It is difficult to disagree with how big a role art plays in the history of any period. Judge for yourselves: in the history lessons at school, after each topic devoted to the study of the political and economic situation in the world at a given time interval, students are invited to prepare reports on the art of this era.
Also in the school course, from relatively recently, there is such an object as the Moscow Art Theater. This is absolutely no coincidence, because any work of art is one of the brightest reflections of the time in which it was created, and allows you to look at world history through the eyes of the creator who gave this work life.
Culture definition
World art culture, or the Moscow Art Theater for short, is a type of social culture based on the figurative and creative reproduction of society and people, as well as animate and inanimate nature through the means used by professional art and folk art culture. These are also phenomena and processes of spiritual practical activity that create, disseminate and master material objects and works of art that have aesthetic value. World art culture includes a picturesque, sculptural, architectural heritage and monuments of decorative and applied art, as well as all the variety created by the people and its individual representatives.
The role of the MHC as a subject
In the course of studying the course of world art culture, both broad integration and understanding of the connection of culture, primarily with historical events of any time period, as well as with social sciences, are provided.
As mentioned earlier, world art culture embraces all the artistic activity that a person has ever engaged in. This is literature, theater, music, art. All processes associated with the creation and storage, as well as the dissemination, creation and evaluation of cultural heritage, are studied. The problems associated with ensuring the further cultural life of society and the training of specialists with relevant qualifications at universities are not left out.
As an academic subject, the MHC is an appeal to the entire artistic culture, and not to its individual types.
The concept of the cultural era
The cultural era, or the cultural paradigm, is a complex multifactorial phenomenon that contains the image of both a specific person living at a particular time and carrying out his activity, as well as a community of people with the same life, mood and thinking, value system.
Cultural paradigms succeed each other as a result of a peculiar natural-cultural selection through the interaction of traditional and innovative components that art carries. The MHC as a training course aims to study these processes.
What is the Renaissance
One of the most significant periods in the development of culture is the Renaissance, or Renaissance, the reign of which occurred in the XIII-XVI centuries. and marked the onset of the era of the New Age. The sphere of artistic creativity was most affected.
After the era of decline in the Middle Ages, art flourishes and ancient artistic wisdom is reborn. It was at this time and in the meaning of “revival” the Italian word rinascita was used, later numerous analogues appeared in European languages, including French Renaissance. All art, primarily art, is becoming a universal "language" that allows you to learn the secrets of nature and get closer to it. The master reproduces nature not conditionally, but strives for maximum naturalness, trying to surpass the Almighty. The development of the sense of beauty that is familiar to us begins, natural science and the knowledge of God all the time find common ground. In the Renaissance, art became both a laboratory and a temple.
Periodization
The revival is divided into several time periods. In Italy - in the homeland of the Renaissance - several periods were allocated that have long been used throughout the world. This is the Proto-Renaissance (1260-1320), partly part of the Duento period (XIII century). In addition, there were periods of trecento (XIV century), quattrocento (XV century), cinquecento (XVI century).
A more general periodization divides the era into the Early Renaissance (XIV-XV centuries). At this time, there is an interaction of new trends with Gothic, which is being creatively transformed. Next are the periods of the Middle, or High, and Late Renaissance, in which a special place is given to mannerism, characterized by a crisis of the humanistic culture of the Renaissance.
Also in countries such as France and Holland, the so-called Northern Renaissance is developing , where late Gothic plays a huge role. As the history of the MHC says, the Renaissance was reflected in Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, as well as in the Scandinavian countries. Spain, Great Britain and Portugal became countries with a distinctive Renaissance culture.
The philosophical and religious components of the Renaissance
Through the reflections of such representatives of the philosophy of this period, as Giordano Bruno, Nikolai Kuzansky, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Paracelsus, the topics of spiritual creativity, as well as the struggle for the right to call an individual “second god” and associate a person with him, become relevant in the MHC.
Actual, as at all times, is the problem of consciousness and personality, faith in God and higher powers. There are both compromise-moderate and heretical views on this issue.
A person is faced with a choice, and the reform of the church of this time implies a Renaissance not only within the framework of the MHC. It is also a revival of human morality , propagated through the speeches of leaders of all religious faiths: from the founders of the Reformation to the Jesuits.
The main task of the era. A few words about humanism
The focus of the Renaissance is on the upbringing of a new person. The Latin word humanitas, from which the word "humanism" came from, is the equivalent of the Greek word "education".
In the framework of the Renaissance, humanism urges a person to master the ancient wisdom, important for that time, and to find a way to self-knowledge and self-improvement. Here, the merger of all the best that other periods that left their mark in the MHC could offer. The Renaissance took the ancient heritage of antiquity, religiosity and the secular code of honor of the Middle Ages, the creative energy and human mind of the New Time, creating an entirely new and seemingly perfect type of worldview.
Renaissance in various fields of human artistic activity
During this period, illusory-nature-like paintings displace icons, becoming the center of innovation. Actively painted landscapes, household painting, portrait. Printed engraving on metal and wood is distributed. Working sketches of artists become an independent form of creativity. Picture illusory is present in monumental painting.
In architecture, under the influence of architects' enthusiasm for the centric idea, proportional temples, palaces, and architectural ensembles are becoming popular, focusing on earthly, centrically perspective-organized horizontals.
Renaissance literature is characterized by a love of Latin as the language of educated people, adjacent to national and folk languages. Such genres as rogue novel and urban short story, heroic poems and novels of medieval adventurous and chivalry themes, satire, pastoral and love lyrics become popular. At the peak of the drama's popularity, theaters stage performances with an abundance of city festivals and lush court extravaganzas, becoming the product of colorful syntheses of various types of art.
In music, a strict musical polyphony flourishes. The complication of compositional techniques, the appearance of the first forms of sonatas, operas, suites, oratorios and overtures. Secular music, close to folklore, becomes on a par with religious. There is a separation of instrumental music in a separate form, and the peak of the era is the creation of full-fledged solo songs, operas and oratorios. The temple is replaced by the opera house, which took the place of the center of musical culture.
In general, the main breakthrough is that once medieval anonymity is replaced by individual, author's work. In this regard, world art culture is moving to a fundamentally new level.
Renaissance titans
It is not surprising that such a fundamental revival of art from virtually the ashes could not have taken place without those people who created a new culture with their creations. Later they began to call them “titans” for the contribution they made.
Giotto personified the proto-Renaissance, and during the quattrocento the constructively strict Masaccio and the sincere lyrical works of Botticelli and Angelico opposed each other.
The Middle, or High, Renaissance was represented by Raphael, Michelangelo and, of course, Leonardo da Vinci - artists who became iconic at the turn of the New Time.
Famous architects of the Renaissance became Bramante, Brunelleschi and Palladio. Bruegel the Elder, Bosch and Van Eyck are painters of the Dutch Renaissance. Holbein the Younger, Dürer, Cranach the Elder became the founders of the German Renaissance.
The literature of this period remembers the names of such “titan” masters as Shakespeare, Petrarch, Cervantes, Rabelais, who presented the world with lyrics, romance and drama, and also contributed to the formation of the literary languages of their countries.
Undoubtedly, the Renaissance contributed to the development of many areas in art and gave impetus to the creation of new ones. It is not known what the history of world art culture would have been if this period had not existed. Perhaps classical art today would not have caused such admiration; most trends in literature, music and painting would not have existed at all. Or maybe everything with which we are accustomed to associate classical art would have appeared, but for many years or even centuries later. Whatever the course of events, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. And only one thing is obvious: even today we admire the works of this era, and this once again proves its significance in the cultural life of society.