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Tuscan school (Arezzo and Siena): *
The roots of the Tuscan School are found in Sicily. The Sicilian School (active 1230-66) consisted of a small band of Sicilians with a handful of mainland Italian poets, gathered around Frederick II & his Magna Curia (his court). Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced over 300 poems of courtly love, an experiment which continued under Manfred (Frederick's son). Giacomo is famous for his invention of the sonnet. This school was heavily influenced by French poetry but differs from the troubadours in its introduction of a kinder, gentler type of woman than that found in their French models; one who was nearer to Dante's madonnas and Petrarch's Laura, though much less characterised psychologically.
After 1250 the centre of literary activity moved north to Tuscany where interest in the Provençal & Sicilian lyric led to imitations by Guittone d’Arezzo and his followers. Guittone (born in Arezzo, 1235-94) was a Tuscan poet & founder of the Tuscan School. He was an acclaimed secular love poet before his conversion in the 1260s, when he became a religious poet. Owing to his Guelf sympathies he was exiled in 1256. He rediscovered the sonnet & brought it to Tuscany where he adapted it to his language. He wrote almost 250 sonnets. The Tuscan school flowers in 1282 with a new grand literary movement: Dolce Stil Novo, the most important literary movement of 13th century Italy. Influenced by both the Sicilian & Tuscan Schools, its main theme is Love (Amore). Writers like Lapo Gianni, Guido Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia and Dante Alighieri, made lyric poetry exclusively Tuscan. Love is a divine gift that redeems man in the eyes of God, and the poet's mistress is the angel sent from heaven to show the way to salvation. This neo-platonic approach was widely endorsed by Dolce Stil Novo, a metaphysical experience able to lift man onto a higher, spiritual dimension.
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Guido da Siena: *
The only work attributed to Guido by all authorities is this large “Virgin and Child Enthroned” painted for the Church of San Domenico (Siena), dated 1221 AD. its style making Guido far in advance of other Italian painters of his time.
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“Think of the masterpieces of this art, the three mighty female bodies of the East Pediment of the Parthenon, and compare with them that noblest image of a mother, Raphael's Sistine Madonna. In the latter, all bodiliness has disappeared. She is all distance and space.”
Spengler is making a direct comparison between 2 female images: the wet look drapery of the Apollonian female, and the Faustian Madonna.
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Cnidian Aphrodite: *
The Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy (torso and thighs) with restored head, arms, legs and drapery support
