What is medieval culture? Main features and characteristics of medieval culture

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION OF THE RF

GOU VPO "SYKTYVKAR STATE UNIVERSITY"

VORKUTA BRANCH

TEST

discipline: Culturology

on the topic: “Features of medieval culture”

Completed by: 1st year student

group No. 4159

Gorelova A.V.

Checked by: Ph.D. Sc., Associate Professor

Vakhnina E. G.

Introduction 3

1. Christian consciousness is the basis of medieval mentality 5

2.Early Middle Ages 8

2.1. Merovingian art 9

2.2. "Carolingian Renaissance" 9

3. High Middle Ages 10

3.1 Literature 10

3.1.1. Heroic Epic 11

3.1.2. Chivalric literature 12

3.1.3. Urban literature Middle Ages 13

3.2. Music 16

3.3. Theater 17

3.3.1. Religious Drama or Miracle Plays 17

3.3.2. Medieval secular drama 18

3.3.3. Moral plays 19

3.4.Great architectural styles 20

3.4.1. Romanesque style 20

3.4.2. Gothic style 22

4. Late Middle Ages 25

Conclusion 26

Bibliography 27

Application 28

INTRODUCTION

The Middle Ages (Middle Ages) - the era of dominance in Western and Central Europe of the feudal economic and political system and the Christian religious worldview, which came after the collapse of antiquity. Replaced by the Renaissance. Covers the period from the 4th to the 14th centuries. In some regions it persisted even at a much later time. The Middle Ages are conventionally divided into the Early Middle Ages (IV-1st half of the 10th century), the High Middle Ages (2nd half of the 10th-13th centuries) and the Late Middle Ages (XIV-XV centuries).

The beginning of the Middle Ages is most often considered to be the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. However, some historians proposed to consider the beginning of the Middle Ages to be the Edict of Milan in 313, which meant the end of the persecution of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Christianity became the defining cultural movement for the eastern part of the Roman Empire - Byzantium, and after several centuries it began to dominate in the states of the barbarian tribes that formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire.

There is no consensus among historians regarding the end of the Middle Ages. It was proposed to consider it as such: the fall of Constantinople (1453), the discovery of America (1492), the beginning of the Reformation (1517), the beginning of the English Revolution (1640) or the beginning of the Great French Revolution (1789).

The term "Middle Ages" (lat. medium ævum) was first introduced by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo in his work “The Decades of History, Beginning with the Decline of the Roman Empire” (1483). Before Biondo, the dominant term for the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance was Petrarch's concept of the "Dark Ages", which in modern historiography refers to a narrower period of time.

In the narrow sense of the word, the term “Middle Ages” applies only to the Western European Middle Ages. In this case this term implies a number of specific features of religious, economic and political life: the feudal system of land tenure (feudal landowners and semi-dependent peasants), the vassalage system (the relationship between feudal lords and vassals), the unconditional dominance of the Church in religious life, the political power of the Church (the Inquisition, church courts, the existence of feudal bishops), the ideals of monasticism and chivalry (a combination of spiritual practice of ascetic self-improvement and altruistic service to society), the flourishing of medieval architecture - Romanesque and Gothic.

Many modern states arose precisely in the Middle Ages: England, Spain, Poland, Russia, France, etc.

The object of study of this work is the Middle Ages, the subject of study is culture in the Middle Ages. The purpose of the work is to study the features of the culture of the Middle Ages. The goal involves solving the following tasks:

● study of the role of the church and Christian doctrine

● study of three periods of the Middle Ages

● identification of cultural features at each stage and in general

1. CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS – THE BASIS OF THE MEDIEVAL MENTALITY

The most important feature of medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian church. In the conditions of the general decline of culture immediately after the destruction of the Roman Empire, only the church for many centuries remained the only social institution common to all countries, tribes and states of Europe. The church was the dominant political institution, but even more significant was the influence that the church had directly on the consciousness of the population. In conditions of difficult and meager life, against the backdrop of extremely limited and most often unreliable knowledge about the world, Christianity offered people a coherent system of knowledge about the world, about its structure, about the forces and laws operating in it.

This picture of the world, which completely determined the mentality of believing villagers and townspeople, was based mainly on images and interpretations of the Bible. Researchers note that in the Middle Ages, the starting point for explaining the world was the complete, unconditional opposition of God and nature, Heaven and Earth, soul and body.

The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.

Monasticism played a huge role in the life of society at that time: monks took upon themselves the obligations of “leaving the world,” celibacy, and renunciation of property. However, already in the 6th century, monasteries turned into strong, often very rich centers, owning movable and immovable property. Many monasteries were centers of education and culture.

However, one should not think that the formation of the Christian religion in the countries of Western Europe went smoothly, without difficulties and confrontation in the minds of people with old pagan beliefs.

The population was traditionally committed to pagan cults, and sermons and descriptions of the lives of saints were not enough to convert them to the true faith. People were converted to a new religion with the help of state power. However, long after the official recognition of a single religion, the clergy had to fight persistent remnants of paganism among the peasantry.

The Church destroyed idols, forbade worshiping gods and making sacrifices, and organizing pagan holidays and rituals. Severe punishments were threatened for those who engaged in fortune telling, divination, spells, or simply believed in them.

The formation of the process of Christianization was one of the sources of sharp clashes, since the people often associated the concepts of popular freedom with the old faith, while the connection of the Christian Church with state power and oppression appeared quite clearly.

In the minds of the masses of the rural population, regardless of belief in certain gods, behavioral attitudes remained in which people felt directly included in the cycle of natural phenomena.

The medieval European was, of course, a deeply religious person. In his mind, the world was seen as a kind of arena of confrontation between the forces of heaven and hell, good and evil. At the same time, the consciousness of people was deeply magical, everyone was absolutely confident in the possibility of miracles and perceived everything that the Bible reported literally.

In the very in general terms The world was then seen in accordance with some hierarchical ladder, like a symmetrical diagram, reminiscent of two pyramids folded at the base. The top of one of them, the top one, is God. Below are the tiers or levels of sacred characters: first the Apostles, those closest to God, then the figures who gradually move away from God and approach the earthly level - archangels, angels and similar heavenly beings. At some level, people are included in this hierarchy: first the pope and cardinals, then clerics at lower levels, and below them ordinary laypeople. Then animals are placed even further from God and closer to the earth, then plants and then the earth itself, already completely inanimate. And then there is a kind of mirror reflection of the upper, earthly and heavenly hierarchy, but again in a different dimension and with a “minus” sign, in a seemingly underground world, with increasing evil and proximity to Satan. He is placed at the top of this second, atonic pyramid, acting as a being symmetrical to God, as if repeating him with the opposite sign (reflecting like a mirror). If God is the personification of Good and Love, then Satan is his opposite, the embodiment of Evil and Hatred.

Medieval Europeans, including the highest strata of society, right up to kings and emperors, were illiterate. The level of literacy and education even of the clergy in the parishes was terribly low. Only towards the end of the 15th century did the church realize the need to have educated personnel, began to open theological seminaries, etc. The level of education of parishioners was generally minimal. The masses of the laity listened to semi-literate priests. At the same time, the Bible itself was forbidden for ordinary lay people; its texts were considered too complex and inaccessible for the direct perception of ordinary parishioners. Only clergy were allowed to interpret it. However, both their education and literacy were, as has been said, very low. Mass medieval culture is a bookless, “Do-Gutenberg” culture. She relied not on the printed word, but on oral sermons and exhortations. It existed through the consciousness of an illiterate person. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths, and magic spells.

2. EARLY MIDDLE AGES

The Early Middle Ages in Europe is the period from the end of the 4th century. until the middle of the 10th century. In general, the early Middle Ages were a time of deep decline in European civilization compared to the ancient era. This decline was expressed in the dominance of subsistence farming, in the decline of handicraft production and, accordingly, urban life, in the destruction of ancient culture under the onslaught of the unliterate pagan world. In Europe during this period, turbulent and very important processes took place, such as the barbarian invasion, which ended with the fall of the Roman Empire. Barbarians settled on the lands of the former empire, assimilated with its population, creating a new community of Western Europe.

The term “Middle Ages” was introduced by humanists around 1500. This is how they designated the millennium that separated them from the “golden age” of antiquity.

Medieval culture divided into periods:

1. V century AD - XI century n. e. - early Middle Ages.

2. End of the 8th century. AD - beginning of the 9th century AD - Carolingian revival.

Z. XI - XIII centuries. - culture of the mature Middle Ages.

4. XIV-XV centuries. - culture of the late Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages is a period the beginning of which coincided with the withering away of ancient culture, and the end with its revival in modern times. The early Middle Ages include two outstanding cultures - the culture of the Carolingian Renaissance and Byzantium. They gave rise to two great cultures - Catholic (Western Christian) and Orthodox (Eastern Christian).

Medieval culture spans more than a millennium and, in socio-economic terms, corresponds to the origin, development and decay of feudalism. In this historically long sociocultural process During the development of feudal society, a unique type of human relationship to the world was developed, qualitatively distinguishing it both from the culture of ancient society and from the subsequent culture of modern times.

The term "Carolingian Renaissance" describes the cultural upsurge in the empire of Charlemagne and the kingdoms of the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th-9th centuries. (mainly in France and Germany). He expressed himself in the organization of schools, the attraction of educated figures to the royal court, in the development of literature, visual arts, architecture. Scholasticism (“school theology”) became the dominant direction of medieval philosophy.

The origins of medieval culture should be outlined:

The culture of the “barbarian” peoples of Western Europe (the so-called German origin);

Cultural traditions of the Western Roman Empire (Romanesque beginning: powerful statehood, law, science and art);

The Crusades significantly expanded not only economic, trade contacts and exchanges, but also contributed to the penetration of the more developed culture of the Arab East and Byzantium into barbarian Europe. At the height of the Crusades, Arab science began to play a huge role in the Christian world, contributing to the rise of medieval culture in 12th-century Europe. The Arabs passed on to Christian scholars Greek science, accumulated and preserved in eastern libraries, which was greedily absorbed by enlightened Christians. The authority of pagan and Arab scientists was so strong that references to them were almost obligatory in medieval science; Christian philosophers sometimes attributed their original thoughts and conclusions to them.

As a result of long-term communication with the population of the more cultured East, Europeans accepted many achievements of culture and technology of the Byzantine and Muslim world. This gave a strong impetus to the further development of Western European civilization, which was reflected primarily in the growth of cities and the strengthening of their economic and spiritual potential. Between the X and XIII centuries. There was a rise in the development of Western cities, and their image changed.

One function prevailed - trade, which revived the old cities and created a little later the craft function. The city became a hotbed of hatred for the lords economic activity, which led, to a certain extent, to population migration. From various social elements, the city created a new society, contributed to the formation of a new mentality, which consisted in choosing an active, rational life, rather than a contemplative one. The flourishing of the urban mentality was favored by the emergence of urban patriotism. Urban society was able to create aesthetic, cultural, and spiritual values, which gave new impetus to the development of the medieval West.

Romanesque art, which was an expressive manifestation of early Christian architecture, throughout the 12th century. began to transform. The old Romanesque churches became too crowded for the growing population of the cities. It was necessary to make the church spacious, full of air, while saving expensive space inside the city walls. Therefore, cathedrals stretch upward, often hundreds or more meters. For the townspeople, the cathedral was not just a decoration, but also an impressive evidence of the power and wealth of the city. Along with the town hall, the cathedral was the center and focus of all public life.

The town hall housed the business and practical part related to city government, and in the cathedral, in addition to divine services, university lectures were given, theatrical performances (mysteries) took place, and sometimes parliament met there. Many city cathedrals were so large that the entire population of the then city could not fill it. Cathedrals and town halls were erected by order of city communes. Due to the high cost of building materials and the complexity of the work itself, temples were sometimes built over several centuries. The iconography of these cathedrals expressed the spirit of urban culture.

In her, active and contemplative life sought balance. Huge windows with colored glass (stained glass) created a flickering twilight. Massive semicircular vaults gave way to pointed, rib vaults. In combination with a complex support system, this made it possible to make the walls light and openwork. The evangelical characters in the sculptures of the Gothic temple acquire the grace of courtly heroes, smiling coquettishly and suffering “subtly.”

Gothic - art style, predominantly architectural, which reached its greatest development in the construction of light, pointed, skyward cathedrals with pointed vaults and rich decorative decoration, became the pinnacle of medieval culture. Overall, it was a triumph of engineering and the dexterity of guild artisans, an invasion of the Catholic church by the secular spirit of urban culture. Gothic is associated with the life of a medieval city-commune, with the struggle of cities for independence from the feudal lord. Like Romanesque art, Gothic art spread throughout Europe, and its best creations were created in the cities of France.

Changes in architecture have led to changes in monumental painting. The place of the frescoes was taken stained glass. The Church established canons in the image, but even through them the creative individuality of the masters made itself felt. In terms of their emotional impact, the subjects of stained glass paintings, conveyed through drawing, are in last place, and in the first place are color and, along with it, light. The design of the book has achieved great skill. In the XII-XIII centuries. manuscripts of religious, historical, scientific or poetic content are elegantly illustrated color miniature.

Of the liturgical books, the most common are books of hours and psalms, intended mainly for the laity. The artist had no concept of space and perspective, so the drawing is schematic and the composition is static. The beauty of the human body medieval painting no importance was attached. Spiritual beauty, the moral character of a person, came first. The sight of a naked body was considered sinful. Special meaning the appearance of a medieval person was given to the face. The medieval era created grandiose artistic ensembles, solved gigantic architectural problems, created new forms of monumental painting and plastic arts, and most importantly, it was a synthesis of these monumental arts, in which it sought to convey a complete picture of the world .

The shift in the center of gravity of culture from monasteries to cities was especially clearly evident in the field of education. During the 12th century. City schools are decisively ahead of monastery schools. New training centers, thanks to their programs and methods, and most importantly - the recruitment of teachers and students, are very quickly coming forward.

Students from other cities and countries gathered around the most brilliant teachers. As a result, it begins to create high school - university. In the 11th century The first university was opened in Italy (Bologna, 1088). In the 12th century. Universities are also emerging in other Western European countries. In England, the first was the university in Oxford (1167), then the university in Cambridge (1209). The largest and first of the universities in France was Paris (1160).

Studying and teaching science becomes a craft, one of the many activities that are specialized in urban life. The name university itself comes from the Latin “corporation”. Indeed, universities were corporations of teachers and students. The development of universities with their traditions of debate, as the main form of education and the movement of scientific thought, appeared in the 12th-13th centuries. A large amount of translated literature from Arabic and Greek became a stimulus for the intellectual development of Europe.

Universities represented the concentration of medieval philosophy - scholastics. The method of scholasticism consisted in the consideration and collision of all arguments and counterarguments of any position and in the logical development of this position. The old dialectics, the art of debate and argumentation, are receiving extraordinary development. A scholastic ideal of knowledge is emerging, where rational knowledge and logical proof, based on the teachings of the church and on authorities in various branches of knowledge, acquire a high status.

Mysticism, which had a significant influence in the culture as a whole, is accepted very cautiously in scholasticism, only in connection with alchemy and astrology. Until the 13th century. scholasticism was the only possible way to improve the intellect because science was subordinate to theology and served it. The scholastics were credited with developing formal logic and the deductive way of thinking, and their method of knowledge was nothing more than the fruit of medieval rationalism. The most recognized of the scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, considered science to be the “handmaiden of theology.” Despite the development of scholasticism, it was universities that became centers of a new, non-religious culture.

At the same time, there was a process of accumulation of practical knowledge, which was transferred in the form of production experience in craft workshops and workshops. Many discoveries and finds were made here, mixed with mysticism and magic. The process of technical development was expressed in the appearance and use of windmills and lifts for the construction of temples.

A new and extremely important phenomenon was the creation of non-church schools in cities: these were private schools, financially independent of the church. Since that time, there has been a rapid spread of literacy among the urban population. Urban non-church schools became centers of free thought. Poetry became the mouthpiece of such sentiments vagrants- wandering school poets, people from the lower classes. A feature of their work was the constant criticism of the Catholic Church and the clergy for greed, hypocrisy, and ignorance. The Vagantes believed that these qualities, common to the common man, should not be inherent in the holy church. The Church, in turn, persecuted and condemned the vagants.

The most important monument of English literature XII V. - famous Ballads of Robin Hood, who to this day remains one of the most famous heroes of world literature.

Developed urban culture . The poetic short stories depicted dissolute and selfish monks, dull peasant villans, and cunning burghers (“The Romance of the Fox”). Urban art fed on peasant folklore and was distinguished by great integrity and organicity. It was on urban soil that they appeared music and theater with their touching dramatizations of church legends and instructive allegories.

The city contributed to the growth of productive forces, which gave impetus to development natural sciences. English encyclopedist R. Bacon(XIII century) believed that knowledge should be based on experience, and not on authorities. But the emerging rationalistic ideas were combined with the search by alchemical scientists for the “elixir of life”, the “philosopher’s stone”, and with the aspirations of astrologers to predict the future by the movement of the planets. At the same time, they made discoveries in the field of natural sciences, medicine, and astronomy. Scientific research gradually contributed to changes in all aspects of the life of medieval society and prepared the emergence of a “new” Europe.

The culture of the Middle Ages is characterized by:

Theocentrism and creationism;

Dogmatism;

Ideological intolerance;

Suffering renunciation of the world and craving for a violent worldwide transformation of the world in accordance with the idea (crusades)

Culture is the various forms and methods of human self-expression. What features did the culture of the Middle Ages have, briefly outlined? The Middle Ages spanned a period of more than a thousand years. During this huge period of time, great changes took place in medieval Europe. The feudal system appeared. It was replaced by the bourgeois one. The Dark Ages gave way to the Renaissance. And in all the changes taking place in the medieval world, culture played a special role.

The role of the church in medieval culture

The Christian religion played an important role in the culture of the Middle Ages. The influence of the church in those days was enormous. In many ways, this determined the formation of culture. Among the completely illiterate population of Europe, ministers of the Christian religion represented a separate class educated people. The church in the early Middle Ages played the role of a single center of culture. In the monastery workshops, the monks copied the works of ancient authors, and the first schools were opened there.

Medieval culture. Briefly about literature

In the literature, the main directions were heroic epics, lives of saints, chivalric romance. Later, the genre of ballad, courtly romance, love lyrics.
If we talk about the early Middle Ages, the level of cultural development was still extremely low. But starting from the 11th century, the situation began to change radically. After the first Crusades, their participants returned from eastern countries with new knowledge and habits. Then, thanks to the voyage of Marco Polo, Europeans gain another valuable experience of how other countries live. The worldview of medieval man undergoes serious changes.

Science of the Middle Ages

It was widely developed with the emergence of the first universities in the 11th century. Very interesting science The Middle Ages had alchemy. The transformation of metals into gold and the search for the philosopher's stone are its main tasks.

Architecture

It is represented in the Middle Ages by two directions - Romanesque and Gothic. The Romanesque style is massive and geometric, with thick walls and narrow windows. It is more suitable for defense structures. Gothic style is lightness, significant height, wide windows and an abundance of sculptures. If mostly castles were built in the Romanesque style, beautiful temples were built in the Gothic style.
During the Renaissance (Renaissance), the culture of the Middle Ages makes a powerful leap forward.

The most important feature of the culture of the Middle Ages is the nature of the relationship that developed with ancient culture. Sometimes the idea is stated that the Middle Ages “inherits” the culture of antiquity, “preserves” its traditions and norms, etc. Let’s see if this is so.

We have already said in previous chapters that in terms of the type of production, Antiquity and the Middle Ages represent one, agricultural, culture. Although handicraft production was developed in both ancient Greece and Rome, it did not develop into an industrial culture. And the Middle Ages rested on agricultural production. But the technical equipment of labor, specialization and cooperation were not developed, soil cultivation techniques were primitive. Hence the systematically approaching “hungry” years until the period when already in the 16th-17th centuries. Potatoes were not brought from the New World. Grain yields also reached levels comparable to ancient civilization only by the 19th century. Thus, in terms of its productivity, medieval culture does not inherit the culture of antiquity.

But in other areas of culture there was a break with the ancient tradition: urban planning technology fell, the construction of aqueducts and roads stopped, literacy fell, etc. The decline of culture is observed everywhere: in the old civilizations of Greece and Rome, and in the new kingdoms of the Franks and Germans.

Usually they try to explain this gap in cultures by purely spiritual factors: they say, the barbarians “didn’t know how,” “didn’t know,” “didn’t appreciate,” “didn’t realize,” etc. culture of Antiquity. But what is hidden behind this state of consciousness of the barbarians?

By the end of the Roman Empire, yesterday’s barbarians, today’s “Roman citizens” who received citizenship for their services to the empire, worked in many government positions and in city government bodies. There were many areas of material culture where the civilized Romans were inferior to the barbarian peoples. For example, the Romans never mastered the production of high-quality iron and products made from it.

In Europe, the widespread distribution of iron began in the 8th century. BC e. The Celts, and from them the Germans, achieved the highest skill in processing it. By the 5th century The Celts made an epoch-making discovery - they learned not to completely burn carbon out of iron, which significantly improved the malleability and strength of products. Then they learned to get rid of “weak” iron by corrosion. Later they discovered the secret of steel making.

The Romans, who boasted of their valor, never mastered the production of steel. They purchased steel weapons from the barbarians they conquered. The Roman short piercing sword, the gladius, gave way to the barbarian long slashing sword, the spatha.

Medieval Europe developed the secret of a special method of making weapons, learning how to make steel using the damask method. Similar techniques for making steel weapons were discovered in three cultures: in the Arab East - “Damascus steel”, in Far East- “samurai sword” also in Medieval Europe (V-VII centuries AD).

The sword, made using the damask method, shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow! Its length reached 75-95 cm, width - 5-6 cm, with a thickness of no more than 5 mm. Its weight reached 700 g. This is the sword of the Merovingian culture. But it also cost up to 1000 gold denarii (1 din = 4.25 g of gold, that is, for such a sword you had to pay 4 kg 250 g of gold!).

The sword had a sacred character, they swore on it, they worshiped it. It had a proper name, just like its owner. Famous swords of the sagas: Gram - the sword of the epic hero Sigurd, Hruting - the sword of Beowulf, Excalibur - the sword of the mythical King Arthur. From knightly epic we know the sword Durandal of Count Roland, Zhuaez of King Charlemagne. But also the Russian epic epic and fairy world knows the sword of heroes - Kladenets.

Why, despite the fact that barbarian Europe knew and knew a lot that Antiquity could not comprehend, does it reject much of ancient culture? The answer to this question lies in deeper areas of social life than the area of ​​consciousness, spirit, and knowledge. The interaction of the culture of Antiquity and the Middle Ages is basically the contact of two hostile cultures, and hostile cultures are not inherited or borrowed. You can master someone else's culture to the extent that it is not hostile, transforming it partly into your own, and partly into a neutral one, and therefore redundant at a given point in time. But a hostile, “enemy” culture is not borrowed in principle. There are tragic pages in the history of culture when an alien culture was perceived as hostile and destroyed: competing religions, monuments of art, household utensils, etc. were destroyed. because of political, ideological hostility, hostility that embraces different peoples. Economic interests and political hostility were transferred to works of art, to poetry, to sculpture, although under other conditions they could have been preserved and passed on by inheritance.

The cultural world of Roman civilization and the culture of barbarians were divided by a thousand-year-old enmity. At the expense of the lands of the barbarians, Rome increased its territories in the North. Barbarian slaves built Roman aqueducts, baths, circuses, cities, and entertained the Romans in gladiatorial games. And when Rome weakened due to internal strife, all of barbarian Europe, and Asia as well, rushed to Rome - to take back what they had previously plundered by the Romans, and at the same time to grab someone else’s.

To this it should be added that both political and military hostility stemmed from socio-economic hostility. The barbarian culture was built on the labor of free community members, members of one clan, where the leader was chosen and replaced depending on the will of the majority. Roman power rested on the labor of “unfree” slaves. And slave labor and free labor are opposite forms of labor.

To the political, socio-economic opposition was added ideological and religious hostility. It is believed that the Romans were Christians and the barbarians were pagans. This is not an entirely correct opinion. Formally, Rome was Christian before the arrival of the barbarians, but in reality its culture remained pagan: the very history of the city, in which the apostles Peter and Paul found their demise, where Christians were accused of setting the city on fire and were persecuted like animals, killed in circus arenas, squares and streets, was steeped in enmity religious systems, pagan and Christian. All sculpture, architecture of the city, its aesthetics carried a pagan meaning.

And the barbarians for the most part were not pagans. Many of them were Christians, albeit of the Arian persuasion. And they perceived the culture of Rome in the light of the prophecies of the Apocalypse and destroyed it as pagan. Therefore, many of the city’s buildings, sculpture, and architecture were destroyed by barbarians, the city’s economy fell into disrepair, roads were overgrown with grass, bridges collapsed.

The words “vandal” and “barbarian” entered the history of culture with a negative meaning. They are used to characterize people who destroy culture and disdain the rules of law and communication.

There has been a long debate about the nature of the borrowing of the culture of antiquity by the Middle Ages. For many centuries, the prevailing belief was that the Middle Ages began with the destruction of the culture of Antiquity.

This tradition was confirmed in the statements religious figures who asserted the “uselessness” of worldly knowledge for a Christian, in particular, this was the position of the founder of Western monasticism, Benedict of Nur (VI century) and Pope Gregory the Great. Humanists of the Renaissance, historians of the 19th and 20th centuries. were convinced that with the departure of the “last Romans” centuries-old intellectual stagnation began. In relation to the modern stage of development of cultural studies, this position also has its supporters, who believe that the transition to the Middle Ages is characterized by the loss of all achievements ancient civilization. A number of authors take direct the opposite point point of view, proving that the ancient heritage was the most important source of not only Byzantine, but also European culture in general.

We believe this is a simplified approach. The culture of medieval Europe has its own, “barbarian” basis and source. This own culture of the peoples of Europe, which they defended from destruction by the Romans, preserved it original character, partly perceiving the culture of antiquity, and partly rejecting it as unnecessary and hostile.

The Middle Ages, developing its historical cultural tradition, selectively refers to the culture of antiquity, including the culture of Roman civilization. Medieval European culture had many sources, but the most important of them were those springs that emerged from its own, still barbaric, soil. Moreover, the authors who defend the direct continuity of two cultures - antiquity and the Middle Ages, recognize the general decline of the culture of the Middle Ages. So, Z.V. Udaltsova writes that “against the background of the general decline of culture, the level of knowledge of Gregory the Great looked very impressive.” But further: “Gregory’s writings, of course, reveal a decline in linguistic, rhetorical, philosophical and even theological culture in comparison not only with the authors of “Classical” antiquity, but also with the fathers of the church.” I.S. Braginsky notes that the entire era of the Middle Ages “is undoubtedly characterized as a whole by a cultural decline,” but at the same time he admits that it is a mistake to interpret the Middle Ages as a continuous decline, a continuous reaction. He notes the presence of opposing tendencies in medieval culture - progressive, folk, and reactionary, church, as well as moments of uplift.

Just like the civilization of Rome, the culture of the Middle Ages civilization did not become technical. The culture of the Middle Ages rested on agricultural production, where the main figure was the farmer. But this is not a slave - the “talking instrument” of antiquity, displacing the free worker; this is not a free community member of the period of “military democracy”, barbarian campaigns. This is a feudal-dependent peasant, with his natural production and the product of labor.

French cultural researcher Jacques de Goff (Paris, 1965) noted that the consciousness of the Middle Ages was “anti-technical.” And the ruling class, chivalry, is to blame for this. Knighthood was interested in the development of military technology, and not in its productive application. But the working population was not interested in using technology. The surplus product produced by the farmer came at the complete disposal of the feudal lord, who was not interested in the equipment of labor. And the farmer did not have enough time or knowledge for the technical re-equipment of agricultural production. Therefore, the technical achievements of Rome in the field of agricultural labor were unclaimed.

The culture of the Middle Ages is the culture of civilization. And civilization is characterized by a split into opposites, in particular, into classes. In ancient Rome, this led to the emergence of a “culture of bread” - those who produce, and a “culture of spectacles” - those who rule and distribute this bread. In the culture of the Middle Ages there was also a split, differentiation into socially opposite species.

A characteristic feature of Medieval culture is its division into two types:

• 1. culture of the dominant minority and
• 2. culture of the “silent majority”.

The culture of the ruling minority is the culture of the ruling class of feudal lords, it is a courtly, knightly culture. It appears in two forms - secular, secular, and religious, clerical. These two forms of the dominant culture oppose each other as the world and the “clergy,” the state and the church.

The most striking type of culture is the culture of knights. Knightly culture is a military culture. The Middle Ages were established during continuous wars, first barbarian, against the Romans, then feudal. This left its mark on the culture of the ruling class - it is, first of all, a militarized, military culture.

The culture of knights is a culture of military affairs, “martial arts”. True, this circumstance is hidden from us by later phenomena in culture, when romanticism “ennobled” knightly culture, gave it a courtly character and began to absolutize knightly ethics. Knights were a class of professional military men of the Middle Ages. Many of them are the top, they themselves were the largest feudal lords. They developed a unique way of life: tournaments, fishing, court receptions and balls and, from time to time, military campaigns. They were distinguished by a special professional ethics - loyalty to the lord, service to the “beautiful lady”. The presence of a certain “vow” - a promise that the knight is obliged to fulfill, etc.

Except cultural species activities intended for knights, those where they played the first roles, a court culture also developed, where the main actors were civilians; A courtly culture was established: dancing, music, poetry - serving the inhabitants of the royal court or the castle of a large feudal lord. At court, a certain etiquette, ceremony, ritual develops - that is, the order of organizing life, the order of actions, speeches, events.

Etiquette included the ceremony of “rising of the king,” his dressing, toilet, meals, and receptions of courtiers and guests, and feasts and balls. Everything was subject to regulation and cultivation. This is how the medieval author imagined the culture of knights and their way of life:

“Soon the knights, having started a semblance of a battle, give themselves up to equestrian fun: the women, looking at her from the battlements of the fortress walls and captured by their favorite spectacle, are inflamed by a burning love flame. And the knights, without quarrels and good-naturedly, spend the rest of the day, competing with each other, some in battle with axes, some with spears, others in throwing heavy stones, others playing checkers, others - dice or indulging in all sorts of other amusements. Whoever wins the game with which he was amused, Arthur rewards him with some generous gift. After the first three days of these festivals, on the last - fourth day - all those whom he has elevated and who are subordinate to him are convened, and he bestows on them all kinds of favors, that is, cities and castles, archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys, as well as various honorary appointments."

A certain type of feudal culture was religious culture). The church had long ago turned into the largest feudal lord and the leaders of the church were the richest people in Europe. Religion, and therefore the church, played an exceptional role in the Middle Ages: Christianity created a unified ideological basis for the culture of the Middle Ages and contributed to the creation of large, unified medieval states. But Christianity is also a certain worldview that forms the spiritual basis of culture. At the center of any religion is faith, the conviction in the existence of supernatural, that is, unnatural, phenomena. Sometimes these phenomena are personified, and then religion acts as theology - the doctrine of God. There may be different approaches to ideas about God. Theism is characterized by the idea of ​​God as an infinite Divine Person (personification) who freely created the world (1); is outside the world (2); continues to operate in the world (3). Pantheism is characterized by the recognition of the identity of God and nature. Deism asserts that God created the world (1); is outside the world (2); does not interfere in the affairs of the world (3).

Theistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

Religion, in particular Christianity, was the dominant spiritual basis of culture in the Middle Ages, the core of its worldview.

Barbarian culture is characterized by genecentrism. Here a person is important only insofar as his clan stands behind him, and he is a representative of the clan. Hence, genealogy - the study of the gens - acquires great importance. The hero always has and knows his ancestors. The more ancestors he can name, the more “great” their deeds he can list, the more “noble” he himself becomes, which means the greater honors and glory he himself deserves. The Middle Ages asserts a different starting point; it is characterized by theocentrism: the personality of God is placed at the center, man is evaluated by him, man and all things are directed towards him, everywhere man looks for traces of God’s presence and actions. This leads to the emergence of “Vertical” thinking, “vertical culture”.

A.V. Mikhailov proposed calling the medieval “way of thinking,” or “norm of seeing the world,” essentially “vertical” thinking. This “verticality” means, firstly, that thinking constantly deals with up and down, as the boundaries of the world that set the measure for everything. Medieval thinking had little interest in finding the cause-and-effect relationships of things and phenomena throughout the earthly “horizontal” and was not fixed on them; things are perceived and comprehended not so much in their context, but in that vertical, which acts as meaning-generating and axiological. Secondly, it is the semantic beginnings and ends of the world that turn out to be truly close to the medieval consciousness; Thus, the creation and destruction of the world, birth and judgment are close - instead of the proximity of that everyday environment, which is so natural for the perception of the 19th-20th centuries, which all this surrounding is shrouded in the mists of the most intense emotional experience.

Many researchers define the culture of the Middle Ages as a “culture of text,” as a commentary culture in which the word is its beginning and end—its entire content. For the Middle Ages, the text is the Gospel, the Holy Scripture and Tradition, but it is also a ritual, a temple, and heaven. Medieval man sees everywhere and tries to recognize writings, letters of God. And the heavens are "a text read by an astrologer."

In a Christian culture based on Holy Scripture, the answer to the question: who said? How ancient author- the truer it is, the closer it is to God. Christianity views the history of mankind as its history of separation from God: Adam was closest to God - in paradise. But he loses his intimacy. Therefore, reference to authority is the most important characteristic of medieval culture. In Greek “who said” = “said himself” = “autos epfa”, in Latin - “ipse dixi”. He said it himself - the teacher said it, the leader - the authority = Himself. Subsequently, in the culture of modern times, the principle of “authority” decreases, but does not completely disappear. In the Middle Ages it reaches the pinnacle of its development.

In Islam, the principle of isnad has developed - a way of affirming and transmitting knowledge from the Teacher to the student, from him to his student, etc. In this way, continuity was established. The ideological heritage is transmitted esoterically, personally, indicating the names of the transmitter and recipient: “A told me from the words of B, who heard D when he told what the prophet Muhammad said.”

Christianity turns over spiritual world barbarian culture. Gregory of Tours in “History of the Franks” defined the imperative of the new spirituality of Christianity, replacing paganism: “...honor what you burned, burn what you venerated.” And Christianity began to zealously destroy pagan culture, to eradicate it along with its carriers.

Back in the 6th century. The fight against paganism continued. Thus, in a conversation with Gregory of Tours, Deacon Wulfilaich said that near the city of Trier he found a statue of Diana, which local residents revered as a goddess. The deacon preached to them that Diana had no power, the statues meant nothing, and “the veneration they pay to them has no meaning.” With the help of the newly converted, Wulfilaih smashed the “huge statue” of Diana, “while I had already broken the other, lighter images myself.”

But sometimes Christianity tried to use paganism to strengthen its authority. Pope Gregory I wrote in 601 to missionaries in Britain:

"...the temples of idols in this country should not be destroyed at all, but be limited only to the destruction of idols alone; let them sprinkle such temples with holy water, build altars and place the relics: for if these temples are well built, then it is more useful to simply convert them from the service of demons to service to the true God; the people themselves, seeing their temples not destroyed and having removed errors from their hearts, will be all the more willing to flock to places to which they have long been accustomed, knowing and worshiping the true God. And since the pagans have the custom of sacrificing numerous bulls to demons, then they need to replace this with some kind of celebration: on the days of remembrance or the birth of the holy martyrs, whose relics are placed there, let the people build themselves huts from tree branches near the churches... and celebrate such days with a religious meal... when they are provided with material contentment, they will more easily accept spiritual joy..."

But it was not possible to completely eradicate paganism.

“In the latest scientific literature, the point of view about the dominance of Christian ideology and evangelism in medieval Europe is very skeptical” (the myth of the Christian Middle Ages). The “Christian Middle Ages” is a legend, and therefore discussions about the “de-Christianization” of Europe with the transition to a new time are also erroneous. "The world has never been Christian." The positions of paganism were especially strong in folk culture, the “culture of the silent majority.” This leads to the eclecticism of the culture of the Middle Ages.

The eclecticism of the culture of the Middle Ages is its characteristic feature.

Here two cultures coexist, struggle, influence each other:

• 1. The dominant culture of the elite: church and secular nobility. This culture is Christian, biblical, it was mainly widespread in the church, monastic environment, and at the court of the king and in the castles of feudal lords. She used Latin.
• 2. Another culture is folk, the lower classes of society - pagan, preserved since barbarian times, using their native language - the dialect of this or that people.

A striking example of eclecticism and mixing is the Franks casket (7th century). On it, the blacksmith Weland (Germanic pagan culture) and the image of the “Adoration of the Magi” (Christian culture) are placed side by side. On the other side of the casket there are images of Romulus and Remus (Roman antiquity), on the third - Titus from Jerusalem (Roman culture). On the roof of the casket is the defense of the building by a man shooting from a bow, his name is Egil (archery), this is an epic hero. Thus, the creator of the casket equally values ​​​​both the heroes of Roman antiquity and Germanic epic, and Christian shrines.

The first contemporary scientist who drew attention to the need to study folk carnival culture was M.M. Bakhtin ("The Work of Francois Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance", M., 1965, M., 1990). It was he who managed to reveal the half-forgotten language of certain carnival forms and symbols, to reveal the deep, sometimes pagan foundations of the culture of laughter. But M.M. Bakhtin sharply contrasted and separated the authoritarian culture of Catholicism with its one-sided serious tone and the culture of carnival with its utopia, the possibility of at least temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and alienation. In reality, as A. Ya. Gurevich noted, such a complete opposite did not exist - the “people” and the “church” not only differed in their culture, but also had common foundations for mutual understanding - humility, patience, salvation in Christ (the sovereign) .

Looking at problems folk culture and court (elite) it should be noted that the production of culture, spiritual culture, has already separated from material production, but has not acquired a clear enough place in society, has not yet been constitutionalized.

In contrast to the culture of Rome, where the pursuit of art and literature turned into a source of income, were assigned to a person as his profession and, moreover, corresponding institutions were formed - theatre, hippodrome, stadium, etc., for example, the Colosseum, in the early In medieval Europe, the artist and poet did not have a permanent place of creativity and a permanent audience - court or popular. Therefore, jugglers, artists, buffoons, servant-poets, minstrels, musicians moved in geographical and social space. They did not have a fixed place in the social niche. They moved from city to city, from country to country (vagantes - wandering poets, singers) from one courtyard - the royal one, to another - the count's courtyard or the peasant's courtyard. But this means that in social terms they moved from serving one social stratum to another. Hence the nationality of this culture, its eclecticism (borrowing), enrichment of both the elite and folk theme, symbiosis (that is, coexistence, mutual enrichment).

The differentiation was weak: “cultural front worker”, “cultural worker”, “kulturtregger” had to be a jack of all trades: and “a Swede, a reaper, and a pipe player,” that is, he had to be able to both sing and compose poetry, and music, etc. Thus, artists, writers, etc. were distinguished by universalism (encyclopedism, breadth of outlook). The fablio "Two Jugglers" (13th century) listed the artist's skills. The juggler had to:

• - be able to play the wind instruments and string instruments- sitole, violet, giguet;
• - perform poems about heroic deeds - sirvents, pastorels, fablios, recite chivalric novels, tell stories in Latin and native language,
• - know heraldic science and all the “beautiful games in the world” - demonstrate magic tricks, balance chairs and tables,
• - be a skilled acrobat, play with knives and walk on a tightrope.

They had to be able to move from the sublime to the base, from the serious to the joke, from the high to the obscene, from the epic to the lyrical, etc.

Actors and poets did not have permanent sources of income: they depended directly on the listener, viewer: on patrons, philanthropists, on the generosity of nobles and the court. As a rule, the royal court became the most stable source of income. Therefore, the royal court also attracted cultural creators. An enlightened, generous ruler is the ideal of an artist and poet. Later, not only the royal court, but also the estate and castle of the feudal lord began to compete with the state, royal service.

The church also began to attract musicians, poets, and artists to promote religious dogma and gain popularity among the people. Sometimes the clergy themselves tried to follow the path of art and poetry. To this the church at the Council of Salzburg (1310) declared:

“Immodest ministers of the church, in their positions, indulging in the craft of a juggler, goliard (magician) or buffoon and practicing for a year in these shameful games, if they do not repent, will, at least after the third warning, be deprived of all spiritual privileges.”

In I. Bosch's painting "Ship of Fools" a monk and a nun with a lute are an object of ridicule and a symbol of the sinfulness of the church.

• 1. Medieval symbolism is historical. In the process of its development, the meaning of the symbol changed: the same symbol on different historical stages depicted various objects. For example, a fish is both a symbol of the universe and a symbol of early Christians. The cross is both a solar sign, a symbol of the sun, and a symbol of Christianity, as suffering, and unity (all baptized), and a symbol of the world tree in pagan mythology
• 2. Symbolism is a multi-level phenomenon: for some, the laymen, the symbol meant one thing, for others, the initiated, it meant something else.
• 3. The ambivalence of the symbol should be taken into account - depending on the context, it can personify both negative and positive properties. For example, a lion can symbolize:

Evangelist Mark,

Resurrection of the Believers

Satan, the devil.

Thus, when interpreting a symbol, historical and cultural context is important.

Primitive society arose ≈ 40 thousand years ago and developed until the 4th millennium BC. e.

Covers the periods of the Stone Age: Late Paleolithic 40 - 10 thousand years BC. e.; Mesolithic 10 - 6 thousand years BC. e.; Neolithic 6 - 4 thousand years BC. e.

During Late Paleolithic fold up important components material culture: tools become complex, hunting for wild animals is organized, dwellings are built, clothing appears.

The first forms of religion are formed in society: Magic– (witchcraft, sorcery) – belief in supernatural means; influence people and natural phenomena; Totemism– belief in the kinship of the tribe with totems; Fetishism– belief in the supernatural properties of certain fetish objects (amulets, amulets, talismans) that can protect a person from harm; Animism– is associated with ideas about the soul and spirits that influence people’s lives.

Mesolithic. Primitive people used: bow, arrows, flint inserts; boats, wooden, wicker utensils; taming a dog; belief in the afterlife increases; Along with animals, humans are used in the drawing. There is schematism in his depiction.

In the drawings: hunting scenes, honey collection. Examples of art - drawings in the caves of Lascaux (France) sculpture "Venus of Willendorf".

People created art, and art made people. They especially painted and sculpted the naked body.

Excavations near the Danube River near the village of Willendorf on August 7, 1978 found a sculpture and called it “Venus of Willendorf”, 10 cm in height.

Ancient people were characterized by exaggeration as an element of art (a grotesque, exaggerated image of the human body). In this image of the “Venus of Willendorf” they emphasized: fertility, prosperity, longevity, profit, success.

Together with the Mesolithic The modern geological era begins - Holocene, occurred after the melting of glaciers. Mesolithic means the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic. At this stage primitive people bows and arrows with flint inserts are widely used, and they begin to use a boat. The production of wooden and wicker utensils is growing, in particular, all kinds of baskets and bags are made from bast and reeds. A man tames a dog.

Culture continues to develop, religious ideas, cults and rituals become significantly more complex. In particular, the belief in the afterlife and the cult of ancestors is increasing.

There are also noticeable changes in the arts. Along with animals, humans are also widely depicted; they even begin to predominate. A certain schematism appears in his depiction. At the same time, artists skillfully convey the expression of movements, internal state and the meaning of events.

For Neolithic characterized by qualitative changes: the Neolithic revolution in the economy, the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, the emergence of mythology, religious myths, medical and astronomical knowledge.

The era of the ancient kingdom. The culture of Ancient Egypt originated as one of ancient cultures humanity. It existed approximately from the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. to 332 BC e. The formation of Egypt as a state took place in the 4th millennium BC. e. By the beginning of the millennium, more than 40 cities appeared in the north and south of the Nile River, standing at the head of regions, or nomes. In the second half of the millennium, two large state associations emerged: the Northern (Lower) Kingdom and the Southern (Upper) Kingdom. Finally, by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. A unified Egyptian state is formed, which arose as a result of the victory of the king of Southern Egypt, Ming, over the Northern, who founded the fortress of Inbu-Hedge (White Walls), which later turned into the first capital of the new state - Memphis.

In the history of Ancient Egypt Usually several large periods are distinguished. The first of them is called predynastic(IV millennium BC), during which Egyptian civilization arose.

Subsequent periods, covering 30 pharaonic dynasties, Egyptian priest Manetho, who wrote the history of his country, proposed to call the following kingdoms: Ancient(III millennium BC); Average(end of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd millennium BC); New(II millennium BC).

The last period of ancient Egyptian history is sometimes called Lately(1st millennium BC).

Ancient Egypt became a classic example river civilization, since the decisive role in its existence was played Nile: its silt provided excellent soil for agriculture - the basis of the Egyptian economy; a unified irrigation system contributed to the creation of a single, centralized state; huge deposits of coastal stone served as excellent building material; the need to accurately determine the timing of the Nile flood stimulated the development of astronomy, mathematics and other sciences; The Nile Valley, protected on both sides by deserts, was difficult to access by foreigners, made it possible to live peacefully and develop without major external shocks, preserving the originality of the culture.

Emphasizing the enormous importance of the Nile for Egypt, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus rightly called it “the gift of the Nile.”

The whole way of life of the Egyptians rested on a complex system of religious and mythological ideas and cults: cult of numerous gods of Egypt. The supreme deities were the sun gods Ra or Amon-Ra, the god Osiris, the goddesses Isis, Maat; cult of the deified king - pharaoh. Carrying out the laws established by the gods, executive power was in the hands of the kings. The Egyptian pharaoh embodied the focus of all religious life. The pharaoh was both a living, earthly god and a high priest who performed the most important rituals that ensured the prosperity of the country. It was he who, every spring, threw a special scroll into the Nile with an order to start the flood. After death, the deified ruler was identified with the god Osiris. The famous Egyptian pyramids became an expression of the idea of ​​immortality and unlimited power of the pharaoh over mere mortals; cult of wild and domestic animals, birds, fish and insects. The sacred ones included: lion, cow, bull, cat, goat, crocodile; birds - falcon, ibis and kite, as well as bees, snakes, scarab beetles.

Tracing the evolution of Egypt, it should be noted that already in the predynastic period it had developed agriculture and cattle breeding, winemaking and weaving. This period also dates back to the beginning of the production of papyrus, which contributed to the widespread dissemination of writing. Its culture was original in the full sense.

The era of the Old Kingdom the Egyptians themselves viewed it as golden age in the history of its culture, since during this period: it is affirmed copper age; Agriculture, horticulture, horticulture and viticulture reach a high level; beekeeping is open; stone construction is carried out on a large scale, including monumental structures; the formation of hieroglyphic writing is completed; the first papyrus scroll appears; a counting system is being developed; The first attempts at mummification are carried out.

During the era of the Old Kingdom, the entire complex system of cults practically took shape, and among the numerous gods, a kind of hierarchy was established with the Sun God Amon-Ra at the head. Experiencing a significant rise art culture, in which specific canons of art are formed.

The leading art of the Ancient Kingdom was architecture, which developed in unity with other types and genres and gave all art a complex character. The vast majority of architectural buildings were associated with funeral cults. The first of this kind of structures was mastaba, which was built over the graves of the dead in the form of sand mounds reinforced with brick or masonry with an inclined profile of the walls, reminiscent of a bench (mastaba).

The consistent complication of the mastaba and the multiple increase in its vertical and horizontal dimensions eventually turned it into pyramid. The first to accomplish this was the architect Imhotep, who built the pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser in Saqqara (beginning of the 3rd millennium BC). The first pyramid was stepped, had a height of 60 m and looked like six mastabas placed on top of each other.

The second pyramid was the pyramid of Snofru in Dashur. It was a regular tetrahedron with a square base and a height of 100 m. The pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure in Giza (XXIX - XXVIII centuries BC) became classic. The biggest one – pyramid Khufu(in Greek – Cheops) had a height of 146 m (now less), composed of 2.3 million blocks of 2.5 - 3 tons, occupies an area of ​​5.4 hectares. Next to the mortuary temple of Khafre's pyramid is a giant sphinx (57 m long) in the form of a lion with a portrait head, possibly Khafre himself. In total, about 80 pyramids were built.

An Arabic proverb says: “Everything in the world is afraid of time, and time is afraid of the pyramids.” Pyramids of steel greatest achievement Egyptian culture and civilization. Until now, they keep many secrets and mysteries and are a symbol of the entire East. The most famous of them – Pyramid of Khufu – considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

Sculpture was successfully developing in the Old Kingdom. One of the first and famous works plastic became a small slab (64 cm high) of Pharaoh Narmer. It is covered on both sides with relief images and short hieroglyphic inscriptions telling about the victory of Narmer, the ruler of Southern Egypt, over Northern Egypt. This famous palette is interesting because it fully expresses the originality "Egyptian style" consisting in a special way of transferring a volumetric body on a plane: the head and legs are depicted in profile, and the shoulders and body – in front

In addition to the reliefs that decorated the walls of tombs and temples, portrait sculpture, often associated with funerary cult. The surviving works give a complete picture of the characteristic features and features Egyptian sculpture. As a rule, all statues are in calm and frozen poses, endowed with the same attributes, and have the same conventional coloring: red-brown for men, yellow for women, black for hair, white for clothes. Another feature of Egyptian plastic art is geometricism: absolute symmetry, clarity of lines, strict balance between the right and left halves of the body. The most famous sculptural creations are “Village Headman”, “Scribe Kaya”, statues-portraits of Prince Rahopet and his wife Nofret, etc.

Middle Kingdom was the second heyday of Ancient Egypt. This era usually called classic. During this period, metal smelting developed intensively, and the Egyptians widely used tools from bronze Glass production is added to the existing crafts. The expansion and improvement of the irrigation system contributed to a new rise in agriculture.

IN social sphere the role is strengthening middle layers. Changes are also taking place in other areas of life. The funeral cult now serves not only kings and nobles, but also the middle strata. There is a rethinking of the role of the pharaoh: he is perceived not only as a god, but also as a specific living person. In general, the importance of sacred culture is somewhat weakening. There are even doubts about the afterlife. Perhaps thanks to this, science is experiencing an unprecedented rise and flourishing.

Advances in mummification and embalming were achieved thanks to the development medicine, knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. Egyptian healers - priests, developed the doctrine of the brain, blood vessels, pulse and heart. No less impressive were the successes in mathematics And astronomy. Several dozen texts devoted to solving theoretical and practical issues have come down to us from Egyptian mathematicians. Herodotus rightly called the Egyptians teachers of geometry.

Egyptian astronomers knew the sky well, were able to predict solar and lunar eclipses, the beginning of the Nile flood; their solar calendar became more and more perfect.

Architecture remains a leading art, still developing in unity with sculpture and relief. During this period, the construction of pyramids continues, but they are built not from stone, but from raw brick, which makes them short-lived.

During the New Kingdom period, Ancient Egypt reaches its highest rise and flourishing. He takes leading position in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptians are beginning to use iron, widely use plows, vertical looms, and leg bellows in metallurgy, and master horse breeding. The creation of water-lifting structures contributes to the development of vegetable gardening and horticulture, where new varieties of trees are used - apple, almond, olive, peach. The art of mummification reaches unprecedented perfection. Domestic and foreign trade are developing widely. In general, the country is experiencing rapid economic growth, facilitated by successful wars of conquest that provide raw materials, captive slaves, and gold. The upper strata of society are drowning in untold wealth and luxury, which partly affects the development of art: it acquires pomp.

Amenhotep IV makes a rare bold attempt to carry out radical reforms. Instead of the previous polytheism, monotheism is introduced for the first time in history, establishing the cult of the new sun god Aten, whose symbol is the solar disk. The pharaoh changes his name to “Akhenaton” (“pleasing to Aten”) and seeks to elevate the cult of the king above the cult of God himself. He moves the capital of the country from Thebes to Akhetaten. Under its influence, no less radical changes occur in art. If the architecture of Akhetaton generally remains the same, then painting and sculpture undergo profound changes, both in form and content. The pharaoh and his entourage are depicted in everyday life, at home, in the garden. At the same time, they retain their individual traits and characteristics. The portraits of Akhenaten and especially his wife Nefertiti created by the sculptor Thutmes are full of unique beauty and charm.

After the death of Akhenaten, under his successor Tutankhamun, the capital returned to Thebes, the old order was restored, and the name of the apostate pharaoh was cursed. However, the new forms of art that arose during his time were preserved.

As for Tutankhamun, his tomb, found in 1922, was the only one that the robbers had not yet reached. It contained a huge number of valuable monuments of Egyptian culture, including the famous golden mask of the pharaoh himself.

Culture of Ancient India existed approximately from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. and until the 6th century. n. e. Modern name“India” appeared only in the 19th century. In the past, it was known as the “country of the Aryans”, “the land of the Brahmins”, “the land of the sages”.

In the 6th century BC. e. Buddhism appears in India– one of the three largest world religions. Its creator was Siddhartha Gautama, who at the age of forty reached a state of enlightenment and received the name Buddha(enlightened). In the 3rd century. BC e. Buddhism achieved its greatest influence and spread, displacing Brahmanism. But from the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. his influence gradually declines, and at the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. he dissolves into Hinduism. Its further life as an independent religion takes place outside of India - in China, Japan and other countries.

The basis of Buddhism is doctrine of "four noble truths" : there is suffering; its source is desire; salvation from suffering is possible; there is a path to salvation, to liberation from suffering.

The path to salvation lies through renunciation of worldly temptations, through self-improvement, through non-resistance to evil. The highest state is (nirvana) - and means (salvation). Nirvana (extinction) is a borderline state between life and death, meaning complete detachment from the outside world, the absence of any desires, complete satisfaction, inner enlightenment.

There are two schools of thought in Buddhism: Hinayana (small vehicle) - implies complete entry into nirvana; Mahayana (big vehicle) - means getting as close as possible to Nirvana, but refusing to enter it for the sake of helping and saving others.

Buddhism promises salvation to all believers, regardless of belonging to a particular varna or caste.

Jainism arises in India simultaneously with Buddhism. The main thing in it is principle of ahimsa- not causing harm to all living things.

Sikhism emerged from Hinduism as an independent religion in the 16th century.

Sikhism opposes the hierarchy of varnas and castes, for the equality of all believers before God.

Worship of many animals indicates the preservation of the earliest forms of religion - fetishism and totemism. Thus, the sacred ones include cows and bulls of the zebu breed (which, unlike cows, are used in household work). Indians pay special attention to monkeys. They live in thousands in temples, receiving food and care from people. Cobras are even more popular. There is a real snake cult in India. Magnificent temples are built for them, legends are formed about them and stories are written. Some animals are traditionally associated with certain gods whom they personify: the cow with Krishna, the cobra with Shiva, the goose with Brahma. In ancient India, philosophy reached a high level.

The so-called orthodox, that is, those who recognize the authority of the Vedas, include six philosophical schools: Vaisesika; Vedanta; yoga; Mimamsa; nyaya; Samkhya.

Science developed successfully in ancient India. Indians achieved the most significant successes in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and linguistics. Indian mathematicians the value of pi was known, they created a decimal number system using zero. Everyone knows Arabic numerals, most likely invented by the Indians. The mathematical terms “digit”, “sine”, “root” are also of Indian origin. Indian astronomers made a guess about the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Indian has reached a high level medicine, who created the science of longevity (Ayurveda). Indian surgeons performed 300 types of operations using about 120 surgical instruments. Linguistics owes its birth, first of all, to Indian scientists.

Development of ancient Indian architecture has some features. Monuments of the material culture of Ancient India that existed before the 3rd century BC. e., have not survived to this day. This is explained by the fact that at that time wood was the main building material. Only in the 3rd century BC. e. The use of stone begins in construction. Since the dominant religion during this period was Buddhism, the main monuments are Buddhist buildings: stupas, stambhas, cave temples.

Buddhist stupas are round brick structures with a diameter of 36 m and a height of 16 m. According to legend, relics of Buddha were kept in the stupas. The most famous of them was “Great Stupa No. 1”, surrounded by a fence with a gate. Stambhas are monolithic columns about 15 m high, on top of which there is a figure of a sacred animal, and the surface is covered with inscriptions of Buddhist content.

Cave temples usually included in a complex of buildings along with monasteries. The most famous temple is the Ajanta complex, which unites 29 caves. This temple is also interesting because it contains beautiful examples of ancient Indian painting. Ajanta paintings depict scenes from the life of Buddha, mythological subjects, and scenes from social life: dance, royal hunt, etc.

Vocal music Indians understand it as the beginning and end of all arts. The ancient treatise “Natyashastra” is devoted to the peculiarities of music, canons and dance techniques. It says: “Music is the tree of nature itself, its flowering is dance.” Origins dance and theater are found in the cult rituals and games of ancient Indian tribes. The creator of dance is considered to be Shiva, who is called Nataraja (king of dance). Krishna is also known as a dancer, although to a lesser extent. However, most of the classical and folk dances dedicated specifically to Krishna and Rama.

Chinese culture, along with the cultures of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it is one of the oldest. The earliest cultural monuments found in China date back to the 5th - 3rd millennium BC. e.

One of the oldest ancestors was formed on Chinese soil modern man- Sinanthropus, which existed about 400 thousand years ago.

The civilization of Ancient China developed somewhat later than in Egypt, Sumer and India - only in the 2nd millennium BC. e. For a long time it was of a non-irrigation type: only from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Chinese began to create irrigation systems. In addition, until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Chinese civilization existed in isolation, apart from other ancient civilizations.

Characteristics of Chinese culture: appeal to the values ​​of real earthly life, an exceptional, enormous and decisive role traditions, customs, rituals and ceremonies. Hence the existing expression - “Chinese ceremonies”, the deification of the power of nature. The supreme deity for the Chinese is Heaven, and they call their country the Celestial Empire. They have a cult of the Sun and other luminaries. Since ancient times, the Chinese have worshiped mountains and waters as shrines, aestheticizing and poetizing nature.

Culture Ancient Greece existed since the 28th century BC. e. and until the middle of the 2nd century BC. e. It is also called “ancient” - to distinguish it from other ancient cultures, and Ancient Greece itself - Hellas, since the Greeks themselves called their country that way. The highest rise and prosperity ancient greek culture reached in the 5th - 4th centuries BC. e., which still causes deep admiration and gives grounds to talk about the real mystery of the “Greek miracle”. The essence of this miracle consists, first of all, in the fact that the Greek people, almost simultaneously and in almost all areas of culture, managed to reach unprecedented heights. No other people - neither before nor after - could do anything like this.

The ideal of the Greeks was harmoniously developed, free man, beautiful in soul and body. The formation of such a person was ensured by thoughtful education and upbringing system, which included two directions: "gymnastic" The goal is physical perfection. Its pinnacle was participation in the Olympic Games, the winners of which were surrounded by glory and honor; “musical” – training in all types of arts, mastering scientific disciplines and philosophy, including rhetoric, that is, the ability to speak beautifully, conduct dialogue and debate.

In almost all areas of spiritual culture the Greeks put forward the “founding fathers” who laid the foundation for their modern forms. First of all, this concerns philosophy . The Greeks were the first to create the modern form of philosophy, separating it from religion and mythology. First Greek philosopher became Thales. The pinnacles of Greek philosophy were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

The same can be said about other sciences and, first of all, about mathematician e. Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes are the founders of both mathematics itself and the basic mathematical disciplines - geometry, mechanics, optics, hydrostatics. IN astronomy Aristarchus of Samos was the first to propose the idea of ​​heliocentrism, according to which the Earth moves around the stationary Sun. Hippocrates became the founder of modern clinical medicine. Herodotus is rightfully considered the father stories like science. Aristotle's "Poetics" is the first fundamental work that no modern art theorist can ignore.

Almost all types and genres of contemporary art were born in Ancient Hellas, and many of them - sculpture, literature and others - reached classical forms and the highest level. Order architecture was born in Greece. In religion The ancient Greeks showed exceptional originality. Initially, the growing multitude of Greek gods was quite chaotic and conflicting. Then the third generation of Olympian gods are established, between whom a relatively stable hierarchy is established. Greek mythology has a special uniqueness. Along with the gods, a significant place in myths is occupied by the deeds and exploits of “god-like heroes”, who are often the main characters in the narrated events. In Greek mythology there is practically no mysticism; mysterious, supernatural forces are not of too much importance. The main thing in it is artistic imagery and poetry, a playful beginning. Greek mythology is much closer to art than to religion. That is why it formed the foundation of great Greek art. For the same reason, Hegel called the Greek religion “the religion of beauty.” In the evolution of the culture of Ancient Greece, five periods are usually distinguished: Aegean culture (2800 - 1100 BC); Homeric period (XI - IX centuries BC); period of archaic culture (VIII - VI centuries BC); classical period (V - IV centuries BC); Hellenistic era (323 - 146 BC). Aegean culture often called Crete-Mycenaean, considering the islands of Crete and Mycenae as its main centers. It is also called the Minoan culture - named after the legendary king Minos, under whom the island of Crete, which occupied a leading position in the region, reached its greatest power.

At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the Peloponnese and the island of Crete, early class societies took shape and the first centers of statehood arose. This process proceeded somewhat faster on the island of Crete, where by the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The first four states appeared with palace centers in Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia and Kato Zakro. Given the special role of palaces, the civilization that emerged is sometimes called “palace.”

Economic basis of Cretan civilization consisted of agriculture, in which, first of all, bread, grapes and olives were grown. Cattle breeding also played an important role. Crafts, especially bronze smelting, reached a high level. Ceramic production also developed successfully. The most famous monument of Cretan culture became the Knossos Palace, which went down in history under the name “Labyrinth,” of which only the first floor has survived. The palace was a grandiose multi-storey building with 3,000 rooms on a common platform that occupied more than 1 hectare. It was equipped with an excellent water supply and sewerage system and had terracotta baths. The palace was at the same time a religious, administrative and commercial center; it housed craft workshops. The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur is associated with it.

Reached a high level in Crete sculpture small forms. In the cache of the Knossos Palace, figurines of goddesses with snakes in their hands were found. The best achievement of Cretan art is painting, as evidenced by the surviving fragments of palace paintings. As an example, we can point to such bright, colorful and rich drawings as “Flower Gatherer”, “Cat Watching a Pheasant”, “Playing with a Bull”.

Part of the Aegean culture and civilization that originated in the southern Balkans was close to the Cretan one. It also rested on the palace centers that developed in Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens, Pylos, Thebes. However, these palaces were noticeably different from the Cretan ones: they were powerful citadel-fortresses, surrounded by high (more than 7 meters) and thick (more than 4.5 meters) walls.

Period XI-9th centuries BC e. in the history of Greece it is customary to call it Homeric, since the main sources of information about him are famous poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". It is also called "Dorian", referring to the special role of the Dorian tribes in the conquest of Achaean Greece. Information from Homer's poems turned out to be mixed narratives about three different eras(Achaean, Dorian period and about the early archaic era). Nevertheless, based on the content of Homer's poems and archaeological excavations, we can assume that from the point of view of civilization and material culture, the Dorian period meant a well-known discontinuity between eras and even a rollback.

Some elements of the already achieved level of civilization were lost: statehood; urban or palace way of life; writing

These elements of Greek civilization were actually being born anew.

At the same time, the accelerated development of the civilized beginning contributed to the emergence and widespread use of iron.

Archaic period (VIII-6th century BC e.) became a time of rapid and intensive development of Ancient Greece, during which all the necessary conditions and the prerequisites for the subsequent amazing takeoff and flourishing. Profound changes are taking place in almost every area of ​​life. Over the course of three centuries, ancient society made a transition from village to city, from tribal and patriarchal relations to relations of classical slavery.

The city-state, the Greek polis, becomes the main form of socio-political organization of public life. Society seems to be trying all possible forms government structure and government - monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, aristocratic and democratic republics.

Intensive development of agriculture leads to the release of people, which contributes to the growth of crafts. Since this does not solve the “employment problem,” the colonization of near and far territories, which began in the Achaean period, is intensifying, as a result of which Greece is growing geographically to an impressive size. Economic progress promotes market expansion and trade was developing system monetary circulation. Started coinage coins speeds up these processes, and the creation alphabetic letter, which made it possible to create an extremely effective education system. During the archaic period, the basic ethical norms and values ​​of ancient society were formed, in which the established sense of collectivism was combined with an agonistic (competitive) principle, with the affirmation of the rights of the individual and personality, and the spirit of freedom. Patriotism and citizenship occupy a special place. During this period, the ideal of a person is also born, in which the spirit and body are in harmony. This ideal was most fully realized in 776 BC. e. V Olympic Games. In the archaic era, such phenomena of ancient culture as philosophy And the science. Their founders were Thales and Pythagoras.

At this time it develops architecture, resting on two types of order - Doric and Ionic. The leading type of construction is the sacred temple as the abode of God. The temple of Apollo in Delphi becomes the most famous and revered. There is also monumental sculpture - first wooden, and then stone.

Poetry is experiencing a real flourishing in this era. The greatest monuments of ancient literature were Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", "Theogony" and Hesiod's "Catalogue of Women".

Among other poets, the work of Archilochus deserves special mention as the founder lyric poetry, Sappho's lyrics, Anacreon's work. During the classical period (5th – 4th centuries BC) is established and fully reveals all its amazing capabilities antique policy, which contains the main explanation "Greek miracle" Democracy also reaches its highest blossoming, which it owes, first of all, to Pericles, the outstanding politician antiquities.

Greece is experiencing rapid economic development, which further intensifies after the victory over the Persians. Agriculture continued to be the basis of the economy. Along with it, crafts are intensively developing - especially metal smelting. Commodity production, particularly of grapes and olives, is growing rapidly, and as a consequence there is a rapid expansion of exchange and trade. Athens is becoming a major trading center not only within Greece, but throughout the Mediterranean. Egypt, Carthage, Crete, Syria, and Phenicia trade briskly with Athens. Construction is underway on a large scale.

Reaches the highest level philosophy. So, Socrates was the first to focus attention not on questions of knowledge of nature, but on the problems of human life, problems of good, evil and justice, problems of man’s knowledge of himself. He also stood at the origins of one of the main directions of all subsequent philosophy - rationalism, the actual creator of which was Plato. For the latter, rationalism fully becomes an abstract theoretical way of thinking and extends to all spheres of existence. Aristotle b continued the line of Plato and at the same time became the founder of the second main direction of philosophy - empiricism, according to which the actual source of knowledge is sensory experience, directly observed data.

Other sciences are developing successfully: mathematics, medicine, history.

Athens Acropolis, built by architects Iktin And Kalikrat, became a true triumph of ancient Greek architecture. This ensemble included the front gate - the Propylaea, the temple of Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory), the Erechtheion and the main temple of Athens, the Parthenon - the temple of Athena Parthenos (Virgin Athena).

Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the tomb of Mausolus, the ruler of Caria, which later received the name "Mausoleum in Halicarnassus" classified as one of the seven wonders of the world.

Reaches the highest perfection Greek sculpture. Antique sculpture represents a whole galaxy of brilliant masters. The greatest among them is Phidias. His statue of Zeus, which was 14 m high and adorned Zeus at Olympia, is also one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Among other sculptors, the most famous are Pythagoras of Rhegium, Myron, Polykleitos. Late classics are represented by sculptors Praxiteles, Scopas, Lysippos.

The main literary event is the birth and flourishing of the Greek tragedy and theater. The father of tragedy was Aeschylus ("Chained Prometheus") In creativity Sophocles (“Oedipus the King”) Greek tragedy reaches the classical level. The third great tragedian was Euripides (Medea).

Along with the tragedy, it is developing successfully comedy, the “father” of which is Aristophanes. His comedies were accessible to ordinary people and enjoyed great popularity. During the Hellenistic period (323-146 BC e.) the high level of Hellenic culture as a whole is preserved. At the same time, the expansion of Hellenic culture takes place on the territory of many eastern states that arose after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great, where it unites with eastern cultures. It is this synthesis of Greek and Eastern cultures that forms what is called Hellenistic culture. Her education was influenced primarily by the Greek way of life and the Greek educational system. It is noteworthy that the process of spreading Greek culture continued even after Greece became dependent on Rome (146 BC). Politically, Rome conquered Greece, but Greek culture conquered Rome. In science still occupies a leading position mathematics, where such great minds as Euclid And Archimedes. Astronomy, medicine, and geography have also made significant progress. In architecture Along with traditional sacred temples, civil public buildings were widely built - palaces, theaters, libraries, gymnasiums, etc. In particular, the famous library was built in Alexandria, where about 799 thousand scrolls were stored. The Museyon was also built there, which became the largest center of science and art of antiquity. Among other architectural structures, the 120 m high Alexandria Lighthouse, included among the Seven Wonders of the World, deserves mention. Its author was the architect Sostratus. Sculpture also continues the classical traditions, although new features appear in it: the internal tension, dynamics, drama and tragedy. Monumental sculpture sometimes takes on grandiose proportions. Such, in particular, was the statue of the sun god Helios, created by the sculptor Jerez and known as the Colossus of Rhodes. The statue is also one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It had a height of 36 m, stood on the shore of the harbor of Fr. Rhodes, but crashed during an earthquake. This is where the expression “colossus with feet of clay” comes from. Famous masterpieces are Aphrodite (Venus) of Milo and Nike of Samothrace, Apollo Belvedere.

In 146 BC. e. Ancient Hellas ceased to exist, but ancient Greek culture still exists today.

The Middle Ages in the history of Western Europe are usually divided into the following stages: Early (V - IX centuries); Mature or classic (X - XIII centuries); Late (XIV - XVI centuries). From the point of view of socio-economic relations, this period corresponds to feudalism.

Until recently, the Middle Ages were often perceived as something dark and gloomy, filled with violence and cruelty, bloody wars and passions. It was associated with a certain savagery and backwardness, stagnation or failure in history, with a complete absence of anything bright and joyful. Moreover, the creation image « dark Middle Ages“Representatives of both this era and the Renaissance contributed greatly.

The emergence of a new, Western world was due to: the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (5th century); the great migration of peoples, or the invasion of barbarian tribes - Goths, Franks, Alemanni, etc.

From the 4th to the 9th centuries there was a transition from the “Roman world” to the “Christian world”, with which arose Western Europe.

The Western, "Christian world" was born in the process of merging the Roman and barbarian worlds, although it was accompanied by serious costs - destruction, violence and cruelty, the loss of many important achievements of ancient culture and civilization.

In social development The main positive change was the abolition of slavery, which eliminated the unnatural situation in which a huge part of people were legally and actually excluded from the category of people.

The Middle Ages opened up scope for the widespread use of machines and technical inventions. This was a direct consequence of the abolition of slavery. Already in the 4th century, water energy began to be used through the use of a water wheel, and in the 12th century a windmill using wind energy appeared. Christianity, proclaiming the unconditional primacy of the spiritual over the physical, placing emphasis on the inner world of man, did a lot for the formation of a person’s deep spirituality and his moral elevation.

The basic moral values ​​of Christianity are Faith, Hope and Love. They are closely related to each other and transform into one another. However, the main one among them is Love, which means, first of all, a spiritual connection and love for God and which is opposed to physical and carnal love, declared sinful and base. At the same time, Christian love extends to all “neighbors,” including those who not only do not reciprocate, but also show hatred and hostility. Christ urges: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you and persecute you.”

Love for God makes faith in Him natural, easy and simple, not requiring any effort. Faith means a special state of mind that does not require any evidence, arguments or facts. Such faith, in turn, easily and naturally turns into love for God. Hope in Christianity means the idea of ​​salvation.

Those who strictly follow the commandments of Christ will be awarded salvation. Among 9 commandments: suppression of pride and greed, which are the main sources of evil; repentance for sins committed; humility; patience; non-resistance to evil; demands not to kill; do not take someone else's; do not commit adultery; to honor parents, and many other moral norms and laws, the observance of which gives hope for salvation from the torments of hell.

One of the important features of medieval culture is precisely the emergence in it of quite certain subcultures caused by the strict division of society into three classes: clergy; feudal aristocracy; third estate;

Clergy was considered the highest class, it was divided into white - the priesthood - and black - monasticism. He was in charge of “heavenly matters”, caring for faith and spiritual life. It was precisely this, especially monasticism, that most fully embodied Christian ideals and values. However, it was also far from unity, as evidenced by the differences in the understanding of Christianity between the orders that existed in monasticism.

The second most important layer was the aristocracy, acting mainly in the form chivalry. The aristocracy was in charge of “earthly affairs,” and, above all, state tasks to preserve and strengthen peace, protect the people from oppression, maintain the faith and the Church, etc.

Like the monastic Mordens, in the Middle Ages there were knightly orders. One of the main tasks facing them was the struggle for faith, which more than once took the form of crusades. Knights also carried out other duties, to one degree or another related to faith.

However, a significant part of knightly ideals, norms and values ​​were secular in nature. For a knight, such virtues as strength, courage, generosity and nobility were considered mandatory. He had to strive for glory by doing things for the sake of it. feats of arms or achieving success in knightly tournaments. He was also required to have external physical beauty, which was at odds with the Christian disdain for the body. The main knightly virtues were honor, fidelity to duty and noble love for the Beautiful Lady. During the early Middle Ages The leading position is occupied by the art of the Franks, since the Frankish state occupied almost the entire territory of Europe during this period. The art of the 5th - 8th centuries is often called Merovingian art, since the Merovingian dynasty was in power at that time.

By its nature, this art was still barbaric, pre-Christian, for elements of paganism and idolatry clearly predominated in it.

The greatest development during this period is received by: applied arts, associated with the manufacture of clothing, weapons, horse harnesses and other products decorated with buckles, pendants, patterns and ornaments; miniature– book illustration.

The art of the early Middle Ages flourished reaches under the Carolingians (VIII - IX centuries), which replaced the Merovingian dynasty, and especially under Charlemagne, the legendary hero of the epic poem “The Song of Roland”.

During this period, medieval art actively turned to the ancient heritage, consistently overcoming the barbaric character. That's why this time is sometimes called "Carolingian Revival". Charlemagne played a special role in this process. He created a real cultural and educational center at his court, calling it Academy, surrounded himself with outstanding scientists, philosophers, poets and artists, with whom he mastered and developed science and art. Karl contributed in every possible way to the restoration of strong ties with ancient culture. The monument of this period is the Cathedral of Charlemagne in Aachen.

The beginning of the mature period of the Middle Ages– The 10th century turned out to be extremely difficult and difficult, which was caused by the invasions of the Hungarians, Saracens and especially the Normans. However, by the end of the 10th century, the situation was gradually returning to normal, and revival and recovery were observed in all spheres of life, including art. In the 11th - 12th centuries the role of monasteries, which become the main centers of culture. It is under them that schools, libraries and book workshops are created. In general, the stage of the new rise of art received the conventional name "Romanesque period". It falls in the 11th – 12th centuries, although in Italy and Germany the 13th century also takes over, and in France in the second half of the 12th century Gothic already reigns supreme. In this period architecture finally becoming the leading form of art - with a clear predominance of religious, church and temple buildings. It develops on the basis of the achievements of the Carolingians, being influenced by ancient and Byzantine architecture. The main type of building is the increasingly complex basilica.

The essence of the Romanesque style– geometricism, the dominance of vertical and horizontal lines, the simplest geometric figures in the presence of large planes. Arches are widely used in buildings, and windows and doors are made narrow. The Romanesque style is most widespread in France (Church in Cluny (XI century), Church of Notre Dame du Port in Clermont-Ferrand (XII century)). Secular architecture of the Romanesque style is clearly inferior to church architecture. Its forms are too simple, there are almost no decorative decorations (Chateau Gaitard castle on the Seine (12th century)). In Italy – The Church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, as well as the cathedral ensemble in Pisa (XII - XIV centuries). It includes a grandiose five-nave basilica with a flat roof, the famous "Falling tower", as well as a baptistery intended for baptisms.

In Germany Romanesque architecture develops under the influence of French and Italian. Its peak flourished in the 12th century. The most remarkable cathedrals were concentrated in the cities of the Middle Rhine: Worms, Mainz and Schreyer. Despite all the differences, there is a lot in their appearance common features. This is their upward thrust, which is created by the tall towers located on the western and eastern sides. The cathedral in Worms stands out in particular. TO beginning of XIII century, the Romanesque period gives way to the Gothic period. The term “Gothic” is also conventional. It arose during the Renaissance and expressed a rather contemptuous attitude towards Gothic as the culture and art of the Goths, that is, barbarians. In the 13th century, the city, and with it the entire culture of the urban burghers, began to play a decisive role in the life of medieval society. Scientific and creative activity moves from monasteries to secular workshops and universities. Two important features emerge in art: the increasing role of rationalistic elements; strengthening of realistic tendencies.

These features were most clearly manifested in the architecture of the Gothic style.

Gothic architecture represents an organic unity of two components - design and decor. The essence of Gothic design consists of creating a special frame, or skeleton, that ensures the strength and stability of the building, which depends on the correct distribution of gravity forces.

Gothic design includes three main elements: vault on ribs (arches) of pointed shape; a system of so-called flying buttresses (half-arches); powerful buttresses. The originality of the external forms of the Gothic structure lies in the use of towers with pointed spiers. As for decoration, it took a variety of forms. Colored stained glass windows evoke an exciting play of colored light in the interior of Gothic cathedrals. Gothic buildings were decorated with sculptures, reliefs, abstract geometric patterns, and floral patterns. To this should be added the skillful church utensils of the cathedral, beautiful items of applied art donated by wealthy townspeople. Album page 33. The cradle of Gothic was France. Notre Dame Cathedral (XII - XIII centuries) became a true masterpiece early gothic. The church of Saint Chapelle, the cathedrals of Amiens and Reims (all XIII centuries) deserve special mention. IN Germany Gothic style became widespread under the influence of France. One of the most famous monuments here is the cathedral in Cologne (XIII - XV, XIX centuries). English Gothic also largely continues French models. Here, the recognized masterpieces are Westminster Abbey (XIII - XVI centuries), the chapel of King's College in Cambridge (XV - XVI centuries).