PART 5 MANNERISM 1530

Context: Historic Events and the fragmentation of the Christian monolith The sack of Rome 1527 by Charles V, invasion of Italy Pope Clement VII under siege in Castel Sant’ Angelo The Reformation Martin Luther, John Calvin break from the Church in Rome 1517, the Reformation is born Universal Inquisition C. 1550, the beginnings of the Counter-Reformation

Context: Historic Events and the fragmentation of the Christian monolith Copernicus Publishes On the Revolutions of the Planets and Their Orbits in 1543 and results in the following questions New consciousness of earth’s significance (or insignificance), man is not the center of creation Weakening of man’s belief in miracles and divine intervention Peasant revolts and religious wars throughout Europe Threats of encroaching Ottoman Turks from the east

General Characteristics The breaking up of the Renaissance sense of unity Virtuosity of technique, tendencies to over-refinement/self-consciously contrived attitudes Self-referential to world of art and previous art-making, appreciation and puns Attempt to shock audience with subject matter and presentation

SYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS of MANNERIST PAINTING Cramped compositions: crowded pictorial space filed with figures blotting out the background Undefinable space: space appears too shallow or undefined for what is takin place in it Exaggeration: fanciful gestures and attitudes, deliberately intricate groupings Movement: figures are characterized by athletic bending and twisting Distortion: unnatural elongation in the body, unrealistically small heads Unbalanced compositions: unstable groupings of figures Nervous: Quality of restlessness that leads to distortion, exaggeration, and bizarre posturing Un-classical: center of compositions are often left void or there is an absence of one focal point Self-conscious: figures look out into viewer’s space, anxiously Subjective colors: unnatural color Idiosyncratic: highly individual choice of subject matter and interpretation

VOCABULARY Idiosyncratic Exaggeration Composition Subjective Artifice Serpentinata Focal point

JACOPO DA PONTORMO Descent from the Cross -Christ’s descent from the Cross, omitted the cross and the tomb (playing on viewers expectations of what is happening0 -On a vertical axis, instead of horizontal -Void in center, instead of a mass, calls attention to the void -Distorted, elongated bodies -Colors are light blue and pink -Departure from balance and harmony of the Renaissance

PARMIGIANINO Madonna with the Long Neck ca. 1535. Oil on wood, approx. 7’ 1” x 4’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Mannerist Sculpture

GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA Abduction of the Sabine Women Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, completed 1583. Marble, approx. 13’ 6” high.

Mannerist Architecture

GIULIO ROMANO interior courtyard facade of the Palazzo del Tè, Mantua, Italy, 1525–1535.

Alternate View General View, E side of main courtyard © 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd.