Views of the Renaissance. Literature of France, Spain and Italy
Renaissance(Renaissance)
Renaissance (Renaissance), an era of intellectual and artistic flowering that began in Italy in the 14th century, peaking in the 16th century and having a significant impact on European culture. The term "Renaissance", which meant a return to the values of the ancient world (although interest in Roman classics arose in the 12th century), appeared in the 15th century and received theoretical justification in the 16th century in the works of Vasari, dedicated to the work of famous artists, sculptors and architects. At this time, an idea was formed about the harmony reigning in nature and about man as the crown of its creation. Among the outstanding representatives of this era is the artist Alberti; architect, artist, scientist, poet and mathematician Leonardo da Vinci.
The architect Brunelleschi, innovatively using Hellenistic (ancient) traditions, created several buildings that were not inferior in beauty to the best ancient examples. Very interesting are the works of Bramante, whom his contemporaries considered the most talented architect of the High Renaissance, and Palladio, who created large architectural ensembles that were distinguished by their integrity artistic design and diversity compositional solutions. The theater buildings and sets were constructed based on the architectural work of Vitruvius (circa 15 BC) in accordance with the principles of the Roman theater. Playwrights followed strict classical canons. The auditorium, as a rule, was shaped like a horse's horseshoe; in front of it there was a raised platform with a proscenium, separated from the main space by an arch. This was taken as a model for a theater building for everything Western world for the next five centuries.
Renaissance painters created a coherent concept of the world with internal unity and filled traditional religious subjects with earthly content (Nicola Pisano, late 14th century; Donatello, early 15th century). The realistic depiction of man became the main goal of the artists of the Early Renaissance, as evidenced by the works of Giotto and Masaccio. The invention of a way to convey perspective contributed to a more truthful reflection of reality. One of the main themes of Renaissance paintings (Gilbert, Michelangelo) was the tragic irreconcilability of conflicts, the struggle and death of the hero.
Around 1425, Florence became the center of the Renaissance (Florentine art), but by the beginning of the 16th century (High Renaissance), Venice (Venetian art) and Rome took the leading place. The cultural centers were the courts of the Dukes of Mantua, Urbino and Ferrada. The main patrons of the arts were the Medici and the popes, especially Julius II and Leo X. The largest representatives of the “northern Renaissance” were Durer, Cranach the Elder, and Holbein. Northern artists mainly imitated the best Italian models, and only a few, such as Jan van Scorel, managed to create their own style, which was distinguished by its particular elegance and grace, later called Mannerism.
Renaissance Artists:
Famous paintings by Renaissance artists
 Mona Lisa |
The content of the article
RENAISSANCE, a period in the cultural history of Western and Central Europe of the 14th–16th centuries, the main content of which was the formation of a new, “earthly”, inherently secular picture of the world, radically different from the medieval one. The new picture of the world found expression in humanism, the leading ideological movement of the era, and natural philosophy, manifested itself in art and science, which underwent revolutionary changes. The building material for the original building of the new culture was antiquity, which was turned to through the head of the Middle Ages and which was, as it were, “reborn” to a new life - hence the name of the era - “Renaissance”, or “Renaissance” (in the French manner), given to it subsequently. Born in Italy, the new culture at the end of the 15th century. passes through the Alps, where, as a result of the synthesis of Italian and local national traditions culture is born Northern Renaissance. During the Renaissance, the new Renaissance culture coexisted with the culture of the late Middle Ages, which was especially typical for countries located north of Italy.
Art.
With the theocentrism and asceticism of the medieval picture of the world, art in the Middle Ages served primarily religion, conveying the world and man in their relationship to God, in conventional forms, and was concentrated in the space of the temple. Neither the visible world nor man could be valuable objects of art in their own right. In the 13th century New trends are observed in medieval culture (the cheerful teaching of St. Francis, the work of Dante, the forerunners of humanism). In the second half of the 13th century. marks the beginning of a transitional era in the development of Italian art - the Proto-Renaissance (lasted until the beginning of the 15th century), which prepared the way for the Renaissance. The work of some artists of this time (G. Fabriano, Cimabue, S. Martini, etc.), quite medieval in iconography, is imbued with a more cheerful and secular beginning, the figures acquire relative volume. In sculpture, the Gothic ethereality of figures is overcome, Gothic emotionality is reduced (N. Pisano). For the first time, a clear break with medieval traditions appeared at the end of the 13th - first third of the 14th century. in the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone, who introduced a sense of three-dimensional space into painting, painted more voluminous figures, paid more attention to the setting and, most importantly, showed a special realism, alien to the exalted Gothic, in depicting human experiences.
On the soil cultivated by the masters of the Proto-Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance arose, which passed through several phases in its evolution (Early, High, Late). Associated with a new, essentially secular worldview expressed by humanists, it loses its inextricable connection with religion; painting and statue spread beyond the temple. With the help of painting, the artist mastered the world and man as they appeared to the eye, using a new artistic method (transferring three-dimensional space using perspective (linear, aerial, color), creating the illusion of plastic volume, maintaining the proportionality of figures). Interest in personality and its individual traits was combined with the idealization of a person, the search for “perfect beauty.” The subjects of sacred history did not leave art, but from now on their depiction was inextricably linked with the task of mastering the world and embodying the earthly ideal (hence the similarities between Bacchus and John the Baptist by Leonardo, Venus and the Mother of God by Botticelli). Renaissance architecture loses its Gothic aspiration to the sky and gains “classical” balance and proportionality, proportionality to the human body. The ancient order system is being revived, but the elements of the order were not parts of the structure, but decoration that adorned both traditional (temple, palace of authorities) and new types of buildings (city palace, country villa).
The founder of the Early Renaissance is considered to be the Florentine painter Masaccio, who picked up the tradition of Giotto, achieved an almost sculptural tangibility of figures, used the principles of linear perspective, and moved away from the conventions of depicting the situation. Further development painting in the 15th century went to schools in Florence, Umbria, Padua, Venice (F. Lippi, D. Veneziano, P. della Francesco, A. Palaiolo, A. Mantegna, C. Crivelli, S. Botticelli and many others). In the 15th century Renaissance sculpture is born and develops (L. Ghiberti, Donatello, J. della Quercia, L. della Robbia, Verrocchio and others, Donatello was the first to create a self-standing round statue not related to architecture, the first to depict a naked body with an expression of sensuality) and architecture (F. Brunelleschi, L.B. Alberti, etc.). Masters of the 15th century (primarily L.B. Alberti, P. della Francesco) created the theory of fine arts and architecture.
The Northern Renaissance was prepared by the emergence in the 1420s - 1430s, on the basis of late Gothic (not without the indirect influence of the Giottian tradition), of a new style in painting, the so-called “ars nova” - “new art” (E. Panofsky’s term). Its spiritual basis, according to researchers, was, first of all, the so-called “New Piety” of the northern mystics of the 15th century, which presupposed specific individualism and pantheistic acceptance of the world. The origins of the new style were the Dutch painters Jan van Eyck, who also improved oil paints, and the Master from Flemalle, followed by G. van der Goes, R. van der Weyden, D. Bouts, G. tot Sint Jans, I. Bosch and others (middle - second half of the 15th century). New Netherlandish painting received a wide response in Europe: already in the 1430–1450s the first examples appeared new painting in Germany (L. Moser, G. Mulcher, especially K. Witz), in France (Master of the Annunciation from Aix and, of course, J. Fouquet). The new style was characterized by a special realism: the transfer of three-dimensional space through perspective (although, as a rule, approximately), the desire for volume. The “new art,” deeply religious, was interested in individual experiences, the character of a person, valuing in him, first of all, humility and piety. His aesthetics are alien to the Italian pathos of the perfect in man, the passion for classical forms (the faces of the characters are not perfectly proportional, they are gothically angular). Nature and everyday life were depicted with special love and detail; carefully painted things had, as a rule, a religious and symbolic meaning.
Actually, the art of the Northern Renaissance was born at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries. as a result of the interaction of the national artistic and spiritual traditions of the Trans-Alpine countries with the Renaissance art and humanism of Italy, with the development of northern humanism. The first artist of the Renaissance type can be considered the outstanding German master A. Durer, who involuntarily, however, retained Gothic spirituality. A complete break with the Gothic was achieved by G. Holbein the Younger with his “objectivity” of painting style. The painting of M. Grunewald, on the contrary, was imbued with religious exaltation. The German Renaissance was the work of one generation of artists and fizzled out in the 1540s. In the Netherlands in the first third of the 16th century. Currents oriented towards the High Renaissance and Mannerism of Italy began to spread (J. Gossaert, J. Scorel, B. van Orley, etc.). The most interesting thing in Dutch painting of the 16th century. - this is the development of genres of easel painting, everyday and landscape (K. Masseys, Patinir, Luke Leydensky). The most nationally original artist of the 1550s–1560s was P. Bruegel the Elder, who owned paintings of everyday life and landscape genres, as well as parable paintings, usually associated with folklore and a bitterly ironic view of the life of the artist himself. The Renaissance in the Netherlands ends in the 1560s. The French Renaissance, which was entirely courtly in nature (in the Netherlands and Germany, art was more associated with the burghers), was perhaps the most classical in the Northern Renaissance. The new Renaissance art, gradually gaining strength under the influence of Italy, reached maturity in the middle - second half of the century in the work of architects P. Lescot, the creator of the Louvre, F. Delorme, sculptors J. Goujon and J. Pilon, painters F. Clouet, J. Cousin Senior. The “Fontainebleau school”, founded in France by the Italian artists Rosso and Primaticcio, who worked in the mannerist style, had a great influence on the above-mentioned painters and sculptors, but the French masters did not become mannerists, having accepted the classical ideal hidden under the mannerist guise. The Renaissance in French art ends in the 1580s. In the second half of the 16th century. the art of the Renaissance of Italy and other European countries gradually gives way to mannerism and early baroque.
The science.
The most important condition for the scale and revolutionary achievements of Renaissance science was humanistic worldview, in which the activity of exploring the world was understood as a component of man’s earthly destiny. To this we must add the revival of ancient science. The needs of navigation, the use of artillery, the creation of hydraulic structures, etc. played a significant role in the development. Spreading scientific knowledge, the exchange of them between scientists would have been impossible without the invention of printing ca. 1445.
The first achievements in the field of mathematics and astronomy date back to the mid-15th century. and are largely associated with the names of G. Peyerbach (Purbach) and I. Muller (Regiomontanus). Müller created new, more advanced astronomical tables (replacing the Alfonsian tables of the 13th century) - “Ephemerides” (published in 1492), which were used by Columbus, Vasco da Gama and other navigators in their travels. A significant contribution to the development of algebra and geometry was made by the Italian mathematician of the turn of the century L. Pacioli. In the 16th century The Italians N. Tartaglia and G. Cardano discovered new ways to solve equations of the third and fourth degree.
The most important scientific event of the 16th century. was the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in his treatise On the revolution of the celestial spheres(1543) rejected the dominant geocentric Ptolemaic-Aristotelian picture of the world and not only postulated the rotation of celestial bodies around the Sun, and the Earth around its axis, but also for the first time showed in detail (geocentrism as a guess was born in Ancient Greece) how, based on such a system, it is possible explain - much better than before - all the data of astronomical observations. In the 16th century the new world system, in general, did not receive support in the scientific community. Only Galileo provided convincing evidence of the truth of Copernicus' theory.
Based on experience, some 16th century scientists (among them Leonardo, B. Varchi) expressed doubts about the laws of Aristotelian mechanics, which reigned supreme until that time, but did not offer their own solution to the problems (later Galileo would do this). The practice of using artillery contributed to the formulation and solution of new scientific problems: Tartaglia in the treatise New science considered issues of ballistics. The theory of levers and weights was studied by Cardano. Leonardo da Vinci became the founder of hydraulics. His theoretical research was related to his construction of hydraulic structures, land reclamation work, construction of canals, and improvement of locks. The English doctor W. Gilbert initiated the study of electromagnetic phenomena by publishing an essay About the magnet(1600), where he described its properties.
A critical attitude towards authorities and reliance on experience were clearly manifested in medicine and anatomy. Flemish A. Vesalius in his famous work About the building human body (1543) described the human body in detail, relying on his numerous observations when dissecting corpses, criticizing Galen and other authorities. At the beginning of the 16th century. Along with alchemy, iatrochemistry emerged - medicinal chemistry, which developed new medicinal drugs. One of its founders was F. von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Rejecting the achievements of his predecessors, he, in fact, did not go far from them in theory, but as a practitioner he introduced a number of new drugs.
In the 16th century Mineralogy, botany, and zoology developed (Georg Bauer Agricola, K. Gesner, Cesalpino, Rondelet, Belona), which in the Renaissance were at the stage of collecting facts. Big role Reports from explorers of new countries, containing descriptions of flora and fauna, played a role in the development of these sciences.
In the 15th century Cartography and geography were actively developing, Ptolemy's mistakes were corrected, based on medieval and modern data. In 1490 M. Beheim creates the first globe. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. Europeans' search for the sea route between India and China, advances in cartography and geography, astronomy and shipbuilding culminated in the discovery of the coast of Central America by Columbus, who believed that he had reached India (the continent called America first appeared on Waldseemüller's map in 1507). In 1498, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama reached India, circumnavigating Africa. The idea of reaching India and China by a western route was realized by the Spanish expedition of Magellan - El Cano (1519–1522), which circumnavigated South America and made the first trip around the world (the sphericity of the Earth was proven in practice!). In the 16th century Europeans were confident that “the world today is completely open and the entire human race is known.” Great discoveries transformed geography and stimulated the development of cartography.
The science of the Renaissance had little impact on the productive forces that developed along the path of gradual improvement of tradition. At the same time, the successes of astronomy, geography, and cartography served as the most important prerequisite for the Great Geographical Discoveries, which led to fundamental changes in world trade, colonial expansion and a price revolution in Europe. The achievements of science during the Renaissance became a necessary condition for the genesis of classical science in modern times.
Dmitry Samotovinsky
The Renaissance and Modern Times are among the most significant periods in the development of mankind. What characterizes them? How does the Renaissance differ from the Modern era?
The Renaissance and the New Age: periodization and subject of comparison
The Renaissance period is usually considered to be the period between the beginning of the 14th century and the first half of the 17th century. Modern times begin immediately after it. Comparison of the Renaissance and the Modern era can be carried out according to different criteria, but most often researchers compare these periods of human development according to the main features of philosophical thought. The spread of humanitarian knowledge, the development of culture, economy and society in Europe contributed to the fact that it was philosophical thought that became one of the main features of a particular period of development of states. Therefore, we will compare precisely its features in relation to the Renaissance and Modern times.
Renaissance: basic philosophical ideas
Renaissance is often considered as a transitional period between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age in terms of the approaches of scientists and theologians to understanding the role of man in the world. In the philosophical thought of the corresponding period of development European culture the central place belongs to God and man. Considerable attention of scientists and thinkers of the Renaissance was paid to the study of questions of the essence of man, his creativity, participation in the life of the state and society.
In the Middle Ages, it was believed that creation was given to God, and this was not the prerogative of man. During the Renaissance, the views of thinkers were supplemented by concepts that also considered man as a subject of creativity. The philosophical approaches of the corresponding period were dominated by the idea that people should be given a significant role in the development of culture, politics, and in improving infrastructure and technology.
In the philosophy of the Renaissance, the aspect of aesthetics occupies an important place. In the Middle Ages, beauty and grace were considered divine phenomena. It was believed that a person does not have the right to actively create them. But during the Renaissance, the views of philosophers and society were supplemented by other concepts. Man began to be viewed as an intrinsically valuable subject of beauty and grace, as a bearer of highly moral principles.
Thus, the basis for the development of Renaissance society was the self-development of man, the realization of his potential - in the aspect of science, technology, and the organization of self-government.
The New Age: features of philosophical views
TO New time It is customary to refer to the period that began almost immediately after the Renaissance - from the mid-17th century - and lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.
One of those thinkers of the Modern Age, thanks to whom the evolution of philosophical ideas took place in the corresponding period, was Rene Descartes. He is the author of a teaching that has had an exceptional impact big influence on the development of culture and society in Europe during the New Age. One of his most famous books, Discourse on Method, was written in 1637, at the very beginning of the era in question.
Philosophy, according to Descartes, must meet the criteria of truth and be justified - even for critics and skeptics. “I think, therefore I exist” is a phrase that belongs to Descartes. Thus, a person of the modern era is a thinking, rational subject. The basis of his thinking should be, as Descartes believed, the most elementary ideas, which are formed, as a rule, intuitively and are quite easily detected in the human mind. Then, based on simple ideas, in the process of deduction more complex concepts can already be derived. Which, in turn, must be tested in practice, with life experience, experimentally.
The Age of Enlightenment actually coincides with the New Time. One of its main ideological trends was rationalism. Isaac Newton, John Locke and other famous thinkers of modern times contributed to the development of such concepts. The person of the era in question is a subject not only of creativity, but also of rational principles. This is a man not of postulates, but of reasonable evidence.
The basis for the development of society in the modern era was improvement - thanks to rationalization and the desire for a reasonable understanding of things, the principles of human development. Which, in turn, also contributed to further scientific and technological progress, cultural development, and the emergence of new promising ideas implementation of mechanisms of self-government and political self-organization of people.
Comparison
The main difference between the Renaissance and the Modern era from the point of view of philosophical thought is that in the first of the periods under consideration, man was recognized as a subject of creativity and aesthetics, which he learned from God, who is the creator of man. In modern times, the creative and aesthetic principles of man were supplemented by rational knowledge, the essence of which was studied by Rene Descartes.
Having determined what the difference is between the Renaissance and the Modern era in terms of their periodization, as well as the characteristics of philosophical thought, we will record the conclusions in the table.
Renaissance Art
Renaissance- this was the heyday of all arts, including theater, literature, and music, but, undoubtedly, the main one among them, which most fully expressed the spirit of its time, was fine art.
It is no coincidence that there is a theory that the Renaissance began with the fact that artists ceased to be satisfied with the framework of the dominant “Byzantine” style and, in search of models for their creativity, were the first to turn to to antiquity. The term “Renaissance” was introduced by the thinker and artist of the era itself, Giorgio Vasari (“Biographies of Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects”). This is how he named the time from 1250 to 1550. From his point of view, it was a time of revival of antiquity. For Vasari, antiquity appears as an ideal image.
Subsequently, the content of the term evolved. The revival began to mean the emancipation of science and art from theology, a cooling towards Christian ethics, the emergence of national literatures, and a person’s desire for freedom from the restrictions of the Catholic Church. That is, the Renaissance, in essence, began to mean humanism.
REVIVAL, RENAISSANCE(French renais sance - renaissance) - one of the greatest eras, turning point in the development of world art between the Middle Ages and modern times. The Renaissance covers the XIV-XVI centuries. in Italy, XV-XVI centuries. in other European countries. This period in the development of culture received its name - Renaissance (or Renaissance) in connection with the revival of interest in ancient art. However, the artists of this time not only copied old models, but also put into them qualitatively new content. The Renaissance should not be considered an artistic style or movement, since during this era there were various artistic styles, directions, trends. The aesthetic ideal of the Renaissance was formed on the basis of a new progressive worldview - humanism. The real world and man were proclaimed the highest value: Man is the measure of all things. The role of the creative personality has especially increased.
The humanistic pathos of the era was best embodied in art, which, as in previous centuries, aimed to provide a picture of the universe. What was new was that they tried to combine the material and spiritual into one whole. It was difficult to find a person indifferent to art, but preference was given to fine arts and architecture.
Italian painting of the 15th century. mostly monumental (frescoes). Painting occupies a leading place among the types of fine arts. It most fully corresponds to the Renaissance principle of “imitating nature.” A new pictorial system is being developed based on the study of nature. The artist Masaccio made a worthy contribution to the development of the understanding of volume and its transmission with the help of chiaroscuro. The discovery and scientific justification of the laws of linear and aerial perspective significantly influenced the future fate of European painting. A new plastic language of sculpture is being formed, its founder was Donatello. He revived the free-standing round statue. His best work is the sculpture of David (Florence).
In architecture, the principles of the ancient order system are resurrected, the importance of proportions is raised, new types of buildings are formed (city palace, country villa, etc.), the theory of architecture and the concept of an ideal city are developed. The architect Brunelleschi built buildings in which he combined the ancient understanding of architecture and the traditions of late Gothic, achieving a new imaginative spirituality of architecture unknown to the ancients. During the high Renaissance, the new worldview was best embodied in the work of artists who are rightfully called geniuses: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione and Titian. The last two thirds of the 16th century. called the late Renaissance. At this time, a crisis engulfs art. It becomes regimented, courtly, and loses its warmth and naturalness. However, some great artists - Titian, Tintoretto - continue to create masterpieces during this period.
The Italian Renaissance had a huge influence on the art of France, Spain, Germany, England, and Russia.
The rise in the development of art in the Netherlands, France and Germany (XV-XVI centuries) is called the Northern Renaissance. The works of painters Jan van Eyck and P. Bruegel the Elder are the pinnacles of this period of art development. In Germany, the greatest artist of the German Renaissance was A. Durer.
The discoveries made during the Renaissance in the field of spiritual culture and art were of great historical significance for the development of European art in subsequent centuries. Interest in them continues in our time.
The Renaissance in Italy went through several stages: early Renaissance, high Renaissance, late Renaissance. Florence became the birthplace of the Renaissance. The foundations of the new art were developed by the painter Masaccio, the sculptor Donatello, and the architect F. Brunelleschi.
The largest master of the Proto-Renaissance was the first to create paintings instead of icons Giotto. He was the first to strive to convey Christian ethical ideas through the depiction of real human feelings and experiences, replacing symbolism with the depiction of real space and specific objects. In Giotto's famous frescoes Chapel del Arena in Padua You can see very unusual characters next to the saints: shepherds or spinners. Each individual in Giotto he expresses very definite experiences, a definite character. 
During the early Renaissance in art, the ancient artistic heritage was mastered, new ethical ideals were formed, artists turned to the achievements of science (mathematics, geometry, optics, anatomy). The leading role in the formation of ideological and stylistic principles of early Renaissance art is played by Florence. In the images created by such masters as Donatello, Verrocchio, the equestrian statue of the condottiere Gattamelata's David is dominated by Donatello's heroic and patriotic principles ("St. George" and "David" by Donatello and "David" by Verrocchio). 
The founder of Renaissance painting is Masaccio(paintings of the Brancacci Chapel, “Trinity”), Masaccio knew how to convey the depth of space, connected the figure and landscape with a single compositional concept, and gave portrait expressiveness to individuals.
But the formation and evolution of the pictorial portrait, which reflected the interest of Renaissance culture in man, is associated with the names of the artists of the Umrbi school: Piero della Francesca, Pinturicchio.
The artist’s work stands apart in the early Renaissance Sandro Botticelli. The images he created are spiritual and poetic. Researchers note the abstraction and sophisticated intellectualism in the artist’s works, his desire to create mythological compositions with complicated and encrypted content (“Spring”, “Birth of Venus”). One of Botticelli’s life writers said that his Madonnas and Venuses give the impression of loss, causing us a feeling of indelible sadness... Some of them lost heaven, others lost earth. 
"Spring" "Birth of Venus"
The culmination in the development of the ideological and artistic principles of the Italian Renaissance becomes High Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci is considered the founder of High Renaissance art. great artist and scientist.
He created whole line masterpieces: “Mona Lisa” (“La Gioconda”) Strictly speaking, the very face of Gioconda is distinguished by restraint and calmness, the smile that created her world fame and which later became an indispensable part of the works of Leonardo’s school is barely noticeable in it. But in the softly melting haze enveloping the face and figure, Leonardo managed to make one feel the limitless variability of human facial expressions. Although Gioconda's eyes look attentively and calmly at the viewer, thanks to the shading of her eye sockets, one might think that they are slightly frowning; her lips are compressed, but near their corners there are subtle shadows that make you believe that every minute they will open, smile, and speak. The very contrast between her gaze and the half-smile on her lips gives the idea of the inconsistency of her experiences. It was not in vain that Leonardo tortured his model with long sessions. Like no one else, he was able to convey shadows, shades and halftones in this picture, and they give rise to a feeling of vibrant life. It was not for nothing that Vasari thought that a vein was beating on Gioconda’s neck.
In the portrait of Gioconda, Leonardo not only perfectly conveyed the body and the air surrounding it. He also put into it an understanding of what the eye requires for a picture to produce a harmonious impression, which is why everything looks as if the forms are naturally born from one another, as happens in music when tense dissonance is resolved by a euphonious chord. Gioconda is perfectly inscribed in a strictly proportional rectangle, her half figure forms something whole, her folded hands give her image completeness. Now, of course, there could be no question of the fanciful curls of the early “Annunciation.” However, no matter how softened all the contours are, the wavy strand of Mona Lisa’s hair is in tune with the transparent veil, and the hanging fabric thrown over her shoulder finds an echo in the smooth windings of the distant road. In all this, Leonardo demonstrates his ability to create according to the laws of rhythm and harmony. “From the point of view of execution technique, the Mona Lisa has always been considered something inexplicable. Now I think I can answer this riddle,” says Frank. According to him, Leonardo used the “sfumato” technique he developed (Italian “sfumato”, literally “disappeared like smoke”). The technique is that the objects in the paintings should not have clear boundaries, everything should smoothly transform into one another, the outlines of the objects should be softened with the help of the light-air haze surrounding them. The main difficulty of this technique lies in the smallest smears (about a quarter of a millimeter), which are not recognizable either under a microscope or using X-rays. Thus, it took several hundred sessions to paint Da Vinci's painting. The image of Mona Lisa consists of approximately 30 layers of liquid, almost transparent oil paint. For such jewelry work, the artist apparently had to use a magnifying glass. Perhaps the use of such a labor-intensive technique explains the long time spent working on the portrait - almost 4 years. 
, "Last Supper" makes a lasting impression. On the wall, as if overcoming it and taking the viewer into a world of harmony and majestic visions, the ancient gospel drama of betrayed trust unfolds. And this drama finds its resolution in a general impulse directed towards the main character - a husband with a sorrowful face who accepts what is happening as inevitable. Christ just told his disciples, “One of you will betray me.” The traitor sits with others; the old masters depicted Judas sitting separately, but Leonardo revealed his gloomy isolation much more convincingly, shrouding his features in shadow. Christ is submissive to his fate, filled with the consciousness of the sacrifice of his feat. His bowed head with downcast eyes and the gesture of his hands are infinitely beautiful and majestic. A lovely landscape opens through the window behind his figure. Christ is the center of the entire composition, of all the whirlpool of passions that rage around. His sadness and calm seem to be eternal, natural - and this is the deep meaning of the drama shown. He looked for sources of perfect forms of art in nature, but it was him who N. Berdyaev considers responsible for the coming process of mechanization and mechanization of human life, which separated man from nature.
Painting achieves classical harmony in creativity Raphael. His art evolves from the early coldly aloof Umbrian images of Madonnas (“Madonna Conestabile”) to the world of “happy Christianity” of Florentine and Roman works. “Madonna with the Goldfinch” and “Madonna in the Armchair” are soft, humane and even ordinary in their humanity. 
But the image of the “Sistine Madonna” is majestic, symbolically connecting the heavenly and earthly worlds. Most of all, Raphael is known as the creator of gentle images of Madonnas. But in painting he embodied both the ideal of the Renaissance universal man (portrait of Castiglione) and the drama of historical events. “The Sistine Madonna” (c. 1513, Dresden, Picture Gallery) is one of the artist’s most inspired works. Painted as an altar image for the church of the monastery of St. Sixta in Piacenza, this painting in concept, composition and interpretation of the image is significantly different from the “Madonnas” Florentine period. Instead of an intimate and earthly image of a beautiful young maiden condescendingly watching the amusements of two kids, here we see a wonderful vision suddenly appearing in the heavens from behind a curtain pulled back by someone. Surrounded by a golden glow, solemn and majestic Mary walks through the clouds, holding the infant Christ in front of her. To the left and to the right St. kneel before her. Sixtus and St. Varvara. The symmetrical, strictly balanced composition, the clarity of the silhouette and the monumental generalization of forms give the “Sistine Madonna” a special grandeur.
In this painting, Raphael, perhaps more than anywhere else, managed to combine the vital truthfulness of the image with the features of ideal perfection. The image of the Madonna is complex. The touching purity and naivety of a very young woman are combined in him with firm determination and heroic readiness to sacrifice. This heroism connects the image of the Madonna with the best traditions of Italian humanism. The combination of the ideal and the real in this picture makes us remember famous words Raphael from a letter to his friend B. Castiglione. “And I will tell you,” wrote Raphael, “that in order to paint a beauty, I need to see many beauties... but due to the lack... in beautiful women, I'm using some idea that comes to my mind. I don’t know whether it has any perfection, but I try very hard to achieve it.” These words shed light on the artist's creative method. Starting from reality and relying on it, he at the same time strives to raise the image above everything random and transitory.
Michelangelo(1475-1564) is undoubtedly one of the most inspired artists in the history of art and, along with Leonardo Da Vinci, the most powerful figure of the Italian High Renaissance. As a sculptor, architect, painter and poet, Michelangelo had a huge influence on his contemporaries and on subsequent Western art in general.
He considered himself a Florentine - although he was born on March 6, 1475 in the small village of Caprese near the city of Arezzo. Michelangelo deeply loved his city, its art, culture, and carried this love to the end of his days. He spent most of his adult years in Rome, working on orders from the popes; however, he left a will, in accordance with which his body was buried in Florence, in a beautiful tomb in the church of Santa Croce.
Michelangelo made a marble sculpture Pieta(Lamentation of Christ) (1498-1500), which is still located in its original location - St. Peter's Basilica. This is one of the most famous works in the history of world art. The Pieta was probably completed by Michelangelo before he was 25 years old. This is the only work he signed. Young Mary is depicted with the dead Christ on her knees, an image borrowed from northern European art. Mary's look is not so sad as it is solemn. This is the highest point of the work of the young Michelangelo. 
No less meaningful work young Michelangelo became a giant (4.34 m) marble image David(Accademia, Florence), executed between 1501 and 1504, after returning to Florence. The hero of the Old Testament is depicted by Michelangelo as a handsome, muscular, naked young man who looks anxiously into the distance, as if assessing his enemy - Goliath, with whom he has to fight. The lively, intense expression of David's face is characteristic of many of Michelangelo's works - this is a sign of his individual sculptural style. David, Michelangelo's most famous sculpture, became a symbol of Florence and was originally placed in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's town hall. With this statue, Michelangelo proved to his contemporaries that he not only surpassed all contemporary artists, but also the masters of antiquity.
Painting the vault of the Sistine Chapel In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II to carry out two orders. The most important was the fresco painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Working while lying on high scaffolding right under the ceiling, Michelangelo created the most beautiful illustrations for some biblical tales between 1508 and 1512. On the vault of the papal chapel he depicted nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, beginning with the Separation of Light from Darkness and including the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Flood. Around the main paintings alternate images of prophets and sibyls on marble thrones, other Old Testament characters and the forefathers of Christ.
To prepare for this great work, Michelangelo completed a huge number of sketches and cardboards, on which he depicted the figures of sitters in a variety of poses. These regal, powerful images demonstrate the artist's masterful understanding of human anatomy and movement, which gave impetus to a new movement in Western European art. 
Two other excellent statues, The Shackled Prisoner and the Death of a Slave(both c. 1510-13) are in the Louvre, Paris. They demonstrate Michelangelo's approach to sculpture. In his opinion, the figures are simply enclosed within a block of marble, and the artist's task is to free them by removing excess stone. Often Michelangelo left sculptures unfinished - either because they became unnecessary, or simply because they lost their interest for the artist. 
Library San Lorenzo The project for the tomb of Julius II required architectural elaboration, but Michelangelo's serious work in the architectural field began only in 1519, when he was commissioned for the facade of the Library of St. Lawrence in Florence, where the artist returned again (this project was never realized). In the 1520s he also designed the elegant entrance hall of the Library, adjacent to the Church of San Lorenzo. These structures were completed only several decades after the death of the author.
Michelangelo, an adherent of the republican faction, participated in the war against the Medici in 1527-29. His responsibilities included the construction and reconstruction of fortifications in Florence. 
Medici Chapels. Having lived in Florence for quite a long period, Michelangelo carried out, between 1519 and 1534, an order from the Medici family for the construction of two tombs in the new sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo. In a hall with a high domed vault, the artist erected two magnificent tombs against the walls, intended for Lorenzo De' Medici, Duke of Urbino and for Giuliano De' Medici, Duke of Nemours. The two complex graves were intended to represent opposing types: Lorenzo is a self-contained individual, a thoughtful, withdrawn person; Giuliano, on the contrary, is active and open. The sculptor placed allegorical sculptures of Morning and Evening over Lorenzo’s grave, and allegories of Day and Night over Giuliano’s grave. Work on the Medici tombs continued after Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1534. He never visited his beloved city again.
Last Judgment
From 1536 to 1541, Michelangelo worked in Rome on the painting of the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The largest fresco of the Renaissance depicts the day of the Last Judgment. Christ, with fiery lightning in his hand, inexorably divides all the inhabitants of the earth into the saved righteous, depicted on the left side of the composition, and sinners descending into Dante's hell (the left side of the fresco). Strictly following his own tradition, Michelangelo initially painted all the figures naked, but a decade later a Puritan artist "dressed" them as the cultural climate became more conservative. Michelangelo left his own self-portrait on the fresco - his face can easily be seen on the skin torn from the Holy Martyr Apostle Bartholomew.
Although during this period Michelangelo had other painting commissions, such as the painting of the Chapel of St. Paul the Apostle (1940), first of all he tried to devote all his energy to architecture.
Dome of St. Peter's Cathedral. In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The building was built according to the plans of Donato Bramante, but Michelangelo ultimately became responsible for the construction of the altar apse and for developing the engineering and artistic design of the cathedral's dome. The completion of the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral was the highest achievement of the Florentine master in the field of architecture. During his long life, Michelangelo was a close friend of princes and popes, from Lorenzo De' Medici to Leo X, Clement VIII, and Pius III, as well as many cardinals, painters and poets. The character of the artist, his position in life is difficult to clearly understand through his works - they are so diverse. Only in poetry, in his own poems, Michelangelo more often and more deeply addressed issues of creativity and his place in art. A large place in his poems is devoted to the problems and difficulties that he had to face in his work, and personal relationships with the most prominent representatives of that era. One of the most famous poets of the Renaissance, Lodovico Ariosto, wrote an epitaph for this famous artist: “Michele is more than mortal , he is a divine angel." 
She gave the world a strong-willed, intelligent person, the creator of his own destiny and himself. There have been significant changes in people's mentalities compared to the Middle Ages. First of all, secular motives in European culture intensified. Became increasingly independent and independent various areas life of society - art, philosophy, literature, education. The main character of the era, a kind of center of culture, became an energetic, liberated person, dreaming of the realization of personal earthly ideals, striving for independence in all areas of his activity, trying to realize diverse interests, challenging established traditions and orders.
Your name Renaissance(in French “Renaissance”, in Italian “Renaissance”) received with the light hand of the Italian artist, architect and art historian Giorgio Vasari, who in his book “Biographies of Great Painters, Sculptors and Architects” designated with this term the period of Italian art from 1250 to 1550. Thus, he wanted to emphasize the return of the cultural ideals of antiquity to the life of society and define a new cultural and historical era that replaced the Middle Ages.
Prerequisites and features of Renaissance culture
The main prerequisite for the formation of a new type of culture was a new worldview, caused by significant changes in the life of many European countries. In Italy, and then in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and England, trade developed rapidly, and with it the first industrial enterprises—manufactories—acquired great importance. New living conditions naturally gave rise to new thinking, which was based on secular freethinking. The asceticism of medieval morality did not correspond to the real life practice of the new social groups and layers that have come to the fore in public life. The features of rationalism, prudence, and awareness of the role of personal needs person. A new morality has emerged that justifies the joys of worldly life, affirming the human right to earthly happiness, to free development and manifestation of all natural inclinations. Strengthening secular sentiments and interest in the earthly deeds of man had a decisive influence on the emergence and formation of the culture of the Renaissance.
The birthplace of the Renaissance was Florence, which in the 13th century. was a city of wealthy merchants, owners of factories, and a huge number of artisans organized into guilds. In addition, the guilds of doctors, pharmacists, musicians, lawyers, solicitors, and notaries were very numerous for that time. It was among representatives of this class that circles began to form educated people who decided to study cultural heritage Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. They turned to the artistic heritage of the ancient world, the works of the Greeks and Romans, who in their time created the image of a person not constrained by the dogmas of religion, beautiful in soul and body. Therefore, the new era in the development of European culture was called “Renaissance”, reflecting the desire for the return of samples and values ancient culture in new historical conditions.
The revival of the ancient heritage began with the study of Greek and Latin languages; Later, Latin became the language of the Renaissance. The founders of the new cultural era - historians, philologists, librarians - studied old manuscripts and books, compiled collections of antiquities, restored forgotten works of Greek and Roman authors, and re-translated scientific texts distorted in the Middle Ages. These texts were not only monuments of another cultural era, but also “teachers” that helped them discover themselves and shape their personality.
Gradually, the circle of interests of these devotees also included other monuments of the artistic culture of antiquity, primarily sculptural ones. At that time, quite a lot of Greek and Roman statues, painted vessels, and architectural buildings were still preserved in Florence, Rome, Ravenna, Naples, and Venice. For the first time in the millennium of Christianity, ancient sculptures were treated not as pagan idols, but as works of art. Subsequently, the ancient heritage was included in the education system, and a wide range of people became acquainted with literature, sculpture, and philosophy. Poets and artists, imitating ancient authors, sought to revive ancient art. But, as often happens in culture, the desire to revive old principles and forms leads to the creation of something new. The culture of the Renaissance was not a simple return to antiquity. She developed it and interpreted it in a new way based on changed historical conditions. Therefore, the culture of the Renaissance was the result of a synthesis of old and new. The culture of the Renaissance was formed as denial, protest, refusal medieval culture. Dogmatism and scholasticism were rejected, theology was deprived of its former authority. The attitude towards the church and clergy became critical. Researchers agree that in no other era in the history of European culture were so many anti-church writings and statements created as during the Renaissance.
However, the Renaissance was not an irreligious culture. Many of the best works of this era were born in the mainstream of church art. Almost all the great masters of the Renaissance created frescoes, designed and painted cathedrals, turning to biblical characters and subjects. Humanists re-translated and commented on the Bible and engaged in theological research. Therefore, we can talk about rethinking religion, and not about abandoning it. Human comprehension of a world filled with divine beauty becomes one of the ideological tasks of this era. The world attracts a person because it is spiritualized by God, but it is possible to know it only with the help of one’s own feelings. In this process of cognition, the human eye, according to cultural figures of that time, is the most faithful and reliable means. Therefore, in the era Italian Renaissance There is a keen interest in visual perception, painting and other types of spatial art are flourishing, allowing one to more accurately and truly see and capture divine beauty. During the Renaissance, artists more than others determined the content of the spiritual culture of their time, thanks to which it has a pronounced artistic character.
The formation of the Renaissance image of the world and its implementation artistic style can be divided into several stages: preparatory, early, high, late and final. Each of them had a different appearance and was heterogeneous from the inside. At the same time, medieval styles still existed - late Gothic, proto-Renaissance, Mannerism, etc. Together, they form a rich and varied palette of means of expressing the Renaissance worldview.
The art of the Renaissance strove for rationalism, a scientific view of things, and imitation of nature. At this time, an exceptional interest in the harmony of nature arises. Imitating it became the central principle of the Renaissance theory of art and implied following the laws of nature, and not the external appearance of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. There was a contamination (the combination of two principles in one work) of the image of nature and creativity according to the laws of nature.
The embodiment of the beauty of man, who was considered as the highest creation of the natural world, acquired particular significance. Artists primarily paid attention to the physical perfection of man. If the medieval consciousness considered the body as an outer shell, the focus of animal instincts, the source of sinfulness, then the Renaissance culture considered it the most important aesthetic value. After several centuries of disdain for the flesh, interest in physical beauty is rapidly growing.
At this time, a significant role was given to the cult female beauty. Many artists have tried to unravel the mystery of the charm of the fair sex. This was largely due to the revision of the position of women in real life. If in the Middle Ages her fate was inextricably linked with housekeeping, raising children, and detachment from secular entertainment, then in the Renaissance living space women has expanded significantly. An ideal of an uninhibited, educated, emancipated lady is being formed, shining in society, keen on art, and able to be an interesting conversationalist. She strives to show her beauty by revealing her hair, neck, arms, wearing low-cut dresses, and using cosmetics. The mola includes decorating clothes with gold and silver embroidery, precious stones, lace. A beautiful, elegant, educated woman strives to charm and influence the world with her attractiveness and charm.
Unlike the Middle Ages, which created the ideal of a fragile woman with a thin figure, a pale face, a peaceful look, humble, brought up on prayers, the Renaissance will give preference to physically strong beauties. At this time, curvaceous female forms are valued. A pregnant woman was considered the ideal of beauty and aesthetically attractive, personifying the true feminine principle, participation in the great sacrament of procreation. Signs male beauty were physical strength, internal energy, will, determination, ability to achieve recognition and fame. The Renaissance era gave rise to various views on the interpretation of beauty, based on the cult of human uniqueness.
All this led to an increasing role of art in public life, which during the Renaissance became the main type of spiritual activity. For the people of that era, it became what religion was in the Middle Ages, and science and technology in modern times. The public consciousness was dominated by the conviction that a work of art is capable of most fully expressing the ideal of a harmoniously organized world, where man occupies a central place. All types of art were subordinated to this task to varying degrees.
The role of the artist, who is beginning to be compared with the creator of the universe, especially increases. Artists set their goal to imitate nature; they do not believe that art is even higher than nature. In their work, technical skill, professional independence, scholarship, an independent view of things and the ability to create a “living” work of art are increasingly valued.
Along with the works monumental painting and sculptures that were directly related to architectural structures, All greater development received works of easel art that acquired independent value. A system of genres begins to take shape: along with the religious-mythological genre, which still occupied the main place, at first a few works of historical, everyday and landscape genres appeared; The revived genre of portraiture is gaining great importance; A new form of art—engraving—appears and becomes increasingly widespread.
In that era, the dominant position of painting predetermined its influence on other arts. If in the Middle Ages it depended on the art of words, limiting its tasks to illustrating biblical texts, then the Renaissance swapped painting and literature, making literary storytelling dependent on the depiction of the visible world in painting. Writers began to describe the world as it could be seen.
Art of the Italian Renaissance
The formation and development of Renaissance culture was a long and uneven process. The birthplace of the Renaissance was Italy, where a new culture arose earlier than in other countries. Chronological framework cover the period from the second half of the 13th century. to the first half of the 16th century. inclusive. During this time, the art of the Italian Renaissance went through several stages of development. Among art historians, these stages are usually called by the names of the centuries: XIII century. called Ducento (literally - two hundredths), XIV century. - trecento (three hundredths), XV century. - Quattrocento (four hundredths), 16th century. - Cinqucento (five-hundredths).
The first shoots of a new worldview and shifts in artistic creativity appeared at the end of the 13th century, and at the beginning of the 14th century. they were replaced by a wave of Gothic art. These phenomena became a kind of “pre-renaissance” and were called the Proto-Renaissance. New phenomena in Italian culture developed widely in the 15th century. This stage, designated as Quattrocento, is also called the early Renaissance. Of its complete completion and flourishing art culture The Renaissance reached the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. This period of greatest prosperity, which lasted only 30-40 years, is called the High, or classical, Renaissance. In general, the Renaissance became obsolete in Italy in the 1530s, but only in the last 2/3 of the 16th century. it continues to exist in Venice. This period is usually called the late Renaissance.
Proto-Renaissance culture
The beginning of a new era is associated with the work of the Florentine artist Giotto di Bondone. IN fine arts Proto-Renaissance Giotto is a central figure, since the largest painters of the Renaissance considered him a reformer of painting. Thanks to him, the labor-intensive mosaic technique was replaced by the fresco technique, which was more consistent with the requirements of Renaissance painting, allowing the volume and density of the material to be conveyed with greater accuracy than mosaic with its intangibility of matter, and to quickly create multi-figure compositions.
Giotto was the first to implement the principle of imitation of nature in painting. He began to draw living people from life, which was not done either in Byzantium or in medieval Europe. If in works medieval art disembodied figures with ascetic, stern faces barely touched the ground, then Giotto’s figures appear three-dimensional, material. He achieved this effect thanks to light modeling, according to which the human eye perceives light as closer to it, and dark as more distant. When working on the frescoes, the artist paid special attention to showing the mental state of the characters.
The turn of Ducento and Trecento (XIII-XIV centuries) turned out to be a turning point in the cultural life of Italy. In a certain respect, it crowns the Middle Ages and at the same time serves as the starting point of the Renaissance. During this period, poetry most fully expressed the new culture and new sense of the world. It was in literature that the attraction to the new, manifested in other value guidelines, was most clearly evident. The brightest, most talented exponents of new traditions were Dante, Francesco Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio.
Dante Alighieri at the beginning of his poetic work, he was closely associated with a new direction in Italian poetry, known as the school of the “new sweet style,” in which love for a woman was idealized and identified with love for wisdom and virtue. His first works were lyrical love poems, in which Dante acted as an imitator of French courtly poets. The main character His literary work was the young Florentine Beatrice, who died seven years after their meeting, but the poet carried his love for her throughout his life.
Dante entered the history of world culture as the author of the poem “ The Divine Comedy" He originally called his grand epic a comedy, following the medieval tradition that a comedy was any literary work with a bad beginning and a good ending. The epithet "Divine" was added to the name at the end of the 14th century. in order to emphasize the artistic significance and poetic perfection of the work.
“The Divine Comedy” has a clear structure: three main parts - “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”, each of which consists of 33 songs, written in terzas - poetic forms in the form of three stanzas. The content of Dante's poem is connected with his theory of the four meanings of poetic works - literal, allegorical, moral and analogical (i.e. higher).
The poem “The Divine Comedy” is based on the traditional plot of the “visions” genre, when a person, mired in his vices, heavenly powers(most often in the guise of his guardian angel) help to understand his unrighteousness, making it possible to see hell and heaven. A person falls into a lethargic sleep, during which his soul goes to the afterlife. In Dante, this plot looks like this: the savior of his soul turns out to be his long-dead beloved Beatrice, who sends the ancient poet Virgil to help Alighieri’s soul, accompanying him on a journey through hell and purgatory. In paradise, he follows Beatrice herself, since the pagan Virgil has no right to be there.
Dante depicted hell as an underground funnel-shaped abyss, the slopes of which are surrounded by concentric ledges - “circles of hell.” Narrowing, it reaches the center of the globe with an icy lake into which Lucifer is frozen. In the circles of hell, sinners are punished; the more terrible their sin, the lower in the circle they are. During his journey, Dante goes through all nine circles of hell - from the first, where unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians are, to the ninth, where traitors are tormented, among whom we see Judas. Not all sinners evoke disgust and censure in Dante. Thus, in the interpretation of the love of Francesca and Paolo, the poet’s sympathy is manifested, because love for him is not a condemned sin, but a feeling determined by the very nature of life.
Dante imagined Purgatory as a huge cone-shaped mountain rising in the middle of the ocean in the southern hemisphere. According to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, purgatory is a place where the souls of sinners who have not received forgiveness in earthly life, but are not burdened with mortal sins, burn in purifying fire before gaining access to heaven. (Note that the cleansing fire of purgatory was perceived by some theologians as a symbol of torment of conscience and repentance, by others - as a real fire.) The period of stay of the sinner’s soul in purgatory could be shortened by his relatives and friends who remained on earth by performing “good deeds” - prayers, masses, donations to the church.
Paradise, according to Dante, is a wonderful and mysterious region. This radiant abode of God is shaped like a round lake and is the core of the Paradise Rose. The blessed souls who find themselves there occupy a place corresponding to their exploits and glory.
Dante's great poem is unique picture universe, nature and human existence. Although the world depicted in The Divine Comedy is fictional, it is similar in many ways earthly pictures: hellish depths and lakes are similar to terrible sinkholes in the Alps, hellish vats are like the vats of the Venetian arsenal, where resin is boiled for caulking ships, the mountain of purgatory and the forests on it are the same as earthly mountains and forests, and the gardens of paradise are like the fragrant gardens of Italy. To this day, The Divine Comedy remains an unsurpassed masterpiece of literature. Dante's powerful fantasy depicted such an unusually convincing world that many of his simple-minded contemporaries sincerely believed in the author's journey to the next world.
