Week 2 Discussion History of Art from the Middle ages to Modern Times

Mannerism; The Sixteenth Century in Venice and Spain

Mannerism

Following Michelangelo’s completion of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, he began to paint the subject of the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Chapel. A frequent subject for Medieval and Renaissance artists, Michelangelo’s Last Judgmentserves as a bridge from the High Renaissance style into a style known as Mannerism. The Last Judgment fresco shows Michelangelo’s characteristic muscular human forms, typical of his High Renaissance style, but more typical of a Mannerist approach, his �gures exist in a vortex in which Heaven and Hell are not clearly delineated. Figures show heightened emotions and psychological states, and are posed in unnatural ways; the composition is crowded, confusing, and elaborate and the color is vibrant and striking. The fresco is understood to be Michelangelo’s personal interpretation of the New Testament account, in which the fate of all humans is decided, and its style re�ects changes in Italian art of the sixteenth century.

The term Mannerism comes from the Italian word maniera, and it can refer to certain artistic tendencies that appeared in Europe between the High Renaissance in the early sixteenth century and the Baroque era of the seventeenth century.

Mannerist art is marked by elongated �gural proportions, overstated poses, strange gestures, and a representation of subjects in an erotic or disturbing way. Mannerist artists used unconventional color schemes and unbalanced compositions. In Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck, perhaps the quintessential example of Mannerist painting, the �gures are unnaturally elongated and pushed to the foreground, the composition is unbalanced, and the sleeping Christ Child, which many read in a pose similar to the Piéta on Mary’s lap, seems likely to fall into the viewer’s space.

The Sixteenth Century in Venice and Spain

The Renaissance in Venice, Italy, produced oil paintings characterized by rich color and idyllic, sometimes sensuous subjects. Titian’s Venus of Urbino (c. 1538), commissioned by the Duke of Urbino, is a portrait of a Venetian courtesan portrayed as a reclining Venus, mixing classical mythology with actual life. Titian’s painting became the of�cial artistic formula for representing a reclining nude and would be resurrected by artists like nineteenth century painter Edouard Manet.

Later in the sixteenth century, Venetian artist Tintoretto painted his dramatic version of the Last Supper (1592-94). Marked by a strong diagonal composition and dramatic effects of dark and light, Tintoretto’s treatment of the subject matter is in stark contrast to Leonardo’s version a century earlier. With its dynamic, unbalanced composition, Tintoretto’s Last Supper foreshadows the Italian Baroque style.

Spanish artist El Greco similarly bridges the Renaissance and Baroque period styles. El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz contains the elongated �gures and jumbled composition typical of Mannerism. Compositional details such as the diagonal clouds lean towards the Baroque style, as does the implied lowering of the Count’s body into the viewer’s physical space, an interactive device that integrates the viewer in the subject in a typically Baroque manner.

Additional Materials (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-

rome/michelangelo/a/michelangelo-last-judgment)

Mannerism   (https://www.britannica.com/art/Mannerism) (http://www.uf�zi.org/artworks/venus-of-urbino-by-titian/)

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