The era after the renaissance. General information

rebirth

Renaissance, or Renaissance(fr. Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento) - an era in the history of European culture, which replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and preceded the culture of modern times. Approximate chronological framework of the era - the beginning of the XIV - the last quarter of the XVI century.

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

Term rebirth found already in the Italian humanists, for example, in Giorgio Vasari. In its modern meaning, the term was coined by the 19th-century French historian Jules Michelet. Currently the term rebirth turned into a metaphor for cultural flourishing: for example, the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

general characteristics

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

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

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

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

Epoch periods

Early Renaissance

The period of the so-called "Early Renaissance" in Italy covers the time from 1420 to 1500. During these eighty years, art has not yet completely renounced the traditions of the recent past, but is trying to mix into them elements borrowed from classical antiquity. Only later, and only little by little, under the influence of more and more changing conditions of life and culture, do artists completely abandon medieval foundations and boldly use examples of ancient art both in the general concept of their works and in their details.

Whereas art in Italy was already resolutely following the path of imitation of classical antiquity, in other countries it long held on to the traditions of the Gothic style. North of the Alps, and also in Spain, the Renaissance does not come until the end of the fifteenth century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century, without, however, producing anything particularly remarkable.

High Renaissance

The second period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is commonly called the "High Renaissance", it extends in Italy from about 1500 to 1580. At this time, the center of gravity of Italian art from Florence moved to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne of Julius II, an ambitious, courageous and enterprising man, who attracted the best artists of Italy to his court, occupied them with numerous and important works and gave others an example of love for the arts. . With this pope and his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are created in it, magnificent sculptural works are performed, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered the pearls of painting; at the same time, all three branches of art harmoniously go hand in hand, helping one another and mutually acting on each other. The antique is now being studied more thoroughly, reproduced with greater rigor and consistency; tranquility and dignity are established instead of the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the previous period; reminiscences of the medieval completely disappear, and a completely classical imprint falls on all works of art. But imitation of the ancients does not stifle their independence in the artists, and they, with great resourcefulness and liveliness of imagination, freely process and apply to the case what they consider appropriate to borrow for it from Greco-Roman art.

Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance period in the Netherlands, Germany and France is usually singled out as a separate stylistic direction, which has some differences with the Renaissance in Italy, and is called the "Northern Renaissance".

The most noticeable stylistic differences in painting: unlike Italy, the traditions and skills of Gothic art were preserved in painting for a long time, less attention was paid to the study of the ancient heritage and the knowledge of human anatomy.

Prominent representatives are Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441), Rogier van der Weyden (1399 or 1400-1464), Hugo van der Goes, Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/1530-1569).

[edit] Renaissance Man

Main article: Renaissance humanism

The science

The development of knowledge in the XIV-XVI centuries significantly influenced people's ideas about the world and the place of man in it. The great geographical discoveries, the heliocentric system of the world of Nicolaus Copernicus changed ideas about the size of the Earth and its place in the Universe, and the works of Paracelsus and Vesalius, in which for the first time after antiquity attempts were made to study the structure of man and the processes occurring in it, marked the beginning of scientific medicine and anatomy.

Major changes have also taken place in the social sciences. In the works of Jean Bodin and Niccolo Machiavelli, historical and political processes were first considered as the result of the interaction of various groups of people and their interests. At the same time, attempts were made to develop an “ideal” social structure: “Utopia” by Thomas More, “City of the Sun” by Tommaso Campanella. Thanks to the interest in antiquity, many ancient texts have been restored [ source not specified 522 days], many humanists studied classical Latin and ancient Greek.

In general, the pantheistic mysticism of the Renaissance, which prevailed in this era, created an unfavorable ideological background for the development of scientific knowledge. The final formation of the scientific method and the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century that followed it. associated with the Reformation movement opposed to the Renaissance.

Philosophy

Main article:Philosophy of the Renaissance

In the 15th century (1459), the Platonic Academy in Careggi was revived in Florence.

Philosophers of the Renaissance

• Leonardo Bruni
• Marsilio Ficino
• Lorenzo Valla
• Manetti
• Jean Bodin
• Michel Montaigne
• Thomas More
• Erasmus of Rotterdam
• Martin Luther
• Tommaso Campanella
• Giordano Bruno

Literature

The literature of the Renaissance most fully expressed the humanistic ideals of the era, the glorification of a harmonious, free, creative, comprehensively developed personality. The love sonnets of Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) revealed the depth of a person's inner world, the richness of his emotional life. In the XIV-XVI century, Italian literature flourished - the lyrics of Petrarch, the short stories of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), the political treatises of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), the poems of Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) and Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) put forward her among the "classical" (along with ancient Greek and Roman) literatures for other countries...

The literature of the Renaissance relied on two traditions: folk poetry and "bookish" ancient literature, so often the rational principle was combined in it with poetic fiction, and comic genres gained great popularity. This was manifested in the most significant literary monuments of the era: the Decameron by Boccaccio, Don Quixote by Cervantes, and Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais.

The emergence of national literatures is associated with the Renaissance, in contrast to the literature of the Middle Ages, which was created mainly in Latin.

Theater and drama became widespread. The most famous playwrights of this time were William Shakespeare (1564-1616, England) and Lope de Vega (1562-1635, Spain)

art

The painting and sculpture of the Renaissance is characterized by the rapprochement of artists with nature, their closest penetration into the laws of anatomy, perspective, the action of light and other natural phenomena.

Renaissance artists, painting pictures of traditional religious themes, began to use new artistic techniques: building a three-dimensional composition, using a landscape in the background. This allowed them to make the images more realistic, lively, which showed a sharp difference between their work and the previous iconographic tradition, replete with conventions in the image.

Architecture

The main thing that characterizes this era is the return in architecture to the principles and forms of ancient, mainly Roman art. Of particular importance in this direction is given to symmetry, proportion, geometry and the order of the components, as clearly evidenced by the surviving examples of Roman architecture. The complex proportion of medieval buildings is replaced by an orderly arrangement of columns, pilasters and lintels, asymmetrical outlines are replaced by a semicircle of an arch, a hemisphere of a dome, niches, and aedicules.

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

Renaissance. video film

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

Why is the role of the Renaissance more noticeable than the importance of any other era? Because the concept of the Renaissance was quite life-affirming, radiating the belief that a person is capable of much. And the figures of that time proved the veracity of such thoughts with their works and ideas. The Renaissance did not remain in textbooks or museums, it inspired and continues to inspire many people. Ideas change, are supplemented or rethought, but it is not only pleasant for a person, but it is also important to think that his activity is not useless.

We can see the creations of the Renaissance not only on the albums of famous artists (for example, Lady Gaga - "Artpop"), but also as a print. You can often see Botticelli's tender Venus on T-shirts, and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa has never been used anywhere. Therefore, the Renaissance is closer than you think, and knowing the important principles, main features and features of the works and figures of that time is simply necessary for those who consider themselves an educated person. And this article can help you, where everything is described briefly and easily.

The significance of the Renaissance for European culture is so enormous that it determined the further development of all areas: from science to poetry. It became a transition between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment, but the creations made during this period make the Renaissance truly special. It all started in Italy, as such terms were also coined by the Italians, including the name "Renaissance", which means "born again". The rise of the Renaissance was indeed the birth of a new world. The growth of the influence of the estates creates people who were alien to the religious, ascetic culture created by the Middle Ages. Therefore, a new culture is being built, where the individual is proclaimed the center of the universe. The aesthetics and ideology of antiquity were taken as a model. Thanks to the invention of printing, it spread throughout Europe.

The Renaissance period lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 14th century. The stages of development are:

1. Proto-Renaissance(Early Renaissance) - from the XIV century to the beginning of the XV century;
2. High Renaissance(The highest flowering of the era, which stretched in time from the second half of the 15th century to the first half of the 16th century);
3. Late (Northern) Renaissance- from the end of the 16th, and in some countries the beginning of the 17th century. When the Baroque era had already begun in Italy, other nations only comprehended its overripe fruit.

However, the Late Renaissance becomes darker. A crisis of ideas is inevitable, for troubles and battles continue, and the naive assertion that man is the center of something is questioned. Mysticism, a medieval worldview, returns, marking the Baroque era.

Main features

The general characteristic of the Renaissance is such that interest in a person is elevated to a cult of his capabilities, and in the field of aesthetics and philosophy there is a revival of ancient culture. Antiquity is recognized as a classic, which is actively studied and reworked. A material image of the world appears, people praise the mind of the individual. Individuality and personal responsibility in the Renaissance give grounds to look differently at the church structure, religion as a whole. Free criticism creates an attack on the religious life, on scriptural conformity. Thanks to this, the era of the Reformation arises, the reformation of the Catholic Church takes place. It is thanks to such sentiments and economic reasons that the Renaissance is born in Italy.

What are the main characteristics of the Renaissance?

1. As we said above, the grip of the church is loosening. Religious asceticism is criticized, theaters appear, carnivals, holidays, pleasures are allowed;
2. Attention from God is now redirected to his creation (anthropocentrism);
3. The status of the creator acquires authority. People are no longer ashamed to sign their works and do not consider that God leads their hand;
4. The philosophy of humanism is spreading - respect for a person as a large, strong, independent personality;
5. The idea of ​​the God-likeness of man arises.

The roots of European civilization go back to antiquity, not to the Middle Ages. Next, we will take a closer look at all aspects of the Renaissance and how exactly its achievements influenced further European culture.

Philosophy

The philosophy of the Renaissance is a set of philosophical schools united by common ideas. The rejection of theocentrism makes people concentrate on their own capabilities, thereby proclaiming a humanistic era.

The ideas of the Renaissance are addressed to ancient culture, from which thinkers not only mastered knowledge, but also processed it. From this the following principles and values ​​of the era were formed:

1. Anthropocentrism;
2. The human right to creative self-expression and freedom is recognized. Creator man;
3. Everything that exists in the world is understood through man;
4. Aesthetics is more important than science and morality, the cult of the body.

Let's consider some philosophical directions and ideas of the Renaissance in more detail.

Humanism

In European latitudes, humanism spread in the XIV - mid-XV centuries. This philosophical direction had an anti-clerical orientation. From now on, thinkers prove that the makings of a person are not given by God out of grace, but become the result of people's own efforts. A person has the right to active, creative activity, the realization of individuality and freedom.

The philosophy of humanism breaks through into literature, so the famous humanists of the Renaissance took up the pen. Even the great Dante Alighieri in "" is already ironic about the fanatical errors of Christianity and its semi-literate interpreters. Dante believes in the virtue of mankind, not as God's will, but as a conscious decision of the individual. However, the Italian poet is considered the first humanist. In his poems, he preached the ideals of love and earthly joy, which we can achieve without God's will. He doubts the afterlife rewards for piety, but he knows a way to achieve real immortality of the soul. How to do it? There will be no other chance to be engaged in creative, vigorous activity, because being happens only here and now.

The thinkers of the Renaissance (Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo Valla and others) professed a passionate faith in the mental and physical potential of man, which has not yet been revealed. That is why the philosophy of humanism has a life-affirming character. It was during the Renaissance that humanism acquired an integral system of views, causing a real revolution in the culture and worldview of new people.

anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism, as a philosophical thought, has become a characteristic feature of humanism. It comes from the Greek words "άνθροπος" - man and "centrum" - center, already by the etymology of the word one can guess its meaning. Literally, this is the placement of a person in the center of the Universe, the full concentration of attention on him. He is no longer seen as a sinful, imperfect being, as the bearer of a particular social group. He is an individual, unique, unique personality. Emphasis is placed on the god-likeness of a person, which is expressed in his ability to create, create.

From ancient culture, aesthetic attention to everything bodily and natural is adopted. They admire not only the spirit, but also the human body, exalt the unity of these principles.

The Italian philosopher Tommaso Campanella wrote in his treatises that bodily beauty is a gift from God, and bodily imperfection is a warning to others that they are facing an evil person. The personality of the Renaissance put the aesthetic principle above ethical considerations.

Man, as the center of the universe, is beautiful and created to enjoy the world. But he should spend his life not in idle pleasure, but in creative activity. Thus, anthropocentrism destroys the medieval ethics of asceticism, passivity and impotence of people before the almighty fate.

Natural philosophy

Renaissance thinkers again turn to the study of nature, revising its medieval understanding as a non-independent sphere.

The salient features of philosophy are:

1. Natural philosophers approached the study of nature not through experience, but through reflection;
2. The desire to separate philosophy from theology;
3. The world can be known by reason and feelings, and not by divine revelation;
4. The knowledge of nature is combined with mysticism.

Representatives of natural philosophy developed various concepts. For example, the philosopher Francesco Patrici developed the doctrine of the world as an animated infinity. And the mystic Yakbo Boehme developed a complex cosmogonic system, where nature is the mentor of man.

The legendary German physician Paracelsus, an outstanding researcher of the natural world, adjoined the natural philosophers.

Paracelsus considered man a small world, which contains all of nature. In his opinion, there are no prohibitions for human knowledge, we are able to study not only all entities and nature, but also what is outside the world. The unusualness of knowledge should not confuse, stop a person in the process of research.

Man and nature are still in harmony. But the expansion of human possibilities entails the study and subjugation of nature.

Pantheism

The philosophical doctrine of pantheism identifies the Divine forces with what they allegedly created. The Creator in pantheism did not waste a week in vain, he did not create our world, for he himself is a part of it, equivalent to all living things. Turning to the ancient heritage and natural philosophy, the pantheists paid attention to the natural sciences, recognizing the animation of the world and the cosmos. There are two completely different directions in this teaching:

1. idealistic (nature is a manifestation of divine power)

2. naturalistic (God is only a set of laws of nature).

That is, if in the first direction the Universe is in God, then in the second direction God is in the Universe.

The philosopher Nicholas of Cusa believed that God reveals the world from himself, and does not create it from nothing. And Giordano Bruno believed that God is in all things, but in the form of related patterns.

Galileo Galilei continued to study nature (he studied ancient philosophy, which led him to the idea of ​​the unity of the world), Nikolai Copernicus (although he gave people the first positions in the ranking of all living things, but still in a global sense their place is peripheral, since the Earth is not a leader in the open solar system).

Pantheism was characteristic of many philosophical theories of the Renaissance, and it was he who became the unifying link between natural philosophy and theology.

Culture and art

The transition from medieval, dark thought to the freedom of the Renaissance was not forced. The primacy of the church was preserved in the minds of the people, and not immediately painting and poetry, creativity itself acquired a good reputation. In addition, illiteracy prevailed among the population. But the directions of the Renaissance gradually laid the foundation for a new culture, where education mattered, where creative individuals tried to win universal recognition with intelligence and talent.

For example, the Italian writer Boccaccio believed that a true poet must have extensive knowledge: grammar, history, geography, art, even archeology.

Apparently, the creators themselves tried to imitate the ideals that they nurtured. These features of the Renaissance gave rise to the image of a god-like Man, creating, universal, which was embodied in sculpture and paintings, received a voice in books. It was in art that the spirit of the Renaissance was best revealed.

Painting

The new picture of the world puts art first in Italy, as it was the only creative expression of oneself. Painting, sculpture, architecture are great masters and creations that every educated person knows. The art of the Renaissance is divided into several stages, and each of them has its own interesting features.

For example, the proto-Renaissance (XIV - early XV centuries) became a transitional period from the Middle Ages. The great painters Giotto, Mosaccio turn to religious themes, but the emphasis is on emotions, on the life experience of people. The heroes are humanized, and the halos of the saints become more transparent, less noticeable in the paintings, as happens in the picture of Botticelli's "Annunciation" or Raphael's "Sistine Madonna".

Artists of this era strove for a material image of the world. They were rational painters, Renaissance paintings are distinguished by the use of geometry, the golden section. A perspective was depicted, thanks to which the masters could expand the range of depicted things and phenomena. Painting became monumental, for example, such is the painting of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, created during the High Renaissance (second half of the 15th - first half of the 16th centuries). It's voluminous and extending beyond
fresco frame, which is a cycle, and created in three years. Among the plots, one can notice the image of the creation of Adam, important for the Renaissance, where God is about to touch Man and bring a soul into his body. Another significant creation of Michelangelo is the sculpture of David, which
proclaims the cult of man, the body. Proud, self-confident, physically developed - a clear nod to ancient sculpture. The essence of a person was grasped by the masters in a pose, gesture, posture. Portraits of this era were also distinguished by a special kind of face - proud, strong, understanding their capabilities.

For a long time, art developed on the basis of the principles created by the artists of the Renaissance. Today, the art of the Renaissance has not lost its appeal, many images created in this era can be found everywhere. For example, cosmetics firm Lime Crime dedicated eyeshadow palettes to Botticelli's Birth of Venus. The creators of cosmetics assigned thematic names to each color, for example, “shell”, “muse”. Of course, the popularity of such products speaks of the immortality of the masterpieces created in the Renaissance.

Literature

The humanistic worldview of the Renaissance also influenced literature. In the foreground is a man freed from the influence of the Middle Ages. An important role in the development of literature in Italy was played by the preservation of the heritage of ancient culture. From there is taken the concept of the ideal of man, an example of high humanity. Renaissance works have characteristic features, for example, the main subject of the image is a strong personality, her life and contradictions. Attitude towards nature has also changed - they began to admire it.

The easiest way to show the literature of the Renaissance is on the example of Giovanni Boccaccio's collection of short stories "The Decameron". The first short story of the collection is the main connecting story. 7 girls and 3 boys are hiding from the plague in the castle. They sing, dance and tell each other different stories. These living, young people are the personification of the new man of the Renaissance, and the plague is the shackles of the Middle Ages. The main themes of the stories are different: love, anti-church, adventure, instructive. For the first time the reader can see the heroes of the people, namely students, grooms, carpenters and others. But at the same time, the author condemns the heroes who are ugly, laughs at the shortcomings of the body, which is quite within the framework of the era with its cult of a physically developed organism. Boccaccio shows life as it is, allowing some frivolity. Therefore, church ministers strongly disliked this book, and even publicly burned it in the square. But even such persecutions were not able to kill the popularity of Boccaccio's collection, because people's worldview changed, and their preferences followed.

Poets

“Through the word, the human face becomes beautiful,” writes the Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca.

It was he who became the founder of the new European lyrics, creating in sonnets a harmonious combination of purity and love languor, passion and purity. Pushkin identified the "language of Petrarch" and the language of love itself, since the poet of the Renaissance masterfully, inspiredly, vividly wrote about feelings between a man and a woman. We wrote more about his work.

More talented poets appear in Italy, namely Ludovico Ariosto (author of the poem "Furious Roland"), Torquato Tasso, Jacopo Sannadzor. In France, the great poet of the era was Pierre de Ronsard, here. Then he was considered the "prince of poets", as he introduced into poetry a variety of poetic meters, the harmony of rhyme and syllable. In England, the most important representatives of poetry were Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser. True, Geoffrey Chaucer anticipated the Renaissance, he became the "father of English poetry." And Edmund Spenser gave melody to English verse, was "the arch-poet of England." Renaissance poets were revered, considered great masters of the word, and they retain this title to this day.

Composers

Influential composer schools developed in Italy: Roman (Giovanni Palestrina) and Venetian (Andrea Gabrieli). Palestrina created an example of Catholic sacred music, while Gabrieli combined the choir with the sound of other instruments, approaching secular music.

Composers John Dubsteil and William Bird worked in England in different centuries. The masters preferred sacred music. William Byrd has been called the "father of music".

The talented composer Orlando Lasso showed musical abilities from childhood. His secular music contributed to the fact that Munich became the musical center of Europe, where other talented musicians came to study, namely Johann Eckard, Leonard Lechner and Gabrieli.

Of course, Renaissance composers developed not only traditional styles, but also instrumental music, expanding the range of musical instruments used (bowed string instruments, clavier, and so on). The activities of the musicians of the Renaissance created the possibility of the appearance of opera in the future, providing the art of sounds and melodies with a systematic and productive development.

Architects

Filippo Brunelleschi is called the "father of architecture" of the Renaissance. He created many works of art, one of which is the Church of San Lorenzo. Another representative of the early Renaissance, the architect Alberti, built the Rucellai Palace in Florence. Unlike Brunelleschi, he did not use lancet and used individual orders for different floors. During the High Renaissance, the main architect was Donato Angelo Bramante. He was the first architect of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, created his plan.

But what is remarkable about the masters of the Renaissance is that many finished, completed each other's projects. So, the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral was continued by Michelangelo, and after his death, another architect took over the project. It turned out that as many as 12 architects were involved in the construction of the main Catholic church at different times.

Or another example, the interior decoration of the church of San Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi built, was created by Michelangelo. In other countries, the Italian Renaissance style of architecture is spreading, but with the introduction of local architectural traditions. Further, experiments in architecture lead to styles such as baroque and rococo.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has helped you get acquainted with the Renaissance or encouraged you to study this or that area of ​​culture in more detail. Indeed, it was thanks to the strong desire of the geniuses of the Renaissance for knowledge that great discoveries were made and the rigid framework of prejudice was destroyed.

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F.Lippe Madonna

At the beginning of the 15th century, there were huge changes in life and culture in Italy. Since the 12th century, the townspeople, merchants and artisans of Italy have waged a heroic struggle against feudal dependence. Developing trade and production, the townspeople gradually got richer, threw off the power of the feudal lords and organized free city-states. These free Italian cities became very powerful. Their citizens were proud of their conquests. The enormous wealth of the independent Italian cities caused them to flourish. The Italian bourgeoisie looked at the world with different eyes, they firmly believed in themselves, in their own strength. They were alien to the desire for suffering, humility, the rejection of all earthly joys that have been preached to them so far. The respect for the earthly person who enjoys the joys of life grew. People began to take an active attitude to life, eagerly explore the world, admire its beauty. During this period, various sciences are born, art develops.

In Italy, many monuments of the art of Ancient Rome have been preserved, so the ancient era was again revered as a model, ancient art became an object of admiration. The imitation of antiquity gave reason to call this period in art - the Renaissance, which in French means "Renaissance". Of course, this was not a blind, exact repetition of ancient art, it was already new art, but based on ancient models. The Italian Renaissance is divided into 3 stages: VIII - XIV centuries - Pre-Renaissance (Proto-Renaissance or Trecento - with it.); XV century - early Renaissance (Quattrocento); late XV - early XVI century - High Renaissance.

Archaeological excavations were carried out throughout Italy, looking for ancient monuments. The newly discovered statues, coins, utensils, weapons were carefully preserved and collected in museums specially created for this purpose. Artists studied on these samples of antiquity, drew them from nature.

Flight into Egypt (Giotto)

Trecento (Pre-Renaissance)

The true beginning of the Renaissance is associated with the name Giotto di Bondone(1266? - 1337). He is considered the founder of Renaissance painting. The Florentine Giotto has made great contributions to the history of art. He was a renewer, the ancestor of all European painting after the Middle Ages. Giotto breathed life into the gospel scenes, created images of real people, spiritualized, but earthly.

Return of Joachim to the Shepherds (Giotto)

Giotto for the first time creates volumes with the help of chiaroscuro. He likes clean, light colors in cold shades: pinks, pearl grays, pale purples and light lilacs. The people in the frescoes of Giotto are stocky, with a heavy tread. They have large facial features, wide cheekbones, narrow eyes. His man is kind, considerate, serious.

Fresco by Giotto in the temple of Padua

Of the works of Giotto, the frescoes in the temples of Padua are best preserved. He presented the gospel stories here as existing, earthly, real. In these works, he tells about the problems that concern people at all times: about kindness and mutual understanding, deceit and betrayal, about depth, sorrow, meekness, humility and eternal all-consuming maternal love.

Fresco by Giotto

Instead of disparate individual figures, as in medieval painting, Giotto managed to create a coherent story, a whole narrative about the complex inner life of the characters. Instead of the conventional golden background of the Byzantine mosaics, Giotto introduces a landscape background. And if in Byzantine painting the figures, as it were, hovered, hung in space, then the heroes of Giotto's frescoes found solid ground under their feet. Giotto's search for the transfer of space, the plasticity of figures, the expressiveness of movement made his art a whole stage in the Renaissance.

Fresco by S.Martini

One of the famous masters of the Pre-Renaissance is Simone Martini (1284 - 1344).

In his painting, the features of northern Gothic were preserved: Martini's figures are elongated, and, as a rule, on a golden background. But Martini creates images with the help of chiaroscuro, gives them a natural movement, tries to convey a certain psychological state.

Fresco fragment. Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449 - 1494)

Quattrocento (early Renaissance)

Antiquity played a huge role in the formation of the secular culture of the early Renaissance. The Platonic Academy opens in Florence, the Laurentian library contains the richest collection of ancient manuscripts. The first art museums appear, filled with statues, fragments of ancient architecture, marbles, coins, and ceramics.

In the Renaissance, the main centers of the artistic life of Italy stood out - Florence, Rome, Venice. One of the largest centers, the birthplace of a new, realistic art was Florence. In the 15th century, many famous masters of the Renaissance lived, studied and worked there.

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral)

Early Renaissance architecture

The inhabitants of Florence had a high artistic culture, they actively participated in the creation of city monuments, and discussed options for the construction of beautiful buildings. Architects abandoned everything that resembled Gothic. Under the influence of antiquity, buildings crowned with a dome began to be considered the most perfect. The model here was the Roman Pantheon.

Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, a city-museum. It has preserved its architecture from antiquity almost intact, its most beautiful buildings were mostly built during the Renaissance. Above the red brick roofs of the ancient buildings of Florence rises the huge building of the city's Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is often called simply the Cathedral of Florence. Its height reaches 107 meters. A magnificent dome, the harmony of which is emphasized by white stone ribs, crowns the cathedral. The dome is striking in size (its diameter is 43 m), it crowns the entire panorama of the city. The cathedral is visible from almost every street in Florence, clearly looming against the sky. This magnificent structure was built by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446).

St. Peter's Cathedral (arch. Brunelleschi and Bramante)

The most magnificent and famous domed building of the Renaissance was St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was built over 100 years. The creators of the original project were architects Bramante and Michelangelo.

Renaissance buildings are decorated with columns, pilasters, lion heads and "putti" (naked babies), plaster wreaths of flowers and fruits, leaves and many details, samples of which were found in the ruins of ancient Roman buildings. The semicircular arch came into fashion again. Wealthy people began to build more beautiful and more comfortable houses. Instead of houses closely pressed to each other, luxurious palaces appeared - palazzos.

David (sc.Donatello)

Sculpture of the early Renaissance

In the 15th century in Florence they created two famous sculptors - Donatello and Verrocchio. Donatello (1386? - 1466)- one of the first sculptors in Italy, who used the experience of ancient art. He created one of the finest works of the early Renaissance - the statue of David.

According to the biblical legend, a simple shepherd, the young man David defeated the giant Goliath, and thereby saved the inhabitants of Judea from enslavement and later became king. David was one of the favorite images of the Renaissance. He is depicted by the sculptor not as a humble saint from the Bible, but as a young hero, winner, defender of his native city. In his sculpture, Donatello sings of man as the ideal of a beautiful heroic personality that arose in the Renaissance. David is crowned with the laurel wreath of the winner. Donatello was not afraid to introduce such a detail as a shepherd's hat - a sign of his simple origin. In the Middle Ages, the church forbade depicting a naked body, considering it a vessel of evil. Donatello was the first master who bravely violated this prohibition. He asserts by this that the human body is beautiful. The statue of David is the first round sculpture in that era.

Statue of the commander Gattamelata (sc. Donatello)

Another beautiful sculpture by Donatello is also known - a statue of a warrior, commander Gattamelata. It was the first equestrian monument of the Renaissance. Created 500 years ago, this monument still stands on a high pedestal, decorating the square in the city of Padua. For the first time, not a god, not a saint, not a noble and rich man was immortalized in sculpture, but a noble, brave and formidable warrior with a great soul, who deserved fame for great deeds. Dressed in antique armor, Gattemelata (this is his nickname, meaning "spotted cat") sits on a mighty horse in a calm, majestic pose. The features of the warrior's face emphasize a decisive, firm character.

Equestrian monument to the condottiere Colleoni (Verocchio)

Andrea Verrocchio (1436 -1488)

The most famous student of Donatello, who created the famous equestrian monument to the condottiere Colleoni, which was placed in Venice on the square near the church of San Giovanni. The main thing that strikes in the monument is the joint energetic movement of the horse and rider. The horse, as it were, rushes beyond the marble pedestal on which the monument is erected.

Colleoni, standing up in the stirrups, stretched out, raising his head high, peers into the distance. A grimace of anger and tension froze on his face. In his posture, one feels a huge will, his face resembles a bird of prey. The image is filled with indestructible strength, energy, harsh authority.

Fresco by Masaccio

Early Renaissance painting

The Renaissance also updated the art of painting. Painters have learned to correctly convey space, light and shadow, natural poses, various human feelings. It was the early Renaissance that was the time of accumulation of this knowledge and skills. The paintings of that time are imbued with light and high spirits. The background is often painted in light colors, while buildings and natural motifs are outlined with sharp lines, pure colors predominate. With naive diligence, all the details of the event are depicted, the characters are most often lined up and separated from the background by clear contours.

The painting of the early Renaissance only strived for perfection, however, thanks to its sincerity, it touches the soul of the viewer.

Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Cassai Guidi, Known as Masaccio (1401 - 1428)

He is considered a follower of Giotto and the first master of painting of the early Renaissance. Masaccio lived only 28 years, but in such a short life he left a mark in art that is difficult to overestimate. He managed to complete the revolutionary transformations in painting begun by Giotto. His painting is distinguished by a dark and deep color. The people in the frescoes of Masaccio are much denser and more powerful than in the paintings of the Gothic era.

Fresco by Masaccio

Masaccio was the first to correctly arrange objects in space, taking into account perspective; he began to depict people according to the laws of anatomy.

He knew how to link figures and landscape into a single action, to convey the life of nature and people in a dramatic and at the same time quite natural way - and this is the great merit of the painter.

Adoration of the Magi (Masaccio)

Madonna and Child with Four Angels (Masaccio)

This is one of the few easel easel works commissioned by Masaccio in 1426 for the chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa.

The Madonna sits on a throne built strictly according to the laws of Giotto's perspective. Her figure is written with confident and clear strokes, which creates the impression of a sculptural volume. Her face is calm and sad, her detached gaze is directed nowhere. Wrapped in a dark blue cloak, the Virgin Mary holds the Infant in her arms, whose golden figure stands out sharply against a dark background. The deep folds of the cloak allow the artist to play with chiaroscuro, which also creates a special visual effect. The baby eats black grapes - a symbol of communion. Impeccably drawn angels (the artist knew the human anatomy perfectly) surrounding the Madonna give the picture an additional emotional sound.

Masaccio. Fresco from the library of the Cathedral in Siena, dedicated to the biography of the humanist and poet Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464)

Here is presented the solemn departure of Cardinal Kapranik to the Basel Cathedral, which lasted almost 18 years, from 1431 to 1449, first in Basel, and then in Lausanne. The young Piccolomini was also in the retinue of the cardinal.

In an elegant frame of a semicircular arch, a group of horsemen is presented, accompanied by pages and servants. The event is not so real and reliable, but chivalrously refined, almost fantastic.

In the foreground, a beautiful rider on a white horse, in a luxurious dress and hat, turning his head, looks at the viewer - this is Aeneas Silvio. With pleasure the artist writes rich clothes, beautiful horses in velvet blankets. The elongated proportions of the figures, slightly mannered movements, slight tilts of the head are close to the court ideal.

The life of Pope Pius II was full of bright events, and Pinturicchio spoke about the meetings of the Pope with the King of Scotland, with Emperor Frederick III.

Saints Jerome and John the Baptist (Masaccio)

The only sash painted by Masaccio for a double-sided triptych. After the early death of the painter, the rest of the work, commissioned by Pope Martin V for the church of Santa Maria in Rome, was completed by the artist Masolino.

It depicts two strict, monumentally executed figures of saints dressed in all red. Jerome holds an open book and a model of the basilica, a lion lies at his feet. John the Baptist is depicted in his usual form: he is barefoot and holds a cross in his hand. Both figures impress with anatomical precision and an almost sculptural sense of volume.

Portrait of a Boy (1480) (Pinturicchio)

Interest in man, admiration for his beauty were so great in the Renaissance that this led to the emergence a new genre in painting - the portrait genre.

Pinturicchio (variant of Pinturicchio) (1454 - 1513) (Bernardino di Betto di Biagio)

A native of Perugia in Italy. For some time he painted miniatures, helped Pietro Perugino decorate the Sistine Chapel in Rome with frescoes. Gained experience in the most complex form of decorative and monumental wall painting. A few years later, Pinturicchio became an independent muralist. He worked on frescoes in the Borgia apartments in the Vatican. He made wall paintings in the library of the cathedral in Siena.

The artist not only conveys a portrait resemblance, but seeks to reveal the inner state of a person. Before us is a teenage boy, dressed in a strict pink town dress, with a small blue cap on his head. Brown hair falls to the shoulders, framing a delicate face, the attentive look of brown eyes is thoughtful, a little anxious.

Behind the boy is an Umbrian landscape with thin trees, a silvery river, a sky turning pink on the horizon. The spring tenderness of nature, as an echo of the character of the hero, is in harmony with the poetry and charm of the hero.

The image of the boy is given in the foreground, large and occupies almost the entire plane of the picture, and the landscape is painted in the background and very small.

This creates the impression of the significance of man, his dominance over the surrounding nature, asserts that man is the most beautiful creation on earth.

Madonna and Child with Two Angels (F. Lippi)

Filippo Lippi (1406 - 1469)

There were legends about Lippi's life. He himself was a monk, but left the monastery, became a wandering artist, abducted a nun from the monastery and died poisoned by the relatives of a young woman with whom he fell in love at an advanced age. He painted images of the Madonna and Child, filled with living human feelings and experiences. In his paintings, he depicted many details: household items, the environment, so his religious subjects were similar to secular paintings.

Annunciation (1443) (F. Lippi)

Coronation of Mary (1441-1447) (F. Lippi)

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni (1488) (Ghirlandaio)

He painted not only religious subjects, but also scenes from the life of the Florentine nobility, their wealth and luxury, portraits of noble people.

Before us is the wife of a wealthy Florentine, a friend of the artist. In this not very beautiful, luxuriously dressed young woman, the artist expressed calmness, a moment of stillness and silence. The expression on the woman's face is cold, indifferent to everything, it seems that she foresees her imminent death: soon after painting the portrait, she will die. The woman is depicted in profile, which is typical for many portraits of that time.

Baptism (1458-1460) (P. della Francesca)

Piero della Francesca (1415/1416 - 1492)

One of the most significant names in Italian painting of the 15th century. He completed numerous transformations in the methods of constructing the perspective of a picturesque space.

The picture was painted on a poplar board in egg tempera - obviously, by this time the artist had not yet mastered the secrets of oil painting, in the technique of which his later works would be painted.

The artist captured the manifestation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity at the time of the Baptism of Christ. The white dove, spreading its wings over the head of Christ, symbolizes the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Savior. The figures of Christ, John the Baptist and the angels standing next to them are painted in restrained colors.

Fresco by della Francesca

His frescoes are solemn, sublime and majestic. Francesca believed in the high destiny of man and in his works people always do wonderful things. He used subtle, gentle transitions of colors. Francesca was the first to paint en plein air (in the air).

Dead Christ (Mantegna)

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

Major artist from Padua. He admired the harsh grandeur of the works of ancient artists. His images are reminiscent of Greek sculptures - strict and beautiful. In his frescoes, Mantegna sang the heroic personality. Nature in his paintings is deserted and inhospitable.

Mantegna. Madonna and Child with John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene (1500)

The Madonna sits on a scarlet chair under a canopy and holds the naked Christ Child in her arms. There is nothing regal in the guise of the Virgin Mary, rather, this is the image of a young peasant woman. The naked body of the Infant seems surprisingly alive. On the sides of the Madonna are John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. In the hands of the Magdalene is a vessel with incense for anointing, the cross in the hands of John is wrapped around a ribbon with a text about the lamb, atoning for the sins of the world. The figures are drawn in the usual manner for an artist and seem to be carved from stone, every fold is sharply defined in their clothes. The background is an image of a garden with dark foliage. In its tone, this greenery contrasts with the pale green, light sky. The work evokes a feeling of deep sadness and a certain doom.

Parnassus (Mantegna)

Prayer for the Cup (Mantegna)

This small picture depicts the moment when, after the Last Supper, Jesus retires with Saint Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to the Garden of Gethsemane, where, leaving the apostles accompanying him, he leaves to pray, turning to God the Father: “My Father! this."

The kneeling figure of Christ in a prayerful pose is the compositional center of the picture. His eyes are turned to the sky, where a group of angels is visible on a cloud. At the foot of the mountain, the apostles accompanying Christ sleep.

On the road leading to the garden, accurately illustrating the words of the Gospel: "Behold, the betrayer of Me has come near," a group of guards, led by Judas, is visible.

There is a lot of symbolism in the picture: a dry tree with a vulture portends death, and a branch with a green shoot indicates an imminent resurrection; humble rabbits sitting on the road along which a detachment of Roman soldiers will pass to take Christ into custody speak of the meekness of a person in the face of imminent death. Three stumps left from freshly cut down trees remind of the impending crucifixion.

Sacred Conversation (Bellini)

Giovanni Bellini (1427/1430 - 1516)

The Bellini brothers brightly showed themselves in the early Renaissance. Especially famous is Giovanni Bellini, who was often called Gianbellino. He grew up in the family of a major Venetian painter. Together with his brother from his youth, he helped his father to carry out artistic orders. He worked on decorating the Doge's Palace in Venice.

His painting is distinguished by soft picturesqueness, rich golden color. The Madonnas of Gianbellino seem to dissolve in the landscape, always organic with it.

Madonna in the meadow (1500-1505) Bellini.

In the center of the picture is the image of a young Mary sitting in a meadow, on whose knees a sleeping naked baby. Her thoughtful face is charming, her hands folded in a prayerful gesture are beautiful. The figurine of the divine baby seems to be a sculpture, this indicates a close acquaintance with the work of Mantegna. However, the softness of the chiaroscuro and the overall saturation of the colors suggest that Bellini found his way into painting.

In the background is a beautiful landscape. The picture was painted in mixed media, which allowed the artist to make the contours softer and the colors more saturated.

Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan. Bellini

This portrait was commissioned by Bellini as an artist of the Republic of Venice. The doge is depicted here almost frontally - contrary to the then existing tradition of depicting faces in profile, including on medals and coins.

Clear chiaroscuro perfectly draw high cheekbones, nose and stubborn chin of an intelligent and strong-willed face of an elderly person. On a bright blue-green background, a white with gold and silver brocade mantle stands out in contrast. The doge wore it on the feast of the Candlemas - the day when he became engaged to the sea, taking power over Venice for a year. Oil work helped the artist fill the space of the picture with air and thereby make the image of the Doge surprisingly alive.

The content of the article

RENAISSANCE, period in the history of culture of Western and Central Europe in the 14th-16th centuries, the main content of which was the formation of a new, "earthly", inherently secular picture of the world, radically different from the medieval one. The new picture of the world found expression in humanism, the leading ideological trend of the era, and natural philosophy, manifested itself in art and science, which underwent revolutionary changes. The building material for the original building of the new culture was antiquity, which was addressed through the head of the Middle Ages and which, as it were, was “reborn” to a new life - hence the name of the era - “Renaissance”, or “Renaissance” (in the French manner), given to it later. Born in Italy, a new culture at the end of the 15th century. passes through the Alps, where, as a result of the synthesis of Italian and local national traditions, the culture of the Northern Renaissance is born. During the Renaissance, the new Renaissance culture coexisted with the culture of the late Middle Ages, which is especially characteristic of the countries that lay north of Italy.

Art.

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

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

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

The Northern Renaissance was prepared by the emergence in the 1420s - 1430s on the basis of the late Gothic (not without the indirect influence of the Jott tradition) of a new style in painting, the so-called "ars nova" - "new art" (E. Panofsky's term). Its spiritual basis, according to researchers, was primarily the so-called "New Piety" of the northern mystics of the 15th century, which presupposed specific individualism and pantheistic acceptance of the world. The origins of the new style were the Dutch painters Jan van Eyck, who also improved oil paints, and the Master from Flemall, followed by G. van der Goes, R. van der Weyden, D. Boats, G. tot Sint Jans, I. Bosch and others (mid-second half of the 15th century). New Netherlandish painting received a wide response in Europe: already in the 1430s–1450s, the first examples of new painting appeared in Germany (L. Moser, G. Mulcher, especially K. Witz), in France (Master of the Annunciation from Aix and, of course, Zh .Fuke). The new style was characterized by a special realism: the transmission of three-dimensional space through perspective (although, as a rule, approximately), the desire for three-dimensionality. "New Art", deeply religious, was interested in individual experiences, the character of a person, appreciating in him, above all, humility, piety. His aesthetics is alien to the Italian pathos of the perfect in man, passion for classical forms (the faces of the characters are not perfectly proportioned, gothic angular). With special love, nature, life were depicted in detail, carefully written out things, as a rule, had a religious and symbolic meaning.

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

The science.

The most important condition for the scale and revolutionary achievements of the science of the Renaissance was the humanistic worldview, in which the activity of mastering the world was understood as a component of the earthly destiny of man. To this must be added the revival of ancient science. A significant role in the development was played by the needs of navigation, the use of artillery, the creation of hydraulic structures, etc. The dissemination of scientific knowledge, their exchange between scientists would not have been possible without the invention of printing ca. 1445.

The first advances in mathematics and astronomy date back to the middle of the 15th century. and are connected in many respects with the names of G. Peyerbach (Purbach) and I. Muller (Regiomontan). Müller created new, more advanced astronomical tables (to replace the Alfonsian tables of the 13th century) - "Ephemerides" (published in 1492), which were used in their travels by Columbus, Vasco da Gama and other navigators. A significant contribution to the development of algebra and geometry was made by the Italian mathematician of the turn of the century L. Pacioli. In the 16th century The Italians N. Tartaglia and J. Cardano discovered new ways to solve equations of the third and fourth degree.

The most important scientific event of the 16th century. was the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in his treatise On the circulation of the heavenly spheres(1543) rejected the dominant geocentric Ptolemaic-Aristotelian picture of the world and not only postulated the rotation of celestial bodies around the Sun, and the Earth still around its axis, but also for the first time showed in detail (geocentrism as a guess was born back in Ancient Greece) how, based on such a system, one can explain - much better than before - all the data of astronomical observations. In the 16th century the new system of the world, in general, did not receive support in the scientific community. Convincing proof of the truth of the theory of Copernicus was brought only by Galileo.

Based on experience, some scientists of the 16th century (among them Leonardo, B. Varki) expressed doubts about the laws of Aristotelian mechanics, which had reigned supreme until that time, but did not offer their own solution to the problems (later Galileo would do this). The practice of using artillery contributed to the formulation and solution of new scientific problems: Tartaglia in the treatise new science considered ballistics. The theory of levers and weights was studied by Cardano. Leonardo da Vinci was the founder of hydraulics. His theoretical research was connected with the installation of hydraulic structures, land reclamation, the construction of canals, and the improvement of locks. The English physician W. Gilbert laid the foundation for the study of electromagnetic phenomena by publishing an essay About magnet(1600), where he described its properties.

A critical attitude towards authorities and reliance on experience were clearly manifested in medicine and anatomy. Fleming A. Vesalius in his famous work About the structure of the human body(1543) described the human body in detail, relying on his numerous observations during the anatomy of corpses, criticizing Galen and other authorities. At the beginning of the 16th century along with alchemy, iatrochemistry arises - medical chemistry, which developed new medicinal preparations. One of its founders was F. von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Rejecting the achievements of his predecessors, he, in fact, did not go far from them in theory, but as a practitioner he introduced a number of new drugs.

In the 16th century mineralogy, botany, and zoology were developed (Georg Bauer Agricola, K. Gesner, Cesalpino, Rondela, Belona), which in the Renaissance were at the stage of collecting facts. An important role in the development of these sciences was played by the reports of researchers from new countries, which contained descriptions of flora and fauna.

In the 15th century Cartography and geography were actively developed, Ptolemy's mistakes were corrected, based on medieval and modern data. In 1490 M. Behaim creates the first globe. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. Europeans' search for a sea route to India and China, advances in cartography and geography, astronomy and shipbuilding culminated in the discovery of the coast of Central America by Columbus, who believed that he had reached India (for the first time, a continent called America appeared on Waldseemüller's map in 1507). In 1498 the Portuguese Vasco da Gama reached India by circumnavigating Africa. The idea to reach India and China by the western route was implemented by the Spanish expedition of Magellan - El Cano (1519-1522), which circled South America and made the first trip around the world (in practice, the sphericity of the Earth was proved!). In the 16th century Europeans were sure that "the world today is completely open and the whole human race is known." The great discoveries transformed geography and stimulated the development of cartography.

Renaissance science had little impact on the productive forces that developed along the path of gradual improvement of tradition. At the same time, the successes of astronomy, geography, and cartography served as the most important prerequisite for the Great Geographical Discoveries, which led to fundamental changes in world trade, to colonial expansion and a price revolution in Europe. The achievements of Renaissance science became a necessary condition for the genesis of the classical science of modern times.

Dmitry Samotovinsky