Features of the High Renaissance in Venice. Late Renaissance (Renaissance in Venice)
The period of maturation of the preconditions for the transition to the High Renaissance coincides, as in the rest of Italy, with the end of the 15th century. It was during these years that, in parallel with the narrative art of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, the work of a number of masters, so to speak, of a new artistic direction took shape: Giovanni Bellini and Cima. Although they work almost simultaneously with Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, they represent the next stage in the logic of the development of Venetian Renaissance art. These were the painters in whose art the transition to a new stage in the development of Renaissance culture was most clearly outlined. This was especially clearly revealed in the works of the mature Giovanni Bellini,
Venice, which managed to preserve its independence, remains faithful to the traditions of the Renaissance longer. Two great artists of the High Venetian Renaissance came from Gianbellino’s workshop: Giorgione and Titian. The fact that Venice retained its independence and, to a large extent, its wealth, determined the duration of the heyday of High Art Renaissance in the Venetian Republic. The turning point towards the late Renaissance began in Venice somewhat later than in Rome and Florence, namely by the mid-40s of the 16th century.
Giovanni Bellini is the largest artist of the Venetian school, who laid the foundations of the art of the High Renaissance in Venice. The dramatically sharp, cold-colored early works of Giovanni Bellini (“Lamentation of Christ,” circa 1470, Brera Gallery, Milan) by the end of the 1470s, under the influence of the paintings of Piero and Messina, are replaced by harmoniously clear paintings in which the majestic human images are in tune with the spiritual landscape ( the so-called “Madonna of the Lake”, “Feast of the Gods”). The works of Giovanni Bellini, including his numerous “Madonnas,” are distinguished by the soft harmony of sonorous, saturated colors as if permeated by the sun and the subtlety of light and shadow gradations, calm solemnity, lyrical contemplation and clear poetry of images. In the work of Giovanni Bellini, along with the classically ordered composition of the Renaissance altar painting (“Madonna enthroned surrounded by saints”, 1505, Church of San Zaccaria, Venice), a humanistic portrait was formed full of interest in man (portrait of a doge; portrait of a condottiere). In one of last paintings "The Drunkenness of Noah" the artist expressed a youthful commitment to life values and the ease of ease of existence. The work of the artist Giovanni Bellini paved the way for Venetian painting from late Gothic and proto-Renaissance to the new art of the High Renaissance.
The next stage after the art of Giovanni Bellini was the work of Giorgione - a direct follower of his teacher and a typical artist of the High Renaissance. He was the first on Venetian soil to turn to literary and mythological themes. Landscape, nature and the beautiful naked human body became for him a subject of art and an object of worship. With a sense of harmony, perfect proportions, exquisite linear rhythm, soft light painting, spirituality and psychological expressiveness of his images, Giorgione is close to Leonardo, who had a direct influence on him when he was passing through from Milan in Venice. But Giorgione is more emotional than the great Milanese master, and like a typical artist of Venice, he is interested not so much in linear perspective as in airy perspective and mainly in problems of color. Already in the first famous work“Madonna” he appears as a fully developed artist; the image of the Madonna is full of poetry, pensive dreaminess, permeated with that mood of sadness that is characteristic of everyone female images Giorgione. Over the last five years of his life (Giorgione died of the plague), the artist created his best works, The painting “The Thunderstorm” depicts man as a part of nature. A woman feeding a child, a young man with a staff are not united by any action, but are united in this majestic landscape by a common mood, a common state of mind. Giorgione has a subtle and rich palette. The color green has a lot of shades: olive in the trees, almost black in the depths of the water, leaden in the clouds. The image of “Sleeping Venus” is permeated with spirituality and poetry). Her body is written easily, freely, gracefully, it is not without reason that researchers talk about the “musicality” of Giorgione’s rhythms; it is not without sensual charm. But the face with closed eyes is chaste and stern; in comparison with it, Titian’s Venuses seem like true pagan goddesses. Giorgione did not have time to complete work on “Sleeping Venus”; According to contemporaries, the landscape background in the picture was painted by Titian, as in another late work of the master - “Rural Concert”. This painting, depicting two gentlemen in magnificent clothes and two naked women, one of whom takes water from a well, and the other plays the pipe, is Giorgione’s most cheerful and full-blooded work. But this living, natural feeling of the joy of being is not associated with any specific action, it is full of enchanting contemplation and a dreamy mood. The combination of these features is so characteristic of Giorgione that it is “Rural Concert” that can be considered his most typical work. Giorgione's sensual joy is always poeticized and spiritualized.
Titian-- greatest artist Venetian Renaissance. He created works on both mythological and Christian subjects, worked in the genre of portraiture, his coloristic talent is exceptional, his compositional inventiveness is inexhaustible, and his happy longevity allowed him to leave behind the richest creative heritage, which had a huge influence on descendants. Titian was born in a small town at the foot of the Alps. His first work was painting barns in Venice together with Giorgione. After Giorgione's death, Titian painted several rooms in Padua. Life in Padua introduced the artist to the works of Mantegna and Donatello. Fame came to Titian early. He became the first painter of the republic, from the 20s - the most famous artist of Venice, and success did not leave him until the end of his days. The Duke of Ferrara commissions him for a series of paintings in which Titian appears as a singer of antiquity, who managed to feel and, most importantly, embody the spirit of paganism (“Bacchanalia”, “Feast of Venus”, “Bacchus and Ariadne”). Titian becomes the brightest figure in the artistic life of Venice. Rich Venetians the patricians commissioned Titian to create altarpieces, and he created huge icons: “The Assumption of Mary”, “Madonna of Pesaro”, etc. In “Madonna of Pesaro” Titian developed the principle of decentralizing composition, which the Florentine and Roman schools did not know. By shifting the figure of the Madonna to the right, he thus contrasted two centers: semantic and spatial. The different color schemes do not contradict, but appear in harmonious unity with the picture. During this period, Titian loved subjects where he could show a Venetian street, the splendor of its architecture, and a festive, curious crowd. This is how one of his largest compositions, “The Presentation of Mary into the Temple”) is created - the next step after the “Madonna of Pesaro” in the art of depicting a group scene, in which Titian skillfully combines vital naturalness with grandeur. Titian writes a lot in mythological stories, especially after a trip to Rome. That’s when his versions of “Danae” appear. Danae is beautiful in accordance with the ancient ideal of beauty, which the Venetian master follows. In all these variants, Titian's interpretation of the image carries within itself a carnal, earthly beginning, an expression of the simple joy of being. His “Venus” is close in composition to Giorgionev’s. But the introduction of an everyday scene in the interior instead of a landscape background, a careful look widely open eyes models, a dog at her feet - details that convey the feeling real life on earth, not on Olympus.
Throughout his life, Titian was engaged in portraiture. His models (especially in portraits of the early and middle periods of creativity) always emphasize the nobility of appearance, majesty of posture, restraint of posture and gesture, created by an equally noble color scheme, and sparse, strictly selected details (portrait of a young man with a glove, portrait of his daughter Lavinia, etc.) If Titian’s portraits are always distinguished by the complexity of their characters and the intensity of their internal state, then in the years of creative maturity he creates especially dramatic images, contradictory characters, presented in opposition and clash, depicted with truly Shakespearean power (group portrait). Such a complex group portrait was developed only in the Baroque era of the 17th century.
Towards the end of Titian's life, his work underwent significant changes. He still writes a lot on ancient subjects, but increasingly turns to Christian themes, to scenes of martyrdom, in which pagan cheerfulness and ancient harmony give way to the tragic. The immeasurable depth of sorrow and the majestic beauty of the human being are conveyed in last work Titian's Lamentation, completed after the artist's death by his student. The Madonna holding her son on her knees is frozen in grief, Magdalene raises her hand in despair, the old man is in deep mournful thought.
49) Titian is an Italian painter of the High and Late Renaissance. He studied in Venice with Giovanni Bellini, in whose workshop he became close to Giorgione; worked in Venice, as well as in Padua, Ferrara, Romea and other cities. Titian embodied the humanistic ideals of the Renaissance in his work. His life-affirming art is distinguished by its versatility, breadth of reality, and revelation of the deep dramatic conflicts of the era. Interest in landscape, poetry, lyrical contemplation, subtle coloring make Titian’s early works (the so-called “Gypsy Madonna”; “Christ and the Sinner”) similar to the work of Giorgione; The artist began to develop an independent style after becoming acquainted with the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. The calm and joyful images of his paintings were marked during this period by vitality, vivid feelings, inner enlightenment, purity of colors. At the same time, Titian painted several portraits, strict and calm in composition, and subtly psychological (“Young Man with a Glove,” “Portrait of a Man”). Titian's new period of creativity (late 1510s - 1530s) is associated with the social and cultural rise of Venice, which in this era became one of the main strongholds of humanism and urban freedoms in Italy. At this time, Titian created monumental altarpieces with pathos.
The end of the 1530s is the heyday of Titian's portrait art. With amazing insight, the artist portrayed his contemporaries, capturing the various, sometimes contradictory traits of their characters: hypocrisy and suspicion, confidence and dignity (“Ippolito de’ Medici”). Titian's canvases are characterized by integrity of character and stoic courage (“Penitent Mary Magdalene; “Crown of Thorns”). The color scheme of Titian's later works is based on the finest colorful chromaticism: the color scheme, generally subordinate to a golden tone, is built on subtle shades of brown, steel blue, pink-red, faded green.
In the late period of his work, Titian reached the peaks both in his painting skill and in the emotional and psychological interpretation of religious and mythological themes. Beauty human body, the plethora of the surrounding world became the leading motive of the artist’s works with themes from ancient mythology. The artist’s writing style becomes extremely free, composition, form and color are based on bold plastic modeling, paints are applied to the canvas not only with a brush, but also with a spatula and even with fingers. Transparent glazes do not hide the underpainting, but in some places reveal the grainy texture of the canvas. From the combination of flexible strokes, images filled with drama are born. In the 1550s, the nature of Titian’s work changed, the dramatic beginning in his religious compositions grew (“Martyrdom of St. Lawrence”; “Entombment”). At the same time, he again turns to mythological themes, the motif of blossoming female beauty. The bitterly weeping Mary Magdalene in the painting of the same name is also close to these images.
A significant turning point in the artist’s work occurs at the turn of the 1550-1560s. Writing compositions based on the subjects of “Metamorphoses”, permeated with movement and vibration of color, is already an element of the so-called “late manner”, characteristic of latest works Titian (“Saint Sebastian”; “Lamentation of Christ”, etc.) These canvases are distinguished by a complex pictorial structure, blurred boundaries between forms and background; the surface of the canvas seems to be woven from strokes applied with a wide brush, sometimes rubbed in with fingers. Shades complement each other, consonant or contrasting tones form a certain unity from which forms or muted shimmering colors are born. The innovation of the “late manner” was not understood by contemporaries and was appreciated only at a later time.
The art of Titian, which most fully revealed the originality of the Venetian school, had a great influence on the formation of the largest artists of the 17th century from Rubens and Velazquez. Painting technique Titian had an exceptional influence on the further development of world fine art until the 20th century.
- 50) Painting “Violanta. Titian manages to most fully embody the ideal of a physically and spiritually beautiful person, given in all the vital fullness of his being, in a portrait. He turned to the portrait back in early years. Then a portrait of a young man with a torn glove was painted, as well as a portrait of Mosti, surprising with its picturesque freedom of characterization and nobility of image. His “Violanta,” a fair-haired girl with beautiful eyes, full of somewhat cold grace, also dates back to this period. A thick wave of heavy gold hair falls over the open, wonderful shoulders and turns into transparent, weightless fluff, gently enveloping the thin lace and snow-white skin of the young woman. An expensive dress is intended only to emphasize once again the noble origin.
- 1520 - 1540 - the heyday of Titian's portrait art. During these years, he created an extensive portrait gallery of his contemporaries, including the nameless “Young Man with a Glove,” the humanist Mosti, the Medici, and the ruler of Mantua. The subtlety of conveying individual inner world The portrait of a Ferrara lawyer stands out. A worthy place in the glorious series is occupied by the portrait of Francesco Maria, dressed in military armor against the background of banners and corresponding regalia. With amazing insight, the artist depicted his contemporaries, capturing the various, sometimes contradictory traits of their characters: hypocrisy and suspicion, confidence and dignity. Titian's canvases are characterized by integrity of character and stoic courage. The color scheme of Titian's later works is based on the finest colorful chromaticism: the color scheme, generally subordinate to a golden tone, is built on subtle shades of brown, steel blue, pink-red, faded green.
"Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere" can create the feeling that this person is in a higher position. This impression is created by the fact that the picture is filled with energy and internal tension, the self-confidence of the person being portrayed is obvious, and his posture is that of a ruler. He seeks to suppress the viewer with his gaze. There are many attributes on the canvas - black armor with an aggressive metallic sheen, several wands, regal crimson velvet - all this indicates that Titian was excellent at conveying the social significance of the customer in the painting.
"Portrait of a young man with a glove." Titian manages to most fully embody the ideal of a physically and spiritually beautiful person, given in all the vital fullness of his being, in a portrait. This is the portrait of a young man with a torn glove. This portrait perfectly conveys individual similarities, and yet the artist’s main attention is drawn not to the particular details in a person’s appearance, but to the general, to the most characteristic of his image. Titian, as it were, reveals through this man the general typical features of a man of the Renaissance. Broad shoulders, strong and expressive hands, a free pose, a white shirt casually unbuttoned at the collar, a dark youthful face on which the eyes stand out with their lively sparkle, create an image full of freshness and charm of youth - it is in these features that the main qualities and the whole the unique harmony of a happy person who does not know painful doubts and internal discord.
The portrait of the Medici gives us the opportunity to grasp the profound changes that are emerging in the 1540s in Titian's work. The Duke's thin face, edged with a soft beard, was marked by the struggle with the intricate contradictions of reality. This image echoes to some extent the image of Hamlet.
In the portrait of Tomaso Mosti, the hero expresses practically no emotions. The costume and accessories narrate the story for him, while the model herself is frankly passive. This effect is enhanced by monochromatic tones and dim colors.
"Portrait of a young woman in a hat with a feather." As if washed with morning dew, the face of the young charmer breathes freshness and youthful enthusiasm. A hat coquettishly pushed to the side, lively curious eyes and a string of pearls on a girl’s neck - before us is another female portrait of the great Italian master. It seems that a light breeze will blow and the fluffs of an ostrich feather will obediently flutter after it, they are so light, so airy. With a masterly brush, the artist makes the dark green velvet of a cloak, the weightless silk of a thin dress, and the warm skin of gentle female hands almost tangible.
Art of Venice The Renaissance developed in Venice somewhat later than in most other major centers of Italy of that era. It developed, in particular, later than in Florence and in Tuscany in general. Formation of principles artistic culture The renaissance in the fine arts of Venice began only in the 15th century. This was by no means determined by the economic backwardness of Venice. On the contrary, Venice, along with Florence, Pisa, Genoa, and Milan, was one of the most economically developed centers of Italy at that time. It was the early transformation of Venice into a great trading and, moreover, predominantly trading rather than manufacturing power, which began in the 12th century and was especially accelerated during the Crusades, that is to blame for this delay.
Only from about the middle of the 15th century can we say that the inevitable and natural process of the transition of Venetian art to secular positions, characteristic of the entire artistic culture of the Renaissance, finally began to be fully realized. The originality of the Venetian Quattrocento was reflected mainly in the desire for increased festivity of color, for a peculiar combination of subtle realism with decorativeness in composition, in a greater interest in the landscape background, in the landscape environment surrounding a person; Moreover, it is characteristic that interest in the urban landscape was perhaps even more developed than interest in the natural landscape. It was in the second half of the 15th century that the Renaissance school was formed in Venice as a significant and original phenomenon that occupied an important place in the art of the Italian Renaissance. It was at this time that, along with the art of the archaizing Crivelli, the work of Antonello da Messina took shape, striving for a more holistic, generalized perception of the world, a poetic, decorative and monumental perception. Not much later, a more narrative line of development of the art of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio emerged.
This is natural. By the middle of the 15th century, Venice reached the highest degree of its commercial and political prosperity. The colonial possessions in the trading post of the “Queen of the Adriatic” covered not only the entire eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, but also spread widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, the banner of the Lion of St. Mark flutters. Many of the noble patrician families that make up the ruling elite of the Venetian oligarchy act overseas as rulers of large cities or entire regions. The Venetian fleet firmly holds in its hands almost all transit trade between East and Western Europe.
True, the defeat of the Byzantine Empire by the Turks, which ended with the capture of Constantinople, shook the trade position of Venice. Still, there is no way to talk about the decline of Venice in the second half of the 15th century. The general collapse of Venetian eastern trade came much later. Huge for that time, partially released from trade turnover cash Venetian merchants invested in the development of crafts and manufactures in Venice, partly in the development of rational agriculture in their possessions located in the areas of the peninsula adjacent to the lagoon (the so-called terraferma).
Moreover, rich and still full vitality In the years 1509 - 1516, the republic was able, combining the force of arms with flexible diplomacy, to defend its independence in a difficult struggle with a hostile coalition of a number of European powers. The general upsurge due to the outcome of this difficult struggle, which temporarily united all layers of Venetian society, caused that increase in the traits of heroic optimism and monumental festivity that are so characteristic of the art of the High Renaissance in Venice, starting with Titian. The fact that Venice retained its independence and, to a large extent, its wealth, determined the duration of the heyday of High Renaissance art in the Venetian Republic. The turning point towards the late Renaissance began in Venice somewhat later than in Rome and Florence, namely by the mid-40s of the 16th century. The plane image is replaced by a three-dimensional one.
Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco;) (1476 or 1477) - Italian painter of the Venetian school, singer and musician. He took part in decorating the Doge's Palace and painted the German courtyard in Venice with frescoes. The main area is easel painting. Portraits, landscapes.. Soft transparent chiaroscuro, many colorful nuances. Works - “Judith”, “Sleeping Venus”. Giorgione passed away early; he died in Venice during the plague epidemic in the fall of 1510.
Judith, 1504 Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 
Sleeping Venus
Titian. (1476/77 or 1480s, Pieve di Cadore, Venice) - Italian painter. Frescoes (worked with Giorgione). Early works are calm and joyful (“Christ and Magdalene”). Portraits (“Portrait of a Man”, “Young Man with a Glove”), landscape. Late 1510s-1530s. - monumental compositions (“Assumption of Mary”, circa 1516-18, Church of Santa Maria, Venice). Late 1530s-1540s - the heyday of portrait art depicted character traits: self-confidence, pride and dignity, suspicion, hypocrisy, deceit, etc. In the later period - paintings on religious themes ("Penitent Mary Magdalene", 1560s, Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Towards the end of his life, he developed a new painting technique - he applied paints to the canvas with a brush, a spatula, and his fingers.
Venus of Urbino, 1538 
Penitent Mary Magdalene 
Bacchanalia, 1524
Veronese. - Paolo Cagliari (1528-1588), born in Verona (where his nickname Veronese came from, i.e. “Veronese”), was born in Verona in the family of the sculptor Gabriele Cagliari. He studied with the insignificant Verona painter Antonio Badile, who was his nephew. painted balls of the rich and carefree aristocracy, using color polychrome (famous green Veronese). In Venice, Veronese became acquainted with the work of Titian (circa 1477–1576), from whom he adopted a broad, free style of writing that became characteristic of his works. The 1560s are the heyday of Veronese’s work. His works are becoming more and more secular in nature: he shows contemporary Venice, the architecture of the city, scenes from life; his characters are full of proud dignity, luxuriously dressed in modern costumes.
His painting is full of optimism, fantasy and spontaneity, imbued with the spring sun's rays - by the end of the artist's life it will become more modest, the colors will be darker. The picturesque mythology of Veronese filled the walls and ceilings of the Palazzo Ducale (“Apotheosis of Venice”). The artist creates a grandiose series of “Last Suppers” for Venetian monasteries, including “The Feast in the House of Levi,” a canvas of gigantic size. Veronese is the author of the general plan for the decoration of the Church of St. Sebastian. Veronese died in 1588 and was buried in the Church of San Sebastiano in Venice. The work of Paolo Veronese completes the art of the late Renaissance.
Temptation of Saint Anthony 
Murder of St. George, 1564
Tintoretto. -Jacopo Robusti, nicknamed “Tintoretto” (1518-1594). He was the son of a dyer (hence the nickname). This is a mystical artist who preferred biblical scenes from classical antiquity and folk festivals. He developed a sharp style of painting, giving preference to movement and diverging lines (“Crucifixion”). The use of chiaroscuro, color contrasts, elongation of figures, subtle weaving of light. The largest achievements created by orders of churches, “schools” and the Palazzo Ducale are “The Miracles of St. Mark”, “Marriage in Cana of Galilee”, “Paradise”, frescoes, dedicated to Venice, “The Presentation of the Virgin Mary into the Temple.” His most significant work can be considered 50 canvases, on which the master worked for 23 years.
In terms of the abundance of talented craftsmen and the scope of artistic creativity, Italy was ahead in the 15th century. all other European countries. The art of Venice represents a special version of the development of the artistic culture of the Renaissance in relation to all other centers of Renaissance art in Italy.
Already from the 13th century. Venice was a colonial power that owned territories on the coasts of Italy, Greece, and the islands of the Aegean Sea. She traded with Byzantium, Syria, Egypt, and India. Thanks to intensive trade, enormous wealth flowed to her. Venice was a trading-oligarchic republic. For many centuries, Venice lived as a fabulously rich city, and its inhabitants could not be surprised by the abundance of gold, silver, precious stones, fabrics and other treasures, but the garden at the palace was perceived by them as the extreme limit of wealth, since there was very little greenery in the city. People had to abandon it in favor of increasing their living space, expanding the city, which was already constrained by water everywhere. This is probably why the Venetians became very sensitive to beauty, and everyone artistic style They reached a fairly high level in their decorative capabilities. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks greatly shook the trading position of Venice, and yet the enormous monetary wealth accumulated by Venetian merchants allowed it to maintain its independence and the way of life of the Renaissance throughout much of the 16th century.
Chronologically, the art of the Renaissance developed in Venice somewhat later than in most other major centers of Italy of this era, but it also lasted longer than in other centers of Italy. It developed, in particular, later than in Florence and in Tuscany in general. The Renaissance in Venice, as was said, had its own characteristics; it had little interest in scientific research and excavations of ancient antiquities. The Venetian Renaissance had other origins. The formation of the principles of Renaissance artistic culture in the fine arts of Venice began only in the 15th century. This was not determined by the economic backwardness of Venice; on the contrary, Venice, along with Florence, Pisa, Genoa, and Milan, was one of the most economically developed centers of Italy at that time. It was the early development of Venice into a great trading power that was to blame for this delay, since greater trade, and correspondingly greater communication, with eastern countries influenced its culture. The culture of Venice was closely connected with the magnificent grandeur and solemn luxury of the imperial Byzantine culture, and partly with the refined decorative culture of the Arab world. The artistic culture of Venice back in the 14th century was a peculiar interweaving of magnificent and festive forms of monumental Byzantine art, enlivened by the influence of the colorful ornamentation of the East and a peculiarly graceful rethinking decorative elements mature gothic art. Of course, this will also be reflected in the Venetian artistic culture of the Renaissance. Among the artists of Venice, the problems of color come to the fore; the materiality of the image is achieved by gradations of color.
The Venetian Renaissance was rich in great painters and sculptors. The largest Venetian masters of the High and Late Renaissance are Giorgione (1477-1510), Titian (1477-1576), Veronese (1528-1588), Tintoretto (1518-1594) “Cultural Studies p. 193.
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FEDERAL STATE BUDGET EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
"RYAZAN STATE UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER S.A. ESENINA"
Faculty of Russian Philology and National Culture
Direction of training "Theology"
ControlJob
In the discipline "World Art Culture"
On the topic: "Venetian Renaissance"
Completed by a 2nd year student
correspondence courses:
Kostyukovich V.G.
Checked by: Shakhova I.V.
Ryazan 2015
Plan
- Introduction
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction
The term "Renaissance" (in French "Renaissance", in Italian "Rinascimento") was first introduced by a 16th century painter, architect and art historian. Giorgio Vasari, for the need to define the historical era, which was determined by the early stage of development of bourgeois relations in Western Europe.
The culture of the Renaissance originated in Italy, and this was connected, first of all, with the emergence of bourgeois relations in feudal society, and as a result, the emergence of a new worldview. The growth of cities and the development of crafts, the rise of world trade, the great geographical discoveries of the late 15th and early 16th centuries changed life medieval Europe. Urban culture created new people and formed a new attitude to life. A return to the forgotten achievements of ancient culture began. All changes manifested themselves to the greatest extent in art. At this time, Italian society begins to take an active interest in culture Ancient Greece and Rome, manuscripts of ancient writers are being sought. Various spheres of social life are becoming more and more independent - art, philosophy, literature, education, science.
The chronological framework of the Italian Renaissance covers the time from the second half of the 13th to the first half of the 16th century. Within this period, the Renaissance is divided into several stages: the second half of the XIII-XIV centuries. - Proto-Renaissance (pre-renaissance) and Trecento; XV century - early Renaissance (Quattrocento); end of the 15th - first third of the 16th century. - High Renaissance (the term Cinquecento is used less often in science). Ilyina s. 98 This work will examine the features of the Renaissance in Venice.
The development of Italian Renaissance culture is very diverse, which is due to the different levels of economic and political development of different cities of Italy, the varying degrees of power and strength of the bourgeoisie of these cities, and their varying degrees of connection with feudal traditions. Leading art schools in the art of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century. were Siena and Florentine, in the 15th century. - Florentine, Umbrian, Paduan, Venetian, in the 16th century. - Roman and Venetian.
The main difference between the Renaissance and the previous cultural era was the humanistic view of man and the world around him, the formation of the scientific foundations of humanities, the emergence of experimental natural science, the peculiarities of the artistic language of new art, and finally, the assertion of the rights of secular culture to independent development. All this was the basis for subsequent development European culture in the 17th - 18th centuries. It was the Renaissance that carried out a broad and diverse synthesis of two cultural worlds - pagan and Christian, which had a profound impact on the culture of modern times.
The figures of the Renaissance created, in contrast to the feudal and scholastic worldviews, a new, secular, rationalistic worldview. The focus of attention in the Renaissance was the person, therefore the worldview of the bearers of this culture is designated by the term “humanistic” (from the Latin humanitas - humanity). For Italian humanists, the main thing was a person’s focus on himself. His destiny is largely in his own hands; he is endowed by God with free will.
The Renaissance is characterized by the cult of beauty, especially human beauty. Italian painting depicts beautiful, perfect people. Artists and sculptors strove in their work for naturalness, for a realistic recreation of the world and man. Man in the Renaissance becomes again main theme art, and the human body is considered the most perfect form in nature.
The theme of the Renaissance, and in particular the Renaissance in Venice, is relevant because the art of the Renaissance developed on the basis of a synthesis of all the best that was created in the medieval art of previous centuries and the art of the ancient world. The art of the Renaissance marked a turning point in the history of European art, putting man first, with his joys and sorrows, mind and will. It developed a new artistic and architectural language that retains its significance to this day. Therefore, the study of the Renaissance is an important link for understanding everything further development artistic culture of Europe.
Features of the Venetian Renaissance
In terms of the abundance of talented craftsmen and the scope of artistic creativity, Italy was ahead in the 15th century. all other European countries. The art of Venice represents a special version of the development of the artistic culture of the Renaissance in relation to all other centers of Renaissance art in Italy.
Already from the 13th century. Venice was a colonial power that owned territories on the coasts of Italy, Greece, and the islands of the Aegean Sea. She traded with Byzantium, Syria, Egypt, and India. Thanks to intensive trade, enormous wealth flowed to her. Venice was a trading-oligarchic republic. For many centuries, Venice lived as a fabulously rich city, and its inhabitants could not be surprised by the abundance of gold, silver, precious stones, fabrics and other treasures, but the garden at the palace was perceived by them as the extreme limit of wealth, since there was very little greenery in the city. People had to abandon it in favor of increasing their living space, expanding the city, which was already constrained by water everywhere. This is probably why the Venetians became very sensitive to beauty, and each artistic style reached a fairly high level in its decorative capabilities. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks greatly shook the trading position of Venice, and yet the enormous monetary wealth accumulated by Venetian merchants allowed it to maintain its independence and the way of life of the Renaissance throughout much of the 16th century.
Chronologically, the art of the Renaissance developed in Venice somewhat later than in most other major centers of Italy of this era, but it also lasted longer than in other centers of Italy. It developed, in particular, later than in Florence and in Tuscany in general. The Renaissance in Venice, as was said, had its own characteristics; it had little interest in scientific research and excavations of ancient antiquities. The Venetian Renaissance had other origins. The formation of the principles of Renaissance artistic culture in the fine arts of Venice began only in the 15th century. This was not determined by the economic backwardness of Venice; on the contrary, Venice, along with Florence, Pisa, Genoa, and Milan, was one of the most economically developed centers of Italy at that time. It was the early development of Venice into a great trading power that was to blame for this delay, since greater trade, and correspondingly greater communication, with eastern countries influenced its culture. The culture of Venice was closely connected with the magnificent grandeur and solemn luxury of the imperial Byzantine culture, and partly with the refined decorative culture of the Arab world. The artistic culture of Venice back in the 14th century was a peculiar interweaving of the magnificently festive forms of monumental Byzantine art, enlivened by the influence of the colorful ornamentation of the East and a peculiarly elegant rethinking of the decorative elements of mature Gothic art. Of course, this will also be reflected in the Venetian artistic culture of the Renaissance. Among the artists of Venice, the problems of color come to the fore; the materiality of the image is achieved by gradations of color.
The Venetian Renaissance was rich in great painters and sculptors. The largest Venetian masters of the High and Late Renaissance are Giorgione (1477-1510), Titian (1477-1576), Veronese (1528-1588), Tintoretto (1518-1594) “Cultural Studies p. 193.
Major representatives of the Venetian Renaissance
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, nicknamed Giorgione (1477-1510). A typical artist of the High Renaissance. Giorgione became the first most famous artist of the High Renaissance in Venice. In his work, the secular principle finally wins, which is manifested in the dominance of mythological and literary themes. Landscape, nature and the beautiful human body became the subject of art for him.
Giorgione played the same role for Venetian painting as Leonardo da Vinci played for the painting of central Italy. With a sense of harmony, perfect proportions, exquisite linear rhythm, soft light painting, spirituality and psychological expressiveness of his images and at the same time logic and rationalism, Giorgione is close to Leonardo, who, undoubtedly, had a direct influence on him when he was traveling from Milan in 1500. in Venice. Ilyina s. 138 But still, in comparison with the clear rationality of Leonardo’s art, Giorgione’s painting is permeated with deep lyricism and contemplation. Giorgione is more emotional than the great Milanese master; he is interested not so much in linear as in aerial perspective. Color plays a huge role in his compositions. Sound colors, laid in transparent layers, soften the outlines. The artist masterfully uses the properties of oil painting. The variety of shades and transitional tones helps him achieve unity of volume, light, color and space. The landscape, which occupies a prominent place in his work, contributes to the revelation of the poetry and harmony of his perfect images.
Among him early works"Judith" (circa 1502) attracts attention. The heroine, taken from Old Testament apocryphal literature, from the Book of Judith, is depicted as a young beautiful woman against the backdrop of quiet nature. The artist depicted Judith at the moment of her triumph in all the power of her beauty and restrained dignity. The soft black and white modeling of the face and hands is somewhat reminiscent of Leonard’s “sfumato”. Ilyina s. 139 A beautiful woman against the backdrop of beautiful nature, however, a strange disturbing note is introduced into this seemingly harmonious composition by the sword in the heroine’s hand and the severed head of the enemy trampled by her. Another of Giorgione’s works should be noted “The Storm” (1506) and “Rural Concert” (1508-1510), where you can also see beautiful nature, and of course the painting “Sleeping Venus” (circa 1508-1510). Unfortunately, Giorgione did not have time to complete work on “Sleeping Venus” and, according to contemporaries, the landscape background in the picture was painted by Titian.
Titian Vecellio (1477? - 1576) is the greatest artist of the Venetian Renaissance. Although the date of his birth is not clearly established, he was most likely a younger contemporary of Giorgione and a student who surpassed his teacher, according to researchers. For many years he determined the development of the Venetian school of painting. Titian's loyalty to humanistic principles, faith in the mind and capabilities of man, and powerful colorism give his works great attractive power. His work finally reveals the uniqueness of the realism of the Venetian school of painting. Unlike Giorgione, who died early, Titian lived a long happy life, full of inspired creative work. Titian retained the poetic perception of the female naked body, taken out of Giorgione’s studio, and often literally reproduced on canvas the almost recognizable silhouette of the “Sleeping Venus”, as in the “Venus of Urbino” (circa 1538), but not in the lap of nature, but in the interior of a contemporary painter Houses.
Throughout his life, Titian was engaged in portraiture, being an innovator in this field. His brush includes an extensive gallery of portrait images of kings, popes, and nobles. He deepens the characteristics of the personalities he depicts, noting the uniqueness of posture, movements, facial expressions, gestures, and manner of wearing a suit. His portraits sometimes develop into paintings that reveal psychological conflicts and relationships between people. In his early portrait “Young Man with a Glove” (1515-1520), the image of a young man acquires individual specific features, and at the same time it expresses the typical image of a Renaissance man, with his determination, energy and sense of independence.
If in his early portraits, as was customary, he glorified the beauty, strength, dignity, and integrity of the nature of his models, then his later works are distinguished by the complexity and inconsistency of the images. In the paintings created by Titian in recent years creativity, genuine tragedy sounds, in Titian’s work the theme of man’s conflict with the outside world is born. Towards the end of Titian's life, his work underwent significant changes. He still writes a lot on ancient subjects, but increasingly turns to Christian themes. His later works are dominated by themes of martyrdom and suffering, irreconcilable discord with life, and stoic courage. The image of a person in them still has powerful strength, but loses the features of internal harmonious balance. The composition is simplified, based on the combination of one or more figures with an architectural or landscape background, immersed in twilight. The technique of painting also changes, abandoning bright, jubilant colors, he turns to cloudy, steely, olive complex shades, subordinating everything to a general golden tone.
In his later works, even the most tragic in their sound, Titian did not lose faith in the humanistic ideal. For him, man remained the highest value to the end, which can be seen in the “Self-Portrait” (circa 1560) of the artist, who carried the bright ideals of humanism throughout his life.
At the end of the 16th century. in Venice the features of the impending new era in art. This can be seen in the work of two major artists, Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto.
Paolo Cagliari, nicknamed Veronese (he was from Verona, 1528-1588) was the last singer of the festive Venice of the 16th century. He began by creating paintings for Verona palazzos and images for Verona churches, but fame came to him when in 1553 he began working on paintings for the Venetian Doge's Palace. From this moment and forever his life is connected with Venice. He does murals, but more often he paints large oil paintings on canvas for the Venetian patricians, altar images for Venetian churches on their own order or on the official order of the Venetian Republic. All he wrote were huge decorative paintings of festive Venice, where the elegant Venetian crowd is depicted against the backdrop of the Venetian architectural landscape. This can also be seen in paintings on gospel themes, such as “The Feast at Simon the Pharisee” (1570) or “The Feast in the House of Levi” (1573).
Jacopo Robusti, known in art as Tintoretto (1518-1594) (“tintoretto” means dyer: the artist’s father was a silk dyer), unlike Veronese, had a tragic attitude, which was manifested in his work. A student of Titian, he highly appreciated his teacher's coloristic skills, but sought to combine it with the mastery of Michelangelo's drawing. Tintoretto spent a very short time in Titian's workshop, however, according to contemporaries, the motto hung on the doors of his workshop: “Drawing by Michelangelo, coloring by Titian.” Il s. 146 Most of Tintoretto's works are mainly written on subjects of mystical miracles; in his works he often depicted crowd scenes with dramatic intense action, deep space, figures in complex angles. His compositions are distinguished by exceptional dynamism, and in the late period also by strong contrasts of light and shadow. In the first painting that brought him fame, “The Miracle of St. Mark” (1548), he presents the figure of the saint in a complex perspective, and people in a state of such violent movement that would have been impossible in the classical art of the High Renaissance. Tintoretto was also the author of large decorative works, a gigantic cycle of paintings occupying two floors of the Scuolo di San Rocco, on which he worked from 1565 to 1587. In the last period of his work, Tintoretto works for the Doge's Palace (composition "Paradise", after 1588), where Paolo Veronese, known to us, managed to work earlier, before him.
Speaking about the Venetian Renaissance, one cannot help but recall the greatest architect who was born and worked in Vicenza near Venice - Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), using the example of his simple and elegant buildings, he demonstrated how the achievements of antiquity and the High Renaissance could be creatively processed and used . He managed to make the classical language of architecture accessible and universal.
The two most important areas of his activity were the construction of city houses (palazzos) and country residences (villas). In 1545, Palladio won a competition for the right to rebuild the Basilica in Vicenza. The ability to emphasize the harmony of the building, skillfully placing it against the backdrop of picturesque Venetian landscapes, was useful to him in his further work. This can be seen in the example of the villas he built at Malcontenta (1558), Barbaro-Volpi in Maser (1560-1570), and Cornaro (1566). Villa Rotunda (or Capra) in Vicenza (1551-1567) is rightfully considered the most perfect building of the architect. It is a square building with Ionic six-column porticoes on each façade. All four porticos lead to a round central hall, covered with a low dome under a tiled roof. In the design of the facades of villas and palazzos, Palladio usually used a large order, as can be seen in the example of the Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza (1550). Huge columns rise on ordinary stylobates, as in the Palazzo Valmarana (started in 1566) and in the unfinished Loggia del Capitanio (1571), or very high ones, completely absorbing the first floor, as in the Palazzo Thiene (1556). At the end of his creative path Palladio turned to church architecture. He owns the church of San Pietro in Castello (1558), as well as San Giorgio Maggiore (1565-1580) and Il Redentore (1577-1592) in Venice.
Palladio gained immense fame not only as an architect, but also as the author of the treatise "Four Books on Architecture", which was translated into many languages. His work had a huge influence on the development of the classicist movement in European architecture of the 17th-18th centuries, as well as on Russian architects in the 18th century. The master's followers formed a whole movement in European architecture, called "Palladianism".
Conclusion
The Renaissance era was marked in the life of mankind by a colossal rise in art and science. The revival, which arose on the basis of humanism, which proclaimed man as the highest value of life, was mainly reflected in art. The art of the Renaissance laid the foundations of European culture of the New Age and radically changed all major types of art. Creatively revised principles of the ancient order system were established in architecture, and new types of public buildings emerged. Painting was enriched by linear and aerial perspective, knowledge of the anatomy and proportions of the human body. Earthly content penetrated into the traditional religious themes of works of art. Interest in ancient mythology, history, everyday scenes, landscapes, and portraits increased. Along with monumental wall paintings decorating architectural structures, painting appeared, painting arose oil paints. The creative individuality of the artist, as a rule, a universally gifted person, came to the fore in art. And all these trends are very clearly and clearly visible in the art of the Venetian Renaissance. At the same time, Venice, in its creative life, differed significantly from the rest of Italy.
If in Central Italy during the Renaissance the art of Ancient Greece and Rome had a huge influence, then in Venice the influence of Byzantine art and the art of the Arab world was mixed in with this. It was the Venetian artists who brought sonorous, bright colors into their works and were unsurpassed colorists, the most famous of whom is Titian. They paid great attention to the nature and landscape surrounding people. The innovator in this area was Giorgione with his famous painting"Storm". He depicts man as a part of nature, paying great attention to the landscape. Andrea Palladio made a huge contribution to architecture, making the classical language of architecture accessible and universal. His work had far-reaching consequences under the name "Palladianism", which manifested itself in European architecture of the 17th - 18th centuries.
Subsequently, the decline of the Venetian Republic was reflected in the work of its artists, their images became less sublime and heroic, more earthly and tragic, which is clearly visible in the work of the great Titian. Despite this, Venice remained faithful to the traditions of the Renaissance longer than others.
References
1. Bragina LM.,Varyash ABOUT.AND.,Volodarsky IN.M. Cultural history of countries Western Europe during the Renaissance. - M.: Higher School, 1999. - 479 p.
2. Gukovsky M.A. Italian Renaissance. - L.: Leningrad University Publishing House, 1990. - 624 p.
3. Ilyina T.IN. History of art. Western European art. - M.: Higher School, 2000. - 368 p.
4. Cultural studies: Tutorial/ Under the general by the editors A.A.Radugina. - M.: Center, 2001. - 304 p.
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Venice is one of the most amazing cities in the world: a city on the water. The boundless sea, the vast sky and small flat islands - this is the minimum of natural bounty that fate has bestowed on Venice. And since there was a very large population, and very little land, every tree became a luxury item, which was allowed to grow where something could be built.
Venice lived for many centuries as a fabulously rich city, and its inhabitants could not be surprised by the abundance of gold, silver, precious stones, fabrics and other treasures, but the garden at the palace was always perceived by them as the extreme limit of wealth, because there was negligible greenery in the city: people I had to give it up in the struggle for living space. This is probably why the Venetians became very receptive to beauty and each artistic style among them reached the maximum of its decorative capabilities. The love of beauty, embodied in art, has made Venice the true “Pearl of the Adriatic”.
Venice played an active role in international politics: in 1167 it became part of the Lombard League, created by northern Italian cities to fight Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa; Pope Alexander III was also an enemy of the emperor, who opposed him to another pope, Paschal III.
While in Central and Southern Italy the short-lived “golden age” of the High Renaissance was completed in the first three decades of the 16th century, and in subsequent years, along with its greatest peak - the work of Michelangelo - a decadent mannerist direction developed, in northern Italy, in Venice, the humanistic art of the High and Late Renaissance bears fruit.
The fall of Constantinople under the onslaught of the Turks greatly shook the trade position of the “Queen of the Adriatic”. And yet, the enormous funds accumulated by Venetian merchants allowed Venice to maintain its independence and the way of life of the Renaissance throughout much of the 16th century.
The High Renaissance in Venice is an interesting and unique moment of the Renaissance in Italy. Here it started a little later, but lasted longer. The role of ancient traditions in Venice was the smallest, and the connection with the subsequent development of European painting was the most direct.
Venice was not interested in excavations and studying the culture that it was “reviving” - its Renaissance had other origins. The culture of Byzantium had a particularly pronounced influence on the development of the culture of Venice, but the rigor inherent in Byzantium did not take root - Venice more absorbed its colorfulness and golden shine. Venice reworked both Gothic and oriental traditions into its fold. This city developed its own style, drawing from everywhere, gravitating towards colorfulness, towards romantic picturesqueness. The taste for the fantastic and flowery, however, was moderated and streamlined by the spirit of businesslike sobriety, the real outlook on life characteristic of the Venetian merchants.
From everything that Venice absorbed, from the threads of the West and the East, it wove its Renaissance, its purely secular, proto-bourgeois culture, which ultimately came close to the research of Italian humanists. This happened no earlier than the second half of the 15th century - only then did the short-lived Venetian “Quattrocento” begin, which soon gave way to the culture of the High Renaissance. Many who become acquainted with Venetian painting like the works of the early Venetian Renaissance even more than the famous paintings of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. The works of the Quattrocentists are more restrained and subtle, their naivety is captivating, and they have more musicality. The artist, transitional from the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance, Giovanni Bellini, increasingly attracts attention over time, although for a long time he was overshadowed by his lush sensual brilliance by his younger contemporaries.
Giorgione, a student of Giovanni Bellini, an artist considered the first master of the High Renaissance in Venice, belonged to a breed of dreamers. Giorgione's style has something in common with both Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci: Giorgione is “classical,” clear, balanced in his compositions, and his drawing is characterized by a rare smoothness of lines. But Giorgione is more lyrical, more intimate, he has a quality that has long been characteristic of the Venetian school and which he raised to a new level - colorism. The Venetians' love for the sensual beauty of color led, step by step, to a new pictorial principle, when the materiality of the image is achieved not so much by chiaroscuro as by gradations of color. In part, Giorgione already has this.
Giorgione's art ushered in the High Renaissance in Venice. Compared to the clear rationality of Leonardo's art, Giorgione's painting is imbued with deep lyricism and contemplation. The landscape, which occupies a prominent place in his work, contributes to the revelation of the poetry and harmony of his perfect images. The harmonious connection between man and nature is an important feature of Giorgione’s work. Having formed among humanists, musicians, poets, and an extraordinary musician himself, Giorgione finds the most subtle musicality of rhythms in his compositions. Color plays a huge role in them. Sound colors, laid in transparent layers, soften the outlines. The artist masterfully uses the properties of oil painting. The variety of shades and transitional tones helps him achieve unity of volume, light, color and space. Among his early works, “Judith” (circa 1502, St. Petersburg, Hermitage) attracts with its gentle dreaminess and subtle lyricism. The biblical heroine is depicted as a young beautiful woman against the backdrop of quiet nature. However, a strange, alarming note is introduced into this seemingly harmonious composition by the sword in the heroine’s hand and the severed head of the enemy trampled upon by her.
In the paintings “The Thunderstorm” (circa 1505, Venice, Accademia Gallery) and “Rural Concert” (circa 1508-1510, Paris, Louvre), the subjects of which remained unidentified, the mood is created not only by people, but also by nature: pre-storm - in the first and calmly radiant, solemn - in the second. Against the background of the landscape, people are depicted, immersed in thought, as if waiting for something or playing music, forming an inextricable whole with the nature around them.
The combination of the ideal and harmonious with the concrete and individual in the characteristics of a person distinguishes the portraits painted by Giorgione. Attracts with the depth of thought, nobility of character, dreaminess and spirituality of Antonio Brocardo (1508-1510, Budapest, Museum fine arts). The image of perfect sublime beauty and poetry receives its ideal embodiment in “Sleeping Venus” (circa 1508-1510, Dresden, Picture Gallery). She is presented against the backdrop of a rural landscape, immersed in a peaceful sleep. The smooth rhythm of the linear outlines of her figure subtly harmonizes with the soft lines of the gentle hills, with the thoughtful calm of nature. All contours are softened, plasticity is ideally beautiful, gently modeled forms are proportionally proportionate. Subtle nuances of golden tone convey the warmth of a naked body. Giorgione died in the prime of his creative powers from the plague, without completing his most perfect painting. The landscape in the painting was completed by Titian, who also completed other orders entrusted to Giorgione.
For many years, the art of its head, Titian (1485/1490-1576), determined the development of the Venetian school of painting. Along with the art of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, it seems to be the pinnacle of the High Renaissance. Titian's loyalty to humanistic principles, faith in the will, reason and capabilities of man, and powerful colorism give his works enormous attractive power. His work finally reveals the uniqueness of the realism of the Venetian school of painting. The artist’s worldview is full-blooded, his knowledge of life is deep and multifaceted. The versatility of his talent was manifested in the development of various genres and themes, lyrical and dramatic.
Unlike Giorgione, who died early, Titian lived a long, happy life, full of inspired creative work. He was born in the town of Cadore, lived all his life in Venice, and studied there - first with Bellini, and then with Giorgione. Only for a short time, having already achieved fame, he traveled at the invitation of clients to Rome and Augsburg, preferring to work in the ambiance of his spacious, hospitable home, where his humanist friends and artists often gathered, among them the writer Aretino and the architect Sansovino.
Titian's early works are marked by a poetic worldview. But unlike the dreamily lyrical heroes of his predecessor, Titian creates images that are more full-blooded, active, and cheerful. In the painting “Earthly and Heavenly Love” (1510s, Rome, Borghese Gallery), two women are presented against the backdrop of a beautiful idyllic landscape. One of them, sumptuously dressed, thoughtfully relaxed, listens to the other, golden-haired, clear-eyed, the perfect beauty of her naked body is set off by a scarlet cloak flowing from her shoulder. The plot of this allegory, as well as a number of Giorgione’s paintings, does not have a single interpretation. But it gives the artist the opportunity to depict two different characters, states, two ideal images, subtly harmonizing with lush nature illuminated by warm light.
Titian builds the composition “Denarius of Caesar” (1515-1520, Dresden, Picture Gallery) on the opposition of two characters: the nobility and sublime beauty of Christ are emphasized by the predatory facial expression and ugliness of the money-grubbing Pharisee. A number of altarpieces, portraits and mythological compositions date back to the period of Titian's creative maturity. Titian's fame spread far beyond the borders of Venice, and the number of orders continually increased. In his works of 1518-1530, grandiose scope and pathos are combined with the dynamics of composition, solemn grandeur, with the transfer of the fullness of being, the richness and beauty of rich color harmonies. This is the “Assumption of Mary” (“Assunta”, 1518, Venice, Church of Santa Maria dei Frari), where the powerful breath of life is felt in the atmosphere itself, in the running clouds, in the crowd of apostles, looking with admiration and surprise at the figure of Mary ascending into the sky , strictly majestic, pathetic. The light and shadow modeling of each figure is energetic, the complex and wide movements filled with passionate impulse are natural. Deep red and blue tones are solemnly sonorous. In “Madonna of the Family of Pesaro” (1519-1526, Venice, Church of Santa Maria dei Frari), abandoning the traditional centric construction of the altar image, Titian gives an asymmetrical but balanced composition shifted to the right, full of bright vitality. Spicy portrait characteristics endowed by the customers standing in front of Maria - the Pesaro family.
In 1530-1540, the pathos and dynamics of Titian's early compositions are replaced by vitally spontaneous images, clear balance, and slow narration. The artist introduces a specific environment into paintings on religious and mythological themes, folk types, accurately observed details of everyday life. In the scene of the Entry into the Temple (1534-1538, Venice, Accademia Gallery), little Mary is depicted ascending the wide staircase to the high priests. And immediately, among the noisy crowd of townspeople gathered in front of the temple, the figure of an old trader stands out, sitting on the steps next to her goods - a basket of eggs. In the painting “Venus of Urbino” (circa 1538, Florence, Uffizi), the image of a sensual naked beauty is brought down from poetic heights by introducing figures of maids in the background, taking something out of a chest. The color scheme, while maintaining sonority, becomes restrained and deep.
Throughout his life, Titian turned to the portrait genre, becoming an innovator in this field. He deepens the characteristics of those portrayed, noting the uniqueness of posture, movements, facial expressions, gestures, and manner of wearing a suit. His portraits sometimes develop into paintings that reveal psychological conflicts and relationships between people. Already in the early portrait of “Young Man with a Glove” (1515-1520, Paris, Louvre), the image acquires individual specificity, and at the same time it expresses the typical features of a Renaissance man, with his determination, energy, sense of independence, the young man seems to be asking a question and waiting for an answer. Compressed lips, shiny eyes, and the contrast of white and black in clothing sharpen the characterization. Portraits of the late period are distinguished by great drama and complexity of the inner world, psychological and social generalizations, when the theme of man’s conflict with the outside world is born in Titian’s work. Amazing in its revelation of subtlety spiritual world portrait of Ippolito Riminaldi (late 1540s, Florence, Pitti Gallery), whose pale face imperiously attracts with its complexity of characterization and reverent spirituality. Inner life is concentrated in a gaze that is both tense and absent-minded, containing the bitterness of doubt and disappointment.
A full-length group portrait of Pope Paul III with his nephews, cardinals Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese (1545-1546, Naples, Capodimonte Museum), is perceived as a unique document of the era, revealing selfishness and hypocrisy, cruelty and greed, power and servility, decrepitness and tenacity -- everything that connects these people. The heroic equestrian portrait of Charles V (1548, Madrid, Prado) in knightly armor, against the backdrop of a landscape illuminated by the golden reflections of the setting sun, is vividly realistic. This portrait had a tremendous impact on the formation of Baroque portraits of the 17th and 18th centuries.
In the 1540s-1550s, the features of picturesqueness sharply increased in Titian’s work, he achieved complete unity of plastic light-and-shadow and colorful solutions. Powerful hits of light make the colors shine and shimmer. In life itself, he finds the ideal of full-blooded, mature beauty, embodied in mythological images - “Venus in front of the mirror” (circa 1555, Washington, National Gallery of Art), “Danae” (circa 1554, Madrid, Prado).
The strengthening of the feudal-Catholic reaction and the deep crisis experienced by the Venetian Republic cause an aggravation of the tragic element in the artist’s later works. They are dominated by themes of martyrdom and suffering, irreconcilable discord with life, stoic courage; “The Torment of St. Lawrence” (1550-1555, Venice, Jesuit Church), “Penitent Magdalene” (1560s, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), “Crown with Thorns” (circa 1570, Munich, Pinakothek), “St. Sebastian" (circa 1570, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), "Pieta" (1573-1576, Venice, Accademia Gallery). The image of a person in them still has powerful strength, but loses the features of internal harmonious balance. The composition is simplified, based on the combination of one or more figures with an architectural or landscape background, immersed in twilight; evening or night scenes are illuminated by ominous lightning and torchlight. The world is perceived in variability and movement. In these paintings, the artist’s late painting style was fully revealed, acquiring a freer and broader character and laying the foundations for the tonal painting of the 17th century. Refusing bright, jubilant colors, he turns to cloudy, steely, olive complex shades, subordinating everything to a general golden tone. He achieves a striking unity of the colorful surface of the canvas, using various textural techniques, varying the finest glazes and thick impasto open strokes of paint, a sculpting form that dissolves the linear pattern in a light-air environment, imparting the thrill of life to the form. And in his later works, even the most tragic in their sound, Titian did not lose faith in the humanistic ideal. For him, man remained the highest value of existence to the end. Full of self-esteem, faith in the triumph of reason, wise life experience appears before us in “Self-Portrait” (circa 1560, Madrid, Prado) an artist who carried the bright ideals of humanism throughout his life.
Having reached the heights of its development during the High Renaissance, Renaissance culture did not escape crisis phenomena. They are evident in the emerging dramatic tension artistic images, which later reached the point of tragedy, in a bitter desire to show the futility of even the heroic efforts of man in the fight against the fatal forces opposing him. Signs of the emerging crisis phenomena also appear in the contrasts in social thought that sharply emerged at that time: rationalism and a sober view of reality are combined with an intense utopian search for an ideal earthly city.
