Mannerism - Overview from Phil Hansen

when you first look at a Mannerist painting you might be tempted to think that it's a product of the Italian Renaissance and you'd be right sort of mannerism is a period of art that came out of the high Renaissance in Italy and it's also known as the late Renaissance period it lasted from about 1520 to 1580 the influence of the Renaissance style is clear and the paintings of the Mannerist movement there are figures from religion and mythology rich colors and careful details all of which you would expect from the art of this age but when you look again you discover that something's a little off upon closer inspection you realize that the figures are distorted no one's neck is that long no human can maintain that distorted pose no one's skin is that bright the lines are kind of exaggerated aren't they and the geographical setting is unclear the space is strange that's when you realize this isn't Renaissance art this is mannerism the Mannerist knew what they were doing when they created these slightly odd images and presented them as genuine distorting elements such as scale and perspective adding drama in subtle ways whenever they could were exactly the look they were going for the name mannerism comes directly from the first known art historian Giorgio lazatti Giorgio himself was a Mannerist artist and used the Italian term maniera meaning style in his encyclopedia to describe the period in which he worked many art historians believe that the Mannerist s-- were making commentary on the manners or style or proper art proper anatomy and even proper Christian virtue man heurists took cues from the Renaissance artists about matters such as bright color fine detail and a focus on individualism and the human form but applied these ideas in a way that transformed their style Mannerist artists departed from the ideals of mathematical Anna Tom Michals spatial and even scenic perfection of the Renaissance in breaking these rules and depicting unrealistic body proportions poses colors and settings they opened imaginative possibilities for juxtapose scenes vibrant color and perfect elegance Mannerist paintings are often filled with tension rather than depicting an important scene or action they frequently show the moment just before the action takes place consider Tintoretto and his painting of the Last Supper depicted from almost an offstage viewpoint it is darker and more fraught with suspense than da Vinci's more famous painting of the same scene the lighting is more harsh and surreal there are more figures off to the side and distorted poses and elongated angels watch from up above all distinctly Mannerist characteristics Raphael and Michelangelo well-known painters of the Italian Renaissance were also among the first artists to experiment with painting in a Mannerist style Francesco Missoula more commonly known as parmigiano followed these Renaissance Heroes example and became one of the first characteristically Mannerist painters parmigiano self-portrait in a convex mirror shows the artist painting his own distorted figure the painting entombment by Jacopo Pontormo features an unnaturally elongated Christ and surrounding figures bent and posed uncomfortably unlike many Renaissance paintings entombment is not didactic with a specific dogmatic message in mind but invites contemplation and opens itself up to interpretation like the figures and pond thermals and to mint the subjects of El Greco's baptism of Christ are punctuated by long torsos and loud splashes of color el greco began his painting career near Venice but fully developed his talents after moving to Spain he is known for his intensely emotional depictions of religious scenes in El Greco's baptism of Christ the viewers gaze is directed to all corners of the painting and the postures and dramatic lighting of the painting create a sense of movement and urgency as with most trends in exaggeration mannerism could last only so long by the close of the 1500s it was yielding to the less strange highly detailed and more theatrical arts of the Baroque movement you

Channel: Philinthecircle

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Keywords: Mannerism (Art Period/Movement), Art (Collection Category), art history, El Greco (Visual Artist), jacopo da pontormo, goodbye art

Id: t6TvfyL9vHc

Length: 4min 55sec (295 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 16 2014