closets disappear, and the world seems to open up: the spacious landscape lights up with all the colors of the palette, bright and fresh.
The painting of the festive cycle is dedicated to the theme, rare in Christian fine art, of the triumph of the transformed world, which should come after the Last Judgment, when evil will be finally defeated and truth and harmony will be established on earth.
In the top row:
- in the central part of the altar, God the Father is depicted sitting on a throne,
- the Mother of God and John the Baptist are seated to the left and right of the throne,
- then on both sides there are singing and playing music angels,
- the naked figures of Adam and Eve close the row.
The bottom row of paintings depicts a scene of worship of the Divine Lamb.
- in the middle of the meadow rises an altar, on it stands a white Lamb, blood flows from his pierced chest into a chalice
- closer to the viewer there is a well from which living water flows. 
Hieronymus Bosch (1450 - 1516)
The connection of his art with folk traditions and folklore.
In his works he intricately combined the features of medieval fiction, folklore, philosophical parables and satire.
He created multi-figure religious and allegorical compositions, paintings on the themes of folk proverbs, sayings and parables.
Bosch's works are filled with numerous scenes and episodes, vivid and bizarre-fantastic images and details, full of irony and allegory.
Bosch's work had a huge influence on the development of realistic trends in Dutch painting of the 16th century.
Composition “Temptation of St. Anthony" is one of the artist’s most famous and mysterious works. The master’s masterpiece was the triptych “The Garden of Delights,” an intricate allegory that has received many different interpretations. During the same period, the triptychs “The Last Judgment”, “Adoration of the Magi”, compositions “St. John on Patmos", "John the Baptist in the Wilderness".
The late period of Bosch’s work includes the triptych “Heaven and Hell”, the compositions “The Tramp”, “Carrying the Cross”.
Most of Bosch's paintings are mature and late period are bizarre grotesques containing deep philosophical overtones.
The large triptych “Hay Wagon”, highly appreciated by Philip II of Spain, dates back to the artist’s mature period of creativity. The altar composition is probably based on an old Dutch proverb: “The world is a haystack, and everyone tries to grab as much as they can from it.”
Temptation of St. Antonia. Triptych. Central part Wood, oil. 131.5 x 119 cm (central part), 131.5 x 53 cm (leaf) National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon 
Garden of Delights. Triptych. Around 1485. Central part
Wood, oil. 220 x 195 cm (central part), 220 x 97 cm (leaf) Prado Museum, Madrid
Dutch art of the 16th century. marked by the emergence of interest in antiquity and the activities of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. At the beginning of the century, a movement based on imitation of Italian models emerged, called “Romanism” (from Roma, the Latin name for Rome).
The pinnacle of Dutch painting in the second half of the century was creativity Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1525/30-1569. Nicknamed Muzhitsky.
He created a deeply national art based on Dutch traditions and local folklore.
Played a huge role in the formation of the peasant genre and the national landscape. In Bruegel's work, rough folk humor, lyricism and tragedy, realistic details and fantastic grotesque, interest in detailed storytelling and the desire for broad generalization are intricately intertwined.
In Bruegel's works there is a closeness to the moralizing performances of medieval folk theater.
The jester's duel between Maslenitsa and Lent is a common scene of fair performances held in the Netherlands during winter farewell days.
Everywhere life is in full swing: there are round dances, windows are washed here, some play dice, others trade, someone begs for alms, someone is being taken to be buried...
Proverbs. 1559. The painting is a kind of encyclopedia of Dutch folklore.
Bruegel's characters lead each other by the nose, sit between two chairs, bang their heads against the wall, hang between heaven and earth... The Dutch proverb “And there are cracks in the roof” is close in meaning to the Russian “And the walls have ears.” The Dutch “throw money into the water” means the same as the Russian “waste money”, “throw money down the drain”. The whole picture is dedicated to the waste of money, effort, and entire life - here they cover the roof with pancakes, shoot arrows into the void, shear pigs, warm themselves with the flames of a burning house and confess to the devil.
The whole earth had one language and one dialect. Moving from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other: “Let’s make bricks and burn them with fire.” And they used bricks instead of stones, and earthen tar instead of lime. And they said: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose height reaches to heaven, and make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over the face of the earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men were building. And the Lord said: “Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they began to do, and they will not give up on what they have planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.” And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city and the tower. Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the whole earth (Genesis, chapter 11). In contrast to the colorful bustle of Bruegel's early works, this painting amazes the viewer with its calm. The tower depicted in the picture resembles the Roman amphitheater Colosseum, which the artist saw in Italy, and at the same time - an anthill. On all floors of the huge structure, tireless work is in full swing: blocks are rotating, ladders are thrown, figures of workers are scurrying about. It is noticeable that the connection between the builders has already been lost, probably due to the “mixing of languages” that has begun: somewhere construction is in full swing, and somewhere the tower has already turned into ruins.
After Jesus was handed over to be crucified, the soldiers put a heavy cross on Him and took Him to the place of execution called Golgotha. On the way, they captured Simon of Cyrene, who was returning home from the field, and forced him to bear the cross for Jesus. Many people followed Jesus, among them were women who wept and lamented for Him. “Carrying the Cross” is a religious, Christian picture, but it is no longer a church picture. Bruegel correlated the truths of Holy Scripture with personal experience, reflected on biblical texts, gave them his own interpretation, i.e. openly violated the imperial decree of 1550 in force at that time, which, on pain of death, prohibited independent study of the Bible.
Bruegel creates a series of landscapes “The Months”. “Hunters in the Snow” is December-January.
For a master, each season is, first of all, a unique state of the earth and sky.
A crowd of peasants, captivated by the rapid rhythm of the dance.