Venetian portraits: * see EndNote<A>

The first evidence of portrait painting in Venice surfaces in 1400 when Paolo Veneziano painted the portrait of the former Doge Francesco Dandolo & wife for his tomb.  Both are the same size as their patron saint, their faces appear authentic portraits though elements of Byzantine conventions linger.  Even earlier were a series of commemorative portraits (1365-68), of doges; unfortunately these were destroyed in 1577.  Between 1408-22 Fabriano (1370-1427) & Pisano (1394-1455) frescoed episodes of Venetian history which most likely incorporated portraits (in particular the reconciliation of Frederick Barbarossa with the pope).  Fabriano was a popular portrait painter by the early 15th century, when Antonio Pasqualino bought 2 of his portraits.  Gentile Bellini (1429-1507) was another famous portrait painter.  From these roots portrait painting would reach a climax in Venice with Titian (1485-1576), Tintoretto (1518-1594) and Veronese (1528-1588).

 

Goethian sense:

This is a reference to Sturm und Drang, a precursor to the Romantic movement.  This cultural phenomena was full of emotional turbulence & individuality; It originates in the 1760s as a reaction against the constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment; by the late 18th century its emotional extremes & subjectivity became the vogue.  Its most famous literary product was Goethe’s loose autobiography & self-confession of rejection: the Sorrows of Young Werther.

 

Quattrocento:

the cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499

 

Dante (Vita Nuova):

aka The New Life, the first of 2 collections of verse, containing poetry Dante wrote from before 1283 to 1293.  He uses a combination of both prose & verse to combine poems written over periods of 10 years.  The work is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love, the system of ritualized love & art that Dante inherited from the Provençal poets, the Sicilian poets of Frederick II’s court & the earlier Tuscan poets.  It is written in Tuscan vernacular not Latin & established the Tuscan dialect as the basis for Italian.  When he was in his twenties, Dante decided to write love poetry that was less centered on the self & more aimed at love.  He intended to elevate courtly love poetry, its tropes & language, into sacred love poetry.  Beatrice for Dante was the embodiment of this kind of love—transparent to the Absolute, inspiring the integration of desire aroused by beauty with the longing of the soul for divine splendour.

 

Michelangelo (sonnets):

300 sonnets & madrigals; the longest sequence displaying great romantic friendship, written to Tommaso dei Cavalieri (age 23) whom Michelangelo (age 57) met in 1532.  These make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another & predate by 50 years Shakespeare's sonnets to the fair youth.  Late in life, Michelangelo nurtured a great platonic love for the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536, when she was in her late forties.  They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died in 1547.  These sonnets deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them.

 

Netherlanders (of the Quattrocento):

major painters of the Netherlands active in the 15th century include Campin (1375-1444), Jan van Eyck (1390-1441), Rogier van der Weyden (1400-64 ), Dieric Bouts (1415-75), Petrus Christus (1410-75), Hans Memling (1430-94), Hugo van der Goes (1430-82) and Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).  These men made advances in natural representation & illusionism; their work typically features complex iconography.  Subjects were religious scenes or small portraits.  Landscape is often richly described but relegated as a background detail before the early 16th century. Their work is usually oil on panel, either as single works or more complex portable or fixed altarpieces in the form of diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs.

 

fickle Florence: * see EndNote<B>

For 500 years Florence passed from one family to another under its republican auspices.  It was subjected to numerous revolutions, some successful, others snuffed out.  In form it started as a Margraviate, then a republic and finally a hereditary dukedom.  In 1115 the republic of Florence was born when the people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany.  A commune was formed, the city was ruled by a council (the Signoria of Florence) from which was chosen the Gonfaloniere of Justice (titular ruler of the city), who was in charge of the internal security & maintenance of public order.  The republic had a history of coups and counter-coups against family based factions.  One of the leading families was the Medici, who benefitted hugely from their banking interests.  This family would rule Florence periodically; in between Medici rule the Republic sporadically re-invented itself. 

 

bizarrerie:

the quality of being bizarre, a bizarre act

 

Hellenic sorriness: * see EndNote<C>

Political fragmentation & its concomitant warfare dominates the history of Apollonian culture, from the Dark Ages onward.  Political unification & its attendant peace between the Greek poleis was only achieved through force of arms, first as imposed by Philip II and then later, by Roman armies. 

 

anti-Gothic:

Spengler perceives the Renaissance as chiefly a reaction against Gothic influence and not an organic movement of the Faustian Soul.  As a negative it failed to change the course of Faustian art & would eventually succumb to the Faustian sprit as reflected in the Baroque.

 

Medicis: * see EndNote<D>

Italian banking family & political dynasty, rising to prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence, first half 15th century.  Family roots lie in the Mugello region of Tuscany where the family prospered; their wealth and influence was derived from the textile trade guided by the wool guild of Florence.  In 1397 they established the Medici Bank, the largest in Europe during in the 15th century.  Medici power was greatly facilitated by this institution.  Like many other families ruling in Italian signorie, they dominated the city government & brought Florence under their family's power, although as citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century.  The family created an environment in which art & humanism flourished.

and see entry above “fickle Florence”

 

Sforzas:

a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan, which they acquired from the earlier rulers, the Visconti family in the mid-15th century.  They ruled Milan continuously from 1450 until 1535, except for 2 short periods (1499-1513 and 1515-21).  The last Sforza to rule in Milan was appointed by Charles V in 1521.  Their rule in Milan ended in 1535 on the death of Francesco II Sforza, who produced no off spring.  Because he had no heirs, his dynasty was brought to an end by Charles V, whose niece, Christina of Denmark, was Francesco’s wife. There were no protests when Charles V took over the Duchy of Milan from either the people or other Italian states.

 

Borgias:

an Italo-Spanish noble family, rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance; from Aragon, their surname based on the town of Borja, in Spain.  They became prominent in ecclesiastical & political affairs in the 15th and 16th centuries, producing two popes: Alfons de Borja, Pope Callixtus III (1455–58, and Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia, Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503).  During the reign of the latter, they were suspected of many crimes (adultery, incest, simony, theft, bribery, murder- by arsenic poisoning).  They were power hungry & became enemies of the Medici, the Sforza, and the Dominican friar Savonarola, among others.  The family is today steeped in immorality, but this characterization is probably the result of undeserved contemporary critiques.  They were also patrons of the arts who contributed to the Renaissance.

 

Malatestas:

Italian family that ruled over Rimini & the Romagna 1295 to 1500.  The most famous was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-68), a rival of the papacy over territorial claims & opponent of Federico da Montefeltro.  In the end, he lost all but Rimini.  He built the cathedral of Rimini, the Tempio Malatestiano, from 1450.  His grandson Pandolfo was eventually expelled in 1500 by Cesare Borgia; in 1528 it was incorporated into the Papal States when Pandolfo's son, Sigismondo, failed in an attempted coup.  In the 16th & 17th centuries, the family provided a number of condottieri.  The Sogliano branch was extinguished in 1640, the Rimini branch ended with the Jesuit Roberto Malatesta (died 1708), and the Ghiaggiolo branch died with Lamberto (1757).

 

waste republics: * see EndNote<E>

During the Renaissance republics were a common form of government throughout the city-states of Italy.  Such republican forms of government gave the people much greater power & influence than they held a monarchy, the common form of government in Middle Ages.  However these rich republics were vulnerable to their larger neighbours, the kings of Europe morphing into nation states with unified governments & standing armies.  In the 1490s France invaded aiming to conquer the kingdom of Naples.  This drew in the Spanish crown, who refused to allow French domination.  Plague forced the French army to retreat, but their invasion resulted in decades of war between France & Spain for the control of Naples & later all of Italy.  Italy became a battleground.  In 1527 a Spanish army sacked Rome causing widespread loss of life & devastation.  Phillip II would establish Spanish domination in Italy.  Many of the Italian city-states technically independent republics were now under de-facto Spanish control.  This led to a loss of political and individual freedom.

 

Giovanni Bellini (Gothic and Baroque joined hands):

Bellini enjoyed a long life (1430-1516) & career, his roots in a celebrated family of Venetian artists.  His painting in tempera begins with the Quattrocento style (to include International Gothic); his work matured into the progressive post-Giorgione Renaissance style.  He is credited with introducing oil paint into Venice & thereby revolutionizing it.  His 2 pupils, Giorgione and Titian, would go on to become famous masters, pushing the boundaries of painting.

 

Venice (political duration, portraiture, diplomacy):

In contrast to Florence (which suffered political instability & then Medici monarchs) the Venetian Republic was a stable & independent power for several centuries, only declining after 1797.  Venice was a leading commercial power in the Middle Ages & Renaissance and came to dominate trade in the Mediterranean, between Europe, North Africa & Asia.  It was the home for a wealthy merchant class, who patronized art & architecture.  Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe & played a key role in fostering capitalism.  It was ruled by the Doge, elected by members of the Great Council of Venice.  This oligarchy of merchants & aristocrats enjoyed the general support of the population.  Venice was renowned for its skilled & astute diplomacy which was based on an unrivalled capacity to gather intelligence and enhanced by the care taken by Venetian governments to keep their own policy‐making secret.  These diplomatic skills were initially developed dealing with the Byzantine emperors. In later centuries the protection of their extensive commercial interests in the eastern Mediterranean resulted in their being considered experts in dealing with the Ottoman Turks. They also played an important role in the development of diplomatic relations among the states of Italy. From the 16th century, as the republic's power declined, Venice generally tried to remain neutral, using diplomacy to try to play a role as an international power.

for Venetian prominence in the art of portraiture see above