What is Atlantis – a poetic myth or a real fact? Make a dialogue discussing its role in the world’s art and literature.

CHAPTER 3. THE EVOLUTION OF STYLES IN THE CHRISTIAN ERA

TEXT 8. ARCHITECTURE AND ART OF THE BYZANTINE PERIOD

PART 1 / BYZANTINE ART OF BUILDING

The art characteristic of the developed Byzantine Empire can be traced back to the period just before the reign of Justinian, c. A.D. 500. The style had enormous influence on both the East and the West. Early Byzantine art may to some extent be regarded as Roman art transformed under influence of the East. It reached a high point in the 6^th century, rose again for a short time to new heights during the 11^th and 12^th centuries and still survives among Greek or orthodox communities. The architecture of the Byzantine Empire was based on the great legacy of Roman formal and technical achievements. Constantinople had been purposely founded as the Christian counterpart and successor to the leadership of the old pagan city of Rome. The new capital was in close contact with the Hellenized East, and the contribution of Eastern culture, though sometimes overstressed, was an important element in the development of its architectural style. The 5^th-century basilica of St. John of the Studion, the oldest surviving church in Constantinople, is an early example of Byzantine reliance upon traditional Roman models.

The most imposing achievement of Byzantine architecture is the Church of Holy Wisdom or Hagia Sophia. It was constructed in a short span of five years (532–37) during the reign of Justinian. Hagia Sophia is without a clear antecedent in the architecture of late antiquity, yet it must be accounted as culminating several centuries of experimentation toward the realization of a unified space of monumental dimensions. Throughout the history of Byzantine religious architecture, the centrally planned structure continued in favor. Such structures, which may show considerable variation in plan, have in common the predominance of a central domed space, flanked and partly sustained by smaller domes and half-domes spanning peripheral spaces.

Although many of the important buildings of Constantinople have been destroyed, impressive examples are still extant throughout the provinces and on the outer fringes of the empire, notably in Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, and Sicily. A great Byzantine architectural achievement is the octagonal church of San Vitale (consecrated 547) in Ravenna. The church of St. Mark's in Venice was based on a Byzantine prototype, and Byzantine workmen were employed by Arab rulers in the Holy Land and in Ottonian Germany during the 11^th century.

Secular architecture in the Byzantine Empire has left fewer traces. Foremost among these are the ruins of the 5^th-century walls of the city of Constantinople, consisting of an outer and an inner wall, each originally studded with 96 towers. Some of these can still be seen.

In the early Byzantine period, as wide a diversity of styles is seen in ecclesiastical architecture as in art. Two major types of churches, however, can be distinguished: the basilica type, with a nave flanked by colonnades terminating in a semicircular apse and covered by a timber roof; and the stone-vaulted centralized church, with its separate components gathered under a central dome. The second type the stone-vaulted centralized church was dominant throughout the Byzantine period. Though Justinian's domed basilicas are the models from which Byzantine architecture developed, Hagia Sophia, or the Church of the Holy Wisdom, remained unique, and no attempt was thereafter made by Byzantine builders to emulate it. In plan it is almost square, but looked at from within, it appears to be rectangular, for there is a great semidome at east and west above that prolongs the effect of the roof, while on the ground there are three aisles, separated by columns with galleries above. At either end, however, great piers rise up through the galleries to support the dome. The vast central dome rises some 56 metres (185 feet) from ground level. Above the galleries are curtain walls (non-load-bearing exterior walls) at either side, pierced by windows, and there are more windows at the base of the dome. The columns are of finest marble, selected for their colour and variety, while the lower parts of the walls are covered with marble slabs. Like the elaborately carved cornices and capitals, these survive, but the rest of the original decoration, including most of the mosaics that adorned the upper parts of the walls and the roof, have perished. They were all described in the most glowing terms by early writers. But enough does survive to warrant the inclusion of Hagia Sophia in the list of the world's greatest buildings. Hagia Sophia was completed in the amazingly short period of five years, under the direction of two architects from Asia Minor, Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, in the year 537. Three other types of churches in Constantinople are: SS. Sergius and Bacchus, a centralized building; the Church of St. Eirene (Irene), a basilica roofed by two domes in echelon; the Church of the Holy Apostles, which was cruciform, with a dome at the crossing and another on each of the arms of the cross; The walls of the city, which still in greater part survive, were set up under Theodosius II (408–450) early in the 5^th century, and already the method of construction (where a number of courses of brick alternate with those of stone) and the forms of vaulting used to support the floors in the numerous towers show several innovations. The walls themselves, a triple line of defense, with 192 towers at alternate intervals in the inner and middle wall, were far in advance of anything erected previously; they were, indeed, so well conceived that they served to protect the city against every assault until the Turks, supported by cannon, attacked with vastly superior odds in 1453. Also distinctive were the underground cisterns, of which more than 30 are known in Constantinople today. They all took on the same character, with strong outer walls and roofs of small domes supported on tall columns. Some are of great size, some comparatively small. In some, like the great cistern near Hagia Sophia called by the Turks the Yerebatan (Underground) Palace, old material was reused; in others, like the even more impressive Binbirdirek (Thousand and One Columns) cistern, new columns of unusually tall and slender proportions and new capitals of cubic form were designed specially. These cisterns assured an adequate supply of water even when the aqueducts that fed the city were cut by an attacking enemy. Many of them were still in use at the end of the 19^th century. Contemporary texts show that the houses were often large and elaborate and had at least two stories, while the imperial palace was built on enormous terraces of masonry on the slopes bordering the upper shores of the Sea of Marmara.

The palace was founded by Constantine, but practically every subsequent emperor added to it, and it eventually became a vast conglomeration of buildings extending over more than 100 acres. Many of the buildings were of a very original character, if the descriptions that survive are to be believed; unfortunately, nearly all have been destroyed in the course of time, mainly because of the indifference of the Ottoman state for the civilizations which existed before the invasion of Turks in the area of Minor Asia. Basil I (867–886), like many of his predecessors, built in the area of the Great Palace, two churches: the New Church and the Church of the Theotokos of the Pharos. These set a fashion in church building and decoration that was to exercise an influence for many centuries. Neither survives, but something is known of them from written descriptions, and it would seem that both were typical of what was to be the mid-Byzantine style. Broadly speaking, the churches of this age conform to a single type, usually termed the cross-in-square. It is made up of three aisles, each one terminating in an apsidal chapel at the east, with a transverse nave, known as the exonarthex, at the west. Invariably, there was a dome over the central aisle, supported on four columns, with four vaults radiating from it to roof the central aisle to the west, the sanctuary to the east, and the central portions of the side aisles to the north and south. The main church at the monastery of St. Luke near Delphi, in Greece (1050), is the most complete surviving example of the architect type of the middle Byzantine period (843–1204).

Quite a number of byzantine buildings survive in Constantinople, Minor Asia, Pontos, Macedonia, Sicily, and throughout Balkans. Their appearance changed quite considerably during the late Byzantine Period (1204–1453), the domes becoming smaller and higher, while the wall surfaces of the exterior were usually elaborately decorated, either with intricate patterns in brickwork or by setting glazed pottery vessels into the wall to form friezes similar to work in tile. In Constantinople elaborate blank arcading also played an important role, as, for example, in the Church of the Pammakaristos Virgin (Mosque of Fethiye; 1315). The building material varied with the locality, though generally brick was preferred to stone. In the details of planning and in the handling there was considerable regional variation, and numerous local styles may be distinguished. Grandeur was generally lacking – except perhaps in the churches set up for the Comnene emperors of Trebizond, a state on the south side of the Black Sea, (1204–1461) –but all the buildings have considerable charm and deserve fuller consideration than they have sometimes received. Good work was done, especially on Mount Athos, Macedonia, where the large-scale painted churches, are often both magnificent and very beautiful. Byzantine architecture inspired Arab architects, and this one can see in the masterpieces of Spanish architecture: the famous Alhambra Palace at Granada and the Great Mosque of Cordoba. In Venice the five-domed type, St. Mark's Cathedral was replication of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. The importance of Byzantine art to the religious art of Europe cannot be overestimated. Byzantine forms were spread to Italy and Sicily, where they persisted in modified form through the 12^th century and became formative influences on Italian Renaissance art.

Also in Kiev of Russia, its dominant political and cultural centre, mosaics, which date from about 1045, were the work of Byzantine craftsmen. Other Byzantine artists and artisans worked intermittently in the area from that time onward, so that Russian art as a whole was founded on a Byzantine basis. Architecture and icon painting grew up as important independent arts, both having their beginnings during this period. From Kiev the Byzantine style of architecture soon spread throughout the principalities of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal. The emphasis of the Byzantine church on the physical splendour of its edifices was a cardinal factor in determining the characteristics of Russian ecclesiastical architecture. Everything connected with the design and decoration of the new churches followed the Byzantine pattern; and the standard scheme of the Greek church –the cross inscribed in a rectangle and the dome supported on piers or on pendentives –became the accepted type for Orthodox churches. The design and support of the central dome or cupola, together with the number and disposition of the subsidiary cupolas, remained for a long time the principal theme of Russian architecture. The main monuments of Kiev were the Church of the Tithes (989–996), the Cathedral of St. Sophia (1037), and the Church of the Assumption in the Monastery of the Caves (1073–78). All of these churches were built in the Byzantine tradition, though certain influences from Bulgaria, Georgia, and Armenia can be discerned. The Cathedral of St. Sophia is the only structure of this period that still stands and retains, at least in the interior, something of its original form. The central part of the cathedral was in the form of a Greek cross. The nave and four aisles terminated in semicircular apses, and it had 13 cupolas (symbolizing Christ and his Apostles). It was reconstructed and enlarged at the end of the 17^th century, and it was later obscured by additional bays and stories to its lateral galleries, a new tower, and many bizarre Baroque cupolas. Only five apses and the central interior portion survive from the 11^th century.

After Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, Russia continued for several centuries to develop a national art that had grown out of the middle Byzantine period. After the hegemony in the world of Orthodox Christianity shifted to Muscovite Russia, Moscow, having become the new city of Constantine –the "third Rome" and aspiring to rival the older centres of culture, launched a building program commensurate with its international importance.

PART 2 / BYZANTINE ART

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) from about the 5^th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The term has also been used for the art of states which were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire and shared a common culture with it, such as Bulgaria, Serbia or Russia, and also Venice, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire. It has also been used for the art of peoples of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of the Ottoman Empire after 1453. In some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia, Greece, Serbia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.

Byzantine art grew from the art of Ancient Greece, and never lost sight of its classical heritage, but was distinguished from it in a number of ways. The most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of Ancient Greek art was replaced by a Christian ethic. If the purpose of classical art was the glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God, and of His Son, Jesus.

This had a number of consequences. Classical artistic tradition of depicting nude figures was banished. The triumph of Christianity brought with it a Christian moral derived from its roots in Judaism and replaced this classical preoccupation with human body. The figures of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints and martyrs of Christian tradition were elevated, and became the dominant – indeed almost exclusive –focus of Byzantine art. This is also connected with the most important form of Byzantine art, still dominant, –the icon. Icon creates reverence in worship and serves as an existential link to God. Icon has been called prayer, hymn, sermon in form and color. It's used as an object or veneration in Orthodox churches and private homes. Another consequence of the triumph of Christianity was a decline in the importance of naturalistic representation in art. The Byzantines lost interest in the realistic portraiture. Ideal images of Christ, the saints and martyrs were used, and this became the norm of Byzantine art.

This is sometimes interpreted on the West as a decline in artistic skills and standards. It is only partially true that some of the technical expertise of the classical world, particularly in sculpture, was lost in the Byzantine world and it was not seen there as representing as any decline. It was seen as the harnessing of artistic skill to the service of the one true Belief, rather than using art for the production of pagan idols or the gratification of personal vanity and sensual pleasure, as the ancients had done. The Byzantine artist sought to depict the inner or spiritual nature of his subjects. To this end simplification and stylization were perfectly acceptable.

The Byzantines developed new techniques and reached new heights. Byzantine gold and silversmith, enamel-work, jewelry and textiles preserved the quality of anything done in ancient times. In mosaics and icon-painting they developed major and original art forms of their own. In architecture they achieved masterpieces such as Hagia Sophia, a building of superior scale and magnificence to anything in the ancient world.

Byzantine achievements in mosaic decoration brought this art to an unprecedented level of monumentality and expressive power. Mosaics were applied to the domes, half-domes, and other available surfaces of Byzantine churches in an established hierarchical order. The center of the dome was reserved for the representation of the Pantocrator, or Jesus as the ruler of theuniverse, whereas other sacred personages occupied lower spaces in descending order of importance.

The entire church thus served as a tangible evocation of the celestial order; this conception was further enhanced by the stylized poses and gestures of the figures, their hieratic gaze, and the luminous shimmer of the gold backgrounds. Because of the destruction of many major monuments in Constantinople proper, large ensembles of mosaic decoration have survived chiefly outside the capital, in such places as Salonica, Nicaea, and Daphni in Greece and Ravenna in Italy.

An important aspect of Byzantine artistic activity was the painting of devotional panels, since the cult of icons played a leading part in both religious and secular life. Icon painting usually employed the encaustic technique. Little scope was afforded individuality; the effectiveness of the religious image as a vehicle of divine presence was held to depend on its fidelity to an established prototype. A large group of devotional images has been preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.

The development of Byzantine painting may also be seen in manuscript illumination. Among notable examples of Byzantine illumination are a lavishly illustrated 9^th-century copy of the Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus and two works believed to date from a 10^th-century revival of classicism, the Joshua Rotulus (or Roll) and the Paris Psalter.

Enamel, ivory, and metalwork objects of Byzantine workmanship were highly prized throughout the Middle Ages; many such works are found in the treasuries of Western churches. Most of these objects were reliquaries or devotional panels, although an important series of ivory caskets with pagan subjects has also been preserved. Byzantine silks, the manufacture of which was a state monopoly, were also eagerly sought and treasured as goods of utmost luxury.

 

TEXT 9. RUSSIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE THROUGH THE CENTURIES

PART 1 / A GLIMPSE OF RUSSIAN ART

Russian art and architecture remain a mystery to most outsiders, even as the country itself has opened up to the world. Knowing just a little about the evolution of Russian fine and applied arts, and about the political movements that often drove them, will make this trip less overwhelming and more eye-opening.

For a millennium, from Russia's 9^th-century conversion to Orthodox Christianity until the 19^th century, Russian art was almost exclusively defined by icon painting. This Byzantine practice of painting saints or biblical scenes on carved wooden panels was guided rigidly by church canon, so the icons appear much more uniform and repetitive than western European religious art of the Renaissance, for example. The best advice for a novice viewer is to pick one or two icons in a room and study their lines and balance – do not look for realism or classic proportion, or expect to be uplifted. They are meant to be somewhat haunting and introspective. Some Russian icon painters managed to infuse originality into their work, but it takes a trained eye to notice the distinctions. Andrei Rublev was the most famous and most controversial medieval icon painter, and brought the genre to a new level in the 14^th century. His works are best appreciated at Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and Trinity Monastery at Sergiev Posad. Spaso-Andronnikov Monastery in Moscow, where he lived and worked, has none of his original work but does contain an informative exhibit about him. The tradition of icon painting was inherited by the Russians from Byzantium, where it began as an offshoot of the mosaic and fresco tradition of early Byzantine churches. During the 8^th and 9^th centuries, the iconoclasm controversy in the Orthodox church called into question whether religious images were a legitimate practice or sacrilegious idolatry. Although the use of images wasn't banned, it did prompt a thorough appreciation of the difference between art intended to depict reality and art designed for spiritual contemplation. That difference is one of the reasons that the artistic style of icons can seem so invariant. Certain kinds of balance and harmony became established as reflections of divinity, and as such they invited careful reproduction and subtle refinement rather than striking novelty. Although this philosophy resulted in a comparatively slow evolution of style, icon painting evolved considerably over the centuries. During the 14^th century in particular, icon painting in Russia took on a much greater degree of subjectivity and personal expression.

Unlike the pictorial tradition that westerners have become accustomed to, the Russian icon tradition is not about the representation of physical space or appearance. Icons are images intended to aid contemplative prayer, and in that sense they are more concerned with conveying meditative harmony than with laying out a realistic scene. Rather than sizing up the figure in an icon by judging its distortion level, take a look at the way the lines that compose the figure are arranged and balanced, the way they move your eye around. If you get the sense that the figures are a little haunting, that is good. They weren't painted to be charming but to inspire reflection and self-examination. If you feel as if you have to stand and appreciate every icon you see, you are not going to enjoy any of them. Try instead to take a little more time with just one or two, not examining their every detail but simply enjoying a few moments of thought as your eye takes its own course. The best collections of icons are to be found in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, though of course many Russian churches have preserved or restored their traditional works.

Russian art fell out of favor after Peter the Great transferred the capital to St. Petersburg in the early 1700^s and adorned it with French and Italian masterpieces, or imitations thereof. It wasn't until the mid-19^th century that the Slavophile movement brought real success to Russian painters. The Wanderers, or peredvizhniki, broke from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and its Western-style traditions to focus on portraying Russian village life. Standouts of this period include Ivan Kramskoi and Ilya Repin, whose works are well displayed at Tretyakov Gallery and at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

The rising influence of European culture in Russia during the 17^th and 18^th centuries brought Russian artwork closer to the familiar traditions of western painting. It was not until the end of the 19^th century that the next great body of uniquely Russian artistic styles arose, having developed in conjunction with liberal forces of social reform. The late 19^th century saw Russia's version of the Arts and Crafts movement, relying on traditional Russian applied arts. Russian artists also embraced what they call Style Moderne, or Art Nouveau. Stunning interpretations of this style can be found in Mikhail Vrubel's Dream Princess mosaic around the top of the Metropol hotel's facade and in a related, room-size mosaic by him in Tretyakov Gallery. This modern movement took many different directions almost from its inception, and it would be impossible to describe all of them. However, even a very general acquaintance with their common ideas and interests makes their work much more accessible. From the start, the modern art movement was concerned with breaking away from the classical tradition and creating a new kind of art that was intimately engaged with the daily life of Russian society. It developed a renewed interest in traditional Russian art forms, including both decorative folk art and, of course, icon painting. From decorative art it gained an appreciation of the power of abstract geometrical patterns –lines, shapes, and color were used to construct rhythms and energetic forms, not necessarily to depict objects or actual spaces. The re-examination of icon painting made painters more aware of the power of a flat, two-dimensional visual perspective. In other words, they realized that they could treat the canvas like a canvas, rather than trying to give the impression that it was a window into a space.

The political upheaval of the early 20^th century was a major engine of Russian artistic growth. Vibrant colors, angular shapes, and the intensity of urban life replaced the bucolic rural scenes, and the Russian Avante-Garde movement flourished. Kasimir Malevich and Mikhail Larionov explored the genres of Futurism, Rayonism (Russia's only truly abstract art), and Suprematism. Belarusian Marc Chagall produced surreal and surprising paintings during this period. Many of these works are on display at Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (the old and new wings) and at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Early Soviet leaders initially harnessed the creativity of free-thinking artists for propaganda purposes, and the posters, sculptures, and public spaces designed by Russian artists in the 1920^s are among the world's most stirring artworks. The Constructivists, including Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, and Varvara Stepanova, incorporated technological and industrial themes and energy into their work. Their works are only beginning to emerge from museum storehouses, and some are on display at Tretyakov Gallery and at St. Petersburg's Russian Museum. Russia's Avante-Garde contributed more to world art than is usually appreciated, largely because the Soviet government so effectively erased or discredited their work by the 1930^s, championing instead the bold images but less daring ideas of Socialist Realism.

The propaganda poster came to replace the icon as Russia's chief canvas for most of the Soviet era, until freedom from artistic constrictions in the late 1980^s and 1990^s produced a wave of bold, experimental art. Today, Russia's artists seem to be casting about for a new role.

Various forms of Russion handicraft such as khokhloma, Dymkovo toy, gzhel, Zhostovo painting, Filimonov toys, pisanka, palekh, and, of course, matryoshka doll are famous around the whole world.

 

PART 2 / RUSSIAN ARCHITECTURE

Archeological diggings and researches revealed that Old Rus’ did not have monumental stone architecture till the end of the 10^th century. There used to be wooden constructions and earth-houses. In the early Christian period wooden architecture still prevailed, because wood was more affordable. Mainly these were big town cathedrals that were built of stone. Construction in old Russia was principally of horizontal logs from trees abundantly available in the forested zones where most Russians lived. Floor plans of log structures were typically combinations of square or rectangular cells, whether the structures were houses, palaces, fortification towers, or churches. In church architecture, carpenters reproduced the two basic plans inherited from Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Christian masonry churches: an extended east-west plan of sanctuary, nave, and narthex, or a centrally oriented plan of a square or octagon of logs, sometimes with extensions built around a central nave. Several open-air museums of traditional wooden architecture have been established in Russia, among them Suzdal, Novgorod, Kostroma, Kizhi, Arkhangelsk, and Lake Baikal.

One of the first stone constructions in Old Rus’ was erected by Greek masters in the late 10^th century: it was the 25-domed Church of Our Lady in Kiev. Only the basis of this building has come down to us. During the Tatar Yoke the invaders burned the church down and buried the last defenders of the city under its ruins. Russian architecture was church-centric and followed Orthodox stricture for centuries. Churches were built in the shape of a Greek cross, with few windows and steep roofs. The onion domes became a prominent feature in the 11^th century. The iconostasis, a screen in front of the altar with a careful hierarchy of icons, is the key object to look for inside a church. By the time of adopting Christianity the Old Rus’ was already good at wooden sculpture, moulding, and embossing. As for architecture, it surely existed, but it is hardly possible to say now at what stage of development it was, since not a single monument of the pre-Christian epoch has survived: something did not stand the test of time, while the major part was presumably destroyed by people. Christians zealously ruined everything that could remind of polytheism.

Having chosen to join the Byzantine branch of Christianity, Russia chose Byzantine style of architecture as well. Rather modest outer appearance hiding sumptuous majestic interior, preference for rectangular domical basilicas and simple proportions – all these typical Byzantine features were adopted by Russian church architecture. For many centuries stone constructions that had appeared shortly after the christening of Kievian Rus were the privilege of the church; only few civil stone buildings from the early centuries preserved. The Early-Russian architectural heyday was closely connected with Kiev, Novgorod, Pskov and Vladimir. Being just a small city Moscow was not exactly a trendsetter in architecture then. Though stone building in the 10–11^th centuries was mainly carried out by Byzantine architects, their creations differed much from the temples in their native land.

The overseas masters had to solve new tasks in Russia, such as raising very high church galleries and delubrums, while using unaccustomed building matrials. Moreover, they had to cope with the tastes of customers, brought up in traditions and aesthetic likings of the old wooden architecture. Thus, originating on the basis of Byzantine architecture, Russian stone architecture even as its early stage had its peculiar features and by the second half of the 12^th century developed its own traditions.

From the 12^th century the stone laying styles differed from one town to another. Various architectural schools appeared in the period of feudal disunity. The differences in architectural methods were mainly connected to the building materials used in this or that land. In Novgorod, for instance, the most widespread material was limestone, while in Kiev, Smolensk, Chernigov and Ryazan the masons still used plinth (broad and flat burnt stone that was the basic building material in Byzantine architecture and the Russian church building of the 10–13^th cc.). The majority of churches of the 12^th – early 13^th cc. were one-domed.

In the 14–15^th centuries earlier than in other towns, brick building was renewed in Novgorod and Pskov. Resorting to the former traditions, their residents built dozens of smaller churches. Among them are notable monuments of architecture and painting, such as Fyodor Stratilat Church on Brook (1361) and Our Saviour’s Church in Ilyina street (1374) in Novgorod, and St. Bazil’s Church on Hill (1410) in Pskov.

A major building project in Moscow in the late 15^th to early 16^th centuries was the reconstruction of the Kremlin, the central citadel of the city. Because of the lack of experience and skill among native builders, architects from northern Italy were imported for the task. Italians designed and built the present red brick-faced Kremlin walls, the Cathedrals of the Dormition and the Archangel Michael, the Palace of Facets, and the Great Ivan Bell Tower and adjacent Dormition Belfry. Least Italianate in the appearance of these structures is the Dormition Cathedral (1470^s) by Aristotele Rudolfo Fioravanti, an engineer who copied — as instructed — the cubic mass surmounted by five domes of the 12^th-century Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir. Most importantly, Fioravanti and his colleagues introduced Russian builders to better brick and mortar construction techniques, making possible an unprecedented building boom throughout Russia in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Standing on Cathedral Square in the Kremlin, one can identify architectural elements that mirror the political and territorial rise of Muscovite Russia: architectural compositions and ornamentation from regions incorporated into Muscovy (Pskov, Novgorod, Vladimir), from village wooden architecture, and from Italy. In turn, given the prestige of major buildings in the capital city, Kremlin structures became models for buildings throughout Russia. For example, the Dormition Cathedral became an oftrepeated model for subsequent major cathedrals (Novodevichii Convent in Moscow, Vologda, Kostroma, the Trinity-St. Sergii Monastery outside Moscow, Rostov Velikii, and others).

The 16^th century saw stepped-up building of stone churches and fortresses, though on the whole Rus’, both urban and rural, remained wooden. The Renaissance traits introduced by Italian architects were hardly kept up by Russian architecture which turned to the revival of Vladimir and Suzdal heritage.

In the 17^th century decorative elements strengthened in Russian architecture. In spite of the opposition of church, secular principles permeated more and more into cult construction. Churches acquired nearer similarity to secular palaces with their asymmetrical forms, intricate volumes, and sumptuous decoration. Wood and masonry architecture influenced one another in numerous ways. In wooden log churches, for example, the curve of a masonry apse is imitated by a half-octagon of shortened logs. The "storied" effect of some masonry churches (for example, the Church of the Intercession at Fili, 1690^s, Moscow) is copied from log churches surmounted by tiers of receding log octagons (for example, the wooden Church of the Transfiguration, 18^th century, Museum of Wooden Architecture, Suzdal). Especially popular in village wooden church architecture was a tent-shaped superstructure, usually with eight slopes arising from an octagonal drum. The drum in turn was placed on one or more square or octagonal bases (for example, the wooden Church of the Dormition from the village of Kuritsko, 1595, Novgorod open-air museum). A masonry imitation is the brick Church of the Ascension at Kolomenskoe, 1532, Moscow.

Basil's Cathedral (16^th to 17^th centuries) on Red Square in Moscow represents a sort of encyclopedic combination of elements from both wooden and masonry architecture. Its central chapel, for example, imitates a log tower/tent structure, topped by an onion dome. The Russian onion-shaped dome was functional in design — to shed rain and prevent snow buildup — and also symbolic; its shape was likened to a candle flame of faith reaching up to heaven. Among masonry influences, St. Basil's has exterior ornamentation borrowed from the walls and churches of the nearby Italian-built Kremlin.

If Muscovite architecture achieved a synthesis of regional, village, and Italian influences in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, that synthesis was shattered in the 17^th century when west European influences entered Russia from Ukraine, a portion of which was incorporated into Muscovy in the mid-17^th century. A so-called Moscow baroque decorative style characterized many churches and palaces in the second half of the 17^th century (the Church of the Trinity in the Nikitniki Courtyard, mid-17^th century, Moscow, is an example), but aside from baroque decorative elements, these structures show little of the balance and symmetry of the baroque style of Western Europe. Several regional centres developed their own schools of architecture, notably Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, whose 17^th-century churches are crowned by elongated slender drums under the domes.

Building and design in Muscovy was typically a family affair: a builder would pass on his skills to his sons (although none of them might be literate) and design plans might not be drawn up in advance of a construction project. With the founding and buildup of St. Petersburg, beginning in the early 18^th century, the old Muscovite building trade became the new "science" of arkhitektura, studied in special new schools where pupils were taught foreign languages, mathematics, and classical architecture. Teachers and textbooks first came from west Europe but were quickly followed by newly trained Russian masters and Russian translations. A Chancellory of Construction was established which supervised training and construction, first for St. Petersburg, then later in the 18^th century for cities throughout the country.

Beginning with Peter I the Great (ruled 1682–1725), west European architectural trends determined the overall style of "high" architecture — almost all significant government and private construction — and the personal taste of the ruler determined the current style employed. Peter's favorite architect, Domenico Trezzini, employed the restrained baroque of northern Europe, for example in his 400-metre-long Twelve Colleges Building, 1722–1742, St. Petersburg. The very existence of such a large government building, the likes of which did not exist in Moscow at the time, indicates a new and major investment by the government in an extensive administrative system. The planned design of St. Petersburg, with its neat grids and patterns of streets, regular building heights and setbacks, wide avenues, and huge squares and public spaces, brings to mind another 18^th-century city planned from scratch and designed to impress citizens and foreigners alike: Washington, D.C.

Major architectural styles after Peter were a fancy baroque, or rococo during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (ruled 1741–1762), exemplified by the works of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (Winter Palace, Smolnyi Convent, Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo), and classical or neoclassical in the reign of Catherine II the Great (ruled 1762–1796), for example the Hermitage Theater by Giacomo Quarenghi, the Great Palace at Pavlovsk by Charles Cameron and others, and the Marble Palace by Antonio Rinaldi.

The "St. Petersburgization" of architecture in other cities — in particular, the dispersion of classical or neoclassical norms — gained momentum during Catherine's reign and continued to influence Russian architecture throughout the imperial period. An early example of classical architecture in Moscow is the Pashkov House, attributed to V. I. Bazhenov (1780^s), now a part of the Russian State Library, formerly the Lenin Library.

The Revivalist movement of the 19^th century saw the return of traditional Russian church features such as the decorated cupolas seen in St. Petersburg's Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. After the victory over Napoleon, the Empire style caught on for Russian aristocratic residences, proof of which can be found around the streets of Prechistenka and Ostozhenka in Moscow. During the 19^th century a fresh interest in traditional Russian forms arose. Like the associated movement in the visual arts, this revival of older styles participated in the creation of an avant-garde movement in the early 20^th century. For a brief period following the 1917 Revolution, the avant-garde Constructivist movement gained sufficient influence to design major buildings. Lenin's Mausoleum, designed in 1924 by Alexey Shchusev, is the most notable of the few remaining Constructivist buildings. By the late 1920^s, the avant-garde found itself repudiated by Stalin's increasingly conservative state. Moving away from modernism, Stalinist-era architecture is best exemplified by the seven nearly indistinguishable "wedding-cake" skyscrapers that dominate the city's skyline.

Early Soviet architecture was as creative and energized as the period's art, with architects such as Konstantin Melnikov forging functional, elegant buildings that made the Soviet idea (of a progressive, egalitarian state) seem the pinnacle of modernity. (His most famous house is near the Arbat at 6 Krivoarbatsky Pereulok.) The Moscow metro system was designed by the country's top architects and is an excellent place to view the juxtaposition of tradition (flowery capitals) with Soviet politics (statues of the proletariat). It's also one of the most beautiful subway systems in the world. Later, the "Stalin Gothic" style appeared in dozens of towering buildings around Moscow (spreading as far as Warsaw and Prague), with turrets and spires on administrative or residential buildings. Two prime examples are the Ukraina hotel and Moscow State University. Architecture after Stalin descended into the bleak, boxy towers that mar the skyline of any Russian city. Today's architectural trends are set by the nouveau riche Russians building multimillion-dollar "cottages" on the outskirts of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The guiding principle often seems to be "as big and extravagant as possible." They make for amusing viewing, though many are surrounded by tall walls and security systems to stop you from doing just that.

In more recent years, the dissolution of the Soviet state and a renewed interest in traditional Russian culture have produced a new appreciation of more modest folk architecture. The few remaining examples of traditional wooden architecture, such as those on display in the outdoor architectural museum in Kostroma, are now among Russia's most treasured architectural monuments.

PART 3 / ST.BASIL’S CATHEDRAL – THE MUSIC OF RUSSIAN SOUL FROZEN IN TIME

Every capital has a well-known landmark making it easily recognizable. In Moscow, the Cathedral of the Protecting Veil of the Morther of God, better known as the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed (or St. Basil’s Cathedral, as it is often called in English), standing in Red Square is such a landmark. It is for nearly 450 years now that this architectural ensemble of inimitable beauty and grandeur has been filling our hearts with joy, excitement and pride. The Cathedral of the Protecting Veil of the Morther of God upon the Moat was built in fulfillment of a vow made by Czar Ivan the Terrible before his successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in the besieged city of Kazan in 1552 and with the blessing of Metropolitan Makary. The victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the Moat ran ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname “St. Basil’s” after the “holy fool” Basil the Blessed (1468–1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil’s was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. The cathedral was constructed under the supervision of Russian master builders Postnik and Barma in 1555–1561.The legend says that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. (He did in fact go on to build another cathedral in Vladimir despite his ocular impediment!) Uniquely conceived by Metropolitan Makary, the cathedral was to epitomize the image of the Holy City of Jerusalem. As a result, its nine churches, most of which were consecrated in memory of major events of the victorious Kazan campaign, were built on a single foundation.

St. Basil’s is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. As it was underlined above, its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church’s namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church’s design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem – the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ’s Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom – the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral’s star-like plan carries yet more meaning – the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City.

The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral’s exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17^th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970^s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession’s priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16^th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil’s as an outdoor altar.

The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city’s tumultuous history. There is a legend that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil’s that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it to be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion.

Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevic regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church’s senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930^s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that st. Basil’s be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, Pyotr Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail.

An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow’s most famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building.

 

TEXT 10. THE ETERNAL BEAUTY – ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE

PART 1 / THE EVERLASTING HERITAGE OF FRENCH ART AND ARCHITECTURE

To say that the French revere their time spent soaking up arts and culture is an understatement. Particularly in Paris — where an abundance of venues is concentrated within a few square miles — it is common to find the French devoting their weekends to exploring the wealth of museums and cultural havens; many of the provincial areas are likewise blessed with impressive monuments to art and architecture.

Not surprisingly, one can attribute both the people's pride in their heritage, as well as the sheer extent of France's artistic wealth, to a long, colorful and often tumultuous history. Much of the French thirst for cultural enrichment and education dates back to the Crusades, when books, artistic influences, mathematics, and philosophical thought were carried back to the Gallic people from distant, advanced civilizations. Though relatively few artifacts remain from earlier eras, art in ancient Gaul may be traced back through the Merovingian period (beginning in the late 15^th century), to the Roman Empire (starting in the 1^st century B.C.), the ancient Celts (5^th century B.C.), and even to the Cro-Magnons of Paleolithic times (10,000 to 32,000 years ago).

During the past millenium, many of the icons and most prolific minds in philosophy, literature, poetry, theatre, painting, sculpture, architecture, and science can be credited to the French — or, in some cases, expatriates living in France. Encouragement and support for artistic endeavor has been a hallmark of France's kings, emperors, and presidents to this day. In order to preserve such a rich cultural heritage, and to make it more widely available outside of Paris, a Ministry of Culture was established by the French government in 1959.

The earliest artistic remains in France date from the Paleolithic Period. By far the best known examples of prehistoric rock art are the cave paintings of Altamira, Font de Gaume, Lascaux, Les Combarelles, Niaux Cave, Les Trois Frères, and other sites in southern France and northern Spain, which were discovered during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. These paintings, associated with the remains of the Cro-Magnon peoples, have been widely reproduced in popular books and periodicals and have thus become familiar to the general public.

Periods of Celtic culture from the late 5^th century B.C. to the 1^st century A.D., and of Roman occupation from the 1^st century to the 5^th century A.D., saw the building of towns and the creation of artifacts.

It is not possible, however, to speak of a nationally distinct French art before the mid-5^th century A.D., when the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties established authority over this region.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, France was left as it had been before the Roman conquest, divided among many small regional tribes. These became small kingdoms and duchies between the 2^nd and the 5^th century A.D. Christianity spread during this period, leading to the foundation of many abbeys and monastic communities in the 5^th to the 7^th century. Few artifacts survive from the Merovingian period, named for the dynasty of Frankish kings that began with Clovis (c.481). The most notable Merovingian survival isthe baptistery of Saint Jean atPoitiers,dating from the 7^th century. Merovingian churches, with floor plans based on the Roman basilica, had stone walls, timber roofs, prominent bell towers, and echoed classical motifs in their ornamentation.

In the 8^th century, under the authority of Charlemagne — the first king to create a unified realm — a great building campaign began. Carolingian churches were intricately decorated with pictorial murals, mosaics, goldwork, and tapestries. The richness of Carolingian church interiors was equaled by the illuminated manuscripts created at the monasteries of Reims, Tours, Metz, and Paris. The best preserved of Carolingian churches is the Chapel of Charlemagne (796–804) at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), whose octagonal sanctuary reflects the influence on Carolingian art of the Early Christian, Byzantine, and Greco-Roman traditions. The Aachen chapel is modeled on the octagonal Byzantine church of San Vitale (526–47) in Ravenna.

In larger Carolingian churches, built from the 8^th to the 10^th century, several important innovations were made, including the construction of an elaborate westwork, or entrance facade flanked by towers; an ambulatory, or semicircular aisle around the altar, allowing worshipers to circulate without disturbing services; and the use of the composite pier instead of a simple, massive column to support the upper walls and roof above the nave.

Two forces affected the development of church architecture in France from the 10^th to the 12^th century. One was the growth of large, wealthy monastic orders, and the other was a rapid increase in the number of religious pilgrimages to holy shrines.

The Romanesque style in architecture can be thought of as a product of the architectural experiments of the Carolingian period and as a response to the needs of monasteries and pilgrimage churches. Romanesque style varied from region to region, reflecting local traditions and requirements. The largest and most important Romanesque structure was the Benedictine monastery church at Cluny in Burgundy (begun in 1088 and destroyed in the 19^th century). Cluny was the center of the Benedictine order in France. The massive monastery church, crowned with a stone vault, contained five aisles, two transepts, a chevet (an ambulatory with chapels radiating from the apse), an imposing westwork, and a narthex. The pattern established at Cluny was imitated by Benedictine churches throughout France.

The ability to surpass the limitations of a wooden beam ceiling by constructing a stone barrel vault allowed the builders of Cluny to make the body of the nave unusually broad. Although the use of wooden roofs continued in northern France, the stone vault was one of the most successful Romanesque innovations. The stone roof took several forms: a barrel vault, pointed as at Autun Cathedral (1120–32), or a groin vault, as at Vezelay (1089–1206). Although the walls were made extremely thick to support the stone vaults and give an impression of enormous weight, the interiors were well lit through clerestory windows set high in the walls of the nave above the lower roofs covering the side aisles.

The principal fulfillment of the devout medieval Christian was a pilgrimage to Rome, or to one of the many European shrines that contained holy relics. Pilgrimage routes crossed national boundaries to shrines as distant as Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and churches were built along these well-traveled routes, many of which traversed France. Romanesque sculpture developed as decorations in these pilgrimage churches and is characterized by its highly stylized depictions of natural forms. The most prominent location for religious sculpture was in the tympanum over the main west door leading to the center aisle of the church. Here artists depicted scenes from the life of Christ or other subjects familiar to pilgrims and suitable for their contemplation. A fine example of such a carved tympanum survives at the church of Saint Pierre in Moissac. Sculpture also adorned columns, capitals, wells in cloisters, and crypts.

The ancient art of enamelwork, which had continued to develop in France throughout the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, reached unprecedented heights in the 11^th and 12^th centuries, when the technique of champleve came into general use. Limoges was a center of production, and its enamelwork was prized throughout Europe.

The Gothic style grew out of the Romanesque in a surge of activity that began in the mid-12^th century. The increasing affluence of that period brought new commercial centers into prominence. Mercantile interests sponsored the construction of great cathedrals, thus giving the cities the initiative in artistic innovation over the rural monastic and pilgrimage churches that had dominated the preceding centuries. Gothic art evolved in Northern France and spread throughout Europe, becoming the universal style from the 13^th through the 16^th century. Although the influence of Romanesque architecture had spread beyond France, Gothic was the first French style to dominate Europe. Gothic architecture began with the construction of cathedrals in Noyon (begun c.1150–70) and Laon (begun c.1160) and of the abbey church of Saint-Denis near Paris. It continued to develop in churches close to Paris, at Senlis (1153–84) and Sens (begun c.1140), and in the cathedrals of Reims (begun 1210) and Rouen (begun after 1200). Saint-Denis, the most important achievement of early Gothic architecture, was built on the foundations of an earlier church between 1137 and 1144. The Abbott Suger intended to make Saint-Denis a splendid showplace in keeping with its function as the royal abbey church of France and burial place of French kings.

In order to make these Gothic churches larger, the ribbed vault, capable of spanning large areas, was devised. Ribbed vaults were made loftier by enlarging the clerestory zone and its windows to enormous size, inserting a new zone, the triforium, below it, and supporting them on an arcade of high piers lining the nave. To bear the greater stress of these taller, broader interiors, and to create larger window areas, a system of external supports or flying buttresses was developed. This created a greater sense of unity between the spaces of the nave and the adjacent aisles and ambulatory chapels. As the builders became more sophisticated, they were able to achieve ever grander effects at Notre Dame de Paris (begun 1163), Chartres Cathedral (1145; rebuilt after a fire begun 1194), Amiens Cathedral (begun 1220), the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (begun after 1243, completed 1248), and Reims. The windows were enlarged, not to lighten the interiors, but rather for extensive use of stained glass, which attained the height of its development in the late 12^th and 13^th centuries at Chartres and the Sainte-Chapelle.

Both the exteriors of these churches and certain interior elements were decorated with elaborate sculpture. Facades were populated with large figures of kings; portals were flanked by pillar-statues, called jamb figures, of saints, angels, and apostles; and other parts of the building were encrusted with decorative cusps, finials, and grotesque gargoyles. Gothic sculptors took a revolutionary step beyond their Romanesque predecessors in their conception of the figures as independent, almost free-standing statues rather than as reliefs. From the columnar verticality of the jamb statues at Chartres, Gothic sculpture evolved quickly toward the sympathetic depiction of character in the figures at Reims (c.1224–45). Gothic sculpture became more sophisticated in the ensuing centuries. One of the finest 14^th-century creations is the refined and mannered figure of the Virgin that stands in the south transept of Notre Dame de Paris.

The Italian Renaissance began to influence French art in the last decade of the 15^th century, when Charles VIII returned (1496) from his conquest of Naples accompanied by several Italian artists. Italian styles first appeared in the chateaux of the Loire Valley and became predominant during the reign (1515–47) of Francis I. Initially, however, Italian decorative elements were superimposed on Gothic principles. The earliest example is the Chateau d'Amboise (c.1495), where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. The Chateau de Chambord (1519–36) is a more elaborate marriage of Gothic structure and Italianate ornament. This style progressed in the work of Italian architects such as Sebastiano Serlio, who was engaged after 1540 in much of the work at the Chateau de Fontainebleau.

At Fontainebleau grand interior galleries and ballrooms were decorated by Italian artists who formed the first school of Fontainebleau. The principal figures of this school were Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio, and Niccolo dell' Abbate (1512 – c.1570). The art of engraving was also developed in France by foreign artists who helped disseminate the Italianate style.

The climate of active royal and aristocratic patronage encouraged many talented artists and architects, including Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (c.1520-1585), Philibert Delorme, (c.1510 – 70), Giacomo Vignola, and Pierre Lescot. One of the finest surviving monuments of the French Renaissance is the southwest interior facade of the Cour Carree of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, designed by Lescot and covered with exterior carvings by Jean Goujon. Strong regional schools appeared in Lorraine as the arts continued to flourish under the reigns of Henry II and Henry III.

The reign of Henry IV (1589–1610) was a period of competent and enlightened government. The king's marriage to Marie de Medici of the ruling house of Florence helped to ensure high esteem for Italian artistic accomplishments. The Place des Vosges (1605), then called the Place Royale, and the Place Dauphine (1607) were planned and built. In Paris a second generation of artists — called the second school of Fontainebleau — were trained or inspired by Italian painters to perpetuate the Italianate tradition under the patronage of Henry IV. In the second and third quarters of the century, during the ministries of Cardinal Richelieu to Louis XIII and of Cardinal Mazarin to the child-king Louis XIV, France became a great European power. These sage men required prestigious dwellings suited to their station. The architects Jacques Lemercier — builder of Richelieu's Palais Cardinal (begun 1633), now site of the the Palais Royale, and of the Church of the Sorbonne (begun 1635) — Francois Mansart and Louis Le Vau adapted the Italian baroque style to French needs.

During the personal reign of Louis XIV (1661–1715) the arts served the state under the direction of the powerful minister of commerce and of royal works, Jean Baptiste Colbert. The Louvre was enlarged, and the magnificent palace of Versailles (c.1669–90) was built as a fitting residence for the powerful king of France. The leading architect of the latter half of the 17^th century was Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who designed parts of the palace of Versailles, the Orangerie, and numerous squares and public buildings in Paris.

Italy played a fundamental role in the redirection of French painting in the 17^th century. Some French artists, notably Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, created new modes of painting while living in Italy. Other artists, such as Simon Vouet, fostered a native French baroque style. Colbert founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1663) to protect this group of artists and enlist their services for the state. Charles Le Brun was named first painter to the king and guided the academy. Under his leadership, artists celebrated the triumphs of the Sun King. Their work included mural paintings, altarpieces, tapestry cartoons, and other large-scale na