Spanish Renaissance Art. Renaissance in Spain and Portugal Literature and artistic culture of the Spanish Renaissance

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Bosch Hieronymus is a Dutch artist. 1460-1516

BRUEGEL PETER is a Dutch painter. 1525-1569

Van Dyck is a Flemish painter. 1599-1641

VELAZQUEZ RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA DIEGO is a Spanish artist. 1599-1660s

Dürer Albrecht is a German painter. 1471-1528

Nicolas Poussin is a French painter. 1594-1665

Rembrandt Harmens Van Rijn is a Dutch painter. 1606-1669

RUBENS PETER PAUL - Flemish painter. 1577-1640

EL GRECO is a Spanish painter. 1541-1614

When they talk about Renaissance painting, everyone immediately imagines Italy and the great Italian masters - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. But brilliant artists appeared not only in Italy. Famous painters lived and worked in almost all European countries of that time.

Very interesting artists gave the world a small country - the Netherlands. Art historians call their work the “Northern Renaissance”. Hieronymus Bosch occupies a special place among the painters of the Northern Renaissance.

His real name is van Aken. He was born and worked in the small town of Bos. Almost nothing is known about the life of Jerome from Bos-Bosch. The Netherlands then belonged to Spain, and Bosch spent most of his life in the capital of the Spanish kingdom - Madrid.

Hieronymus Bosch. The hay cart is like a fantasy world. They are inhabited by monsters and ugly creatures created from parts of the bodies of animals, insects and people. Human faces reveal envy, anger, stupidity, complacency and greed. The painting "Hay Cart" is painted on the theme of the proverb "Life is a hay cart, and everyone tries to snatch a bigger tuft for himself." The painting "Ship of Fools" is a symbol of human stupidity.

But Bosch's work is not an attempt to humiliate a person, to flood the creation of God and nature with mud. Looking at the paintings of this artist, a person sees his vices. Bosch's genius is so peculiar, so impressive that under its influence a person thinks about himself and his vices much more often than after boring moralizing sermons.

Another famous Dutch artist is Brueghel the Elder or Peasant. His first name is Peter, and his last name is the name of the village where he was born.

Bosch had a very strong influence on Brueghel's work. Brueghel's early paintings were created under his influence. This is also evidenced by their names: “Fight of chests and piggy banks”, “Fight of fasting with Shrovetide”, “Feast of the skinny” and “Fat of the fat”, “Triumph of death”, “Land of the lazy”.

The painting "Flemish Proverbs" is a kind of illustration of folk sayings. It depicts several dozen characters who seem to have decided to refute what the proverbs say. Someone is trying to break through the wall with his forehead, someone is throwing flowers at the feet of the pigs, someone is digging a well.

Brueghel is not just a follower of Bosch. He preserved in his early paintings the spirit of his beloved artist, looked at the world from his point of view, but with his own eyes, and recreated this world with his brush.

Brueghel's works were very popular. Even the Spanish king bought them, although the artist did not paint portraits of the nobility. His paintings were filled with common people and were in no way suitable for decorating the luxurious halls of palaces.

In the second period of his work, Brueghel moved away from the satirical depiction of life. He painted a cycle of twelve paintings "The Seasons", such paintings as "Peasant Dance", "Country Wedding".

Under the brush of the great master, scenes and episodes of ordinary life rose to philosophical generalizations. Particularly striking are his paintings-parables. Here is the Fall of Icarus. The plowman calmly plows the land. A shepherd tends sheep, a fisherman catches fish, ships sail on the sea. Everyone is busy with their own business. And in the corner of the picture is the leg of Icarus who fell into the sea. You won't pay attention to it right away. Icarus wanted to ascend to the sun, his fall is a tragedy, a catastrophe, a symbol of the defeat of a daring hero. And no one noticed either his flight or his fall.

Or the painting "The Artist and the Connoisseur". At the easel is a painter who has given all his strength to the work. And behind him is a laughing buyer with a wallet in his hand. Brueghel's most famous parable is The Blind.

It is reminiscent of the words from the Bible: "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit." Six blind men, holding on to each other, go who knows where. Their blind guide has already fallen off the cliff, the second one is also about to fall, the rest, not seeing what threatens them, are following. Looking at this picture, a person thinks about himself, who does not know tomorrow, and about all of humanity, which, after millennia, still cannot answer the question of Greek philosophers: “Who are we, where are we from and where are we going? »

Brueghel had many nicknames. By age, he was called Brueghel the Elder - in contrast to his sons, who also became famous artists. By rural origin - Brueghel Muzhitsky. In some chronicles they called Brueghel the Funny - according to the content of his early paintings. With full right it can be called Brueghel the Philosopher. Or rather, one of the art historians said about him, calling him Brueghel I the Great.

The work of Peter Rubens also belongs to the Northern Renaissance. Rubens was born in the family of the foreman of the city of Antwerp. Rubens' father was a Protestant, and he had to flee the persecution of Catholics in Germany, in Cologne. In Cologne he found himself under the protection of the Protestant Prince William of Orange. The prince's wife patronized the fugitive, and the prince, out of jealousy, first put him in prison, and then exiled him to the German town of Nassau, where Peter Paul Rubens was born. After the death of his father, Rubens and his mother returned to Flanders - as the part of modern Belgium was then called - to Antwerp.

The future artist graduated from the Jesuit school, and his mother determined him as a page to Countess Laleng. Service with a noble lady gave him the opportunity to learn secular customs and learn how to behave in high society. After several years of painting, Rubens visited Italy. He did not strive for creativity, but simply copied the paintings of famous Italian masters.

Returning to his homeland, he became the court painter of the rulers of the Southern Netherlands, Infanta Isabella and Archduke Albert. The great Italian painting awakened the artist in him. He began to paint, combining the skill developed by long exercises with the cheerful spirit of his beloved homeland.

Rubens' paintings are a hymn to the joy of life. It is no coincidence that he wrote a lot on mythological subjects. These are "The Judgment of Paris", "Diana on the Hunt", "Bacchus". But even the paintings he created on biblical themes are filled with angels and saints, who are more like pagan gods - Venus and Apollo. Art critics put Rubens on the same level with the geniuses of the Italian Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. They wrote that he took the clarity of the composition from Leonardo, the power and temperament from Michelangelo, the tenderness of colors from Raphael.

Rubens worked very hard. To decorate the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, he created a series of paintings Life of Marie de Medici with images of the French Queen Marie de Medici, King Henry IV and King Louis XIII. Portraits of his work adorn the palaces of the Spanish and English kings.

At fifty-three, Rubens was widowed by the death of his wife. A few years later, the already middle-aged artist fell passionately in love with the sixteen-year-old beauty Elena Fourman and married her.

Rubens and his young wife lived a happy married life. The artist idolized his beloved. He created more than twenty portraits of her alone. And such images of her as “Portrait of Elena Fourman with Children” and “Fur Coat” are considered the pinnacles of world painting.

During his life, Rubens painted a huge number of paintings - about three thousand. And each of them entered the golden background; world painting. Rubens alone would not have been able to write so many pictures. Many capable students worked in his workshop. Rubens made a sketch of the future picture, the students painted it, and then Rubens completed the work.

Only one of these students grew into an independent painter.

His name was Van Dyck. He reached the heights of skill and became the most famous portrait painter. Aristocrats and kings of different countries ordered portraits from him, but his self-portrait became the most famous.

Van Dyck was very handsome. Romantic love adventures brought him no less fame than the talent of the artist.

The name of Rembrandt is on a par with the geniuses of the Northern Renaissance.

He was the son of a simple miller from the small Dutch town of Leiden. Three of his brothers received the profession of ordinary artisans. As Rembrandt grew up, his father's business went so well that he decided to educate his fourth son. Rembrandt entered the Latin school, whose students continued their studies at the university. The young man did not shine with success in the sciences. He was attracted by painting, his father had to give in and give him to the artist's studio.

Having mastered the skills and techniques of the painter, Rembrandt moved to the largest and richest city in Holland - Amsterdam. The very first successful commission - a group portrait of Dr. Tulp and his colleagues - brought fame and money to the young artist.

Rembrandt married the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, Saskia, and lived happily and carefree for seven years. He painted on biblical themes - "The Blinding of Samson", "Adoration of the Magi", "Christ with the Disciples", "Holy Family" and on the themes of ancient Greek myths - "Danae", "Ganymede". Rembrandt loved his wife very much and painted her constantly.

The unexpected death of Saskia had a very strong effect on the artist. Gradually he became poorer. He had to sell his collection of paintings and rarities. He was declared an insolvent debtor, and until the end of his days, Rembrandt lived in dire need.

The reason for poverty was that Rembrandt did not want to please customers. It all started with the painting "Night Watch". It was ordered by officers of the city guard. Each of them wanted to see themselves in the foreground in the best possible position. Rembrandt painted not an official, ceremonial, group portrait, but a plot picture. A detachment of city guards goes on a campaign. Everything is in motion. Some of the officers were in the foreground, some in the background, some are visible in full growth, and some are lost among other figures. A little girl with a chicken, who somehow got into the picture, attracts more attention than any of the officers, whose face is also almost covered by the hand of another guard.

Customers demanded to redo the picture. Rembrandt refused. After all, he achieved what he wanted as an artist - he conveyed the mood, feelings, created interesting and lively characters. The officers refused to pay the money.

After this incident, Rembrandt was less and less ordered. And he didn't seem to notice. The artist brought urban beggars, old men and women to his studio and enthusiastically painted their portraits. He was no longer interested in paying for work - he was consumed by the desire to paint a portrait so that a person's face reflected his soul. The artist became a philosopher in his paintings, he lost customers, money and gained immortal fame. A hundred, two hundred years will pass, the portrait of a poor old woman by his brush will be valued higher than any other portrait of a king.

One of Rembrandt's last works is the painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son" on the theme of a biblical parable. The parable tells how the son left his father and brothers. Far from home, he indulged in revelry and squandered his share of the inheritance. To feed himself, he had to hire a swineherd and eat from a pig trough. Having repented, he returned to his father, and his father forgave him and accepted him into his parental home. This picture embodied everything that Rembrandt achieved over many years of searching and labor. They see it as a symbol of the life path of each person and the biography of the artist himself.

The famous master of the Renaissance is Albrecht Dürer. He was born in Germany, in the city of Nuremberg, in the family of a jeweler. His father taught him his craft. Becoming an engraver, Albrecht became interested in drawing. After four years of travel and acquaintance with the works of the best artists, Albrecht Dürer returned to his hometown, married the daughter of a wealthy mechanic and opened his workshop.

Engravings brought him fame. The German emperor ordered the city authorities to pay the artist 100 guilders a year so that he could work and travel. After visiting Italy, Dürer met with Raphael and gave him his self-portrait. Rafael was delighted with his skill.

Dürer's most famous engraving is the Four Horsemen from the Apocalypse series. Apocalypse - translated from Greek as "revelation" - is one of the books of the New Testament, which tells about the end of the world. The engraving depicts Pestilence, War, Famine and Death, which are destined to exterminate most of humanity.

Durer's engravings are executed with mathematical precision. The artist was the author of several treatises: "On Painting", "On the Beautiful", "On Proportions" and books on fortification - the science of building fortifications.

The works of Durer the engraver are considered the pinnacle of engraving art. But Durer became famous as a painter. Several famous self-portraits and paintings of remarkable color saturation belong to his brush. After their success, Dürer proudly wrote to his friend: “I silenced all the painters who said that I was good at engraving, but I couldn’t handle paints in painting. Now everyone says they haven't seen more beautiful colors."

Engravings and paintings by Dürer amaze with perfect accuracy. He entered the history of painting as a creator who verified the rainbow of colors and the clarity of lines with a compass and a mathematical formula.

Renaissance Spain gave the world the names of the great painters El Greco and Velázquez.

El Greco was born on the Greek island of Crete. His real name is Domenico Theotokopuli. He studied painting with Greek icon painters. Then for some time he worked in the workshop of Titian, in Venice and lived in Rome. After that, El Greco went to Spain, where he painted all his famous paintings.

Already in Rome, El Greco became a famous artist, he was predicted a great future. According to legend, he had to leave Rome because of his exorbitant pride and arrogance. Once, in a conversation about the fact that the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, are not so much Christian as pagan in their spirit, El Greco said in a circle of artists that if these frescoes were scraped off, he would create others that were not inferior to them in painting and much superior to them in spiritual content. Such a statement first stunned everyone present, and then caused laughter and contempt. All artists and connoisseurs have ceased

communicate with a daring young man, and he left Rome in the hope of becoming a court painter of the Spanish king.

In Madrid, disappointment awaited him - the king did not like the work of a visiting painter. El Greco settled in the old capital of Spain, just abandoned by the king, Toledo.

Here he received an order to paint a picture depicting Jesus Christ before the crucifixion, for the altar of the main temple of Toledo - the Espolio Cathedral. The picture was an incredible success. The author was ordered seventeen copies of it.

Artists from all over Spain came to see the masterpiece. The unusual painting of El Greco amazed them. Elongated figures, as if reflected in the water; enlarged, iconographic, eyes; purple, lilac, pearl gray colors in combination with red; ghostly, as if pre-stormy, flickering lighting fascinated the audience.

El Greco lived in Toledo until the end of his days. He painted pictures on biblical themes and left behind many portraits. All his works are made in the same extraordinary style. Perhaps he did not surpass Michelangelo, but nevertheless he created his own, unique, painting, powerful, passionate and mysterious.

During his lifetime, El Greco was revered as the greatest Spanish artist. After death, they forgot and remembered four hundred years later, when the painters of the twentieth century rediscovered it and laid its techniques at the basis of new trends in art.

Another Spanish genius - Velasquez at the time of the death of El Greco had just begun to take his first steps in art. His teacher was a fan of Italian painting, and especially of Raphael.

Velasquez reached the highest peaks of skill. It is said that the French poet Theophile Gautier, when he first saw one of Velasquez's paintings, asked: "Where is the painting?" - the poet either really took the image for reality, or with these words he wanted to praise the talent of Velasquez. And the Pope, at the sight of his portrait, exclaimed: “Too truthful!” Velazquez was not just a good artist, his brush revealed the inner essence of a person, even if he wanted to hide it.

For almost forty years, Velazquez was the court painter of the Spanish king and received the title of marshal. He painted portraits of courtiers and members of the royal family. Among his canvases is a whole series of portraits of dwarfs and jesters.

During a trip to Italy, Velazquez took part in a painting competition held in Rome. By decision of the artists themselves, Velasquez was recognized as the winner. So the Spanish master received recognition in the homeland of painting. The famous paintings of Velazquez are Las Meninas (maids of honor), the historical canvas Surrender of Breda, Venus in front of a mirror, Spinners.

After the death of the artist on his tombstone carved: "The painter of truth."

The painting of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in France did not have such development as in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. But on the other hand, France gave the world a painter whose work marked the emergence of a new direction of art - classicism.

This painter is Nicolas Poussin. He was born into the family of a soldier who, after long wars between Protestants and Catholics, became a peasant. Poussin was fond of drawing and painting since childhood. He had no money for education, and he ran away from home with a traveling painter, and after a while ended up in Paris. The young man often had to starve.

But there were good people along the way. He befriended the custodian of the royal art collections and the library and was given the opportunity to copy paintings by Italian masters. Poussin dreamed of working in Italy.

Hungry, without money and sick, he returned to his village, worked tirelessly, twice tried to get to Rome and only the third time he achieved his goal - he ended up in the capital of painting. Here he was lucky - he was introduced to Cardinal Barberini, the patron of artists and poets. Orders from the cardinal helped Poussin get back on his feet.

Time passed, and the work of the French master gained fame. He was offered to become the prince of the Academy of Arts. The King of France, Louis XIII, on the advice of Cardinal Richelieu, invited Poussin to Paris and bestowed upon him the title of the king's first painter. He was entrusted with the painting of the royal palace - the Louvre, which later became a museum, a repository of artistic values ​​​​of France. The king surrounded the famous painter with honor and even gave him a small palace. The son of poor peasants, who secretly fled from home and starved in Paris, achieved everything he could dream of. But court life, the intrigues of rivals prevented him from working.

Poussin asked the king to go to Rome. During his absence, Richelieu died, and then Louis XIII himself. At court, they forgot about Poussin, and he lived in Rome until the end of his life. He put the modest wealth and fruitful work of the painter above wealth and honors. Poussin painted mainly landscapes and paintings on biblical and mythological subjects. The landscapes “The Seasons” and the paintings “The Kingdom of Flora”, “The Arcadian Shepherds” are especially famous.

The canvases of Poussin are balanced and majestic. The characters are noble, the colors are harmonious. The style that Poussin created was called classicism, from the word "classical". Classical, from the Latin word "class" - "category", called the works of the first category, that is, the best.

The later followers of Poussin, who created works according to the laws of classicism, turned out to be only conscientious artisans who failed to breathe life into their heroes. Since then, “classicism” has often meant a cold adherence to correct, but boring patterns, and the paintings of Poussin, the founder of classicism, have not faded to this day and are rightfully included in the treasury of world painting.

Chapter "The Art of Spain". General history of arts. Volume III. Renaissance art. Author: T.P. Kaptereva; under the general editorship of Yu.D. Kolpinsky and E.I. Rotenberg (Moscow, Art State Publishing House, 1962)

The conditions for the birth of the Renaissance culture developed in Spain from the middle of the 15th century. By the beginning of the 16th century, Spain had become one of the strongest powers in the world; it soon became part of the vast Habsburg empire. It would seem that especially favorable opportunities for the widest development of a new culture have opened up here. And yet Spain did not know such a powerful Renaissance movement as other European countries. The pathos of discovering the real world did not receive a full and comprehensive manifestation in the culture of the Spanish Renaissance. The new often made its way with difficulty, often intertwining with the old, obsolete.

Spain emerged from the stage of feudal fragmentation by the end of the 15th century. The comparatively early state centralization in Spain was associated with the victory of the reactionary feudal forces, whose interests were expressed by the dictatorship that had taken shape at the beginning of the 16th century. Spanish absolutism. The prerequisites for the insufficiently consistent spread in Spain of a new, anti-feudal culture lurked in the economic and political immaturity of the Spanish cities, whose political claims did not go beyond the struggle for medieval liberties. To this it must be added that the Catholic Church played an exceptionally reactionary role in the historical fate of Spain. In no other country in Europe has it reached such power. Its roots go back to the time of the reconquista, when the reconquest of the country was carried out under religious slogans. Throughout the Middle Ages, the church continuously enriched itself and strengthened its power. Already at the first stages of the formation of Spanish absolutism, she became his faithful ally. The unlimited power of the Church and the Inquisition was a real tragedy for the Spanish people. The Church not only destroyed the country's productive forces by exterminating "heretics" - most often representatives of the most active commercial and industrial strata of the population - but with fanatical savagery stifled any free manifestation of thought, fettering the living soul of the people with a cruel vise. All these circumstances complicated and saturated with contradictions the evolution of the art of the Spanish Renaissance. For the same reasons, the individual phases of the Renaissance in Spain did not coincide with the corresponding stages of the Renaissance in other countries.

The penetration of Renaissance forms into Spanish art can be traced already around the middle of the 15th century. But the sprouts of the new appeared only in the field of painting; architecture and sculpture retained a Gothic character.

At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. An important qualitative change took place in Spanish culture. Since that time, new ideas and forms have embraced all areas of art - architecture, sculpture, painting and applied arts. The artistic process has acquired features of greater integrity. However, even in the period under consideration, the art of the Spanish Renaissance was far from reaching the degree of maturity that would make it possible to bring it closer to the period of the High Renaissance, falling in other countries in the first decades of the 16th century. Spanish art of this time was dominated by early Renaissance traditions. The diversity of the general picture of development, the peculiar combination of various artistic stages was also reflected in the fact that, simultaneously with works in which elements of the Gothic were still preserved, works were created either of a manneristic nature, or even works marked by a premonition of the Baroque. In essence, Spain did not know the integral phase of the High Renaissance, because the absolutist regime itself, which was established in the 20s. 16th century, could not become the soil on which this art could be widely developed.

The time of the highest creative achievements of Spanish culture was the second half of the 16th century. This is a period of collision of various artistic trends, on the one hand, completing the Renaissance and at the same time marking the transition to the culture of the 17th century. It is enough to mention the name of the great Cervantes to imagine what deep and multifaceted problems of reality were embodied in the Spanish literature of that time. Significant artistic achievements characterize the architecture and painting of Spain in the second half of the century. But, unlike the Italian (in particular, the Venetian) masters of this period, in whose work the connection and continuity with the range of artistic ideas of the previous phases of the Renaissance was clearly expressed, the features of the tragic crisis of the late Renaissance were more acutely embodied in Spanish painting.

The 15th century in the history of Spain was marked by a certain break in the external struggle with the Arabs, who retained only the territorially insignificant Emirate of Granada in their hands. At the same time, this was a time of sharpened antagonistic contradictions within Spanish society, all classes of which were, as it were, set in active motion by the preceding centuries of reconquista. The interests of the growing royal power clashed with the interests of the secular and spiritual nobility. On the other hand, the strengthening of feudal oppression provoked the resistance of the free cities, united in military alliances - Sacred Ermandad, and the peasantry, who rebelled against their enslavement.

The process of overcoming the conservative canons of Gothic, the formation of realism in painting took place primarily in those rich coastal regions of the country, which, like Catalonia and Valencia, were the most economically developed territories of Spain, which early established lively trade and cultural ties with the Netherlands and Italy. The influence of the Dutch school was especially strong, which increased after a visit in 1428-1429. Iberian Peninsula by Jan van Eyck. The preference shown by Spanish masters to Netherlandish art is explained not only by the close political, commercial and cultural ties between Spain and the Netherlands: the very nature of the realism of Netherlandish painting, with its precise detail and materiality of forms, sharply individual characteristics of a person and the general sonorous colorful structure, was close to the creative searches of Spanish artists. painters. The Spanish masters gravitated more to the empiricism of the Dutch school than to the high generalization of the images of Italian art. However, a comparison of the works of Spanish and Dutch painting convinces us of how strong the traditions of the Middle Ages were in Spain of this time. Realistic techniques in the transfer of space and volume of forms are largely limited here. In the works of the Spanish masters, the planar principle of representation dominates, even more emphasized by the introduction of golden backgrounds. Love for the careful reproduction of patterned precious fabrics, abundant ornamentation in an oriental way gives these works a touch of conditional medieval decorativeness. At the same time, compared with Dutch painting, Spanish painting of the 15th century. more severe and dramatic. The main attention is paid to the image of a person, the disclosure of his inner, most often religious experiences. Significantly less space is occupied by the image of its environment - interior, landscape, still life.

Of great importance in the spread of the Dutch influence in painting not only in Valencia, but throughout Spain was the work of the Valencian artist Louis Dalmau (d. 1460). In the painting “Madonna Surrounded by City Councilors” (1443-1445; Barcelona, ​​Myzey), Dalmau imitated the works of Jan van Eyck.

However, in the work of Dalmau, the plane-decorative character is more pronounced, and in his figures - the stiffness of movements. It is significant that the painting was painted not in oil, but in tempera, the technique of which was preserved for a long time in Spain. At the same time, the images of advisers, people full of inner dignity, are marked by undoubted portrait authenticity.

The realistic interpretation of the characteristic human appearance also distinguishes the works of another famous painter of Valencia, Jaime Baso, nicknamed Jakomar (1413-1461).

One of the largest Catalan painters of the 16th century. Chaime Uge (worked in 1448-1487) - the creator of the courageous images of St. George, Saints Abdon and Senen (1459-1460; altar of the Church of Mary in Tarras). The saints are represented as slender youths with simple and open faces. Elevation in them is combined with inner nobility. Bright spots of dark and red robes of saints, golden hilts of swords silhouetted against a burning golden background.

A new stage of Spanish art begins at the end of the 15th century. In 1479 Spain was united under Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Using the support of the Holy Hermandade, the royal power crushed the resistance of the feudal lords. However, in general, the Spanish nobility did not lose, according to K. Marx, their "harmful privileges" and took dominant positions in the system of state administration. Soon an attack was launched on the medieval liberties of the Spanish cities. To assert their dominance, Ferdinand and Isabella, who received the official title of “Catholic Kings” from the Pope, relied on the Inquisition established in 1480.

It was this period that turned out to be favorable for the completion of the reconquista. In 1492 the Emirate of Granada fell. The last stage of the reconquista caused an increase in religious intolerance: those Arabs and Jews who refused to accept Christianity had to leave the country.

At the end of the reconquista, the search for new sources of income contributed to the active colonial expansion of Spain. Its beginning was laid by the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, which was an event of great global significance.

The unification of the country, the establishment of an absolute monarchy, the end of the reconquista, and especially the colonization of the New World contributed to the political rise of Spain. It opened wide prospects for economic power. Spain was emerging from the closed confines of its internal development to the international historical arena. The early inclusion of Spain in the process of primitive capitalist accumulation at first caused the political and economic upsurge of the country. Important steps were taken towards the liberation of the human personality from the yoke of medieval dogmas. But, on the other hand, the art of Spain since the formation of the absolutist state was called upon to glorify the ideas of the power of the growing monarchy and the dominance of Catholicism. If the secular principle had a more complete effect in architecture, then in the field of sculpture and painting, religious themes completely prevailed. The influence of humanistic ideas, a new artistic system of thinking, sometimes leading to a dual worldview, not yet completely freed from the bonds of the Middle Ages, became, however, more and more noticeable in Spanish culture.

The dominant position in the Spanish culture of the early 16th century. occupied by architecture, which later received the name of the plateresque style (from the word platero - jewelry; it means a thin, like a jewelry, decorative decoration of buildings). The early stage of plateresque was made up of works from the end of the 15th century, called the Isabelino period, that is, the time of the reign of Queen Isabella. Gothic traditions, especially in solving the plan and construction of the building, were still very strong in Isabelino architecture, but in general, a new architectural image was born in the works of this style in a complex alloy of various artistic trends. Moorish elements played a significant role in it.

The penetration into architecture and partly sculpture of the artistic tendencies of Arab Spain is an extremely significant phenomenon. Throughout the Middle Ages on the Iberian Peninsula, the political and religious antagonism of the two peoples coexisted with their close cultural interaction. At the time under review, the emerging shift in artistic consciousness opened the way for the development of a secular, life-affirming beginning. On the one hand, the art of Italy was an inspiring example here, the classical forms of which were gradually spreading in Spain. At the same time, the solemn and festive Moorish artistic culture, which continued to exist in the 15th century. in the Mudéjar style, directly appeared before the Spaniards in all its splendor after the capture of Granada. It was, so to speak, a local tradition, which was implemented by the art of the developing Spanish Renaissance.

At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, mainly small churches were erected in Spain to commemorate historical events, the tombs of the royal family and the aristocracy. Magnificent chapels were attached to the old Gothic cathedrals. Strengthened international ties had as a consequence a wide attraction to the Spanish court of foreign masters, in whose work, however, local traditions and new artistic tastes prevailed.

The first signs of the birth of a new style appeared in the interior of the church of San Juan de los Reyos (1476) in Toledo, architect Juan de Guas. The exterior of the church is strict and Gothic-style traditional. But in the spacious bright interior, where the architect introduced the Moorish motif of the eight-pointed Star in the ceiling of the vault, the decorative decoration makes an unusual impression. The walls are completely covered, especially in the space under the dome, with sculptural ornamentation. The principle of carpet filling the wall plane with rich sculptural decoration - the main feature of the plateresque style - was reflected in this early building by Juan de Guas.

In the further development of Spanish architecture, what was hidden in the interior seemed to come to the surface of the building, and above all to its facade, as, for example, in the remarkable monuments of the late 15th century. - in the Church of San Pablo and the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid. The exceptional expressiveness and novelty of the appearance of their facades are greatly enhanced by the fact that all the decoration is concentrated on the portal, the thin, bizarre, plastic rich carving of which is opposed to the harsh simplicity of the smooth wall ledges that close the facade. A sharp and spectacular contrast gives rise to a complex architectural image, which at the same time creates the impression of rigor and elegance, simplicity and sophisticated fantasy, the statics of the bulk of the building and the picturesque shimmer of the complex forms of its elegant attire.

The facade of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid, built in 1496 according to the design of Juan de Guas, is one of the most typical creations of early plateresque. The composition of the portal, which resembles a patterned shield protruding from the main plane of the building, is dominated by Gothic decorative motifs. Its division into vertical stripes, while somewhat restraining the free and picturesque movement of sculptural forms, still does not play a decisive role. The decoration of the portal is not subject to the strict laws of tectonics, it is designed primarily to create a bright decorative impression.

The analogy of such a portal with the Spanish altar image (retablo) is undoubted, especially since at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries the art of the retablo reached its peak in Spain. It is difficult to distinguish between the work of an architect and the work of a sculptor. The very understanding of sculpture is still Gothic. Sculpture has not acquired independent significance - it is merged with architecture, being born, as in medieval cathedrals, from the mass of the building. As in Gothic, it is imbued with a sense of the peculiar uniqueness of every smallest detail inherent in medieval craftsmanship. Undoubtedly, folk stone carvers, who combined the traditions of Spanish Gothic and Moorish artistic culture, took an active part in the construction. The impact of the latter was embodied in that peculiar ornamental element that dominates the general appearance of the portal, in the introduction of an inner closed courtyard into the composition of the collegium building, as well as in its decoration.

One of the most original buildings of Juan de Guas is the palace of the Dukes of Infantado in Guadalajara (c. 1480-1493). The building, badly damaged by rebuilding in the second half of the 16th century, is an example of an attempt to create a three-story palace type only on the basis of local traditions, without using Italian models. This task was complicated by the fact that the entire early plateresque represents a stage of pre-order architecture. Hence the somewhat archaic appearance of the building. In the façade lacking a clear tectonic organization, the entrance portal is shifted to the left; windows, different in size, are unevenly scattered over its surface.

The appeal to Moorish traditions was reflected in the design of the portal and in the appearance of an open bypass gallery, and especially in the fantastically fabulous two-tiered arcade of the courtyard.

In the decorative decoration of the palace in Guadalajara, one important point should be noted, which has become widespread in plateresque architecture - the decoration of the facade surface with projections of various shapes, in this case - diamond-shaped. In another interesting building, the "House with Shells" in Salamanca (1475-1483), large shells - the emblem of the owner of the house, a knight of the Order of Sant Jago - are superimposed in a checkerboard pattern on the plane of the wall. Such a technique is different from the principles of "diamond rustication" of some Italian buildings, based on the saturation of each stone with increased volumetric expressiveness and enhancing the impact of the entire mass of the building.

The Spanish master perceives the wall to a greater extent as a plane, on which decorative spots bright in the play of light and shadow are highlighted, especially contrasting against the background of the harsh surface of the wall surface. This reflects some of the features of Spanish architectural thinking, dating back to distant Eastern traditions.

The mature stage of plateresque dates back to the first half of the 16th century. The growing influence of the artistic culture of the Italian Renaissance also manifested itself in the field of architecture, but has not yet led to a radical change in its figurative system. Even in the architecture of the mature plateresque, the borrowing of some Renaissance structural elements did little to affect the Gothic foundations of the plan and construction of buildings. The main achievements of the style belong to the field of facade composition. The facades of buildings are now saturated with classical architectural and sculptural forms: order elements, floral ornaments, flower garlands, medallions, bas-reliefs, portrait busts, statues of ancient deities and figurines of putti.The inclusion of new Renaissance elements in the local, still largely medieval architectural system in this case gives the impression not of an eclectic mixture of traditions, but of their organic fusion into a holistic artistic image.To a large extent, this is due to the fact that the masters of plateresque interpret classical forms in their own way, not so much using them to reveal the strict tectonics of the building, but subordinating the picturesque elegance of its general appearance. understanding of the order, although the order elements already now play a certain organizing role in the composition.

Among the works of mature plateresque, the western facade of the University of Salamanca (1515-1533) is especially famous. In contrast to the pictorial freedom of decor in the portal of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid, a clear logical system of vertical and horizontal divisions of the overall composition is expressed here with a clearly defined center in each tier. Decor elements are enclosed in cells framed by cornice lines and ornamented with ribbed pilasters. A certain restraint and balance of the composition are combined with an amazing richness and variety of plastic forms, sometimes larger and richer, sometimes covering the stone surface like the thinnest cobweb, sometimes having a strict and clear graphic pattern, especially in the depiction of coats of arms. The higher up the façade, the freer the decor becomes, without losing the symmetrical correspondence of the parts. As in the early stages of plateresque, the sculpture here is imbued with a sense of completeness in every detail. However, this is no longer the language of Gothic, but of new forms of classical art.

The building of the University of Salamanca is included in the composition of a rectangular courtyard surrounded by facades of educational premises. The secular, graceful image of the entire architectural ensemble corresponds to the spirit of the Salamanca University itself, one of the oldest in Europe, which even in the conditions of Spain in the 16th century. remained the center of advanced scientific thought.

Fine examples of mature Spanish plateresque also include the University Building in Alcalá de Henares, whose main facade was designed by Rodrigo Gil de Ontanjon in 1540-1559, and the Seville City Hall (begun in 1527, architect Diego del Rianho). Both buildings reveal a more developed solution of volumetric-plastic architectural composition than in the facade of the University of Salamanca. Each of them is a horizontally elongated palace-type structure divided into floors, in which window openings, cornices, and the main entrance are highlighted. The decorative plateresque system here is much more subordinated to revealing the structure of the building. In some residential buildings of this time, the traditions of Moorish architecture affected (for example, in the palace of the Dukes of Monterey in 1539 in Salamanca). In other buildings, the principles of mature plateresque prevailed, as one would expect, mainly in facade compositions. In many cities in Spain, especially in Salamanca, beautiful residential buildings were built.

Although plateresque developed in various Spanish provinces and bore the imprint of regional traditions, it was at the same time a single national architectural style. Plateresque buildings, very peculiar and attractive in their appearance, constituted one of the brightest pages in the history of Spanish architecture.

Sculpture in Spain at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, closely connected with architecture, developed with it in the same direction. The Isabelino period was clearly manifested in the work of one of the most original Spanish sculptors, Gil de Siloé (active 1486-1505). The rectangular wooden retablo of the Carthusian church of Miraflores near Burgos was made by Gil de Siloé in collaboration with Diego de la Cruz in 1496-1499. From a distance, the altar, filled with many Gothic architectural and sculptural forms, gives the impression of a shimmering patterned surface. Up close, a complex ornamental system of composition is revealed, somewhat reminiscent of the principle of decorating oriental fabrics; her main motif is the circle motif. Dark gold sculptural decoration with subtle accents of white and blue coloring emerges against a deep blue background of the altar strewn with gilded stars.

In front of the retablo is the tomb of the parents of Isabella the Catholic, King Juan II and his wife, created by Gil de Siloe a few years earlier. The base of the tomb is shaped like an eight-pointed star, decorated with statues. Openwork forms, an abundance of ornamental patterns distinguish all the details of the tomb, made of white alabaster. And here Gothic and Moorish motifs merge into a single fantastic sophisticated image.

In the further development of sculpture in the early 16th century. the composition of the retablo included classical architectural forms and sculptural images, forming a peculiar combination with a bright decorative effect of its overall appearance.

Renaissance motifs were also used in the construction of tombs made of marble and decorated with medallions, bas-reliefs, and flower garlands. Often, elements of the classical order were also used in their frame. But the masters of Spain perceived and portrayed a lot in their own way. Working in stone and marble, they also willingly created painted wooden statues.

The works of Felippe de Borgogna (d. 1543) and Damian Formenta (1480-1543) are close to the period of mature plateresque. The polychrome alabaster retablo of the royal chapel in Granada (1521) by Borgogna contains, along with scenes on religious subjects, reliefs that depict the historical events of the last stage of the reconquista. Each sculptural stamp is inserted into a kind of niche, framed by vertical and horizontal divisions of the retablo - pilasters, columns and cornices. This light, graceful system of architectural forms undoubtedly organizes the entire composition.

The sculpture itself is unique. Quite large statues are located in the space of niches. To a large extent, these are new images, free from Gothic stiffness and angularity. At the same time, the master is fascinated not so much by the transfer of the plastic beauty of the human body, but by the desire to reveal the dramatic nature of the plot conflict. In the scene "The Beheading of John the Baptist" the features of that mercilessly truthful depiction of martyrdom and suffering, which generally distinguishes Spanish art, are especially noticeable. The decapitated figure of the saint is brought to the fore, followed by a triumphant executioner, raising the bloodied head of John. The polychrome coloring of the figures further enhances the dramatic effect of the scene. On the sides of the retablo are statues of kneeling Catholic kings. Solemn and static, they are marked at the same time by the undoubted portrait authenticity of the appearance of the weak-willed Ferdinand and the cruel, domineering Isabella.

The displacement of Gothic elements by the Renaissance took place gradually. In the forms of the retablo of the cathedral in Huesca (1520-1541) by Damian Forment, a connection with the Middle Ages is still felt. A completely different impression is produced by his retablo in the church of San Domingo de la Calzada in Logroño (1537), where the master is fluent in the language of new plastic forms. At the same time, this work is a vivid evidence of how arbitrarily Spanish masters used classical elements. The retablo in Logroño is built on a picturesque heap of fractional forms imbued with a restless rhythm of movement; all its architectural details seem to be woven with ornament.

Emerged in Spanish painting of the 15th century. the process of development of realism intensified significantly in the first decades of the 16th century. Catalonia and Valencia lost their role as the leading artistic centers of Castile and Andalusia. The acquaintance of the Spanish masters with the achievements of Italian painting became closer. The visual structure of their works bears a clear imprint of the Renaissance. But at the same time, the ideological orientation of Spanish painting remained largely far from Renaissance freethinking. Such a duality of the artistic image was clearly manifested in the work of the leading masters of Spain of that time.

The Castilian painter, court painter of the Catholic kings, Pedro Berruguete (d. ca. 1504), worked for a long time in Italy at the court of the Urbino Duke Federigo da Montefeltro, together with the Italian Melozzo da Forli and the Netherlander Jos van Geyt. Berruguete's paintings for the library of the palace in Urbino testify to how seriously he mastered the techniques of Renaissance painting. The Italian school is also felt in the works created by Berruguete upon his return to his homeland in 1483. However, in them he showed himself as a typical Spanish master. The central place in the artist's work is occupied by paintings commissioned by the inquisitor Torquemada for the altar of St. Thomas in Avila (located in the Prado). They depict scenes from the life of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic and Peter the Martyr. With great care and authenticity, the master captured in them what he could observe in reality: the scene of the burning of heretics in the city square (“St. Dominic at the auto-da-fé”), various types of Spanish clergy (“St. Dominic burning books”), expressive the figures of a blind beggar and his young guide (“Miracle before the shrine of St. Thomas”). Using perspective, Berruguete sought to depict the inner space of the interior in which the action takes place, to create real images of people united by a common experience.

At the same time, Berruguete's work is marked by a special severity and asceticism. In man, the Spanish master was mainly interested in the transmission of an inner, basically religious feeling. The figures in his paintings are not always anatomically correct, sometimes, as in medieval art, they are of different scales; their movements, even those that should look swift, are static. The gilding, which the master sometimes used, introduces a planar element into the composition, reinforcing the impression of the underlined solemnity of the scenes depicted. Thus, the expressiveness of the Episode of the burning of heretical books, so characteristic of Catholic Spain, was achieved to a large extent by the fact that, against the general golden background of the picture, black cassocks of monks, brocade clothes of nobles, the scarlet flame of a fire and precious bindings of burned books act as sonorous spots.

More lyrical is the work of Alejo Fernandez, a representative of the Seville school (d. 1543). Like Berruguete, Alejo Fernandez was well acquainted with Italian and Dutch art. Medieval traditions also affected his work. Especially famous is his painting "Madonna of the Navigators", sometimes poetically called "Madonna of a Fair Wind" (first third of the 16th century; Seville, Alcazar). A rare motif in the history of Spanish painting - a seascape in the foreground, a sea receding into the distance, covered with various ships - as it were, personifies the limitless possibilities of the Spanish fleet that plied the ocean. Above, in the heavens, under the protection of the Mother of God - kneeling figures of seafarers; one of them is considered to be an image of Christopher Columbus. These images, of course, are distinguished by portrait authenticity. But the bold motif of “discovery of the world” is subordinated in the picture to the religious idea. Madonna, a slender woman in a magnificent, elegantly ornamented dress, is still the same traditional image of the blessing Madonna of Mercy. Her exorbitantly large figure dominates the entire composition. The broad outlines of her cloak, overshadowing the conquistadors, also cover the figures of the Indians who converted to Christianity, depicted in the background. The painting is intended to glorify the triumph of Catholicism in the conquered lands. Hence its special conditional and solemnly decorative figurative structure, which combines elements of a real image and religious symbols.

In the first half of the 16th century the final formation of Spanish absolutism was accompanied by an increase in colonial expansion and an active policy of conquest. The Spanish king Charles I of Habsburg in 1519 inherited the crown of the German emperor under the name of Charles V. Spain became part of a huge empire that owned Germany, the Netherlands, part of Italy and colonial lands in America. The period, covering approximately the first half of the 16th century, is characterized by the continuing political and economic upsurge of the country. Spain's entry into the international arena caused a further deepening of public consciousness, a revival of scientific and humanistic thought. But the reverse side of these achievements was the bloody epic of the conquest of colonies, the brutal exploitation of the countries that were part of the Habsburg empire.

A new stage in the history of Spain - henceforth the largest power in the world - was fraught with insoluble internal contradictions. Significantly evolved the fate of the Spanish cities. Their relative prosperity in the first half of the 16th century was short-lived. The defeat in 1521 by the Spanish absolutism of the uprising of the Castilian urban communes, the so-called uprising of the "communeros", finally destroyed their medieval liberties. But if the attack of absolutism on the medieval rights of cities in other European countries did not prevent the further growth of the bourgeoisie, which took place under the auspices of the absolute monarchy itself, then in Spain, where, according to K. Marx, “cities lost their medieval power, without acquiring the significance inherent in modern cities” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., vol. 10, p. 432.), the historical process of creating absolutism was accompanied by the growing ruin of the bourgeoisie. The reactionary forces of Spanish feudal society, holding back the development of new capitalist relations, led the country to economic and political decline.

Spanish culture at the beginning of the 16th century experienced the growing influence of Italy. Diplomatic, trade and cultural ties were expanding between the two countries. Many Spaniards - participants in the military campaigns of Charles V - visited Italy. Spanish society was fascinated by the culture of the Italian Renaissance. For court circles, this passion was expressed in a superficial fashion for everything Italian. But if we take the whole culture of Spain as a whole, then it must be recognized that the influence of Italy contributed to the expansion of the creative possibilities of Spanish society.

The time of the rise of the world empire required the creation of a new, more monumental artistic style. Hence the introduction of Renaissance forms “from outside” into the art of these countries, so typical for the absolute monarchies of Europe, a kind of “top” Renaissance, implanted by the ruling class. In Spain, as in other countries, Italian masters were invited to the royal court. An official artistic movement was persistently cultivated, imitating Italian art. Many of the Spanish masters studied with Italian architects, sculptors, painters and worked in Italy.

The most advanced area of ​​Spanish art of this period was architecture. True, the general picture of its development is distinguished by its diversity and lack of stylistic unity. Indeed, the construction of the most significant works of mature plateresque dates back to the first half of the 16th century. But they were not now the leading artistic trend of the era. Its carriers were monuments, the number of which is small, but the role of which in Spanish architecture is extremely significant. The largest building of them is the palace of Charles V in Granada. Its design belongs to the Spanish architect Pedro Machuca. who studied in Rome during the time of Bramante and Raphael. The construction of the palace began in 1526, when the emperor decided to create his own residence in the gardens of the Alhambra. The palace was erected in close proximity to the famous Moorish complex, which violated its artistic unity. The construction of the palace, however, dragged on with long interruptions until the middle of the 17th century. and was not completed.

The Palace in Granada is a majestic building, designed in the classical traditions of the High Renaissance. In terms of plan, it is a square with an inscribed circle forming a closed courtyard with a diameter of about 30 m. The architect’s desire to create a single centric composition manifested itself here with great courage and novelty: the core of the whole composition is a magnificent open courtyard. Its space is, as it were, embraced by the calm and clear rhythm of the circular movement of the two-tiered colonnade (below - Tuscan, above - Ionic order), which supports the bypass gallery. This courtyard, reminiscent of both ancient Roman amphitheaters and the Spanish bullring, seems to be intended for solemn court spectacles. The clear logic of the architectural divisions of the round courtyard corresponds to the consistent system of the classical order on all four outer facades of the palace. The lower floor is weighted with massive rustication. The central risalits, as it were, concentrate the main elements of the architectural frame of the entire surface of the building, enhancing their expressiveness: pilasters here are replaced by paired columns, round windows - elegant medallions decorated with bas-reliefs. The unity of the compositional design, the proportionality of the parts, the restraint of the decorative decoration give the palace of Charles V the impression of artistic integrity and strict impressiveness.

New trends in religious architecture of the period under review were also reflected in the changes that the architect Diego de Siloé, the son of Gil de Siloé, who was also a gifted sculptor, made to the original project of the cathedral in Granada, especially in the solution of its altar part (1528). The altar included in the building in the form of a multifaceted rotunda crowned with a dome gives the entire space of the cathedral a sense of freedom and harmony. Fine examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture also include the courtyard of the Alcazar in Toledo, built in 1537 by Diego de Covarrubias.

All these works testify to the fact that in Spanish architecture there was a process of deep assimilation of classical traditions. Thus, the foundation was laid for the development in Spain of new planning and volume-spatial compositions that more fully met the spirit of the times.

In more difficult conditions, the evolution of sculpture and painting proceeded. If familiarization with the new artistic language developed by the culture of Renaissance Italy was a good school of professional skill for Spanish sculptors and painters, then the very ideological orientation of the art of the Italian High Renaissance remained largely alien to them. Therefore, the visual structure of this art was perceived by the Spanish masters not always organically; sometimes they went no further than direct imitation. But still, within the framework of the Italianizing direction, the Spanish masters strove for independent figurative solutions, found a way out for their creative searches. This was especially evident in the depiction of a strong human feeling, so characteristic of Spanish art. Often, the search for increased expressiveness of images gave their works an accentuated expressiveness and intense drama. It is also no coincidence that many Spanish masters soon turned to the work of the masters of Italian mannerism, in which they found some consonant features. However, in search of adequate means, the Spanish masters used only some of the techniques of mannerism; their own art as a whole had a much greater sincerity and truthfulness, for it was nevertheless based on an undoubted interest in the inner world of man, although limited within a certain idea.

Spanish sculpture of the first half of the 16th century is more original and brighter than painting. At this time, such gifted sculptors worked as the already mentioned Diego de Siloe (1495-1563), Bartolomeo Ordoñez (d. 1520), son and student of Pedro Berruguete - Alonso Berruguete (c. 1490 - 1561).

In the works of Diego de Siloé and Bartolomeo Ordóñez, one can feel the Renaissance school. Both of them lived in Italy for a long time. In his homeland, Ordoñez commissioned Charles V to create the tomb of his parents, Philip the Handsome and Juana the Mad (1513; royal chapel in Granada). He also manifests himself as a mature master in another work - the tomb of Cardinal Cisneros in the university church of Alcala de Henares (1519). Among the traditional statues of the church fathers, placed at the corners of the tomb, the statue of St. Gregory. This majestic old man is depicted sitting in a natural pose. He has an imperious rough face; wide folds of clothes drape a powerful overweight figure. The image is distinguished by the harsh unadornedness so characteristic of the Spanish masters.

If the work of the talented early deceased Ordonez as a whole unfolded within the framework of the Renaissance traditions, then the art of Alonso Berruguete, one of the most prominent Spanish sculptors, is an example of how classical ideals were modified in Spain.

Alonso Berruguete was a multi-talented master: being mainly a sculptor, he is also known as a painter. Berruguete spent his youth in Italy, where he studied with Michelangelo, copied antique statues. The bright plasticity of his sculptural images was based on a fluency in the language of classical forms, an excellent knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. But, unlike the images of the Italian Renaissance, the works of Berruguete, among which the wooden polychrome statues of the retablo of the Church of San Benito in Valladolid (1532) (1532), are full of drama and confusion. The proportions of slender figures are elongated, the forms are often distorted, the postures are dynamic, the gestures are sharp and impulsive, the faces reflect internal tension. In the history of Spanish art, Berruguete is usually regarded as a representative of Mannerism. Such an interpretation will, however, be simplified, since the similarity between this master and the mannerists is purely external. In addressing this issue, one can draw a kind of analogy between Berruguete and one of the greatest French sculptors, Jean Goujon. Just as the images of Goujon’s nymphs from his Fountain of the Innocents, captivating in their beauty, with all their extraordinary sophistication, are far from the soulless coldness and pretentiousness of mannerist images, so the bright Expressiveness of Berruguete’s “Sacrifice of Abraham” is not an external device, but an expression of the essence of the living images themselves. The art of Berruguete is the art of a passionate spiritual outburst, dramatic conflicts. With great expressiveness he captured suffering, sorrow, pain, confusion of feelings. "St. Sebastian "Berruguete is almost a boy with a fragile, angular, painfully curved body. His "Moses" - one of the magnificent reliefs that adorned the wooden benches of the choir of the Cathedral of Toledo (1548; now in the Museum of Valladolid), - is full of anxiety and excitement. It seems that the storm has scattered his hair and clothes. Deep spirituality distinguishes the Berruguete group, depicting the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, in the retablo of the Church of St. Ursula in Toledo. The image of Elizabeth is the very embodiment of a strong and direct feeling. She quickly rushed to Mary, ready to fall on her knees before her. The viewer does not see the face of Elizabeth, but the whole outline of her figure and the stormy rhythm of the fluttering folds create a feeling of an irresistible inner impulse. The young beautiful Mary is more calm and restrained, but how much tenderness is guessed in the royally majestic gesture of her hands, with which she supports Elizabeth, in the expression of her spiritual face. The dynamism of this episode is set off by the strict and motionless figures of the women accompanying Mary, depicted on the sides of the central composition of the retablo.

Work in the field of wooden polychrome sculpture was especially attractive to Berruguete. The heightened emotionality of his images found the most grateful embodiment here, emphasizing the exquisite range of coloring used by the sculptor with a predominance of white, black and gold.

The desire of the Spanish masters to embody the expressiveness of human experience in images led them further and further away from classical traditions, more and more giving their works a tinge of disharmony and external expression. These features prevailed in the work of Juan de Juni (c. 1507-1577), a Spanish sculptor who also studied in Italy. Some of his images have considerable artistic persuasiveness (“Our Lady with Daggers”; Valladolid, Museum). But the multi-figure compositions of Juan de Juni of the 1540s. (“The Entombment” in the Cathedral of Segovia, the retablo of the Church of San Francisco in Valladolid) are overloaded with details, riddled with intricate and tense movement. Everything in them is exaggerated, unnatural, designed for an external effect and seems to be full of a premonition of the spirit of church baroque art.

Spanish painting of the first half of the 16th century. did not give a master equal in strength to the talent of Alonso Berruguete. The conditions of the order limited the possibilities of artists. As before, paintings were intended to decorate church altars. Spain of this time, in fact, did not know any easel paintings or frescoes. Naturally, mythological and secular subjects in these conditions could not get the right to exist.

And yet, Spanish painting in the first half of the 16th century was not just a weak reflection of Italian. It showed features of originality, attempts to paraphrase classical samples in their own way.

The main artistic centers of the Italianizing trend were the major trading cities of Seville and Valencia. The Valencians Hernando Yáñez de Almedina (d. c. 1537) and Hernando Llanos (d. after 1525) lived and worked in Italy, where they studied with Leonardo da Vinci, whom they imitated, going so far as to directly borrow some images. In the Valencia Cathedral, both masters painted the main altar paintings dedicated to the life of the Virgin Mary (1507). From the point of view of Italian painting, these are quite “competent” works, in which knowledge of drawing, perspective, anatomy and figure modeling is reflected. Renaissance architecture often enters the picture as a backdrop against which the action takes place. And yet images of a harmoniously beautiful warehouse in Spanish art are found more as an exception than as a rule. One of the few successful examples here is Yanes' painting "St. Catherine" (c. 1520; Prado). To a much greater extent, the Spanish masters succeeded as if snatched from life episodic characters, for example, the shepherds in Yanes's painting "The Adoration of the Shepherds". Similar features can be seen in the work of the Valencian painter Juan de Juanes (c. 1528-1579). How pale and even sugary his ideal images are, how expressive, for example, in their inexorable cruelty, the participants in the beating of St. Stefan with stones in his composition of the same name, kept in the Prado Museum.

A peculiar Spanish interpretation of the famous "Last Supper" by Leonardo is a painting by Juanes of the same name (Prado). Juanes follows Leonardo's composition in many ways. However, the figurative solution of his painting is based not on a deep psychological conflict, but on a mystical miracle. A different moment is chosen than that of Leonardo: Christ, raising Holy Communion in his hand, pronounces the words: "Behold my body." The gestures of the actors are full of exaltation, the composition lacks harmonic clarity, the subordination of parts to the whole, it is overloaded with everyday details. The figurative structure of the picture acquires a manneristic hue. The Seville painter Luis de Vargas (1502-1568), an admirer of Raphael, in his painting “Madonna before the Forefathers of the Old Testament” (1561; Seville, Cathedral) imitates the works of Vasari, achieving greater vitality, especially in the interpretation of secondary characters.

The second half of the 16th century in the history of Spain in the dark years of the despotism of Philip II is the time of the growing political and economic crisis of the world power. The Spanish monarchy, which claimed world domination, tried to maintain its position by leading the feudal and Catholic reaction in Western Europe. However, Spanish absolutism, which could no longer defeat the new and progressive that was rising and gaining strength in European countries, suffered one defeat after another. The collapse of the Northern Netherlands in 1581 dealt a huge blow to the Habsburg empire, and the attempt in 1588 to crush England was also unsuccessful.

The tragedy of Spanish society was that Spain, essentially not knowing the Reformation, experienced in full all the disastrous consequences of the Counter-Reformation. The Inquisition turned out to be the main instrument of Philip II's domestic policy. The mass executions of "heretics", the furious persecution of baptized Moors - Moriscos, the persecution of scientific thought, the triumph of religious obscurantism - all this took place against the backdrop of the deepening ruin of the country, the collapse of its world power. Under the conditions of Spanish reality, the ground was created for the most acute expression of those ideas of crisis and the tragic disharmony of public consciousness, which are so characteristic of the late Renaissance.

The idea of ​​a single great monarchy required the creation of a special style in art, exalting the power of the empire. The task of its creation was solved only in the field of Spanish architecture.

Already the image of the Granada palace of Charles V carried the features of sovereign representation. But the idea of ​​a great monarchy was to be embodied in a product of a more powerful scope - in the whole architectural complex. Such a work was created. This is the famous Escorial, the palace-monastery, the residence of Philip II. The grandiose building dedicated to St. Lawrence was erected 80 kilometers from the new Spanish capital - Madrid, in the desert valley of the Manzanares River, near the village of El Escorial, from where it got its name. Its project (1563) belonged to the Spanish architect Juan de Toledo, who was trained in Italy. After his death in 1567, the construction was headed by the young gifted architect Juan de Herrera (1530-1597), who not only expanded, but also largely changed the original plan.

A huge building erected from gray granite, Escorial accommodates a monastery, palace premises, the tomb of Spanish kings, a library, a collegium and a hospital. The area occupied by the ensemble exceeds 40,000 square meters. m. In Escorial, there are 11 courtyards and 86 stairs. The height of the corner towers, decorated with high slate roofs, reaches 56 m. The construction of the Escorial, which was completed in 1583, was distinguished by an unprecedented scale and excellent organization of construction work. It was conducted under the personal supervision of Philip II.

Juan de Herrera brilliantly solved the problem of creating this complex architectural complex. It is based on a single clear plan in the form of a huge rectangle with sides of 206 X 261 m. Only in the eastern part is a small ledge, where the personal royal apartments were located. The rectangle is cut by two axes: the main one, accentuating the entrance, from west to east, and the transverse one, from north to south. In each of the compartments, the arrangement of buildings and courtyards is subject to the basic principle of dividing the plan into geometrically regular rectangular cells. The center of the whole ensemble is the majestic cathedral crowned with a dome. The scale of the architectural image of Escorial, which creates the impression of a whole city, emerging among the harsh foothills of the rocky Guadarrama, is determined not only by its grandiose size. Juan de Herrera achieved strict proportionality and unity of a clear general silhouette and volume-spatial composition of the entire architectural complex. So, he very correctly found a proportional relationship between the vertical elements of the composition - the powerful dome of the cathedral, the corner towers and the horizontal lines of the very extended facades. The decision of the five-storey colossal facades is one of the most daring innovations of the Spanish architect. Not all of them are equal. On the western facade, for example, the main entrance is designed in the form of a portico - a complex two-tier structure with columns and pediments. This portico, reminiscent of the façade of the Roman Jesuit church Il Gesu, is not quite organically connected with the mass of the building: it seems to be attached to the wall. Much more impressive are the other facades of the Escorial, especially the southern one, perhaps the most stingy and restrained in appearance. The architect, exceptionally original for his time, built the expressiveness of the facade on the underlined laconicism of a smooth, as if stretching into infinity, plane of the wall.

Often located windows and horizontal rods are subject to a single severe rhythm. Rectangular pools stretch along the façade; the vast square paved with stone slabs is framed by low stone parapets. The southern facade of Escorial is perceived as a very integral architectural image, full of strength and significance.

Numerous buildings of the Escorial are designed in a single strict monumental style. On the main axis is a rectangular entrance courtyard, the so-called Court of the Kings, which overlooks the western facade of the Cathedral of St. Lawrence. The composition of the facade consists of large massive architectural masses - a central two-tiered portal with a high pediment and quadrangular towers in the corners. From behind the pediment one can see the huge dome of the cathedral. The portico of the Tuscan order supports the statues of the Old Testament kings located on pedestals, to whom the courtyard owes its name.

Strict simplicity and at the same time underlined impressiveness distinguishes the architectural solution of the interior space of the cathedral, in which the elements of the Doric order dominate. The frescoes on the vaults were painted by Italian court masters and in terms of color are sustained in cold, conditional tones. Bronze statues (their authors are the Italian masters Pompeo and Leone Leoni), depicting Charles V and Philip II, frozen in prayer poses, surrounded by their families, stand against a dark background of large smooth niches on the sides of the altar.

One of the original buildings of the Escorial is the so-called Well of the Evangelists in the form of a small temple located in the center of a courtyard surrounded by a two-tiered arcade, which adjoins the cathedral on the right. This graceful building of a complex and whimsical outline (in plan - an octagon with a cross inscribed in it) crowned with a dome and decorated with statues and a balustrade, as it were, anticipates the dynamic compositions of the Baroque. However, here Herrera maintains the unity of style, very skillfully linking the building with the overall ensemble. Already the motif of rectangular pools, placed on the four sides of this building, includes it in a single clear geometric system of the entire architectural complex.

The Escorial is one of the most significant works in the history of Spanish architecture. Its ideological and figurative content is complex and contradictory. Erected at the whim of Philip II in a deserted area, too huge to be properly used in its entirety, this grandiose structure was the brightest artistic expression of its time. It is no coincidence that it was created in Spain and that Europe of the 16th century does not know such an architectural monument. In a holistic unity, in the strict subordination of all parts of this majestic ensemble, the idea of ​​centralized absolute power was figuratively reflected. Since the very idea of ​​a centralized monarchy was historically progressive, the architectural design of Escorial found its expression in advanced features - it was not without reason that in a number of respects it became the prototype of grandiose palace complexes in the absolutist states of the 17th century. In the architecture of the Escorial one can detect the emergence of elements of classicism and baroque; other innovations of the 17th century were also anticipated here, for example, the theme of the dome crowning the entire ensemble composition. But in Spain, where absolutism became a brake on social development, such a work as Escorial - this ascetically harsh and officially cold palace-monastery, completely merged with the desert scorched by the sun nature - by the time the construction was completed turned into a gloomy monument to the past despotic empire.

The attempt to create a unified artistic style of the Spanish monarchy was marked in the field of painting by a disproportionately less success than in the field of architecture. At the court of Philip II, a school of court painters arose, decorating mainly the Escorial with frescoes and paintings. It was a kind of "school of Fontainebleau", although much less bright and much more strongly imbued with the ideas of Catholicism. By this time, the artistic ideals of Spanish painters had changed markedly. Mannerist manifestations were strongly condemned in numerous theoretical works published in Spain. The embodiment in art of the objective norms of classical beauty has become the main requirement of the time. From now on, the works of the Roman school were considered the main role models, which is why this artistic direction was called Romanism. However, Romanism, which excluded the possibility of a creative rethinking of Italian prototypes, was an eclectic trend. The Italian painters Federigo Zuccari, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Luca Cambiaso, Bartolomeo Carduccio and others invited to the court, as well as the Spanish novelists Gaspar Besserra, Pablo Cespedes created works outwardly ceremonial, but superficial and artistically insignificant. Among the Spanish novelists, only the artist Juan de Navarrete (1526-1579), a talented colorist who was influenced by Venetian painting, can be noted; in his work the features of realism were affected.

The requirements of court culture, however, could not suppress the development of realistic tendencies in Spanish painting, even within the same court art. In the second half of the 16th century, a national school of portrait painters developed in Spain, associated with the names of Alonso Sanchez Coelho (c. 1532 - 1588), his students and followers.

The youth of Sanchez Coelho, a Portuguese by birth, was spent in his homeland, where he got acquainted with the work of Antonis Mora, who worked at the Portuguese court. In 1557, Sanchez Coelho became the court painter of Philip II.

The figures of nobles depicted on the canvases of Spanish portraitists are frozen, straight, as if petrified in their cold inaccessibility, with monotonous static gestures, filled with dispassion; bodies under stiff clothes seem incorporeal. Details of the costume are carefully rendered: patterned brocade fabrics, stiff collars, heavy chased ornaments. In the composition of this type of portrait, the role of traditional class representations and conditional norms of the strictest court etiquette is obvious. The stiffness and stiffness of these images closely merge in our imagination with the deadly despondency of the life of the Spanish court, whose inert and monastic monotonous life was subject to a precisely established ceremonial.

In a Spanish portrait of the second half of the 16th century. you can often see the borrowing of external techniques of mannerism. But in general, the Spanish masters, in essence, proceeded from a different perception of a person than that of the Italian mannerists. Perhaps, compared with the works of Pontormo or Bronzino, Spanish portraits may seem archaic, even somewhat primitive. But their figurative structure is based on healthier principles; they preserve the realistic tradition of the Spanish Renaissance. Each individuality is imprinted by them with exact likeness, without a trace of flattery. The amazing authenticity of the faces portrayed, sometimes even with a touch of some prosaic, is the original and main feature of these works.

Repeatedly depicting Philip II, Alonso Sanchez Coelho conveyed with great persuasiveness the faded face of the king, his devastated look. In the portrait of the young prince Don Carlos (Prado), the artist does not hide the fact that the entire appearance of the heir to the throne is marked by the seal of obvious degeneration. On the contrary, a strong imperious character is guessed in the young Isabella-Clara-Eugenia, the future ruler of the Netherlands (Prado). A student of Sanchez Coelho, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1549-1609), who was more dry and petty in his pictorial manner, conveyed the appearance of his models with the same authenticity.

Spanish portrait painters of the 16th century. often depicted in court portraits next to noble persons of jesters, dwarfs and freaks. Their pitiful figures were supposed to set off, in contrast, the stately posture, the nobility of the appearance of representatives of high society, or the natural healthy beauty of a royal child. Quite often the actual portraits of jesters and dwarfs were created.

The depiction in art of the physical ugliness of a person, his spiritual inferiority reflected a characteristic feature of the new crisis era: the loss of a harmonious idea of ​​the personality, an increased interest in painful and abnormal natural phenomena. However, this acute theme of modernity could not be realized by the Spanish portrait painters in all its depth. In the image of a jester and a freak, who served as a favorite pastime of the king and bored courtiers, the artists strove to convey mainly the features of their unusual appearance, the details of the “jester's” costume.

Some naive and straightforward documentary and static psychological solution of Spanish portrait images are quite understandable: the portrait of the second half of the 16th century was one of the first stages in the realistic comprehension of human personality by Spanish art. But it was Sánchez Coelho and his school who did much to prepare the ground for the development of the subsequent phase of Spanish realistic portraiture in the 17th century.

If the ideas of official Catholicism, reflected in court art, dominated in court circles, at the same time, in the philosophy, literature and painting of Spain, mainly in cities remote from the court, various mystical currents became widespread, in which the ideas of counter-reformation were intertwined with still very alive on the soil of Spain by medieval mysticism. Despite their reactionary nature, these ideas contained some "heretical" propositions, initially rejected by official Catholicism, and subsequently used by it in their own interests.

In Spanish painting, the representative of the direction in which mystical tendencies prevailed was Luis Morales (c. 1509-1586), who worked in his native city of Badajoz. The artist knew Italian and Dutch art well. His virtuoso, like enamel painting technique is close to the methods of the Dutch school of the 15th century. The old and the new are closely merged in the work of Morales. Something medieval looms in the exaggerated religious spirituality of his images. The return to the forms of increased spiritualization in the conditions of the Renaissance gives the art of Morales the imprint of a kind of conventionality and subjectivity. Morales is an artist of individual heroes, not events, an artist of one theme - the theme of suffering, filled with a sense of Christian sacrifice and humility. The range of his images is narrow - most often it is the suffering Christ, or Mary mourning her dead son, or the young Mary caressing the baby, but already seized by a tragic foreboding of his future fate. The pictorial repertoire of Morales is also limited, who usually painted half-figures in static mournful poses, with a woeful expression of thin, deadly shade of faces, with internally tense, but outwardly very mean, as if numb gestures. His paintings are designed in a range of cold tones; the faces of the saints seem to be illuminated by an inner light. The artist undoubtedly used some manneristic techniques. However, the transfer of spiritual emotion captivates Morales with its sincerity, especially in lyrical works, such as, for example, in the poetic painting “The Virgin and Child” (c. 1570; Prado).

The same task of asserting the subjective principle, which in Morales manifested itself, so to speak, in locally Spanish forms, was solved with immeasurably greater brightness and force on a global scale by the first great painter of Spain, Domenico Theotocopuli, nicknamed El Greco (1541- 1614). Only in Spain, during the collapse of the world empire and the triumph of feudal and Catholic reaction, could the art of Greco develop - the very embodiment of the catastrophe that ends the Renaissance. At the same time, the creation of art on such a scale was possible only for a master who mastered all the achievements of the late Renaissance culture in its most complex and deep - Italian version. The tendencies of the crisis order, which became widespread in the art of the late Renaissance, especially the Venetian school, are continued in the work of Greco, but with the difference that the line of spiritualistic perception receives its extreme expression in Greco. The image of a man is endowed with increased spirituality, but he is devoid of the heroic principle, characteristic, for example, of Tintoretto; the destiny of Greco's heroes is blind obedience to higher mystical powers.

Greco is a native of the island of Crete, where he studied in his youth, probably with local masters who preserved the icon-painting traditions of Byzantine painting. Then the artist moved to Italy, to Venice, and in 1570 to Rome. His imagination was captured by the images of Venetian painting. The early works of the Italian period, such as The Healing of the Blind (c. 1572; Parma, Pinacoteca), testify to the close connection of Greco with the art of the Venetian masters. But even here there are features of that inner excitement that distinguish his images throughout the further evolution of his work. In 1576, Greco left for Spain forever, which became his second home.

The unusual methods of pictorial language characteristic of Greco are not the discovery of only him alone - some analogies to them in one form or another are found in the work of the late Michelangelo and the late Tintoretto. But if the artistic image of the Renaissance masters was based on an organic synthesis of reality and high generalization, then in Greco's art an imaginary, unreal beginning prevailed. The very environment in which the artist places any scene is a fantastic other world, a world of miracles and visions. In boundless space, the boundaries between earth and sky are erased, plans are arbitrarily shifted. Greco's ecstatic images are like ethereal shadows. They have unnaturally elongated figures, convulsive gestures, distorted forms, elongated pale faces with wide eyes. Greco uses the effect of a rapid change in the scale of figures and objects, either suddenly growing or disappearing in the depths. The same principle is applied in their sharp, unexpected angles. The sky in his paintings, filled with the radiance of flickering light, with the soaring figures of angels and saints, or dramatically gloomy, like a bottomless dark blue abyss that opens in breaks of whirlwind clouds, is perceived as the personification of the highest divine power. All the thoughts of those living on earth are directed to heaven, embraced by the state of a single spiritual illumination. This state is manifested either in a frenzied passionate impulse of the soul, seeking heavenly bliss, or in a contemplative, in-depth comprehension of the other world.

Already in his first of the paintings created in Madrid by order of the king, Greco turned to a topic unusual for Renaissance painting. This is a depiction of the dream of Philip II (1580; Escorial). In irrational space, the image of heaven, earth and hell is combined. All participants in the grandiose mystical action worship the name of Christ, which appears in heaven. Greco does not yet resort here to the emphasized deformation of the figures. The coloring, although built on his favorite technique of contrasting bright colors, still retains the general warm golden tone coming from the Venetians. Only the angular, kneeling figure of Philip II, standing out like a dark spot against the background of sparkling colors, is perceived as an image taken from the real world. The visionary nature of Greco's art was even more consistent and sharper in another of his paintings, also commissioned by the king for the Escorial Cathedral - “The Martyrdom of St. Mauritius" (1580-1584). In a very complex composition saturated with many figures, episodes from the life of a saint at different times are captured, as in works of medieval art. In the foreground are the figures of the commander of the Theban army of Mauritius and his associates, ready to be martyred for their loyalty to Christianity. They are represented in the armor of Roman soldiers; the plastic modeling of their figures is inspired by the techniques of classical painting. However, these images, in which Greco's typical understanding of the human personality was manifested, are infinitely far from the heroic images of the Renaissance. Their bodies are devoid of real weight, faces and gestures reflect emotional excitement, humility and mystical ecstasy, bare feet silently step on the ground. The image of the execution of Mauritius, the ascension of his soul to heaven, pushed aside by the artist, as if taking place in a sphere of boundless space.

But no matter how expressive in Greco's art are the methods of composition, drawing, perception of space, sense of rhythm, the most important and significant in his figurative system is color. The artist's coloristic achievements are a kind of continuation of the quest of the Venetian school. Greco, as it were, extracted from the Venetian system of colorism its deep Byzantine underpinning. Greco's color system is unusually spiritual. The artist achieves exceptional luminosity of colors, as if radiating an inner flame from themselves. He boldly juxtaposes lemon yellow and steel blue, emerald green and fiery red tones. The abundance of unexpected reflections - yellow to red, yellow to green, bright pink to dark red, green to red, the use of dazzling white and thick black colors - all give the Greco gamut tremendous emotional intensity. And in the painting “The Martyrdom of St. Mauritius”, this unusual coloring, imbued with a restless struggle of opposing colors, either flashing brightly or dying out in the flickering of a ghostly unreal light, is one of the main means of mystical transformation of reality.

So unlike the traditional works of church art, Greco's painting was not appreciated by either Philip II or the Italian court masters. Her place in the Escorial Cathedral was given to the canvas of a mediocre Italian painter. Frustrated by his failure at court, Greco left Madrid and settled in Toledo. Once the "heart of Spain", ancient Toledo in the 16th century. became a haven for the old feudal aristocracy. Having lost the importance of the state capital, Toledo remained the center of the Inquisition and theological thought. The Toledan intelligentsia was fond of the ideals of medieval culture and mystical teachings. Her spiritual life, in which music, poetry and art occupied a significant place, was distinguished by great refinement. This environment turned out to be the most favorable for the development of Greco's talent.

For the most part, his paintings, written on the subjects of the New Testament, have a certain uniformity of artistic solutions. Greco often returned to the same images. Among the works of this kind, his famous painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgas” (1586; Toledo, the church of San Tome) stands out. Its plot is based on the medieval legend about the miraculous burial of the pious Count Orgaea by Saints Augustine and Stephen. The solemn and mournful scene of the funeral ceremony is placed in the lower zone of the picture. The sky opens up above, and Christ, at the head of the host of saints, receives the soul of the deceased. And here the mystical miracle is the main content of the picture. However, its figurative solution is much more complex and deep than in other works of the master. In this canvas, three planes of the artist's idea of ​​the world are merged in a harmonious unity. His purely visionary perception is embodied in the upper, celestial zone. At the same time, the image of the participants in the funeral mass - the monks, the clergy, and especially the Toledan nobility, in the images of which Greco created excellent portraits of his contemporaries, brings a sense of reality to the picture. But even these real participants in the burial of Count Orgas are involved in a miracle. Their spiritual experiences with amazing refinement are embodied in thin pale faces, in restrained gestures of fragile hands - as if outbursts of inner feelings. Finally, a kind of synthesis of the concrete-real and the abstract-sublime is carried by the images of Saints Augustine and Stephen, who in the foreground carefully support the body of the deceased. Nowhere in Greco was sadness, deep tenderness and grief expressed with such humanity. And at the same time, the images of saints are the very embodiment of the highest spiritual beauty.

The master's appeal to the theme of life and death, to the direct transfer of the world of human feelings and their ideal transformation gives the picture exceptional richness and polyphony. A complex comparison of various figurative plans is manifested even in particulars. Thus, the brocade robe of St. Stephen is decorated with images of episodes from his life - the stoning of the saint. This is not just elegant embroidery, but a whole picture of a ghostly character typical of Greco. The introduction of such a motif, as it were, combines the present and the past in the image of a beautiful young man, giving his image a multifaceted shade.

And in the coloristic sound of the picture, written in a magnificent solemn-mourning scale with accents of white-silver, yellow, dark blue and red tones, various pictorial solutions are merged. The conditional unreal coloring of the celestial sphere, where transparent clouds are illuminated by inner light, is opposed by more weighty, dark, gray-black tones of the lower zone in the clothes of nobles, monastic cassocks, in the metallic armor of Orgas sparkling with a cold sheen. A kind of union of these opposite tendencies are the figures of Saints Augustine and Stephen. While retaining a measure of reality, the spots of their heavy gold-woven robes, bright against a dark background, at the same time shimmer fantastically in the radiance of the pinkish-red light of the funeral torches.

The features of Greco's work, which found a detailed embodiment in the "Burial of Count Orgaz", were reflected in such works of his as "St. Martin and the Pauper" (after 1604; Washington, National Gallery), "The Annunciation" (1599-1603; Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts), and many others.

Greco's desire to reveal the human personality in a highly spiritualized refraction was especially evident in his images of the disciples of Christ. In the Hermitage canvas The Apostles Peter and Paul (1614), the artist was interested in comparing two internally different types of character: the meek, contemplative Peter and the convinced, passionate preacher Paul. Dark-pale, elongated ascetic faces stand out against a golden-brown background, tinted by the colors of the cloaks - olive-gold for Peter and dark red, shimmering pink-orange for Paul. The hands of the apostles form a peculiar pattern, and although their gestures are not connected with each other, just as their views are divided, both apostles are united by a common inner experience. Many gospel characters in Greco are brought together not only by the unity of mood, but also by a great external similarity with a variety of emotional and psychological shades. As for the apostles of the Hermitage painting, along with the subtle differentiation of images, they emphasize features of deep spiritual beauty.

There is not always a sharp fundamental line between the images of the saints of Greco and his portrait works. And in the portrait, the artist, through the subjective sharpening of certain character traits, sometimes passionately impetuous, sometimes more deeply contemplative, sought to reveal the spiritualized inner world of the human personality. However, if the interpretation of the images of saints, each of whom most often embodies one of these types of character, is distinguished by a certain one-dimensionality, then in the portrait it is enriched with subtle and complex nuances. To a large extent, the specificity of the genre itself, associated with the depiction of a specific human individuality, is affected here. Greco's portraits are much more vital. Not all of them are equal. In some of them, the ideal image of a nobleman of his time, as if erected by the master into the framework of a kind of canon, prevails. In others, subjective perception leads to a distortion of nature. But in the best portraits of Greco, when the very direction of his interpretation coincides with the inner essence of the depicted persons, the artist achieves great and, in essence, real psychological expressiveness.

Some special sadness is fanned by the image in the portrait of an unknown person in the Prado (c. 1592). Everything is hidden, extinguished in this emaciated narrow face, and only beautiful mournful eyes are full of a moist brilliance and their gaze, amazing in its emotional agitation, seems to reflect a complex spiritual movement.

In the portrait of the Inquisitor Nino de Guevara (1601; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), Greco created a complex and deep image of a religious fanatic. Already the coloristic solution - the contrast of the light crimson cassock and the pale face - introduces a special tension into the characterization. Guevara is outwardly calm, his right hand is resting on the armrest, but the piercing gaze directed at the viewer through dark horn-rimmed glasses, and the gesture of his left hand, squeezing the arm of the chair, reveal the hidden that lurks in this strong-willed, inexorably cruel person.

The noble intellectuality of the appearance is emphasized in the portrait of the mystic poet, friend and admirer of Greco Fra Ortensio Paravisino (1609; Boston, Museum). He has a mobile sickly face, a relaxed posture, a lively gesture of nervous hands. The artist managed to create a very clean and bright image. His spirituality subtly corresponds to an exceptionally free painting style built on a combination of light and shade spots. Among the few female portraits of the master, the image of the fragile, big-eyed Jerome Cuevas, Greco's wife (c. 1580; Glasgow, Sterling Maxwell collection), full of complex inner life, stands out.

Greco's best portraits are marked by the artist's passionate interest in the intense life of the human spirit. This quality was his great objective achievement.

Greco's creative evolution is characterized by an increase in mysticism and a tragic sense of doom. In his later works, the images become more and more surreal, painfully fantastic. The deformed figures in their extreme ecstasy resemble flames soaring up to the sky. Clothes and draperies, enveloping incorporeal bodies, seem to live their own lives, subject to a special rhythm of movement. Now suddenly flashing, now sliding light, the emotional impact of which in Greco is exceptionally great, destroys the materiality of forms. Color, losing the brightness of colors, approaches monochrome, acquires a specific ash-gray tone. The paintings painted during this period are the very embodiment of a frenzied spiritual impulse, the dematerialization of the image: “The Descent of St. Spirit" (after 1610; Prado); "The Adoration of the Shepherds" (1609-1614; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), "The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth" (c. 1614; Dumbarton Oaks).

The theme of the death of the world, divine retribution sounds more and more acutely and persistently in Greco's work. It is indicative of his appeal to the scene from the Apocalypse in the painting “The Opening of the Fifth Seal” (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). In the bottomless space, the restless souls of the righteous are depicted - strange incorporeal, faceless creatures typical of Greco, convulsively elongated naked figures of which seem to be shaken by the movement of the wind. In the midst of this world of shadows, in the foreground, the figure of a kneeling evangelist grows to grandiose proportions, who, raising his hands, passionately appeals to the invisible lamb. The emotional expressiveness of the picture, with its sharp distortion of forms and, as it were, phosphorescent colors, reaches exceptional intensity. The same tragic theme of doom and death resounds in other works by Greco, seemingly unrelated to a religious plot. In the painting “Laocoön” (c. 1610; Washington, National Gallery) one can find some external signs of a mythological legend: the image of Laocoön and his sons tormented by snakes, the figures of the avenging gods, the Trojan horse, the city in the background. But everything is unrecognizably transformed by the artist. The gods are the same ghostly creatures as in other paintings by the master; Laookon and his sons are Christian martyrs, accepting divine punishment with submissive humility. Their bodies of a completely unreal ash-lilac hue are devoid of strength, they have no points of support, their gestures are sluggish, unconscious, and only the indomitable fire of faith illuminates their faces turned to heaven. The personification of the perishing Troy is the image of Toledo, the image of which often formed the background of many of Greco's paintings. The artist captured quite accurately some of the architectural monuments of the ancient city. However, he was attracted not so much by the concrete rendering of the image of Toledo, but, perhaps, by the creation of a more complex, generalized image of a fantastically beautiful city-world that appears in the form of an alarming vague mirage. Deep tragedy fanned this image that excited Greco in his magnificent landscape “View of Toledo” (1610-1614; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Lifeless, as if numb, illuminated by the ominous greenish light of flashing lightning, the city, like a ghostly vision, appears in the blue-lead sky in swirling clouds.

Greco had no followers. Completely different tasks were faced by Spanish painting, in which at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. a mighty wave of realism rose, and his art was forgotten for a long time. But at the beginning of the 20th century, during the crisis of bourgeois culture, it attracted a lot of attention. Greco's discovery turned into a kind of sensation. Foreign critics saw in him the forerunner of expressionism and other decadent trends in contemporary art. Elements of mysticism and irrationalism and the associated features of the pictorial structure of Greco's works were considered by them not as specific manifestations of his time, but as allegedly eternal and most valued qualities of art in general. Of course, such an assessment unreasonably modernizes the image of the artist, and most importantly, it presents in a distorted light what constitutes the captivating power of his images - a huge intensity of tragic human feelings.

Completing a certain stage in the history of Spanish art, Greco's work simultaneously marks a kind of watershed between two great artistic eras, when in the art of many European countries, in painful and contradictory searches, the receding traditions of the Renaissance are replaced by the first proclamations of a new artistic stage - the art of the 17th century. .

The completion of the reconquista and the unification of Castile and Aragon gave a powerful impetus to the development of Spanish culture. In the XVI-XVII centuries, it experienced a period of prosperity, known as the "golden age". Although the favorable period in the development of cities and part of the peasantry of Spain was very short, the legacy of heroic times continued to live in the minds of the Spanish people. This was an important source of the high achievements of classical Spanish culture. However, the Renaissance in Spain was more controversial than in other European countries. In Spain, there was no such sharp break with the feudal-Catholic ideology of the Middle Ages as occurred, for example, in Italian cities in the era of the rise of their economic life and culture. That is why even such advanced people of Spain as Cervantes and Lope de Vega do not completely break with the Catholic tradition. Folk poetry The 15th century was for Spain the heyday of folk art. It was to this time that many romances appeared. A Spanish romance is a short lyric or lyrical-epic poem. The romances sang the exploits of heroes, dramatic episodes of the struggle with the Moors. Lyrical romances depicted in a poetic light the love and suffering of lovers. The romances reflected patriotism, love of freedom and a poetic view of the world, characteristic of the Castilian peasant. Humanistic poetry In Spain, as in other countries, Renaissance literature developed on the basis of a synthesis of national folk art and advanced forms of humanistic literature. Spanish novel From the beginning of the 16th century. in Spain, chivalric romances were widespread. The unbridled fantasy of these later creations of feudal literature corresponded to some aspects of the psychology of the people of the Renaissance, who embarked on risky voyages and wandered through distant lands. In the second half of the XVI century. the pastoral motif, introduced into Spanish literature by Garcilaso de la Vega, was also developed in the form of a novel. Here it is necessary to mention "Diana" by Jorge de Montemayor (written around 1559) and "Galatea" by Cervantes (1585). In these novels, the theme of the "golden age" is refracted in its own way, the dream of a happy life in the bosom of nature. However, the most interesting and original type of Spanish novel was the so-called picaresque novel. These novels reflected the penetration of monetary relations into Spanish life, the disintegration of patriarchal ties, the ruin and impoverishment of the masses. The beginning of this trend of Spanish literature was laid by the tragicomedy Celestina (circa 1492). ) was written by Fernando de Rojas. 60 years after its appearance, the first completed example of a picaresque novel came out, which had a great influence on the development of European literature, the famous Lazarillo from Tormes. This is the story of a boy, a servant of many masters. Defending his right to exist, Lazaro is forced to resort to cunning tricks and gradually turns into a complete rogue. The attitude of the author of the novel to his hero is ambivalent. He sees in trickery a manifestation of dexterity, intelligence and ingenuity, inaccessible to people of the Middle Ages. But in Lazaro, the negative qualities of the new human type were also clearly manifested. The strength of the book lies in its frank depiction of social relations in Spain, where under the cassock and noble cloak hid the basest passions, brought to life by the fever of profit.

Miguel de Cervantes The picaresque novel represents that line in the development of Spanish literature, which with particular force prepared the triumph of Cervantes' realism. He set himself the modest task of destroying the influence of fantastic and distant chivalric novels. are long gone. He alone does not understand that chivalry has outlived its time and, like the last knight, is a comic figure. In the feudal era, everything was built on the basis of fist law. And now Don Quixote wants, relying on the strength of his hand, to change the existing order, to protect widows and orphans, to punish offenders. In fact, he creates unrest, causes evil and suffering to people. But at the same time, the motives of Don Quixote's actions are humane and noble. This knight is a true humanist. His progressive ideals were born in the struggle against class inequality, against obsolete feudal forms of life. But even the society that came to replace it could not realize these ideals. The stale rich peasant, tight-fisted innkeepers and merchants mock Don Quixote, his intention to protect the poor and weak, his generosity and humanity. The duality of the image of Don Quixote lies in the fact that his progressive humanistic ideals appear in an obsolete knightly form. Next to Don Quixote, a peasant-squire Sancho Panza acts in the novel. The limitedness of rural conditions of existence left its mark on him: Sancho Panza is naive, the only person who believed in the knightly nonsense of Don Quixote. But Sancho is not without good qualities. He not only reveals his ingenuity, but also turns out to be the bearer of folk wisdom, which he sets forth in countless proverbs and sayings. Under the influence of the humanist knight Don Quixote, Sancho develops morally. His remarkable qualities are revealed in the famous episode of the governorship, when Sancho reveals his worldly wisdom, disinterestedness and moral purity. muleteers. In the art of depicting this everyday life, Cervantes has no equal. Lope de Vega The founder of the Spanish national drama was the great playwright Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635). Lopo de Vega remained a religious man throughout his life. In this duality, Lope de Vega showed the characteristic features of the Spanish Renaissance. Lope de Vega was an artist of rare creative prolificity, he wrote 1,800 comedies and 400 one-act allegorical cult plays. He also wrote heroic and comic poems, sonnets, romances, short stories, etc. He used various sources - Spanish folk romances and chronicles, Italian govels and books of ancient historians. In his works, Lope de Vega depicts the strengthening of royal power, the struggle of the Spanish kings against the rebellious feudal lords and the Moorish hordes. It depicts the progressive significance of the unification of Spain. In this way, the comedies of the cloak and sword depict the struggle of young Spanish nobles - people of a new type - for freedom of feeling, for happiness, against the despotic power of fathers and guardians. Lope de Vega builds comedy on intrigue, on coincidences and accidents. In these comedies, glorifying the love and free will of man, Lope de Vega's connection with the humanistic literary movement of the Renaissance was most manifest. But in Lope de Vega, the young man of the Renaissance does not have that inner freedom as in Shakespeare. The heroes of Lope de Vega are true to the noble ideal of honor. In their appearance there are cruel, unattractive features associated with the fact that they share the prejudices of their class.

At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. significant changes took place in the political and economic life of Spain. By that time, the scattered Spanish kingdoms and provinces had united into the Spanish state, and the centuries-old reconquista (the reconquest of the Spanish lands under the rule of the Arabs) had ended. The exploitation of the native population in the territories of the New World occupied by Spain began. Associated with the great geographical discoveries of the late XV - early XVI centuries. the revival of industry and maritime trade contributed to the development of bourgeois relations, especially in the southern coastal provinces of Spain.

By the beginning of the XV century. refers to the emergence in Spain of humanistic ideas that shook the foundations of the medieval scholastic worldview. In the field of architecture, the first manifestations of new trends date back to the end of the 15th century. At that time there was not yet that sharp break with the Gothic, which marked the first steps of the Renaissance in Italy. The planning and structural foundations of the buildings continued to remain unchanged. New trends manifested themselves at first in the creation of new architectural images with the help of familiar Gothic and Moorish forms.

The transformation of Spain under Charles V into a world power, in which, according to the old expression, “the sun never set”, contributed to the strengthening of cultural ties between Spain and other European countries, primarily with Italy. The trips of Spanish architects to Italy and the work of Italian masters in Spain (in particular, sculptors who made tomb structures commissioned by the Spanish nobility) helped to familiarize the Spaniards with the order system and architectural ideas of the Italian Renaissance. In the works of Spanish architecture, along with Gothic and Moorish forms, elements of the order began to appear, at first in a purely decorative plan. This first phase in the development of the Spanish Renaissance, thanks to the chased subtlety of decorative forms, received (since the 17th century) the name "plateresque" (plateria - jewelry craftsmanship).

Along with plateresco at the turn of the first and second quarters of the 16th century. another trend arose, which was based on a tectonic understanding of the order, great rigor of planned constructions and restraint of decor, inspired by the study of ancient classics and the works of Italian masters. Very often, Spanish architectural historians apply the term "Greco-Roman" (greco-romano) to this direction.

The development of capitalist relations in Spain proceeded at a very slow pace. The reign of Philip II, a fanatical Catholic, "Vicar of the Holy See", who mercilessly eradicated not only religious heresy, but also any manifestation of free thought with the help of the Inquisition, was extremely unfavorable for the development of the optimistic art of the Renaissance. This predetermined the great limitation of its late phase of development, dating back to the second half of the 16th century.

Changes in the political life, socio-economic and cultural development of Spain at the end of the 15th and in the 16th centuries. affected the typology of structures. In urban planning, these changes were reflected relatively little. The revival of industry and trade that took place at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries affected mainly the cities of the southern provinces - Catalonia and Valencia. The discovery of the New World had a particularly favorable effect on Seville, which received a monopoly on transatlantic trade and became the main port of Spain.

Barcelona and Valencia also continued to be among the main commercial and industrial centers of Spain. The population in these cities began to grow rapidly in the first half of the period under review. The territory of these cities also grew, new residential quarters arose, and public buildings appeared.

The cities of other Spanish provinces, including Castile, developed much more slowly. This was mainly due to the limited development of early capitalist relations in Spain, which has already been mentioned.

With the unification of the Spanish provinces into an integral state and the transformation of Spain into a world power, the question arose of its capital. Philip II, apparently in order not to glorify any of the old centers of the Spanish provinces, moved his residence in 1560 to Madrid - an insignificant city until that time, located in the geographical center of the country. However, Madrid continued to be a small, dirty and undeveloped city, built up mainly with one-story houses.

The layout of Spanish cities in the late XV-early XVI centuries. changed very little. Spanish cities generally retain their medieval character during this time. Their layout was still dominated by a complex, intricate network of curvilinear streets, converging to the market, the public square (placa mayor) and to a small square in front of the old Gothic cathedral.

Cathedrals, town halls, alcazars (palaces of Arab rulers, later used by Spanish kings) formed architectural accents, effectively completing the prospects of many streets.

In Spanish cities, which for a long time were under the dominion of the Moors, one can easily trace the influence of Muslim urban planning. In Toledo, Seville, Valencia and Barcelona, ​​Saragossa, etc., the network of streets has acquired a particularly complex and intricate character. There are almost no spaces. The houses face the street with blank facades, almost devoid of window openings.

During the period under review, no major urban developments that could change the character of Spanish cities were carried out (well-known examples of regular, integral ensembles of Spain date back to a later time). Only separate buildings were erected, which became new architectural accents. Sometimes new buildings were located in close proximity to already existing monumental structures, being one of the links in the gradually emerging urban ensembles. Most often, however, new large public buildings and private palaces were located among the small ordinary buildings of the streets and introduced a new scale into the appearance of the old streets, which had to be taken into account in the development in the future.

The beautification of Spanish cities continued to be very primitive. The streets were dirty, the sources of water supply were most often wells or a river, from where water was transported in barrels. In Segovia, an aqueduct built by Roman builders was successfully used for this purpose.

	Fig.2. Castile. House; Ibarre (Biscay). Casa Aranguren; Goisueta (Basque Country). House
Fig.3. La Mancha. Mill; Levant. "Barracos"

The planning and constructive methods of ordinary urban residential buildings remain closely connected with the traditions of folk architecture. Dwelling houses in cities sometimes differ very little from dwellings in rural areas. Types of residential buildings vary greatly under the influence of different climatic conditions, household habits, depending on local building materials and artistic traditions (Fig. 1-5).

Very often in Spain, a patio (patio) was included in the structure of the house. In large houses, one can sometimes find two courtyards, one of which was usually used for purely household purposes. Only in the northern provinces with a cold, rainy climate did a compact layout of dwellings predominate.

A residential building in Castile usually has two floors. On the ground floor there is a large porch (saguan) used as a pantry and work space. In the cities, the saguan communicates with a patio, in the villages - with a corral (cattle yard) or a vegetable garden. The ground floor also houses the kitchen and living room. In the houses of artisans and merchants, a workshop or shop is located on the first floor. The second floor, which leads to a staircase adjacent to the saguan, is usually occupied by bedrooms. The patio is surrounded by open galleries with stone, brick or wooden pillars.

Natural stone and brick were used as wall materials. The inner walls were sometimes made with earthen walls. Roofs are tiled.

Due to climatic conditions, the facades were made almost deaf, with rare and small window openings. The front door was sometimes processed in the form of a portal. Until the middle of the 16th century. Gothic or Moorish motifs predominate in the compositions of the portals. In the future, the reproduction of order elements also begins to appear.

In residential Basque town houses, the first floor is often occupied by a vestibule, a pantry, a workshop (in artisans' houses) or a shop. In the villages, there is also a barn for cattle on the ground floor. On the second floor, the front room faces the main facade, and the kitchen on the back. Bedrooms are located between them.

The walls of houses in this province were made of wild stone. If the main facade went to the side, protected from the wind, the facade wall was made of half-timbered brick infill and with large window openings that illuminated the front room. The top floor often hung over the bottom. The same houses are found in the villages of Castile adjacent to Cantabria. In the villages of Cantabria, there are large detached peasant houses "caserios", in which a vast attic for drying hay is arranged above the second floor, also slightly protruding from the plane of the main facade.

A characteristic feature of Basque residential buildings, due to the influence of climatic conditions, is strongly protruding cornices.

In the houses of Andalusia, Valencia and Catalonia, which have developed under the influence of Moorish residential architecture, the patio is an indispensable element in the layout of the house. In the patio, paved with multi-colored pebbles and surrounded by galleries, wells were often arranged. The walls were made of bricks, plastered and whitewashed. According to the Moorish tradition, the walls were decorated with inserts of colored glazed tiles with floral ornaments or Arabic “wickerwork”.

In the villages of the fertile strip along the Mediterranean coast, an interesting type of residential building "barracos" has developed (Fig. 3). A longitudinal inner wall divides the first floor into two halves. In one of them - a common kitchen-dining room, in the other - living rooms and bedrooms. The attic is used for drying various vegetables and fruits and for breeding silkworms.

The walls of the "barracos" are made of raw brick, made with an admixture of chopped straw. A light wooden floor, supported by a longitudinal beam resting on a wooden pole, is hemmed with wicker mats to save timber. Only along the run a light wooden flooring is arranged, which serves to pass through the attic. Reed roofing.

In rural areas, along with residential buildings, folk architecture created a number of types of agricultural structures. The most common of these are barns for storing agricultural products, the so-called "orreos" (Fig. 4). The Asturian "orreos" are especially interesting. The storage room, requiring good ventilation, was raised to protect against rodents on stone or wooden pillars. For the same purpose, a flat stone slab was placed on top of the pillars, hanging from the pillars. In addition, the staircase leading to the barn and made of stone was constructed in such a way that there was a significant gap between it and the barn, preventing rodents from moving to the gallery surrounding the storage room and formed by the overhang of the floor beams. The walls of the barn were built from local material. In Asturias, most often the enclosing walls were built from vertically placed logs connected by a tongue and groove.

Among the widespread types of agricultural structures are windmills, grape presses, etc. The windmills of La Mancha, immortalized by Cervantes in Don Quixote, are to this day an integral feature of the landscape of this desert plateau (see Fig. 3).

Fortified castles (the construction of which was prohibited by the "Catholic kings") were replaced by city palaces. The premises of the palace were usually grouped around a vast courtyard. Characteristic features of the composition of the palace facades are the corner turrets and an open gallery running along the upper floor and facing the street.

At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. the royal court, occupied with the completion of the reconquista, with North African and Italian military expeditions, did not conduct large palace buildings, limiting itself to the repair and reconstruction of its old residences and the construction of places of worship, mainly chapels. The first large palace building dates back to the reign of Charles V. This is a palace in Granada.

The Catholic Church still had significant funds at its disposal, which allowed it to erect monumental church buildings. At the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI centuries. the most grandiose of the Christian churches of that time was being completed - the cathedral in Seville. At the same time, the cathedrals of Astorga and Placencia were built. The construction of the great cathedrals of Salamanca and Segovia stretched over the entire 16th century. At the same time, many small chapels were attached to the old Spanish cathedrals at the expense of the Spanish grandees and spiritual nobility. In their composition, these chapels were varieties of the general architectural type of a small, close to a square room, covered with an octagonal vault. Usually used as tombs, these chapels have preserved a large number of wonderful tombs made by the best foreign and Spanish sculptors.

In the field of civil architecture, the loss of their former importance by urban communes has affected the limited construction of municipal government buildings and other public buildings built at the expense of cities. City halls (ayuntamento) began to be built again during the 16th century. after the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.

At the expense of the royal treasury and charity of the richest representatives of the spiritual nobility and aristocracy, hospitals, hospices, and educational institutions were built.

The hospital at that time had a distinct imprint of monastic architecture. The dominant volume was usually the church. The high hospital halls, covered with Gothic cross vaults, resemble in their character the monastic dormitories of medieval monasteries. The spacious courtyard, which served as a walking place for convalescent patients, was an integral part of the hospital building.

Educational institutions were designed and built as significant monumental structures. Entrance lobbies, library rooms, patios used for relaxing during breaks, and the church were finished very carefully, and sometimes magnificently.

The most common building material was stone. In central and southern Spain, deposits of various grades of sandstone and limestone are found almost everywhere. Marble rocks of various gradations in hardness and color are also common. A historically determined feature of construction technology in a number of provinces was the simultaneous use of two systems - the Gothic system of stone vaulted structures and the construction techniques of the Mudéjar masters, who cultivated a combination of brickwork walls with wooden ceilings. In the north, in Galicia and the provinces inhabited by the Basques, soft, easily workable rocks are rare. Granite predominates, making it difficult to manufacture complex profiles and parts. A simplified planar interpretation of details gives the architecture of these areas a very peculiar imprint. In Aragon, the difficulty of obtaining suitable stone for construction and the abundance of clay caused the widespread use of bricks and a developed, rich and sophisticated brickwork technique.

Spain is very poor in forests. This prompted builders to make the most economical use of timber. Widespread in Spain, Moorish wooden ceiling designs are a further development of building techniques taken from Arabia. Their main principle is to create a constructive grid assembled from small pieces of wood (artesonado). Even in buildings erected by adherents of the Renaissance school, one can see these type-setting ceilings, very beloved by the Spaniards.

The mixing of new Renaissance architectural forms with previously developed constructive techniques lasts a very long time in Spain. Only in the second half of the XVI century. the barrel vault and the dome begin to replace almost everywhere the Gothic rib structures of the vaults and the Arabic type-setting ceilings.

Chapter “Architecture of Spain”, section “Renaissance architecture in Western European countries (outside Italy)”, encyclopedia “General history of architecture. Volume V. Architecture of Western Europe XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance". Managing editor: V.F. Marcuson.

General remarks

Revival, or Renaissance, as a phenomenon of cultural development is found in all countries of Western Europe. Of course, the culture of this period is unique in each country, however, the general provisions on which the culture of the Renaissance is based can be summarized as follows: the philosophy of humanism, "conformity to nature", i.e. materialistic understanding of the laws of nature, rationalism.

Remark 1

The Renaissance laid down a new system of values ​​for the entire modern Western European civilization.

The specificity of the Spanish Renaissance lies in the fact that at the time of its inception, the Inquisition "raged" in the country, on which the Catholic ideology was based. Under these conditions, it was impossible to actively criticize religious dogmas. However, after the completion of the unification of Castile and Aragon, or the reconquista, the Spanish culture took off in the $XVI$ - the first half of the $XVII$ century.

Spanish humanists

First of all, Spanish humanism is associated with the name of Erasmus of Rotterdam, who lived at the court of Charles of Spain and whose humanistic ideas were known to all of Europe, his Spanish followers are even called "Erasmists". The most famous and significant were Alfonso de Valdes, Juan Luis Vives and Francisco Sanchez.

Valdes, in his caustic dialogues, exposes the greed and licentiousness of the representatives of the Catholic Church and the papacy. Vives criticizes the scholasticism of Aristotle and gives priority in science to observation and experiment in science, with the help of which one can not only penetrate deeply into nature, but also find a way to know the world.

This scientist is considered the forerunner of Francis Bacon. The scientist stands up for a progressive education system with the inclusion of classical languages ​​in it, as well as for women's education. Sanchez was also a critic of scholasticism, but he was skeptical about free inquiry. He has a sensational work “On the fact that there is no knowledge”, in which the scientist comes to the conclusion that all our knowledge is unreliable, relative, conditional, because the process itself.

Remark 2

Note that the ideas of the Spanish humanists, unlike the Italian ones, did not leave a noticeable mark in the philosophical research of that era.

Literature and artistic culture of the Spanish Renaissance

Spanish literature, painting, sculpture flourished in this era. Let us briefly describe each direction.

The literature of the Spanish Renaissance was a combination of national folklore with forms of humanistic literature. This is especially evident in poetry, whose representatives were:

• Jorge Manrique,
• Louis de Leon
• Alonso de Ercilla,
• and others.

However, the most popular genre for describing modern life was the novel. Spain is known for its chivalric (Don Quixote by Cervantes) and picaresque novels. In the latter, the authors (“Celestina” by Fernando de Rojas, “The Adventures and Life of the Rogue Guzmán de Alfarache, Watchtower of Human Life” by Mateo Aleman) showed how monetary relations penetrated Spanish life, patriarchal ties decomposed, the masses were ruined and impoverished.

Spanish national dramas also gained worldwide fame. The most famous playwright of this era is Lope de Vega, who wrote more than 2,000 works, of which 500 are known, and many of them are on the stage of all the leading theaters in the world and filmed, for example, "Dog in the Manger" and "Dance Teacher".

We also note Tirso de Molina, under this name the monk Gabriel Telles was hiding. His pen belongs to the comedy "Seville Mischievous, or Stone Guest", which brought him worldwide fame. The painting of the Spanish Renaissance is represented by the names of El Greco and Diego Velázquez, whose works are valuable on a world-historical scale.

Remark 3

The painful contradictions of time are reflected with great dramatic power in Greco's paintings. Velazquez's paintings are characterized by the boldness of romance, penetration into the character's character, and a high sense of harmony.