Art of the Netherlands 16 century
During the first decades of the 16th century, painting in the Netherlands has undergone complex changes, as a result of which they turned out to be finalized the principles of art of the 15th century and developed (however, it is incomparably less fruitful than in Italy) the features of high revival. Although the artistic advantages of painting of the 16th century, with the exception of Bruegel, do not reach the level of the 15th century, in historical and evolutionarity its role turned out to be very significant. First of all, it is determined by the approach of art to a more direct, direct reflection of reality. A self-sufficient interest in a specific reality was equally led to the discovery of new, promising paths and methods and to narrow the horizons of painter. So, concentrating the idea of \u200b\u200beveryday reality, many painters came to solutions devoid of a wide generalizing meaning. However, where the artist was closely related to the main problems of time, which is sensible in his work the main contradictions of the era, this process gave extraordinarily significant artistic results, an example of which the work of Peter Bruegel Senior can serve as an example.

Getting acquainted with the pictorial art of the 16th century, it is necessary to keep in mind the sharp quantitative increase in artistic products and its penetration into the wide market, which is manifested by the impact of new historical and social conditions. In economically, the life of the Netherlands of the beginning of the century is characterized by a rapid flower. The opening of America put the country in the focus of international trade. Actively proceeded by the process of displacement of the shop craft by a manufactory. Production developed. Antwerp, east of Brugge, became the largest center for transit trade and monetary operations. In the cities of Holland lived almost half of the entire population of this province. The leadership of the economy passed into the hands of the so-called new rich-faces of the influential not belonging to the urban patrician, the shop tip, but only by their enterprise and wealth. The bourgeois development of the Netherlands stimulated social life. The view of the largest philosopher, the teacher of this time Erasma Rotterdamsky is consistently rationalized and humanistic. Various Protestant tricks and primarily Calvinism with his spirit of practical rationalism are greatly successful. The role of a person in public evolution is increasingly revealed. The national liberation trends are enhanced. Protest and dissatisfaction with the masses are activated, and the last third century is marked by a powerful rise - the Dutch revolution. These facts completely modified the worldview of artists.

Ugly duchess, 1525-1530,
National Gallery, London

Portrait of Erasmid Rotterdam,
1517, National Gallery, Rome

Portrait of a notary, 1520th,
National Gallery, Edinburgh

One of the largest masters of the first third of the century - Quentin Massais (born about 1466 in Louplee, mind. In 1530 in Antwerp). Early works of Quentin Massais carry a distinct imprint of old traditions. The first significant work - Triptych dedicated to St. Anne (1507 - 1509; Brussels, Museum). The scenes on the outer sides of the side flaps are distinguished by restrained drama. Few-cultivated images of a majestic, the figures are enlarged and closely compiled, the space seems compacted. The vital start has led to a mass maker to create one of the first in the art of the new time of genre, domestic paintings. We mean the picture "I changed with my wife" (1514; Paris, Louvre). At the same time, the interest that the artist constantly persisted at the artist prompted him (perhaps the first in the Netherlands) to appeal to the art of Leonardo da Vinci ("Maria and Baby"; Poznan, Museum), although here you can speak more about borrowing or imitation .

The largest representative of the nomanism of the first third of the century was Yang GosSart on Nickname Mabyuse (born in 1478 near Utrecht or Marezhe, mind. Between 1533 and 1536 in Middelburg). Early work (altar in Lisbon) stencils and archaic, as, however, and performed immediately after returning from Italy (Altar at the National Museum in Palermo, "Wauche worship" in the London National Gallery). The shift in the work of the State party occurs in the middle of the 1510s, when he performs many paintings on mythological plots. Nude Nature appears here and in later works not as a private motive, but as the main content of the work (Neptune and Amphitrite, 1516, Berlin; "Hercules and Omfala", 1517, Richmond, Cook Meeting; "Venus and Amur", Brussels , Museum; "Dana", 1527, Munich, Pinakotek, as well as numerous images of Adam and Eva).
Another large novelist - Bernard Wang Oreley (about 1488-1541) of the state system has expanded. Already in his early altar (Vienna, Museum, and Brussels, Museum), along with the provincial-Dutch template and scenery in the spirit of Italians, we are seeing elements of a detailed, thorough story. In the so-called Altar Job (1521; Brussels, the Museum) of Orel seeks to the dynamics of the general decision and to the narration. Low-frozen Heroes of Gosselta, he involves actively. It uses many observed parts. Urgently, naturalistically characteristic figures (image of the nasty climb) are adjacent to direct borrowings of Italian samples (rich in hell), and only in secondary, private episodes, the artist is decided to combine them into a real living scene (the doctor considers urine dying).

Among the Antwerp contemporaries, we find masters, even closely connected with the 15th century (Master from Frankfurt, Merrison Triptych Master), and artists trying to break the former canons, introducing dramatic (Master "Magdalen" of the Malzi Meetings) or narratives (master of home) Elements. Indecisiveness in the formulation of new problems is combined with these painters with an unconditional interest. Notable more - trends to a literal, accurate image of nature, experiments on the revival of drama in the form of a convincing everyday story and attempts to individualize the former lyrical images. The latter, as a rule, characterized the least radical craftsmen, and it is very significant that this trend has become decisive for Bruges, the city that has fallen both in economic and culturally. Here, almost fearlessly dominated the principles of Gerard David. They were obeyed as a master in the artistic level of mediocre and larger - Yang Wire (about 1465-1529) and Adrian Isorebrandt (? - Mind. In 1551). Pictures of Isaenbrandt with their slow fading rhythm and atmosphere of poetic concentration (Mary on the background of seven passions, Brugge, Church of Notre Dame; Male Portrait, New York, Metropolitan-Museum) - Perhaps the most valuable in Brugge's products. In those rare cases when artists tried to break the narrow limits of the Bruges tradition (the work of the Lombarde of Ambrosius Benson, mind. In 1550), they inevitably turned out to be in the power of eclecticism - whether severe-prosaic solutions or, on the contrary, not deprived of the impressiveness of the novelism. With the exception of novelists, and given the household reduction of their externally heredge decisions, then together with them, Netherlands art is experiencing a period of active specificization of its creative method, refers to a direct and self-concrete image of reality.

The group of so-called "Antwerp Manerists" occupies a special position. (This term is completely conditional and should indicate some personality personality personality. We should not be mixed with mannerism in the usual meaning of this word.). Live reality of the image and the accuracy of the image did not attract them. But the conditional, rhetorical and cold works of the novelists were also alien. Their favorite theme is "worship of Magi." Sophisticated fantastic figures, a confusing multifigure effect, placed among the ruins and complex architectural scenery, finally, abundance of accessories and almost painful addiction to multiplicity (characters, parts, spatial plans) are characteristic differences in their paintings. Through all this, the thrust for large, generalizing solutions, which remained the feeling of unlimited universe is guessed. But in this her desire, "Manherista" invariably left the concrete life. Without the opportunity to saturate their ideals with new content, without having forces to resist the trends of their time, they created art, fancy combining reality and fiction, solemnity and fragmentation, wellness and anecdotism. But the course is symptomatic - it indicates that household concreteness attracted far from all the Netherlands painters. In addition, many masters (especially in Holland) used "manneristic" techniques in a special way - to revive their narrative compositions and to report them more drama. In this way, Cornelis Engelbrechteste (born in 1468 in Leiden is the mind. In 1535 in the same place; Altari with a "crucifix" and "mourning" in the Leiden Museum), Jacob Cornelis Wang is Ostzanen (about 1470-1533) and others.
Finally, a well-known contact with the principles of "mannerism" is captured in the work of one of the largest masters of his time of Joachim Patinir (about 1474-1524), an artist who, with full right, can be considered among the main generators of European landscape painting of the new time. Most of its work represents extensive views, including rocks, river valleys, etc., devoid, however, non-harmony spatiality. Patinir also places small figures of characters of various religious scenes in his paintings. True, unlike "manurists", his evolution is built on a constant convergence with reality, and landscapes are gradually getting rid of the domination of a religious topic ("baptism" in Vienna and the Landscape with flight to Egypt "in Antwerp).

Holy Anthony, 1520s,
Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels

Card game, 1508-1510,
National Gallery, Washington

Saint Jerome, 1515-1516,
Picture Gallery, Berlin

The art of Luydensky Lutensky (about 1489-1533) completes and exhausts the painting of the first third century. In the early engravings (it was glorified as a master of engraving, and with his activities are associated with the first large successes of the cutting engraving in the Netherlands), it is not only accurate in the transfer of reality, but also seeks to create a holistic and expressive scene. At the same time, in contrast to his Dutch contemporaries (for example, Masters from Alcmara), Luka is achieved by acute psychological expression. These are his sheets "Magomet with a killed monk" (1508) and especially "David and Saul" (about 1509). The image of Saul (in the second of the named works) is distinguished by the exceptional complexity for that time: here and madness - even the last, but also starting to let the exhausted soul of the king, and loneliness, and tragic doom. Luke Leidensky, with a rare sharpness transferring its surrounding reality, avoids genre solutions and tries to monumentalize reality. In Korovnice, he reaches a famous harmony - the generalization of reality gives it the traits of monumentality, but does not lead to convention. The following ten years of his creativity of this harmony are deprived. It is more organic introduces private observations, enhances the genre-narrative element, but immediately neutralizes it to the persistent allocation of any one acting person - immersed in itself and as if turned off from the household environment. Last works on Luke Leidensky speak about the mental crisis: "Maria with a baby" (Oslo, Museum) is a purely formal idealization, "Healing of the Blind" (1531; Hermitage) - a combination of manneristic exaggerations and naturalistically household details.
Lutensky's creativity Lutensky closes the art of the first third century. Already at the beginning of the 1530s, Netherlands painting joins new ways. For this period, the rapid development of realistic principles is characterized, parallel activation of novelism and their frequent combination. The 1530-1540s are years of further success in the bourgeois development of the country. In science is the time of expansion and systematization of knowledge. In civil history - reforming religion in the spirit of rationalism and practicalism (Calvinism) and slow, still underdiving the reassurance of the revolutionary activity of the masses, the first conflicts between the growing national self-consciousness and domination of the ingenic feudal-absolutist power of the Habsburgs.

In art, the most notable is the widespread distribution of the household genre. Domestic trends take the form of either a large-burning genre, or a small-phony picture, or manifest indirectly, determining the special nature of portrait and religious painting. The large-burning genre was distributed in Antwerp. His main representatives - Yang Sanders Wang Hemessen (about 1500-1575) and Marinus Van Roymersswale (about 1493, perhaps 1567) - relied on the tradition of Quentin Massais (various options "changed" Roimmerssvale and "Merry Society" from Karlsruhe Hemsena). They, in essence, completely destroyed the border between the household and religious pattern. For both, the grotesqueness is characterized by incrementing real observations. But Hemsense principles are more difficult - highlighting two or three large static figures on the fore, in the depths it places small genre scenes, playing the role of comment. Here you can see an attempt to involve a domestic case in a common vitality, the desire to give a specific fact a more general meaning. These narrow paintings on the subject (change, girls from public houses) and reflect the complete lack of an idea of \u200b\u200bhuman community. Yang raven (1495-1562) was also a personality of a multifaceted - clergyman, engineer, musician, ritizer, Keeper of the collections of Adrian VI, etc., but, in addition, and a very large painter. Already in the earliest works, he is to the impossibility of the image (altar from Oberwell, 1520) and to strong, contrasting comparisons of man and landscape (Altar Van Lochorst; Utrecht, Museum). The idea of \u200b\u200bthe "crucifixion" (Detroit, Institute of Art) is disclosed here. In the dramatism of "Crucifixes", it seeks a connection with life, concentrates the image and informs him the daring, causing expressiveness.
For the next two to three decades, the activation of novelism and the gain in it, opposing artist-realist artists in it. In turn, realistic tendencies acquire people, the features of which were only guessed in the works of masters of the first third of the 16th century. At the same time, if in the 1530s, the novelism experienced the strongest influence of realistic principles, now it should be more likely to talk about the reverse process. The highest swing this process reaches a student of Lombard, Antwerp France Floris (de Vrindt, 1516 / 20-1570). The artist's trip to Italy led many features of his painting - both positive and negative. The first should include more organic (than, for example, the pawnshop) possession of generalized forms, known artistry. The second primarily includes naive attempts to rivalry with Michelangelo, the commitment to manneristic canons. In many works of Floris, manneristic features appear distinctly ("Loading angels", 1554, Antwerp, Museum; "Scary Court", 1566, Brussels, Museum). It strives for compositions in tense, rich movement, performed by all-arm, almost surreal excitation. Essentially, Floris one of the first in the 16th century tried to return the art of ideological content. However, the lack of deep thought and strong communication with life usually deprives him of genuine significance. Refusing a specific display of reality, it does not reach a heroic monumentality, no concentration. The characteristic example is its "Looping Angels": the boding, built on the most complex angles, woven from the figures of ideal and naive-fiction, this composition is distinguished by fragility, inexpressive dryness of color and the inappropriate workplace of individual parts (a huge fly is sitting on the thigh of one of the apostate angels ). Nevertheless, it is necessary to recognize that the place of Floris in the Dutch art is not determined by these works. Rather, it must be defined as a master, expressing crisis phenomena in art 1540-1560s.

A peculiar reflection of the specifics of the Netherlands painting of those years we find in the portrait. It is distinguished by mixing and half of various tendencies. On the one hand, it is determined by the development of the Dutch group portrait. However, although the composite location of the figures has become freer, and the images of models are more alive, these works are far from reaching the genre and the vitality characteristic of the works of this kind, which later, in the 1580s. At the same time, they already lose their simple pathos of burgher citizenship, typical of the 30th and 16th century. (Late portraits D. Jacobs - for example, 1561, Hermitage, and early Dirk Bentke - 1564 and 1566, Amsterdam). It is significant that the most talented portrait of that time is Antonis Mor (Van Dashorst, 1517/19 -1575/76) - it turns out to be associated with the advantage with aristocratic circles. Another thing is the most creature of art Mora double: he is a master of sharp psychological solutions, but they have elements of manherism (portrait of Wilhelm Orange, 1556, a portrait of I. Gallus; Cassel), he is the largest representative of the corpus, court portrait, but gives a sharp socially painted Characteristics with its models (portraits of Philip II governors in the Netherlands Margarita Parm, its adviser Cardinal Granvella, 1549, Vienna, and others).
The activation of crisis, late-engine and manneristic, trends quantitatively narrowed the circle of business masters, but at the same time exposed the social beginning in the works of those who stood on the positions of objective reflection of reality. Realistic genre painting 1550-1560s turned to the direct reflection of the life of the masses and, in essence, for the first time created the image of a person from the people. These achievements are linked to the work of Peter Artesna (1508 / 09-1575). The formation of his art proceeded in the Southern Netherlands - in Antwerp. There he met the principles of the Antwerp novelists and there in 1535 he received the title of Master. His works of the 1540s are dissected: work close to the Antwerp novelists, are mixed with medical phony and household in nature, in which the concept of Van Amstel is clearly overlooking. And, perhaps, only the "peasant" (1543; Lille, the museum) carries an attempt to monumentalize a folk type. The art of the Arsena was an important milestone in the development of a realistic jet of the Netherlands art. And yet it can be argued that not these paths were the most promising. In any case, the creativity of the student and the nephew of the Arsena, Joachim Baker (about 1530 - about 1574), having lost the limited features of the painting of the Arsen, at the same time its meaningfulness. The monumentalization of individual real facts has already been insufficient. Before the art there was a great task - to reflect the national, historical principle in reality, not limited to the image of its manifestations, presented as a kind of isolated exhibits, give a powerful generalized interpretation. Life. The complexity of this task was aggravated by characteristic of the late revival features of the crisis of old ideas. A sharp feeling of new forms of life merged with the tragic awareness of its imperfection, and dramatic conflicts of violently and spontaneously developing historical processes led to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe innocence of a separate person, the previous ideas about the relationship between the individual and the surrounding social environment, the world. At the same time, at this time, art is aware of the significance and aesthetic expressiveness of the human mass, the crowd. This one of the most informative in the art of the Netherlands periods is associated with the work of the Great Flemish artist Breygel.

Peter Bruegel Sr., according to nickname, Menzitsky (between 1525 and 1530-1569) was formed as an artist in Antwerp (he studied at P. Buck Van Alsta), visited Italy (1551-1552), was close to the radically taught thinkers of the Netherlands. The creative path of Bruegel's creative path with mental look, it should be recognized that he concentrated in his art all the achievements of the Netherlands painting of the previous pore. The unsuccessful attempts of late novelism to repel their lives in generalized forms, more successful, but the limited experiments of the Arsen on the exaltation of the image of the people entered the Bruegel to mighty synthesis. Actually, which markedly at the beginning of the century, the craving for realistic concretization of the creative method, sprinkling with the deep worldview of the master, brought ambitious fruits to the Netherlands art.
The next generation of the Netherlands painters is sharply different from Bruegel. Although the main events of the Netherlands Revolution fall for this period, we will not find the revolutionary pathos in the art of the last third of the 16th century. Its influence affected indirectly in the formation of the worldview reflecting the bourgeois development of society. For artistic methods of painting, sharp concretization and approaching to nature are characteristic than the principles of the 17th century are prepared. At the same time, the decomposition of the renaissance universality, universality in interpretation and reflection of life phenomena gives these new methods the features of petty and spiritual narrow. The limitations of the world perception in various ways influenced the novels and realistic flows in painting. Nomanism, despite its very widespread, carries all signs of degeneration. Most often, he acts in a manneristic, court-aristocratic aspect and seems to be internally devastated. It is symptomatic and more - increasing penetration into the novels of genre, most often naturalistically understood elements (K. Cornellissen, 1562-1638, Karel Van Mandender, 1548-1606). The famous importance here had a close communication of Dutch painters with Flemish, many of whom were emigrated from the Southern Netherlands in the 1580s due to the northern provinces branch. Only in rare cases, combining natural observations with the acute subjectivity of their interpretation, novelists manage to achieve an impressive effect (Abraham Blumart, 1564-1651). Realistic trends primarily find expression in a more specific display of reality. Extremely in this sense is an indicative phenomenon to consider a narrow specialization of individual genres. There is also an interest in creating diverse plot situations (they begin to play an increasing role in the artistic fabric of the work).

Genre painting in the last third of the century is experiencing flourishing (which is also expressed in the mentioned penetration of it in novelism). But its works are deprived of internal significance. The traditions of Bruegel are deprived of a deep creature (at least his son Peter Bruegel younger, nicknamed hellish, 1564-1638). The genre scene is usually or subordinate to the landscape, such as Lucas (up to 1535-1597) and Martin (1535-1612) Valkenborkhov, or acts in the guise of the insignificant household episode of urban life, reproduced exactly, but with some cold arrogance - Martin Van Kleve (1527-1581; "St. Martin's Holiday", 1579, Hermitage). The portrait also dominates the petty genre principle, which, however, contributed to development in the 1580s group compositions. The most significant among these last - "Rowed Association of Captain Rosencranse" (1588; Amsterdam, Reyxmuses) of Cornelis Ketyl and Rifle Company (1583; Harlem, Museum) Cornelis Cornelissen. In both cases, artists seek to break the dry arithmeticity of the former group constructions (Ketyl - the solemn parade of the group, Corneelissen - its household casualties). Finally, in the very last years, the 16th century there are new types of corporate group portraits, for example "Regents" and "Anatomy" of Peter and Art Peters.
Landscape painting is a more confusing whole - there was a strong crushing on separate species of paintings. But the petty, incredibly overloaded works of Ruiland Savere (1576 / 78-1679), and more powerful Giliss Van Koninksloo (1544-1606), and romantic-spatial Ios de Mother (1564-1635), and imbued with the subjective emotion of Abraham Bloumrt - all Although in different degrees in different ways, reflect the growth of the personal beginning in the perception of nature. The features of genre, landscape and portrait solutions do not allow them to talk about their internal significance. They do not belong to the number of large phenomena of fine art. If they evaluate them correlate to the work of the Great Netherlands Painters of the 15th and 16th centuries, they seem to be apparent evidence of complete fracturing of the most principles of the Renaissance. However, painting last third of the 16th century has for us a large extent indirect interest - as a transitional step and as the general root, from which the National Schools of Flanders and the Netherlands of the 17th century.

R. Klimov

The first manifestations of the art of rebirth in the Netherlands are the beginning of the 15th century.

Netherlands (actually Flemish) masters in 14 century. We enjoyed great fame in Western Europe, and many of them played an important role in the development of the art of other countries (especially France). However, almost all of them do not leave the channel of medieval art. And least noticeable approximation of the new pore in painting. Artists (for example, Melchior Bruedllam, approx. 1360-after 1409) At best, the number of parts observed in nature in nature are multiplied in their works, but their mechanical regeneration does not contribute to the realism of the whole.

The sculpture reflected glimpses of the new consciousness much brighter. At the end of the 14th century. Claus Sleuer (mind. October 1406) took the first attempts to break traditional canons. The statues of the duke of Philip of the bold and his wife on the portal of the tomb of the Burgundy dukes in the Dijon monastery of Shanmol (1391-1397) are distinguished by unconditional portrait convincing. The placement of them on the sides of the portal, in front of the statue of Our Lady, located in the center, indicates the desire of the sculptor to combine all the figures and create some kind of scene of the opposition. In the courtyard of the same monastery, Slacher together with his nephew and student Klaus de Verve (approx. 1380-1439) created the composition of Golgotha \u200b\u200b(1395-1406), which came to us decorated with statues of which (the so-called well of the prophets) is distinguished by the power of forms and dramatic idea. The Moses statue, which is part of this work, can be attributed to the number of the most significant achievements of the European sculpture of their time. From the works of Slutuer and de Verve, the figures of the Posterkers for the Tomb of Philip Brevoy (1384-1411; Dijon are also (1384-1411; Dijon. Museum, and Paris, Klanie Museum), which is characterized by acute, increased expressiveness in the transfer of emotions.

Nevertheless, neither Claus Syluer, nor Klaus de Verva, can be honored by the Renhantine Renaissance. Some exaggeration of expression, excessive liableness of portrait solutions and very weak individualization of the image are forced to see them rather than the predecessors than the prosecutors of the new art. In any case, the development of renaissance trends in the Netherlands proceeded by other paths. These paths were outlined in the Netherlands miniature of the early 15th century.

Netherlands miniaturists in 13-14 centuries. used the widest fame; Many of them went beyond the country and had a very strong impact on masters, for example, France. And just in the field of miniatures, a monument of a turning point was created - the so-called Turin-Milan hourly.

It is known that his customer was Jean, the Duke of Berrhi, and that the work on it began shortly after 1400 g. But not yet completed, this chast police changed its owner, and work on it was delayed until the second half of the 15th century. In 1904, during the fire of the Turin National Library, most of his part burned.

According to the artistic perfection and in its meaning for the art of the Netherlands, a group of sheets created, as appreciated, in the 20s of the Netherlands, is allocated. 15 V. The author called them the province and Jan Wang Eykov or conditionally called the head of the character.

These miniatures are unexpectedly real. The master depicts green hills with walking girls, seashore with white lambs of waves, distant cities and cavalcades of elegant riders. Clouds float across the sky; The locks are reflected in the quiet waters of the river, the service under the bright cries of the church, the room is born around the newborn. The artist aims to transfer the endless, alive, all-permissive beauty of the Earth. But at the same time, he does not try to subordinate the image of the world with a strict ideological concept, as its Italian contemporaries did. It is not limited to the recreation of a plicy scene. People in his compositions do not receive the dominant role and do not come off from the landscape medium, represented always with acute observation. In baptism, for example, the actors 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. A rare for its time is the faithfulness of nature marked all the color shades, and by their airiness, these miniatures can be considered an exceptional phenomenon.

For miniatures of the Turin-Milan Character (and wider - for painting 20s. 15 century) It is very characteristic that the artist draws attention not so much on the slender and reasonable organization of the world, but at its natural spatial length. Essentially, the features of the artistic worldview are quite specific, which do not have analogies in modern European art.

For the Italian painter, the 15th century, a gigantic figure of a person, as it were, thrown his shadow on everything, everything was subordinate to himself. In turn, the space was interpreted with underlined rationalism: it had clearly defined borders, all three dimensions were clearly expressed in it, and it served as an ideal environment for human figures. The Netherlands is not inclined to see the center of the Universe in people. A person for him is only part of the universe, perhaps, and the most valuable, but not existing outside. The landscape in his works is never turning into a background, and the space is deprived of the calculated orderliness.

These principles testified to the addition of a new type of worldview. And it's not by chance that their development came out for the narrow limits of miniatures, led to the update of all the Netherlands painting and the flourishing of a special version of the Renaissance.

The first picturesque works, which, like the Miniatures of the Turin Character, can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments, were created by the Brothers Governor and Jan Wang Eyk.

Both of them are the governor (mind in 1426) and Yang (approx. 1390-1441) - a decisive role in the formation of the Netherlands Renaissance. About the province is almost nothing unknown. Yang was, apparently, a very educated person, he studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, performed some diplomatic instructions of the Burgundy Duke of Philip Kind, in the service of which, by the way, was held his trip to Portugal. On the first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands, it is possible to judge the picturesque works of brothers, made in the 20s, and among them, such as "Miron's wife's wives at the coffin" (perhaps part of the polyptic; Rotterdam, the Museum of Bumans-Van Bainingen), "Madonna in church "(Berlin)," St. Jerome "(Detroit, Art Institute).

In the painting of Yana Van Eyka "Madonna in the Church", specific internally observations occupy an extremely much place. Previous European art did not know such vital images of the real world. The artist draws the sculptural details with care, does not forget near the Madonna statue in the altar barrier to light the candles, notes the crack in the wall, and the weak outlines of the ArkButan shows outside the window. The interior is powered by light golden light. The light slides over the church arches, the solar bunnies fall on the floor plate, fluently flows into the door open to him.

However, in this vital interior, the master puts the Figure of Mary, the head of the second tier windows. II, nevertheless, such a non-scale alignment of the figure and architecture does not impress the impressions, because in the picture Van Eyki dominates not quite the same relationship and relationships that in life. The light that permeates it is real, but it also gives the picture the features of sublime enlightenment and tells the paints of the super-fair intensity of the sound. It's not by chance that the color echo rolls the color echo from blue raincoat - these two colors flashed in Mary's Crown, intertwined in the attacks of angels, visible in the depths of the church, light up under vaults and on crucifixes, crowned altar barrier, so that Sparks in the distant stained glass of the cathedral.

In the Dutch art of the 20s. 15 V. The greatest accuracy in the transfer of nature and objects of human use is combined with an increased sense of beauty, and above all the color, colorful sound of a real thing. Light color, his deep inner emotion and a kind of solemn purity deprive works of the 20s. Whatever everyday events - even in cases where a person is depicted in a household setting.

If the activity of the real start in the works of the 1420s. He is a general sign of their Renaissance nature, the indispensable emphasis of the wonderful enlightenment of the whole earthly testifies to the perfect peculiarity of the Renaissance in the Netherlands. This quality of the Netherlands painting received a powerful synthetic expression in the central work of the Northern Renaissance - in the famous Gent Altar brothers Van Eyk.

Gent Altar (Ghent, Church of St. Bavon) -Grandiosis, Natural Construction (3,435 x 4,435). In a closed form, it is a bunk composition, the lower tier of which occupies the images of the statues of two John - the Baptist and the Evangelical, on the sides of which are the cranked customers - Iodokus Waid and Elizabeth drowned; The upper tier is assigned the scene "Annunciation", which is marked with the figures of Siville and the prophets ending the composition.

The lower tier due to the image of real people and the naturalness, the tangibility of statues more than the upper, is associated with the medium in which the viewer is located. The color gamut of this tier seems dense, heavy. On the contrary, "Annunciation" seems to be more detached, its flavor leveled, and the space is not closed. The artist retracts the heroes - the gospeling angel and the rapid thanks to Maria - to the edges of the scene. And all the space of the room frees, fills the light. This light is even more in "Madonne in the Church", has a two-way nature - it makes the beginning of the sublime, but it also poets the clean comfort of the usual home apparel. And as if to proof the unity of the two these aspects of life - universal, elevated and real, domestic - the central panels of the "Annunciation", weigh at the distant perspective of the city and the image of the touching detail of homemade household - washbasin with a towel hanging. The artist diligently avoids the limited space. Light, even light-touch, it continues outside the room, outside the windows, and where there is no window, it turns out to be a deepening or niche, and where there is no niche - the light falls around the sunny bunny, repeating thin window bunks on the wall.

Holland. 17th century. The country is experiencing an unprecedented flourishing. The so-called "golden age". At the end of the 16th century, several provinces of the country achieved independence from Spain.

Now the simplystan Netherlands went to their way. And Catholic Flanders (the current Belgium) under the wing of Spain - its own.

In independent Holland, religious painting almost no one needed. The Protestant Church did not approve the luxury of the decoration. But this circumstance "played on the hand" of painting secular.

Love for this kind of art woke up literally every resident of the new country. The Dutchman wanted to see his own life in the pictures. And the artists willingly walked to meet them.

Never have ever depicted the surrounding reality. Ordinary people, ordinary rooms and the most ordinary breakfast of the citizen.

Realism flourished. Up until the 20th century, he will be a worthy competitor to Academism with his nymphs and Greek goddesses.

These artists call the "small" dutch. Why? The pictures were small in size, because they were created for small houses. So, almost all the pictures of Jan Vermeer in a height of no more than half a meter.

But I like another version more. In the Netherlands in the 17th century there lived and worked the great master, the "big" Dutchman. And everyone else compared to him was "small."

We are talking, of course, about Rembrandte. From him and start.

1. Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Rembrandt. Self-portrait aged 63 years. 1669 National London Gallery

Rembrandt was able to experience the broader gamut of emotions during his life. Therefore, in his early works so much fun and bravadas. And so many complex feelings - in the later.

Here he is young and disappointed in the picture "The Blind Son in Tavern." On the knees - the beloved wife Saskovia. He is a popular artist. Orders pour the river.

Rembrandt. The prodigal son in the tavern. 1635 Gallery of old masters, Dresden

But all this will disappear after some 10 years. Sasquia will die of consume. Popularity will dissolve as smoke. The big house with a unique collection will be taken for debts.

But the same Rembrandt will appear, which will remain on the century. Great feelings of heroes. Their most intimate thoughts.

2. France Hals (1583-1666)

France Hals. Self-portrait. 1650 Metropolitan Museum, New York

France Hals is one of the greatest portraits of all time. Therefore, I would also consider it to the "big" dutch.

In Holland, at that time it was customary to order group portraits. So many similar works appeared with the image of people working together: the arrows of the same guild, the doctors of one town, managing the nursing home.

In this genre, Hals allocated most of all. After all, most of these portraits were like a deck of cards. People are sitting at the table with the same expression of the face and just watch. Hals had differently.

Look at his group portrait of the "Arrow Guild of St. George.

France Hals. Arrows Guild Hild George. 1627 Museum of France Hals, Garel, Netherlands

Here you will not find a single repetition in the position or expression of the face. At the same time, there are no chaos. There are many characters, but no one seems to be superfluous. Due to the surprisingly correct placement of figures.

Yes, and in a single portrait Hals exceeded many artists. His models are natural. People from the highest society in his paintings are devoid of contrived magnifies, and model from the bottom does not look humiliated.

And his heroes are very emotional: they smile, laugh, gesturing. As, for example, it is a "gypsy" with a loose look.

France Hals. Gypsy. 1625-1630

Hals, like Rembrandt, finished life in poverty. For the same reason. His realism came against the tastes of customers. Who wanted their appearance to embellish. Hals did not go to frank flattery, and thus signed a sentence - "oblivion."

3. Gerard Terborh (1617-1681)

Gerard Terboro. Self-portrait. 1668 Royal Gallery Mauritshais, Hague, Netherlands

Terboro was a wizard of a household genre. Rich and not very burghers are slowly talking, the ladies read letters, and the pioneer is watching courting. Two or three closely arranged figures.

It was this master that worked the canons of the household genre. Which then borrowed by Yang Vermeer, Peter de Heh and many other "small" dutch.

Gerard Terboro. Glass of lemonade. 1660s. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg

"The glass of lemonade" is one of the famous works of Terborch. It can see one more advantage of the artist. Incredibly realistic image of dress fabric.

There is terboro and unusual work. What speaks of his desire to go beyond the requirements of customers.

Its "grinder" shows the life of the poorest inhabitants of Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the pictures of "small" dutch. But Terboro dared to show unsightly Holland.

Gerard Terboro. Grinder. 1653-1655 Government Museums Berlin

As you understand, such works were not in demand. And they are a rare phenomenon even at Terborh.

4. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

Jan Vermeer. Artist workshop. 1666-1667 Museum of Art History, Vienna

What Yang Vermeer looked, it is not reliably known. It is only obvious that he portrayed himself in the painting "artist's workshop". True from the back.

Therefore, it's surprising that a new fact from the life of the master has recently become known. He is connected with his masterpiece "Delft street".

Jan Vermeer. Delft street. 1657 Government Museum in Amsterdam

It turned out that the childhood of Vermeer passed on this street. The depicted house belonged to his aunt. She raised his five children in him. Perhaps it sits on the threshold with sewing, and two of her children play on the sidewalk. Vermeer himself lived in the house opposite.

But more often he portrayed the internal situation of these houses and their inhabitants. It would seem that the plots of paintings are very simple. Here is a Miloid lady, a secured townoor, checks the work of my scales.

Jan Vermeer. Woman with weights. 1662-1663 National Art Gallery, Washington

What did Vermeer stand out among thousands of other "small" dutch?

He was an unsurpassed Light Master. In the picture "Woman with weights" light softly envelops the face of the heroine, fabric and walls. Giving an unbearable spirituality depicted.

And the compositions of the Vermeer paintings are carefully recovered. You will not find any excess details. It is enough to remove one of them, the painting "crumble", and the magic will go away.

All this was given to Vermeleu not easy. Such stunning quality required painstaking work. Total 2-3 pictures per year. As a result, the inability to feed the family. Vermeer worked as an art dealer, selling the work of other artists.

5. Peter de Heh (1629-1684)

Peter de Heh. Self-portrait. 1648-1649 Reyxmuseum, Amsterdam

Hoha often compared with Vermeer. They worked at one time, even there was a period that in one city. And in one genre - domestic. At Hoha, we also see one or two figures in the cozy Dutch courtyards or rooms.

Open doors and windows make the space of his paintings multilayer and entertaining. And the figures are inscribed in this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his picture "The servant with a girl in the courtyard."

Peter de Heh. The maid with the girl in the courtyard. 1658 London National Gallery

Up to 20th century, Hech was valued very high. But the small works of his competitor of Vermeer are few who noticed.

But in the 20th century everything has changed. Slava Hoha Faming. However, his achievements in painting are difficult not to recognize. Few, who could competently combine the surrounding environment and people.

Peter de Heh. Players in the map in the sun room. 1658 Royal Art Assembly, London

Please note that in a modest house on the "Players in Maps" can hang a picture in a nothesive frame.

This once again talks about how among ordinary Dutch painting was popular. The paintings were decorated with each house: both the house of the rich Burger, and a modest citizen, and even a peasant.

6. Yang walls (1626-1679)

Yang walls. Self-portrait with lute. 1670s. Museum of Tissen-Bornemis, Madrid

Yang walls, perhaps, the most cheerful "small" dutchman. But loving morals. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which there was a vice.

His main characters - walks and ladies of easy behavior. He wanted to entertain the viewer, but impuditly warned him from vicious life.

Yang walls. Kavardak. 1663 Museum of Art History, Vienna

There is a wall and more quiet work. Like, for example, the "morning toilet". But here the artist surprises the viewer too frank items. Here and traces from the gum stocking, and not an empty night pot. Yes, and somehow not at all by the way the dog lies right on the pillow.

Yang walls. Morning toilet. 1661-1665 Reyxmuseum, Amsterdam

But despite all the frivolism, the color solutions of the wall are very professional. In this, he was superior to many "small dutch". Look at how much the red stocking is perfectly combined with a blue jacket and a bright beige rug.

7. Jacobs Wang Reydal (1629-1682)

Portrait of a raisdale. Lithograph from the 19th century book.

The fifteenth century was a turning point in the development of the culture of the northern part of Europe. Her public entry changed, under the influence of new progressive forces, the medieval world began to collapse. This process, which began previously, in Italy, seized in the XV and XVI centuries of the country, located north of the Alps Netherlands, Germany, France. This gave a reason to call the culture of the Calpian countries by the Northern Renaissance.

The formation of Renaissance culture in Germany and the Supported German Emperor of Austria and Switzerland occurred in the context of complex political, social and spiritual contradictions. In the XV century, Germany was a conglomerate of individual territorial entities, principalities, bishops, "imperial" and "free" cities. Their geographical location in Central Europe strengthened the economic and cultural relations of German lands with neighboring countries. The invention of about 1445 by John Guttenberg of the printed machine contributed to the development of education, the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge. By the middle of the XV century, the humanism originated in Italy was recognized in Germany's university circles. However, the country was still quite strong medieval lifestyle. The artist in Germany for his position for a long time remained an artisan, the laws of the workshop and the will of customers mastered him, who rigidly regulated the work of the artist, fought out the freedom of search.

The Catholic Church had a huge power in a fragmented country. Her wealth, politics, the behavior of clergymen caused a protest, who was expressed in the spread of religious movements called on to return to the "sincere faith of early Christians." The main efforts to the humanism spread in Germany sent against the All-Russian Church. The forces were accumulated in the country, leaving at the beginning of the 17th century to the Reformation (1517-1555).

Since the XIV century, new forms of carved sculpture and easel painting, so-called altars began to spread in Western Europe. They represented the monumental folds that were placed in the apse of the church behind the throne. Images on a carvnot or picturesque altar-folding were associated with the liturgy and allowed to more directly illustrate worship, and to worship the Bogomolets.

Altari were three-part (triptych) and many (polyptic). In the central part of the folding, the main image was placed - the image of Christ or the Mother of God, on moving side sash - gospel scenes or saints. On weekdays, such an altar was closed, so the images were placed on the outdoor side of the sash. In Germany, where there were many forests, the altars were originally mainly carved, while the figures were brightly painted. Later appeared pictorial folds.

In subsequent centuries, as a result of religious wars, the secularization of church possessions, after the closure of monasteries, Altari sold out, often disparately. Separate parts of them turned out in various meetings, museum and private. It is precisely such disparate parts of the altars mainly represented in the assembly of the museum of the XV century, formed in the possessions of the German emperors.

Most of the works of the XV century reached us anonymously. The name of the owner of a picturesque workshop appeared in the agreement concluded with it. The artist itself for different considerations, including pious, did not put his signature. The big altar was created by the efforts of the whole workshop, while each painter had his plot of work: the main master created the composition, often wrote the faces of the main characters. There were specialists in individual parts of the image, masterfully depicted costumes, objects and decorations, landscape details. At the same time, the handwriting of each workshop was distinguished by unity and originality. This allows researchers based on stylistic analysis and other research techniques to unite the work out from there. The circle of such works is combined under the conditional name: by title or location of the most significant for this master, or by a specific picturesque technique.

A longer, powerful and significant in their consequences was the rise in lifestyle in the Netherlands in the XV century. Its impact felt not only German and French contemporaries, his breathing was felt in the Renaissance Citadel - in Italy. "Milnage lands" (so translates the name of the country) on the coast of the North Sea in the lower reaches of Shelda, Maas, Reina (the territory of modern Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and partly Northeast France) were the area of \u200b\u200bEurope, where the cities and trade were developing intensively, It was born manufactured production. The country reached the greatest success at the beginning of the XVI century, when trading tracks after the opening of America moved to the north of Europe.

However, the political life of the Netherlands during this period was unusually tense. In 1516, the country became part of the Habsburg Empire, who owned the Spanish throne. Progressive changes, the growth of self-consciousness of the human personality, the spread of humanism entered contradictions with foreign dominance, is dominated by Catholicism, in which the Spaniards saw the support of their power. Inrogenous oppression led to the disasters of the masses. The antipodeal struggle began in the Netherlands the nature of Protestant movements in the Netherlands, and in the 60s of the XVI century, it turned into an open armed struggle. This made the artistic process in the Netherlands of the XVI century complex and diverse, the pan-European trends acquired a pronounced national color here.

The art of the Netherlands is presented in the museum mainly by the works of the XVI century.

Since the XV century, the leading view of the Netherlands art was painting. The traditions of the great masters of this century remained even strong and early in the next century. The loyalty to their covenants was cultivated by painters who were grouped around the patriarchal city of Brugge. More diverse was the artistic life of Antwerp, a large trade and craft center, where people of different nationalities and artistic tastes were gathered, where the ideas of humanism were distributed, typography developed. Here the search was worn more intentently, the sharper was felt by the dedication of the degenerate tradition. The third art center was Brussels - the governor's residence.

In addition to religious compositions in the XVI century, a significant place in Dutch art belonged to a portrait, developed landscape backgrounds develop into an independent picturesque genre - landscape.

In the Dutch art of the XVI century two directions are allocated. One adheres to national traditions, the second largely focuses on the modern Italian art. It got the name of the novelism (from the Latin Roma Rome).

In the second half of the XVI century, when the Netherlands became the arena of the turbulent events related to the liberation war against the Spanish oppression, italianizing directions retreats to the background. More vital was the art that appealed to the national theme and the image of the people. At this time, there is a formation of new picturesque genres - landscape, still life, a household genre.

Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. Netherlands portrait of the XV century. His origins and fate. Series: From the history of world art. M. Art 1972. 198 s. ill. Solid publishing binding, encyclopedic format.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. M. Netherlands portrait of the XV century. His origins and fate.
Dutch revival - perhaps the phenomenon is even brighter than Italian - at least from the point of view of painting. Van Eyke, Bruegel, Bosch, subsequently - Rembrandt ... Names, of course, who left a deep mark in the hearts of people who saw their canvas, regardless of whether you feel admiration for them, as in front of "snow hunters", or rejection, as before "Garden of earthly pleasure." Sigor, dark tones of Dutch masters are different from the lights filled with the light and the joy of the creations of Jotto, Raphael and Michelangelo. One can only guess how the specificity of this school has been formed, why precisely there, north of the prosperous Flanders and Brabant, there was a powerful focus of culture. What about this - wrap. Let's look at specifics, on what we have. Our source is the canvas and the altar of the famous Creators of the Northern Renaissance, and this material requires a special approach. In principle, this needs to be engaged at the junction of cultural studies, art history and history.
A similar attempt was to the life of Nataliya Gershenzon-Chegodaeva (1907-1977), the daughter of the literary critic known in our country. In principle, the personality is quite famous, in its circles, first of all, the excellent biography of Peter Breygel (1983), her Peru belongs to the above work. To be honest, this is a clear attempt to go beyond classical art history - not just to reason about artistic styles and aesthetics, but - try to trace the evolution of human thought on them ...
What are the features of human images at earlier time? Pivot artists were not enough, the monks were not always talented in the art of drawing. Therefore, often images of people in miniatures and paintings are characterized by a great convention. Write pictures and any other images needed as it should be, in everything I obey the rules of the centenary of the folding symbolism. By the way, that is why the tombstones (also a kind of portraits) did not always reflect the true appearance of a person, rather showed him as it was necessary to remember him.
A portrait of the Dutch art is breaking like canons. Who goes about? The author considers the work of such masters as Robert comes, Jan Van Eyk, Rogir Van der Wayden, Gogo Van der Gus. These were the real masters of their business, living in their talent, working to order. Very often the customer was the church - in the conditions of illiteracy of the population, the most important art is considered ... Painting, not trained in the theological wisdom of the citizen and the peasant should have explained the simplest truths on the fingers, and the artistic image replenished this role. So there were such masterpieces as the Gent Altar Jan Van Eyka.
Customers were rich townspeople - merchants, bankers, guilders, know. Portraits, single and group appeared. And here - for that time, the breakthrough - the interesting feature of the masters was discovered, and one of the first it was surrounded by the famous philosopher-agnostic Nikola Kozhansky. Not only are the artists, creating their images, wrote a person not conditionally, and as it is, they still managed to transfer his inner appearance. Rotate the head, view, hairstyle, clothes, mouth bending, gesture - all this is surprising and accurately showed the character of a person.
Of course, it was an innovation, no doubt. This was written about this and the aforementioned Nikola. The author links paintings with innovative ideas of the philosopher - respect for the human person, the knowledge of the surrounding world, the possibility of his philosophical knowledge.
But here arises quite a reasonable question - is it possible to compare the work of artists with the thought of a separate philosopher? In spite of everything, Nikola Kuzansky in any case remained in the Lon of medieval philosophy, in any case relied on the fabrication of the same scholasticics. And Masters-artists? We practically do not know anything about their intellectual life if they have such developed connections with each other, and with church leaders? This is a question. Without a doubt, they had the continuity of each other, but the original sources of this skill remain a mystery. The author does not engage in philosophy specialized, but rather fragmentary narrates about the connection between the traditions of the Netherlands painting with scholasticism. If Dutch art is originally, and has no connection with Italian humanities, where did the artistic traditions come from, and their features? Vague reference to "National Traditions"? What kind? This is a question ...
In general, the author is perfect, as it should be art historian, tells about the specifics of creativity of each artist, and quite convincingly treats the aesthetic perception of personality. But what concerns philosophical origins, the places of painting in the thought of the Middle Ages - very contour, the answer to the question about the origins was not found.
Total: The book is a very good selection of portraits and other works of the early Dutch Renaissance. It is quite interesting to read about how art historians work with such a fragile and ambiguous material as painting, as noted by the smallest features and specific features of the style, as the aesthetics of the picture with time ... However, the context of the era is visible, so to speak, on a very, very long-term perspective .
Personally, I was more interested in the question of the origins of this specific direction, ideological and artistic. Here, the author failed to convincingly answer the question. Art historian defeated the historian, before us - first of all the art historical work, that is, rather - for big fans of painting.