Rembrandt (dead space after):

Rembrandt died in 1669, Delacroix was born in 1798 and active from 1815.  Therefore the “dead space” Spengler refers to is from 1670 to 1815, about 150 years to include the entire 18th century (see below).

 

Delacroix:

1798-1863, French painter & muralist, initially the leader of the Romantic school.  His passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement.  A fine lithographer, he illustrated Shakespeare, Walter Scott & Goethe.  Inspired by the art of Rubens & the Venetian Renaissance, with emphasis on colour & movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form.  Dramatic & romantic content formed his mature central themes & led him to exotic North Africa.  He is often seen as the last of the great masters in the tradition of the Italian High Renaissance (by virtue of his large historical, mythological, religious compositions).  However he was also among the earliest modern artists.  His studies of the optical effects of colour & their complementary qualities, his recognition that colour must primarily be representational of light, that shadow is light's coloured reflection, was of special importance to Impressionist painters.  He also foreshadowed Impressionism with his expressive 'ragged' brushwork.

 

Constable:

see Chapter VII, page 251

 

18th Century (decorative artists of):

Spengler is referring to the Rococo or late Baroque period, emerging first in France & Italy in the 1730s, spreading to Central Europe in the 1750s & 1760s.  It was exceptionally ornamental & theatrical.  It was popular in France between 1723 and 1759.  Although the Rococo continued in Germany and Austria, in France a reaction against Boucher (1703-70) & his style emerged.  There was a demand for more "noble" themes.  The French Academy in Rome began to teach the classic style. This was confirmed by the nomination of Le Troy as director of the Academy in 1738, and then in 1751 by Charles-Joseph Natoire.

 

“Civilization" (beyond the 1800):

In Spengler’s lexicon it means the last 2 stages in the morphology of a Culture/civilization, the first 2 being part of a growth, Culture phase Spring, then Summer, then followed by 2 stages of Civilization (decline)- the first being Autumn and the last Winter.

 

Plein-air (Freilicht):

Freilicht is German for open-air

see Chapter I, page 35

 

“brown sauce":

a pejorative term used by the Impressionists who reviled the “brown gravy” of 19th century French academic artists, which we can also see in the English painters Gainsborough, Constable & Reynolds.  Their attitude was rooted in the 1870s.  During the siege of Paris (1870-71) Monet & Pissarro were in London & had the opportunity to study Turner's pictures.  This enlarged their ideas of the pitch in lighting and range of effect possible in painting, and also suggested a new handling of colour, by small broken touches in place of the large flowing touches characteristic of Manet.  This method of painting occupied much of the discussion of the group that centred round Manet at the Café Guerbois, in the Batignolles quarter (hence called L'École de Batignolles).  One of their ideas was the abolition of conventional brown tonality.  In fact , in the fervour of this revolt they banished from the palette all browns, as well as the ready-made mixtures like the umbers, ochres, siennas.  Black itself was condemned.

 

Dutch school:

aka Netherlanders,

see Chapter VII page 240, above page 273

 

supernal:

belonging to the heaven of divine beings; heavenly, celestial, or divine; lofty; more than earthly or human excellence, powers; being on high or in the sky or visible heavens.

 

wistfulness:

noun; a quality characterized by melancholy; longing; yearning; pensive, especially in a melancholy way.

 

Manet (duration of Impressionism):

Manet (1832-83) was French modernist painter & a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.  The first Impressionist exhibition took place in 1874 although the Impressionist painters Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cézanne, Degas were all active prior to this date.  Soon after Manet’s death Post-Impressionism was born.  The last Impressionist exhibition took place in 1886. 

 

Grunewald (noble green):

see Chapter VII pages 240 and 246

 

Claude (noble green):

reference to Claude Lorraine; Spengler discusses the colours blue & green at the start of section VIII, pages 245-246 and refers to Claude Lorraine.

 

Giorgione (noble green):

on page 251 Spengler refers to Giorgione’s palette: “All the greenish-brown… deep gold tones that appear in their splendid variety with Giorgione…”

see Chapter VII pages 239, 240, 251, 252.

 

Beethoven:

For Spengler Beethoven is a Cultural entity, a representative (along with Delacroix) of the late Summer period, in which we find the exhaustion of strict creativeness, the dissolution of grand form, the end of the Style.  It is labelled “Classicism" and "Romanticism" and examples are Empire and Biedermeyer & the Classicist taste in architecture

 

Kant:

For Spengler Kant is a spiritual entity, a representative (along with Goethe, Schelling, Hegel, Fichte) of the great conclusive systems of the Autumn period, the first age of civilization.  It is just prior to Winter.

 

tunedness:

a succession of musical sounds forming an air or melody, with or without the harmony accompanying it; tuned is an adjective; tunedness is an adjective converted into a noun by using 'ness'.  A noun ending in 'ness' literally means the state of the original adjective.

 

Destiny:

The final outcome of a Culture/Civilization, the force which drives it forward, an impersonal, inhuman deity.

 

Courbet (landscapes): * see EndNote<A>

1819-77, French painter, led the Realism movement; painted only what he could see, rejected academic convention & Romanticism; an innovator &willing to make social statements.  His work (along with Daumier & Millet) became known as Realism.  It eschewed perfection of line & form, but embraced spontaneous & rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature.  Realism saw a move away from the 'ideal' (as typified by the art of Classical mythology, beloved by Renaissance artists) towards the ordinary.  In their figure drawing & figure painting, Realists portrayed real people not idealized types. From now on, artists felt increasingly free to depict real-life situations stripped of aesthetics & universal truths.  Courbet depicted the harshness in life, & challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.  His work is neither Romantic nor Neoclassical; History painting, so esteemed by the Paris Salon, did not interest him.  He maintained the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience.  He & Millet found inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.

  

Manet (landscapes): see EndNote<B>

a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.  Spengler describes his landscapes as mechanical object of physics.  Both Manet & Courbet had broken free of academic conventions, Renaissance idealization of Classical art or the prevailing Romanticism & Neo-Classicism. 

 

Rousseau ("return to Nature"):

see Chapter VII, page 207