Italian Mannerism
Italian Mannerism
KEY EVENTS
Painters, and Sculptors is published.
in 1527, when the troops of Holy Roman reected in the unsettling stylistic characteristics
1563 Vasari, Bronzino, and others set
of Mannerist art, others see
up the rst formal art academy, the
the elegant exaggerations of Accademia del Disegno in Florence.
Mannerism as an expression
of self-conscious sophistication.
Contemporary literature
indicates that elaborate displays
of wit and artice were highly
valued in cultured societyas
they were in Mannerist art. This
THIS STYLISH STYLE
was also a time when patrons HAD ITS ROOTS
were appreciating works of art
DEEP IN THE HIGH
as rst and foremost works
of artto be displayed and RENAISSANCE
enjoyed in a gallery. This may
be linked to the condent 1967 | John Shearman
British art historian
indeed, often overcondent
virtuoso artfulness of
Mannerist paintings.
BEGINNINGS
PAINTING AFTER PERFECTION
Around 1520, the year in which Raphael died, there was a artice and theatricality of Raphaels late works, and
feeling that art in Italy had reached its peak, and that the the deliberate difculty of the contorted poses in which
artists of the High Renaissance had achieved all there was Michelangelo painted his nudes, inspired the next generation
to achieve in terms of beauty, harmony, and technical of artists. They used the same classical-inspired forms that
accomplishment. This could present artists with a potential feature in Renaissance art, but pushed the boundaries of
quandary: how do you progress from a point of perfection? artful invention and broke the classical rulesreplacing
However, art cannot stand still, and the beginnings of balance with imbalance and complexity, and rejecting
Mannerism are evident in the mature work of the High compositional coherence in favor of distortions in scale and
Renaissance masters Raphael and Michelangelo. The perspective, often creating an unsettling sense of space.
TURNING POINT
The Deposition
of Christ
Pontormo c.152528 Capponi Chapel
of S. Felicit, Florence, Italy
HAVING PAINTED
IT IN HIS OWN
WAY...IT WAS
FINALLY
UNCOVERED
AND SEEN WITH
ASTONISHMENT
BY ALL OF
FLORENCE
1568 | Giorgio Vasari
On Pontormos
The Deposition of Christ
136 RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM
End of an era
The Sack of Rome in 1527 has a
devastating impact on art and artists,
ending the optimistic confidence that
underpinned High Renaissance art and
temporarily bringing to a halt Romes
preeminence as an art center.
The Transguration
Raphael 151820 Pinacoteca, Vatican
Raphael was working on this great altarpiece when he died. Its
agitated theatricality, particularly in the lower scene involving
the healing of the possessed boy, differs from the serenity and
balance of his earlier work. The exaggerated gestures, disjointed
poses, and unharmonious lighting show Raphael moving away from
the ideal art of the High Renaissance toward a Mannerist style.
137
Last Judgment
Michelangelo 153641
Sistine Chapel, Vatican
Completed almost three decades after the
Sistine Chapel ceiling (and, significantly,
after the Sack of Rome), Michelangelos
powerful, pessimistic Last Judgment
contrasts in both mood and style from the
ceilings calm, heroic grandeur. Bands of
massive figures in all manner of contorted
poses writhe and tumble in non-naturalistic
space. Considered obscene by the Council
of Trent, the nudes genitalia were
painted over with folds of drapery.
Michelangelo
returns to Rome
In 1534, Michelangelo
returns from Florence to
settle in Rome for good. He
is commissioned by Pope
Paul III to paint the Last
Judgment on the altar wall
of the Sistine Chapel.
The Odyssey
Pellegrino Tibaldi c.1555 Palazzo Poggi
(now the University), Bologna, Italy
Tibaldis narrative fresco cycle illustrates the
adventures of Ulysses. The figures adopt athletic
contrapposto poses, but Tibaldi leavens the
grandeur with a stylish sense of humor.
Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants)
Guilio Romano c.1530
Palazzo del T, Mantua, Italy
One of the most confidently ingenious manifestations Madonna of the Long Neck
of Mannerism is the Room of the Giants in Mantua. Parmigianino 153440 Uffizi, Florence, Italy
In an overpowering, illusionistic tour de force, Giulio The artificial beauty that characterizes Mannerism is
Romano covered walls and ceiling with scenes well illustrated in this celebrated painting. The Madonnas
depicting the Titans vain attempt to overthrow the elongated neck echoes the column behind her, while
gods of Olympus. her body twists into a sinuous, serpentine curve.
138 RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM
Adoration of the
Shepherds
Camillo Procaccini 1584
Pinacoteca Nazionale,
Bologna, Italy
Procaccini came from a family of
painters who worked in Bologna
and Milan. This emotionally intense
Adoration is notable for its dramatic
chiaroscuro (strong contrasts
of light and dark) and rather
ostentatious gestures, including
that of the muscular shepherd in
the foreground who shields
his eyes from the divine light.
Federico Barocci
born Urbino, Italy, 1535?;
died Urbino, September 30, 1612
work in short bursts. Yet he was a productive Aeneass Flight from Troy
painteralmost exclusively of religious works Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
and an outstanding draftsman. His style bridges Apart from a few portraits, this is the only secular subject painted by the devout
the High Renaissance and the Baroque, and he Barocci. In fact, he painted it twicefor Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, and then this
inuenced many artists, including Rubens. version for Monsignor Giuliano della Rovere of Urbino. Its emotional force, robust
figures, and dramatic movement and lighting look forward to the Baroque.
140 RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM
MASTERWORK
An Allegory With Venus and Cupid
Agnolo Bronzino c.1545
National Gallery, London, UK
Commissioned by the Duke of Florence, Cosimo represented by a head that is a hollow mask. The
de Medici, this coolly erotic allegory was sent as a screaming gure may represent Jealousy and/or syphilis,
gift to the French King Francis I, whose court at a disease that was rife at the time. If so, such a gift from
Fontainebleau was a leading center of Mannerist art the Italian duke to the French king may have been a dark,
outside Italy. The epitome of stylish, sophisticated sophisticated joke: syphilis was known as the French
artice, it is deliberately complex and erudite, as would disease in Italy, and the Italian disease in France.
have appealed to a cultivated, courtly audience. It is As his master Pontormo did in The Deposition of
thought to symbolize the consequences of unchaste Christ (see p.135), Bronzino creates an irrational sense
love. Venus, goddess of love and beauty (identied by of space, with entwined and distorted gures pressed
her golden apple), disarms her son Cupid by removing up against the picture plane. But where Pontormos
an arrow from his quiver as they kiss incestuously. painting expressed an intense spirituality, Bronzinos
Other gures in the painting are personications of exquisitely skilful Mannerist masterpiece is spiritually
concepts related to the theme. Folly showers the couple and emotionally as cold as alabaster. The paintings
with rose petals, not noticing the pain (of love) from the overt eroticism offended later generations, and in the
thorn in his foot. Pleasure offers a sweet honeycomb, Victorian era Venuss tongue was painted out, as was
but has a sting in her tail. Time (an old man with an the nipple that protrudes between her sons ngers. In
hourglass) draws back the curtain to reveal Fraud 1958 it was restored to its present sexually explicit state.
Agnolo Bronzino
A PICTURE OF SINGULAR BEAUTY ... born Monticelli, nr. Florence, Italy, November 17, 1503
died Florence, November 23, 1572
WHEREIN WAS A NUDE VENUS, WITH
Born Agnolo di Cosimo,
A CUPID WHO WAS KISSING HER Bronzino may have earned his
nickname because of his dark
1568 | Giorgio Vasari complexion. He came from a
humble background in a suburb
of Florence, and as a boy was
apprenticed to the young
Florentine master Pontormo.
According to his friend Vasari,
Bronzino became like a son to
Portormo, who included a portrait of him as a boy in
his painting Joseph in Egypt (above) in c.1518. By the
1530s, Bronzino was sought after as a portraitist,
particularly by literary patronshe was a gifted poet
himself. In 1539, he began working for the new Duke
of Florence, Cosimo de Medici, and was court artist for
almost three decades, painting formal portraits, religious
works, and mythologies, and creating tapestries for the
BIOGRAPHY