The main building of the Pushkin Museum – vii. Art of Flanders in the 17th century

Art of Flanders The dominant direction is Baroque.
Flemish Baroque differs significantly from
Italian: baroque forms filled
a feeling of bubbling life and colorful richness
peace, a sense of spontaneity, the power of growth
man and nature.
The basis of artistic culture is realism,
nationality, bright cheerfulness,
solemnity.
In painting the powerful
decorativeism based on coloristic
effects

Painting

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

"Elevation of the Cross" ca. 1610-1611

"Descent from the Cross" 1611-1614.

"Bacchanalia" 1615-1620

“The Kidnapping of the Daughter “Boar Hunt” by Leucippus” 1619-1620. 1615-1620

"Perseus and Andromeda" 1620-1621

Cycle “Life of Marie de Medici” (1622-1625)

"Coronation of Marie de' Medici"

“Portrait of a Chambermaid “Portrait of the Daughter” of the Infanta Isabella”

"Peasant Dance" 1636-1640

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)

"Family Portrait", "Portrait VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV" 1618-1626. 1630

"Portrait of a Man", "Portrait of Charles I" 1620s. OK. 1635

Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678)

"A Satyr Visiting a Peasant" ca. 1620

"Feast of the Bean King" ca. 1638

Rubens Frans Snyders (1579-1657)

Painting.

Rubens. Peter Paul (1577 - 1640). Born in Siegen (Germany). Early works (before 1611 -1613) bear the imprint of the Venetians and Caravaggio. One of the first paintings of the Antwerp period, “The Exaltation of Christ” (c. 1610 - 1611, Antwerp, Cathedral) shows how the Flemish painter rethinks the experience of the Italians.

The most significant works: “The Descent from the Cross” (1611 - 1614), “Bacchanalia” (1615 - 1620, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), “The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus” (1619 - 1620, Munich, Alte Pinakothek)

By 1622-25 refers to a series of compositions on the theme “The Life of Marie de Medici”. “Portrait of the Infanta Isabella’s Chambermaid” (Hermitage).

30s: “Portrait of a Daughter”, “Fur Coat”, “Peasant Dance”, “Self-Portrait”

Van Dyck. The evolution of the work of Anthony Van Dyck (1599 - 1641) surpassed the path of development of the Flemish school in the second half of the 17th century. in the direction of aristocracy and secularism. In his best works, Van Dyck remains committed to realism and, by capturing typical images of the people of his time, gives an idea of ​​an entire era in the history of Europe.

Van Dyck began his career with strict portraits of Flemish burghers: “Family Portrait” (Hermitage), “Portrait of a Man”. He later worked in Genoa, where he became a popular portrait painter of the aristocracy.

Late work includes the “ceremonial portrait of Charles I” (c. 1635, Paris, Louvre).

Jordans. The aristocratic sophistication of Van Dyck's art is opposed by the art of Jacob Jordanes (1593 - 1678), close to the democratic circles of Flemish society, full of plebeian rudeness and strength, who created a gallery of characteristic folk types. Famous paintings: “A Satyr Visiting a Peasant”, “Feast of the Bean King”.

Flemish still life. Snyders. A major master of monumental and decorative still life was Rubens' friend Frans Snyders (1579 - 1657). The series “Benches for the dining palace in the city of Bruges” (1618 - 1621, Leningrad, Hermitage) made by Snyders clearly characterizes his work.

Genre painting. Browwer. The most democratic line of Flemish painting of the 17th century. represented the work of Adrin Brouwer (16056 - 1638), who painted mainly small paintings from peasant life, continuing in them the grotesque and humorous line of national painting coming from Breuil. In the mid-30s. In Brouwer, acute grotesqueness is replaced by soft humor, combined with bitterness and melancholy. It penetrates deeper into the character of the characters. In his paintings, the image of a dreamer appears among smokers. lost in thought.

Teniers. David Teniers (1610 - 1690) worked in the field of genre painting, whose genre paintings gravitate towards outwardly entertaining and funny subjects (“Village Holiday”, 1648, Leningrad, Hermitage). The features of idealization that grew in his art corresponded to the aristocratic elite of Flemish society by the end of the 17th century.

In the first years of the 17th century, Flemish painting did not arise out of nowhere. Uniquely original and new in its external appearance and internal content, it had very definite sources, the influence of which, although it largely fertilized it, had for it, as for truly great art, primarily a stimulating value. Formally connected with a number of artistic phenomena immediately preceding or contemporary to it (both national and foreign), it was included in the great tradition of Western European classical art, which reflected the pace of human creative thought, which had gone through a grandiose path of development from the Middle Ages through the great spiritual conquests of the Renaissance - by the 17th century. The Flemish masters were able to express in the artistic images they generated much of what advanced humanity in Western Europe lived in the post-Renaissance era. This determined the most important, fundamental value of Flemish art of the 17th century. It is from this position that one should first of all proceed when assessing its historical role.

Flemish painting of the 17th century was the second brightest product of the Baroque style after Italian art. A significant part of the artistic production of Flanders, including the best, most creatively valuable works of Flemish art of this time, were more or less subject to the laws of this style. The connection of Flemish art with the high, fundamental spiritual movements of the era was concretely realized in the fact that it clearly expressed the revolution in the aesthetic ideas of Western European people and a radical revaluation of values ​​that marked the edge of the 16th and 17th centuries. In this sense, the painters of Flanders kept pace with their era. The new sense of space, time, and dynamic life rhythm that had established itself by the time they entered the arena of European artistic life, which resulted in a radical restructuring of human self-awareness in his relationship to the world, received a bright and nationally distinctive refraction in Flemish art. In his best monuments, these cardinal problems were solved deeply and on a large scale.

There were two main sources of Flemish painting of the 17th century: one of them was the various movements of Dutch painting of the 16th century; others were served by Italian art of the post-Renaissance period. Both the first and second sources played a dual role in the formation of the style of Flemish art. On the one hand, they enriched it with valuable elements, on the other, they introduced into it a certain amount of artistic “slag” that clogged the creative activity of the Flemish masters. Speaking about the influence of the national tradition of Dutch art on Flemish painting, it should be noted that this influence primarily came to Flemish painters not from the masters who worked at the end of the 16th century, that is, immediately before the heyday of the Flemish school of painting, but from those artists whose creativity dates back to the beginning and middle of the 16th century.

The art of the 16th century in the Netherlands did not represent any kind of holistic stylistic phenomenon that had clearly defined artistic characteristics. It split into a number of movements, sometimes sharply different from each other in their formal features and figurative structure. In general, it did not rise to the level of the high spiritual and aesthetic scale that Dutch art of the 15th century possessed to such a significant extent. Thus, during the 16th century, the prerequisites were determined in Dutch artistic culture, on the basis of which two great national schools of the 17th century emerged - Dutch and Flemish. The most important thing here was that already in the works of the Dutch masters of the beginning of this century, the emancipation of art was first outlined and then clearly established, its separation into a special sphere of activity, developing according to specific laws characteristic of artistic creativity. This meant the final elimination of the medieval tradition, which by that time had lost any positive meaning. While religious subjects were preserved, artistic creativity became fundamentally secular. At the same time, there was a process of formation of individual artistic genres, the very ones that reached their highest, brilliant development in the work of the Dutch and Flemish masters of the 17th century. Portraits, landscapes, still lifes, everyday images, images with religious or mythological subjects attracted the separate attention of artists. Gradually, specialists emerged who worked primarily or entirely in the field of certain genres.

At the end of the 16th century, the artistic life of Flanders was overwhelmed by a wave of a cosmopolitan artistic movement that spread widely and gained great popularity in the highest circles of society, which went down in history under the name of Dutch Romanism. For Flemish painters of the 17th century, the successive connection with Dutch Romanism, with which they came into most direct and immediate contact, brought the greatest harm, as it stimulated the strengthening in their work of lightweight and cliche elements, devoid of signs of national identity. As for the relationship between the Flemish school of painting and the art of Italy, it can be considered in two main aspects.

In a certain sense, the contact of Flemish art with Italian artistic culture had the most important, fundamental significance for him, outweighing everything that was brought into it by the local, national tradition. Italian art served as the main intermediary for Flemish artists of the 17th century, through which their continuity with the great pan-European classical artistic tradition was carried out. The perception of monuments created by the genius of Italian masters and contact with the values ​​of the spiritual culture of Italy alone were capable of filling the consciousness of Flemish painters with a sense of high aesthetic pathos, connecting their thoughts with the course of development of great human thought of the era, and conveying to them the lofty ideals of humanism. In this regard, the importance of Italy for the masters of Flanders was of incomparable value.

But there were other connections, narrower and more local, determined by the influence on Flemish painting of individual artistic phenomena of contemporary or earlier Italian art. Thus, one can note the penetration into Flanders of echoes of Caravaggio’s artistic discoveries, which, having given rise to the boring, dependent-provincial phenomenon of Flemish Caravaggism, at the same time enriched the work of some outstanding Flemish painters with a number of new, vibrant means of artistic expression.

The influence of the artistic standards put forward at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries by the famous Bologna Academy was very strongly felt on the Flemish school of painting of the 17th century. Having assumed the character of unshakable laws, which gained wide popularity in many countries of Western Europe, penetrating into the art of Flanders, these standards introduced into it elements of cold academicism, impersonal conventionality of images, and stereotyped plot solutions. But although the influence of Bolognese academicism apparently supported and strengthened the influence of Dutch Romanism, unlike the latter, it brought not only a negative beginning to the Flemish masters. Due to the fact that this movement of Italian art had the signs of a strict professional school, very high in its level, growing on the traditions of Renaissance artistic achievements, it sometimes stimulated in Flemish painters a beneficial tendency for them to achieve orderly harmony of compositional and rhythmic structures and precision of linear drawing.

Thus, thanks to such powerful sources, the art of Flanders of the 17th century revealed itself with the full strength and emotionality of a new art, bringing a life-giving current to the old figurative system, and gaining such famous artists as Rubens and Van Dyck.

General characteristics:

The predominant role of the church in the culture of the era under consideration led to the development of religious themes both in the literature of Flanders and in its fine arts. The church was the largest customer and required a lot of paintings for restored and newly built churches. All the prerequisites for Baroque painting were evident. Large altar paintings, with their emotional richness and drama, were supposed to captivate the mass audience and at the same time serve as conductors of the ideas of triumphant Catholicism. They were supposed to simultaneously contribute to the splendor of the decoration of the temples and evoke the impression of solemnity. As for ceiling painting, in Flanders, unlike Italy, it was little developed. The demands of the noble-court circles or the big bourgeoisie were in many ways similar. Both of them spared no expense in decorating the walls of their family castles or their rich city dwellings. Mythological subjects and other themes of a secular nature were appropriate here, of which images of hunting and dead nature received particular development.

This purpose determined the large size of the paintings, the monumental interpretation of forms and broad decorativeism. The latter quality was achieved mainly by coloristic effects. Bright colors combined with a wide masterful technique were one of the most characteristic properties of Flemish painting during its heyday.

· Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). “The Raising of the Cross” (1610-1611), “Lion Hunt” of the Munich Collection (c. 1615), “Perseus and Andromeda” (1620-1621), “Bacchanalia” (c. 1620, Moscow, Pushkin Museum) , “Portrait of the Archduchess Isabella’s Chambermaid”, “Peasant Dance” (1637-1638, Prado), “The Kidnapping of the Daughters of Leucippus”

· Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). “Portrait of a Young Man”, Dresden Gallery, “Portrait of the Marquise Spinola Doria”, Berlin, “Iconography of Van Dyck” (edition of portraits of his outstanding contemporaries, engraved from his drawings from life), “Portrait of Charles I”, Louvre,

· Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678). “The King Drinks”, or “The Bean King”, “A Satyr Visiting a Peasant” (Moscow, Pushkin Museum), typical images of representatives of the rising bourgeoisie (“Portrait of an Old Man”, Hermitage, portrait of the van Surpel couple, London, private collection),

· Frans Snyders (1579-1657). Hunting scenes, still lifes (series of shops, 1620s, Hermitage).

· Adrian Brouwer (1606-1638). Some of the master’s most characteristic works include “Fight of Peasants While Playing Cards” (1630s, Dresden Gallery) or “Scene in a Tavern” (c. 1632, Hermitage).

· David Teniers (1610-1690). Teniers especially likes to represent celebrations, joyful meals with open-air dancing: “Village Festival” (1646, Hermitage), “Peasant Wedding” (1650, Hermitage).

Works of P. P. Rubens

The head of the Flemish school of painting, one of the greatest masters of the brush of the past, was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). His work clearly expresses both powerful realism and a unique national version of the Baroque style.

Rubens is the creator of huge baroque pathetic compositions, sometimes capturing the apotheosis of the hero, sometimes filled with tragedy. The power of plastic imagination, the dynamism of forms and rhythms, the triumph of the decorative principle form the basis of his work.

The early (Antwerp period) works of Rubens (before 1611 - 1613) bear the imprint of the influence of the Venetians and Caravaggio. At the same time, his characteristic sense of dynamics and variability of life manifested itself. He paid special attention to the creation of altar compositions for Catholic churches. In them, scenes of suffering and martyrdom, along with the moral victory of the dying hero, were played out before the audience, as if reminiscent of the recently past dramatic events of the Dutch revolution. This is how the composition “Elevation of the Cross” (circa 1610-1611, Antwerp, Cathedral) was solved. Rubens' monumental altar compositions were organically included in the baroque splendor of the church interior, captivating with their spectacle, intensity of style, and intense rhythms (The Descent from the Cross, 1611-1614, Antwerp, Cathedral).

Rubens' paintings of the early period are distinguished by a colorful palette in which one can feel deep heat and sonority; they are imbued with the pathos of feelings, until then unknown to Dutch art, which gravitated towards intimacy, towards the poetry of the everyday.

Rubens was a great master of paintings on mythological and allegorical themes. Like the ancient masters, Rubens saw in man a perfect creation of nature. Hence the artist’s special interest in depicting living human warmth. He valued in him not ideal beauty, but full-blooded beauty, with an abundance of vitality.

From the second decade of the 17th century, the dramatic dynamics of Rubens' compositions intensified. The movement of plastic masses and the pathos of gestures are emphasized by the expression of fluttering fabrics and the turbulent life of nature. Complex compositions are built asymmetrically along a diagonal, ellipse, spiral, on the opposition of dark and light tones, contrasts of color spots, with the help of many intertwining wavy lines and arabesques that unite and permeate the groups.

Rubens often turned to the themes of man’s struggle with nature, to hunting scenes: “Boar Hunt” (Dresden, Art Gallery), “Lion Hunt” (circa 1615, Munich, Alte Pinakothek; sketch - St. Petersburg, Hermitage).

Rubens's talent for painting reached its peak in the 1620s. Color has become the main expresser of emotions, organizing the beginning of compositions. Rubens abandoned local color, moved to tonal multi-layer painting on white or red ground, and combined careful modeling with light sketchiness. Blue, yellow, pink, red tones are given in relation to each other in subtle and rich shades; they are subordinate to the main silver-pearl or warm olive (“Perseus and Andromeda”, 1620-1621, Hermitage). By this time, twenty large compositions on the theme “The Life of Marie de Medici” (1622-1625, Paris, Louvre) were created, intended to decorate the Luxembourg Palace.

In the 1630s, the late period of Rubens' artistic activity began. His perception of the world became deeper and calmer. The compositions acquired a restrained and balanced character. The artist focused on their pictorial perfection: the coloring lost its multicoloredness and became generalized. One of the central themes of this period is rural nature, sometimes full of epic grandeur, powerful beauty and abundance, sometimes captivating with simplicity and lyricism. The artist builds the landscape with large colorful masses, sequentially alternating plans: “Peasants returning from the fields” (after 1635, Florence, Pitti Gallery). The folk basis of Rubens's work is clearly manifested in “The Peasant Dance” (between 1636 and 1640, Madrid, Prado).

Works of A. Van Dyck

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) - the largest painter of Flanders, a student of Rubens and his younger contemporary. His work, which outlined a departure from the democratic traditions of national painting, clearly reflected the general process of aristocratization of contemporary Flemish society. But in the best works of Van Dyck, a healthy realistic principle is preserved, deep, meaningful images of the people of his time are created. Van Dyck received his initial artistic education in Antwerp from the painter van Balen. As a nineteen-year-old boy, he came to Rubens' workshop. Rubens praised his student, and soon Van Dyck became his assistant in carrying out various orders.

Van Dyck can be called a born portrait painter. He created his own style of portrait art, which gained wide popularity in the highest circles of many European countries. Customers were attracted not only by Van Dyck’s brilliant mastery of the very type of ceremonial aristocratic portrait. The attractive force of Van Dyck's art was the underlying ideal of the human personality, which he followed in his works.

Van Dyck's man seems to be elevated above everyday life; internally ennobled, he is devoid of the imprint of mediocrity. The artist first of all strives to show his spiritual sophistication. In his best portraits, Van Dyck, without falling into superficial idealization, created vital and typical images that at the same time have a unique poetic appeal.

Van Dyck's early Antwerp portraits depict noble citizens of his native city, their families, artists with their wives and children. These works are closely related to the traditions of Flemish painting (Family Portrait, between 1618 and 1620, Hermitage; portrait of Cornelis van der Geest).

In Rome, he created a portrait of the scientist and diplomat Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio (Florence, Pitti). The image of the cardinal seated in a chair against the backdrop of a red curtain has a distinctly ceremonial character. But external representativeness is combined with the revelation of a person’s rich inner life. Van Dyck emphasizes the exclusivity of this person, adding a touch of elation to the image.

In Genoa, he became a popular portrait painter of the city's largest aristocratic families. Acquaintance with Venetian painting enriches the master's compositional techniques and his palette. He creates majestic, often full-length portraits of representatives of the Italian nobility. Haughty elders, noble gentlemen, slender women in heavy, jeweled dresses with long trains are presented against the backdrop of purple draperies and massive columns of the luxurious palaces of Genoa. These are brilliant environmental portraits-paintings. Not all works of the Genoese period are of equal value - in some of them a certain secular impersonality prevails. But in the best portraits of this time, as in the portrait of Bentivoglio, the impression of a peculiar elation of the images is created.

Upon Van Dyck's return to his homeland, the second Antwerp period of his work begins (1627-1632). At this time, Rubens left on a long diplomatic trip, and Van Dyck became, in fact, the first artist of Flanders. From 1630 he was a court artist at the Archduke's court. Van Dyck painted at this time many altar images for various Flemish churches, as well as paintings on mythological subjects. But, as before, his main vocation remains portraiture. Along with images of dignitaries and nobles, military leaders and prelates, rich Flemish merchants, painted in the tradition of ceremonial portraits, he creates portraits of lawyers, doctors, and his fellow Flemish artists. It was during this period of creativity that Van Dyck’s lively temperament and his connection with the realistic traditions of Flemish art were especially clearly manifested. The portraits of artists are distinguished by the accuracy and meaningfulness of their characteristics: the tired, strict Snyders, the dashing Sneyers, the good-natured Cryer, the doctor Lazarus Maharkaizus, the philologist and publisher Jan van den Wouwer. One of the most significant works of these years is a portrait of the young beauty Maria Louise de Tassis. This portrait retains the degree of representativeness that distinguished Van Dyck’s Genoese works, and at the same time it is an image full of vitality and calm naturalness.

Later, Van Dyck becomes the court artist of Charles I. In England, the ambitious Van Dyck receives a title of nobility. He paints many portraits of the king, queen and their children; The entire high English society seeks the honor of posing for him. In some, especially early works of this period, Van Dyck still retains the strength of his talent. The pronounced aristocracy of the images is combined with emotional and psychological sophistication: portraits of Philip Wharton, Mary Rasven, Thomas Wharton. Among Van Dyck's outstanding works of the English period is the portrait of King Charles I. Among the numerous portraits of Charles I, painted by the master using traditional techniques, this painting stands out for its particularly original design. The principles of the ceremonial image are revealed here not forcefully, as in many other Vandyck portraits, but rather softened, in a more intimate interpretation, which, however, thanks to the brilliant skill of the artist, does not at all come to the detriment of the representativeness of the model. The king is depicted against the backdrop of a landscape in an elegantly casual pose; behind him a servant holds a thoroughbred horse. The color of the portrait, rich in transparent silver-gray and dull golden shades, is distinguished by its exquisite beauty. The image of Charles I - the very embodiment of elegance and aristocracy - is poeticized by Van Dyck, and at the same time, the inner essence of this man, arrogant and weak, frivolous and self-confident, a charming gentleman and a short-sighted monarch, is very subtly conveyed here.

But never before have the contradictions in Van Dyck's work been so obvious as during the English period. Along with the aforementioned works, which testify to his high skill, Van Dyck, obediently following the wishes of his noble customers, creates many empty, idealized portraits. The picturesque quality of his works is also declining. The very method of his work at this time is indicative. Inundated with orders, he, like Rubens, surrounds himself with student assistants. Van Dyck worked on several portraits in one day. The sketch from the model took no more than an hour, the rest, especially the clothes and hands, was completed in the workshop by students from special models. Already at the second session, Van Dyck completed the portrait just as quickly. This method led to the predominance of a certain stamp.

Van Dyck's artistic role was extremely significant and manifested itself mainly outside his homeland. English portrait painters relied on the traditions of his art. On the other hand, the type of idealized ceremonial portrait of the late Van Dyck became a model for many Western European painters of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Main works:

Flemish still life 17th century.

One of the most distinctive areas of Flemish painting of the 17th century. There was still life, which acquired independent significance at this time. Still lifes, often reaching colossal proportions, served as decoration for the walls of the spacious palaces of the Flemish nobility. In contrast to the intimate Dutch still life, the Flemish still life borders on subject composition. Scenes close to the everyday genre are depicted in shops and kitchens; Among the endless abundance of objects, human figures are lost. The cheerful character of Flemish art manifested itself in still life with particular force; Flemish artists showed their brilliant skill in conveying the diverse forms of the objective world.

The largest still life painter in Flanders in the 17th century. was Rubens's comrade-in-arms, Frans Snyders (1579-1657). On Snyders’s huge canvases, carcasses of meat, killed fallow deer, lobsters, a boar’s head, a variety of juicy, ripe vegetables and fruits, piles of dead poultry, sea and river fish are fancifully piled up on the tables, and it seems that only the picture frames limit this endless abundance of nature’s gifts. From the general olive tone, sonorous spots of white, blue, especially red (lobsters, meat, berries, clothes of a shopkeeper or shopkeeper) stand out. Some randomness in the construction of Snyders's still life is subordinated to a single color composition, creating the impression of a complete decorative whole. During his mature period of creativity, in the famous series of still lifes (1618-1621), intended for the palace of the philanthropist Archbishop Trist, now decorating the halls of the Hermitage, Snyders created the “Fish”, “Fruit” and “Vegetable” shops. The artist paints each subject with great care, but first of all he sees the still life as a whole, striving for a comprehensive image of the richness of nature. Snyders's bright, elegant still lifes are full of jubilant festivity and can least of all be called “dead nature” - they are so full of vibrant life. This dynamism is enhanced by the fact that the artist introduces living creatures into his still lifes (a small monkey steals fruit, a dog rushes at a cat, a horse comes up and eats vegetables, etc.). Snyders was a great master in depicting animals, while human figures are the least expressive in his paintings; they were most often painted by other artists. It is not for nothing that many of Snyders’s still lifes are close to his subject compositions - fast-paced hunting scenes or noisy poultry houses. The peculiar genre of hunting scenes, in which the painter Paul de Voe (1596-1678), who was close to Snyders, also worked, became widespread in Flemish art, because the depiction of the breathtaking spectacle of a fierce fight between wild animals being hunted by dogs opened up especially favorable opportunities for the effects favored by Flemish masters.

More restrained and refined is the work of Jan Veit (1611-1661), another outstanding master of Flemish still life. Veith does not, unlike Snyders, strive to create works of powerful monumental and decorative scope. His still lifes are closed easel paintings, more intimate, more strict in the choice of objects, with a clear and compact composition and a rare beauty of color. In subtly harmonized transitions of gray, blue, indigo, red, lilac-gray, yellow-pink tones, he created inexhaustible colorful variations. With particular virtuosity, Faith conveys the texture of the depicted objects: delicate iridescent pearl-gray feathers of birds, fluffy soft fur of a hare, wet grapes shining like jewels (“Dead Game,” Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts; “Fruits and parrot", 1645, Hermitage; "Fruits and Flowers", Brussels, Museum of Fine Arts). Next to the works of Rubens, Jordanes, Snyders and other Flemish painters of the first half of the 17th century, the works of their contemporary Adrian Brouwer (1605/06-1638) seem unusual. However, the art of this original master was not some kind of historical accident. Brouwer's work, developing those existing in painting and literature of the 16th century. traditions of a grotesque humorous depiction of a person, reflected the shadow sides of the life of the lower classes of Flemish society. He wrote small genre compositions that captured scenes in squalid, smoky taverns where peasants, the poor and vagabonds gathered. His paintings often depict drinking parties that turn into violent fights, card games, smokers, and cruel home-grown healing. The daring spirit of bohemian mischief permeates Brouwer's works, which form a sharp contrast to the artistic trends that dominated Flemish art at that time.

PAINTING OF FLANDERS

Flemish art in some sense can be called a unique phenomenon. Never before in history has such a small country, which was also in such a dependent position, created such a unique and significant culture.

During the turbulent events of the Dutch bourgeois revolution in the second half of the 17th century, the northern part of the Netherlands (Holland) won independence, becoming an independent bourgeois republic. The southern regions of the Netherlands (under the general name “Flanders”) found themselves under the control of the Spanish Habsburgs. The persistent long-term struggle of the inhabitants of Flanders against their rule ended in defeat, but left an indelible mark on the spiritual life of the people, awakening in them an inexhaustible source of internal strength. Affirming the most advanced humanistic and democratic ideals of their time, the best creative forces of 17th-century Flanders found their expression in art and, above all, in painting.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is one of the largest European masters of the 17th century. So titanic is his figure as a painter, scientist, diplomat, so great and multifaceted is his talent that his art goes far beyond the narrow boundaries of one national school, of which he was the most prominent representative. Peter Paul Rubens was born in the German city of Siegen, where his family emigrated during another aggravation of the political situation in Flanders.

The young man received a brilliant humanities education for that time. At the age of fourteen he began taking painting lessons, and his interest in Italy and its art led him to Mantua in 1601. While serving at the court of the local Duke Vincenzo Gonzago, young Rubens made a series of trips around Italy, simultaneously studying the works of the great masters of the Renaissance.

In 1602, the artist returned to Antwerp, where his family was from, and immediately received recognition there, including in court circles. His fame is growing so quickly that sometimes he simply does not have time to cope with the huge flow of orders, passing them on to his numerous students for revision.

The position of the court artist of the Archduke of Flanders obliged him to do a lot: Rubens was forced to write pompous compositions for his palace, fulfill orders from Catholic monasteries, etc. Already in these early canvases, the rare skill of Rubens as a monumentalist was manifested, who created a new style of Flemish Baroque, more decorative than Italian, and at the same time filled with extremely life-affirming, humanistic pathos. In these paintings, the artist’s irrepressible Flemish temperament, prone to dramatization, clearly expressed in external action, in the poses and gestures of the characters, in the emphasized dynamics of the compositions, in sharp light and shadow contrasts and sonorous color chords, manifested itself for the first time in these paintings (“The Descent from the Cross,” 1611 -1614; “The Overthrow of Sinners”, 1618-1620). The young painter’s commitment to monumental heroic themes is noticeable in the battle works he created, in hunting scenes, and in restrained altar compositions. But, despite the fact that Rubens’s characters always fight, suffer, love and mourn with all the power of their inherent passion, in general all of his works remain major in their sound, since any manifestations of pessimism were alien to the art of the great Fleming with his inexhaustible love of life.

Rubens combined in his work the originality of genius with all the best that he inherited from his predecessors. Having carefully studied the works of the great Italian masters in his youth, he took from each of them and forever adopted for himself techniques and qualities worthy of imitation: from Titian and Veronese he borrowed the brilliance and vitality of color, playing out in his paintings, as it were, entire symphonies of colors; from Michelangelo - the power of figures and the energy of movement, mainly dramatic; from Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael - perfection of drawing and clarity of composition; from Caravaggio - the plasticity of forms and the art of chiaroscuro; and from all of them together - a constant desire to study nature, whatever the subject may be.

This desire, together with his love for reality, was the key to his rapid success: from student copying and imitating old masters, he quickly moved on to independent creativity and, following the principles of Renaissance artists, used nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, began to either reproduce it with with all possible accuracy in portraits (“Self-Portrait”, 1638-1639), hunting scenes (“Lion Hunt”, 1618-1620), landscapes (“Carriers of Stones”, 1620), or idealize it on the basis of beauty, religious feeling and poetic fiction in his biblical (“Descent from the Cross,” 1611-1614; “Adoration of the Magi,” 1624), mythological (“Perseus and Andromeda,” c. 1621) and allegorical (“Union of Earth and Water,” 1618) paintings.

Hence the subjectivity and vitality of the types of Rubens’s best works, types that bear the bright stamp of Flemish affiliation. Hence also his inner strength and the outer truth of plot composition. Hence, finally, the amazing richness, variety of content and originality of its interpretation, which distinguishes most of the paintings of the famous painter. He was a realist, but in the highest sense of the word, discarding the random trifles of nature and reproducing only its typical and most beautiful features, an artist who always remained close to reality, even in cases of its sublime idealization in paintings on religious and mythological themes.

Rubens knew and loved ancient mythology very well. But, unlike the great Italian masters, he does not look for ideal harmony in it, but for the fullness and frantic joy of being (“Diana’s Return from the Hunt,” 1618-1620; “The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus,” 1619-1620). The scenes of bacchanalia he painted are full of power and revelry; his Venuses, Andromedas and Magdalenes captivate with their warmth and femininity, while at the same time representing a true example of blooming health and physical strength characteristic of the folk type of Flemish beauty (“Venus and Adonis”, 1615 - adj., fig. . 16). Thus grounding the mythological plot, emphasizing the sensual side of human nature, Rubens gives it such perfect forms that his canvases turn into a true hymn to earthly existence. At the same time, the master’s genre paintings acquire a large-scale, almost monumental character - so high is the degree of artistic generalization, bringing them closer to classical mythological subjects.

Among the enormous creative heritage of the great master, the number of portraits he created is relatively small, but at the same time, most of them are real masterpieces.

Rubens did not have a penchant for deep psychological analysis of his models; he painted many portraits of his contemporaries, without particularly looking at their characters and sometimes limiting himself to purely external similarities. Nevertheless, when the model coincided with the artist's favorite human type, or was so good that he became one of such types, he created portraits amazing in their harmony, freshness and charm. These include the portrait of his first wife Isabella Brant (c. 1610), numerous portraits of his second wife Elena Fourment (add., Fig. 15), “Portrait of the Infanta Isabella’s chambermaid” (1625), etc.

Rubens's painting skill cannot but amaze. A master of spectacular composition, he, like no one else, knows how to convey the unique texture of each thing, be it the softness and shine of fabric, the cold and sparkle of metal, the shimmer of water jets or the deep green of foliage, not to mention the tenderness and warmth of women’s skin (“Bathsheba” , 1635; “Fur Coat,” ca. 1638; “Consequences of War,” 1638; “Peasant Dance,” 1636-1640). But, admiring the diversity of the material world, the painter, however, does not focus his attention entirely on things, like the masters of Dutch still life, but easily and freely weaves their images into his compositions, subordinating them to the overall symphonic sound of color.

The richness of the language of artistic expression in Rubens - from shining spots of open color to the most delicate shimmer of multi-layered glazes, full of hot and cold reflexes, permeated with light or drowned in warm shadow - turns his paintings into a real feast for the eyes. Rubens is a great colorist, and yet, as it was noted long ago, he uses paints very limitedly: “The list of Rubens’s colors is small,” writes one of the researchers, “they only seem so complex due to the artist’s ability to use them and the role that he makes them play".

The work of Rubens had a decisive influence on the formation of the Flemish school of painting and contributed to the emergence of many first-class artists, among whom the first place, undoubtedly, belongs to Van Dyck.

Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was the son of a wealthy Antwerp merchant and received an excellent education.

Entering Rubens' workshop as a young man, he very quickly took the position of not so much a student as an assistant and co-author of the master, who trusted him with the completion of a number of his own compositions. The religious and mythological paintings of the aspiring painter testify to the noticeable influence of Rubens, but already in these early years his skill as a portrait painter clearly manifested itself. And Van Dyck entered the history of world art primarily as a first-class portrait painter.

“Family Portrait” (1621) belongs to the brush of a very young master, but in this canvas the characteristic features of his work are already visible. The individuality of the models is keenly captured: an attractive young woman with a soft and even character, and her husband, in whom one can discern an extraordinary, searching, restless nature. At the same time, the artist makes you feel that, despite all the differences in their characters, they are united by spiritual closeness and respect, the warmth of mutual feeling. The coloring of the painting is very beautiful with rich tones of red, gold, and brown.

Van Dyck sought to deprive his images of static, stiffness, and endow them with internal expression. In the wonderful “Portrait of a Man” (c. 1623) from the Hermitage, the spiritual face of a man, thin and pale, with subtle aristocratic features, his sparkling eyes, slightly open mouth, beautiful expressive hands (as well as his face, highlighted by light) - everything this gives a feeling of immediacy of the image: a person seems to be conducting a dialogue with an interlocutor invisible to us. The spiritual strength and intellectual wealth of his personality are conveyed by the painter simply masterfully.

In 1621 Van Dyck left for Italy, seeking to enrich himself with new artistic impressions. Here he quickly gained recognition among the local nobility as a master of ceremonial portraiture.

He usually depicted models against the backdrop of columns or lush draperies. The pomp of the composition was combined with the sophistication of the color scheme (“Portrait of the Marquise Balbi”, 1622-1627). But the majesty of these paintings is not standard, not impersonal. The artist reveals the significance of his heroes with a noble posture, graceful, relaxed manners, natural dignity that distinguishes their every look, gesture, movement, and sometimes with a sublime mental disposition, which is revealed by the thoughtfulness or slight sadness that colors their appearance. The painter reproduces nature with inimitable skill, recreating forms with a truly Flemish sense of their vitality. This fusion of vital authenticity and aristocratic refinement, a sharp realistic vision of the world and the spiritual grace of the image constitutes a unique feature of his art (“Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio”, 1623).

Van Dyck, who returned to Antwerp in 1627, enjoyed great success with customers, among whom, in addition to representatives of the nobility, were people of various origins - businessmen, artists, scientists, lawyers, etc. It is characteristic that the images of untitled customers are usually presented not in full height, but waist-length (in accordance with the Flemish tradition), they are more restrained and psychologically simple; the master pays more attention to the warm tones of faces than to external attributes and accessories. But even the most “modest” and outwardly unpretentious works of the artist always accurately convey the main “nerve” of a person, the originality of his character (paired portraits of the Stevens spouses, 1628).

In portraits of his friends or those of the aristocratic clients and art colleagues who internally impressed him (“Portrait of F. Snyders”, 1618), Van Dyck sought to find (or wanted to see) that spiritual selectivity of human nature that was close to his ideal wonderful personality. Indicative in this regard is the artist’s “Self-Portrait” (late 1620s-early 1630s) - a poetically idealized image in which, however, the true traits of his character are discernible.

In 1632, Van Dyck left for England, where he immediately became a favorite painter of the royal family and court circles.

Van Dyck created his own type of ceremonial portrait, in which a person appears as if elevated above everyday life, cleared of everything transient, everyday, and mundane. He is attracted to the model primarily by her spiritual sophistication and nobility, intelligence and richness of inner life. True, over the years, these qualities more and more noticeably turn into sophistication and aristocracy (“Self-Portrait with Sir Endymion Porter”, 1632-1641 - adj., Fig. 17). According to the apt remark of E. Fromentin, one of the researchers of his work, Van Dyck’s men are no longer knights, but gentlemen. The warriors took off their armor and helmets. Now these are courtiers and secular dandies in unbuttoned camisoles, fluffy shirts, silk stockings, casually form-fitting pantaloons and satin shoes with heels. The artist seems to be varying a certain collective type of an English aristocrat: a proud, commanding posture, an arrogant look, luxurious costumes and ceremonial furnishings (“Portrait of George Digby and William Russell,” c. 1633).

Indicative in this regard is “Portrait of Charles I on a Hunt” (1635). The image of the king he created is magnificent - a dexterous, elegant gentleman and sybarite, self-confident and frivolous, whose character uniquely combined the majesty of a monarch and the relaxed naturalness of a socialite. The splendor of the landscape emphasizes the splendor of the composition and, at the same time, the romantic melancholy note in the character of the main character of the canvas. In portrait painting, one is struck by a strong sense of form, as well as lightness, freedom, and airiness of writing.

The ideal of man, embodied in the art of Van Dyck, later became a pan-European aristocratic ideal, and the principles of the ceremonial portrait formulated by him formed the basis for the subsequent development of this genre in European art.

Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) was the eldest son of a wealthy merchant from Antwerp. Although Jordaens did not directly belong to the school of Rubens, his art is the development of one, but significant side of the work of the head of the Flemish national school - the popular, openly democratic principle. The noticeable influence of Rubens is already evident in the earliest known painting by Jordaens - “The Crucifixion” (1617), as well as works of religious content written by him after 1631 - “Jesus among the scribes”, “Introduction to the Temple”, “The Last Supper”. The old Dutch masters also had a great influence on the professional development of the aspiring artist, and among contemporary painters - Caravaggio, whose work was well known to him, although Jacob himself had never been to Italy.

The painter demonstrates a high level of skill in a number of his early works, for example, in the allegorical painting “A Satyr Visiting a Peasant” (1620 - adj., Fig. 18) or in the composition on a biblical theme “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1618), which belong to to the best works of the initial period of his work.

When creating a painting based on a story from the Bible, the artist posed for his own wife and child, and we see how firmly his imagination is connected with the impressions of reality. Quite ordinary, but at the same time endowed with extremely characteristic individual features, the face of the Mother of God glows with a tender and tender feeling. The figures of shepherds and peasant women who came to worship the infant Christ are remarkable for their character and fidelity to the truth of life. They are depicted with the captivating force of reality, while simultaneously embodying deep, sincere and touching feelings of delight, awe and simple-minded joy. Everything real and earthly on this canvas - from faces, hands, clothes to a copper jug ​​and a scattering of straw in the foreground - is accurately and masterfully recreated by painting. Shining, rich colors bring festive solemnity.

The best thing about Jordaens' legacy is his genre compositions. The themes for them were Flemish proverbs (“As the elders sing, so the younger ones chirp”) or holidays (“Feast of the Bean King,” until 1656). One of his favorite subjects, “A Satyr Visiting a Peasant,” is taken from Aesop’s fable, but the artist reinterprets the ancient legend in the national spirit.

The action takes place in the house of a Flemish peasant. The characters in the picture - peasants - are strong, rude, not distinguished by external beauty; the things surrounding them - the table, jug, bowls - match the owners - heavy, awkward, but strong and reliable. Neither the men, nor the young woman with a strong, rosy-cheeked child on her lap, nor the old woman in the background - none of them are surprised by the sudden appearance of the goat-footed forest dweller: after all, he is like a kindred creature to them. Just as the satyr for the ancient Greeks was the personification of the forces of nature, so the Flemish peasants for Jordaens embody the powerful, primordial element of life. He paints on a large canvas, giving the figures life-size, bringing them to the fore and densely saturating the space with them, which makes the picture monumental.

Jordaens's paintings lack the high degree of generalization that was characteristic of Rubens. At the same time, his mythological, and especially genre scenes, with all their deliberate brutality, often bordering on rudeness, cannot be called purely prosaic. He always feels the sense of festivity of life, a joyful perception of life in all its manifestations, so characteristic of the masters of the Flemish school. Hence the artist’s painting style - somewhat ponderous, but at the same time wide and sweeping, with rich spots of bright, saturated tones, dense and bold strokes, with its inherent quality and solidity.

The art of Jacob Jordaens seemed to absorb the folk element of Flemish culture. After Rubens' death, the artist rightfully began to be considered the head of the national school of painting.