From the great mixture of nations that occurred in the West in the middle of the XI century, the Latin race emerged victorious, and its language remained the recognized language of the Roman Catholic religion and Western science. New national languages, called Romance, formed by mixing Latin with the language of the German conquerors within the ancient Roman empire, became the first spokesmen of medieval knightly poetry. As a result, from the second quarter of the nineteenth century, it was somewhat hastily called the Romanesque artistic architectural style of the period under consideration; moreover, this name was extended to the visual arts of those Germanic countries whose population remained true to their native language. However, researchers led by Strigovsky posed the question: shouldn’t it be admitted that the architectural style, which several generations called Romanesque and which used to be called simply Byzantine, really arose in the East? Of course, the “Byzantine question”, that is, the question of the influence of Byzantine art on Western art, was quite a different character since the birthplace of so-called Romanesque art, mainly monastic art, was recognized not only in Greece, but also in the more distant East, where monasteries appeared. However, we will return to the topic touched upon by us. With regard to Italy, the Byzantine question is already a priori solved more easily than for the North, due to the fact that the vast areas of Italy, partly only shortly before being detached from the Byzantine Empire, were obviously very strongly dependent on the Christian East for the whole period under consideration. . Therefore, we will consistently begin our review with the art of these particular areas of Italy - Venice in the north and the Norman state in the south of the Apennine Peninsula and in Sicily. Both here and there, the mere existence of convenient trade routes to the East indicates a lively artistic relationship with him, facilitated for Lower Italy, the former “Greater Greece”, thanks to the tribal composition of its population.
Fig. 126. Plan of the Cathedral of Sts. Mark in Venice. By Degio and Bezold
Among the rich ancient coastal and island cities located in the northwestern part of the Adriatic Sea, Venice has assumed paramount importance since 811. The position of this magnificent city among the lagoons served as a defense of its freedom. The enterprise of the citizens of Venice filled it with the treasures of the whole world. The rare artistic taste peculiar to the Venetians gradually made their city one of the most original and beautiful in the world. The winged lion, the symbol of the patron of Venice, the Apostle Mark, became the emblem of the proud “queen of the seas”, which, after conquering Constantinople by its doge, Enrico Dandolo (1204), became the strongest power in Europe.
The separate preserved facades of the Venetian Romanesque palaces, such as the Fondaco de Türki (now the city museum), the Palazzo Dandolo (Farsetti) and the Palazzo Loredan, which still reflect their arcades in the green waters of the Grand Canal, testify to the art with which Venetian architects conformed to the style of the palaces with the water streets on which they are built. The already stretched arches of the portico Fondaco de'Turks point to the eastern origin of this architecture. Venetian church architecture of the considered epoch is represented by only one, but on the other hand, a grandiose structure - consecrated in 1094 by the Cathedral of St.. Mark. Its three apses and the western-eastern district walls, perhaps the remnants shortly before (between 976 and 1008) of the built church. In its form, the cathedral of sv. Marka is a central building, a Byzantine five-domed temple with a cruciform plan (Fig. 126). It can be considered prototypes, on the one hand, the church of Sts. Apostles, on the other - the church of St.. Irina in Constantinople. The four branches of the cross, over the intersection of which the main dome rises, resting on the pandantes, are each divided into three naves. In the middle of each branch there are four massive pillars connected by a huge semi-circular arches supporting small domes. The arches of the bunk side aisles rest on the columns and open into the middle space of the temple. The entire western part is occupied by the narthex, the front of which opens outwards (Fig. 127) with five monumental portals with a semi-circular top, in the form of niches supported by bundles of marble columns. Above the portals, the facade is crowned with five semicircular gables. The decoration of the building from the outside with colored marble and pillars belongs to the 12th century. The fantastic impression made by the view of the cathedral is reinforced by keel-shaped arches, small tent awnings, “crabs” and statues of late Gothic time bordering the gables, as well as various metal gilded decorations. It is striking, both outside and inside, the abundance of multi-colored marble columns, antique and early medieval, brought here from neighboring countries; the diversity of their early medieval, western and eastern capitals is even more striking. The temple, whose colorful luster is enhanced by mosaics of timpans, with its broken lines of cornices and a general fanciful look resembles fabulous Asian buildings. A more holistic and calm impression is made by the interior of the cathedral (see fig. 127). The lower parts of the walls shine with luxurious patterns made up of colored marble, yet the rest of the wall surfaces, arches and vaults are decorated with mosaics on a gold background. The picturesque, plane character of the interior decoration of the Byzantine churches appears before us from the mysterious twilight of the cathedral in all its poverty with architectural elements, but also in all its decorative magnificence, harmony and solemnity.
Cathedral of sv. Mark has influenced ecclesiastical architecture far from Venice. The main work of the “school of the church of sv. Mark ”, as proved by Ratgens, was the rebuilt church of San Donato in Murano in the XII century, the eastern side of which was enclosed outside by a luxurious Romanesque circular-arched gallery.
Sculptural decoration of the Cathedral of St.. The brand, thoroughly reviewed by Gabelets, characterizes all the features of Venetian plastics of this era. Among them are many works of Greek, brought from the East. The back columns of the altar canopy are the “romance” imitations of the fore, Ancient Christian, which are already familiar to us (see Fig. 49). The “Christmas” over the northern portal still strongly resembles the Byzantine plastic of ivory. But “Eight Works of Mercy” and “Eight Virtues” above the middle portal of the main facade belong to the 12th century, but indicate with their purely Western liveliness, despite some ancient motifs in them, to belong to the style of the mature Middle Ages.
Fig. 127. Cathedral of sv. Mark in Venice. From photos of Alinari
Mosaics of the same Cathedral of Sv. Mark. The general plan of its mosaic decoration, akin to the system of murals in the Athos churches, should be related to the time of construction of this temple. In the apse, where the Virgin Mary was depicted in the Byzantine churches, is represented, according to Western custom, Christ seated on the throne. But the lower parts of the walls are covered, as in the Byzantine churches, with numerous individual images of saints, and the upper parts and vaults are decorated with scenes from the earthly life of the Savior and the lives of the saints. Here, on the middle dome, there is a Savior sitting on a rainbow, surrounded by twelve apostles, to which the Mother of God is attached in the pose of Oranta. Mosaics of all five domes and half of the arches have Byzantine character; Byzantine, in essence, also narthex mosaics depicting the Days of Creation; in character, they are close, as Tikkanen has proved, to the Greek Kottonovoy Bible of the ancient Christian time. Restorations and additions made in the Gothic era, in the Renaissance and in the new time, of course, in a different way. Dome mosaics are made in the solemn and strict Byzantine style of the XI and XII centuries; on the contrary, in the mosaics of the narthex one can see a more free Greek style of the XIII century, in its individual features holding its own nature and partly already imbued with the Western spirit.
Byzantine church mosaics of the islands adjacent to Venice are also presented in significant features. As in the old cathedral on the island of Torcello, so in the cathedral of Murano, in the altar niche, instead of the Savior, is depicted the Mother of God: in Torcello it is represented, as in the Thessalonian church of Sts. Sophia, sitting on the throne with the Baby in the lap, and in Murano, as in the church of Nea Moni on the island of Chios, in the form of an orant, without the Child. The extensive “Last Judgment” mosaic on the inner side of the western wall of the Cathedral of Torcello, dating back to the beginning of the 13th century, is divided into five friezes, one above the other; the topmost of them, in which the figures are twice as large as in the rest, is occupied by the depiction of the Descent of the Savior into Hell, performed according to the Byzantine scheme. In this composition, along with the Byzantine features, some Western features are visible. But only in the subsequent epoch, and even then extremely slowly, did Venice and its region adjoin the artistic movement that emerged in the West.
Lower Italy and Sicily, because of the possession of which the Arabs, Byzantine Greeks and Lombards fought for several centuries, in the second half of the XI century, thanks to the courage and wisdom of the Norman conquerors (Scandinavians), still half-fledged in Normandy, united into one kingdom, left under the Normans dominion until about the end of the twelfth century, and from 1194 until the end of the era under consideration, which was under the direct authority of the German emperors. When at the court of Frederick II, the “King of the Two Sicilies,” the young Italian poetry, charming in its artlessness, first spread its wings, had already been erected on both sides of the Strait of Messina all those magnificent buildings in which Byzantine, Norman, Saracen and Latin features merged into one new whole, full of peculiar beauty, although it contained little inclinations for further development.
In the architecture of Lower Italy in the continuation of the entire Norman era there was a struggle of new artistic trends with Byzantine legends. Of the basilica of the ancient or Norman style with a flat surface, some of the now rebuilt churches deserve mention, such as the cathedrals of Salerno and Ravello, as well as the well-preserved, famous for its mosaics, Sant'Angelo in Formis church, near Capua. In this last there is no transept. The Salerno Cathedral is a Norman basilica with pillars and atrium, whose ancient columns are connected to one another by elevated arches; both here and in most churches of this kind, separate Byzantine or Saracen motifs are found among architectural details. The magnificent cathedral of Bari and the church of San Niccolo e Cataldo in Lecce are crowned over the original Romanesque building, a Byzantine octahedral dome. The domed churches of Sant'Andrea and San Francesco in Trani, the cathedral in Canoza and the church of Santa Maria del Patir, described by Dile, near Rossano, represent the mix of Western and Byzantine forms both in terms of and architecture. Purely Byzantine, like the church in Rossano (see above, v. 2, II, 1), it is necessary to recognize the published G. Schulz Cattolica in Stilo and the church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti in Palermo.
Many of these southern Italian churches are distinguished by the richness of sculptural decorations on the doorposts, architraves and casement doors, as well as the luxury of the entire interior decoration. And in this decoration the Saracen artistic motifs are mixed with Byzantine. A rich stylized leafy curl is found along with rosettes and purely geometric ornaments. Among them, often given a place and the animal world. An example is the magnificent arabesque on the door frame of the Salerno Cathedral (1099), in which among the floral curls comes across an image of a representative of the eastern fauna, a camel (Fig. 128).
Fig. 128. Arabesques on the door frame of the Salerno Cathedral. By salazaro
In the plastic dominates the Byzantine style with a significant roundness of forms. A remarkable monument of carvings on ivory - worked around 1100, the front board of the altar (paliotto), made up of plates of various styles, stored in the sacristy of the Salerno Cathedral. The slender, relatively regular forms of the nude body in its reliefs depicting the Days of Creation have nothing in common with the lurid forms in which the Crucifixion is made. Among the marble sculptural portals, mention should be made of the more independent concept of the reliefs of the main portal in the Trani Cathedral (after 1180), with scenes from the life of the Old Testament patriarchs. Inside the churches, pulpits and episcopal seats in the XI century are often equipped with columns resting on lions or crouched human figures, symbols of defeated evil forces, or decorated with reliefs representing also the victory of light over the forces of darkness, such as, for example, the images of Samson fighting the lion or sv. George, striking a dragon. For example, let us point out the episcopal seats of the work of the master Romoald in the churches of San Sabino in Canoza (circa 1088) and San Niccolò in Bari. Later and in Lower Italy, relief images are supplanted by non-figured, although often mixed with plant and animal motifs, but for the most part geometric flat ornaments made up of colored stone and glass pieces on a white marble background. This kind of mosaic was put into use, apparently, by Greek artists who were drafted into the monastery of Monte Cassino by Abbé Desiderius, and from here spread both in the north, in Rome, and in the south of Italy, where its most magnificent examples are the pulpit (1175), the altar fences, tribune for singers and candlesticks for Easter candles in Salerno Cathedral. The bronze church doors of these localities also clearly show the extent to which southern Italy was then dependent on Byzantium. Nyellirovanny doors of the cathedrals in Amalfi, Atrani, Salerno and others with display of gold and silver, as we saw above, are made in Constantinople. From the XII century, Greek masters began to replace the local, southern Italian, initially imitating the Greeks, but then becoming more and more independent; from mobile work, i.e., engraving with lines, filling the voids with a special composition (a mixture of mercury with silver, copper and lead), and a metal display on the metal, they move to a bronze relief. Master Oderizie Berard from Benevento was cast in 1119–1127. the doors of the cathedral in Troy, in which the nielling technique has been replaced, at least in part, by relief plastic; but their style is still Byzantine. 72 relief panels of the bronze doors of the Benevent Cathedral, depicting saints and events of Sacred history and remarkable for their landscape backgrounds, seem to be more free from the old tradition and generally more vital, in other words, more romance. The most free in style within the boundaries of this direction are works by the master Barisan of Trani, namely 30 bronze framed doors with a beautiful ornament of the cathedral in Trani (circa 1160), 54 similar images on the famous bronze doors in Ravello (1179) and 28 reliefs on the north door of the cathedral in Montreal, near Palermo (between 1186 and 1200). The doors of the cathedrals in Trani and Montreal are labeled with the name of this master, inscribed in Latin letters, but the explanatory inscriptions on them are all Greek. Despite the proximity of these reliefs to the Byzantine bone carvings, their style is much more original. In this whole area of art, we can thus trace the gradual development of new features; the names found on some works testify to the growth of self-consciousness of artists.
In the first half of the 13th century, the influence of the enlightened Hohenstaufen, Emperor Frederick II, was strongly manifested in the visual arts of Lower Italy. The spirit of his time captured, for example, the classically beautiful sculptures of the pulpit in the church of Bitonto (1229), commissioned by the emperor himself. Most of them died. Some miraculously survived some of the colossal sculptures with which Frederick II adorned the entrance to the bridge over the Volturno in Capua — the torso of his own statue and the three huge marble bust of the Chief Justice Taddeo da Sessa, Chancellor Pietro del Vigny and the personification of “Gibellina Capua.” These wonderful sculptures, now stored in Museo Campano in Capua and first published by C. von Fabrizi, shed a bright light on the artistic taste of Frederick. То обстоятельство, что некоторые принимают их за античные, доказывает их тесную связь с эллинистическим искусством. Но южноитальянские скульптуры XIII в., сохраняя в себе традиционные, слегка византийские основные формы, дышат новой, индивидуальной жизнью, так что, как справедливо говорил Р. Дельбрюк, «для них нельзя найти места в эволюции древнего искусства».
Нижнеитальянская живопись занимающего нас времени была главным образом стенная. Мозаик этого времени почти не сохранилось, за исключением ничтожных остатков в Салернском и Капуанском соборах; фрески же, описанные Дилем, принадлежат по большей части подземным капеллам апулийских отшельников. Надписи на них частью греческие, частью латинские. На протяжении XI–XIV столетий можно проследить постепенный переход от чисто византийских композиций и техники к более свободной и самостоятельной западной манере исполнения. Еще вполне в византийском стиле написан архангел с огромными крыльями в крипте Сан-Вито де Норманни, близ Бриндизи (XII столетие); но в замечательной картине Страшного Суда на западной стене капеллы св. Стефана в Солето, произведения, вероятно, XIII столетия, византийские элементы уже перемешаны с западными. В духе византийской живописи представлены, например, море и дикие звери, извергающие из себя тела поглощенных ими людей; но изображение папы в тройной тиаре, между небесными праведниками — несомненно римское.
Among the most important and at the same time the earliest frescoes of the time in question is the wall painting of the church of Sant'Angelo in Formis, near Capua, in Southern Italy. This church was built by Desiderius, the abbot of the Monte Kassinsky monastery, who is known to have maintained active artistic relations with Constantinople in the second half of the 11th century and even ordered mosaicists and other masters from the shores of the Bosphorus. Nowadays, no one denies that the frescoes of Sant'Angelo in Formis, generally related in many respects to the more ancient frescoes of the church of St.. George in Oberzell, on Reichenau (see Fig. 101), written under Byzantine influence; F.-Ks did not deny this influence. Kraus, but only diverted to him, contrary to Dobbert's opinion, very close boundaries.
The general arrangement of the mural here, of course, is western. The rite of worship, which was sent to this church, was Roman, not Greek, as a result of which, in the main apse, instead of Our Lady, was Christ sitting on the throne between the symbols of the four evangelists; the western wall is occupied by an extensive composition of the Last Judgment, divided into five belts, and the upper parts of the walls of the middle nave are decorated with about 70 frescos on scenes from the New Testament; of these frescoes, 40 are more or less preserved. Most of the individual images and even biblical scenes are written according to Byzantine patterns; for example, in the composition The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Christ sits on a donkey, with both legs dangling to one side. The shapes of the figures and their movements are also imbued with the Byzantine spirit. If not the Byzantine masters, called Desiderius in Monte Cassino, then, at least, the native artists trained on the spot were the performers of this curious painting, which, in general, does not adjoin, however, the starting points of the new artistic life, but an echo of a still semi-antique , early medieval art.
The most brilliant examples of Norman-Saracen-Byzantine art are on the island of Sicily. The center of this art is Palermo and its magnificent surroundings; but this art also spread in the eastern part of the island, to Cefal and Messina. And here the most important role was played by architecture. Of the Byzantine domed churches of Sicily, San Giovanni degli Eremiti (1132), Santa Maria dell Ammirallo (La Martoranu, 1147) and San Cataldo (founded in 1161) should be noted, all three - in Palermo. San Giovanni degli Eremiti is a five-domed church with a longitudinal body, a transept and three absids. Martorana was originally a quadrangular structure with three absids; four columns in her mid-crest supported the dome on the pandantes (Fig. 129). San Cataldo has three domes, of which the middle also rests on four columns. However, the architecture of these churches is not quite Byzantine: instead of a semicircular arch, they appear pointed; but this is not a Gothic lancet arch, but Arabic (see t. 1, fig. 640), and in general in these buildings there is still a Saracen, and not French, influence. The famous Palace Chapel (Capella Palatina) in Palermo, constructed from 1129 to 1140, only in its eastern part, to which the transept and the high dome above the center of the cross belong to, are typical of Byzantine architecture.
Fig. 129. Martoran's Church in Palermo. With photos Alinari
Fig. 130. Rear side of the Montreal Cathedral. With photos Alinari
In the three-nave longitudinal case of the chapel, Corinthian columns with barely noticeable imposts support high Arabic pointed arches; stalactite arches (see vol. 1, fig. 641 and 642) above them serve as a transition to a flat, decorated with kufic inscriptions wooden ceiling. The overall pictorial effect, reinforced by mosaic decorations, makes us ignore the lack of connection between architectural elements. Finally, the cathedrals in Cefalu (1132), Palermo (1169–1185) and Montreal (1174–1189) are the western basilicas with Norman twin towers on the sides of the western facade and with Corinthian columns supporting the Arabic pointed arches inside. The outer walls of the cathedrals in Palermo and Montreal (Fig. 130), in particular the walls of the absides, are decorated with fake pointed, intersecting arches; the main, quite peculiar charm of the Montreal Cathedral is the cloister gallery (1200–1221) with pointed arcades, whose columns, which are twisted in pairs and partly, are luxuriously ornamented with mosaic or covered with plastic Arabic patterns; the figured capitals of these columns represent us the Sicilian plastic of the beginning of the XIII century in a favorable light for it. The bronze doors with which the Montreal Cathedral was furnished in the 11th century were made by foreign masters. The doors of the north entrance are the works of Barizan from Trani. But the doors of the western portal, worked as the inscription on them says, in 1186 by Pisan Bonan, depict on their 42 panels numerous biblical scenes, often rich in figures, performed not in Byzantine, but in the Tuscan-Roman style, dry and weak. with respect to forms, but more lively with respect to the composition of plots (Fig. 131). The historian of Sicilian art Di Marzo quite rightly recognized in the above-mentioned stone sculptural capitals of the cloister at the Montreal Cathedral significant artistic progress compared with the cathedral doors. But it was only a temporary rise, followed by no further steps forward.
Fig. 131. Part of the western bronze doors of the Montreal Cathedral. With photos Alinari
Fig. 132. Mosaic in the apse of the cathedral in Cefalu. With photos Alinari
Among the numerous marble products covered with patterns of multi-colored stones and glass mosaics found in Sicily as often as in Lower Italy, only the altar fences, pulpits, the throne and the croonette of the Palace Choir are worthy of mention — works that are magnificent, but mostly have an applied artwork. , decorative nature. The more attention is drawn to the main works of Sicilian painting in the era under consideration - the mosaics of Sicilian churches. For the most part, these magnificent mosaics of the Sicilian art of the Norman era are due to the impression of luxury and solemnity that comes from it. These mosaics are mostly of Byzantine style and are usually regarded as echoes of medieval Greek art in the West. The oldest and best of them are in the Cathedral of Cefalu (circa 1148). In its main apse, as in Western churches in general, there is a gigantic, majestic belt image of the Savior (fig. 132), shining with bright colors: the underwear of Christ is golden, the top is blue, the background is golden; blond hair parted in the middle; facial features - in a Byzantine style, but their expression is majestic, noble and solemn; Byzantine also the selection, layout and postures of the figures of saints, depicted in three rows under the icon of the Savior. The inscriptions are Greek, as well as on the wall and ceiling mosaics of the Palermoic Martoran that have survived only in part. The distribution of plots in Martoran reminds of Athos churches. The dome is represented on a gold background to the full height of Christ sitting on the throne (his figure is too long) and surrounded by eight prophets; Evangelists are depicted on the sails. In a more complete form came to us the mosaics of the Palermo Palace choir. Their golden background fills the entire church with its even brilliance, and the luxury of colors attracts the eye to the content of the images. The Savior is represented not only in the middle of the dome, but also on the vault of the main apse (colossal belt image). The upper walls of the middle nave are occupied by scenes from the Old Testament. The main events of the New Testament are placed on the walls of the choir. The compositions “Flight into Egypt” and “The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem”, despite the fact that they are arranged in a completely Byzantine manner, show a great vitality in the development of these plots. The inscriptions are also mostly Greek. Finally, I must say a few words about the mosaics of the Montreal Cathedral. Placing them is the same as in the aforementioned churches, but Latin inscriptions occupy a prominent place among the Greek, and the style of the images has become less correct, which, especially compared to the mosaics of the Cathedral of Cefal, cannot but be considered a decline. This decline is even more noticeable in the mosaics of the Messina and Salerno cathedrals. The dominion of Hohenstaufen could not add anything to the picturesque charm of Norman-Sicilian art, which developed under Byzantine and Saracen influences.
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