Renaissance in brief. Renaissance years

13.04.2019

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 - XIV-XVI centuries.

A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture and its anthropocentrism (that is, interest, first of all, in 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 among 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 9th-century Carolingian Renaissance.

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, 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 century played a huge role in spreading the ancient heritage and new views throughout Europe.

Epoch periods

Early Renaissance

The period of the so-called "Early Renaissance" in Italy covers the time from to the year. 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 15th 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 1580 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 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 called "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.

renaissance man

The science

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, which was opposed to the Renaissance.

Philosophy

Philosophers of the Renaissance

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) literature for other countries.

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

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 to cui

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 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, a niche, an aedicule.

Renaissance architecture experienced its greatest flowering in Italy, leaving behind two monument cities: Florence and Venice. Great architects worked on the creation of buildings there - Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Donato Bramante, Giorgio Vasari and many others.

Music

In the Renaissance (Renaissance), professional music loses the character of a purely church art and is influenced by folk music, imbued with a new humanistic worldview. The art of vocal and vocal-instrumental polyphony reaches a high level in the works of the representatives of "Ars nova" ("New Art") in Italy and France of the XIV century, in new polyphonic schools - English (XV century), Dutch (XV-XVI centuries. ), Roman, Venetian, French, German, Polish, Czech, etc. (XVI century).

Various genres of secular musical art appear - frottola and villanella in Italy, villancico in Spain, ballad in England, madrigal, which arose in Italy (L. Marenzio, J. Arcadelt, Gesualdo da Venosa), but became widespread, French polyphonic song (K Janequin, C. Lejeune). Secular humanistic aspirations also penetrate cult music - among the Franco-Flemish masters (Josquin Despres, Orlando di Lasso), in the art of composers of the Venetian school (A. and J. Gabrieli). During the period of the Counter-Reformation, the question was raised about the expulsion of polyphony from the religious cult, and only the reform of the head of the Roman school of Palestrina preserves polyphony for the Catholic Church - in a “purified”, “clarified” form. At the same time, the art of Palestrina also reflected some of the valuable achievements of the secular music of the Renaissance. New genres of instrumental music are taking shape, and national schools of performance on the lute, organ, and virginal are emerging. In Italy, the art of making bowed instruments with rich expressive possibilities is flourishing. The clash of various aesthetic attitudes is manifested in the "struggle" of two types of bowed instruments - the viola, which existed in an aristocratic environment, and

Renaissance, or Renaissance - an era in the history of European culture, which replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and preceded the culture of modern times. The approximate chronological framework of the era is the beginning of the XIV - the last quarter of the XVI centuries and in some cases - the first decades of the XVII century. A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture and its anthropocentrism (interest, first of all, in a person and his activities). There is an interest in ancient culture, its “revival” is taking place - and this is how the term appeared.
The term Renaissance is already found among Italian humanists, for example, in Giorgio Vasari. In its modern meaning, the term was coined by the 19th-century French historian Jules Michelet. Nowadays, the term Renaissance has become a metaphor for cultural flourishing: for example, the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

Birth of the Italian Renaissance
In the history of the artistic culture of the Renaissance, Italy made a contribution of exceptional importance. The very scale of the greatest flourishing that marked the Italian Renaissance seems especially striking in contrast to the small territorial dimensions of those urban republics where the culture of this era was born and experienced its high rise. Art in these centuries occupied a previously unprecedented position in public life. Artistic creation became an insatiable need of the people of the Renaissance, an expression of their inexhaustible energy. In the advanced centers of Italy, a passion for art captured the widest sections of society - from the ruling circles to the common people. The construction of public buildings, the installation of monuments, the decoration of the main buildings of the city were a matter of national importance and the subject of attention of senior officials. The appearance of outstanding works of art turned into a major social event. The fact that the greatest geniuses of the era - Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo - received the name divino - divine from contemporaries - can testify to the general admiration for outstanding masters. In terms of its productivity, the Renaissance, covering about three centuries in Italy, is quite comparable to the whole millennium during which the art of the Middle Ages developed. The very physical scale of everything that was created by the masters of the Italian Renaissance, majestic municipal buildings and huge cathedrals, magnificent patrician palaces and villas, works of sculpture in all its forms, countless monuments of painting - fresco cycles, monumental altar compositions and easel paintings are already amazing. . Drawing and engraving, handwritten miniatures and the newly emerging printed graphics, decorative and applied art in all its forms - there was, in essence, not a single area of artistic life that would not experience a rapid upsurge. But perhaps even more striking is the unusually high artistic level of the art of the Italian Renaissance, its truly global significance as one of the pinnacles of human culture.
The culture of the Renaissance was not the property of Italy alone: its scope covered many of the countries of Europe. At the same time, in one country or another, individual stages in the evolution of Renaissance art found their predominant expression. But in Italy, a new culture not only originated earlier than in other countries, the very path of its development was distinguished by an exceptional sequence of all stages, from the Proto-Renaissance to the late Renaissance, and in each of these stages, Italian art gave high results, surpassing in most cases of achievement of art schools in other countries. In art history, by tradition, the Italian names of those centuries, which fall on the birth and development of Renaissance art, are widely used. Italy. The fruitful development of Renaissance art in Italy was facilitated not only by social, but also by historical and artistic factors. Italian Renaissance art owes its origin not to any one, but to several sources. In the pre-Renaissance period, Italy was a crossroads for several medieval cultures. In contrast to other countries, both main lines of medieval European art, Byzantine and Romano-Gothic, found equally significant expression here, complicated in certain areas of Italy by the influence of the art of the East. Both lines contributed to the development of Renaissance art. From Byzantine painting, the Italian Proto-Renaissance adopted the ideally beautiful structure of images and forms of monumental pictorial cycles; the Gothic figurative system contributed to the penetration into the art of the 14th century of emotional excitement and a more specific perception of reality. But even more important was the fact that Italy was the guardian of the artistic heritage of the ancient world. In Italy, unlike other European countries, the aesthetic ideal of the Renaissance man was formed very early, going back to the teaching of the humanists about homo universale, about the perfect man, in which bodily beauty and fortitude are harmoniously combined. As the leading feature of this image, the concept of virtu (valor) is put forward, which has a very broad meaning and expresses the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to implement his lofty plans in spite of all obstacles. This specific quality of the Renaissance figurative ideal is not expressed by all Italian artists in such an open form, as, for example, by Masaccio, Andrea del Castagno, Mantegna and Michalangelo - masters whose work is dominated by images of a heroic nature. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, this aesthetic ideal did not remain unchanged: depending on the individual stages in the evolution of Renaissance art, its various aspects were outlined in it. In the images of the early Renaissance, for example, the features of an unshakable inner integrity are more pronounced. The spiritual world of the heroes of the High Renaissance is more complex and richer, giving the most striking example of the harmonious worldview inherent in the art of this period.

Story
The Renaissance (Renaissance) is a period of cultural and ideological development of European countries. All European countries have gone through this period, but each country has its own historical framework for the Renaissance. The revival arose in Italy, where its first signs were noticeable as early as the 13th and 14th centuries (in the activities of the Pisano family, Giotto, Orcagni, etc.), 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. The term "Renaissance" began to be used in the XVI century. in relation to fine arts. The author of "Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects" (1550), the Italian artist D. Vasari wrote about the "revival" of art in Italy after many years of decline during the Middle Ages. Later, the concept of "Renaissance" acquired a broader meaning. Renaissance- this is the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of a new era, the beginning of the transition from a feudal medieval society to a bourgeois one, when the foundations of the feudal social way of life were shaken, and bourgeois-capitalist relations had not yet developed with all their commercial morality and soulless hypocrisy. Already in the depths of feudalism in the free cities there were large craft workshops, which became the basis of the manufacturing industry of the New Age, here the bourgeois class began to take shape. With particular consistency and strength, it manifested itself in Italian cities, which were already at the turn of the XIV - XV centuries. embarked on the path of capitalist development in the Dutch cities, as well as in some Rhenish and South German cities of the 15th century. Here, in conditions of incompletely formed capitalist relations, a strong and free urban society developed. Its development proceeded in a constant struggle, which was partly commercial competition and partly a struggle for political power. However, the circle of distribution of the Renaissance culture was much wider and covered the territories of France, Spain, England, the Czech Republic, Poland, where new trends manifested themselves with different strengths and in specific forms. This is the period of the formation of nations, since it was at this time that the royal power, relying on the townspeople, broke the power of the feudal nobility. From associations that were states only in a geographical sense, large monarchies are formed, based on a common historical destiny, on nationalities. Literature reached a high level, having received, with the invention of printing, previously unprecedented opportunities for distribution. It became possible to reproduce on paper any kind of knowledge and any achievements of science, which greatly facilitated learning.
The founders of humanism in Italy are Petrarch and Boccaccio - poets, scientists and connoisseurs of antiquity. The central place that the logic and philosophy of Aristotle occupied in the system of medieval scholastic education is now beginning to be occupied by rhetoric and Cicero. The study of rhetoric, according to the humanists, was supposed to give the key to the spiritual warehouse of antiquity; mastering the language and style of the ancients was considered as mastering their thinking and worldview and the most important stage in the liberation of the individual. The study of the works of ancient authors by humanists brought up the habit of thinking, of research, observation, studying the work of the mind. And new scientific works grew out of a better understanding of the values of antiquity and at the same time surpassed them. The study of Antiquity left its mark on religious beliefs and customs. Although many humanists were devout, blind dogmatism died. The Chancellor of the Florentine Republic, Caluccio Salutatti, declared that the Holy Scripture is nothing but poetry. The love of the nobility for wealth and splendor, the splendor of the cardinal palaces and the Vatican itself were defiant. Ecclesiastical offices were seen by many prelates as a convenient feeder and access to political power. Rome itself, in the eyes of some, turned into a real biblical Babylon, where corruption, unbelief and licentiousness reigned. This led to a split in the bosom of the church, to the emergence of reformist movements. The era of free urban communes was short-lived, they were replaced by tyrannies. The trade rivalry of the cities eventually turned into a bloody rivalry. Already in the second half of the 16th century, feudal-Catholic reaction began.

The humanistic light ideals of the Renaissance are replaced by moods of pessimism and anxiety, intensified by individualistic tendencies. A number of Italian states are experiencing political and economic decline, they are losing their independence, social enslavement and impoverishment of the masses are taking place, and class contradictions are aggravating. The perception of the world becomes more complex, the dependence of a person on the environment is more realized, ideas about the variability of life develop, the ideals of harmony and integrity of the universe are lost.

Renaissance culture or Renaissance
The culture of the Renaissance is based on the principle of humanism, the affirmation of the dignity and beauty of a real person, his mind and will, his creative forces. Unlike the culture of the Middle Ages, the humanistic life-affirming culture of the Renaissance was secular. The liberation from church scholasticism and dogma contributed to the rise of science. Passionate thirst for knowledge of the real world and admiration for it led to the display in art of the most diverse aspects of reality and gave majestic pathos to the most significant creations of artists. An important role for the formation of the art of the Renaissance was played by a new understanding of the ancient heritage. The influence of antiquity had the strongest effect on the formation of the Renaissance culture in Italy, where many monuments of ancient Roman art have been preserved. The victory of the secular principle in the culture of the Renaissance was a consequence of the social assertion of the growing bourgeoisie. However, the humanistic orientation of the art of the Renaissance, its optimism, the heroic and social nature of its images objectively expressed the interests not only of the young bourgeoisie, but of all progressive strata of society as a whole. Art The revival was formed in conditions when the consequences of the capitalist division of labor, which were detrimental to the development of the individual, had not yet manifested themselves, courage, intelligence, resourcefulness, strength of character had not yet lost their significance. This created the illusion of the infinity of the further progressive development of human abilities. The ideal of a titanic personality was affirmed in art. The all-round brightness of the characters of the people of the Renaissance, which is also reflected in art, is largely due precisely to the fact that “the heroes of that time have not yet become slaves to the division of labor, which limits, creates one-sidedness, the influence of which we so often observe in their successors.”
The new requirements facing art led to the enrichment of its types and genres. Fresco is widely used in monumental Italian painting. From the 15th century an increasing place is occupied by the easel painting, in the development of which the Dutch masters played a special role. Along with the previously existing genres of religious and mythological painting, filled with new meaning, a portrait is being put forward, historical and landscape painting is being born. In Germany and the Netherlands, where the popular movement aroused the need for art that quickly and actively responded to ongoing events, engraving was widely used, which was often used in the decoration of books. The process of isolation of sculpture, begun in the Middle Ages, is being completed; along with the decorative plastic that adorns buildings, an independent round sculpture appears - easel and monumental. The decorative relief acquires the character of a perspectively constructed multi-figured composition. Turning to the ancient heritage in search of an ideal, inquisitive minds discovered the world of classical antiquity, searched for the creations of ancient authors in the monastic vaults, dug up fragments of columns and statues, bas-reliefs and precious utensils. The process of assimilation and processing of the ancient heritage was accelerated by the resettlement of Greek scientists and artists from Byzantium, captured by the Turks in 1453, to Italy. In the saved manuscripts, in the dug out statues and bas-reliefs, a new world, hitherto unknown, opened up to amazed Europe - ancient culture with its ideal of earthly beauty, deeply human and tangible. This world gave birth in people a great love for the beauty of the world and a stubborn will to know this world.

Periodization of Renaissance art
The periodization of the Renaissance is determined by the supreme role of art in its culture. Stages in the history of art in Italy - the birthplace of the Renaissance - for a long time served as the main starting point.
Specially distinguished:
introductory period, Proto-Renaissance (“the era of Dante and Giotto”, ca. 1260-1320), partially coinciding with the Ducento period (XIII century)
Quattrocento (XV century)
and Cinquecento (XVI century)

The chronological framework of the century does not quite coincide with certain periods of cultural development: for example, the Proto-Renaissance dates back to the end of the 13th century, the Early Renaissance ends in the 90s. XV century., And the High Renaissance is becoming obsolete by the 30s. 16th century It continues until the end of the 16th century. only in Venice; the term "late Renaissance" is more often used to this period. The era of the ducento, i.e. The 13th century was the beginning of the Renaissance culture of Italy - the Proto-Renaissance.
The more common periods are:
Early Renaissance, when new trends actively interact with Gothic, creatively transforming it;
Middle (or High) Renaissance;
Late Renaissance, of which Mannerism became a special phase.
The new culture of the countries located to the north and west of the Alps (France, the Netherlands, the Germanic-speaking lands) is collectively referred to as the Northern Renaissance; here the role of late Gothic was especially significant. The characteristic features of the Renaissance were also clearly manifested in the countries of Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, etc.), and affected Scandinavia. An original Renaissance culture developed in Spain, Portugal and England.

Characteristics of the Renaissance style
This style of interior, which was called by contemporaries of the Renaissance style, introduced a free new spirit and faith in the boundless possibilities of mankind into the culture and art of medieval Europe. Characteristic features of the interior in the Renaissance style were large rooms with rounded arches, carved wood trim, intrinsic value and relative independence of each individual detail, from which the whole is typed. Strict organization, logic, clarity, rationality of building a form. Clarity, balance, symmetry of parts relative to the whole. The ornament imitates antique patterns. Renaissance style elements were borrowed from the arsenal of Greco-Roman orders. Thus, windows began to be made with semicircular, and later with rectangular endings. The interiors of the palaces began to be distinguished by their monumentality, the splendor of marble stairs, as well as the richness of decorative decoration. Deep perspective, proportionality, harmony of forms are the mandatory requirements of Renaissance aesthetics. The character of the interior space is largely determined by vaulted ceilings, whose smooth lines are repeated in numerous semicircular niches. The color scheme of the Renaissance is soft, the halftones pass into each other, there are no contrasts, complete harmony. Nothing catches the eye.

The main elements of the Renaissance style:
semicircular lines, geometric pattern (circle, square, cross, octagon) predominantly horizontal division of the interior;
steep or sloping roof with tower superstructures, arched galleries, colonnades, round ribbed domes, high and spacious halls, bay windows;
coffered ceiling; ancient sculptures; leaf ornament; wall and ceiling painting;
massive and visually stable structures; diamond rust on the facade;
the form of furniture is simple, geometric, solid, richly decorated;
colors: purple, blue, yellow, brown.

Renaissance periods
Revival is divided into 4 stages:
Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the XIII century - XIV century)
Early Renaissance (early 15th century - late 15th century)
High Renaissance (late 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)
Late Renaissance (mid-16th - 90s of the 16th century)
Proto-Renaissance
The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic traditions, this period was the preparation for the Renaissance. This period is divided into two sub-periods: before the death of Giotto di Bondone and after (1337). The most important discoveries, the brightest masters live and work in the first period. The second segment is connected with the plague epidemic that hit Italy. All discoveries were made on an intuitive level. At the end of the 13th century, the main temple building, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was erected in Florence, the author was Arnolfo di Cambio, then the work was continued by Giotto, who designed the campanile of the Florence Cathedral. The art of the proto-Renaissance manifested itself in sculpture. Painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). The central figure of painting was Giotto. Renaissance artists considered him a reformer of painting.
Early Renaissance
The period covers in Italy 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.
Art in Italy has already resolutely followed the path of imitation of classical antiquity, in other countries it has long adhered to the traditions of the Gothic style. North of the Alps, as well as in Spain, the Renaissance does not come until the end of the 15th century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century.
High Renaissance
The third period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is commonly called the "High Renaissance". It extends into Italy from approximately 1500 to 1527. At this time, the center of influence 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 art. . Under this Pope and under his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are built in it, magnificent sculptures are created, 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 replace the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the preceding period; reminiscences of the medieval completely disappear, and a completely classical imprint falls on all works of art.
Late Renaissance
The late Renaissance in Italy covers the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. Some researchers rank the 1630s as the Late Renaissance, but this position is controversial among art critics and historians. The art and culture of this time are so diverse in their manifestations that it is possible to reduce them to one denominator only with a great deal of conventionality. In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which looked with caution at any free thought, including the chanting of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity, as the cornerstones of the Renaissance ideology. Worldview contradictions and a general feeling of crisis resulted in Florence in the "nervous" art of far-fetched colors and broken lines - mannerism.

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International Banking Institute

Department of Humanities and Social Disciplines

Essay on cultural studies

Topic: "The Renaissance and the reasons for its appearance"

Completed by: Sinyakova E.P..

Checked:Bydanov V.E..

Saint Petersburg - 2015

Introduction

1. General characteristics of the Renaissance

2. Causes of the Renaissance

3. Revival in Russia

4. Periods of the Renaissance

5. Culture of the Renaissance

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The Renaissance (Renaissance) is a period of cultural and ideological development of European countries. All European countries went through this period, but for each country, due to the uneven socio-economic development, there is its own historical framework for the Renaissance.

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.

The term "Renaissance" began to be used in the XVI century. in relation to fine arts. The author of "Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects" (1550), the Italian artist D. Vasari wrote about the "revival" of art in Italy after many years of decline during the Middle Ages. Later, the concept of "Renaissance" acquired a broader meaning.

1. Total xcharacterization of the renaissance

The Renaissance is the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of a new era, the beginning of the transition from a feudal medieval society to a bourgeois one, when the foundations of the feudal social way of life were shaken, and bourgeois-capitalist relations had not yet developed with all their commercial morality and soulless hypocrisy. Already in the depths of feudalism in the free cities there were large craft workshops, which became the basis of the manufacturing industry of the New Age, here the bourgeois class began to take shape. With particular consistency and strength, it manifested itself in Italian cities, which were already at the turn of the XIV - XV centuries. embarked on the path of capitalist development in the Dutch cities, as well as in some Rhenish and South German cities of the 15th century. Here, in conditions of incompletely formed capitalist relations, a strong and free urban society developed. Its development proceeded in a constant struggle, which was partly commercial competition and partly a struggle for political power. However, the circle of distribution of the Renaissance culture was much wider and covered the territories of France, Spain, England, the Czech Republic, Poland, where new trends manifested themselves with different strengths and in specific forms.

This is also the period of the formation of nations, since it was at this time that the royal power, relying on the townspeople, broke the power of the feudal nobility. From associations that were states only in a geographical sense, large monarchies are formed, based on a common historical destiny, on nationalities.

It was a time of unprecedented development of trade between countries, a time of great geographical discoveries, at which time the foundations of modern science were laid, in particular natural science with its fundamental discoveries and inventions. The turning point for this process was the invention of printing. in various forms it permeated and perpetuated the Renaissance. Literature reached a high level, having received, with the invention of printing, previously unprecedented opportunities for distribution. Revived ancient manuscripts, newly published or translated, could cross the boundaries of space and time like never before. It became possible to reproduce on paper any kind of knowledge and any achievements of science, which greatly facilitated learning. Without printing, classical education was available only to a narrow circle of scientists, and scientific discoveries would be known to a small number of people.

The founders of humanism in Italy are Petrarch and Boccaccio - poets, scientists and experts in antiquity. The central place that the logic and philosophy of Aristotle occupied in the system of medieval scholastic education is now beginning to be occupied by rhetoric and Cicero. The study of rhetoric, according to the humanists, was supposed to give the key to the spiritual warehouse of antiquity; mastering the language and style of the ancients was considered as mastering their thinking and worldview and the most important stage in the liberation of the individual. The Latin language, previously the language of science and literature, is cleansed of medieval corruption during the Renaissance and restored to its classical purity. Greek, the knowledge of which was lost in medieval Europe, becomes the subject of zealous study. The writings of the ancients are searched for, rewritten, published. In the XV century. the composition of the monuments of ancient literature that has come down to us was almost completely collected

The study of Antiquity left its mark on religious beliefs and customs. Although many humanists were devout, blind dogmatism died. The Chancellor of the Florentine Republic, Caluccio Salutatti, declared that the Holy Scripture is nothing but poetry. However, there have always been fears that the study of ancient authors comes into conflict with the service of Christ, and deep immersion in ancient philosophy could undermine faith in Christ altogether. It is no coincidence that the Holy Inquisition most extensively launched its activities precisely in the Renaissance.

The love of the nobility for wealth and splendor, the splendor of the cardinal palaces and the Vatican itself were defiant. Ecclesiastical offices were seen by many prelates as a convenient feeder and access to political power. Rome itself, in the eyes of some, turned into a real biblical Babylon, where corruption, unbelief and licentiousness reigned. This led to a split in the bosom of the church, to the emergence of reformist movements.

However, the era of free urban communes was short-lived, they were replaced by tyrannies. The trade rivalry of the cities eventually turned into a bloody rivalry. Already in the second half of the 16th century, feudal-Catholic reaction began. The humanistic light ideals of the Renaissance are replaced by moods of pessimism and anxiety, intensified by individualistic tendencies. A number of Italian states are experiencing political and economic decline, they are losing their independence, social enslavement and impoverishment of the masses are taking place, and class contradictions are aggravating.

The perception of the world becomes more complex, the dependence of a person on the environment is more realized, ideas about the variability of life develop, the ideals of harmony and integrity of the universe are lost. Renaissance artists worked in such a complex world, embodying in art the ideal that they dreamed about and believed in the triumph of, completing in art what remained unrealizable in life.

2. Causes of the Renaissance

In different countries, the Renaissance was born and flourished at different times. First of all, it began in Italy - the XIV century, and in the XVI century. Renaissance culture became a pan-European phenomenon: Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, England - in all these countries a cultural revolution took place. The colossal achievements of spiritual culture in this era are widely known; they have long been the subject of the closest attention, admiration, study and reflection.

The emergence of the Renaissance culture was prepared by a number of pan-European and local historical conditions. In its essence, the culture of the revival was the culture of the transitional era from the feudal system to the capitalist one. At this time, national states and absolute monarchies are taking shape, the bourgeoisie is rising in the fight against feudal reaction, deep social conflicts are taking place - the Peasant War in Germany, the religious wars in France, the Dutch bourgeois revolution.

The creators of the revival culture came from various social strata, and its achievements in the humanities, art, architecture became the property of the whole society, although to a greater extent - the educated and wealthy part of it. Representatives of large merchants, feudal nobility, rulers of European states and the papal court showed interest in the new culture and materially stimulated its development. However, not in all cases, the upper strata were attracted by the ideological side of the Renaissance; a high level of education, the artistic merits of literature and art, new forms of architecture, and fashion were incomparably more important for them.

The ideological basis of the Renaissance was humanism, secular - rationalistic worldview. The word “humanitas” (humanity) was borrowed by Italian humanists from Cicero (1st century BC), who at one time wanted to emphasize to them that the concept of “humanity”, as the most important result of the culture developed in ancient Greek policies, took root in Roman soil. Therefore, already in the understanding of Cicero, humanism meant a kind of rebirth of man. The ancient heritage played a decisive role in the formation of the Renaissance culture. The achievements of the ancients were the starting point for the revivalists. Italian humanists, and after them the humanists of other countries, found in classical antiquity an independent philosophy and science independent of religion, wonderful secular poetry and art that reached an unparalleled artistic height and perfection, public institutions built on democratic principles. At the same time, each time it was not only about the assimilation, but also about the original processing of the ancient tradition. There is an assimilation of ancient and medieval cultures.

The formation of a new culture was prepared by the public consciousness. The role of mental labor is growing strongly, which has found expression in a large increase in the number of people in the free professions. This is due to the collapse of corporate-shop ties in cities and the strengthening of the role of the individual principle in them. These processes were naturally accompanied by the fact that the most capable sons of merchants, merchants, teachers, notaries, representatives of the nobility, less often - the sons of artisans and peasants, in accordance with their inclinations, became artists, architects, sculptors, doctors, writers. The most prominent humanists became scientists and philosophers.

Ties with the church are weakening, since many humanists lived on the income received from their professional activities, hostility to official scholarship, imbued with a church-scholastic spirit, is growing. At the same time, there is a decline in the moral and political authority of the papacy, associated with the events of his "Avignon captivity" (1309--1375), frequent splits in the Catholic Church.

3. Renaissance in Russia.

The Renaissance tendencies that existed in Italy and Central Europe influenced Russia in many ways, although this influence was very limited due to the large distances between Russia and the main European cultural centers on the one hand, and the strong attachment of Russian culture to its Orthodox traditions and Byzantine heritage on the other hand.

Tsar Ivan III can be considered the founder of the Renaissance in Russia, since it was under him that a number of architects from Italy began to work in Russia, who brought new construction technologies and some elements of the Renaissance, in general, not moving away from the traditional design of Russian architecture. In 1475, the architect from Bologna, Aristotle Fioravanti, was invited to restore the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, damaged during an earthquake. The architect used the 12th-century Vladimir Cathedral as a model, and developed a project that combines traditional Russian style with the Renaissance sense of spaciousness, proportion and symmetry.

In 1485, Ivan III entrusted the construction of the Terem Palace in the Kremlin to Aleviz Fryazin Stary. He is the architect of the first three floors. In addition, Aleviz Fryazin Stary, along with other Italian architects, made a great contribution to the construction of the Kremlin walls and towers. The Faceted Chamber, which served as the venue for the receptions and feasts of the Russian tsars, is the work of two other Italians, Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solari, and is even more marked by Italian style. In 1505, an Italian architect arrived in Moscow, known in Russia as Aleviz Novy or Aleviz Fryazin. Perhaps it was the Venetian sculptor Aleviz Lamberti da Montagne. He built 12 churches for Ivan III, including the Cathedral of the Archangel, also marked by a successful mixture of Russian tradition, Orthodox canons and Renaissance style. It is believed that the Cathedral of Metropolitan Peter in the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery, another work of Aleviz the New, served as a model for the so-called architectural form "octagon on a quadrangle".

Nevertheless, from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century, original traditions for the construction of stone hipped temples were developed in Russia. It was a completely unique phenomenon, different from Renaissance architecture elsewhere in Europe, although some scholars call it "Russian Gothic", comparing this style with European architecture of the early Gothic period. The Italians, with their advanced technology, may have influenced the appearance of stone hipped roofs (wooden hipped roofs were known in Russia and Europe long before). According to one hypothesis, the Italian architect Petrok Maly may have been the author of the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, one of the first and most famous tent churches.

By the 17th century, as a result of the influence of Renaissance painting, Russian icons become a little more realistic, while at the same time following the oldest canons of icon painting, such as in the works of Bogdan Saltanov, Simon Ushakov, Gury Nikitin, Karp Zolotarev and other Russian artists. Gradually, a new type of secular portrait appears - parsuna, which was an intermediate stage between abstract iconography and paintings that reflect the real features of the person being portrayed.

In the middle of the 16th century, books began to be printed in Rus', and Ivan Fedorov was the first known Russian printer. Printing became widespread in the 17th century, and woodcuts became especially popular. This led to the development of a special form of folk art known as lubok, which continued in Russia well into the 19th century. A number of Renaissance technologies were adopted by Russians from Europe quite early, and, improved, they subsequently became part of a strong internal tradition. These were mainly military technologies, such as cannon casting, dating back to the 15th century. The Tsar Cannon, which is the largest cannon in the world in terms of caliber, was cast in 1586 by a craftsman named Andrey Chokhov, and is also distinguished by its rich decoration. Another technology, which, according to one hypothesis, was originally brought from Europe by the Italians, led to the creation of vodka. Back in 1386, Genoese ambassadors first brought "living water" to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The Genoese probably obtained this drink with the help of the alchemists of Provence, who used a distillation apparatus developed by the Arabs to convert grape must into alcohol. Moscow monk Isidore used this technology to produce the first original Russian vodka in 1430.

4 . Renaissance periods

Revival is divided into 4 stages:

Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the XIII century - XIV century)

Early Renaissance (early 15th - late 15th century)

High Renaissance (end of the 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)

Late Renaissance (mid-16th - 90s of the 16th century)

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic traditions, this period was the preparation for the Renaissance. It is divided into two sub-periods: before the death of Giotto di Bondone and after (1337). The most important discoveries, the brightest masters live and work in the first period. The second segment is connected with the plague epidemic that hit Italy. At the end of the 13th century, the main temple building, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was erected in Florence, the author was Arnolfo di Cambio, then the work was continued by Giotto, who designed the campanile of the Florence Cathedral.

The art of the proto-Renaissance first manifested itself in sculpture (Niccolò and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano). Painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). The central figure of painting was Giotto. Renaissance artists considered him a reformer of painting. Giotto outlined the path along which its development went: filling religious forms with secular content, a gradual transition from planar images to three-dimensional and relief images, an increase in realism, introduced a plastic volume of figures into painting, depicted an interior in painting.

Early Renaissance

The period of the so-called "Early Renaissance" in Italy covers the time from 1420 to 1500. During these eighty years, art is still not completely different from the traditions of the recent past, but at the same time it does not "realize" the new axioms of human life, the very 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, as well as in Spain, the Renaissance does not come until the end of the 15th century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century.

High Renaissance

The third period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is commonly called the "High Renaissance". It extends into Italy from approximately 1500 to 1527. At this time, the center of influence of Italian art from Florence moved to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne of Julius II - an ambitious, courageous, 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 art. Under this Pope and under his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are built in it, magnificent sculptures are created, 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. Antiquity is now being studied more thoroughly, reproduced with greater rigor and consistency; tranquility and dignity replace the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the preceding 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 artists, and they, with great resourcefulness and liveliness of imagination, freely process and apply to their work what they consider appropriate to borrow for themselves from ancient Greco-Roman art.

The work of three great Italian masters marks the pinnacle of the Renaissance, these are Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael Santi (1483-1520).

Late Renaissance

The late Renaissance in Italy covers the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. Some researchers rank the 1630s as the Late Renaissance, but this position is controversial among art critics and historians. The art and culture of this time are so diverse in their manifestations that it is possible to reduce them to one denominator only with a great deal of conventionality. For example, the Encyclopædia Britannica writes that "The Renaissance as an integral historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which looked with caution at any free thought, including the chanting of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity, as the cornerstones of the Renaissance ideology. Worldview contradictions and a general feeling of crisis resulted in Florence in the "nervous" art of far-fetched colors and broken lines - mannerism. In Parma, where Correggio worked, Mannerism reached only after the death of the artist in 1534. The artistic traditions of Venice had their own logic of development; until the end of the 1570s. Titian and Palladio worked there, whose work had little in common with the crisis phenomena in the art of Florence and Rome.

Northern Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance had little effect on other countries until 1450. After 1500, the style spread across the continent, but many late Gothic influences persisted even into the Baroque era.

"Love struggle in the dream of Polyphilus" (1499) - one of the highest achievements of the Renaissance printing

Prominent representatives - Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Some works of late Gothic masters, such as Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, are also imbued with the pre-Renaissance spirit.

5 . Renaissance culture

The culture of the Renaissance is based on the principle of humanism, the affirmation of the dignity and beauty of a real person, his mind and will, his creative forces. Unlike the culture of the Middle Ages, the humanistic life-affirming culture of the Renaissance was secular. The liberation from church scholasticism and dogma contributed to the rise of science. Passionate thirst for knowledge of the real world and admiration for it led to the display in art of the most diverse aspects of reality and gave majestic pathos to the most significant creations of artists.

An important role for the formation of the art of the Renaissance was played by a new understanding of the ancient heritage. The influence of antiquity had the strongest effect on the formation of the Renaissance culture in Italy, where many monuments of ancient Roman art have been preserved. “In the manuscripts saved during the fall of Byzantium,” wrote F. Engels, “in the ancient statues dug from the ruins of Rome, a new world appeared before the astonished West - Greek antiquity; before her bright images the ghosts of the Middle Ages disappeared; In Italy, an unprecedented flourishing of art occurred, which was like a reflection of classical antiquity and which has never been achieved again.

The victory of the secular principle in the culture of the Renaissance was a consequence of the social assertion of the growing bourgeoisie. However, the humanistic orientation of the art of the Renaissance, its optimism, the heroic and social nature of its images objectively expressed the interests not only of the young bourgeoisie, but of all progressive strata of society as a whole. The art of the Renaissance was formed in conditions when the consequences of the capitalist division of labor, which were detrimental to the development of the individual, had not yet manifested itself, courage, intelligence, resourcefulness, strength of character had not yet lost their significance. This created the illusion of the infinity of the further progressive development of human abilities. The ideal of a titanic personality was affirmed in art. The all-round brightness of the characters of the people of the Renaissance, which is also reflected in art, is largely due precisely to the fact that “the heroes of that time have not yet become slaves to the division of labor, which limits, creates one-sidedness, the influence of which we so often observe in their successors.”

The nature of applied art is changing, borrowing the forms and motifs of ornamentation in antiquity and associated not so much with church as with secular orders. In its general cheerful character, the nobility of forms and colors, that feeling of unity of style, which is inherent in all types of art of the Renaissance, constituting a synthesis of art on the basis of equal cooperation of all its types, was reflected.

The new requirements facing art led to the enrichment of its types and genres. Fresco is widely used in monumental Italian painting. From the 15th century an increasing place is occupied by the easel painting, in the development of which the Dutch masters played a special role. Along with the previously existing genres of religious and mythological painting, filled with new meaning, a portrait is being put forward, historical and landscape painting is being born. In Germany and the Netherlands, where the popular movement aroused the need for art that quickly and actively responded to ongoing events, engraving was widely used, which was often used in the decoration of books. The process of isolation of sculpture, begun in the Middle Ages, is being completed; along with the decorative plastic that adorns buildings, an independent round sculpture appears - easel and monumental. The decorative relief acquires the character of a perspectively constructed multi-figured composition.

Turning to the ancient heritage in search of an ideal, inquisitive minds discovered the world of classical antiquity, searched for the creations of ancient authors in the monastic vaults, dug up fragments of columns and statues, bas-reliefs and precious utensils. The process of assimilation and processing of the ancient heritage was accelerated by the resettlement of Greek scientists and artists from Byzantium, captured by the Turks in 1453, to Italy. In the saved manuscripts, in the dug out statues and bas-reliefs, a new world, hitherto unknown, opened up to amazed Europe - ancient culture with its ideal of earthly beauty, deeply human and tangible. This world gave birth in people a great love for the beauty of the world and a stubborn will to know this world.

revival cultural proto-renaissance philosophy

Conclusion

The philosophers of the Renaissance paid the main part of their attention to understanding the essence of the human and the divine, their relationship with each other. Basically, they argued that a person must make himself, know in one way or another his soul, which is his connection with God, the peak that he needs to conquer. All of them singled out a person from the rest of the world, from all things. Basically, all areas of philosophy of that time supported the humanistic theory of man as a “microcosm”, a separate world with its own laws and rules. Only the ways of knowing and improving this world differed. But everywhere this path led to the search for the divine in oneself. Moreover, M. Montaigne expressed the idea of the difference between people and finding their own, individual path by each person separately.

The philosophical thinking of this time is characterized by duality and inconsistency, but this does not diminish its importance for the subsequent development of philosophy and does not call into question the merits of the Renaissance thinkers in overcoming medieval scholasticism and creating about dreams of the philosophy of the New Age.

Bibliography

1. Avsrintsev S.S. The fate of the European cultural tradition in the era of transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages // From the history of culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. M., 1976.

2. Batkin L.M. Italian Renaissance in search of individuality. M., 1989

3. Losev A.F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1978

4. http://renessans.jimdo.com

5. http://crossmoda.narod.ru

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Renaissance

The Renaissance (from French Re - again, again, naissance - birth) marked a completely new round in the history of Europe. It was preceded by medieval periods when the cultural education of Europeans was in its infancy. With the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 and its division into two parts - Western (centered in Rome) and Eastern (Byzantium), ancient values also fell into decay. From a historical point of view, everything is logical - the year 476 is considered the end date of the ancient period. But in terms of culture, such a legacy should not just disappear. Byzantium followed its own path of development - the capital Constantinople soon became one of the most beautiful cities in the world, where unique masterpieces of architecture were created, artists, poets, writers appeared, huge libraries were created. In general, Byzantium valued its ancient heritage.

The western part of the former empire submitted to the young Catholic Church, which, fearing to lose influence over such a large territory, quickly banned both ancient history and culture, and did not allow the development of a new one. This period became known as the Middle Ages, or the Dark Ages. Although, in fairness, we note that not everything was so bad - it was at this time that new states appeared on the world map, cities flourished, trade unions (trade unions) appeared, and the borders of Europe expanded. And most importantly, there is a surge in technology development. More objects were invented during the medieval period than during the previous millennium. But, of course, this was not enough.

The Renaissance itself is usually divided into four periods - the Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 15th century), the Early Renaissance (the entire 15th century), the High Renaissance (the end of the 15th century - the first quarter of the 16th century) and the Late Renaissance ( mid 16th century - late 16th century). Of course, these dates are very arbitrary - after all, for each European state, the Renaissance had its own, according to its own calendar and time.

Appearance and development

Here it is necessary to note the following curious fact - in the emergence and development (to a greater extent in the development) of the Renaissance, the fatal fall in 1453 played its role. Those who were lucky enough to escape the invasion of the Turks fled to Europe, but not empty-handed - people took with them a lot of books, works of art, ancient sources and manuscripts, hitherto unknown to Europe. Italy is officially considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, but other countries also fell under the influence of the Renaissance.

This period is distinguished by the emergence of new trends in philosophy and culture - for example, humanism. In the 14th century, the cultural movement of humanism began to gain momentum in Italy. Among its many principles, humanism promoted the idea that man is the center of his own universe, and that the mind possessed incredible power that could turn the world upside down. Humanism contributed to a surge of interest in ancient literature.

Philosophy, literature, architecture, painting

Among the philosophers there appeared such names as Nicholas of Cusa, Nicolo Machiavelli, Tomaso Campanella, Michel Montaigne, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Martin Luther and many others. The Renaissance gave them the opportunity to create their works, according to the new trend of the times. Natural phenomena were studied more deeply, attempts to explain them appeared. And at the center of all this, of course, was man - the main creation of nature.

Literature is also undergoing changes - the authors create works that glorify humanistic ideals, showing the rich inner world of a person, his emotions. The ancestor of the literary Renaissance was the legendary Florentine Dante Alighieri, who created his most famous work, The Comedy (later called The Divine Comedy). In a rather loose manner, he described hell and heaven, which the church did not like at all - only she had to know this in order to influence the minds of people. Dante got off lightly - he was only expelled from Florence, forbidden to return back. Or they could burn it like a heretic.

Other Renaissance authors include Giovanni Boccaccio (The Decameron), Francesco Petrarca (his lyrical sonnets became a symbol of the early Renaissance), William Shakespeare (needs no introduction), Lope de Vega (Spanish playwright, his most famous work is The Dog in the hay"), Cervantes ("Don Quixote"). A distinctive feature of the literature of this period were works in national languages - before the Renaissance, everything was written in Latin.

And, of course, one cannot fail to mention the technical revolutionary thing - the printing press. In 1450, the first printing press was created in the workshop of the printer Johannes Gutenberg, which made it possible to publish books in a larger volume and make them available to the general public, thus increasing their literacy. What turned out to be fraught for themselves - as more people learned to read, write and interpret ideas, they began to scrutinize and criticize religion as they knew it.

Renaissance painting is known throughout the world. To name just a few names that everyone knows - Pietro della Francesco, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Rafael Santi, Michelandelo Bounarotti, Titian, Peter Brueghel, Albrecht Dürer. A distinctive feature of the painting of this time is the appearance of a landscape in the background, giving the bodies realism, muscles (applies to both men and women). The ladies are depicted "in the body" (recall the famous expression "Titian's girl" - a plump girl in the very juice, symbolizing life itself).

The architectural style is also changing - the Gothic style is being replaced by a return to the Roman antique type of construction. Symmetry appears, arches, columns, domes are erected again. In general, the architecture of this period gives rise to classicism and baroque. Among the legendary names are Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelangelo Bounarotti, Andrea Palladio.

The Renaissance ended at the end of the 16th century, giving way to the new Time and its companion, the Enlightenment. For all three centuries, the church struggled with science as best it could, using everything that was possible, but it did not work out completely - culture still continued to flourish, new minds appeared that challenged the power of churchmen. And the Renaissance is still considered the crown of European medieval culture, leaving behind monuments-witnesses of those distant events.

Revival is divided into 4 stages:

Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century)

Early Renaissance (early 15th century - late 15th century)

High Renaissance (late 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)

Late Renaissance (mid-16th - 90s of the 16th century)

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic traditions, this period was the preparation for the Renaissance. This period is divided into two sub-periods: before the death of Giotto di Bondone and after (1337). The most important discoveries, the brightest masters live and work in the first period. The second segment is connected with the plague epidemic that hit Italy. All discoveries were made on an intuitive level. At the end of the 13th century, the main temple building, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was erected in Florence, the author was Arnolfo di Cambio, then the work was continued by Giotto, who designed the campanile of the Florence Cathedral.

Benozzo Gozzoli depicted the Adoration of the Magi as a solemn procession of the Medici courtiers

Previously, the art of the proto-Renaissance manifested itself in sculpture (Niccolò and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano). Painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). The central figure of painting was Giotto. Renaissance artists considered him a reformer of painting. Giotto outlined the path along which its development went: filling religious forms with secular content, a gradual transition from planar images to three-dimensional and relief images, an increase in realism, introduced a plastic volume of figures into painting, depicted an interior in painting.

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, as well as in Spain, the Renaissance does not come until the end of the 15th century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century.

High Renaissance

"High Renaissance" redirects here. This topic needs a separate article.

"Vatican Pieta" by Michelangelo (1499): in the traditional religious plot, simple human feelings are brought to the fore - maternal love and sorrow

The third period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is commonly called the "High Renaissance". It extends into Italy from approximately 1500 to 1527. At this time, the center of influence 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 art. . Under this Pope and under his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are built in it, magnificent sculptures are created, 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 replace the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the preceding 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 artists, and they, with great resourcefulness and liveliness of imagination, freely process and apply to their work what they consider appropriate to borrow for themselves from ancient Greco-Roman art.

Late Renaissance

The crisis of the Renaissance: the Venetian Tintoretto in 1594 depicted the Last Supper as an underground gathering in disturbing twilight reflections

The Late Renaissance in Italy covers the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. Some researchers rank the 1630s as the Late Renaissance, but this position is controversial among art critics and historians. The art and culture of this time are so diverse in their manifestations that it is possible to reduce them to one denominator only with a great deal of conventionality. For example, the Encyclopædia Britannica writes that "The Renaissance as an integral historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which looked with caution at any free thought, including the chanting of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity, as the cornerstones of the Renaissance ideology. Worldview contradictions and a general feeling of crisis resulted in Florence in the "nervous" art of far-fetched colors and broken lines - mannerism. In Parma, where Correggio worked, Mannerism reached only after the death of the artist in 1534. The artistic traditions of Venice had their own logic of development; until the end of the 1570s. Titian and Palladio worked there, whose work had little in common with the crisis phenomena in the art of Florence and Rome.

Northern Renaissance

Main article: Northern Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance had little effect on other countries until 1450. After 1500, the style spread across the continent, but many late Gothic influences persisted even into the Baroque era.

"Love struggle in a dream" (1499) - one of the highest achievements of the Renaissance printing

Outstanding representatives - Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Some works of late Gothic masters, such as Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, are also imbued with the pre-Renaissance spirit.

Dawn of Literature

The intensive flourishing of literature in this period is largely associated with a special attitude towards the ancient heritage. Hence the very name of the era, which sets itself the task of recreating, "reviving" the cultural ideals and values allegedly lost in the Middle Ages. In fact, the rise of Western European culture does not arise at all against the background of a previous decline. But in the life of the culture of the late Middle Ages, so much is changing that it feels like it belongs to a different time and feels dissatisfied with the former state of art and literature. The past seems to the man of the Renaissance as an oblivion of the remarkable achievements of antiquity, and he undertakes to restore them. This is expressed both in the work of the writers of this era, and in their very way of life: some people of that time became famous not for creating any pictorial, literary masterpieces, but for being able to “live in the antique manner”, imitating the ancient Greeks or Romans at home. The ancient heritage is not just being studied at this time, but is “restored”, and therefore the Renaissance figures attach great importance to the discovery, collection, preservation and publication of ancient manuscripts .. For lovers of ancient literary

We owe to the Renaissance monuments the fact that today we have the opportunity to read the letters of Cicero or Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things", the comedies of Plautus or Long's novel "Daphnis and Chloe". Renaissance scholars strive not just for knowledge, but to improve their knowledge of Latin, and then Greek. They establish libraries, create museums, establish schools for the study of classical antiquity, undertake special journeys.

What served as the basis for those cultural changes that arose in Western Europe in the second half of the 15th-16th centuries? (and in Italy - the birthplace of the Renaissance - a century earlier, in the XIV century)? Historians rightly associate these changes with the general evolution of the economic and political life of Western Europe, which has embarked on the path of bourgeois development. Renaissance - the time of great geographical discoveries - primarily America, the time of the development of navigation, trade, the emergence of large-scale industry. This is the period when, on the basis of emerging European nations, national states are formed, already devoid of medieval isolation. At this time, there is a desire not only to strengthen the power of the monarch within each of the states, but also to develop relations between states, form political alliances, and negotiate. This is how diplomacy arises - that kind of political interstate activity, without which it is impossible to imagine modern international life.

The renaissance is a time when science is intensively developing and the secular worldview begins to crowd out the religious worldview to a certain extent, or significantly changes it, prepares the church reformation. But the most important thing is this period when a person begins to feel himself and the world around him in a new way, often in a completely different way to answer those questions that have always worried him, or to put other complex questions before himself. The Renaissance man feels himself living in a special time, close to the concept of a golden age, thanks to his "golden gifts", as one of the Italian humanists of the 15th century writes. A person sees himself as the center of the universe, striving not upwards, towards the otherworldly, divine (as in the Middle Ages), but a wide-open diversity of earthly existence. People of the new era with greedy curiosity peer into the reality around them not as pale shadows and signs of the heavenly world, but as a full-blooded and colorful manifestation of being, which has its own value and dignity. Medieval asceticism has no place in the new spiritual atmosphere, enjoying the freedom and power of man as an earthly, natural being. From an optimistic conviction in the power of a person, his ability to improve, there arises a desire and even a need to correlate the behavior of an individual, his own behavior with a kind of model of the “ideal personality”, a thirst for self-improvement is born. This is how a very important, central movement of this culture, which was called "humanism", is formed in the Western European culture of the Renaissance.

One should not think that the meaning of this concept coincides with the words “humanism”, “humane” that are commonly used today (meaning “philanthropy”, “mercy”, etc.), although there is no doubt that their modern meaning ultimately dates back to Renaissance times. . Humanism in the Renaissance was a special set of moral and philosophical ideas. He was directly related to the upbringing, education of a person on the basis of primary attention not to the former, scholastic knowledge, or religious, “divine” knowledge, but to the humanitarian disciplines: philology, history, morality. It is especially important that the humanities at that time began to be valued as the most universal, that in the process of forming the spiritual image of the individual, the main importance was attached to "literature", and not to any other, perhaps more "practical" branch of knowledge. As the great Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarch wrote, it is “through the word that the human face becomes beautiful.” The prestige of humanistic knowledge was extremely high during the Renaissance.

In Western Europe of this time, a humanistic intelligentsia appears - a circle of people whose communication with each other is based not on the commonality of their origin, property status or professional interests, but on the proximity of spiritual and moral quests. Sometimes such associations of like-minded humanists received the name Academies - in the spirit of the ancient tradition. Sometimes friendly communication of humanists was carried out in letters, a very important part of the literary heritage of the Renaissance. The Latin language, which in its updated form became the universal language of culture of various Western European countries, contributed to the fact that, despite certain historical, political, religious and other differences, the figures of the Renaissance in Italy and France, Germany and the Netherlands felt involved in a single spiritual world. The feeling of cultural unity was also enhanced due to the fact that during this period an intensive development began, on the one hand, of humanistic education, and on the other, of printing: thanks to the invention of the German Gutenberg from the middle of the 15th century. Printing houses are spreading all over Western Europe, and a larger number of people get the opportunity to join books than before.

In the Renaissance, the very way of thinking of a person changes. Not a medieval scholastic dispute, but a humanistic dialogue, including different points of view, demonstrating unity and opposition, the complex diversity of truths about the world and man, becomes a way of thinking and a form of communication for people of this time. It is no coincidence that dialogue is one of the popular literary genres of the Renaissance. The flourishing of this genre, like the flourishing of tragedy and comedy, is one of the manifestations of the Renaissance literature's attention to the classical genre tradition. But the Renaissance also knows new genre formations: a sonnet - in poetry, a short story, an essay - in prose. The writers of this era do not repeat ancient authors, but on the basis of their artistic experience create, in essence, a different and new world of literary images, plots, and problems.