Таълим вазирлиги бухоро давлат университети филология факультети

Lecture 3. THE DEFINITION OF TERMS CLASSIC, CLASSICAL, CLASSICISM. A.POPE’S CLASSICISM
Plan:

1. 
   Classicism as a style in literature.
   
2. 
   Renaissance of the twelfth century.
   

In general, classicism can be defined as a style in literature, visual art, music, or architecture that draws on the styles of ancient Greece and Rome, especially fifth- and fourth-century b.c.e. Athens and late Republican Augustan Rome. The term can be confusing, because it has taken on many other meanings. It can refer to a general aesthetic characterized by clarity, elegance, and symmetry, or to a style that is generally thought of as exemplifying greatness or perfection. For instance, most people would identify the Boston Pops as performers of "classical music" or John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as a "classic" of American literature, even though they have little to do with antiquity. Variations on the term, like neoclassicism, can furthermore refer to a specific school or style in a particular time period. Despite this confusion, the term is still useful in describing particular styles and impulses in literature and the arts from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century.

The Middle Ages experienced two noteworthy revivals of the literature of antiquity that were inspired by and helped to promote classicism. The first is known as the Carolingian Renaissance, so called to recognize the flowering of learning under the reign of Charlemagne (ruled 768–814). The most famous figure of this period was the monk Alcuin (c. 732–804), who amassed a remarkable manuscript collection of classical works in the library of York. At the invitation of the emperor Alcuin developed an educational curriculum at the Palace School in Aachen that included readings of classical authors. He also developed the Carolingian miniscule, a clear script based on classical principles, and promoted the copying and distribution of classical texts. The achievements of the Carolingian age set the stage for the next classical revival, known as the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, a term coined by Charles Homer Haskins (1870–1937) to describe the flowering of classical learning during this period. It was more far-reaching than the earlier revival and had implications beyond the field of literature, most importantly in architecture, the visual arts, and the revival of Roman law.
From the twelfth century on, classicism was the domain mainly of lawyers and churchmen, most notably in the papal curia (the circle of theologians and secretaries who carried on papal business), where learned men could come together to share their interests in classical letters and style. It was in this environment at Avignon that Petrarch (1304–1374), the father of Italian humanism, first learned about and promoted classical learning. But it was in Florence, particularly among the patrician class, that Petrarch's classicism was most strongly received, most notably through his friend and disciple Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). Up to this point classicism had been mainly a literary pursuit that influenced the art of letter writing, poetry, and rhetoric. In the following generation, the Florentine chancellor Colucio Salutati (1331–1406) helped turn classicism from a literary movement into a powerful tool for shaping politics and society on the Italian peninsula. It was in the works of the humanist historian Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370–1444) that classicism laid the foundation for a republican ideology.
The study of ancient Greek was virtually unknown in western Europe from the fifth century c.e. onward. Greek had been a fundamental part of the Roman educational system; any educated Roman would have known it and been able to quote from its most famous authors and orators, such as Demosthenes, Aristophanes, or Lucian. As humanists in Petrarch's circle read more and more ancient authors they discovered that a full appreciation of their literature required a thorough background in the literature and culture of ancient Greece. Salutati invited the most celebrated Byzantine scholar of the times, Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1353–1415), to teach in Florence. The revival of Greek learning was aided by growing contact between the Greek and Latin churches at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438–1445 and also by the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, after which Greek émigrés fleeing the city took up residence in Italy and made a living by teaching Greek to Italian pupils. They also brought with them many Greek texts that had been virtually unknown and unread in western Europe since the fall of Rome. Cardinal Bessarion (1403–1472), a priest who converted from the Greek to the Latin church and was a tireless promoter of ancient Greek studies, bequeathed thousands of Greek manuscripts to the people of his adopted home of Venice, where they formed the nucleus of St. Mark's Library. The works of Plato were especially influential, and a circle of Neoplatonic scholars led by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) sought to fuse Christian thought with Platonic philosophy.
Classicism was also the foundation of the educational revolution of the Renaissance, which sought to revive the studia humanitatis, the educational system of ancient Rome as set out in the writings of classical authors like Cicero and Quintilian. The schoolmasters Gasparino da Barzizza (1360?–1430) and Guarino da Verona (1370/1374–1460) attracted wealthy students to study ancient literature and culture in their schools, and along with Bruni they wrote educational treatises that outlined their pedagogical method. Their disciples carried on their teachings—both in classrooms and in educational treatises and editions of classical works—and spread them throughout Italy and across the Alps into northern Europe. The introduction of printing in the latter part of the fifteenth century greatly propelled humanist learning, providing stable editions of classical texts to a far wider audience than could have been imagined in the earlier classical revivals of the Carolingian period or the twelfth century. The advent of printing is likely responsible for the permanent establishment of classicism as an integral part of Western civilization from the fourteenth century to the present day.
Classicism was embraced in many ways during the Renaissance in Italy, and it manifested itself in various pursuits. For example, Julius Pomponius Laetus (1428–1497) founded the Roman Academy, whose members took an active role in antiquarianism and the study of the ancient ruins of the city of Rome. They also embraced non-Christian ideas and revived ancient pagan ceremonies, which brought them under the scrutiny of church authorities. The collection and preservation of inscriptions, coins, and buildings by antiquarians were important in the historical reconstruction of the history of Rome, and these activities represented the early development of modern archaeology. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) explored the linguistic aspects of ancient writers and gave the study of the Latin language a more scientific grounding. His most famous work, Elegances of the Latin Language (published 1471), was a practical style guide for writing and speaking the most elegant Latin, which he identified with the Latin of the "golden age" of Roman letters. By periodizing Latin style, Valla invented a philological method for the scientific study of texts that was further developed by Christian humanists like Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466?–1536), who used it to challenge the authenticity of the Vulgate Bible. This philological method also laid the foundation for modern textual criticism.
While the classicism of the Renaissance started as a literary pursuit, its most striking and accessible flourishing occurred in the visual arts and architecture at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) turned his talents to architecture and designed (or redesigned) many churches and palaces in a style that reflected his study of ancient buildings. He was particularly interested in the mathematical proportions behind the design of ancient Roman buildings and in developing engineering processes to build them. His slightly younger contemporary Donatello (c. 1386–1466) used the same principles to create statues that imitated the style of classical sculpture. Along with the painter Masaccio (1401–1428), who included classical elements in the content of his paintings and used newly developed techniques of perspective, these visual artists reflected what is known as the early Renaissance style. Its techniques were recorded and explained in treatises written in the vernacular by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), who made the principles of perspective drawing and painting accessible to a wide variety of artists who wanted to learn this fashionable approach. The new style of art was funded by wealthy patrons, including businessmen, aristocrats, and the popes. Classical styles and themes continued to dominate the period of the High Renaissance in the work of the early-sixteenth-century masters Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), and Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520).
If Italians played the lead role in the revival of antiquity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in the sixteenth century that role was assumed by northern Europe, where classicism particularly flourished among scholars in France, Germany, Switzerland, and England. While classicism had played a small role in medieval universities like Oxford and Paris, its influence had not been widespread. With the new availability of relatively inexpensive printed books and Italian-trained native teachers, however, the study of classical literature became more accessible, and by the middle of the century it was the norm in most educational curricula.
The study of theology in the sixteenth century was completely overhauled as humanist scholars like Erasmus insisted that a thorough grounding in the three biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin) was necessary to understand the Bible. Scholasticism, the prevailing school of theology that had its origins in the twelfth-century Paris schools, did not have any particular animosity toward classicism; indeed, a number of Scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, such as Jean de Gerson (1363–1429), displayed interest in the classics. But Scholastic theologians did object strongly to the application of the philological method to the text of the Bible and to language study as the foundation of theological training. Humanists like Erasmus and Protestant reformers like Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), himself a scholar of ancient Greek, argued that the theologians were hostile to their biblical studies because they disliked and were ignorant of classical literature, thus turning a debate over authority in theology into a debate over classical learning. By mid-century, classical literature was the foundation of the educational program both in Catholic countries, where the Jesuit order promoted classical learning, and in Protestant countries.
Another controversy that arose among classical scholars themselves was over the status and influence of the Roman orator Cicero. Most prominent in Rome, the Ciceronian faction promoted Cicero as the highest standard of Latin usage, and some, like the papal secretary Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), vowed never to use a word that did not appear in Cicero's writings. Erasmus wrote a famous dialogue mocking what he saw as the Ciceronians' slavish following of Cicero, and he argued for a broader-based standard for Latin usage. This debate continued into the seventeenth century as some scholars sought to dethrone Cicero. At the end of the sixteenth century the Dutch humanist and scholar Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) promoted the revival of the Stoic philosophy. Strongly influenced by the Roman philosopher Seneca, Lipsius promoted Stoicism as an alternative to Neoplatonism, which had been so influential in the earlier part of the century. A little later in France, the astronomer and mathematician Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) championed the revival of Epicureanism, a more materialist ancient philosophy that was more in tune with the rationalism that was gaining ground at the time.
The dramatic growth of vernacular literature in the sixteenth century hastened the abandonment of classical form in literature, though many of its stylistic attributes were adopted as conventions of vernacular style and content. This is visible in works of the group of sixteenth-century French poets known as La Pléïade, and it continues right through to the plays of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In art classical themes and motifs remained the norm throughout the sixteenth century, but they were challenged late in the century by the emergence of baroque and rococo styles in art, architecture, and music. This movement away from classicism corresponded to a general shift away from the authority of the ancients and toward a greater emphasis on human reason and sense perception, as articulated most strongly in the Discours de la méthode (1637; Discourse on method) by René Descartes (1596–1650). In the arts this shift was reflected by a tendency to focus on human emotions and movement, while retaining the grandiose style and form more characteristic of Renaissance art. The Italian painter, sculptor, and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) exemplifies the baroque style by infusing classical style with intense emotion, as in his Ecstasy of St. Theresa (1645–1652). Likewise baroque music, exemplified by the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), retained the classical notion of music expressing the order of the universe but was at the same time lively and tuneful. "Neoclassical" is the name given to the style of art and architecture that prevailed from the middle of the eighteenth century through the nineteenth. In music, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) represent the tenets of classicism, emphasizing balance and proportion. But for Mozart, and even more so for Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), classical elements were mixed with Romantic ones.
Classicism created a standard of civilization against which contemporary society could be judged, a standard that was prevalent in the early modern period. What began as an elitist literary hobby bloomed from the time of Petrarch and was applied to all facets of life—from education and politics to music, visual art, and architecture. The classical ideal was something to strive for, and in striving for it adherents developed new methods to attain the ideal. Along the way they made advances in mathematics, engineering, linguistics, and design that in turn led to advances in other areas. Moreover, classicism was extremely flexible. It could temper the ascetic desires of a Carmelite monk like Baptista Spagnoli (Mantuanus; 1447–1516), known in his own time as the Christian Virgil, just as easily as it could feed the vanity of an artist like Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), who in his autobiography boasted of his own talents. The same style of architecture that the Americans used for their new capital in Washington, D.C., in order to present their sense of achievement in gaining independence from the British, had previously been used as a symbol of the opulence of the French nobility and crown at Versailles, and it also enshrined the gods of reason in the Pantheon in Paris. Because the classical world contained a spectrum of thought and style, classicism offered an almost endless variety of models and ideas. Though it continued to be strong in some quarters in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, classicism never again became as widespread as it had been in the previous five centuries. To a great extent, the discoveries of modern science began to show just how much the ancients had not known, as had been foreshadowed by the European discovery of the "New World" and by Galileo's telescope. As a standard, at least, the ancients were eventually surpassed.