17. Итальянская коллекция

The collection of Italian art is one of the best in the Hermitage. It is accommodated in 30 halls and numbers 380 pictures, 160 sculptures and great number of items of applied art and furniture. It spans the period of time from late 13^th to the 18^th century showing the development of Italian Art in the course of 6 centuries. Early paintings still look rather Medieval. All features of Medieval art can be traced here. The subjects were only religious. Painters were dictated not only subjects but postures of the characters, the way they were dressed, even the tilt of the heads. It was the reason why we sometimes can’t find the name of the painter in many pictures of that period because they didn’t consider themselves authors of the pictures. Images were painted against guilted background which were also typical for medieval ages. They didn’t render neither perspective nor volume. To paint human body wasn’t allowed and also they didn’t know anatomy. That’s why pictures look quite flat, two-dimensional. Pictures were usually painted on wood in tempera, which gave no possibility to render volume. While one of the leading and most brilliant school in Italian art was Florentine school, the Seines school was also considered a distinguish one. The Seine school headed by Simon Martini was probably not that powerful as the Florentine school but it had more aristocratic and refined subtle. In the 14^th century Italian artists wanted to explore the laws of vision to acquire knowledge of the human body to build it up on their statues and pictures. Once their interest took this turn we come to the period known as the Renaissance. The Italians of the 14^th century believed that art science had flourished in the Classical Period. Simon Martini in his picture “Annunciation” tried to outline the volume. The cites in Italy of that time competed with each other in securing the services of the greatest artists to beautify their buildings and to create works of lasting fame. It was a great incentive to the masters to outdo each other. Italian artists turned to mathematics to study the laws of perspective, to study the build of human body. In the pictures of Fra Angelico “Madonna and 2 Saints” we can see that the picture is painted according to the laws of perspective and volume of the faces is visible. But still there were many problems for them to solve, for exmaple some figures looked harsh and almost wooden. They looked more like statues than living beings. Only Leonardo found the solution to this problem. The painter must leave to the viewer something to guess. If the outline are not firmly drawn, if the form is left a little vague as though disappearing in a shadow the impression of dryness and stiffness will be avoided. This is Leonardo’s famous invention called “sfumato” – it is a blurred outline. Soft

colors that allow one form merge to another and always leave something to imagination. Example with Mona Liza if necessary. At the time when Leonardo worked in Florence a young painter arrived there from a small city of Urbino in the Province of Umbrio. He was Raffaello Santi whom we know as Raphael. Raphael’s greatest paintings seem so effortless that one doesn’t usually connect them with the idea of hard and persistent work. To many he is a painter of sweet Madonnas which have become well known type and was adopted and copied by subsequent generation. In fact the apparent simplicity is the result of deep thought careful planning and immense artistic wisdom. His paintings of Madonna are truly classical. They served as a standard of perfection to countless generations. After some years in Florence Raphael left to Rome. He arrived there at the time when Mikelangelo worked there. The Pope asked him to decorate the walls of various rooms in Vatican. Raphael proved his mastery of perfect design and balanced compositions in a series of frescos on the walls and ceiling of these rooms. Pictures couldn’t be taken out of the context or they lose their principal function. It is for the supreme mastery of arranging his figures. His skill in composition that artists have admired Raphael ever since. Raphael contemporaries and subsequent generations admired the beauty of his figures. When he was asked where in the whole world he could find a model of such beauty, he replied that he didn’t copy any specific model but rather followed a certain idea he had formed in his mind. It was for this achievement (Raphael could idealize without any loss of vitality and sincerity) that Raphael has remained famous throughout the centuries. It was Raphael whom the Pope had put in charge of hid building enterprise and thus he had become an architect designing churches, villas and palaces and studying the ruins of ancient Rome. He got on well with people and because of his sociable qualities the scholars and dignitaries made him their companion and gave him commissions. But Raphael didn’t live long. At the age of 37 he died. The masterpiece “Judith” was created by the prominent artist of Renaissance Giorgione de Castel Franko who was of Venetian school. Judith is a heroin of the Old Testament story. Her native town was besieged by the Assirian army. Judith managed to get into the enemies camp. She penetrated into the tent of the chieftain Holophernes whom she seduced with her beauty. After he had fallen asleep she beheaded him with his own sword. Having lost the leader the army fled in panic and the city was saved. Judith brought the head of Holophernes to the walls of the town so that her fellow citiziens could see that their town was saved. The painting Judith came from Pier Kroya’s collection in Paris. Like other painters of the Venetian school Giorgione pays special attention to coloring. He tries to trace the subtle color transitions and does it very skillfully. Colors blend and reflect each other.