art of the Franciscans (Cimabue, Giotto, Italian Gothic): * see EndNote<A>

Both Cimabue & Giotto are artists of the Proto Renaissance, the pre-Renaissance period (1300-1400) in Italy.  Giotto is considered the pioneer for the new form of figurative "realism".  Most of the artistic developments of this period directly affected Early Renaissance painting (1400-90).  Both men produced work for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, a church considered one of the gateways into the Renaissance proper.  In the late 13th century, it was decorated entirely in fresco by Cimabue. His assistant was the young Giotto, whom he employed after seeing the youth sketch his father's sheep. The fresco scenes of the life of St Francis were portrayed with much greater realism than contemporary styles of Byzantine art.

 

schism (East-West):

aka Great Schism, the break of communion between the Catholic Church & Eastern Orthodox churches, in 1054; the culmination of theological and political differences between the Christian East and West which had developed over the preceding centuries.  A succession of ecclesiastical differences & theological disputes between the Greek East and Latin West pre-dated the formal rupture.  Prominent among these were the issues of the procession of the Holy Spirit, whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, the Bishop of Rome's claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of the See of Constantinople in relation to the Pentarchy (the 5 major episcopal sees of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem).

 

ontological:

relating to ontology, a branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence

 

Godhead:

the divinity or substance of the Christian God, the substantial impersonal being of God, as opposed to the individual persons of the Trinity; the "what" of God, as against the "who" of God.  Especially important in Christian negative theology (the theology of the Godhead according to Pseudo-Dionysius).  

 

Perugino (drapery): * see EndNote<B>

Perugino (1452-1523) Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.  Vasari states he was apprenticed to the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and others.  Piero della Francesca taught him perspective form.  In 1472 he completed his apprenticeship & was enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke. He was one of the earliest Italian practitioners of oil painting.  In 1480, he was called to Rome by Sixtus IV to paint fresco panels for the Sistine Chapel walls.  These frescoes included Moses and Zipporah, the Baptism of Christ, and Delivery of the Keys.  Several other eminent artists were then working on the Sistine frescoes (Ghirlandaio,  Botticelli).  His main aim was to achieve harmony and balance - a quality apparent in his Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter (1481-2).  In this work he broke from the doctrines of Piero della Francesca.  His friezes of figures placed on various levels against an architectonic perspective are very different from Piero's geometrical characters surrounded by vast spaces.  This work, greatly admired for the clarity, control & organization of its composition, established his reputation.

 

Titian (late works, individual brush strokes): * see EndNote<C>

During his final period (after 1550) Titian was working hard as ever.  He painted numerous church scenes as well as the famous 'poesie', a series of erotic mythological paintings for Philip II of Spain, which included The Rape of Europa.  In these final pieces his work become looser and they tend to lose their solidity.  Colours and textures melt into each other, giving a shimmering, unsettling atmospheric effect.  His brushwork became more vibrant, he may have even used his fingers to complete paintings.  The representation of a naturalistic vision (the classical ideal) no longer interested him.  His style now paid small regard to contour or plasticity: it was free in handling, and almost harsh, where people and nature were painted in splashes and clots, slashes almost, of colour, the outlines softened, the highlights modulated, sometimes with a smudged finger.

 

Monteverde (orchestra-colours): * see EndNote<D>

Monteverdi was active 1590-1643.  While he worked extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, such as in his madrigals, he undertook great developments in form and melody, and began to employ the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque.  He represents the late Renaissance era while simultaneously summing up much of the early Baroque.  Spengler refers to orchestral colour used by Monteverdi.  In music, tone colour (aka timbre) is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments.  It enables listeners to distinguish different instruments in the same category (e.g. an oboe and a clarinet, both woodwind instruments).

And see pages 226, 230 above

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Venetian madrigal:

see above page 230