Thorwaldsen (pseudo Renaissance): * see EndNote<A>

1770-1844, Danish sculptor of international fame, spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy; born into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, accepted to the Royal Danish Academy of Art age 11; outstanding representative of the Neoclassical period, compared to Canova & after Canova's death (1822) became foremost artist in the field.  The poses & expressions of his figures are much stiffer & more formal than  Canova's.   He embodied the classical Greek style more than Canova & believed that only through the imitation of classical art pieces could one become a great artist.  Motifs for his works (reliefs, statues, and busts) were drawn from Greek mythology, classic art & literature; he also carved portraits of important personalities (e.g. Pope Pius VII.).

 

Houdon (disguised painter):

1741-1828, French neoclassical sculptor, famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors & leaders of the Enlightenment; born in Versailles in 1752 he entered the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, where he studied with Michel Slodtz, Lemoyne & Pigalle.  He won the Prix de Rome in 1761, though he was not greatly influenced by ancient & Renaissance art in Rome.  Here he developed his Flayed Man (1767), an influential anatomical model and his statue of Saint Bruno (church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Rome).  He returned to Paris in 1771 & became a member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture.  He developed his art of portrait busts. In 1778, he modelled Voltaire, producing busts for the Comédie-Française; Versailles & Catherine the Great.  Famous portrait works include: Diderot (1771), Franklin (1778-89), Rousseau (1778), Voltaire (1781), Molière (1781), Washington (1785–88), Jefferson (1789), Louis XVI (1790), Fulton, (1803–04), Bonaparte (1806).

 

Rodin (disguised painter):

Rodin began to draw at age 10.  Between 14 and 17, he attended the Petite École, a school specializing in art and mathematics; here studied drawing and painting. His drawing teacher believed in first developing the personality of his students so that they observed with their own eyes and drew from their recollections.  Rodin was a painter though the popularity of his sculptures obscures this creative output.  He painted in oils (especially in his thirties) & watercolours.  The Musée Rodin holds 7,000 of his drawings and prints, in chalk and charcoal & drypoints.

 

Bernini (architect):

II page 87, VI page 197, and above page 232

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Schluter (architect):

1659-1714, German sculptor & architect; active in Berlin, a city his architecture helped establish as an important centre of German Baroque art; also worked in Warsaw & Russia.  He was influenced by Bernini, as well as Michelangelo & Girardon.  His first known work is the decoration of the facade of St Johannis Chapel, Danzig, in 1681.  He was active in Warsaw 1689-93.  The quality of his work was recognised in court & and in 1694 he was recalled to Berlin as court sculptor to Frederick III.  His sculpter at the Berlin armoury is a masterpiece of baroque expression & pathos.  The visible reliefs on the outside praised war, the statues of dying warriors in the interior denounced it, reflecting his pacifist religious beliefs (he was a Mennonite).  His most famous sculpture was a bronze equestrian statue of Frederick William the Great ( cast 1708).  In 1713 his fame brought him to work for Tsar Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg, where he died of an illness after creating several designs.

 

Coysevox (decorator):

Following his admission to the Académie Royale in 1676, he joined the team decorating the palace & gardens of Versailles working on this project with Le Brun until 1685.  Between 1701-09 he also worked on the Château de Marly of Louis XIV.  Much of his portrait busts are Baroque, but some of his more intimate work (e.g. portrait of Duchesse de Bourgogne as Diana -1710) clearly anticipates the naturalism and grace of the more decorative Rococo style.

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Greek (colour-blindness):

William Gladstone was a classics scholar; in his spare time did a study of colour usage in early Greek literature.  He observed that colour operated in a very different way in antiquity from what we are used to today.  He was one of the first to note that: 'We have a great deal of difficulty in translating Homer's colour terms into modern western languages'.  Gladstone established that Homer uses very few colour terms, that black and white predominate, he uses the same colours to describe objects which look quite different.  Gladstone believed that despite their literary & artistic sophistication, the Greek colour vocabulary was infantile.  From this came the idea that the Homeric Greeks had defective colour vision and that perhaps were colour blind en masse.

 

Nietzsche (Morgenrote):

aka The Dawn of Day, 1881, Nietzsche de-emphasizes the role of hedonism as a motivator and accentuates the role of a "feeling of power." His relativism, both moral and cultural, and his critique of Christianity also reaches greater maturity.  He devoted a lengthy passage to his criticism of Christian biblical exegesis, including its arbitrary interpretation of objects and images in the Old Testament as prefigurements of Christ's crucifixion.

 

gamut:

The entire scale or range

 

metopes (blue backgrounds): * see endnotes<B>

the metopes of the Parthenon were polychrome, like the rest of the scenery.  Their background was certainly red, in contrast with triglyphs, coloured in medium or dark blue. [possibly the translator has inserted metope for triglyps, or Spengler himself made this error]

 

blue horses in archaic Acropolis:

The statues of horsemen found in the Acropolis of Athens date from the archaic period, 6th century BC, dedications made by the aristocratic class, the Hippeis (horsemen). They were a display of the wealth and power of their class.  The earliest & most well-known of these is the ‘Rampin Horseman’ (550 BC).  The second largest rider (520-510 BC) bears chiselling marks & may have been reused as building material in the Acropolis walls.  Another impressive horseman (late 6th century BC) is naked but for sandals and rides a horse with a blue mane.

 

Polygnotus:

See Chapter III page 112, Chapter VI, page 183 and above page 221

 

Venetians (blue to green): * see Endnote<C>

Spengler refers to ‘an “infinitesimal" blue-to-green is the space-creating element throughout the history of our perspective oil-painting’.  Bellini is possibly the best representative of this atmospheric effect.

 

basso continuo:

form of musical accompaniment used in the Baroque period; it means "continuous bass".  sometimes just called "continuo", was played by a keyboard instrument & another bass instrument (cello, violone (an old form of double bass) or bassoon.

 

Raphael (blue-greenshading into white, grey & brown): * see Endnote<D>

Spengler refers to the “indefinite blue-green of a thousand nuances into white and grey and brown;”

 

Durer (blue green shading into white, grey & brown): * see endnote<E>

Again the same quote- Spengler refers to the “indefinite blue-green of a thousand nuances into white and grey and brown;”  Durer is harder to pinpoint as so many of his famous works are black & white prints rather then oils.

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Gobelins tapestry: * see Endnote<F>

Another reference of atmospheric space using the colours “indefinite blue-green of a thousand nuances”

And see page 232 above