Mannerism and the Later 16th

Century in Italy

Sandrine Le Bail AP Art History

16th century in Europe

Francis I in France

1527 Sack of Rome

Main events

• 1517 – 95 Theses of Martin Luther

• 1520 – Death of Raphael

• 1527 - Sack of Rome

Mannerism

• Emerged in 1520’s

• In reaction to the High Renaissance style of Leonardo or Raphael

• Main feature: artifice

New Subjects matters

• Still live - Inanimate objects

• Genre Painting – Scene of everyday life

Patrons

• Court / wealthy patron

• Sophisticated messages

• Highly complex and difficult to decipher

• Intellectual

Artists Writers

• Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography, 1558-1562

• Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects ( 1550, updated 1568)

• Andrea Palladio, Four books on Architecture (begun 1570)

Main Mannerist Painters

• Jacopo da Pontorno

• Antonio Correggio

• Parmigianino

• Agnolo Bronzino

Michelangelo, Last

Judgement, 1541

Raffaello, Transfiguration,

1520.

Jacopo Da Pontormo,

Entombment, 1525-1528

Raphael, The deposition, 1507

Jacopo da Pontormo, Entombment, 1525-1528

• Oil on wood

• For the church of Santa Felicità

• No focal point – Hole in the center of the circular composition

• High keyed colors

• No ground line

• Linear bodies twisting around one another

Parmigianino, Self Portrait in a convex mirror, 1524

Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long Neck, 1535

Figura Serpentina: twist of the body

Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long Neck, 1535

Figura Serpentina: twist of the body

Raphael, Madonna and the Goldfinch

Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long

Neck, 1535

- Deliberately imbalanced composition

- Enigmatic row of columns

- Elongated bod

- Disproportion between the upper part of the body and the lower part

AgnoloBronzino,

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time,

1545

Time

Folly

Fraud or Vanity

Masks = Falseness

Envy?Syphilis?

Fury ? Truth?

Cupid

Venus

Dove = Love

Agnolo Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, 1545

• Commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence as a gift to Francis I

• Complicated allegorical structure –Multiplicity of meanings

• Complex imagery and poses

• Figures in a congested composition, pushed to the forefront of the picture plane

Characteristics of the style

• Twisted and elongated figures

• Asymmetrical and unbalanced compositions

• Lack of a clear focal point

• Unusual representations of traditional themes

• Strident palette

• Ambiguous space

• Use of expressive hand gestures

Mannerist Sculptors

• Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)

• Giambologna = Jean de Boulogne = Giovanni Bologna (1529-1608)

Mannerist sculpture: No primary point

Michelangelo, David, 1501-1404 Cellini, Perseus and the head of Medusa, 1554

Benvenuto Cellini, saltcellar of Francis I, 1543.

Giambologna, Mercury, c.1576

Giambologna, Abduction of

the Sabine Women, 1583

Characteristic of Mannerism Sculpture

• Elongation of the figures

• Intertwining figures

• Lot of negative space

• Crowded composition

• Viewers have to examine the details to understand the whole

Giulio Romano, The Palazzo del tè, 1525-1535, Mantua

Commissioned by Federigo Gonzaga.

Horse farm and villa

Courtyard facade

GiulioRomano, sala deiGiganti,

1530-1452

Battle between the Gods and the Titans

Counter Reformation Painting

Protestant Reformation

Counter Reformation

Council of Trent 1545 and 1563

Art according to the Council of Trent

Art should :

• be didactic

• be ethically decent

• be accurate in its treatment of religious subjects

• appeal to emotion and not to reason

Themes:

• Parallels between Old and New testament

• Less Classical themes

Inquisition

Paolo Veronese, Last Supper (Christ in the House of Levi), 1573

Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-1594

Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-1594

- Powerful diagonal- Christ in the center

but seems far- Elongated figures- Light reveals flying

angels- Light casts long

shadow- Many details of

everyday life- No action

El Greco, Christ Healing the blind, c.1577

El Greco, Burial of the

Count of Orgaz, 1586-

1588

Church of Saint Tomé, Toledo, Spain for Orgaz’sburial chapel

Heaven

Earth

Saint StephenSaint Augustine

Orgaz

Mary

Saint Peter

Jesus

El Greco, Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586-1588

El Greco, Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586-1588

- Mannerist use of space

- Combination of Venetian color, Spanish mysticism and mannerist elongation

- Painting divided in half: bottom is the somber Earth, above the ecstatic heaven.

Late 16th- Century Architecture

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

Wrote the Four Books of Architecture

Influenced by Greek and Roman Architecture

Synthesis between elements of Mannerism and ideals of High Renaissance

Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-1569

Used as a working farm, family estate, villa retreat

Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-1569

Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-1569

Low dome like Antiquity with an original occulus

Andrea Palladio, Saint Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, begun 1565

Tall pediment

High classical façade

Interlocking pediments

Il Gesù, Roma

• Jesuit order founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540

• Decision to build the head church in the center of Rome

• Architects: Giacomo Vignola, then Giacomodella Porta

• Patron: Alessandro Farnese

• reflects the Counter Reformation concerns

Giacomo da Vignola, plan of the Church of Il Gesù, 1565-1573

Giacomo da Vignola and

Giacomo

della Porta, Il Gesù, Roma,

1575-1584