Dante (his great love):

Dante was married to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, of the powerful Donati family &by 1301 they had 3 children.  However the love Spengler refers to is Dante’s feeling for Beatrice di Folco Portinari, daughter of the banker Folco Portinari; she married another banker, Simone dei Bardi.  Dante claims to have met her only twice, in 1274 & 1283.  He was respectively 9 and 18 years of age but was so affected by the meetings that he carried his love for her throughout his life.  She was the principal inspiration for his Vita Nuova.  This was an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style (a combination of both prose and verse).  She is also identified with the Beatrice who appears as one of his guides in the Divine Comedy , in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four cantos of Purgatorio.  She takes over from Virgil (because, as a pagan he cannot enter Paradise).  She is the incarnation of beatific love, and it is Beatrice who leads into the beatific vision.

 

Michelangelo (his erotic):

We cannot know if Michelangelo had sexual relations.  One of his first biographers, Condivi, ascribed to him a "monk-like chastity".  However the nature of his sexuality is apparent in his poetry.  He wrote over 300 sonnets & madrigals.  The longest sequence displaying a great romantic friendship, was written to Tommaso dei Cavalieri (1509–87), 23 to Michelangelo’s  57 years.  In 1542 he met Cecchino dei Bracci who died a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write 48 funeral epigrams.  The openly homoerotic nature of the poetry led to Michelangelo's grandnephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, changing all the gender pronouns!  Some scholars continue to insist that, despite the restoration of the pronouns, they represent "an emotionless and elegant re-imagining of Platonic dialogue, whereby erotic poetry was seen as an expression of refined sensibilities".  Regardless of his sexual activity or lack thereof, it seems much of his pent up sexuality was expressed in his poetry and his artwork, in particular of the male nude.

 

Beethoven (his love): * see EndNote<A>

Like Michelangelo, Beethoven never married.  He fell in love however many times.  His intense feelings have been reflected in a number of musical pieces.

 

sub specie aeternitatis:

Latin, under the form of eternity

 

Michelangelo (the elderly abandons sculpture for architecture): * see EndNote<B>

Michelangelo’s achievements in sculptor date from his teen age years up to age 60.  After this there is a notable decline in monumental quality.  In terms of architecture, most of his notable success came after the age of 60.  Before 1545 notable works include the Medici Chapel & Laurentine library.  But his greatest construction came after this date.

 

Michelangelo (Rondanini Madonna): * see endNote<C>

marble sculpture which Michelangelo worked on from 1552 until his death (1564); name derived from the courtyard Palazzo Rondanini in Rome where the statue long stood.  There may have been 3 versions. 

 

contrapuntal form:

having 2 or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together; contrapuntal music involves counterpoint, in which more than one musical line plays at the same time.  The lines are independent but related harmonically.  Such harmonic relationships are difficult to achieve & a contrapuntal composer must be very skilled.  Contrapuntal music is also called polyphonic.

 

Michelangelo (shatters Renaissance architecture, ushers in Baroque): * see EndNote<D>

Symmetry & proportion were the objectives of Renaissance architecture.  The evenly spaced geometric façade was defined by a row of columns.  They valued balance  and ideal beauty (which they perceived in Classical Antiquity).  A Renaissance ground plan was simple, elementary & analytic; their favourites were the square, circle & Greek cross (a cross with equal arms).  Michelangelo was a renaissance architect, but he broke from many Renaissance ideals.  His treatment of the column is no longer strictly Renaissance.  His columns are often grouped & may be set into a niche, thereby losing their Classical connotations.  The vestibule of the Laurentian Library is a case study in which these elements are used in a new & original manner.  In particular Michelangelo’s design for the dome of St Peters, his use of the ovoid (as opposed to the hemisphere -half of the perfect sphere or globe) reflects a move away from the strictly analytic & geometric.  The ovoid gives the building a thrust upward, it imparts tension& movement.  With the façade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori Michelangelo employs Corinthian pilaster strips, placed on high pedestals & incorporated with gigantic pillars.  These work to disrupt the perfect balanced forms of the 2 stories, providing the desired effects, power & stability, at the expense of balance & proportion.

 

pilaster:

architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column & articulate an extent of wall but with only an ornamental function.  It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth at the bottom, and the various other column elements.  In contrast to a pilaster, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above.

 

Palestrina (heir to Michelangelo):

Palestrina was born in 1525, several generations removed from Michelangelo, who was however still alive.  From 1544 to 1551, he was the organist of the Cathedral of St. Agapito, in Palestrina, Lazio.  In 1551 Pope Julius III (previous Bishop of Palestrina) appointed Palestrina musical director of the choir of the chapter of canons at St. Peter's Basilica.  Palestrina dedicated his first published compositions (1554), a book of Masses, to Pope Julius.  This was the first book of Masses by a native composer, since in 16th century Italy, most composers of sacred music were from the Low Countries, France, or Spain.  Over the next decade he held positions similar to his Julian Chapel appointment at other chapels and churches in Rome (St. John Lateran 1555–60, previously held by Lassus), and St Mary Major , 1561–66).  In 1571 he returned to the Julian Chapel and remained at St Peter's for the rest of his life.  He established the definitive style of late Renaissance music, and was considered to be Europe's leading composer (along with Lassus) in the wake of Josquin des Prez (died 1521).

and see Chapter III, page 97, Chapter VII, page 220

 

topography:

the relief features or surface configuration of an area.

 

physiology:

the organic processes or functions in an organism or in any of its parts.

 

Leonardo (sfumato):

see Chapter VII, page 237

 

Leonardo (first Impressionist):

see Chapter VII, page 239