Important milestones of the revival in Italy and Europe. Renaissance in Western Europe

Renaissance is a time of rethinking the heritage of antiquity, the revival of its ideas. But it is wrong to consider this time as a repetition, an imitation of a bygone culture. The ideas born in the Middle Ages during the Renaissance largely influenced the specifics of the attitude of a person of this time.

The following provisions can be considered the basic principles of the attitude of a Renaissance man:

The earthly world is a hierarchy of God's creations, where only man himself has the highest perfection; theocentrism of world outlook is replaced by anthropocentrism;

There is a clear awareness of the problems of life;

Time and space are already evaluated by the framework of real existence, clearly defined by the forms of human activity. The space becomes visible. Time is like the present and fast flowing. The Renaissance personality type is distinguished by titanism (he accomplishes so much in his life that many cannot afford) and universality (realizes his abilities in a wide variety of areas);

The ability to create becomes the highest manifestation of human divinity, and the artist becomes the most respected person in society;

Art and nature become equivalent concepts;

The beauty of the world is divided into natural, natural beauty and artificial, man-made beauty; human beauty - on the spiritual and physical.

Renaissance is the birth of the ideas of humanism, glorifying the creative potential of man. Humanism is clearly manifested in art. Humanists developed (practically rather than theoretically) that component of aesthetics, which today we call applied. Nature is seen as the highest form of beauty. Art is one of the forms of creativity carried out according to the laws of the beauty of nature. If medieval aesthetics considers art to be an attachment to matter, then

ready-made form, pre-existing in the soul of the artist and laid there God then in the Renaissance for the first time the idea arises that the artist myself creates and creates this form. Therefore, art is not a simple imitation of nature. It is a completely new phenomenon, which is an act of the creative act of a person who manifests his will and individuality through art.

Art is considered as one of the channels of human knowledge of the world around. Art actively interacts with science. The great titans of the Renaissance are not only engaged in artistic creativity, but also make scientific and technical discoveries. It is enough to mention the name of Leonardo da Vinci.

Art became not only independent, but also began to show its morphological structure: the specificity of individual types of art began to clearly appear. The creator becomes a professional in his field, in which skill and individuality begin to be especially valued.

Thus, art acquires an increasingly secular character, characterized by democracy and a desire for realism in reflecting the world. The concept arises "free activities" which include philosophy, history, eloquence, music and poetry. The authority of the artist in society begins to grow. The labor expended and the necessary professional knowledge become the criterion of art. Literature and fine arts become the most valued.

In this era, a new - modern literature. The word is understood as the highest manifestation of Beauty, the work on the figurativeness of the word - as the highest human destiny. The literature of the Renaissance is filled with a life-affirming character, admiration for the beauty of the world, man and his accomplishments. Its main theme is the theme of love.

Architecture The Renaissance was looking for an opportunity to create an ideal way of life through the creation of new architectural designs. The ideal of life was realized in Florence of the 15th century - the "ideal" city, modeled by the imagination and hands of great creators. The “ideal” city was born thanks to the discovery of the perspective outlined by Brunelleschi and Leonardo da Vinci and also due to the realized unity of the spatial-plastic and socio-political vision of the world. For the first time, human space appeared as opposed to natural space. The architecture of the city is considered as a synthesis of the city in general: the objective world of the city, the life of individual citizens, its public life with games, spectacles and theatre.

One of the tasks visual arts- the importance of observing the canon of the beautiful, found by the ancients, but in such a way that the realism and vitality of the image do not suffer. Mastery of the image

niya becomes a profession. Art schools are developing. The fine arts of the Renaissance are characterized by:

Change of subject - a person becomes the object of increased attention;

Changing image techniques - direct perspective, the accuracy of the transfer of the structure of the human body;

Displacing a pure color with complex, compound colors;

The main means of expression is not light, but shadow, which contributes to the development of graphic arts in the visual arts;

Special interest in landscape;

The predominance of easel painting and the emergence of secular painting (portrait);

Technological development oil painting;

interest in engraving.

IN sculpture there is a return of interest in the naked body. Sculptor Donatello the first (after the Middle Ages) to present a naked body in sculpture, created new type round statue and sculptural group, picturesque relief. The naked body of Renaissance sculptures is filled with expression, movement, sensuality, eroticism. The postures became dynamic, the muscles became more tense, the emotions were open. The body, as in antiquity, is seen as a reflection of the soul. But the emphasis in the depiction of the human body is already different: it must be considered as a manifestation of special states souls. That is why sculptors study the human body so intently in various psychological situations. Looking at the sculptural images of a Renaissance man, we can first of all see his soul, state, emotions manifested in his posture, tense muscles, and facial expression.

Formation theater The renaissance is associated with names William Shakespeare And Lope de Bega. The main theatrical genres of this time are tragedy And comedy, mystery, miracle, farce and honeycombs(varieties of comedies). Content becomes more secular. The action takes place anywhere (on earth, in heaven, in the underworld) and covers events that continue for years and months. At the same time, there is still no integrity of the plot and selected types of characters. Ancient plots are often played out in school productions and are more likely to pursue educational and educational goals. spectacles theatrical performances were quite boring in terms of plot development, but entertained the audience with dance interludes, decorations and costumes. The theater of the Renaissance became believable, realistic, acquired the features of a stage action, which the viewer observes as if from the side.

Music for the first time manifests itself as a secular art, based on a secular beginning and existing without the additional tutelage of other arts or religion. The ability to sing and play a musical instrument becomes an indispensable quality of a cultured person.

Completely new genres appear in music: opera and instrumental direction. Improvisation was held in high esteem. New musical instruments are also becoming popular: the clavichord, the lute, and the violin. The organ was considered the most suitable instrument for reproducing images of "high" art. It was in organ art that the so-called monumental style was born - a parallel to baroque in painting and architecture, which began to take shape in the 16th century. In the 16th century in Spain appear first treatises about the art of music.

The revival in art prepared the design of new artistic styles: baroque, classicism, rococo.

At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, when Italy found itself at the center of international politics, the Renaissance spirit also penetrated other European countries. It manifested itself, in particular, in the strong Italian influence on political life and economic relations, which gave rise to the English historian A. Toynbee to speak of the "Italianization" of Europe.

Things were different in the field of culture. Outside of Italy, especially in the north of Europe, the ancient heritage played a much more modest role than in the birthplace of the Renaissance (read about the Italian Renaissance). Of decisive importance were the national traditions and peculiarities of the historical development of various peoples.

These circumstances were clearly manifested in Germany, where a broad cultural movement arose, called the Northern Renaissance. It was in Germany at the height of the Renaissance that printing was invented. In the middle of the XV century. Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1397-1468) published the world's first printed book, a Latin edition of the Bible. Printing quickly spread throughout Europe, becoming a powerful means of disseminating humanistic ideas. This landmark invention changed the whole character European culture.

The prerequisites for the Northern Renaissance were formed in the Netherlands, especially in the rich cities of the southern province of Flanders, where almost simultaneously with the early Italian Renaissance, elements of a new culture were born, the most striking expression of which was painting. Another sign of the advent of new times was the appeal of the Dutch theologians to moral issues Christian religion, their desire for a "new piety". Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536), the greatest thinker of the Northern Renaissance, grew up in such a spiritual atmosphere. A native of Rotterdam, he studied in Paris, lived in England, Italy, Switzerland, gaining pan-European fame with his work. Erasmus of Rotterdam became the founder of a special direction of humanistic thought, called Christian humanism. He understood Christianity primarily as a system of moral values ​​that had to be followed in everyday life.

Based on an in-depth study of the Bible, the Dutch thinker created his own theological system - the "philosophy of Christ." Erasmus of Rotterdam taught: “Do not think that Christ is concentrated in rites and services, no matter how you observe them, and in church institutions. A Christian is not the one who is sprinkled, not the one who is anointed, not the one who is present at the sacraments, but the one who is imbued with love for Christ and is exercising in pious deeds.

Simultaneously with the High Renaissance in Italy, the fine arts also flourished in Germany. Central to this process was the brilliant artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). His home was the free city of Nuremberg in southern Germany. During trips to Italy and the Netherlands, the German artist had the opportunity to get acquainted with the best examples of contemporary European painting.

In Germany itself, at that time, such a type of artistic creativity as engraving, a relief drawing applied to a board or a metal plate, was widely used. Unlike paintings, engravings reproduced in the form of separate prints or book illustrations became the property of the widest circles of the population.

Durer brought the engraving technique to perfection. The cycle of his woodcuts "Apocalypse", illustrating the main biblical prophecy, is one of the greatest masterpieces of graphic art.

Like other Renaissance masters, Dürer entered the history of world culture as an outstanding portrait painter. He became the first German artist to receive pan-European recognition. The artists Lucas Cranach Sr. (1472-1553), known as a master of mythological and religious scenes, and Hans Holbein Jr. (1497/98-1543) also gained great fame.

Holbein worked for several years in England, at the court of King Henry VIII, where he created a whole gallery of portraits of his famous contemporaries. His work marked one of the pinnacles of the artistic culture of the Renaissance.

French Renaissance

The culture of the Renaissance in France was also distinguished by its great originality. After the end of the Hundred Years War, the country experienced a cultural upsurge, relying on its own national traditions.

The flourishing and enrichment of French culture contributed to geographical position countries, which opened up opportunities for close acquaintance with the cultural achievements of the Netherlands, Germany, Italy.

The new culture enjoyed royal support in France, especially during the reign of Francis I (1515-1547). The formation of a national state and the strengthening of royal power was accompanied by the formation of a special court culture, which was reflected in architecture, painting, and literature. In the river valley Loire was built several castles in the Renaissance style, among which Chambord stands out. The Loire Valley is even called the "showcase of the French Renaissance." During the reign of Francis I, the country residence of the French kings of Fontainebleau was built, and the construction of the Louvre, a new royal palace in Paris, began. Its construction was completed during the reign of Charles IX. Under Charles IX himself, the construction of the Tuileries Palace began. These palaces and castles were among the most remarkable architectural masterpieces of France. The Louvre is now one of the largest museums in the world.

The Renaissance is the birth of the portrait genre, which for a long time prevailed in french painting. The most famous were court painters Jean and Francois Clouet, who depicted images of French kings from Francis I to Charles IX and other famous people of their time.

The most striking phenomenon of the French Renaissance is the work of the writer Francois Rabelais (1494-1553), which reflected both the national identity of the country and the Renaissance influence. His satirical novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" presents a wide panorama of the French reality of that time.

An active participant in the political life of France in the late XV - early XVI century. Philippe de Commines laid the foundations for French historical and political thought in modern times. The greatest contribution to their further development was introduced by the remarkable thinker Jean Bodin (1530-1596) with his works “The Method of Easy Knowledge of History” and “Six Books on the State”.

English humanism

Oxford University, which had a long tradition of classical education, became the largest center of humanistic culture in England. Studied ancient literature here Thomas More (1478-1535), whose name has become a symbol of English humanism. His main work is Utopia. It depicts the image of an ideal state. This book laid the foundation and gave the name to a peculiar literary genre- social utopia. "Utopia" in Greek means "a country that does not exist."

Depicting an ideal society, More contrasted it with contemporary English reality. The fact is that the New Age brought with it not only undoubted achievements, but also serious social contradictions. The English thinker was the first to show in his work the social consequences of the capitalist transformation of the English economy: the massive impoverishment of the population and the split of society into rich and poor.

In search of the reason for this situation, he came to the conclusion: "Where there is only private property, where everything is measured for money, there is hardly ever possible the correct and successful course of state affairs." T. More was big politician of his time, in 1529-1532. he even served as Lord Chancellor of England, but because of disagreement with the religious policy of King Henry VIII, he was executed.

Renaissance daily life

The Renaissance brought great changes not only to artistic culture, but also to everyday culture, the daily life of people. It was then that many household items familiar to modern man first appeared or became widespread.

An important innovation was the appearance of a variety of furniture that came to replace the simple and bulky structures of the Middle Ages. The need for such furniture led to the birth of a new craft - carpentry, in addition to the simpler carpentry.

The dishes became richer and more qualitatively made; mass distribution, in addition to the knife, received spoons and forks. Food also became more diverse, the range of which was significantly enriched due to products brought from newly discovered countries. The overall growth of wealth, on the one hand, and sharp increase the amount of precious metals and stones that flooded into Europe as a result of the Great geographical discoveries, on the other hand, led to the flourishing jewelry art. Life in Renaissance Italy becomes more sophisticated and beautiful.

The late Middle Ages left such things as scissors and buttons as a legacy to the Renaissance, and at the beginning of the XTV century. in Burgundy, which then dictated the fashion in Europe, the tailoring was invented. The production of clothes stood out as a special profession - the craft of a tailor. All this has made a real revolution in the field of fashion. If earlier clothes did not change for a very long time, now it could be easily designed according to any taste. The Italians adopted the fashion for cut clothes that arose in Burgundy and began to develop it further, setting the tone for the whole of Europe.

The historical significance of the Renaissance

The most important merit of the culture of the Renaissance was that it first revealed inner world man in his entirety.

attention to human personality and its originality was manifested literally in everything: in lyrical poetry and prose, in painting and sculpture. In the visual arts, the portrait and self-portrait became popular as never before. In literature, such genres as biography and autobiography have been widely developed.

The study of individuality, that is, the characteristics of character and psychological make-up that distinguish one person from another, has become the most important task of cultural figures. Humanism has led to a versatile acquaintance with the human individuality in all its manifestations. The entire Renaissance culture as a whole formed a new type of personality, the hallmark of which was individualism.

At the same time, affirming the high dignity of the human personality, Renaissance individualism also led to the disclosure of its negative aspects. So, one of the historians noted "the envy of celebrities competing with each other", who had to constantly fight for their own existence. “As soon as the humanists begin to rise,” he wrote, “they immediately become in the highest degree indiscriminate in their means in relation to each other. It was during the Renaissance, concluded another researcher, that “the human personality, completely left to itself, surrendered itself to the power of its own selfish interests, and the corruption of morals became inevitable.”

From the end of the 15th century, the decline of Italian humanism begins. In the context of the diverse conflicts characteristic of the history of the 16th century, humanistic culture as a whole collapsed. The main result of the development of humanism was the reorientation of knowledge to the problems of human earthly life. The revival as a whole was a very complex and ambiguous phenomenon that marked the beginning of the modern stage in the history of Western Europe.

From T. More's book "Utopia"

For “public welfare, there is only one way - to declare equality in everything. I don't know if this can be observed where everyone has their own property. Because when someone, based on a certain right, appropriates to himself as much as he can, then, no matter how great the wealth, it will be completely divided among a few. For the rest, they leave poverty to their lot; and it almost always happens that some are much more worthy of the fate of others, for the former are predatory, dishonorable and good for nothing, while the latter, on the contrary, are modest, simple men, and with their daily zeal they bring good to society more than to themselves. ".

References:
V.V. Noskov, T.P. Andreevskaya / History from the end of the 15th to the end of the 18th century

FRANCESCO PETRARCA (1304-1374) - the founder of the Italian Renaissance, great poet and thinker and politician. 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 in Europe, was close to the popes, sovereigns. His political goals: the reform of the church, the cessation of wars, the unity of Italy. Petrarch was a connoisseur of ancient philosophy, he deserves the merit of collecting manuscripts of ancient authors, their textual processing.

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

It is customary to say about Francesco Petrarch that he is stronger than anyone - at least in his time - focused on himself. What was not only the first "individualist" of the New Age, but much more than that - a strikingly 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" made it possible 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 in 1469 to Florence. Leonardo's first teacher was Andrea Verrocchio.

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

Leonardo's research concerned a wide range of problems in mathematics, physics, astronomy, botany, and other sciences. His numerous inventions were based on a deep study of nature, the laws of its development. He was also 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 contribution of the thinker to the 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.

Florentine, descended from an ancient but impoverished patrician family. For 14 years he served as secretary of the Council of Ten, in charge of the military and foreign affairs of the Republic of Florence. After the restoration in Florence, the Medici authorities were removed from state activity. In 1513-1520 he was in exile. This period includes the creation of the most significant works of Machiavelli - "The Sovereign", "Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius", "History of Florence", which earned him European fame. The political ideal of Machiavelli is the Roman Republic, in which he saw the embodiment of the idea of ​​a strong state, the people of which "much surpass the sovereigns both in virtue and in glory." ("Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius").

The ideas of N. Machiavelli had a very significant impact 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 posts. Very important for the formation and development of More as a humanist was his meeting and friendship with Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was accused of high treason and executed on July 6, 1535.

The most famous work of Thomas More is "Utopia", which reflected both 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 close to More. His ideas had a strong influence on social thought.

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

Erasmus, the illegitimate son of a poor parish priest, 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 the greatest connoisseur of Greek and Latin.

Erasmus' most famous work is the satire Praise of Stupidity (1509), modeled after Lucian, which was written in the home of Thomas More in just one week. Erasmus of Rotterdam tried to synthesize the cultural traditions of antiquity and early Christianity. He believed in the natural goodness of man, he wanted people to be guided by the requirements of reason; among the spiritual values ​​of Erasmus - freedom of spirit, abstinence, education, simplicity.

THOMAS MUNTZER (circa 1490-1525) - German theologian and ideologist of the early Reformation and the Peasants' War of 1524-1526 in Germany.

The son of a craftsman, Müntzer was educated at the universities of Leipzig and Frankfurt an der Oder, 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, Müntzer was an adherent and supporter of Luther. He then developed his doctrine of the popular Reformation.

In the understanding of Müntzer, the main tasks of the Reformation were not to establish a new church dogma or a new form of religiosity, but to proclaim an imminent socio-political upheaval to be carried out by a mass of peasants and the urban poor. Thomas Müntzer strove for a republic of equal citizens, in which people would take care that justice and law prevail.

For Müntzer, Holy Scripture was subject to free interpretation in the context of contemporary events, an interpretation directly addressed to 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

Based on the first chapter, we can conclude that the main features of the Renaissance culture are:

Anthropocentrism,

Humanism,

Modification of the medieval Christian tradition,

A special attitude to antiquity is the revival of ancient monuments and ancient philosophy,

New attitude to the world.

As for humanism, its leaders emphasized the value of the human person, the independence of the dignity of the individual from origin and generosity, the ability of a person to constantly improve and confidence in his limitless possibilities.

The Reformation played an extremely important role in the formation of world civilization and culture in general. It contributed to the process of the emergence of a man of bourgeois society - an autonomous individual with freedom of moral choice, independent and responsible in his beliefs and actions, thus preparing the ground for the idea of ​​human rights. The carriers of Protestant ideas expressed a new, bourgeois type of personality with a new attitude to the world.

The figures of the Renaissance left us an extensive creative heritage that covers philosophy, art, political science, history, literature, natural sciences and many other areas. They made numerous discoveries, which are a huge contribution to the development of world culture.

Thus, the Renaissance is a phenomenon local in scope, but global in its consequences, which had a strong impact on the development of modern Western civilization and culture with its achievements: an effective market economy, civil society, a democratic rule of law, a civilized way of life, high spiritual culture.

[Francis Bacon's doctrine of "idols"

Idols and false concepts, which have already captivated the human mind and are deeply entrenched in it, so dominate the mind of people that they make it difficult for truth to enter, but even if the entrance to it is allowed and granted, they will again block the path during the very renewal of sciences and will hinder it, unless the people, warned, arm themselves against them as far as possible.

There are four kinds of idols that besiege the minds of people. In order to study them, let's give them names. Let us call the first type the idols of the clan, the second - the idols of the cave, the third - the idols of the square and the fourth - the idols of the theater.

The construction of concepts and axioms through true induction is undoubtedly the true means for suppressing and driving out idols. But the indication of idols is very useful. The doctrine of idols is for the interpretation of nature what the doctrine of the refutation of sophisms is for the generally accepted dialectics.

Idols of the clan find their foundation in the very nature of man, in the tribe or the very kind of people, for it is false to assert that the feelings of man are the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions, both of the senses and of the mind, rest on the analogy of man, and not on the analogy of the world. The human mind is likened to an uneven mirror, which, mixing its own nature with the nature of things, reflects things in a distorted and disfigured form.

Cave idols essence of the delusion of the individual. After all, in addition to the mistakes inherent in the human race, everyone has their own special cave, which weakens and distorts the light of nature. This happens either from the special innate properties of each, or from education and conversations with others, or from reading books and from authorities before whom one bows, or due to a difference in impressions, depending on whether they are received by souls prejudiced and predisposed, or souls cool and calm, or for other reasons. So the human spirit, depending on how it is located in individual people, is a changeable, unstable and, as it were, random thing. This is why Heraclitus rightly said that people seek knowledge in the small worlds, and not in the big or general world.

There are also idols that appear, as it were, due to the mutual connection and community of people. We call these idols, referring to the fellowship and fellowship of people that gives rise to them, the idols of the square. People are united by speech. Words are established according to the understanding of the crowd. Therefore, a bad and absurd establishment of words besieges the mind in a wonderful way. The definitions and explanations with which learned people are accustomed to arm themselves and protect themselves in no way help the cause. Words directly force the mind, confuse everything and lead people to empty and countless disputes and interpretations.

Finally, there are idols that have taken root in the souls of people from various dogmas of philosophy, as well as from the perverse laws of evidence. We call them theater idols, for we believe that as many philosophical systems are accepted or invented, as many comedies are staged and played, representing fictional and artificial worlds. We say this not only about the philosophical systems that exist now or once existed, since fairy tales of this kind could be combined and composed in multitude; for in general very different errors have almost the same causes. Here we mean not only general philosophical teachings, but also numerous principles and axioms of the sciences, which have received strength as a result of tradition, faith and carelessness. However, each of these kinds of idols should be more specifically and definitely said separately, in order to warn the mind of man.

The human mind, by virtue of its inclination, easily assumes more order and uniformity in things than it finds them. And while much in nature is singular and completely unresembling, he invents parallels, correspondences and relationships that do not exist. Hence the rumor that everything in the heavens moves in perfect circles\...\

The mind of man draws everything to support and agree with what he once accepted, whether because it is an object of common faith, or because he likes it. Whatever the strength and number of the facts to the contrary, the mind either does not notice them, or neglects them, or rejects and rejects them by means of discrimination with a great and pernicious prejudice, so that the reliability of those former conclusions remains intact. And therefore, he correctly answered who, when they showed him the images of those who were saved from shipwreck by taking a vow, exhibited in the temple, and at the same time sought an answer, whether he now recognizes the power of the gods, asked in turn: “Where are the images of those who perished after made a vow? This is the basis" of almost all superstitions - in astrology, in dreams, in beliefs, in predictions and the like. People who indulge in this kind of fuss note the event that has come true, and ignore the one that deceived, although the latter happens much more often. This evil penetrates even deeper into philosophy and the sciences. In them, what is once recognized infects and subjugates the rest, even if the latter is much better and stronger. In addition, even if these partiality and vanity, which we have indicated, did not take place, yet the human mind is constantly deluded that it is more amenable to positive arguments than negative ones, while in justice it should treat both equally; even more so, in the construction of all true axioms, the negative argument has great power.

The human mind is most affected by that which can immediately and suddenly strike him; this is what usually excites and fills the imagination. The rest he imperceptibly transforms, imagining it to himself the same as the little that owns his mind. To turn to distant and heterogeneous arguments, by means of which the axioms are tested, as if on fire, the mind is generally not inclined and is not capable of until severe laws and strong authority dictate it to him.

The human mind is greedy. He can neither stop nor remain at rest, but rushes further and further. But in vain! Therefore, thought is not able to grasp the limit and end of the world, but always, as if by necessity, represents something existing even further. \...\ This impotence of the mind leads to much more harmful results in the discovery of causes, for, although the most general principles in nature must exist as they were found, and in reality have no causes, yet the human mind, knowing no rest , and here looking for more famous. And so, striving for what is further, he returns to what is closer to him, namely, to final causes, which have their source rather in the nature of man than in the nature of the universe, and, starting from this source, they have distorted philosophy in an amazing way. But he who seeks causes for the universal philosophizes lightly and ignorantly, just as he who does not seek causes that are lower and subordinate.

The human mind is not a dry light, it is sprinkled with will and passions, and this gives rise in science to what is desirable for everyone. A person rather believes in the truth of what he prefers. He rejects the difficult - because there is no patience to continue the study; sober - because it captivates hope; the highest in nature is due to superstition; the light of experience - because of arrogance and contempt for it, so that it does not turn out that the mind is immersed in base and fragile; paradoxes - because of conventional wisdom. In an infinite number of ways, sometimes imperceptible, passions stain and corrupt the mind.

But to the greatest extent the confusion and delusions of the human mind come from inertia, inconsistency and deceit of the senses, for that which excites the senses is preferred to that which does not immediately excite the senses, even if this latter is better. Therefore, contemplation ceases when the sight ceases, so that the observation of invisible things is insufficient or absent altogether. Therefore, the whole movement of spirits, enclosed in tangible bodies, remains hidden and inaccessible to people. Similarly, subtler transformations in the parts of solid bodies remain hidden - what is usually called change, while it is actually the movement of the smallest particles. Meanwhile, without research and elucidation of these two things of which we have spoken, nothing significant in nature can be achieved in practical terms. Further, the very nature of air and of all bodies that are more subtle than air (and there are many of them) is almost unknown. Feeling in itself is weak and deluded, and the instruments designed to strengthen and sharpen the senses are of little value. The most accurate interpretation of nature is achieved through observations in appropriate, expediently set experiments. Here feeling judges only about experience, while experience judges nature and the thing itself.

The human mind, by its very nature, is drawn to the abstract and thinks the fluid as permanent. But it is better to dissect nature into parts than to abstract. This was what the school of Democritus did, which penetrated deeper than others into nature. One should study more matter, its internal state and change of state, pure action and the law of action or motion, for forms are inventions of the human soul, unless these laws of action are called forms.

These are the idols we call idols of the family. They come either from the uniformity of the substance of the human spirit, or from its prejudice, or from its limitations, or from its relentless movement, or from the suggestion of the passions, or from the incapacity of the senses, or from the mode of perception.

Cave idols come from the inherent qualities of both the soul and the body, as well as from education, from habits and accidents. Although this kind of idols is varied and numerous, yet we will point out those of them that require the most caution and are most capable of corrupting and polluting the mind.

People love either those particular sciences and theories, the authors and inventors of which they consider themselves to be, or those in which they have invested the most labor and to which they are most accustomed. If people of this kind devote themselves to philosophy and general theories, then under the influence of their previous designs they distort and corrupt them. \...\

The biggest and, as it were, fundamental difference between minds in relation to philosophy and sciences is the following. Some minds are stronger and fitter for noticing the differences in things, others for noticing the similarities of things. Hard and sharp minds can focus their reflections, lingering and dwelling on every subtlety of difference. And lofty and mobile minds recognize and compare the subtlest similarities of things inherent everywhere. But both minds easily go too far in pursuit of either divisions of things or shadows.

Contemplations of nature and bodies in their simplicity pulverize and relax the mind; contemplation of nature and bodies in their complexity and configuration deafens and paralyzes the mind. \...\ Therefore, these contemplations must alternate and replace each other so that the mind becomes both penetrating and receptive and in order to avoid the dangers we have indicated and those idols that result from them.

Caution in contemplation must be such as to prevent and banish the idols of the cave, which are predominantly derived either from the dominance of past experience, or from an excess of comparison and division, or from a propensity for the temporal, or from the vastness and insignificance of objects. In general, let everyone contemplating the nature of things consider doubtful that which has especially strongly captured and captivated his mind. Great care is needed in cases of such preference, so that the mind remains balanced and pure.

But the worst of all idols of the square that penetrate the mind along with words and names. People believe that their mind commands words. But it also happens that words turn their power against reason. This has made the sciences and philosophy sophistical and ineffectual. The greater part of words, however, has its source in common opinion and separates things within the limits most obvious to the mind of the crowd. When a sharper mind and a more diligent observation wants to redefine these boundaries so that they are more in line with nature, words become a hindrance. Hence it follows that the loud and solemn disputes of scientists often turn into disputes about words and names, and it would be prudent (according to the custom and wisdom of mathematicians) to start with them in order to put them in order by definitions. However, even such definitions of things, natural and material, cannot cure this disease, for the definitions themselves consist of words, and words give rise to words, so it would be necessary to go to particular examples, their series and order, as I will soon say, when I turn to the method and way of establishing concepts and axioms.

Theater idols are not innate and do not secretly penetrate the mind, but are openly transmitted and perceived from fictitious theories and from perverse laws of evidence. However, an attempt to refute them would be decidedly inconsistent with what we have said. For if we do not agree on the grounds or on the proofs, then no better argument is possible. The honor of the ancients remains untouched, nothing is taken away from them, because the question concerns only the path. As they say, the lame who walks on the road outstrips the one who runs without a road. It is also obvious that the more agile and fast the runner on the road, the more his wanderings will be.

Our way of discovering the sciences is such that it leaves little to the sharpness and strength of talents, but almost equalizes them. Just as for drawing a straight line or describing a perfect circle, firmness, skill and testing of the hand mean a lot, if you use only your hand, it means little or nothing if you use a compass and a ruler. So it is with our method. However, although separate refutations are not needed here, something must be said about the types and classes of this kind of theory. Then also about the external signs of their weakness and, finally, about the reasons for such an unfortunate long and universal agreement in error, so that the approach to the truth would be less difficult and so that the human mind would be more willing to purify itself and reject idols.

The idols of the theatre, or theories, are numerous, and there may be more, and someday there may be more. If for many centuries the minds of people were not occupied with religion and theology, and if the civil authorities, especially monarchical ones, did not oppose such innovations, even speculative ones, and, turning to these innovations, people would not incur danger and would not suffer damage well-being, not only not receiving awards, but also subjected to contempt and ill will, then, no doubt, many more philosophical and theoretical schools like those that once flourished in great variety among the Greeks. Just as many assumptions can be invented regarding the phenomena of the celestial ether, in the same way, and to an even greater degree, various dogmas can be formed and constructed regarding the phenomena of philosophy. The fictions of this theater are like the theaters of poets, where stories invented for the stage are more harmonious and beautiful and more likely to satisfy the desires of everyone than true stories from history.

The content of philosophy, on the other hand, is formed in general by deriving a lot from a little, or a little from a lot, so that in both cases philosophy is established on a too narrow basis of experience and natural history and makes decisions from less than it should. Thus, philosophers of a rationalist persuasion snatch from experience various and trivial facts, without knowing them exactly, but having studied and weighed them diligently. Everything else they lay on the reflections and activities of the mind.

There are a number of other philosophers who, having labored diligently and carefully over a few experiments, have ventured to invent and derive their philosophy from them, perverting and interpreting everything else in relation to it in an amazing way.

There is also a third class of philosophers who, under the influence of faith and reverence, mix theology and tradition with philosophy. The vanity of some of them has reached the point where they deduce the sciences from spirits and geniuses. Thus, the root of the errors of false philosophy is threefold: sophistry, empiricism and superstition.

\...\ If people, prompted by our instructions and having said goodbye to sophistical teachings, seriously engage in experience, then, due to the premature and hasty ardor of the mind and its desire to ascend to the general and to the principles of things, perhaps a great danger will arise from philosophies of this kind . This evil we must warn now. So, we have already spoken about certain types of idols and their manifestations. All of them must be rejected and cast aside by a firm and solemn decision, and the mind must be completely freed and cleansed of them. Let the entrance to the kingdom of man, based on the sciences, be almost the same as the entrance to the kingdom of heaven, "where it is not given to anyone to enter without becoming like children."

№ 14 The era of the revival of Western Europe. rebirth- this is a period in the cultural and ideological development of the countries of Western and Central Europe. The Renaissance manifested itself most clearly in Italy, because. in Italy there was no single state (with the exception of the south). The main form of political existence - small city-states with a republican form of government, feudal lords merged with bankers, wealthy merchants and industrialists. Therefore, in Italy, feudalism in its full forms did not take shape. The situation of rivalry between cities put in the first place not origin, but personal abilities and wealth. There was a need not only for energetic and enterprising people, but also for educated people. Therefore, a humanistic direction appears in education and worldview. Revival is usually divided into Early (beginning 14 - end 15) and High (end 15 - First quarter of 16.). The greatest artists of Italy belong to this era - Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475 -1564) and Rafael Santi(1483 - 1520). This division applies directly to Italy, and although the Renaissance reached its peak in the Apennine Peninsula, its phenomenon spread to other parts of Europe. Similar processes north of the Alps are called « Northern Renaissance ». Similar processes took place in France and in the cities of Germany. Medieval man, and people of modern times, were looking for their ideals in the past. In the Middle Ages, people believed that they continued to live in. The Roman Empire continued, and the cultural tradition: Latin, the study of Roman literature, the difference was felt only in the religious sphere. But in the Renaissance, the view of antiquity changed, which saw something fundamentally different from the Middle Ages, mainly the absence of the all-encompassing power of the church, spiritual freedom, and the attitude towards man as the center of the universe. It was these ideas that became central in the worldview of the humanists. The ideals, so consonant with the new development trends, gave rise to the desire to resurrect antiquity in full, and it was Italy, with its huge number of Roman antiquities, that became fertile ground for this. The Renaissance manifested itself and went down in history as a period of extraordinary rise in art. If earlier works of art served church interests, that is, they were cult objects, now works are created to satisfy aesthetic needs. Humanists believed that life should bring pleasure and medieval monastic asceticism was rejected by them. A huge role in the formation of the ideology of humanism was played by such Italian writers and poets, as Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374), Giovanni Boccaccio(1313 - 1375). Actually, they, especially Petrarch, were the founders of both Renaissance literature and humanism itself. Humanists perceived their era as a time of prosperity, happiness and beauty. But this does not mean that it was devoid of controversy. The main one was that it remained the ideology of the elite, new ideas did not penetrate the masses of the people. And the humanists themselves sometimes had a pessimistic mood. Fear of the future, disappointment in human nature, the impossibility of achieving an ideal in the social structure pervade the moods of many figures of the Renaissance. Perhaps the most revealing in this sense was the tense expectation doomsday in 1500. The Renaissance laid the foundations for a new European culture, a new European secular worldview, a new European independent personality.

Introduction

The Renaissance is a qualitatively new stage in the history of Western European culture. Its essence is the transition from the era of the medieval vision of the world to the culture of modern times. This transition took place in all areas of the worldview and worldview of man - in science, religion, art.

Renaissance, an era in the history of European culture of the XIII-XIV centuries, which marked the onset of the New Age. The revival was self-determined, first of all, in the sphere of artistic creativity. As an epoch of European history, it is marked by many significant milestones - including the strengthening of the economic and social liberties of cities, spiritual quest, which eventually led to the Reformation and the Peasant War in Germany, the formation of an absolutist monarchy (the largest in France), the beginning of the Age of Discovery , the invention of European printing, the discovery of the heliocentric system in cosmology, etc. However, its first sign, as it seemed to contemporaries, was the “flourishing of the arts” after long centuries of medieval “decline”, a flourishing that “revived” ancient artistic wisdom, it is in this sense that the word rinascita (from which the French Renaissance and all its European analogues come) is used for the first time. ) J. Vasari. The periodization of the stages of development of the Renaissance in Italy and in countries north of the Alps, as a rule, does not coincide. The generally accepted, but conditional concept of "Northern Renaissance" is applied by analogy with the Italian Renaissance to the culture and art of Germany, the Netherlands, and France. One of the main features of the artistic culture of these countries is its genetic connection with the art of the late Gothic. The origins of the "Northern Renaissance" should be sought at the turn of the XIV and XV centuries. in Burgundy.

In the XV century. Netherlandish painting took the leading place among the northern European art schools. The painting of the Northern Renaissance is interesting for its detailed description of the surfaces of objects, plasticity achieved due to accurately noticed and successfully applied lighting effects, and naturalness, not seen since ancient times. Most clearly, this "cultural revolution" was expressed in a change in the goals and methods creative activity. New methods of acquiring scientific knowledge and education, a new visual system in painting, new genres in literature, new forms of social behavior. A dialogue was created between ancient philosophy and aesthetics, the Christian worldview and the realistic consciousness of the nascent bourgeois society. In this dialogue, the harmony of the real and the ideal, the material-natural and the spiritual-divine was born, a new type of aesthetic consciousness was born.

It is well known even to the uninitiated that the phenomenon of the Renaissance first arose, took shape and reached an unprecedented splendor (it manifested itself most clearly) in Italy. Although it should be remembered that, according to the general recognition of most modern researchers, the term "Renaissance culture" is not identical, not equivalent to the concept of "Renaissance culture", since the first of these concepts refers to new, actually Renaissance phenomena. And the second is much wider, and includes (along with the culture of the Renaissance) other cultural phenomena of its time (including the medieval, non-Renaissance cultural processes that continued to exist. We should not forget that the chronological framework of the Renaissance is not the same for different regions of Western Europe and even the spheres of culture).

Italy is the birthplace of the classical Renaissance. Chronological framework Italian Renaissance- 30-40s. XIV century (or from the middle of the 11th century) - the end of the 16th century. (or the first decades of the 17th century). Renaissance in other countries of Western Europe - such as French, German, Dutch or the so-called Northern Renaissance (in foreign science, Northern Europe traditionally means countries and territories lying north of the Alps, that is, north of Italy - the Netherlands, France, Germany, etc.). Hence the concept of "Northern Renaissance", applied to the culture and art of these countries and having the character of not so much a geographical, as a historical, cultural and artistic definition.

The purpose of this course work is to analyze the features of the Renaissance, most fully expressed in Italy XII-XVI centuries. In the course of the study, it is necessary to identify innovative features in the field of architecture, sculpture and painting of the most prominent representatives.

study the literature on the research topic;

describe the features of Renaissance art;

analyze the work of Filippo Brunneleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel, Albrecht Dürer.

The structure of the work - course work consists of an introduction, 2 chapters, conclusions and applications. The introduction briefly describes the main aspects of the entire study, and also sets goals and objectives. Chapter I describes general meaning the Renaissance, the problems in the art of this era, also the innovations made to art by artists. Chapter II examines the culture of the Northern Renaissance, "traditionalism" and "romanticism" in the painting of the Netherlands, as well as the manifestation of the Renaissance in Germany and France.

1. Renaissance - new image peace in culture

.1 General problems of European Renaissance art

In the European culture of that time, the asceticism and dogmatism of the Middle Ages are replaced by new sensations of the meaning of life, by the wide possibilities of the human mind and experience. The forms of the ancient world first appear in the architecture of Italian cities, in the interiors of buildings. Masters of the Italian Renaissance create beautiful temples, theaters, palaces in Florence, Venice, Siena, Mantua and others Italian cities. Under the influence of local conditions, clearly distinguishable Italian, French, Dutch, German, English and Spanish varieties of the new style are taking shape.

The formal language of ancient art was put at the service of the ideals of the new era. The emerging new architectural style turned out to be, like the ancient Roman one, very eclectic, and its formal elements were clearly borrowed from the arsenal of Greco-Roman orders. The calm horizontal divisions of the forms of the buildings of the new architecture are now opposed to the soaring lines of the Gothic. Roofs become flat; instead of towers and spiers, domes, drums, sails, double orders, etc. often appear.

The problem of the Renaissance is that the attitude towards individuality, realized so powerfully and magnificently in the field of art, later turned out to be destructive for the social and political life of society. The spontaneous self-affirmation of individuality often turned out to be very far from the noble revivalist humanism. Here, individuality turns into a pronounced individualism, a zoological assertion of only one's own needs and desires, a gradual degradation of humanistic morality into various forms of situational ethics. The problems of civic duty, high moral qualities, heroism, the image of a harmoniously developed, strong in spirit and the body of a human hero who managed to rise above the level of everyday life. The art of the High Renaissance renounces minor details in the name of a general image, striving for harmony of the beautiful aspects of life. Developing portrait painting and becomes one of the important achievements of the Renaissance.

A person has a mirror of reflection only if an external boundary is drawn, a limit due to which the effort of self-knowledge begins. The Renaissance individual is, first of all, a natural, spontaneously self-expressing being.

It is not difficult to draw a similar parallel with our modern society. The exalted ideal of a person who possesses not only a sense of patriotism, but also of duty, conscience, morality, brought up by Soviet ideology for so long, has given way to a person striving for material goods, longing for easy and quick gain, carnal pleasures. Debauchery and self-will, satiety and individualism (when every man is for himself) - this is a far from complete list of features inherent in both modern man and Renaissance man.

1.2 Innovative features in architecture, painting and sculpture in Italy

The Renaissance originated in Italy and went through several stages, while having a huge impact on the art and culture of other Western European countries. In the history of art, we can talk about the development of fine arts and sculpture within the framework of the early Renaissance in the XIV century. In the history of architecture, things are different. Due to the economic crisis of the XIV century, the Renaissance in architecture began only at the beginning of the XV century and lasted until the beginning of the XVII century in Italy and longer beyond its borders.

By the abundance of talented craftsmen, the scope of artistic creativity, Italy was ahead of all other European countries in the 15th century. The ideas of the Renaissance meant not just a change style directions and artistic tastes, but also led to profound changes in all areas of the life of that society.

Filippo Brunelleschi. (1337-1446) - one of the greatest Italian architects of the XV century. It opens a new chapter in the history of architecture -

formation of the Renaissance style. The innovative role of the master was noted even by his contemporaries. When Leon Battista Alberti arrived in Florence in 1434, he was struck by the appearance of artists who were not inferior to "any one of the ancient and illustrious masters of art." The first among these artists he named Brunelleschi. According to the earliest biographer of the master, Antonio Manetti, Brunelleschi "renewed and put into circulation that style of architecture that is called Roman or classical", while before him and in his time they built only in "German" or "modern" (that is, Gothic) manner. A hundred years later, Vasari would argue that the great Florentine architect came into the world "to give a new form to architecture."

Breaking with the Gothic, Brunelleschi relied not so much on ancient classics as on the architecture of the Proto-Renaissance and the national tradition of Italian architecture, which preserved elements of the classics throughout the Middle Ages. Brunelleschi's work stands at the turn of two eras: at the same time, it completes the tradition of the Proto-Renaissance and lays the foundation for a new path in the development of architecture.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Florentine rulers, guild organizations and merchant guilds paid great attention to the completion of the construction and decoration of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Basically, the building had already been erected, but the huge dome conceived in the 14th century was not realized. Since 1404, Brunelleschi has been involved in the drafting of the dome. In the end, he received an order to perform the work and becomes its leader. The main difficulty that faced the master was caused by the gigantic size of the span of the middle cross (over 48 meters), which required special efforts to facilitate spreading. By applying an ingenious design, Brunelleschi solved the problem by creating, in the words of Leon Battista Albert, "a most ingenious invention, which, indeed, is as incredible in our time as it could be, it was unknown and inaccessible to the ancients." The dome was begun in 1420 and completed in 1436 without a lantern, completed according to the drawings of Brunelleschi after the death of the master. This work of the Florentine architect marked the beginning of the construction of the domed churches of the Italian Renaissance, up to St. Peter's, crowned with the dome of Michelangelo.

One of the main works of Brunelleschi is the church of San Lorenzo in Florence that he rebuilt. He started it by building a side

chapel, which later received the name of the old sacristy. In it, he created a type of Renaissance centric structure, square in plan and covered with a dome resting on sails. The church building itself is a three-day basilica.

The ideas of the domed structure, laid down in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo, were further developed in one of the most famous and perfect creations of Brunelleschi - the Pazzi Chapel (1430-1443). It is distinguished by the clarity of spatial composition, purity of lines, elegance of proportions and decoration. The centric character of the building, all the volumes of which are grouped around the domed space, the simplicity and clarity of architectural forms, the harmonious balance of the parts make the Pazzi Chapel a focus of the new principles of Renaissance architecture. Brunelleschi's last works - the oratory of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the church of San Spirito and some others - remained unfinished.

New trends in the visual arts first manifested themselves in sculpture. At the beginning of the 15th century, large orders to decorate the largest buildings of the city - the cathedral, the baptistery, the church of Or San Mekele - coming from the richest and most influential workshops and merchant guilds in the city, attracted many young artists, from among whom a number of outstanding masters soon emerged.

Donatello (1386-1466) - the great Florentine sculptor who led the masters who initiated the flowering of the Renaissance. In is-

In the course of his time, he acted as a true innovator.

Based on a thorough study of nature and skillfully using the ancient heritage, Donatello was the first of the Renaissance masters to solve the problem of stable figure setting, to convey the organic integrity of the body, its heaviness, mass. His work is striking in the variety of new beginnings. He revived the image of nudity in statuary plastic, laid the foundation for a sculptural portrait, cast the first bronze monument, created a new type of headstone, tried to solve the problem of a free-standing group. He was one of the first to use the theory in his works. linear perspective. The problems outlined in the work of Donatello determined the development of European sculpture for a long time.

Already in 1406, Donatello performed the marble "David" for the cathedral (1408-1409, Florence, National Museum).

Abandoning traditional image King David in the form of an old man with a lyre or a scroll of Islam in his hands, Donatello presented David as a young man at the moment of triumph over the defeated Goliath. Proud of the consciousness of his victory, David stands on his hips, trampling the chopped off head of the enemy with his feet. Creating this image of the biblical hero, Donatello sought to rely on ancient traditions, the influence of ancient prototypes in the interpretation of the face and hair was especially noticeable: the face of David in the frame long hair, covered by the brim of a shepherd's hat, is almost invisible due to the slight tilt of the head. There is in this statue - the staging of the figure, the bend of the torso, the movement of the hands - and echoes of the Gothic. However, a bold impulse, movement, spirituality already allow you to feel the temperament of Donatello.

In his works, Donatello strove not only for the objective correctness of proportions and the construction of the figure, but always took into account the impression that a statue would make if placed in its intended place.

The statue of George is one of the pinnacles of Donatello's work. Here he creates a deeply individual image and at the same time embodies the ideal of a strong personality, powerful and beautiful person, which was highly consonant with the era and was later reflected in many works of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. This is a typical feature of the art of the early Renaissance, due to the artist's desire to free himself from the medieval canon, which leveled the human personality.

In the middle of the century, the sculpture of Florence loses its monumental character and features of dramatic expression. Secular and everyday motifs are becoming more and more widespread, a sculptural portrait appears and quickly spreads.

The painting of Florence in the first third of the 15th century is rich in contrasts. As in sculpture, a decisive change is made in it from the noted influence of the Gothic art of the late trecento art to the art of the Renaissance. The head of the new direction was Masaccio, whose activity falls on the third decade of the 15th century. His radical and bold innovations made a huge impression on artists, but were only partially accepted.

Masaccio (1401-1428) - a man obsessed with art, indifferent to everything that lay beyond his borders, careless and absent-minded, and for this absent-mindedness he was nicknamed Masaccio, which means muff in Italian.

The art of Giotto, as well as creative contact with the sculptor Donatello and the architect Brunelleschi, had a huge impact on the young artist. Masaccio, together with Brunelleschi and Donatello, led the realistic trend in the Florentine Renaissance art.

His earliest surviving work is considered to be Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and Angels (circa 1420).

In 1426, Masaccio painted a large altar polyptych for the Carline church in Pisa. Written around the same time (1426-1427) in the old Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the fresco "Trinity" reflects a new stage in the work of Masaccio. In the composition of the fresco, for the first time, the linear perspective system, which Brunelleschi was working on at that time, was consistently used. The first plans of it are occupied by the cross with the crucified Christ and the upcoming Mary and John, in the second plan, the figure of God the Father is visible at the top behind Christ.

The novelty of Masaccio's frescoes is due not only to the skillful use of linear perspective and the majestic Renaissance forms of architecture he painted. The brevity of the composition, the almost sculptural reality of forms, and the expressiveness of faces were new.

One of Masaccio's most celebrated works in the Bracacci Chapel is The Expulsion from Paradise. Against the background of a sparingly outlined landscape, the figures of Adam and Eve emerging from the gates of paradise, above which an angel with a sword hovers, clearly emerge. For the first time in the history of painting Renaissance Masaccio managed to convincingly execute a naked body, give it natural proportions, firmly and steadily put it on the ground. In terms of the power of expression, this fresco has no analogues in the art of its time.

The frescoes by Masaccio in the Bracacci Chapel are imbued with sober realism. Narrating miracles, Masaccio deprives the scenes he depicts of any shade of mysticism. His Christ, Peter and the apostles are earthly people, their faces are individualized and marked with the stamp of human feelings, their actions are dictated by natural human impulses.

Masaccio does not pile up the figures in rows, as his predecessors did, but groups them according to the intention of his narrative and freely places them in the landscape. With the help of light and color, he confidently sculpts the shapes of objects. Moreover, the light, as in the "Expulsion from Paradise", falls according to the direction of natural light, the source of which are the windows of the chapel, located high on the right.

What was created by him became a turning point in history Italian painting. For more than a century after his death, the Bracacci Chapel was a place of pilgrimage and a school for painters.

2. National identity of the culture of the Northern Renaissance

.1 "Traditionalism" and "Romanism" in Netherlandish painting

A small country, including the territory of present-day Belgium and Holland, was destined to become the brightest center of European art in Italy in the 15th century. The Dutch cities, although they were not politically independent, had long been growing rich and growing stronger, conducting extensive trade, and then developing the manufacturing production of fabrics, carpets, and glass. major center international trade there was ancient Bruges, the poetic canal city; by the end of the 15th century, it died out, giving way to lively Antwerp.

The Gothic architecture of the Netherlands is not only temples, but even more town halls, city walls and towers, houses of merchants.

And craft guilds malls, warehouses and, finally, dwelling houses of a characteristic, long-established type: with narrow facades and high triangular or stepped gables.

Since churches were built more of brick than of stone, church sculpture did not receive great development. Klaus Sluter and his students have remained a brilliant exception in the culture of the Netherlands. Its main artistic force in the Middle Ages manifested itself in something else - in miniature painting. In the 15th century, the miniature reached a high degree of perfection, as can be seen from the famous Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, illustrated by the Limburg brothers.

The loving, diligent, poetic gaze at the world was inherited from the miniature by the great painting of the 15th century, begun by Jan van Eyck. Small pictures adorning manuscripts have grown into large paintings adorning the doors of altars. At the same time, new artistic qualities arose. Something appeared that could not be in miniature: the same intent, concentrated look at a person, at his face, into the depths of his eyes.

The Hermitage has a painting by a prominent Dutch master Rogier van der Weyden “St. Luke paints the Madonna" (the evangelist Luke was considered an artist and patron of the painters' workshop). It contains many compositions typical of the Dutch favorite: a panorama of the city and the canal, painted so small, tenderly and carefully, with two pensive human figures on the bridge. But the most remarkable thing is the face and hands of Luke, who paints the Madonna "from life." He has a special expression - the carefully and tremulously listening expression of a man who has gone completely into contemplation. This is how the old Netherlandish masters looked at nature.

Let's go back to Jan van Eyck. He started out as a miniaturist, working alongside his older brother Hubert. The van Eyck brothers were traditionally credited with the invention of the technique of oil painting; this is inaccurate - the method of using vegetable oils as a binder was known before, but the van Eycks improved it and gave impetus to its distribution. Oil soon supplanted tempera.

Oil paints darken with age. The old paintings that we see in museums looked different when they appeared, much lighter and brighter. But the painting of the van Eycks has really unusual technical qualities: the paints do not dry out and retain their freshness for centuries. They almost glow, reminiscent of the radiance of stained glass windows.

The most famous work of the van Eycks - the large Ghent Altarpiece - was begun by Hubert, and after his death it was continued and completed in 1432 by Jan. The wings of the grandiose altar are painted in two tiers both inside and outside. On the outer sides there is an annunciation and kneeling figures of donors (customers): this is how the altar looked closed on weekdays. On holidays, the doors were thrown open, when opened, the altar became six times larger, and in front of the parishioners, in all the radiance of Van Eyck colors, a spectacle arose, which, in the totality of its scenes, should embody the idea of ​​the redemption of human sins and the coming enlightenment. Above in the center is the deesis - God the Father on the throne with Mary and John the Baptist on the sides. These figures are larger than human growth. Then naked Adam and Eve in human growth and groups of musical and singing angels. In the lower tier - a crowded scene of worship of the Lamb, solved on a much smaller scale, very spatially, among the wide blooming landscape, and on the side wings - processions of pilgrims. The plot of the worship of the Lamb is taken from the “Revelation of John”, which says that after the end of the sinful world, the city of God will descend to earth, in which there will be no night, but eternal light, and the river of life “as bright as crystal”, and the tree of life, every month fruitful, and the city is "pure gold, like transparent glass." The lamb is a mystical symbol of the apotheosis awaiting the righteous. And, apparently, the artists tried to put into the paintings of the Ghent Altar all their love for the charms of the earth, for human faces, for herbs, trees, waters, in order to embody the golden dream of their eternity and incorruptibility.

Jan van Eyck was also an outstanding portrait painter. In his paired portrait of the Arnolfini spouses, the image of ordinary people dressed in the then rather pretentious fashion in an ordinary room with a chandelier, a canopy, a mirror and a lap dog seems to be some kind of wonderful sacrament. It is as if he worships the flame of a candle, and the blush of apples, and a convex mirror; he is in love with every feature of the long pale face of Arnolfini, who holds his meek wife by the hand as if performing a secret ceremony. Both people and objects - everything froze in solemn anticipation, in reverent seriousness; all things have a hidden meaning, hinting at the sanctity of the marital vow and the hearth.

Thus began the everyday painting of the burghers. This subtle scrupulousness, love of comfort, almost religious attachment to the world of things. But the further, the more prose came out and poetry receded. Never later was the life of the burghers depicted in such poetic tones of sacredness and dignity.

The early burghers of the Nordic countries were also not as "bourgeois limited" as their later descendants. True, the scope and versatility of the Italians are not characteristic of him, but even on a narrower scale of worldview, the burgher is not alien to a special kind of modest grandeur. After all, it was he, the burgher, who created the cities, he defended their freedom from the feudal lords, and he still had to defend it from foreign monarchs and the greedy Catholic Church. On the shoulders of the burghers lay great historical deeds that formed outstanding characters, who, in addition to increased respect for material values, also developed resilience, corporate cohesion, loyalty to duty and word, self-esteem. As Thomas Mann says, the burgher was "an average person in the highest sense of the term."

This definition does not fit the Italians of the Renaissance: they did not feel like average people, even in a high sense. Arnolfini, portrayed by Jan van Eyck, was an Italian living in the Netherlands; if a compatriot had painted it, the portrait would probably have turned out to be different in spirit. A deep interest in the individual, in her appearance and character - this brings together the artists of the Italian and northern Renaissance. But they are interested in it in different ways and see different things in it. The Dutch do not have a sense of titanism and omnipotence of the human person: they see its value in burgher integrity, in qualities, among which humility and piety, consciousness of one’s smallness in the face of the universe, are not the last, although even in this humility the dignity of the individual does not disappear, but even like it's underlined.

In the middle and in the second half of the 15th century, many excellent painters worked in the Netherlands: the already mentioned Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Boats, Hugo van der Goes, Memling, Geertgen Toth Sint Jans. Their artistic individualities are quite distinctly distinguishable, although not with the same degree of individual style as that of the Italian Quattrocentists. They mainly painted altars and painted portraits, and painted easel paintings commissioned by wealthy citizens. Their compositions imbued with a meek, contemplative mood have a special charm. They loved the plots of Christmas and the worship of the baby, these plots are solved by them subtly and ingenuously. In “The Adoration of the Shepherds” by Hugo van der Goes, the baby is skinny and miserable, like any newborn child, those around him look at him, helpless and twisted, with deep spiritual tenderness, the Madonna is quiet, like a nun, does not raise her eyes, but one feels that she is full of modest the pride of motherhood. And outside the nursery, you can see the landscape of the Netherlands, wide, hilly, with winding roads, rare trees, towers, bridges.

There is a lot of touching here, but there is no sweetness: the Gothic angularity of the forms is noticeable, some of their rigidity. The faces of the shepherds in van der Goes are characteristic and ugly, as usual in the works of Gothic. Even angels - and those are ugly.

Dutch artists rarely depict people with beautiful, regular faces and figures, and this also differs from Italian ones. The simple consideration that the Italians, direct descendants of the Romans, were generally more beautiful than the pale and flabby sons of the north, can, of course, be taken into account, but the main reason is still not this, but the difference in the general artistic concept. Italian humanism is imbued with the pathos of the great in man and a passion for classical forms, the Dutch poetize the “average man”, they have little to do with classical beauty and harmonious proportions.

The Dutch have a passion for detail. They are for them carriers of a secret meaning. A lily in a vase, a towel, a teapot, a book - all the details, apart from the direct ones, also carry a hidden meaning. Things are depicted with love and seem inspired.

Respect for oneself, for one's everyday life, for the world of things was refracted through a religious worldview. Such was the spirit of the Protestant reforms under which the Netherlandish Renaissance is taking place.

Less anthropomorphic perception compared to the Italians, the predominance of the pantheistic principle and direct continuity from the Gothic affect all components of the style of Netherlandish painting. Among the Italian Quattrocentists, any composition, no matter how full of details, gravitates towards more or less strict tectonics. Groups are built like a bas-relief, that is, the artist usually tries to place the main figures on a relatively narrow front area, in a clearly defined enclosed space; he balances them architectonically, they stand firmly on their feet: we can already find all these features in Giotto. The compositions of the Dutch are less closed and less tectonic. They are attracted by depth and distance, their sense of space is livelier, more airy than in Italian painting. The figures are more whimsical and unsteady, their tectonics is disturbed by fan-shaped divergent downwards, broken folds of robes. The Dutch love the play of lines, but they do not serve the sculptural tasks of constructing volume, but rather ornamental.

The Dutch do not have a distinct accentuation of the center of the composition, an increased emphasis on the main figures. The artist's attention is scattered by a variety of motives, everything seems tempting to him, and the world is diverse and interesting. Some scene in the background claims to be a separate plot composition.

Finally, there is also a type of composition where there is no center at all, and the space is filled with many equal groups and scenes. At the same time, the main characters sometimes they end up somewhere in the corner.

Similar compositions are found at the end of the 15th century with Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch (1450-1516) is a remarkably idiosyncratic artist. Purely Dutch intentness and observation are combined with an unusually productive fantasy and very dark humor. One of his favorite stories is "The Temptation of St. Anthony", where the hermit is besieged by devils. Bosch populated his paintings with legions of small crawling, fearful creatures. It becomes absolutely creepy when you notice human body parts in these monsters. This whole Kunstkamera of outlandish demons is significantly different from the medieval chimeras: they were more majestic and far from being so sinister. The apotheosis of Bosch's demonology is his "Musical Hell", similar to a torture garden: naked people, mixed with monsters climbing on them from all sides, writhe in tormenting lust, they are crucified on the strings of some giant musical instruments, squeezed and sawed in mysterious devices , shoved into pits, swallowed.

The strange phantasmagoria of Bosch are born of the philosophical efforts of the mind. He stood on the threshold of the 16th century, and this was an era that made one painfully think. Bosch, apparently, was overcome by thoughts about the vitality and omnipresence of world evil, which, like a leech, sticks to all living things, about the eternal cycle of life and death, about the incomprehensible extravagance of nature, which sows larvae and germs of life everywhere - both on earth and underground, and in a rotten stagnant swamp. Bosch observed nature, perhaps sharper and more vigilantly than others, but did not find in it either harmony or perfection. Why is man, the crown of nature, doomed to death and decay, why is he weak and miserable, why does he torment himself and others, is constantly subjected to torment?

The very fact that Bosch asks such questions speaks of awakened inquisitiveness - a phenomenon that accompanies humanism. Humanism does not mean only glorification of everything human. It also means the desire to penetrate into the essence of things, to unravel the mysteries of the universe. In Bosch, this desire was painted in gloomy tones, but it was a symptom of the mental thirst that prompted Leonardo da Vinci to explore everything - beautiful and ugly. The powerful intellect of Leonardo perceived the world as a whole, felt unity in it. In Bosch's mind, the world was reflected fragmented, broken into thousands of fragments that enter into incomprehensible combinations.

But it is worth mentioning the romantic currents, that is, influenced by the Italian Cinquecento, they began to spread in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Their lack of originality is very noticeable. The image of "classical nudity", which was beautiful among the Italians, was definitely not given to the Netherlands and even looked somewhat comical, like Jan Gossaert's "Neptune and Amphitrite", with their magnificent swollen bodies. The Dutch also had their own provincial "mannerism".

We note the development of the genres of household and landscape easel paintings made Dutch artists in the 16th century. Their development was facilitated by the fact that the most broad circles, hating the papacy and the Catholic clergy, they increasingly turned away from Catholicism and demanded church reforms. And the reforms of Luther and Calvin included an element of iconoclasm; the interiors of Protestant churches were supposed to be completely simple, bare - nothing like the rich and spectacular decoration in Catholic churches. religious art greatly reduced in volume, ceased to be a cult.

Began to appear clean genre paintings with the image of merchants in shops, money changers in offices, peasants in the market, card players. The domestic genre grew out of the portrait genre, and the landscape genre grew out of those landscape backgrounds that were so fond of the Dutch masters. The backgrounds grew, and there was only a step to a pure landscape.

However, everything redeems and concentrates in itself the colossal talent of Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569). He possessed in the highest degree what is called national identity: all the remarkable features of his art date back to the original Dutch traditions. Like no one, Brueghel expressed the spirit of his time and its folk flavor. He is popular in everything: being undoubtedly an artist-thinker, he thinks aphoristically and metaphorically. The philosophy of life contained in his allegories is bitter, ironic, but also courageous. Bregel's favorite type of composition is a large space, as if seen from the top, so that people look small and scurry about in the valleys, nevertheless, everything is written in detail and clearly. The narrative is usually associated with folklore, Brueghel painted parable paintings.

Bruegel uses the type of spatial-landscape composition common among the Netherlands without emphasizing the main persons and events in such a way that a whole philosophy of life is revealed in it. The Fall of Icarus is especially interesting here. Brueghel's painting depicts a peaceful landscape on the seashore: a plowman is following a plow, a shepherd is tending sheep, a fisherman is sitting with a fishing rod, and ships are sailing on the sea. Where is Icarus and what does his fall have to do with it? You need to look closely to see in the right corner pitiful bare legs sticking out of the water. Icarus fell from the sky, but no one even noticed it. Ordinary life flows, as always. For a peasant, his arable land, for a shepherd, his flock is much more important than someone's ups and downs. The meaning of extraordinary events is not revealed soon, contemporaries do not notice it, immersed in everyday worries.

revival art painting sculpture

2.2 Renaissance in German and French art

At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. Germany was even more fragmented than in previous periods, which contributed to the vitality of the feudal foundations in it.

The development of German cities lagged behind even in relation to the Netherlands, and the German Renaissance was formed in comparison with the Italian one a whole century later. On the example of the work of many artists of the XV century. you can trace how the Renaissance was formed in Germany: these are Konrad Witz, Michael Pacher, then Martin Schongauer. Narrative elements appear in their altar images, the desire to reveal human feelings on a religious plot (the altar of St. Wolfgang M. Pacher in the church of St. Wolfgang in the town of the same name, 1481). But the understanding of space, the introduction of golden backgrounds, the fragmentation of the drawing, the restless rhythm of breaking lines, as well as

scrupulous writing out the main and the particular - all this speaks of

lack of consistency in the artistic worldview of these masters and close connection with medieval tradition. The century for Germany begins with a powerful revolutionary movement of the peasantry, chivalry and burghers against princely power and Roman Catholicism. The theses of the head of the German Reformation, Martin Luther, against the feudal church in 1517 "had an incendiary effect, like a lightning strike on a barrel of gunpowder." revolutionary movement in Germany was already defeated by 1525, but the time of the peasant war was a period of high spiritual upsurge and flourishing of German humanism, secular sciences, and German culture. The work of the greatest artist of the German Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), coincides with this time.

In the work of Dürer, the searches of many German masters seemed to have merged: observations of nature, man, problems of the relationship of objects in space, existence human figure in the landscape, in the spatial environment. In terms of versatility, in terms of the scale of talent, in terms of the breadth of perception of reality, Dürer is a typical artist of the High Renaissance. He was a painter, and an engraver, and a mathematician, and an anatomist, and a perspectivist, and an engineer. He traveled twice to Italy, once to the Netherlands, traveled to his home country. His heritage consists of 80 easel works, more than two hundred engravings, more than 1000 drawings, sculptures, handwritten materials. Dürer was the greatest humanist of the Renaissance, but his ideal of man is different from the Italian one. Deeply national images of Dürer are full of strength, but also doubts, sometimes serious

reflections, they lack the clear harmony of Raphael or Leonardo.

The artistic language is complicated, allegorical.

Even during the Hundred Years War, the process of the formation of the French nation, the birth of the French national state, began. The political unification of the country was completed mainly under Louis XI. By the middle of the XV century. also refers to the beginning of the French Renaissance, in the early stages still closely associated with Gothic art. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced French artists with Italian art, and from the end of the XV

V. begins a decisive break with the Gothic tradition, Italian

art is rethought in connection with its own national tasks.

The French Renaissance had the character of court culture. (The folk character was most evident in French Renaissance literature, primarily in the work of François Rabelais, with his full-blooded imagery, typical Gallic wit and cheerfulness.) As in Dutch art, realistic tendencies are observed,

above all, in miniature of both theological and secular books. First

a major artist of the French Renaissance - Jean Fouquet (circa 1420-1481), court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. Both in portraits (portrait of Charles VII, circa 1445) and in religious compositions (diptych from Melun), thoroughness of writing is combined with monumentality in the interpretation of the image. This monumentality is created by the chasing of forms, the isolation and integrity of the silhouette, the static posture, and the laconicism of color. In fact, the Madonna of the Melen diptych was painted in just two colors - bright red and blue (the model for it was the beloved of Charles VII - a fact impossible in medieval art). The same compositional clarity and accuracy of the drawing, the sonority of color are characteristic of Fouquet's numerous miniatures (Boccaccio, The Life of Famous Men and Women, circa 1458). The fields of the manuscripts are filled with the image of the modern Fouquet of the crowd, the landscapes of his native Touraine.

Conclusion

So, the Renaissance, or the Renaissance, is an era in the life of mankind, marked by a colossal rise in art and science.

The art of the Renaissance, which arose on the basis of humanism - a current of social thought that proclaimed a person the highest value of life. In art main theme became a beautiful, harmoniously developed person, possessing unlimited spiritual and creative possibilities. Artists began to see the world differently: flat, as if incorporeal images of medieval art gave way to three-dimensional, relief, convex space. They sang with their creativity a perfect personality, in which physical and spiritual beauty merge together in accordance with the requirements of ancient aesthetics. Many painters, poets, sculptors, architects abandoned the ideas of humanism, trying to learn only the "manner" of the great figures of the Renaissance. Thus, the features of the crisis of the artistic ideals of the Renaissance manifested themselves in mannerism (pretentiousness, mannerisms), which developed at the end of the Renaissance - obvious imitation, secondary style, hyperbolization of individual details, sometimes even expressed in the title of the work (“Madonna with a long neck”), violation of proportions , disharmony, deformation, which in itself is alien to the nature of the art of the Italian Renaissance.

The art of the Renaissance laid the foundations of the European culture of the New Age, radically changed all the main types of art. Creatively revised principles of the ancient order system were established in architecture, and new types of public buildings were formed. Painting was enriched by linear and aerial perspective knowledge of the anatomy and proportions of the human body. Earthly content penetrated the traditional religious themes of works of art. Increased interest in ancient mythology, history, everyday scenes, landscapes, portraits. Along with the monumental wall paintings that adorn architectural structures, a picture appeared, oil painting arose. In the first place in art came the creative individuality of the artist, as a rule, a universally gifted person.

In the art of the Renaissance, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man were closely intertwined. Its cognitive meaning was inextricably linked with sublime poetic beauty; in its striving for naturalness, it did not descend to petty everyday life. Art has become a universal spiritual need.

The theme of the Renaissance is rich and inexhaustible. This powerful movement determined the development of the entire European civilization for many years. We are only trying to get into the essence of the ongoing processes. To understand, we need to restore in more detail the psychological mood of the Renaissance man, read books of that time, visit art galleries. The ideas of humanism are the spiritual basis for the flourishing of Renaissance art. The art of the Renaissance is imbued with the ideals of humanism; it created the image of a beautiful, harmoniously developed person. The art of this era will endlessly delight humanity, amaze with its vitality and ability to conquer minds and hearts. It was the time of titanism, which manifested itself both in art and in life. Of course, the Renaissance is one of the most beautiful eras in the history of mankind.

Bibliography

1.Bicilli P . "The Place of the Renaissance in the History of Culture". St. Petersburg: Mithril, 1996.

2.Bragina M., O.N. Varyash and others; History of culture of the countries of Western Europe in the Renaissance ”: a textbook for universities, - M .: Higher school, 1999.

.Garin E."Problems of the Italian Renaissance". Moscow: Progress, 1986.

5.Grinenko G.V. Reader on the history of world culture. - M., 1998

6.Dvorak M. "History of Italian Art in the Renaissance": In 2 vols. M .: Art, 1978.

7.“West and East. Traditions and Modernity". - M.: Society "Knowledge" of the Russian Federation, 1993.

8.Ilyina T.V. "History of Art. Western European Art. - M.: Higher school, 1983.

9.Panofsky E."Renaissance and "renaissances" in the art of the West".: Art, 1998.

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