Renaissance or Renaissance (Italian Rinascimento, French Renaissance) - restoration of ancient education, revival of classical literature, art, philosophy, ideals of the ancient world, distorted or forgotten in the “dark” and “backward” period of the Middle Ages for Western Europe. It was the form that the cultural movement known under the name of humanism took from the mid-14th to the beginning of the 16th centuries (see brief and articles about it). It is necessary to distinguish humanism from the Renaissance, which is only the most characteristic feature of humanism, which sought support for its worldview in classical antiquity. The birthplace of the Renaissance is Italy, where the ancient classical (Greco-Roman) tradition, which had a national character for the Italian, never faded. In Italy the oppression of the Middle Ages was never felt particularly strongly. The Italians called themselves "Latins" and considered themselves descendants of the ancient Romans. Although the initial impetus for the Renaissance came partly from Byzantium, the participation of the Byzantine Greeks in it was negligible.

Renaissance. Video

In France and Germany, the antique style was mixed with national elements, which in the first period of the Renaissance, the Early Renaissance, appeared more sharply than in subsequent eras. The late Renaissance developed ancient examples into more luxurious and powerful forms, from which Baroque gradually developed. While in Italy the spirit of the Renaissance almost uniformly penetrated all the arts, in other countries only architecture and sculpture were influenced by ancient models. The Renaissance also underwent national processing in the Netherlands, England and Spain. After the Renaissance degenerated into rococo, a reaction came, expressed in the strictest adherence to ancient art, Greek and Roman models in all their primitive purity. But this imitation (especially in Germany) finally led to excessive dryness, which in the early 60s of the XIX century. tried to overcome it by returning to the Renaissance. However, this new reign of the Renaissance in architecture and art lasted only until 1880. From that time on, Baroque and Rococo began to flourish alongside it again.

What is the Renaissance?

Renaissance is a globally significant era in the cultural history of Europe, which replaced the Middle Ages and preceded the Enlightenment. It falls - in Italy - at the beginning of the 14th century (everywhere in Europe - from the 15-16th centuries) - the last quarter of the 16th centuries and in some cases - the first decades of the 17th century.

The term Renaissance is already found among Italian humanists, for example, Giorgio Vasari. In its modern meaning, the term was introduced into use by the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet. Nowadays, the term Renaissance has become a metaphor for cultural flourishing.

The distinctive features of the Renaissance are anthropocentrism, that is, an extraordinary interest in man as an individual and his activities. This also includes the secular nature of culture. Society is becoming interested in the culture of antiquity, and something like its “revival” is taking place. This, in fact, is where the name of such an important period of time came from. Outstanding figures of the Renaissance include the immortal Michelangelo, Niccolo Machiavelli and the ever-living Leonardo da Vinci.

Renaissance literature is a major movement in literature, an integral part of the entire culture of the Renaissance. Occupies the period from the 14th to the 16th centuries. It differs from medieval literature in that it is based on new, progressive ideas of humanism. A synonym for Renaissance is the term "Renaissance", of French origin.

The ideas of humanism first emerged in Italy and then spread throughout Europe. Also, the literature of the Renaissance spread throughout Europe, but acquired its own national character in each individual country. The term Renaissance means renewal, the appeal of artists, writers, thinkers to the culture and art of antiquity, imitation of its high ideals.

In addition to humanistic ideas, new genres emerged in the literature of the Renaissance, and early realism was formed, which was called “Renaissance realism.” As can be seen in the works of Rabelais, Petrarch, Cervantes and Shakespeare, the literature of this time was filled with a new understanding of human life. It demonstrates a complete rejection of the slavish obedience that the church preached.

Writers present man as the highest creation of nature, revealing the richness of his soul, mind and the beauty of his physical appearance. Renaissance realism is characterized by the grandeur of images, the ability to have great sincere feelings, poeticization of the image and a passionate, most often high intensity of the tragic conflict, demonstrating the collision of a person with hostile forces.

The literature of the Renaissance is characterized by a variety of genres, but still some literary forms dominated. The most popular was the novella. In poetry, the sonnet is most clearly manifested. Also, dramaturgy, in which the Spaniard Lope de Vega and Shakespeare in England became most famous, is gaining great popularity. It is impossible not to note the high development and popularization of philosophical prose and journalism.

Details Category: Fine arts and architecture of the Renaissance (Renaissance) Published 12/19/2016 16:20 Views: 10651

The Renaissance is a time of cultural flourishing, the heyday of all arts, but the one that most fully expressed the spirit of its time was fine art.

Renaissance, or Renaissance(French “new” + “born”) had global significance in the cultural history of Europe. The Renaissance replaced the Middle Ages and preceded the Age of Enlightenment.
Main features of the Renaissance– the secular nature of culture, humanism and anthropocentrism (interest in man and his activities). During the Renaissance, interest in ancient culture flourished and, as it were, its “rebirth” took place.
The Renaissance arose in Italy - its first signs appeared in the 13th-14th centuries. (Tony Paramoni, Pisano, Giotto, Orcagna, etc.). But it was firmly established in the 20s of the 15th century, and by the end of the 15th century. reached its peak.
In other countries, the Renaissance began much later. In the 16th century a crisis of Renaissance ideas begins, a consequence of this crisis is the emergence of mannerism and baroque.

Renaissance periods

The Renaissance is divided into 4 periods:

1. Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century)
2. Early Renaissance (beginning of the 15th - end of the 15th century)
3. High Renaissance (end of the 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)
4. Late Renaissance (mid-16th-90s of the 16th century)

The fall of the Byzantine Empire played a role in the formation of the Renaissance. The Byzantines who moved to Europe brought with them their libraries and works of art, unknown to medieval Europe. Byzantium never broke with ancient culture.
Appearance humanism(a socio-philosophical movement that considered man as the highest value) was associated with the absence of feudal relations in the Italian city-republics.
Secular centers of science and art began to emerge in cities, which were not controlled by the church. whose activities were outside the control of the church. In the middle of the 15th century. Printing was invented, which played an important role in the spread of new views throughout Europe.

Brief characteristics of the Renaissance periods

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is the forerunner of the Renaissance. It is also closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic traditions. He is associated with the names of Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, the Pisano brothers, Andrea Pisano.

Andrea Pisano. Bas-relief "Creation of Adam". Opera del Duomo (Florence)

Proto-Renaissance painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). The central figure of painting was Giotto. He was considered a reformer of painting: he filled religious forms with secular content, made a gradual transition from flat images to three-dimensional and relief ones, turned to realism, introduced plastic volume of figures into painting, and depicted interiors in painting.

Early Renaissance

This is the period from 1420 to 1500. Artists of the Early Renaissance of Italy drew motifs from life and filled traditional religious subjects with earthly content. In sculpture these were L. Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, the della Robbia family, A. Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano, B. da Maiano, A. Verrocchio. In their work, a free-standing statue, a picturesque relief, a portrait bust, and an equestrian monument began to develop.
In Italian painting of the 15th century. (Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, A. del Castagno, P. Uccello, Fra Angelico, D. Ghirlandaio, A. Pollaiolo, Verrocchio, Piero della Francesca, A. Mantegna, P. Perugino, etc.) are characterized by a sense of harmonious order of the world, appeal to the ethical and civic ideals of humanism, a joyful perception of the beauty and diversity of the real world.
The founder of Renaissance architecture in Italy was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), an architect, sculptor and scientist, one of the creators of the scientific theory of perspective.

A special place in the history of Italian architecture occupies Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). This Italian scientist, architect, writer and musician of the Early Renaissance was educated in Padua, studied law in Bologna, and later lived in Florence and Rome. He created theoretical treatises “On the Statue” (1435), “On Painting” (1435–1436), “On Architecture” (published in 1485). He defended the “folk” (Italian) language as a literary language, and in his ethical treatise “On the Family” (1737-1441) he developed the ideal of a harmoniously developed personality. In his architectural work, Alberti gravitated towards bold experimental solutions. He was one of the founders of new European architecture.

Palazzo Rucellai

Leon Battista Alberti developed a new type of palazzo with a facade, rusticated to its entire height and dissected by three tiers of pilasters, which look like the structural basis of the building (Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, built by B. Rossellino according to Alberti's plans).
Opposite the Palazzo is the Loggia Rucellai, where receptions and banquets for trading partners were held, and weddings were celebrated.

Loggia Rucellai

High Renaissance

This is the time of the most magnificent development of the Renaissance style. In Italy it lasted from approximately 1500 to 1527. Now the center of Italian art from Florence moves to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne Julia II, an ambitious, courageous, enterprising man, who attracted the best artists of Italy to his court.

Rafael Santi "Portrait of Pope Julius II"

In Rome, many monumental buildings are built, magnificent sculptures are created, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered masterpieces of painting. Antiquity is still highly valued and carefully studied. But imitation of the ancients does not drown out the independence of artists.
The pinnacle of the Renaissance is the work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael Santi (1483-1520).

Late Renaissance

In Italy this is the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. The art and culture of this time are very diverse. Some believe (for example, British scholars) that "The Renaissance as an integral historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." The art of the late Renaissance presents a very complex picture of the struggle between various movements. Many artists did not strive to study nature and its laws, but only outwardly tried to assimilate the “manner” of the great masters: Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. On this occasion, the elderly Michelangelo once said, watching artists copy his “Last Judgment”: “This art of mine will make fools of many.”
In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which did not welcome any free thought, including the glorification of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity.
Famous artists of this period were Giorgione (1477/1478-1510), Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), Caravaggio (1571-1610) and others. Caravaggio considered the founder of the Baroque style.

Material from Uncyclopedia

Renaissance, or Renaissance (from the French renaître - to be reborn), is one of the most striking eras in the development of European culture, spanning almost three centuries: from the middle of the 14th century. until the first decades of the 17th century. This was an era of major changes in the history of the peoples of Europe. In conditions of a high level of urban civilization, the process of the emergence of capitalist relations and the crisis of feudalism began, the formation of nations and the creation of large national states took place, a new form of political system appeared - an absolute monarchy (see State), new social groups were formed - the bourgeoisie and hired workers. The spiritual world of man also changed. Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of contemporaries. This was facilitated by the great invention of Johannes Gutenberg - printing. In this complex, transitional era, a new type of culture emerged that placed man and the surrounding world at the center of its interests. The new, Renaissance culture was widely based on the heritage of antiquity, interpreted differently than in the Middle Ages, and in many ways rediscovered (hence the concept of “Renaissance”), but it also drew from the best achievements of medieval culture, especially secular - knightly, urban , folk The Renaissance man was gripped by a thirst for self-affirmation and great achievements, actively involved in public life, rediscovered the natural world, strived for a deep understanding of it, and admired its beauty. The culture of the Renaissance is characterized by a secular perception and understanding of the world, an affirmation of the value of earthly existence, the greatness of the mind and creative abilities of man, and the dignity of the individual. Humanism (from the Latin humanus - human) became the ideological basis of the culture of the Renaissance.

Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the first representatives of humanistic literature of the Renaissance.

Palazzo Pitti. Florence. 1440-1570

Masaccio. Tax collection. Scene from the life of St. Petra Fresco of the Brancacci Chapel. Florence. 1426-1427

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Moses. 1513-1516

Rafael Santi. Sistine Madonna. 1515-1519 Oil on canvas. Picture gallery. Dresden.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. Late 1470s - early 1490s Wood, oil. State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg.

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. OK. 1510-1513

Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1498

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Hunters in the snow. 1565 Wood, oil. Museum of Art History. Vein.

Humanists opposed the dictatorship of the Catholic Church in the spiritual life of society. They criticized the method of scholastic science, based on formal logic (dialectics), rejected its dogmatism and faith in authorities, thereby clearing the way for the free development of scientific thought. Humanists called for the study of ancient culture, which the church rejected as pagan, accepting from it only that which did not contradict Christian doctrine. However, the restoration of the ancient heritage (humanists searched for manuscripts of ancient authors, cleared texts of later layers and copyist errors) was not an end in itself for them, but served as the basis for solving pressing problems of our time, for building a new culture. The range of humanitarian knowledge within which the humanistic worldview was formed included ethics, history, pedagogy, poetics, and rhetoric. Humanists made valuable contributions to the development of all these sciences. Their search for a new scientific method, criticism of scholasticism, and translations of scientific works of ancient authors contributed to the rise of natural philosophy and natural science in the 16th - early 17th centuries.

The formation of Renaissance culture in different countries was not simultaneous and proceeded at different rates in different areas of culture itself. It developed first of all in Italy with its numerous cities that had reached a high level of civilization and political independence, with ancient traditions that were stronger than in other European countries. Already in the 2nd half of the 14th century. In Italy, significant changes took place in literature and humanities - philology, ethics, rhetoric, historiography, pedagogy. Then fine arts and architecture became the arena for the rapid development of the Renaissance; later the new culture embraced the sphere of philosophy, natural science, music, and theater. For more than a century, Italy remained the only country of Renaissance culture; by the end of the 15th century. The revival began to gain strength relatively quickly in Germany, the Netherlands, and France in the 16th century. - in England, Spain, Central European countries. Second half of the 16th century. became a time not only of high achievements of the European Renaissance, but also of manifestations of the crisis of a new culture caused by the counter-offensive of reactionary forces and the internal contradictions in the development of the Renaissance itself.

The origin of Renaissance literature in the 2nd half of the 14th century. associated with the names of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. They affirmed humanistic ideas of personal dignity, linking it not with birth, but with the valiant deeds of a person, his freedom and the right to enjoy the joys of earthly life. Petrarch’s “Book of Songs” reflected the subtlest shades of his love for Laura. In the dialogue “My Secret” and a number of treatises, he developed ideas about the need to change the structure of knowledge - to put human problems at the center, criticized the scholastics for their formal-logical method of knowledge, called for the study of ancient authors (Petrarch especially appreciated Cicero, Virgil, Seneca), highly raised the importance of poetry in man’s knowledge of the meaning of his earthly existence. These thoughts were shared by his friend Boccaccio, the author of the book of short stories “The Decameron”, and a number of poetic and scientific works. The Decameron traces the influence of folk-urban literature of the Middle Ages. Here, humanistic ideas found expression in artistic form - the denial of ascetic morality, the justification of a person’s right to the full expression of his feelings, all natural needs, the idea of ​​nobility as the product of valiant deeds and high morality, and not the nobility of the family. The theme of nobility, the solution of which reflected the anti-class ideas of the advanced part of the burghers and people, will become characteristic of many humanists. The humanists of the 15th century made a great contribution to the further development of literature in Italian and Latin. - writers and philologists, historians, philosophers, poets, statesmen and speakers.

In Italian humanism there were directions that had different approaches to solving ethical problems, and above all to the question of man’s path to happiness. Thus, in civil humanism - the direction that developed in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. (its most prominent representatives are Leonardo Bruni and Matteo Palmieri) - ethics was based on the principle of serving the common good. Humanists argued the need to educate a citizen, a patriot who puts the interests of society and the state above personal ones. They affirmed the moral ideal of active civil life as opposed to the church ideal of monastic hermitage. They attached particular value to such virtues as justice, generosity, prudence, courage, politeness, and modesty. A person can discover and develop these virtues only in active social interaction, and not in flight from worldly life. Humanists of this school of thought considered the best form of government to be a republic, where, in conditions of freedom, all human abilities can be most fully demonstrated.

Another direction in humanism of the 15th century. represented the work of the writer, architect, and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti believed that the law of harmony reigns in the world, and man is subject to it. He must strive for knowledge, to comprehend the world around him and himself. People must build earthly life on reasonable grounds, on the basis of acquired knowledge, turning it to their own benefit, striving for harmony of feelings and reason, the individual and society, man and nature. Knowledge and work obligatory for all members of society - this, according to Alberti, is the path to a happy life.

Lorenzo Valla put forward a different ethical theory. He identified happiness with pleasure: a person should receive pleasure from all the joys of earthly existence. Asceticism is contrary to human nature itself; feelings and reason are equal in rights; their harmony should be achieved. From these positions, Valla made a decisive criticism of monasticism in the dialogue “On the Monastic Vow.”

At the end of the 15th - end of the 16th centuries. The direction associated with the activities of the Platonic Academy in Florence became widespread. The leading humanist philosophers of this movement, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, exalted the human mind in their works based on the philosophy of Plato and the Neoplatonists. The glorification of personality became characteristic of them. Ficino considered man the center of the world, the connecting link (this connection is realized in knowledge) of a beautifully organized cosmos. Pico saw in man the only creature in the world endowed with the ability to shape himself, relying on knowledge - on ethics and the sciences of nature. In his “Speech on the Dignity of Man,” Pico defended the right to free thought and believed that philosophy, devoid of any dogmatism, should become the lot of everyone, and not a select few. Italian Neoplatonists approached the solution of a number of theological problems from new, humanistic positions. The invasion of humanism into the sphere of theology is one of the important features of the European Renaissance of the 16th century.

The 16th century was marked by a new rise of Renaissance literature in Italy: Ludovico Ariosto became famous for the poem “The Furious Roland”, where reality and fantasy are intertwined, glorification of earthly joys and sometimes sad and sometimes ironic understanding of Italian life; Baldassare Castiglione created a book about the ideal man of his era (“The Courtier”). This is the time of creativity of the outstanding poet Pietro Bembo and the author of satirical pamphlets Pietro Aretino; at the end of the 16th century Torquato Tasso’s grandiose heroic poem “Jerusalem Liberated” was written, which reflected not only the gains of secular Renaissance culture, but also the emerging crisis of the humanistic worldview, associated with the strengthening of religiosity in the conditions of the Counter-Reformation, with the loss of faith in the omnipotence of the individual.

The art of the Italian Renaissance achieved brilliant successes, which began with Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, Brunelleschi in architecture, who worked in Florence in the 1st half of the 15th century. Their work is marked by brilliant talent, a new understanding of man, his place in nature and society. In the 2nd half of the 15th century. in Italian painting, along with the Florentine school, a number of others emerged - Umbrian, Northern Italian, Venetian. Each of them had its own characteristics; they were also characteristic of the work of the greatest masters - Piero della Francesca, Adrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli and others. All of them in different ways revealed the specifics of Renaissance art: the desire for life-like images based on the principle of “imitation of nature”, a wide appeal to the motifs of ancient mythology and secular interpretation of traditional religious subjects, interest in linear and aerial perspective, in the plastic expressiveness of images, harmonious proportions etc. Portrait became a common genre of painting, graphics, medal art, and sculpture, which was directly related to the affirmation of the humanistic ideal of man. The heroic ideal of the perfect person was embodied with particular completeness in the Italian art of the High Renaissance in the first decades of the 16th century. This era brought forward the brightest, multifaceted talents - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo (see Art). A type of universal artist emerged, combining in his work a painter, sculptor, architect, poet and scientist. Artists of this era worked closely with humanists and showed great interest in the natural sciences, especially anatomy, optics, and mathematics, trying to use their achievements in their work. In the 16th century Venetian art experienced a special boom. Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto created beautiful canvases, notable for their coloristic richness and realism of images of man and the world around him. The 16th century was a time of active establishment of the Renaissance style in architecture, especially for secular purposes, which was characterized by a close connection with the traditions of ancient architecture (order architecture). A new type of building was formed - a city palace (palazzo) and a country residence (villa) - majestic, but also commensurate with the person, where the solemn simplicity of the facade is combined with spacious, richly decorated interiors. A huge contribution to Renaissance architecture was made by Leon Battista Alberti, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bramante, and Palladio. Many architects created projects for an ideal city, based on new principles of urban planning and architecture that met human needs for a healthy, well-equipped and beautiful living space. Not only individual buildings were rebuilt, but also entire old medieval cities: Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Rimini.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of a woman.

Hans Holbein the Younger. Portrait of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. 1523

Titian Vecellio. Saint Sebastian. 1570 Oil on canvas. State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg.

Illustration by Mr. Doré for the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”.

Michel Montaigne is a French philosopher and writer.

In the political and historical thought of the Italian Renaissance, the problem of a perfect society and state became one of the central ones. The works of Bruni and especially Machiavelli on the history of Florence, based on the study of documentary material, and the works of Sabellico and Contarini on the history of Venice revealed the merits of the republican structure of these city-states, while historians of Milan and Naples, on the contrary, emphasized the positive centralizing role of the monarchy. Machiavelli and Guicciardini explained all the troubles of Italy, which became in the first decades of the 16th century. arena of foreign invasions, its political decentralization and called on the Italians for national consolidation. A common feature of Renaissance historiography was the desire to see in people themselves the creators of their history, to deeply analyze the experience of the past and use it in political practice. Widespread in the 16th - early 17th centuries. received a social utopia. In the teachings of the utopians Doni, Albergati, Zuccolo, an ideal society was associated with the partial elimination of private property, equality of citizens (but not all people), universal compulsory labor, and the harmonious development of the individual. The most consistent expression of the idea of ​​socialization of property and equalization was found in Campanella’s “City of the Sun.”

New approaches to solving the traditional problem of the relationship between nature and God were put forward by natural philosophers Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrizi, and Giordano Bruno. In their works, the dogma of a creator God directing the development of the universe gave way to pantheism: God is not opposed to nature, but, as it were, merges with it; nature is seen as existing forever and developing according to its own laws. The ideas of the Renaissance natural philosophers met with sharp resistance from the Catholic Church. For his ideas about the eternity and infinity of the Universe, consisting of a huge number of worlds, for his sharp criticism of the church, which condones ignorance and obscurantism, Bruno was condemned as a heretic and committed to fire in 1600.

The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the development of Renaissance culture in other European countries. This was facilitated to a large extent by printing. The major centers of publishing were in the 16th century. Venice, where at the beginning of the century the printing house of Aldus Manutius became an important center of cultural life; Basel, where the publishing houses of Johann Froben and Johann Amerbach were equally significant; Lyon with its famous Etienne printing house, as well as Paris, Rome, Louvain, London, Seville. Printing became a powerful factor in the development of Renaissance culture in many European countries and opened the way to active interaction in the process of building a new culture of humanists, scientists, and artists.

The largest figure of the Northern Renaissance was Erasmus of Rotterdam, with whose name the movement of “Christian humanism” is associated. He had like-minded people and allies in many European countries (J. Colet and Thomas More in England, G. Budet and Lefebvre d'Etaples in France, I. Reuchlin in Germany). Erasmus broadly understood the tasks of the new culture. In his opinion, this was not only the resurrection of the ancient pagan heritage, but also the restoration of early Christian teachings, he did not see any fundamental differences between them from the point of view of the truth to which a person should strive, like the Italian humanists, he connected the improvement of man with education, creative activity, and the revelation of everything inherent in him. abilities. His humanistic pedagogy received artistic expression in “Easy Conversations,” and his sharply satirical work “Praise of Stupidity” was directed against ignorance, dogmatism, and feudal prejudices. Erasmus saw the path to the happiness of people in a peaceful life and the establishment of a humanistic culture based on all values. historical experience of mankind.

In Germany, Renaissance culture experienced a rapid rise at the end of the 15th century. - 1st third of the 16th century. One of its features was the flourishing of satirical literature, which began with Sebastian Brant’s essay “Ship of Fools,” in which the mores of the time were sharply criticized; the author led readers to the conclusion about the need for reforms in public life. The satirical line in German literature was continued by “Letters of Dark People” - an anonymously published collective work of humanists, chief among whom was Ulrich von Hutten - where church ministers were subjected to devastating criticism. Hutten was the author of many pamphlets, dialogues, letters directed against the papacy, the dominance of the church in Germany, and the fragmentation of the country; his work contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness of the German people.

The largest artists of the Renaissance in Germany were A. Dürer, an outstanding painter and unsurpassed master of engraving, M. Niethardt (Grunewald) with his deeply dramatic images, portrait painter Hans Holbein the Younger, as well as Lucas Cranach the Elder, who closely associated his art with the Reformation.

In France, the Renaissance culture took shape and flourished in the 16th century. This was facilitated, in particular, by the Italian wars of 1494-1559. (they were fought between the kings of France, Spain and the German emperor for the mastery of Italian territories), which revealed to the French the richness of the Renaissance culture of Italy. At the same time, a feature of the French Renaissance was an interest in the traditions of folk culture, creatively mastered by humanists along with the ancient heritage. The poetry of C. Marot, the works of humanist philologists E. Dolet and B. Deperrier, who were part of the circle of Margaret of Navarre (sister of King Francis I), are imbued with folk motifs and cheerful freethinking. These trends were very clearly manifested in the satirical novel of the outstanding Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, where plots drawn from ancient folk tales about cheerful giants are combined with ridicule of the vices and ignorance of contemporaries, with the presentation of a humanistic program of upbringing and education in the spirit of the new culture. The rise of national French poetry is associated with the activities of the Pleiades - a circle of poets led by Ronsard and Du Bellay. During the period of civil (Huguenot) wars (see Religious Wars in France), journalism was widely developed, expressing differences in the political positions of the opposing forces of society. The largest political thinkers were F. Hautman and Duplessis Mornay, who opposed tyranny, and J. Bodin, who advocated the strengthening of a single national state headed by an absolute monarch. The ideas of humanism found deep understanding in Montaigne's Essays. Montaigne, Rabelais, Bonaventure Deperrier were prominent representatives of secular freethinking, which rejected the religious foundations of their worldview. They condemned scholasticism, the medieval system of upbringing and education, scholasticism, and religious fanaticism. The main principle of Montaigne's ethics is the free manifestation of human individuality, the liberation of the mind from subordination to faith, and the fullness of emotional life. He associated happiness with the realization of the individual’s internal capabilities, which should be served by secular upbringing and education based on free-thinking. In the art of the French Renaissance, the genre of portrait came to the fore, the outstanding masters of which were J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, P. and E. Dumoustier. J. Goujon became famous in sculpture.

In the culture of the Netherlands during the Renaissance, rhetorical societies were a distinctive phenomenon, uniting people from different strata, including artisans and peasants. At meetings of societies, debates were held on political, moral and religious topics, performances were staged in folk traditions, and refined work on the word was carried out; Humanists took an active part in the activities of societies. Folk features were also characteristic of Dutch art. The greatest painter Pieter Bruegel, nicknamed “The Peasant,” in his paintings of peasant life and landscapes expressed with particular completeness the feeling of the unity of nature and man.

). It reached a high level in the 16th century. the art of theater, democratic in its orientation. Household comedies, historical chronicles, and heroic dramas were staged in numerous public and private theaters. The plays of C. Marlowe, in which majestic heroes challenge medieval morality, and B. Johnson, in which a gallery of tragicomic characters appears, prepared the appearance of the greatest playwright of the Renaissance, William Shakespeare. A perfect master of various genres - comedies, tragedies, historical chronicles, Shakespeare created unique images of strong people, personalities who vividly embodied the traits of a Renaissance man, life-loving, passionate, endowed with intelligence and energy, but sometimes contradictory in his moral actions. Shakespeare's work exposed the deepening gap in the Late Renaissance between the humanistic idealization of man and the real world, filled with acute life conflicts. The English scientist Francis Bacon enriched Renaissance philosophy with new approaches to understanding the world. He opposed observation and experiment to the scholastic method as a reliable tool of scientific knowledge. Bacon saw the path to building a perfect society in the development of science, especially physics.

In Spain, Renaissance culture experienced a “golden age” in the 2nd half of the 16th century. - the first decades of the 17th century. Her highest achievements are associated with the creation of new Spanish literature and national folk theater, as well as with the work of the outstanding painter El Greco. The formation of new Spanish literature, which grew out of the traditions of knightly and picaresque novels, found a brilliant completion in the brilliant novel by Miguel de Cervantes “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.” In the images of the knight Don Quixote and the peasant Sancho Panza, the main humanistic idea of ​​the novel is revealed: the greatness of man in his courageous struggle against evil in the name of justice. Cervantes's novel is both a kind of parody of the chivalric romance that is becoming a thing of the past, and the broadest canvas of the folk life of Spain in the 16th century. Cervantes was the author of a number of plays that made a great contribution to the creation of the national theater. To an even greater extent, the rapid development of the Spanish Renaissance theater is associated with the work of the extremely prolific playwright and poet Lope de Vega, the author of lyrical-heroic comedies of cloak and sword, imbued with the folk spirit.

Andrey Rublev. Trinity. 1st quarter of the 15th century

At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance culture spread in Hungary, where royal patronage played an important role in the flowering of humanism; in the Czech Republic, where new trends contributed to the formation of national consciousness; in Poland, which became one of the centers of humanistic freethinking. The influence of the Renaissance also affected the culture of the Dubrovnik Republic, Lithuania, and Belarus. Certain pre-Renaissance tendencies also appeared in Russian culture of the 15th century. They were associated with a growing interest in human personality and its psychology. In art, this is primarily the work of Andrei Rublev and artists of his circle, in literature - “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” which tells about the love of the Murom prince and the peasant girl Fevronia, and the works of Epiphanius the Wise with his masterful “weaving of words.” In the 16th century Renaissance elements appeared in Russian political journalism (Ivan Peresvetov and others).

In the XVI - first decades of the XVII century. significant changes have occurred in the development of science. The beginning of new astronomy was laid by the heliocentric theory of the Polish scientist N. Copernicus, which revolutionized ideas about the Universe. It received further substantiation in the works of the German astronomer I. Kepler, as well as the Italian scientist G. Galileo. The astronomer and physicist Galileo constructed a telescope, using it to discover the mountains on the Moon, the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, etc. Galileo’s discoveries, which confirmed the teaching of Copernicus about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, gave impetus to the more rapid spread of the heliocentric theory, which the church recognized as heretical; she persecuted her supporters (for example, the fate of D. Bruno, who was burned at the stake) and banned the works of Galileo. A lot of new things have appeared in the field of physics, mechanics, and mathematics. Stephen formulated the theorems of hydrostatics; Tartaglia successfully studied the theory of ballistics; Cardano discovered the solution of algebraic equations of the third degree. G. Kremer (Mercator) created more advanced geographical maps. Oceanography emerged. In botany, E. Cord and L. Fuchs systematized a wide range of knowledge. K. Gesner enriched knowledge in the field of zoology with his “History of Animals”. Knowledge of anatomy was improved, which was facilitated by the work of Vesalius “On the structure of the human body.” M. Servet expressed the idea of ​​the presence of a pulmonary circulation. The outstanding physician Paracelsus brought medicine and chemistry closer together and made important discoveries in pharmacology. Mr. Agricola systematized knowledge in the field of mining and metallurgy. Leonardo da Vinci put forward a number of engineering projects that were far ahead of contemporary technical thought and anticipated some later discoveries (for example, the flying machine).

Renaissance (Renaissance)

Renaissance, or Renaissance (French Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento) is an era in the history of European culture, which replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and preceded the culture of modern times. The approximate chronological framework of the era is XIV-XVI centuries.

A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture and its anthropocentrism (that is, interest, first of all, in man and his activities). Interest in ancient culture appears, its “revival,” as it were, occurs - and this is how the term appeared.

The term Renaissance is already found among Italian humanists, for example, Giorgio Vasari. In its modern meaning, the term was introduced into use by the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet. Nowadays, the term Renaissance has become a metaphor for cultural flourishing: for example, the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

General characteristics of the Renaissance

A new cultural paradigm arose as a result of fundamental changes in social relations in Europe.

The growth of city-republics led to an increase in the influence of classes that did not participate in feudal relations: artisans and craftsmen, merchants, bankers. The hierarchical system of values ​​created by the medieval, largely ecclesiastical culture and its ascetic, humble spirit were alien to all of them. This led to the emergence of humanism - a socio-philosophical movement that considered a person, his personality, his freedom, his active, creative activity as the highest value and criterion for evaluating public institutions.

Secular centers of science and art began to emerge in cities, the activities of which were outside the control of the church. The new worldview turned to antiquity, seeing in it an example of humanistic, non-ascetic relations. The invention of printing in the mid-15th century played a huge role in the spread of ancient heritage and new views throughout Europe.

The Renaissance arose in Italy, where its first signs were noticeable back in the 13th and 14th centuries (in the activities of the Pisano, Giotto, Orcagni families, etc.), but where it was firmly established only in the 20s of the 15th century. In France, Germany and other countries this movement began much later. By the end of the 15th century it reached its peak. In the 16th century, a crisis of Renaissance ideas was brewing, resulting in the emergence of Mannerism and Baroque.

Renaissance art.

With the theocentrism and asceticism of the medieval picture of the world, art in the Middle Ages served primarily religion, conveying the world and man in their relationship to God, in conventional forms, and was concentrated in the space of the temple. Neither the visible world nor man could be valuable objects of art in their own right. In the 13th century New trends are observed in medieval culture (the cheerful teaching of St. Francis, the work of Dante, the forerunners of humanism). In the second half of the 13th century. marks the beginning of a transitional era in the development of Italian art - the Proto-Renaissance (lasted until the beginning of the 15th century), which prepared the way for the Renaissance. The work of some artists of this time (G. Fabriano, Cimabue, S. Martini, etc.), quite medieval in iconography, is imbued with a more cheerful and secular beginning, the figures acquire relative volume. In sculpture, the Gothic ethereality of figures is overcome, Gothic emotionality is reduced (N. Pisano). For the first time, a clear break with medieval traditions appeared at the end of the 13th - first third of the 14th century. in the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone, who introduced a sense of three-dimensional space into painting, painted figures with more volume, paid more attention to the situation and, most importantly, showed a special realism, alien to the exalted Gothic, in depicting human experiences.

On the soil cultivated by the masters of the Proto-Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance arose, which passed through several phases in its evolution (Early, High, Late). Associated with a new, essentially secular worldview expressed by humanists, it loses its inextricable connection with religion; painting and statue spread beyond the temple. With the help of painting, the artist mastered the world and man as they appeared to the eye, using a new artistic method (transferring three-dimensional space using perspective (linear, aerial, color), creating the illusion of plastic volume, maintaining the proportionality of figures). Interest in personality and its individual traits was combined with the idealization of a person, the search for “perfect beauty.” The subjects of sacred history did not leave art, but from now on their depiction was inextricably linked with the task of mastering the world and embodying the earthly ideal (hence the similarities between Bacchus and John the Baptist by Leonardo, Venus and the Mother of God by Botticelli). Renaissance architecture loses its Gothic aspiration to the sky and gains “classical” balance and proportionality, proportionality to the human body. The ancient order system is being revived, but the elements of the order were not parts of the structure, but decoration that adorned both traditional (temple, palace of authorities) and new types of buildings (city palace, country villa).

The founder of the Early Renaissance is considered to be the Florentine painter Masaccio, who picked up the tradition of Giotto, achieved an almost sculptural tangibility of figures, used the principles of linear perspective, and moved away from the conventions of depicting the situation. Further development of painting in the 15th century. went to schools in Florence, Umbria, Padua, Venice (F. Lippi, D. Veneziano, P. della Francesco, A. Palaiolo, A. Mantegna, C. Crivelli, S. Botticelli and many others). In the 15th century Renaissance sculpture is born and develops (L. Ghiberti, Donatello, J. della Quercia, L. della Robbia, Verrocchio and others, Donatello was the first to create a self-standing round statue not related to architecture, the first to depict a naked body with an expression of sensuality) and architecture (F. Brunelleschi, L.B. Alberti, etc.). Masters of the 15th century (primarily L.B. Alberti, P. della Francesco) created the theory of fine arts and architecture.

Around 1500, in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, and Titian, Italian painting and sculpture reached their highest point, entering the High Renaissance. The images they created completely embodied human dignity, strength, wisdom, and beauty. Unprecedented plasticity and spatiality were achieved in painting. Architecture reached its peak in the works of D. Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo. Already in the 1520s, changes took place in the art of Central Italy, in the art of Venice in the 1530s, signifying the onset of the Late Renaissance. The classical ideal of the High Renaissance, associated with the humanism of the 15th century, quickly lost its meaning, not responding to the new historical situation (Italy lost its independence) and spiritual climate (Italian humanism became more sober, even tragic). The work of Michelangelo and Titian acquires dramatic tension, tragedy, sometimes reaching the point of despair, and complexity of formal expression. The Late Renaissance includes P. Veronese, A. Palladio, J. Tintoretto and others. The reaction to the crisis of the High Renaissance was the emergence of a new artistic movement - mannerism, with its heightened subjectivity, mannerism (often reaching pretentiousness and affectation), impetuous religious spirituality and cold allegorism (Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini, Parmigianino, etc.).

The Northern Renaissance was prepared by the emergence in the 1420s - 1430s, based on late Gothic (not without the indirect influence of the Giottian tradition), of a new style in painting, the so-called “ars nova” - “new art” (E. Panofsky’s term). Its spiritual basis, according to researchers, was, first of all, the so-called “New Piety” of the northern mystics of the 15th century, which presupposed specific individualism and pantheistic acceptance of the world. The origins of the new style were the Dutch painters Jan van Eyck, who also improved oil paints, and the Master from Flemalle, followed by G. van der Goes, R. van der Weyden, D. Bouts, G. tot Sint Jans, I. Bosch and others (middle - second half of the 15th century). New Netherlandish painting received a wide response in Europe: already in the 1430–1450s, the first examples of new painting appeared in Germany (L. Moser, G. Mulcher, especially K. Witz), in France (Master of the Annunciation from Aix and, of course, J .Fouquet). The new style was characterized by a special realism: the transfer of three-dimensional space through perspective (although, as a rule, approximately), the desire for volume. The “new art,” deeply religious, was interested in individual experiences, the character of a person, valuing in him, first of all, humility and piety. His aesthetics are alien to the Italian pathos of the perfect in man, the passion for classical forms (the faces of the characters are not perfectly proportional, they are gothically angular). Nature and everyday life were depicted with special love and detail; carefully painted things had, as a rule, a religious and symbolic meaning.

Actually, the art of the Northern Renaissance was born at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries. as a result of the interaction of the national artistic and spiritual traditions of the Trans-Alpine countries with the Renaissance art and humanism of Italy, with the development of northern humanism. The first artist of the Renaissance type can be considered the outstanding German master A. Durer, who involuntarily, however, retained Gothic spirituality. A complete break with the Gothic was achieved by G. Holbein the Younger with his “objectivity” of painting style. M. Grunewald's painting, on the contrary, was imbued with religious exaltation. The German Renaissance was the work of one generation of artists and fizzled out in the 1540s. In the Netherlands in the first third of the 16th century. Currents oriented towards the High Renaissance and Mannerism of Italy began to spread (J. Gossaert, J. Scorel, B. van Orley, etc.). The most interesting thing in Dutch painting of the 16th century. - this is the development of genres of easel painting, everyday and landscape (K. Masseys, Patinir, Luke Leydensky). The most nationally original artist of the 1550s–1560s was P. Bruegel the Elder, who owned paintings of everyday life and landscape genres, as well as parable paintings, usually associated with folklore and a bitterly ironic view of the life of the artist himself. The Renaissance in the Netherlands ends in the 1560s. The French Renaissance, which was entirely courtly in nature (in the Netherlands and Germany, art was more associated with the burghers), was perhaps the most classical in the Northern Renaissance. The new Renaissance art, gradually gaining strength under the influence of Italy, reached maturity in the middle - second half of the century in the work of architects P. Lescot, the creator of the Louvre, F. Delorme, sculptors J. Goujon and J. Pilon, painters F. Clouet, J. Cousin Senior. The “Fontainebleau school”, founded in France by the Italian artists Rosso and Primaticcio, who worked in the mannerist style, had a great influence on the above-mentioned painters and sculptors, but the French masters did not become mannerists, having accepted the classical ideal hidden under the mannerist guise. The Renaissance in French art ends in the 1580s. In the second half of the 16th century. the art of the Renaissance of Italy and other European countries gradually gives way to mannerism and early baroque.