Visual Analysis PowerPoint Project
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Mannerism.pptxART HISTORY 132
Mannerism
Mannerism
context: Wars of Religion (c. 1520-1600)
Sack of Rome (1527)
German troops (Holy Roman Empire) swarmed into Rome
plundered, tortured, raped, and murdered
effect brought Renaissance to sudden, catastrophic end
context: death of Raphael (1520)
painters reject, repudiate & subvert harmony & balance of High Ren
style belief beauty could be improved upon by imagination
glaring use of color & light
exaggerated perspective
attenuated figures
illogical scale
Pontormo (1494-1557)
Entombment (1525-28)
narrative: deliberate ambiguity
aesthetic: defies numerous High Renaissance ideals
figures:
unnatural proportions
elongated torsos
perspective: defies rational identification of planes
depth communicated only by
overlapping
foreshortening
singular cloud
spatial order: compressed
composition: no central motif along CVA
effect disperses psychological impact
color: unnatural shades of pastels
light/shadow: even distribution
(Left) Pontormo’s Mannerist Entombment of Christ (1525-1528) vs. (right) Raphael’s High Renaissance Deposition (1507)
Parmigianino (1503-40)
Self-Portrait (c. 1525)
format: tondo
process: convex mirror
Leonardo warned against false mirror effects
spatial order/perspective:
consciously inventive
distorts form & space
extreme foreshortening
composition: stable
color: muted
light/shadow: modified chiaroscuro
Parmigianino
Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)
aesthetic: consciously stylized
figures: elegant
attenuated & tapered forms
porcelain-like surfaces of skin
scale: altered (large vs. miniscule)
composition: stable arrangement of Madonna along CVA
balanced by strong vertical of column
imbalanced by grouping on left
spatial order: tension between compressed grouping of figures on left versus sliver of sky
perspective: linear & aerial
illusionistic tricks
(Left) Raphael’s High Renaissance Madonna and Child Enthroned (1519) vs. (right) Parmigianino’s Mannerist Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)
Correggio (1489–1534)
biography: little known about C's early life or training
influenced by Italian Early Ren. artist Mantegna and response to Leonardo
teacher of Parmigianino
significance: considered revolutionary and influential on subsequent artists
half-century after his death, C's work well known to Vasari
visual strategies:
dynamic compositions
dramatic foreshortening
illusionistic perspectives
chiaroscuro lighting effects
narratives: sensuous/erotic Humanist themes
Correggio
Assumption of the Virgin (1530)
site: dome of Cathedral of Parma
narrative:
V lofted upward by vortex of singing musical angel
Apostles standing around tomb, ringing base of dome
Blessed Adam and Eve, Judith
Jesus placed at center of dome
foreshortened
beardless
descending to meet mother
perspective: principal means of Mannerist distortion
prototype: Mantegna’s
(Left) Correggio’s Mannerist Assumption of the Virgin (1530) vs. (right) Mantegna’s ceiling of the Camera Picta (Painted Chamber) @ Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy (1465-1474)
Correggio
Jupiter and Io (1531)
patron: Federico Gonzaga, 1st Duke of Mantua
intended to line room in palace w/ Loves of Jupiter mythical ancestor of Gonzaga family
subject matter: Humanist
Book 1 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
divine love subjected to Christian interpretation (Psalms)
lower right, stag drinking from brook ”As deer pants after water brook, so my soul thirsts for thee”
narrative tone: erotic
Io invited by Jupiter, at night, in dream, to lie w/ him in meadows
J camouflaged w/in blackish cloud of constantly changing forms
face and hand can be seen within
undergoes metamorphoses to conceal their loving from indiscreet gaze
Bronzino (1503-72)
Allegory of Lust (1546)
theme: eroticism
narrative: Father Time & Daughter Truth expose incestuous kiss of Venus & son Cupid
spatial order: compressed
style: extremely stylized
figures:
deliberately distorted poses
form subordinated to stylized beauty
exaggerated gestures
porcelain-like flesh
Tintoretto (1518-1594)
Last Supper (1594)
aesthetic: rationality abandoned for mysteriousness
narrative: protagonist lost among multiple figures nor placed along CVA
spatial order: dramatically extended
figures: size inverted to importance
composition: dynamic
color: muted
light: supernatural
dark, windowless
sources, instead, come from candles, chandelier & halos
(Left) LEONARDO’s High Ren. Last Supper (c. 1500) vs. (right) TINTORETTO’s Mannerist Last Supper (c. 1600)
El Greco (1541-1614)
biography:
Greek descent (Crete)
worked for three (3) years in Venice
learned to model figures in clay and wax to study elaborate poses
influence of Titian’s colorism and compositional formats
in Rome, studied works of Raphael and Michelangelo
arrived in Spain (c. 1575(, in order to find patronage that eluded him in Italy
style: self-conscious departure from natural world
figures: elongated & agitated musculature
settings: contrived to add psychological power
El Greco
Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-88)
patron: El G’s own parish church
subject: 14C legend
Toledan nobleman who acquired renown as religious donor
in 1586, parish priest initiated project to refurbish count's burial chapel
narrative: dislocations of time & space
presented as contemporary event
composition: two zones
earthly funeral
heavenly top
color: Venetian
light/shadow: otherworldly
decorativeness: relate to Mannerist portraits
Detail of lower zone from El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz
El Greco
Burial of Count Orgaz (cont.)
heavenly zone:
angel holding soul of dead Count
soul passes between intercessors
Mary & John the Baptist
Christ gestures w/ right arm
receives soul into heavenly glory
El Greco
View of Toledo (1597-99)
format: recalls Giorgione’s Tempest
sky/clouds
river bisecting townscape
perspective: transforms/rearranges topographic details
spires of Gothic cathedral
slope to river steeper
palace moved from edge of city to center
light/shadow: ambiguous & imaginative
(Left) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance The Tempest (c. 1500) vs. EL GRECO’s Mannerist View of Toledo (c. 1600)
El Greco
Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1600)
subject/sitter: scholar & poet who praised El Greco’s work
figure: agitated & tense
perspective: linear
spatial order: compressed by back wall
composition: dynamic
chair at oblique angle
gaze sharply averted
color: vibrant
light/shadow: even distribution
decorativeness: light reflects off satin fabric
drapery: metallic
IMAGE INDEX
Slide 3: PONTORMO. Deposition (c. 1528), Oil on wood, 10’3” x 6’4”, Capponi Chapel, Sta Felicita, Florence.
Slide 4: (Left) Pontormo’s Mannerist Entombment of Christ (1525- 1528); and (right) Raphael’s High Renaissance Deposition (1507)
Slide 5: PARMIGIANINO. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1525), Oil on panel, diameter 9 ½ in., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Slide 6: PARMIGIANINO. Madonna with Long Neck (c. 1535-40), Oil on panel, 216 x 132 cm., Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Slide 7: (Left) Raphael’s High Renaissance Madonna and Child Enthroned (1519); and (right) Parmigianino’s Mannerist Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)
Slide 8: CORREGGIO. Self Portrait (c. 1530)
Slide 9: CORREGGIO. Assumption of the Virgin (1526-30), Fresco, 430 × 470 in., Cathedral of Parma, Italy.
IMAGE INDEX
Slide 10: (Left) Correggio’s Mannerist Assumption of the Virgin (1530); and (right) Mantegna’s ceiling of the Camera Picta (Painted Chamber) @ Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy (1465- 1474)
Slide 11: CORREGGIO. Jupiter and Io (1532-1533), Oil on canvas, 64.4 x 27.8 in., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Berlin.
Slide 12: BRONZINO. Allegory of Lust (c. 1540-45), Oil on panel, 57 ½ x 45 ¼ in., National Gallery, London.
Slide 13: TINTORETTO. The Last Supper (c. 1595), Oil on canvas, 12’ x 18’8”, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.
Slide 14: Dissection of TINTORETTO’s The Last Supper (c. 1595).
Slide 15: EL GRECO. Detail from Self-Portrait
Slide 16: EL GRECO. The Burial of Count Orgaz (1585), Oil on canvas, 16’ x 11’10”, Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.
Slide 17: Detail of lower zone from EL GRECO’s Burial of Count Orgaz.
IMAGE INDEX
Slide 18: Detail of top portion from EL GRECO’s The Burial of Count Orgaz.
Slide 19: EL GRECO. View of Toledo (c. 1600), Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 108.6 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Slide 20: (Left) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance The Tempest (c. 1500); and EL GRECO’s Mannerist View of Toledo (c. 1600)
Slide 21: EL GRECO. Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1600), Oil on canvas, 194 x 130 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
