Religious and scholastic nature of the aesthetics of the Middle Ages. Wealth, complexity and basic contradictions of the aesthetic culture of the middle ages: religious art and religious theme in art; "Secular" art; "Secular" art and folk art. From the aesthetic views of the early Middle Ages to the aesthetic views of the late Middle Ages. Aesthetics of Byzantium. The problem of image and character. The peculiarity of aesthetic views and artistic practice in Byzantium. The architecture of Byzantium and its aesthetic characteristics. The temple as a symbol of the heavenly universe. Architecture and the genre of "ekafraksis." The peculiarity of Russian architecture, its aesthetic characteristics. The relationship of architecture with nature. Romanesque and Gothic architecture as the main, historically determined milestones in the development of architectural and aesthetic styles in the Middle Ages. Craft creativity and the creation of the objective environment in the culture of the Middle Ages.
Aesthetic views of the Middle Ages
The period of the Middle Ages takes a rather long period of time - from the V to the XIV century, i.e. about a millennium. The social and cultural processes that shaped the artistic theory and practice of the Middle Ages are heterogeneous; within the framework of medieval aesthetics and medieval consciousness, it is customary to distinguish three large regions. The first is Byzantium, the second is the Western European Middle Ages and, finally, the Eastern European region, Ancient Russia.
The formation of Byzantine aesthetic ideas takes place at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. In the IV. The Roman Empire is divided into two independent parts - the western and eastern. The emperor of the eastern part became Constantine, she resisted in the subsequent storms, and was preserved after the fall of Rome as an empire of the Romans. This empire, on the one hand, continued the already existing directions of artistic creativity, on the other - formed new ones that influenced the formation of new aesthetic orientations.
The initial stages of the development of Byzantine culture are marked by the confrontation of two approaches to understanding the role of artistic images in Christian culture. We are talking about supporters of iconoclasm and supporters of icon veneration. The positions of the iconoclasts were based primarily on biblical postulates that God is Spirit and no one saw him, and also on the indication: “Do not make yourself an idol, and no image of what is in the sky above and what is on the earth below, and what waters below the ground. " This kind of pathos inspired, in particular, Emperor Constantine the Fifth, who belonged to the earnest iconoclasts, who proclaimed the eucharistic bread and wine to be the only way of Christ. Constantine called to depict the virtues not in the pictures, but to cultivate them in ourselves as certain animated images. Such a specific understanding of the image was apparently based on Hebrew ideas about the identification of the name and essence of the object. All this was far from not only the ancient theory of the image, based on the principle of mimesis, but also from the symbolic theory of the image that developed in the early patristics. Among the active supporters of the veneration of icons was John of Damascus (675-749).
The positions of the iconoclasts remained influential for just over a hundred years. The ecumenical council of 787 devoted to the issues of icon-worship came to the conclusion: "... that the narrative expresses in writing, the same painting expresses in colors." And if the books are accessible to the few, then “pictorial images both in the evening, and in the morning, and at noon — they constantly tell and preach to us about true events.” By the eighth century. In the Byzantine Empire, there were already many picturesque images of Christ. Summarizing the existing practice, the Ecumenical Council proceeded from two premises - dogmatic and psychological. The new arguments that determine the dogma of icons, boiled down to the fact that if Christ was truly insoled-perpetrated, then with the flesh he acquired a visible image that can and should be depicted on the icon.
The psychological premise came from the fact that the images of the sufferings and torments of Christ should cause the audience to hear heartfelt tears, tears of compassion and emotion. The wishes that the Ecumenical Council developed for the icon painters focused them on the illusory naturalistic depiction of all the events of Sacred history. It was assumed that when the painter not only gives a general picture of suffering, but also pays great attention to writing out wounds, drops of blood, all these details have a great emotional impact: it is impossible to look at them without tears.
It was this type of image that was presented to the fathers of the Ecumenical Council as the most suitable for cult painting. However, Byzantine mosaic and painting acquired their value precisely because they did not follow this path. A special pictorial language was developed, far from illusory-naturalistic techniques. A significant role in frescoes, mosaics, icons was played by what can be defined as the individual artistic sense of the author himself.
In general, discussing the artistic features of the Byzantine icons, it is impossible not to note their strict canonicity, which is found not only in the strict hierarchy of colors established in that period, but also in the compositional techniques of the image. Thus, the image of Christ was strictly regulated; it could only be frontal, while the image of the Mother of God, of the apostles could be given in three quarters; profile depicted only negative images - images of Satan, hell. The canonicity of Byzantine art is distinguished by a special normative, incommensurate with the system of regulation of the artistic practice of the Western European Middle Ages.
Let us dwell on the symbolism of flowers. Each color, along with the word, acted as an important exponent of spiritual entities and expressed a deep religious meaning. The highest place was occupied by purple color - the color of divine and imperial dignity. The next most significant color is red, the color of fieryness, fire (both punitive and purifying) is the color of life-giving warmth and, therefore, the symbol of life. White color often confronted red as a symbol of divine color. The clothes of Christ in Byzantine painting are usually white. Already since antiquity, white has had the meaning of purity and holiness, detachment from all worldly, color. Next was the black color as opposed to white, as a sign of the end, death. Then - green color, which symbolized youth, flowering. And finally, blue and blue, which were perceived in Byzantium as symbols of the transcendental world.
Such is the symbolic interpretation of flowers, which has its origins in the Hellenistic culture. It is important to note that, on the whole, psychologism is not characteristic of Byzantine icon painting, its main aesthetic features are generalization, convention, statics, self-deepening, etiquette, and canonicity.
Approximately IX c. secular Byzantine art is gaining momentum. Until recently, little was known about him, but now the studied monuments allow us to speak about the development of the so-called antiquiting tradition, antiquiting aesthetics. It coexisted alongside other trends, namely, church-patristic and church-monastic (aesthetics of austerity). Of course, the main landmark of secular artistic representations is the hedonistic aspect of beauty, the emphasis on the expressiveness of sensory perception. Byzantines X, XI and XII centuries. read with pagan writers with enthusiasm, actively use pagan reminiscences in their own work. First of all, the work of such a bright writer as Mikhail Psello (XI century) draws attention to himself. Psellos, like his fellow citizens, became interested in what can be defined as human beauty. Despite the countless calls of the clergy and the church to reject bodily beauty, details appear in the Byzantine novels, testifying to the deep emotional responsiveness of their creators and, obviously, of the readers.
Here, for example, is a description of the portrait of Emperor Basil II, which Psellos gave. His eyes were “light blue and brilliant, his eyebrows are not hanging and not terrible, but not elongated in a straight line, like a woman's, but curved, giving a proud disposition of her husband. His eyes are not sunken, as in people are insidious and cunning, but also not protruding, as in dissolved, with a gray manly glitter. His entire face was carved as an ideal circle drawn from the center and connected to the shoulders with a strong neck and not too long. All members of his body differed in proportion, and sitting on a horse, he was an incomparable spectacle - his chased figure stood in the saddle like a statue. ” Such expressive artistic re-creation of the plastic of the bodily image can be found in many sources. Anna Komnina (XII century), the royal daughter of Alexei I, in the descriptions of Empress Irina pays great attention to the image of spiritualized beauty, a living sculpture of harmony. In her presentation, Irina “was like a slender, ever-flowering runaway, parts and members of her body were in harmony with each other, expanding and narrowing where necessary. It was pleasant to look at Irina and listen to her speeches, and truly it was impossible to fill the ear with the sound of her voice, and her gaze with a look. ”
If we compare the given descriptions with the refinement and sophistication of the literary texts of Hellenism, then the former will certainly lose even in the language that conveys a rather naive and elementary set of properties and concepts. The Byzantine authors themselves felt this, therefore they strongly emphasized the idea of the inexpressibleness of body beauty. Such a regular underlining of the inexpressibleness of worldly beauty has in fact passed on to the approval of the idea of the radiance of beauty, the radiance to such an extent that it is already unbearable to look at it.
Here a rather serious question arises: most often medieval culture was defined as the culture of hearing, and not the culture of sight, on the basis that the procedure of worship, prayer chants, and preaching mostly actualized the sounding word, rather than the written one. However, if we pay attention to how intensively architecture, iconography, and visual arts developed, then we can accept this thesis with major amendments. This is confirmed by the texts of the Byzantine novel, which continued the traditions of the ancient novel.
One of the dominant searches of Byzantine aesthetics is the discussion of the problem of the image in the icon and its divine prototype. Byzantium aspired to the stability of iconographic schemes - a trend that predominantly came from the East, from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The author-painter was not to exercise his ability to adequately recreate the images of the real world, but to follow a strictly regulated path, which was considered as a condition for ascending to the Absolute, the only way to express universally valid symbolism.
As well as any restrictions, these canons "straightened" a creative plan, generated dramatic contradictions at authors. Indicative in this respect are the confessions of the early medieval Bishop Aurelius Augustine (354–430), who touched on aesthetics in a number of his works. Eloquent self-examination is found in the Confession: “Sometimes it seems to me that I give these sounds more honor than befits, I notice that with the same sacred words our souls are more kindled by the flame of piety when these words are sung in this way and not otherwise” . Augustine is an artistically perceptive person, he deeply feels the nuances of melodic performance, but this is exactly what makes him embarrassed. “The delight of my flesh, which should not be given into the power of the mind, often deceives me. Instead of following patiently the meaning of the chants, it tries to break forward and lead along for itself, for which it had the right to exist. So I sin without even realizing it, and I realize only afterwards. ”
As you can see, it is about the fact that musical expressiveness in itself - timbre, combination of voices, melodic figure - exudes strong magic, awakens excitement, and this excitement, sometimes turning out to be the most important result of perception, to some extent hinders paths of purely religious meditation. Such an assessment of the artistic impact, not so much of plunging into the world of scholasticism, as of evoking the living, sensual nature of man, frightened many medieval authors. Undoubtedly, those aesthetic arrangements that are both final and officially adapted are the result of a great dramatic internal struggle.
It is significant that a number of icon painters, as soon as they had the opportunity, tried to leave Byzantium. Thus, Theophanes Grek, born in Byzantium as an artist, actually took place on Russian soil. There are other examples where a number of craftsmen who were doomed to narrow blinders of Byzantine demands were able to realize themselves in Western Europe, where no such harsh canons were felt.
From VI to X century. In Western Europe, the so-called period of "non-systemic development of art" unfolds. Artistic monuments of this time, in particular the era of the Carolingians, bear the imprint of unsteady, unfinished searches, this art is transitional in nature. In the X century. there are works of romance style I. The Romanesque style develops throughout the X, XI and XII centuries, i.e. captured about three centuries of European art, manifesting itself in different ways in different regions.
The peculiarity of the Romanesque style is in its earthiness, heavyness, and straightforwardness. It is important to note that in the architecture of the Romanesque style, the meanings of the interior and exterior of the temple have changed. Antiquity gave greater preference to the exterior - the majestic, solemn, large-scale. The interior of ancient temples is ineffable, small in volume; there were exhibited figures of the pagan gods, and the main events unfolded outside the temple. In the Romanesque style, on the contrary, the external forms of architecture - rounded, oppressive, heavy - are rather ascetic, much more importance is attached to the interior of the building.
Although the leaders of the Western European church tried to control the art and actually ruled it, nevertheless, in the sculptural decoration of the temples often arose such that they could neither understand nor approve. Indeed, when you get acquainted with the Romanesque churches of France, Germany or Northern Europe, then on the wall reliefs, at the foot of the columns, on the windows, at the doors, there is a huge number of stone centaurs, lions, bas-reliefs and sculptures of various monsters (half-eaters, half-tits), every kind of chimera.
These creatures arose from the old tradition, which in the period of iconoclasm and the predominance of ornament received the name "bestial style". Many centuries have passed, and already in Western Europe of the 10th-11th centuries, these same animals sit on the frames of the interiors of temples, sometimes even being mixed in the composition of saints and among those present at the “sacred interviews”.
Bishop Bernard Klervosky (1091-1153) wrote with indignation about this tendency: “Why in the monasteries before the eyes of the reading brethren these images are ugly, why are there dirty monkeys, why are wild lions, why are monstrous centaurs, why do half people? Here you see many bodies under one head, on the contrary, there are many heads on one body, and so on. So great, after all, the diversity of the most diverse images is so amazing everywhere that people would prefer to read marble than a book, and look at them all day, marveling, not thinking about the Law of God, learning. ”
Indeed, the essence of these images is very ancient; they all came to Romanesque art from folklore, from fairy tales, fables, from animal epos. Yes, and peering, by the way, into the sculpture of Romanesque temples, it is impossible not to note its certain “man-likeness”, it is impossible not to detect the roots of its obviously commoner origin. This marks most art critics. Romance art at first seems crude and wildly, if we compare it with the sophistication and pomp of Byzantium, but at the same time it is more direct, it even has sincere and passionate expression, it is much less regulated.
Reflecting on this, it can be concluded that one should not exaggerate the role of symbolic and transcendent principles in medieval aesthetics and in medieval artistic consciousness.
It has become customary to celebrate the mysticism of the medieval mentality as its leading feature, to assert that the ideal aesthetic object of this era was reduced only to an invisible spiritual essence, etc. On the one hand, this is so, but on the other hand, one should not forget about the huge masses of the common people, who did not read and did not know how church dogmas should be. When it came to the plots of the Sacred History, the common people most often naturalized them, grounded them, retelling these plots, and introduced them into everyday ordinary situations. The artist is also sometimes very simple-minded and naive in approaching religious subjects, as if embodying through them the notions that are obvious and close.
Even more obvious, fuller and more dramatic, similar life, earthly content is revealed in Gothic art. In the middle of the XII century. Gothic style received an impetus for development, which was particularly stormy in the XIII, XIV and XV centuries. XV century. - This is a late period, called “flaming gothic”, when sophistication and mastery, the priority of form elements, increase. The development of the Gothic style is a new stage in the development of medieval Western Europe. Gothic flourishes in the period of the struggle of cities for independence from the feudal lord, in the period of development of the medieval city commune.
Gothic art (like Romanesque) established in the temple architecture the so-called basilic principle, which presupposed a special structure of the cathedral, which in its plan had the shape of an elongated rectangle with expanding aisles. In the eastern region (in Byzantium and Ancient Russia), another — a cross-dome — principle of building temples became widespread.
In medieval Europe XI — XII centuries. the cathedral in the city was more than a place for church service. Наряду с ратушей он выступал средоточием всей общественной жизни, часто в соборе заседал парламент, кроме богослужений читались университетские лекции, исполнялись театральные мистерии.
Отмечая интенсивное развитие в этот период литургической драмы, хорала, остановимся подробнее на своеобразии музыкального мышления средневековья. В музыке на протяжении многих столетий (вплоть до XVII в.) господствовал григорианский хорал, получивший свое название по имени папы Григория I, скончавшегося в VII в. Важно отметить, что природа григорианского пения была строго одноголосной независимо от того, исполнялось песнопение одним певцом или хором. Одноголосная мелодическая линия символизировала полное единение чувств и помыслов верующих, что имело и догматическое обоснование: «Хорал должен быть одноголосным, потому что истина едина».
Даже тогда, когда требовалось усилить хоровое звучание и обогатить его, такие усиление и обогащение достигались только тем, что в исполнении увеличивалось число голосов: двадцать, пятьдесят, сто человек могли воспроизводить одноголосную и неметризованную мелодию. Последнее качество также имело особое значение, поскольку неметризованная мелодия способна нейтрализовать энергию мускульного движения, погасить динамику, в которую невольно вовлекает человека ритм. Освобождение от ритмической регулярности мыслилось и как освобождение от власти повседневной реальности, как условие самоуглубления и медитации, оптимальный путь к достижению состояния отрешенности и созерцательности. Отсюда такое качество григорианского хорала, как его внеличный характер, объективность.
Интонационный рисунок григорианского хорала образует мелодическая линия — непрерывная, текучая, лишенная индивидуальности. Сама собой напрашивается ассоциация с плоскостным характером иконы. Как образы в иконе не имеют третьего измерения, их приемы обратной перспективы нарушают принципы симметрии, святые часто как бы парят в безвоздушном пространстве, не касаясь нижней рамы иконы, точно в такой же степени было лишено «третьего измерения» и григорианское пение. «Глубина» возникает у мелодии тогда, когда голоса умножают ее в терцию, кварту, квинту, когда появляются контрапункт и полифония, но это уже изобретение XIV и XV вв. Именно в то время, с возникновением перспективист-ской живописи, глубина появляется и в возрожденческой картине.
A special type of musical thinking is embodied in the chorale: the formation of an image is an update process that does not lead to a new quality, i.e. the initial melodic pattern remains identical with itself. Any intonational deployment in the chorale involves the interpretation of the initial thesis, but not its negation. Using the methods of denial as a means of contrast, opposition arises in the musical thinking of later eras.
In the XI — XIII centuries. a number of theatrical genres are also developing intensively. First of all, this refers to the religious mysteries that were created on the basis of the plots of the Old and New Testaments. In the thirteenth century во Франции возник новый жанр — театральный миракль, сочетавший бытовые, житейские эпизоды с изображением чудес святых. Заметное место занимала и моралите — дидактическая пьеса с аллегорическими персонажами, темы которых брались из жизни: сочувственное отношение к крестьянам, высмеивание жадности богачей, ханжества монахов, тупости судей и т.п.
Первый образец литературно оформленной литургической драмы появился во Франции еще в XI в. Это сохранившаяся и поныне драма «Жених, или Девы мудрые и девы неразумные». Она разыгрывалась в церкви в цикле пасхальных инсценировок, смысл ее был близок к смыслу мистерий и моралите: в драме разворачивался обобщенный диалог «благочестия» и «нерадения», которых олицетворяли «девы мудрые» и «девы неразумные».
В какой-то момент церковь перестает терпеть театральные представления внутри храма, но, будучи передвинутыми на паперть или городскую площадь, они еще в большей мере усиливают свою зре-лищность, злободневность, культивируют импровизационные моменты. Уже первые театральные жанры, безусловно, вмещали в себя немало религиозно неадаптированного содержания. Особенно ярко это демонстрирует средневековый французский фарс с вызывающими названиями странствующих трупп «Дырявые портки», «Весельчаки» и др. Все, что мы находим и в соленом галльском юморе, и в песенках вагантов, предстает как очень мощная струя, наряду с официально адаптированным творчеством формировавшая массовые художественные вкусы и настроения.
The strong element of the collective folk art contributed to the penetration of frivolous motifs in the visual arts. The artist and the sculptor treated the pictorial decoration of cathedrals as a kind of encyclopedia of medieval knowledge; it is quite natural that everything fell into this encyclopedia. There were no questions how to convey canonical plots, but how, for example, to portray an allegory of sin, sinful passions? Various pagan monsters, chimeras, and all kinds of inhabitants of the natural world became a convenient reason for this. Thus, works of sculpture and architecture testify to the apparent heterogeneity of the medieval artistic consciousness.
The medieval legend of an acrobat, which traveled all over the world throughout the world, agitated people, could not do anything else, did not know any prayers, was widely adopted. Somehow, already at the end of his life, he went to church, the sculpture of the Mother of God caused him such delight and enthusiasm that he wanted to show himself and serve the Madonna as he served people. The circus artist didn’t think of anything else but how to diligently do his most dashing acrobatic stunts and jumps in front of the Madonna. Legend has it that the Mother of God did not resent, did not reject these tumbles, and favorably received them as a feasible gift that came from a pure heart. In this legend, there is true poetry of medieval consciousness: any self-expression, if it comes from the soul, is permissible, is not a violation of religious tenets. A similar look is definitelydistinguishes the creative imagination of painters, sculptors and architects.
Another quality of Western European artistic consciousness can be defined as the rootedness of the image of a suffering and offended person in it. The image of an oppressed and suffering person is a hidden nerve that passes through gothic art for several centuries. No wonder the Gothic so loved scenes related to martyrdom, where the main subjects of the image were a plebeian, a beggar, a wanderer. For Western European iconography, images that demonstrate religious greatness are not so characteristic, unlike, for example, Russian icon painting of the same and later period. In Gothic, as a rule, the artistic statement of the spiritual principle is inversely proportional to physical beauty. If antique statues suggest that a beautiful spirit can dwell only in a beautiful body,then the sculpture of the Western European Middle Ages suggests otherwise.
Предельное напряжение душевной жизни обозначает себя через искаженные пропорции, через изображение фигур людей, плоть которых измождена, изборождена глубокими морщинами, ее сводит в судорогах. Высокое напряжение внутренней жизни, разрушающее равновесие телесного и духовного, — отличительная черта готического искусства. Герой готической скульптуры беспощаден к своему телу, на нем всегда лежит печать страдания, он о чем-то мучительно размышляет, что-то мучительно силится понять. Подобная традиция в значительной мере противостояла приемам изображения человеческого облика в древнерусском искусстве. В иконописи Древней Руси можно найти изображение мученичества, но не такого, что выражает себя в резких судорогах и искажениях плоти, ведущих к асимметрии в разных пропорциях.
Лейтмотив русской иконы — представления о религиозном величии святых и мучеников. Исследователи древнерусского искусства связывают эту особенность с развивавшейся в народном сознании величавой народной сагой, в которой доминировали воспоминания о славном прошлом, преобладали стойкие надежды на победу добра, стремления к благообразию жизни. Эти установки повлияли на то, что церкви в Древней Руси не были столь угловатыми и остроконечными, как готические, им были свойственны компактная пластичность, телесная округленность форм; во многом снимался и чрезвычайно острый драматизм, который был характерен для готической иконописи.
Compared with Western European, the ancient Russian artistic consciousness presents new qualities - greater democracy, simplicity, and even common people. He is more inherent signs such as calm and clarity. The amazing ability of Russian architects to choose the landscape for the construction of the temple attracts attention — always on elevations, at the intersection of paths, so that it was visible very far away. These features also expressed in their own way the epic character of the ancient Russian consciousness.
The next difference is the phenomenon of the iconostasis itself as a purely Russian invention. The iconostasis is not found in Byzantium or in Western Europe. In Russia, the iconostasis appears in the XIV century, when the icons begin to merge into a common composition. The feature of the iconostasis is that the icons closely adjoin each other, they are not even framed, so each iconostasis looks like a whole, the silhouettes and colors of each icon are in subordination and in harmony with the whole. There are special religious and artistic studies of the nature of the iconostasis.
Художественная выразительность иконы должна была быть такова, чтобы она могла не только выступать частью ансамбля, но и существовать вне его, чтобы была вхожа в жилище людей, интимно и непосредственно вплеталась в их быт. Для языка русской иконописи характерна симметричность, которую сопоставляют с симметричной композицией сказок, преданий. Эта симметричность выделяется как цветовая, световая особенность русской икбны. В ней выявляются постоянство и приоритет таких цветов, как золотой и красный. Уже к концу XIV — началу XV столетия новгородская икона перестает быть только фольклорным примитивом и становится артистически тонко разработанным произведением средневековой живописи, в которой проявили себя Феофан Грек, Андрей Рублев и многие другие авторы.
In the late Middle Ages in Western Europe, an increasing focus of artistic creativity on the real world was noted. The indefatigable curiosity of nature, the animals are enriched and overgrown with all the new fascinating details. This interest in real details, well grounded details is one of the most characteristic features of the 14th century artistic consciousness. All such observations suggest that the prevailing culture of hearing is replaced by the culture of sight.
Утверждение новых приемов художественного творчества и восприятия вызвало к жизни и новые эстетические обобщения. Специальных эстетических трактатов теологи западноевропейского средневековья не создавали, их эстетические взгляды рассыпаны по так называемым суммам — своего рода сводам знаний. Так, Ульрих Страс-бургский (ум. 1277) одну из глав своего сочинения «Сумма о благе» посвящает теме «О красоте», уделяя особое внимание подробному описанию различных видов телесной красоты «нормального человека». Фома Аквинский (1225—1274) в «Сумме теологии» пишет о нел-интересованном характере переживания прекрасного. В частности, он считает, что все, оцениваемое чувствами как прекрасное, не связано с потребностями удовлетворения какой-либо цели, напротив, эстетическое переживание гасит всякую практическую направленность. Если при восприятии музыки или живописи мы ощущаем чувства одержимости или умиротворенности, то эти наши эстетические реакции представляют ценность уже сами по себе вне их возможной утилитарности. Специфика прекрасного, по мнению Ф. Аквинского, заключается в том, что при лицезрении или постижении его успокаивается желание. «Благо, отыскиваемое искусством, не есть благо человеческой воли или пожелательной способности (собственно благо человека), но благо самих вещей, сделанных или продуцированных искусством. По этой причине искусство не предполагает правильности пожелания». Таким образом, Ф. Аквинский поставил вопрос о несводимости художественно-выразительного начала к сумме уже имеющегося знания; искусство гораздо богаче, чем то, что способно выразить слово, — в этом сила и превосходство художественного произведения.
Completing its movement, the trajectory of medieval aesthetics seems to be making a full circle. To the early theories of the image-symbol, emanation, reflections on sensual beauty and artistic criteria are added, in many ways demonstrating their intrinsic value. F. Aquinas even makes an effort to "measure" the beautiful, he defines it as something complete, with numerical harmony, sensory perception and brilliance. Such an approach to the analysis of the beautiful as existing objectively and incorporating a number of valuable qualities is undoubtedly close to the Aristotelian tradition. The global change of orientation - from Platonism to Aristotelian principles - reflected the whole complexity of the evolution of the medieval mentality and emphasized the peculiarity of the late Middle Ages, simultaneously acting as a pro-Renaissance. Increasing human attention to the objective world,admiring his sensually perceived beauty prepared in the XIV century. the onset of a new cultural paradigm of the Renaissance. It is significant that the aesthetic theories of the late Middle Ages largely rehabilitate real being and living human sensuality.
Период средневековья занимает достаточно длительный временной отрезок — с V до XIV в., т.е. приблизительно тысячелетие. Социальные и культурные процессы, формировавшие художественную теорию и практику средневековья, неоднородны; в рамках средневековой эстетики и средневекового сознания принято выделять три больших региона. Первый — Византия, второй — западноевропейское средневековье и, наконец, восточноевропейский регион, Древняя Русь.
Формирование византийских эстетических представлений происходит на рубеже IV и V вв. В IV в. Римская империя распадается на две самостоятельные части — западную и восточную. Императором восточной части стал Константин, она устояла в последующих бурях, сохранилась и после падения Рима как империя ромеев. Эта империя, с одной стороны, продолжила уже имевшиеся направления художественного творчества, с другой — образовала новые, повлиявшие на становление новых эстетических ориентации.
Начальные этапы развития византийской культуры отмечены противоборством двух подходов к пониманию роли художественных изображений в христианской культуре. Речь идет о сторонниках иконоборчества и сторонниках иконопочитания. Позиции иконоборцев основывались прежде всего на библейских постулатах о том, что Бог есть Дух и его никто не видел, а также на указании: «Не сотвори себе кумира, и никакого изображения того, что на небе вверху и что на земле внизу, и что в водах ниже земли». Такого рода пафос вдохновлял, в частности, императора Константина Пятого, который принадлежал к истовым иконоборцам, провозгласившим единственным образом Христа евхаристические хлеб и вино. Константин призывал изображать добродетели не на картинах, а возделывать их в самих себе в качестве неких одушевленных образов. Такое специфическое понимание образа опиралось, по-видимому, на древнееврейские представления об отождествлении имени и сущности объекта. Все это было далеко не только от античной теории образа, основывавшейся на принципе мимезиса, но и от символической теории образа, развивавшейся в ранней патристике. В ряду активных сторонников иконопочитания был Иоанн Дамаскин (675—749).
Позиции иконоборцев оставались влиятельными на протяжении чуть более ста лет. Вселенский собор 787 г., посвященный вопросам иконопочитания, пришел к выводу: «...что повествование выражает письмом, то же самое живопись выражает красками». И если книги доступны немногим, то «живописные изображения и вечером, и утром, и в полдень — постоянно повествуют и проповедуют нам об истинных событиях». К VIII в. в Византийской империи существовало уже множество живописных изображений Христа. Обобщая имеющуюся практику, Вселенский собор исходил из двух посылок — догматической и психологической. Новые аргументы, определяющие догматику икон, сводились к тому, что если Христос истинно вочело-вечился, то вместе с плотью он обрел и видимый образ, который может и должен быть изображен на иконе.
Психологическая посылка исходила из того, что изображения страданий и мучений Христа должны вызывать у зрителей сердечное сокрушение, слезы сострадания и умиления. Пожелания, которые выработал для иконописцев Вселенский собор, ориентировали их на иллюзорное натуралистическое изображение всех событий Священной истории. Предполагалось, что когда живописец не только дает общее изображение страданий, но и обращает большое внимание на выписывание ран, капель крови, — все эти детали оказывают большое эмоциональное воздействие: невозможно без слез взирать на них.
Именно такой тип изображения представлялся отцам Вселенского собора наиболее подходящим для культовой живописи. Однако свою ценность визан
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