Why is the middle ages called the dark age. "Dark Ages". Homeric era of the XI-IX centuries. BC. Pain takes on a rhythm
The Middle Ages are often considered a dark spot on the pages of history, a realm of obscurantism: witches were burned at the stake, and fear and ugliness reigned in the streets. The name itself emphasizes the facelessness of this era, which is overshadowed by two neighboring ones: antiquity and the Renaissance, richer in the aesthetic and cultural sense.
If you have ever turned to texts created more than five centuries ago, then you will agree that the events described in them are presented in a completely different way than we are used to. Perhaps this is due to the fact that at that time the world was still presented to people in a wonderful dress of mystery, and European society had not yet lost faith in the supernatural. Let's try to figure out in what light life appeared when humanity and the world were younger.
Brightness and sharpness of life
Human feelings were expressed more directly. The soul did not hide feelings, and the mind did not try to suppress them. Joy and sorrow, laughter and tears, poverty and wealth were demonstrated publicly without hesitation or fear. The ritual permeated every action or deed, "elevating them to another extraterrestrial lifestyle."
This applied not only to the most important events of a person’s life (birth, marriage and death, reaching the brilliance of mystery), but also to public events: a solemn meeting of the king or an execution, which became not only moralizing, but also a vivid spectacle.
Of course, the life of a medieval person was not distinguished by beauty in itself. Living conditions without electricity, sewerage and heating were far from being called beautiful, and therefore beauty had to be created artificially.
Pursuit of a wonderful life
In the Middle Ages, the aesthetic worldview prevailed over the logical and ethical. The forms of the way of life were transformed into artistic ones, and the society became more and more playful, to such an extent that any action turned into a ritual.
The art of the Renaissance did not appear in world history from scratch. Culture at the end of the Middle Ages - "the coloring of aristocratic life with ideal forms of life, flowing in the artificial lighting of knightly romance, this is a world disguised in the clothes of the times of King Arthur."
Such an artificial, aesthetic coverage of all events created a strong tension, shaping the thoughts and customs of a medieval person.
The life of the courtiers was imbued with aesthetic forms to the point of obscenity, the diversity of colors blinded the townspeople here, which once again proved and substantiated the power of the upper class. Dirty beggars, merchants and rednecks saw the true proof of noble birth in the beauty of noble robes and court decorations.
Formalization of life
Earthly life, clothed in aesthetic forms, not only attracted attention, but also acquired a dimension previously unknown to mankind. Formalism in relationships sometimes prevented natural communication between people, however, it gave them the greatest aesthetic pleasure, occupying an intermediate position between sincerity and etiquette.
There is something touching in the fact that the "beautiful forms" developed in the bitter struggle of a generation of people of ardent disposition sometimes turned into endless polite bickering.
A visit to the temple turned into a kind of minuet: when leaving, rivalry arose for granting a person of a higher rank the right to cross a bridge or a narrow street before others. As soon as anyone reached his house, he had - as the Spanish custom still requires - to invite everyone to come to his house for something to drink, such an offer everyone had to politely refuse; then the others had to be seen off a bit, and all this, of course, was accompanied by mutual bickering.
Johan Huizinga
Loud suffering for show was considered not only appropriate, but also beautiful, which turned everyday life into a genuine dramatic art.
Pain takes on a rhythm
Funeral rites were also accompanied by a celebration of suffering, in which grief was clothed in beautiful and even sublime forms.
Reality moved into the realm of the dramatic. In more primitive cultures, funeral rites and poetic funeral laments are still one; mourning, with its splendor, was intended to emphasize how grieved the afflicted with grief.
Johan Huizinga
Dutch philosopher, historian, cultural researcher
In such forms, real experiences are easily lost. Here is an excerpt from the notes of Eleanor de Poitiers about the widowed Isabella of Bourbon: “When Madame remained on her own, she did not at all stay in bed, just as in the chambers.” Which indicates a conscious desire for drama, the cause of which was social customs.
People liked it when everything that had to do with the realm of the ethical took on aesthetic forms.
Preachers and ascetics were a special category of people to whom the townsfolk had a genuine interest. Amazement before the humility and mortification of the flesh of the holy ascetics, before the repentant renunciation of sins reached the highest degree of admiration and admiration. Any personal experience, excitement and achievement had to find the necessary public form of expression, fixed in culture.
Love and friendship
A special form of friendship appears, called a minion - it lasted until the 17th century. Every self-respecting courtier had a close friend whose habits, dress, and appearance had to necessarily repeat his own. Minions were taken with them on dates, walks, work. Such friendship had an exclusively aesthetic meaning and was designed to dilute loneliness and boredom, as well as add symmetry to life.
Courtesy and etiquette were directly related to clothing, which had certain meanings.
For example, if a girl wanted to declare allegiance to her lover, then she wore blue clothes, while green clothes testified to love.
In love, for those who did not break with all earthly joys in general, the purpose and essence of enjoying the beautiful as such was manifested. The feeling of falling in love was valued much more than relationships, and even more so marriage. It often happened that a young married woman remained the lady of the heart of many knights who shouted her name on the battlefield.
Everything beautiful - every sound or flower - adorned love. Literature, fashion, customs streamlined the attitude towards love, created a wonderful illusion that people dreamed of following. Love has become a form of fantastic desire. The jousting tournament offered the game of love in its most heroic form. The winner got a special gift in the form of a handkerchief or a kiss from his beloved.
Short circuit
It is important to understand that medieval man lived in a completely different world than we do. His life was permeated with divine mystery, and therefore any phenomenon was regarded as a sign from above.
He lived in a semiotically saturated world. Full of semantic references and higher meanings of manifestations of God in things; he lived in nature, which constantly spoke the language of heraldry.
Umberto Eco
philosopher, specialist in semiotics and medieval aesthetics
Lion, eagle, snake - not only real animals, but symbols that show a person the path to truth, which meant more than objects in themselves. Allegorism extended to all phenomena of life and even served as calls to action.
Often, when the sound of rain is trance-like, or the light of a lamp is refracted in a certain way, we too can experience a different range of feelings, usually hidden in everyday life and affairs. This gives us a sense of the infinite mystery of the world and can make us a little happier, return to the state that medieval man has always experienced.
The Dark Ages are the cause of the light of the Renaissance
The beauty of everyday life was considered sinful, due to which it acquired a double attraction, and if they surrendered to it, then they enjoyed it more passionately than ever.
In art, the religious plot saved beauty from the seal of sin. If in the Middle Ages music and visual arts were seen as meaningful only if they were part of the veneration of Christ, and outside the church it was reprehensible to engage in art, then the Renaissance, having overcome the outdated idea of the joys of life as sinful, "strives to enjoy the whole of life."
All life becomes art, and even the most unaesthetic forms are transformed into the highest evidence of beauty and admiration.
In the era of the New Time, people begin to enjoy art in isolation from life, it begins to rise above it, and life itself loses its aesthetic dimension. With this loss is connected the longing for the Middle Ages, an era in which the sky was higher and the grass greener.
So, we stopped at the moment of the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, which occurred as a result of the invasion of barbarian tribes from the north. This happened to us in the 12th century. After that, the period of the XI - IX centuries begins, which we called the period dark ages, the Homeric period or the prepolis period. Without dwelling on this period for a long time, it is only necessary to note the most important thing that characterizes this time. This is a period of destruction of the foundations of civilization. This is the destruction of the foundations of statehood. This is the destruction of the foundations, first of all, of the palace type of economy. This is a period of oblivion of many cultural values that were created in previous centuries. This is a period of return to tribal relations.
So this period, on the one hand, is characterized as a period of deep decline and regression. And, above all, this is evidenced by the archaeological data that historians have at their disposal. First of all, these data show a very low standard of living, almost no social differentiation: almost all burials of this period are equally poor, this is the absence of luxury items and, above all, items brought from outside. At that time, Greece did not trade with anyone, and there was nothing for it to trade at that time.
This is the period when writing is completely forgotten. Here is what we said about Linear B, in fact, along with the destruction of the palace complexes of Balkan Greece, with the destruction of the palace sector of the economy, there is no need for writing as such. Not because, I repeat, the carriers of this knowledge were destroyed. According to tradition, a certain part of the Mycenaean nobility survived and then will give rise to the future, new aristocracy of Greece in the 1st millennium BC. There was no longer any need for this, in such writing, which fixed, first of all, economic documentation.
Skills in creating high-quality Mycenaean pottery are disappearing. What we have for this time: ceramics is very primitive both in terms of its manufacture and in terms of painting. Moreover, art historians say that at this time, instead of the so-called Mycenaean Koine, a single style that reigned on the territory of the Balkan Greece in the previous period, regardless of the existence of state borders. At that time, there was, as it were, a whole set of dialects, that is, those masters who made this ceramics, who literally often lived 10-15 kilometers from each other, they did not communicate. This is a period of disunity of the population that remained in Greece.
Another terrible indicator of this era is a sharp decline in population. Again, it is proved by archeology that many existing settlements, not to mention the centers, citadels, which were simply destroyed and abandoned, and so ordinary settlements are sharply reduced. Moreover, the reduction occurs several times. For example, in Argolis in the last period of the existence of the Mycenaean civilization there were more than 40 settlements, during the dark ages - no more than 6. Even those settlements that continued to exist, they are sharply reduced in area. That is, in living settlements, the number of living people is becoming much smaller.
The population in Balkan Greece is getting smaller for several reasons. First of all, the destruction of states led to political chaos. Not without reason in the tradition, especially Thucydides, there is a memory of this period, when the Greek tribes “wandered” around Greece. The state “holds” the borders, they give some kind of framework. That's when there are no states, then these tribal groups, which were formed on the basis of aliens, on the basis of the existing Achaean tribes, almost in the period dark ages traveled a lot in this little Greece. The stronger one tried to oust the weaker one from those few convenient territories that are in the Balkan Greece. The absence of statehood, the destruction of state infrastructure led not only to endless military clashes, it cannot be called a war, these were clashes of relatively small groups, but the losses from these endless clashes were large.
Then, as tradition testifies, it was a period when often, for several decades, Greece was devastated by various epidemics and diseases.
The term "Middle Ages" or the Middle Ages appears for the first time in the Renaissance. In the 15th century, it was proposed by the Italian humanist, historian Flavio Biondo to designate the era between Antiquity and the Renaissance. The term itself was initially negatively evaluative - the Renaissance figures considered this period the time of the savagery of Europe.
And in our time, the term "medieval" is often used as a synonym for decadence and reactionism. Gloomy, dark, cruel times... But it was in the Middle Ages that the foundations of modern civilization were laid. Science is developing, states, modern languages and many cultural values are being formed.
More discoveries were made in the 12th century than in the previous millennium! Cannons, glasses, gunpowder that came from the East, cutlery, a compass, an astrolabe - all this is the legacy of the Middle Ages. And the successes of medieval shipbuilding led to the Great geographical discoveries, first of all!
The Middle Ages begin with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. Young barbarian (translated from Greek “barbarian” means “foreign”) nationalities enter the world historical arena: Celts, Germans, Franks, Slavs, etc.
It is traditionally believed that the formation of medieval culture (or the early Middle Ages) lasted until the 8th-9th centuries. Period from X to XIV centuries. considered to be the heyday (High Middle Ages), and the XIV-XV centuries. (some medievalists also include the 16th century here) - the era of the Late Middle Ages. However, the boundaries are vague and have national characteristics: for example, in Italy in the 15th century, the Renaissance belongs to the New Age, and in Russia the era of the Middle Ages lasts until the end of the 17th century.
The early Middle Ages are defined by three historical processes:
The formation of feudalism, which replaces the ancient slavery, and statehood;
the great migration of peoples and, as a result, the mixing of cultures, the formation of new languages and interethnic conflicts;
the growth of the influence of Christianity and the formation of a new idea about man and the structure of the world in which he lives.
The feudal society of the Middle Ages has three main characteristics:
1. Class
A man of the Middle Ages first of all defines himself as a representative of a particular class (priesthood, chivalry or peasantry) and only secondarily as a person with a set of individual qualities. The transition from one class to another was almost impossible.
2. Hierarchy
All estates are in strict subordination (the peasantry is subordinate to chivalry, chivalry to the clergy). The same principle applies within the estate (the squire admires the knight regardless of his personal qualities, abilities or skills). Moreover, the representative of the younger class should treat the representative of the older one as a Heavenly Father, and he, in turn, should love his vassals as foolish children and take care of them.
3. Traditional
It is very important to maintain the tradition, to follow the patterns. Any innovations are accepted very slowly - the society of the Middle Ages is inert. Everything new is perceived as the machinations of the devil (the extraordinary role of Christianity, remember?).
Time and space are the basic forms of human experience through which we perceive the world. Ideas about these categories are determined not only by everyday experience, but also by the development of human civilization as a whole. These categories are historically variable.
In the Middle Ages, the idea of linear, unidirectional and finite time arises. The world was created, so it must end sometime. Another substance that a person of the Middle Ages remembers is eternity, where time came from and where it should return to. Hence the expectation of the Last Judgment and preparation for it as the main goal of earthly life. Remember the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, the Inquisition in Europe? Their main goal was to prepare for eternity and expel filth from the earthly world. Carpe diem has nothing to do with this era of the Middle Ages.
Interestingly, the first mechanical clocks, which were installed in Europe on city towers from the 10th century, did not have minute (and even more so second) hands, but often celebrated the holidays of the church calendar.
The concept of space in the Middle Ages also changes in comparison with ancient culture. There is an idea of its unity: the whole world was created by God. But at the same time, space is hierarchical: some territories are more valuable than others.
The most valuable space of the Middle Ages is the space of the church. In medieval German cities, there was even a custom: a criminal who touches the door of a cathedral is not subject to justice. Remember how Quasimodo hid Esmeralda in Notre Dame Cathedral? Victor Hugo very accurately described the idea of the Middle Ages about the sacred space of the church.
The medieval world is clearly divided and ethically charged: good is in the south and east, and evil is in the north and west. Purity and goodness is the sky, the top; the bottom and the earth are evil.
The symbol of this hierarchy is the cathedral, which even illiterate believers read like a book.
The language of international communication in the Middle Ages is Latin, which is also the language of worship. For the peasants and chivalry (with the exception of the highest ranks), who spoke folk dialects (the modern European languages are gradually being formed from them), it was a sacred (and, what is very important, absolutely incomprehensible) "language of angels". In Russia in the Middle Ages, the role of Latin was performed by the Church Slavonic language.
The power of the church in the era of the Middle Ages was comprehensive - it becomes the main political force. Secular power was weak and unstable. Dynastic wars between feudal lords (as an example, one can cite the civil strife of Russian princes in the 10th-11th centuries or the War of the Scarlet and White Roses in England in the 15th century), fragmentation (the collapse of the Carolingian Empire or Kievan Rus, wars between Italian cities) led to increased power a church with centralization, a rigid structure and a single language.
One of the symbols of the Middle Ages - the crusades - were waged against the Gentiles in order to recapture Palestine - the Holy Land with its Christian treasures (and only then for the sake of glory, wealth and honors). It was a search for an earthly paradise, a pilgrimage. The knights dedicated their exploits to the Virgin Mary (“the most beautiful of wives”). Later, spiritual and knightly orders were formed: the warriors became monks, combining the ideals of asceticism and selfless service. In the Middle Ages, people live in anticipation of the Second Coming and the Last Judgment.
A person is connected with God and only in this capacity has the right to exist (the Middle Ages does not know atheism). Education is also associated with the church - until the 9th-10th centuries. even a person could learn to read only at the monastery, not to mention the acquisition of more serious knowledge.
Since the 13th century, a new type of economic relations has been formed - the bourgeois one, which requires not a vassal, but a worker with personal freedom. Urban, secular culture develops, interest in the individual life of a person appears. The stagnation of the culture of the Middle Ages begins.
Education is no longer the prerogative of the church - universities are gaining strength (the first European university, Bologna, was opened in Italy in the 11th century, soon the University of Paris in France, Cambridge and Oxford in England, Prague, Krakow and Heidelberg universities) began to teach, in which secular sciences (medicine, jurisprudence, etc.). The Middle Ages considered theology and philosophy as the main science, the Renaissance - medicine and philology.
The attitude towards the church is changing, there is a division: she is provided with care for the soul of a person after his death, and secular authorities are responsible for his life in this world. The Reformation begins (first in Germany at the beginning of the 16th century, then in France, England, Denmark and other European countries). In Russia, the process of secularization and the end of the Middle Ages are attributed to the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries and are associated with the activities of Peter I.
The New Age begins, which has learned much more from its predecessor than it seemed to its representatives.
So, dear friends, we finally got to the "gloomy Middle Ages". By the way, do you know why the Middle Ages are called "gloomy"? After all, the very word "Middle Ages" was invented only when this era was drawing to its end. And they understood this word something like this: like there were bright times of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, when education, culture, and reason reigned. And then the barbarians came and everything was gone. In fact, those who know history and mythology well are aware of what these “bright” times were like. To put it mildly, extremely contradictory. In the 16th century, humanity again becomes incredibly educated, cultured and intelligent. What's in the middle? And in the middle lie the gloomy centuries of general savagery, the general decline of Europe, the triumph of religious and other prejudices. In short, a terrible time. Well, let's figure it out.
It is believed that the term "Middle Ages" (lat. ævum medium - middle age) was first introduced by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo (1453). Before Biondo, the main term for the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance was the concept of the "Dark Ages" introduced by Petrarch.
Maybe these "dark" and later became "gloomy", who knows. And by the way, note that the “dark ages” from the point of view of Petrarch continued until the Renaissance, and this era, from the point of view of modern history, is within the framework of the “Middle Ages”. So let's assume that the "dark Middle Ages" is what it was before the Renaissance. And then - immediately enlightenment. But first of all, dear readers, we must understand that whatever these centuries are, it still concerns only the history of Europe.
But I will not burden you any more, I will only inform you that the history of the portrait in this contradictory time really slowed down somewhat. In the period from the 6th to the beginning of the 15th century, this genre practically did not develop. Almost a hundred years is no joke.
What was it about? The fact is that the entire culture of the Middle Ages was aimed at overcoming the sinful essence of man. Everything bodily was discarded as useless, mortal, devoid of an eternal beginning, tempting a person. The priority of spiritual life is reflected in the art of the Middle Ages, which is most clearly embodied in cathedral architecture and religious painting and sculpture.
If the sculptors of Ancient Greece sculpted a person as they saw him ideally - harmoniously developed spiritually and physically, then Gothic artists depicted a person conditionally, schematically. The fine art of the Middle Ages was supposed to strengthen the human spirit, and not distract it from lofty thoughts. In medieval sculptures, a person is devoid of gender, and women and men are equally flat, narrow-shouldered, shapeless.
In icon painting, the spiritual principle was accentuated, a flat image was used, and a disproportion often appeared so that the viewer's attention was focused on the spiritual, heavenly, and not earthly. To do this, they resorted to the following methods: a large forehead was depicted on the icon - it meant the receptacle of the divine mind, large eyes - the focus of the spiritual in man. The attention of the viewer was focused on the hand of the depicted (the hand blesses, the hand overshadows with a cross).
Giotto di Bondone - Madonna Enthroned (Ognisanti Madonna)
Almost devoid of individuality, impassive, medieval images of people could hardly be called portraits. Perhaps you consider it natural, how can an icon be a portrait? Who could see the Mother of God? She herself did not pose for the artists! We will talk about who could pose for the artists for this holy image a little later. Follow me, dear readers, in the bright era of the Renaissance!
Cimabue. "Madonna"
The period of the Middle Ages (from lat. media - the middle) occupies a middle position between the time of the Ancient World and the New Age. The transition to it was marked by the Renaissance, the Great geographical discoveries, the industrial revolution and the emergence of a market economy. The chronology of the beginning of the Middle Ages is beyond doubt. It is customary to consider V in n as a starting point. e., more precisely, 476 AD. e., when the leader of the German barbarian tribes, Odacar, deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus. The word "barbarians" comes from "barbaros", as the Greeks called everyone who incomprehensibly chatted in an unknown and dissonant language. This word has become a household word for the destroyers of material and spiritual values. In addition, representatives of the tribes - the conquerors of Rome were at a lower level of general cultural development than the Greeks and Romans.
For all those who study the economic history of mankind, it seems most reasonable to start the starting point of the New Age, following the Middle Ages, with the events of the industrial revolution in England in the 60s. 18th century
Conventionally, the entire Middle Ages can be divided into three stages: the first - the early Middle Ages from the end of the 5th - the beginning of the 6th century. according to IX e.; the second is flourishing. Medieval civilization from the 10th to the 15th centuries; the third - the late Middle Ages - from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 18th century. The third stage will be discussed in the following sections.
So, the duration is set. Location - Europe. This word comes from "Erebus" - "West" (translated from Semitic). Under the Greeks and Romans, Europe was seen as an object for collecting indemnities. It was, as it were, a barbarian periphery, the border of the Roman Empire. From north to south, the continent is located from the Arctic Ocean to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, from west to east - from the Atlantic coast to the Ural Mountains. So, since antiquity, the concept of Europe has been identified with the geographical definition of "West" and opposed to "Asu" (translated from the Semitic "Asia"), or East. For the peoples and countries that already inhabited Europe in those centuries, one can distinguish common features of economic, socio-political and socio-cultural development. The countries of Western Europe have long stood out on the continent: England, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavian countries. Here, faster than in Eastern Europe, the processes of feudalization and industrialization took place, achievements in science and technology were more clearly manifested. The Celtic and Germanic tribes were part of the Roman Empire and had the opportunity to meet and adopt some of the achievements of the advanced for that time ancient civilization. Western European countries with the end of the Great Migration of Peoples established themselves within the state borders. They actively used the advantages and benefits of their geographical position. The seas and rivers surrounding them, crossing the plains and mountains, facilitated trade and primary exchanges of information about various kinds of innovations in material culture.
Eastern Europe has become a place of settlement of Slavic tribes, which turned out to be geographically farther from the seas and the ancient world centers of culture.
A kind of outpost of Europe in the east was Byzantium - the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The main feature of the early Middle Ages was the emergence of feudalism in the young European states. A qualitatively new civilization - Western (European) - is formed precisely in the Middle Ages on the basis of a synthesis of the relations of private property and the colony (lease relations) of antiquity and the communal-collectivist principles of European tribes. The third component of this synthesis of a new civilization was the material and spiritual culture of the Ancient East - the foundation of the entire world civilization. Without taking into account these closely interrelated processes that determined the material basis of European civilization, one cannot understand the features of the progress of the European economy in the Middle Ages, the formation of world economic relations.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages, the productive forces of Ancient Greece and Rome were largely destroyed, the monuments of material and spiritual culture perished in fires during the raids of barbarian tribes, in continuous wars, with the active migration of large masses of the population. Many labor skills were forgotten, the qualifications of artisans were lost. In the early Middle Ages, the development of technology and people's knowledge about the world was at a very low level.
This led to low labor productivity. Manual, handicraft production prevailed. For the successful development of vast new spaces in the north and in the center of Europe, covered with dense forests, the means of communication were primitive. Poor communication between individual regions made it difficult to exchange experience in economic life, which also held back progress. Wars, epidemics of plague and cholera, mass diseases of people and domestic animals greatly undermined the productive forces of society.
But at the same time, the most important process of the formation of modern states was taking place, within the framework of which national economic complexes began to gradually form. Appeared in the 13th century. in England, the Parliament, then the first constitutions in a number of countries legislated the right of private ownership of fixed assets. The works of scientists in chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, mechanics were used in technical improvements, navigation; rising living standards of the people. The dissemination of knowledge accumulated by mankind was facilitated by printing. 1000 years after the fall of ancient Rome, a galaxy of brilliant thinkers, rightfully headed by Leonardo da Vinci, put the production and cultural experience of antiquity at the service of people. They reached new heights in technology, science, art, often looking far ahead, ahead of their time. The Renaissance was not only the heyday of medieval civilization, but also worthily introduced human society into the New Age, leading it through the Great Geographical Discoveries.
So, there was no smooth transition, progressive movement in the development of productive forces along an ascending line from the era of the Ancient World to the Middle Ages, but there was undoubtedly economic progress, especially characteristic of the third period of the Middle Ages.
It all started with the formation of an agrarian society in Europe.
