German architecture of the 16th century. Renaissance architecture in Germany

The most prominent representative of the art of the German Renaissance was Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) - an outstanding painter, engraver, and scientist.

The Renaissance in Germany was very short in time - from about the middle of the 15th century. until the 1520s

Development of art The Renaissance in Germany was influenced by ideas Reformation(religious and socio-political movement in Western and Central Europe XVI- early XVII centuries, aimed at reforming Catholic Christianity in accordance with the Bible). On that historical period also have to Peasants' War (1524-1526). All this: the brutal suppression of peasant unrest, religious schism and the departure of several lands from Catholicism - interrupted the development of the Renaissance in Germany.
The main masters of the German Renaissance:

Master E. S. (c. 1420-after 1468)
Matthias Grunewald (c. 1470-1528)
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
Hans von Kulmbach (bl.1480-1522)
Hans Baldung (c. 1484-1545)
Hans Holbein (the Younger) (1497-1543)
Urs Graf (c. 1490-c. 1529)
Albrecht Altdorfer (bl.1480-1538)
Faith Stoss (1447-1533)
Bernt Notke (c. 1435-1509)
Hans Burgkmair (1473-1531)
Vilm Dedek
Daniel Hopfer (c. 1470-1536), engraver

Let us turn to the works of the most outstanding masters.

Matthias Grunewald (1470/1475-1528)

Few of his works have survived, only about 10. The work of Grunewald (real name Matthias Gotthart Niedhardt) was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century. by the German Expressionists, who considered him their direct predecessor. His work also influenced the surrealists. Matthias Grünewald is considered the last great Northern Gothic artist.
Grunewald is considered a man of broad erudition and multifaceted talent, a typical representative of the intelligentsia of the Renaissance. He was concerned about problems of religion, philosophy and social order, as well as science. His art is permeated with humanism, compassion for the human suffering that he saw all around. Before his eyes, the Reformation took place - the first revolution in Europe, which shook the consciousness of people; he witnessed bloody reprisals against the rebel people. Endowed with a receptive soul, Grunewald, like Bosch, depicted in his art the true tragedy of the life of a noble and honest soul of a man who was persecuted and insulted in a cruel world that had lost its human face.
Grunewald's main work and a masterpiece of German painting is the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516)

Museum exposition

Unterlinden Museum (Colmar, France). First layout of the altar

Until 1793, the altar was located in the Isenheim church. During the French Revolution, paintings and sculptures were transported to the regional city of Colmar for storage. The carved wooden parts remained in Isenheim and have been lost since 1860. Three altarpieces are currently on display separately in Colmar.
The first (external) scan depicts the scene of the crucifixion of Christ. The crucifix is ​​often found on Gothic altarpieces. But never before Matthias Grunewald has it been depicted so painfully. At Golgotha, Grunewald depicted his mother Mary, the Apostle John, Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist next to Jesus. The entire scene with the tortured figure of Christ, with the shocked, fainting Mother of God and other characters evokes a state of deep shock.
During the liturgical year, the altar doors were opened on certain dates, revealing paintings corresponding to the religious event. The Isenheim Altar has three layout options.

The second layout of the Isenheim altar depicts the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ (“Angel Concert”) and the Ascension.

The third development of the Isenheim Altar with wooden sculptures of Saints Anthony, Augustine and Jerome, which are believed to have been made by the woodcarver Nicholas Hagenauer.

M. Grunewald “The Desecration of Christ” (1503). Alte Pinakothek (Munich)

The artist depicted a previously rarely seen iconographic plot of the Gospel. The guards brought Christ to the house of the high priest Caiaphas and mocked him. They put a blindfold over his eyes and, hitting him in the face, demanded to know who was beating him. Grunewald portrays Christ as a man of exceptional meekness and patience. The horror of cynical abuse and inhumanity is conveyed by Grunewald sharply through color - cold tones and their dissonances.
The painting also depicts the figure of Joseph from Arimathea, who would later remove the lifeless body of Christ from the Cross. And now Joseph is trying to persuade the guard to take pity on Christ. It’s as if you can hear the sharp sounds of a flute and drum beats made by a person standing in the depths to the left.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)

L. Cranach. Self-portrait (1550). Uffizi Gallery(Florence)

German painter and graphic artist of the Renaissance, master of portraiture, genre and biblical compositions. In his work he combined the traditions of Gothic and the principles of the Renaissance.
According to his convictions, he was a supporter of the ideas of the Reformation, a friend of Luther.

Lucas Cranach the Elder "Portrait of Martin Luther"

The artists Hans Cranach and Lucas Cranach the Younger are his sons.
Cranach initially studied fine art from his father. From his early youth he traveled in search of a vocation throughout Germany, Palestine, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Later, he created an art workshop, staffed by assistants, published books, and then sold them.
The artist's early works are distinguished by their innovation. In them he depicted the contradictions of his era. Having become a court artist, he achieved great skill in the portrait genre, capturing many of his famous contemporaries. Cranach's portraits were made with sympathy for the models, but without idealizing them and without any special desire to penetrate into their inner world.

Lucas Cranach the Elder "Melancholy" (1532). Board, oil. 51x97 cm. State Museum Arts (Copenhagen)

The painting depicts three naked babies using sticks to try to roll a large ball through a hoop. The winged woman is whittling a rod, perhaps planning to make another hoop. This is melancholy. She looks thoughtfully past the playing children. According to the ideas of the Renaissance, the whole world is based on analogies. Melancholy at that time was associated with Saturn, the dog, and carpentry. The witches' jump in the black cloud refers to these analogies.

Lucas Cranach the Elder "Madonna and Child (Madonna of the Vineyard)" (circa 1520). State Museum of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin (Moscow)

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543)

One of the greatest German artists. The most famous representative of this family. He studied painting with his father, Hans Holbein the Elder.

Hans Holbein the Younger. Self-Portrait (1542). Uffizi Gallery (Florence)

With his brother Ambrosius Holbein, he worked for two years in Basel (Switzerland) in the workshop of H. Herbster, where he met many humanists and scientists of this period, including Erasmus of Rotterdam, and illustrated his work “In Praise of Stupidity.”

Hans Holbein the Younger "Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam"

Holbein illustrated other books and participated in the creation of the German translation of Martin Luther's Bible. Like his father, he created stained glass windows and painted portraits.
The most important works of Holbein's Basel period are the portrait of the lawyer Boniface Amerbach; ten paintings of the passion of the Lord; frescoes in the new town hall, organ doors in the local cathedral, altar doors for the Freiburg Cathedral, images of the Nativity of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi; Madonna and saints for the city of Solothurn; the famous “Madonna of the Meyer family”, portraits of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dorothea Offenburg, as well as drawings for the Old Testament (91 sheets) and the “Dance of Death” (58 sheets), engraved on wood by Lutzelburger.

Hans Holbein the Younger "Madonna of Darmstadt" ("Madonna of the Meyer Family") (1526)

The painting was painted by Holbein under the influence of Italian religious painting of the Renaissance and the portrait art of the old Dutch masters. In the center of the painting is the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, surrounded by Mayer, his first deceased and second wives and daughter. It is not known for certain who the other two characters depicted on the left are. The Darmstadt Madonna is a demonstration of Burgomaster Mayer's commitment to the Catholic faith. The unusual framing of the painting is explained by its purpose for the personal chapel of the Meyer family in the palace in Gundeldingen.
In 1526-1528. the artist stayed in England, where he met Thomas More. On his first visit to England, as well as on his second (1532-1543), he painted mainly portraits and was even the court painter of King Henry VIII.

Hans Holbein the Younger "Portrait of Henry VIII"

Holbein's paintings are distinguished by expressiveness of design, plasticity, thoughtful modeling, transparency of chiaroscuro, brightness and width of the brush. His drawings are full of observation, sometimes not without caustic sarcasm, and amaze with the beauty of their form and decoration. He brought the heyday of the Italian Renaissance to Germany, but did not lose his national character.

Hans Holbein the Younger "Portrait of Christina of Denmark" (1538). London National Gallery

Artists of the Danube School of Painting

“Danube School of Painting” is a direction of German fine art of the first half of the 16th century. (1500-1530)
In the works of the artists of the “Danube School” appeared new genre- scenery .
There is no unity on the question of the origin of the school: according to most authors, its creators were the young Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jörg Brey the Elder, as well as a native of the Danube River region, Roelant Fruauf the Younger.
Others believe that the school arose on local soil, and that the visiting Cranach and Bray, traveling along the Danube, came under its influence.

Wolf Gruber "Landscape of the Danube near Krems" (1529). Cabinet of Prints (Berlin)

The painting of the “Danube School” was distinguished by artistic imagination, vivid emotionality, a fabulous perception of nature, interest in forest and river landscapes, space and light, a dynamic style of painting, expressiveness of drawing and color intensity.

Lucas Cranach the Elder "The Deer Hunt of Elector Frederick III the Wise" (1529)

The architectural style of Germany is noticeably influenced by other countries, elements of French Gothic and Italian Renaissance are especially common. But the country also made its contribution to world architecture, in particular at the beginning of the 20th century.

Germany has a rich tradition of local architecture with unique styles ancient peasant houses and city mansions. Previously, wooden half-timbered houses were built everywhere, since historically wood was more affordable than good stone. All houses in German villages are decorated with wood carvings.

From Carolingian to Romanesque style.

The Romans erected city walls, baths, villas, and temples, but the history of German architecture itself began around 790 with the construction of the palace chapel in Aachen by Emperor Charlemagne. This 16-sided building with an octagon in the middle is modeled after the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna (Italy). It was part of the long-destroyed great imperial palace, one of Charles's many residences.

Another imperial palace of the 11th century, rebuilt many times, has survived to this day in Goslar in the Gorca Mountains. The Aachen Chapel served as a model for other cult buildings of the Carolingian Revival, some of which survive - Cathedral in Essen and the monastery church of St. Peter in Bad Wimpfen.

A distinctive feature of these churches is the westwork, a western transverse building with a chapel in the choir.

Larger and more complex architectural style Germany appeared in the revived empire after the 10th century. Its example is the Church of St. Michael in Hildesheim.

The large-scale structure using simple geometric shapes was built between 1001 and 1033. The semicircular apses on both sides of the building, two round central towers and four cylindrical towers with stairs are impressive. Later, the flourishing of the Romanesque style in Germany resulted in the construction of magnificent cathedrals on the Rhine - in Mainz, Trier, Worms and Speyer. Their strict proportions are softened by the decor with semicircular arches at the base. Cologne is richest in monuments of Romanesque architecture.

Gothic.

The first examples of Gothic can be seen in Limburg an der Lahn where appearance The cathedral, begun in 1211, is still predominantly Romanesque, and the interior is already defined by Gothic pointed vaults.

The first Gothic buildings in Germany are the Liebfrauenkirche in Trier and the Church of St. Elisabeth in Marburg. Church of St. Elizabeth - hall; its central and side naves are of the same height, which will become typical for Germany. In 1248, work began on the construction of the cathedral in Cologne. After the construction of the choir, work slowed down, and Cologne Cathedral found itself among the magnificent churches that awaited completion until the 19th century. Another cathedral is Ulm; its 161 m tall spire, completed in 1890, is the tallest in the world.

XII and XIII centuries. were a period of major monastic construction. The unique city-like complex of Maulbronn is almost completely preserved. Today it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Most Gothic buildings are made of stone, but on the Baltic coast and in some northern German cities the so-called brick Gothic arose.

Renaissance.

The architectural forms of the Italian Renaissance did not immediately take root in Germany; at first they were used only for decoration or in an absurd combination with Gothic elements. For example, the 1512 Fugger bankers' chapel of St. Anne's Church in Augsburg - the first Renaissance building in Germany - retains a Gothic reticulate vault. Catholic Munich, more closely associated with Italy than other cities, has entirely Renaissance monuments. The most significant are the Church of St. Michael, which was built by the Jesuits in 1597, and the royal palace.

In Northern Germany, which was predominantly Protestant, Dutch and Flemish influences found their most striking expression in the Weser Renaissance style, which was characterized by excessive decoration.

The style of architecture in Germany is Baroque and Rococo.

The Baroque style originated in Italy, but German architects and craftsmen gave it its own identity, especially in the Catholic south.

The Counter-Reformation here led to the fact that the service was held in an almost theatrical atmosphere, where everything appealed to the senses. The height of luxury, splendor and fantasy was the pilgrimage church of the Fourteen Saints, which began to be built in 1744 according to the design of Johann Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753).

Neumann also built or participated in the construction of the palaces of Archbishop Schönborn in Brühl, Bruchsal and Würzburg.

Baroque luxury and Rococo fantasy were not limited to Southern Germany. The Zwinger courtyard and pavilions in Dresden are considered one of the most luxurious venues for court festivities, and the elegant rococo interiors of Frederick the Great's Potsdam Sanssouci Palace shatter the stereotype of Prussian asceticism.

From classicism to a mixture of styles.

In the 18th century ancient classics were considered mandatory for capitals. In Sanssouci (Potsdam), the court architect of Frederick the Great, Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff (1699-1753), built a classic colonnade. In 1791, the entrance to Berlin was ennobled by the colossal Brandenburg Gate, the model for which was the propylaea of ​​the Athenian Acropolis.

The largest Prussian architect of this time, as well as the head of the Department of Public Works, was Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 - 1841). He transformed the appearance of Berlin and its surroundings, erecting museums, palaces and estates in the neoclassical style. In Bavaria his rival was Franz Carl Leo von Klenze (1784-1864). He gave Munich a truly royal look by building, for example, the Glyptothek, the world's first public sculpture museum. Von Klenze also designed monuments intended to ennoble the nascent German nationalism - Valhalla high above the Danube and the Liberation Pavilion near Kelheim.

After the unification of Germany in 1871, national monuments were built. There was an intense search for an architectural style that would correspond to the spirit of the Second Reich, but many buildings of the late 19th century. in fact, they are only eclectic combinations of elements from different architectural styles.

Royalty prayed in the luxurious Rococo church of the Würzburg residence.

Modernism in German architecture.

The very beginning of the 20th century. - the time of the short-lived heyday of Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau), the clearest example of which was the development of Mathildenhee in Darmstadt. In 1899, a guild of artists and architects settled here.

For the first time in the decade of the new century, an unprecedented flowering of architectural styles and new trends was observed. Unusual solid structures - Erich Mendelssohn's Einstein Tower in Potsdam,

the ship-like office building Chilihaus in Hamburg and the round Reinhalle in Düsseldorf testify to the success of expressionism. In contrast, the innovative building of the Fagus shoe factory in Alfeld by Walter Grapius (1883-1969) with its flat roof, glass walls and cubic structure predetermines further development architecture.

The enormous destruction of the war years was partially compensated by the reconstruction program of the 1950-1960s. Most of the buildings were made in the soft, calm manner that prevailed in those years. But original buildings also appeared, such as the Thyssen Tower in Düsseldorf.

There are probably more modern churches in Germany than anywhere else. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in west Berlin interestingly combines a modern memorial and post-war ruins. Before the 1972 Olympic Games, Günter Behnisch designed a very original stadium. Prominent architectural monuments of recent times are the works of foreign architects such as Scott James Sterling (Stuttgart State Gallery) and Brit Norman Foster (Frankfurt Bank of Commerce and the restoration of the Reichstag in Berlin).

Renaissance architecture in Germanic countries

1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND STYLE

The earliest features of the influence of the Italian Renaissance on the architecture of the German countries are found as isolated phenomena in the first decades of the 16th century. It was difficult for new forms to fight the creations of the familiar gothic style; the latter contained many truly valuable elements; it fully satisfied the national taste and represented a first-class, constructive and artistic achievement. True, already in the first decades of Italian early renaissance northern painting, and soon after it sculpture, entered a new phase. However, the content of this phase of development differed from the content new era Italian art, just as the entire spiritual life of the north differed from it. The influence of humanism on northern art was insignificant. Even less could be said here about the “revival of antiquity.” The influence of her architectural and artistic monuments on northern artists did not come from the original source. In any case, northern artists hardly penetrated further than Upper Italy. Most were forced to limit themselves to other sources. These were, first of all, buildings erected by Italians in German countries. Italian craftsmen entered the service of sovereigns connected with Italy by family or church ties, for example, in Austria, Southern Germany and even the countries of the Slavic East. Depending on whether Italian craftsmen supervised the construction itself or made only designs that were later carried out by northern craftsmen, the Italian understanding of art was expressed here either in a pure or distorted form. Some works reveal such a purity of Italian interpretation that they do not differ from the works of the Italian Renaissance. Another source of influence of the Renaissance on northern masters was France. However, the French interpretation significantly changed the content and character of the Renaissance; Renaissance motifs lost the clarity and sharpness of the original forms.

Of great importance for northern architecture was the fact that Renaissance architectural forms were perceived primarily by painters who used them for the backgrounds of paintings, in particular by copper and wood engravers; from here they were distributed in many prints; the cursory and ill-conceived sketches available in these engravings (and it should be noted that the authors, for the most part, themselves received the motifs from second and third hands) served for most German masters as the main source of information about “ancient” forms. To this should be added the rest of the works of small applied art of French and Italian origin that have entered into German use: dishes, movable property, inlays, Italian engravings and book graphics. It is therefore not surprising that northern architecture is unconditionally drawn to small forms. It showed its origins in the applied arts. The northern masters did not rise to a deeper generalized perception of the Renaissance with its great problems of architectural composition in the way these problems were posed and solved in Italy, and with its clarity of architectural organism. They lacked as much an understanding of Italian art as they lacked theoretical preparation for it. True, the works of Vitruvius aroused considerable interest. Back in 1539, the Dutch master Pieter Keck van Aelst revised the manual of Vitruvius, and soon afterwards the manual of Sebastiano Serlio, and the Nuremberg theorist V. Rivius published it in 1548, therefore, at a time when the knowledge of the new world of forms had already taken a step forward , the first German translation of the five volumes of Vitruvius; however, there was still no deeper insight into the essence of classicism.

Of great importance for northern architecture was the fact that Renaissance architectural forms were perceived primarily by painters who used them for the backgrounds of paintings, in particular by copper and wood engravers; from here they were distributed in many prints; the cursory and ill-conceived sketches available in these engravings (and it should be noted that the authors, for the most part, themselves received the motifs from second and third hands) served for most German masters as the main source of information about the “ancient” forms. To this should be added the rest works of small applied art of French and Italian origin, which entered into German use: dishes, movable property, inlays, Italian engravings and book graphics. It is not surprising, therefore, the unconditional attraction of northern architecture to small forms. It reflected its origin in applied arts. Northern masters did not rise to deeper generalized perception of the Renaissance with its great problems of architectural composition as these problems were posed and solved in Italy, and with its clarity of architectural organism. They lacked as much an understanding of Italian art as they lacked theoretical preparation for it. True, works Vitruvius aroused considerable interest. Back in 1539, the Dutch master Pieter Kequan Aalst revised Vitruvius’s manual, and soon afterwards the manual of Sebastiano Serlio, and the Nuremberg theorist V. Rivius published it in 1548, therefore, at a time when the knowledge of the new world of forms had already taken a step forward, the first German translation of the five volumes of Vitruvius; however, there was still no deeper insight into the essence of classicism.

Most architects and stone makers limited themselves to selecting various forms from etchings and wood engravings: the forms of portals, columns, cornices, crowns, etc. - in order to then freely dispose, on occasion, of the wealth of Renaissance motifs. Samples of this kind did not provide the opportunity to acquire the correct instinct regarding the relief of architectural elements, regarding their harmonious interaction in the architectural organism and regarding proportions.

The influences were too external to cause a revolution in artistic perception and powerful original development. There was a lack of both basic conditions and the intensity and uniformity of influences. Renaissance forms came from outside and, moreover, came at a time when the need for style reform had not yet matured. Due to the diversity of the Germanic tribes, the perception of Renaissance forms must have been heterogeneous. In any case, the Austrians, Franconians, Southern and Central Germany and Belgium, thanks to direct relations with Italy or thanks to natural talent, understood the Italian character of the interpretation much better than the population of the north. As for the artists themselves, on the one hand, they did not want to abandon the constructive and decorative achievements of late Gothic, on the other hand, they also used new forms of decoration. Among the architects there were few talented craftsmen, and there were no such phenomenal artistic figures as Brunelleschi and Bramante, who had a decisive influence on the entire art of the Renaissance. And the tasks that German masters had to solve were too diverse. The architects of the ruling princes gravitated, of course, towards foreign cultural influences. However, given the then political fragmentation of the German countries, there was not a single court in Germany equal to royal court France. The imperial cities and the bourgeoisie were conservative, and most of the orders came from them. The church should hardly be considered an important factor in architectural activity, for after the high rise of Christian art in the previous era, the need for church buildings appeared only as an exception. And then, from national consciousness The religious inspiration of the Middle Ages, which found monumental expression in grandiose cathedral buildings, disappeared. Its place was taken by a democratic bourgeois mindset, aimed at secular needs.

Under these conditions, there could be no talk of integral artistic perception, of a single desire and conscious use of a new world of forms to create a bright new style. Even the material limited the possibility of transferring a new world of forms to northern architecture. The Italian Renaissance was mainly stone architecture, and in the German countries, wooden and half-timbered architecture adapted to the northern climate took root; hence the impossibility of directly applying the Italian interpretation of forms. In bourgeois houses, half-timbering continued to be a favorite technique. In areas that had long used brick, brick architecture was preserved; True, stone was used for portals, window jambs and cornices, but otherwise, brick architecture remained for a long time - by its very nature - faithful to previous traditions. Of course, stone was preferred as a material for more elegant buildings. In stone technology, the Northern Renaissance achieves brilliant effects and maximum artistic values. In addition, the uniqueness of the northern Renaissance is most clearly revealed in stone technology.

The entire development of the Northern Renaissance style is characterized not by the development of a specific architectural system, but by the type and method of borrowing and using new elements, especially decorative means. Northern masters at first thought only about replacing hackneyed forms of decoration for their still entirely Gothic spatial compositions. At first they took from the Italian Renaissance only what most struck them - the “antique” decorative elements: columns, pilasters, consoles, scalloped carvings, foliage, cushions with egg motif, ribbons with pearl motif and ornament. All these innovations were naively used - due to an insufficient understanding of the organic nature of Renaissance forms - to decorate the medieval frame of the building and its individual parts. Pilasters and cornices were transferred to facades of completely different proportions, namely to facades with significantly lower floor heights, and especially often to stepped pediments; thanks to this, the pilasters were significantly shortened, and other elements were changed; the pediment was preserved not only over the narrow sides of houses 1; along the longitudinal sides of the building, smaller attached gables protruded above the edge of the roof, often with rich decoration. The place of the phials that completed the pediments was taken by spherical and pyramidal appendages (obelisks). The sloping edges of the pediments received a living undulating line (of course, a legacy of the late Gothic donkey's back in the wimpergs); in the case of a stepped form, the protruding corners were filled with fantastic, curly frames and ornaments. In addition to the pediments, the main architectural features are bay windows (lanterns), often rising from the ground near the entrance or above the entrance to the house, in the middle of the wall or in the corners, and sometimes protruding from the plane of the wall only in the upper floors; Finally, the characteristic architectural elements are staircase towers and, in town halls, external staircases and balconies. All this was dressed in new forms, and in particular the lanterns were decorated with living ornaments and sculptures.

1. The pediment is as characteristic of a northern residential building as a tower is for a northern church.

During the High Renaissance, towers were multi-story buildings with pilasters, a domed tent and a lantern. The portals were also richly decorated. In the era of the developed Renaissance, the portal opening was closed, as a rule, with a semicircular archivolt. The design was more ornamental than architectural in nature. The windows were designed simpler than portals. They closed horizontally, however, sometimes with archivolts of medieval forms. The window casings retained the Gothic profile for a long time, especially the deep grooves in the wall, extending to approximately one-third of the height of the window, and the walls of the bay windows under the windows were of late Gothic frame. The latter often remains in church windows, although the nature of the lines and details changes in the spirit of the Renaissance (Fig. 72). In general, architectural and decorative design is limited to the accentuated parts of the building, which thanks to this acquire almost independent significance in the body of the whole.

Architectural details are interpreted very freely. The use of columns came into fashion among northern masters only around the middle of the 16th century, along with the progress of the Renaissance. However, this was not a pure classical column, but a column with all sorts of decorative appendages. Even its trunk was ornamented. The lower third of the trunk was covered with ornaments. The rest of the trunk was decorated with flutes, arabesques, or spiral and rhomboidal patterns, similar to those in Romanesque art. Entasis is usually absent. Against, great love uses - in particular in bay windows - a balustrade or candelabra column that swells and then tapers again (Fig. 62), which appeared already in the Upper Italian early Renaissance. The capitals, as a rule, go back to the Corinthian capital of the Italian Renaissance, but often represent a very poor reworking of it. The architects limit themselves to a rather crude acanthus wreath with crude volutes growing from it. Pilasters are designed like columns, often tapering downwards like herms or turning into actual herms. The latter are also used as free supports. The division of cornices is mostly careless, clumsy, and often completely arbitrary. Often the architrave is profiled in the same way as the main cornice. Certain proportions in relation to the width and relief of individual elements of the break are not observed. Where there are careful gradations that reveal a solid canon, we almost always have to assume the participation of Italian masters or the direct influence of Italian models. In general, in terms of organicity, solidity and isolation, northern Renaissance buildings stand far behind Italian models. Larger masters who knew Italian architectural works from personal experience, they felt the insignificant value of domestic buildings and tried, at least in Southern Germany, to help with a surrogate - painting the facade; they provided the planes of the walls with painted architecture, which was enlivened by figures or pictorial ornament.

In interior decoration less attention is paid to the whole than to its individual parts. The desire to preserve, first and foremost, the impressive effect of space recedes into the background. The great palace halls are for the most part very long and low and therefore disproportionate. However, thanks to the good lighting through the connected windows, thanks to the quality of the material, the colors and the charming detailing of the details - doors, fireplaces, stoves, bay windows, etc. - they reign pleasant mood. After all, the strictly guild organization of northern architects gave rise to enormous technical, decorative and generally applied skills. The walls of castles and more prosperous bourgeois houses were decorated with high wooden panels; the walls of the hallways were left white, but the doors were framed in this case with exceptionally expressive platbands (Fig. 55). The wood retained its natural color or was slightly stained. Door frames and panels were developed in the case of rich decoration (Fig. 56) into a complete architectural structure with a plinth, pilasters or columns, with an entablature and a pediment superstructure. Even rusticism was often reproduced (Fig. 55). At the same time, the panels and beams are naturally emphasized here more strongly than in the architecture of the facade. Since the end of the 16th century, plaster decorations have often been found in palaces; however, in bourgeois houses, plaster decorations were used only in the 17th century, and even then in a relatively simple design. Flat ceilings are decorated in the same way as in the Middle Ages, with protruding profiled beams or beams with cut edges. The intermediate fields are full of decorations. In the case of a rich design, wooden ceilings adopted from Italy are laid, divided into square, polygonal, star-shaped, rectangular fields with circles, which are connected by bridges, etc. (Fig. 57). The panels and friezes are filled with ornaments. Of the vaults, mesh and cross rib vaults are initially used, later cross vaults without ribs predominate. Secular architecture used vaults, generally speaking, only in service spaces (above entrances, hallways, galleries, etc.), in which case the vaults were made for the most part simple. In buildings closer to the Italian Renaissance, barrel vaults and domes are also used. They are decoratively divided by continuations of pilasters in the edges of domes or continuations of other vertical lines of the wall, and sometimes by completely independent ornamental forms.

Rice. 55. Door decoration at Eferding Castle.

Rice. 57. Wooden ceiling of the town hall, Görlitz.

Plaster is used liberally in the church interior.

In early Gothic church buildings, the decoration remained relatively simple. Sometimes the walls were decorated with externally perceived forms as they developed in modern secular architecture. Renaissance pilasters and semi-columns, often sitting on consoles at the level of the windows, support the main cornice, above which a reticulated or cross vault rises.

The ribs are reinforced and decorated with bolsters with Renaissance motifs - eggs, leaves, tubes. In churches closely related to Italian models, the pilaster system is fully developed. In this case, the entire decorative side is strongly influenced by Italian art. The main decorations of the church interior are altars, staircases, pulpits, organ emporas, choir benches, tombs and epitaphs. All of them are dressed in a system of Renaissance forms of significant artistic value, and sometimes unique beauty. From the gratings surrounding the choirs in many churches, one can judge the unique style of northern blacksmithing technology. It is characterized by round ridges twisted in spirals, numerous, interspersed in certain places suggested by the rhythm, flattened decorations, masks and fantastic animals. The trellises end in the same flattened leaves and stylized flowers (Fig. 58).

Rice. 58. Peterskirche lattice, Görlitz.

The ornament comes from the Italian, especially from the Lombard Renaissance, which penetrated either directly from Italy or through Burgundy and France. However, the original development of the ornament soon begins. Both individual types of ornament and individual local styles develop independently. The earliest form of Italian ornament in the north is the arabesque. The Dutch, and especially the Flemish early Renaissance, are so closely related to the Italian interpretation that some works one might think that they were made in Italy. Along with this, there is another, somewhat rougher interpretation: wide flattened leaves and tendrils surrounding medallions located in the middle with strongly protruding embossed heads. Such an ornament is also found on the lower Rhine and Westphalia; however, on the Rhine and in Westphalia it is designed somewhat more subtly and elegantly. In southern Germany, acanthus sometimes turns into heavy, fleshy bundles of leaves, the tendrils are roughly formed, and in most cases they are limited only to patterns of dolphins and cornucopias growing from vases (Basel and Augsburg); sometimes the acanthus is carefully modeled, forming small graceful patterns, with the acanthus leaf turning into small volutes (Nuremberg).

The development of arabesque in Northern Germany depends partly on the Netherlands and Westphalia, partly on Southern Germany. In addition to acanthus, the trefoil on a long stalk, which reveals in its design an origin from acanthus, is especially common in the northern Renaissance. In the designs of the great Westphalian ornament master Aldegrever (1502 - ca. 1555), the trefoil forms the basis. In intarsia, the ornament turns entirely into purely planar forms and thus becomes maritime, which found wide use already in the Italian Renaissance (Fig. 59). Close to the moreska, the “overlaid ornament” that developed around the middle of the 16th century, especially clearly characterizes the northern Renaissance. 1. It consists of linear, tape-like, very slightly protruding plexuses, connected to each other with staples, which, thanks to the imitation of the heads of nails and screws, seem to be nailed down: this is how carved metal plates are attached. If the ends of the ribbons protrude from the surface and curl, a scroll pattern appears. It is most clearly expressed in decorative shields, the so-called cartouches; the latter give the impression of several plates superimposed on each other, cut out like an overlay ornament and woven together. The motifs here, as well as in the applied ornament, are: stereometric shapes - diamond quadra, pyramids, cones - stars, faces, masks, lion heads, bunches of fruits, etc. Overlay and scroll ornaments almost completely replace the foliate ornaments of the early Renaissance. They dominate in wooden and metal applied art, as well as in architectural decoration, until the 17th century. From the beginning of the 17th century, they switched to the ugly “cartilaginous style” 1*, which in turn was a predecessor of the Baroque and a direct transition to it. In addition, painting uses grotesques imported from Italy on ceilings and vaults - less often on walls.
However, the grotesque did not go beyond the borders of the German south (Austria and Southern Germany), and even here it was performed, as a rule, under the guidance of masters who received their education in Italy.

1. The creator of the applied ornament should be considered the Nuremberg sculptor Peter Fletner; the first examples in Lübeck (intarsia) appeared around 1540. Fletner died in 1546.
1* The cartilaginous style is also denoted by the word “ear pinna style,” because it transfers the worm-like rounded shapes of the human ear to the frames and ornaments.

Rice. 60. Town Hall in Heilbronn.

Among the types of buildings, the castle ranks first. In the 16th century there was a transition from a fortress to a castle; but the castle loses the echoes of a defensive structure only in the second half of the 17th century. The castles were originally converted and expanded ancient fortresses. The prototype of the new buildings was a French castle. Large ensembles were almost always located around two courtyards: the outer (basse cour) and the inner (cour d'honneur), around which the wings of the castle were grouped on three or four sides. In the new buildings, correct arrangement prevailed, although strict symmetry was not always maintained. The corners were emphasized by towers or powerful risalits. Convenience played a greater role in the disposition of the plan than before. In medieval castles - fortresses there were many passage rooms. Now the corridors are being built. Only in the princely castles did they deliberately maintain the previous arrangement, so that access to the princely chambers lay through the rooms occupied by servants. In the large palaces of the German south there is a rectangular arcaded courtyard, the arcade galleries of which, like corridors, connect individual rooms with each other. However, further north the castles bear little resemblance to Italian palaces. It was precisely in the architecture of the castle that the German master lacked the sense of large forms and monumentality characteristic of the Italian. It is enough to compare individual parts of the old castle in Stuttgart with parts of Italian palaces to understand how far the artistic perception of the northern masters was from their Italian contemporaries and comrades, how incoherently old and new motifs were mixed and compared in the former. True, despite all their primitiveness, we cannot deny German works a certain picturesque charm. The Italians sought to turn even a simple dwelling into a palace, and in the north even a princely palace resembled a bourgeois house both in its location and decoration. The lower floor was used mostly for offices or utility rooms, the second floor for court life, and the third for servants. The most important rooms were the audience hall with a reception room, the main hall and the castle chapel. The number and size of living quarters were modest. In addition to these latter and the above-mentioned main halls, only the squares in front of the castle, staircases and entrances are distinguished by artistic Renaissance decoration. The chapels of the castles retained their Gothic character in most cases until the beginning of the 17th century.

In southern Germany, rich urban bourgeois residential buildings always had a courtyard with galleries, which came into use already in Gothic times. The lower floor houses utility rooms and warehouses. The living rooms are located on the top floor and are accessed by a spacious, tastefully decorated hallway. In the Netherlands, Northern Germany and Denmark Entrance door leads to a high vestibule occupying two floors, the so-called “dile”, and in narrow buildings - to the vestibule, occupying the entire width of the house. Directly from the vestibule or entryway, a staircase leads to the upper floor. It is designed especially carefully in the form of a spiral staircase or in the form of a staircase with straight flights. From early times, picturesque solutions to the problem have been found. Thanks to the staircases and galleries leading to the upper floor, the lobby, impressive by its height, makes a favorable impression. The 16th century was especially rich in town halls. This reveals the desire of cities to emphasize the seat of city government. On the lower floor, as in the Gothic era, there are large halls and vaulted commercial premises. On the upper floor, reached by a large open staircase (Fig. 60), there is a large hall for city meetings, meeting rooms for the large and small councils, offices and rooms for lawyers. Often, following the example of the Middle Ages, a tower is attached to a building. The decoration, especially of the large city hall, is brilliant. Among other public buildings, universities occupy the first place. The composition of the plan of university buildings reveals their original connection with medieval monasteries.

Buildings for trade and commercial relations, exchanges, granaries, guild houses, etc., for the most part, have changed their internal appearance so much that it is hardly possible to guess their original character.

Northern church architecture did not show any original progress during the Renaissance. The religious strife that was raging at that time created the most unfavorable conditions for the normal development of church architecture. Until the last quarter of the 16th century, the Gothic character of churches was universal, and even later - in the 17th century - until the end of the 30 Years' War, purely external Gothic, combined with elements of the Renaissance, prevailed. The basic form was still a hall church, divided by piers, with a passage around the choir or a simple choir. Starting around 1580, a grandiose construction activity of the Jesuits began. However, the Jesuits did not, as might have been thought, transfer the plan of the Church of the Gesu in Rome to the northern churches. In the Netherlands and on the Rhine they built ship-shaped churches of medieval design. These churches always reveal some greatness of architectural idea. Most of the rest of the northern churches are devoid of monumental and integral features in composition and decoration that determine an expressive spatial impression.

Protestantism, strengthened during the Renaissance, entered the arena with new architectural aspirations.

In Catholic worship, the main moment of the church rite is the mass, in Protestant worship it is the sermon. Consequently, first of all, it was necessary to take care of the favorable location of the pulpit; it was necessary to position it so that all members of the community from all places in the church interior could clearly hear and see the preacher. Therefore, thought had to be given to the central position of the pulpit within the church. In addition, for communion at mass, a limited and extremely simple service at the altar was preserved. Thus, Protestant worship contains two main points to which the gaze of worshipers should be directed - the pulpit and the throne. The task arose to position the pulpit and altar in such a way that they could be seen clearly from everywhere and, if possible, at the same time. This should have determined everything architectural composition churches. The Renaissance did not achieve a completely satisfactory solution to this problem. Perhaps it has not been found to this day, although some later church buildings come very close to the ideal. More than once they tried to base the Protestant church on the scheme of the central building, but did not come to a certain normal type. Often the structure of the building remained old, and the new character of the interior is determined only by the position of the throne, which is a simple stone table, and also by rows of benches forming permanent seats, and the insertion of emporia with the same benches. In the late Renaissance, the more common form of a Protestant church is formed by a hall church without supports with a small niche for the altar, in the corners of which - on both sides of the altar - there is a pulpit and a baptismal font; on the opposite side there are emporiums for the organ. Thus, the plan took the shape of a rectangle, with the throne located on the short side, the corners of which in this case were often beveled, or in the middle of the long side. An example of such a composition was the chapel of the old castle in Stuttgart (after 1553). It consists of a rectangular hall with a polygonal lantern niche located on the outer, long side. There is a throne in a niche, and next to it at the corner of the wall there is a pulpit. On the opposite side and on both short sides there are empores. Thus, the requirement of good visibility of the throne and pulpit from everywhere was successfully fulfilled.

The simplicity of the service was matched by great restraint of decoration. Therefore, the artistic impact of such “audiences for preaching” remained far behind the artistic life of the Catholic church; True, several noteworthy Protestant church buildings arose during the Renaissance, but Protestantism reached monumental, large forms only in some works of the subsequent period.

The development of the Northern Renaissance shows us that in it, too, just as in Spain and France, Gothic and antique elements of decoration appear first next to each other without any intermediary links, and then, step by step, as a result of mutual concessions, they are combined stronger, penetrate each other and merge into one whole. This mixture of native art styles with new elements of form is indicative of the character of the early Renaissance. In terms of the history of the development of style, this era corresponds to the Upper Italian Quattrocento. Its buildings are full of picturesque charm and often almost excessive decorative richness. During the 16th century the forms become clearer. In the middle of this century 1. a unique, northern renaissance took shape - the high renaissance. By the end of the century, a metamorphosis of style begins again. In court architecture and in architecture influenced by the court, Italian ideas in their more strict “theoretical” interpretation strengthened and then prevailed. The late Renaissance begins. However, in the architectural forms of folk art, especially the art of remote regions, medieval motifs are preserved until the first quarter of the 17th century and only here they disappear under the influence of the gradually penetrating rough elements of the beginning Baroque.

1. Desbrosses- the chief master of the Huguenots - chose for his famous chapel in Charenton the form of an ancient basilica, with the amendment that the emporas occupying two floors are circled around the entire raised middle room.

TEST

in the discipline “History of Architecture and Construction Technology”

FULL NAME. student: Shcherbinin Sergey Andreevich

Grade book no.

Direction

Teacher: Danielyan Arthur Surenovich

Krasnodar 2013

1. Introduction 3

2. “Renaissance” architecture 4

3Renaissance architecture in Germany 5-20

4. Literature 21

Introduction.

Architecture is the art of constructing buildings and structures, as well as their complexes, creating a materially organized environment necessary for people to live and work in accordance with their purpose, modern technical capabilities and the ethical view of society.

At each stage of the development of human experience, architecture has evolved depending on material, social and climatic conditions, as well as in direct connection with national characteristics everyday life and artistic traditions, highly valued by all people.

Since ancient times, functional, technical and architectural-artistic requirements have been applied to architecture, so more than 2 thousand years ago the ancient Roman theorist Vetruvius said that architectural structures must have 3 qualities:

1 – benefit;

2 – strength;

3 – beauty.

However, in architecture, the defining requirement in all cases must be complete, i.e., in accordance with the functional process occurring in the useful buildings, while the structures and the entire technical structure of the building must be selected taking into account functional and architectural-artistic terms.

The artistic merits of a building consist not only in its decoration, sculpting, ornamentation, sculpture and the like, but primarily in the expressiveness of the entire composition, i.e., the general interconnected grouping of the external, internal volumes of the building and the environment.

In the test I want to talk about the Renaissance in the Netherlands. Show and briefly talk about architectural buildings of the selected period, name outstanding architects.

"Renaissance" architecture:

Renaissance architecture is the period of development of architecture in European countries from the beginning of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century, in the general course of the Renaissance and the development of the foundations of spiritual and material culture Ancient Greece and Rome. This period is a turning point in the History of Architecture, especially in relation to the previous architectural style, Gothic. Gothic, unlike Renaissance architecture, sought inspiration in its own interpretation of Classical art.

Particular importance in this direction is given to forms ancient architecture: symmetry, proportion, geometry and order of component parts, as clearly evidenced by surviving examples of Roman architecture. The complex proportions of medieval buildings are replaced by an orderly arrangement of columns, pilasters and lintels; asymmetrical outlines are replaced by a semicircle of an arch, a hemisphere of a dome, niches, and aedicules. Architecture is becoming order-based again.

The development of Renaissance Architecture led to innovations in the use of construction techniques and materials, and to the development of architectural vocabulary. It is important to note that the revival movement was characterized by a move away from the anonymity of artisans and the emergence of a personal style among architects. There are few known craftsmen who built works in the Romanesque style, as well as architects who built magnificent Gothic cathedrals. While the works of the Renaissance, even small buildings or just projects were carefully documented from their very appearance.

The first representative of this trend can be called Filippo Brunelleschi, who worked in Florence, a city, along with Venice, considered a monument of the Renaissance. Then it spread to other Italian cities, France, Germany, England, Russia and other countries.

Renaissance architecture in Germany.

The contradictions in the social development of Germany were reflected in German architecture of the 15th century. As in the Netherlands, there was not that decisive turn to new figurative content and a new language of architectural forms that characterizes the architecture of Italy. Although Gothic as a dominant architectural style was already on its way out, its traditions were still very strong; the vast majority of buildings are from the 15th century. to one degree or another bears the imprint of its influence. The sprouts of the new were forced to break through a difficult struggle through the thickness of conservative layers.

The share of monuments of religious architecture in Germany in the 15th century. was larger than in the Netherlands. The construction of grandiose Gothic cathedrals, begun in previous centuries (for example, the cathedral in Ulm), was still ongoing and completed. The new temple buildings, however, were no longer distinguished by such a scale. These were simpler churches, mostly of the hall type; naves of the same height in the absence of a transept (which is typical for this period) contributed to the merging of their internal space into a single visible whole. Particular attention was paid to the decorative design of the vaults: vaults with mesh and other complex patterns predominated. Examples of such structures are the Church of Our Lady in Ingolstadt (1425 - 1536) and the Church in Annaberg (1499-1520). The extensions to old churches are also characterized by a single hall space - the choir of the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg and the choir of the Church of Our Lady in Esslingen. The architectural forms themselves acquired greater complexity and whimsicality in the spirit of “flaming” Gothic. An example of the decorative richness of forms, already far from the previous strict spiritualism, can be considered the cloister of the Cathedral in Eichstätt (second half of the 15th century).

Germany to early XVI V. was fragmented into many dwarf states. It was a time of clashing interests of different classes and religious storms. The flowering of culture in Germany was not as organic as in Italy. There was no antique heritage of its own; antiquity became known only through processing by the Italians. In contrast to the increasingly secular art of Italy, in Germany religiosity is not diminished; humanist theologians advocate the renewal of the Catholic Church.

The “Seasons” cycle included six paintings, each of which was dedicated to two months. Preserved: "Harvest", "Haymaking", "Dark Day", "Hunters in the Snow" and "Return of the Herd"
Germany, being in the center of Europe, was exposed to external influences. Developing in the general mainstream of the European Renaissance, German art largely advanced in its own way. In the art of Germany XV-XVI centuries. reminiscences of the Gothic appeared. Local artistic traditions were important for the development of German art. Mystical writers of the XIII-XIV centuries. gave rich material to artists of the next two centuries.
The art of the German Renaissance took shape during one of the most dramatic periods in German history. In 1453, Byzantium fell. Heretical teachings spread. Many expected the end of the world in 1500.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). The Renaissance in Germany is called the era of Durer. Dürer is the first German artist whose popularity was pan-European during his lifetime.
Albrecht Dürer, like many creators of the Renaissance, was a universal personality. His talent equally developed in engraving, painting, and art theory. His creative credo is expressed in the treatise “Four Books on Proportions”, in which he wrote, addressing the artist: “do not shy away from nature in the hope that you could find the best yourself, for you will be deceived, for, truly, art lies in nature: whoever knows how to discover it owns it.”

Dürer was born in Nuremberg into the family of a jeweler in 1471. He was the third child in a large family. Albrecht received his first drawing skills in his father's workshop, then studied with Michael Wolgemut for three years in the largest workshop in the city. On December 1, 1489, Dürer completed his studies and, according to the guild rules, went to travel around the cities of Germany. The wanderings lasted 4 years. In 1493, Dürer painted his first self-portrait, appearing as a dreamy young man with a flower in his hand. In the spring of 1494, Dürer was summoned by his father to Nuremberg, where he married the daughter of an influential Nuremberg burgher, mechanic and musician Hans Frey, 15-year-old Agnes.
Soon after the wedding, the artist went to Italy. During his stay in Italy, Dürer paid a lot of attention to the depiction of the naked body. Returning from Venice to Nuremberg, Dürer captured the Alpine mountains and the cities lying on his way in numerous watercolors (“View of Innsbruck” 1495, “View of Trient”).

Woodcut (from the Greek Xylon - wood and grapho - I write) is a woodcut when a printing form is imprinted using letterpress printing - from the flat surface of a wooden board coated with paint.
1495-1500 - Start independent activity, when, having returned from Italy, the artist simultaneously began to try himself in painting, wood engraving and copper engraving. Dürer created engravings on mythological, everyday and literary subjects. He works on altar images, giving them realistic authenticity. Dürer's portraits marked the beginning of the flowering of this genre in German painting. By the end of the 90s. his name becomes famous not only in Germany, but also in Europe, mainly due to the popularity of engravings. The main thing for Dürer at this time was woodcuts. He turned to the common single-sheet woodcut, and eventually moved on to creating a series of engravings, bound in the form of bound books with accompanying text on the back of the sheets. In the second half of the 90s. Dürer goes to new technology: He introduces shading into the form with curving lines, applying intersecting strokes that give deep shadows. Among the best woodcuts of this period are “St. Catherine" 1498, series of engravings "Apocalypse". The descriptions of the disasters and destruction of mankind contained in the Apocalypse made a strong impression at that time. Dürer's illustrations reflect reformist sentiments. Babylon is papal Rome, and the characters are dressed in modern German and Venetian costumes. The series consists of 15 engravings, to which Dürer subsequently added a title page. Earlier sheets - “Opening of the Seventh Seal”, “Worship of the Father” are distinguished by the abundance of figures, in later ones - “Seven Lamps” - the figures are enlarged, the forms are interpreted more generally. The final page of "Heavenly Jerusalem" shows how an angel locks the defeated Satan in the underworld. Another angel shows John the Heavenly Jerusalem, which looks like a medieval city with massive gates and numerous towers.

The second series of woodcuts is called "Great Passions". It was completed only in 1510-1511. The first 7 leaves tell about the most tragic episodes of the life of Christ (“Prayer for the Cup”, “Flagellation”, “Behold the Man”, “Carrying the Cross”, “Mourning” and “Entombment”). One of the most popular sheets in the series was “Carrying the Cross,” in which Dürer presented Christ falling under the weight of the cross.
The subjects of copper engravings are varied. These are mythological, literary, and everyday subjects. One of the most famous works is “The Prodigal Son”. Among the genre images is “Three Peasants”.

The engraving "Melancholy" of 1514 is one of Dürer's most mysterious works. It depicts a woman sitting alone wearing a laurel wreath, personifying creative genius. She has a bunch of keys and a wallet on her side, a closed book on her lap, and a compass in her right hand - a symbol of geometry and the art of construction. On the wall behind the woman hang scales, an hourglass, a bell and magic square. Durer's main character is a man whom the artist places at the center of the universe. Dürer creates a generalizing type of Renaissance man in Self-Portrait.
Etching (French eai fort - letters, strong vodka, i.e. nitric acid) is a type of engraving on metal, where the in-depth elements of the printing form are created by etching the metal with acids. The scratched recesses are filled with paint and the board is covered with moistened paper, receiving an imprint on a special machine.

1500, portrait of the Unknown 1504, portrait of Pirkheimer 1524. In the self-portrait of 1500, Dürer depicted himself in the image of Christ. Dürer placed his self-portraits in many paintings, he signed almost all of his major works with his full name, and put a monogram on engravings and even on drawings. In portraits, the influence of the Dutch school is reflected in the careful finishing of details; portraits are characterized by extraordinary expressiveness.
Dürer anticipated the emergence of the mood landscape; he believed that everything in nature is worthy of being captured - a piece of turf, a rabbit.
In the painting “The Four Apostles,” Durer created monumental figures of people full of self-esteem and confident in their strength.
In his theoretical works, Dürer divided craft, which is based on skill, and art, based on theory. In 1525, Dürer published “Guide to Measuring with Compasses and Ruler”, a year later - “Instructions for Strengthening Cities, Castles and Fortresses”, after Dürer’s death, which followed in 1528, his work “Four Books on Human Proportions” was published. .

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was born into a family of artists in Upper Franconia, studied with his father, then settled in Thuringia, becoming the court painter of the Saxon Elector. Cranach was familiar
with Luther, illustrated his works. Cranach's early works combine drama and lyricism. Everything in the landscapes is lovingly and carefully painted. In monumental altar compositions (“Altar of St. Catherine”, “Princely Altar”) the artist also uses genre motifs. His “Mary and Child” and “Venus” are close to Italian models, with which he was well acquainted. In portraits of his contemporaries, Cranach sought to convey in detail all the details of the external appearance.

IN last period The master's creativity is dominated by mythological and fairy-tale plots, and features of mannerism appear.
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480-1538), head of the "Danube School". Worked in Southern Germany and Austria. The themes of his paintings are biblical and mythological.
Altdorfer's drawings are full-fledged works of art. In 1510, “Forest Landscape with the Battle of St. George”, in which the desire for tonal painting is most fully expressed. The beginning of the master's maturity was marked by the creation of the altar of the St. Florian monastery near the Austrian city of Linz in 1516-1518. The height of the altar is 2 m 70 cm, there are 16 paintings on it. When the doors are closed, 4 paintings with scenes from the legend of St. Sebastians. When the first pair of doors opened, the viewer saw eight paintings depicting the passion of Christ.

Cranach and Luther knew each other; in 1522, Cranach used his own money to publish Luther’s work “The September Gospel”, providing it with engravings. The scenes “Entombment” and “Resurrection” were written on the outside of the doors. The top row consisted of night scenes and the Flagellation of Christ. The lower one included scenes in bright daylight. In all compositions the horizon line was at the same level. All scenes are permeated with a seething passion, sometimes hidden, sometimes bursting out. The dramatic intensity is especially evident in the almost Boschian grotesqueness. In all scenes, Christ is the sacrifice intended by God for slaughter. Color is the most remarkable feature of altar painting. In “The Prayer of the Cup,” red reflections are painted on a background of pure gold. The most amazing work Altdorfer's "Battle of Alexander and Darius" 1529; in it the action takes place against the backdrop of a grandiose landscape shown from above.

In the work of the artists of the “Danube School”, but not only theirs, there is a unity of man with nature. Reliance on antiquity had a dual character in the German Renaissance. Artists willingly took subjects from ancient history and mythology. But the ancient Greek and Roman plots are far from being solved in the ancient spirit.
Grunewald, this has been wrong since the 17th century. began to be called the largest German painter, architect Matthias Niethardt (c. 1470-1528). Niethardt worked in Frankfurt am Main, Mainz, was a court painter of the Mainz
archbishops and electors. The artist’s work most fully expressed the national spirit, his worldview is close to that of the people, religious images are interpreted in the spirit of mystical heresies. Grunewald's creative style is characterized by drama and expression, a special relationship between color and light. Grunewald's most famous work, the Izengei Altar, was a monumental nine-part composition, complemented by a painted wooden sculpture. In the center of the composition is the scene of the crucifixion of Christ, filled with deep tragedy, conveying torment and pain.

Silver lead produces colorless, indelible lines
on primed or tinted paper. The drawing with a silver lead does not allow blots.
Lucarne (fr. lucarne) - window opening various shapes in a roof slope or dome.
Hotel (French hotel) - in French architecture - a city mansion, usually located on a relatively cramped area, moved deeper into the territory and fenced off from the street and neighboring areas by closed buildings of service outbuildings and high stone fences, forming a closed courtyard with a main entrance from the street. The garden is located behind the main building.

Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497-1543), a quarter of a century younger than Dürer, developed as an artist during the maturity of the Renaissance, becoming its most prominent figure. Holbein, of all the German artists, was closest to the Italian Renaissance. The life of the artist is known only in the most general outline. In the house of his father Hans Holbein the Elder, a famous painter, he learns the basics of painting. He wanders as an apprentice, in adulthood he works in France and the Netherlands, and from 1532 he remains to live in England, where he is patronized by Thomas More and Henry VIII. The strongest aspects of Holbein's talent were drawing and portraiture. Holbein's early portraits were created using the silver pencil technique; after 1522, the master more often resorted to softer materials - black and colored chalk pencils. The artist paints his later portraits on pink paper, which gives warmth to the human face.