Background, essence and characteristics of the Renaissance
From the middle of the 15th century. In the socio-economic and spiritual life of Western Europe, a number of important changes are taking place, marking the beginning of a new era, called the Renaissance (in French "Renaissance").
In a narrow sense, the term "Renaissance" is commonly understood to mean the revival of ancient culture, the resurrection of the ancient ideal of beauty, way of life, thinking and feeling. However, it would be wrong to reduce the era of the Renaissance only to the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity. The decisive sign of this era was an unprecedented flourishing of culture, a stormy creative upsurge, great beginnings, searches and discoveries.
The economic basis of the Renaissance was an unprecedented rise in productive forces, material production, science and technology, associated with urbanization, the development of crafts, the emergence of manufactory, the expansion of the commodity-money economy and the development of trade relations. Economic transformations have led to changes in the socio-political and spiritual life of Europe. The bourgeoisie, which is the bearer of the idea of an independent and free-thinking person, is strengthening more and more, the struggle of cities for independence is intensifying, which ultimately leads to the formation of monarchical absolutist states; secular tendencies in culture are strengthening, contributing to the weakening of the Church-Catholic world outlook; the basis of the worldview is humanism, which recognizes the human personality as the highest value.
Italy became the birthplace of the Renaissance - the direct heir to ancient Roman culture. Gradually, most European countries are uniting on the basis of ideas of a universal, humanistic nature: England, France, Germany, Spain, Poland. Czech. The flourishing of culture in these countries in the XVI-XVII centuries. received the name "Northern Renaissance".
What is the originality of the Renaissance? First, the Renaissance is a transitional era, within which a "universal revolution" took place - socio-economic, political, cultural from the Middle Ages to the New Age. This is the era of transition from rural to urban culture, which is "no longer medieval and not yet bourgeois" 1. The culture of the Renaissance borrowed a lot from the era of the Middle Ages, which ended with it, but much in it anticipated the coming New Age. So, the very concept of the Renaissance was not just medieval, but also directly biblical in origin. The New Testament constantly spoke about the Renaissance, about the New spiritual development, about the emergence of the New Man. A modification of the medieval consciousness takes place.
Secondly, the Renaissance era was simultaneously based on Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The ancient ideas themselves were interpreted precisely on the basis of the experience of the Middle Ages. However, the humanists of the Renaissance not only did not see this connection with the Middle Ages, but also opposed their era to the era of the Christian Middle Ages. It was they who became the founders of the concept that defines the Middle Ages as a dark, fanatically religious barbaric time. "Everything is overthrown, burned, destroyed" - this is how Lorenzo Vallo characterizes the era of the Middle Ages.
Thirdly, the formation of individualism, based on the absolute self-affirmation of the individual, inherent in bourgeois society, unconsciously occurs in the Renaissance in the urban environment, with its free and independent masters. The young nascent bourgeoisie "without clan and tribe" could rely only on their personal qualities, on their own intelligence, courage, enterprise, which began to be valued higher than the noble birth and nobility of the clan. A new system of values is being approved, where special attention is paid to education and moral dignity of a person. Anthropocentrism is becoming a characteristic feature of the new era. It is not God who is placed at the center of the universe, but man himself, a thinker and creator, capable of changing the world for the better. Bright, titanic personalities appear. Man begins to occupy a central place in the hierarchy of earthly values. The idea of man "as an earthly god" is being born.
Fourthly, the secular spirit of religion was inherent in the Renaissance, with a tendency to reassess the entire culture: while remaining religious, a person began to attach less importance to the ritual and cult side of religious life, focusing his attention on its inner spiritual side.
Fifth, there was a secularization of culture, a cult of secular life with a pronounced desire for sensual pleasures and interests in the problems of earthly life took shape.
Sixth, there is a liberation from the power of authorities. The Renaissance man could boldly criticize recognized authors and teachings.
Seventh, there is an unprecedented interest in the arts. The role of art in public life is growing. It is in art that the harmony towards which the Renaissance epoch is striving is achieved - the harmony of the Christian and pagan, earthly and divine, material and spiritual.
Eighth, discoveries in the field of science (astronomy: N. Copernicus, T. Brahe, I. Kepler, D. Bruno, G. Galilei; geography: Columbus, Magellan) and technology (invention of the printing press, microscope, barometer, etc.) became a kind of revolution in natural science and changed the picture of the world. The geocentric model of the world is being replaced by the heliocentric one.
Thus, the Renaissance is a special, transitional stage in the history of culture, combining elements of both ancient, pagan and medieval, Christian and early bourgeois attitudes towards the world.
Humanism - the ideological basis of the Renaissance culture
The ideological main culture of the Renaissance was humanism (from Latin - human, humane). Humanism means not only the recognition of a person of the highest value, but also the fact that a person is declared the criterion of any value. This feature of humanism was expressed in the era of antiquity through the mouth of Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things."
The emergence and establishment of a new Renaissance worldview began with a challenge to scholasticism based on the formal terminological method. In contrast to the traditional complex studia divinitatis - knowledge of the divine - humanists put forward a new complex of humanitarian knowledge - studia humanitatis - knowledge of the human, including grammar, philology, rhetoric, history, pedagogy, ethics (moral philosophy). Humanists in the Renaissance were called those who devoted themselves to the study, teaching of these disciplines. The term itself had not only a professional, but also an ideological content: humanists were the carriers and creators of a new system of knowledge, in the center of which was a man, his earthly destiny.
Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) is called the first humanist of the Renaissance. He was “exactly that person,” wrote Leonardo Bruni, “who raised the studia humanitatis, devoted to oblivion, to life and opened the way for the renewal of our culture ...” 1. Flavio Biondo saw in Petrarch the founder of a new literary style. Centuries later, Francesco Patritsa emphasized the role of Petrarch, who revived in the Italian republics the rhetoric buried in the era of millennia of barbarism.
Francesco Petrarca laid the foundations for a new humanistic ethics, the main principle of which is the achievement of the moral ideal through self-knowledge, active virtue, education. In the treatise "On the means against happy and unlucky fortune", he questions the traditional understanding of nobility, refusing to see the basis of nobility in lineage and titles. Only in the active manifestation of the good principles of his nature can a person find true nobility. Petrarch formulated the features inherent in a new type of personality: individualism, awareness of one's own worth, activity and belief in one's own strength, striving for freedom. Nevertheless, all his work bears the stamp of duality. Raised in Christian religion Francesco sought a compromise between her and pagan philosophy, between faith and knowledge, he was convinced that the path to heavenly bliss does not require the abandonment of everything worldly.
Petrarch's followers were Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), Leonardo Bruni (1370–1440), Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), Lorenzo Balla (1407–1457), Leon Batiste Alberti (1404–1472) and other prominent humanists of the Renaissance. All of them made a significant contribution to the development of humanistic ethics, to the development of the ideas of harmony between man and nature. Man enters in their teachings with an active transforming force. Knowledge opens the way to the awakening and development of a person's natural abilities. "Knowledge raises a person above himself and above others ...". But the goal of human existence, happiness is not only to discover the truth, but also to “make it a guide to action” 1. Doing good deeds, valiant and righteous, is the path to achieving earthly happiness. "Only reason, virtue and work in their indissoluble unity create the basis for a truly human life 2". Wealth is the last in the hierarchy of earthly goods.
The idea of harmony, which became one of the defining principles of the worldview of the humanists of the Renaissance, presupposed a person's striving for perfection. An important place in achieving this goal was given to education, moral and physical education.
Deep education required the study of a complex of humanitarian disciplines, which were taught both in universities and in private humanistic schools. Various kinds of academy communities, circles, partnerships were created, uniting representatives of various social circles and professions on the basis of humanistic ideas. They translated and read ancient authors and their own works in an atmosphere of free discussion. Thus, the Platonic Academy in Florence, headed from 1462 by the outstanding humanist - philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), gained wide popularity in Italy. Its members were not only well-known humanists, but also lawyers, doctors, artists, entrepreneurs, politicians. A new direction of humanism is associated with this academy - neoplatonism.
The Renaissance era is not just the era of the proclamation of a harmonious personality, not just the pursuit of the ideal, but also its real embodiment. This era gave the world a number of outstanding individuals with all-round education, bright talent, dedication, efficiency, great energy. Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Michelangelo, Albrecht Durer, Nicolo Machiavelli, Martin Luther are just a few of the titans of the Renaissance. Then there was almost not a single outstanding person who would not have made long journeys, would not speak four or five languages, would not shine in several areas of creativity. Leonardo da Vinci was not only a great painter, but also a great mathematician, mechanic and engineer. “He knew and was able to do everything that his time knew and skillfully, besides that he could still foresee a lot that they hadn’t even thought about” 1. So he thought about the design of the aircraft and came up with the idea of a helicopter. In addition, according to the testimony of contemporaries, he was handsome, proportionally complex, graceful and charming in conversation 2. Albrecht Durer was a painter, engraver, sculptor, architect and ... invented a system of fortifications.
Summarizing the above, we can formulate the basic principles of Renaissance humanism. This is the liberation of culture from church tutelage, the renunciation of scholasticism, the liberation of man and the affirmation of his earthly destiny, the destruction of the estate-corporate framework, the elevation of the human personality, the pursuit of ideal and harmony.
The idea of man as the true creator of everything that exists has found its fullest embodiment in art. The artist himself becomes a genuine homo universal. All the diversity of the world is available to him. He alone can, like God, "create something out of nothing." The aesthetic ideal of the Renaissance is the image of an earthly, real, active person, harmoniously and comprehensively developed.
Italian Renaissance art
The classic expression of Renaissance culture was the art of Italian masters. The art of the Italian Renaissance goes through several stages in its development:
Stage I - Proto-Renaissance con. XIII - early. XIV - c. associated with the names of Dante Alighieri (1265–1–321) and Giotto de Bondone (1266-1337). Dante is rightfully called "the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times." In his "Divine Comedy", which has become a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the author affirms the idea of Renaissance thinking, calls on his contemporaries to raise a wise, worthy life on earth, to true humanity.
Giotto, a friend and colleague of the great Dante, was able to see and portray a beautiful and proud person in a suffering person ("The Crucifixion of Christ", "Lamentation of Christ"). The artist in his works strove for a truthful display of the movements of the human body, the feelings expressed in them ("The Kiss of Judas"). Giotto saw in art that which was not available to others. He brought natural art based on depicting the world around us as our eye sees, - this is how the famous Florentine sculptor Ghiberti spoke of the painter a hundred years later. Giotto was so ahead of his time that for a long time after him, Florentine artists only imitated his style of painting.
I I Stage - Early Renaissance - XV century. A new take-off in art is taking place in the direction of establishing realism and overcoming the medieval tradition. This was already the art of a new era - the Renaissance. It is difficult to list all the famous masters of the Early Renaissance. The sculptor Donatello, the architect and sculptor Brunelleschi, the painter Masaccio are considered the "fathers" of the new art. They strove to embody the idea of beauty and harmony in their works. In the era of humanism, the world seemed beautiful to man, and he strove to see beauty in everything that surrounded him in this world. Architecture becomes "a part of life itself." The formidable, gloomy feudal castles are being replaced by comfortable, beautiful and open to the outside world houses - palaces (for example, the Palazzo Pitti), amazingly beautiful public buildings (Orphanage in Florence), delightful chapels (the Pazza chapel in Florence).
The artist Masaccio (1401-1428) not only became a follower of the Great Giotto, but also far surpassed him in his ability to distribute light and shadow, in creating a clear spatial composition, in the power with which he conveys volume. Masaccio, the first in painting, depicts a naked body ("Expulsion from Paradise") and gives a person heroic features, glorifying his human dignity 2.
In literature, Dante's closest successors were Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). In Petrarch, his contemporaries saw not only a writer of modern times, but also a new type of person, in which the life aspirations and ideals of the advanced part of society were embodied.
III Stage - High Renaissance - late 15th – 1st half of the 16th centuries, the golden age of the Renaissance. Despite the brevity of this period, it was at this time that the most remarkable creations of the titans of the Renaissance, people of truly titanic spirit, thoughts, talents were created: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael Santi (14S3-1520), Michelangelo (1475-1564), Giorgione (1476-1510), Titian (1477-1576). This period is characterized not only by the search, but also by the achievement of harmony: man and the world, soul and body, feelings and reason in man himself, truth and beauty, real and ideal. The greatest expressiveness of the social and moral ideals of the era was achieved precisely by means of inventive art. The world of wonderful harmony was created in the works of Leonardo ("Benois Madonna", "La Gioconda", "Madonna Lita", "Lady with an Ermine"), Raphael ("Madonna Kone-stable", "Madonna in green", "Sistine Madonna") , Titian ("Earthly love and heavenly love", "Venus of Urbino").
Michelangelo's world is contradictory, diverse, tragic. His work combines the tragic awareness of the imperfection of life and belief in the harmony of the universe, the loneliness of man and the joy of his victory in the struggle against the elements ("David", "Moses", "Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel", "Expulsion from Paradise", "Last Judgment", "Global flood"). Michelangelo was destined to survive the beginning of the decline of a great cultural era and the collapse of the Renaissance ideals.
The Titans of the Great Renaissance were far ahead of their time. Their art has become a measure of beauty and a symbol of the creative daring of mankind, a reference point for all subsequent generations.
IV stage - Late Renaissance - II half of the 16th century. At this time, the first signs of a crisis in the harmonious world outlook of the Renaissance began to appear. Dramatic tension is felt more and more in art. She is present, in particular, in the works of the late Titian ("Entombment").
Venice, where in the II half of the XVI century. the republican form of government was still preserved, remained in Italy the last center of humanism, and her art is still the great art of the golden age. The later Renaissance is represented by the names of Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) and Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1591), the last of the titans of the great era. And if Veronese, the creator of colorful paintings, did not yet know the tragic discord between ideals and reality, then in the work of Tintoretto, the intensifying crisis of Renaissance ideals is acutely felt. His art is full of drama, emotional power ("Battle at Dawn", "Crucifixion").
The reverse side of the Renaissance
The great flowering in the history of mankind was accompanied by a great tragedy. The man, as the humanists thought him, found his embodiment mainly in art, but could not firmly establish himself in real life. The Renaissance was "famous" for its everyday types of treachery, treachery, murders from around the corner, incredible revenge and cruelty, rampant passions.
The era of free urban communes was short-lived: they were replaced by tyranny. The wealthy entrepreneurs - bankers and merchants - are turning into a new aristocracy. In the homeland of the Renaissance, in the era of its heyday, new dynasties are born, the founders of which are often ordinary condottieri, that is, the leaders of hired detachments, who served certain cities for money 1.
In the age of humanism, in the age of the flourishing of science, poetry, art, poison and dagger often determine the fate of rulers and their entourage. Even Lorenzo Medici, the great patron of the arts and sciences, resorted to similar means in the fight against opponents.
The paradox of the era was that "absolute villains", famous for their atrocities, murders, and various kinds of perversion, such as Caesar Borgia or Sigismundo Malatesta, were at the same time great lovers and experts in science, art, people, comprehensively educated, reasonable politicians. Thus, Machiavelli admired Caesar's will and saw in him an example of an ideal sovereign.
The rampant passions also touched the humanists themselves. Scandals, scuffles, intrigues and even murders due to mutual infringement of vanity were commonplace among prominent figures of the Renaissance. The famous artist Masaccio, according to eyewitnesses, was poisoned by his rivals. The sculptor Piero Torrigini, in his youth, in the heat of a quarrel, disfigured the face of Michelangelo 1. Michelangelo himself had such an indomitable disposition that he instilled fear in those around him,
The contradiction of the era was that the possibilities of man, the possibilities of culture, discovered by humanists, could not be realized in real life. Countless wars, epidemics, "secular habits" of the clergy, reprisals against the unwanted - all this made it possible to doubt the divine nature of man.
And the Inquisition itself, glorified for all ages, became the brainchild of exclusively the Renaissance. Losing its influence in the spiritual life, the church thus tried to consolidate its position. The Inquisition was officially established in Spain in 1470, in Italy in 1542.
It can be said that all this boundless rampant of passions, vices and crimes was a consequence of the spontaneous individualism of the Renaissance, when the criterion of behavior was "a person who felt himself in isolation" 2.
A person in this era, whether he is a humanist or an equally bloody criminal like Caesar Borgia, dreamed of being freed from everything objectively meaningful and recognized only his inner needs and needs. This is the flip side of titanism.
In other words, one can doubt the meaningfulness of the cultural choice made by the humanists of the Renaissance, because almost all their achievements and discoveries were forgotten - real life showed the impossibility of their implementation 1. The process of initial accumulation was associated with the impoverishment of the broad masses: the strengthening of the state led to an increase in taxes, which contributed to the exacerbation of the social and class struggle, nevertheless, the Renaissance era contributed to the realization of all the injustice of existing life and the birth of the dream of a better social order, worthy people, a happy life ...
Literature
Bragina L.M. Alberti - Humanist // Leon Battist Alberti. M., 1997.
Bragina L.M. Italian humanism. M., 1977.
Vasari J. Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptor and
architects of the Renaissance. SPb., 1992.
Vasari J. Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and
architects of the Renaissance. SPb., 1992.
Dmitrieva N.A. Short story arts. M., 1990.
Losev A.F. Renaissance aesthetics. M., 1978.
Lyubimov L.D. Art of Western Europe. M., 1976.
Konrad N.I. West and East. M., 1972.
Features of the Renaissance: The secularization of consciousness, i.e. gradual release from religious view to the world. The spread of the ideas of humanism, i.e. attention to the human person, faith in the strength of the person himself. Dissemination of scientific knowledge. Reliance on the achievements of the culture of Antiquity.
The main goal of human life. Middle AgesNew time (Renaissance) Salvation of the soul. For this, it is necessary to believe in God, observe church rituals and not sin. Success. Become famous in art, science, trade, entrepreneurship, travel, etc. But be sure to benefit people !!!
Humanism Humanus (human), humanoid, humane, humanitarian, humanism; Man is like God, he is beautiful and harmonious: educated, physically developed, fond of art and philosophy; Basic virtues: honesty, valor, creativity, patriotism!
Lyubimov "The Art of Western Europe": Italian humanists discovered the world of classical antiquity, searched for the creations of ancient authors in forgotten book depositories and painstakingly cleansed them of the distortions introduced by medieval monks. The search for them was marked by fiery enthusiasm. When in front of Petrarch, who is considered to be the first humanist, the silhouette of the monastery loomed along the way, he literally trembled at the thought that there might be some kind of classical manuscript there. Others dug up fragments of columns, statues, bas-reliefs, coins. The abstract beauty of the Byzantine icon faded before the warm, living beauty of marble Venus, to the delight of all of Florence or all of Rome, extracted from the earth, where it had lain for more than a thousand years. “I raise the dead,” said one of the Italian humanists who devoted himself to archeology. Why did Italy become the birthplace of the Renaissance?
Dante Alighieri () Dante is the forerunner of the Italian Renaissance, in the center of his main work, The Divine Comedy, is the fate of the people whose souls he meets during his imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
Petrarch Francesco () Petrarch's lyrics represent a new stage in the development of Italian and European poetry. The image of his beloved woman became concrete and vital for him, and love experiences are shown in all their contradictions and variability.
Which statement best reflects the views of humanists on human nature? The Lord created man from the dust of the earth, which is more insignificant than other elements, as confirmed in the Bible; If the beauty of the world is considered so wonderful and great, then what beauty and grace should be endowed with a person, for whose sake the most beautiful and most decorated world was created.
Erasmus of Rotterdam () Dutch humanist scholar, writer, philologist, theologian, a prominent representative of the Northern Renaissance. He lived in France, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, enjoyed pan-European recognition. He wrote in Latin. Of the vast heritage of E.R., the most famous are Praise of Folly (1509) and Conversations Easily (151930). The first work is a philosophical satire, the second is predominantly domestic. Madame Stupidity, singing praises to herself, easily turns into wisdom, self-satisfied nobility is stupid baseness, unlimited power is the worst slavery, therefore the most precious rule of life is the call "nothing beyond measure!"
Thomas More (). English humanist, statesman and writer. The son of a judicial officer. In 1504 Mor was nominated to parliament from the London merchants, in 1510 he became the assistant to the London sheriff, in 1518 he entered the Royal Council, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the chancellor of England. Mor refused to swear allegiance to the king as the "supreme head" of the English church, after which he was imprisoned in the Tower (1534), accused of high treason and executed.
"Utopia". Mora was best known for his dialogue "Utopia" (1516), containing a description of the ideal structure of the fantastic island of Utopia (Greek, literally "Nigdenia", a place that does not exist; this word invented by M. later became a household name). Here More for the first time in the history of mankind depicted a society where private (and even personal) property was eliminated and not only equality of consumption was introduced (as in the early Christian communities), but production and everyday life were socialized. Labor in Utopia is the responsibility of all citizens, distribution is according to need, the working day is reduced to 6 hours; the hardest jobs are done by criminals. The political system of Utopia is based on the principles of election and seniority.
Literature François Rabelais (). Writer. The most famous work is a novel
William Shakespeare If you stop loving, so now, Now that the whole world is at odds with me. Be the most bitter of my losses, But not the last straw of grief! And if it is given to me to overcome sorrow, Do not strike from an ambush. Let the stormy night not be resolved on a rainy morning without joy. Leave me, but not at the last moment, When from minor troubles I will weaken, Leave now, so that I immediately comprehend, That this grief of all adversity hurts the most. That there are no hardships, but there is one misfortune of Your love to be deprived forever.
Let's check the table Cultural area Cultural worker Works, ideas Philosophy Golden book, as useful as pleasant, about the best structure of the state and about the new island of Utopia. " Ideas: the glorification of the physical beauty and spiritual perfection of a person. Literature Francois Rabelais () "Gargantua and Pantagruel" Heroes-wise giant kings. The novel revived the old traditions of folk performances. William Shakespeare () "Romeo and Juliet" Ideas: to express the high and bright feelings of a person.
Leonardo da Vinci () Leonardo da Vinci is considered the most famous scientist, artist, poet of the Renaissance. It can be safely called the embodied ideal of the personality of the new era.
The era of the late European Middle Ages, which passed under the sign of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance (late 14th - early 17th centuries), turned out to be a wonderful page in the history of world culture.
The Renaissance (Renaissance) is a period as well as a humanist movement in the history of European culture that marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernity. The Renaissance arose in Italy in the 14th century, spread to the western countries (northern Renaissance), and reached its peak in the middle of the 16th century. By the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. the decline of the Renaissance, called Mannerism, is noticeable.
The best minds of Europe of this time proclaimed a person as the main value on Earth and paved new paths of education, striving to reveal all the best in a person, his individuality. Spiritual energy, which accumulated over the long Middle Ages, and the spirit squeezed it inside a human cloud, the new era liberated, liberated and, as it were, breathed into works of art, science and philosophy. Anthropocentrism became the leading and main idea of the worldview of the Renaissance.
In the philosophical and pedagogical thought in a renewed form, the ideal of a spiritually and physically developed personality appeared, which was filled with concrete historical content. The ideological representatives of the Renaissance themselves were often carriers of such an ideal, being the standard of wisdom, morality and spirituality. The mental movement of humanism and the Renaissance arose as a result of changes in the Medieval worldview, the stronghold of which was the Catholic Church. If the church taught that a man in an earthly vale should turn his hopes to God, then at the center of the new worldview was a man who pinned his hopes on himself.
The seeds of humanism appeared in the conditions of awakening national identity in many states. The rise of pedagogical thought was closely associated with the intensive development of art and literature. The world after the great geographical discoveries of the 15th - 16th centuries. became more voluminous and multi-colored for a European. The spread of a new culture and education was facilitated by the invention in the middle. XV century. typography.
Humanists rediscovered how much the ancient peoples of Greece and Rome did in culture and education. In an effort to imitate them, they called their time the Renaissance - i.e. restoration of the ancient tradition. In Greco - Roman culture, they saw a reflection of the best that man and nature have. The humanists were attracted by the freedom, expressiveness and beauty of classical literature. Classical literature becomes the personification of the ideal in education.
Educators-humanists sought their ideas not only in the classical heritage. They took a lot from the knightly education, when they thought about the physical perfection of man. Responding to the challenge of the time, humanist educators had in mind the formation of a socially useful personality. As a result, the pedagogical triad of the Renaissance (classical education, intensive physical development, civic education) consisted of three main components: antiquity, the Middle Ages and the ideas of the forerunners of a new society. Renaissance representatives enriched the curriculum of classical education, adding the study of the ancient Greek language to it, reviving the correct Latin language. The meaning of such innovations consisted in the desire to extract educational and didactic material from ancient literature: the ideas of state structure in Aristotle, military art in Caesar, agronomic knowledge in Virgil. The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy is associated with the names of the writers Petrarch and G. Boccaccio ("Decameron"), who developed the traditions of Dante in enriching the language "dolce style nuovo" (sweet new style) and folk - "vulgare".
Italy was the cradle of the European Renaissance. The struggle of Italian cities for independence, the awakening of a sense of belonging to a single ethnic group gave rise to a spiritual movement that put forward the ideas of civic education. The following figures are especially notable - G. Boccaccio, Petrarca, Machiavelli, T. More, T. Campanella, L. Alberti (1404-1472), L. Bruni (1369-1444), L. Valla (1405 / 1407-1457) and others. It was about the formation of a member of society, alien to Christian asceticism, developed physically and spiritually, brought up in the process of labor activity, which, as noted, for example, L. Alberti, will allow you to acquire "Perfect virtues and complete happiness."
The ideas reflected in The Decameron continue to glorify earthly joys, the equality of people regardless of their origin. The work reflects the era that discovered the human "I" as a miracle of miracles. The clergy began to lose more and more their authority and positions. The change in outlook was accompanied by bloody wars. This led to the falling away of a number of European countries from Catholicism, i.e. the emergence of various forms of Protestanism.
Italian humanists believed that the best way to educate is to study classical Greco-Roman culture. The ideas of Quintilian were considered as a model of pedagogical ideas.
Among the Italian humanists of the Renaissance, Tomaso Campanella (1568-1639) stood out. A rebel and a heretic, he spent 27 years in prison, where he wrote a number of treatises, including "City of the Sun", which depicts a model of a society of economic and political equality. The treatise sets out pedagogical ideas, the pathos of which lies in the rejection of the blind imitation of bookishness, a return to nature, and the rejection of narrow specialization. The pedagogical ideas of Tomaso Companella, expressed by him in the book "City of the Sun", to a certain extent were the development of the ideas of the thinkers that preceded him, incl. and T. Mora. They understood that a high level of progress can be achieved with the active assistance of the state in the development of science, technology and spirituality. The Renaissance was a prime example of this.
The City of the Sun is a state that, like Utopia, is built on the principles of public ownership, compulsory and universal labor and the provision of the opportunity for all citizens to engage in the arts and sciences. Campanella more fully than Moore expounded the system of raising children in a perfect society. He believed that the state should even control the selection of spouses so that the combination of men and women gave the best offspring. And they laugh at the fact that we, while diligently caring for the improvement of the breeds of dogs and horses, at the same time neglect the human breed.
From the age of two, Campanella believed, social education of children should be started, and from the age of three, they should be taught speech and the alphabet, making extensive use of visual images that literally cover all the walls of houses and city walls. From the same age, intensive physical education of children should be carried out, and from the age of eight, systematic training in various sciences should already begin. The study of sciences should be combined with regular visits to various workshops in order to give students technical knowledge and a conscious choice of a future profession. From the age of twelve, it is necessary to begin military training of citizens, regardless of gender, so that in the event of a war, women can participate in it together with their teenage children.
The pedagogical ideas of the early utopian socialists had a significant impact on the further formation of progressive pedagogical theory.
Many discoveries in science made during this period changed the life of mankind, contributed to intercultural communication.
In the second half of the 15th - early 16th century, Italian humanistic thought acquired an ever wider philosophical basis in the idea of the dignity of the individual. For the first time this topic was considered by Gianozzo Manetti in the treatise "On Human Dignity and Superiority".
This same problem is highlighted and solved in the philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a passionate defender of the rights of reason and creative thinking.
Leon Baptiste Alberti defended the idea of human freedom in choosing his own destiny. The idea that man, and not God, determines fate, Alberti expressed in his work "Man and Fortune". In his reasoning, a humanistic approach to solving the problem is clearly visible, subject to the law of nature presupposes at the same time freedom of reason and will. Perfection, rationality, expediency - awareness of these principles and free adherence to them.
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael introduced new principles of painting. Renaissance artists are philosophers, man took center stage in their paintings, landscape, mountains and trees are always smaller than the person depicted in them.
Leonardo da Vinci was convinced of the limitless creative possibilities of man; he himself was the embodiment of his convictions, whose genius manifested itself in many areas of science, in invention, art. He combined contemplation and scientific comprehension of the world.
The cult of reason, knowledge, creativity, which constituted the main content of humanistic thought, liberated science and art. This is one of the main achievements of the Renaissance.
§ 33. Renaissance and humanism in Western Europe High Renaissance. The High Renaissance is considered a transitional era from the Middle Ages to the New Age. The distinctive features of the Renaissance culture were the secular (non-religious) nature of the culture, humanism, and an appeal to the ancient cultural heritage. The culture of the High Renaissance arose at a time when the human personality came to the fore, owing much of its success and position not to the nobility of ancestors, but to its own knowledge and mind. A person was no longer satisfied with many of the feudal estates, church-ascetic morality, and traditions. It was not God that was declared the center of the universe, but man as a part of nature, as its most perfect creation. A person's experiences, his inner world, his earthly life become the main themes of literature and art. The ideal of a harmonious, free, comprehensively developed creative personality began to form. Great humanists. Erasmus of Rotterdam, a scientist, philologist, theologian, was an outstanding humanist of the early modern era. He created a harmonious system of new theology, which he called "the philosophy of Christ." In this system, the main attention is focused on a person in his relationship to God, on a person's moral obligations to God. Such problems as the creation of the world, the Trinity of God, the humanist considered insoluble and not of vital importance. The best work of Erasmus of Rotterdam is a sharp philosophical and political satire "Praise of stupidity", which still sounds relevant today. The humanists include the French writer Francois Rabelais, the author of the book "Gargantua and Pantagruel", which reflected the path of development of humanistic thought, its hope, victory and defeat. Another great humanist writer was William Shakespeare, the great English playwright. The main principle of his works was the truth of feelings. Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is the author of the immortal work Don Quixote. The hero of Cervantes lives in a world of illusions and tries to resurrect the golden age of chivalry. However, Don Quixote's dreams are shattered by reality. Thomas More, an English humanist thinker, created a treatise on the ideal state, Utopia. On the island of Utopia (translated as a place that does not exist), the author "settled" happy people who gave up property, money and wars. More substantiated a number of democratic requirements for the organization of the state. In particular, Utopians are free to choose a craft or other occupation, but everyone is required to work. According to the teachings of the English philosopher John Locke, man is a social being. Locke speaks of the "natural state" of man. This state is not self-will, but a duty to restrain oneself and not harm other people. Man has the right to property. However, the right to land and the consumption of products of labor often gives rise to conflicts, therefore it is the subject of a special agreement between people. Locke laid the foundation for the idea of separating civil society and the state. "Titans of the Renaissance". The culture of the Renaissance is distinguished by an extraordinary richness and variety of content. The creators of culture - scientists, artists, writers - were versatile people. It is no coincidence that they are called titans, as ancient Greek deities who personified the mighty forces of nature. The Italian Leonardo da Vinci first of all became famous as a painter, author of the greatest works. The portrait of Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) embodied the idea of the people of the Renaissance about the high value of the human person. In the field of mechanics, Leonardo 1 made the first attempts to determine the coefficient of friction and sliding. He owns numerous projects for weaving looms, printing machines, etc. Aircraft designs and a parachute project were innovative. He studied astronomy, optics, biology, botany, anatomy. A contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti was a sculptor, painter, architect and poet. The period of his creative maturity is opened by the statue of David, installed in Florence. The pinnacle of Michelangelo's creativity as a painter was the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which embodied his ideas about life and its contradictions. Michelangelo supervised the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome - the main cathedral of the Catholic world. The painter and architect Rafael Santi glorified the earthly happiness of man, the harmony of his comprehensively developed spiritual and physical properties. The images of Raphael's Madonnas masterfully reflect the seriousness of thoughts and feelings. The most famous painting of the artist is "Sistine, Madonna". Dominico El Greco, a Spanish artist of Greek origin, embraced the traditions of Byzantine art. His paintings stand out for the deep psychological characteristics of the characters. Another Spanish painter, Diego Velazquez, in his works depicted true scenes from folk life, sustained in dark colors and characterized by the rigidity of writing. The largest representative of the German Renaissance is the artist Albrecht Durer. He was looking for new media of expression that would meet the requirements of a humanistic worldview. Dürer also studied architecture, mathematics and mechanics. The famous Dutch painter of this era is Pieter Bruegel the Elder. His work most fully reflected the life and mood of the masses. In his engravings and drawings of a satirical and everyday nature, in genre and religious paintings, the artist spoke out against social injustice. Later, the greatest artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the author of many portraits and paintings on biblical and mythological themes, worked in the Netherlands. The highest skill allowed him to create paintings in which light came as if from the inside of the depicted people and objects. QUESTIONS AND TASKS 1. What is the essence of the worldview characteristic of the Renaissance? 2. Briefly describe the greatest thinkers of the Renaissance. 3. The names of which cultural figures are primarily remembered by our contemporaries when they mention the Renaissance? Fill in the table "Educators". Figures Lived Major Creations 2
Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute
named after M. E. Evseviev
abstract
on the topic of: Renaissance culture in Western Europe
Completed:
group 301 student
Faculty of History and Law
E. M. Kostin
Checked by: Zhitaev V.L.
Saransk 2002
Plan:
Introduction
1. Humanism. - value basis
Renaissance culture
3. Features of artistic culture:
Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance
Bibliography
Introduction:
The era of the Renaissance is considered by researchers of Western European culture as a transition from the Middle Ages to the New Time, from a feudal society to a bourgeois one. The period of initial capital accumulation begins. The first beginnings of capitalist industry appeared in the form of manufacture;
Banking and international trade are developing. Modern experimental natural science was born. A scientific picture of the world is being formed on the basis of discoveries, primarily in the field of astronomy. The greatest scientists of the era N. Copernicus, D. Bruno, G. Galileo substantiate the heliocentric view of the world.
The Renaissance (revival) is an era of great discoveries. The civilization of the Middle Ages was called maritime, since it developed around the seas - the Mediterranean and the Baltic. By 1517, Columbus and other discoverers ushered in an era of oceanic civilization in which oceanic roads became the main routes of the world. Magellan's ship made its first round the world voyage. The two rich continents of the Western Hemisphere were open to conquest by the "old world."
The rates of development of the Renaissance culture in the countries of Western Europe are different. Chronological boundaries are also approximate - in Italy of the 14th-16th centuries, in other countries of the 15th-16th centuries. The culture of the Renaissance reaches its highest point of development in the 16th century, when it becomes a common European phenomenon - this is the so-called High, classical Renaissance, followed by a later Renaissance of the last decades of the 16th century.
1. Humanism - the value basis of the Renaissance culture
In the approved system of values, spiritual culture as a whole, the ideas of humanism (lat. Latinus - human) are brought to the fore. Borrowed from Cicero (1st century BC), who called humanism the highest cultural and moral development of human abilities, this principle most fully expressed the main direction of European culture of the XIV-XVI centuries. Humanism develops as an ideological movement, it captures merchant circles , finds like-minded people at the courts of tyrants, penetrates into the highest religious spheres - into the papal chancellery, becomes a powerful weapon of politicians, gains a foothold in the masses, leaves a deep mark in folk poetry, architecture, provides rich material for the search for artists and sculptors. Its representatives organize circles, give lectures at universities, and act as the closest advisers to the sovereigns.
Humanists bring freedom of judgment, independence in relation to authorities, and a bold critical spirit to spiritual culture. They are full of faith in the limitless possibilities of man and confirm them in numerous speeches and treatises. For humanists, there is no more hierarchical society in which a person is only an exponent of the interests of the class. They oppose all censorship, and especially against church censorship. Humanists express the requirement of a historical situation - they form an entrepreneurial, active, and proactive person. Man already forges his own destiny and the providence of the Lord has nothing to do with it. A person lives according to his own understanding, he is “set free” (N. Berdyaev).
Humanism as a principle of Renaissance culture and as a broad social movement is based on an anthropocentric picture of the world; a new center, a powerful and beautiful personality, is being established in the entire ideological sphere.
The cornerstone of the new worldview was laid by Dante Alighieri (1265-1324) - “the last poet of the Middle Ages and, at the same time, the first poet of the New Time” (F. Engels). The great synthesis of poetry, philosophy, theology, science created by Dan te in his "Divine Comedy" is both the result of the development of medieval culture and the approach to the new culture of the Renaissance. Belief in the earthly destiny of man, in his ability to accomplish his earthly feat with his own strength, allowed Dante to make The Divine Comedy the first hymn to the dignity of man. Of all the manifestations of divine wisdom, man is for him the "greatest miracle."
This position was developed by Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), a philosopher and brilliant lyric poet who is considered the ancestor of the humanist movement in Italy. Admiration for man, his beauty, reason is filled with the work of Gia nozzo Manetti (1396-1439) "On the dignity and superiority of man." The treatise "On Pleasure" by Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) affirms the naturalness of earthly joys and sensual pleasures of man. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) in his work "On the Dignity of Man" holds the idea that man is the creator of his own destiny, of himself: “we become what we want to be. and God, has freedom of action, he himself controls fate and society, making the right, rational choice.
But the rise and flowering of humanism is deeply contradictory. Science reaches an unprecedented scale, poetry, architecture, and fine arts flourish. Many rulers become patrons of the arts. But the problems of social relations are solved with a dagger and poison, conspiracies and wars. The Borgia family went down in history, headed by Pope Alexander VII himself - a murderer, robber and lecher, who, however, was endowed with a brilliant talent for a statesman. The well-known historian, poet and diplomat Machiavelli finds a justification for this: an ideal sovereign, he notes, must be able to combine the techniques of a fox and a lion, be not only a man, but also an animal. ”, Self-sacrificing their victims. But he also had a wide knowledge of philosophy, there were many humanists among his courtiers, and when discussing works of art he showed the most delicate taste. And the dagger used by Malatesta was an example of jewelery art.
Researchers have repeatedly noted that good and evil intertwined in the Renaissance in the most bizarre way. People emerged from the Middle Ages, the lofty ideal of humanism illuminated their spiritual life, but they are still newcomers to free thought. Harmony in the social structure was not achieved and unrestrained passions possessed individuals, prompting them to act without stopping at anything and not thinking about the consequences ”
2. Attitude to ancient and medieval culture
In the process of formation and development, the culture of the Renaissance determines the attitude towards other types of culture, towards other eras. The appeal to the ancient heritage is an important feature of the Renaissance culture. Anthropocentrism and the glorification of a beautiful, harmoniously developed person were especially close to European humanism. During the Renaissance, the antique
the ideal of a person, understanding of beauty as harmony and measure, the realistic language of plastic arts, in contrast to medieval symbolism. The practical, everyday worldview of the ancients was more attractive, diverse and accessible than the constructions of the medieval scholastics. The Renaissance artists, sculptors and Juets I were attracted by the plots of ancient mythology and history, the ancients - by the Greek and Latin languages.
The restoration of the ancient heritage began with the study of ancient languages. Since the end of the 13th century, humanists began to actively study the Greek language, and the works of humanists were written in Latin - the classical language of Cicero, Horace, Seneca. Latin became the language of the Renaissance. One of the first researchers of Italian culture during the Renaissance, Jacob Burckhardt, noted that even children knew Latin perfectly. Seven-year-olds wrote Latin letters. Among the four-year-olds were orators who dazzled audiences with their pure Latin speech.
Humanists were historians, philologists, librarians, they loved to delve into old manuscripts and books, made up collections of antiquities. They began to restore the forgotten works of Greek and Roman authors, to establish authentic texts instead of distorted ones in the Middle Ages. Most of the texts of antique authors available modern science, was revealed precisely by humanists. The invention and spread of book printing played an important role in the spread of the ancient heritage. It is important to note that ancient manuscripts and monuments were not dead things, but truly teachers who helped to discover oneself, “these are not stones, wood and paper, but material for erecting a monument to their own personality.” Humanists also showed great interest in ancient philosophy - natural philosophy , Epicureanism, Neoplatonism. In the middle of the 15th century, the Platonic Academy was founded in Florence, headed by Marcio Ficino. The veneration of Plato was here turned almost into a religious cult. Thus, the continuity between the Renaissance and antiquity is obvious. What was the attitude of humanists to medieval culture, which immediately preceded the Renaissance?
Figures of the Renaissance spoke of medieval culture harshly and condescendingly, calling it "barbaric, rude manner." And this can be understood and explained. After all, the culture of the Renaissance was formed as a denial, protest, rejection of medieval culture. Dogmatism and scholasticism were denied. The attitude towards theology - the theory of religion - was negative. Lorenzo Balla contrasts the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas with the Apostle Paul, who, without further ado, strengthened Christians in the faith. Many humanists had a critical attitude towards the church and the profession of local ministers catholic church... D. Boccaccio in "Decamerone" makes fun of the monks, their hypocrisy, depravity. In Dante's Divine Comedy, even the heads of the Catholic Church go to hell. Satire on the ministers of the church, clergy is presented in the famous book by E. Rotterdam "Praise of stupidity". It is believed that no era in the history of European culture was filled with such a huge number of anti-church writings and sayings as the Renaissance. Thus, in the Middle Age culture, everything that fettered the free, creative development of man was denied.
