French Renaissance painting. Renaissance in France

12.04.2019

Introduction

French Renaissance (fr. Renaissance franchise) is a term used by historians, cultural scientists and art critics to describe achievements in the culture and art of France from the late 15th to the early 17th centuries. The French Renaissance is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, which originated in Italy in the 14th century. The beginning of the French Renaissance dates back to the mid-15th century, with the beginning of the French invasion of Italy in 1494 during the reign of Charles VIII until the death of Henry IV in 1610.

The reigns of Francis I (1515-1547) and his son Henry II (1547-1559) are generally considered the pinnacle of the French Renaissance. After the sudden death of Henry II in a knight's tournament, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and although the Renaissance continued to develop, France suffered from religious wars between the Huguenots and Catholics.

France during the Renaissance was characterized by the beginning of absolutism, the spread of humanism, the exploration of the “new world”, borrowing from Italy and the development of its own new methods in the field of printing, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, sciences, folk literature, as well as the development of new rules of etiquette and oratory.

1. The birth of the Renaissance in France

The culture of the French Renaissance arose and developed during the period of the completion of the unification of the kingdom, the development of trade, and the transformation of Paris into a political and cultural center, to which the most remote and remote provinces gravitated.

Since the 16th century, the French royal court has become one of the most brilliant courts in Western Europe. King Francis I, because of his poetic talent and ability to appreciate other people's ability to use the pen, was called the "father of belles lettres." Under the influence of the Italian campaigns, the king of France, his sister Margarita of Navarre and the people around them began to pay a lot of attention to the ancient heritage - the works of ancient authors, ancient sculpture, and the classical Latin language.

Since the end of the 15th century, many famous Italian poets, writers, artists, and philologists have come to France. Among them were the poet Fausto Andrellini, the Greek scientist John Lascaris, the philologist Julius Caesar Scaliger, the historiographers de Seyssel and Paul Aemilius. Under Italian influence, Francis I decided to build and decorate many of his castles. He surrounded himself with artists invited from the Apennine Peninsula. The brilliant Italian artist and scientist of the 15th-16th centuries Leonardo da Vinci, who arrived in France after the Battle of Marignano and died in the castle of Amboise, was replaced Italian artist Andrea del Sarto, sculptor Francesco Primaticci, Rosso Fiorentino and many other servants of beauty.

Young men from noble and wealthy families flocked to Italy to get acquainted with the riches of Italian culture.

The revival of ancient culture received great attention and support from the royal house and the rich nobility. The patronage of the new generation of educated people was provided by Queen Anne of Brittany and King Francis I, who more than once averted the vengeful sword of the church from them, was a generous patron of the arts and a good friend. Anna of Brittany created a unique literary circle, the traditions of which were developed in the activities of the more famous circle of the king’s only and beloved sister, Margaret of Navarre, who invariably enjoyed the patronage of Francis. One of the Italian ambassadors, who was at the court of Francis I, said that “the king spent more than a year on jewelry, furniture, building castles, and laying out gardens.”

Literature

2.1. Poetry

The founder of new French poetry was Clément Marot, the most talented poet of those decades. Maro returned from Italy, having been seriously wounded at the Battle of Pavia. Lame and crippled, he was thrown into prison following a denunciation and would have been executed if not for the intercession of Margarita. He studied ancient philosophy, was very close to the royal court and the literary circle of Margaret of Navarre. He became the author of many epigrams and songs. Free-thinking works were not in vain for the poet. Twice he fled France. Last days The poet's works ended in Turin, and the Sorbonne added many of his poems to the list of prohibited ones. In his work, Maro sought to overcome Italian influence and give his poems a national coloring, a “Gallic shine.”

There was also a Lyon school of poetry. Its representatives were not subjected to severe persecution. The poetess Louise Labé belongs to the Lyon school.

Margaret of Navarre very early became the patroness and center of attraction of a circle of progressive thinkers and poets. Clément Marot was close to her. Her entourage included the witty writer Francois Rabelais, who dedicated the third book of Gargantua and Pantagruel to her. One of the most daring minds of the first half of the century, Bonaventure Deperrier, was Margaret’s secretary in 1536-1541. It was at this time that he created his “Cymbal of Peace” and a collection of mischievous short stories “New Fun and Merry Conversations”. Margaret's secretary was also Antoine Le Mason, who in 1545 new translation Decameron.

A significant phenomenon for French literature was the work of Margarita of Navarre, who wrote a large number of poetic works that reflected the spiritual quest of her era. Margarita's main legacy is a collection of 72 short stories called "Heptameron", i.e. "Seven Days". Probably the main part of this work was written between 1542 and 1547, during a period when Margaret was very far from the concerns of the Parisian court, from the “big” politics of her brother, immersed in the “small” politics of her tiny kingdom and in family affairs. According to contemporaries, she composed her short stories while traveling around her lands in a stretcher. "Heptameron" by Margaret of Navarre shows an awareness of the tragic contradictions between human ideals and real life.

2.2. Prose

Perhaps one of the most famous works French Renaissance book is François Rabelais's "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Rabelais was a gifted man, and his talent was especially evident in writing. Rabelais traveled a lot, knew the customs of peasants, artisans, monks, and nobles. He was an expert in common speech. In its wonderful and the only novel he gave a brilliant satire on the people of his time.

Along with this, the literature of the French Renaissance absorbed the best examples of oral folk art. It reflected the traits inherent in the talented and freedom-loving French people: their cheerful disposition, courage, hard work and subtle humor.

3. Philology

In the 16th century, the foundations of the French literary language and high style were laid. The French poet Joachin du Bellay in 1549 published a programmatic manifesto "Defense and glorification of the French language." This work refuted the assertion that only ancient languages could embody high poetic ideals in a worthy form, and argued that at one time the ancient languages were crude and undeveloped, but it was the improvement of poetry and literature that made them what they became . The same will happen with the French language, we just need to develop and improve it. Du Bellay became a kind of center for uniting his like-minded people and friends. Pierre de Ronsard, who was part of it, came up with the name "Pleiades". The name was not chosen by chance: the group of seven ancient Greek tragic poets also had the same name. Ronsard used this word to designate the seven poetic luminaries in the literary firmament of France; this is a kind of French poetic school. It included Pierre de Ronsard, Joachin Du Bellay, Jean Antoine de Baif, Remy Bellot. They abandoned the heritage of the Middle Ages, rethinking their attitude towards antiquity. Already under King Henry II, the Pleiades received recognition from the court, and Ronsard became a court poet. He performed in various genres - ode, sonnets, pastorals, impromptu.

4. Philosophy

Philosophical thought in France at that time it was most clearly represented by Pierre de la Ramais, a critic of scholastic Aristotelianism. Ramet's thesis “Everything Aristotle said is false” became the starting point of the new European philosophy. Ramais contrasted the reasoning of the scholastics, divorced from life, with the idea of a logically grounded, practice-oriented method, which he called the art of invention. The means of creating a method was to be a new logic, the principles of which Ramais developed in his work “Dialectics”. He was one of the greatest mathematicians of his time and the author of a large general work, A Course in Mathematics.

Bonaventure Deperrier is one of the most original figures of the Renaissance. He was a philologist and translator, and served as secretary to Margaret of Navarre. In 1537 he anonymously published a book of satirical dialogues, The Cymbal of Peace. The book was considered heretical and banned. Deperrier was declared an “apostate from the righteous faith,” and he was removed from the court of Margaret of Navarre. As a result, persecution led him to suicide.

Deperrier's contemporary Etienne Dolet defended the unfortunates who were sent to the stake on charges of connection with evil spirits. Believing the knowledge of causes to be the highest good, Dole himself concludes that everything that exists did not arise by a higher will, but by virtue of “active causes necessary for this.” For some time, the patronage of noble and wealthy individuals saved Dole from the Inquisition. However, in 1546 he was accused that his translation of Plato contradicted the Christian doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Dole was convicted and burned at the stake. All of his books shared the author’s fate.

5. Humanism

One of the outstanding French humanists was Jacques Lefebvre d'Etaples. He was a very educated man: encyclopedist, philologist and philosopher, theologian, mathematician, astronomer. He was educated in Florence and became the founder of a school of mathematicians and cosmographers in France. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century d "Etaples published commentaries on the works of Aristotle, marked by a desire to take a fresh look at the authority of the king of philosophers, sanctified by tradition. In 1512, he published commentaries on the Epistles of Paul, in which he substantiated the need for a critical analysis of the writings of the fathers of Christian doctrine. He translated the Bible into French (until that time it existed only in Latin), but this translation was condemned by the Sorbonne as heretical. Being in fact a dreamy and quiet humanist, Lefebvre d'Etaples was afraid of the consequences of his own ideas when he realized what they could lead to in practice.

Grouped around d'Etaple were students, supporters of Christianity, who studied the Gospel texts, among whom the philologist Guillaume Budet, who became one of the leaders of the humanistic movement in France, especially stood out. A man of the broadest outlook, he made a significant contribution to the study of mathematics, natural sciences, art, philosophy, Roman and Greek philology. His work “Notes on the 24 books of Pandect” laid the foundation. philological analysis sources of Roman law. In the essay “On the Asse and Its Parts” the idea of two cultures was developed - ancient and Christian. Concerned about the glory of France, he blamed its decline on the rulers and influential people. He even wrote a book, “Admonitions to the Emperor.” Thanks to Budet, a library was created in Fontainebleau, later it was transferred to Paris, and it became the basis of the National Library of France. Budet talked a lot and seriously with King Francis, who, under his influence, established the Royal College in Paris - the College de France. Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages began to be taught there.

The period of development of humanism in France was short, and its path very soon became thorny. In Europe, the Catholic reaction intensified. From the mid-30s of the 16th century, the Sorbonne, frightened by the successes of humanism, opposed its representatives. The attitude of the French royal authorities and the court towards humanists is also changing. From a protector, royal power turns into a persecutor of free thought. Major French humanists - Bonaventure Deperrier, Etienne Dolet, Clément Marot - became victims of persecution.

6. Theater

French theater of the Renaissance did not reach the level of Italy, Spain and England. Etienne Jodel became the director of the first French tragedy in the “classical”, i.e., antique style. This tragedy was called "Captive Cleopatra".

7. Architecture

Early Renaissance architecture in France was heavily Italian influenced. Developing the Gothic traditions, French architects created a new type of architectural structures: the castle of Francis I in Blois, the castles of Azay-le-Rideau, Chenonceau, Chambord. During this period, various building decorations were very widely used. The pinnacle of Renaissance architecture was the building of the new royal palace, the Louvre. It was built by the architect Pierre Lescot and the sculptor Jean Goujon. Goujon received his initial artistic education in France. Then he traveled a lot in Italy, where he studied ancient sculpture. Upon returning to France, he sculpted his first famous work- a statue known as "Diana". It was a peculiar portrait of Diana de Poitiers, Duchess of Valentois. The statue adorned Ane Castle. Diana is depicted naked and lying with a bow in her hand, leaning on the neck of a deer. Her hair is gathered in braids, in which precious stones are woven, and next to her is a dog. The king liked this sculpture so much that he entrusted Goujon with other sculptural works at the Anet castle. Goujon also decorated with statues the Château d'Ecutanes, the Carnavalet Hotel in Paris, the Parisian Town Hall, in which the “Twelve Months” panels carved by the master from wood attracted attention, then the Saint-Antoine gate with four magnificent bas-reliefs “Seine”, “Marne”, “Oise” " and "Venus emerging from the waves." All these works are now in the Louvre. For the Franciscan Church, Goujon sculpted the bas-relief “Descent from the Cross”; finally, his work belongs to the “Fountain of Nymphs” in Paris. This fountain is still considered the best work of French architecture.

8. Fine arts

Humanistic interest in man also manifested itself in fine art, especially in portraiture. The solemn expression of faces and the majesty of poses in the portraits of Jean Clouet were combined with the sharpness of individual characteristics. The portraits of François Clouet are also interesting.

9. Science

Problems of natural science were developed by Bernard Palissy. He was a prominent chemist and discovered a method for making colored glazed ceramics. Achievements in the field of mathematics were high. The theorem of Francois Vieta, a talented mathematician who lived in those days, is still studied in schools today. In the field of medicine, Ambroise Paré played a major role, turning surgery into a scientific discipline.

10. Gallery

Madonna and Child with Little John the Baptist, Andrea del Sarto, 1505-1510.

Odysseus and Penelope, Francesco Primaticcio, 1563.

Diana's bathing Francois Clouet, 1559-1560.

Equestrian portrait of Francis I, Francois Clouet, 1540.

Ladies toilet. Portrait of Diane de Poitiers, François Clouet, ca. 1571.

Descent from the Cross Rosso Fiorentino, 1521.

Burghley House.

Saint-Germain Palace.

Literature

Bobkova, M. S. French Renaissance: Early Modern Time, history reading book. Moscow, 2006.

Kravchenko, A. I. Culturology. Moscow, 2002.

1

The Renaissance in France had basically the same prerequisites for its development as in Italy. However, there were significant differences in the socio-political conditions of both countries. Unlike Italy, where in the northern regions already in the 13th century. A political revolution takes place and a number of completely independent urban republics arise; in France, where bourgeois development was relatively slow, the ruling class continued to be the nobility.

From all this follows a certain backwardness of the French bourgeoisie in comparison with the Italian or even English and, in particular, its weak participation in the humanistic movement. On the other hand, humanistic ideas found significant support in the advanced circles of the nobility, who came into direct contact with the culture of Italy.

In general, the strong influence of Italy is one of the most important features of the French Renaissance. The rapid flowering of humanistic thought coincides with the first half of the reign of Francis I (1515-1547). The Italian campaigns, which began under his predecessors and continued by him, greatly expanded cultural relations between the two peoples. Young French nobles, having arrived in Italy, were dazzled by the wealth of its cities, the splendor of clothes, the beauty of works of art, and the elegance of manners. Immediately, the increased import of Italian Renaissance culture into France began. Francis I recruited the best Italian artists and sculptors into his service - Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Benvenuto Cellini. Italian architects build him castles in the new Renaissance style in Blois, Chambord, Fontainebleau. Appears in large quantities translations of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, etc. A large number of Italian words from the field of art, technology, military affairs, social entertainment, etc. penetrate into the French language: Of the Italian humanists who moved to France at this time, the most outstanding was Julius Caesar Scaliger (died 1558), physician, philologist and critic, author of the famous “Poetics” in Latin, in which he outlined the principles of scientific humanistic drama.

In parallel, there was an in-depth study of antiquity, which also came partly through Italian media. In the first years of his reign, Francis I ordered the publication of translations of the works of Thucydides, Xenophon and others “for the instruction of the French nobility.” He ordered the translation of Homer’s poems and convinced Amiot to begin his famous translation of Plutarch’s Lives.

Francis I wanted to personally lead the French Renaissance in order to direct it and keep it under his control, but in fact he only followed the mental movement of the era. Of his advisers, the true leaders of the movement, Guillaume Bude (1468-1540), who first held the position of secretary of Francis I, then his librarian, should be put in first place. Budet owns a huge number of works in Latin on philosophy, history, philology, mathematics and legal sciences. Budet's main idea was that philology is the main basis of education, since the study of ancient languages and literature expands a person's mental horizons and improves his moral qualities. Much in Budet’s views on religion, morality, and education brings him closer to Erasmus of Rotterdam. Budet's biggest undertaking was the plan to create a secular university, carried out by Francis I. According to Budet's plan, teaching in it should be based not on scholasticism and theology, as at the Sorbonne, but on philology. This is how the College de France arose in 1530, which immediately became a citadel of free humanistic knowledge.

Second the most important moment, which determined the fate of the French Renaissance, is its special relationship with the Reformation, which was at first in tune with humanism, but then sharply diverged from it.

In the history of French Protestantism, two periods must be distinguished - before the mid-1530s and after. The first Protestants of France were scattered intellectuals of a humanistic way of thinking, who approached all issues critically, including the foundations of religion, but were little inclined to preaching and struggle. The outstanding mathematician and Hellenist Lefebvre "Etaples (1455-1537), who visited Italy and was imbued there with the ideas of Platonism thanks to conversations with Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, began, returning to France, to interpret Aristotle in a new way, that is, turning exclusively to primary sources and trying to penetrate into their true meaning, not distorted by scholastic comments. Following this, Lefebvre had the idea of applying the same method to the books of “holy scripture” - and here he discovered that neither about fasting, nor about the celibacy of the clergy, nor about the majority. “sacraments” are not mentioned in the gospel. Hence, he and his friends had the idea to return to the original purity of the gospel teaching, to create an “evangelical” confession. Delving further into the consideration of the principles of Christianity, Lefebvre in 1512, i.e., within five years. before Luther spoke, he put forward two provisions that later became fundamental for Protestantism of all persuasions: 1) justification by faith, 2) “holy scripture” as the only basis of religious teaching. To strengthen the new doctrine, Lefebvre published his translation of the Bible - the first in French.

The Sorbonne condemned this translation, as well as the entire new heresy in general. Several of Lefebvre's followers were executed, and he himself had to flee abroad for a time. Soon, however, Francis I rehabilitated him and even appointed him as his son’s tutor. In general, during this period the king favored Protestants and even thought about introducing Protestantism in France. However, in the mid-1530s, there was a sharp turn in his policy, which was caused by the general offensive in Europe of reaction and the associated counter-reformation - a revolution caused by the fear of the ruling classes of peasant uprisings and the too bold aspirations of humanistic thought, which threatened to overthrow “all the foundations ". Francis's tolerance for all kinds of freethinking - religious or scientific-philosophical - has come to an end. Executions of Protestants and free-thinking humanists became commonplace. One of the cases of blatant arbitrariness was the burning at the stake in 1546 of the outstanding scientist and typographer Etienne Dolet.

At this very time, French Protestantism entered its second phase. Its head becomes Jacques Calvin (1509-1564), who moved from France to Geneva in 1536, which from now on becomes the main center of Calvinism, leading the entire Protestant movement in France. Also in 1536, Calvin finally formulated his teaching in the “Instructions for the Christian Faith,” which originally appeared in Latin and was republished five years later in French. From this point on, contemplative, utopian evangelicalism gives way to stern, militant Calvinism.

The bourgeois essence of the Reformation clearly appears in the teachings of Calvin, who recommends frugality and accumulation of wealth, justifies usury and even allows slavery. The basis of Calvin's doctrine is two provisions - about "predestination" and about the non-interference of God in the life of the world, subject to immutable laws. According to the first of them, every person from birth is destined either to eternal bliss or to eternal torment, regardless of how he behaves in life. He does not know what he is destined for, but he must think that salvation awaits him and with his whole life he must show this. Thus, this doctrine of "predestination" does not lead to fatalism and passivity, but, on the contrary, is an incentive to action.

Engels says of Calvin: “His doctrine of predestination was a religious expression of the fact that in the world of trade and competition, success or bankruptcy does not depend on the activity or skill of individuals, but on circumstances beyond their control. or an individual, but the mercy of powerful but unknown economic forces. And this was especially true during the economic revolution, when all the old trade routes and. shopping centers were superseded by new ones when America and India were discovered, when even the most sacred economic creed - the value of gold and silver - was shaken and crashed" * .

* (Marx K., Engels F. Soch. 2nd ed. T. 22. P. 308.)

Followers of Calvin and his basic principles about predestination and the non-intervention of God develop the doctrine of a “secular calling”, according to which everyone should strive to extract as much profit and benefit as possible from his profession, and of a “secular asceticism”, which prescribes frugality and moderation in satisfying one’s needs. needs for the sake of increasing their property. Hence the view of work as a “duty” and the transformation of the thirst for accumulation into the “virtue of accumulation.”

Despite the clearly expressed bourgeois nature of Calvinism, it found numerous supporters among those layers of the nobility who did not want to come to terms with absolutism, mainly in the south, which was annexed relatively late (in the 13th century), as a result of which the local nobility had not yet forgotten about their liberties and tried to behave independently. Thus, if in the second quarter of the 16th century. Protestantism spread almost exclusively among the bourgeoisie, and moreover, more or less evenly throughout France; then, starting from the middle of the century, it spread intensively among the southern French nobility, the stronghold of feudal reaction. When in the second half of the 16th century. religious wars broke out, it was the Calvinist nobles who fought against absolutism who acted as the organizers and leaders of the uprising; Moreover, at the end of the war, many of them willingly joined Catholicism.

At the same time, the nature of Protestantism is changing, abandoning the principle of freedom of inquiry and becoming imbued with the spirit of intolerance and fanaticism. A striking example is the burning of Miguel Servetus by Calvin in 1553, accused of belonging to the revolutionary Anabaptist sect.

In France, divided into two camps - Catholics and Protestants, there was no completely national party, since both fighting sides, to the detriment of their homeland, often acted in alliance with foreign rulers. The Huguenots (as Protestants were called in France), who had no support among the people, constantly called on their co-religionists from Germany, Holland and England for help. As for the Catholics, at first they represented a party of national and religious unity, but over time, especially after the Catholic League was created in 1576, the leaders of the party began to seek support from Spain and even thought about transferring the French crown to the Spanish king Philip II . True patriotism could only be found in those days among the masses: among the peasants or among the urban plebeian masses, who, completely ruined by civil wars and driven to despair, suddenly rose up, like their great-grandfathers in the Hundred Years' War, to beat both the Spanish soldiers and the Germans at the same time. reiters, and most importantly - their own noble landowners of any political group and any religion. But these peasant uprisings, of which the largest took place around 1580 and around 1590, could not succeed and were ruthlessly suppressed, often with the help of betrayal and treason.

Title page of "Chronicles of France" - the first printed French book

Humanism had some points of agreement with both parties, but even more divergences. Many humanists were attracted to the Catholic party by the idea of national unity (Ronsard and other members of the Pleiades), but most of them could not tolerate the narrowness of thought and superstitions of Catholicism. And humanists were repelled from Calvinism by its bourgeois narrow-mindedness and ever-increasing fanaticism. But still, the rationalistic leaven of Calvinism, its heroic spirit, high moral demands and the dream of a certain ideal structure of human society attracted many humanists to it (Agrippa d'Aubigné, and from an earlier time - Marot). However, the most profound humanists, such greatest writers French Renaissance, like Rabelais, Deperrier, Montaigne, eschewed religious strife, equally alien to the fanaticism of both faiths, and most likely inclined towards religious freethinking.

2

Writers of the French Renaissance, in comparison with early medieval authors, are characterized by an extraordinary expansion of their horizons and a wide range of intellectual interests. The greatest of them acquire the features of a “universal man” typical of the Renaissance, receptive and involved in everything. The most striking example of this is the creativity and activity of Rabelais, a doctor, naturalist, archaeologist, lawyer, poet, philologist and brilliant satirical writer. Greater versatility can also be observed in the works of Marot, Margaret of Navarre, Ronsard, d'Aubigné and others.

Typical features common to more or less all writers of the century are, on the one hand, spontaneous materialism, receptivity to everything material and sensual, on the other hand, the cult of beauty, concern for the grace of form. In accordance with this, new genres are born or old ones are radically transformed. A colorful and realistically developed short story appears (Marguerite of Navarre, Deperrier), a unique form of satirical novel (Rabelais), a new style of lyric poetry (Marot, then especially Ronsard and Pleiades), the beginnings of secular Renaissance drama (Jodelle), an anecdotal-moral descriptive type of memoirs (Brantome), civil accusatory poetry (d'Aubigné), philosophical "experiments" (Montaigne), etc.

Both poetry and prose of the French Renaissance are characterized by a broader, more realistic approach to reality. The images are more specific and individual. Abstraction and naive edification are gradually disappearing. Artistic truthfulness becomes a measure and means of expressing ideological content.

In the French Renaissance, several stages can be distinguished. In the first half of the century, humanistic ideas flourished, optimism and faith in the possibility of building a better, more perfect way of life prevailed. Although this mood had been clouded by impending reaction since the mid-1530s, the religious and political schism had not yet had time to fully manifest its destructive effects.

In the second half of the century, in the context of the beginning or preparation of religious wars, the first signs of doubt and disappointment were observed among humanists. Nevertheless, in the third quarter of the century, powerful efforts are being made to create a new, completely national poetry and a rich national language. Starting from the 1560s, the crisis of humanism reached its full strength, and literature reflected, on the one hand, the battles and fermentation of minds caused by civil wars, and on the other hand, in-depth quests that prepared for later forms of social and artistic consciousness.

Back in the period Hundred Years' War the process of the formation of the French nation, the emergence of the French national state began. The political unification of the country was completed mainly under Louis XI. By the middle of the 15th century. This also includes the beginning of the French Renaissance, which in its early stages was still closely associated with Gothic art. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced French artists with Italian art, and from the end of the 15th century. a decisive break with the Gothic tradition begins, Italian art is rethought in connection with its own national tasks. The French Renaissance had the character of court culture. ( Folk character most of all manifested itself in French Renaissance literature, primarily in the work of François Rabelais, with his full-blooded imagery, typical Gallic wit and cheerfulness.)

As in Dutch art, realistic tendencies are observed primarily in the miniature of both theological and secular books. The first major artist of the French Renaissance was Jean Fouquet (c. 1420-1481), court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. Both in portraits (portrait of Charles VII, circa 1445) and in religious compositions (diptych from Melun), careful writing is combined with monumentality in the interpretation of the image. This monumentality is created by the chasing of forms, the closedness and integrity of the silhouette, the static nature of the pose, and the laconicism of color. In fact, the Madonna of the Melun diptych was painted in just two colors - bright red and blue (the model for her was the beloved of Charles VII - a fact impossible in medieval art). The same compositional clarity and accuracy of drawing, sonority of color are characteristic of numerous miniatures by Fouquet (Boccaccio. “The Life of J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment, famous men And women", Paris, Louvre circa 1458). The margins of the manuscripts are filled with images of a contemporary Fouquet crowd and landscapes of his native Touraine.

The first stages of Renaissance plastic art are also associated with Fouquet’s homeland, the city of Tours. Antique and Renaissance motifs appear in the reliefs of Michel Colombe (1430/31-1512). His tombstones are distinguished by a wise acceptance of death, in tune with the mood of archaic and classical ancient steles (the tomb of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his wife Marguerite de Foix, 1502-1507, Nantes, cathedral).

Since the beginning of the 16th century, France has been the largest absolutist state in Western Europe. The courtyard becomes the center of culture, especially under Francis I, a connoisseur of the arts and patron of Leonardo. Invited by the king's sister Margaret of Navarre, the Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio became the founders of the Fontainebleau school (“Fontainebleau is the new Rome,” Vasari would write). The castle in Fontainebleau, numerous castles along the Loire and Cher rivers (Blois, Chambord, Chenonceau), the reconstruction of the old Louvre palace (architect Pierre Lescaut and sculptor Jean Goujon) are the first evidence of liberation from the Gothic tradition and the use of Renaissance forms in architecture (first used in the Louvre ancient order system). And although the castles on the Loire are still externally similar to medieval ones in their details (ditches, donjons, drawbridges), their interior decor is Renaissance, even rather manneristic. The castle of Fontainebleau with its paintings, ornamental modeling, and round sculpture is evidence of the victory of a culture that was Italian in form, ancient in subject and purely Gallic in spirit.

The 16th century was the time of the brilliant heyday of French portraiture, both painting and pencil (Italian pencil, sanguine, watercolor). The painter Jean Clouet (circa 1485/88-1541), the court artist of Francis I, whose entourage, as well as the king himself, he immortalized in his portrait gallery, became especially famous in this genre. Small in size, carefully painted, Clouet's portraits nevertheless give the impression of being multifaceted in characteristics and ceremonial in form. In the ability to notice the most important thing in a model, without impoverishing it and preserving its complexity, his son François Clouet (circa 1516-1572), the most important artist of France in the 16th century, went even further. Clouet's colors are reminiscent of precious enamels in their intensity and purity (portrait of Elizabeth of Austria, circa 1571). In his exceptional mastery of pencil, sanguine, and watercolor portraits, Clouet captured the entire French court mid-16th century V. (portrait of Henry II, Mary Stuart, etc.).

The victory of the Renaissance worldview in French sculpture is associated with the name of Jean Goujon (circa 1510-1566/68), whose most famous work is the reliefs of the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris (architectural part - Pierre Lescaut; 1547-1549). Light, slender figures, the folds of whose clothes are echoed by streams of water from jugs, are interpreted with amazing musicality, imbued with poetry, minted and polished and laconic and restrained in form. A sense of proportion, grace, harmony, and subtlety of taste will henceforth invariably be associated with French art.

In the work of Goujon's younger contemporary Germain Pilon (1535-1590), instead of ideally beautiful, harmoniously clear images, concrete life-like, dramatic, darkly exalted images appear (see his tombstones). The richness of his plastic language serves a cold analysis, reaching the point of mercilessness in characterization, in which its analogue can only be found in Holbein. The expressiveness of Pilon's dramatic art is typical of the late Renaissance and indicates the impending end of the Renaissance era in France.

The features of the crisis of the artistic ideals of the Renaissance were especially clearly manifested in mannerism, which emerged at the end of the Renaissance (from maniera - technique, or, more correctly, manierismo - pretentiousness, mannerism), - obvious imitation, as if secondary style with all the virtuosity of technology and sophistication of forms, aestheticization image, exaggeration of individual details, sometimes even expressed in the title of the work, such as in Parmigianino’s “Madonna of the Long Neck”, exaggeration of feelings, violation of the harmony of proportions, balance of forms - disharmony, deformation, which in itself is alien to the nature of art Italian Renaissance.

Mannerism is usually divided into early and mature. Early mannerism - centered in Florence. This is the work of such masters as J. Pontormo, D. Rosso, A. de Volterra, G. Romano. The latter's paintings in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua are full of unexpected, almost frightening effects, the composition is overloaded, the balance is disturbed, the movements are exaggerated and convulsive - but everything is theatrically superficial, coldly pathetic and does not touch the heart (see the fresco "The Death of Giants", for example ).

Mature mannerism is more graceful, sophisticated and aristocratic. Its centers are Parma and Bologna (Primaticcio, from 1531 he was the head of the Fontainebleau school in France), Rome and Florence (Bronzino, a student of Pontormo; D. Vasari; sculptor and jeweler B. Cellini), as well as Parma (the already mentioned Parmigianino, his Madonnas are always depicted with elongated bodies and small heads, with fragile, thin fingers, with mannered, pretentious movements, always cold in color and cold in image).

Mannerism was limited to Italy, it spread to Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, influencing their painting and especially applied art, in which the unbridled imagination of the mannerists found favorable soil and a wide field of activity

Even during the Hundred Years' War, the process of the formation of the French nation and the emergence of the French national state began. The political unification of the country was completed mainly under Louis XI. By the middle of the 15th century. This also includes the beginning of the French Renaissance, which in its early stages was still closely associated with Gothic art. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced French artists to Italian art, and from the end of the 15th century. a decisive break with the Gothic tradition begins, Italian art is rethought in connection with its own national tasks. The French Renaissance had the character of court culture. (The folk character was most manifested in French Renaissance literature, primarily in the work of François Rabelais, with his full-blooded imagery, typical Gallic wit and cheerfulness.)

As in Dutch art, realistic tendencies are observed primarily in the miniature of both theological and secular books. The first major artist of the French Renaissance was Jean Fouquet (c. 1420-1481), court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. Both in portraits (portrait of Charles VII, circa 1445) and in religious compositions (diptych from Melun), careful writing is combined with monumentality in the interpretation of the image. This monumentality is created by the chasing of forms, the closedness and integrity of the silhouette, the static nature of the pose, and the laconicism of color. In fact, the Madonna of the Melun diptych was painted in just two colors - bright red and blue (the model for her was the beloved of Charles VII - a fact impossible in medieval art). The same compositional clarity and precision of drawing, sonority of color are characteristic of numerous miniatures by Fouquet (Boccaccio. “Life J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment, famous men and women", Paris, Louvre around 1458). The margins of the manuscripts are filled with images of a contemporary Fouquet crowd and landscapes of his native Touraine.

J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment. Paris, Louvre

J. Clouet. Portrait of Francis I. Paris, Louvre

The 16th century was the time of the brilliant heyday of French portraiture, both painting and pencil (Italian pencil, sanguine, watercolor). The painter Jean Clouet (circa 1485/88-1541), the court artist of Francis I, whose entourage, as well as the king himself, he immortalized in his portrait gallery, became especially famous in this genre. Small in size, carefully painted, Clouet's portraits nevertheless give the impression of being multifaceted in characteristics and ceremonial in form. In the ability to notice the most important thing in a model, without impoverishing it and preserving its complexity, his son François Clouet (circa 1516-1572), the most important artist of France in the 16th century, went even further. Clouet's colors are reminiscent of precious enamels in their intensity and purity (portrait of Elizabeth of Austria, circa 1571). In his exceptional mastery of pencil, sanguine, and watercolor portraits, Clouet captured the entire French court of the mid-16th century. (portrait of Henry II, Mary Stuart, etc.).

J. Goujon. Nymphs. Relief of the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris. Stone

The features of the crisis of the artistic ideals of the Renaissance were especially clearly manifested in mannerism, which emerged at the end of the Renaissance (from maniera - technique, or, more correctly, manierismo - pretentiousness, mannerism), - obvious imitation, as if secondary style with all the virtuosity of technology and sophistication of forms, aestheticization image, exaggeration of individual details, sometimes even expressed in the title of the work, such as in Parmigianino’s “Madonna with a Long Neck,” exaggeration of feelings, violation of the harmony of proportions, balance of forms - disharmony, deformation, which in itself is alien to the nature of the art of the Italian Renaissance.

The beginning of the French Renaissance dates back to the middle of the 15th century. It was preceded by the process of formation of the French nation and the formation of a national state. On the royal throne is the representative of the new dynasty - Valois. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced artists to the achievements of Italian art. Gothic traditions and Dutch tendencies in art are supplanted by the Italian Renaissance. The French Renaissance had the character of a court culture, the foundations of which were laid by patron kings starting with Charles V.

The biggest creator Early Renaissance Jean Fouquet (1420-1481) is considered to be the court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. He is also called the great master of the French Renaissance. He was the first in France to consistently embody the aesthetic principles of the Italian Quattrocento, which primarily presupposed a clear, rational vision real world and comprehension of the nature of things through knowledge of its internal laws. Most of Fouquet's creative heritage consists of miniatures from books of hours. In addition, he painted landscapes, portraits, and paintings of historical subjects. Fouquet was the only artist of his time who possessed an epic vision of history, whose greatness was commensurate with the Bible and antiquity.

At the beginning of the 16th century, France became the largest absolutist state in Western Europe. Center cultural life The royal court becomes the first connoisseurs and connoisseurs of beauty - the close associates and the royal retinue. Under Francis I, an admirer of the great Leonardo da Vinci, Italian art became the official fashion. The Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio, invited by Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis I, founded the Fontainebleau school in 1530. This term is usually used to refer to the direction in French painting, which originated in the 16th century at the castle of Fontainebleau. In addition, it is applied to works in mythological stories, sometimes voluptuous, and to the intricate allegories created unknown artists and also going back to mannerism. The School of Fontainebleau became famous for creating majestic decorative paintings of the castle ensembles.

In the 16th century the foundations of French were laid literary language and high style. French poet Joachin Du Bellay (c. 1522-1560) published a programmatic manifesto in 1549, “The Defense and Glory of the French Language.” He and the poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) were the most prominent representatives of the French poetic school of the Renaissance - the "Pleiades", which saw its goal as raising the French language to the same level as the classical languages - Greek and Latin. The Pleiades poets were guided by ancient literature.

Among the outstanding representatives of the French Renaissance was also the French humanist writer Francois Rabelais (1494-1553). His satirical novel“Gargantua and Pantagruel” is an encyclopedic cultural monument of the French Renaissance. The work was based on popular in the 16th century folk books about giants (giants Gargantua, Pantagruel, truth-seeker Panurge). Rejecting medieval asceticism, restrictions on spiritual freedom, hypocrisy and prejudice, Rabelais reveals the humanistic ideals of his time in the grotesque images of his heroes.

Point at cultural development France of the 16th century was created by the great humanist philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The book of essays, marked by freethinking and a kind of skeptical humanism, presents a set of judgments about everyday mores and principles of human behavior in various circumstances. Sharing the idea of pleasure as the goal of human existence, Montaigne interprets it in the Epicurean spirit - accepting everything that nature has given to man.

French art of the 16th-17th centuries. based on the traditions of the French and Italian Renaissance. The paintings and graphics of Fouquet, the sculptures of Goujon, the castles of the times of Francis I, the palace of Fontainebleau and the Louvre, the poetry of Ronsard and the prose of Rabelais, the philosophical experiments of Montaigne - everything bears the stamp of a classicist understanding of form, strict logic, rationalism, and a developed sense of grace.

The Birth of the Renaissance in France[edit | edit code]

Francis I and his sister Margaret of Navarre.

Since the 16th century, the French royal court has become one of the most brilliant courts in Western Europe. Because of his poetic talent and ability to appreciate other people's ability to wield the pen, King Francis I was called the "Father of Belles Lettres." Under the influence of the Italian campaigns, the king of France, his sister Margaret of Navarre and the people around them began to pay a lot of attention to the ancient heritage - the works of ancient authors, ancient sculpture, and the classical Latin language.

Since the end of the 15th century, many famous Italian poets, writers, artists, and philologists have come to France. Among them were the poet Fausto Andrellini, the Greek scientist John Lascaris, the philologist Julius Caesar Scaliger, the historiographers de Seyssel and Paul Aemilius. Under Italian influence, Francis I decided to build and decorate many of his castles. He surrounded himself with artists invited from the Apennine Peninsula. The brilliant Italian artist and scientist of the 15th-16th centuries Leonardo da Vinci, who arrived in France after the Battle of Marignano and died in the castle of Amboise, was replaced by the Italian artist Andrea del Sarto, sculptor Francesco Primaticci, Rosso Fiorentino and many other servants of beauty.

Anna of Breton.

Young men from noble and wealthy families flocked to Italy to get acquainted with the riches of Italian culture.

Renaissance ancient culture enjoyed great attention and support from the royal house and rich nobility. The patronage of the new generation of educated people was provided by Queen Anne of Brittany and King Francis I, who more than once averted the vengeful sword of the church from them, was a generous patron of the arts and a good friend. Anna Bretonskaya created a unique literary circle, the traditions of which were developed in the activities of the more famous circle of the king’s only and beloved sister, Margaret of Navarre, who invariably enjoyed the patronage of Francis. One of the Italian ambassadors, who was at the court of Francis I, said that “the king spent over the course of a year more than a sum on jewelry, furniture, building castles, and laying out gardens.”

Literature[edit | edit code]

Poetry[edit | edit code]

Clément Marot.

The founder of new French poetry was Clément Marot, the most talented poet of those decades. Maro returned from Italy, having been seriously wounded at the Battle of Pavia. Lame and crippled, he was thrown into prison following a denunciation and would have been executed if not for the intercession of Margarita. He studied ancient philosophy, was very close to the royal court and literary circle Margaret of Navarre. He became the author of many epigrams and songs. Free-thinking works were not in vain for the poet. Twice he fled France. The poet's last days ended in Turin, and the Sorbonne added many of his poems to the list of prohibited ones. In his work, Maro sought to overcome Italian influence and give his poems a national coloring, a “Gallic shine.”

There was also a Lyon school of poetry. Its representatives were not subjected to severe persecution. The poetess Louise Labé belongs to the Lyon school.

Louise Labe.

A significant phenomenon for French literature was the work of Margarita of Navarre, who wrote a large number of poetic works that reflected the spiritual quest of her era. Margarita’s main legacy is a collection of 72 short stories called “Heptameron”, that is, “Seven Days”. Probably the main part of this work was written between 1542 and 1547, during a period when Margaret was very far from the concerns of the Parisian court, from the “big” politics of her brother, immersed in the “small” politics of her tiny kingdom and in family affairs. According to contemporaries, she composed her short stories while traveling around her lands in a stretcher. "Heptameron" by Margaret of Navarre shows an awareness of the tragic contradictions between human ideals and real life.

Title of the edition of the second book of Gargantua and Pantagruel, Lyon, 1571.

Prose[edit | edit code]

Perhaps one of the most famous works of the French Renaissance is Francois Rabelais' book Gargantua and Pantagruel. Rabelais was a gifted man, and his talent was especially evident in writing. Rabelais traveled a lot, knew the customs of peasants, artisans, monks, and nobles. He was an expert in common speech. In his remarkable and only novel, he gave a brilliant satire on the people of his time.

Philology[edit | edit code]

Joachin du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsard.

In the 16th century, the foundations of the French literary language and high style were laid. The French poet Joachin du Bellay published a programmatic manifesto in 1549, “The Defense and Glorification of the French Language.” This work refuted the assertion that only ancient languages could embody high poetic ideals in a worthy form, and argued that at one time the ancient languages were crude and undeveloped, but it was the improvement of poetry and literature that made them what they became . The same will happen with the French language, we just need to develop and improve it. Du Bellay became a kind of center for uniting his like-minded people and friends. Pierre de Ronsard, who was part of it, came up with the name “Pleiades”. The name was not chosen by chance: the group of seven ancient Greek tragic poets also had the same name. Ronsard used this word to designate the seven poetic luminaries in the literary firmament of France; it was a kind of French poetic school. It included Pierre de Ronsard, Joachin Du Bellay, Jean Antoine de Baif, Remy Bellot. They abandoned the heritage of the Middle Ages, rethinking their attitude towards antiquity. Already under King Henry II, the Pleiades received recognition from the court, and Ronsard became a court poet. He performed in various genres - ode, sonnets, pastorals, impromptu.

Philosophy[edit | edit code]

Pierre de la Ramais (Peter Ramus).

Philosophical thought in France at that time was most clearly represented by Pierre de la Ramais, a critic of scholastic Aristotelianism. Ramet's thesis “Everything said by Aristotle is false” became the starting point of the new European philosophy. Ramais contrasted the reasoning of the scholastics, divorced from life, with the idea of a logically grounded, practice-oriented method, which he called the art of invention. The means of creating a method was to be a new logic, the principles of which Ramais developed in his work “Dialectics”. He was one of the greatest mathematicians of his time and the author of a large general work, A Course in Mathematics.

Deperrier's contemporary Etienne Dolet defended the unfortunates who were sent to the stake on charges of connection with evil spirits. Believing the knowledge of causes to be the highest good, Dole himself concludes that everything that exists did not arise by a higher will, but by virtue of “active causes necessary for this.” For some time, the patronage of noble and wealthy individuals saved Dole from the Inquisition. However, in 1546 he was accused that his translation of Plato contradicted Christian teaching about the immortality of the soul. Dole was convicted and burned at the stake. All of his books shared the author’s fate.

Humanism[edit | edit code]

Guillaume Budet.

One of the outstanding French humanists was Jacques Lefebvre d'Etaples. He was a very educated man: an encyclopedist, philologist and philosopher, theologian, mathematician, and astronomer. He was educated in Florence and became the founder of a school of mathematicians and cosmographers in his homeland. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century, d'Etaples published commentaries on the works of Aristotle, marked by a desire to take a fresh look at the authority of the king of philosophers, sanctified by tradition. In 1512, he published commentaries on the Epistles of Paul, in which he substantiated the need for a critical analysis of the writings of the fathers of Christian doctrine. He translated the Bible into French (until that time it existed only in Latin), but this translation was condemned by the Sorbonne as heretical. Being in fact a dreamy and quiet humanist, Lefebvre d'Etaples was afraid of the consequences of his own ideas when he realized what they could lead to in practice.

Grouped around d’Etaples were disciples, supporters of Christianity, who studied the Gospel texts, among whom the philologist Guillaume Budet, who became one of the leaders of the humanistic movement in France, especially stood out. A man of the broadest outlook, he made significant contributions to the study of mathematics, natural sciences, art, philosophy, Roman and Greek philology. His work “Notes on the 24 Books of Pandect” marked the beginning of a philological analysis of the sources of Roman law. In the essay “On the Asse and Its Parts” the idea of two cultures was developed - ancient and Christian. Concerned about the glory of France, he blamed its decline on the rulers and influential people. He even wrote a book, “Instructions to the Emperor.” Thanks to Budet, a library was created in Fontainebleau, later it was transferred to Paris, and it became the basis of the National Library of France. Budet talked a lot and seriously with King Francis, who, under his influence, established the Royal College in Paris - the College de France. Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages began to be taught there.

Theater[edit | edit code]

French theater of the Renaissance reached the level of Italy. Etienne Jodel became the director of the first French tragedy in the “classical”, that is, antique style. This tragedy was called “Captive Cleopatra”.

Architecture[edit | edit code]