Coysevox:

1640- 1720, French sculptor of Spanish descent, born at Lyon.  Hired by Louis XIV in 1666; became famous for his decorative work at Versailles.  Here he enriched the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) & the Ambassador’s staircase; he also carved the equestrian relief of the King (1688) for the Salon de la Guerre.  Also worked in the royal gardens, notably the equestrian “Mercury” & “Renown” (1700–02).  Also notable for his portrait busts, which began a trend toward the sharpened depiction of individual character.   He produced works for the tombs of the finance minister Colbert (1685–87; Saint-Eustache, Paris), Cardinal Mazarin (1689–93; Louvre) & the votive group of Louis XIV on the high altar of Notre-Dame.  These are formal & stately, a typical Baroque character.  However he also produced more intimate portraits, such as that of the Duchesse de Bourgogne as Diana (1710; Louvre), where he omits the Italianate swagger of Bernini & the formality of the state portraits and anticipate the naturalism & grace of Rococo.

 

Crouching Venus of the Louvre (Coysevox): * see Endnote <A>

this is a bronze copy of a marble produced by Coysevox in 1686, for the Château de Marly; Coysevox set his Venus on a tortoise rather than a shell & was so pleased with his work he inscribed the name of Phidias in Greek as well as his own.  The sculpture pleased the king to the extent that a bronze version was cast.  Today the Marly marble is at the Louvre and the Marly bronze is at Versailles. 

 

Crouching Venus of the Vatican (Apollonian):* see Endnote <B>

The Crouching Venus is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath.  She crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns her head to the right and, in most versions, reaches her right arm over to her left shoulder to cover her breasts.  The large number of copies excavated on Roman sites in Italy & France suggest this variant on Venus was popular.  A number of examples of the Crouching Venus in prominent collections have influenced modern sculptors since Giambologna (1529-1608).

 

staccato: * see endnote<C>

a tempo- making each note brief and detached; the opposite of legato. In musical notation, a small dot under or over the head of the note indicates that it is to be articulated as staccato.

 

accelerando:

a tempo- accelerating; gradually increasing the tempo

 

andante:

a tempo- at a walking pace (i.e. at a moderate tempo)

 

allergro:

a tempo- cheerful or brisk; but commonly interpreted as lively, fast

 

Watteau:

see Chapter III page 108  and Chapter VI page 207 and page 219 above

 

Fragonard:

1732-1806, French painter & printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism.  A prolific artist working in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, he produced more than 550 paintings (not counting drawings and etchings), of which only 5 are dated. Among his most popular works are genre paintings conveying an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism.

 

Gobelins:

a family of dyers who, in the mid 15th century established themselves in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel , Paris.  In 1602, Henry IV of France rented factory space from the Gobelins for his Flemish tapestry makers, Marc de Comans and François de la Planche, on the current location of the Gobelins Manufactory. In 1662, the works in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were purchased by Colbert on behalf of Louis XIV & made into a general upholstery factory, where designs both in tapestry & for furniture were executed under the superintendence of the royal painter, Charles Le Brun (director & chief designer 1663-90).  On account of Louis XIV's financial problems, the establishment was closed in 1694, but reopened in 1697 for the manufacture of tapestry, chiefly for royal use.

 

pastels:

a colour having a soft, subdued shade, or the implements to create such colours; originated in the 15th century.  It is mentioned by Leonardo da Vinci, who learned of it from the French artist Jean Perréal.  It was sometimes used as a medium for preparatory studies by 16th-century artists.  In the 18th century it became fashionable for portrait painting, sometimes in a mixed technique with gouache. It was an important medium for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, de La Tour (who never painted in oils).  The pastel still life paintings and portraits of Chardin are much admired, as are the works of the Swiss-French artist Jean-Étienne Liotard.  In 18th-century England the outstanding practitioner was John Russell.

 

colour tones/tone colours:

Also known as timbre, is the quality of a sound that is not characterized as frequency (pitch), duration (rhythm), or amplitude (volume). Generally speaking, tone color is what allows a listener to identify a sound as being produced by a specific instrument & to differentiate between instruments of the same type. For instance, a trumpet sounds quite different from a violin, even if they play a tone at the same frequency, amplitude, and for the same duration. However, one violin may also sound audibly different from another violin.

 

homogeneity:

the property of composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind; not heterogeneous; of the same kind or nature; essentially alike.

 

Bernini (his architecture): * see endnote<D>

Bernini dominated the architecture of the High Roman Baroque period (1623-67).  This architecture is suffused with theatricality & as urban theatres it provides points of focus within their locality in the cityscape.  A good example of this is Bernini’s Saint Peter's Square, a masterstroke of Baroque theatre.  The piazza is formed principally by 2 colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk.  Bernini's own favourite design was his oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, in Rome , built for the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill.  It was designed by Bernini with Giovanni de'Rossi.  Bernini received the commission in 1658 and the church was constructed by 1661, although the interior decoration was not finished until 1670.  It is decorated with polychome marbles and an ornate gold dome & lantern.

see Chapter II page 87, Chapter VI pages 197, 2I9,

 

polyphonies:

see above page 228, 119 and 230

 

harmonies:

the musical definition includes: the simultaneous combination of tones, especially when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; other usage includes: agreement; accord; harmonious relations, and a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts; congruity.

 

trills:

to sing or play with a vibratory or quavering effect; this is a reference to subtle Rococo interiors characterized with elaborate ornamentation, asymmetrical values, pastel colour palettes & curved or serpentine lines; Spengler is delibertly using a term which has quasi musical meaning as well (to resound vibrantly, or with a rapid succession of sounds -as the voice, song, or laughter- or to make a succession of sounds resembling such singing (as a bird, frog, grasshopper, or person laughing)

 

cadences:

in music  a sequence of notes or chords that indicates the momentary or complete end of a composition, section or phrase; the beat, rate, or measure of any rhythmic movement:

 

Dresden (architecture):

reference to the Rococo period in this city (see the Dresden Zwinger)

see Chapter II, page 87 and Chapter III, page 108

 

Vienna (architecture):

reference to the Rococo period in this city

see Chapter II, page 87

 

curved furniture: * see Endnote<E>

In 1736 the designer & jeweller Jean Mondon published the Premier Livre de forme rocquaille et cartel (Rococo Shape Book), a collection of designs for ornaments of furniture and interior decoration.  Carved or molded seashell motifs were combined with palm leaves or twisting vines to decorate doorways, furniture, wall panels and other architectural elements.  Rococo style furniture was especially popular in France.  The best known French furniture designer of the period was Meissonnier (1695–1750), also a sculptor, painter & goldsmith for the royal household. He held the title of official designer to the Chamber and Cabinet of Louis XV. His work is well known today because of the enormous number of engravings made of his work which popularized the style throughout Europe. He designed works for the royal families of Poland and Portugal.

 

mirror-halls:

the most famous of such mirror halls is the Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles, the central gallery of the palace; it is the principal & most remarkable feature of King Louis XIV’s third building campaign for the Palace (1678–1684).  To provide for the Hall of Mirrors as well as the salon de la guerre and the salon de la paix, which connect the grand appartement du roi with the grand appartement de la reine, architect Hardouin Mansart appropriated 3 rooms from each apartment as well as the terrace that separated the two apartments.  The principal feature of this hall is the 17 mirror-clad arches that reflect the 17 arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains 21-one mirrors with a total complement of 357 used in the decoration of the galerie des glaces.  The arches themselves are fixed between marble pilasters whose capitals depict the symbols of France.

 

shepherdesses in verse & porcelain: * see Endnote<F>

Shepherds and shepherdesses have long been popular art motifs.  This subject was raised to new heights by painters who celebrated pastoral (‘relating to a shepherd’) life, such as the Venetian artists Titian & Giorgione around 1600.  Pastoral themes centred on the tranquillity of country life and the love between shepherds & shepherdesses. Their landscape setting was called ‘Arcadian’, after the mythological pastoral paradise of Arcadia.  The 17th-century Italianates from the Northern Netherlands & Flanders painted sun-drenched Italian landscapes populated with herdsmen & cattle.  These foreground figures served to make the landscape vaster and the ancient ruins more imposing. This motif was continued into the 18th century as objects in the Rococo style were ornamented with charming Arcadian motifs.  One of the most famous 18th century shepherdesses was Queen Marie Antoinette.  Following the birth of her son, Louis XVI gave her the chateau, the Petit Trianon.  The Queen abandoned Versailles & retired here.  Later a miniature farm was constructed for her and her friends so she could live a “simple” life.  Her growing unpopularity drove her further into an escapist lifestyle.  One of these avenues was the role royal “shepherdess”.  In the 18th century a wave of naturalism & an affinity towards the "simple" life swept France.  This idealism of Nature came from the works of Rousseau.  French aristocrats loved to act like shepherds and shepherdesses, while still enjoying the comforts of their social position.  They were joined by the queen who copied the model farm of Prince of Condé's Hameau de Chantilly (1774–1775).  Her Hameau de la Reine was a rustic "village," a model farm with half-timbered façades and reed-thatched roofs.

 

Vienna (Congress of):

aka the Congress of Vienna;  a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Metternich, in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815; the objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

 

Faustian forest music:

Spengler here refers to the origins of the Faustian soul which he sees as being Germanic, of the people of the woodlands of northern Europe