European art history

From a little-known city-state, Rome gradually developed into a Roman Republic that controlled the entire Apennine Peninsula, and finally expanded into a Roman Empire that ruled the entire Mediterranean region and spanned three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. From Asia Minor and Syria in the east, Spain and Britain in the west, Gaul in the north, Egypt and North Africa in the south, the Roman Empire lasted until the 5th century, during which it experienced division and integration. Integration and differentiation lasted for more than 1000 years, until the Byzantine dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire disappeared. Such a multi-ethnic unified empire has thousands of years of evolutionary history, which is reflected in culture and art and is bound to be the fusion of multi-ethnic culture and art.

Ancient Roman culture was developed under the strong influence of Idaho and Greeks. Ancient Roman culture and art flourished mainly in the late period of * * and the imperial period, and the ancient Italian native culture was deeply influenced by the Idarian subculture. As early as the 8th-3rd century BC, Idaho people created arched buildings, decorative murals with oriental style and vigorous and realistic sculptures, which had a strong influence on ancient Roman art. Although the ancient Romans conquered ancient Greece, they were conquered by the ancient Greeks in culture. The ancient Romans were admirers and imitators of ancient Greek art, which had a great influence on ancient Rome, but because of the different social environment and national characteristics, ancient Roman art also had its own uniqueness. In contrast, Roman art tends to be more pragmatic, which is mostly a secular life of enjoyment in content, pursuing grandeur in form and emphasizing individuality in character expression. The outstanding achievements of ancient Roman culture and art are mainly reflected in architecture, murals and portrait carving.

First, the architectural style characteristics of the Roman period

Ancient Roman architecture is an architectural style in which the ancient Romans followed the architectural technology of Etruscans in Apen Peninsula and inherited the architectural achievements of ancient Greece, and made extensive innovations in architectural form, technology and art. Roman architecture reached its peak in the1~ 3rd century and reached the peak of ancient western architecture.

There are many kinds of ancient Roman architecture. There are Roman Pantheon, Venus and Roman temples, as well as religious buildings such as Baalbek Sun Temple, as well as public buildings such as palaces, theaters, arenas, baths, squares and rectangular halls (rectangular halls). Residential buildings include inner-chamber houses, houses combining inner-chamber houses with column houses, and apartments with four or five floors.

The most brilliant and artistic buildings in ancient Rome were those that served the economy or people's life (material and spiritual). The secular architecture in ancient Rome has been quite mature in shape and well combined in function. Such as squares, roads, bridges, elevated canals, tunnels, theaters, arenas, baths, houses and villas. Almost all these buildings directly serve people's material life or spiritual enjoyment. In terms of artistic style, they also pursue harmony, perfection and loftiness, but they are no longer a sacred harmony, perfection and loftiness, but a kind of "harmony" in real life, and a kind of "loftiness" in pursuing economic prosperity, peace and stability and realistic stimulation. Some "sublime" is directly related to some "tragic" emotions, such as the famous Colosseum in ancient Rome. It is a kind of sublimity bathed in the blood and tears of slaves, so it makes this sublime, perfect and more secular. It can be amazing and exciting, but it is difficult to produce the "sacred" feeling of the Greek temple. This can be said to be the biggest difference between the harmony, perfection and sublimity in ancient Roman architectural style and the ancient Greek architectural style. As for other secular buildings, such as Karakala Bath, its harmonious, perfect and majestic style mainly comes from secular feelings, not from the sacred consciousness of idealism.

In terms of specific architectural modeling style, ancient Roman architecture not only inherited the modeling style of ancient Greek architecture, but also innovated and developed. For example, the facade of the Colosseum in ancient Rome, especially the four-story facade, is a copy of the ancient Greek columns. Its bottom layer is Doric column, the second layer is Onek column, the third layer is Corinthian column, and the top layer is surrounded by pilaster. However, this pillar of ancient Greece no longer plays a structural role in this masterpiece of ancient Rome as it did in ancient Greek architecture. It has become a simple decoration, and the real structural part is the structure hidden in the wall. At the same time, in the aspect of roof modeling, the ancient Romans made great innovations in the modeling methods of ancient Greek architecture, replacing the beam-column structure used in ancient Greece with more effective arch support, so that in the aspect of roof modeling, a "dome" roof appeared, which was difficult to see in ancient Greek architecture. It is this "dome" roof that has become the most obvious difference between ancient Roman architecture, especially residential architecture and ancient Greek residential architecture. Because of its economy, practicality and good aesthetic effect, this arch coupon structure is not only used in special buildings such as temples and palaces, but also extended to various fields of daily life, such as roads, bridges, aqueducts, ports, theaters, houses, warehouses, sewers and so on. Therefore, many magnificent buildings show harmony, perfection and loftiness, and at the same time, they have obvious "round" flavor. But at the same time, ancient Roman architecture consciously learned from and inherited the general characteristics of ancient Greek architectural modeling, especially the use of colonnade, which often clearly showed the inheritance relationship between ancient Roman architecture and ancient Greek architecture. For example, the Pantheon (also called Pantheon) in ancient Rome, its main part is a huge concrete drum with a dome. This "round" style is a typical feature of ancient Roman architecture. At its entrance, it relies on a typical ancient Greek colonnade. The colonnade consists of eight Corinthian columns, on which is a triangular spire. The whole architectural image vividly shows the inheritance and innovation of ancient Roman architecture.

The wooden structure technology of ancient Roman architecture has reached a considerable level, and the tie rod and compression rod of truss can be distinguished. Rome, Trajan, basilica and wood truss span 25 meters. The Colosseum in Rome, built in the first century A.D., can accommodate 50,000 spectators, and it took only 5-6 years to build. It was built on a filled lake, but the foundation did not sink significantly.

The architectural art of ancient Rome has made great achievements, with rich and dignified style, harmonious and unified composition and various forms. The Romans opened up new fields of architectural art and enriched architectural technology.

Among them, the most important ones are: the newly built internal space covered by arched vouchers, the single space of the solemn Pantheon, the sequential combination space of the royal baths with great changes at multiple levels, and the one-way depth space of the main hall. In some buildings, the artistic treatment of internal space is more important than the external image.

The composition of ancient Greek columns has been developed, making it more adaptable. The most significant thing is to create a combination of pillar and arch coupons, such as pillar and continuous coupons, which are used for both structure and decoration. The Arc de Triomphe around the empire is mostly composed of coupons. There are concentrated buildings with plane and arch structure composed of various arcs. Hadrian's departure from this palace built on the outskirts of Rome in the first half of the 2nd century is a mature example.

Since the second half of the fourth century, the trend of ancient Roman architecture has declined. /kloc-after the 0/5th century, after the Renaissance and classicism. With the revival of French classicism and the popularization of "imperial style" at the beginning of19th century, ancient Roman architecture has once again become a learning model in Europe. This phenomenon lasted until the 1920s and 1930s.

Second, the outstanding portrait carving and decorative arts in ancient Rome.

The Romans made outstanding achievements in portrait carving. The Romans had the custom of offering sacrifices to their ancestors for a long time. They made statues of the dead and kept them at home. When a new funeral is held, all the portraits of ancestors will be moved out to attend the ceremony. Therefore, the early portraits of the Romans were mainly naturalistic and realistic, and the artistic quality was not high.

* * * At the end of the Republic of China, Rome conquered Greece, and Greek sculpture art had an irresistible influence on Rome. Roman portraiture began to move towards diversification of form, generalization of art and vividness of expression. Many statues of Augustus are typical examples influenced by Greek idealized style. The sculptor showed Augustus, who was short, lame and ill, as a tall and strong commander-in-chief, with the physique of an athlete and the spirit of a heroic period. His face is also idealized on the basis of modeling, close to the perfection of Greek sculpture. Dozens of portraits are all beautified without exception. Some depict him as a god of war, while others depict him as a hero or a beautiful teenager.

During the Roman Empire, portrait carving was popular in realistic style, and there appeared portraits with strong personality and complicated inner world description. Caracalla's portrait shows a fierce, nervous and heartless tyrant's face. His frowning brows and empty eyes show anxiety, and his twisted head emphasizes the tense and violent character. Kyle. A Journey to Aurelius is a portrait of a monarch with perseverance. His face is full of philosophical thinking, decadent, negative and quiet. Because this obvious feature conforms to Christian theory, this bronze statue was preserved in the Middle Ages. It had an important influence on later Italian Renaissance sculptors.

In the late empire, in the extreme political and economic conflicts, the portrait carving style went to a more realistic road, and a large number of different faces appeared: ferocious, cunning, rude and uneasy ... This reflected the typical characteristics of the Romans at this time: rude appearance and high internal tension.

Roman reliefs have the characteristics of being factual and realistic, and the most outstanding representative is the reliefs of Trajan Memorial Column. The whole process of the conquest of Dacia by Emperor Trajan himself is described in detail. These events and plots are recorded as historical facts, and both the costumes of the characters and the process of conquering the city have historical authenticity. In the long scroll reliefs of more than 2,000 figures, artists use scattered perspective to deal with the composition with complex plots, complex levels and many figures.

There are hundreds of works of art and other decorations in public offices and houses of the rich in Rome. The floor is often mottled marble, and the design and technology of furniture are excellent. Tables, chairs and stools are all made of durable materials, and the decoration is extremely luxurious. Wood, ivory, marble, silver, copper, gold and other materials have been processed and polished very carefully. The copper brazier warms the room, and the bronze chandelier illuminates the room. Mirrors are also made of copper, embossed or engraved with fancy or mythical patterns, and sometimes made into horizontal or straight concave or convex shapes, turning the reflected human figures into ridiculous slender or chubby circles.

Silverware is very common in middle-class and above families. 1895, archaeologists found a considerable collection of silverware in the pool of a villa, which was obviously stored there when someone escaped from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. In the 16 silver cup, one saw a simple leaf pattern that was almost perfect, two of which represented a high relief skeleton, and the other 1 had a picture of Augustus being crowned between the god of war and the god of love, indicating that both of them were enemies of mankind. The most ridiculous thing is that Zhi Nuo, the originator of Stoicism, sarcastically pointed to Epicurus, who was eating a piece of cake with relish. At the same time, there was a pig, whose front foot stood up and politely wanted a piece of the pie.

At that time, one finger should wear at least 1 ring. Some playboys wear rings on every finger, not just one. These rings are carved with precious stones imported from Africa, Arabia and India. The Romans used rings as private seals, and they liked to make seals have unique designs, so jade carving at that time had reached an unattainable level.

At the same time, all kinds of ceramic artworks are also filled with Italian families. At this time, the technology of making art glass has reached a high level. The "blue glass vase" found in Pompeii site depicts the beautiful activities of Dionysus, the god of wine, at the celebration banquet of grape ripening. When Tiberius was in power, the art of blowing glass was introduced to Rome, and soon it was made into exquisite products such as small glass bottles, cups and bowls with variegated colors, which once became the favorite "prey" of art collectors and millionaires. When Nero was in power, he paid 6000 silver coins for two small glass blown glasses. The "fluorite" vases imported from Asia and Africa are more expensive. Although Augustus melted the gold plate of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, he treasured her cup made of fluorite glass. Nero paid 6.5438 million silver coins for such a cup. In a word, the Romans have never made glass before.

The aesthetic pursuit of ancient Roman decoration and sculpture lies in seeking truth and beauty, which is very different from the tranquility and idealized perfection of ancient Greece. This feature tends to create personal will and show the spirit of daring to participate in the world.

Third, the artistic style characteristics of ancient Roman murals

The paintings in Roman period mainly included mosaics and murals. Early paintings recorded specific historical events and were used to decorate public places and houses. Few such narrative paintings have survived. In 79 AD, due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, volcanic ash buried three Italian cities, including Pompeii. Pompeii was excavated in18th century, in which a large number of murals were preserved. According to these murals, Roman murals are divided into the first, second, third and fourth Pompeii styles. The first style is to depict architectural details with colors; The second style is to depict architectural details directly on the wall, create a more spacious space illusion with perspective, and interspersed with plot paintings. Secret sacrifice belongs to this style; The third style emphasizes the smoothness of the wall and draws exquisite still life; The fourth style will see through the effect.

Ancient tourists found that painting was even more common than sculpture in Roman temples, houses, monasteries and theaters. Of course, the painting art at this time is limited to murals and other aspects. Because of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii left us about 3500 murals. There is a mural depicting Dionysus's sudden attack on Ariadne. In sleep; Another painting shows Hermes quietly watching Vulcan tied to the wheel of torture; There are also a series of humorous murals, depicting carefree Cupid and imitating Pompeii's industry. These human figures are vividly painted and the color of the human body is perfect.

If art appraisers want to understand the essence of ancient Italian painting art and divide its period and style, they should refer to Pompeii painting.

Roman murals once simulated a building, or painted its facade, or painted its columns. The columns people see seem to look out from the inside, and the empty countryside is painted between the columns. In this way, the artist makes people feel that they are in a windowless room with cool trees and flowers, Yuan Ye and streams, and tame animals outside. As long as residents look at the walls of the house, they can imagine that they are in a garden, fishing, boating, hunting or raising birds here, enjoying themselves regardless of seasons, which also shows the level of Roman painting art from another side.

For example, in ancient Rome, different materials were used in different periods. Most buildings were built between BC 1 century and AD 1 century. At that time, before making murals on the walls, multiple layers of plaster had to be applied. Plastering is an important process. Generally, in Fu Hao Building, there are as many as ten layers of plaster on the wall, and the plaster is also mixed with crushed brick powder.

We can see from some Pompeii frescoes that the builders painted plaster on the walls: craftsmen drew outlines on the plaster first (some unearthed frescoes only drew outlines, and didn't have time to draw manuscripts), and then painted them. Most of the pigments used are Italian native minerals, such as cinnabar, ochre, Siena khaki, crushed Chun Yan, etc. And quicklime is used as a binder (quicklime dissolves in water, absorbs carbonic acid gas in the air, and becomes insoluble calcium carbonate, so that pigment components can be cemented). Scholars also found that murals often use organic pigments, such as egg yolk, protein and milk slurry. (Milk slurry can be used to bond colors such as Pompeii blue or glass blue and dark black).

Here is a picture of Perseus and Andromeda, which is very bright in color. It was unearthed in Pompeii. According to textual research, it is found that it is a copy of Nikki murals in the 4th century BC, so it belongs to AD 1 century. Now it is collected in the National Museum of Naples, Italy.

The theme of "Poerxiusi and Andromeda" also comes from Greek mythology: Andromeda, the daughter of King Ethiopia, was kidnapped by a sea monster who ate people, and said it was to carry out God's instructions. Poerxiusi, the hero, passed the boulder on his way home and found Andromeda locked on the boulder. He went down and killed the sea monster, rescued the beautiful woman, and married Andlau Moda. The mural depicts the moment when the hero saves the beauty. Poerxiusi carried the sea monster's head in one hand and the beauty left the rock in the other.

Another ancient city, Herculaneum, which was destroyed at the same time as Pompeii, also contains many exquisite murals after excavation. These murals are all based on Greek mythology. Although it still has the characteristics of imitating Greek painting to a certain extent, from the perspective of figure modeling and clothes wrinkle performance, this painter has skillful painting skills, the depth of light and shade and the change of color, which shines brightly in Pompeii's mural relics. Some scholars say that it is a copy of Greek murals, which may refer to the characteristics of the image. We think that such a smooth artistic expression should be said that copywriting is at least as good as ancient Greek murals in artistic accomplishment. On the contrary, he knows more about painting than the former.

The European Renaissance, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's sculpture Moses and Raphael's Madonna, are all immortal paintings and sculptures in history. These three heroes are also called the Three Heroes of the Italian Renaissance by later generations.

Their brilliant achievements have had a far-reaching impact not only on Europe, but also on the artistic development of the whole world.

Then during the Renaissance, in order to distinguish the artistic style of the Middle Ages (5-65438+5th century), Gotic appeared.

In the15th century, Italians had the idea of reviving ancient Roman culture, which led to the brilliant Renaissance. Because Italians can never forget the historical hatred of the Goths for destroying the Roman Empire,

Therefore, in order to distinguish it from this period, they called the artistic style of the Middle Ages Gothic.

For them, it means barbarism. Although the word Gothic is derogatory, many great works of art were born in the Middle Ages.

This seems undeniable to Italians in the15th century. One of the most famous is Notre Dame in Paris, France.

Of course, Gothic style is not limited to architecture, such as sculpture, glass products, decorations and painting. , deeply influenced by it.

This artistic creation lasted from the middle of12nd century to the beginning of16th century. Similarly, religion plays an extremely important role in Gothic art,

Painters and sculptors like to take religion as the theme in their works, but they are not interested in realistic themes.

Literally, Goth basically has three meanings.

One is Gothic architecture, such as cathedral, which is characterized by tall beams and columns and pointed arched ceilings and structures.

Secondly, in literature, Goth is used to describe strange and mysterious adventure stories set in dark and lonely places (such as abandoned castles).

Third, Gothic also represents a printing or writing style, and the font is quite gorgeous.

Gothic culture, as a modern cultural movement, began with the punk rock music wave in the late 1970s.

When the latter gradually receded, Gothic culture survived as a marginal subculture.

Gothic culture, as a unique medieval retro style, belongs to the cultural category of music, art and literature.

Musically, it inherited the musical style of punk rock in 1970s in Europe and America.

In art, it shows a strong retro tendency to the Gothic architectural style of western Europe in12-16th century.

In literature, it becomes that kind of mysterious dark literature that is gloomy and grotesque.

Gothic culture tends to be non-violent, pacifist, passive and tolerant.

However, in many media, it is misunderstood as extreme violence, racial hatred and the marginal culture of white supremacy.

Gothic culture always shows a lonely, alienated and gloomy spirit, and it always discusses those thought-provoking social problems, such as racial discrimination, war and hatred.

The spiritual obsession with death drives Gothic culture to constantly try to find another way to think about life, pain and death.