Classicism, its philosophical and aesthetic foundations. Lebedeva O.B.

The concept of classicism First, there is practically no doubt that classicism is one of the artistic methods that really existed in the history of literature (sometimes it is also referred to by the terms “direction” and “style”), that is, the concept of classicism as a creative method assumes its content, a historically conditioned way of aesthetic perception and modeling of reality in artistic images: the picture of the world and the concept of personality, the most common for the mass aesthetic consciousness of a given historical era, are embodied in ideas about the essence of verbal art, its relationship with reality, its own internal laws. Secondly, the thesis that classicism arises and takes shape in certain historical and cultural conditions is equally indisputable. The most common research belief connects classicism with the historical conditions of the transition from feudal fragmentation to a single national-territorial statehood, in the formation of which the absolute monarchy plays a centralizing role. This is a necessary historical stage of social development, therefore the third irrefutable thesis of classicism researchers boils down to the fact that classicism is an organic stage in the development of any national culture, despite the fact that different national cultures go through the classic stage at different times, due to the individuality of the national variant of the formation of a common social model of a centralized state. The chronological framework for the existence of classicism in different European cultures is defined as the second half of the 17th - the first thirty years of the 18th century, despite the fact that early classicist trends are palpable at the end of the Renaissance, at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. Within these chronological limits, French classicism is considered the standard embodiment of the method. Closely associated with the flowering of French absolutism in the second half of the 17th century, it gave European culture not only the great writers - Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Lafontaine, Voltaire, but also the great theorist of classic art - Nicolas Boileau-Depreo. Being himself a practicing writer who earned fame during his lifetime with his satires, Boileau was mainly famous for creating the aesthetic code of classicism - the didactic poem "Poetic Art" (1674), in which he gave a coherent theoretical concept of literary creativity, derived from the literary practice of his contemporaries. Thus, classicism in France became the most self-conscious embodiment of the method. Hence its reference value. The historical prerequisites for the emergence of classicism connect the aesthetic problems of the method with the era of aggravation of the relationship between the individual and society in the process of becoming an autocratic statehood, which, replacing the social permissiveness of feudalism, seeks to regulate the law and clearly distinguish between the spheres of public and private life and the relationship between the individual and the state. This determines the content aspect of literature. The basic principles of poetics are motivated by the system of philosophical views of the era. They form a picture of the world and the concept of personality, and already these categories are embodied in the totality of artistic techniques of literary creativity.

The most general philosophical concepts present in all philosophical currents of the second half of the 17th - late 18th centuries. and directly related to the aesthetics and poetics of classicism - these are the concepts of "rationalism" and "metaphysics", relevant for both idealistic and materialistic philosophical teachings of this time. The founder of the philosophical doctrine of rationalism is the French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). The fundamental thesis of his doctrine: "I think, therefore I exist" - was realized in many philosophical currents of that time, united by the common name "Cartesianism" (from the Latin version of the name Descartes - Cartesius). In essence, this is an idealistic thesis, since it derives the material existence from an idea. However, rationalism, as an interpretation of reason as the primary and highest spiritual ability of a person, is equally characteristic of the materialistic philosophical currents of the era - such as, for example, the metaphysical materialism of the English philosophical school of Bacon-Locke, which recognized experience as a source of knowledge, but put it below the generalizing and analytical activity of the mind, extracting from the multitude of facts obtained by experience the highest idea, a means of modeling the cosmos - the highest reality - from the chaos of individual material objects. To both varieties of rationalism - idealistic and materialistic - the concept of "metaphysics" is equally applicable. Genetically, it goes back to Aristotle, and in his philosophical doctrine it denoted a branch of knowledge that explores the inaccessible to the senses and only rationally speculatively comprehended by the highest and unchanging principles of everything that exists. Both Descartes and Bacon used the term in the Aristotelian sense. In modern times, the concept of "metaphysics" has acquired an additional meaning and has come to denote an anti-dialectical way of thinking that perceives phenomena and objects without their interconnection and development. Historically, this very accurately characterizes the peculiarities of thinking of the analytical era of the 17th-18th centuries, the period of differentiation of scientific knowledge and art, when each branch of science, standing out from the syncretic complex, acquired its own separate subject, but at the same time lost its connection with other branches of knowledge. As we shall see later, a similar process took place in art.

Having established the ratio of the accentology of Russian and ancient languages: “the longitude and brevity of syllables in this new Russian versification is not as obvious as that of the Greeks and Latins<...> , but only tonic, that is, consisting of a single voice stress ”(368), Trediakovsky in his reform followed the path of consistent analogies. The sounds of the language differ in their quality: they are vowels and consonants. The semantic unit following the sound - the syllable - consists of sounds of different quality, and the vowel is the syllable-forming one. Syllables are combined into a larger semantic unit - the word, and within the word one syllable - the stressed one - is qualitatively different from the others; word-forming is a stressed syllable, which is always one in any word and can be combined with any number of unstressed syllables, just as in a syllable one vowel sound can be combined with one or more consonants. Thus, Trediakovsky comes close to the idea of ​​a new rhythmic unit of verse - the foot, which is a combination of a stressed syllable with one or more unstressed syllables. The smallest rhythmic unit of a tonic verse is a long sound, regularly repeated within the verse at regular intervals, composed of short sounds. The smallest rhythmic unit of a syllabic verse is the syllable, by the number of which in one verse its rhythm is determined. Combining stressed and unstressed syllables into groups repeating within a verse for Russian versification, Trediakovsky enlarges the smallest rhythmic unit of a verse, taking into account both the number of syllables in a verse (syllabic) and the different quality of stressed and unstressed sounds. Thus, combining the syllabic and tonic principles of versification in the concept of a foot, Trediakovsky comes to the discovery and scientific justification of the syllabic-tonic system of versification. Giving a definition of the foot: “A measure, or a part of a verse, consisting of two syllables for us” (367), Trediakovsky singled out the following types of feet: spondeus, pyrrhic, trochee (trocheus) and iambic, especially stipulating the need for a regular repetition of feet in verse. Starting with a chorea or iambic foot, the verse should continue with the same feet. This is how a productive sound model of Russian rhythmic verse is created, which differs from prose, according to Trediakovsky, “by measure and fall than the verse is sung” (366) - that is, by regular repetition of the same combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables within one verse and passing from verse to verse in within the entire verse. However, this is where Trediakovsky's positive achievements in the field of Russian versification end. Due to a number of objective reasons, his reform in the specific application to Russian versification turned out to be limited by Trediakovsky's too strong connection with the tradition of Russian syllabics: it was precisely on this that he was guided in his versification studies: "the use of all our poets accepted" (370) had a decisive influence on the degree the radical nature of the conclusions that Trediakovsky ventured to draw from his epoch-making discovery. The limitations of his reform are already noticeable in the fact that in the "New and Brief Method ..." the three-syllable feet - dactyl, anapaest and amphibrach - are not even mentioned, although later, in search of analogues of the Homeric hexameter, Trediakovsky develops a magnificent and perfect model of the six-foot dactyl - the metric analogue of the ancient hexameter in Russian versification. This unconditional preference for two-syllable feet in general, and the trochee in particular - “that verse is perfect in all numbers and better, which consists only of trochees” (370) - testifies to the unsurpassed power of the syllabic tradition over Trediakovsky's metrical thinking. It has already been said above that every Russian syllabic verse had an obligatory stressed syllable - the penultimate one. Thus, each syllabic verse ended with a trochaic foot, which determined the feminine type of clause and rhyme. And as an obligatory element of Russian syllabic verse, this final foot of the chorea had a rather strong rhythmic effect on the entire verse: the words in the verse were often selected and arranged in such a way that there was a tendency to streamline the rhythm of the verse according to the laws of the trocha, which led to a drop in stress on odd syllables. . Of course, this was quite spontaneous, but, nevertheless, according to researchers, such accidentally choreic verses in the Russian syllabic accounted for up to 40%. Here is a typical example from Satire I by A. D. Kantemir: If in the first verse the stresses are completely random and fall on the 2nd, 5th, 9th, 11th and 12th syllables, then in the second there is a clear tendency for the stresses to fall on odd syllables: 1, 3 , 5, 7, 8, 12th. It is not violated by the fact that after the seventh syllable, stress begins to fall on even syllables - 8 and 12, since between the seventh and eighth syllables there is a caesura - an intonational pause, equal in duration to an unstressed syllable and making up for its absence. It was this tendency of Russian syllabic verse towards self-organization in the rhythm of the chorea that Trediakovsky saw. And this explains both his predilection for the chorea and his conviction that only two-syllable feet are characteristic of Russian versification. Further, it is necessary to note the circumstance that in the sphere of Trediakovsky's attention, as an object of reform, there was only a long verse - a syllabic 11- and 13-syllable. Trediakovsky did not work with short poems at all, believing that they did not need reform. And this judgment of his was not entirely unfounded: for short verses, the final foot of the chorea had an incomparably stronger rhythmic influence, so that they often turned out to be completely tonically correct. For example, the well-known poem by Feofan Prokopovich on the Prut campaign of Peter I was written in almost the correct 4-foot trochee: also tending to limit the practical application of syllabic tonics in the field of clause and rhyme. First, in accordance with the traditions of the heroic 13-syllable rhyme, Trediakovsky recognized only it, having a negative attitude towards cross and embracing types of rhyme. Secondly, the type of rhyme and clause (feminine) dictated by the chorea excluded the possibility of masculine and dactylic endings and rhymes, as well as the possibility of their alternation. As a result, it turned out that Trediakovsky, the discoverer of the syllabo-tonic principle of versification, created only one type of syllabo-tonic verse. The syllabic thirteen-syllable, reformed by him, from a modern point of view, is something like a seven-foot trochaic with the fourth foot truncated to one stressed syllable. The second stage of the reform of Russian versification was carried out by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov in the Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry, which he, then studying in Germany, sent from Marburg to St. Petersburg with the text of his first solemn ode “On the Capture of Khotin” in 1739. “Letter. ..” Lomonosov was the result of a thorough study by him of Trediakovsky's “A New and Brief Way ...”. Lomonosov did not doubt the main provisions of the Trediakovsky reform: he fully shares the conviction of his predecessor that “Russian poetry should be composed according to the natural property of our language; and what is very unusual for him should not be brought in from other languages. Despite the fact that Lomonosov does not use the words “syllabic versification”, “polyaccent of the Russian language” and “Polish versification” here, it is quite obvious that we are talking about the accentological inconsistency of the Polish versification (“other languages”) with the “natural property” of the Russian language - loose accent. Moreover, the first rule proposed by Lomonosov as the basis of the principle of versification testifies that Lomonosov, like Trediakovsky, considers accentology to be the basis of versification and fully shares the analogy of forceful stress-unstress with longitude-brevity proposed by Trediakovsky: “First: in the Russian language those only syllables are debts, over which there is strength, and the rest are all short” (466). However, significant differences begin further: already in the second rule, concerning the stacking of Russian verses, a conscious protest against Trediakovsky's restrictions, caused by the latter's adherence to the syllabic tradition, is obvious:

In all Russian correct verses, long and short, it is necessary for our language to use the feet peculiar to our language, established in a certain number and order. These are what they should be, the property of the words found in our language teaches this.<...>In the treasure of our language we have an inexhaustible wealth of long and short sayings; so that in our verses without any need to introduce two-syllable and three-syllable feet (467-468).

In one rule, Lomonosov removes two of Trediakovsky's restrictions at once - short verses, in his opinion, are just as subject to reform as long ones, and Trediakovsky's set of two-syllable stops is supplemented by three-syllable stops. In total, Lomonosov proposes six types of feet: iambic, anapaest, yamboanapaest, formed from the iambic foot in combination with the anapaest foot, trochee, dactyl and dactylochorea, composed of trochaic and dactyl feet. A natural consequence of this expansion of the range of rhythms was the assumption of different types of rhyme, as well as the assertion of the possibility of alternating clauses and rhymes:

<...>Russian poems are red and peculiar to masculine, feminine and three letters vowels in themselves having[dactylic] rhymes<...>may end;<...>later we masculine, feminine and trivowels we can have rhymes, then the change, which always delights human feelings, decently orders to mix them together (471. Lomonosov's italics).

Finally, the consistent abolition of all the restrictions imposed by Trediakovsky on the application of the syllabo-tonic principle led Lomonosov to the idea of ​​the need to introduce another rhythmic determinant of verse, which Trediakovsky lacks. Since Trediakovsky worked only with long verse, he did not need the concept of size. And Lomonosov, who worked with both short and long verses, came face to face with the need to define verse not only by the type of rhythm (iambic, trochee, etc.), but also by length. So in his "Letter ..." the concept of size is formed, although Lomonosov does not use the term "size" himself, but only lists the existing sizes, denoting them in Greek terms hexameter (six-foot), pentameter (five-foot), tetrameter (four-foot), trimeter ( three-foot) and dimeter (two-foot). Six types of feet, each of which can be used in five dimensions, give the theoretical possibility of the existence of "thirty kinds" of poetry (470). Compared with one "genus" - Trediakovsky's seven-foot chorea, Lomonosov's thirty metric-rhythmic variants of verses is already a whole poetic system. Of course, Lomonosov was not free from subjective predilections in the field of versification. But if the source of Trediakovsky's subjective predilection for the chorea was the irresistible power of the syllabic tradition, then Lomonosov's love for the iambic had deeper aesthetic foundations. The ascending intonation that determines the rhythmic pattern of the iambic foot corresponded to the high status of the solemn ode genre, and the main reason for Lomonosov's predilection for iambic was this harmony of form and content:

<...>pure iambic verses, although difficult to compose, however, rose quietly upwards, matter nobility, magnificence and height multiply. These nowhere can be better used than in solemn odes, which I did in my present one (470).

In the entire Lomonosov reform there was only one unproductive moment - this was the requirement for the purity of rhythm, the restriction on the use of pyrrhic in two-syllable meters (iamb and chorea). However, this did not have the character of a ban or a strict prescription. And in practice, Lomonosov very quickly abandoned this provision, since the non-use of pyrrhic in two-syllable meters limited poetry lexically. The maximum length of a word in pure iambic and choreic verses without pyrrhic syllables is no more than three syllables, and any restriction was disgusting to the very spirit of the Lomonosov reform, carried out under the motto: “why should we neglect this [Russian language] wealth, endure self-willed poverty<...>? (471). Thus, the phased implementation of the reform of Russian versification ultimately approved the syllabo-tonic principle of versification in Russian poetry, which maximally corresponds to the accentology of the Russian language and is still the fundamental principle of Russian versification. Trediakovsky in this reform is the discoverer, the author of the theoretical justification and the first experience of the practical application of the principle, while Lomonosov is the systematizer who extended the scope of its application to all poetic practice without exception.

Regulation of the genre system of Russian literature in the aesthetics of A.P. Sumarokova The next normative act of Russian classicism was the regulation of the genre system of Russian literature, carried out in 1748 by Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov in a didactic verse message based on the traditions of Horace’s aesthetic message “To the Pisons (On the Art of Poetry)” and N. Boileau’s didactic poem “Poetic Art ". Printed in 1748 in a separate pamphlet “Two Epistles (The first is about the Russian language, and the second about poetry)” by Sumarokov, later united by him under the title “Instruction to those who want to be a writer”, provided the developing Russian classicism with an aesthetic code, which, for all his orientation towards the European aesthetic tradition, was quite original both in his description of literary genres (because he was oriented towards the Russian literary process) and in his relations with the living literary process (because in a number of cases theoretical descriptions of genres preceded their actual appearance in Russian literature). Thus, the name of Sumarokov with Russian classicism is associated with a particularly strong associative connection: he acted both as a theorist of the method and as its recognized leader in his literary practice. As for the general aesthetic provisions of The Two Epistles..., they practically do not differ from the main theses of European classicism: in Sumarokov's view, literary creativity is a rational process:

The genre system of literature seemed to Sumarokov to be clearly hierarchically organized: in a theoretical aspect, he put forward a general classicist position on the inadmissibility of mixing high and low styles, but in practice, as we will see later, his own high and low genre models were in constant interaction:

At the same time, Sumarokov's Two Epistles testify to a certain aesthetic independence of Russian classicism, its reliance on the living practice of Russian literature of the 18th century. In addition to the “exemplary” Western European writers, Kantemir, Feofan Prokopovich and Lomonosov are mentioned in the epistles about poetry, and in a characteristic comparative context: the satirist Kantemir is likened to the satirist Boileau, the ode writer Lomonosov is likened to the ode writers Pindar and Malerbu, himself Sumarokov, in a place that, according to in his opinion, he occupied in Russian literature, likened to Voltaire. Most of all, Sumarokov's orientation towards national tendencies of literary development is noticeable in the composition of the genres, which he characterizes in his epistles. So, for example, he practically did not give a place to the highest genre of European classicism - the epic poem, briefly mentioning the very fact of the existence of a literary epic. Those genres that in Russian literature have taken on a charge of satirical denunciation and didactics - satire as such, heroic-comic poem (parody of the epic), fable and comedy, are characterized in exceptional detail and fully, and the characterization of comedy itself is also very original. If Boileau, describing comedy, briefly enumerates comedy types of characters and focuses mainly on the plot, intrigue, witty and brilliant style, then Sumarokov's entire characterization of the genre comes down precisely to characterology: Russian comedy, which has yet to appear in literature, differs from Western European comedy precisely on this basis: French comedy is mainly a comedy of intrigue, Russian is a comedy of character:

Even in this cursory sketch, it is obvious that the comedic characters in Sumarokov's view are incomparably brighter and more concrete than the universal "fat, miser and squanderer" Boileau. In those cases when Sumarokov describes genres that already exist in Russian literature, he relies precisely on national, and not on European genre models. This happens, for example, with the characterization of a song (not available from Boileau), which has been very popular since the Petrine era. , as well as with the characteristics of the solemn ode, described according to the genre model that has developed in the work of Lomonosov:

But, perhaps, the most important proof of Sumarokov’s orientation towards national aesthetic problems is the leitmotif of the need for a special poetic language, which internally organizes the entire range of issues of “Two epistles ...”, the first of which is symptomatically devoted specifically to issues of stylistic literary norm: it was precisely its absence that was one of the main difficulties in the formation of Russian literature of the XVIII century. The end-to-end demand for “purity of style”, following the “order in verses” already achieved as a result of the versification reform, supported by Sumarokov’s conviction that “Our beautiful language is capable of everything”, directly links the emerging problem of the stylistic reform of the Russian literary language with hierarchical genre thinking, recorded in the "Two epistles ...". Having arranged the genres along the hierarchical ladder of high and low, Sumarokov came close to realizing the necessary aesthetic correlation between genre and style:

And even the main direction of the future stylistic reform, namely, the establishment of the proportions of the spoken Russian language and the style of the Slavic book writing, was already quite obvious to Sumarokov in 1748: in addition to the declaration of the need for the Russian literary language (“We need such a language, as the Greeks had” ), Sumarokov directly indicates the way in which this universal norm could be achieved:
Reform of the style of the literary language of M. V. Lomonosov It was in this direction - having established the proportions of Slavicisms in the literary language and firmly regulating the norms of their compatibility with Russianisms - that Lomonosov carried out a reform of the literary language in the "Foreword on the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language" - the latest normative act of Russian classicism (this work of Lomonosov presumably dates back to 1758), thus finally consolidating firm and clear ideas about the laws of verbal art. In his stylistic reform, Lomonosov was guided by the most important tasks of the literary theory of classicism - the need to distinguish between literary styles and establish strong genre and style correspondences - and the objective linguistic reality of the first half of the 18th century. in Russia. It was a situation of a kind of bilingualism, since all this time in Russia there were two varieties of book written language in parallel. One of them is the tradition of Old Russian literacy, liturgical literature in the Church Slavonic language (in the 18th century it was called “Slavonic” as opposed to “Russian” - Russian), which, although it was closely related to Russian, was still a different language. The second is the tradition of everyday business writing, incomparably closer to the living spoken Russian language, but having a distinct clerical character - it was the written language of official business papers, correspondence and documents. Neither tradition could meet the demands placed on the language of belles-lettres. And, carrying out the stylistic reform, Lomonosov proceeded from the main thing: the centuries-old Russian bilingualism, the functioning of the Slavic language of ancient literacy, along with the living Russian spoken language, led to a very deep and organic assimilation of a large number of Slavicisms by this latter. Compare, for example, Slavicisms “enemy”, “brave” instead of Russianisms “enemy”, “good”, “need” instead of “need”, “hope” instead of “hope”, etc. Such a situation was also very frequent when Slavism did not displace Russianism, but remained in the Russian language with its own independent meaning: “country” - “side”, “ignorant - ignorant”, “burning” - “hot”, “truth” - “truth”, “expel” - “drive out " etc. . Therefore, Lomonosov, substantiating the norms of the literary style of the new Russian writing and, consequently, proceeding from the givenness of the living contemporary Russian language, based his reform on precisely this “Slavonic Russian” linguistic community. He divided all the words of the Russian language into three groups. He attributed to the first the words “which are common among the ancient Slavs and now among the Russians, for example: God, glory, hand, now, I honor "(474), that is, common to the Church Slavonic and Russian languages, which do not differ in content and form. To the second - “which, although they are rarely used in general, and especially in conversations, are intelligible to all literate people, for example: I open, O Lord, planted, I cry"(474) - that is, words that have practically disappeared from colloquial use, but are common in the Church Slavonic written tradition. Decayed and incomprehensible archaisms ("Obava, ryasny, ovogda, svene") Lomonosov excluded from this group. Finally, the third group included primordially Russian words, “which are not in the remnants of the Slavic language, that is, in church books, for example: I say, a stream, which, for now, only "(474). And for this group, too, there was an exception: "contemptible words that are not decent to use in any style" (474). Lomonosov does not give examples of such words, but from the context of his other works, it is clear that here he means not so much profanity as rude colloquial vulgarisms such as “to grow up” or “pimple”. Based on this division of the lexical composition of the Russian language into three genetic layers, Lomonosov proposes his theory of styles: "high, mediocre[medium or simple] and low", moreover, he lists the genres to which this or that style is most appropriate. High style involves the use of Slavic-Russian words and allows the inclusion of Church Slavonicisms that have not lost their semantic relevance. This is the style of a heroic poem, ode, oratory. The middle style is formed on the basis of the Slavic Russian vocabulary, but allows the inclusion of “Slavic sayings, in a high calm common, but with great care so that the syllable does not seem inflated” and “low words; however, be careful not to sink into meanness” (475). The middle style is the style of all prose theatrical plays, verse messages, satires, eclogues and elegies, as well as scientific and artistic prose. The low style is based on primordially Russian vocabulary, Church Slavonicisms are generally excluded from it, but the use of words common to Church Slavonic and Russian is acceptable; the use of “common low words” is also allowed (475). This is the style of epigram, song, comedy, epistolary and narrative everyday prose. Thus, it is obvious that the reform of the literary language was carried out by Lomonosov with a clear focus on the middle style: it is the words that are common to the Russian and Church Slavonic languages ​​and therefore not rigidly assigned to high or low style, are at the center of the entire system: in one or another Slavonic Russian vocabulary of a different proportion is included in all three styles. Cutting off linguistic extremes - hopelessly outdated Slavicisms and rough vulgar vernacular also indicates that in theoretical terms, Lomonosov focused precisely on averaging the stylistic norm of the new Russian literary language, although this orientation came into a certain contradiction with his genre-style poetic practice. As a writer and poet, Lomonosov in his solemn odes gave a brilliant example of precisely the high literary style. His lyrics (Anacreontic odes) and satirical-epigrammatic poetry had no such influence on the subsequent literary process. However, Lomonosov turned out to be just as far-sighted in his theoretical orientation towards the average stylistic literary norm as in the reform of versification: this is an extremely productive direction of Russian literary development. And, of course, it is not at all accidental that soon after this final normative act of Russian classicism, Russian artistic prose began to develop rapidly (1760-1780). ), and at the end of the century it was precisely this line of the Lomonosov stylistic reform that Karamzin picked up, who created the classical stylistic norm for Russian literature of the 19th century. But before this happened, Russian literature of the XVIII century. made a short chronological, but unusually rich in aesthetic terms, path of formation and development of its genre system, at the origins of which lies the first regulated genre of new Russian literature - the genre of satire, which was embodied in the work of A. D. Kantemir. Likhachev D.S. See for more details: Vinokur G. O. Report on Lomonosov II Questions of Literature. 1997. May-June. pp. 319-320.

Classicism (from Latin classicus - exemplary) is the artistic style of European art of the 17th-19th centuries, one of the most important features of which was the appeal to ancient art as the highest model and reliance on the traditions of the high Renaissance. (from Latin classicus - exemplary) - the artistic style of European art of the 17th-19th centuries, one of the most important features of which was the appeal to ancient art as the highest model and reliance on the traditions of the high Renaissance. Bordeaux The city is famous for its ensembles of squares in the style of classicism (XVIII century)

M.F.Kazakov. Petrovsky Palace Russian classicism is one of the brightest pages in the history of world architecture.

V.I. Bazhenov. Pashkov House - 1788

O. Montferrand. St. Isaac's Cathedral - 1830

A.N. Voronikhin. Kazan Cathedral - 1811 And spread the Kazan Cathedral hands. Embracing the blue evening… I. Demyanov.

Classicism in sculpture Loyalty to the ancient image. Heroic and idyllic compositions. Heroic and idyllic compositions. Idealization of military prowess and wisdom of statesmen. Idealization of military prowess and wisdom of statesmen. public monuments. public monuments. Contradiction with accepted norms of morality. Contradiction with accepted norms of morality. The absence of sudden movements, external manifestations of emotions such as anger. The absence of sudden movements, external manifestations of emotions such as anger. Simplicity, harmony, logical composition of the work. Simplicity, harmony, logical composition of the work.

Classicism in painting Interest in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Systematization and consolidation of the achievements of the great artists of the Renaissance. Systematization and consolidation of the achievements of the great artists of the Renaissance. A scrupulous study of the heritage of Raphael and Michelangelo, imitation of their mastery of line and composition. A scrupulous study of the heritage of Raphael and Michelangelo, imitation of their mastery of line and composition. Simplicity, harmony, logical composition of the work. Simplicity, harmony, logical composition of the work. Public, civic issues. Public, civic issues. The main characters are kings, generals, statesmen. The main characters are kings, generals, statesmen. Support for classicism through the funding of academic institutions. Support for classicism through the funding of academic institutions.

The new worldview of a person of the 17th century. in different regions of Europe found expression in peculiar forms of spiritual culture. In some countries, after the crisis of the Renaissance culture, the Baroque era begins (Italy, Flanders), in others a new style is being formed - classicism. By the beginning of the 17th century, baroque was already acting as a single style in all types of art, while classicism was late in its formation. The style system of classicism cannot be assessed only within the 17th century, because its distribution in modified forms throughout Europe falls on the 18th and early 19th centuries. But the theory of classicism, in contrast to the baroque, was very developed and even came out ahead of artistic practice. Classicism as an integral artistic system originates in France. It is often called the culture of absolutism, because in the 17th century. in France, a classic model of an absolutist state is taking shape. But the art of classicism cannot be reduced to the service of absolutism. Classicism took shape in the first half of the century, when the question of the future of France remained open. There was a process of state and national construction, in which there was still a balance of the main social forces of the country - the royal power, the nobility and the growing bourgeoisie. It was not royal power in itself, but precisely this balance that allowed the emergence of classical art, which glorified not absolute submission to the monarch, but ideological citizenship. This art demanded from everyone - rulers and subordinates reasonable actions, concern for social balance, order and measure. Classicism is a reflective and constructive art. It tried to create ideal models of a just and harmonious world based on reasonable ideas about the public good. Theorists of classicism considered the education of society to be the main task of art. Of course, no art can be built solely on the principles of reason, otherwise it would cease to be art. Classicism proceeded from the Renaissance heritage and the experience of modernity, therefore, both the spirit of analysis and admiration for the ideal were equally characteristic of it. Classicism comes to replace the culture of the Renaissance, when this culture itself was in a state of crisis, when Renaissance realism was reborn into the aestheticized meaningless art of mannerism. Under the historical conditions of the XVII century. the humanistic faith in the victory of good over evil, in the harmonious principle of human nature, was lost. The loss of this faith led to a direct crisis of artistic creativity, because it lost its ideal - a person with a rich spiritual life and a noble goal. Therefore, the most important link connecting classicism with the art of the High Renaissance was the return to the modern stage of an active strong hero - a purposeful, energetic person, longing for happiness and in love with life. But in contrast to the Renaissance ideal, a strong moral criterion that exists in society acted on the path to the happiness of the hero of the New Age. Public morality, as an immutable law of human dignity, was supposed to inspire a person and guide his actions. It is such a hero that appears in the tragedies of Corneille, Racine, and the comedies of Molière. It is no coincidence that the aesthetic theory of classicism is developed primarily in French drama and literature. The treatises of French writers and poets played an outstanding role in the development of the main stylistic forms of classicism. In parallel with the formation of the theory, the first complete classicist works of art arose. One of the first theoreticians and poets of classicism was Nicolas Boileau-Depreo (1636-1711). In his poetic treatise "Poetic Art", the theoretical principles of classicism were brought together for the first time. The norms and canons of classicism are presented in this work in a lively and intelligible form. The poetic system must be subject to the discipline of reason. The rational development of the topic comes to the fore. Boileau's call "Love thought in verse" became the great principle of classic poetry. The main requirement for a poet is to subordinate his creativity to the discipline of reason. Reason must rule over feeling and imagination. But not only in the content of the work, in the sense, but also in its form. To perfectly reflect the content, you need the right verified method, high professional skill, virtuosity. The unity of form and content is one of the basic principles of classicism. Classicism saw the aesthetic ideal of beauty in ancient culture. Ancient art was proclaimed the norm for both Renaissance and Baroque art. But the correlation of this norm with the artistic practice of classicism is fundamentally different. For the Renaissance, ancient art was a school of skill and an incentive for independent creative search, and not a canonical model. Baroque masters theoretically recognized the canons of antiquity, but in their work they were far from them. In the art of classicism, the norms of antiquity acquire the meaning of an indisputable truth. Following these canons in the conditions of the culture of the New Age dooms the art of classicism to the "secondary" nature of the truth. The name itself - classicism, not classic, emphasizes this secondary nature. Classicism saw in ancient culture not only an aesthetic, but also an ethical ideal. The art of Ancient Greece and Rome was an example of the art of great social sounding, which preached high civil and moral ideals. The inner core of the use of ancient canons in the art of classicism was the rational principle. This element also occupied an important place in the process of creativity in the Renaissance. But then rationalism was put forward in opposition to the irrational feeling of the Middle Ages as the main means in comprehending the laws of nature and art. In classicism, reason appears not as a natural element of human activity, but as an object of worship. Rationalism became the basis and essence of the theory of classicism. Reason was proclaimed the main criterion of artistic truth and beauty. The art of classicism fundamentally separated itself from the sphere of subjective feelings in the perception of beauty. Classicism claimed to assert absolute moral truths and unshakable artistic forms established by reason and expressed in rules. Creativity must obey laws. The classicists derived these laws based on their observations of ancient art. One of the first theorists of classicism, the great French playwright Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), commenting on Aristotle's Poetics and referring to the historical experience of centuries, tried to deduce the formal laws of drama. One of the main ones was the law of three unities - time, place and action. Corneille's activity was a real reform of dramaturgy. He is the author of several treatises on the theory of drama and critical analyzes of his own writings. Corneille's tragedy "The Garden" became the national pride of the French. Very quickly it was translated into many European languages. The glory of the play and its author was extraordinary. "Sid" and now in the permanent repertoire of not only French, but also many other theaters in Europe. The plots of his plays ("Horace", "Cinna", etc.) Corneille made dramatic moments from the historical past, the fate of people in a period of acute political and social conflicts. Especially often he used the material of Roman history, which gave him abundant material for political reflections on contemporary topics. The main dramaturgical conflict of Corneille's tragedies is a clash of reason, ... and feelings, duty and passion. Victory has always been with reason and duty. The spectator had to leave the theater without any contradictions and doubts. The source of the tragic is extreme passion, and the viewer had to learn a lesson - it is necessary to keep passions in check. In the tragedies of another famous playwright Jean Racine (1639-1699), the audience saw not only a majestic hero, but a person with weaknesses and shortcomings (“Andromache”, “Berenik”, “Iphigenia in Aulis”). Rasi-na's plays reflected the salon life of Versailles. The Greeks and Romans, inevitable according to the requirements of classical poetry, seemed to be the real Frenchmen of their time. On stage, they performed in curled wigs, cocked hats and with swords. The kings that Racine brought to the stage were idealized portraits of Louis XIV. The reign of the king lasted more than 50 years, and in European history this time was even called the century of Louis XIV. Under favorable circumstances, France rose to such a height of economic and mental development and political power that it became the preeminent European power and the trendsetter of taste and fashion for all of Europe. The establishment of absolutism corresponded to the personal inclinations of the king. Power-hungry, narcissistic, spoiled by the flattery of the courtiers, Louis liked to repeat the phrase "The state is me." In order to raise the royal prestige, special attention was paid to court life. Strict etiquette distributed royal time with punctual pettiness, and the most ordinary act of his life (for example, dressing) was furnished with the utmost solemnity. Louis XIV was not satisfied with the admiration for himself that he saw and heard from the courtiers, he began to attract outstanding writers, French and foreign, to his side, giving them cash awards and pensions so that they would glorify himself and his reign. French literature gradually assumed a courtly character. In 1635, the Academy of Literature was established in Paris. Since that time, classicism has become the official dominant trend in literature. Relatively far from the court stood Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). It occupies a peculiar place in the literature of classicism. La Fontaine is not afraid of interest in the "lower" genres, relies on folk wisdom, folklore, which determines the deeply national character of his work. His creative heritage is multifaceted, but he owes the fame of one of the greatest poets of France to his fables. (The traditions of Lafontaine were used by IA. Krylov.) In their instructive morality, we see a manifestation of one of the most important principles of classicism - art should educate and convince. The figurative system of the classical style turned out to be unproductive for the art of lyrical poetry, painting, and music. The unsteady changeable sphere of emotions was alien to classicism. The principles of the new style - "the harmonious balance of forms and ideal proportions - were in fact the principles of architecture. It is in the field of this art that the main achievements of classicism lie, which determined its spread over two centuries of European culture. The basic principles of style found their organic embodiment in the architecture of classicism. Classical architecture developed in France, England and Holland.Ideally, this style is the exact opposite of baroque.It is characterized by a clear geometry of forms, strict lines, clear volumes, a harmonious compositional design.Classicism turned to the forms of ancient architecture, he used not only its motifs and individual elements but also the laws of construction. The basis of the architectural language of classicism was the order in forms closer to antiquity than baroque. Instead of spontaneous irrational baroque, the architectural image of classicism seeks to express ideas about logic, order and measure. But in the 17th century, architecture had not yet come to a consistent and clear implementation of these ideas. In practice, the connection with the baroque system was still visible. Especially this borrowing of some baroque techniques was seen in the architecture of France. Strictly classical figurative means could not solve the problems of glorifying the absolute monarchy, which were set by the theorists of official art. Therefore, the architects of classicism often resorted to baroque methods of ceremonial representativeness. They decorated the facades of their buildings in the spirit of the Baroque, which sometimes makes it difficult for an inexperienced viewer to strictly define the style. Only in the 18th century, when the royal power took on the appearance of an enlightened monarchy and changed its social doctrine, did classicism develop a completely independent figurative structure. France of the 17th century is characterized by the interweaving of late Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque features with features of classicism. But the main direction was classicism, all the rest accompanied it. In the general course of the culture of the New Age, there was a process of gradual transformation of a fortified castle into an unfortified palace. In the city, it was included in the general structure of streets and squares, outside the city it was connected with a vast park. Drawbridges were replaced by stone ones, moats became elements of the park, towers at the entrance were replaced by pavilions. The garden and park ensembles of the Tuileries, Fontainebleau, and others were created. They laid the foundations for the art of a regular French garden with its enfilades of straightened alleys trimmed with grass and shrubs, which were given the geometric shape of cones and balls. The gardener became an architect and sculptor, began to think in terms of spatial categories, to subordinate living material to rational design. The growing need for housing changed the development of the city. At the beginning of the century, a type of hotel developed in Paris, which dominated for two centuries. These are houses of the nobility with a courtyard and a garden. They combine simple and convenient plans with facades lavishly decorated with sculpture, relief and order. In the new look of city houses, roofs were of great importance, the design and shape of which changed. In the 30s of the XVII century. architect Mansart proposed a broken roof shape using an attic for housing. This system, named after the author of the attic, has spread throughout Europe. From the beginning of the 17th century the architecture of English classicism is taking shape. This period coincides with the time of vigorous industrial development of the country and the formation of capitalism. The initiator and creator of the first large-scale compositions of classicism was the architect Inigo Jones. He owns the projects of the famous Banqueting House (buildings for official receptions) and Lindsay House in London. He was the architect of Quans House (Queen's House) in Greenwich. This is a brilliant example of classicism in the history of housing construction. In the strictest forms of classicism, an ensemble of buildings of the Royal Palace of Whitehall, an ensemble of the Greenwich Hospital in London (architects Jones, Christopher Wren, and others) was created. Classicism developed new forms in various fields - the creation of city squares of various types (Covent Garden Square in London, Place Vendome in Paris), the construction of palace complexes (Versailles, Whitehall), temples (St. Paul's Cathedral in London - architect K. Wren, Les Invalides Cathedral - architect Hardouin-Mansart), public buildings - town halls, hospitals, private residential buildings, mansions of the nobility, buildings of trading companies (the ensemble of the Invalides - architect Bruant, Trinity College Library in Cambridge "customs building in London - architect K. Ren; the building of the town hall in Augsburg - the architect Elias Holl, the town hall in Amsterdam - the architect J. van Kampen, the building of scales in the city of Gouda, etc.) Classicism developed forms of architectural language that corresponded both to the tastes of absolute monarchy and the bourgeois social order . Versailles, the new residence of Louis XIV, occupies a special place in French architecture. Versailles became the aesthetic tuning fork of the style of the era. This is an architectural ensemble of the palace, park and city, unprecedented in its grandeur and integrity. Three avenues depart from the huge square in front of the palace, the central * axis stretches for 16 kilometers through the city, square, palace and park. Many architects took part in the creation of the Versailles ensemble during several construction periods - Levo, Orbe, Mansart, Lebrun, Lenotre, Gabriel. This ensemble consistently embodied the principles of classicism - regularity, strict symmetry, clarity of composition, a clear subordination of parts, a calm rhythm of alternating windows, pilasters, columns. At the same time, the lush decorative finishes, especially in the interior, are reminiscent of the Baroque. The halls of the palace are located in enfilades, richly decorated with sculptural decor, colored marble, gilded bronze reliefs, frescoes, mirrors. The park has become an important part of the ensemble, inseparable from its architectural expressiveness. It can be considered a program work of a new kind of art - landscape gardening. André Linotre (1613-1700) perfected his art, which combined elements of architecture, sculpture, horticulture, and hydraulic engineering on the basis of an ensemble. For the first time in history, landscapes organized by artists have turned into works of art. The park was decorated with sculptures by the famous masters François Girandon (1628-1715) and Antoine Coisevox (1640-1720). This sculpture had a programmatic character - the glorification of the reign of the great monarch. The sculptors used baroque motifs in a classical way: they strove for the isolation of each figure and their symmetrical placement. A typical example of classicist architecture was the east facade of the Louvre (sometimes called the "Colonnade of the Louvre") by the architect Claude Perrault (1613-1688). With its rational simplicity, harmonious balance of parts, clarity of lines, calm and majestic static, the Perrault colonnade corresponded to the prevailing ideal of the era. In 1677, the Academy of Architecture was established, the main task of which was to generalize the accumulated experience of architecture in order to develop "ideal eternal laws of beauty" . These laws were to be followed by further construction. Classicism was officially recognized as the leading style of architecture. Art was supposed to visually express and glorify the greatness of the monarchy, the power of the nation and the state in magnificent palaces and parks, urban ensembles, and public buildings. The Academy gave a critical assessment of the principles of the Baroque, recognizing them as unacceptable for France. Proportions were the basis of beauty. It was considered obligatory to have a clear division by floor by order and the allocation of the central axis of the building, which must necessarily correspond to the ledge of the building, a balcony or a pediment. The wings of the façade were to be enclosed by pavilions. The dictate of official classicism was also felt in the visual arts. The creator of the classicist trend in painting was Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). This French artist studied and worked in Rome (two years spent at the invitation of Louis XIII in Paris at the royal court were not fruitful for his work). Poussin combined an outstanding theorist and practitioner. In his Roman workshop, where painters and theorists gathered, the artist's thoughts found fertile ground for dissemination. Poussin did not write special scientific treatises, the artist's thoughts about the goals and possibilities of painting have come down to us in his correspondence and transmission by other authors. He believed that the art of "majestic style" consists of 4 elements - this is the content, its interpretation, construction and style. The main thing is that the content and the plot are majestic and beautiful. To do this, the artist needs to discard everything petty, so as not to contradict the lofty meaning of the story. The subject of the image must be "prepared" for the idea of ​​beauty, the main thing in this preparation is order, measure and form. Order and form - Poussin constantly talks about this, Descartes, the founder of the philosophy of rationalism, also talks about this: "things that we perceive very clearly and distinctly are true." Only reasonable "preparation" can spiritualize matter so that it becomes truly beautiful. Nature in art should be presented in a form ennobled by reason, devoid of what does not correspond to the opinion about the reasonable course of things, the rules of "decency" and good manners. The landscape should embody the epic power and harmony of nature, it is a composed landscape. As an expression of this beauty, the world of Poussin's Arcadia arises, inhabited by celestials, heroes, satyrs, nymphs and beautiful people ("The Kingdom of Flora", "The Arcadian Shepherds", "Landscape with Polyphenes"). He drew themes from mythology, the books of the Holy Scriptures, and historical traditions. Poussin was attracted by strong characters, majestic deeds, the triumph of reason and justice. He chose plots that provide food for thought, educate virtue. In this he saw the social purpose of art. Poussin brings to the fore the themes of public duty, moral necessity, presented in the form of a dramatic plot: the soldiers swear allegiance to Germanicus, who was poisoned by order of Tiberius, Erminia cuts off her luxurious hair to bandage the wounded hero and save him, King Solomon acts as the bearer of moral justice in a dispute between two mothers over a child (“The Death of Germanicus”, “Tancred and Erminia”, “The Capture of Jerusalem”, “The Rape of the Sabines”). The basis of classicism painting is the exact immutable laws of the artistic organization of the work. Poussin's compositions are ordered, a clear constructive scheme is visible in them, the main action always takes place in the foreground. The main meaning in the artistic language is attached to the form, drawing, line. The fetishization of the mind posed a threat to true art. Achieving a balance between calculation and inspiration, between rational and emotional, intuitive is a very difficult creative task. Poussin was the only painter of the 17th century, in whose work the concept of classicism was truly productively embodied. For other masters, the task proved overwhelming. The abstract rational principle prevailed, and the classicist system turned into an academic one. It was dominated by a dogmatic approach, reliance on established canons. The French Academy of Arts was established in 1648 and was under the supervision of the first minister of the king. In painting, as in all other forms of art, there was a process of strict regulation and subordination of artistic creativity to the tasks of absolutism. The Academy was called upon to develop the formal rules of virtuoso art. Some artists of that time argued that only scientists can be connoisseurs of art. The idea of ​​improving painting through reason was very strong. There were even mathematical tables of achievements of each painter. The Academy met at regular meetings, where prominent artists, in the presence of students, sorted out paintings from the royal collection of the Louvre. The analyzes of the paintings were based on classification. Everything was divided into categories of design, proportion, color, composition. The highest genre of painting was considered historical, which included scenes from the Bible, ancient mythology, famous literary works. Only the perfect is worthy of depiction, everything low, as in the poetry of the classicists, was rejected as an accidental, unnecessary detail that diverts attention from the main thing. Portrait, landscape, still life, domestic scenes were considered a "small genre". Academicians developed a whole system of rules based on the correspondence of movements and gestures to certain mental states - fear, anger, joy, surprise, etc. In the classical treatises, precise instructions were given on how to convey certain emotional states and drawings-diagrams were attached. The proportions of the human body were built according to ancient canons. With the primacy of drawing over painting, the figures on the canvases of the classicists resembled ancient sculptures. But antiquity has become not a natural form of expression of the ideal, but an obligatory props for works of "high style". Reasonable and dry normativity led to the degeneration of classicism into academicism. He banished imagination, fantasy, individual vision from art. The set of rules governing the creative process contributed to the regulation of art, subordinating it to the control of absolutism. The historically necessary role of classicism was the development of a conscious principle inherent in any creativity. But due to historical conditions, this trend has taken on a too dry and rational tone. The consciousness of artistic creation has turned into mechanical expediency. The idea of ​​the primacy of thought turned into its opposite - lifeless formalism. Cast style formulas have played both a positive and a negative role. We must be able to see classical art in all the richness and diversity of its content. Artistic practice is always richer than theory and, as a rule, outlives its era. The dramas of Corneille and Racine, the comedies of Molière and the fables of La Fontaine, the landscapes of Poussin and Lorrain are still alive, confirming their immortality in the history of world culture. Questions 1. What are the common features of the style of classicism? 2. How are the cultural ideals of antiquity, the Renaissance and classicism related? 3. What role did the rational principle play in the art of classicism? 4. What principles of classicism were formed in French dramaturgy? 5. How did the theorists of classicism understand the main task of art? 6. What are the main features of the classicism style in architecture and painting.

Classicism

Classicism is one of the most important trends in the art of the past, an artistic style based on normative aesthetics that requires strict adherence to a number of rules, canons, and unities. The rules of classicism are of paramount importance as a means to ensure the main goal - to enlighten and instruct the public, referring it to sublime examples. The aesthetics of classicism reflected the desire for the idealization of reality, due to the rejection of the image of a complex and multifaceted reality. In theatrical art, this direction has established itself in the work, first of all, of French authors: Corneille, Racine, Voltaire, Molière. Classicism had a great influence on the Russian national theater (A.P. Sumarokov, V.A. Ozerov, D.I. Fonvizin and others).

Historical roots of classicism

The history of classicism begins in Western Europe at the end of the 16th century. In the 17th century reaches its highest development, associated with the flowering of the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV in France and the highest rise in theatrical art in the country. Classicism continues to fruitfully exist in the 18th - early 19th centuries, until it was replaced by sentimentalism and romanticism.

As an artistic system, classicism finally took shape in the 17th century, although the very concept of classicism was born later, in the 19th century, when an irreconcilable war of romance was declared on it. "Classicism" (from the Latin "classicus", i.e. "exemplary") assumed a stable orientation of the new art to the antique way, which did not at all mean a simple copying of antique samples. Classicism carries out continuity with the aesthetic concepts of the Renaissance, which were oriented towards antiquity.

Having studied the poetics of Aristotle and the practice of the Greek theater, the French classics proposed the rules of construction in their works, based on the foundations of rationalistic thinking of the 17th century. First of all, this is strict observance of the laws of the genre, the division into higher genres - ode, tragedy, epic and lower ones - comedy, satire.

The laws of classicism

The laws of classicism were most characteristically expressed in the rules for constructing a tragedy. From the author of the play, first of all, it was required that the plot of the tragedy, as well as the passions of the characters, be believable. But the classicists have their own understanding of plausibility: not just the similarity of what is depicted on the stage with reality, but the consistency of what is happening with the requirements of reason, with a certain moral and ethical norm.

The concept of a reasonable predominance of duty over human feelings and passions is the basis of the aesthetics of classicism, which differs significantly from the concept of a hero adopted in the Renaissance, when complete freedom of the individual was proclaimed, and man was declared the “crown of the universe”. However, the course of historical events disproved these ideas. Overwhelmed by passions, a person could not decide, find support. And only in serving society, a single state, the monarch, who embodied the strength and unity of his state, could a person express himself, assert himself, even at the cost of abandoning his own feelings. The tragic collision was born on a wave of colossal tension: ardent passion collided with inexorable duty (in contrast to the Greek tragedy of fatal predestination, when the will of a person turned out to be powerless). In the tragedies of classicism, reason and will were decisive and suppressed spontaneous, poorly controlled feelings.

Hero in the tragedies of classicism

The classicists saw the veracity of the characters' characters in strict subordination to internal logic. The unity of the character of the hero is the most important condition for the aesthetics of classicism. Summarizing the laws of this direction, the French author N. Boileau-Despreo in his poetic treatise Poetic Art, states: Let your hero be carefully thought out, Let him always remain himself.

The one-sidedness, the inner static nature of the hero does not, however, exclude the manifestation of living human feelings on his part. But in different genres, these feelings manifest themselves in different ways, strictly according to the chosen scale - tragic or comic. N. Boileau says about the tragic hero:

The hero, in whom everything is small, is only suitable for a novel,

May he be brave, noble,

But still, without weaknesses, he is not nice to anyone ...

He cries from resentment - a useful detail,

So that we believe in its plausibility ...

So that we crown you with enthusiastic praise,

We should be excited and touched by your hero.

From unworthy feelings let him be free

And even in weaknesses he is mighty and noble.

To reveal the human character in the understanding of the classicists means to show the nature of the action of eternal passions, unchanged in their essence, their influence on the fate of people. Basic rules of classicism. Both high genres and low ones were obliged to instruct the public, to elevate its morals, to enlighten feelings. In tragedy, the theater taught the spectator resilience in the struggle of life, the example of a positive hero served as a model of moral behavior. The hero, as a rule, a king or a mythological character was the main character. The conflict between duty and passion or selfish desires was necessarily resolved in favor of duty, even if the hero died in an unequal struggle. In the 17th century the idea became dominant that only in serving the state does a person acquire the possibility of self-affirmation. The flowering of classicism was due to the assertion of absolute power in France, and later in Russia.

The most important norms of classicism - the unity of action, place and time - follow from those substantive premises that were discussed above. In order to more accurately convey the idea to the viewer and inspire selfless feelings, the author did not have to complicate anything. The main intrigue should be simple enough so as not to confuse the viewer and not deprive the picture of integrity. The demand for unity of time was closely connected with the unity of action, and many diverse events did not occur in the tragedy. The unity of place has also been interpreted in different ways. It could be the space of one palace, one room, one city, and even the distance that the hero could cover within twenty-four hours. Particularly bold reformers decided to stretch the action for thirty hours. The tragedy must have five acts and be written in Alexandrian verse (iambic six-foot). Excites the visible more than the story, But what the ear can endure, sometimes the eye will not endure. (N. Boileau)

Similar information.