Leonardo (studies for St Jerome) and Rembrandt etchings): * see EndNote<A>

Preparatory studies – ‘many figures of St Jerome’ – are mentioned in the list of 1482, but do not survive. The only drawings that can be specifically related to the painting are a pair of lion’s heads seen at the bottom of one of his Madonna and Child sheets of the late 1470s.  Rembrandt made a number of etching based on St Jerome.

 

counterpoint (home of):

During Leonardo’s life time (1452- 1519) counterpoint was developing.  Although Italy would eventually boast Palestrina (1525-94), during the 15th and early 16th century Franco-Flemish composers, not Italians, dominated counterpoint.  One of the earliest composers from the Low Countries was Jean d’Okeghem (1410-97), a composer of the Franco-Flemish School, considered highly influential.  The hugely influential Josquin des Prez (1450- 1521), from France, is considered the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School.  He is the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music emerging in the 16th century.  Somewhat less well known was Johannes Tinctoris (1435 – 1511), also from the Low Countries.   A notable northern theorist he helped to categorize the types of dissonances and created strict rules governing their rhythmic and melodic uses.  He studied at Orléans, & served as choir master while there; possibly also director of choirboys at Chartres.  It is likely he studied with Dufay in Cambrai.  Tinctoris went to Naples about 1472 and spent most of the rest of his life in Italy.  Thus Palestrina came of age under the influence of the northern European style of polyphony, which owed its dominance in Italy primarily to the influential Netherlandish composers, Dufay and Josquin des Prez, who both spent significant portions of their careers in there.

 

Leonardo (head of Christ- "Last Supper" unfinished): * see EndNote<B>

Leonardo was notoriously slow, and distracted as an artist. He had a reputation for being a procrastinator, and had a history of leaving works unfinished). It took him about three years to complete the Last Supper mural, working 1495 to 1498.  Christ’s head received a great deal of attention.  The painting demonstrated Da Vinci's masterful use of perspective as it draws our attention to the face of Christ at the centre of the composition.  The angles and lighting draw attention to Jesus, whose turned right cheek is located at the vanishing point for all perspective lines.

 

physiognomic maestria:

mastery  of determining character or personal characteristics from the form or features of the body, especially of the face or the outward appearance of anything (offering insight into character)

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Leonardo (artist of torsos):

Spengler is referring to the Belvedere torso, a marble copy from the 1st century BC, of an older Greek statue, dated to the early 2nd century BC; it is incomplete having lost its head, arms & feet.  Spengler is suggesting that Leonardo’s art was often “incomplete” as he could not resolve the tension between his hands (making the artefact) and his Soul (which resonated to strong Gothic roots).  His creative visions could not be seen thorough.

and see page 275 above EndNote B

 

"late" period (the Baroque):

According to Spengler’s classification, the “late” period is the Summer of the Culture, a hugely creative & monumental age.  It precedes the emergence of Civilization and the Autumn.  The late period for Faustian man is 1500 to 1800; for Apollonian man this is 650-300 BC (the Classical Age, the age of Pericles); for the Egyptian it is 2150-1800 BC.