Renaissance in the history of European Civilization: prerequisites, ideas, followers

Abstract

Abstract. The article highlights the consistent evolution of the Renaissance as a powerful cultural movement within the XIV-XVI centuries, during which a new culture, a new system of national literatures, a new philosophy and science emerged. The prerequisites for the emergence and specific features of the Renaissance in the history of European civilization are revealed, the work of the most outstanding representatives of the Renaissance is characterized. It is pointed out the formation of humanistic, aesthetic and artistic orientation of the Renaissance culture as opposed to the religious dominant in the culture of the Middle Ages.

Introduction. The main trends in the historical development of mankind can be traced and analyzed only by turning to the historical past, in particular to the civilizational dimensions of medieval history, in particular to the cultural and intellectual history of Western Europe in the 14th-16th centuries. The general cultural and historical view of the essence of the Renaissance, the awareness of the role of humanism in the development of the ideas of the Renaissance is relevant for the study of modern cultural and intellectual foundations of the civilizational development of mankind in general, as well as the peculiarities of the development of European countries in the Renaissance and their influence on the development of individual cultural communities.

Purpose. Highlight and analyze the prerequisites for the emergence, essence and main trends of the Renaissance, characterize the role of humanism in the development of the culture of the Renaissance, clarify and compare the main conceptual directions of the Renaissance using the example of the work of its most prominent artists in the context of the development of the new European civilization.

Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the article consists in an attempt to comprehensively analyze the cultural-intellectual and historical-philosophical essence of the Renaissance in the context of the development of the new European civilization.

Result. The article proves that the renaissance cultural-intellectual and social transformations in the development of European civilization initiated the formation of modern nations, and in the field of art caused such a flourishing of art, which has never been achieved before. Creativity became the main category for interpreting the role of art in the Renaissance era, and the philosophical postulate about the creative possibilities of man was realized in the heyday of Renaissance art.

Conclusion. Humanism played a major role in the renewal of the general culture of the Renaissance and became the central cultural trend of the Renaissance. In general, the teachings of the progressives of the Renaissance, which were humanistic in content, played a leading role, constituted a significant opposition to feudalism and church scholasticism, and affirmed the principles of democracy. The creators of the new culture belonged not only to the "new time", but also to the time that was passing. The creativity of the artists of the Renaissance embodied the most advanced and life-affirming ideas of their time, both in extreme completeness and maturity, and in internal contradictions. It contains all the problems of a new type of artistic culture with all its love of life and tragedy, anthropocentrism and deepening into the boundless cosmos. The creators of the High Renaissance became the true titans of art.