Abstract: Italian Renaissance. The phenomenon of the Italian Renaissance

“Revival” – revival, return to life. At first glance, this is a rather strange definition for an era of cultural flourishing. However, this is not an exaggeration at all. Such dramatic changes in the art and thinking of European peoples had a banal and terrible reason - death.

Just three years in the middle of the 14th century became a sharp divider between eras. During this period of time, the population of Italian Florence was rapidly dying from the plague. The Black Death did not distinguish between ranks and merits; there was not a single person left who could not bear the brunt of the loss of loved ones. Centuries-old foundations were crumbling, faith in the future disappeared, there was no hope left in God... When the pandemic receded and the nightmare stopped, the city residents realized that it would no longer be possible to live in the old way.

The material world has changed greatly: even the poorest of the survivors had “extra” property, inherited, at the expense of the lost owners of houses, the housing problem was resolved by itself, the rested land turned out to be surprisingly generous, the fertile soil without much effort gave excellent harvests, the demand for which now, however, was quite low. Factory managers and wealthy landowners began to experience a shortage of workers, who were now simply in short supply, and commoners were no longer eager to take the first offer that came their way, having the opportunity to choose and bargain for more favorable conditions. This gave many Florentines free time for reflection, communication and creativity.

In addition to the word “renasci” (“to revive”), another word was just as often used in relation to the era: “reviviscere” (“to revive”). The Renaissance people believed that they were reviving the classics, and they themselves experienced a feeling of rebirth.

An even greater revolution took place in the minds of people, the worldview changed radically: greater independence appeared from the church, which showed itself helpless in the face of disaster, thoughts turned to material existence, to knowing oneself not as God’s creation, but as part of Mother Nature.

Florence lost about half of its population. However, this alone cannot explain the emergence of the Renaissance in this city. There was a combination of reasons of different significance, as well as a factor of chance. Some historians attribute the cultural flourishing to the Medici family, the most influential Florentine family of that time, which patronized artists and literally “grew” new geniuses with their monetary donations. It is precisely this policy of the rulers of Florence that still causes controversy among experts: either the city was very lucky in the Middle Ages to give birth to talented people, or special conditions contributed to the development of geniuses, whose talents were unlikely to ever manifest themselves in ordinary society.

Literature

The beginning of the Renaissance in Italian literature is very easy to trace - writers moved away from traditional techniques and began to write in their native language, which, it should be noted, in those days was very far from the literary canons. Before the beginning of the era, the core of the libraries consisted of Greek and Latin texts, as well as more modern works in French and Provençal. During the Renaissance, the formation of the Italian literary language occurred largely through translations of classical works. Even “combined” works appeared, the authors of which supplemented the ancient texts with their own reflections and imitations.

During the Renaissance, the combination of Christian subjects with physicality resulted in images of languid Madonnas. The angels looked like playful kids - “putti” - and like ancient cupids. The combination of sublime spirituality and sensuality was expressed in numerous “Venuses”.

The “voice” of the early Renaissance in Italy was the great Florentines Francesco Petrarca and Dante Alighieri. In Dante's Divine Comedy, there is a clear influence of the medieval worldview and a strong Christian motive. But Petrarch already represented the movement of Renaissance humanism, turning in his work to classical antiquity and modernity. In addition, Petrarch became the father of the Italian sonnet, the form and style of which was later adopted by many other poets, including the Englishman Shakespeare.

Petrarch's student, Giovanni Boccaccio, wrote the famous “Decameron” - an allegorical collection of one hundred short stories, including tragic, philosophical, and erotic ones. This work of Boccaccio, as well as others, became a rich source of inspiration for many English writers.

Niccolo Machiavelli was a philosopher and political thinker. His contribution to the literature of that time consists of works of reflection that are widely known in Western society. The treatise “The Prince” is the most discussed work of the political theorist, which became the basis for the theory of “Machiavellianism”.

Philosophy

Petrarch, who worked at the dawn of the Renaissance, also became the main founder of the philosophical doctrine of that era - humanism. This trend put the mind and will of man in first place. The theory did not contradict the foundations of Christianity, although it did not recognize the concept of original sin, viewing people as initially virtuous beings.

Most of all, the new movement resonated with ancient philosophy, giving rise to a wave of interest in ancient texts. It was at this time that the fashion for searching for lost manuscripts appeared. The hunt was sponsored by wealthy townspeople, and each find was immediately translated into modern languages and published in book form. This approach not only filled libraries, but also significantly increased the availability of literature and the size of the reading population. The general level of education has increased noticeably.

Although philosophy was of great importance during the Renaissance, these years are often characterized as a period of stagnation. The thinkers refuted the spiritual theory of Christianity, but did not have a sufficient basis to continue to develop the research of their ancient ancestors. Usually the content of works preserved from that time boils down to admiration for classical theories and models.

There is also a rethinking of death. Now life becomes not a preparation for a “heavenly” existence, but a full-fledged path that ends with the death of the body. Renaissance philosophers are trying to convey the idea that “eternal life” will be given to those who can leave a mark behind themselves, be it untold wealth or works of art.

The development of knowledge during the Renaissance greatly influenced people's understanding of the world today. Thanks to Copernicus and the Great Geographical Discoveries, ideas about the size of the Earth and its place in the Universe changed. The works of Paracelsus and Vesalius gave rise to scientific medicine and anatomy.

The first step of Renaissance science was a return to the classical theory of Ptolemy about the structure of the universe. There is a general desire to explain the unknown by material laws; most theories are based on building rigid logical sequences.

Of course, the most outstanding scientist of the Renaissance is Leonardo da Vinci. He is known for outstanding research in a variety of disciplines. One of the most interesting works of the Florentine genius relates to the definition of the ideality of man. Leonardo shared the humanists' view of the righteousness of the newborn, but the question of how to preserve all the traits of virtue and physical perfection remained a mystery. And for the final refutation of the divinity of man it was necessary to find the true source of life and reason. Da Vinci made many discoveries in various scientific fields; his works are still the subject of study by descendants. And who knows what kind of legacy he would have left us if his life had been even longer.

Italian science of the late Renaissance was represented by Galileo Galilei. The young scientist, born in Pisa, did not immediately decide on the exact direction of his work. He entered the medical faculty, but quickly switched to mathematics. Having received an academic degree, he began teaching applied disciplines (geometry, mechanics, optics, etc.), becoming increasingly immersed in the problems of astronomy, the influence of planets and luminaries, and at the same time becoming interested in astrology. It was Galileo Galilei who was the first to clearly draw analogies between the laws of nature and mathematics. In his work, he often used the method of inductive reasoning, using a logical chain to build transitions from particular provisions to more general ones. Some of Galileo's ideas turned out to be quite erroneous, but most of them were intended as confirmation of his basic theory about the movement of the Earth around the Sun. The academicians of that time refuted it, and the brilliant Tuscan was “besieged” with the help of the powerful Inquisition. According to the main historical version, the scientist publicly abandoned his theory towards the end of his life.

Renaissance science strived for “modernity,” which was expressed largely in technical achievements. Intelligence began to be considered the property of the rich. It was fashionable to have a scientist at court, and if he surpassed his neighbors in knowledge, then it was prestigious. Yesterday’s merchants themselves were not averse to plunging into science, sometimes choosing such “spectacular” areas as alchemy, medicine and meteorology. Science was often freely mixed with magic and superstition.

During the Renaissance, the @ sign was used. Then it denoted a measure of weight (arrub) equal to 12 - 13 kilograms.

It was during the Renaissance that alchemy appeared - an early form of chemistry that included as many supernatural principles as truly scientific ones. Most alchemists were obsessed with the idea of turning lead into gold, and this mythical process is still identified with the concept of alchemy. Long before the creation of the periodic system of elements, alchemists proposed their vision: all substances, in their opinion, consisted of a mixture of sulfur and mercury. All experiments were based on this assumption. Later, a third was added to the two main elements - salt.

It is worth noting the geographical achievements of the XIV-XVII centuries. This is the time of great geographical discoveries. A particularly noticeable mark in this area was left by the Portuguese and the famous Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, whose name is immortalized in the most significant discovery of that time - the American continents.

Painting, sculpture, architecture

The fine art of the Italian Renaissance spread from Florence, and it largely determined the high cultural level of the city, which glorified it for many years. Here, as in other areas, there is a return to the ancient principles of classical art. Excessive pretentiousness disappears, the works become more “natural”. Artists deviate from the strict canons of religious painting and create the greatest iconographic masterpieces in a new, freer and more realistic manner. In addition to deeper work with light and shadow than before, there is an active study of human anatomy.

Harmony, proportionality, and symmetry are returning to architecture. Gothic buildings expressing medieval religious fear are becoming a thing of the past, giving way to classical arches, domes, and columns. Architects of the early Renaissance worked in Florence, but in later years they were actively invited to Rome, where many outstanding structures were erected, which later became architectural monuments. At the end of the Renaissance, mannerism was born, of which Michelangelo was a prominent representative. A distinctive feature of this style is the emphasized monumentality of individual elements, which for a long time was perceived sharply negatively by representatives of classical art.

The return to antiquity was most clearly manifested in sculpture. The classic nude became an example of beauty, which again began to be depicted in contrapposto (the characteristic position of the body resting on one leg, which allows one to expressively convey the nature of the movement). Prominent figures of Renaissance sculpture were Donatello and Michelangelo, whose statue of David became the pinnacle of Renaissance art.

During the Renaissance in Italy, women with large pupils were considered the most beautiful. Italian women dripped an infusion of belladonna, a poisonous plant, into their eyes, which dilated the pupils. The name "belladonna" is translated from Italian as "beautiful woman."

Renaissance humanism influenced all aspects of social creativity. The music of the Renaissance ceased to be overly academic, having undergone a great influence of folk motifs. In church practice, choral polyphonic singing has become widespread.

The diversity of musical styles led to the emergence of new musical instruments: viols, lutes, harpsichords. They were quite easy to use and could be used in companies or small concerts. Church music, much more solemn, required an appropriate instrument, which in those years was the organ.

Renaissance humanism suggested new approaches to such an important stage of personality development as learning. During the heyday of the Renaissance, there was a tendency to develop personal qualities from a young age. Group education gave way to individual education, when the student knew exactly what he wanted and went towards the intended goal, relying in everything on his master teacher.

The centuries of the Italian Renaissance became not only a source of incredible cultural progress, but also a time of strong contradictions: ancient philosophy and the conclusions of modern thinkers collided, which led to a fundamental change in both life itself and its perception.

“Revival” - revival, return to life. At first glance, this is a rather strange definition for an era of cultural flourishing. However, this is not an exaggeration at all. Such dramatic changes in the art and thinking of European peoples had a banal and terrible reason -.

Literature

Philosophy

The science

It was Galileo Galilei who was the first to clearly draw analogies between the laws of nature and mathematics. In his work, he often used the method of inductive reasoning, using a logical chain to build transitions from particular provisions to more general ones. Some of Galileo's ideas turned out to be quite erroneous, but most of them were intended as confirmation of his basic theory about the movement of the Earth around the Sun. The academicians of that time refuted it, and the brilliant Tuscan was “besieged” with the help of the powerful Inquisition. According to the main historical version, the scientist publicly abandoned his theory towards the end of his life.

Painting, sculpture, architecture

The return to antiquity was most clearly manifested in sculpture. The classic nude became an example of beauty, which again began to be depicted in contrapposto (the characteristic position of the body resting on one leg, which allows one to expressively convey the nature of the movement). The prominent figures of Renaissance sculpture were Donatello and Michelangelo, whose statue of David became the pinnacle of Renaissance art.

Music

1. The phenomenon of the Italian Renaissance

A series of revivals

We begin our conversations about the Renaissance, about the Renaissance - about a significant time for European culture. But there is a lot of controversy about this era. Most scientists assess this era as an outstanding rise of European culture. But there were thinkers who had a negative attitude. For example, we know that Alexey Fedorovich Losev, or Fr. Pavel Florensky viewed this era as the collapse of Christian ideals, as the triumph of anthropocentrism and the practical rejection of God. Who is right? Let's consider.

So, the Renaissance. What did the Italians revive in this era? It received its name from the light hand of, as you know, Giorgio Vasari - artist, architect, art historian. In his book “Biographies of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects,” he used this term to designate the period of Italian art from 1250 to 1550, that is, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, 300 years of great growth. We will talk about time boundaries later, and we will see how they can shift in an earlier era, and, conversely, some researchers believed that this was just the 15th century. – the very beginning of the 16th century. (quattrocento and cinquecento). But there is some debate about this. This is all part of the issues about which debates continue today.

What did Vasari mean? He meant, first of all, the revival of the culture of antiquity. He proclaimed that the era of the Middle Ages had ended, that is, the gap that, as it seemed to him, constituted a cultural failure between the rise of culture in antiquity and a new rise during the Renaissance - primarily in Italy. But, however, Vasari was not very right. Firstly, because antiquity had been revived before. This was not the first European Renaissance.

In general, if you look, European culture developed through such leaps, renaissances, revivals. There was, for example, the Carolingian Renaissance, the Ottonian Revival. For Europe, the moment of revival was always at the forefront, it was relevant, and something was being revived all the time.

Having destroyed the Roman Empire, the barbarians immediately began to imitate Rome. Let us remember, for example, the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, where Theodoric imitated Rome, and crowned himself, and made mausoleums, and made a Roman pallazo, and so on. And Theodoric’s court was such a revival, as it seemed to him, of ancient Roman culture.

But, of course, the greatest revival after the barbarian era of destruction was the Carolingian Revival. This also needs to be said before we move on to the Renaissance itself. The Carolingians are a special period. It really was, to some extent, a Renaissance. This is a period of intellectual and cultural growth. Its frame dates back to the end of the 8th century. – mid-9th century, the era of the reign of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald. This is the Carolingian dynasty. This is the flowering of literature, art, law, and theology. The development of medieval Latin received a powerful impetus.

Indeed, it was a renaissance - a small one, perhaps not of a pan-European scale, but still a precisely Christian renaissance, but associated with the revival of the ancient tradition, the Latin tradition, the tradition of Roman law, etc. For example, the Aachen Chapel suggests that it was indeed a powerful takeoff - perhaps more local. Although the Italian Renaissance, as we will see, is also a local phenomenon. It influenced European culture, but nevertheless it was also not on a very large scale.

The Ottonian revival continued the Carolingian one. And the next period, which is associated with Romanesque art, can also be called, to some extent, a revival, because the Roman arch, the Roman vault, and Roman construction technology are being revived. Finally, the barbarians reached such a scale in construction that could be compared in part with Roman architecture, and in some ways this is also a revival.

Not to mention Gothic, because the very word “Gothic”, the barbaric style, is also imported from the Renaissance, because it seemed to everyone that Gothic, with its edges, with its contrasts of light and with this powerful mass of cathedrals that suppress a person, ¾ all this is barbarism. In fact, if you look, Gothic is a great art that combines engineering, theology, and scholasticism. But the leaders of the Renaissance treated scholasticism as something undeveloped, although it was a very interesting movement of thought. Therefore, Gothic is also a revival of its kind - a revival of high construction technology, theological thought, and so on. And here, too, there was a lot connected with antiquity.

In general, European development, if we compare it with the development of the Eastern Christian world, has always followed the path of looking back to antiquity, attempting to revive. The barbarians destroyed it, and throughout the Middle Ages they tried to revive this antiquity. And finally, as it seemed to them, they were revived. And they called the era when antiquity was raised to a pedestal in a broader sense, it was revived, and Vasari proclaimed the Renaissance period.

The development in the Eastern Christian world was completely different. Nobody really destroyed anything there, and Christianity grew through this ancient soil. Byzantium was a continuation of the Roman Empire - it was a part, a fragment of the Roman Empire. The Greeks called themselves Romans, and considered themselves the legitimate heirs of antiquity. Not like these barbarians who destroyed it and then tried to revive it.

A typically Italian cultural product

We have reached the Renaissance, in which antiquity is placed on a pedestal. But antiquity here is rather a romantic idea. After all, they were reviving European culture of the post-medieval type. And this can be seen in everything that the representatives of the Renaissance did - artists, architects, thinkers.

This is a completely original culture that does not repeat antiquity, although it refers to it, which creates its own (modern at that time) special style of culture. And in this sense, the role of Italy is very great. In fact, just as Gothic is mainly an invention of France (then Gothic influences went to other countries), so the Renaissance is a typically Italian “cultural product”. It is no coincidence that they coincide in many respects in dates. While the Gothic style is flourishing in France, the Renaissance culture is blooming in Italy (we will talk about this without going through the Gothic style). Therefore, they did not like Gothic as a barbaric, Gothic, Germanic style. But they themselves revived noble antiquity, which was not touched by barbarism.

Let's look at the premises. Indeed, Italy had ancient roots. The Italians suddenly remembered that they were living on the soil of antiquity. These include preserved buildings, manuscripts in libraries, and sculpture. At this time, the catacombs began to be opened. That is, they suddenly felt that, unlike the rest of Europe, everything here is much more rooted in antiquity, although before they also referred their culture to antiquity, they did not always forget about it. There were barbarians here - the Lombards in Northern Italy, the Ostrogoths in Eastern Italy. But, nevertheless, this Roman heritage has always been remembered and revered here.

Early Christian traditions have always been strong here too. We still see early Christian icons in many churches in Rome. They are called early Byzantine, but they are not always painted by Byzantine masters - they are painted by local masters. Again, the discovery of the catacombs, which I already mentioned.

Of course, Rome is a church. This is a strong, rich church. At different times, of course, there were declines. There was also the “Avignon Captivity of the Popes” (we’ll talk about that), but still Rome has always been the center. In contrast to Eastern Christian culture, a very interesting situation has developed here. If Constantinople is an emperor who commands, among other things, the church, then here the church often commanded emperors. Rome is the only Christian center, and there are many barbarian kingdoms. Therefore, no king could prevail. Although many tried to dictate to Rome, and sometimes they succeeded, Rome was still in charge. And this also greatly influenced the worldview of the Renaissance.

The church kept treasures. Where did humanists get these ancient manuscripts from? They took them from the monastery libraries. It didn't have to be dug into the ground. They were stored. Another thing is that in the Middle Ages they were not widely read. We remember the wonderful novel by Umberto Eco, which is based on the fact that ancient manuscripts are hidden, and someone is looking for them. That is, who revived it? Monks. Very often, researchers write about the anti-clerical attitude of humanists. This is not entirely true. We will see that most of the humanists themselves belonged to the church. These were ministers of the church - monks, canons, priests, even popes. Although the secular element in humanism was very large.

The absence of central authority strengthened the peripheral centers. The attempt to unite Italy failed all the time. We know that, after all, Italy was only united at the end of the 19th century. And these peripheral centers sought to create their own culture, and the role of such city-communes here was very important. In these independent cities, production is growing, crafts are developing, and money is accumulating. Economic growth promotes philanthropy and patronage of the arts. This is also an important point. If in the same France or Germany, money was accumulated by the monarchs, and they already dictated to the artists, then here the money was closer to the artists, because the people of the third estate had it.

Third Estate Culture

In general, the third estate makes this culture, which is also very interesting. In the Middle Ages, the world seemed harmoniously composed. As one chronicler writes: “God’s house is threefold, it consists of oratores, laboratores and bellatores,” that is, some pray, others work, and others fight. And this is very important, because it was the class structure that held this world. And suddenly this third estate - laboratores - which has always been assigned a third role, suddenly comes to the fore in Italy, and this greatly changes the culture. The third estate becomes leading, financially independent, reaches out to education and culture, and dictates this new style.

The economic factor, which is very important, contributes to the emergence of leisure. In the Middle Ages there was no leisure time - then everyone was busy with their own business. In the late Middle Ages - again, we will look at how the late Middle Ages - the so-called International Gothic - are combined with the Renaissance. A court culture appears there, where there is leisure, etc., but still for most people, especially the third estate, there was no such leisure - people either prayed or worked. Rest, the 7th day, Sunday, was given to God, and it was not rest, but prayer. And suddenly this leisure appears. And how do people use this leisure time? They start reading books, writing books. They begin to study humanitas, that is, the humanities. This is all quite interesting, and all this forms a completely new worldview, a new culture.

The Myth of Renaissance Anthropocentrism

It is believed that the culture of the Renaissance arises thanks to philosophy and humanism, which combined interest in ancient culture, art, and literature with attention to the spiritual essence of man. In general, the problem of man comes to the fore - hence humanitas. Homo is a person who becomes at the center of the Universe as the crown of creation, the focus of attention of researchers, poets, writers, scientists, etc. Hence the myth of anthropocentrism.

Why do I say "myth"? – Because yes, man becomes the center of the Universe, but God is not excluded from this Universe. Rather, the Universe is thought of as an ellipse with two centers that are in their interaction. And the fact that man is the crown of creation was not said by humanists at all. This was also proclaimed by the Middle Ages, this can be deduced from the Holy Scriptures (from the 6th day of creation), when God gives man enormous power and the command to be king and priest in nature. Another thing is that the person himself did not preserve it. And this original dignity given to man is also being revived by humanists. It is very important.

If in the Middle Ages faith was the basis of culture, then during the Renaissance knowledge became the basis of everything. Faith, again, is not excluded. Some emphasis is being placed on knowledge. But Anselm of Canterbury also said that: “I believe in order to know.” And this knowledge becomes the main thing for humanists, for figures of the Renaissance. And art itself becomes the path of knowledge - nature, man, God in the end. I repeat that the myth of anthropocentrism is one-sided - it excludes the fact that man wanted to know God.

Universities, sciences, printing

Universities are developing. Museums are being created. Schools begin to teach Greek and Hebrew; interest in humanitarian subjects. And to natural ones too. If in the Middle Ages science and culture were the prerogative of the church, which was not always willing to share its knowledge and achievements, then humanism opened up the possibility of knowledge for everyone. And we see that people of any class could join this knowledge.

Universities appear, as we know, in the Middle Ages. This is a medieval invention. But in the Renaissance they acquire special weight, because they become not only schools of theological sciences, but also natural ones. Even in antiquity, a list of academic disciplines, already called “liberal arts,” began to be developed, and in ancient Rome they were called that. This is a free occupation for a worthy, free person, in contrast to occupations that require physical labor.

But the word “art” itself (from Latin ars) in this case should be understood not as an artistic craft (now we understand art as an artistic craft), but as a science, as knowledge, that is, a systematic view developed in the course of practical observations of nature. Back in the Middle Ages, the number of “liberal arts” was reduced to seven. These were the so-called trivium and quadrivium. The trivium is, first of all, the art of words, grammar and rhetoric, and dialectics. And the quadrivium is arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music. In fact, these liberal arts are beginning to expand, and they are now being joined by research in the field of astronomy, chemistry is developing, emerging from alchemy, etc., that is, this medieval spectrum of arts, the spectrum of sciences is beginning to expand.

But a very important invention, which made it possible to disseminate knowledge more widely, was the invention of printing. This leap in civilization is impossible not to notice. Probably, it can only be compared with the invention of the computer in our time. Indeed, a book that was previously handwritten, of course, could rarely be distributed beyond monastery libraries. But a printed book could already be distributed quite widely, and this is very important.

New spaces and perspective

The Renaissance is the time of great geographical discoveries. This is also very important. The world has expanded. The medieval world was closed, limited - rather, it opened up into the Kingdom of God, into that space where there are no boundaries; at a time where eternity reigns. And since humanism paid attention to man living on the earth, the earth began to be of great interest to both artists and scientists. And therefore, the time of Great Geographical Discoveries is a time of expansion of space.

Hence the interest in perspective, because people were interested in the land. People became interested in the space in which they live. And this opening of space also turned a person’s gaze on himself, on the world, on God, on creation, on the Universe. In addition, astronomical discoveries and a paradigm shift from the geocentric to the heliocentric Universe also greatly changed the human worldview. We can't even imagine how much of an explosion this was in people's minds. The fact that the Earth is round, or that the Sun does not revolve around us - people in antiquity also knew, guessed, or had such hypotheses. But at this time, during the Renaissance, it becomes decisive.

Man as a co-worker with the Creator

And humanism gives rise to a new view of the relationship between man - God - the world. And here, of course, from theocentrism there is a gravitation towards anthropocentrism, but man does not overshadow God - man begins to be thought of as an equal interlocutor with God. If God is the Creator, and man is created in the “image and likeness” of the Creator, then he is also creative. This creativity comes to the fore. If this creativity is commanded to a person, then the person begins to create, that is, he fulfills the will of God. If a person is given the ability to understand the world (Adam called animals - this is also an image of understanding the world in paradise), then a person begins to understand this world. He does not go against God at all - he follows God, but only differently than it was in the Middle Ages.

If in the Middle Ages the weakness of man, his incommensurability with God, his sinfulness above all, the depravity of his nature were emphasized, now the emphasis is on man's Godlikeness. Yes, it is difficult for a person to always remain at some kind of peak, and for many humanists this went off scale. This godlikeness, the godlikeness of man, was sometimes extolled, perhaps more than necessary, but we will also talk about this. Rise and fall, and this also needs to be seen in this era. But the power of man, endowed with reason, destined to command nature, to cognize, and therefore to truly realize himself in this world, was emphasized. This is, perhaps, the first time a person has asked himself this question - how can a person become fulfilled in this world. It’s not how he can live to be saved, just so as not to stain his clothes, but how he can already in this world win for him what has been given to him by God. This is also a very important point.

It is interesting that new things in the interpretation of man appear not only in relation to the Middle Ages, but also in relation to antiquity. In antiquity, in general, the ideal of a contemplative person, a sage, penetrating with his mental gaze into the secrets of the world, comprehending the secrets of existence, is maintained. But in the Renaissance, another type of person is valued - the type of active person who builds himself, creates himself. The type of person who has a very active character. It is very important. Man creates this world. He doesn’t just pass through it, doesn’t just look at it with his outer gaze, but he multiplies its beauty, he makes it more beautiful and beautiful. He creates himself. He realizes the riches that God invested in him. Therefore, a new relationship between man and nature arises.

Yes, man is a natural being, but he is endowed with reason. He can comprehend the secrets of the world, but he also comprehends the secrets of the world himself, the secrets of man himself. In the Middle Ages, God knows about man, but here man begins to know himself. This “know thyself,” which was only proclaimed in antiquity, is actually carried out precisely during the Renaissance.

And this is also a myth - that humanists neglected religion. No, they studied not only ancient texts - they also studied Scripture. The critical study of scriptures (“critical” is still in quotation marks) nevertheless began precisely with humanism. Not only is man as such rehabilitated, as equal to God, godlike, but his flesh is also rehabilitated. We remember that in the Middle Ages the flesh was still a weak and sinful vessel. Of course, there were treatises that personified the dispute between soul and body. It is not known what was more sinful - the soul or the body. The body, as Francis said, is “just a donkey that carries us.”

However, the body is being rehabilitated. The body was created by God, it is beautiful, and a person can be beautiful mentally, spiritually, and physically. And this is very important. The ban on depicting flesh is lifted. We remember that in the Middle Ages, it was mainly sinners who were depicted naked, whose clothes had been torn off - nothing could cover them from God. Or martyrs who voluntarily gave up their bodies for sacrifice. And here the beauty of the human body is depicted. Nature is beautiful, including human nature. This rehabilitation is very important. The ban on studying human anatomy is lifted. The ban on studying not only a person as such, but also his bodily composition is lifted. This is also very important.

The intrinsic value of art

In the Middle Ages, art was of an applied nature. It was supposed to either decorate life, or reflect another world, leading a person beyond the limits of this created thing and beyond the limits of his existence, showing a different existence. During the Renaissance, art for the first time acquired intrinsic value; it became an independent area of beauty. An artistic and aesthetic attitude towards works appears. It cannot be said that in the Middle Ages artistic works of art were not appreciated, but this artistry was always applied, the other side of the theological attitude.

Beauty is one of the names of God, and any beauty either reflects God or leads away from him. As Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky would later formulate, there is the beauty of the Madonna, and there is the beauty of Sodom. Here beauty appears as an intrinsic quality - the beauty of a person, the beauty of nature, the beauty of the human body, the beauty of words - this also appears right now. Medieval rhetoric can also be beautiful - weaving words, but this always leads to understanding what leads to the meaning of the words. And here is the beauty of the word, the beauty of the image, the beauty of lines, the beauty of color, etc. That is, self-worth. Everything is a little different. The universe is not disintegrating yet - it will disintegrate later. So far this is taking off.

The fall consists in the fact that man failed to stay at this peak, and he will then collect this world piece by piece. While he still strives for the integrity of this world, he nevertheless already highlights the aesthetic feeling, the feeling of beauty as special, as separate. The place and role of the artist, of course, is increasing; for the first time he is considered as an independent respected professional, be he an artist, a poet, a philosopher. Corporate ties are destroyed and individuals are singled out. And art also continues to be applied in the sense of science, that is, it is good in itself, but it also leads to knowledge. Leonardo will say: “Painting is a science and the legitimate daughter of nature.”

The verbal creativity of individual poets begins. We will talk to you about Dante and Petrarch. It all starts from here, because they are no longer exalted simply as people who have served God or a holy life.

In the Middle Ages, holiness was still higher than creativity. And here a person, even if he lives his difficult, sometimes very sinful life, is exalted as a poet, as a creator or as an artist. This is the main thing for him, that is, a creative opportunity that equates him to God the Creator. Hence it is clear why Raphael receives the epithet “divine”. Dante's main work, “Comedy,” as he called it, was called the “Divine Comedy.” He himself did not call her “divine.”

If Thomas Aquinas considered it possible to interpret the world only through Scripture (and Thomas was the indisputable authority at that time), then the humanists believed that poetry already interprets the world. Not only the Holy Scriptures, but also the writings of individual poets are also such an interpretation and mirror of this world.

Summarizing all that has been said, we can determine that a special type of person is being created. And this is the task of the era - raising a new person. Another Greek word “paideia” (education), which is precisely an analogue of the Latin word “humanitas” (humanity), is extolled by humanists as the goal - the education of a new person. Person:

who is gifted with all the gifts that God has given him, has revealed those gifts;
who has acquired all the knowledge that gives him the opportunity to be at a high intellectual level;
who showed himself in creativity;
who did not just live his life, reaching only to death, and just not to sin.

Even if he risks something, he becomes a person in all its manifestations. A person with all the pros and cons, but realized. Not some semi-finished product, but a realized person.

At this time, sculptors and scientists are praised and crowned with a laurel wreath. And here is a man - then, perhaps, Gorky exaggerates this too much when he said: “A man - this sounds proud!” But this pride becomes, perhaps, the most important thing at this time. Not pride, that is, what the Middle Ages condemned, but pride and dignity. A very interesting Italian word is “virtus” - valor, honor, dignity. This, by the way, is close to the word “truth”. The truth of a person is that he manifests himself this way.

Marsilio Ficino

Here you can remember Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. But I wanted to talk about two thinkers of the Renaissance who, in my opinion, most of all reflected a new worldview, a new view of the world and of man. This is Marsilio Ficino, here is his sculptural portrait, and Pico della Mirandola. These two thinkers perhaps most reflected this new view of the world.

A little about Marsilio Ficino. He was born in Florence. He was educated at the University of Florence. He studied medicine, philosophy, the works of ancient philosophers, knew Greek, and was engaged in translations. For some time he was the secretary of Cosimo Medici, the head of the Florentine Republic. We will talk about the role of the Medici later, because the Renaissance period is a period of philanthropy. This is a very interesting phenomenon.

At the age of 40, Marsilio Ficino accepted the priesthood. But he remains a fan of ancient philosophy - he even devotes several sermons to the “divine” Plato, as he says. He became famous primarily as a translator. By the way, he was the first to translate Plato into Latin. He published almost all of Plato's dialogues translated into Latin, the works of Plotinus, and the works of late ancient philosophers. And “Areopagitica”, which is also very important, because the Areopagitic corpus, although it was already partially translated in the Middle Ages (during the Carolingian Renaissance), was still completely translated by Marsilio Ficino.

This also suggests that they were not only interested in pagan antiquity, but also in Christian antiquity, because the Neoplatonic author of early Christianity, hiding behind the name Dionysius the Areopagite, is a special phenomenon that largely shaped the worldview of Byzantium. Therefore, I would also call this bias towards paganism the Renaissance as a mythological concept. So they were interested in Plato, and Plotinus, and early Christian authors.

Cosimo de' Medici gave Marsilio Ficino a villa in the Careggi hills. And there he set up Plato's Academy. It was, rather, not an educational institution, but a free meeting of like-minded people and interlocutors, admirers of Plato. They even said that in the red corner or in some niche Marsilio Ficino had a bust of Plato, and he lit a lamp, incense, etc. in front of it. But, in any case, he was an admirer not only of Plato. He translated the corpus of Hermes Trismegistus and other ancient authors.

But the main thing is that he also wrote his own works: “Plato’s theology on the immortality of the soul”, “On the Christian religion”. And in all this, Marsilio Ficino extolled human dignity, and a person for whom knowledge is important - knowledge of the world. And since knowledge of the world is based on the divine Logos, that is, by knowing the world, we come to know God - this is also very important to remember about humanists. It’s not that they forgot about God and rushed to Plato, or began to dissect nature - no! They also studied the Holy Scriptures. And the comments of the same Marsilio Ficino in the Holy Scriptures are also all interesting.

He said that the teachings of Plato must be combined with the ancient mysticism of the Holy Scriptures. And he deduced from this what he called universal religion, that is, that divine Logos, which was revealed both to antiquity (to Christians before Christ) and to Christians who were already followers of Christ. In this he is very close to early Christian authors and apologists, who in their time - both Cyril of Alexandria and Justin the Philosopher - had already expressed this idea, but in a slightly different context.

Pico della Mirandola

Another humanist is Pico della Mirandola - he is also a native of Florence. He was also very often called “divine” by his contemporaries. He left an interesting treatise “Speech on the Dignity of Man.” This is a very interesting thinker. He lived very little - only 31 years. Died from arsenic poisoning. It was an era not only of sunny knowledge and joy, but also of the dark side of humanity, because the freedom that man gained went into different channels. A lot of evil happened in these eras: people were poisoned, there were wars, clashes, conspiracies, etc. We also should not reject this lower level of the era, but for now we are talking about the height and takeoff.

Shortly before his death, Pico della Mirandola became a monk. Became a member of the Dominican Order. He was buried in the monastery of San Marco in Florence. The abbot of this monastery was Girolamo Savonarola, who was himself a humanist and closely associated with humanist philosophers. But a lot of things were also attributed to him that, perhaps, are myths. He fought for the purity of humanism, for biblical humanism. We will talk about this figure later, especially in connection with the fate of Botticelli.

Pico della Mirandola came from a family of senior counts. Was associated with many influential houses. At the age of 14 he already entered the University of Bologna. Then he studied in Ferrara, Padua, Pavia, and Paris. He received the most brilliant education that could only be obtained at that time. Knew many languages. In addition to Latin and Greek, which was simply necessary and a minimum for humanists, because there was interest in Latin back in the Middle Ages, and it was the humanists who taught Greek as mandatory, since many ancient manuscripts were in Greek. But Pico della Mirandola knew Chaldean, Hebrew, and Arabic.

His main work, as I already said, was his “Speech on the Dignity of Man.” It is very interesting that it is in this “Speech” that the main core of a person’s attitude at this time is determined. I'll quote him a little. He writes an appeal to God on behalf of Adam, defining man as the center of the world:

“We do not give you, O Adam, either a specific place, or your own image, or a special duty, so that you have a place, a person, and duties of your own free will, according to your will and your decision. The image of other creations is determined within the limits of the laws we have established. You, not constrained by any limits, will determine your image according to your decision, in the power of which I leave you.”

I mean, what does it say here? This says that man is not programmed. He enters this world, and he himself can choose whether to rise to the top or fall; whether he should be closer to the angelic world or to the devilish; choose heaven or hell. Man is free, he is a free and glorious master. He can determine his fate, including posthumous; be who he wants. No one has ever raised a person to such a height before.

This treatise by Pico della Mirandola, of course, caused bewilderment among many - not everyone was ready for such breadth and height. This treatise caused bewilderment, including among Pope Innocent VIII. Firstly, he doubted that a young man (and he was only 23 years old when he wrote this “Speech...") could even think so broadly, be daring, and who was this boy who made such bold statements. Secondly, who gave him the right to judge a person when this is the priority of the Church. But the priority of the Church was already greatly shaken at this time. The Pope appointed a special commission that was supposed to check the work of Pico della Mirandola for the presence of heresy. We must not forget that the church at this time was not only composed of humanists, but also of those who explore heresies.

I remembered the novel by Umberto Eco. But I want to remember once again that this wonderful Italian medievalist understood this very well. There we are talking about the 14th century. - about how the almost medieval schools of nominalists and realists fought among themselves, but there is also the beginning of this revivalist desire to strive for thought from the dictates of the church.

So in Rome they doubted and appointed a commission. As we know, many commissions handed down very harsh sentences. Pico della Mirandole pointed out some inconsistencies with the teachings of the Church, although this was also very vague. He was arrested, but managed to escape to France. Then he returned, he was warmed by Lorenzo Medici. He joined the circle of Marsilio Ficino. Everything seemed to work out thanks to the high patrons.

But still, this boldness of thoughts has already been subjected to such condemnation. By the way, contemporaries called Pico della Mirandola the “Prince of Concord,” because he did not want to quarrel either with the church or with his opponents in the circle of humanists. There were also various disagreements. And he probably would have done a lot by combining these different forces, but he died at a fairly early age. The fact that he was poisoned just means that there were opponents to his point of view, and probably quite strong ones.

Poetry of the life of Francis of Assisi

At the end of our conversation, I would like to remember one more figure - Francis of Assisi. And it is this figure that makes us move the border of the Renaissance towards expansion, because Francis of Assisi lived at the end of the 12th century. - the beginning of the 13th century, and determined this turn to a new worldview, perhaps more than anyone else. Although he was not a humanist, but a saint of the medieval type, his attitude towards the world was already full of everything that would later blossom in humanism.

He was the first to proclaim that the world does not lie only in evil. That the world, as God’s creation, is beautiful and given to man for joy. Not only for repentance, atonement for sins, suffering, struggle, but that you can live in this world, rejoicing and glorifying the Creator for his creations.

This is how the hymns of Francis came into being. By the way, these are the first poetic works written not in Latin, but in Italian. The humanists were still writing in Latin, and Francis, several decades before them, had already written his hymns in the vernacular Italian. So even as a poet he can be considered the first poet of the Renaissance.

Francis was the first to resolve the tragedy of the world. In the Middle Ages, this was truly a tragedy, because this religious primary problem (the Fall, the break with God) was solved by theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages. How to connect with God? Man is cut off from God - and what to do about it? Francis was the first to solve this problem without sacrificing any of the richness of life. That is, he understands his sinfulness, futility, corruption, futility of efforts, but he also understands the mercy of God, the beauty of God’s creation, the beauty of God himself. And that joy of Being, which is prepared for a person not only there somewhere beyond the boundaries of existence, but already here on earth. And love can be pure, strong, bright, not necessarily sinful, not necessarily associated with lust, etc. It is Francis who proclaims all this. Francis is new and original.

I would like to read this quote from the work of a remarkable researcher who is little known among us, ¾ Peter Bicilli. This is a Russian researcher who was in exile, and his works began to be published here only in the 90s. And he wrote this: “The entire culture of the Middle Ages can be understood as a grandiose and painful effort to comprehend and express this tragic religious fundamental problem. Hence the medieval asceticism, terrible for its kind of inhumanity, with its attraction to everything that speaks objectively about death, corruption, and decomposition.

Francis was the first to resolve the tragedy without sacrificing any of the richness of life. After him, it will be resolved by others - in an act of artistic or philosophical creativity. But Francis was neither an artist nor a philosopher by profession. He resolved it in his own way and in a way that only he could do it: with his life. “Blessed and ignorant,” who wanted to be on his own and lower than everyone else, in his approach to Christ he chose the most unexpected, but the simplest and most humble path: non-judgmental, literal following of Christ in His earthly life.

With the gift of plastic embodiment of ideas characteristic of the Italian people, he acted out, so to speak, parables and beatitudes. With reverent horror and delight, contemporaries guessed that it was as if Christ had become incarnate in Francis. Francis reveals a number of great “artists of his life”, with whom the Renaissance is so rich.”

This idea of making one’s own life into objects of art, which many Renaissance artists will talk about, began with Francis. It was he who made his life the subject of divine play and divine art.

“It is impossible to understand the Renaissance,” writes Peter Bicilli, “without grasping its special mood. Optimism, faith and revival are also characteristic of the Middle Ages. The day is coming, and the world will be cleansed, sanctified, there will be a new earth and a new sky. What is characteristic of the Renaissance is that the world is experienced as already transformed and enlightened. The dominant mood of the era is joy, delight, that delight that filled Francis’s soul and forced it to pour out in improvised hymns.”

Here, by the way, is an image of Francis from the Subiaco monastery, which is considered to be a possibly close real portrait of him. This was done very closely to his life by contemporaries who knew him well.

Indeed, Peter Bicilli says that the Renaissance is “an era when it is already believed that the world can be transformed, that a person can be transformed, that a person can achieve the joy of being. This joy of being was suddenly revealed to people - both in great creations, and in nature, and in man himself, and in the enjoyment of the world. It was absolutely selfless. It is often said that it was from here that man began to conquer this world and subjugate it to himself. No, that was later. This was the consequence of the fall from this great peak.

Flight of Icarus

Thus, the Renaissance is the great rise of European culture. This is, if you like, gaining wings. This is an opportunity to see the earth in perspective, from a bird's eye view. Although in the Middle Ages many looked at her with an angelic flight, it was not accessible to everyone. But from a bird's eye view, or from the top of a mountain, from which a great view opens, many saw this during the Renaissance. There was, of course, a lot of adrenaline in this joy of flying. The man wanted to experience more and more of his capabilities. He flew higher and higher. But the flight of Icarus, as we know, ended in disaster - the sun scorched the wings, and the fall was inevitable.”

It was exactly the same during the Renaissance. The man rose very high, but then, unable to stay on this peak, he fell. Some people may not call this fall a fall. Many extol this - and call it a consequence of the Renaissance, a great march of human culture, etc. Then there was New Time. This new turn in worldview also yielded great results. Some people see a good prospect, but others will not even see a fall, because for many this is also a big question.

For some, the question is takeoff. Losev and O. Pavel Florensky considered this, on the contrary, a retreat, a fall - the Renaissance itself. And some do the opposite. Someone will neither see the flight nor the fall, just as the hero of Bruegel’s famous painting did not see the fall of Icarus. It seems to me that this is very symbolic when a man plows his furrow, continuing his historical path, and Icarus (he is not even immediately visible in the picture) is already floundering in the sea. It seems to me that the Renaissance is the rise and fall of Icarus. We'll see how right I am in our next conversations.

The Renaissance replaced the European culture of the Middle Ages. This phenomenon originates in Italy, and it was here that its first signs were noticed. The Italian Renaissance took place from the 13th to the second half of the 17th centuries. It is based on the principle of humanism, that is, the affirmation of human dignity and beauty. At this time, a secular culture began to form, liberation from church scholasticism and religious dogma occurred. Culture becomes anthropocentric. The term "Renaissance" was introduced. He characterized this time as a period of revival of antiquity. Otherwise, the era is called the Renaissance.

The Renaissance was accompanied by some contradictions, this is due to the fact that its peak occurred during wars, and after they ended, values changed dramatically. The priority became not moral, but material, the development of philistinism took place, and the influence of the church increased.

Literature

Dante Alighieri is considered to be the founder of the Renaissance in Italy; it was he who managed to reveal this period in the literary work “The Divine Comedy”. The works of Renaissance authors expressed humanistic ideals and glorified the creative freedom of the individual. Petrarch revealed man in all his emotional diversity. One cannot fail to note the novellas of Boccaccio, the treatises of Machiavelli, the poems of Ariosto and Tasso. Literature was based on the traditions of antiquity and folk poetry. It combined rationality and poetic fantasy. Comic genres became increasingly popular. It was during this period that such world-famous works as “The Decameron” and “Don Quixote” were written.

Architecture

The Italian Renaissance in architecture for a long time followed medieval traditions, this was expressed in the use of Gothic elements. Italian Gothic was significantly different from the Gothic of other European countries. The buildings had large, calm forms, wide walls with horizontal divisions. One of the most famous churches of that time is the Church of Santa Croce, its construction began by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 13th century. Diamond rustication finishing, wooden ceilings, unity of internal space - all these are the distinctive features of the temple.

Sculpture

The art of the Renaissance is characterized not only by the introduction of innovations in architecture, but also by changes in sculpture, which at this time was flourishing. Government and merchant orders are becoming increasingly popular. The most famous sculptors of that time were Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia and others. Robbia, for example, became famous for the fact that he began to use the glaze technique in sculpture and relief. He created majolica busts of saints, the Madonna and Christ. The art of this sculptor deservedly received recognition from his contemporaries.

Painting

The Italian Renaissance cannot be imagined without painting. It was made using fresco technique. Plaster artists painted with paints on water. In the middle of the 15th century, cardboard drawings made on paper or fabric became widespread. In Venice, buildings were decorated not with frescoes, but with picturesque drawings made in oil paint. Also, the Italian Renaissance gave the world such as engraving. They also did it in wood. It is also worth noting that Renaissance artists paid attention to landscape, human anatomy, and light. The landscape becomes not just a background, but an element of the plot in the picture.

The great masters of the era in the art of the Renaissance include Brunelleschi, Verrocchio, Mantegna, Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli and others. Giotto is considered to be the first artist to depict three-dimensionality.

Philosophers of this era include Nicolaus Copernicus, Jean Bodin, Nikolas Cusanus,

What is Renaissance. We associate the Renaissance with achievements in the field of culture, primarily in the field of fine arts. Before the mental gaze of anyone who is at least a little familiar with the history of art, harmoniously beautiful and majestic images created by artists appear: gentle madonnas and wise saints, brave warriors and important townspeople. Their figures solemnly rise against the background of marble arches and columns, behind which transparent light landscapes spread.

Art always talks about its time, about the people who lived then. What people created these images, full of dignity, inner peace, and confidence in their own importance?

The term “Renaissance” was first used by Giorgio Vasari in the mid-16th century. in his book about famous Italian painters, sculptors and architects of the XIII-XVI centuries. The name appeared at the moment when the era itself was ending. Vasari put a very specific meaning into this concept: flourishing, rise, revival of the arts. Later, the desire to revive ancient traditions in culture inherent in this period began to be considered no less important.

The phenomenon of the Renaissance was generated by the conditions and needs of society on the eve of the New Age (i.e., a time on the approaches to the formation of an industrial society), and an appeal to antiquity made it possible to find suitable forms for expressing new ideas and sentiments. The historical significance of this period lies in the formation of a new type of personality and in the creation of the foundations of a new culture.

New trends in the life of Italian society. In order to more easily understand the essence of the changes that have begun in the social and spiritual spheres, it is necessary to imagine how the relationship between the individual and society was built in the Middle Ages. Then the human personality was dissolved in that small collective (peasant community, knightly order, monastic brotherhood, craft guild, merchant guild) to which a person was attached by the circumstances of his origin and birth. He himself and everyone around him perceived him first of all, as, for example, a fra (brother) - a member of the monastic brotherhood, and not as a certain person with a certain name.

Relationships between people, norms of behavior and their perceptions were developed in detail and clearly defined. If we focus only on the theoretical side of the matter, we can say this: the clergy were obliged to pray for all the laity, the nobility was obliged to protect everyone from a possible external threat, and the peasants were obliged to support and feed the first and second estates. In practice, all this was, of course, far from the theoretical idyll, but the distribution of role functions was exactly that. Social inequality was firmly established in the public consciousness, each class had its own strictly defined rights and responsibilities, and played a social role strictly corresponding to its social status. Birth assigned an individual to a certain place in the structure of society; he could change his position almost exclusively within the framework of the rung of the social ladder to which he belonged by origin.

Being assigned to a certain social niche hindered the free development of the human individual, but provided him with certain social guarantees. Thus, medieval society was focused on immutability, stability as an ideal state. It belonged to the type of traditional societies, the main condition for the existence of which is conservatism, submission to traditions and customs.

The old worldview was focused on the fact that earthly life is only a short period of time when a person prepares himself for the main, eternal, otherworldly life. Eternity subjugated fleeting reality. Hopes for good changes were associated exclusively with this true life, with Eternity. The earthly world, this “vale of sorrow,” was of interest only insofar as it was a weak reflection of another, main world. The attitude towards man was dual - he strictly separated his earthly, mortal and sinful beginning, which was supposed to be despised and hated, and the sublime, spiritual, which was the only one worthy of existing. The ideal was an ascetic monk who renounced the joys and anxieties of earthly life.

A person was part of a small social community, and therefore all of his activities, including creative ones, were perceived as the result of collective efforts. In essence, creativity was anonymous, and our knowledge of the works of one or another sculptor or painter of the Middle Ages is random and fragmentary. The city and the community were building the cathedral, and all its details were part of a single whole, designed for seamless perception. Master architects, master masons, master carvers, master painters erected walls, created sculptures and stained glass windows, painted walls and icons, but almost none of them sought to perpetuate their name for posterity. Ideally, they should have repeated in the best possible way, reproduced what was sanctified by the authority of prescription and was considered as an “original” that should be imitated.

The first step towards the emergence of new trends in the life of society was the growth and development of cities. The Apennine Peninsula, wedged like an elongated boot into the expanses of the Mediterranean Sea, occupied an extremely advantageous position in the medieval world. The benefits of this location became especially obvious when economic life began to pick up in the West and the need for trade contacts with the rich countries of the Middle East grew. From the 12th century Italian cities began to flourish. The impetus for the rapid development of the urban economy was the Crusades: the knights setting off to conquer the Holy Sepulcher needed ships to cross the sea; weapons to fight; products and various household items. All this was offered by Italian artisans, traders, and sailors.

In Italy there was no strong central government, so each city, together with the surrounding countryside, became city-state the prosperity of which depended on the skill of its artisans, the agility of its traders, i.e. from the enterprise and energy of all residents.

The basis of the economic life of the society that existed in Itadia in the 14th-15th centuries was industry and trade, concentrated in cities. The guild system was preserved, and only members of the guilds had civil rights, i.e. not all residents of the city. And different workshops differed significantly in the degree of influence: for example, in Florence, out of 21 workshops, the most influential were the “senior workshops,” which united people of the most prestigious professions. Members of the senior workshops, the “fat popolans,” were, in fact, entrepreneurs, and new features in economic life were manifested in the emergence of elements (for now only elements!) of a new economic structure.

City of Renaissance. Renaissance culture is an urban culture, but the city that gave birth to it was noticeably different from the medieval city. Outwardly, it was not too noticeable: the same high walls, the same chaotic layout, the same cathedral on the main square, the same narrow streets. “The city grew like a tree: maintaining its shape, but increasing in size, and the city walls, like rings on a cut, marked the milestones of its growth.” So in Florence in the 13th century. it was necessary to expand the ring of walls twice in a century. By the middle of the 14th century. The space allocated for urban development was increased 8 times. The government took care of the construction and preservation of the walls.

The city gate served as a point of contact with the outside world. The guards standing at the gate collected taxes from traders and peasants arriving in the city, and they also protected the city from possible enemy attacks. Before the era of artillery, walls with strong gates were a fairly reliable defense against external invasions; only food and water would be enough. It was this limitation that forced the buildings to become crowded and increase the number of storeys. Italy is characterized by the construction of high towers by rival wealthy families, the verticals of which, together with the bell towers of churches, gave the city silhouette the appearance of a stone forest. The appearance of Siena, for example, is described in the lines of A. Blok: “You pierced the points of churches and towers into the sky.”

A city is an artificially organized space. Streets and squares of Italian cities from the 13th century. paved with stones or pebbles. People's daily life took place mostly on the street. On the street, merchants, money changers, and artisans laid out goods, traded, and made money transactions; artisans often worked on the street under a canopy; they met on the street or in the square to discuss various issues; preachers spoke on the square in front of the cathedral; at crossroads, heralds announced news about births, bankruptcies, deaths, marriages, executions. The life of every city dweller took place before the eyes of their neighbors.

The central square was decorated not only with the majestic cathedral, but with sculptures. An example of such decoration is the square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (city hall) in Florence. In the front part of the city, the juxtaposition of ancient buildings of the Romanesque (to a lesser extent Gothic) style and new Renaissance buildings was especially noticeable. Residents of neighboring cities competed with each other in decorating squares, churches and public buildings.

In the XIV-XV centuries. Rapid construction was going on in Italian cities, old buildings were demolished and replaced with new ones. The reason for this was not always the dilapidation of buildings - tastes changed, prosperity grew, and at the same time the desire to demonstrate new possibilities. An example of this kind is what was started in the 14th century. construction of the new Florentine Cathedral (Duomo, better known as Santa Maria del Fiori), the dome of which was the largest for its time in the West.

Sometimes wealthy families united several old dwellings behind a renovated façade. Thus, the architect L. B. Alberti, commissioned by the Rucellai family, built a palazzo in a new taste, hiding eight houses behind a rusticated facade. The alley between the houses was turned into a courtyard. This technique made it possible to include living quarters, warehouses and shops, loggias and a garden into a single complex. The main architectural form of a secular urban building - palazzo - palaces rich townspeople, which had a rectangular shape with a courtyard. The facades of the palazzo, facing the street, corresponded to the living conditions that were characteristic of Italian republican cities. The emphatically rough processing of the stone (rustovka) with which the wall of the lower floor was lined, thick walls, small windows - all this reminded that such a palace could serve as a reliable shelter during numerous intra-city political conflicts.

The interior consisted of a suite of rooms decorated with wall paintings and covered with wooden, carved, and less often stucco ceilings. On special occasions, the walls were decorated with wall carpets (trellises), which also helped to retain heat in the rooms. Spacious Yu

rooms (stanzas) and marble staircases created the impression of solemn splendor. The windows were closed with wooden shutters, sometimes covered with oiled linen, and later (but this was almost a sinful luxury!) - filled with small pieces of glass inserted into lead binding. The main heating device remained the hearth in the kitchen, as well as fireplaces in large state rooms, which were more likely to decorate than to heat. Therefore, they tried to provide the beds with a canopy and isolate them from the surrounding space with heavy curtains. It was impossible to heat the entire room with a hot stone or a bottle of hot water. As a rule, only the head of the family had “his own” room, an office-studio, “a place of work on copying manuscripts, reflections, solitary knowledge of the world and oneself,” and the rest of the household lived together. The daily life of a wealthy family most often took place in the courtyard and surrounding galleries.

Relatively few, but massive and richly carved and painted pieces of furniture testified to the desire for comfort. The most common types of furniture were a wedding chest (cassone), a chest-bench with a back, massive cabinets decorated with architectural details, tables, armchairs, and stools. The interior was decorated not only with wall paintings, but also with bronze lamps, painted ceramics (majolica), mirrors in carved frames, silver and glassware, and lace tablecloths.

Many architects dreamed of changing the appearance of cities in accordance with new tastes, but this was impossible: large-scale construction required huge funds and no less authority to implement the massive demolition of houses. After all, for this it was necessary to destroy so many houses, so many people to relocate, but there were no funds for this. Therefore, one had to be content with the construction of individual buildings, most often cathedrals or palazzos of wealthy families. Cities were rebuilt gradually, as needed and possible, without any plan, and their appearance remained largely medieval.

Ideal Renaissance cities appeared almost exclusively in drawings and as the background of pictorial compositions. “The model of the Renaissance city is an open model. The core is... the free space of the square, opening outwards through the observation openings of the streets, with views into the distance, beyond the city walls... this is how artists depicted the city, this is how the authors of architectural treatises see it. The Renaissance city ideally does not defend itself from the open space of the non-city, on the contrary, it controls it, subjugates it... The architectural thought of the Renaissance... decisively contrasts the city, as a work of artifice and skillfully created, with the natural environment. The city should not obey the terrain, but subordinate it... The city of the Middle Ages was vertical. A city of the 15th century is ideally conceived as horizontal...” Architects who designed new cities took into account changing conditions and, instead of the usual fortress walls, proposed building defensive structures-forts around the city.

The appearance of people. The appearance of people changed, the world of things with which they surrounded themselves changed. Of course, the dwellings of the poor (a small wooden building or a room behind a shop without windows) remained the same as hundreds of years ago. The changes affected the wealthy, wealthy part of the population.

Clothes changed according to the moods and tastes of the era. Tastes were now determined by the needs and capabilities of civilians, wealthy citizens, and not the military class of knights. Outerwear was made from multi-colored, often patterned fabrics such as brocade, velvet, cloth, and heavy silk. Linen began to be used exclusively as an underdress, which was visible through the lacing and slits of the outer dress. “The outer clothing of an elderly city dweller, even if he did not hold any elected position, was necessarily long, wide and gave his appearance an imprint of gravity and importance.” The young people's clothes were short. It consisted of a shirt, a vest with a stand-up collar and tight pants-stockings, often multi-colored, tied to the vest. If in the 15th century preference was given to bright and contrasting colors, then from the beginning of the XYI century. One-color clothes decorated with fur and a precious metal chain are becoming more fashionable.

Women's clothing in the 15th century. It was distinguished by its soft shape and multi-colored nature. Over a shirt and dress with long narrow sleeves, a high waist and a large square neckline, they wore a cloak (sikora), which consisted of three panels. The back panel fell down the back in loose folds, and the two shelves were draped to the owner’s taste. The overall silhouette was reminiscent of antiquity. Since the beginning of the 16th century. In women's clothing, horizontal division is emphasized. The lace that framed the neckline and the edges of the sleeves began to play a major role in the decoration of the dress. The waist falls to its natural place, the neckline is made larger, the sleeves are fuller, the skirt is fuller. Clothes were supposed to highlight the beauty of a strong, healthy woman.

Discovery of the human "I". In the life of Italian Renaissance society, the old and the new coexist and intertwine. The typical family of that era is a large family, uniting several generations and several branches of relatives subordinate to the patriarchal head, but next to this habitual hierarchy, another trend arises associated with the awakening of personal self-awareness.

Indeed, with the emergence in Italy of conditions for the emergence of a new economic structure and a new society, the requirements for people, their behavior, attitude towards earthly affairs and concerns also changed. Trade and handicraft production, concentrated in cities, became the basis of the economic life of the new society. But before the majority of the population concentrated in cities, before manufactories, factories, and laboratories arose, people appeared capable of creating them, energetic people striving for constant change, fighting to establish their place in life. There was a liberation of human consciousness from the hypnosis of Eternity, after which the value of the moment, the significance of fast-flowing life, and the desire to more fully experience the fullness of existence began to be felt more acutely.

A new type of personality has emerged, distinguished by courage, energy, thirst for activity, free from obedience to traditions and rules, capable of acting in an unusual way. These people were interested in a variety of problems of existence. Thus, in the office books of Florentine merchants, among the numbers and listings of various goods, one can find discussions about the destinies of people, about God, and about the most important events in political and artistic life. Behind all this we feel an increased interest in Man, in himself.

Man began to view his own individuality as something unique and valuable, all the more significant because it has the ability to constantly improve. A hypertrophied sense of one’s own personality in all its uniqueness absorbs the Renaissance man entirely. He discovers his own individuality, plunges with delight into his own spiritual world, shocked by the novelty and complexity of this world.

Poets are especially sensitive to capturing and conveying the mood of the era. In the lyrical sonnets of Francesco Petrarch, dedicated to the beautiful Laura, it is obvious that their main character is the author himself, and not the object of his worship. The reader learns, in essence, almost nothing about Laura, except that she is perfection itself, possessing golden curls and a golden character. Their delights, their experiences, their Petrarch described suffering in his sonnets. Upon learning of Laura's death, my he mourned his orphanhood:

I sang about her golden curls,

I sang of her eyes and hands,

Honoring torment as heavenly bliss,

And now she is cold dust.

And I, without a lighthouse, in an orphan shell Through the storm, which is not new to me,

I'm floating through life, ruling at random.

It should be borne in mind that the discovery of the personal “I” concerned only one half of the human race - men. Women were perceived in this world as beings with no intrinsic value. They had to take care of the household, give birth and raise small children, and please men with their pleasant appearance and manners.

In the realization of the human “I”, the presence of results was considered important, and not the sphere of activity where they were achieved - be it an established trade business, a magnificent sculpture, a won battle, or an admirable poem or painting. Know a lot, read a lot, study foreign languages, get acquainted with the works of ancient authors, take an interest in art, understand a lot about painting and poetry - this became the ideal of a person in the Renaissance. The high standard of personal requirements is shown in Baldasare Castiglione’s essay “On the Courtier” (1528): “I want our courtier to be more than mediocrely familiar with literature... so that he knows not only Latin, but also Greek... so that he knows poets well, as well as orators and historians, and... knows how to write in poetry and prose... I will not be pleased with our courtier if he is not also a musician... There is one more thing that I attach great importance: this is precisely the ability to draw and knowledge of painting."

It is enough to list a few names of famous people of that time to understand how diverse were the interests of those who were considered typical representatives of their era. Leon Batista Alberti - architect, sculptor, expert on antiquity, engineer. Lorenzo Medici - statesman, brilliant diplomat, poet, connoisseur and patron of the arts. Verrocchio - sculptor, painter, jeweler, mathematician. Michelangelo Buonarroti - sculptor, painter, architect, poet. Rafael Santi - painter, architect. All of them can be called heroic individuals, titans. At the same time, we should not forget that greatness characterizes scale, but does not evaluate their activities. The Titans of the Renaissance were not only creators, but also good geniuses of their country.

The usual ideas about what is “permissible” and what is “illegal” lost their meaning. At the same time, the old rules of relationships between people, which perhaps did not give absolute creative freedom, but were so important for life in society, lost their meaning. The desire to assert oneself took a variety of forms; such an attitude could and did give birth not only to brilliant artists, poets, thinkers whose activities were aimed at creation, but also geniuses of destruction, geniuses of villainy. An example of this kind is the comparative description of two famous contemporaries, the peak of whose activity occurred at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) - a person about whom it is easier to say what he did not know than to list what he knew. The famous painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, poet, musician, naturalist, mathematician, chemist, philosopher - all this rightfully applies to Leonardo. He developed a design for an aircraft, a tank, complex irrigation structures and much more. He worked where it was more convenient to find patrons from among the ruling elite, easily changing them, and died in France, where his tombstone says that he is a “great French artist.” His personality became the personification of the creative spirit of the Renaissance.

A contemporary of Leonardo was the famous condottiere Cesare Borgia (1474-1507). Wide education was combined in him with natural talents and unbridled egoism. His ambition manifested itself in an attempt to create a strong state in the center of Italy. If he succeeded, he dreamed of uniting the entire country; he was a skillful and successful commander and efficient ruler. To achieve his goal, this sophisticated connoisseur and connoisseur of beauty resorted to bribery, deception, and murder. Such methods seemed to him quite acceptable in order to achieve a great goal - the creation of a strong state in the center of Italy. Circumstances prevented Charles Borgia from realizing his plans.

Leonardo da Vinci and Cesare Borgia are contemporaries, equally typical of their turning point era, when the old rules and norms of human life lost their meaning, and new ones were not yet accepted by society. The human personality strives for self-affirmation, using any means and opportunities. For her, the old ideas about “good” and “bad”, about “permissible” and “illegal” also lost their meaning. “People committed the most savage crimes and did not repent of them in any way, and they did so because the last criterion for human behavior was then considered to be the individual who felt isolated.” Often one person combined selfless devotion to his art and unbridled cruelty. Such was, for example, the sculptor and jeweler B. Cellini, about whom they said: “a bandit with fairy hands.”

The individual’s desire for self-expression by any means is called titanism. The Titans of the Renaissance became the personification of the era that discovered the value of human "I", but stopped at the problem of establishing certain rules in relations between bearers of many different “I’s”.

Attitude towards a creative person and the position of the artist in society. There has been a turn towards the type of civilization that involves active human intervention in the environment - not only self-improvement, but also the transformation of the environment - nature, society - through the development of knowledge and its application in the practical sphere. Thus, the most important thing in a person was recognized as his ability for self-realization and creativity (in the broadest sense of the word). This, in turn, implied the abandonment of comprehensive regulation in favor of recognition of private initiative. The medieval ideal of a contemplative life was replaced by a new ideal of an active, active life, allowing one to leave visible evidence of man’s presence on Earth. The main purpose of existence becomes activity: to build a beautiful building, conquer many lands, sculpt a sculpture or paint a picture that will glorify its creator, get rich and leave behind a prosperous trading company, found a new state, compose a poem or leave numerous offspring - all this was in a certain in a sense equivalent, it allowed a person to leave his mark. Art made it possible for the creative principle in a person to manifest itself, and the results of creativity preserved the memory of him for a long time, bringing him closer to immortality. People of that era were convinced:

A creation can outlive its creator:

The Creator will leave, defeated by nature,

However, the image he captured

It will warm hearts for centuries.

These lines by Michelangelo Buonarroti can be attributed not only to artistic creativity. The desire for self-expression and the pathos of self-affirmation became the meaning of the spiritual life of Italian society during this period. The creative person was valued very highly and was associated, first of all, with the artist-creator.

This is how artists perceived themselves, and this did not contradict public opinion. There are known words that the Florentine jeweler and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini allegedly said to a courtier: “There are perhaps only one people like me in the whole world, and there are ten like you at every door.” Legend claims that the ruler, to whom a courtier complained about the artist’s insolence, supported Cellini, not the courtier.

An artist could become rich, like Perugino, receive a title of nobility, like Mantegna or Titian, or become part of the inner circle of rulers, like Leonardo or Raphael, but most artists had the status of artisans and considered themselves such. Sculptors were in the same workshop with masons, painters with pharmacists. According to the ideas of their time, artists belonged to the middle layer of townspeople, or rather to the lower classes of this layer. Most of them were considered middle-income people who had to constantly work and look for orders. D. Vasari, talking about his creative path, constantly notes that to fulfill one order he had to go to Naples, another to Venice, and a third to Rome. In between these trips, he returned to his native Arezzo, where he had a house, which he constantly equipped, decorated, and expanded. Some artists had their own houses (in the 15th century in Florence a house cost 100-200 florins), others rented them. The painter spent about two years painting a medium-sized fresco and received 15-30 florins for it, and this amount also included the costs of the material used. The sculptor spent about a year making the sculpture and received about 120 florins for the work. In the latter case, more expensive consumables must be taken into account.

In addition to monetary payments, sometimes the craftsmen were given the right to eat in the monastery. The all-knowing Vasari described the case of the painter Paolo Uccello, whom the abbot fed cheese for a long time and diligently until the master stopped showing up for work. After the artist complained to the monks that he was tired of cheese, and they reported this to the abbot, the latter changed the menu.

It is interesting to compare information about the financial situation of the two sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, equally (and highly) valued by their contemporaries. The first of them, by his character and way of life, was a careless person in financial matters. Legend testifies that he put all his (considerable) income in a purse hanging by the door, and all members of his workshop could take from this money. So, in 1427, the glorious master Donatello rented a house for 15 florins a year and had a net income (the difference between what he owed and what was owed to him) - 7 florins. The economical Lorenzo Ghiberti in the same 1427 had a house, a plot of land, a bank account (714 florins) and a net income of -185 florins.

Craftsmen willingly took on a variety of orders to decorate churches, rich palazzos, and decorate citywide holidays. “The current hierarchy of genres did not exist: objects of art were certainly functional in nature... From one workshop came altar images, painted chests, portraits, and painted banners... Such was the artistic self-awareness, and one can only guess about the degree of magic the unity of the master with his work, for which he rubbed the paints himself, glued the brush himself, put together the frame himself - that’s why he did not see a fundamental difference between painting an altar and a chest.”

Competitions between artists for the right to receive lucrative government orders were common practice. The most famous of these competitions is the competition for the right to make doors for the Florentine baptistery (baptistery), organized in the first years of the 15th century. San Giovanni was dear to all residents of the city, because each of them was baptized there, given a name, and from there everyone began their life’s journey. All famous masters took part in the competition, and it was won by Lorenzo Ghiberti, who later proudly wrote about this in his Notes.

Another famous competition took place a century later. We are talking about an order for the decoration of the council chamber, granted by the Florentine Señoria to two of its most famous rivals, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. The exhibition of cardboards (life-size drawings) made by masters became an event in the public life of the republic.

Humanism. The thinkers of the Middle Ages glorified the sublime, spiritual principle in man and cursed the base, bodily. People of the new era glorified both the soul and the body in a person, considering them equally beautiful and equally significant. Hence the name of this ideology - humanism (homo- Human).

Humanism of the Renaissance included two components: humanism, high spirituality of culture; and a complex of humanitarian disciplines aimed at studying the earthly life of man, such as grammar, rhetoric, philology, history, ethics, pedagogy. Humanists sought to turn the entire system of knowledge to solve the problems of human life on earth. The semantic core of humanism was the affirmation of a new understanding of the individual, capable of free self-development. Thus, it revealed the main tendency of the historical perspective of modernization development - change, renewal, improvement.

Humanists formed a small but influential social stratum of society, the forerunner of the future intelligentsia. The humanistic intelligentsia included representatives of the townspeople, nobility, and clergy. They found application for their knowledge and interests in a wide variety of activities. Among the humanists one can name outstanding politicians, lawyers, employees of magistracy, and artists.

In the minds of people of that time, man was likened to a mortal god. The essence of the Renaissance is that man was recognized as the “crown of creation,” and the visible earthly world acquired independent value and significance. The entire worldview of the era was aimed at glorifying the virtues and capabilities of man; it was not by chance that it received the name humanism.

Medieval theocentrism was replaced by anthropocentrism. Man, as the most perfect creation of God, became the focus of attention of philosophers and artists. The anthropocentrism of the Renaissance manifested itself in different ways. Thus, the comparison of architectural structures with the human body, made in antiquity, was supplemented in the Christian spirit. “Leon Batista Alberti, who isolated biblical anthropomorphism from the pagan Vitruvius, comparing the proportions of columns with the ratios of height and thickness of a person... he, following Augustine the Blessed, correlated human proportions with the parameters of Noah’s Ark and the Temple of Solomon. The maxim “man is the measure of all things” had an arithmetical meaning for the Renaissance.”

The Italian humanist who lived in the second half of the 15th century was able to express the essence of anthropocentrism most convincingly. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494 ). He owns an essay entitled “Speech on the Dignity of Man.” The name itself is eloquent, emphasizing the evaluative point - “human dignity”. In this treatise, God, addressing man, says: “I placed you in the middle of the world so that it would be easier for you to penetrate with your gaze into your surroundings. I created you as a being not heavenly, but not only earthly, not mortal, but not immortal, so that you, alien to constraints, would become a creator yourself and finally forge your own image.”

Man turns out to be the most perfect creation, more perfect than even heavenly beings, since they are endowed with their own virtues from the beginning, and man can develop them himself, and his valor, his nobility will depend solely on his personal qualities (virtu). This is what the architect and writer Leon Batista Alberti wrote about human capabilities: “So I realized that it is in our power to achieve all praise, in any kind of valor, with the help of our own zeal and skill, and not only by the grace of nature and times. ..” Humanistic scientists sought confirmation of their attitude towards man from philosophers of other eras and found similar views among thinkers of antiquity.

Ancient heritage. The habit of relying on a certain authority forced humanists to seek confirmation of their views where they found ideas close in spirit - in the works of ancient authors. “Love for the ancients” has become a characteristic feature that distinguishes representatives of this ideological trend. Mastery of the spiritual experience of antiquity was supposed to contribute to the formation of a morally perfect person, and therefore to the spiritual purification of society.

The Middle Ages never completely broke with the ancient past. Italian humanists viewed antiquity as an ideal. Thinkers of the previous millennium singled out Aristotle among the ancient authors; humanists were more attracted to famous orators (Cicero) or historians (Titus Livy), and poets. In the writings of the ancients, the most important thoughts seemed to them about spiritual greatness, creative possibilities, and heroic deeds of people. F. Petrarch was one of the first who began to specifically search for ancient manuscripts, study ancient texts and refer to ancient authors as the highest authority. Humanists abandoned medieval Latin and tried to write their works in classical “Ciceronian” Latin, which forced them to subordinate the requirements of grammar to the realities of contemporary life. Classical Latin united its learned experts throughout Europe, but separated their “republic of scholars” from those who were not versed in the intricacies of Latin.

Renaissance and Christian traditions. New living conditions required the abandonment of the old Christian ideals of humility and indifference to earthly life. This pathos of denial was very noticeable in the culture of the Renaissance. At the same time, there was no abandonment of Christian teaching. Renaissance people continued to consider themselves good Catholics. Criticism of the church and its leaders (especially monasticism) was very common, but this was criticism of the people of the church, not of Christian teaching. Moreover, it was not only the immorality of the behavior of some of the clergy that was criticized by the humanists; the very medieval ideal of leaving and renouncing the world was unacceptable to them. This is what the humanist Caluccio Salutati wrote to his friend who decided to become a monk: “Do not believe, O Pellegrino, that running away from the world, avoiding the sight of beautiful things, locking yourself in a monastery or retiring to a hermitage is the path to perfection.”

Christian ideas coexisted quite peacefully in the minds of people with new norms of behavior. Among the defenders of new ideas were many figures of the Catholic Church, including the highest ranks, up to and including cardinals and popes. In art, especially in painting, religious themes remained predominant. Most importantly, Renaissance ideals included Christian spirituality, completely alien to antiquity.

Contemporaries valued the work of the humanists as the highest cultural achievement of their time; descendants know their highly learned studies more by hearsay. For subsequent generations, their work, unlike the works of artists, architects and sculptors, is of interest as a historical phenomenon. Meanwhile, it is these pedantic experts in Latin, these lovers of reasoning

0 virtues of the ancients developed the foundations of a new view of the world, man, nature, and instilled in society new ethical and aesthetic ideals. All this made it possible to break away from the traditions of the Middle Ages and give the emerging culture a renewed look. Therefore, for posterity, the Italian history of the Renaissance is, first of all, the history of the heyday of Italian art.

The problem of transferring space. The Renaissance is characterized by a respectful, almost reverent attitude towards knowledge and scholarship. It was in the sense of knowledge in the broadest sense of the word that the word “science” was then used. There was only one way to obtain knowledge - observation, contemplation. The most progressive branch of knowledge at this time turned out to be knowledge related to the visual study of the outside world.

“The long process of maturation of the sciences of nature and life begins already in the 13th century. And its beginning was a revolution in the development of vision associated with the progress of optics and the invention of glasses... The construction of linear perspective expanded the field of vision horizontally and thereby limited the dominance of the vertical, directed towards the sky. The source of information was the human eye. Only an artist, a person who had not only a keen eye, but also the ability to capture and convey to the viewer the appearance of an object or phenomenon that the viewer does not see, but would like to know, was capable of conveying information, creating a visible image of any object. Hence the enthusiasm and pride in the words of D. Vasari, who wrote: “The eye, called the window of the soul, is the main way through which the general sense can view the endless creations of nature in the greatest richness and splendor...”

It is not surprising, therefore, that the people of the Renaissance revered painting as a science, and the most important of the sciences: “Oh, amazing science, you keep the mortal beauties of mortals alive, you make them more durable than the creations of nature, continuously changed by time, which brings them to inevitable old age... “Leonardo da Vinci repeated in different ways in his notes.

The most important in this regard seemed to be the transfer of the illusion of the volume of an object, its location in space, i.e. the ability to create a reliable drawing. Color played a subordinate role, serving as an additional decoration. “Perspective was the main intellectual game of the time...”

Vasari, in his Lives, specifically noted the passion of a number of artists of the 15th century. study of linear perspective. Thus, the painter Paolo Uccello literally “got fixated” on the problems of perspective, devoting all his efforts to correctly constructing space, learning to convey the illusion of reduction and distortion of architectural details. The artist’s wife “often said that Paolo sat whole nights in his studio in search of the laws of perspective and that when she called him to bed, he answered her: “Oh, what a pleasant thing this perspective is!”

Stages of the Italian Renaissance. The culture of the Italian Renaissance went through several stages. Period names are traditionally defined by century:

- turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. - Ducento, proto-Renaissance (Pre-Renaissance). Center - Florence;
- XIV century -Trecento (Early Renaissance);
- XV century - Quattrocento (triumph of Renaissance culture). Along with Florence, new cultural centers appear in Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino, Rimini;
- XVI century -Cinquecento, includes: High Renaissance (first half of the 16th century), leadership in cultural life passes to Rome, and Late Renaissance (50-80s of the 16th century), when Venice becomes the last center of Renaissance culture.

Proto-Renaissance. In the first stages of the Renaissance, the main center of the new culture was Florence. Iconic figures-poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321 ) and the artist Giotto di Bondone (1276-1337 ), both come from Florence, both personalities are typical of the new historical era - active, active, energetic. Only one of them, Dante, having taken an active part in the political struggle, ended his life as a political exile, and the other, Giotto, being not only a famous artist, but also an architect, lived as a respectable and successful citizen (in half). Each in his own sphere of creativity was an innovator and a completer of traditions at the same time.

The latter quality is more characteristic of Dante. His name was made immortal by the poem “The Divine Comedy,” which tells about the author’s wanderings in the other world. This work concentrates all the basic ideas of the medieval worldview. Old and new coexist in it. The plot is quite medieval, but is retold in a new way. First of all, it is important to note that Dante abandoned Latin. The poem is written in Tuscan dialect. An image of a medieval vertical picture of the universe is given: the circles of Hell, the mountain of Purgatory, the spaces of Paradise, but the main character is Dante himself, who is accompanied by the Roman poet Virgil on his wanderings through Hell and Purgatory, and in Paradise he meets the “divine Beatrice,” the woman whom the poet loved all the time own life. The role assigned to the mortal woman in the poem indicates that the author is addressing the future rather than the past.

The poem is populated by many characters, active, indomitable, energetic, their interests are turned to earthly life, they are concerned about earthly passions and affairs. Different destinies, characters, situations pass before the reader, but these are people of the coming era, whose spirit is turned not to eternity, but to momentary interest “here and now.” Villains and martyrs, heroes and victims, evoking compassion and hatred - they all amaze with their vitality and love of life. A gigantic picture of the universe was created by Dante.

The artist Giotto set himself the goal of imitation of nature, which would become the cornerstone for painters of the subsequent era. This was manifested in the desire to convey the volume of objects, resorting to cut-off modeling of figures, introducing landscape and interior into the image, trying to organize the image as a stage platform. In addition, Giotto abandoned the medieval tradition of filling the entire space of walls and ceilings with paintings that combine various subjects. The walls of the chapels are covered with frescoes, which are arranged in belts, and each belt is divided into several isolated paintings dedicated to a separate episode and framed with an ornamental frame pattern. The viewer, walking along the walls of the chapel, looks at various episodes, as if turning through the pages of a book.

Giotto's most famous works are wall paintings (frescoes) in churches in Assisi and Padua. In Assisi, the painting is dedicated to life

Francis of Assisi, who had recently been canonized. The Padua cycle is associated with New Testament stories telling about the life story of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

Giotto’s innovation consisted not only in the use of new technical techniques, not only in “copying” nature (which was taken too literally by his immediate followers - Giottesques), but in recreating a new worldview using pictorial techniques. The images he created are full of fortitude and calm grandeur. Such are equally Mary, who solemnly accepts the news of her chosenness (“Annunciation”), and the good-natured St. Francis, glorifying the unity and harmony of the universe (“St. Francis Preaching to the Birds”), and Christ, calmly meeting the treacherous kiss of Judas (“Kiss of Judas”). Dante and Giotto are considered the masters who began developing the theme of the heroic man in the Italian Renaissance.

Trecento. The glory of this period was brought by the masters who developed the lyrical theme in art. The sonorous stanzas of Petrarch's sonnets about the beautiful Laura echo the exquisite linearity of the works of Siena artists. These painters were influenced by Gothic traditions: pointed church spiers, pointed arches, 5-shaped bending of figures, flatness of the image and decorative lines distinguish their art. The most famous representative of the Siena school is considered Simone Martini (1284-1344). Typical for him is the altar composition depicting the Annunciation scene, framed by exquisite gilded carvings forming elongated Gothic arches. The golden background transforms the whole scene into a fantastic vision, and the figures are full of decorative grace and capricious grace. The ethereal figure of Mary bent whimsically on the golden throne, her gentle face makes us remember Blok’s lines: “the insidious Madonnas squint their long eyes.” Artists of this circle developed a lyrical line in the art of the Renaissance.

In the XIV century. The formation of the Italian literary language takes place. Writers of that time willingly composed funny stories about earthly affairs, domestic troubles and the adventures of people. They were interested in questions: how a person would behave in certain circumstances; How do people's words and deeds correspond to each other? Such short stories (novellas) were combined into collections that constituted a kind of “human comedy” of that era. The most famous of them, "Decameron » Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375 ), is an encyclopedia of the life and customs of his time.

For posterity Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) - the first lyric poet of modern times. For his contemporaries, he was a major political thinker, philosopher, and master of the thoughts of several generations. He is called the first humanist. His treatises developed the basic techniques and themes characteristic of humanism. It was Petrarch who turned to the study of ancient authors; he constantly referred to their authority, began to write in correct (“Ciceronian”) Latin, and perceived the problems of his time through the prism of ancient wisdom.

In music, new trends appeared in the works of such masters as F. Landini. This direction was called “new art”. At that time, new musical forms of secular music arose, such as the ballad and madrigal. Through the efforts of the composers of the “new art”, melody, harmony and rhythm were combined into a single system.

Quattrocento. This period opens the activity of three masters: the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446 ), sculptor Donatello(1386-1466 ), painter Masaccio (1401-1428 ). Their hometown of Florence becomes the recognized center of a new culture, the ideological core of which is the glorification of man.

In Brunelleschi's architectural designs, everything is subordinated to the exaltation of man. This was manifested in the fact that buildings (even huge churches) were built so that a person would not seem lost and insignificant there, as in a Gothic cathedral. Light arcades (elements that had no analogues in antiquity) decorate the external galleries of the Orphanage, light and austere interiors set a serious mood, a majestic and light octagonal dome crowns the space of the Cathedral of Santa Maria della Fiore. The facades of city palaces-palazzos, in which the rough masonry of the ground floor (rustography) is set off by elegant portal windows, are full of stern restraint. This is the impression the architect Filippo Brunelleschi sought.

The sculptor Donato, who went down in art history under his nickname Donatello, revived a type of free-standing sculpture forgotten in the Middle Ages. He managed to combine the ancient ideal of a harmoniously developed human body with Christian spirituality and intense intellectuality. The images he created, be it the excitedly tense prophet Habakkuk (“Zukkone”), the thoughtful winner David, the calmly focused Maria Anunziata, the terrible Gattamelata in his dispassionate persistence, glorify the heroic principle in man.

Tomaso Masaccio continued Giotto's reforms in painting. His figures are voluminous and emphatically material (“Madonna and Child and St. Anne”), they stand on the ground and do not “float” in the air (“Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise”), they are placed in the space that the artist managed convey using techniques of central perspective (“Trinity”).

Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel depict the apostles who accompanied Christ on his earthly wanderings. These are ordinary people, fishermen and artisans. The artist, however, does not seek to dress them in rags in order to emphasize their simplicity, but also avoids lush attire, which would show their chosenness and exclusivity. It is important for him to show the timeless significance of what is happening.

The Renaissance masters of central Italy tried to avoid this kind of detail. It was considered more important to convey the typical, generalized, rather than individual, random, to convey the greatness of a person. To do this, for example, Piero della Francesca resorted to such techniques as the use of a “low horizon” and the likening of human figures draped in wide cloaks to architectural forms (“The Queen of Sheba before Solomon”).

Along with this heroic tradition, another lyrical tradition developed. It was dominated by decorativeness, multicolor (the surface of many paintings of that era resembles elegant carpets), and patterning. The characters depicted by the masters of this style are melancholic and thoughtful, filled with tender sadness. Little things in everyday life, whimsical details make up a significant part of their appeal. The artists of this circle included both Florentine masters and artists of other schools. The most famous of them are Fra Beato Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Pietro Perugino, Carlo Crivelli.

The most brilliant master of this direction was the Florentine Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510 ). For many, the touching, aching beauty of his Madonnas and Venuses is associated with the art of the Quattrocento in general. Exquisitely faded colors, whimsical, sometimes flowing, sometimes writhing lines, light figures gliding above the ground and not noticing each other. Botticelli is one of the most charming artists of the Renaissance, whose work combines the influence of medieval aesthetics, fluency in new artistic techniques and a premonition of the crisis of humanistic culture. His paintings contain mythological, allegorical and biblical subjects. These stories are conveyed by the brush of a simple-minded and sincere person who has joined the philosophical ideas of Neoplatonism.

Botticelli's art flourished at the court of the unofficial ruler of Florence, banker Lorenzo Medici, who was a typical socio-political figure of his time: a cunning and resourceful politician, a tough ruler, an enthusiastic admirer of art, a good poet. He did not commit such atrocities as S. Malatesta or C. Borgia, but in general adhered to the same principles in his actions. He was characterized (again in the spirit of the times) by a desire to demonstrate external luxury, pomp, and festivity. Under him, Florence was famous for its brilliant carnivals, an obligatory component of which were costumed processions, during which small theatrical performances on mythological and allegorical themes were performed, accompanied by dancing, singing, and recitation. These festivities anticipated the development of theatrical art, the rise of which began in the next, 16th century.

The crisis of the ideas of humanism. Humanism focused on the glorification of man and placed hopes that the free human personality could endlessly improve, and at the same time the lives of people would improve, the relations between them would be kind and harmonious. Two centuries have passed since the beginning of the humanistic movement. The spontaneous energy and activity of people created a lot - magnificent works of art, rich trading companies, learned treatises and witty short stories, but life did not get any better. Moreover, the thought of the posthumous fate of the daring creators became increasingly disturbing. What can justify human earthly activity from the point of view of afterlife? Humanism and the entire culture of the Renaissance did not provide an answer to this question. Personal freedom, inscribed on the banner of humanism, gave rise to the problem of personal choice between good and evil. The choice was not always made in favor of good. The struggle for power, influence, and wealth led to constant bloody clashes. Blood flooded the streets, houses and even churches of Florence, Milan, Rome, Padua and all the large and small city-states of Italy. The meaning of life came down to obtaining specific and tangible successes and achievements, but at the same time it did not have any higher justification. Moreover, the “game without rules” that had become the rule of life could not continue for too long. This situation gave rise to a growing desire to introduce an element of organization and certainty into the life of society. It was necessary to find the highest justification, the highest incentive for the frantic boiling of human energy.

Neither humanistic ideology, focused on solving the problems of earthly life, nor old Catholicism, whose ethical ideal was addressed to a purely contemplative life, could provide a correspondence between the changing needs of life and their ideological explanation. Religious dogma had to adapt to the needs of a society of active, enterprising, independent individualists. However, attempts at church reform in Italy, which was the ideological and organizational center of the Catholic world, were doomed to failure.

The most striking example of this is the attempt of the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola to carry out this kind of reform in the conditions of Florence. After the death of the brilliant Lorenzo de' Medici, Florence experienced a political and economic crisis. After all, the splendor of the Medici court was accompanied by a deterioration in the economy of Florence and a weakening of its position among neighboring states. The stern Dominican monk Savonarola gained enormous influence in the city, calling for the renunciation of luxury, the practice of vain arts and the establishment of justice. Most of the townspeople (including artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi) enthusiastically began to fight evil, destroying luxury goods and burning works of art. Through the efforts of the Curia of Rome, Savonarola was overthrown and executed, and the power of the oligarchy was restored. But the former, serene and joyful confidence in ideals aimed at glorifying the perfect person was gone.

High Renaissance. The core of humanistic ideology has become the subversive pathos of emancipation and liberation. When his possibilities were exhausted, a crisis was inevitable. A short period, about three decades, is the moment of the last takeoff before the destruction of the entire system of ideas and moods begins. The center of cultural development at this time moved from Florence, which was losing its republican virtues and orders, to Rome, the center of the theocratic monarchy.

In art, three masters most fully expressed the High Renaissance. We can say, although, of course, somewhat arbitrarily, that the eldest of them, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 ), glorified the human intellect, the mind that elevates man above the nature around him; the youngest, Rafael Santi (1483-1520 ), created ideally beautiful images that embody the harmony of mental and physical beauty; A Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) glorified the strength and energy of man. The world created by artists is reality, but purified of everything small and random.

The main thing that Leonardo left to people is his painting, glorifying the beauty and intelligence of man. Already the first of Leonardo’s independent works, the head of an angel, painted for the “Baptism” of his teacher Verrocchio, amazed the audience with its thoughtful and thoughtful look. The artist’s characters, be it the young Mary (“Benois Madonna”) playing with a child, the beautiful Chichilia (“Lady with an Ermine”), or the apostles and Christ in the scene of “The Last Supper,” are, first of all, thinking beings. Suffice it to recall the painting known as the portrait of Mona Lisa (“La Gioconda”). The gaze of a calmly sitting woman is full of such insight and depth that it seems that she sees and understands everything: the feelings of the people looking at her, the complexities of their lives, the infinity of the Cosmos. Behind her lies a beautiful and mysterious landscape, but she rises above everything, she is the main thing in this world, she personifies human intelligence.

In the personality and work of Raphael Santi, the desire for harmony, internal balance, and calm dignity characteristic of the Italian Renaissance was especially fully manifested. He left behind not only paintings and architectural works. His paintings are very diverse in theme, but when they talk about Raphael, the images of his Madonnas come to mind first of all. They have a fair share of similarities, manifested in spiritual clarity, childlike purity and clarity of the inner world. Among them there are thoughtful, dreamy, flirtatious, concentrated, each embodying one or another facet of one image - a woman with the soul of a child.

The most famous of Raphael's Madonnas, the Sistine Madonna, falls out of this series. This is how the impression of the Soviet soldiers who saw it in 1945 removed from the mine where it had been hidden by the Nazis is described: “Nothing in the picture holds your attention at first; your gaze glides, not stopping at anything, until the moment it meets another gaze coming towards you. Dark, wide-set eyes calmly and attentively look at you, shrouded in the transparent shadow of eyelashes; and now something unclear has stirred in your soul, making you wary... You are still trying to understand what is the matter, what exactly in the picture has alerted you, alarmed you. And your eyes are involuntarily drawn to her gaze again and again... The gaze of the Sistine Madonna, slightly clouded by grief, is full of trust in the future, towards which she carries her most precious son with such grandeur and simplicity.”

A similar perception of the picture is conveyed by the following poetic lines: “Kingdoms perished, seas dried up, / Citadels burned to the ground, / Aona walked in maternal sadness / From the past to the future.”

In Raphael’s work, the desire to find the common, the typical in the individual is especially striking. He talked about how he had to see a lot of beautiful women in order to paint Beauty.

When creating a portrait, the artists of the Italian Renaissance focused not on the details that help show the individual in a person (the shape of the eyes, the length of the nose, the shape of the lips), but on the general-typical, constituting the “species” characteristics of a Man.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was both a wonderful poet and a brilliant sculptor, architect, and painter. Michelangelo's long creative life also included the time of the highest flowering of Renaissance culture; he, who survived most of the titans of the Renaissance, also had to observe the collapse of humanistic ideals.

The strength and energy with which his works are imbued sometimes seem excessive and overwhelming. In the work of this master, the pathos of creation, characteristic of the era, is combined with a tragic sense of the doom of this pathos. The contrast of physical power and powerlessness is present in a number of sculptural images, such as the figures of “Slaves”, “Prisoners”, the famous sculpture “Night”, as well as in the images of sibyls and prophets on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

A particularly tragic impression is made by the painting depicting the scene of the Last Judgment on the western wall of the Sistine Chapel. According to the art critic, “the raised hand of Christ is here the source of the vortex spherical movement, which takes place around the central oval... The world is set in motion, it hangs over the abyss, the entire array of bodies in the “Last Judgment” hangs over the abyss... In an angry outburst the hand of Christ raised. No, he did not appear as a savior to people... and Michelangelo did not want to console people... This God is completely unusual... he is beardless and youthfully impetuous, he is powerful in his physical strength, and all his strength is given to anger. This Christ knows no mercy. Now it would only be connivance with evil."

Renaissance in Venice: a celebration of color. The wealthy merchant republic became the center of the Late Renaissance. Among the cultural centers of Italy, Venice occupied a special position. New trends penetrated there much later, which is explained by the strong conservative sentiments that existed in this oligarchic merchant republic, which had close relations with Byzantium and was strongly influenced by the “Byzantine manner.”

Therefore, the spirit of the Renaissance manifests itself in the art of the Venetians only from the second half of the 15th century. in the works of several generations of artists of the Bellini family.

In addition, Venetian painting has another noticeable difference. In the fine arts of other Italian schools, the main thing was drawing, the ability to convey the volume of bodies and objects using light and shadow modeling (the famous sfumato Leonardo da Vinci), the Venetians attached great importance to color shifts. The humid atmosphere of Venice contributed to the fact that artists paid great attention to the picturesqueness of their works. It is not surprising that the Venetians were the first Italian artists to turn to the oil painting technique developed in northern Europe, in the Netherlands.

The real flowering of the Venetian school is associated with creativity Giorgione de Castelfranco (1477-1510 ). This master, who died early, left behind few paintings. Man and nature are the main theme of such works as “Rural Concert”, “Sleeping Venus”, “Thunderstorm”. “There is a happy harmony between nature and man, which, strictly speaking, is the main theme of the image.” In Giorgione's painting, color plays an important role.

The most famous representative of the Venetian school was Titian Vecellio, whose year of birth is unknown, and he died as a very old man, in 1576 during the plague epidemic. He painted paintings based on biblical, mythological, and allegorical subjects. His paintings have a strong life-affirming quality; heroes and heroines are full of strength and physical health, majestic and beautiful. The altar image of the Ascension of Mary (Assunta) and the ancient motif of the Bacchanalia are equally saturated with the energy of impulse and movement. Both “Caesar’s Denarius” (“Christ and Judas”) and “Earthly and Heavenly Love” are imbued with philosophical overtones. The artist glorified female beauty (“Venus of Urbino”, “Danae”, “Girl with Fruit”) and the tragic moment of a person’s death (“Mourning of Christ”, “Entombment”). Majestic and beautiful images, harmonious details of architectural forms, beautiful things filling the interiors, soft and warm colors of the paintings - everything testifies to the love of life characteristic of Titian.

The same theme was constantly developed by another Venetian, Paolo Veronese (1528-1588 ). It is his large-scale “Feasts” and “Celebrations”, his allegories in honor of the prosperity of the Venetian Republic that first of all come to mind when hearing the words “Venetian painting”. Veronese lacks the versatility and wisdom of Titian. His painting is more decorative. It was created, first of all, to decorate the palazzo of the Venetian oligarchy and to decorate official buildings. Cheerful temperament and sincerity turned this panegyric painting into a jubilant celebration of life.

It should be noted that the Venetians more often than representatives of other Italian schools use ancient subjects.

Political ideas. It became obvious that the humanistic belief that a free and omnipotent person would become happy and make everyone around him happy was not justified, and the search began for other options for achieving happiness. As hope faded in the ability of an individual to create conditions for a happy or at least peaceful life for people, attention was transferred to the capabilities of an organized human community - the state. At the origins of modern political thought is a Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527 ), who was a statesman, historian, playwright, military theorist, and philosopher. He tried to understand how society should be organized so that people could live more peacefully. The strong power of the ruler is what, in his opinion, could ensure order. Let the ruler be cruel like a lion and cunning like a fox, let him, while protecting his power, eliminate all rivals. Unlimited and uncontrolled power should contribute, according to Machiavelli, to the creation of a large and powerful state. In such a state, most people will live in peace, without fear for their lives and property.

Machiavelli’s activity testified that the time of “game without rules” had fairly tired society, that there was a need to create a force that could unite people, regulate relations between them, establish peace and justice - the state began to be considered as such a force.

The place of art in the life of society. As already noted, the most revered field of activity at that time was artistic creativity, because it was through the language of art that the era as a whole expressed itself. Religious consciousness was losing its pervasive influence on the life of society, and scientific knowledge was still in its infancy, so the world was perceived through art. Art played the role that belonged to religion in the Middle Ages, and to science in modern society. The universe was perceived not as a mechanistic system, but as an integral organism. The main means of understanding the surroundings was observation, contemplation, recording what was seen, and this was best ensured by painting. It is no coincidence that Leonardo da Vinci calls painting a science, moreover, the most important of sciences.

Many facts testify to the significance of the appearance of an outstanding work of art in the eyes of contemporaries.

Competitions between artists for the right to receive a lucrative government order were mentioned above. No less controversial was the question of where Michelangelo's David should stand, and several decades later the same problem arose regarding the installation of B. Cellini's Perseus. And these are just a few of the most famous examples of this kind. This attitude towards the emergence of new artistic creations designed to decorate and glorify the city was completely natural for the urban life of the Renaissance. The era told about itself through the language of artistic works. Therefore, every event in artistic life became important for the whole society.

Themes and interpretation of subjects in the art of the Italian Renaissance. For the first time in a thousand years of the existence of Christian culture, artists began to depict the earthly world, exalting, heroizing, deifying it. The themes of art remained almost exclusively religious, but within the framework of this traditional theme, interest moved, relatively speaking, to life-affirming subjects.

The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning the Italian Renaissance is the image of Mary and Child, who is represented by a young lady (Madonna) with a touchingly beautiful child. “Madonna and Child”, “Madonna with Saints” (the so-called “Holy Interview”), “Holy Family”, “Adoration of the Magi”, “Christmas”, “Procession of the Magi” - these are the favorite themes of the art of the era. No, both “Crucifixions” and “Lamentations” were created, but this was not the main note. Customers and artists, who embodied their desires in visible images, found in traditional religious subjects something that carried hope and faith in a bright beginning.

Among the characters of sacred legends, images of real people appeared, like donors(donors) located outside the altar composition or as characters in crowded processions. Suffice it to recall “The Adoration of the Magi” by S. Botticelli, where members of the Medici family are recognizable in the elegant crowd of worshipers and where the artist supposedly placed a self-portrait. At the same time, independent portrait images of contemporaries, painted from life, from memory, and from descriptions, became widespread. In the last decades of the 15th century. artists began to increasingly depict scenes of a mythological nature. Such images were supposed to decorate the premises of the palazzo. Scenes from modern life were included in religious or mythological compositions. Modernity itself, in its everyday manifestations, did not interest artists too much; they clothed sublime, ideal themes in familiar, visible images. The Renaissance masters were not realists in the modern sense of the word; they recreated the world of Man, cleared of everyday life, using the means available to them.

Following the techniques of linear perspective, artists created on a plane the illusion of three-dimensional space filled with figures and objects that seemed three-dimensional. People in Renaissance paintings are presented as majestic and important. Their poses and gestures are full of seriousness and solemnity. A narrow street or a spacious square, an elegantly furnished room or freely spreading hills - everything serves as a backdrop for human figures.

In Italian Renaissance painting, the landscape or interior is primarily a frame for human figures; subtle light-and-shadow modeling creates the impression of materiality, but not coarsely weighty, but elegantly airy (it is no coincidence that Leonardo considered the ideal time to work in the middle of the day in cloudy weather, when the lighting is soft and diffused); the low horizon makes the figures monumental, as if their heads were touching the sky, and the restraint of their poses and gestures gives them solemnity and majesty. The characters are not always beautiful in their facial features, but they are always filled with inner significance and importance, self-esteem and tranquility.

Artists always and always avoid extremes and accidents. This is how an art critic described the museum’s impressions of Italian Renaissance painting: “The halls of Italian art of the 14th-16th centuries are distinguished by one interesting feature - they are surprisingly quiet with an abundance of visitors and various excursions... Silence flows from the walls, from the paintings - the majestic silence of the high sky, soft hills, big trees. And -big people... People are bigger than the sky. The world stretching out behind them - with roads, ruins, river banks, cities and knightly castles - we see as if from a flight height. It is extensive, detailed and respectfully removed."

In the story of the exhibition of cardboards made by Leonardo and Michelangelo for the Council Chamber (the paintings were never completed by either one), it is worth paying attention to the fact that for the Florentines it seemed especially important to see the cardboards. They especially appreciated the drawing, which conveyed the shape, volume of the objects and bodies depicted, as well as the ideological plan that the master tried to embody. For them, color in painting was rather an addition, emphasizing the form created by the drawing. And one more thing: judging by the surviving copies, both works (they were dedicated to two battles important for the history of the city-state of Florence) were supposed to become a typical manifestation of the Renaissance approach to art, where the main thing was the person. Despite all the differences in the cardboards of Leonardo and Michelangelo - the mounted warriors clinging together in a single ball during the fight for the banner in Leonardo (“The Battle of Anghiari”) and the soldiers rushing to arms, caught by the enemy while swimming in the river, in Michelangelo (“The Battle of Kashin"), - the general approach to the presentation of the depicted is obvious, requiring to highlight the human figure, subordinating the surrounding space to it. After all, the characters are more important, not the location.

It is interesting to trace how the mentality of the era was reflected in art by comparing several works devoted to depicting the same subject. One of the favorite stories of the time was the story of Saint Sebastian, who was executed by Roman soldiers for his adherence to Christianity. This topic provided an opportunity to show the heroism of a human person capable of sacrificing his life for his beliefs. In addition, the plot made it possible to turn to the image of a naked body, to realize the humanistic ideal - a harmonious combination of a beautiful appearance and a beautiful human soul.

In the middle of the 15th century. Several works have been written on this topic. The authors were masters quite different from each other: Perugino, Antonello de Mesina and others. When looking at their paintings, one is struck by the calmness and sense of inner dignity that pervades the image of a beautiful naked young man standing near a pillar or tree and dreamily looking into the sky. Behind him lies a peaceful rural landscape or a cozy city square. Only the presence of arrows in the young man’s body tells the viewer that this is an execution scene. No pain, tragedy, or death is felt. These beautiful young men, united by the fate of the martyr Sebastian, are aware of their immortality, just as the people who lived in Italy in the 15th century felt their invulnerability and omnipotence.

In the painting painted by the artist Andrea Mantegna, we can feel the tragedy of what is happening, his St. Sebastian feels like he is dying. And finally, in the middle of the 16th century. Titian Vecellio painted his St. Sebastian. There is no detailed landscape on this canvas. The location of the action is only indicated. There are no random figures in the background, no executioner warriors aiming at their victims, nothing that can tell the viewer the meaning of the situation, and at the same time there is a feeling of a tragic end. This is not just the death of a human being, it is the death of an entire world, burning in the crimson flashes of a universal catastrophe.

The significance of the culture of the Italian Renaissance. The soil that gave birth to the culture of the Italian Renaissance was destroyed during the 16th century. Most of the country was subjected to foreign invasions, the new economic structure was undermined by the movement of the main trade routes in Europe from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the Popolanian republics fell under the rule of ambitious mercenary condottieri, and the surge of individualistic energy lost its internal justification and gradually died out in the conditions of revival feudal orders (refeudalization of society). The attempt to create a new society based on the emancipation of the human personality, on the initiative of entrepreneurship, was interrupted in Italy for a long time. The country was falling into decay.

But the cultural tradition created by this society spread through the efforts of Italian masters throughout Europe, became the standard for European culture as a whole, and received further life in its version, which was given the name “high”, “scientific” culture. Monuments of the culture of the Renaissance remained - beautiful buildings, statues, wall paintings, paintings, poems, wise writings of humanists; traditions remained that became decisive for the culture of those peoples who came under its influence for the next three and a half centuries (until the end of the 19th century) , and this influence gradually spread very widely.

It is especially worth noting and highlighting the importance of the fine art of the Italian Renaissance with its desire to convey on the plane of a wall or board, a sheet of paper enclosed in a canvas frame, the illusion of a three-dimensional space filled with illusory three-dimensional images of people and objects - what can be called “Window of Leonardo Danilov I.E. Italian city of the 15th century. Reality, myth, image. M., 2000.S. 22, 23. See: Golovin V.P. The world of the early Renaissance artist. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2002. P. 125. Boyadzhiev G. Italian notebooks. M., 1968. P. 104.

Lazarev V.N. Old Italian masters. M., 1972. P. 362.

Bogat E. Letters from the Hermitage // Aurora. 1975. No. 9. P. 60.