[Redbook9:242][19910502:1730c]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (13)]}{– The Renaissance Spirit}[2nd May 1991]
19910502:1730
[continued]
‘Written accounts make it clear that the collecting of classical antiquities was popular with humanists and useful to artists long before 1400[ce].’
*
* – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 637
[continued]
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[Redbook9:242][19910502:1730b]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (12)]}[Portraiture][2nd May 1991]
19910502:1730
[continued]
‘Portraiture developed during the Renaissance from the Gothic depiction of people as generalised types to the representation of individuals whose character and personalities were expressed in their faces. Increasingly, Italian artists attempted to portray their subjects accurately and even revived the ancient Roman practice of obtaining a likeness from a life or death mask cast in plaster. This method was especially popular with sculptors. But unflinching realism was avoided; Italian portraiture was also influenced by profiles on Roman coins and by Roman sculpted portrait busts.’
*
* – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 634
[continued]
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[Redbook9:241][19910502:1730]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (11)]}{– The Hero [continued (3)]}[2nd May 1991]
19910502:1730
*
*{‘Cautionary Tales’, H. Belloc (illus[trations] by N Bentley)}
[continued]
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[Redbook9:241][19910501:0800xx]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (10)]}{– The Hero [continued]}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
‘During the 15th century [ce] the cult of the hero, of the comparison of ancient prototype with modern men, would become feature of art as it was of literature; the very idea of comparison could be seen in Plutarch’s “Lives” (a clear source for stories of nobility), where eminent Greeks are paired with Roman counterparts, and then compared.’
*
* – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 631
[Source paragraph continued from last previous ts journal entry]
[continued]
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[Redbook9:241][19910501:0800ww]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (9)]}{– The Hero}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
‘Given the potentiality of Man to incline either to base pleasure or towards higher things, it was naturally the latter which presented the Renaissance with their* ideal man,** the hero, formed from the antique mold.*** A hero was not simply ****bold, # strong, ingenious in battle,#* but led a life which reflected the nobility of his soul,#** his high morality, #*** and his wisdom: he was magnanimous#*** in his relations with others, and conducted himself with dignity.## All his actions were founded in reason,##* on the domination of the emotions by the will.##**
##***
*[sic]
**[C?]
[Square brackets per ms]
***(sic)
****(bould?)
[See ↑ last previous footnote, above]
#M~,U~
#*M~?
#**s~
#***s~,r~
#****m~
##s~
##*m~
##**s~>r~
(Trouble is, emotions have a way of getting back at you....)
[They are there for a Reason!]
##*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 631
[Source paragraph continued in next ts journal entry]
[continued]
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[Redbook9:240][19910501:0800vv]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (8)]}{– Multiplication of Options [continued (3)]}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
This* serial and parallel vacillation is a function not only of the O[uter] C[ircle] approach to C (with its multiplication of paths or other phenomena)** but also (in an entirely interrelated way, so that the two manifestations can hardly be distinguished – if at all –) of the contra-rotating i[nner] c[ircle] approach to C.***
****
*[See last previous entry but one, [Redbook9:240][19910501:0800tt]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (6)]}{– Multiplication of Options}[1st May 1991]]
**[sic]
***{cf [[Redbook9:286-293][19910507:0915]{The Baroque Period}[7th May 1991],] 286,
[[Redbook9:290][19910507:0915#]{The Baroque Period [continued (#[final ts entry from ms page)]}[7th May 1991],] 290}
****<910606>
New computer arrived this evening....
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[Redbook9:240][19910501:0800uu]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (7)]}{– Multiplication of Options [continued]}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
The quotation from Pope* given in E[ncyclopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt]** is particularly apposite:***
‘Created half to rise, and half to fall,
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world!’
****
*[Alexander Pope, 21st May 1688- 30th May 1744]
**[Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:631]
***[& still is to humankind now]
****(From ‘An Essay on Man’# II, 13; Alexander Pope, quoted in E[ncyclopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt] 4:631)
#[1733-4ce]
[continued]
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[Redbook9:240][19910501:0800tt]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (6)]}{– Multiplication of Options}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
There is a pattern emerging that from about G~ onwards the decision(s) to be made at Crisis, the options opening at C, begin to make themselves felt in the multiplication of ways round this section of the circle, or approaches to C – the ‘Crisis Approach’ phase. These ways (or Arcs?)[,] it seems, co-exist chronologically both in series and in parallel* – one after the other and at the same time.*
**
(A similar vacillation can occur after C – the ‘Crisis Resolution’ phase – at least until a decision is made to settle for one or the other; but it may be that the experience in the later phase is likely to be more fraught, as the alternatives by this time are gradually drawing away from each other again.)
*(↔)
<19910507>
[The two ‘both...ands’ were each originally written internally the other way round in the ms, and amended later.]
**[See eg [Redbook9:289][19910507:0915i]{The Baroque Period [continued (10)]}[7th May 1991];
[Redbook9:290][19910507:0915m]{The Baroque Period [continued (14)]}[7th May 1991]]
[continued]
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[Redbook9:239][19910501:0800ss]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (5)]}{– Renaissance and Recall}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
‘Such desire for simplicity and antique grandeur is bound up with the Renaissance’s own conception of Man and his potentialities. That such a desire was attainable is a result of the Renaissance ability to reconstruct the past, to write and think historically.’
*
‘Recall’ is a characteristic of G~ onwards – G~ has been considered earlier** as Recording Angel, and connections made with near-death experiences where ‘his whole life flashed before his eyes’.
* – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 631
(& see pp↓631-633) []
**Earlier Vol [] ….
[continued]
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[Redbook9:239][19910501:0800rr]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (4)]}{– The Perfect Circle [continued (3)]}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
‘The flexibility of the early years of the Vitruvian tradition did not outlive the High Renaissance. The whole point of Mannerist architecture is that it deliberately breaks the rules in the search for emotional effect * or even shock: Michelangelo’s vestibule to ** the Biblioteca Laurenziana (1524[ce] onwards)*** exemplifies this trend. But contemporary with Mannerism is an inclination to codify Vitruvian “rules” into a pedagogic system; such anti-mannerist retrenchment is a feature of the thought if not the practice of Pirro Ligorio (c[irca] 1500-83[ce]), the designer of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli (c-irca]1565-72[ce). We should call his architecture “mannerist”, but he speaks of “stupidities” in the work of his contemporaries and continually looks back to the achievements of the High Renaissance. Attitudes such as this helped to maintain the potency of the Renaissance tradition.’
****
*G~-R~
**(See illus[tration], ibid [] 684)
***64G~1520[ce]
**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 630
[continued]
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[Redbook9:238][19910501:0800qq]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (3)]}{– The Perfect Circle [continued]}[1st May 1991]
19910501:0800
[continued]
‘For the Renaissance architect, geometry was important for plan and elevation for two reasons. It provided him with a repertory of shapes which symbolised the Godhead. Aided by mathematics, it provided him with shapes which were numerically rational* and therefore beautiful. Today, we know that the human eye cannot perceive intricate relationships between shapes and volumes, and we doubt whether beauty is the direct result of mathematics. For the Renaissance, the mathematical was beautiful.’
**
*m~-s~
** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 629
[Source text continues as new paragraph from last previous ts journal entry]
[continued]
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