This whimsical and sometimes strange style, which dominated the architecture and art of Europe from the late sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth centuries, established itself in an era of intensive creation of states along national lines. He was closely associated with the church and aristocratic circles. The baroque style glorified and promoted their power. Therefore, for him, first of all, pomp, grandiosity and a pathetic predilection for spectacular spectacles are characteristic. This style combines illusion and reality, there are strong contrasts of scales and rhythms, as well as textures and materials, shadows and light.
Description of the Baroque
As soon as this style was not called at first: strange, prone to excesses, ridiculous, pretentious, unnatural … These characteristics in the era of its inception sounded like ridicule. And all because the baroque did not correspond to the then canons of ancient art and architecture.
But gradually architecture began to acquire new priorities and quality. Baroque originated in Italy. It was this country that was at that time the center of culture, from where this style began its triumphantmarch through Europe. And in each state, the baroque acquired its own national features.
Baroque architecture, including in Russia, first of all impresses with its scope and complexity. It is characterized by an abundance of complex, as a rule, curvilinear forms, large-scale colonnades. There is an abundance of sculptures on the facades of buildings of that time and in their interiors. There are also multi-tiered domes with complex shapes. A striking example of baroque architecture is the Cathedral of St. Peter in the Vatican. Distinctive details of the style are Atlantes, caryatids, supporting arches and playing the role of columns, as well as mascarons - sculptural decorations in the form of a human head or an animal's muzzle in full face.
It was in architecture, according to experts, that the baroque was presented in all its diversity and completeness. It is difficult to list all the architects who create their works in this style. These are the Italians Bernini, Maderna and Borromini, the Pole Jan Glaubitz and many others. In Russia, the architect, whose creations can be classified as Baroque, is considered primarily B. Rastrelli. It must be said that in our country it developed in a special way.
The birth of Russian Baroque
The beginning of the eighteenth century in Russia was marked by major events. As a result of the successfully completed Northern War and numerous reforms of Peter the Great, the country began to develop both culturally and economically. The emergence of St. Petersburg was also an important event, it marked the beginning of a new stage in the history of not only ours, but also the world's architecture. Sincethis began, in fact, the spread of baroque in the architecture of the 18th century. In Russia, not only domestic, but also architects from Western Europe gathered to build the capital and its suburbs. The solution of the grandiose tasks of urban planning was carried out on the basis of the traditions of Russian architecture.
Western European trends
Nevertheless, St. Petersburg architecture of the time of Peter I, and this is the first quarter of the eighteenth century, although it developed as a truly national one, corresponding to local characteristics, at the same time reflected the results of the development of many styles of Western European construction. A certain monolithic and very organic fusion of our and foreign architectural styles arose. Thus began the Baroque era in Russia.
At the same time, the process of assimilation and creative processing of Western European styles, in fact, originated in the fifteenth century, when Italians came to work in Moscow under Ivan III. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the influence of foreigners increased when decorative columns and entablature, pediments, architraves and sculptural motifs began to spread gradually in Russian architecture.
Baroque style in Russia
In our country, he could not establish himself for a long time. Despite the fact that critics subverted classicism in architecture, they nevertheless saw no alternative to "columns and domes". The merits of Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance were fiercely discussed, but the term "Baroque" was avoided in Russia. The famous architect Bryullov was outraged during a trip to Italy"perverted taste" and the absurdity of Borromini's creations.
And only in the eighties of the nineteenth century, the researcher of ancient Russian architecture N. Sultanov introduced the term "Russian baroque". In Russia, they denoted the pre-Petrine architecture of the seventeenth century. Since then, a stable concept has emerged, according to which the first phase of this style took shape in the 1640s.
According to Likhachev's definition, the baroque in Russia took on some features of the Renaissance, which never fully manifested itself. Nevertheless, the term "Russian baroque" in Russia and in general in the world is not accepted by all specialists. Therefore, it is considered conditional, and the name is taken in quotation marks.
Formally, in its qualities, this style is close to mannerism. It distinguishes several stages: “Naryshkin”, “Golitsyn”, “Petrine baroque in Russia” (18th century, first quarter) and “mature”, referring to the Elizabethan time. The latter style is most vividly embodied in the work of F. Rastrelli the Younger in many buildings in St. Petersburg.
Naryshkinskoe or Moscow Baroque
This style refers to a group of churches built by this famous boyar family. The Naryshkin Baroque style in Russia is represented by such works of architecture of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as churches in Fili and Troitsky-Lykovo, in Ubory and Dubrovitsy, as well as the Assumption erected on Maroseyka.
Specialists call it to some extent its subsequent stage, in which the transformed forms fromWestern European architecture, such as orders with and their elements, decorative motifs of baroque origin, etc.
Features of the Naryshkin style in architecture
It arose at a turning point for our architecture. It was then that trends from Europe gradually began to penetrate into the Russian patriarchal style. What distinguishes it from 16th-century architecture is a vertical penetrating energy that glides along the edges of the walls and throws out lush, patterned waves.
The buildings of this era of Russian architecture are characterized by a mixture of conflicting trends, in the buildings there is a heterogeneity of structures and decorative finishes. In the buildings of the "Naryshkin" Baroque in Russia, especially in Moscow, there are clear features of European Mannerism and echoes of the Gothic, there is a bit of Renaissance and Romanticism, and all this merges with the traditions of wooden and ancient Russian stone architecture.
Golitsyn style
Gradually began the development of baroque in Russia. The Naryshkin style in Moscow architecture was replaced by another style - the Golitsyn style, which is considered transitional. Its heyday was in the first decade of the eighteenth century, and its influence continued until the middle of the same century.
The first buildings erected in this baroque style in Russia are churches in Dubovitsy, in Perov, Volynsky, Lavrentievsky monastery in Kaluga. In contrast to the "Naryshkin" ones, the decorative decoration of the "Golitsyn" buildings uses more purely baroque elements. However, their design solutionsthe compositions of isolated volumes and the closed nature of the arrays are closer to the European Renaissance. The clarity of the plan with the simplicity of forms, combined with rich interior decoration, makes many baroque monuments in Russia related to classical examples of ancient Russian architecture. This is especially evident in later buildings - the Peter and Paul Church in Moscow, as well as in Troekurovo and Yakimanka.
Stroganov style
This stylistic direction of Russian architecture of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is characteristic of buildings commissioned by the famous industrialist, after whom it is named.
Stroganov's monuments differ from the more radical monuments of the Moscow Baroque era in their preservation of the five-domed silhouette, traditional for Russian churches, on which a magnificent baroque decor is applied, as if fashioned by hand. These include Kazanskaya in Ustyuzhna, Smolenskaya in the village of Gordeevka, Rozhdestvenskaya in Nizhny Novgorod and many other churches, as well as the Vvedensky Cathedral built in Solvychegodsk.
Petrine Baroque
This term is applied by art historians to the architectural style that was approved by Peter I and was widely used in St. Petersburg. Limited by conditional frames, he was more guided by samples of Swedish, German and Dutch architects. Baroque architecture in Russia during the time of the Great Reformer was largely eclectic buildings, with a predilection for classicism and Gothic antiquity. To reduce the whole variety of solutions of Peter's architects tothis style is possible only with a share of conventionality.
The architecture of this time is characterized by the simplicity of three-dimensional constructions, it has many clear articulations and restraint of decoration, and a flat interpretation of facades is often observed. Unlike the Naryshkin baroque in Russia, the Petrine baroque represents a decisive rejection of the Byzantine traditions that dominated our architects for almost seven centuries. At the same time, there is a difference from the Golitsyn style, inspired directly by Italian or Austrian models.
Outstanding Representatives
An invaluable role in the development of the Baroque in Russia was played not only by Russians, but also by many famous foreign architects. One of the representatives of the Western school who worked in our country is Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the son of an Italian sculptor who served at the court of King Louis XIV. Judging by the words of his biographers, he acquired his building experience in Russia. Being a very gifted artist, Rastrelli managed to prove himself a skillful architect and take a very high place at court, having received the position of "chief architect". His work reached its peak in 1740-1750.
Other prominent representatives of the Baroque in Russia are A. V. Kvasov, who designed and built the Grand Palace of Tsarskoye Selo before the reconstruction carried out by Rastrelli. The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has not been preserved on Sennaya Square, is also attributed to his work. No less famous architects of the Russian Baroque era are P. Trezzini, A. Vista and, of course, who workedin Russia from 1760 to 1770, the bright foreign representative of this style, Antonio Rinaldi. The latter, in its early buildings still under the influence of the “aging” baroque, subsequently switched to classicism, which was just emerging in our country. However, it is impossible to say unequivocally that Rinaldi is a representative of this particular early style.
Buildings of the Russian Baroque era
Rastrelli's well-known creation is the ensemble of the Smolny Monastery, built in 1748-1764 in St. Petersburg. It was created in the Russian traditions of similar ensembles dating back to previous centuries. No less famous are the palaces of two Elizabethan nobles located in the Northern capital - S. Stroganov and M. Vorontsov. However, in the first place among the works of Rastrelli is, of course, the Winter Palace, which was erected for eight years. It was completed in 1762. It was here that the talent of this architect was manifested to the highest degree. Other baroque masterpieces include the Grand Palace in Tsarskoye Selo and many others. All of them very clearly characterize the style that prevailed in the middle of the eighteenth century in Russia. The evolution of the work of the remarkable architect P. Trezzini is emphasized by the Fedorovskaya Church, located in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Today there is a lot of controversy over who owns the cathedral of the same name built on Vladimirskaya Square. However, many are inclined to believe that it was not an unknown master, namely P. Trezzini, who, as if competing with Rastrelli, created this church of amazing beauty at the end of 1760. It must be said that, unfortunately,many buildings belonging to this architect were subsequently rebuilt or simply disappeared.
Kept up with his colleagues and Rinaldi, who created several Orthodox churches, combining many elements of the Baroque. In particular, these are St. Andrew's Cathedral with its five-domed domes and a high multi-tiered bell tower, the Boat House located in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Chinese and Marble Palaces. The latter is considered a unique phenomenon in Russian architecture.
