Spanish Renaissance Art. Renaissance in Spain

General characteristics of the Spanish Renaissance.

The literature of the Renaissance in Spain is distinguished by its great originality, which is explained in the peculiarities of the historical development of Spain. Already in the second half of the XV century. here we see the rise of the bourgeoisie, the growth of industry and foreign trade, the birth of capitalist relations and the loosening of feudal institutions and the feudal worldview. The latter was especially undermined by the humanistic ideas that penetrated from the most advanced country of that time - Italy. However, in Spain this process proceeded in a very peculiar way, in comparison with other countries, due to two circumstances that were specific to the history of Spain of that era.

The first of them is connected with the conditions in which the reconquista proceeded. The fact that individual regions of Spain were conquered separately, at different times and under different conditions, led to the fact that in each of them special laws, customs and local customs were developed. The peasantry and the cities based on the conquered lands in different places received different rights and liberties. The heterogeneous local rights and liberties tenaciously held on to by various regions and cities were the cause of constant conflicts between them and the royal power. It often even happened that the cities united against it with the feudal lords. Therefore, by the end of the early Middle Ages in Spain, such a close alliance was not established between the royal power and the cities against large feudal lords.

Another feature of the historical development of Spain in the XVI century. is as follows. The result of the extraordinary influx of gold from America was a sharp rise in the price of all products - a "price revolution" that affected all European countries, but manifested itself with particular force in Spain. Since it became more profitable to buy foreign products, the Spanish industry of the second half of the 16th century. greatly reduced. Agriculture also fell into decline - partly for the same reason, partly as a result of the massive ruin of the peasants and the impoverishment of a huge number of small noble farmers who could not stand the competition with large landowners who enjoyed various privileges.

All the features of the history of Spain determine the general character of its literature in the 16th - 17th centuries. The literature of the Spanish Renaissance is clearly divided into two periods: 1). Early Renaissance (1475 - 1550) and 2). Mature Renaissance (1550 - the first decades of the 17th century).

At the beginning of this period in Spain, as in most other countries, the emergence of that new, critical and realistic approach to reality, which is characteristic of the Renaissance worldview, is observed. Spain has a number of outstanding scientists and thinkers who overturned old prejudices and paved the way for modern scientific knowledge.

There are printing houses, intensively translated Roman and Greek writers. The university founded in 1508 in Alcala de Henares becomes the center of the humanist movement. Nevertheless, humanistic ideas did not receive their full philosophical development in Spain. Encountering the most hostile attitude towards themselves at court and among the aristocracy, finding no support from the bourgeoisie, they were muted by the Catholic reaction.

Humanistic ideas in Spanish Renaissance literature find expression almost exclusively in poetic imagery, and not in theoretical writings. For the same reason, the influence of ancient and Italian designs was on the whole much less significant in Spain than, for example, in France or England. In the same way, the cult of form is less characteristic of the Spanish literature of the Renaissance. She is characterized by masculinity, severity, sobriety, great concreteness of images and expressions, dating back to the medieval Spanish tradition. In all these respects, the Spanish literature of the Renaissance has a peculiar, specifically national character.

The religious influences of the era are clearly reflected in this literature. The ideology and practice of Catholicism left a strong imprint both on the life of the people and on the life of the privileged classes.

Nowhere in the literature of the XVI - XVII century. religious themes do not occupy such a prominent place as in Spain. We find here extremely different "mystical" literature - religious poems and lyrics ( Louis de Leon, San Juan de la Cruz), descriptions of "miraculous conversions", ecstasies and visions ( Teresa de Jesus), theological treatises and sermons ( Luisde Granada). Greatest playwrights Lope de Vega, Calderon) along with secular plays, they write religious plays, dramatized legends and the lives of saints, or "sacred actions", which had the theme of glorifying the sacrament of "communion". But even in secular plays, religious and philosophical themes often appear ( "Seville mischievous" Tirso de Molina, The Steadfast Prince Calderon).

With all the painful character that the development of Spain bore, the people showed the maximum of national energy. He showed great inquisitiveness of mind, determination and courage in overcoming obstacles. The broad prospects that opened up before the people of that time, the scope of political and military enterprises, the abundance of new impressions and opportunities for various vigorous activities - all this was reflected in the Spanish literature of the 16th - 17th centuries, which is characterized by great dynamics, passion and rich imagination.

Thanks to these qualities, the Spanish literature of the "golden age" (as the period from about the second third of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century is called) occupies one of the first places among the national literatures of the Renaissance. Brilliantly showing itself in all genres, Spanish literature has given especially high standards in the novel and drama, i.e. in those literary forms in which the traits typical of the then Spain could be most fully expressed - the ardor of feelings, energy and movement.

Creation of a national Spanish drama.

In Spain and Portugal, as well as in other countries, there was a medieval theater - partly religious (mysteries and miracles), partly completely secular, comic (farces). The medieval religious theater in Spain, due to the enormous role that the Catholic Church played in the life of the country, was extremely stable - it not only did not disappear during the Renaissance, as happened in Italy and France, but continued to develop intensively throughout the 16th and even 17th centuries. .; moreover, plays of this kind were written by the largest playwrights of the era. During these centuries, the genres of folk comic theater, also cultivated by great masters, remained just as popular.

However, along with these old dramatic genres, by the middle of the 16th century. in Spain, a new, Renaissance system of dramaturgy is being developed, which also influences the interpretation of the above-mentioned old genres by Renaissance writers. This new dramaturgical system originated from the collision of two principles in the theater of the medieval folk or semi-folk tradition and the scientific-humanistic trends that came from Italy or directly from antiquity, but mostly also through Italian mediation. At first, the two types of dramaturgy, expressing these two tendencies, develop in parallel, apart from one another or entering into struggle with each other, but very soon an interaction begins between them, and in the end they merge into a single dramatic system. In this system of the national drama of the Renaissance, the pinnacle of which should be recognized as the work of Lope de Vega, the main element is still the folk principle, although Italian and ancient influences, originally mastered, played a significant role in its formation. The latter was facilitated by the appearance in the XVI century. Spanish translations of Plautus and Terence.

The development of the Renaissance in the architecture and fine arts of Spain proceeded slowly. In the XV - early XVI century. transitional forms from the Gothic to the Renaissance still dominated here, but an important qualitative change was already brewing.

At the beginning of the XVI century. Architecture was of paramount importance in Spanish culture. spanish style plateresque(Spanish platero - jewelry) implied a subtle decorative design of buildings. The influence of Renaissance innovations was reflected mainly in the composition of the facades, without affecting the overall construction of buildings, which still relied on Gothic traditions.

The fusion of the medieval architectural system with new trends was so organic that the buildings, combining the features of the two styles, gave the impression of a single holistic organism. Order elements, which acted as the organizing beginning of the composition, were also interpreted from the point of view of decorativeness. Thus, the classical forms were subordinated to the creation of a picturesque external appearance of the building.

After a long Moorish period, the Spanish king Carlos V decided to return the status of the patronal city of the Christian state to Granada. It was here, in Andalusia, that the achievements of the Renaissance began to be perceived and implemented more actively than anywhere else outside of Italy. This was largely facilitated by the establishment of a kind of axis Seville - Granada. The first became the world center of trade with America, and the second became a symbol of the age-old struggle against Islam.

Since the time of the architect Alberti, the design of the palace, which was based on a square with a circle inscribed in it, was the ideal of Renaissance architects. According to this model, the palace was built in Alhambra(beginning of the 16th century). The round courtyard with a two-tiered colonnade of Doric and Ionic orders was spacious and bright. The interiors of the palace were distinguished by the geometric accuracy of volumes and rigor; Doric and Tuscan orders were used to decorate them. A kind of long bench of large stone blocks was built around the entire palace. Two floors rose majestically above it. The first one was made of rough rusticated blocks in the style of the most ancient traditions of Italy. Many Ionic semi-columns decorated the second floor, giving it lightness and decorativeness. Rectangular window openings alternated with round windows on both floors to avoid monotony. This did not violate the general straightforwardness of the composition, characteristic of the Renaissance. The composition was enlivened by sculptural decor.

The most significant building of the Spanish Renaissance is Escorial, built in the second half of the 16th century. commissioned by Philip II. Escorial includes a monastery, a seminary, a library, a hospital, royal palaces and the tomb of kings. All numerous buildings of the ensemble are distinguished by strict monumentality. This huge building was rectangular in plan. The ensemble's four powerful corner towers and the large domed St. Lawrence Cathedral, reminiscent of St. Peter's, are typical of Spanish architecture of the 16th century. The strict style of buildings was associated both with the hardness of the local material - gray granite, and with the desire of Philip II to build a palace-fortress, symbolizing the invincibility of the king's power.

The majestic Cathedral of St. Lawrence is the center of the composition of the architectural ensemble. The central two-tiered portal of the cathedral is crowned with a high pediment. Quadrangular towers are located at the corners of the facade. The interior of the cathedral, characterized by exquisite simplicity, is dominated by elements of the Doric order. The frescoes on the vaults were made by Italian court artists. Large smooth niches near the altar are decorated with bronze statues.

In the middle of the rectangular entrance "Court of the Kings" there is a well, which looks like a small temple with slender columns, statues in niches, an elegant balustrade running along the cornice. Large quadrangular pools adjoin it on four sides.

Along with the grandiose size, Escorial is characterized by strict proportionality and unity of all parts, a common volumetric and spatial composition. The architectural design of the facades was one of the most daring innovations in Spanish architecture. The southern facade is especially attractive. The original idea in its design was the underlined laconicism of the smooth plane of the wall. Horizontal rods and closely spaced windows are subject to a single severe rhythm. Along the facade there are pools, also having a rectangular shape. The area in front of the monastery is lined with stone slabs.

In terms of grandeur and compositional solution, El Escorial has no equal among European architectural monuments of the 16th century. Elements of baroque and even classicism were born in its architecture.

The heyday of painting in Spain began with the arrival there in 1576 of Domenico Theotocopuli, nicknamed El Greco(1541 – 1614), because he was of Greek origin.

The tragedy of El Greco's images, their special expressiveness reflected the spirit of his contemporary life - an acute crisis of humanistic ideals that began in Europe in the second half of the 16th century. His paintings, permeated with a sense of loneliness, confusion and anxiety, were an expression of the discord of the individual with society.

The origins of El Greco's painting are manifold. These are the traditions of icon painting and mosaic art of Byzantium, the realism of Spanish art of the 16th century, the work of Venetian colorists, Italian mannerism. El Greco painted mainly on religious subjects. His compositions are built on arbitrarily shifting plans, bold angles, contrasts of light and shadow, conveying a feeling of excitement. The uneven contours of trees, rocks, clouds correspond to the dynamic, highly elongated figures of people rushing up. The low horizon exalts them. The whole world is perceived as a constantly changing raging element, with which a person is unable to cope.

El Greco is the greatest master of color. He used a blue-grey-steel tone, bright cinnabar, lemon yellow, emerald green, blue, pale pink-purple in a variety of shades. Color for El Greco is a way to create an emotional atmosphere, to convey the confusion of feelings. Contrasting cold and warm colors seem to be in a state of intense struggle. Long, restless strokes reflect a nervous rhythm, an anxious state. The scenes are illuminated by a mysterious cold light.

The most significant work of El Greco's heyday "The Burial of Count Orgas"(1586 - 1588) reveals the main features of the artist's art, his reflections on the inevitability of death, on the meaning of life (see color incl.). The plot is based on a medieval legend about the Castilian Count Orgaz, known for his good deeds. During the funeral of the count, a miracle happened: Saints Augustine and Stephen descended from heaven and buried the deceased themselves.

At the bottom of the composition, in twilight night illumination, a solemn funeral ceremony is depicted. People of different ages and characters gathered to see Count Orgaz on his last journey. These are acutely psychological portraits of Toledo people. They are the embodiment of spiritual beauty: on their strict, closed, pale faces one can read the strength of feelings, the subtlety of the mind, self-absorption, pride, inflexibility. The dark silhouettes are solemnly motionless, constrained, but the restrained gestures of the hands betray a hidden excitement. All people are united by deep sorrow at the thought of death.

The yellow flame of the torches illuminates the priest's white clothes, makes the count's silver armor sparkle, creates a mysterious atmosphere. The color forms a solemnly gloomy mourning harmony. At the same time, the golden robes of the saints are especially good, which stand out brightly against the background of the dark robes of the other participants in the ceremony.

The upper part of the composition represents the divine world. Here everything is in motion. In heaven, Christ with a host of saints receives the soul of Orgaz. The celestial sphere, shining with cold light and light colors, is in composition opposite to the burial scene with its intense harmony of black, gray, and white.

The elongated figures are ethereal and subject to the stormy rhythm of lines and color spots. They are echoed by the rhythms of fluttering folds of clothes and clouds. The entire composition unfolds within the foreground. The space is saturated with figures, which enhances its emotional density.

The image of saints is a significant part of the creative heritage of El Greco. In images apostles Peter and Paul(1614) contrasted different types of spirituality. On the left is a pensive Peter with thin, emaciated features. The light golden coloring in which his figure is painted corresponds to the mood of sadness and uncertainty. The imperiously imperious Pavel is strict and restrained. The flaming color of the dark red cloak emphasizes his character. Hand gestures express the emotional content of the dialogue of the apostles.

The spiritual world of man, which has always been in the center of attention of El Greco, he revealed in the formation, variability, far ahead of his time. The subtle insight of the artist manifested itself in wonderful portraits, vigilantly grasping the signs of appearance and features of the spiritual appearance of people. El Greco painted portraits of touching children, stern warriors, refined poets, writers, scientists, arrogant cardinals, people from the people. Compared with the stiffness of Spanish court portraits of the 16th century. and the idealization of the Renaissance portraits in the images of El Greco is more personal, subjectively pointed, the artist's attitude to the model is felt. Behind the external static figures and the impassivity of the faces of the portrayed, one can feel a tense inner life.

In the famous landscape Toledo in a thunderstorm(1610-1614) expressed the feeling of the power of cosmic forces over man, which is created by silver-white flashes of lightning above the city buildings stretched upward. El Greco painted many views of Toledo, as he lived in this city for a long time and loved it very much.

The work of El Greco contributed to the development of psychologism in Spanish painting. The construction of composition and space, coloring and images sharply distinguish the works of El Greco from the works of other Spanish artists.

The discoveries made during the Renaissance in the field of spiritual culture and art were of great importance for the development of European art in subsequent centuries. Interest in them continues to this day.

Questions and tasks

1) Which of the arts played a leading role in the Renaissance? Why?

2) Give a brief description of the periods of the Italian Renaissance.

3) What new things did Giotto bring to the painting of the Proto-Renaissance?

4. What are the main features of early Renaissance painting?

5) Briefly describe the work of the titans of the High Renaissance.

6) Tell us about the masterpieces of art by Leonardo da Vinci.

7) Analyze how Michelangelo's creative principles changed throughout his life.

8) What was the main thing in Raphael's painting?

9) Compare the expressive features of painting by Raphael and Botticelli. What achievements of antiquity were used by Renaissance architects?

10) Tell us about the architectural masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. What achievements of Antiquity were used by Renaissance architects?

11) Briefly tell about the work of the artists of the Northern Renaissance.

12) What is the difference between the painting of J. Van Eyck and the works of Florentine artists?

13) Describe the work of A. Dürer.

14) What were the distinctive features of the Spanish Renaissance?

15) Tell us about the work of El Greco. What distinguishes him from the painting of other Spanish artists?

16) What Renaissance work makes the greatest impression on you? Explain your choice.

Renaissance (Renaissance). Italy. XV-XVI centuries. early capitalism. The country is ruled by wealthy bankers. They are interested in art and science.

The rich and powerful gather the talented and wise around them. Poets, philosophers, painters and sculptors have daily conversations with their patrons. At some point, it seemed that the people were ruled by sages, as Plato wanted.

Remember the ancient Romans and Greeks. They also built a society of free citizens, where the main value is a person (not counting slaves, of course).

The Renaissance is not just copying the art of ancient civilizations. This is a mixture. Mythology and Christianity. Realism of nature and sincerity of images. Beauty physical and spiritual.

It was just a flash. The period of the High Renaissance is about 30 years! From the 1490s to 1527 From the beginning of the flowering of Leonardo's creativity. Before the sack of Rome.

The mirage of an ideal world quickly faded. Italy was too fragile. She was soon enslaved by another dictator.

However, these 30 years determined the main features of European painting for 500 years ahead! Up to .

Image realism. Anthropocentrism (when the center of the world is Man). Linear perspective. Oil paints. Portrait. Landscape…

Incredibly, in these 30 years, several brilliant masters worked at once. At other times they are born one in 1000 years.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian are the titans of the Renaissance. But it is impossible not to mention their two predecessors: Giotto and Masaccio. Without which there would be no Renaissance.

1. Giotto (1267-1337)

Paolo Uccello. Giotto da Bondogni. Fragment of the painting “Five Masters of the Florentine Renaissance”. Beginning of the 16th century. .

XIV century. Proto-Renaissance. Its main character is Giotto. This is a master who single-handedly revolutionized art. 200 years before the High Renaissance. If not for him, the era that humanity is so proud of would hardly have come.

Before Giotto there were icons and frescoes. They were created according to the Byzantine canons. Faces instead of faces. flat figures. Proportional mismatch. Instead of a landscape - a golden background. As, for example, on this icon.

Guido da Siena. Adoration of the Magi. 1275-1280 Altenburg, Lindenau Museum, Germany.

And suddenly Giotto's frescoes appear. They have big figures. Faces of noble people. Old and young. Sad. Mournful. Surprised. Various.

Frescoes by Giotto in the Scrovegni Church in Padua (1302-1305). Left: Lamentation of Christ. Middle: Kiss of Judas (detail). Right: Annunciation of St. Anne (Mary's mother), fragment.

The main creation of Giotto is a cycle of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. When this church opened to parishioners, crowds of people poured into it. They have never seen this.

After all, Giotto did something unprecedented. He translated the biblical stories into a simple, understandable language. And they have become much more accessible to ordinary people.

Giotto. Adoration of the Magi. 1303-1305 Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.

This is what will be characteristic of many masters of the Renaissance. Laconism of images. Live emotions of the characters. Realism.

Read more about the frescoes of the master in the article.

Giotto was admired. But his innovation was not further developed. The fashion for international gothic came to Italy.

Only after 100 years will a worthy successor to Giotto appear.

2. Masaccio (1401-1428)

Masaccio. Self-portrait (fragment of the fresco “Saint Peter in the pulpit”). 1425-1427 The Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

Beginning of the 15th century. The so-called Early Renaissance. Another innovator enters the scene.

Masaccio was the first artist to use linear perspective. It was designed by his friend, the architect Brunelleschi. Now the depicted world has become similar to the real one. Toy architecture is a thing of the past.

Masaccio. Saint Peter heals with his shadow. 1425-1427 The Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

He adopted the realism of Giotto. However, unlike his predecessor, he already knew anatomy well.

Instead of blocky characters, Giotto is beautifully built people. Just like the ancient Greeks.

Masaccio. Baptism of neophytes. 1426-1427 Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy.
Masaccio. Exile from Paradise. 1426-1427 Fresco in the Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy.

Masaccio lived a short life. He died, like his father, unexpectedly. At 27 years old.

However, he had many followers. Masters of the following generations went to the Brancacci Chapel to learn from his frescoes.

So the innovation of Masaccio was picked up by all the great artists of the High Renaissance.

3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. 1512 Royal Library in Turin, Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the titans of the Renaissance. He greatly influenced the development of painting.

It was da Vinci who raised the status of the artist himself. Thanks to him, representatives of this profession are no longer just artisans. These are the creators and aristocrats of the spirit.

Leonardo made a breakthrough primarily in portraiture.

He believed that nothing should distract from the main image. The eye should not wander from one detail to another. This is how his famous portraits appeared. Concise. Harmonious.

Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an ermine. 1489-1490 Chertoryski Museum, Krakow.

The main innovation of Leonardo is that he found a way to make images ... alive.

Before him, the characters in the portraits looked like mannequins. The lines were clear. All details are carefully drawn. A painted drawing could not possibly be alive.

Leonardo invented the sfumato method. He blurred the lines. Made the transition from light to shadow very soft. His characters seem to be covered in a barely perceptible haze. The characters came to life.

. 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris.

Sfumato will enter the active vocabulary of all the great artists of the future.

Often there is an opinion that Leonardo, of course, a genius, but did not know how to bring anything to the end. And he often didn't finish painting. And many of his projects remained on paper (by the way, in 24 volumes). In general, he was thrown into medicine, then into music. Even the art of serving at one time was fond of.

However, think for yourself. 19 paintings - and he is the greatest artist of all times and peoples. And someone is not even close to greatness, while writing 6,000 canvases in a lifetime. Obviously, who has a higher efficiency.

Read about the most famous painting of the master in the article.

4. Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Daniele da Volterra. Michelangelo (detail). 1544 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor. But he was a universal master. Like his other Renaissance colleagues. Therefore, his pictorial heritage is no less grandiose.

He is recognizable primarily by physically developed characters. He depicted a perfect man in whom physical beauty means spiritual beauty.

Therefore, all his characters are so muscular, hardy. Even women and old people.

Michelangelo. Fragments of the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican.

Often Michelangelo painted the character naked. And then I added clothes on top. To make the body as embossed as possible.

He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel alone. Although this is a few hundred figures! He didn't even let anyone rub the paint. Yes, he was unsociable. He had a tough and quarrelsome personality. But most of all, he was dissatisfied with ... himself.

Michelangelo. Fragment of the fresco "Creation of Adam". 1511 Sistine Chapel, Vatican.

Michelangelo lived a long life. Survived the decline of the Renaissance. For him it was a personal tragedy. His later works are full of sadness and sorrow.

In general, the creative path of Michelangelo is unique. His early works are the praise of the human hero. Free and courageous. In the best traditions of Ancient Greece. Like his David.

In the last years of life - these are tragic images. A deliberately rough-hewn stone. As if before us are monuments to the victims of fascism of the 20th century. Look at his "Pieta".

Sculptures by Michelangelo at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Left: David. 1504 Right: Pieta of Palestrina. 1555

How is this possible? One artist went through all the stages of art from the Renaissance to the 20th century in one lifetime. What will the next generations do? Go your own way. Knowing that the bar has been set very high.

5. Raphael (1483-1520)

. 1506 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Raphael has never been forgotten. His genius was always recognized: both during life and after death.

His characters are endowed with sensual, lyrical beauty. It is he who is rightfully considered the most beautiful female images ever created. External beauty reflects the spiritual beauty of the heroines. Their meekness. Their sacrifice.

Raphael. . 1513 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany.

The famous words “Beauty will save the world” Fyodor Dostoevsky said precisely about. It was his favorite picture.

However, sensual images are not the only strong point of Raphael. He thought very carefully about the composition of his paintings. He was an unsurpassed architect in painting. Moreover, he always found the simplest and most harmonious solution in the organization of space. It seems that it cannot be otherwise.

Raphael. Athens school. 1509-1511 Fresco in the rooms of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican.

Rafael lived only 37 years. He died suddenly. From caught colds and medical errors. But his legacy cannot be overestimated. Many artists idolized this master. And they multiplied his sensual images in thousands of their canvases..

Titian was an unsurpassed colorist. He also experimented a lot with composition. In general, he was a daring innovator.

For such a brilliance of talent, everyone loved him. Called "the king of painters and the painter of kings."

Speaking of Titian, I want to put an exclamation point after each sentence. After all, it was he who brought dynamics to painting. Pathos. Enthusiasm. Bright color. Shine of colors.

Titian. Ascension of Mary. 1515-1518 Church of Santa Maria Gloriosi dei Frari, Venice.

Towards the end of his life, he developed an unusual writing technique. The strokes are fast and thick. The paint was applied either with a brush or with fingers. From this - the images are even more alive, breathing. And the plots are even more dynamic and dramatic.

Titian. Tarquinius and Lucretia. 1571 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.

Doesn't this remind you of anything? Of course, it's a technique. And the technique of artists of the XIX century: Barbizon and. Titian, like Michelangelo, will go through 500 years of painting in one lifetime. That's why he's a genius.

Read about the famous masterpiece of the master in the article.

Renaissance artists are the owners of great knowledge. To leave such a legacy, it was necessary to study a lot. In the field of history, astrology, physics and so on.

Therefore, each of their images makes us think. Why is it shown? What is the encrypted message here?

They are almost never wrong. Because they thoroughly thought out their future work. They used all the baggage of their knowledge.

They were more than artists. They were philosophers. They explained the world to us through painting.

That is why they will always be deeply interesting to us.

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Renaissance in Spain

General characteristics of the Spanish Renaissance.

The literature of the Renaissance in Spain is distinguished by its great originality, which is explained in the peculiarities of the historical development of Spain. Already in the second half of the XV century. here we see the rise of the bourgeoisie, the growth of industry and foreign trade, the birth of capitalist relations and the loosening of feudal institutions and the feudal worldview. The latter was especially undermined by the humanistic ideas that penetrated from the most advanced country of that time - Italy. However, in Spain this process proceeded in a very peculiar way, in comparison with other countries, due to two circumstances that were specific to the history of Spain of that era.

The first of them is connected with the conditions in which the reconquista proceeded. The fact that individual regions of Spain were conquered separately, at different times and under different conditions, led to the fact that in each of them special laws, customs and local customs were developed. The peasantry and the cities based on the conquered lands in different places received different rights and liberties. The heterogeneous local rights and liberties tenaciously held on to by various regions and cities were the cause of constant conflicts between them and the royal power. It often even happened that the cities united against it with the feudal lords. Therefore, by the end of the early Middle Ages in Spain, such a close alliance was not established between the royal power and the cities against large feudal lords.

Another feature of the historical development of Spain in the XVI century. is as follows. The result of the extraordinary influx of gold from America was a sharp rise in the price of all products - "price revolution", which affected all European countries, but manifested itself with particular force in Spain. Since it became more profitable to buy foreign products, the Spanish industry of the second half of the 16th century. greatly reduced. Agriculture also fell into decline - partly for the same reason, partly as a result of the massive ruin of the peasants and the impoverishment of a huge number of small noble farmers who could not stand the competition with large landowners who enjoyed various privileges.

All the features of the history of Spain determine the general character of its literature in the 16th - 17th centuries. The literature of the Spanish Renaissance is clearly divided into two periods: 1). Early Renaissance (1475 - 1550) and 2). Mature Renaissance (1550 - the first decades of the 17th century).

At the beginning of this period in Spain, as in most other countries, the emergence of that new, critical and realistic approach to reality, which is characteristic of the Renaissance worldview, is observed. Spain has a number of outstanding scientists and thinkers who overturned old prejudices and paved the way for modern scientific knowledge.

There are printing houses, intensively translated Roman and Greek writers. The university founded in 1508 in Alcala de Henares becomes the center of the humanist movement. Nevertheless, humanistic ideas did not receive their full philosophical development in Spain. Encountering the most hostile attitude towards themselves at court and among the aristocracy, finding no support from the bourgeoisie, they were muted by the Catholic reaction.

Humanistic ideas in Spanish Renaissance literature find expression almost exclusively in poetic imagery, and not in theoretical writings. For the same reason, the influence of ancient and Italian designs was on the whole much less significant in Spain than, for example, in France or England. In the same way, the cult of form is less characteristic of the Spanish literature of the Renaissance. She is characterized by masculinity, severity, sobriety, great concreteness of images and expressions, dating back to the medieval Spanish tradition. In all these respects, the Spanish literature of the Renaissance has a peculiar, specifically national character.

The religious influences of the era are clearly reflected in this literature. The ideology and practice of Catholicism left a strong imprint both on the life of the people and on the life of the privileged classes.

Nowhere in the literature of the XVI - XVII century. religious themes do not occupy such a prominent place as in Spain. We find here extremely different "mystical" literature - religious poems and lyrics (Luis de Leon, San Juan de la Cruz), descriptions "wonderful conversions", ecstasies and visions (Teresa de Jesus), theological treatises and sermons (Luisde Granada). The greatest playwrights (Lopé de Vega, Calderon), along with secular plays, write religious plays, dramatized legends and lives of saints, or "sacred acts", which had the theme of the glorification of the sacrament "communion". But even in secular plays, religious and philosophical themes often appear ( "Seville mischievous" Tirso de Molina, "Steady Prince" Calderon).

With all the painful character that the development of Spain bore, the people showed the maximum of national energy. He showed great inquisitiveness of mind, determination and courage in overcoming obstacles. The broad prospects that opened up before the people of that time, the scope of political and military enterprises, the abundance of new impressions and opportunities for various vigorous activities - all this was reflected in the Spanish literature of the 16th - 17th centuries, which is characterized by great dynamics, passion and rich imagination.

Thanks to these qualities, Spanish literature "golden age"(as the period is called from about the second third of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century) occupies one of the first places among the national literatures of the Renaissance. Brilliantly showing itself in all genres, Spanish literature has given especially high standards in the novel and drama, i.e. in those literary forms in which the traits typical of the then Spain could be most fully expressed - the ardor of feelings, energy and movement.

Creation of a national Spanish drama.

In Spain and Portugal, as well as in other countries, there was a medieval theater - partly religious (mysteries and miracles), partly completely secular, comic (farces). The medieval religious theater in Spain, due to the enormous role that the Catholic Church played in the life of the country, was extremely stable - it not only did not disappear during the Renaissance, as happened in Italy and France, but continued to develop intensively throughout the 16th and even 17th centuries. .; moreover, plays of this kind were written by the largest playwrights of the era. During these centuries, the genres of folk comic theater, also cultivated by great masters, remained just as popular.

However, along with these old dramatic genres, by the middle of the 16th century. in Spain, a new, Renaissance system of dramaturgy is being developed, which also influences the interpretation of the above-mentioned old genres by Renaissance writers. This new dramaturgical system originated from the collision of two principles in the theater of the medieval folk or semi-folk tradition and the scientific-humanistic trends that came from Italy or directly from antiquity, but mostly also through Italian mediation. At first, the two types of dramaturgy, expressing these two tendencies, develop in parallel, apart from one another or entering into struggle with each other, but very soon an interaction begins between them, and in the end they merge into a single dramatic system. In this system of the national drama of the Renaissance, the pinnacle of which should be recognized as the work of Lope de Vega, the main element is still the folk principle, although Italian and ancient influences, originally mastered, played a significant role in its formation. The latter was facilitated by the appearance in the XVI century. Spanish translations of Plautus and Terence.

Lope de Vega (1562 - 1635)

Lope de Vega was painted 1800 "comedy", to which we must also add 400 religious plays and a very large number of interludes. However, Lope de Vega himself cared little about the safety of his dramatic works, which were considered the lowest kind of literature, as a result of which most of them were not published during his lifetime. The text of only 400 plays by Lope de Vega (almost entirely in poetry) has come down to us, and another 250 are known only by title.

the scope of the dramaturgy of Lope de Vega is unusually wide. He depicts people of all classes and ranks in a variety of positions, writes plays of everyday, historical, legendary, mythological, pastoral content, drawing plots from Spanish chronicles and romances, from Italian novelists (Boccaccio, Bandello, etc.), from the Bible, historical writings , stories of travelers, from wandering anecdotes or freely composing them on the basis of observations of life; he draws modern and old Spaniards, Turks, Indians, biblical Jews, ancient Romans, even Russians (in the play about False Dmitry - "Grand Duke of Moscow"). This reflects his extraordinary curiosity, his thirst to embrace the world history of mankind and, at the same time, his exceptionally rich imagination.

Lope de Vega outlined his theoretical views on dramaturgy in a poetic reasoning, which is one of the earliest Western European realistic poetics - "The New Art of Composing Comedy Today". This work, written by him already in his mature years (1609), sums up what the poet has long been putting into practice. After various introductory remarks and an outline of the development of comedy and tragedy among the ancients, Lope de Vega forgive me that, while fully recognizing the superiority of Aristotle's rules, he still deviates from them to please the public. Lope de Vega recommends that authors choose plots in which the tragic and the comic are mixed together, "as happens in nature." Defending the unity of action, he proves that it is possible to violate the unity of place and time. Then he talks about the division of the play into acts, the number of which he reduces from five to three, about its construction, about the significance of the exposition, the “knot” of intrigue and denouement, about the different styles in which different roles should be written, about the effective endings of scenes, about the use of different metric sizes, about the desired volume of the play, which should not be too large so that the viewer does not get tired, about all kinds of tricks aimed at maintaining the interest of the viewer, who should not guess about the denouement until the last scene, etc.

The dramas of Lope de Vega do not lend themselves to precise and exhaustive classification. Of the entire mass of his writings, three groups of plays can be distinguished, especially significant: plays "heroic"(on plots from national history), comedies "cloak and sword" and plays in which the people or their individual representatives perform.

The “heroic” plays depict various episodes from the history of Spain during the time of the Gothic kings, i.e. before the Arab conquest "The Life and Death of Wamba"), fighting the Moors ("Girl from Simanka", "Noble Abenserach"), the struggle of kings with recalcitrant feudal lords and the unification of the Spanish monarchy ("Fuenta Ovehuna"), finally discovering America ("The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus"). Imbued with an ardent patriotic feeling, they usually idealize their native antiquity, fanned with poetry. Lope de Vega paints here majestic and exciting pictures of the past, thus proving the power of Spain and reinforcing its claims to a leading role on the world stage.

Second group of plays, comedies "cloak and sword", is named after the typical accessories of the noble costume in which their characters perform - representatives mainly of the middle and lower modern nobility. These everyday comedies by Lope de Vega, in other words, "comedies of manners", constitute a very significant part of his dramatic heritage and, moreover, one that, during the life of the poet, brought him the greatest fame, and not only in his homeland, but also in other countries. And now these plays are extremely popular in Spain. Particularly famous are: "Dog in the manger", "Nets of Phoenix", "Madrid Waters", "Valencian wave", "Girl with a jug", « Whims of Belisa», "Slave of his beloved" etc. The plots of these plays are based almost exclusively on the play of feelings: love, jealousy, noble pride and family honor. At the same time, they almost do not show the social environment, background, life circumstances that could influence the development of the characters' feelings. On the other hand, to enliven the action, a stock of traditional motives and conditional devices is widely used, such as, for example, secret dates, serenades, duels, disguises, unexpected meetings, misunderstandings, substitutions, all kinds of coincidences, recognition, etc.

Despite some ideological and artistic limitations of comedies "cloak and sword" Lope de Vega, they are a brilliant, in many ways the foremost example of the art of the Spanish Renaissance. The central theme of these plays - love - is not of a narrowly noble nature. Lope de Vega always means love not as a sensual whim, which it often was in the aristocratic society of that time, but as a deep, all-encompassing feeling that affirms the idea of ​​a full-fledged human personality. Such "honest" love, always striving for marriage as the only form of complete mutual possession, acting in an ennobling way on lovers, is, in the understanding of Lope de Vega, a healthy, natural feeling, equally accessible to both a nobleman and the most modest peasant.

These plays are full of cheerfulness and optimism. They breathe faith in the possibility of happiness, in the success of the human person, boldly fighting for his feelings, for his goals. The heroes of Lope de Vega are brave, resolute, full of energy; their movements are impetuous, their words and deeds are ardent and impetuous. These are full-blooded Renaissance natures, in which the life force overflows. The female images of Lope de Vega are remarkable: his heroines have no less spiritual wealth, they are no less enterprising, smart and courageous than their partners. Passionate, they stop at nothing. In this regard, Lope de Vega does not deviate from reality at all, since in the society of the nobility of his day, women, constrained by the harsh guardianship of their fathers, brothers or husbands, played a very inconspicuous role. He revealed and strengthened the possibilities that he felt in the Spanish woman of his era.

Everyday comedies by Lope de Vega sparkle with wit. Their gaiety comes from the internal comedy of situations that arise as a result of various misunderstandings. It is reinforced by grotesque characters, in whose faces they ridicule - in tones more humorous than satirical - swagger, irascibility, stupid pedantry, excessive gullibility, talkativeness, and similar human weaknesses and vices. But servants are special carriers of the comic principle. The type of servant-jester is already found among the predecessors of Lope de Vega, but among them it is usually a simpleton, amusing the audience with his stupidity or clumsiness. The amusing servant Lope de Vega sometimes performs this function, but even more often he witty ridicules others. Quite often he turns out to be smarter, or at least more resourceful than his master, whom he helps out of trouble.

The plays of Lope de Vega, whose heroes are the people of their people, are not numerous. In his image, the most modest peasants or artisans in their mind, energy and moral qualities are no less than aristocrats. They are equally characterized by a sense of dignity and a sense of honor. Only their manners are simpler, they live closer to nature, and this is their great advantage, which fully compensates for the lack of education.

Fuente Ovehuna. The most famous of the plays of this kind and one of the pinnacles of Lope de Vega's work is the drama "Fuente Ovehuna" ("Sheep Key"). It can also be attributed to the number of historical plays, since its action takes place at the end of the 15th century, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The most significant thing in this play, imbued with truly revolutionary pathos, is that its hero is not some individual character, but the masses of the people, the collective.

The commander of the Order of Calatrava, Fernand Gomez, who is stationed with his detachment in the village of Fuente Ovejuna, commits violence against the inhabitants, insults the local alcalde and tries to dishonor his daughter Laurencia. The peasant Frondoso, who loves her, manages to protect the girl. But during the wedding of Frondoso and Laurencia, the commander appears with his henchmen, disperses the audience, beats the alcalde with his own staff, wants to hang Frondoso and kidnaps Laurencia in order to then take possession of her by force. The peasants cannot endure such dishonor: all of them - men, women, children - without exception arm themselves and beat the rapists. At the time of the court case appointed by the king in this case, when the peasants are tortured, they demand recognition of who exactly killed Fernand Gomez, they all answer as one: "Fuente Ovehuna!". The king is forced to stop the court: he "forgives" peasants and takes Fuente Ovehuna under his direct rule. Such is the power of popular solidarity.

In this play, the concept of honor from the category of noble feelings passes into the category of extra-class, universal. It becomes synonymous with the dignity of the human person, standing guard over their rights. Lope de Vega depicts how, under the influence of wild violence, social self-awareness awakens in the peasant masses, how initially scattered members of the rural community rally into a strong team capable of struggle and heroism.

Lope de Vega is looking in history for the justification of the union of the people with the royal power. Indeed, in his time, as in the early Middle Ages, the political aspirations of the Spanish people were usually clothed in the form of monarchical ideas. However, Lope de Vega lacked the vigilance to discern the true nature of royal power, as it was in contemporary Spain. Being a strong supporter of the system of absolutism, which he tried to reconcile with his democratic and humanistic aspirations, Lope de Vega was forced to idealize the image of the king. At the same time, as a subtle and truthful artist, he could not help but see the royal power of his day in its true light and reflect what he saw in his work. He tried to overcome this contradiction by distinguishing between the ruler and the man in the king; and everything negative that royal power carried with it, he attributed to the person. As ruler, the king is infallible; as a man, he is subject to all human weaknesses and vices, although he is capable of correction. Therefore, criticism of the behavior of the king as a human person is useless and even unacceptable: his person is sacred, it requires unconditional respect and obedience. But objectively, the images of kings in Lope de Vega often contain an exposure of the idea of ​​royal power.

Dramatists of the school of Lope de Vega.

The first place belongs to Tirso de Molina (1571 - 1648), the greatest playwright of this group and an ardent follower of Lope de Vega. Tirso de Molina was a monk and historiographer of his order. This did not prevent him, along with purely religious plays, from writing very cheerful and cheerful comedies, which brought him persecution from the spiritual authorities. He owns about 400 plays of various kinds, of which only 80 have come down to us.

The work of Tirso de Molina is distinguished by the same inconsistency as the work of Lope de Vega. Tirso de Molina created the genre of religious and philosophical drama.

This group includes the most famous of the plays written by Tirso de Molina - "Seville mischievous". This legend is of folklore origin: it is based on a story about a daredevil who invited a statue of a dead man to dinner and paid for it with his life. Tirso de Molina associated with this story a characteristic type of unscrupulous seducer of women and an immoralist.

Don Juan (this is the Spanish form of this name), desiring to enjoy the love of Donna Anna, the bride of his friend, by deceit, comes under the guise of him on a date with her and runs into her father, the commander, whom he kills. Having seduced before and after that other women of the most diverse social status - a duchess, a fisherwoman, a shepherdess, he mockingly invites a statue of the commander he killed to dinner and, accepting her return invitation, goes to the church where the commander is buried, and there he dies, falling into hell.

The hero of Tirso de Molina is still very primitive. He conquers women not thanks to his personal charm, but by more crude means: aristocrats - by deceit, commoners - with a promise to marry and make his chosen one a noble lady. But he captivates with cheerfulness, energy, extraordinary courage, which the author portrays in attractive colors.

After the arrival of the statue, don Juan, still drenched in cold sweat, quickly regains control of himself and says: “It's all just imagination. Down with stupid fear!.. Am I, who is not afraid of living bodies, endowed with soul, strength and mind, - should I be afraid of the dead? Tomorrow I will go to the chapel, since I have been invited there - let all Seville marvel at my fearless feat!. However, don Juan is by no means an atheist. He thinks he can still "correct" while he wants to enjoy life. To the exhortations of his servant and all those around him, reminding him of the afterlife, he nonchalantly replies: "You give me a long time!". But death takes him by surprise. At the last moment, he shouts to the statue: “I want to call a priest to forgive my sins!”- and dies without having time to repent. At the same time, the image of don Juan contains a number of positive features, and the author himself partly admires him: his exceptional strength, courage and rapture with life.

Along with these plays, Tirso de Molina owns many comedies full of the most cheerful and witty inventions. As a master of intrigue, he is in no way inferior to Lope de Vega, and in relation to the development of characters, he often surpasses him. He especially succeeds in female images, almost obscuring the male ones in a number of his plays. His heroines are distinguished by great passion, rare energy and enterprise, ingenuity, the ability to defend their rights and fight for their happiness.

Of the other playwrights of this school, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1580 - 1639) stands out. In the work of Alarcon, a transition is already planned from comedies of intrigue to comedies of characters, which he significantly deepens and polishes much more than Lope de Vega. At the same time, his plays are characterized by restraint of fantasy, strictness of composition, a certain dryness of images and language, as well as a distinct moral tendency. In a number of his comedies, he gives a heartfelt portrayal of friendship, generosity, and so on. Plays: "Weaver of their Segovia", "Doubtful Truth".

Of the followers of Lope de Vega, Guillen de Castro (1569 - 1631), who often took his subjects from folk romances, also deserves mention. It is characterized by liveliness of imagination, ardor, brilliance, and at the same time a passion for depicting very dramatic situations, stormy feelings, and fantastic adventures. An example of this is his play "Sid's Youth", the plot of which is based on folk romances about Sid.

The life and work of Cervantes.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547 - 1616) was born in the town of Alcala de Henares. He belonged to the hidalgia and was the son of a poor doctor. Lack of funds prevented him from getting a good education, but he still graduated from the university. At the age of twenty-one, Cervantes entered the service of the papal ambassador to Spain, Cardinal Acquaviva. When he returned to his homeland, Cervantes went with him to Italy. After the death of the cardinal, he entered as a soldier in the Spanish army operating in Italy, was soon enrolled in the fleet and took part in the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where he fought bravely and received a severe injury to his left hand. In 1575, he decided to return to Spain, but the ship on which he sailed was attacked by Algerian corsairs and Cervantes was captured by them. He languished in Algiers for five years, repeatedly plotted to escape, ending in failure, until he was finally redeemed from captivity. At home, he found a ruined family, and his military merits were already forgotten in Spain. In search of income, Cervantes writes plays for the theater, as well as various poems, for which, having brought them to some noble person, one could receive a small monetary reward. In addition, he is working on Galatea, which was published in 1585. At this time, Cervantes is getting married. The scarcity and insecurity of earnings forced Cervantes to accept the position of first a grain collector for the army, then a collector of arrears. Having entrusted public money to one banker who fled with them, Cervantes in 1597 goes to prison on charges of embezzlement. Five years later, he is again imprisoned on charges of money abuse.

Cervantes spent the last 15 years of his life in great need. Nevertheless, this was the period of the highest flowering of his work. In 1605 the first part of the novel was published. "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", begun or at least conceived by Cervantes during his second imprisonment. Publication in 1614 by a certain Avellaneda of a spurious sequel "Don Quixote" prompted Cervantes to hasten the end of his novel, and in 1615 the second part of it was published. Shortly before this, in the same year, he published a collection of his plays, and before that, in 1613, he published "Instructive Novels". The following year he graduated from Literary Satire "Journey to Parnassus". The last work of Cervantes ball novel "Pesiles and Sihismunda" published after his death.

The life of Cervantes, typical of a sensitive and gifted representative of hidalgia, is a series of ardent hobbies, failures, disappointments, continuous courageous struggle with poverty and at the same time with the inertia and vulgarity of the surrounding world. The same long way of searching for the past and the work of Cervantes, who found himself relatively late. He writes to order, adapts to the prevailing style, develops "fashionable" genres, striving to have their say in this area, to introduce realistic content and deep moral issues into this style and genres. but these attempts are invariably unsuccessful until, in his declining years, Cervantes creates his own style and his own genres, capable of fully expressing his finally mature thought.

Almost all of Cervantes' lyrics, his literary and satirical poem, as well as experiments in the field of pastoral and chivalric romance are distinguished by some conventionality and far-fetchedness. ("Galatea" and "Persiles and Sihismunda"). The same can be said about the largest part of his dramatic work. In his dramaturgy, Cervantes primarily seeks verisimilitude, rebelling against the too free treatment of space and time by some of his contemporary playwrights, against piling up, in the plot of various adventures, extravagances and absurdities, against the discrepancy between the social position of the characters and their language, etc.

The pinnacle of Cervantes' dramatic work is his interludes, probably written between 1605 and 1611. These are small, hilariously comic pieces in which types and situations have much in common with medieval farces, but are much more lively. With great knowledge of folk life and the psyche, Cervantes draws scenes of their lives as peasants, artisans, city dwellers, judges, bleached students, exposing the depravity of the clergy, the tyranny of husbands, the swindling of charlatans, and also good-naturedly ridiculing gullibility, talkativeness, passion for litigation and other human weaknesses. Subtle humor and wonderfully vivid language give these plays great charm. Particularly popular ones "Theater of Miracles", "Salaman cave", « Jealous old man" and "Two Talkers".

Even more remarkable is the collection of his fourteen "Instructive short stories". Cervantes first established in Spain the type of Renaissance Italian short story, decisively departing from the tradition of medieval storytellers, but at the same time he reformed this Italian type, giving it national Spanish features. Their plots are almost entirely composed by Cervantes. Life, the situation is entirely Spanish. The style is characterized by a truly sideboard combination of precision with humor, sometimes good-natured, sometimes bitter. A huge place is occupied by the speeches of the characters, often very lengthy.

Cervantes' novels can be divided into three groups: love-adventure novels (for example, "Gypsy", "English Spanish" etc.), descriptive ("Riconete and Cortadillo", "Jealous Estramadur" etc.) and philosophical-sentimental ( "Licentiate Widriera", "Conversation of two dogs"), although a strict distinction is not possible here, since many short stories contain features characteristic of other groups. Collection title - "Instructive Novels", means an invitation to look deeper into life and rebuild it on a moral basis. Cervantes believes in the possibility of a happy resolution of the most intricate and dangerous situations, if the people who have fallen into them are honest, noble and energetic; he believes in "voice of nature" and in its good forces, in the final triumph of a man fighting against evil and hostile principles. In this regard, he is always on the side of a young and sincere feeling, defending his rights against any coercion and social conventions. The ideals of Cervantes, revealed in "Instructive short stories", is love for life, but without intoxication with it, courage without arrogance, moral exactingness towards oneself and others, but without any asceticism or intolerance, modest, unostentatious heroism, and most importantly - deep humanity and generosity.

The novel "Don Quixote"

Novel "Don Quixote" was written by Cervantes in his later life. The novel is the result of his creative reflections. This work, insufficiently appreciated by contemporaries, brought its author posthumous fame and was declared by critics of the 19th - 20th centuries. one of the greatest creations of human thought.

"Don Quixote"- this is clearly indicated by the author in the prologue to the first part of the novel and in its final lines - it was conceived primarily as a parody of chivalric novels. Don Quixote, a poor provincial hidalgo, driven mad by reading chivalric novels and determined to restore the ancient institution of knight-errant, like the heroes of chivalric novels, goes out on exploits in honor of his imaginary "ladies" to protect all the offended and oppressed in this world. But his armor is the rusty fragments of his ancestors' weapons, his horse is a pitiful nag that stumbles at every step, his squire is a cunning and rude local peasant, tempted by the prospect of quick enrichment, the lady of his heart is a peasant girl Aldonsa Lorenzo from a neighboring village, renamed the mad Don - Quixote to Dulcinea de Toboso. In the same way, all knightly rites and customs are parodied in the novel: the knighting ceremony, etiquette "knightly service" lady (for example, when Don Quixote orders "defeated" adversaries to go to Dulcinea de Toboso and put themselves at her disposal).

The overheated imagination of Don Quixote makes him see brilliant adventures or magic in everything, take windmills for giants, an inn - a magnificent castle, a barber's basin - for a wonderful helmet, convicts - for oppressed knights, a lady riding in a carriage - for a kidnapped princess .

All the exploits of Don Quixote, performed by him to restore justice on earth, lead to completely opposite results: the shepherd Andres, for whom Don Quixote interceded, after his departure is subjected to even more severe beatings; the convicts released by him scatter to become the scourge of society again; an absurd attack on a funeral procession ends in a broken leg of an innocent licentiate; the desire to help the Spanish knight, surrounded by the Moors, leads to the destruction of the puppet theater, on the stage of which this was depicted. All those Don Quixote tries "protect", pray to the sky "punish and destroy his grace with all the knights ever born into the world". Don Quixote is insulted, beaten, cursed, mocked, and, to top the shame, he is trampled on by a herd of pigs. Finally, exhausted morally and physically, the Knight of the Sad Image returns to his home and there, having become seriously ill, he begins to see clearly before his death; he again becomes Don Alonso Quijana, nicknamed the Good for his deeds, renounces chivalric nonsense and makes a will in favor of his niece, with the proviso that she will lose her inheritance if she marries a man who loves chivalric novels.

Satire on chivalric romances was a genre very common during the Renaissance, but Cervantes deepened the situation and complicated the image of the main character. First of all, he endowed his hero with not only negative, but also positive features, and in addition, he gave him a double life - in a healthy and in a delusional state, which makes him almost two different characters. Further, Cervantes gave Don Quixote a companion who partly contrasts with him, partly complements him. Last but not least, Cervantes brought Don Quixote into constant and varied contact with real life.

First of all, in his novel, Cervantes ridiculed not only chivalric romances as a literary genre, but also the very idea of ​​chivalry. Ridiculing chivalric novels, he struggled with the old, feudal consciousness, which was reinforced by them and found its poetic expression in them. He protested in his novel against the entire worldview of the ruling elite of Spain, who tried to revive on new foundations "knightly" ideas, and above all against the feudal Catholic reaction that supported these ideas.

Cervantes condemns not Don Quixote himself, endowed with traits of rare spiritual nobility, kindness and prudence, but those delusional chivalrous ideas that captured the imagination of the poor hidalgo. The latter could only happen because Don Quixote is all directed towards the past. This past is the world of chivalry that Don Quixote is trying to restore. He acts blindly, following ready-made norms and rules that have outlived their time, read by him from old books, he does not know how and does not want to take into account real possibilities, with the real needs and requirements of people, with the actual state of things.

In his adventures, Don Quixote not only constantly fails, but also sows destruction around him. His madness is all the more dangerous because it is contagious, as seen in the example of Sancho Panza.

However, if Cervantes makes fun of Don Quixote, at the same time he is full of deep sympathy for him. The means used by Don Quixote are absurd, but the goal is lofty. Cervantes in every possible way emphasizes the high moral qualities, disinterestedness, generosity of Don Quixote, his sincere desire to benefit humanity. According to Sancho Panza, his master has "pigeon heart". In moments of mental enlightenment, when Don Quixote forgets his chivalrous fantasies, he is unusually attractive - he is easy to get along with everyone, exceptionally humane and reasonable. His speeches arouse the admiration of the listeners, they are full of high humanistic wisdom.

Remarkable in this respect is the advice given by Don Quixote to Sancho Panza before he enters the government. "governorship": “Look inside yourself and try to know yourself, but this knowledge is the most difficult of all that can be. Knowing yourself, you will no longer pout, like a frog wishing to be compared with an ox.. Don Quixote continues: “Speak with pride about your virility, Sancho, and admit without blushing that you are from the peasantry, for it would never occur to anyone to shame you with this, as long as you yourself are not ashamed of it ... Remember, Sancho: if you embark on the path of virtue and you will try to do good deeds, then you will not have to envy the deeds of princes and lords, for blood is inherited, and virtue is acquired, and it has an independent value, unlike blood, which has no such value.. Elsewhere Don Quixote teaches Sancho: “There are two types of genealogies: others are descended from sovereign princes and monarchs, but their family line gradually dwindles and narrows over time, like a pyramid turned upside down, others came from the common people, but little by little they rise from step to step and, finally become noblemen. Thus, the difference between them is that they were once what they are not now, and others are now what they were not before.. Or more : "Virtue makes the blood noble, and a person of humble origin, but virtuous, deserves more respect than a noble, but vicious". About freedom Don Quixote says Sancho thus: “Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious bounties that the sky pours out on people; no treasures can compare with it: neither those that are hidden in the bowels of the earth, nor those that are hidden at the bottom of the sea. For the sake of freedom, as well as for the sake of honor, one can and must risk one's life, and, on the contrary, bondage is the greatest of all misfortunes that can befall a person. I say this, Sancho, for this: you saw how we were looked after and how we were surrounded by contentment in that castle that we just left, and yet, despite all these luxurious dishes and refreshing drinks, it seemed to me personally as if I endure the pangs of hunger, for I did not partake of them with the same feeling of freedom, as if it were all mine, while the obligations imposed by benefactions and graces are fetters that restrict the freedom of the human spirit».

An addition to the image of Don Quixote is the image of Sancho Panza. It also has precedents in medieval literature. Cervantes created a complex, deeply realistic image that reflects the essential aspects of the Spanish life of that time and is very important for the overall idea of ​​the novel. At first glance, Sancho Panza is the complete opposite of his master: while Don Quixote, exhausting himself physically, longs to work selflessly for the benefit of mankind, Sancho Panza, first of all, tries to please his flesh and serve himself. He likes to sleep and eat most of all (his very name is expressive: panza in Spanish means "belly"), he wants to become a count and governor, he wants his wife Teresa Panza to ride in a gilded carriage. Dreaming about how he will become a ruler, Sancho Panza asks if he can sell all his subjects into slavery and put the money in his pocket. He is all in practice, in the present, while Don Quixote is all in a dream about the past, which he wants to revive. But at the same time, there is a deep inner similarity between them, making them the sons of one people and the product of one era.

Their fate is similar: both, carried away by their fantasies, break away from the family and a peaceful healthy life; to roam the world in search of fortune, and both are eventually healed of their delusions, convinced that they were at the mercy of the mirages. But the difference between them is that Don Quixote was captivated by the dream of eradicating evil on earth and of knightly glory, i.e. the old chivalric ideal in its classical form, and Sancho Panza, under the influence of the mad Don Quixote, was seduced by the idea of ​​easy money, the spirit of adventurism, i.e. modern form of knightly ideal - "chivalry" initial accumulation.

There is also a difference in how they heal from their mirages. Don Quixote, despite the hail of failure raining down on him, remains in the grip of his chivalrous illusions, until, finally, the veil falls from his eyes. But that second, healthy person who lives in him develops throughout the novel under the influence of both contact with life and communication with the pure soul of Sancho Panza. Don Quixote's speeches at the moments of enlightenment of his consciousness become more and more significant and wise, and in parallel with this he becomes more trusting and frank with his squire, more and more often asks him for advice and help, and the social distance between them is shrinking, until, in the last chapters, does not disappear at all.

On the contrary, Sancho Panza is healed mentally and morally long before the end of the novel. He is freed from the delusions he received from Don Quixote as a result of severe trials, the last of which was his "governorship". However, in managing your "solid island" he entered already cured of the thirst for profit that had previously possessed him, and this happened to him partly under the influence of Don Quixote's constant example of spiritual nobility and kindness. Sancho Panza accompanies Don Quixote on the latter's third trip, no longer for reasons of profit, but out of heartfelt affection for his affection for his master, whom he sincerely loved. At the end of the novel, he does not remember the salary that he owes him. Under the influence of Don Quixote, Sancho becomes kinder and more generous in his relations with people, he is no longer led by a thirst for enrichment, but by a love of justice and humanity.

In general, both for Don Quixote, chivalrous undertakings, and for Sancho Panza, his dreams of enrichment are only a temporary borrowed shell, deeply alien to their nature. Both of them are the noblest representatives of the Spanish people. If the madcap Don Quixote is the bearer of the highest humanistic ideas, then the ingenuous merry fellow Sancho Panza is the embodiment of folk wisdom and moral health. Both are intimately close to each other, which is especially pronounced in the episode of the governorship of Sancho Panza, where the noble humanistic ideals of Don Quixote intersect with Sancho's practical reason, honesty and healthy humanity. Another moment of their deep and already final rapprochement is the finale of the novel, when Sancho Panza, shedding tears, says goodbye to the dying master, who has freed himself from his delusions and is no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but again - Alonso Quixana the Good.

It is very characteristic that in a novel in which there are several hundred characters, very few representatives of the aristocracy are shown, and if they appear, they are outlined in the most stingy and general strokes. Such are the duke and duchess in the second part, like puppets in comparison with the rest of the characters in the novel, bright and lively. Cervantes very subtly makes you feel all the emptiness and boredom of their magnificent life filled with ceremonies, which makes them rejoice as a welcome fun meeting with Don Quixote and his squire.

Some vague attitude of Cervantes towards the clergy, although his statements on this subject are also extremely disguised. AT "Don Quixote" spiritual persons are not shown at all in their specific practice. Apart from a number of monks, students of theology and priests participating in Don Quixote's road adventures as extras, in the whole novel there is only one clergyman who has a certain physiognomy - this is a friend of Don Quixote, a priest of the same village where the hero lives , enlightened and judicious, always able to give good advice, who, during an inspection of the library of Don Quixote, discovered a delicate literary taste, taking care of the affairs of Don Quixote and his recovery, he is nothing like a priest, and no one would have guessed his belonging to this corporations, if not for his dress.

If Cervantes avoids depicting in his novel the tops of society and the clergy, then he gives in it a broad picture of folk life, depicting truthfully and colorfully peasants, artisans, mule drivers, shepherds, poor students, soldiers, tavern maids, etc. All those little people walking "on the ground with just feet", he describes objectively and comprehensively, without hiding the rudeness, greed, quarrelsomeness, propensity to swindle of many of them, but at the same time emphasizes the huge stock of diligence, activity, optimism and good nature lurking in them. Cervantes is full of trust and sincere sympathy for all these people, he tries to show them from the good side. The rude tavern maid Maritornes buys a mug of beer for poor Sancho Panza with her last pennies. The hostess of the inn carefully treats Don Quixote, beaten by the muleteers. Cervantes opposes this half-impoverished, but full of vibrant creative powers, to official Spain, predatory, arrogant and pious, idealizing itself in pompous pictures of chivalric novels or sugary images of pastoral novels.

In all these scenes, which form the main background of the novel, elements of a healthy life are given that are capable of further development. Complementing them are several insert short stories, which depict the highest, very complex forms of life, partly poeticized in tragic, partly in sentimental tones. These short stories echo some of the episodes of the main story. The purpose of these short stories is to show the possibility of noble and beautiful forms of human activity on a purely real basis of sound feelings and concepts, as opposed to the knightly nonsense of Don Quixote.

The deep nationality of Cervantes' novel lies in the thoughtful and sympathetic portrayal of the broad background of folk life; in the rapprochement of Don Quixote with Sancho Panza, in showing the creative possibilities lurking in this son of the Spanish people; in a clear and sober attitude to life; in the denunciation of any social untruth and violence; in deep love and respect for the person of whom this book speaks; in the optimism that she breathes, despite the sad nature of most of her episodes and the sadness that pervades her.

All this corresponds to the wonderful realistic language of the novel, clear, colorful, rich in shades, which has absorbed many elements of folk speech. The language of the characters of Cervantes is different depending on their social status and character. The contrast between the measured and important, sometimes even somewhat archaic language of Don Quixote and the not always correct, but juicy and expressive, interspersed with proverbs, sayings, interjections, the truly folk speech of Sancho Panza is especially clear. The language of the characters also changes in Cervantes in connection with the nature of the situation or the state of mind of the speakers, taking either an oratorical, a colloquial, a pathetic, a playful or familiar connotation.

Cervantes brilliantly captured the main trends and problems of his era. Summarizing them in the images of the two main characters of his novel, he invested in them a great universal content. Thanks to this, the central images of the novel, reflecting the actual state of Spain in the 16th-17th centuries, at the same time acquired a much broader meaning, retaining their vitality and expressiveness in subsequent centuries. In particular, since Cervantes, who wrote his novel in the conditions of the crisis of humanism, reflected in it with great force the collision of the ideal aspirations of the human mind with the world of self-interest and personal interests, "Don Quixote" became for future generations of thinkers and writers a model of opposition between the ideal and "base reality".

Meaning "Don Quixote" for the further development of the European novel is very large. Destroying the old chivalric romance, Cervantes at the same time lays the foundations for a new type of novel, signifying a huge step forward in the development of artistic realism.

Roman Cervantes was at the beginning of the XVII century. an exceptional phenomenon, far ahead of its era. It was only truly understood and could have a real influence on European literature in the eighteenth and especially in the nineteenth century, when a higher form of realism became possible. From that moment on, ideas, images, narrative style, general tone and individual stylistic features "Don Quixote" found a wide response in European literature. Of the writers on whom the influence of Cervantes was especially pronounced, we can name Fielding, W. Scott, Dickens, Gogol.

The completion of the reconquista and the unification of Castile and Aragon gave a powerful impetus to the development of Spanish culture. In the XVI-XVII centuries, it experienced a period of prosperity, known as the "golden age".

At the end of the XV and the first half of the XVI century. in Spain, advanced thought made great strides, manifesting itself not only in the field of artistic creativity, but also in journalism and scientific works imbued with free thought. The reactionary policy of Philip II dealt a heavy blow to Spanish culture. But the reaction could not stifle the creative forces of the people, which manifested themselves at the end of the 16th-first half of the 17th centuries. predominantly in the field of literature and art.

The Spanish culture of the Renaissance had deep folk roots. The fact that the Castilian peasant was never a serf (See F. Engels, Letter to Paul Ernst, K. Marx and F. Engels, On Art, M.-L. 1937, p. 30.), And the Spanish cities conquered early its independence, created in the country a fairly wide layer of people who had a consciousness of their own dignity. (See F. Engels, Letter to Paul Ernst, K. Marx and F. Engels, On Art, M.-L. 1937, p. 30. )

Although the favorable period in the development of cities and part of the peasantry of Spain was very short, the legacy of heroic times continued to live in the minds of the Spanish people. This was an important source of the high achievements of classical Spanish culture.

However, the Renaissance in Spain was more controversial than in other European countries. In Spain, there was no such sharp break with the feudal-Catholic ideology of the Middle Ages as occurred, for example, in Italian cities in the era of the rise of their economic life and culture. That is why even such advanced people of Spain as Cervantes and Lope de Vega do not completely break with the Catholic tradition.

Spanish humanists of the first half of the 16th century.

Representatives of advanced thought in Spain, who acted in the first half of the 16th century, received the name "Erasmists" (after the famous humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam). Among them, first of all, Alfonso de Valdes (died in 1532), the author of sharp and caustic dialogues in the spirit of the Greek satirist Lucian, in which he attacks the papacy and the Catholic Church, accusing them of selfishness and licentiousness, should be mentioned. The outstanding Spanish philosopher Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) was also associated with Erasmus. A native of Valencia, Vivss studied in Paris and lived in England and Flanders. He took part in the pan-European movement of humanism. Already in one of his early works - "The Triumph of Christ" Vives gives criticism of Aristotelian scholasticism, opposing to it the philosophy of Plato in the spirit of the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance.

More important is the fact that, rejecting medieval scholasticism, Vives highlights experience: observation and experiment allow one to penetrate into the depths of nature, open the way to knowledge of the world. Thus, Vives is one of the predecessors of Francis Bacon. Man is central to his concept. Vives played an important role in the development of psychology as a science. In his work "On the Soul and Life" he considers in detail the problem of perception. In the pamphlet The Sage, Vivss gives a humanist critique of the old scholastic methods of teaching and develops a progressive pedagogical system that includes the study of classical languages, history, and the natural sciences. Luis Vives was also a supporter of women's education.

Another Spanish thinker who spoke out against scholasticism and Aristotle dissected by the scholastics was Francisco Sanchss (1550-1632). However, unlike Luis Vives, the spirit of free inquiry leads Sanchez to skepticism. His main work is called "That there is no knowledge" (1581). Exploring the contradictions contained in the process of human cognition, Sanchez comes to a purely negative thesis: everything that we know is unreliable, relatively, conditional. Such a pessimistic thesis, put forward in the era of the collapse of medieval orders and dogmatic ideas, was not uncommon, especially in Spain with its sharp social contradictions and harsh living conditions.

folk poetry

The 15th century was for Spain the heyday of folk art. It was to this time that many romances appeared. Spanish romance is a national poetic form, which is a short lyric or lyric-epic poem. The romances sang the exploits of heroes, dramatic episodes of the struggle with the Moors. Lyrical romances depicted in a poetic light the love and suffering of lovers. The romances reflected patriotism, love of freedom and a poetic view of the world, characteristic of the Castilian peasant.

Folk romance fertilized the development of Spanish classical literature, became the soil on which the great Spanish poetry of the 16th-17th centuries rose.

humanistic poetry

In Spain, as in other countries, Renaissance literature developed on the basis of a synthesis of national folk art and advanced forms of humanistic literature. One of the first poets of the Spanish Renaissance - Jorge Manrique (1440-1478) was the creator of the brilliant poem "Couplets on the death of my father." In the solemn stanzas of his work, he speaks of the omnipotence of death and glorifies the exploits of immortal heroes.

Already in the XV century. in Spanish poetry, an aristocratic trend appeared, striving to create "learned lyrics" modeled on the literature of the Italian Renaissance. The largest poet of the early Spanish Renaissance, Garcilaso de la Vega (1503-1536), belonged to this trend. In his poetry, Garcilaso followed the traditions of Petrarch, Ariosto and especially the famous pastoral poet of Italy, Sannazaro. The most valuable thing in Garcilaso's poetry is his eclogues, which portrayed in an idealized form the life of shepherds in love in the bosom of nature.

Religious lyrics were widely developed in the Spanish poetry of the Renaissance. Luis de Leon (1527-1591) was the head of the galaxy of so-called mystic poets. An Augustinian monk and doctor of theology at the University of Salamanca, an orthodox Catholic, he was nevertheless accused of heresy and thrown into the prison of the Inquisition, where he was kept for over four years. He managed to prove his innocence, but the fate of the poet in itself speaks of the presence in his works of something more than a simple repetition of religious ideas. The magnificent lyrics of Luis de Leon contain a deep socially significant content. He keenly feels the disharmony of life, where “envy” and “lie” reign, where unrighteous judges judge. He seeks salvation in a solitary contemplative life in the bosom of nature (ode "blissful life").

Luis de Leon was not the only poet targeted by the Inquisition. In her dungeons, many talented sons of the Spanish people were subjected to painful torture. One of these poets, David Abenator Malo, who managed to break free and flee to Holland, wrote about his release: “He came out of prison, out of the grave broken.”

In the second half of the XVI century. in Spain there is an attempt to create a heroic epic. Alonso de Ersilya (1533-1594), who joined the Spanish army and fought in America, wrote a long poem "Araucan", in which he wanted to sing the exploits of the Spaniards. Ercilia chose Virgil's classic poem "Aeneid" as a model. The huge, chaotic work of Ersilya is unsuccessful as a whole. It is replete with sham samples and conditional episodes. In Araucan, only those places are beautiful, where the courage and determination of the freedom-loving Araucans, an Indian tribe that defended its independence from the Spanish conquistadors, are depicted.

If the form of an epic poem in the antique way was not suitable for reflecting the events of our time, then life itself put forward another epic genre, more suitable for their depiction. This genre was the novel.

spanish romance

From the beginning of the XVI century. in Spain, chivalric romances were widespread. The unbridled fantasy of these later creations of feudal literature corresponded to some aspects of the psychology of the people of the Renaissance, who embarked on risky voyages and wandered through distant lands.

In the second half of the XVI century. the pastoral motif, introduced into Spanish literature by Garcilaso de la Vega, was also developed in the form of a novel. Here it is necessary to mention "Diana" by Jorge de Montemayor (written around 1559) and "Galatea" by Cervantes (1585). In these novels, the theme of the "golden age" is refracted in its own way, the dream of a happy life in the bosom of nature. However, the most interesting and original type of Spanish novel was the so-called picaresque novel (novela picaresca).

These novels reflected the penetration of monetary relations into Spanish life, the disintegration of patriarchal ties, the ruin and impoverishment of the masses.

The beginning of this trend of Spanish literature was laid by the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, better known as the Celestina (circa 1492). This short story (at least in its main part) was written by Fernando de Rojas.

60 years after the appearance of Celestina, in 1554, simultaneously in three cities, the first completed example of a picaresque novel was published in the form of a small booklet, which had a great influence on the development of European literature, the famous Lazarillo from Tormes. This is the story of a boy, a servant of many masters. Defending his right to exist, Lazaro is forced to resort to cunning tricks and gradually turns into a complete rogue. The attitude of the author of the novel to his hero is ambivalent. He sees in trickery a manifestation of dexterity, intelligence and ingenuity, inaccessible to people of the Middle Ages. But in Lazaro, the negative qualities of the new human type were also clearly manifested. The strength of the book lies in its frank depiction of social relations in Spain, where under the cassock and noble cloak hid the basest passions, brought to life by the fever of profit.

The successor of the unknown author of Lazarillo from Tormes was the outstanding writer Mateo Alemán (1547-1614), author of the most popular picaresque novel, The Adventures and Life of the Rogue Guzmán de Alfarache, Watchtower of Human Life. Mateo Alemán's book differs from his predecessor's novel in the breadth of the social background and in a darker assessment of the new social relations. Life is absurd and cynical, says Aleman, passions blind people. Only by conquering these impure aspirations in oneself can one live rationally and virtuously. Aleman is a supporter of the Stoic philosophy inherited by Renaissance thinkers from ancient Roman authors.

Miguel de Cervantes

The picaresque novel represents that line in the development of Spanish literature, which with particular force prepared the triumph of Cervantes' realism.

The work of the greatest Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) - the founder of the new Spanish literature - arose on the basis of the synthesis of all the achievements of its previous development. He raised Spanish and at the same time world literature to new heights.

The youth of Cervantes was fanned by the adventurous nature of his time. He lived in Italy, participated in the naval battle of Lepanto, was captured by Algerian pirates. For five years, Cervantes made one heroic attempt after another to break free. Ransomed from captivity, he returned home a poor man. Seeing the impossibility of living by literary work, Cervantes was forced to become an official. It was during this period of his life that he came face to face with prosaic real Spain, with the whole world that is so brilliantly depicted in his Don Quixote.

Cervantes left a rich and varied literary legacy. Starting with the pastoral novel Galatea, he soon turned to writing plays. One of them - the tragedy "Numancia" depicts the immortal heroism of the inhabitants of the Spanish city of Numancia, fighting against the Roman legions and preferring death to surrender at the mercy of the winners. Based on the experience of Italian short stories, Cervantes created an original type of Spanish short story that combines a broad depiction of life with sermons (“Instructive Novels”).

But everything he created pales in front of his brilliant work The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-1615). Cervantes set himself a modest task - to destroy the influence of fantastic and far from life chivalric romances. But his excellent knowledge of people's life, keen observation and ingenious ability to generalize led to the fact that he created something immeasurably more significant.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Engraving from the title page of one of the first editions of Don Quixote by Cervantes.

Don Quixote dreams of reviving chivalrous times in an era when they have long gone. He alone does not understand that chivalry has outlived its time and, like the last knight, is a comic figure. In the feudal era, everything was built on the basis of fist law. And now Don Quixote wants, relying on the strength of his hand, to change the existing order, to protect widows and orphans, to punish offenders. In fact, he creates unrest, causes evil and suffering to people. "Don Quixote must have paid dearly for his mistake when he imagined that knight-errants were equally compatible with all economic forms of society," says Marx.

But at the same time, the motives of Don Quixote's actions are humane and noble. He is a staunch defender of freedom and justice, patron of lovers, a fan of science and poetry. This knight is a true humanist. His progressive ideals originated in the great anti-feudal movement of the Renaissance. They were born in the struggle against class inequality, against obsolete feudal forms of life. But even the society that came to replace it could not realize these ideals. The callous rich peasant, tight-fisted innkeepers and merchants mock Don Quixote, his intention to protect the poor and weak, his generosity and humanity.

The duality of the image of Don Quixote lies in the fact that his progressive humanistic ideals appear in a reactionary, obsolete chivalrous form.

Next to Don Quixote, a peasant-squire Sancho Panza acts in the novel. The limitations of the rural conditions of existence left their mark on him: Sancho Panza is naive and even sometimes silly, he is the only person who believed in the knightly nonsense of Don Quixote. But Sancho is not without good qualities. He not only reveals his ingenuity, but also turns out to be the bearer of folk wisdom, which he sets forth in countless proverbs and sayings. Under the influence of the humanist knight Don Quixote, Sancho develops morally. His remarkable qualities are revealed in the famous episode of the governorship, when Sancho reveals his worldly wisdom, disinterestedness and moral purity. There is no such apotheosis of the peasant in any of the works of the Western European Renaissance.

The two protagonists of the novel, with their fantastic and naive notions, are shown against the background of real everyday Spain, a country of swaggering nobility, innkeepers and merchants, wealthy peasants and muleteers. In the art of depicting this everyday life, Cervantes has no equal.

Don Quixote is the greatest folk book in Spain, a wonderful monument of the Spanish literary language. Cervantes completed the transformation of the Castilian dialect, one of the dialects of feudal Spain, into the literary language of the emerging Spanish nation. The work of Cervantes is the highest point in the development of the Renaissance culture on Spanish soil.

Luis de Gongora

in the literature of the 17th century. gloomy, hopeless moods are becoming more and more intensified, reflecting an internal breakdown in the public consciousness of the era of the progressive decline of Spain. The reaction to the ideals of humanism was most clearly expressed in the work of the poet Luis de Gongora y Argote (1561-1627), who developed a special style called "gongorism". From Gongor's point of view, only the exceptional, bizarrely complex, far from life can be beautiful. Gonyura is looking for beauty in the world of fantasy, and even turns reality into a fantastic decorative extravaganza. He rejects simplicity, his style is dark, difficult to understand, replete with complex, intricate imagery and hyperbole. In the poetry of Gongora, the literary taste of the aristocracy found its expression. Gongorism, like a disease, spread throughout European literature.

Francisco de Quevedo

The greatest Spanish satirist was Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645). Coming from an aristocratic family, Quevedo participated as a diplomat in Spanish political intrigues in Italy. Acquaintance with the political regime in the Spanish possessions led him to deep disappointment. Taking advantage of his proximity to the court, Quevedo submitted a note in verse to Philip IV, in which he asked the king to reduce taxes and improve the situation of the people. The author of the note was captured and imprisoned by the Inquisition, where he was in chains for 4 years and from where he came out a physically broken man. Shortly after his release, he died.

Quevedo's famous picaresque novel, The Life Story of a Rogue Called Pablos, an Example of Vagabonds and a Mirror of Fraudsters, was apparently written in the early period of his life. This book is undeniably the most profound of picaresque novels. Telling the story of the son of a thieving barber and a prostitute - the unlucky Pablos, Quevedo shows a whole system of child abuse. Raised in such conditions, Pablos became a scoundrel. He wanders through Spain, and monstrous poverty and filth are revealed before him. Pablos sees how people deceive each other in order to exist, sees that all their energy is directed towards evil. Quevedo's novel is filled with bitterness.

In the second period of his activity, Quevedo turns to the creation of satirical pamphlets. A special place among them is occupied by his "Visions" - several satirical and journalistic essays depicting images of the afterlife in a grotesque and parodic spirit. So, in the essay “The Policeman Possessed by the Devil”, hell is presented, where kings and court camarilla, merchants and the rich are roasting. There is no place in hell for the poor, for they have no flatterers and false friends and no opportunity to sin. In the 17th century the process of degeneration of the genre of the picaresque novel began.

Spanish theater

Spain, like England and France, experienced in the XVI - XVII centuries. great flowering of drama and theatre. The social content of the Spanish drama from Lope de Vega to the Caldera is the struggle of the absolute monarchy with the liberties of old Spain, obtained by the Spanish nobility, cities and Castilian peasants during the reconquista, full of intense drama.

In contrast to the French tragedy, which was based on ancient models, a national drama arose in Spain, quite original and popular. Dramatic works were created for public theaters. Patriotically inclined spectators wanted to see the heroic deeds of their ancestors and the topical events of our time on stage.

Lope de Vega

The founder of the Spanish national drama was the great playwright Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635). A soldier of the army of the "Invincible Armada", a brilliant secular man, a famous writer, Lopo de Vega remained a religious man throughout his life, and in his old age he became a priest and even a member of the "holy" inquisition. In this duality, Lope de Vega showed the characteristic features of the Spanish Renaissance. He expressed in his work the humanistic aspirations of this remarkable era, and at the same time, Lope de Vega, an advanced man of his time, could not break with the traditions of feudal Catholic Spain. Her social program was to seek to reconcile the ideas of humanism with patriarchal customs.

Lope de Vega was an artist of rare creative fertility, he wrote 1800 comedies and 400 one-act allegorical cult plays (about 500 works have come down to us). He also wrote heroic and comic poems, sonnets, romances, short stories, etc. Like Shakespeare, Lope de Vega did not invent the plots of his plays. He used various sources - Spanish folk romances and chronicles, Italian govels and books of ancient historians. A large group of plays by Lope de Vega are historical dramas from the life of different peoples. He also has a play from Russian history - "The Grand Duke of Moscow", dedicated to the events of the beginning of the 17th century.

In his main works, Lope de Vega depicts the strengthening of royal power, the struggle of the Spanish kings against the rebellious feudal lords and the Moorish hordes. He portrays the progressive significance of the unification of Spain, while sharing the naive faith of the people in the king as a representative of non-class justice, capable of resisting the arbitrariness of the feudal lords.

Among the historical plays by Lope de Vega, folk-heroic dramas (“Peribanes and Commander Ocanyi”, “The Best Alcalde is the King”, “Fu-ente Ovejuna”) are of particular importance, depicting the relationship of three social forces - peasants, feudal lords and royal power. Showing the conflict between the peasant and the feudal lord, Lope de Vega stands entirely on the side of the peasant.

The best of these plays is "Fuente Ovejuna" - one of the greatest dramas not only in Spanish, but also in world theater. Here Lone de Vega, to a certain extent, defeats his monarchical illusions. The play takes place in the second half of the 15th century. The commander of the Order of Calatrava is rampaging in his village of Fuente Ovehuna (Sheep Spring), infringing on the honor of peasant girls. One of them - Laurencia - passionately raises the peasants to revolt, and they kill the offender. Despite the fact that the peasants were obedient subjects of the king, and the commander participated in the struggle against the throne, the king ordered the peasants to be tortured, demanding that they betray the murderer. Only the steadfastness of the peasants, who answered all questions with the words: “Fkhonte Ovehuna did it,” made the king reluctantly let them go. Following Cervantes, the author of the Numancia tragedy, Lope de Vega created a drama about national heroism, its moral strength and stamina.

In a number of his works, Lope depicts the despotism of royal power. Among them, the excellent drama Star of Seville stands out. The tyrant king is faced with the inhabitants of the city of Seville, who are defending their honor and ancient liberties. The king must step back before these people, recognize their moral greatness. But the social and psychological strength of the "Star of Seville" comes close to the tragedies of Shakespeare.

The duality of Lope de Vega was most evident in the dramas dedicated to the family life of the Spanish nobility, the so-called "dramas of honor" ("Dangers of Absence", "Victory of Honor", etc.). For Lopo de Vega, marriage must be based on mutual love. But after the marriage took place, its foundations are unshakable. Suspecting his wife of treason, the husband has the right to kill her.

The so-called comedies of the cloak and sword depict the struggle of young Spanish nobles - people of a new type - for freedom of feeling, for their happiness, against the despotic power of their fathers and guardians. Lope de Vega builds a comedy on a dizzying intrigue, on coincidences and accidents. In these comedies, glorifying the love and free will of man, Lope de Vega's connection with the humanistic literary movement of the Renaissance was most manifest. But in Lope de Vega, the young man of the Renaissance does not have that inner freedom that delights us in Shakespeare's comedies. The heroines of Lope de Vega are faithful to the noble ideal of honor. In their appearance there are cruel, unattractive features associated with the fact that they share the prejudices of their class.

Dramatists of the Lope School

Lope de Vega does not perform alone, but is accompanied by a whole galaxy of playwrights. One of the direct students and successors of Lope was the monk Gabriel Telles (1571-1648), known as Tirso de Molina. The place that Tirso occupies in world literature is determined primarily by his comedy The Seville Mischievous Man, or the Stone Guest, in which he created the image of the famous seducer of women, Don Juan. The hero of the play, Tirso, does not yet have that charm that captivates us in the image of Don Juan in writers of later eras. Don Juan is a depraved nobleman, mindful of the feudal right of the first night, a seducer who strives for pleasure and does not disdain any means to achieve his own. This is a representative of the court camarilla, insulting women of all classes.

Pedro Calderoy

Spanish drama once again rose to great heights in the work of Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). The figure of Calderon is deeply controversial. Coming from a noble aristocratic family, Caldera was a knight of the Order of Sant'Iago. priest and honorary chaplain to King Philip IV. He wrote not only for the folk, but also for the court theater.

The secular plays of Calderon are directly adjacent to the dramaturgy of Lope. He wrote "cloak and sword comedies", but Caldera achieved special realistic power in his "dramas of honor". Thus, in the drama Doctor of His Honor, Calderon painted an expressive portrait of a 17th-century Spanish nobleman. Fanatical religiosity and equally fanatical devotion to one's honor coexist in this dgoryanin with ruthless sobriety, Jesuit cunning and cold calculation.

Drama Calderon "Salamei alcalde" is a reworking of the play of the same name by Lope de Vega. The village judge Pedro Crespo, who has a developed sense of dignity and is proud of his peasant origin, condemned and executed a noble officer who had dishonored his daughter. The struggle of a simple village judge against a rapist nobleman is depicted with great artistic force.

A large place in the heritage of Calderon is occupied by religious dramas - dramatized "lives of the saints", etc. The main idea of ​​​​these plays is purely Catholic. But Calderon usually brings out a jester who soberly laughs at religious miracles.

The wonderful drama "The Miraculous Magician" is close to religious plays. Marx called this work "Catholic Faust". The hero of the play is a searching and daring person. In his soul there is a struggle between a sensual attraction to a woman and a Christian idea. Calderon's play ends with the triumph of the Christian-ascetic beginning, but the great artist portrays the earthly, sensual elements as something powerful and beautiful. There are two jesters in this play. They ridicule miracles with their crude distrust of religious fiction.

With particular force, the philosophical concept of Calderon was reflected in his drama Life is a Dream. The events taking place in the play are not only real, but also symbolic. King of Poland Basilio, an astrologer and magician, learns that his newborn son will be a scoundrel and a murderer. He imprisons his son Sehismundo in a tower located in a desert area, and keeps him chained and dressed in an animal skin. Thus, Sehismundo is a prisoner from birth. This image of a young man chained in chains is a symbolic image of humanity, which is in slavish dependence on social conditions. Wanting to check the words of the oracle, the king orders the sleeping Sehismundo to be transferred to the palace. Waking up and learning that he is the ruler, Sehismundo immediately shows the features of a despot and a villain: he threatens the courtiers with death, raises his hand against his own father. Man is a prisoner, a slave bound in chains, or a despot and tyrant - such is the thought of Calderon.

The conclusions to which Calderón arrives are of a fantastic and reactionary nature. Returned back to the tower, Sehismundo wakes up and decides that everything that happened to him in the palace was a dream. He now believes that life is a dream. Sleep - wealth and poverty, power and submission, right and injustice. If this is so, then the person must give up his aspirations, suppress them and come to terms with the flow of life. The philosophical dramas of Calderón are a new type of dramatic work, unknown to Lope de Vega.

Calderoy combines deep realism with reactionary features in his work. He sees a way out of the tragic contradictions of reality in following the ideas of feudal Catholic reaction, in the cult of noble honor.

Despite all the contradictions inherent in the Spanish literature of the 16th-17th centuries, the artistic values ​​​​created by it, especially the Spanish novel and drama, are an outstanding contribution to world culture.

Architecture

The plastic arts also reached great heights in this era. After a long period of Gothic dominance and the heyday of Moorish architecture in Spain in the 16th century, interest in the architecture of the Italian Renaissance is awakening. But, following his patterns, the Spaniards originally transform the forms of Italian architecture.

The activity of the brilliant architect Juan de Herrera (1530-1597), the creator of a special style of "herreresque", dates back to the second half of the 16th century. This style takes the form of ancient architecture. And yet the greatest creation of Herrera - the famous palace of Philip II Escorial bears little resemblance to the traditional forms of classical architecture.

The very idea of ​​Escorial, which is at the same time a royal palace, a monastery and a tomb, is very characteristic of the era of the counter-reformation. In appearance, Escorial resembles a medieval fortress. It is a square building with towers at the corners. A square divided into a series of squares - such is the plan of the Escorial, reminiscent of a lattice (lattice is a symbol of St. Lawrence, to whom this building is dedicated). The gloomy, but majestic bulk of Escorial, as it were, symbolizes the harsh spirit of the Spanish monarchy.

Renaissance motifs in architecture already in the second half of the 17th century. degenerate into something pretentious and cutesy, and the risky boldness of forms hides only the inner emptiness and lack of content.

Painting

Painting was the second area after literature in which Spain created values ​​of world-historical significance. True, Spanish art does not know harmonic works in the spirit of Italian painting of the 15th-16th centuries. Already in the second half of the XVI century. Spanish culture brought forth an artist of striking originality. This is Domeviko Theotokopuli, a native of Crete, known as El Greco (1542-1614). El Greco lived for a long time in Italy, where he learned a lot from the famous masters of the Venetian school, Titian and Tintoretto. His art is one of the offshoots of Italian mannerism, originally developed on Spanish soil. Greco's paintings were not successful at court; he lived in Toledo, where he found many admirers of his talent.

In Greco's art, the painful contradictions of his time were reflected with great dramatic force. This art is clothed in a religious form. But the unofficial interpretation of church subjects distances El Greco's painting from the state-owned templates of church art. His Christ and the saints appear before us in a state of religious ecstasy. Their ascetic-emaciated, elongated figures bend like flames and seem to reach for the sky. This passion and deep psychologism of Greco's art bring him closer to the heretical movements of the era.

Escorial. Architect Juan de Herrera. 1563

Spanish painting experienced its real flourishing in the 17th century. Among the Spanish artists of the XVII century. should be mentioned first of all José Ribeiro (1591-1652). Adhering to the traditions of the Italian Caravaggio, he develops them in a completely original way and is one of the brightest national artists of Spain. The main place in his legacy is occupied by paintings depicting the executions of Christian ascetics and saints. The artist skillfully sculpts human bodies protruding from the darkness. Characteristically, Ribeira gives his martyrs the features of people from the people. Francisco Zurbaran (1598-1664) was the master of large compositions on religious themes, combining prayerful ecstasy and rather cold realism into one whole.

Diego Velazquez

The greatest Spanish artist Diego de Silva Velasquez (1599-1960) remained the court painter of Philip IV until the end of his life. Unlike other Spanish artists, Velasquez was far from religious painting, he painted genre paintings and portraits. His early works are scenes from folk life. The mythological scenes of Velazquez's Bacchus (1628) and Vulcan's Forge (1630) are connected in a certain respect with this genre. In the painting "Bacchus" (otherwise - "Drunkens"), the god of wine and grapes looks like a peasant guy and is surrounded by rude peasants, one of whom he crowns with flowers. In The Forge of Vulcan, Apollo appears among half-naked blacksmiths who have quit their work and look at him in amazement. Velasquez achieved amazing naturalness in depicting folk types and scenes.

Evidence of the full maturity of the artist was his famous painting "The Capture of Breda" (1634-1635) - a festive military scene with a deeply thought-out composition and a subtle psychological interpretation of faces. Velázquez is one of the greatest portrait painters in the world. His work is marked by truthful psychological analysis, often merciless. Among his best works is a portrait of the famous favorite of the Spanish king - the Duke of Olivares (1638-1641), Pope Innocent X (1650), etc. In the portraits of Velasquez, members of the royal house are presented in poses full of importance, solemnity and grandeur. But ostentatious grandeur cannot hide the fact that these people are marked with the stamp of degeneration.

A special group of portraits of Velazquez are images of jesters and freaks. Interest in such characters is typical for Spanish artists of this era. But Velasquez knows how to show that ugliness belongs to humanity as well as beauty. Sorrow and deep humanity often shine in the eyes of his dwarfs and jesters.

A special place in the work of Velasquez is occupied by the painting "Spinners" (1657), depicting the royal manufactory for the manufacture of tapestries. In the foreground are women workers; they spin wool, spin, carry baskets. Their poses are distinguished by free ease, movements are strong and beautiful. This group is contrasted with elegant ladies who are examining the manufactory, very similar to those woven on tapestries. Sunlight, penetrating into the working room, leaves its cheerful imprint on everything, brings poetry to this picture of everyday life.

Velasquez's painting conveys the movement of form, light and transparency of the air with free colorful strokes.

The most prominent of Velázquez's students was Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). His early works depict scenes with street boys who freely and naturally settled down on a dirty city street, feeling like real gentlemen in their rags. The religious painting of Murillo is marked by features of sentimentality and testifies to the beginning decline of the great Spanish school.