During the renaissance in Italy the visual

arts took giant leaps solving the mysteries

of perspective, opening for the perception
of three dimensions on the canvas and
raffinating the use of colours, composition,
the rendering of human body proportions
and psychology.
So did anything happen in music at this
time as well?
A major achievement was the development
of polyphony and the concept of the
harmonic cadence - a phrase of chords
utilizing the natural tensions between
tonic, dominant and subdominant, which
basically is what the 6:8:9:12 proportion is
all about.
One of the leading musicians and theorists
was Franchino Gaffurio who held a position
as choir master at the dome of Milan...

Woodcut from Franchino Gaffurios  

Theorica Musicae (1492). The music theorist
experimenting with his monochord
Most art historians believe that
Leonardo da Vinci in his only
known portrait of a male model
painted Franchino with note sheet
in his hand. Alas the mystery of
what music is written on the
sheet remains unsolved - it seems
to be written in phrygian modus. 
Like Raphaels School Like Raphaels School
of Athens the music of Athens the compass
proportions is found (geometry) is at the
at the left side.  right side.

Woodcut showing Franchino teaching music and proportion. He has 12 tonal disciples,
so if you count prime, minor and major seconds, thirds etc. from left, the figure with
the back to us is actually our representative,.. and happens to embody the augmented
fourth which apparently betrays harmony with dissonance. But the wise master knows
that it is an important constituent of harmony in a broader sense. He says 'Harmonia
est discordia concors' which has similar meaning as the saying of Heracleitus (c. 535–c.
475 BCE): 'Harmony is a unity of opposites'. Just around the corner from where
Franchino worked, Leonardo was busy with his last supper.
The 6:8:9:12 proportion was the axis for many of the illustrations
in Franchinos works on music theory. The most welknown are probaly the ones
of the myths  about Pythagoras' experimentations with lengths, weight and
tensions.
Another contemporary music
master who unfolded his art in
Milan was Josquin des Prez. 
His Kyrie from the Missa Pange
Lingua is full of 6:8:9:12
proportions in structure,
rhythm and harmonies.
The 'Pythagorean Tablet' also
served as 'feet' in Franchinos
cosmological music diagram
which also includes planet
spheres, muses and modal
scales.
... the same scenario in a more poetical
rendering:
From his throne in the realm of the fixed
stars Apollo with lyre (lute) in his hand
takes position as the  'unmoved mover'
(Xenophanes/ Aristotle, 5. century BCE)
and sends out the three headed (past-now-
future/ three dimensions of space) serpent
down through the planet spheres which
each is ruled by a muse and a
church modal scale. 
The movement continues down through
the elements to the very core of the earth
where the muse of comedy, Thalia, is
found.
Another Thalia - one of the three graces -
has her place by Apollos side.
Martianus Capella who lived in North
Africa during the 4th and 5th century
was one of the fathers of the concept
of the seven liberal arts which were
given figures as noble maids serving
Lady Philologia at her wedding.

The allegory with the title

Satyricon  achieved an enormous
impact on the teachings of the
budding universities of the carolignian
renaissance in early medieval
Europe. 

This illustration of 'Music' is from a

later, italian edition from the second
half of the 15th century.