Figures of the Renaissance: list and achievements. High Renaissance

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). Central figure 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 XV 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 orderliness 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 designed new type a 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, attracted to his court best artists Italy.

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 of 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.

FRANCESCO PETRARCA(1304-1374) - ancestor Italian Renaissance, great poet and thinker, political figure. Coming from a Popolan family in Florence, he spent many years in Avignon under the papal curia, and the rest of his life in Italy. Petrarch traveled a lot around Europe, was close to popes and sovereigns. His political goals: reform of the church, ending wars, unity of Italy. Petrarch was an expert ancient philosophy, he is credited with collecting manuscripts of ancient authors and processing them textologically.

Humanistic ideas Petrarch developed not only in his brilliant, innovative poetry, but also in Latin prose works - treatises, numerous letters, including in his main epistolary “The Book of Everyday Affairs”.

It is customary to say about Francesco Petrarca that he is more focused on himself than anyone else - at least in his time. That he was not only the first “individualist” of the New Age, but much more than that - an amazingly complete egocentric.

In the works of the thinker, the theocentric systems of the Middle Ages were replaced by the anthropocentrism of Renaissance humanism. Petrarch's “discovery of man” provided an opportunity for a deeper knowledge of man in science, literature, and art.

LEONARDO DA VINCI ( 1454-1519) - brilliant Italian artist, sculptor, scientist, engineer. Born in Anchiano, near the village of Vinci; his father was a notary who moved to Florence in 1469. Leonardo's first teacher was Andrea Verrocchio.

Leonardo's interest in man and nature speaks of his close connection with humanistic culture. He considered man's creative abilities to be limitless. Leonardo was one of the first to substantiate the idea of ​​the cognizability of the world through reason and sensations, which firmly entered the ideas of thinkers of the 16th century. He himself said about himself: “I would comprehend all the secrets by getting to the essence!”

Leonardo's research concerned wide range problems of mathematics, physics, astronomy, botany, and other sciences. His many inventions were based on deep study nature, the laws of its development. He was an innovator in the theory of painting. Leonardo saw the highest manifestation of creativity in the activity of an artist who scientifically comprehends the world and reproduces it on canvas. The thinker’s contribution to Renaissance aesthetics can be judged by his “Book on Painting.” He was the embodiment of the “universal man” created by the Renaissance.

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI(1469-1527) - Italian thinker, diplomat, historian. After the restoration of the Medici government in Florence, he was removed from government activities. In 1513-1520 he was in exile. This period includes the creation of Machiavelli’s most significant works - “The Prince”, “Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy”, “History of Florence”, which earned him European fame. Machiavelli's political ideal was the Roman Republic, in which he saw the embodiment of the idea of ​​a strong state, the people of which “are far superior to the sovereigns in both virtue and glory.” (“Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livy”). The ideas of N. Machiavelli had a very significant influence on the development of political doctrines.

THOMAS MOP(1478-1535) - English humanist, writer, statesman.

Born into the family of a London lawyer, he was educated at Oxford University, where he joined the circle of Oxford humanists. Under Henry VIII he held a number of high government positions. Very important For the formation and development of More as a humanist, his meeting and friendship with Erasmus of Rotterdam was important. He was accused of treason and executed on July 6, 1535.

The most famous work of Thomas More is “Utopia,” which reflects the author’s passion for ancient Greek literature and philosophy, and the influence of Christian thought, in particular Augustine’s treatise “On the City of God,” and also traces an ideological connection with Erasmus of Rotterdam, whose humanistic ideal was in is close to More in many ways. His ideas had a strong impact on public thought.

ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM(1469-1536) - one of the most outstanding representatives of European humanism and the most versatile of the then scientists.

Erasmus, the illegitimate son of a poor parish priest, his early years spent in the Augustinian monastery, which he managed to leave in 1493. He studied the works of Italian humanists and scientific literature with great enthusiasm, and became a major expert in Greek and Latin.

Erasmus's most famous work is the satire “Praise of Folly” (1509), modeled on Lucian, which was written in just one week in the house of Thomas More. Erasmus of Rotterdam tried to synthesize cultural traditions antiquity and early Christianity. He believed in the natural goodness of man and wanted people to be guided by the demands of reason; among the spiritual values ​​of Erasmus are freedom of spirit, temperance, education, simplicity.

THOMAS MUNZER(c. 1490-1525) - German theologian and ideologist of the early Reformation and Peasant War 1524-1526 in Germany.

The son of a craftsman, Münzer was educated at the universities of Leipzig and Frankfurt an der Oder, from where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in theology, and became a preacher. He was influenced by mystics, Anabaptists and Hussites. In the early years of the Reformation, Münzer was an adherent and supporter of Luther. He then developed his doctrine of the popular Reformation.

In Münzer's understanding, the main tasks of the Reformation were not to establish a new church dogma or new form religiosity, but in the proclamation of an imminent socio-political revolution, which must be carried out by the mass of peasants and the urban poor. Thomas Munzer strove for a republic of equal citizens, in which people would ensure that justice and law prevailed.

For Münzer, Holy Scripture was subject to free interpretation in the context of contemporary events, an interpretation that directly addressed the spiritual experience of the reader.

Thomas Münzer was captured after the defeat of the rebels in an unequal battle on May 15, 1525 and, after severe torture, was executed.

Conclusion
Concluding the consideration of the philosophical quests of the Renaissance, it is necessary to note the ambiguity of assessments of its heritage. Despite the general recognition of the uniqueness of Renaissance culture as a whole, this period for a long time was not considered original in the development of philosophy and, therefore, worthy of being singled out as an independent stage of philosophical thought. However, the duality and inconsistency of philosophical thinking of this time should not detract from its significance for the subsequent development of philosophy, nor call into question the merits of Renaissance thinkers in overcoming medieval scholasticism and creating the foundations of modern philosophy.

The most important discovery The Renaissance is the discovery of man. In antiquity, the sense of gender was not conducive to the development of individuality. Stoicism, by promoting the idea of ​​personality and responsibility, and Christianity, by insisting on the real existence of the soul lying outside the sphere and jurisdiction of worldly power, created a new concept of personality. But social system The Middle Ages, built on status and custom, discouraged the individual, emphasizing the importance of class and group.

The Renaissance went beyond the moral principles of stoicism and the spiritual uniqueness of Christianity and saw man in the flesh - man in his relationship to himself, to society, to the world. Man became the center of the Universe instead of God. Many countries participated in the Renaissance, but from beginning to end Italy had the largest share. Italy never broke with antiquity; the dead weight of uniformity did not oppress it as in other countries. Public life was in full swing here, despite wars and invasions, and the city-states of Italy were islands of republicanism among a sea of ​​European monarchies. Primacy in international trade and finance made Italian cities rich and created conditions for the flourishing of sciences and arts.

Renaissance figures formulated new views on social life. Biblical stories about the heavenly life of Adam and Eve, about the life of Jews in the Promised Land, and the teachings of Augustine (Aurelius) about the church as the kingdom of God on earth no longer suited anyone. The Renaissance figures tried to portray the society that people needed without any mention of the Bible or the teachings of the Holy Fathers. For them, the leaders of the Renaissance, society is a necessary environment for human life. It is not in heaven, not a gift from God, but on earth and the result of human efforts. In their opinion, society, firstly, should be built taking into account human nature; secondly - for all people; thirdly, this is a society of the distant future. The greatest influence on the history of philosophical thought and on the historical destinies of European peoples was exerted by the teachings of the Renaissance figures on government structure. This is their teaching about the monarchy and the communist system. The first of them was ideological basis Absolutism, which was established later, and the second contributed to the creation of various kinds of communist theories, including Marxist communism.

This concludes our review of the vast history of philosophical thought of the Renaissance. On the foundation of this thought, over the course of one and a half to two centuries, a whole galaxy of unique and great philosophers grew up, including John Locke and Niccolo Machiavelli.

Table No. 1. Philosophy of the Renaissance.

inner strength

inherent in every thing." Characteristics of the Renaissance The Italian Renaissance is one of the most striking phenomena in history European culture. Controversy about his character

historical roots , the stages of three centuries of development do not subside to this day. In Soviet historical science, the Renaissance is considered as an advanced culture, characteristic of the era of transition from feudal to capitalist relations, when the medieval church-scholastic system of thinking was replaced by the establishment of secular-rationalistic principles of the worldview History of Europe. T. 3. From the Middle Ages to modern times (end of the 15th - first half of the 17th century) - p. 455. The entire Renaissance was divided into several periods: the Proto-Renaissance in Italy lasted about a century and a half, the Early Renaissance - about a century, the High Renaissance - only about fifty years and the last period, the Late Renaissance - until the 80s of the 16th century

Concise Encyclopedia

arts - p. 257.

In this work I would like to consider only the period of the High Renaissance.

The invasion of French troops in 1494, the devastating wars of the first decades of the 16th century, and the defeat of Rome weakened Italy. There is a movement within the country of capital from trade and industry to agriculture, a gradual transformation of the bourgeoisie into the class of landowners interested in preserving the feudal order. All this contributed to the spread of feudal reaction. However, it was during this period, when the threat of complete enslavement by foreigners loomed over the country, that national self-awareness grew.

In these difficult conditions of the first decades of the 16th century, the principles of culture and art of a new style were formed.

Features of High Renaissance art

A distinctive feature of the culture of the High Renaissance was the extraordinary expansion of the social horizons of its creators, the scale of their ideas about the world and space. The view of a person and his attitude to the world changes. The very type of artist, his worldview, and position in society are decidedly different from that occupied by the masters of the 15th century, who were still largely associated with the class of artisans. The artists of the High Renaissance were not only people of great culture, but creative individuals, free from the guild framework, forcing representatives of the ruling classes to take their plans into account.

At the center of this art, generalized by artistic language, is the image of an ideal wonderful person, perfect physically and spiritually, the image of a heroic person who managed to rise above the level of everyday life. In the name of this generalized image, in the name of the desire for a harmonious synthesis of the beautiful aspects of life, the art of the High Renaissance abandons particulars and insignificant details. The basis of such art is an all-consuming faith in the limitless possibilities of man for self-improvement, self-affirmation, faith in the rational structure of the world, in the triumph of progress. The problems of civic duty, high moral qualities, and heroism came to the fore.

The creators of this deeply humanistic art were people not only of great culture and broad outlook, but also creative individuals, free from the framework of the medieval guild foundation. The era gave rise to creative individuals in whom there is a synthesis of science and art. The great creators of the High Renaissance were later called titans. In their creativity they reached such heights that no other era could achieve before or after them. Each of them is a whole world, complete, perfect, having absorbed all the knowledge, all the achievements of previous centuries and raised them to the pinnacle of art.

Even before their discovery and clear identification, some features of the High Renaissance style are, as it were, latently contained in the art of the Early Renaissance. Sometimes certain trends, anticipating the art of the High Renaissance, make their way to the surface, affecting themselves in the aspirations of one or another painter and sculptor of the 15th century. to an increased degree of artistic generalization, to liberation from the power of details, then in the statement collective image instead of empirically following nature, finally, in a commitment to images of a monumental nature. In this sense, such masters as Masaccio, Castagno, Piero della Francesca, Mantegna are, as it were, successive milestones of the art of the Early Renaissance on the path to a new style.

And yet the art of the High Renaissance itself does not arise in the process of smooth evolution, but as a result of a sharp qualitative leap that separates it from the previous stage. The transitional forms between the art of these two periods are expressed in the work of only a very few masters. With a few exceptions, the artists of the Early Renaissance seemed to have already been born as such, just like those of the 15th century painters who continued to work in the first decades of the 16th century. (including Botticelli, Mantegna, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo, Perugino) still remained artists of the Early Renaissance in their art.

Essentially, one master, Leonardo da Vinci, acted as the founder of the art of the High Renaissance, and it is deeply symptomatic that he, like no one else, was fully armed with the highest achievements of the material and spiritual culture of his time in all its areas. Leonardo's contribution to the art of the High Renaissance can be compared with the role of Giotto and Masaccio, the founders of the previous stages of Renaissance art, with the difference that, according to the conditions new era and due to the greater scope of Leonardo's talent, the meaning of his art became incomparably broader.

Renaissance- an era in the history of culture and art that reflected the beginning of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. In classical forms, the Renaissance took shape in Western Europe, primarily in Italy, but similar processes took place in Eastern Europe and in Asia. In every country this type culture had its own characteristics associated with its ethnic characteristics, specific traditions, influence of others national cultures. The revival is associated with the process of formation of secular culture and humanistic consciousness. Under similar conditions, similar processes developed in art, philosophy, science, morality, social psychology and ideology. Italian humanists of the 15th century focused on the revival of ancient culture, the ideological and aesthetic principles of which were recognized as an ideal worthy of imitation. In other countries, such an orientation towards the ancient heritage may not have existed, but the essence of the process of human liberation and the affirmation of strength, intelligence, beauty, personal freedom, the unity of man and nature are characteristic of all cultures of the Renaissance type.

The main feature of the Renaissance is integrity and versatility in the understanding of man, life and culture. The sharp increase in the authority of art did not lead to its opposition to science and craft, but was perceived as the equivalence and equality of various forms human activity. In this era high level reached applied arts and architecture, connecting artistic creativity with technical design and craft. The peculiarity of Renaissance art is that it has a pronounced democratic and realistic character, with man and nature at its center. Beauty, harmony, grace are considered as properties of the real world.

Early Renaissance( Petrarch, Boccaccio, Donatello, Botticelli, Giotto)

High Renaissance ( Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Francois Rabelais)

In the 16th century in Italy, Renaissance art entered its peak phase. The art of Italy at this time is complex and contradictory. At this time, the highest rise of art, based on the traditions of humanistic culture, took place. And at the same time, new artistic phenomena arise, expressing the collapse of humanistic ideals, giving rise to mannerism, which is spreading in many European countries.
Late Renaissance— crisis of humanism (Shakespeare, Cervantes). The features of a crisis have emerged. In Western Europe, this was reflected in the emergence of academicism and mannerism in the fine arts, in the attack of religiosity and mysticism on secular and humanistic culture. A gap has emerged between art and science, beauty and benefit, between the spiritual and physical life of a person. The humanism of the late Renaissance was enriched by an awareness of the contradictory nature of life and a tragic worldview.

Early Renaissance

The Renaissance is considered a transitional period from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. During this period, changes occur in economic and cultural life. The first rudiments of capitalist industry appeared, banking and international trade developed. At this time, a scientific picture of the world was formed, experimental natural science was born, and the heliocentric system was substantiated by the greatest scientists of the era, N. Copernicus, G. Bruno, and G. Galileo. In addition, new lands are being discovered and the first round the world travel Columbus, Magellan.

In different countries, Renaissance culture develops at different rates. In Italy, the Renaissance dates back to the XIV-XVI centuries, in other countries - to the XV-XVI centuries. Highest point The development of Renaissance culture occurs in the 16th century - the High, or classical, Renaissance, when the Renaissance spread to other European countries.

The cultures of various European peoples are united by the ideas of humanism. The principle of humanism, i.e. the highest cultural and moral development of human abilities, most fully expresses the main orientation of European culture of the XIV-XVI centuries. The ideas of humanism capture all layers of society - merchant circles, religious spheres, the masses. A new secular intelligentsia is emerging. Humanism affirms the belief in the limitless possibilities of man. Thanks to humanists, freedom of judgment, independence in relation to authorities, and a bold critical spirit come to spiritual culture. The personality, powerful and beautiful, becomes the center of the ideological sphere.

The first hymn to human dignity was “ The Divine Comedy"Dante Alighieri is a work that combines poetry, philosophy, theology, science, imbued with faith in the earthly destiny of man. Dante's younger contemporary, Francesco Petrarca, a philosopher and lyric poet, is considered the founder of the humanistic movement in Italy. In the works of Italian humanists there is main idea that man is the creator of his destiny and himself, as, for example, in Pico della Mirandola’s essay “On the Dignity of Man.” According to humanists, a person has freedom of action, he himself controls fate and society, making rational choices.

During the heyday of humanism, science, poetry, architecture, and fine arts reached an unprecedented scale. Many rulers became patrons of the arts. These people often combined the features of monstrous villains and subtle connoisseurs of beauty; good and evil intertwined in the most bizarre way during the Renaissance.

An important feature of the Renaissance culture was the appeal to the ancient heritage. The ancient ideal of man, the understanding of beauty as harmony and proportion, the realistic language of plastic arts, in contrast to medieval symbolism, were revived. Artists, sculptors and poets of the Renaissance were attracted to the subjects of ancient mythology and history, and ancient languages ​​- Latin and Greek. The invention of printing played a major role in the dissemination of ancient heritage.

Renaissance culture was influenced by medieval culture with its long history and strong traditions, but humanists criticized the culture of the Middle Ages, considering it barbaric; During the Renaissance, a huge number of works appeared directed against the church and its ministers. At the same time, the Renaissance was not a completely secular culture. Some figures wanted to reconcile Christianity with antiquity or create a new, unified religion, rethink it. The art of the Renaissance was a unique synthesis of ancient physical beauty and Christian spirituality.

Renaissance culture originated in Italy. The Italian Renaissance is divided into four stages: Proto-Renaissance (Pre-Renaissance) - the second half of the 13th - 14th centuries; Early Renaissance - XV century; High Renaissance - end of the 15th - first third of the 16th century; Late Renaissance - end of the 16th century.

The Proto-Renaissance, or trecento, is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic, and Byzantine traditions; it was a preparation for the Renaissance. The beginning of a new era is associated with the name of Giotto di Bondone, whom Renaissance artists considered a reformer of painting. Giotto outlined the path along which its development took place: filling religious forms with secular content, a gradual transition from flat images to three-dimensional and relief ones, an increase in realism. The largest art schools in Italy were located in Pisa and Siena. The work of Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano largely determined further development Italian art. At the same time, national literature in Italian was born. The greatest poet of this era, Dante, preserved traces of medieval poetry in his work and combined them with Renaissance realistic images. In the works of the poet Francesco Petrarch and the founder of Italian literary prose Giovanni Boccaccio, humanistic, Renaissance features triumph over the Middle Ages. Main content literary works becomes a description of the earthly real world, a person with his experiences and passions.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Renaissance in Italy finally defeated the Gothic style. The emergence of a powerful center of Renaissance culture in Florence entailed a renewal of the entire Italian artistic culture. The work of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance, or Quattrocento - Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli - is imbued with the ideals of humanism, it raises a person above the level of everyday life, exalting him.

The 15th century was a turning point in the history of European culture. Almost simultaneously, artists in Italy and the Netherlands turned to depicting the earthly world and began to affirm the ethical value and beauty of man. The real world and the bodily nature of man required a reliable depiction of space and filling it with figures and objects. The development of art in this era closely interacts with the growth of scientific knowledge. From that time on, the art of Italy acquired a realistic orientation and a life-affirming secular character, which constituted the most important feature of the Renaissance. Early Renaissance artists used the ancient heritage more widely and creatively. The desire to understand the world encourages artists to study it, which helps expand their horizons, liberate art from the narrowness of a guild craft and create auxiliary disciplines. Artists of this time discovered the laws of linear perspective. At the same time, the Renaissance style took shape in architecture, which was influenced by ancient, Gothic and Byzantine culture. Construction technology is being improved, Renaissance architects design buildings and often carry out the construction themselves; they are often sculptors, decorators, and painters.

The first half of the 15th century is characterized as the beginning of the Renaissance in music. At this time, the Renaissance ideal of harmony and beauty, the norms of the so-called strict style, was formed. In music, as in other forms of art, there is an increasing tendency to depict the diversity of the world, and the idea of ​​diversity is combined with the desire for harmony and proportionality of all elements of the whole. A rethink is underway. social status music - a democratic public appears, amateur music-making spreads widely. The role of secular genres is increasing, and interest in the art of dance is emerging.

New art, which triumphed at the beginning of the 15th century. in Florence, does not immediately gain recognition in other areas of the country. In northern Italy, Gothic style dominated for a long time, gradually being replaced by the Renaissance. Florence at this time was the center of Italian humanism. In the middle of the 15th century, the Platonic Academy was founded here, which established a continuous connection between the Renaissance and antiquity.

High Renaissance

The masters of the High Renaissance sought to achieve a harmonious synthesis of the most beautiful aspects of reality in their works. The formation of High Renaissance art began at the end of the 15th century in Florence. The first artist of the High Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci - an artist-scientist, a painter who tried his hand at architecture and sculpture, a mathematician, a natural scientist, a mechanic, and an inventor. He was an explorer and innovator in all his endeavors and left his mark on the history of science and technology, in many ways ahead of his time. From the very beginning of Leonardo's creative activity, the main features of his art were determined - interest in psychological solutions, the desire for brevity and generalization, for the spatial arrangement and volume of forms. The artist paid great attention to the development of perspective construction and arrangement of figures in space. The notes he left about painting contain a lot of information on anatomy, perspective, and the interaction of colors. Leonardo's theoretical works were not published during his lifetime, but many of his ideas became famous and influenced the work of a number of artists. Another famous artist The High Renaissance, Raphael, synthesized the achievements of his predecessors and created the image of a perfect man in the traditions of humanism. Raphael's works have much in common with the work of his great contemporaries - Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Michelangelo in his work reflected the deep contradictions of his time, embodied the anxiety and foreboding of impending catastrophes. The Venetian school occupied Italian art XVI century special place. Here Giorgione stood at the origins of the High Renaissance. In his work, he strove for rhythm and harmonious unity, spirituality and psychological expressiveness of images; the main motive of his paintings was the unity of man and nature. Giorgione Titian continued the work, whose works are characterized by an earthly, cheerful feeling. In his work, great importance is attached to color and color relationships. A large place in Titian's work is occupied by portraits, in which he sought to create an image that corresponds to humanistic ideals and to reveal the spiritual appearance of a person. Titian applied new painting techniques that had a significant impact on the development of European art.

High Renaissance literature flourished heroic poem L. Pulci in Italy, L. Camoens in Spain, in the center of which is a man born for great deeds. In France, the High Renaissance period is represented by the work of Francois Rabelais. His work “Gargantua and Pantagruel” gives a comprehensive picture of society and its heroic ideals in folk fairy-tale and philosophical-comic form.

In the music of the High Renaissance, new genres appeared - madrigal, chanson, villancico; Instrumental music—canzones, ricercars, improvisational pieces—preludes, fantasies, toccatas—acquired independence. National music schools are being formed - Dutch (Josquin Depres, Guillaume Dufay), Italian (Palestrina, Gesualdo), French (C. Janequin), German, English, Spanish, etc.

During the period when Italy entered its highest stage of prosperity, the Northern Renaissance began. The art of the Northern Renaissance has more of a medieval worldview, religious feeling, symbolism; it is more conventional in form, more archaic, and less familiar with antiquity. The philosophical basis of the Northern Renaissance was pantheism, which dissolved God in nature and endowed it with divine attributes. Pantheists believed that every piece of nature is worthy of depiction, since it contains a piece of God. This led to the emergence of landscape as an independent genre. At the same time, the portrait genre emerged. If in the Italian Renaissance the aesthetic side came to the fore, then in the Northern Renaissance the ethical side came to the fore. German artists believed that spiritual beauty was more important than physical beauty.

Late Renaissance. Crisis of Humanism

The later Renaissance is characterized by a crisis of the idea of ​​humanism and an awareness of the prosaic nature of the emerging bourgeois society. The disappointment of humanists comes from the enormous discrepancy between reality and Renaissance ideas about man. By the end of the 16th century. this disappointment has become widespread. The crisis of humanism matured gradually, arising in its depths. Humanistic aspiration was expressed in results that were unexpected for the humanists themselves. So, in the first half of the 16th century. Copernicus's work on the heliocentric system is published. The earth has ceased to be the center of the universe. The man became small and lost in the endless universe.

The crisis of humanism was also expressed in the creation of utopias. The first utopians T. More and T. Campanella were humanists. Utopian ideas arose as a reaction to the contradictions and inconsistencies of humanism, its inability to answer the questions that worried humanists. Utopia - after the name of the fictional country by T. More - is a fantastic device that has no roots in reality ideal society. The emergence of utopias indicates a loss of trust in history and human nature. Utopians deny man the creative principle, limiting his existence to primary needs.

In the art of Western Europe, the features of the crisis of humanism were reflected in the emergence of academicism and mannerism. A gap has emerged between art and science, beauty and benefit, between the spiritual and physical life of a person. Already in the 20-30s. In the 16th century, along with the Renaissance, new phenomena emerged in the art of Italy. The discord between humanistic ideals and reality gave rise to disbelief in the possibility of harmonious development of the individual. A number of artists refused classical principles to search for new means of expression. The works of these artists violated the principles of balance and harmony characteristic of the art of the High Renaissance. This direction was called mannerism. It was finally formed by the middle of the 16th century. Mature mannerism is characterized by the desire to isolate itself from life, to place art above reality. The new ideal of grace is based on arbitrary norms of aesthetic taste. Deprived of the high ideological content characteristic of the art of the Renaissance, the art of Mannerist artists became not only too cutesy, but also cold and inexpressive. In the second half of the 16th century, mannerism spread to all European art; only the Venetian school, which remained faithful to the traditions of the Renaissance and its humanistic principles, did not succumb to its influence, however, it also abandoned heroism and turned to the depiction of real living people and their environment. Landscapes, portraits, and crowd scenes occupied a large place in Venetian art. The largest representatives of the Venetian school are Veronese and Tintoretto. Veronese's paintings are distinguished by the sophistication of colorful combinations, the dynamism and boldness of the composition, most of them are characterized by cheerfulness and elation. In the last decades of the 16th century, the crisis of Renaissance humanism also influenced the Venetian school. This is noticeable in Tintoretto’s work, which combines realism with mannerist sophistication of forms.

The Italian Renaissance influenced the art of Spain. Spanish artists adopted a lot from the Italians, but mannerism turned out to be closer in spirit to them than the Renaissance. From the middle of the 16th century. this direction was supplanted by court art. The most famous Spanish artist of the second half of the 16th century is El Greco, whose work is closer to the Venetian school. He became the last major representative of European mannerism.

In the art of the Netherlands of the 16th century. development occurred gradually, new features were combined with old ones. One of the trends in Dutch painting is “Romanism” - an appeal to the art of Italy, influenced by both the Renaissance and Mannerism. In the second half of the 16th century, the genre of portraiture developed in the Netherlands, and its new variety took shape - the group portrait. Everyday painting stands out as an independent genre. The greatest artist of the Netherlands is Pieter Bruegel, whose art is national in form and content. Bruegel vividly reflects contemporary life.

Italian Renaissance art also influenced German culture. German artists became familiar with the achievements of the Renaissance and mastered the scientific foundations of art. For German art of the 16th century. Characterized by the expansion of themes, mastery of the image of space and the human body. Among the artists of Germany of the 16th century, Albrecht Dürer stands out, a painter and engraver who left treatises on the theory of art. Dürer, in addition to painting and graphics, was also involved in the natural and exact sciences, embodying the Renaissance type of artist-scientist. Other major German artists of that time were Lucas Cranach and Hans Holbein.

The highest rise of Late Renaissance literature is the dramas of Shakespeare and the novels of Cervantes. Most famous work Cervantes became the novel " Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha,” in which the writer gave a broad, realistic picture of life in Spain. "Don Quixote" parodies chivalric novels, introducing the hero into an environment alien to him. The romantically minded hidalgo is unable to understand that the time of chivalry has passed. The drama of the unlucky knight is close to Cervantes, who, like a significant part of the Spanish nobility of that time, could not adapt to new living conditions and felt his worthlessness. Other works of Cervantes, for example, "Edifying Novels", became a kind of description contemporary to the author morals

In the works of the greatest playwright of this era, Shakespeare, the crisis of humanism found a particularly vivid embodiment in the image of Hamlet, who is torn between humanistic ideals and the need to act in a far from ideal society, where any action is contrary to the spirit of humanism. Shakespeare's work was an expression of the wealth of ideas and passions that arose during a turning point. The literature of this period refers to the earthly nature of man, his feelings and passions, and the struggle for real interests. A new personality, proactive and enterprising, comes to the fore in her. Shakespeare's historical dramas recreate the most tragic moments English history and imbued with thoughts of the greatness of England. Shakespeare's works reflected the contradictions of consciousness, doubts and hesitations of a turning point.

Music at the end of the 16th century underwent the same changes as other forms of art. The music of this period is often referred to as mannerism. At the same time, musical genres are further developing. In the second half of the century, the genres of opera and ballet appeared. A major role in the formation of the opera was played by C. Monteverdi, who developed the traditions renaissance music and strove for the unity of dramatic and musical principles. Another major composer the end of the 16th century, O. Lasso, combined Dutch, German, French and Italian musical culture in his compositions. The humanistic features of the Renaissance were reflected in the work of the head of the Roman school, J. Palestrina.

Art of Italy in the 16th century. is still experiencing its heyday, but in the second half of the century the artist ceases to feel like a divine creator. The collision of the humanistic ideal with reality causes deep disappointment. Humanists began to consider their ideas about man not from the point of view of eternity, but in specific life situations, and then their humanism, having undergone radical changes and transformations, became a worldview of a completely non-Renaissance type.

Conclusion

Art during the Renaissance was the main type of spiritual activity. There were almost no people indifferent to art. Works of art most fully express both the ideal of a harmonious world and the place of man in it. All types of art are subordinated to this task to varying degrees.

The main stages and genres of Renaissance literature are associated with the evolution of humanistic concepts during the Early, High and Late Renaissance. The literature of the Early Renaissance is characterized by a short story, especially a comic one, glorifying an enterprising and free from prejudices personality. The High Renaissance was marked by the flowering of the heroic poem. During the Late Renaissance, the genres of novel and drama developed, based on tragic and tragicomic conflicts between a heroic personality and an unworthy system of social life.

The progressive humanistic content of Renaissance culture is clearly expressed in theatrical art, which is significantly influenced by ancient drama. He is characterized by an interest in the inner world of a person endowed with a bright individuality. In the theater of the Renaissance, the traditions of folk art developed, combining tragic and comic elements, as in the theater of Italy, Spain, and England. In the 16th century, improvisational commedia dell'arte developed in Italy. Reached its peak performing arts Revivals in the works of Shakespeare.

Professional music in the Renaissance was imbued with a new humanistic worldview, ceased to be a purely church art and was influenced by folk music. Appear various genres secular musical art- frottala and villanella in Italy, villancico in Spain, ballad in England, madrigal, which spread from Italy to everything European countries. New genres are emerging instrumental music, national schools of performing the organ and lute are being put forward. The Renaissance was completed by the emergence of new musical genres - solo songs, opera, oratorios.

The ideals of the Renaissance were most fully expressed by architecture, sculpture, and painting, and painting during this period came to the fore, pushing aside architecture. This is explained by the fact that painting had more opportunities to display real world, its beauty, richness and diversity.

A characteristic feature of Renaissance culture is the close connection between science and art. Artists, trying to most fully reflect all natural forms, turn to scientific knowledge. A new system of artistic vision of the world is being developed. Renaissance artists developed the principles of linear perspective. This discovery helped to expand the range of depicted phenomena, to include landscape and architecture in the pictorial space, turning the picture into a kind of window into the world. The combination of scientist and artist in one creative personality was possible only during the Renaissance. The Titans of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Raphael Santi, Albrecht Durer, the greatest artist-scientists, embodied the characteristic features of the Renaissance - universality, versatility, creative talent. During the Renaissance, new styles and trends emerged and developed, which largely determined the heyday of modern culture, and its further development.

2. Technological achievements of the Renaissance

The philosophy of the Renaissance is characterized by a pantheistic tendency. Pantheism was most clearly manifested in the works of Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrizi, Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella. Thus, the teaching of Telesio is characterized by the fact that both God and his creation, including the immortal human soul and purposefully constructed nature turn out to be impersonal principles.

For Patrizi, the light is above all, and the entire universe, together with man and material things, is only a hierarchical emanation of this primal light, i.e. Before us is Neoplatonism.

Bruno created one of the most profound and interesting forms of pantheism in Italy in the 16th century; the basis of his teaching about the beauty of the divine universe and, consequently, about the beauty of each individual element of such a universe, heroically striving to merge with the deity (which is also the material universe), lies the basic ontological principle - everything is in everything (this principle is used in 20th century science .).

Campanella’s pantheistic system is very contradictory, since it features a real monotheistic god and at the same time proclaims complete freedom of human sensory perception, complete freedom of logic, epistemology and science based on it, and thereby complete independence from the deity and his institutions.

The contradictions of Campanella's system and his flirting with the exact sciences, in which he understood little, indicate both the progressive collapse of the Renaissance and the progressive formation of modern natural science. One of the most striking phenomena of the Renaissance in the traditional presentation is usually the heliocentric system of Copernicus and the doctrine of infinite measures by Giordano Bruno. Nevertheless, the discovery of Copernicus was an advanced and revolutionary event for subsequent centuries, but for the Renaissance it was a phenomenon not only of decline, but even of Renaissance self-denial. The fact is that the Renaissance appeared in history Western culture as an era of the exaltation of man, as a period of faith in man, in his endless possibilities and in his mastery of nature. But Copernicus and Bruno turned the Earth into some insignificant grain of sand of the universe, and at the same time man turned out to be incomparable, incommensurable with the endless dark abyss of world space.

The revivalist loved to contemplate nature with the motionless Earth and the ever-moving vault of heaven. But now it turned out that the Earth is some kind of insignificance, and no sky exists at all. The Renaissance man preached the power of the human personality and his connection with nature, which for him was the model of his creations, and he himself also tried in his work to imitate nature and its creator - the Great Artist.

But along with the great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler, all this human power collapsed and crumbled to dust. A picture of the world emerged in which man has become a nonentity with an endlessly inflated mind and self-esteem. Thus, heliocentrism and the infinite number of worlds not only contradicted the culture of the Renaissance, but were its negation.

Along with all this, the everyday practice of alchemy, astrology and all magic covered the entire Renaissance society from top to bottom and was by no means the result of ignorance.

It is the result of the same individualistic thirst to master the mysterious forces of nature, which makes itself felt even in Francis Bacon, that famous champion of inductive methods in science. Connected with this is the historical paradox that the Holy Inquisition flourished during the Renaissance.

Hunts for heretics and witches, unbridled terror and collective psychoses, cruelty and moral insignificance, suffering and ordinary bestiality are the products of the Renaissance; they, like the activities of the Holy Inquisition, do not oppose the then great achievements of the spirit and thought of man, but are connected with them, are their integral part, and express the authentic aspirations and needs of man.

After all, the Renaissance is very rich in endless superstitions that permeated absolutely all layers of society, including scientists and philosophers, not to mention politicians and rulers.

3. Art of the Renaissance.

The culture of the Renaissance, its art and, above all, plastic art make it possible to formulate a paradox: the archetype of youth, which in its essence is an expression of the search for immutability, is seemingly historical.

The basis of this paradox is the position adopted by the Renaissance about the fundamental genetic identity of the natural world and the world of culture. This position in Renaissance culture becomes a leitmotif in the works of writers, philosophers and artists.

Picodella Mirandola's classic formulation in the Oration on the Dignity of Man is an expression of the generally accepted idea of ​​the fundamental unity of the world.

Finally, the Renaissance represents the first cultural form of regeneration of time, consciously expressing the idea of ​​renewal.

The Renaissance can also be looked at as a great, integral attempt to begin history anew, an act of renewal of the beginning, a regeneration of social time. In general, we can say that it was in the Renaissance culture that the idea of ​​the limitless power of man, of his unlimited capabilities, was developed.

The aesthetics of the Renaissance orients art towards imitation of nature. However, what comes first here is not so much nature as the artist, who in his creative activity becomes like God. In the creator of a work of art, who is gradually freed from church ideology, what is most valued is a keen artistic view of things, professional independence, and special skills, and his creations acquire a self-sufficient, rather than sacred, character.

One of the most important principles of perception of works of art is pleasure, which indicates a significant democratic tendency as opposed to the moralizing and scholastic “scholarship” of previous aesthetic theories.

The aesthetic thought of the Renaissance contains not only the idea of ​​the absolutization of the human individual as opposed to the supra-mundane divine personality in the Middle Ages, but also a certain awareness of the limitations of such individualism, based on the absolute self-affirmation of the individual.

Hence the motives of tragedy found in the works of W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes, Michelangelo and others. This is the inconsistency of a culture that has moved away from ancient medieval absolutes, but due to historical circumstances has not yet found new reliable foundations.

The fine arts of the Renaissance provide a contrast to the medieval in many respects. It marks the emergence of realism, which determined the development of European artistic culture for a long time.

This affected not only the spread of secular images, the development of portraits and landscapes, or a new, sometimes almost genre-specific interpretation of religious subjects, but also a radical renewal of the entire artistic system. During the Renaissance, an objective image of the world was seen through human eyes, therefore one of important issues The problem that faced the artists was the problem of space.

The art of antiquity constitutes one of the foundations of the artistic culture of the Renaissance. It is known that the ancient heritage was also used in the Middle Ages, for example, during the Carolingian Renaissance, in the painting of the Ottonian period in Germany, in Gothic art.

But the attitude towards this heritage was different. In the Middle Ages, individual monuments were reproduced and individual motifs were borrowed. And representatives of the Renaissance find in ancient culture something that is in tune with their own aspirations - commitment to reality, cheerfulness, admiration for the beauty of the earthly world, for greatness heroic feat. At the same time, having developed in different historical conditions, having absorbed traditions Romanesque style and Gothic, Renaissance art bears the stamp of its time.

Compared with the art of classical antiquity, the human spiritual world is becoming more and more complex and multifaceted.

The artists' works become signatures, that is, they are clearly copyrighted. More and more self-portraits are appearing. An undoubted sign of a new self-awareness is that artists are increasingly shying away from direct orders, devoting themselves to work out of inner motivation.

By the end of the 14th century, the external position of the artist in society also changed significantly.

Artists are beginning to receive all sorts of awards public recognition, positions, honorary and monetary sinecures. A. Michelangelo, for example, is elevated to such a height that, without fear of offending the crowned princes, he refuses the high honors offered to him. The nickname “divine” is enough for him.

He insists that in letters to him any titles should be omitted, and they should simply be written “Michelangelo Buonarotti.” A genius has a name. The title is a burden for him, because it is associated with inevitable circumstances and, therefore, with at least a partial loss of that very freedom from everything that interferes with his creativity.

But the logical limit to which the Renaissance artist gravitated was the acquisition of complete personal independence, implying, of course, first of all creative freedom.

In architecture, an especially important role was played by the appeal to the classical tradition. It manifested itself not only in the rejection of Gothic forms and the revival of the ancient order system, but also in the classical proportionality of proportions, in the development in temple architecture of a centric type of building with an easily visible interior space.

Especially a lot of new things were created in the field of civil architecture. During the Renaissance, multi-story city buildings (town halls, houses of merchant guilds, universities, warehouses, markets, etc.) received a more elegant appearance; a type of city palace (palazzo) emerged - the home of a wealthy burgher, as well as a type of country villa. Issues related to city planning are being resolved in a new way, and city centers are being reconstructed.

Unlike the Middle Ages, when the main customers of works were the church and large feudal lords, now the circle of customers is significantly expanding and their social composition is changing. Along with the church, guild associations of artisans, merchant guilds, city authorities, and private individuals - both nobles and burghers - often give orders to artists.

Along with monumental forms, easel forms are becoming increasingly widespread - painting on wood and canvas, sculpture made of wood, bronze, rherracotta and majolica.

The chronological boundaries of the development of Renaissance art in different countries do not completely coincide. Due to historical circumstances, the Renaissance in the northern countries of Europe was delayed compared to the Italian one.

And yet the art of this era, with all the variety of particular forms, has the most important common feature- the desire for a truthful reflection of reality. In the last century, the first Renaissance historian Jacob Burckhard defined this feature as “the discovery of the world of mankind.”

The art of the Renaissance is divided into four stages: Proto-Renaissance (late XIII - first half of the XIV century),

Early Renaissance (XV century),

High Renaissance (end of the 15th century, first three decades of the 16th century),

Late Renaissance (middle and second half of the 16th century).

In the literature about the Renaissance, Italian names of centuries are often used: Ducento - XIII century, Trecento - XIV century, Quattrocento - XVI century.

REFERENCES

1. Kravchenko A.I. Culturology: Tutorial for universities. - 3rd ed. - M.: Academic Project, 2001.

2. Cultural studies for technical universities. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2001.

3. Bichko A.K. Ta in. Theory and history of light and veterinary culture: Course of lectures. – K.: Libid, 1992. – 392 p.

4. Cultural studies in questions and answers. Tutorial. Rotov-on-Don: “Phoenix”, 1997 – 480 p.

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