Yu.D. Kolpinsky

The peculiarity of the bright contribution that European art of the 18th century made to the history of world artistic culture is determined mainly by the fact that this period was the last historical stage of a long transitional era from feudalism to capitalism. In the 17th century, early bourgeois revolutions led to victory in only two countries. In most European countries, the old order was preserved in a modified form. The main content of the historical process in Europe in the 18th century. consisted in preparing the transition to industrial capitalism, to the establishment of the dominance of the classical forms of a developed bourgeois-capitalist society and its culture. In England, the industrial revolution - the transition to machine capitalist industry - has already unfolded during this century. The most complete and consistent preparation and substantiation of the ideals of the bourgeois revolution was carried out in France. The French Revolution was a classic bourgeois revolution that aroused the broad masses of the people to fight. In the course of its development, feudal orders were ruthlessly and consistently liquidated.

Unlike the early bourgeois revolutions of the 16th and 17th centuries. the French Revolution freed itself from the religious shell in the expression of its political and social ideals. The open and passionate exposure from the “positions of reason” and the “general good of the people” of the unnaturalness of the prevailing social relations was a new typical feature of the French bourgeois revolution.

The main trend of the social and ideological development of Europe in the 18th century manifested itself in different countries unevenly and, of course, in nationally unique, concrete historical forms. However, no matter how significant such differences in the historical and cultural evolution of individual countries were, the main leading features of the commonality consisted in the crisis of the old feudal order, its ideology, and in the formation and establishment of the progressive ideology of the enlighteners. The 18th century is the age of "reason", the age of philosophers, sociologists, and economists.

In this century, the materialistic philosophy of the figures of the French and English Enlightenment flourishes. At the same time, a school of classical German idealist philosophy (Kant, Fichte) was taking shape in Germany. In Italy, Giovanni Battista Vico made the first attempts to introduce the dialectical method into the philosophy of modern times. In England (Adam Smith) and France (Physiocrats) the foundations of political economy as a scientific discipline are being laid. Natural traces, more and more associated with production, with technology, are developing at an accelerated rate. The works of Lomonosov and Lavoisier laid the foundations of chemistry as a modern science. New machines are being created, preparing the transition to the industrial age. The power of reason is affirmed, and criticism of class prejudices and ecclesiastical obscurantism of representatives of the old ideology becomes widespread.

Of great importance is the exchange of philosophical, scientific, and aesthetic ideas between countries. The breadth and intensity of cultural interactions, the exchange of creative achievements, the custom of moving artists, architects, and musicians from one country to another increased even more compared to the 17th century.

Thus, the Venetian master Tiepolo works not only in his homeland, but is also involved in the creation of monumental paintings in Germany and Spain. The sculptor Falcone, many other French and Italian masters live in Russia for a long time. The Swedish portrait painter Roslin works extensively in France and Russia. The widespread use of the French language, which has become the language of international communication among the enlightened strata of society, the relative expansion of the circle of educated people, in particular the formation in most countries of the intelligentsia, representing the interests of the unprivileged classes (mainly the urban bourgeoisie), contributed to a broader idea of ​​the unity of the culture of human society.

The new conditions of social and ideological life determine the formation of a new major stage in the history of "artistic culture. In the 18th century, the process of a decisive change in the ratio of types and genres of art begins, which was completed in the next century. Compared to previous eras, it increases specific gravity literature and music, reaching the stage of artistic maturity that painting had already acquired in the 16th and 17th centuries. Literature and music are gradually beginning to become the leading art forms. Since the specific possibilities of the artistic language of these forms artistic creativity most directly corresponded to the main aesthetic demands of the time, music and literature, complementing each other, satisfied the needs of the time in the aesthetic awareness of life, in its movement and formation. In prose literature, the desire to show the fate of an individual in its complex development over time, in its sometimes confusing and devoid of plastic clarity of relationships with the surrounding social environment, the desire for a broad picture of the life and customs of the era, to solve fundamental questions about the place and role of man is embodied in prose literature. in the life of society. Such, with all the differences in handwriting and style, Le Sage's Lame Demon, Prevost's Manon Lescaut, Voltaire's Candide, Fielding's and Smolett's novels, Stern's Sentimental Journey, Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther and Wilhelm Meister, and others. Starting from the 18th century, the novel turns into a kind of prose epic, giving a comprehensive picture of the lyre. However, in contrast to the mythological transformation of life in epic poetry, in the novel of the 18th century, the picture of the world is given in images that are worldly reliable and socio-historically concrete.

The need for a poetic, directly emotional holistic expression of the spiritual world of a person, his feelings and thoughts, abstracted from the image of circumlocution Everyday life, direct disclosure of the worldview and worldview of a person in their development and contradictory integrity predetermined the flourishing of music as an independent art form.

significant in the 18th century. and the successes of theatrical art, in particular dramaturgy, closely related to literature. The latter is characterized by a gradual transition to the middle of the 18th century. from the tradition of classicism to realistic and pre-romantic creative directions.

A characteristic feature of the culture of this time is a close study of the main issues of the aesthetics of the theater, the nature of acting, and in particular the coverage of the social and educational role of the theater.

If polyphony arose in musical art back in the late Renaissance as a means of conveying the complex versatility of the world of human experiences, then the creation in the 18th century. Bach, Mozart, Gluck, Haydn of such musical forms as fugue, symphony, sonata, revealed the ability of MUSIC to convey the very process of the formation of human experiences. Music turned out to be able to embody the conflicts of life, and tragic grief, and harmonic clarity, and stormy impulses of the struggle for happiness, deep reflections of a lonely human soul and the unity of feelings and aspirations of a large team.

In the field of fine arts, artistic progress had a somewhat ambivalent character. Nevertheless, in some respects, the best masters of the 18th century created an art that represented a step forward not only in relation to their predecessors, but also in the development of world artistic culture as a whole. They created the art of the individual, refined, differentially analyzing the finest nuances of feelings and moods. Graceful intimacy, restrained lyricism, politely ruthless, analytical observation - characteristics this art. The exact feeling of a subtly captured or witty "staged" plot situation are the qualities inherent in both the wonderful portrait of this century (Latour, Gainsborough, Rokotov, Houdon) and the best multi-figured genre compositions, whether it be gallant festivities and everyday scenes by Watteau and Fragonard, Chardin's modest everyday motives or city landscapes of Gvardi.

These qualities of artistic perception of life for the first time with such consistency were affirmed in art. However, the significant achievements of the century were bought at a high price by the partial loss of the artistic achievements of the previous eras of the heyday of art. By itself, this fact does not represent a specific feature of the art of the 18th century. unevenness artistic development, generated by the one-sidedness of social and spiritual progress in a spontaneously antagonistic class-exploiting society, has manifested itself in the history of artistic culture before. However, the fine arts of the 18th century not only partially lost that universal fullness of the spiritual life of a person, that direct artistic organicity, synthetic integrity with which the great masters of the previous heyday of painting - Rubens, Poussin, Rembrandt, Velazquez - embodied in the images they created the main aesthetic and ethical issues of his time. Of no less importance was the fact that, compared with the art of the 16th and 17th centuries. painting and sculpture of the 18th century. gradually lost the ability to embody with the greatest artistic clarity and organicity the aesthetic ideas of society about the main problems of their existence.

For the consciousness of society, which entered the transitional stage of its development to capitalism, as mentioned above, such a range of aesthetic tasks and needs was characteristic, which was most fully and artistically revealed not so much in the fine arts and architecture as in literature and music. One should not, however, exaggerate the consequences of this trend in the development of culture. In the 18th century, it was just beginning to show itself. With all its acuteness, the problem of the proportion of fine arts and architecture in artistic culture humanity will be set only in the era of capitalism, in the era of the general crisis of the exploiting class society and its culture. Therefore, not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture are experiencing new stage in its development. The proportion of ecclesiastical construction is falling in it, and the volume of civil construction is sharply increasing. Brilliant planning solutions by French architects, magnificent buildings created in Russia, in St. Petersburg, palaces and estates in England, late baroque masterpieces in Central Europe and Italy - evidence of one of the last upsurges of European architecture within the framework of the Exploiting Society.

The main progressive direction, which determined the face of European art in the 18th century, as a whole developed in a contradictory and complex way. First, the formation of a new culture in the individual countries of Europe was very uneven, since they were at different stages of preparation for their transition to capitalism. Secondly, the very establishment of the aesthetic principles of 18th century art went through a number of stages in its development. So in Italy, deprived of national unity, lagging behind in its economic development, art continued and modified the traditions of the culture of the 17th century. It is characteristic that the highest achievements of Italian art of this century were associated with the Venetian school, which to a greater extent retained the spirit of secular cheerfulness than the art of other regions of Italy.

In France, where preparations for the bourgeois revolution were carried out most consistently in the fields of philosophy, literature and art, art gradually acquires a consciously programmatic civic orientation towards the second half of the century. The 18th century begins with the sadly dreamy and subtly refined art of Watteau, and ends with the revolutionary pathos of the works of David.

In the art of Spain in the last quarter of a century, the work of the young Goya, imbued with a passionate interest in the bright, characteristically expressive aspects of life, in contrast to classicism, prepared the transition of Western European fine art to the realistic romanticism of the first third of the 19th century.

In England the bourgeois revolution was already behind us. In this country, under the conditions of the economic and political domination of large landowners who adapted to the new system, and the top of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, an industrial revolution was carried out. Some masters of the fine arts (for example, Hogarth) and especially in literature were already developing the characteristic features of the realism of a developed bourgeois society with its direct analysis of specific social conditions of life, with a great sense of social characteristics, types and situations, as well as with its characteristic features of descriptiveness and prosaism. .

In Russia, the transition from medieval religious forms of culture and art that had outlived their historical role to a new, secular culture, to secular, realistic forms of art, was completed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This new stage in the development of Russian culture was caused by the internal needs of Russian society, the development of its economy, the need for a corresponding change in the forms of government. It was associated with the strengthening of absolutism, which, under the prevailing historical conditions, ensured the successful solution of the important historical tasks facing the state. The active participation of Russia in the formation of European science and culture of the 18th century, the significance and value of the contribution of Russian art to world art that time - an essential feature of the era.

Unlike most Western European countries, absolutism in Russia has not outlived its relatively progressive historical role. The bourgeoisie was still weak, the Russian merchants also lacked those long-term cultural traditions that had been accumulated since the time of urban communes by the Western European burghers, and most importantly, the Russian bourgeoisie was deprived of consciousness of its historical mission. The peasant uprising, led by Pugachev, was spontaneous and ended in the defeat of the rebels. Under these conditions, the progressive line of development in Russian art throughout almost the entire 18th century. was carried out within the framework of the nobility culture.

Although, as we can see, the development of art in the 18th century, the formation of its main progressive aesthetic ideals proceeded differently in different countries, nevertheless, in general, two stages are characteristic of its development. The first continued, depending on the specific historical conditions in some countries until the mid-1740s-1750s, in others - until the 1760s. This stage is associated with the completion of the late forms of the Baroque and the emergence in a number of countries of the artistic and stylistic direction, which received the name "rococo" or "rocaille style" ( Rococo - from the French word rocaille, that is, shell-shaped; in the art of this trend, one of the favorite decorative motifs resembled a whimsically curved shell in shape.). The second stage is characterized by the assertion of the art of classicism and sentimentalism as the dominant trends.

The architecture of the late Baroque, more dynamically complicated, decoratively overloaded and less stately monumental than in the 17th century, was widely developed in those countries where the prerequisites for the elimination of absolutism and the transition to capitalism were not yet ripe. For example, in Italy, the Baroque traditions continued to exist throughout the first two-thirds of the 18th century. not only in architecture, but also in painting and sculpture.

In Germany and Central Europe, late baroque architecture and monumental art were still largely associated with the old clerical-feudal culture. A brilliant exception, as already mentioned above, was the Venetian art, mainly painting, which completed the festive and cheerful traditions of this wonderful school. In other regions of Italy, in Central Europe, realistic tendencies manifested themselves only with difficulty and very timidly within the framework of the dominant trend. Baroque art in Russia had a special character. The originality of the Russian Baroque was most fully embodied in architecture. The pathos of the assertion of a powerful Russian noble power on the rise, which has taken a worthy place in the world, the construction of St. Petersburg, which has become one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the growth of new cities predetermined the largely secular nature of Russian baroque. In France, a number of brilliant ensemble solutions were created, such as, for example, Place de la Concorde in Paris, which are a kind of rethinking in the spirit of classicism of the principles of planning an urban ensemble. In general, in France, the process of overcoming the Baroque traditions was associated during the first half of the century with the emergence of interest in a more intimate interpretation of the architectural image of a separate mansion, the owners of which were more concerned about the elegant festivity and comfort of the building than about its solemn representativeness. All this resulted in the 1720s. to the addition of the principles of rococo, that is, art more chamber than baroque. However, a complete architectural system similar to baroque and classicism was not formed in rococo architecture. Rococo in architecture manifested itself mainly in the field of decoration, flat, light, capriciously whimsical, refined, gradually turning the representative, full of spatial dynamics of the architectural decoration of the Baroque into its opposite.

Rocaille painting and sculpture, which retained their connection with the architectural design of the interior, were largely decorative. However, the desire for more intimate art, designed to adorn the leisure time of a private person who is sensitive to “elegant” and possessing “refined taste”, determined the creation of a painting style that was more differentiated in shades of mood, in the subtleties of plot, composition, coloristic and rhythmic solutions. Rococo painting and sculpture avoided turning to dramatic subjects, did not strive for a detailed knowledge of real life, to pose significant social problems. The frankly hedonistic, sometimes elegantly cutesy nature of Rococo painting predetermined its narrowness and limitations.

Very soon, already by the 1740s, Rococo painting degenerated into thoughtlessly superficial art, expressing the tastes and moods of the top of the old world doomed to disappear. By the middle of the 18th century. there has been a sharp line between art expressing the attitude of the masters of old France, who are not sure of the future and live according to the peculiar aphorism of Louis XV “after us, even a flood!”, And the pathos of representatives of the third estate, sometimes with excessive didactic straightforwardness, asserted the significance of ethical and aesthetic values art associated with the ideas of reason and progress. Characteristic in this regard was Diderot's appeal to the artist from his "Experience on Painting": "It is your duty to glorify, perpetuate great and noble deeds, honor the unfortunate and slandered virtue, stigmatize the happy vice revered by everyone ... take revenge on the criminal, the gods and fate for a virtuous man, to predict, if you dare, the verdict of future generations. Of course, as usual, art in its real development did not fit into a rigid scheme of aesthetic and ethical programs. It only in its individual, artistically not the most perfect manifestations literally followed the corresponding recipes.

At an early stage in the formation of Rococo, in the conditions of a clear delimitation of artistic movements that had not yet come, the appearance of such a great artist as Watteau was possible. His work not only laid the foundations of Rococo as a stylistic trend, but was also one of its most striking artistic incarnations. At the same time, in its aesthetic content, it decisively went beyond its rather narrow artistic and ideological framework. It was Watteau, who was the first to turn to the genre of the so-called gallant festivities, and created an exquisitely elegant, chamber-like intimate manner of performing these plots. But, in contrast to the thoughtless festive elegance of such typical Rococo masters as Lancret or the gallant-grivoise Boucher, who worked in the second third of the 18th century, Watteau's art is characterized by a subtle transfer of spiritual shades of a person's inner world, restrainedly sad lyricism. The work of Watteau was an important stage in the transition from the obsolete pomposity and grandiosity of the official traditional style of French classicism of the late 17th century. to art, more closely connected with the spiritual world of an individual.

In other European countries, for example, in some regions of Germany and Austria, Rococo became widespread in the field of palace and garden architecture. Some features of the Rococo style also appeared in the art of the Czech Republic in the 1740s and 1750s. Moments similar or close to the Rococo style made themselves felt in the decor of the architectural interior and in the applied arts of other European countries. Although the 18th century sometimes called the age of Rococo, this art did not receive widespread domination. Despite the breadth of its influences, it only in a few countries has acquired the significance of a truly leading style. Rococo was not the style of the era, even in the sense in which it is sometimes said in relation to the Baroque in the art of the 17th century. It was rather the most important and characteristic stylistic trend that dominated the art of a number of leading countries of Western and Central Europe in the first half of the 18th century.

In general, it should be emphasized once again that for the 18th century, and especially for its second half, it is impossible to establish the presence of a certain general style of the era as a whole, embracing all types of spatial arts. During this period, in European culture, in more open forms than before, the struggle of ideological and artistic trends manifests itself; At the same time, the process of formation of national schools continues. An ever greater role in art is beginning to be played by a direct realistic depiction of life; in painting and sculpture, gradually losing their organic connection with architecture, easel features are growing. All these moments undermine that old system, based on the synthetic connection of arts with architecture, based on the "stylistic" unity of the artistic language and techniques, which was inherent in the previous stages in the history of art.

The second stage in the development of art in the 18th century. associated with the aggravation of contradictions between the ideology of the ruling system and its opponents.

The most far-sighted representatives of absolutism seek, at the price of some concessions, to adapt the old forms of government in a new way to the "spirit of the times", so to speak, modernize them, give them the appearance of "enlightenment", pass off their class aristocratic-absolutist state as the bearer of a nationwide, general civil law and order. Representatives of the third estate (and in Russia the advanced circles of the nobility, overcoming the narrowness of their class interests of the intelligentsia) sought to establish in public self-consciousness the principles of citizenship, the principles of serving the state to the interests of “society as a whole”, criticized the despotic arbitrariness of monarchs and the arrogant egoism of the secular and church aristocracy.

A new stage in the progressive development of artistic culture appeared in the form of two main ideological and artistic trends, sometimes opposing each other, sometimes intertwining - classicism, on the one hand, and not fitting into the framework of the style direction of classicism, more directly realistic in the form of the development of art, which manifested itself mostly in portraiture. Creativity of the portrait masters in painting and sculpture of the second half of the 18th century. in France, England, Russia (Gainsborough, Levitsky, Shubin, Houdon close to classicism) opposed the line of the ceremonial estate portrait of the late Baroque or the conditionally salon secular portrait associated with rocaille traditions surviving their age.

Of course, there were some, so to speak, residual connections with one or another stylistic trend in the work of certain portrait painters. But not by this moment, but by the direct realistic vitality of the images, the artistic originality of their contribution to the development of art was determined. To an even greater extent, the realistic easel painting and engravings of Hogarth, partly the painting of Chardin, Greuze, which are turned to a direct reflection of life, go beyond the boundaries of style. In general, the art of the 18th century. not only did not know, in contrast to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, "a single style of the era", but the stylistic trends themselves did not always embody the main trends in the development of art of their time.

Classicism in its quest to create new ones that are both naturally simple and. sublime forms of art, capable of cultivating noble thoughts, tastes and "virtue", turned to the artistic culture of the ancient world. She became an example to study and emulate. The main provisions of the doctrine of classicism were formulated by the German theorist and art historian Winckelmann. Winckelmann's activity is very characteristic of the 18th century. It was in this century that the foundations of aesthetics and art history were laid as a truly scientific discipline, closely related to the successes of philosophy.

Winckelmann turned to ancient art as a classic example of a culture free from the pompous phraseology, the "artificiality" of the late Baroque and the "frivolous depravity" of the Rococo. Winckelmann believed that the art of ancient Greece was turned to nature and brought up noble, worthy feelings in free citizens.

With a certain half-heartedness and political timidity, Winckelmann's theory corresponded to the progressive tendencies of the era.

The classicism of the 18th century, with the unconditional commonality of a number of its stylistic features with the classicism of the 17th century, at the same time, by no means represents its simple development. This is a fundamentally new historical and artistic phenomenon.

The qualitative difference between the two stages in the development of classicism is due not only to the fact that the first developed, so to speak, in the context of the Baroque and in a peculiar relationship with it ( See Introduction to 17th century art and the chapter on the art of 17th century France.), and the second arose in the process of overcoming the Rococo art in some countries, and the late Baroque in others. There were also differences, perhaps more significant, directly related to the range of artistic ideas and to the peculiarities of the social function of classicism in the 17th and 18th centuries. The appeal to antiquity as a norm and an artistic model, the assertion of the primacy of duty over feeling, the sublime abstraction of style, the pathos of reason, order and harmony are the essence of common features classicism in both the 17th and 18th centuries. However, in the 17th century, classicism took shape in the context of the consolidation of the nation within the framework of an absolutist monarchy, within the framework of noble absolutism, and did not rise to an open denial of the social relations that underlay this system. The anti-feudal orientation of the progressive line in the classicism of the 18th century was much more pronounced. Classicism of the 18th century not only continued, appealing to examples gleaned from antiquity, to affirm the greatness of the victory of reason over feeling, duty over passion. In the 18th century, ancient art was declared the norm and ideal model, and because, according to the ideologists of classicism, it found its most harmonious and perfect embodiment of the permanent, primordial virtues inherent in a person living in a reasonable, free society of the city-republics of antiquity. Depending on the degree and depth of progressiveness of one or another representative of classicism of the 18th century, either the aesthetic and moral superiority of the ideal of ennobled naturalness and graceful simplicity of the new direction was emphasized in comparison with the frivolity of the late rococo or the complicated pomp of the late baroque, or the civic pathos of classicism was accentuated.

The development of the principles of classicism in the spirit of consistent citizenship and militant revolutionary spirit was carried out in the work of David, who overcame the class narrowness and sentimental moralization inherent in an earlier stage in the formation of the worldview of the third estate. David in his paintings sang the civic prowess of the heroes of republican Rome, urging the "friends of liberty" to be inspired by their lofty example. The principles of revolutionary classicism of the late 18th century. connected, however, with the birth of the next historical epoch during the revolution. In the French architecture of the second half of the century, along with the more elegant chamber forms of classicism, the so-called Louis XVI style, the foundations were laid in the work of Souflot for a more rigorous, actually monumental-civil understanding of the tasks of architecture.

In most other European countries, classicism did not have such a consistently revolutionary character as on the eve and in the first years of the revolution in France.

In Russia, majestic civil structures (the ingenious projects of Bazhenov, the work of Delamotte and Quarenghi), as well as in the more gracefully simple art of Felten and Cameron, in the monumental and heroic sculptures of Kozlovsky, affirmed the ideal of noble rationality and civic patriotism, which had not yet entered into open contradiction with state structure of the Russian state. In Germany, the artistic practice of classicism was more limited and compromise. Colored with elements of sentimentalism and contemplation, the art of Mengs and the saccharine work of Angelica Kaufman represented that wing in classicism, which expressed in the field of art the attempts of the old regime to modernize and adapt to the new trends of the time.

It should be noted that classicism, which became the dominant style in architecture and partly in sculpture and painting, did not achieve hegemony in the field of literature. Both the realistic side of classicism and its somewhat rationalistic abstraction were taken up mainly by Voltaire's theater of tragedy. Classicism also had a noticeable influence on poetry (Chenier). Literary forms such as the novel and short story, which are directly related to the analysis of the contradictions of real life, continued to develop in more consistently and overtly realistic artistic forms.

Along with classicism in the culture of the second half of the 18th century. such trends as sentimentalism and the so-called pre-romantic movement in art developed. These directions were most fully embodied in poetry, theater, and prose literature. In the visual arts, their influence was less visible and, especially in France, less fruitful. If classicism mainly expressed the high civil and ethical ideals of the era in their most universal and abstract form, then sentimentalism and pre-romanticism appealed directly to the assertion of the value of a person’s personal world of feelings or the dramatic nature of his conflicts with the surrounding reality.

Stern in his "Sentimental Journey" not only rejects the estate and reactionary ethics of the old regime, but also ridicules the hypocrisy and vulgarity of bourgeois morality that have already manifested themselves in England. In Germany, the Sturm und Drang movement, sometimes characterized as pre-romanticism, takes a sharply polemical position in relation to German classicism, rational-rational, ideologically timid and half-hearted. The Sturm und Drang movement, to which the young Schiller and Goethe joined, was imbued with anti-feudal accusatory pathos.

In France, where from the second half of the 18th century. a decisive revolutionary explosion was brewing, where the bourgeoisie had great cultural traditions and sufficient social power, the main line of development of art led to the birth of the full civil pathos of David's revolutionary classicism. In the 1780s in France, a directly pre-revolutionary situation is taking shape. The bourgeois revolution of 1789 concluded a whole epoch in the history of mankind and opened the way for a new stage in the development of society and its artistic culture.

In the visual arts, the importance of a directly realistic depiction of life increased. The sphere of art expanded, it became an active spokesman for liberation ideas, filled with topicality, fighting spirit, denounced the vices and absurdities of not only feudal, but also the emerging bourgeois society. It also put forward a new positive ideal of an unfettered personality of a person, free from hierarchical ideas, developing individual abilities and at the same time endowed with a noble sense of citizenship. Art became national, appealed not only to the circle of refined connoisseurs, but to a broad democratic environment.

The main trends in the social and ideological development of Western Europe in the 18th century manifested themselves unevenly in different countries. If in England the industrial revolution that took place in the middle of the 18th century consolidated the compromise between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, then in France the anti-feudal movement had a more massive character and was preparing a bourgeois revolution. Common to all countries was the crisis of feudalism, its ideology, the formation of a broad social movement - the Enlightenment, with its cult of the primary untouched Nature and the Mind that protects it, with its criticism of the modern corrupted civilization and the dream of the harmony of beneficent nature and a new democratic civilization gravitating towards the natural condition.

The eighteenth century is the age of Reason, all-destroying skepticism and irony, the age of philosophers, sociologists, economists; the exact natural sciences, geography, archeology, history, and materialistic philosophy, connected with technology, developed. Invading the mental life of the era, scientific knowledge created the foundation for accurate observation and analysis of reality for art. Enlighteners proclaimed the goal of art to imitate nature, but ordered, improved nature (Didero, A. Pope), cleared by the mind from the harmful effects of a man-made civilization created by an absolutist regime, social inequality, idleness and luxury. The rationalism of the philosophical and aesthetic thought of the 18th century, however, did not suppress the freshness and sincerity of feeling, but gave rise to a striving for proportionality, grace, and harmonious completeness of the artistic phenomena of art, from architectural ensembles to applied art. Enlighteners attached great importance in life and art to feeling - the focus of the noblest aspirations of mankind, a feeling that longs for purposeful action, containing a force that revolutionizes life, a feeling capable of reviving the primordial virtues of a “natural person” (Defoe, Rousseau, Mercier), following natural laws. nature.

Rousseau's aphorism "A man is great only in his feelings" expressed one of the remarkable aspects of the social life of the 18th century, which gave rise to an in-depth, refined psychological analysis in a realistic portrait and genre, the poetry of feelings imbued the lyrical landscape (Gainsborough, Watteau, Bernay, Robert) "lyrical novel", " poems in prose" (Rousseau, Prevost, Marivaux, Fielding, Stern, Richardson), it reaches its highest expression in the rise of music (Handel, Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Italian opera composers). On the one hand, “little people” became the heroes of artistic works of painting, graphics, literature and theater of the 18th century - people, like everyone else, placed in the usual conditions of the era, not spoiled by prosperity and privileges, subject to ordinary natural movements of the soul, content with modest happiness. Artists and writers admired their sincerity, naive immediacy of the soul, close to nature. On the other hand, the focus is on the ideal of an emancipated civilized intellectual man, generated by the enlightenment culture, the analysis of his individual psychology, conflicting mental states and feelings with their subtle nuances, unexpected impulses and reflective moods.

Acute observation, a refined culture of thought and feeling are characteristic of all artistic genres of the 18th century. Artists sought to capture everyday life situations of various shades, original individual images, gravitated towards entertaining narratives and enchanting spectacle, sharp conflicting actions, dramatic intrigues and comedic plots, sophisticated grotesque, buffoonery, graceful pastorals, gallant festivities.

New problems were also put forward in architecture. The importance of church building has decreased, and the role of civil architecture has increased, exquisitely simple, updated, freed from excessive impressiveness. In some countries (France, Russia, partly Germany) the problems of planning the cities of the future were solved. Architectural utopias were born (graphic architectural landscapes - Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the so-called "paper architecture"). The type of private, usually intimate residential building and urban ensembles of public buildings became characteristic. At the same time, in the art of the 18th century, in comparison with previous eras, the synthetic perception and completeness of the coverage of life decreased. The former connection of monumental painting and sculpture with architecture was broken, the features of easel painting and decorativeness intensified in them. The subject of a special cult was the art of everyday life, decorative forms. At the same time, the interaction and mutual enrichment of various types of art increased, the achievements acquired by one type of art were more freely used by others. Thus, the influence of the theater on painting and music was very fruitful.

The art of the 18th century went through two stages. The first lasted until 1740–1760. It is characterized by the modification of late baroque forms into the decorative rococo style. The originality of the art of the first half of the 18th century - in a combination of witty and mocking skepticism and sophistication. This art, on the one hand, is refined, analyzing the nuances of feelings and moods, striving for elegant intimacy, restrained lyricism, on the other hand, gravitating towards the “philosophy of pleasure”, towards fabulous images of the East - Arabs, Chinese, Persians. Simultaneously with Rococo, a realistic trend developed - for some masters it acquired a sharply accusatory character (Hogarth, Swift). The struggle of artistic trends within national schools was openly manifested. The second stage is associated with the deepening of ideological contradictions, the growth of self-consciousness, the political activity of the bourgeoisie and the masses. At the turn of the 1760s-1770s. The Royal Academy in France opposed Rococo art and tried to revive the ceremonial, idealizing style of academic art of the late 17th century. The gallant and mythological genres gave way to the historical genre with plots borrowed from Roman history. They were called upon to emphasize the greatness of the monarchy, which had lost its authority, in accordance with the reactionary interpretation of the ideas of "enlightened absolutism."

Representatives of advanced thought turned to the heritage of antiquity. In France, the comte de Caylus opened the scientific era of research in this area ("Collection of Antiquities", 7 volumes, 1752-1767). In the middle of the 18th century, the German archaeologist and art historian Winckelmann (History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764) urged artists to return to "the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art, bearing in itself a reflection of the freedom of the Greeks and Romans of the era of the republic." The French philosopher Diderot found plots in ancient history that denounced tyrants and called for an uprising against them. Classicism arose, which contrasted the decorativeness of Rococo with natural simplicity, the subjective arbitrariness of passions - knowledge of the laws of the real world, a sense of proportion, nobility of thought and deeds. Artists first studied ancient Greek art at newly discovered monuments. The proclamation of an ideal, harmonious society, the primacy of duty over feeling, the pathos of reason are common features of classicism of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the classicism of the 17th century, which arose on the basis of national unification, developed in the conditions of the flourishing of the noble society. Classicism of the 18th century is characterized by an anti-feudal revolutionary orientation. It was intended to unite the progressive forces of the nation to fight against absolutism. Outside of France, classicism did not have the revolutionary character that it had in the early years of the French Revolution.

1. Introduction. Art of the 18th century in Russia
2. Russian architecture of the 18th century
3. Fine art of Russia in the 18th century
4. Conclusion
5. List of used literature

This work reveals the largest works of art of the XVIII century. in Russia and an attempt to analyze them.

In the art of Peter's time, the ideas of Russia's national might are affirmed. The Russian state became one of the largest states in the world.

Surviving buildings of the 18th century and today they are not only an adornment of Russian cities, but also masterpieces of world significance.

The study of art monuments of the first half of the 18th century began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibitions of portraits held at that time contributed to the identification of works of art of this time. During the years of Soviet power, especially in the post-war period, in connection with the grandiose restoration work, an active research activity was launched. Significant material was collected and summarized, dedicated to creativity individual masters and the development of Russian art in the first half of the 18th century as a whole. In the 1970s, the fine arts of the time of Peter the Great became the subject of close and in-depth attention of specialists. Exhibitions are opened, monographs dedicated to this bright period in the history of Russian culture are published.

Currently, the range of works of fine art of the XVIII century. centuries, attracted for analysis by specialists, has expanded significantly thanks to new discoveries by Soviet restorers.

RUSSIAN ARCHITECTURE OF THE 18TH CENTURY

The development of Russian architecture at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. characterized by a significant effort of secular elements. However, the stable traditions of Russian architecture, which had developed in the course of its centuries-old development, did not disappear, they could not be completely cut off. Russian architecture of the XVIII century. was able to preserve the national flavor and this is the merit of ancient Russian architecture.

Appeal to the norms of the culture of the new time, adopted in the advanced countries of Europe, starting from the Renaissance, brought with it a different ideal of the city - a regularly and rationally planned single architectural ensemble. Unlike the Middle Ages, this is no longer the end result of historical, largely spontaneous development, but a kind of gigantic work created on the basis of a project.

Russian architecture is mastering previously unfamiliar varieties of administrative, industrial, educational, and scientific buildings. Already existing types of structures are modified: along with the cross-domed church, a basilica one appears, instead of a choir with an orchard, a palace and park ensemble appears.

Volumetric expositions, facades, interiors are almost necessarily built on the principle of symmetry - bilateral symmetry about one axis.

This period is sometimes called conditionally "Peter's Baroque", however, Russian architects of this time turned to the heritage of the Renaissance, and to the Baroque, and to classicism, which had already appeared in France.

Prominent place in the development of Moscow in the early XVIII century. occupied by industrial buildings, which were often given a ceremonial appearance at that time. These are the buildings of the Cloth Yard at the Stone Bridge, the Khamovny Yard, the Arsenal in the Kremlin, as well as the three-story building of the Main Pharmacy, where the first Russian university and a sailing factory in the village of Preobrazhensky were originally located.

Among the masters who worked in Moscow, I.P. Zarudny was the largest. He was a great architect and an outstanding sculptor-decorator. Of the religious buildings, the Menshikov Tower stands out. Here, the motifs of a church building and purely secular elements are uniquely combined. Here the traditional scheme of church architecture of the previous time is applied - an octagon on a quadrangle. However, it is combined here with order elements and a high spire that once crowned the building.

An important role in architecture was played by the decree of Peter I on the prohibition of monumental construction in all other cities of Russia, except for the new capital, the approval of a new education system, and the emergence of foreign progressive literature.

Great opportunities for the further intensive development of Russian architecture were revealed in the construction of a new city on the banks of the Neva - Petersburg, originally laid down as a port and fortress, but soon turned into a capital. Although the construction of St. Petersburg took place in the difficult, tense conditions of the Northern War, nevertheless, from the very beginning, new features were clearly revealed in it, indicative of the architecture of that time. There was a need to create a master plan for the city. The first experiments (J.-B. Leblon - 1716 and D. Trezzini - 1717-1725) were generally unsuccessful, as they solved the problem too schematically and abstractly, without taking into account the specific features of the area. But they paved the way for further development.

For the successful solution of new tasks, foreign architects were invited, who helped to quickly master the experience of Western European construction; at the same time, Russian masters were sent abroad to study. From among the invited, and some of the foreign architects who came on their own initiative, a significant impact on the development of Russian architecture in the early 18th century. only those who had lived in Russia for a long time, got acquainted with the local conditions, had a broad and serious approach to solving the tasks assigned to them.

The largest was Domenico Trezzini (c. 1670-1734), who built the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Petrovsky Gates in Peter and Paul Fortress, who designed the huge building of the Twelve Colleges, the main administrative institution of the country and Gostiny Dvor. The buildings built by D. Trezzini contributed to the formation of the characteristic techniques of the new Russian Baroque style. They were distinguished by the reality of plans and designs, as well as moderate plastic decoration of the facades. Trezzini was the author of "standard projects" of residential buildings of three categories: for "eminent" citizens - stone, for "wealthy" and "mean" (ordinary) people - mud huts. By 1718 Over 4,000 dwellings were built.

Simultaneously with St. Petersburg, country palaces with famous park ensembles were built. Peterhof was conceived as a country residence of Peter I, which he wanted to liken to Versailles, especially its center with cascades of fountains and a sculptural figure of Samson.

Wooden architecture occupied a special place in the architecture of this period. It was most closely associated with folk art and retained relative independence, developing in the era of modern times the ideas, principles and techniques that had developed in the artistic culture of the Russian Middle Ages. Wooden dwelling houses and churches reached amazing perfection and originality in such creations as, for example, the famous twenty-two-domed church in Kizhi, which was consecrated in 1714.

In the middle of the XVIII century. Peter's undertakings in the field of domestic and foreign policy, economy and culture gave certain results.

The main theme of the art of those years was the glorification of the monarchical state, in honor of which solemn odes were composed and architectural ensembles were created. It is architecture that becomes the most vivid expression of the ideas of its time.

Public buildings in these years are almost not built. The construction of new fortress cities continues: Rostov-on-Don, Orenburg, Izyum. A number of architectural schools are emerging. But the most striking achievements of architecture are associated with the capitals, with the activities of St. Petersburg and Moscow masters.

The heyday of Russian architecture in the middle of the XVIII century. associated with a single stylistic basis - baroque. The specifics of the Russian baroque of the 40-50s of the XVIII century. associated with the use of the experience of other European styles - French classicism of the XVIII century., Rococo and Russian tradition.

Decisive for the flourishing of the Baroque style was the activity of Rastrelli's father and son. Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli (1675-1744), Italian sculptor, from 1716 worked in Petersburg. He took part in the decorative design of Peterhof, made sculptural portraits of Peter I and Empress Anna Ioannovna with a black arachik.

His son - Bartalomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771) - the largest architect, the son of a famous sculptor. In his early buildings, Rastrelli uses the techniques that were typical for the construction of the beginning of the century. In the future, from the mid-1740s, his work becomes very peculiar: the size of buildings expands, internal front yards appear, and the relief of facades increases. Intense coloring of buildings is introduced, built on bright colors and gilding. The style of his architecture is Russian baroque, which absorbed both Western and Russian traditions. The largest and most characteristic buildings of Rastrelli were the Smolny Monastery and the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the Grand Palace in Peterhof, the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, etc. Rastrelli loved scope, splendor, bright colors, used rich sculptural decoration, intricate ornament.

S. Chevakinsky was a great master of Russian architecture. Its largest building is the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1753-1762), as it was originally officially called, the Cathedral. The temple itself is five-domed, two-tiered. At some distance from it there is a tall, slender, very beautiful in silhouette bell tower with a peculiar completion - a small dome turning into a spire. Nikolsky Cathedral testifies to the connection with ancient Russian architectural traditions, this is felt in the plan of the cathedral, in a characteristic five-domed structure, in the presence of two churches: one - heated - on the first floor and the other - cold - on the second (summer church).

The largest architect of Moscow in the middle of the XVIII century. was Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky. Of its surviving buildings, the most important is the high bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (1741-1769), visible at a distance. Above the massive cubic first floor, hidden from the distant points of view behind the high old walls of the monastery, there are four upper tiers - ringing, festively and variously decorated. The school-workshop, the so-called architectural team, owes its flourishing to him, where students combined theoretical studies with direct practical work.

In the middle of the XVIII century. the main attention in construction was paid to palace and church architecture. The large size of the structures required the use of new structures. The wide involvement of folk craftsmen, the desire in decorative forms to refer to the traditions of Russian architecture of the 17th century. led to the creation of numerous, highly artistic, festive and colorful works, characteristic of the heyday of the Baroque in Russia.

In the second half of the XVIII century. architects developed issues related to the planning of cities, created new types of public buildings.

Significant construction work was carried out in other cities. So, in Tver (now the city of Kalinin), after the fire of 1763, the entire city center was reconstructed on new principles. Considerable construction unfolded in Yaroslavl.

At the same time, separate large structures for a new purpose were also built. On the banks of the Neva, A.F. Kokorinov (1726-1772) erected a huge building of the Academy of Arts (1764-1788). for educational purposes. An extensive building of the Orphanage was erected in Moscow. In the general schemes of their solutions, there are still many of the former palace buildings, but at the same time, the architects boldly developed new techniques, created convenient, rational plans. The external appearance of these buildings is also solved in a different way - in strict and simple forms.

Simplicity and restraint are also characteristic of other structures of this time. The Marble Palace (1768-1785) built by the architect A. Rinaldi (c. 1710-1785) in the central part of St. Petersburg is indicative; its facades are distinguished by clear composition and harmonious proportions.

What was outlined in these works of the 1760s later received a particularly vivid and consistent disclosure in the work of the leading architects of that time - Bazhenov, Kazakov, Starov.

Vasily Petrovich Bazhenov (1737-1799) was a talented Russian architect. In 1767-1792. worked in Moscow, with which his largest buildings and projects are associated. A particularly prominent place among them belongs to the project of the Kremlin Palace and construction in Tsaritsyn near Moscow.

In the construction of the ensemble in Tsaritsyno, he boldly and in a new way approached the task assigned to him. In contrast to the palace buildings of the middle of the century, he created here a picturesque landscape park with small pavilions placed in it. From the buildings of Bazhenov special meaning has the Pashkov House - the most beautiful building of the 18th century. in Moscow. The architect made good use of the relief of the site and took into account the location in the immediate vicinity of the Kremlin. His creations are notable for boldness of compositions, variety of ideas, combination of Western and Russian styles.

Also glorified is the name of Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov (1738-1812), who developed in Moscow types of city houses and public buildings. One of the first outstanding buildings was the Senate building in the Moscow Kremlin. Kazakov perfectly took into account and used the features of the triangular site allotted for construction and created a building in which the monumentality of the general appearance and grandeur of the composition are organically combined with the convenience and expediency of the plan, unusual for that time. In the future, Kazakov built many different buildings in Moscow, including the Moscow University, the Golitsyn Hospital, the Petrovsky Palace, erected in a pseudo-Gothic style, the Nobility Assembly in the magnificent Hall of Columns. Kazakov supervised the drawing up of the master plan of Moscow, organized the School of Architecture.

Ivan Egorovich Starov (1745-1808) - one of the largest architects. He designed a lot for different cities, but his most important buildings are in St. Petersburg. Among them, the largest is the Tauride Palace (1783-1789). The palace was intended for large festivities and receptions associated with celebrations on the occasion of the annexation of Crimea to Russia. This is also due to the presence of ceremonial halls in the palace. In terms of breadth and scope, solemnity and at the same time severity, the Tauride Palace was one of the most significant buildings of that time.

At this time, classicism was especially evident in the estate construction, which was a cozy and elegant houses with columns that fit well into the Russian landscape.

The main value of classicism is the ensemble, the organization of space: strict symmetry, straight lines, straight rows of columns. A vivid example is the Palace Square of the architect Karl Ivanovich Rossi (1775-1849) in St. Petersburg. The square is a smooth arc with the double arch of the General Staff building closing it, with the high Alexander Column in the middle of the square and the baroque facade of the Winter Palace. In 1829-1834. Russia completed the formation of the Senate Square. Distinguished by its grandiose scope, clarity of spatial composition, diversity and organic solutions, the Rossi ensemble is the pinnacle of urban planning art of the classicism era.

The main feature of the development of architecture of the XVIII century. - improvement and complication of compositional-figurative means. In parallel with the "baroque" line of development of architecture, there was a direction focused on a more strict, classical imagery and prepared the flourishing of classicism.

The specificity of classicism architecture is revealed in comparison of its figurative structure with baroque architecture: the complexity and luxury of the compositions of Rastrelli, Chevakinsky, Argunov is opposed by the clarity and simplicity of the new style. Classicism in Russia inherited quite a few features of the architecture of the previous period. The change in taste preferences that took place in Russia in the early 1760s is natural. It reflected the socio-cultural changes that were then taking place in Russia. Completing the history of architecture of the period begun by Peter the Great, the era of classicism paved the way for a new turning point.

An important place in the development of architecture of the second half of the XVIII century. occupied by the beginning of the urbanization of the empire. Also contributed to the decree of 1763. "On making special plans for all cities, their streets and buildings, especially for each province." The transformation of cities began, which corresponded to the idea of ​​the city as an independent, harmoniously regulated complex.

Public buildings and large engineering structures of the classicism era are being built as part of the state order. The state was also in charge of town-planning transformations: major projects were sanctioned by the Senate, church construction was in charge of the Synod, and the final decision belonged to the emperor.

Huge construction was carried out on the personal orders of the royal family - palaces, estates, museums.

There is a general conditional scheme for the evolution of classicism. At the early stages of its development, classical architecture was not yet free from the influence of the Baroque, well recognizable in the outlines of individual elements and forms in the works of such masters as A. Rinaldi or V. Bazhenov. Freed from the influence of the Baroque, the language of architecture becomes strict, concise, gravitating towards order rules; it is used by such masters as I. Starov, N. Lvov, D. Quarenghi, M. Kazakov. Both stages of the development of style fall on the years of the reign of Catherine II.

FINE ART OF RUSSIA

The 18th century is an important milestone in the development of Russian culture. The reforms of Peter I affected all sectors of society and all aspects of the life of the Russian state. City and suburban royal residences, palaces of the nobility began to be decorated with round easel sculpture, decorative plastic and portrait busts. Without waiting for the domestic school to form personnel, Peter ordered to buy abroad antique statues and works of modern sculpture. Russian youths went to Europe to study the art of sculpture.

AT early XVIII in. monumental-decorative plastic art was especially widespread. At this time, high relief is often encountered, and one in which it allowed a strong detachment of plastic volumes from the background. In those cases when the masters created a bas-relief, they willingly used the type of so-called pictorial relief, in which, as in paintings, plans alternate, a perspective reduction of objects is transmitted, and landscape elements are used. Purely ornamental compositions are solved most planarly.

All this can be seen on the example of the sculptural decorations of the Dubrovitskaya Church (1690-1704) and the Menshikov Tower (1701-1707) in Moscow, the elegant carved decorations of Peter's office in the Great Palaces of Peterhof, executed in 1718-1721. Nicola Pino, bas-reliefs on the walls of the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg (1710-1714), allegorically depicting the events of the Northern War. Their author, the outstanding German sculptor and architect Andreas Schlüter, died just six months after his arrival in St. Petersburg and, naturally, did not have time to create anything more during this period.

A peculiar section of sculpture, in particular decorative plastic art, is the carving of wooden iconostasis, altar vestibules, etc. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Ivan Petrovich Zarudny, who, in addition, was engaged in painting and architecture.

With the achievements in the field of decorative plastics, serious successes are planned in the development of sculptural miniatures. In the 40s, thanks to the efforts of the prominent Russian scientist D.I. Vinogradov, a friend of M.V. Lomonosov, a porcelain factory was founded in St. Petersburg, the third in Europe in terms of time of occurrence. In 1766 Gardner's private factory opens in Verbilki near Moscow. These factories, along with crockery, snuffboxes and other household items, also produced works of fine plastic art that attracted attention with elegance.

An exceptional contribution to the Russian culture of the middle of the century was made by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, who revived the art of mosaic, known even by the masters of Kievan Rus. The secrets of making smalts - colored glassy masses of various shades - were kept in strict secrecy in Western Europe. To obtain smalts, Lomonosov had to develop the technology and technique for their production. The richest "palette" of glass colors, not inferior in strength and beauty to the colors famous in the 18th century. Italian smalt, was obtained by a scientist at a factory in Ust-Ruditsa near St. Petersburg after more than four thousand experimental melts. In 1758 M.V. Lomonosov submitted to the competition arranged by the Senate on his initiative, the project of the monument to Peter I in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the emperor is buried.

Ample opportunities for the use of their strengths and abilities attracted a large number of foreign artists, sculptors, architects, etc. to Russia. Many excellent foreign masters entered the history of Russian art, participating in the artistic life of Russia and engaging in pedagogical activities here.

Second half of the 18th century - a period of high rise of sculpture. All its main types are developing: relief, statue, portrait bust, along with monumental and decorative ones, easel works are also becoming favorites.

At this time, unsurpassed masters psychological portrait the Frenchman Houdon and Fedot Ivanovich Shubin, a portrait sculptor, were considered. He is also known as the creator of many bronze statues. But Shubin fully expressed himself precisely in works of marble. In the processing of marble, he showed great skill, finding various and convincing techniques for conveying heavy and light fabrics of the costume, lacy foam of lace, soft strands of hair and wigs, but most importantly - the facial expression of the person being portrayed, depending on age, gender and other features.

Shubin was the master of the bust. Never repeating himself in his solutions, he each time found both a peculiar composition and a special rhythmic pattern, coming not from an external device, but from the inner content of the depicted person. Shubin, with his works, affirmed the value of the human personality, skillfully showing the inconsistency of character and reproducing the appearance of the person being portrayed with detailed accuracy. An example is the marble bust of Field Marshal Z.G. Chernyshev (1774), who led the Russian troops, who occupied in 1760 Berlin. This is not a portrait of a nobleman, but a military leader.

In 1774-1775. Shubin made a large and original cycle of historical portraits. These are fifty-eight oval marble reliefs that adorned the Chesme Palace in St. Petersburg, and later transferred to the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin. The reliefs are half-length images of the great princes, kings and emperors, starting from the legendary Rurik and ending with Elizaveta Petrovna.

Portraiture from nature remained for Shubin the main line of creativity. Over the years, the sense of the surroundings is aggravated. Looking closely at his models, the artist strives to depict a person with unique features of his appearance. Shubin finds meaningful and deep in outwardly discreet and far from ideal features, the charm of originality and almost grotesque bulging eyes and upturned noses, clumsy faces, heavy fleshy chins. All this once again emphasizes the individuality of the portrayed. This feature of the sculptor's work appeared in the busts of the unknown and M.R. Panina. The authenticity and persuasiveness of the image was manifested in the plaster bust of P.V. Zavadsky, in the marble busts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Catherine II A.A. Bezborodko, Admiral V.Ya. Indicative in this regard is the plaster bust of I.I. Betsky - a decrepit, toothless, thin old man in a uniform with stars. Another later work by Shubin is a bust of Paul I, which was especially successful in bronze versions. The grotesqueness of the emperor's unhealthy facial features is, as it were, compensated by the artistic perfection of superbly arranged and filigree-finished accessories - orders, religions and cloak folds.

Shubin's outstanding talent is inseparable from the era in which it took shape and blossomed. In his works, realism is combined with the early stage of classicism. This is especially pronounced in the portraits of Catherine II.

For the Grand Cascade in Peterhof, Shubin created a bronze statue of Pandora, sustained in classical forms, successfully fitting it into the overall garden and park ensemble.

Together with Russian masters, the sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falcone contributed a lot to the glory of Russian influence. In 1766 Falcone, together with his young student Marie-Anne Colo, comes to Russia at the invitation of Catherine II. The purpose of the visit is to create a monument to Peter I. The sculptor has been working in St. Petersburg for twelve years. The original sketch of the monument was made in France in 1765. Having settled in St. Petersburg, Falcone ardently set to work and by 1770. finished life size model. A stone rock was delivered to the place of installation of the monument, weighing about 80,000 pounds after its partial cutting. In 1775-1777. there was a casting of a bronze statue, the opening of the monument took place in 1782.

With the perfect naturalness of the movement of the horse, posture, gesture and clothes of the rider - they are symbolic. Such are the horse reared by the force of a powerful hand at the edge of the cliff, the rock rising up in a wave and lifting the rider on the crest, the abstract character of Peter's attire, the animal skin on which he sits. The only allegorical element - a snake trampled under its hooves - personifies the overcome evil. This detail is also important in a constructive sense, because it serves as the third point of support. Composition opens up the possibility of perception from a variety of points. Thanks to this, the logic of the movement of the horse and the rider - the intensity of the path and the victorious ending - becomes obvious. The harmony of the figurative structure is not violated by the complex opposition of unrestrained take-off and instantaneous stop, freedom of movement and strong-willed beginning. The Bronze Horseman became the symbol of the city on the Neva.

Starting from the 70s, such masters as F.G. Gordeev, M.I. Kozlovsky, F.F. Shchedrin, I.P. Martos, I.P. Prokofiev, whose work goes far beyond the era. the main role in their upbringing belongs to the Academy of Arts.

To the older generation of sculptors of the XVIII century. refers to Fedor Gordeevich Gordeev. Gordeev showed himself most clearly in memorial plastic. The bas-relief tombstone of N.M. Golitsina (1780) belongs to its early samples. The features of classicism are most pronounced in a series of bas-reliefs for the facades and interiors of the Ostankino Palace: “Sacrifice to Zeus”, “Sacrifice to Demeter”, “Wedding Train of Cupid and Psyche”, etc. In these friezes, Gordeev adheres to the understanding of the relief that existed in the plastic of classical Greece . Refusing the effects of a pictorial-spatial character, he models the form of a low relief with great skill, deploying it in an elegant rhythm on a plane of a neutral background.

The late works of the sculptor include reliefs for the Kazan Cathedral. This building marked the onset of a new stage in the development of Russian art, a different understanding of the relationship between architecture and monumental and decorative plastics.

Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky became famous mainly in the 90s of the 18th century, when his talent as a classicist flourished. His work is imbued with the ideas of enlightenment, sublime humanism, and vivid emotionality.

The sculptor is working on monumental bas-reliefs for the Marble Palace. The marble sculptures "Vigils of Alexander the Great" and "Yakov Dolgoruky" are wonderful examples of this art.

The highest artistic achievement of Kozlovsky is his monument to A.V. Suvorov in St. Petersburg (1799-1801). There is no portrait resemblance to the original in the monument, but in the image created by Kozlovsky, there are similarities with the great commander. The all-conquering energy, determination and courage of a warrior, the wisdom of a commander and inner nobility, as it were, illuminate the whole figure from within.

At the very end of the XVIII century. work began on the reconstruction of the ensemble of Peterhof fountains and the replacement of dilapidated lead statues with new ones. Kozlovsky is given the most responsible and honorable task: to sculpt the central sculptural composition. Grand Cascade, the figure of Samson. Transmitted in a strong movement, reminiscent of the statues of Hercules and the titanic images of Michelangelo, the powerful figure of Samson personified the formidable power of Russian weapons.

Kozlovsky's peer was Theodosius (Fedos) Fedorovich Shchedrin. Classicism as a full-blooded art strong feelings and fiery impulses, harmonic proportions and high flight of thought found their brilliant expression in his work.

The outstanding architectural and artistic ensembles of St. Petersburg are associated with the name of Shchedrin - the Admiralty and the Grand Cascade in Peterhof. For the cascade, he sculpted the allegorical figure "Neva", given in a light, natural movement. In the sculptural works made by Shchedrin for the Admiralty, the main theme was the assertion of Russia's naval power. The most prominent of this sculptural attire were the "Sea Nifas" - two groups framing the main gate of the Admiralty; each of the three female figures support the celestial sphere.

Together with Gordeev, Martos, Prokofiev and the painters Borovikovsky, Yegorov and Shebuev, Shchedrin worked on decorating the Kazan Cathedral.

Ivan Petrovich Martos belonged to the same generation as Kozlovsky and Shchedrin. By the strength of his talent, by the versatility of his creative range and professional skill, I.P. Martos is one of the largest Russian sculptors. He created his most significant works in the 19th century. characteristic features his works were civic pathos, the desire for rigor and chased clarity of plastic form, characteristic of classicism.

The tombstones made by Martos in the 80-90s of the 18th century are full of tender lyrics and expressions of sorrow. The most perfect works are the tombstones of M.P. Sobakina, P.A. Bryus, N.I. Panin, in which there is passion, and elegiacity, and majestic calmness. Lyricism combined with strong dramatic feelings marked the monument to E.S. Kurakina.

The best tombstones of Martos occupy a prominent place in the development of Russian memorial sculpture of the late 18th century, distinguished by a wide range of images and rare artistic perfection.

Portrait work in the work of Martos occupied a relatively secondary place. Nevertheless, the sculptor created wonderful works in this genre as well. This is evidenced, in particular, by the marble busts of N.I. Panin (1782) and A.V. Panina (1782) and others. portrait.

At the end of the XVIII century. Martos performed a number of sculptural and decorative works in the interiors of Catherine's Tsarskoye Selo Palace, and at the very beginning of the 19th century. - a statue of Actaeon for the ensemble of the Great Cascade of Peterhof.

The latest monumental work of Martos is a monument to M.V. Lomonosov for Arkhangelsk.

The youngest of the galaxy of outstanding Russian sculptors of the XVIII century. was Ivan Prokofievich Prokofiev. He owns the Actaeon statue (1784), in which the strong and light movement of a young nude figure is conveyed with great skill. Prokofiev constantly retained a sensual softness in his interpretation of the human body. Prokofiev's works have an idyllic tonality.

This was most clearly manifested in an extensive series of plaster reliefs decorating the main staircase of the Academy of Arts (1785-1786), the house of I.I. 1819-1820). Basically, they represent rather complex allegories of various types of artistic creation. Here “Kifared and the three most noble arts”, allegories dedicated to sculpture, painting, etc. Prokofiev was good at depicting children; he gave them very lively and with great grace. Sometimes these figurines personify such concepts that are difficult for plastic implementation, such as "Mathematics" or "Physics".

Prokofiev was also a significant portrait painter. Two beautiful terracotta busts of A.F. and A.E. Labzins. In terms of simplicity and intimacy of the interpretation of images, these works are related to the picturesque portraits of Russian masters of the late 18th century. - early XIX centuries

In the Russian provinces, sculpture in its composition and features differed from the plastics of St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the estates of the aristocracy, only occasionally there were works of famous metropolitan masters. The bulk of the work belonged to local sculptors, mostly wood carvers, and, as a rule, had a clearly decorative character (architectural details, iconostasis carvings). Motifs of floral ornament, gilding and bright colors of carved wood forms were used abundantly. Many museums have a round sculpture of a religious nature: numerous versions of statues on the themes “Christ in prison”, “Crucifixion”, etc. Some of them, dating back to the 18th century, are of a primitive nature, stylistically dating back to the most ancient layers of Russian artistic culture. Other works, also of the 18th century, already speak of acquaintance with the works of professional sculptors of the first half of the 18th century. or even early classicism.

Monuments of fine folklore are of great interest and aesthetic value. These are plastically designed household items of the Russian peasantry (carved wooden items, ceramics, toys, etc.)

18th century - This is the heyday of portraiture. The artistic line of Russian portraiture retained its originality, but at the same time perceived the best Western traditions.

Instead of the conventional methods of icon painting, the laws of truthful depiction of the visible world came into practice. Art of the beginning of the 18th century. sought to speak a common European pictorial language.

An example of the connection between art and the life of Russia in those years are engravings, the most common type of art that most quickly responded to the events that were taking place. They are represented by the design and illustration of books and independent, almost easel sheets. The engravings were dominated by battle scenes and the urban landscape, generated by military events and the construction of St. Petersburg. Engraving of the last third of the 18th century. differs in a variety of techniques. Especially great use at this time finds etching. Engravers themselves and often architects also resorted to this technique.

In the painting of that time, those sections in which there was an urgent need develop first of all. According to the terminology of the beginning of the century, these are “persons” and “histories”. The first listed portraits, the second meant quite different works: battles, mythological and allegorical compositions, decorative panels, religious images. In the first quarter of the XVIII century. the concept of genre diversity is just beginning to take shape. Historical painting also took its first steps, but it was still closely connected with the traditions of ancient Russian battles. Peter was placed in the center, the generals stood around him, the gesture of the king was directed towards the moving troops, as if organizing them. Just as in the time of Peter the Great there was still no historical science, and historical knowledge served the present, so the still quite young historical painting glorified the greatness of what was happening. As a separate genre, historical painting established itself in Russia around the 1750s and was associated with the creative practice of the Academy of Arts.

With the beginning of the XVIII century. the main place in painting begins to be occupied by oil painting on a secular subject. Among easel paintings, numerous monumental panels and plafonds, miniatures, and so on, preference is given to portraits in all varieties: chamber, front; in height, chest, double. The portrait of the 18th century showed an exceptional interest in man, so characteristic of Russian art.

Most famous artists Peter's time - Ivan Nikitin (1690-1742) and Andrei Matveev (1701-1739) - the founders of Russian secular painting.

Early portraits by Nikitin, depicting Princess Natalya Alekseevna, sister of Peter I, and his niece Praskovya Ivanovna, confirm that he was famous for his art, he was given honorary orders.

To the work of Ivan Nikitin mature pores belong two masterpieces that have no equal in Russian painting of this time. The first of them is a portrait of Peter I in a circle, which is remarkable for its amazing expressiveness and simplicity. In Russian painting, and even in the world, it is possible not to find such a deep penetration into the personality of an autocratic ruler. A resolute look, tightly compressed lips, an energetic turn of the head reveals the powerful will, inquisitive mind, passion, and fury of Peter's nature.

In the same row with the image of the emperor is another portrait of the artist - "Napoleon Hetman". The portrait is distinguished by a psychological depth rare for its time. In the harsh courageous features of the hetman, there seems to be an echo of the very era of Peter's stormy transformations and battles.

Nikitin's work also reflected the trends that the master met abroad. His portrait of Baron S.G. Stroganov is typical of Western European court art, which gradually spread to Russia, by its mannerisms and refinement. At the same time, there was a traditional trend in Russian painting that retained the archaizing influence of the parsuna. An example is the portrait of M.Ya. Strogonova, painted by Ivan Nikitin's brother Roman, also one of Peter's pensioners.

But such features were not decisive in the work of Nikitin; he gravitated towards the veracity of the image. In the last full-scale portrait of the emperor - "Peter I on his deathbed" the author masterfully conveyed not only the image of the deceased tsar, but also the reflection of the flame of many candles on his face and clothes. The artist seemed to feel that with the death of Peter the heroic era in the history of Russia ended.

Andrei Matveev was a prominent figure in Russian painting. The painter studied in Holland. The most famous of the extremely small number of surviving works of the master is “Self-portrait with his wife Irina Stepanovna”. In fact, this is the first self-portrait of the artist in Russian painting.

In the first half of the XVIII century. many foreign artists worked in Russia. Some of them played a significant role in the artistic life of Russia.

Among the painters called by Peter I from abroad, the most prominent place was occupied by Johann Gottfried Tannauer and Louis Caravaque.

Diverse and rich at the beginning of the XVIII century. portrait miniature, in which one finds the development of the tradition of miniatures of manuscripts and books of Ancient Russia and painting on enamel. Its largest masters were Andrey Ovsov and Grigory Musikisky.

Among the Russian artists of the 18th century, especially the second half, there were many people from the people. The great portrait painter Fyodor Rokotov remains a mysterious figure in many ways. There is very little information about the life of the master and about those whom he painted. This is the only case in Russian art when more than a third of all the artist's works are "portraits of unknown people." Relatively recently, it turned out that Rokotov was a freedman from the serfs of Prince Repnin.

Rokotov preferred simple compositions. For example, many of his portraits contain images of half-figures. The author focused on the human face as the center of all experiences, which is why Rokotov's subsequent transition in the 1770s from rectangular to oval canvases is natural. But the true creative element for the artist was still an intimate lyrical portrait. It is with him that the greatest successes of the author are connected. In 1785 Rokotov painted a portrait of Countess E.V. Santi, which can rightly be considered the pinnacle of painting in the 80s. Another masterpiece is the portrait of V.N. Surovtseva. Coloring is of exceptional importance in solving images.

By the end of the XVIII century. Rokotov's art, fading away, changes, and later works are distinguished by restraint of images, closeness to classicist traditions and detail.

The Academy of Arts played an important role in Russian art; it was opened in St. Petersburg in 1757. The work of most artists is associated with her work.

Anton Losenko is one of the first pupils of the Academy. His famous canvas is “Vladimir and Rogneda”. The desire to convey the national flavor of the event is combined in Losenko's painting with following the tradition of classicism: Russian faces of warriors, a servant girl in a Russian dress, and next to it is a mosaic floor, an antique vase in the corner, pilasters on the walls. The costumes of the main characters are theatrical. The listed signs reflect, on the one hand, the influence of classicism, and on the other hand, knowledge of Russian language, which was still weak for that time. ancient history and culture. "Vladimir and Rogneda" is the first great Russian historical work. For him, the artist received the title of academician and associate professor.

More picturesque and plastically expressive is Losenko's painting "Farewell of Hector to Andromache". The canvas, glorifying the legendary event of the Homeric era, is imbued with drama and pathos.

The historical genre was not the only one for Losenko. The portrait of the actor F.G. Volkov - the founder of the first Russian public theater - was painted by the master in 1763. The great actor is presented as a hero of high tragedy: with a sword, a crown and a mask in his hands. In his image, the author emphasized the sublime beginning.

Dmitry Levitsky is also an outstanding portrait painter of the era. He drew attention to himself at the exhibition of 1770. a portrait of the architect A.F. Kokorinov, director and first rector of the Academy of Arts, for which he was awarded the title of academician. This portrait, brilliant in its craftsmanship, is not only one of the master's prominent works, but also one of the masterpieces of painting of the 18th century.

After 4 years, Levitsky completed the portrait of P.A. Demidov, where the scheme of the front image was boldly changed. The richest man in Russia, the owner of famous factories in the Urals, Demidov is unexpectedly shown as a florist, as a lover of rare plants. He is not in full dress, but in a dressing gown, with a nightcap on his head. The simplicity of the situation reveals the human qualities of the person being portrayed: his cordiality, friendliness. Demidov shared the views of the French Enlightenment philosophers. Therefore, the artist has not forgotten the main feature of his nature - the generosity of the patron. Far behind the garden, Levitsky showed the Orphanage in Moscow built at the expense of the breeder.

In the 1770s, during the period of the highest flowering of creativity, Levitsky created a series of large canvases, on which he depicted pupils of the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens (Smolny Institute) of the first, second and third editions. Catherine II herself, the founder of the society, commissioned the artist to paint portraits of her favorites.

In the 1780s and 1790s, Levitsky wrote a significant number of works, distinguished by their artistry of performance, but less psychological depth than before. A series of portraits of the daughters of Count A.I. Vorontsov stands somewhat apart, reminiscent of the best creations of the master. Most of the paintings of the late artist are marked by the seal of cold rationality.

Levitsky's works made a great impression on his contemporaries. Inspired by the appearance of his large painting "Catherine II - Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice", G.R. Derzhavin composed the famous ode "Vision of Murza". Levitsky's painting was known to his contemporaries abroad; a number of the master's works are kept in Paris, in the Louvre, and a portrait of Denis Diderot is in Geneva.

In Russian painting of the 18th century, despite the active development of the genres of historical painting, still life and landscape, the portrait remained predominant. Its traditions were developed by Vladimir Borovikovsky, in whose work there were portraits of both formal and lyrical nature. In the largest commissioned canvases by the master, depicting Vice-Chancellor A.B. Kurakin and Emperor Paul I in the costume of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, one can notice the ability to combine wide, full-sounding colorfulness with an abundance of details, while maintaining the unity of the pictorial tone and the integrity of the pictorial image, which is inherent only in the largest artists. The skill of Borovikovsky was clearly manifested in the magnificent portrait of Murtaza-Kuli-Khan, the brother of the Persian Shah Aga-Mohammed, painted at the direction of Catherine II.

The landscape as a background Borovikovsky willingly included in many of his portraits. This reflected changes in the views of society at the end of the 18th century. on the the world and per person. Unity with nature gave greater naturalness to people, reflected the ideas of sentimentalism. Working on the image of Catherine II, Borovikovsky showed the tsarina as a “Kazan landowner”, this is how she wanted to look in the eyes of the nobles. Forty years later, A.S. Pushkin in the story "The Captain's Daughter" gave a verbal portrait of Catherine II, very close to the portrait of Borovikovsky and, probably, inspired by him.

In the art of the XVIII century. the image of nature acquires independence. The landscape is developing as a separate genre, where prominent masters were Semyon Shchedrin, Mikhail Ivanov, Fyodor Alekseev. The first two often depicted the surroundings of Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, conveyed the impressions of travels in Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Russian capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow, devoted many works of Alekseev, who studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, and then improved in Venice. "View palace embankment and the Peter and Paul Fortress ”is one of his most famous paintings, which conveys the expanses of the Neva banks, the diverse play of light on the water, the austere beauty of the palaces of classical architecture.

End of the 18th century marked by the appearance of large works of Russian academic painting. One of the richest art collections in the world, the Hermitage, is being formed. It is based on a private collection of paintings by Western European masters (since 1764) of Catherine II. Opened to the public in 1852.

Visual arts of the 18th century made a significant step forward in the development of the secular direction.

For Russian culture of the XVIII century. became a period of development of secular art, a stage of accumulation of creative forces. Domestic painting not only was not inferior to European, but also reached the heights. The canvases of the great portrait painters - Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky - clearly marked the achievements along this path, influenced the further fruitful growth of the Russian art school.

CONCLUSION

The 18th century was a time of broad and comprehensive flourishing of Russian artistic culture, due to the fundamental socio-economic and political transformations that were carried out by Peter I. Painting and engraving, architecture and sculpture achieved great success. They inherited the richest national artistic experience of Ancient Russia, used European cultural traditions.

The construction of the new capital of Russia - St. Petersburg and other cities of the state, numerous palaces, public buildings led to the development of decorative plastic and painting, round sculpture and relief, which gave unique beauty to architectural ensembles.

Peter I invited foreigners to Russia, but at the same time he took care of the education of Russian artists. In the first quarter of the XVIII century. pensioners began to be widely practiced - sending abroad for training and improvement in the profession.

At that time, architecture and related types of fine arts reached a true flowering. Not only in architecture, but also in painting, in sculpture, baroque forms were replaced by a system of techniques characteristic of classicism, based on the traditions of the ancient population. In addition, the end of the century is characterized by the appearance of features of sentimentalism and romantic tendencies.

The most important event in the artistic life of Russia was the opening of the "Academy of the three most noble arts" - painting, sculpture and architecture.

Already in the early years of its history, the Academy of Arts trained great masters whose work greatly enriched and glorified Russian national culture.

Cultural development Russia XVIII in. prepared the brilliant flourishing of Russian culture in the 19th century, which became an integral part of world culture.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

1. HISTORY OF RUSSIAN ART. MOSCOW. "ART". - 3rd ed., revised. and additional 1987
2. Culturology. History of world culture: Textbook for universities / Ed. Prof. A.N. Markova. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: UNITI, 2002
3. THE WORLD OF RUSSIAN CULTURE. Encyclopedic reference book. Russian Customs Academy St. Petersburg Branch named after V.B.Bobkov. MOSCOW. 2000

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Details Category: Art of Russia of the 18th century Posted on 10.02.2018 18:52 Views: 2115

The XVIII century for Russia is the era of changes associated with the reforms of Peter I. These reforms affected almost all spheres of the country's life:

economy, government, military affairs, education, social thought, science and culture. From the “window to Europe”, which was cut through by Peter the Great, all the achievements of modern times literally poured into Russia.
Russian art mastered and reworked Western European experience in various ways: ready-made works of art were bought abroad, their own works were created by domestic and foreign specialists, who were very actively attracted to Russia at that time. Talented people were sent to Europe to study at public expense.

Features of artistic creativity of the XVIII century

The new time also created a new culture that replaced the Middle Ages. The concept of beauty and the forms of its embodiment changed.
At the same time, we must not forget that the art of the time of Peter the Great had not yet been finally established, foreign art was not filtered, but it did not have a predominant meaning in Russian art either. Life itself put everything in its place, and in Russian culture there remained only that which took root on Russian soil and met national interests. It was this process that brought Russian art out of the closed space of the Middle Ages and connected it with the pan-European one, while giving examples of world-class masterpieces.
We must not forget that the public outlook was changing - Russia embarked on the path of absolutism. Science and education developed. The Academy of Sciences was created, book printing actively developed, and culture entered the secular path of development. These changes were especially pronounced in the visual arts and architecture.
The principles of urban planning have changed - they concerned planning, certain types of buildings, compositions of facades, decor, interior, etc.
In the second half of the XVIII century. the baroque was replaced by classicism, based on the principles of antiquity. But in Russian architecture, the features of classicism became noticeable already in the first half of the 18th century: simplicity, balance and rigor of forms. In connection with the development of industry and trade, there was a need for the construction of industrial, state and public interest: banks, stock exchanges, markets, guest houses, government offices. And the development of culture and education led to the construction of libraries, theaters, universities, and academies. The privileges of the nobility expanded, and this led to the growth of noble estates in the countryside.

Painting

In the first half of the XVIII century. the genre of secular portrait is formed. This era is called the "portrait of Peter's time." The portrait genre becomes predominant in painting. It is already very different from the parsuna of the late 17th century. composition, color, individualization of the personality of the depicted.

I. G. Tannauer. Portrait of Peter I
Artists began to use direct perspective, which creates depth and three-dimensionality in the image on the plane. The art of the Petrine era is characterized by a high pathos of affirmation, which is why the central theme of it is the person, and the main genre is the portrait.
But the question of authorship in the Petrine era remained a difficult problem. Artists sometimes did not sign their works. In addition, there was also the problem of model identification, since custom portraits were usually created with a large share of embellishment of the person being portrayed, especially since these were usually the emperor and members of his family and their entourage.

I. Nikitin. Portrait of Chancellor Golovkin
Parsuna is gradually being replaced, but for some time continues to exist even in the work of the leading artists of the era: I. Nikitina, I. Vishnyakova, A. Antropova, A. Matveeva, I. Argunova and other artists, which testifies to the not yet completed transition from the medieval to the new style. Traces of parsonism are also found in the second half of the 18th century, especially in the works of serf and provincial masters, self-taught.

I. Vishnyakov. Portrait of Xenia Ivanovna Tishinina (1755)
In Russian painting of the second half of the XVIII century. two artistic styles prevailed: classicism and sentimentalism.
The portrait genre was further developed. Painters V. Borovikovsky and F. Rokotov worked in the style of sentimentalism and created a number of lyrical and spiritual portraits.

V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva (1796)
A whole gallery of images of outstanding people was created by a portrait painter D. Levitsky.

Architecture

First half of the 18th century marked in architecture by the Baroque style. The first stage in the development of Russian baroque dates back to the era of the Russian kingdom, and from the 1680s to the 1700s, the Moscow baroque develops, the main feature of which is the widespread use of elements of the architectural order and the use of centric compositions in temple architecture.

The foundation of St. Petersburg gave a powerful impetus to the development of Russian architecture, with the activities of Peter I, a new stage in the development of Russian baroque begins, this stage was called the "Petrine baroque", which focused on examples of Swedish, German and Dutch civil architecture. But only the first architectural monuments given period(for example, the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg) practically escaped Russian influence. Despite the abundance of foreign architects in Russia, a new architectural school of its own is beginning to form.

The architecture of the time of Peter the Great was distinguished by the simplicity of volumetric constructions, the clarity of articulation and the restraint of decoration, and the planar interpretation of facades. The first architects of St. Petersburg: Jean-Baptiste Leblond, Domenico Trezzini, Andreas Schlüter, J. M. Fontana, Nicolo Michetti and G. Mattarnovi. All of them worked in Russia at the invitation of Peter I. Each of them brought into the appearance of the buildings under construction the traditions of the architectural school that he represented. The traditions of the European Baroque were also adopted by Russian architects, for example, Mikhail Zemtsov.

The Winter Palace is one of the most famous monuments of the Elizabethan Baroque.
In the era of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, a new Elizabethan baroque is being developed. It is associated with the name of the outstanding architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. But this style is more connected not with the Petrine, but with the Moscow baroque. Rastrelli designed palace complexes in St. Petersburg and its environs: the Winter Palace, the Catherine Palace, Peterhof. His creations are characterized by their enormous scale, the splendor of decorative decoration, the two- or three-color color of the facades with the use of gold. The festive nature of Rastrelli's architecture left its mark on all Russian art in the mid-18th century.
In the Elizabethan Baroque, an important place belongs to the work of Moscow architects of the mid-18th century. headed by D. V. Ukhtomsky and I. F. Michurin.
In the 1760s, classicism gradually replaced the baroque in Russian architecture.
The heyday of strict classicism is associated with creativity M.F. Kazakova(1738-1812). Almost all the monumental buildings of Moscow at the end of the 18th century. created by him: the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, the Petrovsky Travel Palace, the Grand Tsaritsyn Palace, Butyrka, etc.

Old buildings of Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street. Architect M.F. Kazakov
In 1812, during the fire of Moscow, the building almost completely burned down. All floors that were made of wood are lost. The library, which included many exclusive materials, was destroyed. The collection of museums, the archives have disappeared. Until 1819, Domenico Gilardi worked on the reconstruction of the old building.
Now the Institute of Asian and African countries at Moscow State University is located here.
The masters of early classicism were A.F. Kokorinov(1726-1772) and French J.B. Valen Delamotte(1729-1800). Kokorinov's works mark the transition from baroque to classicism. They are the authors of the project for the building of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. And Valen-Delamot also owns the building of the Small Hermitage.
I.E. Starov(1745-1808) - the largest architect of the second half of the 18th century. Among his works is the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg (1783-1789). This is a huge city estate of G.A., Potemkin, who bore the title of Prince of Tauride.
In the 80-90s, the championship passed to the architects Quarenghi and Cameron. D. Quarenghi(1744-1817), Italian by origin, worked mainly in St. Petersburg. The building characteristic of Quarenghi is a building of three parts: the central building and two outbuildings connected to it by galleries. The center of the composition was highlighted by a portico. Quarenghi built the building of the Academy of Sciences, the building of the Assignation Bank. Then he creates the Hermitage Theater, the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. The buildings of the Smolny Institute are also the work of Quarenghi.
Cameron- the author of the palace-estate in Pavlovsk.

The building of the Smolny Institute. Architect D. Quarenghi

Sculpture

In the second half of the XVIII century. the highest achievements in the field of sculpture are associated with creativity F.I. Shubin(1740-1805). Shubin is a master of Russian sculptural portraiture. It had no predecessors in this genre in Russia. The gallery of sculptural portraits created by him (A.M. Golitsyn, P.A. Rumyantsev, M.V. Lomonosov, Paul I, etc.) is distinguished by realism and expressiveness.
Monumental sculpture of the second half of the 18th century. represented by many works, the largest of which is "The Bronze Horseman" EM. Falcone- equestrian monument to Peter I.
A prominent representative of classicism in sculpture was M.I. Kozlovsky. He embodied the image of a modern hero in the monument to A. Suvorov, although without a portrait resemblance. Rather, it is a generalized image of the hero-commander. M.I. Kozlovsky is the author of the famous sculptural group "Samson Tearing the Lion's Mouth" in Peterhof.

Monument to Suvorov in St. Petersburg (1801). The inscription under the monument: Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov of Rymnik

Yu.K.Zolotov

At the beginning of the 18th century, great changes took place in the art of France. From Versailles, the artistic center gradually moved to Paris. Court art, with its apotheosis of absolutism, was in crisis. The dominance of the historical picture was no longer undivided, art exhibitions there were more and more portraits and genre compositions. The interpretation of religious subjects acquired such a secular character that the clergy refused to accept the altar paintings they ordered (Susanna by Santerra).

Instead of the Roman-Bologna academic tradition, the influences of the Flemish and Dutch realism of the 17th century increased; young artists rushed to the Luxembourg Palace to copy the cycle of paintings by Rubens. In the numerous private collections that arise at this time, there are more and more works by Flemish, Dutch and Venetian masters. In aesthetics, the apology for "sublime beauty" (Felibien) meets with strong opposition from theorists who sympathize with realistic quests. The so-called “battle of the Poussinists and Rubensists” culminated in the triumph of Roger de Piel, who reminded artists of the need to imitate nature and highly appreciated the emotionality of color in painting. The crackling rhetoric of the epigones of academism, corresponding to the spirit of the times of the "Sun King", gradually receded before new trends.

At this critical time, at the turn of two centuries, when old ideals were collapsing and new ones were only taking shape, the art of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) arose.

The son of a Valenciennes roofer, who did not receive any systematic education, Watteau went to Paris around 1702.

In the first ten years - the early period of creativity - he lived and worked among painters and engravers who performed everyday scenes and engravings of "fashions and customs" that were popular among a wide range of buyers. In the workshop of an obscure craftsman, he made copies from Dutch genre painters. In this environment, the young artist perceived not only the Flemish, but also national painting traditions that developed outside the academic walls. And no matter how the art of Watteau later changed, these traditions forever left a mark on him. Interest in an ordinary person, lyrical warmth of the image, observation and respect for a sketch from nature - all this originated in his youth.

During these years, Watteau also studied decorative art; but friends emphasized his taste for "country festivities, theatrical subjects and modern costumes". One of the biographers said that Watteau "used every free minute to go to the square to draw various comic scenes that wandering charlatans usually played out." No wonder the first Parisian teacher of Watteau was Claude Gillot, named at the Academy "an artist of modern subjects." With the help of the second teacher - Claude Audran, who was the curator of the collections of the Luxembourg Palace, Watteau learned a lot about world art, got acquainted with the "Medici Gallery" by Rubens. In 1709, he tried to win the Rome Prize - it gave the right to travel to Italy. But his composition on the biblical story was not successful. Watteau's work in the workshops of Gillot and Audran contributed to his interest in decorative panels. This genre, so characteristic of all French painting of the 18th century, influenced the compositional principles of the artist's easel works with its exquisite whimsicality. In turn, the essential elements of the decorative art of Rococo took shape at the beginning of the century under the influence of Watteau's new searches.

In the same 1709, Watteau left Paris for his homeland, in Valenciennes. Shortly before his departure, he performed one of his genre skits. She depicted the performance of a detachment of soldiers. Apparently, the public liked these stories - being in Valenciennes, near which battles took place (there was a war for the Spanish Succession). Watteau continued to work on them, just as he did after returning to Paris.

Watteau's "military genres" are not scenes of war. There is no horror or tragedy in them. These are soldiers' halts, the rest of refugees, the movement of the detachment. They are reminiscent of the realistic genre of the 17th century, and although there is a puppet grace in the figures of officers and refugees, this shade of sophistication is not the main thing in them. Scenes such as "Bivouac" (Moscow, Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin) decisively differ from the idealizing battle painting by the persuasiveness of the story, the richness of observations. Subtle expressiveness of poses, gestures is combined with the lyricism of the landscape.

The works of Watteau are almost undated, and it is difficult to imagine the evolution of his work. But it is obvious that in the early works of his "modern genre" there is still no melancholy and bitterness that are characteristic of the mature art of the artist. Their plots are very diverse: "military genres", scenes of urban life, theatrical episodes (one of them was presented to the Academy in 1712). Among these contemporary genres is the Hermitage Savoyard, remarkable for its lyrical penetration.

In the first half of the 1710s. Watteau became close to Lesage, the greatest satirist of the day. He was introduced to the house of the famous rich man and collector Crozat, where he saw many masterpieces of the old masters and met eminent Ruben painters (Charles de Lafosse and others).

All this gradually turned the artisan-genre painter, as Watteau was in the early Parisian years, into a popular painter of gallant festivities, as his aristocratic customers knew him. But the recognition of life brought a keen sense of its contradictions, intertwined with a poetic dream of an unattainable beauty.

The most important place among the mature works of Watteau was occupied by gallant festivities. In them, he depicted secular "assemblies" and theatrical masquerades, which he could see at the patron of art Crozat. But if the gallant festivities of Watteau were not pure fantasy and even portraits of friends and customers are found in them, then their figurative structure takes the viewer into a world far from everyday life. Such is the "Feast of Love" (Dresden) - the image of ladies and gentlemen in the park near the statue of Aphrodite with Cupid. From figure to figure, from group to group, these subtle nuances of emotions whimsically replace each other, resonating in fragile color combinations, in the soft lines of the landscape. Tiny strokes - green and blue, pink and pearl gray, purple and red - are combined into quivering and gentle harmonies; variations of these light tones give the impression of a slight vibration of the colorful surface of the painting. Rows of trees are placed like theatrical backstage, but the transparency of the flexible, trembling branches in the air makes the backstage spatial; Watteau inhabits it with figures, and through the trunks of trees one can see the distance, captivating with its almost romantic unusualness. The consonance between the emotions of the characters and the landscape in Watteau's paintings is the basis of the important role of his art for the development of landscape painting in the 18th century. The search for emotionality draws Watteau to the legacy of Rubens. This manifested itself in mythological compositions - for example, "Jupiter and Antiope". But Rubensian passion gives way to melancholic languor, the fullness of feelings - the trembling of their shades. Watteau's artistic ideals are reminiscent of Montesquieu's idea that beauty is expressed not so much in facial features as in its often inconspicuous movements.

The painter's method is characterized by the advice that he gave to his student Lycra: “Do not waste time on further staying with any teacher, move on, direct your efforts to the teacher of teachers - nature. Go to the outskirts of Paris and sketch some landscapes there, then sketch some figures and create a picture out of this, guided by your own imagination and choice ”( "Masters of Art about Art", vol. 1, M.-L., 1937, p.597). Combining landscapes with figures, fantasizing and choosing, Watteau subordinated the various elements from which he created paintings to the dominant emotional motive. In gallant festivities, the artist's detachment from the depicted is felt; it is the result of a deep divergence between the dream of the painter and the imperfection of life. And yet Watteau invariably attracts to the subtlest poetry of being. It is not for nothing that his art is most characteristic of musicality, and the characters often seem to listen to an obscure, barely perceptible melody. Such is Metsetin (c. 1719; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), such is the Louvre Finette, full of absent-minded thought.

The subtle emotionality of Watteau's work was a conquest that paved the way for the art of the century to the knowledge of what Delacroix later called "the area of ​​\u200b\u200bvague and melancholy feelings." Of course, the narrow boundaries within which the painter's searches developed put inevitable limits on these searches. The artist felt it. Biographers tell how he rushed from plot to plot, vexed with himself, quickly disappointed in what he had done. This internal discord is a reflection of the inconsistency of Watteau's art.

In 1717, Watteau presented to the Academy a large painting "Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera" (Louvre), for which he received the title of academician. This is one of his best compositions, executed in a magnificent range of golden hues reminiscent of the Venetians, through which a silvery-bluish tonality appears. Secular ladies and gentlemen are moving along the hillside towards the gilded boat, representing themselves as pilgrims of the island of Cythera - the island of love (according to Greek legend, the goddess of love Aphrodite was born on it). The couples follow one after another, as if picking up the general lyrical theme of the picture, varying its emotional shades. The movement, starting from the statue of Aphrodite under the branches of tall trees, unfolds at an accelerating rhythm - melancholy and doubt give way to enthusiasm, animation, and finally - the whimsical play of cupids fluttering over the boat. The almost imperceptible transitions of fragile, changeable feelings, the unsteady play of vague forebodings and indecisive desires - such was the area of ​​Watteau's poetry, devoid of certainty and energy. The sharpness of perception of the nuances of feelings reminds Voltaire's words addressed to the playwright Marivaux about "the paths of the human heart", in contrast to his "great path". In the "Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera" Watteau's exquisite coloring is remarkable; light vibrating movements of the brush create a feeling of mobility of forms, their quivering excitement; everything is permeated with soft diffused light streaming through the light crowns of trees; the outlines of mountainous distances dissolve in a gentle airy haze. On a golden background, light color accents of orange, pale green and pinkish-red fabrics of clothes light up. The dreamy art of Watteau is endowed with a special poetic charm, magically transforming the "gallant festivities" that his contemporaries looked mannered and far-fetched.

Many of Watteau's compositions are reminiscent of theater scenes, on which characters live a strange life, performing for themselves old, but still dear to their hearts, roles from a funny and sad play. But the real content of modern performances also determined Watteau's interest in the theater and theatrical plots. There are many of them not only in the early work of the artist. In recent years, the most significant works of this cycle have appeared. Among them is The Italian Comedians (Berlin), written, apparently, after 1716, when Italian actors returned to Paris, expelled from France at the end of the 17th century for satirical attacks against the circles ruling the country. In the final scene of the performance, by the light of a torch and a lantern, the figures of Metsetin, mocking Gilles, dynamic Harlequin, gentle and coquettish actresses emerge from the dusk. Even later, judging by the pictorial manner, the image of the actors of the French Comedy (New York, the Beit collection) was performed - an episode from one of the performances of this theater, in which, at least until 1717, the pompous style of acting dominated, ridiculed by Lesage in the first Gil Blas book. The piling up of architectural elements and the splendor of the costumes complement the funny pathos of the “Romans” subtly conveyed by the painter (as the actors of the French Comedy Theater were then ironically called), their salon manners and ridiculous poses. Such comparisons reveal the artist's attitude to the events of life, to the tasks of art.

But the most remarkable work of Watteau associated with the theater is Gilles (Louvre). The compositional solution of this large picture is somewhat mysterious and has always given rise to many conflicting interpretations. Against the backdrop of a bright sky and dark green trees, the figure of an actor in white clothes rises. A gray hat frames his face, a calm gaze is fixed on the viewer, his hands are lowered. Behind the ramp-like hillock on which Gilles stands, his fellow craftsmen are located, they pull the donkey by the rope, a grinning Scapin leaves on it. The revival of this group with restrained contrast emphasizes the concentration of the motionless Gilles. The compositional disunity of the figure of Gilles and the characters of the second plan not connected with him by any action can be explained by an interesting assumption that this picture was executed as a sign for one of the fair seasons of the Italian Comedy Theater. Then it is clear why the favorite of the public, Gilles, as it were, addresses the viewer, and the Italian pine is visible in the landscape; in fair theaters such signs often hung. The protagonist of the picture appears in a state of meditation, deep thought; the nature of the composition is ultimately determined precisely by this contradictory interweaving of the appeal to the world and the complex self-profound inner life, which reveals itself in subtle emotional shades. A slightly raised eyebrow, heavy swollen eyelids slightly covering the pupils and a slight movement of the lips - all this gives a special expressiveness to the actor's face. There is sad mockery in him, and hidden pride, and the hidden excitement of a person who is capable of owning people's hearts.

The picturesque manner in which Gilles is executed testifies to the diversity of Watteau's searches, to the innovation of his art. The earlier works were made with a thin and hard brush, small light strokes, oblong, viscous, embossed, slightly sinuous, as if strung on the shapes and contours of objects. Light, crushed on the surface, shimmers with many precious mother-of-pearl shades - pale white, greenish, blue, purple, pink, pearl gray and yellow. These mother-of-pearl overflows gave rise to contemporaries to compose jokes that Watteau does not wash his brushes and takes paints from a pot, where they are all mixed. An amazing variety of shades is combined with the finest glazes. Delacroix called Watteau's technique amazing, arguing that Flanders and Venice were combined in it.

As for Gilles, its color scheme, next to the golden scale of The Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera, seems colder, bluish, like the color of Watteau's later works in general in relation to the previous "golden" period. The picture is written much more widely than gallant festivities, it feels the free movement of color and, most importantly, the colored shadows on the actor's white clothes - yellowish, blue, lilac and red. This is a bold search, a deepening of realistic tendencies, so vividly embodied in the master's numerous drawings.

Graphics Watteau was one of the most remarkable pages of French art of the 18th century. The artist usually painted in three colors, using a black Italian pencil, sanguine and chalk. His drawings are based on live observation. They were made for future paintings, which the artist himself did not call as we now call them, but for example: "A small picture representing a garden with eight figures." In Watteau's graphics, we meet these various figures: nobles and beggars, soldiers and noble ladies, merchants and peasants - a huge collection of types, which subsequently amounted to four volumes of engraved "figures of various characters." Wonderful sketches decorative panels, graceful landscape drawings, but women's heads are especially good - in different turns, movements that convey those subtle shades of experiences that the painter appreciated so much. It was a search for a pose, a gesture, necessary for the paintings. But these drawings have such a deep content that they acquire an independent realistic value. Light strokes and wavy lines recreate space, sliding reflections of light, the iridescence of shiny fabrics, the tenderness of an air haze. The drawings of Watteau contain the same subtle poetic charm as in his painting.

The last work of Watteau was a sign for the antique shop of Gersin (c. 1721; Berlin). This picture was appreciated by Watteau himself, usually dissatisfied with himself.

Hanging over Gersin's shop for only fifteen days, Watteau's sign attracted the attention of the public. She depicted the inside of this shop with its usual visitors: noble ladies and nobles accompanying them, with owners and servants putting bought paintings into a box. The attention of guests and hosts is absorbed by works of art, therefore, in the "Sign of Gersin" a special atmosphere of exquisite emotionality, characteristic of Watteau's work, dominates. In it, it is concretized, more than ever before, by a lively and real narrative, in which subtle irony is replaced by lyrical tenderness. Near the box where the portrait of Louis XIV is placed, there is a mocking commoner, prim aristocrats are looking at naked nymphs in a large pastoral picture, and in the first group, the lordly pose of a well-groomed lady sets off the modest, slightly shy manners of Gersin's young wife. The shop, like a stage, is open to the street. From the figure of a lady in a pink dress, entering the interior, the development of the plot begins, a chain of movements and turns characteristic of Watteau's compositions, a rhythmic alternation of mise-en-scenes and spatial caesuras between them. The plastic richness of poses and gestures is connected here with the development of the narrative, the concrete motivation of emotional communications, which are so characteristic of the painter's creative method. Fragile and delicate color harmonies acquire restraint and plastic certainty.

"The Sign of Gersin" is an expressive story about the people of that time, anticipating the new conquests of realism in the 18th century. But the untimely death of the artist, who died in 1721, interrupted his contradictory and rapid creative development, which determined a lot in French painting of the 18th century.

The work of Watteau had a strong influence on the painters of the early 18th century. His students tried to develop the traditions of his art - Pater, the most prosaic of his direct followers, gravitating towards the pastoral Antoine Quillard and Nicolas Lancre, who paid tribute to both superficial gallant plots and new forms of the developing everyday genre. Academics Carl Vanloo and others were fond of the "gallant genre". But the impact of Watteau on French art of the 18th century. was much wider: he opened the way to modern subjects, to a heightened perception of lyrical shades of feelings, poetic communication with nature, a subtle sense of color.

After Watteau, who stood on the verge of two centuries, contradictions between various trends associated with the struggling forces of society began to emerge in French art more clearly. On the one hand, in the 1720-1730s. the art of rococo, which was already emerging earlier, is taking shape. It arises in direct proportion to the new principles of architecture and architectural decoration, when monumental ensembles are replaced by intimate mansions of the nobility, and works of art begin to be interpreted as elegant trinkets decorating the small interiors of these mansions. Ultimately, the hedonistic nature of Rococo, the weakening of interest in the cognitive value of art, is associated with the decline of noble culture at a time described by the words “after us - even a flood”. In the art of these decades, the ratio of types and genres is changing - historical and religious painting is in crisis, being replaced by ornamental and decorative panels, carpets and small desudeportes depicting gallant scenes, seasons, and allegories of art.

The heyday of the Rococo style dates back to the 1730s-1740s; An excellent example of this style in the visual arts is the picturesque and sculptural decor of the interiors of the Soubise Hotel in Paris. This ensemble was created in the second half of the 1730s by the joint efforts of many outstanding masters- architect Beaufran, sculptors - both Adanov and Lemoine, painters Boucher, Tremoliere, Vanloo and Natoire. One of the best interiors of the mansion is the oval Hall of the upper floor, the so-called Princess Salon. Large arched windows overlooking the courtyard alternate with doors and mirrors of the same shape and height. The use of mirrors in the composition of the interior does not make it grandiose, as it was in the Mirror Gallery of Versailles, where the mirrors were placed directly against the windows. In the oval hall, reflections complicate the interior, creating an imaginary spatial pattern, and the illusion of many asymmetrical openings makes the Princess Salon look like a garden gazebo. The interiors are dominated White color; exquisite light colors - pink and pale blue - reinforce the impression of lightness and grace. Above the arches of doors and windows there are gilded stucco cartouches, cupids, intertwining branches and decorative panels of Natuara, connected in a whimsical garland. This wavy, light pattern hides the boundary between walls and ceiling, while garlands stretching towards the ceiling's central rosette complete the decorative system. Natuara's painting, dedicated to the love story of Cupid and Psyche, becomes part of the pattern, an element of graceful decoration. The smooth wavy rhythms of the architectural ornament of the interior also pass into the compositions of the paintings, linking the figures with a decorative pattern.

Rococo hedonism is manifested in the deliberate sensuality of plots, the affectation of movements, the refinement of proportions and the sweetish tenderness of color shades - pink, greenish, blue. This direction of painting has become widespread in interior decoration, it reflects the typical features of the noble culture of the 18th century.

The interiors of the Soubise Hotel, like other mansions of the first half of the century, are a refined and organic ensemble of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art. Fine stucco decorations by the sculptor Erpen are combined with the picturesque panels of Tremoliere and Boucher above the door, elegant bronze linings adorn the doors and marble fireplaces, light green and crimson fabrics that cover the walls are embroidered with a gold pattern. The carved wooden Rococo furniture, sketches for which were made by the famous decorators Meissonier and Oppenor, is light and varied, its forms are whimsical like a decorative ornament, the curved supports seem unstable.

Heavy and pompous furniture of the 17th century. gives way to more comfortable sun loungers, armchairs and sofas, small chests of drawers and console tables. They are covered with delicate carvings in the form of scrolls, shells and bouquets, paintings depicting Chinese and pastoral motifs, and inlays. Just as the pattern in rocaille porcelain left a free “reserve” field, in furniture bronze overlays frame the often unadorned surface, composed of precious woods of various shades, with a light garland. The whimsical design and ornament eludes the clarity of outlines, miniature and sophistication correspond to the character of the interior. One of the most famous furniture makers of this time was Jacques Caffieri.

Rococo interiors were also characterized by tapestries made at the tapestry and Beauvais manufactory based on the cardboards of Jean Berin, Claude Audran, Jean Francois de Troy, Francois Boucher and other painters. Their subjects are gallant scenes and pastorals, hunting and seasons, Chinese motifs (“chinoiserie”). The latter is connected with the abundance of fabrics and porcelain brought from the East. Light colorful consonances and light graceful ornaments are typical for carpets of this time, designed to decorate rocaille interiors. The authors of tapestries for tapestries were most often masters of decorative panels. Among the decorators of the mid-18th century. the carver Jean Verberkt (Versailles interiors) and the painter Christophe Hue (interiors of the castle in Shan) stand out.

Invented at the end of the 17th century. French soft porcelain in the first half of the century developed slowly and was often imitative (manufactories of Saint Cloud, Chantilly and Mennessy). In fact, only in the middle of the century did the original porcelain production flourish - in the Vincennes and especially the Sevres manufactories. At the beginning of the 18th century the technique of silver (Thomas Germain and other masters) was more developed, as well as bronze items - clocks, girandoles and sconces, vases and floor lamps. As for porcelain, Vincennes products are associated with the work of Duplessis and Boucher, according to whose drawings they were made. The subsequent flourishing of the Sevres manufactory, where Falcone worked, was also largely due to the activities of Boucher. It was in this area that the exquisite skill of the rocaille decorator most organically manifested itself. Performed in the middle of the 18th century. in Sevres, according to his sketches, small sculptures of unglazed biscuit porcelain are perhaps the best of what he has done. Their lyrical subtlety and graceful elegance are stylistic features that are also characteristic of other types of decorative art of the era. After Boucher and Falcone, the sculptural workshops of Sevres were led by Le Rich, then Boiseau. Even in the second half of the century, French sculptors retained an interest in chamber forms of plastic arts. Models for Sevres were made by Sali, Pigalle, Clodion and others.

François Boucher (1703-1770) considered himself a follower of Watteau. He began by engraving his paintings. But there is a fundamental difference between the deep content of Watteau's art and the external decorativeism of Boucher's work, which became in the middle of the 18th century. trendsetter of artistic tastes in France. In the engravings of Boucher, Watteau's sharply typical genre scenes turned into ornamental vignettes. Similar principles were then embodied in rococo book illustrations - vignettes and endings that adorned the book with an exquisite pattern, just as stucco and desuports adorned rocaille interiors. Together with Lancret, Pater and Eisen Boucher, he engraved drawings for Lafontaine's fairy tales. This is the so-called Larmessen suite, executed in a mixed technique of chisel and etching.

Boucher's drawings are not as spiritual as Watteau's, but they are expressive and emotional in their own way. With almost calligraphic elegance, a watercolor and bistre drawing called “The Mill” (A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) was made. The composition of the drawing is emphatically decorative - a river, a tree and a cloud form a curved line, similar to the ornaments of this Epoch. In the landscape compositions of Boucher, yet devoid of truthfulness and sincere intoxication with nature, there is lyricism, they are enlivened by motifs taken from everyday life. In addition to sketches for tapestries and porcelain, engravings and drawings, Boucher painted numerous easel paintings, connected, however, with the same principles of rocaille interior decoration. He is the true creator of the French pastoral genre, depicting gallant shepherds and cutesy shepherds or sensual episodes of ancient mythology. Boucher's pastorals are sugary, they serve as an example of the sentimental noble fashion for "rural scenes". Such are the Louvre “Sleeping Shepherdess” (1745), “The Bathing of Diana” (1742) and other works depicting puppet figures in an elegant landscape. It was "the art of the pleasant", it wanted to please, but not disturb. In his youth, during an Italian trip, Boucher adopted some of Tiepolo's painting techniques, especially the lightness of the palette. The bodies of his nymphs seem to radiate a soft light, and the shadows and contours become pink. Boucher's unnatural colors are typical of the time when they were looking for exquisite, rare shades that often bore strange names: “pigeon neck”, “frisky shepherdess”, “color of lost time”, “merry widow” and even “color of the thigh of an agitated nymph”. The peculiarity of the painting style of Bush, an academic master, also consisted in the fact that he gravitated towards " great style”and used the methods of idealization, like the epigones of Lebrun. Academic triangular and pyramidal compositions along with asymmetric rocaille schemes are guessed in his paintings. This cold rationality also distinguishes Boucher from Watteau and his school. Not inclined, according to contemporaries, to look closely at nature, Boucher argued that she lacked harmony and charm, that she was devoid of perfection and poorly lit. Obviously, therefore, in his paintings, he tried to make it colorful and very light - pink and blue. Not surprisingly, Boucher's mannerisms were heavily criticized; the negative assessment of his art by enlighteners is known.

Around Boucher, who in the middle of the century was the leading master of Rococo, many artists of this direction were grouped - Charles Joseph Natoire, Pierre Charles Tremolier, Carl Vanloo, gallant painters of the older generation - Charles Antoine Coypel, Jean Marc Nattier.

Sculpture of the first half of the 18th century, like painting, was dependent on the principles of interior decoration. At the Hotel Soubise, the desudéportes are executed in relief, not to mention the figures of cupids woven into the stucco ornament. The mythological groups and portrait busts that stood in the interiors echoed the decorative sculpture. But in the first decades of the 18th century. in sculpture, the traditions of the Versailles school were strong with its monumentality and spatial scope. Many craftsmen who worked in the first half of the century completed orders for the Versailles park, Marly, grandiose Parisian ensembles built back in the 17th century. Guillaume Coustou the Elder (1677-1746) executed the groups of Marley horses, full of energy and expressiveness, now standing at the beginning of the Champs Elysees in Paris. He also owns the sculptures of the facade and the main tympanum of the portal of the Les Invalides - Mars, Minerva and Louis XIV among the allegorical figures.

Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762), a student of Coust, also worked at Versailles. And for its formation, the skills of the monumental palace school played a role. Among the most famous works Bushardon - not preserved equestrian statue Louis XV, which once stood in the center of the square of the same name (now Place de la Concorde), as well as a large fountain on the Parisian rue Grenelle (1739-1745). In the work of this master, new artistic techniques are determined. He frees himself from the heaviness of forms and pomp of draperies, characteristic of late Versailles classicism, and masters the lyrical theme, the grace of movements, the tenderness of light and shade transitions, the musicality of flexible lines. These features are also distinguished by the allegorical figures that adorn the fountain on the Rue Grenelle. It is a large architectural and sculptural composition similar to the facade of a house. The lower rusticated tier serves as a pedestal for the upper one, the center is marked by an Ionic portico of the upper tier, on both sides of it there are niches with statues, under the niches there are reliefs. This is a monument standing at the crossroads of an era: a concave wall with a protruding middle part recalls the whimsicalness of rocaille layouts; in allegorical images of rivers and especially in reliefs, lyrical, pastoral notes are strong; the portico, which serves as the center of the composition, unites it, giving austerity and restraint, unusual for Rococo. One of the most famous works of Bouchardon is the statue of Cupid (1739-1750; Louvre).

Most of all, the features of the Rococo style manifested themselves in the work of Jean Baptiste Lemoine (1704-1778). The main area of ​​his work - decorative plastic and especially portrait busts. He was one of those sculptors who worked at the Soubise Hotel - he owned allegorical figures there. In the portrait bust of a young girl from the collection of the Hermitage (Leningrad), the graceful asymmetry of the composition, the softness of the lines, the coquettish grace of movement - all these features of Lemoine's talent determine his role as the most typical rococo portrait painter, endowed with a lyrical gift and subtlety of perception, but not striving to reveal the complexity of the character.

Simultaneously with the development of Rococo art in French painting in the 1730s-1740s. a different, realistic direction is emerging, associated with the ideas of the third estate.

Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin (1699 -1779) studied with academic masters (Pierre Jacques Case, Noel Nicolas Coypel, Jean Baptiste Vanloo). In Kaz's workshop, he had to copy the teacher's paintings for a long time. Much later, he recalled this time: “We spend long days and nights by the light of lamps in front of motionless inanimate nature, before they give us living nature. And suddenly all the work of previous years seems to come to naught, we feel as confused as when we first picked up a pencil. It is necessary to train the eye to look at nature, and how many have never seen it and will never see it. This is the torment of our life" ( D. Diderot, Salon of 1765. - Collection. soch., vol. VI, M., 1946, pp. 94-95.).

Even in his youth, Chardin's attraction to the still life genre manifested itself, and in 1728 at the "youth exhibition", which was held from time to time in one of the main Parisian squares (Dauphin Square), he showed two compositions - "Buffet" and "Slope" ( Louvre). They were successful and introduced Chardin to the ranks of academics. In these works, the influence of Flemish painting was rightly noted; they are decorative and at the same time enriched with a thoughtful contemplation of nature. Chardin gravitated not to the large verbose compositions of the Flemings, but to the more concentrated and in-depth Dutch "breakfasts". Pretty soon he turned to modest subjects. These are "kitchen still lifes" in the spirit of Kalf, still dark in colors, among which green, olive and brown prevail. Already in the early still lifes, the balance of masses is subtly calculated, but the objects are still somehow scattered and the exact transfer of form seems prosaic.

The household genre occupied in the 1730-1740s. a leading place in the work of Chardin, who won the sympathy of the audience as a painter of the third estate.

His "Washerwomen", "Cooks", which appeared in the second half of the 1730s, differed from Boucher's sugary pastorals in their modest poetry, caught in everyday life. Chardin's paintings are characterized by subtle emotionality and soft sincerity. The subjects he chooses are also peculiar. They do not have an active action, a difficult situation. The relationships of the characters are revealed not in some unusual moment of their lives, but in the calm, leisurely current everyday activities. His art is contemplative, there are no complex, dramatic life problems in it. At that time, there were still no sufficient prerequisites for the emergence of another, more effective ideal.

The Cook (1738; Vienna, Liechtenstein Gallery) is presented thoughtfully; the artist seems to delay the flow of time, replacing direct action with meditation. This is a favorite device of his early days, by means of which the significance of the most ordinary episode is enhanced.

One of the greatest pictorial conquests of Chardin is that he widely applied the system of color reflections. Here, for example, the white color is woven from pink, yellow, light blue, gray shades. Small strokes placed one next to the other evoke a feeling of vibrant color transitions and the relationship of objects with their environment.

By the end of the 1730s. in the everyday genre of Chardin, plot ideas become more complicated, moral notes become more noticeable. Almost all genre paintings of these years depict scenes of upbringing: The Governess (Vienna), two paired compositions exhibited at the Salon of 1740 - The Hardworking Mother and Prayer Before Dinner (both in the Louvre). In "A Prayer Before Dinner" three characters - a mother and two little girls - are connected by an uncomplicated everyday situation; the viewer easily guesses many shades in the calm benevolence of the mother, the direct emotions of the children.

Chardin's genre paintings are a poetic story about the "good morals" of ordinary people, about the dignity of their way of life. Chardin's realism was one of the first manifestations of the democratic thought of the Enlightenment with its belief in the dignity of man, with his idea of ​​the equality of people. The creative searches of the painter echoed the reflections of the enlighteners. By 1740, when The Hardworking Mother and The Prayer Before Dinner were exhibited, Rousseau's early pedagogical work dates back, setting out projects for the education of "good morals" by no means in a polemically pointed form.

Lyrical emotionality is one of the main properties of Chardin's art. Engraver Koshen in his biography reports one statement of the master, which sounded like a creative credo. Angry with the chatter of a superficial artist who became interested in the secrets of painting, Chardin asked: “But who told you that they paint with paints?” “But what?” he wondered. - "They use paints," answered Chardin, "but they write with feeling."

In the field of genre painting, Chardin had followers who grouped around him: Zhora, Cano, Dumesnil the Younger. To this must be added the names of many engravers who came to the fore under the influence of his art. These are Leba, Ville, Lepisye, Kar, Syuryug, Flipar and others. According to the art critic Lafon de Saint-Ien, engravings from Chardin's paintings were sold out very quickly. In the 1750s and 1760s, when new forms of everyday genre were developing, preaching bourgeois virtue, the sixty-year-old artist created almost nothing new in genre painting; asserting the ethical dignity of the common man, Chardin remained a stranger to deliberate moralization.

The genre of everyday life and still life were closely connected in the art of Chardin. For a painter of the third estate, still life was a deeply meaningful genre of art. He not only spoke about the dignity and poetry of everyday life, he affirmed the beauty and significance of being; Chardin's work resounds with the pathos of understanding nature, revealing the structure and essence of things, their individuality, the patterns of their relationships. Things in his still lifes are spiritualized by the perceived closeness of a person; the naturalness of the arrangement of objects is combined with compositional logic, balance, and precise calculation of relationships. The harmonic clarity of the figurative structure of the still life inspires the viewer with respect for the strict dignity of simple objects of human use. Such are the Louvre "Copper Tank" and the Stockholm "Still Life with a Hare".

By the middle of the 18th century. new coloristic problems were widely discussed by all artists; in 1749, academicians listened to a speech by the master of still life and landscape Jean-Baptiste Oudry about the benefits of comparing objects for a painter who studies the possibilities of color. In a review of the Salon of 1757, under the meaningful title "Observations on Physics and the Arts," Gauthier Dagoty wrote that objects are reflected one in the other.

In the works of Chardin, the picturesque surface is, as it were, woven from the smallest strokes; in the mature period of creativity, the strokes are wider and freer, although they always feel the restraint of the calm and thoughtful nature of the artist. The freshness of colors and the richness of Chardin's reflexes are striking even now, when his still lifes hang next to the works of other masters of the 18th century (Orange and Silver Goblet, 1756; Paris, private collection). He conveys not only the features of the texture of objects, but also makes them feel their flesh - for example, tender pulp and overflows of juices under the transparent skin of ripe fruits (“Basket of plums”, Salon 1765; Paris, private collection). Chardin was considered one of the most authoritative connoisseurs of colorful compositions, and it was he who was instructed by the Academy to check the quality of new paints.

Chardin sculpts the shape of the object solidly and confidently, working with colorful "paste", like a ceramist with his future pots. This is how House of Cards (1735; Uffizi) was made; in the still life “Pipes and Jug” (Louvre), a faience vessel is molded with a very dense layer of paint.

The poetry of everyday life, a subtle insight into the essence of things, the lyrical emotionality of color and compositional logic are the most significant differences between Chardin's art and the previous stage in the development of realistic still life.

Chardin was alien to the haste in the implementation of the plan, he worked slowly, carefully considering every detail. The thoughtfulness of the work process was all the more important because Chardin, apparently, did not make preliminary sketches. His contemporary Mariette speaks directly about this. Indeed, Chardin's drawings have hardly come down to us. There are no obvious traces of major corrections to the drawing in his paintings. With this nature of the work, the deep knowledge of drawing and the mastery of composition that the artist possessed stand out especially prominently. His compositions are built extremely well and thoroughly, for example, "Drafter" from the Stockholm Museum.

In the 1770s Chardin was already at an advanced age; during these years, another portrait cycle arose. In earlier portraits of Chardin (for example, in the image of the son of the jeweler Godefroy), character traits were revealed through an occupation that is so important in the picture that it is perceived more as a genre scene. It is no coincidence that the portrait of Godefroy's son is better known as "Boy with a top" (1777; Louvre). In the 1770s, turning to the pastel technique, Chardin focuses on the very appearance of the person being portrayed. In these works, the type of man of the third estate crystallizes. Such is the portrait of the artist's wife (1775; Louvre). In her preoccupation and seriousness of her gaze - traces of everyday small anxieties and unrest - the features of housekeeping and prudence appear, inherent in the very way of life embodied in this image. "Self-portrait with a green visor" (1775; Louvre) represents Chardin himself in home clothes. In a clear volume of the figure, for which the format of the picture is cramped, the hardness of the posture is read. In the confidence of the pose, reinforced by a restrained turn of the head, in the insight of an attentive look, the strict dignity of a stern and demanding person who has passed a long and difficult life path appears.

Almost simultaneously with the work of Chardin, the portrait art of Latour, one of the largest realism phenomena of the mid-18th century, took shape.

At the beginning of the century, the traditions of the ceremonial painting prevailed, of which Rigaud and Largilliere were representatives; however, their work was influenced by new ideas, and the poetry of feeling pushed aside the pathos of the majestic. As in other genres, in the 1730s and 1740s, various trends in portraiture emerged. Rococo painters Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766), Drouet and others decorated court ladies with attributes of ancient goddesses in their paintings. Mannerism and idealization determined the success of Nattier at court. Like Boucher, Nattier did not burden the model with many sessions, limiting himself to a cursory sketch from nature. Contemporaries said that Nattier likens his genre to historical, by which they then understood the artist’s desire for “apotheosis”, idealization, and decoration of nature. In his portraits there is some kind of puppet beauty, the colors are conventional, the silhouettes are exquisite; he reveals not the psychologism of a portrait painter, but the skills of a flattering and skillful decorator. Such, for example, is the portrait of the Duchess de Cholin in the form of Hebe (1744; Louvre). Describing the Salon of 1747, the critic St. Yen ridiculed these "funny apotheoses" of elderly ladies.

Louis Toquet (1696-1772), a follower of Nattier, had a more prosaic, narrative gift. He honored the hierarchy of genres and, gravitating towards the intimacy of portraiture, also used the traditional forms of Rigaud’s ceremonial composition (“Maria Leshchinskaya”; Louvre). In a speech at an academic conference in 1750, he recommended that portrait painters capture favorable conditions that make the face look pretty. Still, Toquet worked more from nature than Nattier, and his love of detail helped him convey the individuality of the model. His portraits are more natural and simpler.

In the 1730s and 1740s, realistic tendencies in portraiture grew stronger. They acted at first in the form of a "genre portrait" of Chardin. Similar features were visible in the art of the portrait painter Jacques André Joseph Aved. In the same years, Latour made his first works.

Maurice Quentin de Latour (1704-1788) was born in the town of Saint Quentin. In his youth, he went to Paris and studied there with minor artists, was influenced by pastelists - the Italian Rosalba Carriera and the Frenchman Vivien. He was noted to have "a natural gift for grasping facial features at a glance", but this gift developed slowly. Only by the mid-1730s. Latour gained fame, in 1737 he was added to the Academy as a "pastel portrait painter", and a year later Voltaire himself called him famous.

The first work of Latour, the date of which we know, is a portrait of Voltaire. Latour's early successes date back to the resumption of the Louvre exhibitions in 1737-1739.

In the Salon of 1742, he exhibited a portrait of Abbé Hubert (Geneva, Museum). The genre nature of this composition brings it closer to similar paintings by Chardin. The learned abbot bent over the tome. The lyrical characterization of Chardin’s model is replaced here by the desire to catch the complex movement of thoughts and feelings at the moment of their active life: with the finger of his right hand, Abbé Hubert holds the pages of the book, as if comparing two passages from this work (“Experiments” by Montaigne). Unlike such portrait painters as Nattier, Latour not only avoided "decorating" the model, but also exposed her originality. Hubert's irregular facial features are imbued with intellectual power. Heavy wrinkled eyelids hide a penetrating gaze, a mocking smile. The facial expressions of the abbot convey a sense of the extraordinary mobility and energy of this person.

The method of characterizing the person being portrayed with the help of expressive facial expressions, which conveys the active life of thought, is due to the ideals of Latour. This is not just a new social type of the first Chardin portraits with its moral virtues. Before us is an active character imbued with the critical spirit of the times.

In the first half of the 1740s. Latour also painted large formal portraits. Having submitted a portrait of the painter Rétoux to the Academy in 1746, Latour received the title of academician.

Among the great compositions of these years, the portrait of Duval de l "Epine (1745; Rothschild collection) stands out, called by his contemporaries the" king of pastel ". Indeed, this is one of the best works 1740s. The accuracy of the characteristic borders on ruthlessness. A amiable smile and a seemingly absent-minded benevolent look look like a cold mask, common for the canonical forms of a formal portrait.

It is in such works of Latour that the vigilance of the artist is so similar to the dispassion of the naturalist. This is understandable - such a model can rather develop the analytical ability of the painter than excite his feelings. In the arrogant expression of thin dry lips, in the alertness of the gaze, distrust, skepticism and arrogance emerge, as if “seeing through” through the appearance. That is why the portrait of Duval de l "Epine, with all the seeming impassivity of the image, evokes emotions in the viewer that are unlike those that arise when contemplating the portrait of Hubert, where the artist unconditionally sympathizes with the model. Here Latour, as it were, leads the viewer from the canonical mask of an amiable and ironic secular interlocutor to true traits of nature.He forces to compare the mask and the essence.

In the 1750s Latour performed his most famous works. At the Salon of 1753, he exhibited a series of portraits depicting the philosophers of the Enlightenment, writers and scientists of France. One of the most important aspects of the master's work at this time is the affirmation of the dignity of an active and strong-willed personality. Portrait images of Latour tend to be intellectual. The artist avoided the obscure, dark sides of human nature, those qualities that are not illuminated by the light of reason. The spirit of criticism and analytical subtlety were complemented by the intellectualism that was generated by the time of the struggle of advanced thought against the old, dying order. These features also appeared in many of Latour's self-portraits.

Among the works of 1753 is a portrait of d'Alembert (Louvre; preparatory sketch in the Latour museum in Saint Quentin). Facial features are in motion, glare of light enhances the feeling of the variability of a smile and a lively look. The character of the brilliant polemicist, who was the soul of philosophical disputes, is revealed, as it were, in communication with the interlocutor. This is a typical Latour technique.

Rousseau spoke with admiration of Latour's "rare talents" and of the portrait he had executed. The image of Rousseau is known in several versions. In the portrait from the Saint-Quentin Museum, Rousseau is pensive and melancholic, but his eyes are full of special liveliness, reminiscent of the ability of this person to surrender with all his heart to the charm of life. The portrait contains the emotional enthusiasm so characteristic of the soul of the author of The New Eloise.

In another composition (1753; Paris, Pom collection), his chestnut eyes are restless, sad, his eyebrows are frowned and his forehead between them is wrinkled in folds. Here, in the guise of the person being portrayed, the angularity and compulsion of a person who does not seek to please are noticeable. A complex, contradictory image arises, combining sensitivity and skepticism, subtlety and coarse harshness, incredulity and hidden enthusiasm. A remarkable role in this characterization is played by a melancholy, ready to disappear smile.

Apparently by the 1750s. should be attributed to the flourishing of "preparations" Latour, preparatory sketches for portraits. Latour's portrait sketches are distinguished by freedom of stroke, sketchiness of texture, and a variety of techniques: pastel is mixed in them with pencil, chalk, and sanguine. But they have a high figurative and formal completeness.

Most of these sketches are kept in the Saint Quentin Museum.

One of the best is a sketch of a portrait of the actress Marie Fell (Saint Quentin, Latour Museum; the portrait itself, exhibited at the Salon of 1757, has not reached us). She is presented in a role from Rameau's opera Zoroaster, so she is adorned with a light blue turban with a gold ribbon and scarlet and white flowers. The spiritual softness of nature is intertwined here with the charm of acting inspiration. In the graceful turn of the actress's head there is a hint of stage convention, but it gives way to the sincerity of a gentle caressing look and a touching thoughtful smile.

Women's portraits of Latour are very different. In each of them, the insight and subtlety of the characterization are striking - the proud and slightly ironic Camargo, the modest, direct Dangeville, the bold and stubborn Favard, hiding the natural mind under the mask of naive rusticity. All of these are outstanding actresses, and the imprint of their artistic individuality is invariably present in the psychological drawing. So, in the guise of Justine Favard (Saint-Quentin), in her lively mockery, in her gaze, full of bold slyness and impudent enthusiasm, the features of the stage type created by her are also manifested. But artistic talent acts as the most important and, moreover, socially significant quality of individuality.

This is one of the foundations of the broad public resonance of Latour's art. He reflected in the portrait not only the social position of a person - this was done by other painters - but also that activity of nature, which corresponded to the content and nature of the activity of the person being portrayed.

Judging by many reports, Latour was a firm and independent person. Sharp with the nobility, hurting his pride, he refused the order granted by Louis XV. The desire to assert the independence of the artist was combined in him with a keen interest in advanced social thought - Diderot's "Salons" store many evidence of the ideological closeness of the painter and his critics, and Latour's letters contain interesting discussions about the variability of nature, about building perspective in a portrait, about the individualization of characters and respectively - painting techniques.

Latour enriched the pastel technique, which was distinguished by such tenderness of velvety texture, such purity of color, giving it a special plastic power.

Creating a portrait, Latour dispensed with accessories; studying the face, he did not even notice the expressiveness of the hands. But Latour portrayed the face with amazing skill. No wonder he forced the person being portrayed to pose for a long time, maintaining a lively and witty conversation with him. Studying the interlocutor, he seemed to be playing a subtle game with him. It seems that Marmontel, without suspecting himself, became a victim of this game when he listened to Latour, "leading the destinies of Europe."

Latour spoke of those whom he portrayed: "They think that I capture only the features of their faces, but without their knowledge I descend into the depths of their soul and take it entirely."

Maybe the artist exaggerated - not all of his works are so deep; and yet these words of the most insightful portrait painter, "professing" his model, could serve as an epigraph to his work. “The face of a man,” wrote Diderot, “is a changeable canvas that agitates, moves, tenses, softens, colors and fades, obeying the countless changes of light and quick breaths that are called the soul.” The ability to catch the shades of spiritual movements, while maintaining the certainty of characterization, is one of the main properties of Latour's realism. He chose such states, which in themselves are distinguished by special liveliness - it is not without reason that he so often depicted his heroes smiling. The smile in Latour's portraits is intellectual. Moreover, the inner world of the person portrayed is revealed with particular brightness in the subtlest psychological expressiveness of a smile that truly illuminates the face.

When comparing the portraiture of Latour and Perronneau, it is often overlooked that Jean-Baptiste Perronneau was eleven years younger than Latour (1715-1783). First known date portrait work of Perronno - 1744, at this time french portrait was already highly developed. Perronneau followed the path trodden by his predecessors, and it is not surprising that he soon seemed to be the same age as Latour.

He studied under the academician Natoire, but chose the genre of small-sized portraits, mostly bust, less often half-length. The influence of Latour and the proximity to him were unanimously noted by contemporaries; It's about the general direction. Probably already from 1744 Perronneau began a wandering life; in search of livelihood, he had to travel around Europe. He was not a fashionable court painter, like Nattier, and orders were not easy for him. Customers write about the diligence of Perronno, that he was ready to kill his model, striving for accuracy and perfection of the image. All this did not make his life secure, and he often mentions in his letters about his poverty and failures.

In his work, two decades can be distinguished, which were periods of heyday. The first decade - between 1744 and 1753, the time of the first major successes, the time of recognition of the outstanding talent of Perronno. The second period covers the 1760s.

Describing the artistic techniques of Perronno, critics most often spoke of the grace of the brushstroke, the subtlety of color, and the spirituality of the drawing. These are lyrical virtues, and Perronnot was valued precisely for them; the usual properties of his model for his art are natural kindness, spiritual softness, the uncertainty of changeable emotions.

In his works, the tenderness of color, combinations of gray and olive, green and pink, blue and black shades, united by a silvery tonality, are especially attractive (“Portrait of a boy with a book”, 1740s, Hermitage, see illustration; “Portrait of Mr. Ms. Sorkenville, Louvre). Small strokes and color reflections bring Perronno closer to Chardin. He perfectly reproduced the delicate softness of the skin, the density of a good fabric, the lightness of lightly powdered hair, the warm shimmer of jewelry.

The art of Perronno is far from the intellectualism of Latour, from the programmatic statement of a bright personality. But his images are poetic in their own way: it is no coincidence that he was inclined to depict children and women. The lyrical language of Perronno's art served him excellently when it was necessary to convey the charm of a young soul. One of the best examples of this is the portrait of the draftsman's daughter Yukyo (pastel, Louvre). In most cases, Perronno's characters look at the viewer, confiding their spiritual secrets to him. Here the gaze is turned to the side. This makes the painter's touch on the inner life of the person being portrayed more careful and delicate. The sly, tender smile is somewhat indefinite; the transitions from light to shadow are so elusive that the graceful head of Mademoiselle Yukier seems shrouded in a transparent haze.

Among the portrait painters of the second half of the 18th century. Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802), Adelaide Labille-Guillard (1749-1803) stand out.

In the middle of the 18th century enters the heyday of graphics - drawing, engraving, book illustration. Its successes are generally characteristic of this era, when it acquired relative independence. This was facilitated by the development of genre themes and the growth of respect for the dignity of sketching from life. Masters of drawing appear, creating various suites on the themes of modern life. These processes are all the more understandable because the expansion of the range of subjects took place at that time in genre painting.

Etienne Jora, a follower of Chardin, makes scenes in the market town square and episodes of street life the subjects of his genre paintings. In the art of the 1750s the narrative beginning is intensified, the genre writers go beyond the limits of home impressions, the interior genre. Painters J.-B. Benard and Jean-Baptiste Leprince in the same years turn to "rural scenes", similar subjects are found among the drawings of the gifted engraver Ville.

One of the most talented draftsmen of the mid-18th century. was Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780). The son of an artisan, Saint-Aubin taught drawing at an architectural school in his youth. In the early 1750s. he twice tried to win the Prix de Rome, but each time it was only the second prize, and academic grants proved unattainable for him. The artist's ideas in the field of historical painting remained in sketches, and he reworked the compositions he had begun so many times that he eventually abandoned it without finishing. But he was very good at drawings based on live observations of everyday life in Paris.

There were two talented draftsmen in the Saint-Aubin family; the second was Augustin (1737-1807). The brothers' talents are different - Augustin's drawing is primarily accurate and narrative, but it also has the sophistication of a subtle elegant touch. Gaining fame, Augustin becomes a chronicler of official festivities and ceremonies. But in the 1750s he is still united with Gabriel by something that is generally characteristic of these years. So, in 1757, Augustin engraved scenes for the Scenic Journey through Paris.

In the work of Gabriel, the plot diversity is striking - he draws fairs and salons, city parks and theater halls, scenes in the streets and squares, lectures of scientists and mesmeric sessions, monuments and landscapes, holidays and dinners, walks and toilets, statues and paintings - from the Louvre to Saint Cloud and Versailles. Under these drawings are often signed: "Made during a walk." He appreciated not only the diversity of life, but also the specificity of types, in this he is faithful to the traditions of French engraving "fashions and customs". One of his best works is the etching "View of the Louvre Salon in 1753". The composition of the etching consists of two tiers - at the top you can see the paintings hung on the walls, and the public looking at them, at the bottom - visitors hurrying to the exhibition, climbing the stairs. Especially expressive is the lonely figure of an old man full of anticipation. The excitement and liveliness of the crowd, the concentrated thoughtfulness of connoisseurs, the expressive gestures of controversy lovers - all this is keenly noticed by the engraver. In exquisite tonal gradations there is a special spirituality and emotionality that are reminiscent of Watteau.

Saint-Aubin was looking for a flexible and free technique that could convey the variability of the world, the dynamics of its forms. He used lead and Italian pencils, appreciating the softness and depth of the black tone in them, he liked to work with pen and brush, using Chinese ink with a wash, bistre, sepia, yellowish and pale blue. watercolor paints. Italian pencil in his drawings is combined with bistre and pastel, lead pencil - with Chinese ink and sanguine. This mixture of different technical means is a feature of the graphics of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin.

In his later years, Saint-Aubin illustrated the works of the playwright Seden, Mercier's books. It is curious that he himself was the author of satirical poems; among them is an epigram on Bush.

In the middle of the century, the number of engravers depicting scenes of modern mores multiplies. These are Cochin, Gravelo, Eisen, Jean Michel Moreau the Younger. Their art was the most important stage in the development of book illustration - one of the most exquisite creations of graphic culture of the 18th century. Particularly expressive are the engravings of Moreau the Younger, scenes of social life; he was one of the best writers of everyday life in France of that time.

A lot of interesting things at this time in the technique of engraving. The popularity of engraving entailed the improvement of technology, and discoveries followed the search. It is characteristic that the discovered varieties of techniques were united by the desire for lively expressiveness, for dynamic and free techniques. Gilles Demarto begins to work in a pencil manner, developing the discovery of one of his predecessors, F. Charpentier invents lavis - an imitation of blurring in engraving, and the genre painter Leprince, picking up this innovation, develops the aquatint technique. Finally, later there is a color engraving based on lavis and aquatint (Jean Francois Jeaninet, Louis Philibert Debucourt).

At the end of the 18th century, a new rise in French graphics is associated with a reflection of the events of the revolution, which put forward a brilliant galaxy of draftsmen - Prieur, Thevenin, Monnet, Elman, Duplessis-Berto, Svebach and others.

The development of realism in the middle of the century, the aggravation of contradictions and the struggle of trends in art - all this caused the rise of the theory of art, an unprecedented activity of art criticism. By the middle of the century, when, in the words of Voltaire, the nation finally began to talk about bread, the camp of bourgeois enlighteners rallied, in 1751 putting forward their “battle tower” - the Encyclopedia against the aristocrats and the church. An ideological struggle also unfolded in the field of aesthetics. As you know, the enlighteners believed that it was possible to remake society with the help of moral education, therefore, first of all, it is necessary to overthrow immorality and the means by which it is planted in society. When the Dijon Academy put forward the theme "Did the revival of sciences and arts improve morals?" Rousseau replied in the negative, branding art as a flower garland on the iron chains of slavery. In essence, he branded noble culture with its perversity and hostility to nature. With a clear difference, there is an undoubted commonality between this war of Rousseau against a false civilization and the exposure of Rococo art, which can be found in everyone, Diderot's Salon.

Much in enlightenment aesthetics is directed towards the establishment of realism in art. Diderot, who supported the realist artists Chardin, Latour and others, tirelessly repeated this. Diderot's art criticism is perhaps the first example of an active intrusion of an advanced thinker into the field of artistic practice, evaluating the phenomena of art in terms of their realistic value and democratic orientation.

Diderot's aesthetic theory lived the concrete life of art, and in this way it opposed the speculative, speculative constructions of academic theorists. Along with the demands of truth in art, Diderot, analyzing modern painting and sculpture, puts forward the problem of action. He is concerned that the everyday genre is becoming art for the elderly. He wants to see the action in the portrait and falls upon Latour, so dear to his heart, for not making an image of "Cato of our days" from the portrait of Rousseau.

It was during these years that the word "energy" came into use in France. The problem of action in the visual arts for Diderot is the problem of the social activity of art. Anticipating what would come later, he sought to catch and support in painting thought, ardor, imagination - everything that could contribute to the awakening of the nation.

Speaking about the transfer of the class position of people in painting, Diderot does not mean external attributes that would explain to the viewer who he sees in the portrait. It implies the imprint of this position in the human psyche, his inner world, the nature of emotions. "The figures and faces of artisans preserve the skills of shops and workshops." The call to study how the environment shapes the nature of a person, and, finally, to depict a simple person in art was characteristic of the aesthetics of the Enlightenment.

Arguing about the veracity of the artistic image, Diderot in his "Experience on Painting" generalized realistic searches contemporary artists. Particularly interesting are his remarks about aerial perspective and color reflections, about chiaroscuro and expressiveness.

Diderot's aesthetic concepts are not without controversy. Rebuking Boucher, he enthusiastically talks about delicacy and elegance in works of art; knowing how to appreciate the picturesque virtues of Chardin, he comes into indescribable admiration for the sugary "heads" of Greuze, declaring that they are higher than the paintings of Rubens. These irreconcilable contradictions of assessments are generated by the very essence of the views of the bourgeois enlighteners.

Attaching great educational importance to art, the enlighteners considered it as a means of educating morals in accordance with their theory of "natural man". But since it was precisely at this point, in the realm of ethics, that they turned towards idealism, the supposed goodness of the bourgeois became the subject of idealization in art. Contrasting the viciousness of the aristocrats with an abstract virtue, the enlighteners did not see what capitalism brought with it. Therefore, the bourgeois heroes in Diderot's own dramas are unreal, lifeless and stilted, serving as mouthpieces for delivering sermons. Perhaps the weakest point in enlightenment aesthetics is the demand for morality in art, and the palest pages of essays devoted to art are those where enthusiasm is lavished on the genre of morality. Diderot's blindness in such cases is striking. Particularly curious are those touching stories that he himself composed for painters.

In the visual arts, the artist whose work reflected these contradictions was Jean-Baptiste Greuse (1725-1805). Grez studied in Lyon with the second-rate painter Grandon. The first fame was brought to him by the genre painting "Father of the Family Reading the Bible". In the 1750s he traveled to Italy and brought home scenes from there, in which, apart from the plot, there is nothing Italian. A struggle unfolds around him. The director of the royal buildings, the Marquis of Marigny, tried to attract him with orders for allegorical compositions for the Marquise Pompadour, and offered to send him to Italy. Enlighteners supported the democratism of the plots of Greuze, who acted as a painter of the third estate.

Greuze's programmatic work was exhibited at the Salon of 1761. This is the "Country Bride" (Louvre). Grez's painting is not only an image of one of the moments of home life. The task that he quite consciously set for himself was much broader - in a detailed multi-figure composition to present an exceptional event in family life, glorifying the good morals of the third estate. Therefore, around the main thing in the event - the transfer of the dowry by the father of the family to his son-in-law - the story of how enthusiastically the respectful members of the family perceive this "extraordinary movement of the soul" solemnly unfolds. The composition is built in a new way: the characters of the Dream feel as if on a stage, they do not live, do not act, but represent. The arrangement of characters, their gestures and facial expressions are thought out as if by a director brought up by the school of “tearful comedy”. So, the two sisters of the newlywed are compared, as it were, for the purpose of comparing the devotion and tenderness of one and the reprehensible envy of the other. The English playwright Goldsmith wrote about similar phenomena in theatrical art: "In these plays, almost all the characters are good and extremely noble: they distribute their tin money on the stage with a generous hand."

Even at the Salon of 1761, Grez exhibited several drawings for the Hermitage painting Paralytic. Among the sketches for this painting, a watercolor called "Grandmother" (Paris, private collection) is known. The watercolor depicts a poor dwelling, children crowded around a sick old woman under the stairs. The persuasiveness of the poses, the vitality of the situation are reminiscent of the work of Grez from life. Known for his drawings of Parisian merchants, beggars, peasants, artisans. At the beginning of the artist's work on the painting, sketches from nature were played important role. But when comparing the sketch with the painting exhibited at the Salon of 1763, a change is noticeable. Postures and movements became affected and somehow wooden, the family rushed to the paralytic, depriving him of his last strength with a noisy parade of their gratitude and zeal. The rag, hanging in the sketch on the crooked railing of the stairs, in the picture turns into a majestic drapery. This sheet, like a family banner, crowns the pyramidal group of virtuous heroes. Summarizing, Grez resorts to academic compositional techniques, placing the characters along the foreground "in bas-relief". Many of Greuze's drawings are endowed with features of realism; they are based on the observation of life. But the artist's creative method tends to be external, stereotyped. This process is reminiscent of an attempt by an academician of the 17th century. Lebrun to reduce all the diversity of human feelings to a few formulas of abstract passions.

In the 1760s with each new work, the heroes of Grez, as it were, acquire “petrified epithets” - the suffering father of the family, the vicious son, the respectful son-in-law, the evil stepmother, etc. , other).

The composition "North and Caracalla" (Salon 1769; Louvre) is the story of a virtuous father and a vicious son, elevated to the rank of a historical painting. On the one hand, Grez's family virtue became more and more abstract, and its "historical glorification" is quite logical from this point of view. But at the same time, there is a significant new connotation here. Caracalla is not only a vicious son, but also a bad ruler. By refusing to Greuze to accept this picture, the Academy (it was then headed by the aged Boucher) protested against the civic motive that was preparing what was happening already in the 1770s. the replacement of family virtue with civil virtue.

In the works of Greuze of the late period, there is more and more mannerisms. Such are The Broken Jug (Louvre), Dead Birds, Heads and Morning Prayers with their ambiguities, philistine sentimentality and bad painting. It is not surprising that it was Grez who said: "Be spicy if you cannot be truthful." "The art of pleasing" prevailed over the desire to express the progressive ideas of the time in painting.

Greuze founded a whole trend in French painting of the second half of the 18th century (Lepissier, Aubry and many others). It developed in the 1770s, when the art of revolutionary classicism was already taking shape. Therefore, the moralistic genre of this time turned out to be a minor phenomenon in French painting. Etienne Aubry, one of the most typical followers of Greuze, drew the plots of his paintings not from life, but from Marmontel's Moral Tales. In the work of Nicolas Bernard Lepissier (1735-1784) there is another side of the late sentimental genre - idyllicity. Falcone once rightly remarked: "The more obvious the efforts to move us, the less we are moved."

When evaluating the art of Greuze and his followers, one should not confuse the preaching of virtue with another current of sentimentalism of the 18th century, associated with the worldview of Rousseau. The attraction to nature, which is characteristic of the second half of the century, was, in particular, a prerequisite for the development of realistic trends in the landscape art of this era.

At the beginning of the 18th century the foundations of a new perception of nature - its lyricism, emotionality, the ability to be in tune with the movements of the human soul - were laid in the work of Watteau. This art developed then within the framework of other genres: landscape backgrounds in cardboard for carpets, as well as in battle and animalistic compositions. The most interesting are the hunting scenes of François Deporte (1661-1743) and Oudry (1686-1755); live observations are most noticeable in Deporte's studies ("Valley of the Seine", Compiègne).

Major masters of landscape painting proper appeared in the middle of the 18th century. The eldest of them was Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). At the age of twenty he went to Italy and lived there for seventeen years. Therefore, Vernet became famous in France in the 1750s. after success at the Louvre Salon in 1753. Creativity Vernet recalls the traditions of Claude Lorrain - his landscapes are decorative. Sometimes Vernet is inclined to lyrical motifs, sometimes to dramatic notes, in his later years he especially often used the romantic effects of a storm and moonlight. Vernet is a skillful storyteller, he has many species landscapes; such is the famous series "Ports of France", many sea and park views. The landscapes of this artist enjoyed considerable popularity as part of the interior decoration.

Louis Gabriel Moreau the Elder (1739-1805) - later master of landscape painting. He usually wrote views of Paris and its environs - Meudon, Saint Cloud, Bagatelle, Louveciennes. Moreau was famous for his elegant landscape drawings - such as "Landscape with a Park Fence" (watercolor and gouache; Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts). His works are refined, somewhat cold, but subtle in color. Moreau's poetic and vital powers of observation were refracted in such works as The Hills at Meudon (Louvre). His paintings are small in size, the painter's handwriting is calligraphic.

The most famous landscape painter of the second half of the 18th century. was Hubert Robert (1733-1808). During the years spent in Italy, Robert was imbued with reverence for antiquity, for the ruins of Ancient Rome. This is an artist of a new generation, inspired by the ideas of classicism. But it is especially characteristic of Robert's art organic compound interest in antiquity with an attraction to nature. This is the most important trend of French culture in the second half of the 18th century, when in antiquity and nature they saw the prototypes of freedom and the natural state of man. After the artist returned to Paris, he received numerous commissions for architectural landscapes. They had a decorative purpose, decorating the interiors of new classicist mansions. They were also ordered by Russian nobles, such as Yusupov for the estate in Arkhangelsk.

Creating a picture, Robert fantasized, composed, although he used sketches from nature. Like Piranesi, he combined different ruins and monuments in one picture. The artist is characterized by the majesty of architectural motifs. In terms of method and subjects, he is a typical master of classicism. But the realistic tendencies of the landscape of the second half of the 18th century. define a lot in his art. The surface of old stones is saturated with light, he likes to convey the play of light, hanging shining transparent wet linen among the dark ruins. Sometimes a stream flows at the foot of the buildings, and the washerwomen's laundry is rinsed in it. The airiness and softness of the nuances of color are characteristic of Robert's landscapes; in its range there is a wonderful variety of green and pearl-gray shades, among which a restrained accent is often placed by vermilion.

For the development of landscape painting in the second half of the 18th century, new principles of park planning were very important, replacing the regular system. No wonder Robert was fond of "Anglo-Chinese" gardens, imitating nature that was in the spirit of the time sentimentalism. At the end of the 1770s. he supervised the alteration of a similar park at Versailles; on the advice of landscape painters, the gardens of Ermenonville, Bagatelle, Chantilly, Méreville (the latter - according to Robert's plan) were broken at this time. These were gardens for philosophers and dreamers - with whimsical paths, shady alleys, rustic huts, architectural ruins, conducive to reflection. In turn, the search for naturalness in landscape parks, their compositional freedom, intimate motives - all this influenced landscape painting, stimulated its realistic tendencies.

The greatest painter and graphic artist of the second half of the century was Honore Fragonard (1732-1806). At the age of seventeen, Fragonard went to the workshop of Boucher, who sent him to Chardin; after spending six months with Chardin, the young artist returned to Bush. Fragonard had to help the teacher to carry out large orders. In 1752, Fragonard received the Prix de Rome for his composition on a biblical story. In 1756 he became a student of the French Academy in Rome. Five Italian years were very fruitful for the artist. He could no longer look at the world through Bush's eyes.

Fragonard. Large cypresses of the Villa d "Este. Drawing. Washed bistre. 1760 Vienna, Albertina.

Fragonard's work was strongly influenced by Italian painting, mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries. He also copied the reliefs of ancient sarcophagi, created improvisations on ancient themes - Bacchic scenes of the 1760s. During these years, Fragonard's wonderful landscape drawings arose, full of air and light. Flexible and free graphic techniques corresponded to the sensual subtlety of perception. Transmitting atmospheric haze, the play of sunlight in the alleys, he introduced gentle light and shade transitions into the drawing, enriching the technique of bistre or ink wash. He loved in these years and sanguine. The early landscapes of Fragonard are one of the first successes of the young painter.

In the autumn of 1761, Fragonard returned to Paris. The 1760s is the time when his art was coming of age. It remained highly controversial. Traditional forms of Rococo argued with realistic quests. But the lyrical theme became the main one, even in the mythological genre. In the winter of 1764 he completed his program "Priest Korez sacrificing himself to save Kallira"; this big picture exhibited at the Louvre Salon in 1765. It was written under the influence of the late Italian masters, there is a lot of conditional theatricality in it, but emotionality breaks through the rhetoric. The picture was a success. The order of the Academy (1766) to execute a large plafond for the Louvre Gallery of Apollo promised the title of academician. But this task was never completed by Fragonard, he turned away from the historical genre, and from 1769 he stopped exhibiting in the salons of the Louvre. He was clearly disgusted by the dogma of historical painting of academism. Contemporaries lamented that he was satisfied with the popularity of his work in aristocratic boudoirs, abandoning the great ideas and glory of a historical painter.

In fact, the art of the young master took shape in the 1760s. as lyrical, intimate. Scenes of everyday life, landscapes, portraits in Fragonard's work are marked by the interest in individuality, nature and feeling characteristic of the French artistic culture of this time. The peculiarity of Fragonard's art is that it, perhaps more than the art of other painters of the 18th century, is imbued with hedonism, the poetry of pleasure. As you know, the hedonism of the 18th century. was a controversial phenomenon. The philosophy of pleasure came into conflict with the real conditions of existence of millions of people, and it was not for nothing that the fiery wrath of the democrat Rousseau fell upon it. But at the same time, the affirmation of real, earthly sensuality was connected with it: the French materialists contrasted the depravity of the aristocracy and the hypocrisy of saints with the right of a person to enjoy all the richness of being. In other words, the call of the educator La Mettrie to be “an enemy of debauchery and a friend of pleasure” sounded like a protest against hypocrisy and the medieval morality of churchmen. The satiated eroticism of Rococo painting, which reflected the mores of the declining aristocracy, devastated art. And on the work of Fragonard lies the stamp of typical features of noble culture. But in his best things he is free from the cold sophistication of Boucher's epigones, there is a lot of genuine feeling in them.

Even such mythological scenes as “The Theft of the Shirt by Cupid” (Louvre), “Bathing Naiads” (Louvre), acquire a concrete life character, transfer the viewer to the intimate sphere of being. These pictures are full of sensual bliss; smooth compositional rhythms, soft quivering shadows, light and warm colorful hues create an emotional environment. Love yearning in Fragonard's scenes is combined with lively slyness and impudent mockery.

The emotional saturation of Fragonard's art determined the temperament of his techniques, the freedom of a light and dynamic stroke, the subtlety of light and air effects. He was endowed with a wonderful gift as an improviser and by no means always fully embodied the ideas that illuminated him. In the pictorial system of Fragonard, expression is combined with exquisite decorativeism, and the colors do not convey the volume, materiality of objects, as Chardin was able to do.

One of the most famous works of the 1760s - "Swing" (1767; London, Wallace collection) - was made according to the plot of the customer - the financier Saint-Julien, who wished the artist to depict his beloved on a swing. An intimate corner of the park looks like a coquettish boudoir. The fluttering movement of the graceful figure, the outlines of her clothes, reminiscent of the silhouette of a moth, the cutesy play of languid glances - all this creates an image full of spicy rocaille sophistication.

But in the work of Fragonard there are many genre scenes similar to Laundresses (Amiens). In the old park near the massive gray pylons, the washerwomen hang out their linen. The colors are pure and transparent, they convey the radiance of the sun's rays, scattered with soft reflections on the old stones. Dark foliage casts shadows on the old stones, their gray color is woven from olives, grays and greens. The freshness of colors, the richness of nuances, the lightness of the stroke - all this opposed the sluggish and unnatural manner of Boucher's epigones and anticipated the coloristic conquests of the landscape of the 19th century.

Fragonard's attraction to nature gave vitality to his everyday scenes, enriched the landscape genre, forced to appreciate the individuality of the model in the portrait. Fragonard's portraits ("Saint-Non"; Barcelona) are spectacular and temperamental; the artist's concern was not the exact similarity and complexity of the inner world - he loved the excitement of the soul in the portrait, the decorative scope, the unusualness of the colorful costumes. Among the portrait works of Fragonard, the image of Diderot (Paris, private collection) stands out, the graphic works of this genre are “Madame Fragonard” (Chinese ink; Besancon), “Marguerite Gerard” (bistre, ibid.). His merit was the liberation of portraiture from preconceived canons, passion for the sincerity of feelings, the immediacy of their expression.

In the landscape, Fragonard went back to the tradition of Watteau, but Watteau's melancholy daydreaming is replaced by the sensual joy of being.

Unlike Robert, architectural motifs in Fragonard's landscape do not dominate, yielding primacy to spatial relationships and light-air Effects, the environment that forms a specific image of nature. Perspective leads the eye into depth, but most often not in a straight line. The middle plan is occupied by a bosquet, a clump of trees, a pavilion; curving around them, an alley or path leads into the distance, illuminated by a magical light, but the horizon is usually closed by groves, terraces, stairs. Fragonard's landscape is always intimate. In the pompous Baroque park of the Villa d'Este, Fragonard finds rare corners, devoid of pomp and strict symmetry. These corners are removed from noisy fountains surrounded by crowds of spectators.

Tiny vibrating strokes convey reflections and flashes of sunlight on the foliage. These flashes create a diffuse halo of light around dark objects; a gentle radiance streams from the depths, illuminating the silhouettes of trees. Cascades of light fill Fragonard's drawings, and this is one of the most amazing properties of his graphics. The nature of graphic techniques also changes the color expressiveness of the paper itself - the crowns of trees shine softer in the sun than the white stones of the stairs.

By the 1770s Fragonard's landscape becomes simpler and more sincere. Increasingly, the place of decorated nature is occupied by ordinary nature (“Seashore near Genoa”, sepia, 1773). It is noteworthy that this happened along with the enrichment of the everyday genre with scenes of folk life. Importance in the development of genre and landscape art, Fragonard had a trip to Italy, which he undertook in 1773-1774. The artistic atmosphere in Italy during these years was already new. At the Medici Villa in Rome, young classicists studied - Vincent, Suve, Menajo. But Fragonard brought from Italy not the principles of classicism, but realistic landscapes and everyday scenes.

In the work of Fragonard, several cycles of illustrations are known - for La Fontaine's Tales, Ariosto's Furious Roland, Cervantes' Don Quixote. The illustrations for Ariosto remained in sepia and pencil sketches. An expressive touch and picturesque chiaroscuro, sometimes lyrically soft, sometimes dramatic, made it possible to convey the free and lively rhythm of the poetic story, unexpected changes in intonation. In these drawings, the influence of the allegorical compositions of Rubens and the graphics of the Venetians - Tiepolo and Gasparo Diziani - are noticeable. Unlike the rococo illustrators who decorate the book with vignettes, Fragonard creates a series of sheets that tell about the main events and heroes of the poem. This is a different, new method of illustration. However, he prefers the spectacular expressiveness of extraordinary events from their lives to an in-depth characterization of the characters.

In the later period, Fragonard's work remained in the range of problems typical of this master. His lyrical, intimate art, largely associated with the traditions of noble culture, of course, could not organically perceive the heroic ideals inherent in revolutionary classicism, which triumphed in the 1780s. But during the years of the revolution, Fragonard did not remain aloof from artistic life, becoming a member of the jury of arts and curator of the Louvre.

In French sculpture of the mid-18th century. masters emerged, embarking on new paths.

Jean Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785) was only ten years younger than his teacher J.-B. Lemoine; but his work contains many fundamentally new qualities. The most popular of his works, "Mercury", made in terracotta in Rome, where Pigalle studied in 1736-1739, is still very traditional (in 1744 he received the title of academician for the marble version). The complex pose of Mercury, adjusting his winged sandals, is graceful, there is something crafty and gallant in him, the processing of the material is exquisite in accordance with the intimacy of the theme. Close to him is "Venus" (marble, 1748; Berlin) - an example of decorative sculpture of the middle of the century; she is represented sitting on a cloud, in an unstable position one feels languid bliss, it seems that the figure is about to slip off its support. The softness of the melodious lines, the refinement of proportions, the delicate processing of marble, as if shrouded in mist - all this is typical of the refined ideal of the early Pigalle. But already here the intimate notes of rococo are combined with the amazing naturalness of the forms of the female body. Pigalle would later be called "merciless". And indeed - in the tombs of Dancourt (1771; Notre Dame Cathedral) and Maurice of Saxony (1753-1776) there is not only the rhetoric of allegory, but also the ultimate naturalness of many motives. None of the numerous portrait painters of the Marquise Pompadour conveyed her true appearance with such accuracy (New York, private collection). Even with Latour, she was too pretty. But especially this interest in nature was manifested in the marble statue of Voltaire (1776; Paris, Library of the French Institute). Back in 1770, Voltaire wrote in a letter about his sunken eyes and parchment cheeks. Pigalle followed here the classic formula of "heroic nakedness", but at the same time transferred all these signs of old age into the image. And yet the exact transmission of nature in his art did not always rise to a high generalization, and usually she was accompanied by rhetorical devices.

Almost the same age as Pigalle was Etienne Maurice Falcone (1716-1791). Creator " Bronze Horseman"was one of the largest masters of sculpture of the 18th century. The son of a carpenter, Falcone, at the age of eighteen, was apprenticed to Lemoine. Like Pigalle, he began in the years of the almost undivided influence of Boucher, the trendsetter of the Pompadour era. But Falcone was more courageous than Pigalle about the "art of the pleasant", his horizons were wider, and his legacy monumental art past prepared him for future work. Falcone appreciated Puget's work, saying that "living blood flows" in the veins of his statues; a deep study of antiquity later resulted in the treatise Observations on the Statue of Marcus Aurelius. This determined a lot in Falcone's first significant work - "Milon of Croton, tormented by a lion" (gypsum model, 1745) - the drama of the plot, the dynamics of the composition, the expression of the plasticity of the body. In the Salon of 1755, the marble "Milon" was exhibited. But after the first experience, Falcone's creative path became common for the artist of these times. He had to perform allegorical compositions and decorative sculptures for the Marquise Pompadour and the noble mansions of Bellevue, Crecy. These are Flora (1750), Threatening Cupid and Bather (1757). They are dominated by the intimacy of Rococo, the graceful elegance of proportions characteristic of this style, the tenderness of flexible forms, the whimsical rhythm of sinuous contours, and the ease of sliding movements. But Falcone also turned the theme of Rococo into something endowed with subtle poetry.

Since 1757, Falcone became the artistic director of the Sevres porcelain manufactory. He, who gravitated towards monumental compositions, for ten years had to create models for the Sevres biscuit - “Apollo and Daphne”, “Hebe”, etc. For the development of French porcelain, his activities had -great value; but for the sculptor himself it was a difficult time. By the end of the 1750s - the beginning of the 1760s, the trends of antiquity were felt in the works of Falcone in that subtle refraction that was characteristic of the Epoch. In the works of this period, the search for greater content of the idea, rigor and restraint of the plastic language is noticeable. Such are the large group "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1763), "Tender Sadness" (1763; Hermitage). The rocky elusiveness of a happy moment is replaced by a sense of the importance of the event, the seriousness of thought. These changes, due to new trends in artistic culture and Falcone's progressive views, prepared the flowering of his art of the Russian period.

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) was a master of decorative monumental sculpture - he decorated the Versailles theater and church, the Palais Royal, Les Invalides, the Palace of Justice in Paris with statues. Numerous busts, which were made by him, are reminiscent of the work of J.-B. Lemoine by the spectacularity of an elegant portraiture, in which there is a subtlety of conveying the external, but there is no deep psychologism.

Michel Claude, nicknamed Clodion (1738-1814), is close to Page. But he is even closer to Fragonard, to his intimate genre scenes. A student of Adam and Pigalle, in 1759 Clodion received the Academic Prize of Rome. In Italy, he was for a long time - from 1762 to 1771, even there he gained fame and returned to Paris as a master, popular among collectors. After being admitted to the Academy for the Jupiter statue, he almost stopped working in the "historical genre" and never received the title of academician. His small sculptures, decorative bas-reliefs and vases, candlesticks and candelabra were made for noble mansions. Clodion's style began to take shape as early as the Italian years, under the influence of ancient art, those relatively late forms of it that became known during the excavations of Herculaneum. Antique scenes in the art of Clodion acquired a subtly sensual character - his orgy, nymphs and fauns, satyrs and cupids are close to rocaille scenes, and not to ancient prototypes.

They are distinguished from the Rococo of the early stage by the more elegiac nature of plot motifs and the restrained compositional rhythms characteristic of the period of the formation of classicism in French artistic culture. Subtle lyricism and soft picturesqueness are the main thing in the work of Clodion, which is a special alloy of grace and vitality. Such are the terracotta "Nymph" (Moscow, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) and the porcelain bas-relief "Nymphs establishing Pan's herme" made according to his model of 1788 at the Sevres manufactory (Hermitage).

The largest master of realistic portrait sculpture of the second half of the 18th century. was Jean Antoine Houdon (1741-1828). This was a sculptor of a new generation, directly associated with the revolutionary era. The direction he chose rejected the ideological foundations and refined forms of Rococo art. The sculptor himself had a clear, sober mind and realistic thinking, which contributed to overcoming the conventions of the old mannered school, as well as the rhetorical extremes of the new classicism. For Houdon, a decisive preference for nature over any kind of model is not a commonplace, but really the guiding principle of his work.

In his youth, he was led by Pigalle and Slodz, who communicated to Houdon their great practical knowledge. Having received the Prix de Rome for the relief of Solomon and Queen Savekai, Houdon studied in Rome for four years (1764-1768). As a student of the French Academy in Rome, Houdon studied ancient statues, as well as the work of then popular sculptors of the 17th century. Puget and Bernini. But Houdon's first independent works did not look like either antiquity or baroque. Authorities did not hypnotize him. But for a long time and hard he studied anatomy, methodically working in the Roman anatomical theater. The result of this was the famous "Ecorche" made by Houdon in 1767 - an image of a male figure without skin, with open muscles. From this image, made by a twenty-six-year-old student, many generations of sculptors subsequently studied. The thoroughness of technical knowledge and attention to the laws of nature is the most important basis for the future activities of Houdon, which was strengthened in the Roman years.

During this period he made two marble statues for the church of Site Maria degli Angeli in Rome. Their large size matched the grandiosity of the Michelangelo interior. Only one of these statues has survived - St. Bruno. The very fact that Houdon turned to monumental sculpture testifies to the determination of his desire to overcome the traditional chamber forms of French plastic. By making these statues, Houdon wanted to achieve the inner significance of the image, the strict restraint of posture and movement. It is noticeable that he avoided the Baroque Effects. Nevertheless, the statues of Santa Maria degli Angeli, indicating important tendencies in the art of Houdon, are themselves very prosaic and dry; it would be an exaggeration to see in them the mature work of a master. In the figure of John the Baptist, known from the plaster model of the Borghese Gallery, one can feel the artificiality of the composition and the lethargy of the plastic form.

At the end of 1768 the sculptor returned to Paris. He was assigned to the Academy, showed Roman works and a series of portraits at the Salon. Returning from Italy with certain skills as a muralist, Houdon did not follow this path. On the one hand, he almost did not receive official orders, had no patrons among the royal officials who led the art. He had to look for orders outside of France - he worked, especially a lot in the 1770s, for Catherine II, the German Duke of Coburg-Gotha, and Russian nobles. Many monumental compositions have not reached us - from the relief of the pediment of the Pantheon to the huge bronze statue of Napoleon; in this sense, Houdon was particularly unlucky. But, on the other hand, the very nature of Houdon's work convinces of his constant attraction to the portrait. This is the strongest genre of his work, and it is not for nothing that it is in the art of Houdon that the portrait becomes a monumental, problematic genre.

In 1777 Houdon received the title of academician. The plaster model of Diana (Gotha) was dated a year earlier. Her appearance had a great effect. Houdon was inspired by antiquity. In contrast to the lightly draped coquettish nymphs and Rococo bacchantes, he presented Diana naked, giving her nakedness a special severity, even coldness. The trend of classicism, which developed in the 1770s, appears both in the clarity of the silhouette and in the chased clarity of the form. Against the background of the works of other masters of the 18th century. Diana seems to be a very intellectual work; and at the same time, the appearance of a well-groomed secular lady, strange for Diana, the elegant grace of the pose is imbued with the spirit of the aristocratic culture of the century.

The heyday of the realistic portrait of Houdon falls on the 1770-1780s, decades on the eve of the revolution. His works appeared regularly in the Salons of this period; for example, in the exhibition of 1777 there were about twenty busts executed by Houdon. There are more than one hundred and fifty portraits of his work. His patterns are varied. But Houdon's interest in depicting the advanced people of the time, thinkers, fighters, people of will and energy is especially noticeable. This gave his portrait work a great social significance.

The art of Houdon during this period does not strike with any features of the form, its novelty. The novelty is hidden because it consists in maximum simplicity, in the elimination of all sorts of attributes, allegorical motifs, ornaments and draperies. But this is a lot. This allowed Houdon to focus on the inner world of the person being portrayed. His creative method is close to that of Latour.

Houdon is a successor to the best realistic traditions of French art of the 18th century - its analyticity and subtle psychologism. Whomever Houdon portrayed, his portraits became the spiritual quintessence of the century, which questions and analyzes everything.

The intensity of the inner life is characteristic of the portrait of the Marquise de Sabran (terracotta, c. 1785; Berlin). Light folds of clothes going up to the right shoulder, curling curls, a dynamic bend of the neck convey the expression of a slightly sharp turn of the head. This is perceived as the ability to react quickly, characteristic of an energetic and mobile character. The liveliness of nature is revealed in the picturesque “strokes” of a free hairstyle intercepted by a ribbon, and in the play of light reflections on the face and clothes. The high cheekbones broad face is ugly; a sharp, mocking mind shines in a caustic smile and a fixed look; there is something very characteristic of her time in the intellectuality of the Marquise de Sabran.

One of the most significant works of Houdon - perhaps the pinnacle of his creative flowering of the pre-revolutionary years - the statue of Voltaire (Leningrad, the Hermitage; another option is the foyer of the French Comedy Theater in Paris). Houdon began working on this portrait in 1778, shortly before the death of the "Patriarch of Ferney", who returned in triumph to Paris. It is known that the pose and movement were not immediately found by Houdon - during a session in a quickly tired eighty-four-year-old old man, it was difficult to see the triumphant grandeur that contemporaries expected from the sculptor. Houdon's imagination, which was not a strong point of his talent, was helped by chance - a lively exchange of remarks that revived memories, re-ignited Voltaire's mind. Therefore, the pose of the philosopher is so expressive. He turned to an imaginary interlocutor, right hand helps this sharp movement - bony long fingers clutched at the arm of the chair. The tension of the turn is felt both in the position of the legs, and in the force of the torso, and even in the shape of the chair - at the bottom the grooves are vertical, from above they seem to twist in a spiral, transmitting the movement of the arm. In the wrinkled face of Voltaire there is both attention and concentrated thought - the eyebrows are shifted to the bridge of the nose. But the most remarkable thing in him is the sarcastic grin so characteristic of Voltaire's very nature, an expression of the hidden energy of the mind, ready to defeat the ideological enemy with the deadly fire of irony of the brilliant polemicist. The image of Voltaire in the work of Houdon is very far from the then fashionable "apotheoses". Its strength lies in the fact that it reveals the most important features of the Enlightenment, embodied in the character of one of its greatest representatives, the era of bold revolutionary thought, merciless criticism of prejudices.

The statue of Voltaire, created by Houdon, can be called a historical portrait - it contains a whole era. To this Houdon did not follow the traditional path of rhetoric and allegory. Even the ancient toga, an obvious technique of classicism, is perceived not as an attribute of an ancient philosopher, but as ordinary loose clothing that successfully hides senile thinness and gives the monumental statue the necessary generalization of form.

Houdon wrote about the great opportunity of the sculptor "to capture the images of people who made up the glory or happiness of their fatherland"; this fully applies to the portrait gallery he created of the enlighteners Voltaire and Rousseau, Diderot and D'Alembert, and many prominent scientists and politicians of the 18th century.

The portrait bust of the composer Gluck (1775; Weimar), a great revolutionary in music, whose work is saturated with heroic pathos and drama, characteristic of the eve of the revolution, is remarkable. In the pose of the composer, in the wide, loose folds of his clothes, one feels a special scope and rise of spiritual strength. The turn of the head is resolute, boldness and energy are guessed in it; large strands of hair are tangled. The high forehead is furrowed as if by the tension of thought; the gaze is turned over the viewer, his passion expresses a tragic insight, an enthusiastic state of mind. Gluck is depicted as if listening to extraordinary music, but the will and courage that inspire him expand the figurative sound of the portrait, make you feel the breath of the great ideas of the time in it. Despite the naturalness of the changing life of the face, the image of the composer is elevated into a special sublime sphere - the sphere of creative inspiration.

And the portrait of Gluck and other works of Houdon are democratic. There is something emphatically plebeian in the lively and charming portrait of a laughing wife (gypsum, c. 1787; Louvre). His models do not claim to be superior in rank or position. Their loftiness lies in the social significance of their activities, and this is one of the main features of the creative concept of Houdon, who conveys the “social action” of his hero in the portrait. Therefore, for example, the features of an experienced orator in the portrait of Mirabeau (1790s; Versailles) are so subtly captured.

Very accurately reproducing real face shapes with the help of a model, Houdon ingeniously captured the essence of character. One of the strongest aspects of the master's portrait realism is the expressiveness of the look in the portrait. In the pupil, he left a piece of marble, shining and giving the look a special expressiveness. Rodin said of Houdon: “The look for him is more than half of the expression. In his eyes, he unraveled the soul.

Associated with the revolutionary upsurge in France, the realistic art of Houdon after the revolution loses its former significance. The classic portraits of members of the imperial family, the bust of Alexander I (1814) are cold and abstract, the Empire formality was hostile to Houdon's method. In 1803, he began teaching at the School of Fine Arts, and from 1814 he completely abandoned sculpture.

The most important features of the work of Houdon, Robert and many other masters of the second half of the 18th century. due to the development of classicism in French artistic culture. The possibilities for the formation of this new style were already noticeable in the middle of the century. Interest in antiquity became more alive after new archaeological discoveries, it was stimulated by the excavations of Herculaneum, which were visited by many artists. But this cannot explain the fact that by the last quarter of a century the new classicism has become the leading trend. His leading role in art turned out to be necessary when, in the words of G. V. Plekhanov, "the opponents of the old order felt the need for heroism" ( G.V. Plekhanov, Selected Philosophical Works, vol. V, M., 1958.). The preaching of family virtue in the spirit of dreams was replaced by the affirmation of civil virtue, a call to heroic deeds. It was precisely for this that antiquity was needed, in which they were looking for a model of heroism, republican ideals, because, as K. Marx said, “no matter how heroic bourgeois society is, heroism, self-sacrifice, terror, civil war and battles of peoples were needed for its birth » ( K. Marx iF. Engels, Soch., vol. 8, p. 120.).

The first manifestations of classicism are not yet similar to the energetic artistic movement of the pre-revolutionary years. Antique motifs, techniques, plots developed within the intimate architectural decor of the 1760s-1770s. The painting of this trend is characterized by the "Seller of Cupids" by Vienne (1716-1809), the teacher of David (1763; Fontainebleau). The picture is inspired by antiquity, but its plot is entertaining, and the "pleasant grace" of the characters is, in fact, very traditional.

New trends also appeared in the decorative and applied arts, especially from the mid-1760s. The interior acquires tectonicity, clarity of divisions, a continuous ornamental pattern is replaced by a calm surface of the wall, decorated with restrained graphic motifs, as well as easel compositions like decorative landscapes by Hubert Robert. Furniture makers - from Riesener to Jacob - used antique forms, scooping them from archaeological publications. Furniture becomes constructive, it stands firmly on the floor; instead of whimsical outlines, now it is characterized by strict straight lines. The smooth surface is decorated with embossed medallions, antique motifs predominate in the ornament. Among the best interiors of this period are the interiors of the Palace of Versailles by J.-A. Gabriel (for example, the library of Louis XVI, 1774).

By this time, the artistic policy of absolutism was changing. The Academy of Arts and the Directorate of Royal Buildings - official institutions - strive to regulate art. Rococo pastorals no longer satisfy the royal officials, there is a need to revive the "majestic style" that can support decrepit absolutism. The masters of the historical genre are abandoning the traditional forms of the “gallant mythology” of Rococo. Gabriel François Doyen (1726-1806), Louis Lagrené the Elder (1725-1808) and others combine large heavy and pompous paintings into "majestic" subjects. Idealizing tendencies intensify in portraiture (Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun). The historical painting of academicians begins to glorify the "civil virtues" of good monarchs. In 1780, the painter Suvet received the title of academician for a painting with a grandiloquent name: “Freedom granted to the arts in the reign of Louis XVI by the cares of Mr. d'Angivillier”.

Count d'Angivillier, who became head of the Directorate of Royal Buildings in 1774, vigorously pursued the best in art. Back in the days of his predecessor, the Marquis of Marigny, the secretary of the Academy of Cochin invented flattering loyal plots for painters: "August, closing the doors of the temple of Janus", "Titus frees the prisoners", "Marcus Aurelius saves the people from hunger and plague." D "Angivillier acts more decisively. Antique stories are dangerous - they sound too tyrannical. And the royal official encourages history painting national theme giving it a reactionary, monarchist character. The regulation of artistic life leads to the forcible abolition of all institutions of the arts, except for the Academy. In 1776, the Academy of St. Luke was abolished by "the cares of Mr. d" Angivillier, after persecution, the Colise and Correspondence salons were closed; all this was done under the false pretext of the need to "purify morals." The director of the royal buildings was unfriendly to the largest progressive artists of this era - the sculptor Houdon and the painter David.

Under these conditions, during the years of increased reaction, popular uprisings, aggravation of social contradictions and the accelerating movement of French society towards revolution, the progressive art of revolutionary classicism took shape, headed by Jacques Louis David.

The work of David, considered in the next volume, in the pre-revolutionary decades was an integral part of the all-French artistic movement of classicism: The heroic images created by David in the 1780s were supposed to awaken a citizen in a Frenchman; their severe passion kindled hearts. No wonder one of the Jacobins in 1790 called David an artist, "whose genius brought the revolution closer." David's classicism grew out of the progressive tendencies of 18th-century French painting; at the same time, he refuted the traditions of the aristocratic culture of the rococo, becoming the beginning of the development of new problems in the art of the 19th century.