The monograph is devoted to the study of the emergence of the new European theory of creativity, touches on a wide range of problems associated with the rethinking of the ancient theory of art in the European artistic culture of the 14th-16th centuries. The work analyzes the attitude towards nature in different cultures and the problem of identifying God and the artist in the ancient and modern European traditions. A significant place is devoted to the study of the historical evolution of ideas about “creative nature” and God the master, the problem of the transformation of the artist from a craftsman into a representative of the intellectual elite of society, changes in the social status of the artist, the relationship between the artist and the public, the emergence of new criteria for evaluating works of fine art, the development of ideas about creative individuality, including rethinking the classical concepts of “recreation” (mimesis) and “creation of the new” (poiesis).