ENDNOTES  page 277

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Beethoven (his love): *

Beethoven never married, but women influenced his music and life.  In May 1799 he taught piano to the daughters of Hungarian Countess Anna Brunsvik.  He fell in love with her younger daughter Josephine but soon after this she married Count Josef Deym.  Beethoven continued to teach Josephine, playing at their parties & giving concerts.   When Deym died in 1804 their relationship deepened.  He wrote her 15 passionate love letters (1804-1810).  It seems likely that his famous "Letter to the Immortal Beloved" was addressed to Josephine.  He dedicated his Song An die Hoffnung (To the Hope; Op. 32, 1804-05) to her as well as the lyrical piano solo Andante favori.  His feelings were reciprocated, but Josephine was forced by her family to withdraw.  She could not marry a commoner.  Class issues again crop up in 1801 when he met a young countess, Julie ("Giulietta") Guicciardi.  He mentions his love for Julie in a November 1801 letter; however he could not consider marrying her, due to the class difference.  He later dedicated his Sonata No. 14 (the Moonlight sonata), to her.  Therese Malfatti was another pupil of his with whom he fell in love.  He decided to propose marriage but his plans came to naught, his status as a commoner may again have interfered.  Beethoven dedicated his famous bagatelle, Für Elise, to her.  Eleonore von Breuning was a woman who inspired his Piano Sonata in C major.  Antonie Brentano (1780 - 1869) was another closed female.  He later dedicated one of his most accomplished works, the Diabelli Variations, to her and 2 more, including his antepenultimate piano sonata, to her daughter Maximiliane.

 

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Michelangelo (the elderly abandons sculpture for architecture): *

In 1545 Michelangelo turned 70.  That year his Tomb of Pope Julius II (started in 1505) was completed, though the final 2 figures, Leah and Rachel, were the work of assistants.  The associated sculpture, Moses, had been completed much earlier in 1513-15.  Between 1547 and 1553 he carved the Florentine Pietà.  His final sculptor was the Rondanini Pietà (1552–1564).  Neither were completed; both seem to reflect a pre-occupation with his own mortality.  They do not compare well with his earlier work reflecting supreme confidence, such as Pietà (1498-99), David (1501-04) or his work for the Tomb of Julius II. 

 

However after 1545 he was engaged in many notable architectural projects.  In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Piazza del Campidogli.  Also in 1546 he began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace.  In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica.  Michelangelo returned to Bramante's original design, retaining the basic form & concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design, creating a more dynamic and unified whole.  His planning for the dome was especially significant.  Late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, but the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid.  Between 1559-60 he drew plans for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (a small church in Rome).  At this same time he built the Sforza Chapel (in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence).  Between 1561-65 he built the Porta Pia (a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome).  His final architectural work (1563–1564) was remodelling the interior of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, a church in Rome.

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Michelangelo (Rondanini Madonna): *

It revisits the theme of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ  (first explored in the Pietà, 1499).  Michelangelo’s sense of mortality was deepening.  Like the series of drawings of the Crucifixion & the sculpture of the Deposition of Christ it was intended for his own tomb.  The elongated Virgin & Christ depart from the idealised figures of his earlier style.  they are closer to the attenuated figures of Gothic sculpture, & possibly point to Mannerism