Culture of the Renaissance in Europe (XVI-XVII). Renaissance - briefly name the main achievements of the Renaissance in Europe

The Renaissance is also called the Renaissance. This is a period of development of science, culture, morality and enlightenment. Central Asia experienced such a period in the 9th - 12th and 14th - 15th centuries.

In Western European countries, the heyday of the Renaissance occurred mainly in the 14th-17th centuries. Scientists consider the Renaissance to be the era of transition from medieval stagnation to the modern period. The Renaissance in Western Europe did not arise on its own.

The Central Asian Eastern Renaissance had a direct influence on the development of world culture and scientific thought. The Renaissance arose in Italy, since there the features characteristic of capitalist society arose earlier. Main distinctive features The Renaissance in Western Europe were:
- denial of ignorance, fanaticism, conservatism;
- affirmation of a humanistic worldview, belief in limitless possibilities man, his will and mind;
- appeal to cultural heritage antiquity, as if its “rebirth”, hence the name of the era;
- glorification in literature and art of the beauty of earthly, and not the afterlife;
- the fight for human freedom and dignity.

Literature of the Renaissance.

The literature and art of the Renaissance produced outstanding talents.

One of the literary geniuses of this era was William Shakespeare (1564-1616). He believed that “man is the greatest miracle of nature!” Shakespeare was in love with the theater. He worked as an actor and playwright. The world seemed to him to be a stage, and people - actors. He deeply believed that the theater would become a school for people, which would teach them to resist the blows of fate, and awaken a feeling of hatred for betrayal, duplicity, and baseness. V. Shakespeare left to humanity such masterpieces as “Othello”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, “Romeo and Juliet” and other works.

Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616), Spanish writer, one of the leading representatives of the Renaissance. Main character his famous novel"Don Quixote" is the last of the noble knights errant in a world of injustice. Don Quixote fights injustice to the best of his ability. His actions are a reflection of his motto: “For freedom, as for glory, you must put your life in danger.”

Art. Another outstanding representative of the Renaissance is Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519). He was at the same time an artist, a poet, an architect, a sculptor, a musician, and an inventor. Leonardo da Vinci called painting “the princess of the arts.”

His heroes paintings were not gods or angels, but ordinary people. This is his painting “Madonna and Child”, where the mother carefully presses the baby to her chest. Hugging him, she looks at him with a gentle half-smile. The earth reflects the infinite mother's love to the child. Leonardo da Vinci's wall painting "The Last Vespers" is famous.

Another great artist of this period is Raphael Santi (1483 - 1520). He lived only 37 years. But during this short period he managed to create masterpieces of world painting, one of which is the Sistine Madonna.

The artist’s contemporaries praised this painting as “one of a kind.” In it, the barefoot Holy Mary does not seem to be standing on the clouds, but floating on them towards her destiny.
The look of the baby Jesus is as serious as that of an adult. As if he feels future suffering and imminent death. There is also sadness and concern in the mother’s gaze. She knows everything in advance. Nevertheless, she goes towards people for whom the path of truth will be opened at the expense of the life of her son.

The most famous work Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606 - 1669) - painting “Return prodigal son" He created it in the most difficult years for him - after the death of his son. The biblical legend tells how the son long years wandered around the world and, having spent all his wealth, returns to Father's house, where he is accepted back.
Rembrandt depicted in his work the moment of meeting between father and son. The lost son kneels at the threshold of the house. Worn clothes and a bald head indicate the sorrows of life endured. The frozen movement of the blind father's hands expresses the bright joy of a desperate man and his endless love.

Art studies.

Sculptors of this period considered sculpture the best view fine art, like nothing else, glorifies man and his beauty.

The most famous among the creators of this period was the Italian Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564).
with their own immortal works he left an indelible mark on history.

This is what he said about art in his tercet:

“What is life, what is being
Before the eternity of art,
No wise man can defeat him,
nor time."

He most powerfully expressed the deeply human ideals of the Renaissance, full of heroic pathos. The statue of David he created affirms the physical and spiritual beauty of man, his limitless creative possibilities. This work of the great sculptor reflects the image of the biblical hero, the shepherd David, who fought the mythical giant Goliath. According to legend, David kills Goliath in single combat and subsequently becomes king. The grandeur and beauty of this sculpture is unparalleled.
St. Peter's Basilica is the main Catholic church in Rome and Europe. Its construction was completed by Michelangelo. The temple was built over a hundred years.

Renaissance is a term for the era of renaissance

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The Renaissance arose in Italy - its first signs appeared in the 13th-14th centuries. But it was firmly established in the 20s of the 15th century, and by the end of the 15th century. reached its peak.

In other countries, the Renaissance began much later. In the 16th century a crisis of Renaissance ideas begins, a consequence of this crisis is the emergence of mannerism and baroque.

Renaissance periods

Periods in the history of Italian culture are usually designated by the names of centuries:

• Proto-Renaissance (Ducento)  - 2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century.
• Early Renaissance (trecento) —  beginning of the 15th - end of the 15th century.
• High Renaissance(quattrocento) —  end of the 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century.
• Late Renaissance (cinquecento) —  mid-16th-90s of the 16th century.

For the history of the Italian Renaissance, the deepest change in consciousness, views on the world and man, which dates back to the era of communal revolutions of the 2nd half of the 13th century, was of decisive importance.

It is this fracture that opens new stage in history Western European culture. The fundamentally new trends associated with it found their most radical expression in the Italian culture and art of the so-called "the era of Dante and Giotto"   - the last third of the 13th century and the first two decades of the 14th.

The fall of the Byzantine Empire played a role in the formation of the Renaissance. The Byzantines who moved to Europe brought with them their libraries and works of art, unknown medieval Europe. Byzantium never broke with ancient culture.

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

Secular centers of science and art began to emerge in cities, the activities of which were outside the control of the church. In the middle of the 15th century. Printing was invented, which played an important role in the spread of new views throughout Europe.

Renaissance Man

Renaissance man differs sharply from medieval man. He is characterized by faith in the power and strength of the mind, admiration for the inexplicable gift of creativity.

Humanism puts the focus on human wisdom and its achievements as the highest good for a rational being. Actually, this leads to the rapid flourishing of science.

Humanists consider it their duty to actively disseminate the literature of ancient times, because it is in knowledge that they see true happiness.

In a word, the Renaissance man tries to develop and improve the “quality” of the individual through the study of the ancient heritage as the only basis.

And intelligence occupies a key place in this transformation. Hence the emergence of various anti-clerical ideas, which are often unreasonably hostile to religion and the church.

Proto-Renaissance

The Proto-Renaissance is the forerunner of the Renaissance. It is also closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic traditions.

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 associated with the plague epidemic that struck Italy.

Proto-Renaissance art is characterized by the emergence of tendencies towards a sensual, visual reflection of reality, secularism (in contrast to the art of the Middle Ages), and the emergence of interest in the ancient heritage (characteristic of the art of the Renaissance).

At the origins of the Italian Proto-Renaissance is the master Niccolo, who worked in the second half of the 13th century in Pisa. He became the founder of a school of sculpture that lasted until the mid-14th century and spread its attention throughout Italy.

Of course, much of the sculpture of the Pisan school still gravitates towards the past. It preserves old allegories and symbols. There is no space in the reliefs; the figures closely fill the surface of the background. Still, Niccolo's reforms are significant.

The use of the classical tradition, the emphasis on volume, materiality and weight of figures and objects, the desire to introduce elements of a real earthly event into the image of a religious scene created the basis for a broad renewal of art.

In the years 1260–1270, Niccolo Pisano's workshop carried out numerous orders in the cities of central Italy.
New trends are also penetrating Italian painting.

Just as Niccolò Pisano reformed Italian sculpture, Cavallini laid the foundation for a new direction in painting. In his work he relied on late antique and early Christian monuments, with which Rome was still rich in his time.

Cavallini's merit lies in the fact that he sought to overcome the flatness of forms and compositional construction, which were inherent in the “Byzantine” or “Greek” manner that dominated Italian painting at his time.

He introduced chiaroscuro modeling borrowed from ancient artists, achieving roundness and plasticity of forms.

However, from the second decade of the 14th century, artistic life in Rome froze. The leading role in Italian painting passed to the Florentine school.

Florence for two centuries it was something of a capital artistic life Italy and determined the main direction of development of its art.

But the most radical reformer of painting was Giotto di Bondone (1266/67–1337).

In his works, Giotto sometimes achieves such strength in the clash of contrasts and the transmission of human feelings that allows us to see in him a predecessor greatest masters Renaissance.

Treating Gospel episodes as events human life, Giotto places it in a real setting, while refusing to combine moments from different times in one composition. Giotto's compositions are always spatial, although the stage on which the action takes place is usually not deep. Architecture and landscape in Giotto's frescoes are always subordinate to action. Every detail in his compositions directs the viewer’s attention to the semantic center.

Another important center of art in Italy at the end of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century was Siena.

Art of Siena marked by features of refined sophistication and decorativeism. In Siena, French illuminated manuscripts and works of artistic crafts were valued.

In the XIII-XIV centuries, one of the most elegant cathedrals of Italian Gothic was erected here, on the facade of which Giovanni Pisano worked in 1284-1297.

For architecture Proto-Renaissance is characterized by balance and calm.

Representative: Arnolfo di Cambio.

For sculpture This period is characterized by plastic power and the influence of late antique art.

Representative: Niccolò Pisano, Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio.

For painting The appearance of tactility and material persuasiveness of forms is characteristic.

Representatives: Giotto, Pietro Cavallini, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Cimabue.

Early Renaissance

In the first decades of the 15th century, a decisive turning point occurred in the art of Italy. The emergence of a powerful center of the Renaissance in Florence entailed a renewal of the entire Italian artistic culture.

The work of Donatello, Masaccio and their associates marks the victory of Renaissance realism, which differed significantly from the “realism of detail” that was characteristic of the Gothic art of the late Trecento.

The works of these masters are imbued with the ideals of humanism. They heroize and exalt a person, raising him above the level of everyday life.

In their struggle with the Gothic tradition, artists of the early Renaissance sought support in antiquity and the art of the Proto-Renaissance.

What the masters of the Proto-Renaissance sought only intuitively, by touch, is now based on precise knowledge.

Italian art of the 15th century is distinguished by great diversity. The difference in conditions in which local schools are formed gives rise to a variety of artistic movements.

The new art, which triumphed in advanced Florence at the beginning of the 15th century, did not immediately gain recognition and spread in other regions of the country. While Bruneleschi, Masaccio, and Donatello worked in Florence, the traditions of Byzantine and Gothic art were still alive in northern Italy, only gradually supplanted by the Renaissance.

The main center of the early Renaissance was Florence. Florentine culture of the first half and mid-15th century is diverse and rich.

For architecture The early Renaissance is characterized by the logic of proportions, the form and sequence of parts are subordinated to geometry, and not to intuition, which was characteristic feature medieval buildings

Representative: Palazzo Rucellai, Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti.

For sculpture This period is characterized by the development of free-standing statues, pictorial reliefs, portrait busts, and equestrian monuments.

Representative: L. Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, della Robbia family, A. Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano, B. da Maiano, A. Verrocchio.

For painting Characterized by a feeling of harmonious order in the world, an appeal to the ethical and civil ideals of humanism, a joyful perception of the beauty and diversity of the real world.

Representatives: Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, A. del Castagno, P. Uccello, Fra Angelico, D. Ghirlandaio, A. Pollaiolo, Verrocchio, Piero della Francesca, A. Mantegna, P. Perugino.

High Renaissance

The culmination of art (the end of the 15th and the first decades of the 16th century), which presented the world with such great masters as Raphael, Titian, Giorgione and Leonardo da Vinci, is called the stage of the High Renaissance.

The concentration of Italian artistic life in early XVI century moves to Rome.

The popes sought to unite all of Italy under the rule of Rome, making attempts to turn it into a cultural and leading political center. But, without ever becoming a political reference point, Rome was transformed for some time into the citadel of spiritual culture and art of Italy. The reason for this was also the patronage tactics of the popes, who attracted the best artists to Rome.

The Florentine school and many others (old local ones) were losing their former significance.

The only exception was the rich and independent Venice, which demonstrated a vibrant cultural originality throughout the 16th century.

Due to the constant connection with the great works of the archaic, art was freed from verbosity, often so characteristic creativity Quattrocento virtuosos.

High Renaissance artists acquired the ability to omit small details that did not affect general meaning and strive to achieve harmony and combination in their creations best sides reality.

Creativity is characterized by faith in the unlimited possibilities of man, in his individuality and in the rational world apparatus.

The main motif of the art of the High Renaissance is the image of a harmoniously developed and strong person in both body and spirit, who is above everyday routine.

Since sculpture and painting get rid of the unquestioning slavery of architecture, which gives life to the formation of new genres of art such as: landscape, history painting, portrait.

In this period architecture High Renaissance dials highest speed. Now, without exception, customers did not want to see even a drop of the Middle Ages in their homes. The streets of Italy have become more colorful than just luxurious mansions, but palaces with extensive plantings. It should be noted that the Renaissance gardens known in history appeared precisely during this period.

Religious and public buildings also no longer smack of the spirit of the past. The temples of the new buildings seem to have risen from the times of Roman paganism. Among the architectural monuments of this period one can find monumental buildings with the obligatory presence of a dome.

The grandeur of this art was also revered by his contemporaries, as Vasari spoke of it as: “the highest stage of perfection which the most valued and most celebrated creations of the new art have now reached.”

For architecture The high Renaissance is characterized by monumentality, representative grandeur, grandeur of plans (coming from Ancient Rome), intensively manifested in Bramant’s projects for St. Peter’s Cathedral and the reconstruction of the Vatican.

Representative: Donato Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo, Jacopo Sansovino

For sculpture This period is characterized by heroic pathos and, at the same time, a tragic feeling of the crisis of humanism. The strength and power of a person, the beauty of his body are glorified, while simultaneously emphasizing his loneliness in the world.

Representative: Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Luca della Robbia, Michelozzo, Agostino di Duccio, Pisanello.

For painting The transfer of facial expressions of a person’s face and body is characteristic; new ways of conveying space and constructing a composition appear. At the same time, the works create a harmonious image of a person that meets humanistic ideals.

Representatives: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Titian, Jacopo Sansovino.

Late Renaissance

At this time, an eclipse occurs and a new artistic culture emerges. The fact that the creativity of this period is extremely complex and is characterized by a predominance of confrontation does not cause shock. various directions. Although, if we do not consider the very end of the 16th century - the time when the Carracci and Caravaggio brothers entered the arena, then we can narrow the entire diversity of art to two main trends.

The feudal-Catholic reaction dealt a mortal blow to the High Renaissance, but could not kill the powerful artistic tradition that had been formed over two and a half centuries in Italy.

Only the rich Venetian Republic, free both from the power of the Pope and from the domination of interventionists, ensured the development of art in this region. The Renaissance in Venice had its own characteristics.

If we talk about the creations of famous artists of the second half XVI century, then they still have a Renaissance foundation, but with some changes.

The fate of man was no longer portrayed as so selfless, although echoes of the theme heroic personality, which is ready to fight evil and the sense of reality is still present.

Art Basics XVII century were included in creative searches these masters, thanks to whom new means of expression were created.

Few artists belong to this movement, but eminent masters of the older generation, caught in a crisis at the culmination of their creativity, such as Titian and Michelangelo. In Venice, which occupied a unique position in the artistic culture of Italy in the 16th century, this orientation was also inherent in the artists of the younger generation — Tintoretto, Bassano, Veronese.

Representatives of the second direction are completely different masters. They are united only by subjectivity in the perception of the world.

This trend began to spread in the second half of the 16th century and, not limited to Italy, spread to most European countries. In the art history literature of the end of the last century, called “ mannerism».

Predilection for luxury, decorativeness and dislike for scientific research delayed penetration into Venice artistic ideas and the practices of the Florentine Renaissance.

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

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

Renaissance periods

The Renaissance is divided into 4 periods:

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

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

Brief characteristics of the Renaissance periods

Proto-Renaissance

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

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

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

Early Renaissance

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

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

Palazzo Rucellai

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

Loggia Rucellai

High Renaissance

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

Rafael Santi "Portrait of Pope Julius II"

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

Late Renaissance

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

Renaissance is a time of rethinking the heritage of antiquity, the revival of its ideas. But it is wrong to consider this time a repetition, an imitation of a bygone culture. During the Renaissance, ideas born of the Middle Ages largely influenced the specific worldview of a person of this time.

The following principles can be considered the basic principles of the Renaissance man’s worldview:

The earthly world is a hierarchy of God’s creations, where only man himself possesses the highest perfection; theocentrism of the worldview is replaced by anthropocentrism;

There is a clear awareness of the problems of life;

Time and space are already assessed within the framework of real existence and are clearly determined by the forms of human activity. Space becomes visible. Time is like the present and quickly flowing. The Renaissance type of personality is distinguished by titanism (he accomplishes so much in his life that many cannot do) and versatility (realizes his abilities in a wide variety of areas);

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

Art and nature become equivalent concepts;

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

Renaissance is the birth of humanist ideas that glorify human creativity. Humanism was clearly manifested in art. Humanists developed (more practically than theoretically) that component of aesthetics that today we call applied. Nature is seen as the highest form of beauty. Art is one of the forms of creativity carried out according to the laws of natural beauty. If medieval aesthetics considers art to be an application to matter,

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

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

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

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

During this era, a new one arose - modern literature. The word is understood as the highest manifestation of Beauty, work on the imagery of the word is the highest human purpose. The literature of the Renaissance is filled with a life-affirming character, admiration for the beauty of the world, man and his achievements. Its main theme is the theme of love.

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

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

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

Changing subject - object increased attention becomes a man;

Change of image techniques - direct perspective, accuracy of conveying the structure of the human body;

Displacement of pure color by complex, composite colors;

The main means of expressiveness becomes not light, but shadow, which contributes to the development graphic arts in fine arts;

Particular interest in landscape;

Predominance easel painting and the emergence of secular painting (portrait);

Development of technology oil painting;

Interest in engraving.

IN sculpture there is a return of interest in the naked body. Sculptor Donatello was the first (after the Middle Ages) to introduce the naked body in sculpture, to create a new type of round statue and sculptural group, and pictorial relief. The naked body of Renaissance sculptures is filled with expression, movement, sensuality, and eroticism. Postures have become dynamic, muscles are tenser, emotions are open. The body, just like in antiquity, is seen as a reflection of the soul. But the emphasis in the depiction of the human body is already different: it must be considered as a manifestation of special states souls. That is why sculptors study the human body so closely in different psychological situations. Looking at sculptural images a man of the Renaissance, we can see first of all his soul, state, emotions shown in his posture, tense muscles, and facial expression.

Becoming theater Renaissance associated with names William Shakespeare And Lope de Bega. The main theatrical genres of this time are tragedy And comedy, mystery, miracle, farce and soti(types of comedies). The content becomes more secular. The action takes place anywhere (on earth, in heaven, in the underworld) and covers events that last for years and months. At the same time, there is still no integrity of the plot and identified types of characters. Antique stories More often they are performed in school productions and pursue rather educational goals. Spectacles theatrical performances were quite boring in terms of plot development, but entertained the audience with dance interludes, decorations and costumes. The Renaissance theater became believable, realistic, and acquired the features stage action, which the viewer observes as if from the outside.

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

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

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

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

The term Renaissance is already found among Italian humanists, for example, Giorgio Vasari. IN 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.

General characteristics of the Renaissance
A new cultural paradigm arose as a result dramatic changes public relations in Europe.

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

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

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

Renaissance art.
With the theocentrism and asceticism of the medieval picture of the world, art in the Middle Ages served primarily religion, conveying the world and man in their relationship to God, in conventional forms, and was concentrated in the space of the temple. Neither visible world, no man could be a valuable object of art in its own right. In the 13th century V medieval culture new trends are observed (the cheerful teaching of St. Francis, the work of Dante, the forerunner of humanism). In the second half of the 13th century. marks the beginning of a transitional era in the development of Italian art - the Proto-Renaissance (lasted until the beginning of the 15th century), which prepared the way for the Renaissance. The work of some artists of this time (G. Fabriano, Cimabue, S. Martini, etc.), quite medieval in iconography, is imbued with a more cheerful and secular beginning, the figures acquire relative volume. In sculpture, the Gothic ethereality of figures is overcome, Gothic emotionality is reduced (N. Pisano). For the first time, a clear break with medieval traditions appeared at the end of the 13th - first third of the 14th century. in the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone, who introduced feeling into painting three-dimensional space, painted more voluminous figures, paid more attention to the situation and, most importantly, showed a special, alien to the exalted Gothic, realism in the depiction of human experiences.

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

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

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

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

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