Revival is divided into 4 stages:
Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the 13th century - 14th century)
Early Renaissance (early 15th century - late 15th century)
High Renaissance (late 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)
Late Renaissance (mid-16th - 90s of the 16th century)
Proto-Renaissance
The Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Romanesque, Gothic traditions, this period was the preparation for the Renaissance. This period is divided into two sub-periods: before the death of Giotto di Bondone and after (1337). The most important discoveries, the brightest masters live and work in the first period. The second segment is connected with the plague epidemic that hit Italy. All discoveries were made on an intuitive level. At the end of the 13th century, the main temple building, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was erected in Florence, the author was Arnolfo di Cambio, then the work was continued by Giotto, who designed the campanile of the Florence Cathedral.
Benozzo Gozzoli depicted the Adoration of the Magi as a solemn procession of the Medici courtiers
Previously, the art of the proto-Renaissance manifested itself in sculpture (Niccolò and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano). Painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). The central figure of painting was Giotto. Renaissance artists considered him a reformer of painting. Giotto outlined the path along which its development went: filling religious forms with secular content, a gradual transition from planar images to three-dimensional and relief images, an increase in realism, introduced a plastic volume of figures into painting, depicted an interior in painting.
Early Renaissance
The period of the so-called "Early Renaissance" in Italy covers the time from 1420 to 1500. During these eighty years, art has not yet completely renounced the traditions of the recent past, but is trying to mix into them elements borrowed from classical antiquity. Only later, and only little by little, under the influence of more and more changing conditions of life and culture, do artists completely abandon medieval foundations and boldly use examples of ancient art, both in the general concept of their works and in their details.
Whereas art in Italy was already resolutely following the path of imitation of classical antiquity, in other countries it long held on to the traditions of the Gothic style. North of the Alps, as well as in Spain, the Renaissance does not come until the end of the 15th century, and its early period lasts until about the middle of the next century.
High Renaissance
"High Renaissance" redirects here. This topic needs a separate article.
"Vatican Pieta" by Michelangelo (1499): in the traditional religious plot, simple human feelings are brought to the fore - maternal love and sorrow
The third period of the Renaissance - the time of the most magnificent development of his style - is commonly called the "High Renaissance". It extends into Italy from approximately 1500 to 1527. At this time, the center of influence of Italian art from Florence moved to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papal throne of Julius II - an ambitious, courageous and enterprising man, who attracted the best artists of Italy to his court, occupied them with numerous and important works and gave others an example of love for art. . Under this Pope and under his immediate successors, Rome becomes, as it were, the new Athens of the time of Pericles: many monumental buildings are built in it, magnificent sculptures are created, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered the pearls of painting; at the same time, all three branches of art harmoniously go hand in hand, helping one another and mutually acting on each other. The antique is now being studied more thoroughly, reproduced with greater rigor and consistency; tranquility and dignity replace the playful beauty that was the aspiration of the preceding period; reminiscences of the medieval completely disappear, and a completely classical imprint falls on all works of art. But imitation of the ancients does not stifle their independence in artists, and they, with great resourcefulness and liveliness of imagination, freely process and apply to their work what they consider appropriate to borrow for themselves from ancient Greco-Roman art.
Late Renaissance
The crisis of the Renaissance: the Venetian Tintoretto in 1594 depicted the Last Supper as an underground gathering in disturbing twilight reflections
The Late Renaissance in Italy covers the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. Some researchers rank the 1630s as the Late Renaissance, but this position is controversial among art critics and historians. The art and culture of this time are so diverse in their manifestations that it is possible to reduce them to one denominator only with a great deal of conventionality. For example, the Encyclopædia Britannica writes that "The Renaissance as an integral historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527." In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which looked with caution at any free thought, including the chanting of the human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity, as the cornerstones of the Renaissance ideology. Worldview contradictions and a general feeling of crisis resulted in Florence in the "nervous" art of far-fetched colors and broken lines - mannerism. In Parma, where Correggio worked, Mannerism reached only after the death of the artist in 1534. The artistic traditions of Venice had their own logic of development; until the end of the 1570s. Titian and Palladio worked there, whose work had little in common with the crisis phenomena in the art of Florence and Rome.
Northern Renaissance
Main article: Northern Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance had little effect on other countries until 1450. After 1500, the style spread across the continent, but many late Gothic influences persisted even into the Baroque era.
The Renaissance period in the Netherlands, Germany and France is usually singled out as a separate stylistic direction, which has some differences with the Renaissance in Italy, and is called the "Northern Renaissance".
"Love struggle in a dream" (1499) - one of the highest achievements of the Renaissance printing
The most noticeable stylistic differences in painting: unlike Italy, the traditions and skills of Gothic art were preserved in painting for a long time, less attention was paid to the study of the ancient heritage and the knowledge of human anatomy.
Outstanding representatives - Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Some works of late Gothic masters, such as Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, are also imbued with the pre-Renaissance spirit.
Dawn of Literature
The intensive flourishing of literature in this period is largely associated with a special attitude towards the ancient heritage. Hence the very name of the era, which sets itself the task of recreating, "reviving" the cultural ideals and values allegedly lost in the Middle Ages. In fact, the rise of Western European culture does not arise at all against the background of a previous decline. But in the life of the culture of the late Middle Ages, so much is changing that it feels like it belongs to a different time and feels dissatisfied with the former state of the arts and literature. The past seems to the man of the Renaissance as an oblivion of the remarkable achievements of antiquity, and he undertakes to restore them. This is expressed both in the work of the writers of this era, and in their very way of life: some people of that time became famous not for creating any pictorial, literary masterpieces, but for being able to “live in the antique manner”, imitating the ancient Greeks or Romans at home. The ancient heritage is not just being studied at this time, but is “restored”, and therefore the Renaissance figures attach great importance to the discovery, collection, preservation and publication of ancient manuscripts .. For lovers of ancient literary
We owe to the Renaissance monuments the fact that today we have the opportunity to read the letters of Cicero or Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things", the comedies of Plautus or Long's novel "Daphnis and Chloe". Renaissance scholars strive not just for knowledge, but to improve their knowledge of Latin, and then Greek. They establish libraries, create museums, establish schools for the study of classical antiquity, undertake special journeys.
What served as the basis for those cultural changes that arose in Western Europe in the second half of the 15th-16th centuries? (and in Italy - the birthplace of the Renaissance - a century earlier, in the XIV century)? Historians rightly associate these changes with the general evolution of the economic and political life of Western Europe, which has embarked on the path of bourgeois development. Renaissance - the time of great geographical discoveries - primarily America, the time of the development of navigation, trade, the emergence of large-scale industry. This is the period when, on the basis of emerging European nations, national states are formed, already devoid of medieval isolation. At this time, there is a desire not only to strengthen the power of the monarch within each of the states, but also to develop relations between states, form political alliances, and negotiate. This is how diplomacy arises - that kind of political interstate activity, without which it is impossible to imagine modern international life.
The renaissance is a time when science is developing intensively and the secular worldview begins to crowd out the religious worldview to a certain extent, or significantly changes it, prepares the church reformation. But the most important thing is this period when a person begins to feel himself and the world around him in a new way, often in a completely different way to answer those questions that have always worried him, or to put other complex questions before himself. The Renaissance man feels himself living in a special time, close to the concept of a golden age, thanks to his "golden gifts", as one of the Italian humanists of the 15th century writes. A person sees himself as the center of the universe, striving not upwards, towards the otherworldly, divine (as in the Middle Ages), but a wide-open diversity of earthly existence. People of the new era with greedy curiosity peer into the reality around them not as pale shadows and signs of the heavenly world, but as a full-blooded and colorful manifestation of being, which has its own value and dignity. Medieval asceticism has no place in the new spiritual atmosphere, enjoying the freedom and power of man as an earthly, natural being. From an optimistic conviction in the power of a person, his ability to improve, there arises a desire and even a need to correlate the behavior of an individual, his own behavior with a kind of model of the “ideal personality”, a thirst for self-improvement is born. This is how a very important, central movement of this culture, which was called "humanism", is formed in the Western European culture of the Renaissance.
One should not think that the meaning of this concept coincides with the words “humanism”, “humane” that are commonly used today (meaning “philanthropy”, “mercy”, etc.), although there is no doubt that their modern meaning ultimately dates back to Renaissance times. . Humanism in the Renaissance was a special set of moral and philosophical ideas. He was directly related to the upbringing, education of a person on the basis of primary attention not to the former, scholastic knowledge, or religious, “divine” knowledge, but to the humanitarian disciplines: philology, history, morality. It is especially important that the humanities at that time began to be valued as the most universal, that in the process of forming the spiritual image of the individual, the main importance was attached to "literature", and not to any other, perhaps more "practical" branch of knowledge. As the great Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarch wrote, it is “through the word that the human face becomes beautiful.” The prestige of humanistic knowledge was extremely high during the Renaissance.
In Western Europe of this time, a humanistic intelligentsia appears - a circle of people whose communication with each other is based not on the commonality of their origin, property status or professional interests, but on the proximity of spiritual and moral quests. Sometimes such associations of like-minded humanists received the name Academies - in the spirit of the ancient tradition. Sometimes friendly communication of humanists was carried out in letters, a very important part of the literary heritage of the Renaissance. The Latin language, which in its updated form became the universal language of culture of various Western European countries, contributed to the fact that, despite certain historical, political, religious and other differences, the figures of the Renaissance in Italy and France, Germany and the Netherlands felt involved in a single spiritual world. The feeling of cultural unity was also enhanced due to the fact that during this period an intensive development began, on the one hand, of humanistic education, and on the other, of printing: thanks to the invention of the German Gutenberg from the middle of the 15th century. Printing houses are spreading all over Western Europe, and a larger number of people get the opportunity to join books than before.
In the Renaissance, the very way of thinking of a person changes. Not a medieval scholastic dispute, but a humanistic dialogue, including different points of view, demonstrating unity and opposition, the complex diversity of truths about the world and man, becomes a way of thinking and a form of communication for people of this time. It is no coincidence that dialogue is one of the popular literary genres of the Renaissance. The flourishing of this genre, like the flourishing of tragedy and comedy, is one of the manifestations of the Renaissance literature's attention to the classical genre tradition. But the Renaissance also knows new genre formations: a sonnet - in poetry, a short story, an essay - in prose. The writers of this era do not repeat ancient authors, but on the basis of their artistic experience create, in essence, a different and new world of literary images, plots, and problems.
The Renaissance, which began in Italy in the first quarter of the 15th century, turned the medieval world upside down, changing it forever. Translated from French or Italian, "Renaissance" is "born again", which is associated with the revival of ancient traditions in art. The Renaissance is a magnificent breakthrough of mankind, there can be no doubt about it. During that period, wonderful works of painting, sculpture, and architecture were created. Great books have been written (and published). The creations of the human genius, created by the famous masters of the past, continue to delight until now and will never lose their charm.
It is considered well-known fact that the Renaissance came to replace the Middle Ages, which were, as usual, dark, certainly harsh, and characterized by a variety of religious atrocities - everyone has heard of the Inquisition. There are sources that directly state that because of the intrigues of the insidious Catholic Church, the Renaissance fell into decline.
In part, such a view of things has the right to exist, but it is unlikely that the merits of the clergy in this process are so great. It's just that human society develops cyclically, every revolution is followed by a reaction, and the Renaissance became a victim of quite natural processes, especially since many of its ideas were alien to the ignorant society of those times, suffering numerous epidemics. It is very difficult to inspire a person with his divine essence when he is poor, dependent and in constant fear.
Some historians directly accuse the Middle Ages of various crimes against humanity, even where this is not true. For example, some sources take the liberty of asserting that science did not develop in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, many modern European universities appeared precisely on the site of former monasteries (Oxford) or through the efforts of clerics (Sorbonne).
There is no point in denying that practically all the education of antiquity was ecclesiastical (and continued to be so for many decades). This is easily explained: the highest percentage of elementary literate people concentrated in the clergy, and if so, then who should teach "their unreasonable brothers" if not monks and other clergy?
The development of civilization is continuous. Although sometimes humanity had to take a step back, the culture of the Renaissance would never have taken place in the form in which we know it, if it had not gone through its thorny path in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Thus, great literary works would not have been born if they had not been preceded by the centuries-old work of numerous nuggets (whose work we call folklore only because their names remained unknown). If medieval chivalrous poetics did not exist, Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and Petrarch's sonnets would hardly have taken place.
To oppose the previous era to the next one is not very correct. Voltaire argued that history is a myth that everyone agreed on. It is impossible not to recognize the veracity of this witty statement. The history of the Renaissance, a complex and diverse phenomenon, cannot be interpreted unambiguously. There are a huge number of versions explaining this grand event in the annals of mankind, many of which have the right to exist.
The belief that the artists of the Renaissance suddenly discovered for themselves and began to imitate her, taken from school, must be recognized as schematic. After all, the samples of creativity of Greco-Roman art did not go anywhere, significant works of ancient authors were translated from the VIII century, but no Renaissance happened for another eight centuries.
Of course, the fall of the Second Rome (Constantinople), when cultural figures (and not only them) frightened by the Muslim horde rushed to the West, taking libraries, icons and (most importantly) their knowledge and experience with them, played a huge role. In the end, the influence of Byzantium on the art of the Renaissance is undeniable. Although the Roman Church rejected icon painting, it grew in a different field. The icon of the Mother of God and the famous "Sistine Madonna" by Michelangelo, with all the differences - both in technique and in content - are an image of the same woman with the same baby.
The revival became possible due to a combination of many factors and reasons, one of which really is that the Renaissance is a kind of response to the Catholic Church, whose influence in those days was colossal, wealth was incalculable, and the desire for power was insatiable. This state of affairs gave rise to a powerful protest in society: few people like harsh dogmas and asceticism prescribed in all spheres of life. A person had to constantly feel on himself a higher (moreover, hostile) force, which at any moment could fall on him, punishing him for sins. The demands of the holy church were contrary to human nature itself.
The second factor, of course, is the rapid formation of the state. The secular authorities, acquiring a harmonious hierarchy and significant funds to lead their subjects, were not at all eager to give up the palm of spiritual power. Examples of violent fights between the church and powerful monarchs are not uncommon in history. The Renaissance owes its death to one of them.
The third reason is probably the fact that the Renaissance is a time when cultural life happily left the monasteries, where it had been locked up for many years, and concentrated in rapidly growing and prosperous cities. Severe dogmas that prescribed artists to paint only in this way and nothing else, restrictions on subject matter, etc., could not arouse enthusiasm in people who were really talented. They wanted freedom, they got it.
The fourth, important condition for the birth of the Renaissance, was money, no matter how cynical it may sound. It is no coincidence that it was Italy, the richest in those days, that grateful descendants owe the fact that this wonderful style appeared. The Renaissance was not born in poverty. The dogma that an artist must be hungry is untenable. The entire Renaissance is proof of this. The Creator must also eat, which means that he needs orders, funds and space to use his talent.
All this was found in Florence, and not least thanks to the ruler of the city - Lorenzo the Magnificent. The court of the nobleman was resplendent. The most talented painters, sculptors and architects found a reliable patron in Lorenzo. Numerous palaces, temples, chapels and other architectural works were built in the city. Painters received numerous commissions.
As a rule, it is customary to divide three periods of the Renaissance, but some researchers include another one - the so-called Proto-Renaissance, which is still closely associated with the Middle Ages, but is already acquiring new, light-filled features. One of the most notable events of that time is the construction of the Florence Cathedral (XIII century) - a magnificent building with wonderful interior decoration.
After “preliminary preparation”, the Early Renaissance appeared on the stage: historians call the years of the beginning and end of this period quite unanimously - from 1420 to 1500. It took eighty years to get rid of the strict canons dictated by the church and turn to the legacy of glorious ancestors. During this period, imitation of antique samples becomes massive. Images of a naked human body with a loving reflection of the smallest muscles and veins characterize a new style unknown to Catholic Europe. The Renaissance became a real hymn to earthly beauty, which was sometimes sung in such frank forms that would have horrified the audience some one hundred and fifty years ago.
It cannot be said that such trends found understanding among all contemporaries: there were fiery fighters against the Renaissance, who, thanks to their activities, achieved dubious eternal glory in the field of obscurantism. The most striking example is the head of the Florentine Dominican monastery - Savonarola. He was an inexhaustible critic of humanistic "lewdness" and did not disdain to burn works that so outraged him. Among the irretrievable losses are several paintings by famous masters of the era, including Sandro Botticelli. His brushes belong to such Renaissance as "The Birth of Venus", "Spring", "Christ in the Crown of Thorns". It must be said that almost all the surviving canvases of the author are devoted to biblical themes, and it is difficult for a modern person to understand what could revolt a stern Dominican in them.
However, the process was launched, and it was not in human power to stop it. Savonarola died in 1498, and the Renaissance continued to march across the country, conquering new cities - Rome, Venice, Milan, Naples.
Among the most notable and characteristic representatives of the Early Renaissance are the sculptor Donatello, the artists Giotto and Masaccio. During this period, the laws of perspective, discovered in the 15th century, were first applied in painting. This made it possible to subsequently create voluminous, three-dimensional paintings of the Renaissance - previously this was not available to artists.
In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi set the vector for further development, creating the magnificent dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
The peak of the development of the era was the third period of the Renaissance - the High Renaissance. It lasted only 27 years (1500-1527) and is associated primarily with the work of the great masters, whose names each of us knows: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.
At this time, the cultural capital of Europe is transferred from Florence to Rome. The new pope Julius II (succeeded in 1503) was an outstanding man, a great admirer of art and a rather broad-minded person. If not for the spiritual person, people would not have seen many works of art that are rightfully considered the pearls of the world cultural heritage.
The best craftsmen, marked with the seal of genius, receive numerous orders. The city is bustling with construction. Architects, sculptors and painters work side by side (and sometimes "combining positions"), creating their immortal works. At this time, the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral, the most famous and grandiose temple of the Catholic faith, is being designed and begins.
The painting of the Sistine Chapel, made by Michelangelo with his own hand, embodies the whole meaning, perfection and beauty that the Renaissance artists gave us, who chose Man as the center of their Universe (that's right, with a capital letter): a god-like creature, a creator whose possibilities are almost limitless.
In 1523, Clement VII became Pope and immediately got involved in a war with Emperor Charles V, creating the so-called League of Cognac, which included Florence, Milan, Venice, and France. The pontiff did not want to share power with the Habsburgs, and the Eternal City had to pay for it. In 1527, the army of Charles V, who had not received a salary for a long time (the emperor spent money during hostilities), first besieged, and then broke into Rome and plundered its palaces and temples. The great city was depopulated, and the High Renaissance came to an end.
The Encyclopædia Britannica claims that, as an integral historical epoch, the Renaissance, the century (1420-1527) that ruled in blessed Italy, has ended. Those who disagree with the compilers of the most famous reference book in the world call the period that began after 1530 the Late Renaissance and still cannot agree on when it ended. There are arguments in favor of the 1590s, and the 1620s, and even the 1630s, but it is unlikely that individual residual phenomena can be signs of an entire era.
At this time, cultural phenomena are very diverse, currents appear that are considered manifestations of a crisis and degeneration in art (for example, Florentine mannerism). It is characterized by a certain pretentiousness, excessive details, focusing on the "artist's idea", accessible only to a narrow circle of connoisseurs. Sculpture, architecture and painting of the Renaissance, in a relentless search for harmony, gave way to unnatural poses, endless curls and monstrous colors, characteristic of a new trend in the art world.
However, it is too early to talk about the final death of the Renaissance. In some cities of Italy, Renaissance artists continue to live, who remain true to the great traditions. Thus, the great Titian, who can be considered the brightest representative of the Renaissance, worked in Venice until 1576.
Meanwhile, hard times befell Italy and Europe. Following the freedoms unthinkable in the Middle Ages, which the Renaissance brought with it, came a severe reaction. The reformed holy inquisition again took the reins of government into their own hands. Bonfires blazed in the squares - the fire devoured both the heretics and their works.
Almost all the books included by the new Pope Paul IV in the Roman "Index of Forbidden Books" were destroyed (a little earlier, the corresponding lists were published in the Netherlands, Paris and Venice). The work of the inquisitors was hard, because it was in the Renaissance that printing appeared - at the end of the 15th century, Gutenberg managed to create the first printed Bible. The heretical appeals of the humanists of the Renaissance scattered, of course, not in millions of copies, but the holy fathers had something to do.
Historians say that religious persecution in Italy was the most merciless in Europe - a cruel retribution for a century of freedom and beauty.
Most often, when they talk about the Renaissance, they mean exactly the Italian Renaissance - this phenomenon was born and flourished right here. Today in Italy, entire cities can be considered monuments of architecture, painting and sculpture of the era.
However, of course, the Renaissance was not limited to the Apennines alone. The so-called Northern Renaissance originated in Europe towards the middle of the 16th century and presented the world with many beautiful works. A characteristic feature of this style was the greater influence of medieval Gothic art. Here, the ancient heritage was not given as close attention as in Italy, and more indifference was shown to the intricacies of anatomy. The creators of the Northern Renaissance include Dürer, Van Eyck, Cranach. In literature, this event was marked by the work of Shakespeare and Cervantes.
The influence of the Renaissance on culture cannot be overestimated: it is enormous. Rethinking and enriching the ancient culture, the Renaissance created its own - and gave mankind a huge number of immortal works of art, which, of course, improved the world in which we live.
The epochal period in the history of world culture, which preceded the New Age and changed, was given the name Renaissance, or Renaissance. The history of the era originates at dawn in Italy. Several centuries can be characterized as the time of the formation of a new, human and earthly picture of the world, which is inherently secular in nature. Progressive ideas found their embodiment in humanism.
It is quite difficult to set a specific time frame for this phenomenon in the history of world culture. This is explained by the fact that in the Renaissance, all European countries entered at different times. Some earlier, others later, due to the lag in socio-economic development. Approximate dates can be called the beginning of the 14th and the end of the 16th century. The years of the Renaissance are characterized by the manifestation of the secular nature of culture, its humanization, and the flourishing of interest in antiquity. By the way, the name of this period is connected with the latter. There is a revival of its introduction into the European world.
This turn in the development of human culture occurred as a result of a change in European society and relations in it. An important role is played by the fall of Byzantium, when its citizens fled en masse to Europe, bringing with them libraries, various ancient sources unknown before. An increase in the number of cities led to an increase in the influence of simple classes of artisans, merchants, and bankers. Various centers of art and science began to appear actively, the activities of which the church no longer controlled.
It is customary to count the first years of the Renaissance with its onset in Italy, it was in this country that this movement began. Its initial signs became noticeable in the 13-14th centuries, but it took a firm position in the 15th century (20s), reaching its maximum flowering by its end. There are four periods in the Renaissance (or Renaissance). Let's dwell on them in more detail.
This period dates from approximately the second half of the 13th-14th century. It is worth noting that all dates relate to Italy. In fact, this period is a preparatory stage of the Renaissance. It is conditionally customary to divide it into two stages: before and after the death (1137) of Giotto di Bondone (sculpture in the photo), a key figure in the history of Western art, architect and artist.
The last years of the Renaissance of this period are associated with an epidemic of plague that struck Italy and all of Europe as a whole. Proto-Renaissance is closely connected with the Middle Ages, Gothic, Romanesque, Byzantine traditions. The central figure is considered to be Giotto, who outlined the main trends in painting, indicated the path along which its development went in the future.
By the time it took eighty years. The early years of which are characterized in two ways, fell on the years 1420-1500. Art has not yet completely renounced medieval traditions, but actively adds elements borrowed from classical antiquity. As if on the rise, year after year under the influence of changing conditions of the social environment, there is a complete rejection by artists of the old and a transition to ancient art as the main concept.
This is the peak, the peak of the Renaissance. At this stage, the Renaissance (years 1500-1527) reached its zenith, and the center of influence of all Italian art moved to Rome from Florence. This happened in connection with the accession to the papal throne of Julius II, who had very progressive, bold views, was an enterprising and ambitious person. He attracted the best artists and sculptors from all over Italy to the eternal city. It was at this time that the real titans of the Renaissance create their masterpieces, which the whole world admires to this day.
Covers the time period from 1530 to 1590-1620. The development of culture and art in this period is so heterogeneous and diverse that even historians do not reduce it to one denominator. According to British scientists, the Renaissance finally died out at the moment when the fall of Rome took place, namely in 1527. plunged into the Counter-Reformation, which put an end to any free-thinking, including the resurrection of ancient traditions.
The crisis of ideas and contradictions in the worldview eventually resulted in mannerism in Florence. A style that is characterized by disharmony and far-fetchedness, a loss of balance between the spiritual and physical components, characteristic of the Renaissance. For example, Venice had its own road of development, and such masters as Titian and Palladio worked there until the end of the 1570s. Their work remained aloof from the crisis phenomena characteristic of the art of Rome and Florence. Pictured is Titian's Isabella of Portugal.
Three great Italians are the titans of the Renaissance, its worthy crown:
All their works are the best, selected pearls of world art, which were collected by the Renaissance. Years go by, centuries change, but the creations of the great masters are timeless.
The concept of "Renaissance" originated in Italy in the 16th century. as a result of understanding the cultural innovation of the era. This concept denoted the first brilliant dawn of culture, the humanities, and art since antiquity, which began after a long, almost thousand-year decline in culture. The ideologists of the Renaissance began to call the time of decline the "Middle Ages". In the 19th century in relation to the Renaissance, the French term "Renaissance" was firmly established in Russian speech.
The Renaissance is a period in European culture from the 15th to the 16th centuries, which was characterized by a manifestation of interest in the personality of a person, denying medieval humility and subordination to the church. It was this era that was a turning point in all European culture. And it was at this time that processes began that largely determined the course of development of the entire European civilization.
What is special about the Renaissance?
In order to answer this question, you need to plunge into the depths of the epochs, go back several centuries and, first of all, remember which era was replaced by the Renaissance.
The Middle Ages, as you know, were called the Dark Ages. This was due to the fragmentation of Europe, the decline of culture. All secular life was subject to the strictest restrictions, and only one sphere of people's life, the spiritual, received development. If we consider the main areas of culture: painting, architecture and sculpture, we can notice some uniformity. In painting, the main works were icons, if we turn to architecture, then these were temples and monasteries, sculpture was mainly represented by a divine theme. The man was limited in his will, the only feeling that covered him was the feeling of humility before God and the church.
The era of the Middle Ages was a period of barbarism and ignorance, which followed the death of the brilliant civilization of ancient culture.
Do you think it could go on forever? Sooner or later, a turning point was to come. And in the XIV-XV centuries, the life of Europeans changed dramatically. And since culture is a reflection of life, then it has undergone significant changes.
The era of the Middle Ages, with its contempt for everything earthly, is replaced by an avid interest in a person and his qualities and abilities, in the desire to create and create, to show himself to study the world around him, to choose a life path, to dispose of his freedom.
The Renaissance gave us a whole galaxy of famous people and, above all, representatives of the so-called classical arts.
The revival began in Italy, in the city of Florence. It was there that representatives of this era began their creative path: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buanarroti, Raphael Santi and Donatello.
The Renaissance is a period in European culture from the 15th to the 16th centuries, which was characterized by a manifestation of interest in the personality of a person, denying medieval humility and subordination to the church.
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The Renaissance, or the Renaissance (from the French renaître - to be reborn), is one of the brightest eras in the development of European culture, spanning almost three centuries: from the middle of the 14th century. until the first decades of the 17th century. It was an era of major changes in the history of the peoples of Europe. Under the conditions of a high level of urban civilization, the process of the emergence of capitalist relations and the crisis of feudalism began, the folding of nations and the creation of large national states took place, a new form of political system appeared - an absolute monarchy (see State), new social groups were formed - the bourgeoisie and hired working people. The spiritual world of man also changed. Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of contemporaries. This was facilitated by the great invention of Johannes Gutenberg - printing. In this complex, transitional era, a new type of culture arose, putting man and the world around him at the center of his interests. The new, Renaissance culture widely relied on the heritage of antiquity, comprehended differently than in the Middle Ages, and in many respects rediscovered (hence the concept of "Renaissance"), but it also drew from the best achievements of medieval culture, especially secular - knightly, urban , folk. The man of the Renaissance was seized with a thirst for self-affirmation, great achievements, actively involved in public life, rediscovered the world of nature, strove for its deep comprehension, admired its beauty. The culture of the Renaissance is characterized by a secular perception and understanding of the world, the assertion of the value of earthly existence, the greatness of the mind and creative abilities of a person, and the dignity of the individual. Humanism (from lat. humanus - human) became the ideological basis of the culture of the Renaissance.
Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the first representatives of the humanistic literature of the Renaissance.
Palazzo Pitti. Florence. 1440-1570
Masaccio. Tax collection. Scene from the life of St. Petra Fresco of the Brancacci Chapel. Florence. 1426-1427
Michelangelo Buonarroti. Moses. 1513-1516
Rafael Santi. Sistine Madonna. 1515-1519 Canvas, oil. Picture gallery. Dresden.
Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. Late 1470s - early 1490s Wood, oil. State Hermitage. St. Petersburg.
Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. OK. 1510-1513
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1498
Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Snow hunters. 1565 Oil on wood. Museum of Art History. Vein.
Humanists opposed the dictatorship of the Catholic Church in the spiritual life of society. They criticized the method of scholastic science based on formal logic (dialectic), rejected its dogmatism and belief in authorities, thus clearing the way for the free development of scientific thought. Humanists called for the study of ancient culture, which the church denied as pagan, perceiving from it only that which did not contradict Christian doctrine. However, the restoration of the ancient heritage (humanists searched for manuscripts of ancient authors, cleared texts of later accretions and copyist errors) was not an end in itself for them, but served as the basis for solving urgent problems of our time, for building a new culture. The range of humanitarian knowledge, within which the humanistic worldview developed, included ethics, history, pedagogy, poetics, and rhetoric. Humanists have made a valuable contribution to the development of all these sciences. Their search for a new scientific method, criticism of scholasticism, translations of scientific works of ancient authors contributed to the rise of natural philosophy and natural science in the 16th - early 17th centuries.
The formation of the Renaissance culture in different countries was not simultaneous and proceeded at different rates in different areas of culture itself. First of all, it took shape in Italy with its numerous cities that have reached a high level of civilization and political independence, with ancient traditions that are stronger than in other European countries. Already in the 2nd half of the XIV century. in Italy there have been significant changes in literature and humanitarian knowledge - philology, ethics, rhetoric, historiography, pedagogy. Then fine arts and architecture became the arena of the rapid development of the Renaissance, and later the new culture embraced the spheres of philosophy, natural science, music, and theater. For more than a century, Italy remained the only country of Renaissance culture; by the end of the 15th century. The revival began to gain strength relatively quickly in Germany, the Netherlands, France, in the 16th century. - in England, Spain, countries of Central Europe. Second half of the 16th century became a time not only for the high achievements of the European Renaissance, but also for the manifestations of the crisis of a new culture caused by the counteroffensive of reactionary forces and the internal contradictions of the development of the Renaissance itself.
The origin of Renaissance literature in the 2nd half of the XIV century. associated with the names of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. They affirmed the humanistic ideas of the dignity of the individual, linking it not with generosity, but with the valiant deeds of a person, his freedom and the right to enjoy the joys of earthly life. Petrarch's "Book of Songs" reflected the subtlest shades of his love for Laura. In the dialogue "My Secret", a number of treatises, he developed ideas about the need to change the structure of knowledge - to put a person at the center of the problem, criticized the scholastics for their formal-logical method of cognition, called for the study of ancient authors (Petrarch especially appreciated Cicero, Virgil, Seneca), highly raised the importance of poetry in man's knowledge of the meaning of his earthly existence. These thoughts were shared by his friend Boccaccio, the author of the book of short stories "The Decameron", a number of poetic and scientific works. In the "Decameron" the influence of folk-urban literature of the Middle Ages is traced. Here, humanistic ideas found expression in artistic form - the denial of ascetic morality, the justification of a person's right to the full manifestation of his feelings, all natural needs, the idea of nobility as a product of valiant deeds and high morality, and not the nobility of the family. The theme of nobility, the solution of which reflected the anti-estate ideas of the advanced part of the burghers and the people, will become characteristic of many humanists. The humanists of the 15th century made a great contribution to the further development of literature in Italian and Latin. - writers and philologists, historians, philosophers, poets, statesmen and orators.
In Italian humanism, there were directions that approached the solution of ethical problems in different ways, and above all, the question of the paths of a person to happiness. So, in civil humanism - the direction that developed in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. (its most prominent representatives are Leonardo Bruni and Matteo Palmieri) - ethics was based on the principle of serving the common good. Humanists argued the need to educate a citizen, a patriot who puts the interests of society and the state above personal ones. They affirmed the moral ideal of an active civil life as opposed to the ecclesiastical ideal of monastic seclusion. They attached particular value to such virtues as justice, generosity, prudence, courage, courtesy, modesty. A person can discover and develop these virtues only in active social communication, and not in flight from worldly life. The humanists of this trend considered the best form of government to be a republic, where, in conditions of freedom, all human abilities can be most fully manifested.
Another direction in the humanism of the XV century. represented the work of the writer, architect, art theorist Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti believed that the law of harmony reigns in the world, man is also subject to it. He must strive for knowledge, for understanding the world around him and himself. People must build earthly life on reasonable grounds, on the basis of acquired knowledge, turning it to their advantage, striving for the harmony of feelings and reason, the individual and society, man and nature. Knowledge and obligatory work for all members of society - this, according to Alberti, is the way to a happy life.
Lorenzo Valla put forward a different ethical theory. He identified happiness with pleasure: a person should enjoy all the joys of earthly existence. Asceticism is contrary to human nature itself, feelings and reason are equal, their harmony should be sought. From these positions, Valla made a strong criticism of monasticism in the dialogue "On the monastic vow."
At the end of the XV - the end of the XVI century. the direction associated with the activities of the Platonic Academy in Florence became widespread. The leading humanist philosophers of this trend - Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in their works, based on the philosophy of Plato and the Neoplatonists, exalted the human mind. For them, the heroization of the individual has become characteristic. Ficino considered man to be the center of the world, a link (this connection is realized in knowledge) of a perfectly organized cosmos. Pico saw in man the only being in the world endowed with the ability to form himself, relying on knowledge - on ethics and the sciences of nature. In the “Speech on the Dignity of Man”, Pico defended the right to free thought, believed that philosophy, devoid of any dogmatism, should become the lot of everyone, and not a handful of the elect. The Italian Neoplatonists approached a number of theological problems from new, humanistic positions. The invasion of humanism into the sphere of theology is one of the important features of the European Renaissance of the 16th century.
The 16th century was marked by a new upsurge in Renaissance literature in Italy: Ludovico Ariosto became famous for his poem Furious Roland, where reality and fantasy are intertwined, the glorification of earthly joys and sometimes sad, sometimes ironic understanding of Italian life; Baldassare Castiglione created a book about the ideal man of his era ("The Courtier"). This is the time of creativity of the outstanding poet Pietro Bembo and the author of satirical pamphlets Pietro Aretino; at the end of the 16th century. Torquato Tasso’s grandiose heroic poem “Jerusalem Liberated” was written, which reflected not only the conquests of secular Renaissance culture, but also the beginning crisis of the humanistic worldview, associated with the strengthening of religiosity in the conditions of the counter-reformation, with the loss of faith in the omnipotence of the individual.
Brilliant success was achieved by the art of the Italian Renaissance, which was initiated by Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, Brunelleschi in architecture, who worked in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. Their work is marked by a bright talent, a new understanding of man, his place in nature and society. In the 2nd half of the XV century. in Italian painting, along with the Florentine school, a number of others developed - Umbrian, northern Italian, Venetian. Each of them had its own characteristics, they were also characteristic of the work of the largest masters - Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli and others. All of them revealed the specifics of Renaissance art in different ways: the desire for lifelike images based on the principle of “imitation of nature”, a wide appeal to the motifs of ancient mythology and the secular interpretation of traditional religious plots, an interest in linear and airy perspective, in the plastic expressiveness of images, in harmony of proportions. etc. A common genre of painting, graphics, medal art, and sculpture was the portrait, which was directly related to the affirmation of the humanistic ideal of man. The heroized ideal of the perfect man was embodied with particular fullness in the Italian art of the High Renaissance in the first decades of the 16th century. This era brought forward the brightest, multifaceted talents - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo (see Art). There was a type of universal artist who combined in his work a painter, sculptor, architect, poet and scientist. Artists of this era worked in close contact with the humanists and showed great interest in the natural sciences, primarily anatomy, optics, and mathematics, trying to use their achievements in their work. In the XVI century. Venetian art experienced a special upsurge. Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto created beautiful canvases, notable for the richness of color and realism of images of a person and the world around him. The 16th century is the time of the active assertion of the Renaissance style in architecture, especially for secular purposes, which was characterized by a close connection with the traditions of ancient architecture (order architecture). A new type of building was formed - a city palace (palazzo) and a country residence (villa) - majestic, but also proportionate to a person, where the solemn simplicity of the facade is combined with spacious, richly decorated interiors. A huge contribution to the architecture of the Renaissance was made by Leon Battista Alberti, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bramante, Palladio. Many architects created designs for an ideal city based on new principles of urban planning and architecture that responded to the human need for a healthy, well-equipped and beautiful living space. Not only individual buildings were rebuilt, but entire old medieval cities: Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Rimini.
Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait.
Hans Holbein the Younger. Portrait of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. 1523
Titian Vecellio. Saint Sebastian. 1570 Oil on canvas. State Hermitage. St. Petersburg.
Illustration by Mr. Dore for the novel by F. Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel".
Michel Montaigne is a French philosopher and writer.
In the political and historical thought of the Italian Renaissance, the problem of a perfect society and state became one of the central ones. In the works of Bruni and especially Machiavelli on the history of Florence, built on the study of documentary material, in the works of Sabellico and Contarini on the history of Venice, the merits of the republican structure of these city-states were revealed, and the historians of Milan and Naples, on the contrary, emphasized the positive centralizing role of the monarchy. Machiavelli and Guicciardini explained all the troubles of Italy, which became in the first decades of the 16th century. the arena of foreign invasions, its political decentralization and called on the Italians for national consolidation. A common feature of Renaissance historiography was the desire to see in the people themselves the creators of their history, to deeply analyze the experience of the past and use it in political practice. Widespread in the XVI - early XVII century. received a social utopia. In the teachings of the utopians Doni, Albergati, Zuccolo, the ideal society was associated with the partial elimination of private property, the equality of citizens (but not all people), the universal obligation of labor, and the harmonious development of the individual. The most consistent expression of the idea of socialization of property and equalization was found in the "City of the Sun" by Campanella.
New approaches to solving the traditional problem of the relationship between nature and God were put forward by natural philosophers Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrici, Giordano Bruno. In their writings, the dogma about God the Creator, who directs the development of the universe, gave way to pantheism: God is not opposed to nature, but, as it were, merges with it; nature is seen as existing forever and developing according to its own laws. The ideas of the Renaissance natural philosophers met with sharp resistance from the Catholic Church. For his ideas about the eternity and infinity of the Universe, consisting of a huge number of worlds, for sharp criticism of the church, condoning ignorance and obscurantism, Bruno was condemned as a heretic and put on fire in 1600.
The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the development of Renaissance culture in other European countries. This was facilitated in no small measure by the printing press. The major centers of publishing were in the XVI century. Venice, where at the beginning of the century the printing house of Alda Manutius became an important center of cultural life; Basel, where the publishing houses of Johann Froben and Johann Amerbach were equally important; Lyon with its famous printing of the Etiennes, as well as Paris, Rome, Louvain, London, Seville. Typography became a powerful factor in the development of Renaissance culture in many European countries, opened the way to active interaction in the process of building a new culture of humanists, scientists, and artists.
The largest figure of the Northern Renaissance was Erasmus of Rotterdam, whose name is associated with the direction of "Christian humanism". He had like-minded people and allies in many European countries (J. Colet and Thomas More in England, G. Bude and Lefevre d'Etaple in France, I. Reuchlin in Germany). Erasmus understood the tasks of the new culture broadly. In his opinion, this is not only the resurrection of the ancient pagan heritage, but also the restoration of the early Christian doctrine. He did not see any fundamental differences between them in terms of the truth to which a person should strive. Like the Italian humanists, he connected the improvement of a person with education, creative activity, the disclosure of all inherent in it abilities.His humanistic pedagogy received artistic expression in "Conversations easily", and his sharply satirical work "Praise of Stupidity" was directed against ignorance, dogmatism, feudal prejudices.Erasmus saw the path to the happiness of people in a peaceful life and the establishment of a humanistic culture based on all values historical experience of mankind.
In Germany, the Renaissance culture experienced a rapid rise at the end of the 15th century. - 1st third of the XVI century. One of its features was the flowering of satirical literature, which began with Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools, which sharply criticized the mores of the time; the author led readers to the conclusion about the need for reforms in public life. The satirical line in German literature was continued by the "Letters of Dark People" - an anonymously published collective work of humanists, chief among whom was Ulrich von Hutten - where ministers of the church were subjected to devastating criticism. Hutten was the author of many pamphlets, dialogues, letters directed against the papacy, the dominance of the church in Germany, the fragmentation of the country; his work contributed to the awakening of the national self-consciousness of the German people.
The greatest artists of the Renaissance in Germany were A. Durer, an outstanding painter and unsurpassed engraver, M. Nithardt (Grunewald) with his deeply dramatic images, the portrait painter Hans Holbein the Younger, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, who closely connected his art with the Reformation.
In France, the Renaissance culture took shape and flourished in the 16th century. This was facilitated, in particular, by the Italian wars of 1494-1559. (they were fought between the kings of France, Spain and the German emperor for the mastery of Italian territories), which revealed to the French the wealth of the Renaissance culture of Italy. At the same time, a feature of the French Renaissance was an interest in the traditions of folk culture, creatively mastered by humanists along with the ancient heritage. The poetry of K. Maro, the works of the humanist-philologists E. Dole and B. Deperrier, who were members of the circle of Margaret of Navarre (sister of King Francis I), are imbued with folk motives and cheerful freethinking. These trends are very clearly manifested in the satirical novel of the outstanding Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel", where plots drawn from ancient folk tales about merry giants are combined with ridicule of the vices and ignorance of contemporaries, with a presentation of the humanistic program of upbringing and education in the spirit of the new culture. The rise of national French poetry is associated with the activities of the Pleiades - a circle of poets led by Ronsard and Du Bellay. During the period of civil (Huguenot) wars (see Wars of Religion in France), journalism was widely developed, expressing the differences in the political position of the opposing forces of society. The major political thinkers were F. Othman and Duplessis Mornet, who opposed tyranny, and J. Bodin, who advocated strengthening a single national state headed by an absolute monarch. The ideas of humanism found deep reflection in Montaigne's "Experiences". Montaigne, Rabelais, Bonaventure Deperier were prominent representatives of secular free-thinking, which rejected the religious foundations of the worldview. They condemned scholasticism, the medieval system of upbringing and education, dogmatism, and religious fanaticism. The main principle of Montaigne's ethics is the free manifestation of human individuality, the liberation of the mind from submission to faith, the full value of emotional life. Happiness he connected with the realization of the internal possibilities of the individual, which should be served by secular upbringing and education based on free thought. In the art of the French Renaissance, the portrait genre came to the fore, the outstanding masters of which were J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, P. and E. Dumoustier. J. Goujon became famous in sculpture.
In the culture of the Netherlands of the Renaissance, rhetorical societies were an original phenomenon, uniting people from different strata, including artisans and peasants. At the meetings of the societies, debates were held on political and moral-religious topics, performances were staged in folk traditions, there was a refined work on the word; humanists took an active part in the activities of societies. Folk features were also characteristic of Dutch art. The largest painter Pieter Brueghel, nicknamed "Peasant", in his paintings of peasant life and landscapes with particular completeness expressed the feeling of the unity of nature and man.
). It reached a high rise in the 16th century. the art of the theater, democratic in its orientation. Everyday comedies, historical chronicles, heroic dramas were staged in numerous public and private theaters. The plays of K. Marlowe, in which majestic heroes defy medieval morality, of B. Johnson, in which a gallery of tragicomic characters emerge, prepared the appearance of the greatest playwright of the Renaissance, William Shakespeare. A perfect master of different genres - comedies, tragedies, historical chronicles, Shakespeare created unique images of strong people, personalities who vividly embodied the features of a Renaissance man, cheerful, passionate, endowed with mind and energy, but sometimes contradictory in his moral deeds. Shakespeare's work exposed the deepening gap between the humanistic idealization of man and the real world, which was deepening in the era of the Late Renaissance. The English scientist Francis Bacon enriched Renaissance philosophy with new approaches to understanding the world. He contrasted observation and experiment with the scholastic method as a reliable tool of scientific knowledge. Bacon saw the way to building a perfect society in the development of science, especially physics.
In Spain, Renaissance culture experienced a "golden age" in the second half of the 16th century. the first decades of the 17th century. Her highest achievements are associated with the creation of a new Spanish literature and the national folk theater, as well as with the work of the outstanding painter El Greco. The formation of a new Spanish literature, which grew up on the traditions of chivalrous and picaresque novels, found a brilliant conclusion in Miguel de Cervantes' brilliant novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha. The images of the knight Don Quixote and the peasant Sancho Panza reveal the main humanistic idea of the novel: the greatness of man in his courageous fight against evil in the name of justice. Cervantes' novel is both a kind of parody of the chivalric romance that is fading into the past, and the broadest canvas of the Spanish folk life of the 16th century. Cervantes was the author of a number of plays that made a great contribution to the creation of the national theater. To an even greater extent, the rapid development of the Spanish Renaissance theater is associated with the work of the extremely prolific playwright and poet Lope de Vega, the author of lyric-heroic comedies of the cloak and sword, imbued with the folk spirit.
Andrei Rublev. Trinity. 1st quarter of the 15th century
At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance culture spread in Hungary, where royal patronage played an important role in the flourishing of humanism; in the Czech Republic, where new trends contributed to the formation of national consciousness; in Poland, which became one of the centers of humanistic freethinking. The influence of the Renaissance also affected the culture of the Dubrovnik Republic, Lithuania, and Belarus. Separate tendencies of a pre-Renaissance nature also appeared in Russian culture of the 15th century. They were associated with a growing interest in the human personality and its psychology. In art, this is primarily the work of Andrei Rublev and the artists of his circle, in literature - “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, which tells about the love of the Murom prince and the peasant girl Fevronia, and the writings of Epiphanius the Wise with his masterful “weaving of words”. In the XVI century. Renaissance elements appeared in Russian political journalism (Ivan Peresvetov and others).
In the XVI - the first decades of the XVII century. Significant shifts have taken place in the development of science. The beginning of a new astronomy was laid by the heliocentric theory of the Polish scientist N. Copernicus, which made a revolution in the ideas about the Universe. It received further substantiation in the works of the German astronomer I. Kepler, as well as the Italian scientist G. Galileo. The astronomer and physicist Galileo constructed a spyglass, using it to discover the mountains on the Moon, the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, etc. The discoveries of Galileo, which confirmed the teachings of Copernicus about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, gave impetus to the more rapid spread of the heliocentric theory, which the church recognized as heretical; she persecuted her supporters (for example, the fate of D. Bruno, who was burned at the stake) and banned the writings of Galileo. Many new things have appeared in the field of physics, mechanics, and mathematics. Stephen formulated the theorems of hydrostatics; Tartaglia successfully studied the theory of ballistics; Cardano discovered the solution of algebraic equations of the third degree. G. Kremer (Mercator) created more advanced geographical maps. Oceanography emerged. In botany, E. Kord and L. Fuchs systematized a wide range of knowledge. K. Gesner enriched knowledge in the field of zoology with his History of Animals. Knowledge of anatomy was improved, which was facilitated by the work of Vesalius “On the structure of the human body”. M. Servetus suggested the presence of a pulmonary circulation. The outstanding physician Paracelsus brought medicine and chemistry closer together, made important discoveries in pharmacology. Mr. Agricola systematized knowledge in the field of mining and metallurgy. Leonardo da Vinci put forward a number of engineering projects that were far ahead of his contemporary technical thought and anticipated some later discoveries (for example, an aircraft).
