Misplaced Pages

#999

132-1093: Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century. Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci , Raphael , Vasari , and early Michelangelo . Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant. Notable for its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities, this artistic style privileges compositional tension and instability rather than

264-499: A "natural extension" of the art of Andrea del Sarto , Michelangelo, and Raphael. Michelangelo developed his style at an early age, a deeply original one that was greatly admired at first, then often copied and imitated by other artists of the era. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità , a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and subsequent artists attempted to imitate it. Other artists learned Michelangelo's impassioned and highly personal style by copying

396-597: A Madonna, were sent to the French Court. This led to an invitation from François I , in 1518, and he journeyed to Paris in June of that year, along with his pupil Andrea Squarzzella, leaving his wife, Lucrezia, in Florence. According to Giorgio Vasari , Andrea's pupil and biographer, Lucrezia wrote to Andrea and demanded he return to Italy. The king assented, but only on the understanding that his absence from France

528-643: A collapsed perspective, irrational settings, and theatrical lighting. Parmigianino (a student of Correggio ) and Giulio Romano (Raphael's head assistant) were moving in similarly stylized aesthetic directions in Rome. These artists had matured under the influence of the High Renaissance, and their style has been characterized as a reaction to or exaggerated extension of it. Instead of studying nature directly, younger artists began studying Hellenistic sculpture and paintings of masters past. Therefore, this style

660-458: A copy, which he passed to the Duke as the original. The imitation was so faithful that even Giulio Romano , who had himself manipulated the original to some extent, was completely fooled; and, on showing the copy years afterwards to Vasari, who knew the truth, he could be convinced that it was not genuine only when a private mark on the canvas was pointed out to him by Vasari. Andrea's final work at

792-603: A crowded, contorted composition. Jacopo Tintoretto has been known for his vastly different contributions to Venetian painting after the legacy of Titian . His work, which differed greatly from his predecessors, had been criticized by Vasari for its, "fantastical, extravagant, bizarre style." Within his work, Tintoretto adopted Mannerist elements that have distanced him from the classical notion of Venetian painting, as he often created artworks which contained elements of fantasy and retained naturalism . Other unique elements of Tintoretto's work include his attention to color through

924-426: A degree of stylization is very often found in details, and especially figures or other features at a small scale, such as people or trees etc. in the distant background even of a large work. But this is not stylization intended to be noticed by the viewer, except on close examination. Drawings , modelli , and other sketches not intended as finished works for sale will also very often stylize. "Stylized" may mean

1056-554: A description of painters from the north who entered the workshops in France and Italy to create a truly international style. As in painting, early Italian Mannerist sculpture was very largely an attempt to find an original style that would top the achievement of the High Renaissance , which in sculpture essentially meant Michelangelo, and much of the struggle to achieve this was played out in commissions to fill other places in

1188-472: A hazy sky and blurring of landscape in the background. Benvenuto Cellini created the Cellini Salt Cellar of gold and enamel in 1540 featuring Poseidon and Amphitrite (water and earth) placed in uncomfortable positions and with elongated proportions. It is considered a masterpiece of Mannerist sculpture. Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) was a Mannerist portraitist often acknowledged to be

1320-583: A joke and serious message; humor wasn't normally utilized in Renaissance artworks. Mannerist architecture was characterized by visual trickery and unexpected elements that challenged the Renaissance norms. Flemish artists, many of whom had traveled to Italy and were influenced by Mannerist developments there, were responsible for the spread of Mannerist trends into Europe north of the Alps, including into

1452-636: A lack of clear perspective. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were each given a commission by Gonfaloniere Piero Soderini to decorate a wall in the Hall of Five Hundred in Florence. These two artists were set to paint side by side and compete against each other, fueling the incentive to be as innovative as possible. The early Mannerists in Florence—especially the students of Andrea del Sarto such as Jacopo da Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino —are notable for elongated forms, precariously balanced poses,

SECTION 10

#1732772513001

1584-507: A large pilaster or column that stretches from the bottom to the top of a multi-storey façade. He used this in his design for the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome. The Herrerian style ( Spanish : estilo herreriano or arquitectura herreriana ) of architecture was developed in Spain during the last third of the 16th century under the reign of Philip II (1556–1598), and continued in force in

1716-546: A leading art historian of 16th-century Italian painting and mentee of Sydney Joseph Freedberg (1914–1997), who invented the term, was criticised by a reviewer of her After Raphael: Painting in Central Italy in the Sixteenth Century for her "fundamental flaw" in continuing to use this and other terms, despite an apologetic "Note on style labels" at the beginning of the book and a promise to keep their use to

1848-425: A marked tendency to revive at intervals "classic" styles from the past. In critical analysis of the visual arts, the style of a work of art is typically treated as distinct from its iconography , which covers the subject and the content of the work, though for Jas Elsner this distinction is "not, of course, true in any actual example; but it has proved rhetorically extremely useful". Classical art criticism and

1980-508: A minimum. A rare recent attempt to create a theory to explain the process driving changes in artistic style, rather than just theories of how to describe and categorize them, is by the behavioural psychologist Colin Martindale , who has proposed an evolutionary theory based on Darwinian principles. However this cannot be said to have gained much support among art historians. Traditional art history has also placed great emphasis on

2112-446: A more specific meaning, referring to visual depictions that use simplified ways of representing objects or scenes that do not attempt a full, precise and accurate representation of their visual appearance ( mimesis or " realistic "), preferring an attractive or expressive overall depiction. More technically, it has been defined as "the decorative generalization of figures and objects by means of various conventional techniques, including

2244-491: A popular Renaissance form at which Giambologna , originally Flemish but based in Florence, excelled in the later part of the century. He also created life-size sculptures, of which two entered the collection in the Piazza della Signoria. He and his followers devised elegant elongated examples of the figura serpentinata , often of two intertwined figures, that were interesting from all angles. Giorgio Vasari 's opinions about

2376-558: A quotation. Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari exemplify this strain of Maniera that lasted from about 1530 to 1580. Based largely at courts and in intellectual circles around Europe, Maniera art couples exaggerated elegance with exquisite attention to surface and detail: porcelain-skinned figures recline in an even, tempered light, acknowledging the viewer with a cool glance, if they make eye contact at all. The Maniera subject rarely displays much emotion, and for this reason works exemplifying this trend are often called 'cold' or 'aloof.' This

2508-454: A running narrative of four Biblical scenes in which Joseph reconnects with his family. On the left side of the composition, Pontomoro depicts a scene of Joseph introducing his family to the Pharaoh of Egypt . On the right, Joseph is riding on a rolling bench, as cherubs fill the composition around him in addition to other figures and large rocks on a path in the distance. Above these scenes,

2640-514: A serene elegance and meticulous attention to detail. As a result, Bronzino's sitters have been said to project an aloofness and marked emotional distance from the viewer. There is also a virtuosic concentration on capturing the precise pattern and sheen of rich textiles. Specifically, within the Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time , Bronzino utilizes the tactics of Mannerist movement, attention to detail, color, and sculptural forms. Evidence of Mannerist movement

2772-432: A specially developed algorithm and placed them in similar style categories to human art historians. The analysis involved the sampling of more than 4,000 visual features per work of art. Apps such as Deep Art Effects can turn photos into art-like images claimed to be in the style of painters such as Van Gogh . With the development of sophisticated text-to-image AI art software , using specifiable art styles has become

SECTION 20

#1732772513001

2904-479: A specific type of style (a beautiful style, an abrasive style) or indicate an absolute that needs no qualification (someone "has style"). In the second edition of his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1568), Giorgio Vasari used maniera in three different contexts: to discuss an artist's manner or method of working; to describe a personal or group style, such as

3036-534: A style, as style only results from choices made by a maker. Whether the artist makes a conscious choice of style, or can identify his own style, hardly matters. Artists in recent developed societies tend to be highly conscious of their own style, arguably over-conscious, whereas for earlier artists stylistic choices were probably "largely unselfconscious". Most stylistic periods are identified and defined later by art historians, but artists may choose to define and name their own style. The names of most older styles are

3168-610: A widespread tool in the 2020s. Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto ( US : / ɑː n ˌ d r eɪ ə d ɛ l ˈ s ɑːr t oʊ / , UK : / æ n ˌ -/ , Italian: [anˈdrɛːa del ˈsarto] ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence , whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism . He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altarpieces, portraitist, draughtsman, and colorist. Although highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori ("without errors"), his renown

3300-527: Is a depressing affair indeed". According to James Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more easily controlled". Meyer Schapiro , James Ackerman , Ernst Gombrich and George Kubler ( The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things , 1962) have made notable contributions to

3432-487: Is a dominant factor in their valuation for the art market , above all for works in the Western tradition since the Renaissance. The identification of individual style in works is "essentially assigned to a group of specialists in the field known as connoisseurs ", a group who centre in the art trade and museums, often with tensions between them and the community of academic art historians. The exercise of connoisseurship

3564-476: Is a more prominent element in the Mannerist styles. His less practical and more metaphysical Idea del tempio della pittura ( The ideal temple of painting , Milan, 1590) offers a description along the lines of the " four temperaments " theory of human nature and personality, defining the role of individuality in judgment and artistic invention. Mannerism was an anti-classical movement which differed greatly from

3696-460: Is a spiral staircase which Joseph guides one his sons to their mother at the top. The final scene, on the right, is the final stage of Jacob's death as his sons watch nearby. Pontormo's Joseph in Egypt features many Mannerist elements. One element is utilization of incongruous colors such as various shades of pinks and blues which make up a majority of the canvas . An additional element of Mannerism

3828-508: Is apparent in the awkward movements of Cupid and Venus, as they contort their bodies to partly embrace. Particularly, Bronzino paints the complexion with the many forms as a perfect porcelain white with a smooth effacement of their muscles which provides a reference to the smoothness of sculpture. Alessandro Allori 's (1535–1607) Susanna and the Elders ( below ) is distinguished by latent eroticism and consciously brilliant still life detail, in

3960-899: Is dismissed by some historians as apocryphal, untrue although oft-repeated. He resumed work in Florence during 1520 and executed the Faith and Charity in the cloister of the Scalzo. These were succeeded by the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias , the Beheading of the Baptist , the Presentation of his head to Herod , an allegory of Hope, the Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias (1523) and

4092-416: Is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from

Mannerism - Misplaced Pages Continue

4224-483: Is his attention to color as he regarded it to be one of the most important aspects of his painting. Over the course of his career, El Greco's work remained in high demand as he completed important commissions in locations such as the Colegio de la Encarnación de Madrid . El Greco's unique painting style and connection to Mannerist characteristics is especially prevalent in the work Laocoön . Painted in 1610, it depicts

4356-458: Is in part a guide to contemporary concepts of decorum , which the Renaissance inherited in part from Antiquity but Mannerism elaborated upon. Lomazzo's systematic codification of aesthetics, which typifies the more formalized and academic approaches typical of the later 16th century, emphasized a consonance between the functions of interiors and the kinds of painted and sculpted decors that would be suitable. Iconography, often convoluted and abstruse,

4488-425: Is it clear that any such idea was articulated in antiquity   ... Pliny was attentive to changes in ways of art-making, but he presented such changes as driven by technology and wealth. Vasari, too, attributes the strangeness and, in his view the deficiencies, of earlier art to lack of technological know-how and cultural sophistication. Giorgio Vasari set out a hugely influential but much-questioned account of

4620-502: Is known as the " Henry II style " and had a particular impact on architecture. Other important continental centers of Northern Mannerism include the court of Rudolf II in Prague , as well as Haarlem and Antwerp . Mannerism as a stylistic category is less frequently applied to English visual and decorative arts, where native labels such as " Elizabethan " and " Jacobean " are more commonly applied. Seventeenth-century Artisan Mannerism

4752-696: Is largely a matter of subjective impressions that are hard to analyse, but also a matter of knowing details of technique and the "hand" of different artists. Giovanni Morelli (1816 – 1891) pioneered the systematic study of the scrutiny of diagnostic minor details that revealed artists' scarcely conscious shorthand and conventions for portraying, for example, ears or hands, in Western old master paintings. His techniques were adopted by Bernard Berenson and others, and have been applied to sculpture and many other types of art, for example by Sir John Beazley to Attic vase painting . Personal techniques can be important in analysing individual style. Though artists' training

4884-654: Is more classical than Leonardo da Vinci's but less so than Fra Bartolomeo 's representations of the Holy Family. Andrea married Lucrezia (del Fede), the widow of a hatter named Carlo, of Recanati , on 26 December 1512. Lucrezia appears in many of his paintings, often as a Madonna . Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) describes her as "faithless, jealous, and vixenish with the apprentices". She is similarly characterized in Robert Browning 's poem. Andrea died in Florence at age 44 during an outbreak of Bubonic Plague at

5016-418: Is more often used to mean the overall style and atmosphere of a work, especially complex works such as paintings, that cannot so easily be subject to precise analysis. It is a somewhat outdated term in academic art history, avoided because it is imprecise. When used it is often in the context of imitations of the individual style of an artist, and it is one of the hierarchy of discreet or diplomatic terms used in

5148-577: Is often attributed with the invention of the German word Zeitgeist , but he never actually used the word, although in Lectures on the Philosophy of History , he uses the phrase der Geist seiner Zeit (the spirit of his time), writing that "no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit." Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture

5280-475: Is often identified as "anti-classical", yet at the time it was considered a natural progression from the High Renaissance. The earliest experimental phase of Mannerism, known for its "anti-classical" forms, lasted until about 1540 or 1550. Marcia B. Hall , professor of art history at Temple University, notes in her book After Raphael that Raphael's premature death marked the beginning of Mannerism in Rome. In past analyses, it has been noted that mannerism arose in

5412-580: Is one exception, applied to architecture that relies on pattern books rather than on existing precedents in Continental Europe. Of particular note is the Flemish influence at Fontainebleau that combined the eroticism of the French style with an early version of the vanitas tradition that would dominate seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting. Prevalent at this time was the pittore vago ,

Mannerism - Misplaced Pages Continue

5544-428: Is perceived. Below is a list of many specific characteristics that Mannerist artists would employ in their artworks. Jacopo da Pontormo 's work is one of the most important contributions to Mannerism. He often drew his subject matter from religious narratives; heavily influenced by the works of Michelangelo, he frequently alludes to or uses sculptural forms as models for his compositions. A well-known element of his work

5676-490: Is seen as usually dynamic, in most periods always changing by a gradual process, though the speed of this varies greatly, from the very slow development in style typical of prehistoric art or Ancient Egyptian art to the rapid changes in Modern art styles. Style often develops in a series of jumps, with relatively sudden changes followed by periods of slower development. After dominating academic discussion in art history in

5808-409: Is the incoherent handling of time about the story of Joseph through various scenes and use of space. Through the inclusion of the four different narratives, Ponotormo creates a cluttered composition and overall sense of busyness. Rosso Fiorentino , who had been a fellow pupil of Pontormo in the studio of Andrea del Sarto , in 1530 brought Florentine Mannerism to Fontainebleau , where he became one of

5940-409: Is the rendering of gazes by various figures which often pierce out at the viewer in various directions. Dedicated to his work, Pontormo often expressed anxiety about its quality and was known to work slowly and methodically. His legacy is highly regarded, as he influenced artists such as Agnolo Bronzino and the aesthetic ideals of late Mannerism. Pontormo's Joseph in Egypt , painted in 1517, portrays

6072-451: Is typical of the so-called "stylish style" or Maniera in its maturity. The cities Rome, Florence, and Mantua were Mannerist centers in Italy. Venetian painting pursued a different course, represented by Titian in his long career. A number of the earliest Mannerist artists who had been working in Rome during the 1520s fled the city after the Sack of Rome in 1527. As they spread out across

6204-783: The Nativity of the Virgin , which fuses the influence of Leonardo , Ghirlandaio , and Fra Bartolomeo . By November 1515 he had finished at the nearby Chiostro of the Confraternity of Saint John the Baptist, commonly known as the Scalzo the Allegory of Justice and the Baptist Preaching in the desert , followed in 1517 by John Baptizing the People . Before the end of 1516, a Pietà of Del Sarto's composition, and afterward

6336-663: The Baptism of Christ for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo , the beginning of a monochrome fresco series. By the time the partnership was dissolved, Sarto's style bore the stamp of individuality. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , it "is marked throughout his career by an interest, exceptional among Florentines, in effects of colour and atmosphere and by sophisticated informality and natural expression of emotion". From 1509 to 1514

6468-672: The National Gallery, London was believed to be a self-portrait, as was the Portrait of Becuccio Bicchieraio in National Gallery of Scotland , but now both are known not to be self-portraits. There is a self-portrait at Alnwick Castle , a young man about twenty years of age with his elbow on a table. Another youthful portrait is in the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace contains more than one. The Madonna of

6600-467: The Piazza della Signoria in Florence, next to Michelangelo 's David . Baccio Bandinelli took over the project of Hercules and Cacus from the master himself, but it was little more popular then than it is now, and maliciously compared by Benvenuto Cellini to "a sack of melons", though it had a long-lasting effect in apparently introducing relief panels on the pedestal of statues. Like other works of his and other Mannerists, it removes far more of

6732-598: The Servite Order employed Del Sarto, Franciabigio , and Andrea Feltrini in a programme of frescoes at Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze . Sarto completed seven frescoes in the forecourt or atrium (the chiostro dei voti) before the Servite church, five of which illustrated the Life and miracles of Filippo Benizzi , a Servite saint who died in 1285 (canonized 1671). He executed them rapidly, depicting

SECTION 50

#1732772513001

6864-399: The art trade for the relationship between a work for sale and that of a well-known artist, with "Manner of Rembrandt " suggesting a distanced relationship between the style of the work and Rembrandt's own style. The "Explanation of Cataloguing Practice" of the auctioneers Christie's ' explains that " Manner of   ... " in their auction catalogues means "In our opinion a work executed in

6996-477: The "Late Renaissance". Although the term remains controversial, it is still commonly used to identify European art and culture in the 16th century. By the end of the High Renaissance, young artists experienced a crisis: It seemed that everything that could be achieved was already achieved. No more difficulties, technical or otherwise, remained to be solved. The detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, physiognomy and how humans register emotion in expression and gesture,

7128-690: The 16th and 17th centuries. The term is also used to refer to some late Gothic painters working in northern Europe from about 1500 to 1530, especially the Antwerp Mannerists —a group unrelated to the Italian movement. Mannerism has also been applied by analogy to the Silver Age of Latin literature . The word "Mannerism" derives from the Italian maniera , meaning "style" or "manner". Like the English word "style", maniera can either indicate

7260-528: The 17th century, but transformed by the Baroque style of the time. It corresponds to the third and final stage of the Spanish Renaissance architecture, which evolved into a progressive purification ornamental, from the initial Plateresque to classical Purism of the second third of the 16th century and total nudity decorative that introduced the Herrerian style. Prior to the 20th century,

7392-432: The 19th and early 20th centuries, so-called "style art history" has come under increasing attack in recent decades, and many art historians now prefer to avoid stylistic classifications where they can. Any piece of art is in theory capable of being analysed in terms of style; neither periods nor artists can avoid having a style, except by complete incompetence, and conversely natural objects or sights cannot be said to have

7524-471: The Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the kunstwollen of Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and

7656-514: The Harpies is a depiction of the Virgin and child on a pedestal, flanked by two saints (Bonaventure or Francis and John the Evangelist), and at her feet, two cherubs. The pedestal is decorated with a relief depicting some feminine figures interpreted as harpies and thus gave rise, in English, to the name of the painting. Originally completed in 1517 for the convent of San Francesco dei Macci,

7788-430: The High Renaissance. "High Renaissance" connoted a period distinguished by harmony, grandeur, and the revival of classical antiquity. The term "Mannerist" was redefined in 1967 by John Shearman following the exhibition of Mannerist paintings organised by Fritz Grossmann at Manchester City Art Gallery in 1965. Yet historians differ as to whether Mannerism is a style, a movement, or a period. Some authors have called it

7920-630: The Mannerist style. Individual Italian artists working in the North gave birth to a movement known as the Northern Mannerism . Francis I of France , for example, was presented with Bronzino 's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time . The style waned in Italy after 1580, as a new generation of artists, including the Carracci brothers, Caravaggio and Cigoli , revived naturalism. Walter Friedlaender identified this period as "anti-mannerism", just as

8052-515: The Scalzo was the Nativity of the Baptist (1526). In the following year he completed his last important painting, a Last Supper at San Salvi (now an inner suburb of Florence), in which all the characters appear to be portraits. The church is now the Museo del Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto . A number of his paintings were considered to be self-portraits. Formerly, a Portrait of a Young Man in

SECTION 60

#1732772513001

8184-596: The adoption of any style in any context, and in American English is often used for the typographic style of names, as in " AT&T is also stylized as ATT and at&t": this is a specific usage that seems to have escaped dictionaries, although it is a small extension of existing other senses of the word. In a 2012 experiment at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, a computer analysed approximately 1,000 paintings from 34 well-known artists using

8316-404: The aesthetic ideologies of the Renaissance . Though Mannerism was initially accepted with positivity based on the writings of Vasari , it was later regarded in a negative light because it solely view as "an alteration of natural truth and a trite repetition of natural formulas." As an artistic moment, Mannerism involves many characteristics that are unique and specific to experimentation of how art

8448-454: The altarpiece now resides in the Uffizi. In an Italy swamped with a tsunami of Madonnas, it would be easy to overlook this work; however, this commonly copied scheme also lends itself to comparison of his style with that of his contemporaries. The figures have a Leonardo da Vinci-like aura, and the stable pyramid of their composition provides a unified structure. In some ways, his rigid adherence

8580-453: The anti-architectural "architectural" features at the top, the papery pierced frame, the satyr nudes at the base. As a mere frame it is extravagant: Mannerist, in short.. Another literary figure from the period is Gian Paolo Lomazzo , who produced two works—one practical and one metaphysical—that helped define the Mannerist artist's self-conscious relation to his art. His Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura (Milan, 1584)

8712-590: The art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also known as formalism , or the study of forms or shapes in art. Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles , where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture

8844-466: The art of painting emerge in the praise he bestows on fellow artists in his multi-volume Lives of the Artists : he believed that excellence in painting demanded refinement, richness of invention ( invenzione ), expressed through virtuoso technique ( maniera ), and wit and study that appeared in the finished work, all criteria that emphasized the artist's intellect and the patron's sensibility. The artist

8976-462: The artist's style but of a later date". Mannerism , derived from the Italian maniera ("manner") is a specific phase of the general Renaissance style, but "manner" can be used very widely. In archaeology , despite modern techniques like radiocarbon dating , period or cultural style remains a crucial tool in the identification and dating not only of works of art but all classes of archaeological artefact , including purely functional ones (ignoring

9108-401: The balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. Mannerism in literature and music is notable for its highly florid style and intellectual sophistication. The definition of Mannerism and the phases within it continue to be a subject of debate among art historians. For example, some scholars have applied the label to certain early modern forms of literature (especially poetry) and music of

9240-424: The best from several source materials, synthesizing it into something new. As a stylistic label, "Mannerism" is not easily defined. It was used by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt and popularized by German art historians in the early 20th century to categorize the seemingly uncategorizable art of the Italian 16th century—art that was no longer found to exhibit the harmonious and rational approaches associated with

9372-586: The composition. El Greco attempted to express religious emotion with exaggerated traits. After the realistic depiction of the human form and the mastery of perspective achieved in High Renaissance, some artists started to deliberately distort proportions in disjointed, irrational space for emotional and artistic effect. El Greco still is a deeply original artist. He has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. Key aspects of Mannerism in El Greco include

9504-478: The conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of Marxist art history. Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, as well as a reaction against the emphasis on style; for Svetlana Alpers , "the normal invocation of style in art history

9636-555: The continent in search of employment, their style was disseminated throughout Italy and Northern Europe. The result was the first international artistic style since the Gothic . Other parts of Northern Europe did not have the advantage of such direct contact with Italian artists, but the Mannerist style made its presence felt through prints and illustrated books. European rulers, among others, purchased Italian works, while northern European artists continued to travel to Italy, helping to spread

9768-509: The conventional order to accommodate complexity and contradiction and thereby engages ambiguity unambiguously." An example of Mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola , in the rugged countryside outside of Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles. Dense with ornament of "Roman" detailing, the display doorway at Colditz Castle exemplifies

9900-515: The correctness of the contours being particularly admired, and earned for Sarto the nickname of "Andrea senza errori" (Andrea the perfect). Toward 1512 he painted an ( San Gallo Annunciation ) Annunciation in the Church of San Gallo and a Marriage of Saint Catherine (Dresden). By 1514, Andrea had finished his last two frescoes in the Chiostro dei Voti (SS. Annunziata), including his masterpiece,

10032-616: The debate, which has also drawn on wider developments in critical theory . In 2010 Jas Elsner put it more strongly: "For nearly the whole of the 20th century, style art history has been the indisputable king of the discipline, but since the revolutions of the seventies and eighties the king has been dead", though his article explores ways in which "style art history" remains alive, and his comment would hardly be applicable to archaeology. The use of terms such as Counter- Maniera appears to be in decline, as impatience with such "style labels" grows among art historians. In 2000 Marcia B. Hall ,

10164-427: The development of style in Italian painting (mainly) from Giotto to his own Mannerist period. He stressed the development of a Florentine style based on disegno or line-based drawing, rather than Venetian colour. With other Renaissance theorists like Leon Battista Alberti he continued classical debates over the best balance in art between the realistic depiction of nature and idealization of it; this debate

10296-662: The early 16th century contemporaneously with a number of other social, scientific, religious and political movements such as the Copernican heliocentrism , the Sack of Rome in 1527 , and the Protestant Reformation 's increasing challenge to the power of the Catholic Church. Because of this, the style's elongated forms and distorted forms were once interpreted as a reaction to the idealized compositions prevalent in High Renaissance art. This explanation for

10428-463: The early Mannerists were "anti-classical" in their reaction away from the aesthetic values of the High Renaissance and today the Carracci brothers and Caravaggio are agreed to have begun the transition to Baroque-style painting which was dominant by 1600. Outside of Italy, however, Mannerism continued into the 17th century. In France, where Rosso traveled to work for the court at Fontainebleau , it

10560-531: The early style of pupil Pontormo . In 1523, Andrea painted a copy of the portrait group of Pope Leo X by Raphael; this copy is now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples , while the original remains at the Pitti Palace. The Raphael painting was owned by Ottaviano de' Medici , and requested by Federico II Gonzaga , Duke of Mantua . Unwilling to part with the original, Ottaviano retained Andrea to produce

10692-581: The end of September 1530. He was buried unceremoniously by the Misericordia in the church of the Servites. In Lives of the Artists , Vasari claimed Andrea received no attention at all from his wife during his terminal illness. However, it was well known at the time that plague was highly contagious, so it has been speculated that Lucrezia might have been afraid of contracting the virulent and frequently-fatal disease. If true, this well-founded caution

10824-625: The expression of political and social views by the artist a good deal earlier than is normally detected in the West. Calligraphy, also regarded as a fine art in the Islamic world and East Asia , brings a new area within the ambit of personal style; the ideal of Western calligraphy tends to be to suppress individual style, while graphology , which relies upon it, regards itself as a science. The painter Edward Edwards said in his Anecdotes of Painters (1808): "Mr. Gainsborough 's manner of penciling

10956-836: The first female career artist in Western Europe. She was appointed to be the Portraitist in Ordinary at the Vatican . Her style is characterized as being influenced by the Carracci family of painters by the colors of the Venetian School. She is known for her portraits of noblewomen, and for her depiction of nude figures, which was unusual for a woman of her time. Taddeo Zuccaro was born in Sant'Angelo in Vado , near Urbino,

11088-654: The founders of French 16th-century Mannerism, popularly known as the School of Fontainebleau . The examples of a rich and hectic decorative style at Fontainebleau further disseminated the Italian style through the medium of engravings to Antwerp , and from there throughout Northern Europe, from London to Poland. Mannerist design was extended to luxury goods like silver and carved furniture. A sense of tense, controlled emotion expressed in elaborate symbolism and allegory , and an ideal of female beauty characterized by elongated proportions are features of this style. Agnolo Bronzino

11220-691: The great models of Mannerism. Young artists broke into his house and stole drawings from him. In his book Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , Giorgio Vasari noted that Michelangelo stated once: "Those who are followers can never pass by whom they follow". The competitive spirit was cultivated by patrons who encouraged sponsored artists to emphasize virtuosic technique and to compete with one another for commissions. It drove artists to look for new approaches and dramatically illuminated scenes, elaborate clothes and compositions, elongated proportions, highly stylized poses, and

11352-407: The idea of personal style is certainly not limited to the Western tradition. In Chinese art it is just as deeply held, but traditionally regarded as a factor in the appreciation of some types of art, above all calligraphy and literati painting , but not others, such as Chinese porcelain; a distinction also often seen in the so-called decorative arts in the West. Chinese painting also allowed for

11484-425: The individual style, sometimes called the signature style , of an artist: "the notion of personal style—that individuality can be uniquely expressed not only in the way an artist draws, but also in the stylistic quirks of an author's writing (for instance)— is perhaps an axiom of Western notions of identity". The identification of individual styles is especially important in the attribution of works to artists, which

11616-406: The innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, and the use of the subtle gradation of tone, all had reached near perfection. The young artists needed to find a new goal, and they sought new approaches. At this point Mannerism started to emerge. The new style developed between 1510 and 1520 either in Florence, or in Rome, or both cities simultaneously. This period has been described as

11748-468: The invention of art historians and would not have been understood by the practitioners of those styles. Some originated as terms of derision, including Gothic , Baroque , and Rococo . Cubism on the other hand was a conscious identification made by a few artists; the word itself seems to have originated with critics rather than painters, but was rapidly accepted by the artists. Western art, like that of some other cultures, most notably Chinese art , has

11880-447: The jarring "acid" palette, elongated and tortured anatomy, irrational perspective and light, and obscure and troubling iconography. El Greco's style was a culmination of unique developments based on his Greek heritage and travels to Spain and Italy. El Greco's work reflects a multitude of styles including Byzantine elements as well as the influence of Caravaggio and Parmigianino in addition to Venetian coloring . An important element

12012-466: The life and miracles of Saint Sebastian, but he told the Servites that he no longer wished to continue with the second cycle, most likely due to the low remuneration. The Servites convinced him to do two more frescoes in the forecourt, although of a different subject matter: a Procession of the Magi (containing a self-portrait) finished in 1511 and a Nativity of the Virgin . These paintings met with respect,

12144-554: The manner of Pieter Aertsen , and mythological scenes, many small cabinet paintings beautifully executed on copper, and most featuring nudity. Giuseppe Arcimboldo is most readily known for his artworks that incorporate still life and portraiture . His style is viewed as Mannerist with the assemblage style of fruits and vegetables in which its composition can be depicted in various ways—right side up and upside down. Arcimboldo's artworks have also applied to Mannerism in terms of humor that it conveys to viewers, because it does not hold

12276-616: The monochrome Visitation . This last was painted in the autumn of 1524, after Andrea had returned from Luco in Mugello , whence an outbreak of bubonic plague in Florence had driven him and his family. In 1525, he returned to paint in the Annunziata cloister the Madonna del Sacco , a lunette named after a sack against which Joseph is represented propped. In this painting the generous virgin's gown and her gaze indicate his influence on

12408-511: The mythological tale of Laocoön , who warned the Trojans about the danger of the wooden horse which was presented by the Greeks as peace offering to the goddess Minerva . As a result, Minerva retaliated in revenge by summoning serpents to kill Laocoön and his two sons. Instead of being set against the backdrop of Troy , El Greco situated the scene near Toledo, Spain in order to "universalize

12540-554: The northern style, characteristically applied as an isolated "set piece" against unpretentious vernacular walling. From the late 1560s onwards, many buildings in Valletta , the new capital city of Malta , were designed by the architect Girolamo Cassar in the Mannerist style. Such buildings include St. John's Co-Cathedral , the Grandmaster's Palace and the seven original auberges . Many of Cassar's buildings were modified over

12672-622: The original block than Michelangelo would have done. Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa is certainly a masterpiece, designed with eight angles of view, another Mannerist characteristic, and artificially stylized in comparison with the David s of Michelangelo and Donatello. Originally a goldsmith, his famous gold and enamel Salt Cellar (1543) was his first sculpture, and shows his talent at its best. Small bronze figures for collector's cabinets , often mythological subjects with nudes, were

12804-424: The painting communicates the humor of power which is that Emperor Rudolf II is hiding a dark inner self behind his public image. On the other hand, the serious tone of the painting foreshadows the good fortune that would be prevalent during his reign. Vertumnus contains various Mannerist elements in terms of its composition and message. One element is the flat, black background which Arcimboldo utilizes to emphasize

12936-562: The painting, Christ and the Apostles occupy one side of the table and single out Judas . Within the dark space, there are few sources of light; one source is emitted by Christ's halo and hanging torch above the table. In its distinct composition, the Last Supper portrays Mannerist characteristics. One characteristic that Tintoretto utilizes is a black background. Though the painting gives some indication of an interior space through

13068-578: The question of whether purely functional artefacts exist). The identification of individual styles of artists or artisans has also been proposed in some cases even for remote periods such as the Ice Age art of the European Upper Paleolithic . As in art history, formal analysis of the morphology (shape) of individual artefacts is the starting point. This is used to construct typologies for different types of artefacts, and by

13200-690: The radical stylistic shift c.  1520 has fallen out of scholarly favor, though early Mannerist art is still sharply contrasted with High Renaissance conventions; the accessibility and balance achieved by Raphael's School of Athens no longer seemed to interest young artists. The second period of Mannerism is commonly differentiated from the earlier, so-called "anti-classical" phase. Subsequent mannerists stressed intellectual conceits and artistic virtuosity, features that have led later critics to accuse them of working in an unnatural and affected "manner" ( maniera ). Maniera artists looked to their older contemporary Michelangelo as their principal model; theirs

13332-481: The realm of architecture. During the period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships. The Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms. The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style, and a pioneer at the Laurentian Library , was Michelangelo (1475–1564). He is credited with inventing the giant order ,

13464-543: The regular utilization of rough brushstrokes and experimentation with pigment to create illusion. An artwork that is associated with Mannerist characteristics is the Last Supper ; it was commissioned by Michele Alabardi for the San Giorgio Maggiore in 1591. In Tintoretto's Last Supper , the scene is portrayed from the angle of group of people along the right side of the composition. On the left side of

13596-483: The relatively few medieval writings on aesthetics did not greatly develop a concept of style in art, or analysis of it, and though Renaissance and Baroque writers on art are greatly concerned with what we would call style, they did not develop a coherent theory of it, at least outside architecture: Artistic styles shift with cultural conditions; a self-evident truth to any modern art historian, but an extraordinary idea in this period [Early Renaissance and earlier]. Nor

13728-416: The representation of the goddess of the night on the left. The composition also involves a grouping of masks, a hybrid creature composed of features of a girl and a serpent, and a man depicted in agonizing pain. Many theories are available for the painting, such as it conveying the dangers of syphilis , or that the painting functioned as a court game. Mannerist portraits by Bronzino are distinguished by

13860-470: The saint healing a leper through the gift of his undertunic; predicting the bad end of some blasphemers; and restoring a girl possessed with a devil . The two final frescoes of the series depicted the healing of a child at the death bed of Filippo Benizzi and the curing of sick adults and children through his relic garment held at the church. All five frescoes were completed before the close of 1510. The original contract also required him to paint five scenes of

13992-415: The same degree of seriousness as Renaissance works. Stylistically, Arcimboldo's paintings are known for their attention to nature and concept of a "monstrous appearance". One of Arcimboldo's paintings which contains various Mannerist characteristics is, Vertumnus . Painted against a black background is a portrait of Rudolf II , whose body is composed of various vegetables, flowers, and fruits. The joke of

14124-493: The simplification of line, form, and relationships of space and color", and observed that "[s]tylized art reduces visual perception to constructs of pattern in line, surface elaboration and flattened space". Ancient, traditional, and modern art , as well as popular forms such as cartoons or animation very often use stylized representations, so for example The Simpsons use highly stylized depictions, as does traditional African art . The two Picasso paintings illustrated at

14256-420: The son of Ottaviano Zuccari, an almost unknown painter. His brother Federico , born around 1540, was also a painter and architect. Federico Zuccaro 's documented career as a painter began in 1550, when he moved to Rome to work under Taddeo , his elder brother. He went on to complete decorations for Pius IV , and help complete the fresco decorations at the Villa Farnese at Caprarola . Between 1563 and 1565, he

14388-462: The status and identity of the Emperor, as well as highlighting the fantasy of his reign. In the portrait of Rudolf II, Arcimboldo also strays away from the naturalistic representation of the Renaissance, and explores the construction of composition by rendering him from a jumble of fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers. Another element of Mannerism which the painting portrays is the dual narrative of

14520-463: The story by drawing out its relevance for the contemporary world." El Greco's unique style in Laocoön exemplifies many Mannerist characteristics. Prevalent is the elongation of many of the human forms throughout the composition in conjunction with their serpentine movement, which provides a sense of elegance. An additional element of Mannerist style is the atmospheric effects in which El Greco creates

14652-477: The succession of schools of archaeological theory in the last century, from culture-historical archaeology to processual archaeology and finally the rise of post-processual archaeology in recent decades has not significantly reduced the importance of the study of style in archaeology, as a basis for classifying objects before further interpretation. Stylization and stylized (or stylisation and stylised in (non-Oxford) British English , respectively) have

14784-482: The technique of seriation a relative dating based on style for a site or group of sites is achieved where scientific absolute dating techniques cannot be used, in particular where only stone, ceramic or metal artefacts or remains are available, which is often the case. Sherds of pottery are often very numerous in sites from many cultures and periods, and even small pieces may be confidently dated by their style. In contrast to recent trends in academic art history,

14916-535: The term Mannerism had negative connotations, but it is now used to describe the historical period in more general, non-judgmental terms. Mannerist architecture has also been used to describe a trend in the 1960s and 1970s that involved breaking the norms of modernist architecture while at the same time recognizing their existence. Defining Mannerism in this context, architect and author Robert Venturi wrote "Mannerism for architecture of our time that acknowledges conventional order rather than original expression but breaks

15048-624: The term maniera greca to refer to the medieval Italo-Byzantine style or simply to the maniera of Michelangelo; and to affirm a positive judgment of artistic quality. Vasari was also a Mannerist artist, and he described the period in which he worked as "la maniera moderna", or the "modern style". James V. Mirollo describes how "Bella maniera" poets attempted to surpass in virtuosity the sonnets of Petrarch . This notion of "Bella maniera" suggests that artists who were thus inspired looked to copying and bettering their predecessors, rather than confronting nature directly. In essence, "Bella maniera" utilized

15180-488: The top of this page show a movement to a more stylized representation of the human figure within the painter's style, and the Uffington White Horse is an example of a highly stylized prehistoric depiction of a horse. Motifs in the decorative arts such as the palmette or arabesque are often highly stylized versions of the parts of plants. Even in art that is in general attempting mimesis or "realism",

15312-419: The use of perspective , the edges of the composition are mostly shrouded in shadow which provides drama for the central scene of the Last Supper . Additionally, Tintoretto utilizes the spotlight effects with light, especially with the halo of Christ and the hanging torch above the table. A third Mannerist characteristic that Tintoretto employs are the atmospheric effects of figures shaped in smoke and float about

15444-465: The works of the master, a standard way that students learned to paint and sculpt. His Sistine Chapel ceiling provided examples for them to follow, in particular his representation of collected figures often called ignudi and of the Libyan Sibyl , his vestibule to the Laurentian Library , the figures on his Medici tombs , and above all his Last Judgment . The later Michelangelo was one of

15576-646: The years, especially in the Baroque period. However, a few buildings, such as Auberge d'Aragon and the exterior of St. John's Co-Cathedral, retain most of Cassar's original Mannerist design. Style (visual arts) Style can be divided into the general style of a period, country or cultural group, group of artists or art movement , and the individual style of the artist within that group style. Divisions within both types of styles are often made, such as between "early", "middle" or "late". In some artists, such as Picasso for example, these divisions may be marked and easy to see; in others, they are more subtle. Style

15708-415: Was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and initially mostly German-speaking field of art history , with important writers on the broad theory of style including Carl Friedrich von Rumohr , Gottfried Semper , and Alois Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl continuing the debate in the 20th century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among

15840-527: Was a pupil of Pontormo, whose style was very influential and often confusing in terms of figuring out the attribution of many artworks. During his career, Bronzino also collaborated with Vasari as a set designer for the production "Comedy of Magicians", where he painted many portraits . Bronzino's work was sought after, and he enjoyed great success when he became a court painter for the Medici family in 1539. A unique Mannerist characteristic of Bronzino's work

15972-592: Was active in Venice with the Grimani family of Santa Maria Formosa. During his Venetian period, he traveled alongside Palladio in Friuli. Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638) continued to paint in a Northern Mannerist style until the end of his life, ignoring the arrival of the Baroque art , and making him perhaps the last significant Mannerist artist still to be working. His subjects included large scenes with still life in

16104-480: Was an art imitating art, rather than an art imitating nature. Art historian Sydney Joseph Freedberg argues that the intellectualizing aspect of maniera art involves expecting its audience to notice and appreciate this visual reference—a familiar figure in an unfamiliar setting enclosed between "unseen, but felt, quotation marks". The height of artifice is the Maniera painter's penchant for deliberately misappropriating

16236-436: Was apprenticed to a goldsmith , and then to a woodcarver and painter named Gian Barile, with whom he remained until 1498. According to his late biographer Vasari , he then apprenticed to Piero di Cosimo , and later with Raffaellino del Garbo (Carli). Andrea and an older friend, Franciabigio , decided to open a joint studio at a lodging together in the Piazza del Grano. The first product of their partnership may have been

16368-453: Was before Modernism essentially imitative, relying on taught technical methods, whether learnt as an apprentice in a workshop or later as a student in an academy, there was always room for personal variation. The idea of technical "secrets" closely guarded by the master who developed them, is a long-standing topos in art history from Vasari's probably mythical account of Jan van Eyck to the secretive habits of Georges Seurat . However

16500-484: Was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo , and Raphael . Andrea del Sarto was born Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca in Florence on 16 July 1486. Since his father, Agnolo, was a tailor (Italian: sarto ), he became known as "del Sarto" (meaning "tailor's son"). Since 1677 some have attributed the surname Vannucchi with little documentation. By 1494, Andrea

16632-496: Was highly critical of his teacher, alleging that, although having all the prerequisites of a great artist, he lacked ambition and a divine fire of inspiration that animated the works of his more famous contemporaries: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. On 21 November 1848, the play Andre del Sarto , by Alfred de Musset , premiered in Paris . In 1968, the opera Andrea del Sarto by French composer Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur

16764-489: Was now no longer just a trained member of a local Guild of St Luke. Now he took his place at court alongside scholars, poets, and humanists, in a climate that fostered an appreciation for elegance and complexity. The coat-of-arms of Vasari's Medici patrons appears at the top of his portrait, quite as if it were the artist's own. The framing of the woodcut image of Vasari's Lives would be called " Jacobean " in an English-speaking milieu. In it, Michelangelo's Medici tombs inspire

16896-527: Was rewarded, as she survived her husband by 40 years. Said to have thought very highly of Andrea's talents, Michelangelo introduced thirteen-year-old Vasari to Andrea's studio in 1524. Of those who initially followed Andrea's style in Florence, the most prominent would be Jacopo Pontormo , along with Rosso Fiorentino , Francesco Salviati , and Jacopino del Conte . Other lesser known assistants and pupils include Bernardo del Buda, Lamberto Lombardi, Nannuccio Fiorentino, and Andrea Squazzella. Vasari, however,

17028-689: Was so peculiar to himself, that his work needed no signature". Examples of strongly individual styles include: the Cubist art of Pablo Picasso , the Pop Art style of Andy Warhol , Impressionist style of Vincent Van Gogh , Drip Painting by Jackson Pollock "Manner" is a related term, often used for what is in effect a sub-division of a style, perhaps focused on particular points of style or technique. While many elements of period style can be reduced to characteristic forms or shapes, that can adequately be represented in simple line-drawn diagrams, "manner"

17160-401: Was the rendering of milky complexions . In the painting, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time , Bronzino portrays an erotic scene that leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. In the foreground, Cupid and Venus are nearly engaged in a kiss, but pause as if caught in the act. Above the pair are mythological figures, Father Time on the right, who pulls a curtain to reveal the pair and

17292-481: Was to be short. He then entrusted Andrea with a sum of money to be expended in purchasing works of art for the French Court. By Vasari's account, Andrea took the money and used it instead to buy a house in Florence, thus ruining his reputation and preventing him from ever returning to France. The story inspired Robert Browning 's poem-monologue " Andrea del Sarto Called the 'Faultless Painter' " (1855), but now

17424-465: Was to continue until the 19th century and the advent of Modernism . The theorist of Neoclassicism , Johann Joachim Winckelmann , analysed the stylistic changes in Greek classical art in 1764, comparing them closely to the changes in Renaissance art , and " Georg Hegel codified the notion that each historical period will have a typical style", casting a very long shadow over the study of style. Hegel

#999