Great humanists of the Renaissance. Renaissance culture What statement is characteristic of Renaissance humanists

Renaissance humanism, classical humanism- a European intellectual movement that was an important component of the Renaissance. It arose in Florence in the middle of the 14th century and existed until the middle of the 16th century; from the end of the 15th century it passed to Spain, Germany, France, partly to England and other countries.

Renaissance humanism is the first stage in the development of humanism, a movement in which humanism first emerged as an integral system of views and a broad current of social thought, causing a genuine revolution in the culture and worldview of the people of that time. The main idea of ​​the Renaissance humanists was the improvement of human nature through the study of ancient literature.

Term [ | ]

The original Latin form of this concept is studio humanitatis. In this form, it was introduced by the Renaissance humanists themselves, who reinterpreted Cicero, who at one time sought to emphasize that the concept of “humanity”, as the most important result of the culture developed in the ancient Greek city-states, was also instilled on Roman soil.

The meaning of the term "humanism" in the Renaissance (as opposed to today's meaning of the word) was: "zealous study of everything that constitutes the integrity of the human spirit", since Lat. humanitas meant “the completeness and separateness of human nature.” Also, this concept was contrasted with the “scholastic” study of the “divine” (studio divina). This understanding studio humanitatis first received its justification as an ideological program for a new mental movement in the writings of Petrarch.

Renaissance "humanism" is not a defense of human rights, but a study of man as he is. Humanism, from the point of view of Petrarch and other philosophers, meant moving man to the center of the world, studying man in the first place. The term “humanism” in this regard is somewhat synonymous with the word “anthropocentrism” and is opposed to the term “theocentrism”. In contrast to the religious philosophy of Western Europe, humanistic philosophy sets as its task the study of man with all his earthly and unearthly needs. Instead of ontological questions, ethical questions come to the fore."

The word “humanist” appeared at the end of the 15th century. Actually, the term “humanism” in its current form, as noted by L. Batkin, was first used in 1808 by the teacher F. Niethammer; after G. Vogt’s work “” (1859), a discussion of the historical content and limits of this concept began in science.

The humanists of the 15th century themselves usually called themselves “orators”, less often “rhetorians”, thereby emphasizing their difference from university scientists, as well as their connection with the ancient traditions of ancient orators.

Concept and activity[ | ]

The humanists themselves talked about themselves as follows: Leonardo Bruni defined studio humanitatis so - “knowledge of those things that relate to life and morals, and which improve and adorn a person.” Salutati believed that this word combined “virtue and learning” (virtus atque doctrine), and “scholarship” presupposed the universality of knowledge based on mastery of “literature” (litterae), and “virtue” included spiritual meekness and benevolence (benignitas), meaning the ability to behave correctly. This virtue, according to humanists, was inseparable from classical education, and thus turned out to be not an innate quality, but something individually achieved through vigils over the classics. In the Renaissance, the idea of ​​cultivation reigned, the “cultivation” of the soul through the study of ancient authors, the ability, through humanistic pursuits, to realize and identify all the possibilities inherent in nature in the individual. Guarino Veronese wrote: “there is nothing more suitable and appropriate for acquiring virtues and good behavior than diligent reading of learned ancient writers.” Humanists believed that through humanistic pursuits a person would be able to realize all the possibilities inherent in the individual and cultivate his “virtues.” For Petrarch studio humanitatis were primarily a means of self-knowledge.

Modern scholars clarify the interpretations: Paul Kristeller understands by Renaissance humanism a “professional field” of activity approximately between the years, which consisted of studying and teaching a well-known set of disciplines (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy, including political philosophy) on the basis of classical Greco-Latin education. Thus, as Batkin notes, such boundaries of humanism do not coincide with the medieval quadrivium, differ from the traditional nomenclature of the liberal arts and show a serious gap between humanism and the then university education (law, medicine, natural science, logic, theology, philosophy in understanding of natural philosophy).

E. Garen interprets Renaissance humanism as a new worldview, which led to a comprehensive change in culture and was an important stage in history and philosophy, and all thinking in general. The center of interests of humanists was “literature” - philology and rhetoric, the Word was at the center of philosophy, and the cult of beautiful and pure classical speech reigned. The word was identified with Knowledge and Virtue, it was understood as the embodiment of the universal and divine human nature, as its harmonious ethos and an instrument of practical human activity in the circle of friends, family and native community (ideal homo civilis).

Humanistic “literature” made it possible to develop a new worldview, which was imbued with criticism, secularism, contrasted itself with the themes and methods of medieval scholasticism and, in addition, made it possible for the first time to understand the historical distance in relation to antiquity.

The lifestyle and ideals of the humanists[ | ]

Humanistic pursuits, as a rule, remained a private matter of humanists, their hobby, not being their profession, although they brought reputation, and as a result, gifts from patrons.

The Renaissance humanists were an informal group of like-minded people who were distinguished by their inner content, and not by their official type of activity. Representatives of completely different strata, conditions and professions became humanists. Although some of the humanists were members of old guilds and corporations, what united them had nothing to do with this: “their meeting place was a country villa, a monastery library, a bookstore, a sovereign’s palace, or just a private house, where it was comfortable to talk and leaf through manuscripts.” , look at antique medals. In imitation of the ancients, they began to call their circles academies". (See for example Plato's Academy in Careggi). Batkin notes that, apparently, humanists were the first intellectuals in European history; other researchers agree that “the emergence of that category of people who later came to be called humanists, in essence, marked the beginning of the process of emergence in this era secular intelligentsia". The unifying feature for the circle of humanists was an exclusively spiritual community, which remained too broad and unrelated to material interests; “the line between humanism as a state of mind and as an activity is conditional.” Vergerio points out that humanism is not a profession, but a calling, and denounces people who turn to literature for the sake of money and honors, and not for the sake of learning and virtue.

An important component studio humanitatis in the ideas of the humanistic environment there was “leisure” (otium, ozio), filled with high pursuits, sweet and gratifying, always contrasted with service and various business duties (negotium, ufficio). Freedom to manage your time and yourself is a precondition for becoming a humanist. Lorenzo Valla lists five important conditions necessary for scientific studies:

1. "Communication with educated people" (litteratorum consuetudo)
2. "Abundance of Books"
3. "Comfortable spot"
4. "Free time" (temporis otium)
5. "Peace of Mind" (animi vacuitas), a special “emptiness, unfilledness, release of the soul”, making it ready to be filled with learning and wisdom.

Humanists are reviving the philosophy of Epicureanism, which promotes pleasure - but primarily spiritual, not sensual (Cosimo Raimondi, "Defense of Epicurus", about 1420s; Lorenzo Valla, dialogue “On pleasure (On true and false good)”, 1433). The typical idea of ​​the Renaissance is questa dolcezza del vivere(“this sweetness of life”).

At the same time, there was a concept about the close connection between the ideals of contemplative life (vita contemplativa) and active (vita activa), Moreover, the latter had to be aimed at the benefit of society. Humanist scientists considered themselves teachers (Pier-Paolo Vegerio, Guarino Veronese, Vittorino da Feltre) and considered their main task to educate a perfect person who, thanks to a humanitarian education, can become an ideal citizen. Sciences are studied in order to make people free. In chapter XIV - beginning. XV centuries Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni put forward a new ideal of civil life, close to the Florentines (vita civile), in which classical education became inseparable from active political activity for the benefit of the republic - see Civic Humanism. Northern Italian humanists who lived in monarchies more closely associated the idea of ​​a perfect citizen with the ideal of a perfect sovereign; they also developed the ideal of a courtier obedient to him.

New ideal of man[ | ]

In this environment, a new ideal of personality arose, generated by the secular and classical aspirations of the humanistic worldview. It was developed in humanistic literature.

The main principle of the entire humanistic ethics of the Renaissance was the doctrine of the high purpose of man, of his dignity - dignitas. He said that man, endowed with reason and an immortal soul, possessing virtue and limitless creative possibilities, free in his actions and thoughts, was placed at the center of the universe by nature itself. This doctrine was based on the views of ancient philosophy and also partly on the medieval theological doctrine that man was created in the image and likeness of God.(In essence, it was directed against Christian asceticism with its predetermination of a person’s place in the hierarchy). One of the ancient sources of this idea was Cicero's dialogue "About laws."

“Nature, that is, God, has invested in man a heavenly and divine element, incomparably more beautiful and noble than anything mortal. She gave him talent, the ability to learn, reason - divine properties, thanks to which he can explore, distinguish and know what should be avoided and what should be followed in order to preserve himself. In addition to these great and priceless gifts, God also placed in the human soul moderation, restraint against passions and excessive desires, as well as shame, modesty and the desire to earn praise. In addition, God instilled in people the need for a strong mutual connection, which supports community, justice, fairness, generosity and love, and with all this a person can earn gratitude and praise from people, and favor and mercy from his creator. God has also placed in man’s chest the ability to withstand every labor, every misfortune, every blow of fate, to overcome every difficulty, to overcome sorrow, and not to be afraid of death. He gave man strength, fortitude, firmness, strength, contempt for insignificant trifles... Therefore, be convinced that man is born not to drag out a sad existence in inaction, but to work on a great and grandiose cause. By this he can, firstly, please God and honor him and, secondly, acquire for himself the most perfect virtues and complete happiness.”

Discussions on this topic were a favorite subject of humanists (Petrarch; Alberti, treatise "About family", 1433-43, 41; Manetti, treatise "On the Dignity and Superiority of Man" 1451-52; Ficino; Pico della Mirandola, "It's about human dignity" 1486) .

All their reasoning was imbued with one main idea - admiration for reason and its creative power. Reason is an invaluable gift of nature, which distinguishes man from all things, making him godlike. For the humanist, wisdom was the highest good available to people, and therefore they considered the promotion of classical literature their most important task. In wisdom and knowledge, they believed, a person finds true happiness - and this was his true nobility.

In contrast to the medieval and feudal ideal of the individual (religious and class), the new ideal, the humanistic one, had a clearly defined secular and social orientation. Humanists, drawing on the ancients, reject the importance of origin in assessing the dignity of a person, which now depends on his individual qualities.

Virtue [ | ]

A common feature of the worldview of the early humanists, which stemmed from their inherent desire to revive as much as possible the ideas and spirit of ancient culture, while preserving all the main content of Christian doctrine, was its paganization, that is, saturation with ancient, “pagan” moral and philosophical ideas. For example, Eneo Silvio Piccolomini, one of the humanists of this era, wrote that “Christianity is nothing more than a new, more complete presentation of the doctrine of the highest good of the ancients”- and, characteristically, Piccolomini will become Pope Pius II.

Any reasoning of humanists was supported by examples from ancient history. They loved to compare their contemporaries with the outstanding “men of antiquity” ( uomini illustri): the Florentines preferred the philosophers and politicians of Republican Rome, and the feudal circles preferred the generals and Caesars. At the same time, turning to antiquity was not felt as a resurrection of the dead - the proud feeling of being direct descendants and continuers of traditions allowed humanists to remain themselves: “the half-forgotten treasures of art and literature of antiquity are brought to light with jubilation, like expensive, long-lost property.”

Attitude to Christianity[ | ]

Humanists never opposed themselves to religion. At the same time, opposing themselves to scholastic philosophizing, they believed that they were reviving the true Church and faith in God, without finding any contradiction in the combination of Christianity with ancient philosophy.

“Praising the human mind, humanists saw in rational human nature the image of God, what God endowed man with so that man could perfect and improve his earthly life. As a rational being, man is a creator and it is in this that he is similar to God. Therefore, a person’s duty is to participate in the world, and not to leave it, to improve the world, and not to look at it with ascetic detachment as something unnecessary for salvation. Man and the world are beautiful, because they were created by God, and man’s task is to improve the world, making it even more beautiful, in this man is a co-worker with God.” Thus, humanists argue with the work written by Pope Innocent III “On contempt for the world, or on the insignificance of human life”, where the body is humiliated and the spirit is praised, and they strive to rehabilitate the bodily principle in man (Gianozzo Manetti): The whole world created by God for man is beautiful, but the pinnacle of his creation is only man, whose body is many times superior to all other bodies. How amazing, for example, are his hands, these “living tools”, capable of any kind of work! Man is a reasonable, prudent and very insightful animal (...animal rationale, providum et saga...), it differs from the latter in that if every animal is capable of one activity, then a person can engage in any of them. Spiritual-physical man is so beautiful that he, being the creation of God, at the same time serves as the main model according to which the ancient pagans, and after them Christians, depict their gods, which contributes to the worship of God, especially among more rude and uneducated people. God is the creator of all things, while man is the creator of the great and beautiful kingdom of culture, material and spiritual.

At the same time, in relation to the clergy, humanists experienced more negative emotions: “the weakening of the humanists’ ties with the church, since many of them lived on the income received from their professional activities (as well as from noble and wealthy people who were independent of the church), increased their hostility in relation to official scholarship, imbued with the church-scholastic spirit. For many of them, such hostility developed into a sharply critical attitude towards the entire system of this scholarship, to its theoretical and philosophical foundations, to authoritarianism, outside and without which this scholarship could not exist. It is also important to recall that the humanistic movement began in Italy during the era of the decline of the moral and political authority of the papacy associated with the events of its Avignon captivity (1309-1375), frequent schisms of the Catholic Church, when antipopes appeared in opposition to the legitimate popes and when the supremacy was disputed at church councils popes in the life of the church (...) The revival of this [classical Latin] language was a form of criticism of the dominant church-scholastic scholarship and religious practice, which operated in a “spoiled”, inexpressive Latin, far from ancient Roman classical images.” Critical studies of the history of the Catholic Church appear (“On the forgery of the Gift of Constantine”).

Humanistic theory of art[ | ]

An important theorist and practitioner working on this topic was Leon Battista Alberti. At the heart of early humanistic aesthetics was the idea of ​​the ability of art to be imitated, borrowed from antiquity. "Imitation of Nature" ( imitatio, imitatio) is not simple copying, but a creative act with a conscious selection of the most perfect. The idea of ​​“art” (as a craft) was introduced in conjunction with talent, genius (individual interpretation by the artist) - ars et ingenium, as a formula for the aesthetic assessment of a work of art. The concept of “similarity” ( similitudo) - as a direct likeness necessary for a portrait.

Genres of humanist creativity[ | ]

Epistoles [ | ]

Letters (epistoles) were one of the most common genres of humanist creativity. They used letters not for the exchange of topical and personal information, but for general reasoning and exercises in literature according to the Cicero model. The epistole was often sent not only to the addressee, but also to his friends, who, in turn, made copies of it, so that as a result the message was distributed in many copies. In essence, it was not a “letter”, as this concept is interpreted today, but a composition of a special literary genre, which in some ways anticipated journalism. Since the time of Petrarch, the letters of humanists from the very beginning were intended specifically for publication.

The style of these letters was characterized by solemnity and publicity. As the researchers note, perhaps “no other type of source so expressively shows the artificiality, contrivedness, and stylized nature of the life and communication of humanists as their epistles.” Characteristic subgenres of epistol:

• consolatoriae- "consolation"
• hortatoriae- "inspirational appeal"

The authors, having accumulated a sufficient number of epistles, compiled collections of them, which they included in their lifetime collections of works. This is what Petrarch did, for example, from whom everyone took an example. Petrarch revised and edited his "Letters to Loved Ones" retroactively (the first two books of these Letters are dated 1330-40, but were actually rewritten c. 1351-40 and revised and corrected until 1366). Some of these letters were even addressed to the long-deceased Cicero or Seneca, which allowed the author to express his position on various issues.

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Introduction

1. Humanists of the Italian Renaissance

2. Humanists of the Northern Renaissance

2.1 Revival in the Netherlands

2.2 Humanists in Germany and Switzerland

2.3 French Renaissance

2.4 Renaissance England

2.5 Humanists of Spain

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The Renaissance was the greatest progressive revolution of all that humanity had experienced up to that time, an era that “needed titans and which gave birth to titans in strength of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning.” According to some sources, the era dates back to the XIV-XVII centuries. according to others - to the XV-XVIII centuries. There is also a point of view not to single out the Renaissance as an era, but to consider it the late Middle Ages. This is a period of crisis of feudalism and the development of bourgeois relations in economics and ideology. The term “Renaissance” (Renaissance) was introduced to show that in this era the best values ​​and ideals of antiquity, destroyed by barbarians (architecture, sculpture, painting, philosophy, literature) were revived, but this term was interpreted very conditionally, because . You cannot restore the entire past. This is not a revival of the past in its pure form - it is the creation of a new one using many of the spiritual and material values ​​of antiquity. Moreover, it was impossible to erase the values ​​of nine centuries of the Middle Ages, especially the spiritual values ​​associated with Christianity. Renaissance humanism believed that man's greatest asset was his thought and knowledge, and the measure of his actions was the skill of their execution.

The cultural revolution accomplished by the Renaissance is especially significant, of course, for the spiritual life of Europe. But directly or indirectly, immediately or after several centuries, it affected the culture and way of life of all peoples of the world, because it was the Renaissance spirit - individual freedom, bold knowledge, admiration for the ancient, primarily Hellenistic-Roman universality, intellectual insatiability - that allowed Europeans to take political, cultural and economic hegemony throughout the world.

At each stage of this era, a certain direction was dominant. If at first it was “Prometheism”, i.e. an ideology that presupposes the equality of all people by nature, as well as the recognition of private interest and individualism. Then new social theories appear, reflecting the spirit of the times, and the theory of humanism plays a dominant role. It was humanism in the Renaissance that provided unity to such diverse cultures of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and England.

humanist renaissance french renaissance

1. Humanists of the Italian Renaissance

Initially, the features of the Renaissance were discovered in Italy. The era of the Italian Renaissance is conventionally divided into a number of stages:

· Early Renaissance

· High Renaissance

· Late Renaissance

· End of the Renaissance

Early Renaissance

The literary work of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio dates back to this period.

Francesca Petrarch (1304-1374) remained in the history of the Renaissance as the first humanist who placed man, rather than God, at the center of his work. Petrarch is also known as a passionate popularizer of the heritage of ancient authors, as evidenced by his treatise “On the Great Men of Antiquity.”

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), a student of Petrarch, is the author of the famous collection of realistic short stories “The Decameron”. The deeply humanistic beginning of Boccaccio's works is full of subtle observations, excellent knowledge of psychology, humor and optimism.

Masaccio (1401-1428) is considered an outstanding master of the Early Renaissance. The artists' paintings are distinguished by their energetic light and shadow modeling, plastic physicality, three-dimensionality of figures and their compositional linkage with the landscape.

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) an outstanding master of the Early Renaissance, who worked at the Medici court in Florence. Among the works created by Botticelli, the painting “The Birth of Venus” became the most famous, clearly characterizing the peculiarity of his work.

Donatello (1386-1466), a famous sculptor of the first half of the 15th century, revived ancient traditions. He was the first to introduce the naked body in sculpture and created classical forms and types of Renaissance sculpture: a new type of round statue and sculptural group, picturesque relief.

Filippo Brunellschi (1377-1446), an outstanding architect and sculptor of the Early Renaissance - one of the founders of Renaissance architecture. He managed to revive the basic elements of ancient architecture. This allowed the master to orient the buildings towards people, and not suppress them, which, in particular, the buildings of medieval architecture were designed for. Brunellski talentedly solved the most complex technical problems (the construction of the dome of the Florence Cathedral), and made a great contribution to fundamental science (the theory of linear perspective).

High Renaissance

The High Renaissance period was relatively short. It is associated primarily with the names of three brilliant masters, titans of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarotti. The characteristic background for the rise of the Renaissance was the economic and political decline of Italy - a pattern that was repeated more than once in history. In the work of representatives of the High Renaissance, the realistic and humanistic foundations of Renaissance culture reached their peak.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) has hardly any equal in terms of talent and versatility among the representatives of the Renaissance. It is difficult to name an industry in which he has not achieved unsurpassed skill. Leonardo was at the same time an artist, an art theorist, and a sculptor. An architect, mathematician, physicist, mechanic, astronomer, physiologist, botanist, enriching these and other areas of knowledge with discoveries and brilliant guesses. In his artistic heritage, such masterpieces that have come down to us as “The Last Supper” and the portrait of “La Gioconda” (“Mona Lisa”) are especially notable.

Among Leonardo's many innovations, one should mention a special style of writing. Dubbed smoky, which, combined with linear perspective, conveyed the depth of space.

Raphael Santi (1483-1520), a great Italian painter, went down in the history of world culture as the creator of a number of painting masterpieces. This is the master’s early work “Madonna Conestabile”, imbued with grace and soft lyricism. The artist's mature works are distinguished by the perfection of compositional solutions, color and expression. These are the paintings of the state rooms of the Vatican Palace, and Raphael's greatest creation - the Sistine Madonna. The master also gained fame for his architectural designs for palaces, villas, a church and a small chapel in the Vatican. Dad a lionX appointed the artist to lead the construction of the dome of St. Petra.

Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) - great sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Despite his versatile talents, he is called, first of all, the first draftsman of Italy thanks to the most significant work of an already mature artist - painting the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace (1502-1512). The total area of ​​the fresco is 600 sq. meters. The multi-figure composition of the fresco illustrates biblical scenes from the creation of the world. What especially stands out from the master’s paintings is the fresco of the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel painting “The Last Judgment,” painted a quarter of a century after the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This fresco embodies the best humanistic ideals of the Renaissance. The artist’s boldness in depicting naked bodies aroused the indignation of part of the clergy, which indicated the beginning of a reaction to the foundations of the ideology of the Renaissance.

Late Renaissance

The Late Renaissance period was marked by the onset of Catholic reaction. The Church unsuccessfully tried to restore the partially lost undivided power over minds, encouraging cultural figures, on the one hand, and using repressive measures against the disobedient, on the other. Thus, many painters, poets, sculptors, and architects abandoned the ideas of humanism, inheriting only the manner and technique of the so-called mannerism (manner, style) of the great masters of the Renaissance. Among the most important founders of mannerism are Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557) and Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), who worked mainly in the genre of portraiture.

However, mannerism, despite the powerful patronage of the church, did not become a leading movement during the Late Renaissance. This time was marked by the realistic, humanistic work of painters belonging to the Venetian school: Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), Jacopo Tintoreto (1518-1594), Michelangelo da Caravaggio (1573-1610) and others.

Caravaggio is the founder of the realistic movement in European painting of the 17th century. The master's canvases are distinguished by their simplicity of composition, emotional tension, expressed through contrasts of light and shadow, and democracy. Caravaggio was the first to contrast the imitative direction in painting (mannerism) with realistic subjects of folk life - caravaggism.

The last of the most important sculptors and jewelers in Italy was Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), in whose work the realistic canons of the Renaissance were clearly evident. Cellini remained in the history of culture not only as a jeweler who gave his name to an entire period in the development of applied art, but also as an extraordinary memoirist who talentedly recreated portraits of his contemporaries in the book “The Life of Benvenuto Cellini,” which was published more than once in Russian.

The end of the Renaissance

In the 40s of the 16th century, the church in Italy began to widely use repression against dissenters. In 1542, the Inquisition was reorganized and its tribunal was created in Rome. Many advanced scientists and thinkers who continued to adhere to the traditions of the Renaissance were repressed and died at the stake of the Inquisition (among them the great Italian astronomer Giordano Bruno, 1548-1600). In 1540, the Jesuit Order was established, which essentially turned into a repressive body of the Vatican. In 1559, Pope Paul IV first published the “List of Prohibited Books,” which was subsequently supplemented several times. The books named in this list were forbidden to be read by believers under pain of excommunication. Among the books to be destroyed were many works of humanistic literature of the Renaissance. Thus, the Renaissance ended in Italy by the early 40s of the 17th century.

2. Humanists of the Northern Renaissance

Humanism in the Renaissance ensured the unity of the various systems, implying not only geographical characteristics, but also some features of the Renaissance in England, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France. Very important features of the Northern Renaissance were that it took place during the period of the Reformation, as well as the fact that in the culture of the peoples of these countries, due to historical reasons, there was no such abundance of ancient monuments as in Italy.

The last chronological period of the Renaissance is the era of the Reformation, completing this greatest progressive revolution in the development of European culture. Usually the historical significance of the Renaissance is associated with the ideas and artistic achievements of humanism, which proclaimed the greatness and dignity of man in contrast to medieval Christian asceticism. His right to reasonable activity, to pleasure and happiness in earthly life. Humanists saw in man the most beautiful and perfect creation of God. They extended to man the creation and creative abilities inherent in God; they saw his purpose in the knowledge and transformation of the world, adorned by his work, in the development of sciences and crafts.

And this deified man of the humanists was contrasted by the reformists with the idea of ​​the complete insignificance of man before God, and their optimistic and cheerful outlook with the stern spirit of voluntary self-restraint and self-discipline. They have contempt for “philosophizing” and absolute trust in religion, reaching the point of obscurantism and hatred of science.

The Reformation is a broad religious and socio-political movement that began in the 16th century in Germany and aimed at reforming the Christian religion. Beginning in Germany, the Reformation swept a number of European countries and led to the falling away from the Catholic Church in England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.

The beginning of the Reformation in Germany is associated with the speech of Martin Luther (1483-1546), who proclaimed 95 theses against indulgences on October 31, 1517. They argued that the church and the clergy are not mediators between God and man, therefore the church cannot forgive sins. Human faith is the only means of communication with God, therefore the claims of the church to a dominant position in the world and worldly life are groundless.

The demands of a renewed church and the secularization of its lands, proclaimed by the reformers, attracted Lutheranism peasants - the largest class of feudal society, which expressed their protest against the Catholic Church, but also against the feudal lords in the bloody Peasant War of 1525. Internal contradictions that tore apart the camp of the reformers, as well as powerful resistance to Lutheranism from Rome, weakened Germany during the Peasant War led to strengthening and consolidating the fragmentation of the country. As a result of the religious peace of 1555, 2 groups of German principalities were formed in Germany. The Catholic Church maintained its position in all the hereditary states of the Habsburgs, Bavaria, Franconia, the ecclesiastical principalities on the Rhine and in North-West Germany and Alsace, while the North German principalities, the Duchy of Prussia, Brandenburg, Saxony, Hesse, Breunschweig and Wertemberg reformed the church in the spirit of Lutheranism.

Following Germany, the reform movement quickly spread to other European countries. However, in different countries the Reformation had its own characteristics. Among the countries that had a powerful influence on the process of the Reformation in Europe was Switzerland, where Zwinglianism originated and Calvinism developed.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) whose reformation teaching had much in common with Lutheranism, but more decisively demanded a change in rituals. In contrast to the Lutheran doctrine, Zwinglianism defended the republican principles of the structure of the church and society, which caused a gap between these reformation movements and, to a certain extent, determined the narrow limits of its popularity in Europe. The initial success of Zwinglianism in Switzerland, the highest point of which can be considered the unification of part of the reformed Protestant cantons, was replaced by the complete military defeat of the center of Zwinglianism in Zurich in the war with hostile groups and the death of Zwingli himself.

Nevertheless, on the fertile soil prepared by Zwinglianism in Switzerland, Calvinism flourished, going far beyond the borders of this country.

John Calvin (1509-1564), the head of a major Protestant movement, was born in France, and in 1556 he arrived in Geneva, which became the new center of the Reformation movement. Calvin's teaching most consistently defended the interests of the bourgeoisie, being directed against both Catholicism and the currents of the popular Reformation. To a large extent, the success of Calvinism in Switzerland, as well as in other countries, was determined by the republican principles of the organization of the reformed church, combined with intolerance towards manifestations of dissent.

2.1 Revival in the Netherlands

Since the 15th century, the Netherlands has become a major center of European culture. The rapid economic development of the country, however within the framework of the Burgundian state, left its mark on the character of Dutch culture. The development of humanistic ideas occurred under the influence of fairly close ties with Italy and a number of other European countries and, which seems very important, under the influence of the struggle for national independence.

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) was the largest representative of the culture of the Renaissance of the Netherlands. The humanist gained great popularity from his satirical works “In Praise of Stupidity”, “Home Conversations”, etc., in which superstitions, scholastic worldview, class arrogance and other vices were ridiculed. The humanist's satire contributed to the education of free-thinking, the desire for knowledge, and the development of entrepreneurship. The thinker's works went far beyond the Netherlands, having a strong impact on the humanistic process in Germany, France, Spain, and England. At the same time, the ideas of Erasmus of Rotterdam were not of a sharp radical nature; the thinker rather sought compromise solutions to rather acute religious, philosophical, social and political problems.

During the revolutionary decades in the Netherlands, humanist literature understandably took on a more radical character, as evidenced by Philip Aldehonde's (1539-1598) work The Beehive of the Holy Roman Church.

However, to a greater extent, the traditions of the Italian Renaissance were developed in the artistic creativity of the Netherlands. This small country gave the world culture of painters:

Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441), with whom the new technique of oil painting is associated; Hieronymus (1460-1516); Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569); Frans Hals (1585-1666).

The Netherlands became the birthplace of two independent genres of painting - still life and landscape, the flourishing of which was caused by the fact that the Reformation forbade artists to paint pictures on religious themes, and they had to look for new directions.

The most remarkable artists of Europe in the 17th century were the Dutch:

Peter Powel Rubens (1577-1640);

Harmens van Rhein Rembrandt (1606-1669).

In Rubens's work, elation, pathos, violent movement, and decorative brilliance of color are inseparable from the sensual beauty of images and accurate observations of reality. Rubens painted paintings on religious and mythological subjects (“Descent from the Cross”, “Union of Earth and Water”), as well as portraits full of life and charm (“Cameristics”, etc.)

An interesting form of spreading education and popularizing advanced ideas that arose in the Netherlands were rhetorical societies, which were created by enthusiasts in cities and rural areas. The voluntary and extremely democratic nature of these associations made their activities very effective.

2.2 Humanists of Germany and Switzerland

The ideas of humanism penetrated Germany in the middle of the 15th century. The features of the humanistic movement in Germany were determined by the development of oppositional sentiments among the burghers against the backdrop of the strong influence of the Catholic Church and the political fragmentation of the country. As a result, the humanist movement in Germany was fragmented and included mainly university circles and part of the small intelligentsia.

Erasmus of Rotterdam enjoyed enormous authority and influence among humanists. German humanists imitated his satires. The outstanding humanist, philologist and philosopher Johann Reuchlin (1455-1552) held very moderate views, but his desire to discover the divine in man himself and his critical attitude towards ignorance and scholasticism became an ideological argument in the fight against the dominance of the official church.

The success of the Reformation in Germany contributed to the rapid growth of a national humanistic culture. Fine art reached a special flourishing. One of its outstanding representatives, whose work to a certain extent determined the direction of German art and culture for a long time, was the painter and engraver Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). In intensely expressive forms and fantastic images, he embodied the expectations of world-historical changes (engravings “Apocalypse”), expressed humanistic ideas about the meaning of life and the tasks of art. His contemporaries were a major master of realistic portraiture: Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543); Grunveld (1470-1528) and Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) humanist artists.

German literature was further developed in the works of the poet Hans Sachs (1494-1576), the author of a large number (4275) of fables, songs, dramatic works, and the satirist Johann Fischart (1546-1590).

The humanistic culture of Switzerland developed under very similar circumstances of the reform movement. The victory in the 40s of the Reformation in Switzerland also facilitated the development of humanistic culture in the country and had a huge impact on the reformation process far beyond the borders of the Swiss cantons.

2.3 French Renaissance

The humanistic movement captured France only at the beginning of the 16th century. At that time, France was an absolute monarchy, which generally left an imprint on its culture. An equally important feature of the humanist movement in France was its pronounced national character.

A particularly outstanding representative of French humanism was the author of the satirical novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais (1494-1553). This folk work is based on folk books about giants that were very widespread in the 16th century. The author mercilessly castigates the Catholic Church for the vices of its ministers, ridicules ignorance, bigotry, and servility. The literary group of seven poets - the “Pleiades” - had great educational significance. Its founders, the poets Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) and Jaoquet Du Bellay (1522-1566), inspired by classical models, worked to improve French poetry and contributed to the development of a national modern language.

Social thought, philosophy, and ethics reach significant heights. During these years, the outstanding thinker and humanist of France Michel De Montaigne (1533-1592), the founder of the literary form - the essay, worked. Montaigne's major work, the essay “Essays,” which affirmed the ideas of rationalism, had an impact on the development of Western European thought.

2.4 Renaissance in England

The development of the Renaissance in England was long-term. At the same time, the initial influence of the ideas of the Italian Renaissance on the work of the humanists of England is very clearly visible. The oldest University of Oxford was the center of humanistic ideas. The largest representative of the Renaissance is considered to be Thomas More (1478-1535), the author of the socio-philosophical work “Utopia”, which laid the foundation for the direction of utopian socialism. Humanistic The poetry of England is represented by Thomas Wyeth (1503-1542), who introduced the sonnet genre into English poetry, Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and the most gifted poet Leicester Edmund Spencer (1552-1599), who was called “the poet of poets.”

The heyday of the Renaissance in England occurred at the end of the 16th - 17th centuries, reaching its peak in the work of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The titan of the English Renaissance was penned by 37 plays, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, which have not left the theater stages to this day, as well as numerous poems, cycles, poems and unsurpassed sonnets. Thanks to Shakespeare's work, the theatrical art of England developed, which played a significant educational role. His plays are written in blank verse with characteristic prose.

2.5 Humanists of Spain

Unlike England, where the Reformation triumphed, the culture of Spain developed within the framework of the dominance of Catholic ideology, based on the repressive apparatus of the Inquisition. Therefore, the humanistic movement did not have a pronounced anti-religious character. Nevertheless, the 16th-17th centuries were marked by the rise of Spanish culture, primarily due to the completion of the process of reconquista (conquest of territory by the indigenous population) and the unification of Castile and Argonne.

In the field of literary creativity, knightly and picaresque novels are becoming widespread. The largest representative of this genre was the great Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), author of the novel Don Quixote, which is a high example of humanistic literature and had a great influence on world culture.

The founder of Spanish national drama was Lope de Vega (1562-1635), the author of a huge number of literary works.

Renaissance painting in Spain achieved significant success in the works of El Greco (1541-1614) and Diego Velazquez (1599-1660).

El Greco’s creations are distinguished by increased spirituality, sharp angles, shimmering colors (“Apostles Peter and Paul”, “Burial of Count Orgaz”, etc.)

Velazquez's paintings are distinguished by the courage of romantic observations, the ability to penetrate into the character of a character, and a heightened sense of harmony.

Conclusion

The period of cultural development called the Renaissance turned out to be the brightest time of the rise of the creative, spiritual forces of society. The origins and prerequisites for this qualitative leap in all spheres of spiritual Europe in comparison with the Middle Ages should be sought precisely in the previous period. Despite the fact that each country experienced the Renaissance in its own way, we can still talk about the unifying common features of Renaissance culture for all countries. This is, first of all, the philosophy of humanism as the fundamental doctrine of the era, a revaluation of the importance of the individual in the biosociocultural process. The main dissemination of the humanistic doctrine of the Renaissance in Europe was the formation of a market economy, the subjects of which were in dire need of a new worldview. This worldview was born in a stubborn struggle against the frozen traditional church scholasticism. The Reformation movement, as an integral part of the sociocultural process of the Renaissance, also covered most Western European countries, sometimes taking extreme forms of bloody wars for the new church. In other words, the Renaissance cannot be considered only within the obviously narrow framework of the development of individual branches of spiritual culture. The Renaissance laid the foundations for the value system of modern Western European civilization, without losing such a strong influence on the peoples of Eastern civilization.

The exceptional role of the Renaissance in the formation of world civilization and culture is obvious. Without proclaiming any socio-political ideal; without demanding a remake of society; without making any scientific discoveries or achievements in artistic creativity. The era changed the consciousness of man and opened up new spiritual horizons for him. A person received the freedom to think independently, freed himself from the authoritarian tutelage of the papacy and the church, received the highest sanction for him - religious - that his own reason and conscience can tell him how to live.

The Renaissance contributed to the emergence of an independent person with freedom of moral choice, independent and responsible in his judgments and actions. The bearers of Protestant ideas expressed a new type of personality with a new culture and attitude to the world.

Bibliography

1. Vvedensky B.A. Encyclopedic Dictionary in 2 volumes - M., 1963

2. Gurevich P.S. Culturology: Textbook. - M., 1996

3. Shishova N.V., Akulich T.V., Boyko M.I. History and Culturology: A textbook for university students. - M., 2000

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The humanists included representatives of different professions: teachers - Filelfo, Poggio Bracciolini, Vittorino da Feltre, Leonardo Bruni; philosophers - Lorenzo Valla, Pico della Mirandola; writers - Petrarch, Boccaccio; artists - Alberti and others.

The work of Francesc Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) represents an early period in the development of Italian humanism, which laid the foundations for a more coherent and systematized worldview that was developed by later thinkers.

Petrarch with extraordinary force revived interest in antiquity, especially in Homer. Thus, he marked the beginning of that revival of ancient antiquity, which was so characteristic of the entire Renaissance. At the same time, Petrarch formulated a new attitude towards art, opposite to that which underlay medieval aesthetics. For Petrarch, art had ceased to be a simple craft and began to acquire a new, humanistic meaning. In this regard, Petrarch’s treatise “Invective against a certain physician” is extremely interesting, representing a polemic with Salutati, who argued that medicine should be recognized as a higher art than poetry. This thought arouses Petrarch's angry protest. “It’s an unheard of sacrilege,” he exclaims, “to subordinate a mistress to a maid, free art to a mechanical one.” Rejecting the approach to poetry as a craft activity, Petrarch interprets it as a free, creative art. Of no less interest is Petrarch’s treatise “Remedies for the Treatment of Happy and Unlucky Fate,” which depicts the struggle between reason and feeling in relation to the sphere of art and pleasure, and, ultimately, the feeling close to earthly interests wins.

Another outstanding Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, played an equally important role in substantiating new aesthetic principles. The author of the Decameron devoted a quarter of a century to working on what he considered to be the main work of his life, the theoretical treatise The Genealogy of the Pagan Gods.

Of particular interest are the XIV and XV books of this extensive work, written in the “defense of poetry” against medieval attacks on it. These books, which gained enormous popularity during the Renaissance, laid the foundation for a special genre of “poetry apologia.”

Essentially, we are seeing here a polemic with medieval aesthetics. Boccaccio opposes the accusation of poetry and poets of immorality, excess, frivolity, deception, etc. In contrast to medieval authors who reproached Homer and other ancient writers for depicting frivolous scenes, Boccaccio proves the poet’s right to depict any subjects.

It is also unfair, according to Boccaccio, to accuse poets of lying. Poets do not lie, but only “weave fiction”, telling the truth under the cover of deception or, more precisely, fiction. In this regard, Boccaccio passionately argues for the right of poetry to fiction (inventi), the invention of the new. In the chapter “That poets are not deceitful,” Boccaccio says directly: poets “... are not bound by the obligation to adhere to the truth in the external form of fiction; on the contrary, if we take away from them the right to freely use any kind of invention, all the benefits of their work will turn to dust.”

Boccaccio calls poetry "divine science." Moreover, sharpening the conflict between poetry and theology, he declares theology itself to be a type of poetry, because it, like poetry, turns to fiction and allegories.

In his apology for poetry, Boccaccio argued that its most important qualities are passion (furor) and ingenuity (inventio). This attitude towards poetry had nothing in common with the artisanal approach to art; it justified the freedom of the artist, his right to creativity.

Thus, already in the 14th century, the early Italian humanists formed a new attitude towards art as a free activity, as an activity of imagination and fantasy. All these principles formed the basis of aesthetic theories of the 15th century.

Italian humanist teachers also made a significant contribution to the development of the aesthetic worldview of the Renaissance, creating a new system of upbringing and education focused on the ancient world and ancient philosophy.

In Italy, starting from the first decade of the 15th century, a whole series of treatises on education appeared one after another, written by humanist educators: “On noble morals and liberal sciences” by Paolo Vergerio, “On the education of children and their good morals” by Matteo Veggio, “ On free education" by Gianozzo Manetti, "On scientific and literary studies" by Leonardo Bruni, "On the order of teaching and learning" by Battisto Guarino, "Treatise on free education" by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini and others. Eleven Italian treatises on pedagogy have come down to us. In addition, numerous letters from humanists are devoted to the topic of education. All this constitutes the vast heritage of humanistic thought.

During the Renaissance, a completely new type of Neoplatonism emerged, which opposed medieval scholasticism and “scholasticized” Aristotelianism.

The first stages in the development of Neoplatonic aesthetics were associated with the name of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464).

It should be noted that aesthetics was not just one of the areas of knowledge that Nikolai Kuzansky addressed along with other disciplines. The originality of the aesthetic teachings of Nicholas of Cusa lies in the fact that it was an organic part of his ontology, epistemology, and ethics. This synthesis of aesthetics with epistemology and ontology does not allow us to consider the aesthetic views of Nicholas of Cusanus in isolation from his philosophy as a whole, and on the other hand, the aesthetics of Cusansky reveals some important aspects of his teaching about the world and knowledge.

Nicholas of Cusa is the last thinker of the Middle Ages and the first philosopher of the Modern Age. Therefore, his aesthetics uniquely intertwine the ideas of the Middle Ages and the new, Renaissance consciousness. From the Middle Ages he borrows the “symbolism of numbers,” the medieval idea of ​​the unity of the micro and macrocosmos, the medieval definition of beauty as “proportion” and “clarity” of color. However, he significantly rethinks and reinterprets the heritage of medieval aesthetic thought. The idea of ​​the numerical nature of beauty was not a simple fantasy game for Nicholas of Cusa - he sought to find confirmation of this idea with the help of mathematics, logic and experimental knowledge. The idea of ​​the unity of the micro- and macrocosmos was transformed in his interpretation into the idea of ​​a high, almost divine purpose of the human personality. Finally, in his interpretation the traditional medieval formula about beauty as “proportion” and “clarity” receives a completely new meaning.

Nikolai Kuzansky develops his concept of beauty in his treatise “On Beauty”. Here he relies mainly on the Areopagitica and on Albertus Magnus's treatise On Goodness and Beauty, which is one of the commentaries on the Areopagitica. From “Areopagitik” Nikolai Kuzansky borrows the idea of ​​​​the emanation (origin) of beauty from the divine mind, of light as a prototype of beauty, etc. Nikolai Kuzansky expounds all these ideas of Neoplatonic aesthetics in detail, providing them with comments.

The aesthetics of Nicholas of Cusa unfolds in full accordance with his ontology. The basis of being is the following dialectical trinity: complicatio - folding, explicatio - unfolding and alternitas - otherness. This corresponds to the following elements - unity, difference and connection - which lie in the structure of everything in the world, including the basis of beauty.

In his treatise “On Beauty,” Nikolai Kuzansky considers beauty as the unity of three elements that correspond to the dialectical trinity of being. Beauty turns out to be, first of all, an infinite unity of form, which manifests itself in the form of proportion and harmony. Secondly, this unity unfolds and gives rise to the difference between goodness and beauty, and, finally, a connection arises between these two elements: realizing itself, beauty gives rise to something new - love as the final and highest point of beauty.

Nikolai Kuzansky interprets this love in the spirit of Neoplatonism, as an ascent from the beauty of sensual things to a higher, spiritual beauty. Love, says Nikolai Kuzansky, is the ultimate goal of beauty, “our concern should be to ascend from the beauty of sensual things to the beauty of our spirit...”.

Thus, the three elements of beauty correspond to the three stages of development of being: unity, difference and connection. Unity appears in the form of proportion, difference - in the transition of beauty into goodness, connection is carried out through love.

This is the teaching of Nicholas of Cusa about beauty. It is quite obvious that this teaching is closely related to the philosophy and aesthetics of Neoplatonism.

The aesthetics of Neoplatonism significantly influenced not only the theory, but also the practice of art. Studies of the philosophy and art of the Renaissance have shown a close connection between the aesthetics of Neoplatonism and the work of outstanding Italian artists (Raphael, Botticelli, Titian and others). Neoplatonism revealed to the art of the Renaissance the beauty of nature as a reflection of spiritual beauty, aroused interest in human psychology, and revealed dramatic collisions of spirit and body, the struggle between feelings and reason. Without revealing these contradictions and collisions, the art of the Renaissance could not have achieved that deepest sense of internal harmony, which is one of the most significant features of the art of this era.

The famous Italian humanist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was affiliated with Plato's Academy. He touches on problems of aesthetics in his famous “Speech on the Dignity of Man,” written in 1486 as an introduction to his proposed debate with the participation of all European philosophers, and in “Commentary on the Canzone of Love by Girolamo Benivieni,” read at one of the meetings of Plato’s Academy .

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico develops a humanistic concept of the human person. Man has free will, he is at the center of the universe, and it depends on him whether he rises to the heights of a deity or sinks to the level of an animal. In the work of Pico della Mirandola, God addresses Adam with the following parting words: “We do not give you, O Adam, neither your place, nor a specific image, nor a special duty, so that you have the place, and the person, and the duty 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, into the power of which I leave you. I place you at the center of the world, so that from there it will be more convenient for you to view everything that is in the world. I made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that you yourself... could form yourself in the image that you prefer.”

Thus, Pico della Mirandola forms in this work a completely new concept of human personality. He says that man himself is the creator, the master of his own image. Humanistic thought places man at the center of the universe and speaks of the unlimited possibilities for the development of the human personality.

The idea of ​​the dignity of the human person, deeply developed by Pico della Mirandola, firmly entered the philosophical and aesthetic consciousness of the Renaissance. Outstanding Renaissance artists drew their optimism and enthusiasm from it.

A more detailed system of aesthetic views of Pico della Mirandola is contained in the “Commentary on the Canzone of Love by Girolamo Benivieni.”

This treatise is closely related to the Neoplatonic tradition. Like most of the works of the Italian Neoplatonists, it is devoted to Plato’s teaching on the nature of love, and love is interpreted in a broad philosophical sense. Pico defines it as “the desire for beauty,” thereby connecting Platonic ethics and cosmology with aesthetics, with the doctrine of beauty and the harmonious structure of the world.

The doctrine of harmony thus occupies a central place in this philosophical treatise. Speaking about the concept of beauty, Pico della Mirandola states the following: “The concept of harmony is associated with the broad and general meaning of the term “beauty”. Thus, they say that God created the whole world in musical and harmonic composition, but just as the term “harmony” in a broad sense can be used to designate the composition of every creation, and in its proper sense it means only the fusion of several voices into a melody, so beauty can be called the proper composition of any thing, although its own meaning relates only to visible things, like harmony - to audible things.”

Pico della Mirandola was characterized by a pantheistic understanding of harmony, which he interpreted as the unity of the micro- and macrocosm. “...Man, in his various properties, has connections and similarities with all parts of the world and for this reason is usually called a microcosm - a small world.”

But, speaking in the spirit of the Neoplatonists about the meaning and role of harmony, about its connection with beauty, with the structure of nature and the cosmos, Mirandola to a certain extent departs from Ficino and other Neoplatonists in understanding the essence of harmony. For Ficino, the source of beauty is in God or in the world soul, which serve as the prototype for all nature and all things that exist in the world. Mirandola rejects this view. Moreover, he even enters into direct polemics with Ficino, refuting his opinion about the divine origin of the world soul. In his opinion, the role of the creator god is limited only to the creation of the mind - this “incorporeal and intelligent” nature. God no longer has any connection with everything else - the soul, love, beauty: “... according to the Platonists, says the philosopher, God did not directly produce any other creation other than the first mind.”

Thus, Pico della Mirandola's concept of God is closer to the Aristotelian idea of ​​the prime mover than to Platonic idealism.

The center of the development of aesthetic thought of the Renaissance in the 15th century was the aesthetics of the greatest Italian artist and humanist thinker Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472).

In Alberti’s numerous works, including works on the theory of art, the pedagogical essay “On the Family,” and the moral and philosophical treatise “On the Peace of the Soul,” humanistic views occupy a significant place. Like most humanists, Alberti shared an optimistic thought about the limitless possibilities of human knowledge, about the divine destiny of man, about his omnipotence and exceptional position in the world. Alberti’s humanistic ideals were reflected in his treatise “On the Family”, in which he wrote that nature “made man partly heavenly and divine, partly the most beautiful among the entire mortal world... she gave him intelligence, understanding, memory and reason - properties that are divine and at the same time necessary in order to distinguish and understand what should be avoided and what should be strived for in order to better preserve ourselves.” This idea, in many ways anticipating the idea of ​​Pico della Mirandola’s treatise “On the Dignity of Man,” permeates Alberti’s entire activity as an artist, scientist and thinker.

Being mainly engaged in artistic practice, especially architecture, Alberti, however, paid a lot of attention to issues of art theory. In his treatises - “On Painting”, “On Architecture”, “On Sculpture” - along with specific issues of the theory of painting, sculpture and architecture, general issues of aesthetics were widely reflected.

It should be noted right away that Alberti’s aesthetics does not represent some kind of complete and logically integral system. Individual aesthetic statements are scattered throughout Alberti's works, and quite a lot of work is required to somehow collect and systematize them. In addition, Alberti's aesthetics are not only philosophical discussions about the essence of beauty and art. In Alberti we find a broad and consistent development of the so-called “practical aesthetics,” that is, aesthetics arising from the application of general aesthetic principles to specific issues of art. All this allows us to consider Alberti as one of the largest representatives of aesthetic thought of the early Renaissance.

The theoretical source of Alberti's aesthetics was mainly the aesthetic thought of antiquity. The ideas on which Alberti relies in his theory of art and aesthetics are many and varied. This is the aesthetics of the Stoics with its demands for imitation of nature, with the ideals of expediency, the unity of beauty and benefit. From Cicero, in particular, Alberti borrows the distinction between beauty and decoration, developing this idea into a special theory of decoration. From Vitruvius, Alberti compares a work of art with the human body and the proportions of the human body. But the main theoretical source of Alberti's aesthetic theory is, undoubtedly, Aristotle's aesthetics with its principle of harmony and measure as the basis of beauty. From Aristotle, Alberti takes the idea of ​​a work of art as a living organism; from him he borrows the idea of ​​the unity of matter and form, purpose and means, harmony of part and whole. Alberti repeats and develops Aristotle’s thought about artistic perfection (“when nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse”). This entire complex set of ideas, deeply meaningful and tested in the practice of modern art, lies at the basis of Alberti’s aesthetic theory .

At the center of Alberti's aesthetics is the doctrine of beauty. Alberti speaks about the nature of beauty in two books of his treatise “On Architecture” - the sixth and ninth. These considerations, despite their laconic nature, contain a completely new interpretation of the nature of beauty.

It should be noted that in the aesthetics of the Middle Ages, the dominant definition of beauty was the formula about beauty as “consonantia et claritas,” that is, about the proportion and clarity of light. This formula, having emerged in early patristics, was dominant until the 14th century, especially in scholastic aesthetics. In accordance with this definition, beauty was understood as the formal unity of “proportion” and “brilliance”, mathematically interpreted harmony and clarity of color.

Alberti, although he attached great importance to the mathematical basis of art, does not, as medieval aesthetics does, reduce beauty to mathematical proportion. According to Alberti, the essence of beauty lies in harmony. To denote the concept of harmony, Alberti resorts to the old term “concinnitas,” which he borrowed from Cicero.

According to Alberti, there are three elements that make up the beauty of architecture. These are number (numerus), limitation (finitio) and placement (collocatio). But beauty represents more than these three formal elements. “There is something more,” says Alberti, “composed of the combination and connection of all these three things, something with which the whole face of beauty is miraculously illuminated. This we will call harmony (concinnitas), which, without a doubt, is the source of all charm and beauty. After all, the purpose and goal of harmony is to arrange parts, generally speaking, different in nature, by some perfect relationship so that they correspond to one another, creating beauty. And it is not so much in the whole body as a whole or in its parts that harmony lives, but in itself and in its nature, so that I would call it a participant in the soul and mind. And there is a vast field for it where it can manifest itself and flourish: it embraces the whole of human life, permeates the entire nature of things. For everything that nature produces is proportionate to the law of harmony. And nature has no greater concern than that what it produces is completely perfect. This cannot be achieved without harmony, because without it the highest harmony of the parts disintegrates.”

In this argument, Alberti should highlight the following points.

First of all, it is obvious that Alberti abandons the medieval understanding of beauty as “proportion and clarity of color,” returning, in fact, to the ancient idea of ​​beauty as a certain harmony. He replaces the two-term formula of beauty “consonantia et claritas” with a one-term one: beauty is the harmony of parts.

This harmony itself is not only the law of art, but also the law of life; it “permeates the entire nature of things” and “encompasses the entire life of a person.” Harmony in art is a reflection of the universal harmony of life.

Harmony is the source and condition of perfection; without harmony, no perfection is possible, either in life or in art.

Harmony consists in the correspondence of the parts, and in such a way that nothing can be added or subtracted. Here Alberti follows the ancient definitions of beauty as harmony and proportionality. “Beauty,” he says, “is a strict proportionate harmony of all parts, united by what they belong to, such that nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse.”

Harmony in art consists of various elements. In music, the elements of harmony are rhythm, melody and composition, in sculpture - measure (dimensio) and boundary (definitio). Alberti connected his concept of “beauty” with the concept of “decoration” (ornamentum). According to him, the difference between beauty and decoration should be understood by feeling rather than expressed in words. But still, he makes the following distinction between these concepts: “... decoration is, as it were, a kind of secondary light of beauty or, so to speak, its addition. After all, from what has been said, I believe it is clear that beauty, as something inherent and innate in the body, is diffused throughout the entire body to the extent that it is beautiful; and the decoration is more likely to be of the nature of an added rather than an innate one.”

The internal logic of Alberti’s thought shows that “decoration” is not something external to beauty, but constitutes its organic part. After all, any building, according to Alberti, without decorations will be “erroneous.” As a matter of fact, for Alberti “beauty” and “decoration” are two independent types of beauty. Only “beauty” is the internal law of beauty, while “decoration” is added from the outside and in this sense it can be a relative or accidental form of beauty. With the concept of “decoration,” Alberti introduced the moment of relativity and subjective freedom into the understanding of beauty.

Along with the concepts of “beauty” and “decoration,” Alberti uses a whole series of aesthetic concepts, borrowed, as a rule, from ancient aesthetics. He associates the concept of beauty with dignity (dignitas) and grace (venustas), following directly from Cicero, for whom dignity and grace are two types of (male and female) beauty. Alberti connects the beauty of a building with “necessity and convenience,” developing the Stoic thought about the connection between beauty and utility. Alberti also uses the terms “charm” and “attractiveness.” All this testifies to the diversity, breadth and flexibility of his aesthetic thinking. The desire for differentiation of aesthetic concepts, for the creative application of the principles and concepts of ancient aesthetics to modern artistic practice is a distinctive feature of Alberti’s aesthetics.

The way Alberti interprets the concept of “ugly” is characteristic. For him, beauty is an absolute object of art. The ugly appears only as a certain kind of error. Hence the requirement that art should not correct, but hide ugly and ugly objects. “Ugly-looking parts of the body and others like them, not particularly graceful, let them cover themselves with clothing, some kind of branch or hand. The ancients painted a portrait of Antigonus only from one side of his face, on which the eye was not knocked out. They also say that Pericles had a long and ugly head, and therefore he, unlike others, was depicted by painters and sculptors wearing a helmet.”

Problems of aesthetics occupy a significant place in the writings of the famous Italian philosopher, one of the founders of utopian socialism, Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639).

Campanella entered the history of science, primarily as the author of the famous utopia “City of the Sun”. At the same time, he made a significant contribution to Italian natural philosophical thought. He owns important philosophical works: “Philosophy Proven by Sensations”, “Real Philosophy”, “Rational Philosophy”, “Metaphysics”. Issues of aesthetics also occupy a significant place in these works. Thus, “Metaphysics” contains a special chapter - “On the Beautiful.” In addition, Campanella owns a short work, “Poetics,” devoted to the analysis of poetic creativity.

Campanella's aesthetic views are distinguished by their originality. First of all, Campanella sharply opposes the scholastic tradition, both in the field of philosophy and aesthetics. He criticizes all kinds of authorities in the field of philosophy, rejecting equally both the “myths of Plato” and the “fictions” of Aristotle. In the field of aesthetics, this criticism characteristic of Campanella is manifested, first of all, in the refutation of the traditional doctrine of the harmony of the spheres, in the assertion that this harmony is not consistent with the data of sensory knowledge. “It is in vain that Plato and Pythagoras imagine the harmony of the world to be similar to our music - they are as crazy in this as someone who would attribute to the universe our sensations of taste and smell. If there is harmony in the sky and among the angels, then it has different foundations and consonances than the fifth, fourth or octave.”

The basis of Campanella's aesthetic teaching is hylozoism - the doctrine of the universal animation of nature. Sensations are inherent in matter itself, otherwise, according to Campanella, the world would immediately “turn into chaos.” That is why the main property of all existence is the desire for self-preservation. In humans, this desire is associated with pleasure. “Pleasure is a feeling of self-preservation, while suffering is a feeling of evil and destruction.” The feeling of beauty is also associated with a sense of self-preservation, a feeling of fullness of life and health. “When we see people who are healthy, full of life, free, smart, we rejoice because we experience a feeling of happiness and the preservation of our nature.”

Campanella also develops the original concept of beauty in the essay “On the Beautiful.” Here he does not follow any of the leading aesthetic trends of the Renaissance - Aristotelianism or Neoplatonism.

Rejecting the view of beauty as harmony or proportionality, Campanella revives Socrates' idea that beauty is a certain kind of expediency. The beautiful, according to Campanella, arises as the correspondence of an object to its purpose, its function. “Everything that is good for the use of a thing is called beautiful if it shows signs of such usefulness. A sword is called beautiful that bends and does not remain bent, and one that cuts and stabs and has a length sufficient to inflict wounds. But if it is so long and heavy that it cannot be moved, it is called ugly. A sickle suitable for cutting is called beautiful, so it is more beautiful when it is made of iron rather than gold. In the same way, a mirror is beautiful when it reflects the true appearance, and not when it is golden.”

Thus, Campanella's beauty is functional. It lies not in beautiful appearance, but in internal expediency. This is why beauty is relative. What is beautiful in one respect is ugly in another. “So the doctor calls the rhubarb that is suitable for cleansing beautiful, and the ugly that is not suitable. A melody that is beautiful at a feast is ugly at a funeral. Yellowness is beautiful in gold, because it testifies to its natural dignity and perfection, but it is ugly in our eyes, because it speaks of damage to the eye and illness.”

All these arguments largely repeat the provisions of ancient dialectics. Using the tradition coming from Socrates, Campanella develops a dialectical concept of beauty. This concept does not reject the ugliness in art, but includes it as a correlative moment of beauty.

Beautiful and ugly are relative concepts. Campanella expresses a typically Renaissance view, believing that the ugly is not contained in the essence of being itself, in nature itself. “Just as there is no essential evil, but every thing by its nature is good, although for others it is evil, for example, as heat is for cold, so there is no essential ugliness in the world, but only in relation to those to whom it indicates evil. Therefore, an enemy appears ugly to his enemy, but beautiful to a friend. In nature, however, there is evil as a defect and a kind of violation of purity, which attracts things emanating from the idea to non-existence; and, as has been said, ugliness in essences is a sign of this lack and violation of purity.”

Thus, the ugly appears in Campanella as just some shortcoming, some violation of the usual order of things. The purpose of art is, therefore, to correct the deficiency of nature. This is the art of imitation. “Art,” says Campanella, “is an imitation of nature. The hell described in Dante's poem is called more beautiful than the paradise described there, since, in imitation, he showed more skill in one case than in the other - although in reality paradise is beautiful, hell is terrible.

In general, Campanella’s aesthetics contains principles that sometimes go beyond the boundaries of Renaissance aesthetics; the connection of beauty with utility, with human social feelings, the affirmation of the relativity of beauty - all these provisions indicate the maturation of new aesthetic principles in the aesthetics of the Renaissance.

Every figure of Humanism embodied or tried to bring his theories to life. Humanists not only believed in a renewed, happy intellectual society, but also tried to build this society on their own, organizing schools and giving lectures, explaining their theories to ordinary people. Humanism covered almost all spheres of human life.

Humanists were not narrow specialists, but were specialists in culture at all."They are the bearers of a new nobility (nobilitas), identified with personal valor and knowledge" See Poletukhin Yu.A. Classics of legal thought and education on the problem of applying the death penalty. - M: Chelyabinsk: ChelSU, 2010. P.87

The humanist's main tool was philology. An impeccable knowledge of Latin and Greek, especially skillful command of classical Latin, was a necessary requirement for the reputation of a humanist; mastery of oral Latin was highly desirable. Clear handwriting and incredible memory were also required. In their studios, humanists were interested in the following subjects - grammar, rhetoric, ethics, history and poetry, etc. Humanists abandon medieval artistic forms, resurrecting new ones - poetry, the epistolary genre, fiction, philosophical treatises.

The highest reputation of humanism began to play a great role. A characteristic feature of the Renaissance was the highest social prestige of humanistic knowledge and talents, and the cult of culture. Good Latin style became a political necessity. In the first decades of the 15th century, admiration for humanistic learning would become a common feature of social life.

One of the founders of the emergence of humanistic philosophy was

great European poet Francesco Petrarca(1304 - 1374). He was born into a family of poor residents of Florence, who at the time of the birth of his son were expelled from their hometown and lived in the small town of Arezzo. Already in childhood, he and his parents changed many different places of residence. And this became a kind of symbol of his entire destiny - throughout his life he traveled a lot, lived in different cities in Italy, France, and Germany. Everywhere he found honor and respect from numerous admirers and admirers of his poetic talent. See ibid.

However, Petrarch is not only a poet, but also a unique and interesting thinker and philosopher. It was he who was the first in Europe to formulate the ideas of humanism and began to talk about the need to revive the ancient spirit and ideals of antiquity. It is not without reason that already at the beginning of the 15th century. wrote: “Francesco Petrarch was the first on whom grace descended, and he recognized and realized and brought to light the grace of the ancient style, lost and forgotten.”

Being a sincerely believing Christian, Petrarch did not accept the widespread scholastic understanding of the essence of God and, above all, the established dominance of rationalized Christianity. Therefore, he called not to waste one’s strength in fruitless logical reasoning, but to rediscover the true charm of the entire complex of humanities. True wisdom, in his opinion, lies in knowing the method of achieving this wisdom. Therefore, it is necessary to return to the knowledge of one’s own soul. Petrarch wrote: “The barrier of books and the admiration of earthly things do not bother me, since I learned from the pagan philosophers that nothing is worthy of admiration, with the exception of the soul, against which everything seems insignificant.”

It was with Petrarch that the first humanistic criticism of Aristotle began. Although Petrarch treats Aristotle himself with great respect, he is not at all satisfied with the use of the Aristotelian style of thinking and the principles of Aristotelian logic to prove the truths of faith by scholastic philosophers. Petrarch insists that purely logical methods of comprehending God lead not to knowledge, but to atheism.

Petrarch himself gave preference to the philosophy of Plato and the works of the Church Fathers based on him. He argued that even if Plato did not achieve the truth, he was closer to it than others. Recognizing Plato’s “philosophical primacy,” he asked rhetorically: “And who would deny such primacy, except perhaps a noisy crowd of stupid scholastics?”

And in general, Petrarch calls for the most active study of the philosophical heritage of antiquity, for the revival of the ideals of antiquity, for the revival of what was later called the “ancient spirit.” After all, he, like many ancient thinkers, was interested, first of all, in the internal, moral and ethical problems of man.

No less brilliant, an outstanding humanist of the Renaissance was Giordano Bruno(1548 - 1600). He was born in the town of Nola near Naples. Later, after his place of birth, he called himself Nolan. Bruno came from a family of minor nobles, but already in his early years he became interested in science, theology, and as a young man became a monk of a Dominican monastery. However, the exclusively theological education that Bruno could receive in the monastery soon ceased to satisfy his search for truth. Nolan became interested in the ideas of humanism and began to study philosophy, both ancient, especially ancient, and modern. Already in his youth, one characteristic feature of Giordano Bruno acquired a clear expression - possessing an uncompromising character, from a young age until the end of his life he firmly and fearlessly defended his views, and was not afraid to enter into disputes and disputes. This uncompromisingness found expression in the thesis of “heroic enthusiasm,” which Bruno put forward as the main quality of a true scientist - in the struggle for truth one cannot be afraid even of death. But for Bruno himself, the heroic struggle for the truth all his life served as the source of his endless conflicts with those around him. See I.A. Poletukhin. Decree. Op. P.91.

One of these conflicts that occurred between the young monk and the monastery authorities led to Bruno having to flee the monastery. For several years he wandered around the cities of Italy and France. The lectures that Bruno attended at the universities of Toulouse and Paris also often ended in heated arguments between Nolanz and professors and students. Most of all, the Italian thinker was outraged by the commitment of university teachers to scholasticism, which, as he believed, had long since become obsolete. Conflicts with the scientific community continued in England, where Bruno attended Oxford University.

During these same years, Giordano Bruno fruitfully worked on his own compositions. In 1584 - 1585 In London, six of his dialogues were published in Italian, in which he outlined the systems of his worldview. It was in these writings that the ideas of a plurality of worlds were first voiced, denying the traditional idea of ​​the Earth as the center of the Universe. These ideas caused sharp rejection by the Roman Catholic Church, as heretical, violating church dogmas. In addition, Bruno's dialogues contained harsh and caustic criticism to which he subjected scholastic scholars. Once again finding himself at the center of the conflict, causing the displeasure of scientific circles, Nolanets was forced to leave England and go to France.

Nolanz's philosophical views were formed under the influence of many previous teachings: Neoplatonism, Stoicism, the ideas of Democritus and Epicurus, Heraclitus, humanistic theories. The influence of the concepts of the Arabic-speaking philosophers Averroes and Avicenna, as well as the Jewish philosopher Avicebron (who, however, was then considered the Arab Ibn Gebirol) is noticeable. Bruno carefully studied the texts of Hermes Trismegistus, whom Bruno called Mercury in his own writings. Of great importance for Bruno was Copernicus’ theory of the heliocentric structure of the Universe, which served as the starting point for his own cosmological ideas. Modern researchers emphasize the serious influence of the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa, especially the doctrine of the coincidence of opposites. Probably, only Aristotle and the scholastic philosophers based on him were not accepted by Bruno at all and were constantly criticized.

The philosophical counterpoint to the teachings of Giordano Bruno is the doctrine of the coincidence of opposites, which he, as already mentioned, learned from Nicholas of Cusa. Reflecting on the coincidence of the infinite and the finite, the highest and the lowest, Bruno develops the doctrine of the coincidence of maximum and minimum. Using also mathematical terms, he comes to the conclusion that since the maximum and minimum coincide, then the minimum, as the smallest, is the substance of all things, the “indivisible beginning.” But, since the minimum is “the only and fundamental substance of all things,” then “it is impossible for it to have a precise, defined name and a name that would have a positive rather than a negative meaning.” Therefore, the philosopher himself emphasizes that three types of minima should be distinguished: in philosophy it is a monad, in physics it is an atom, in geometry it is a point. But different names for the minimum do not negate its main quality: the minimum, as the substance of all things, is the basis of everything, including the maximum: “So, the substance of things does not change at all, it is immortal, no possibility gives birth to it and no possibility destroys it, does not spoil, does not reduce or increase. Thanks to her, those born are born and they are resolved into her."

I also cannot help but note in my work such an outstanding humanist of the Renaissance as Thomas More(1478 - 1535), he was born into the family of a famous London lawyer, a royal judge. After two years of study at Oxford University, Thomas More, at the insistence of his father, graduated from law school and became a lawyer. Over time, More gained fame and was elected to the English Parliament See O.F. Kudryavtsev. Renaissance humanism and “Utopia”. - M.: Moscow, M.: Nauka.2009. P. 201.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Thomas More became close to the circle of humanists John Colet, in which he met Erasmus of Rotterdam. Subsequently, More and Erasmus had a close friendship.

Under the influence of his humanist friends, the worldview of Thomas More himself was formed - he began to study the works of ancient thinkers, having learned Greek, he began translating ancient literature.

Without abandoning his literary works, Thomas More continued his political activities - he was the sheriff of London, chairman of the House of Commons of the English parliament, and received a knighthood. In 1529, More took the highest government position in England - he became Lord Chancellor.

But in the early 30s of the 16th century, More's position changed dramatically. The English king Henry VIII decided to carry out church reform in the country and become the head of the Church. Thomas More refused to swear allegiance to the king as the new head of the Church, left the post of Lord Chancellor, but was accused of treason and in 1532 imprisoned in the Tower. Three years later, Thomas More was executed.

Thomas More entered the history of philosophical thought, first of all, as the author of a book that became a kind of triumph of humanistic thought. More wrote it in 1515 - 1516. and already in 1516, with the active assistance of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the first edition was published entitled “A very useful, as well as entertaining, truly golden book about the best structure of the state and about the new island of Utopia.” Already during his lifetime, this work, briefly called “Utopia,” brought More worldwide fame.

The word “Utopia” itself was coined by Thomas More, who composed it from two Greek words: “ou” - “not” and “topos” - “place”. Literally, “Utopia” means “a place that does not exist” and it is not for nothing that More himself translated the word “Utopia” as “Nowhere” See O.F. Kudryavtsev. Decree. Op. C 204.

More's book tells about a certain island called Utopia, whose inhabitants lead an ideal lifestyle and have established an ideal political system. The very name of the island emphasizes that we are talking about phenomena that do not and, most likely, cannot exist in the real world.