mannerism - el greco

95
Mannerism 1. Between 1520 and 1580 there developed in Italy a stylistic development evident in a number of Artists that has since been broadly defined as Mannerism 2. Michelangelo‘s work is described as a forerunner of the style with his painting ‗The Last judgement often being described as the first ‗mannerist painting 3. It defines a certain artistic standpoint rather than a specific style 4. Italian word ‗Maniera‘ which translated means ‗Style‘ in a specific reference to ‗elegance‘ 5. It is characterised by its self conscious sophistication often contrived or exaggerated elegance. 6. Heightened or sharp colour combinations, complex and highly inventive compositions 7. Technical bravado and free flowing line.

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Page 1: Mannerism - El Greco

Mannerism 1. Between 1520 and 1580 there

developed in Italy a stylistic

development evident in a number of

Artists that has since been broadly

defined as Mannerism

2. Michelangelo‘s work is described as a

forerunner of the style with his painting

‗The Last judgement often being

described as the first ‗mannerist

painting

3. It defines a certain artistic standpoint

rather than a specific style

4. Italian word ‗Maniera‘ which translated

means ‗Style‘ in a specific reference to

‗elegance‘

5. It is characterised by its self

conscious sophistication often

contrived or exaggerated elegance.

6. Heightened or sharp colour

combinations, complex and highly

inventive compositions

7. Technical bravado and free flowing

line.

Page 2: Mannerism - El Greco

The laurentian Library

1. 1523 – the Medici family commissioned Michelangelo commissioned

Michelangelo to design a library that would house over 10 000 books and

manuscripts

2. This is the forerunner of Mannerist architecture

3. The staircase was only built in 1559 which subsequently became recognised

as a masterpiece of decorative architecture inspired by classical forms

Page 3: Mannerism - El Greco

Aerial view. The Laurentian Library can be identified in the long row of windows

above the cloister extending to the left of the picture. The taller structure with two

rows of windows immediately to its right is the vestibule.

Page 4: Mannerism - El Greco
Page 5: Mannerism - El Greco

1. Built in a cloister of

the Medicean Basilica

di San Lorenzo di

Firenze under the

patronage of

the Medici pope, Clem

ent VII,

2. The Library was built

to emphasize that the

Medici family were no

longer mere

merchants but

members of intelligent

and ecclesiastical

society.

Page 6: Mannerism - El Greco

1. The books were not

kept in the

bookshelves.

2. Instead, the outside of

the reading seats had

lists attached to them,

showing the books to

be found in that

particular seat.

3. The books themselves

were chained to the

reading seat.

Page 7: Mannerism - El Greco

1. The admirable distribution of

the windows, the construction

of the ceiling, and the fine

entrance of the Vestibule can

never be sufficiently extolled.

2. Boldness and grace are

equally conspicuous in the

work as a whole, and in every

part; in the cornices, corbels,

the niches for statues, the

commodious staircase, and its

fanciful division-in all the

building, as a word, which is

so unlike the common fashion

of treatment, that every one

stands amazed at the sight

thereof. – Giorgio Vasari

Page 8: Mannerism - El Greco

Jacopo

Pontormo 1494 – 1557

1. At the age of 18 he entered the

workshop of Andrea del Sarto,

and it is this influence that is

most apparent in his early

works.

2. Pontormo very gifted from

youth and by the time he

painted his Joseph in Egypt in

about 1515 he had already

created a distinctive style

3. Full of restless movement and

disconcertingly irrational

effects of scale and space - that

put him in the vanguard of

Mannerism.

4. In 1518 he completed an

altarpiece in the Church of San

Michele Visdomini, Florence,

that also reflects in its agitated

- almost neurotic -

emotionalism a departure from

the balance and tranquillity of

the High Renaissance.

Page 9: Mannerism - El Greco

Joseph in

Egypt

1515-18

Page 10: Mannerism - El Greco

The painting belongs to the series of four entitled Scenes from the Life of Joseph

the Hebrew

the thesis proposed by Mannerism is fully elaborated: 1. the painter is no longer to be bound by perspective

2. or by the necessity of presenting his subject in a rational, objective manner.

3. He may use light and colour, chiaroscuro and proportion as he pleases;

4. he may borrow from any source he chooses;

5. the only obligation upon him is to create an interesting design, expressive of the ideas

inherent in the subject,

6. and the various parts need bear no relationship to each other.

7. The colour must be evocative and beautiful in itself.

The painting is divided into

four distinct zones.

1. In the left foreground

Joseph presents his

family, who he invited to

move to Egypt, to the

pharaoh; According to Vasari, the

boy with dark cloak and

brown tunic sitting on the

first step of the stairs on

which the figures are

arranged, is a portrait of

the young Bronzino (his

adopted son)

Page 11: Mannerism - El Greco

This work, traditionally entitled Joseph

in Egypt, depicts the most significant

episodes of Joseph reuniting with his

family of origin.

2. On the right, Joseph is seen sitting

on a triumphal cart pulled by three

putti; hoisting himself up with his

left arm and clutching firmly onto a

putto with the other,

a. He bends toward a kneeling

figure who is presenting him a

petition or reading him a

message

b. A fifth putto, wrapped in a piece

of cloth blown by the wind,

dominates the scene from the

top of a column, appearing to

mime the gesture of one of the

two half-living statues

represented in the top left and

centre of the painting.

Page 12: Mannerism - El Greco

1. A restless crowd, curious to see what is going on, throngs the adjacent

space between the two buildings in the background.

2. Other mysterious figures, resting against one of the large boulders that

dominate the landscape, turn their attention toward the action in the

foreground.

3. Two half living statues are represented at the top of the painting

Page 13: Mannerism - El Greco

The clothes, expressions and

features of all these figures are

inspired by northern European

painting, as is the large castle and

surrounding trees depicted in the

background.

3. On the unrailed staircase of the

imposing cylindrical building to

the right, Joseph takes one of

his children by the hand; higher

up, the other is greeted

affectionately by his mother.

4. Lastly, Joseph and his sons,

Ephraim and Manasseh, are

portrayed inside the room at the

top of the building, where

Jacob, now old and near to

death, imparts his paternal

blessing.

i. The curious combination

of all these elements tells

a story that is as puzzling

as it is disjointed

Page 14: Mannerism - El Greco

Cosimo il Vecchio 1520

1. posthumous

representation painted,

according to Vasari, for

Goro Gheri da Pistoia,

secretary to the Medici.

2. based upon previous

portraits, and particularly

a medal

3. more a symbolic than a

true physical likeness.

Page 15: Mannerism - El Greco

Madonna and Child with

Saints

1518 San Michele Visdomini

in Florence. 1. Portrays the Virgin with St

John the Evangelist, he

echos symbolically the

pose of the infant Jesus.

2. Joseph, holding the baby

Jesus, the young St John,

St Francis and St James,

the latter being the artist's

self-portrait.

3. The exaggerated

expressions of the figures

and agitated poses all

seem to create an

atmosphere which at first

appears classically

composed but

4. Demonstrates an

underlying restlessness

Page 16: Mannerism - El Greco

1. The emotional tension apparent in

his work reaches its peak in

Pontormo's masterpiece, the

altarpiece of the Entombment

(c.1526-8) in the Capponi Chapel of

Santa Felicità, Florence.

2. Built by Brunelleschi for the

Barbadori family at the begriming of

the fifteenth century.

3. The façade of the Church was

remodelled in 1564 with a porch

added by Vasari to support a coridor

linking the Palzzo Vecchio with the

Pitti Palace.

4. Painted in extraordinarily vivid

colours and featuring deeply

poignant figures who seem lost in a

trance of grief, this is one of the key

works of Mannerism.

View of the Capponi Chapel 1528

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Page 18: Mannerism - El Greco

street guide to Florence – Church Santa Felicita

The section known as the Oltrano

14 – Church Santa Spirito

15- Palazzo Pitti

Page 19: Mannerism - El Greco

The decoration of the

Cappella Capponi in Santa

Felicità is completed by the

Annunciation frescoed on

the wall of the window.

Below - . The Capponi Family

Chapel is to the right of the

entrance.

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1. The Deposition can perhaps justly be

described as the artist's masterpiece.

2. The compositional idea is extravagant

and totally unprecedented:

1. an inextricable knot of figures and

drapes that pivots around the

bewildered youth in the foreground

and culminates above in the two

lightly hovering figures emerging

from vague background.

2. This complicated bunch of forms

arranged in the shape of an

upturned pyramid defies any

attempt at a rational exploration or

identification of planes.

3. The compositional halfway between the

theme of the Deposition and that of the

Pietà or Lamentation over the Dead

Christ. The distraught Virgin, gestures

with her right arm in the same direction.

In the centre of the painting

4. The twisted body of Christ is

reminiscent of Michelangelo's Vatican

Pietà (1498).

Page 21: Mannerism - El Greco
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Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (1486 – May 18, 1551)

Page 23: Mannerism - El Greco

1. Domenico was born in Montaperti,

near Siena, the son of Giacomo di

Pace, a peasant who worked on the

estate of Lorenzo Beccafumi.

2. Seeing his talent for drawing,

Lorenzo adopted him, and

commended him to learn painting

from Mechero, a lesser Sienese

artist.

3. A member of the High Renaissance

generation, his years in Rome

(1510-12) saw the painting of

Raphael's Stanze and

Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling,

both of which influenced him.

4. In such works as the St Catherine

Receiving the Stigmata (c. 1515,

Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena) he

appears also to have been affected

by Fra Bartolomeo, whose work

was known in Siena.

Page 24: Mannerism - El Greco

The stigmatization of St Catherine

1. Sienese saint like St Francis of

Assisi, Catherine miraculously

receives the signs of the

Cross.

2. Catherine appears on bent

knee with palms extended, her

youthful face fixed upon the

crucifix hanging on the wall.

3. In this picture, light acts as a

concrete protagonist.

4. A worn out theme of local

deities transcribed into saints

or martyrs and various

fraternities started by a

particular visionary.

5. Gets a new lease on life by the

new vision.

Page 25: Mannerism - El Greco

1. In addition to

painting, he

also directed

the celebrated

pavement of the

cathedral of

Siena from

1517-1544

2. This took over a

century and a

half.

3. The pavement

is designed in

commesso

work

4. white marble

engraved with

the outlines of

the subject in

black, the

borders are

inlaid with rich

patterns in

many colours

Page 26: Mannerism - El Greco

1. Beccafumi made some

ingenious technical

improvements in building

this pavement

2. He designed 35 splendid

mosaics from 1517 to 1546

for the pavement in Siena

Cathedral, each mosaic

depicting a different Old

Testament scene.

3. Beccafumi's best-known

paintings are the ceiling

frescoes of the Palazzo

Publico in Siena and an

altarpiece in the same

building. Most of his best

works, such as the Birth of

the Virgin (c. 1543) are in

Siena.

Page 27: Mannerism - El Greco

In 1516 to 1518 the Sienese brotherhood of Mary and Bernardino commissioned

Girolamo del Pacchia, Sodoma, and Domenico Beccafumi to fresco the walls of

their oratory with a cycle on the life of Mary, The artists painted two stories each:

Pacchia, the Birth of Mary and the Annunciation; Sodoma, the Presentation of the

Virgin and the Coronation of Mary; and Beccafumi, the Betrothal of Mary and the

Death of the Virgin.

Page 28: Mannerism - El Greco

On the side walls of the room there is a series of large-scale fresco paintings separated from one another

by pilasters decorated with candelabra motifs. The paintings consist of narrative scenes from the life of

the Virgin. Beccafumi had been entrusted with painting the Betrothal and the Dormition.

Page 29: Mannerism - El Greco

Beccafumi received a commission from

the Carmelite friars of San Niccolo al

Carmine for a panel representing St

Michael subduing Lucifer.

The artist produced two versions the

earlier one shown here is now in the

Pinacoteca, the second is still over a

side altar on the south wall of the

church of San Niccolo al Carmine, but

without its original predella.

1. This painting was produced during

the period Beccafumi was closest to

Michelangelo whose Last Judgment

was only recently finished when

Beccafumi painted this panel.

2. Elongated muscular nudes recall the

nudes of Michelangelo

3. But there is little formal connection

between the two artists.

4. picture is probably unfinished

Page 30: Mannerism - El Greco

• The earlier of these two versions of the expulsion of the rebel angels from

heaven by the Archangel Michael is at first sight difficult to read:

• the lower part of the painting is dominated by the tall, elongated figures of three

standing nude men.

• It requires some effort to discern that, within the gloom that surrounds them,

other figures are shown in convoluted poses

Page 31: Mannerism - El Greco

• Upper part of the painting, encircled by a swirling mass of flying angels, is the arresting

figure of Saint Michael.

• Clad in fanciful antique armour, he holds his sword aloft as a sign of his victory over the

vanquished rebel angels.

• Above him in turn appears an extraordinarily daring representation of God, portrayed in

extreme foreshortening. As the deity presiding over this act of heavenly vengeance, he

appears as an insubstantial - but certainly visionary - phenomenon.

Page 32: Mannerism - El Greco

The second version, by comparison, is much more clearly organised.

Page 33: Mannerism - El Greco

• God appears as a monumental figure, seated in judgement.

• The bright red of his voluminous mantle and the golden hemisphere behind him

ensure that this figure dominates the composition as a whole.

• The angelic company is organised into an orderly choir of seated figures

surrounding God, with only a few of their companions engaged in expelling the

rebel angels.

Page 34: Mannerism - El Greco

• Saint Michael has been placed much lower in the composition and acts as the

principal agent between heaven and hell.

• Although still holding a sword above his head, he has been divested of armour

and appears in a pale pink and golden yellow tunic, tied across the chest with

pale blue ribbons.

Page 35: Mannerism - El Greco

• Beneath him, the fallen angels recline in a series of subterranean vaults lit by

sulphurous light.

• The devil has been transformed into a snarling monstrous beast that has the

appearance of a classical chimaera.

Page 36: Mannerism - El Greco

Sister Wendy Beckett

1. Sudden transitions from dark to

light

2. Oddly proportioned figures and

3. Unusual acidic colours

4. His figures seem to loom up at the

viewer and his use of perspective

is highly sophisticated yet very

personal

5. His fall of the rebel angels tangle of

dimly lit forms hallucinatory it its

horror

6. Element of Sienses painting still

vaguely present.

Page 37: Mannerism - El Greco

Born in Candia, on the island of Crete. Nothing is known of his parentage. He was

trained as icon-maker in a monastery; he then went to Venice (soon after 1560),

where Titian(1488/90 - 1576) became his greatest mentor

Page 38: Mannerism - El Greco

El Greco - Domenicos

Theotocopoulos (c.1541 –

1614)

1. El Greco' signature on the

base of the central

candelabrum was

discovered in 1983.

2. This discovery constituted a

significance advance in the

understanding of El Greco's

early career and formation.

3. In both its iconography and

technique the painting

demonstrates the artist's

origins and training in the

traditions of post-Byzantine

painting.

Page 39: Mannerism - El Greco

1566 - Referred to in a Cretan document as a master painter

• soon afterwards he went to Venice since Crete was then a Venetian possession

1570 - moved to Rome

• Became a pupil of Titian, but of all the Venetian painters Tintoretto influenced him most

and Michelangelo made a huge impact on him.

Christ healing a

blind man 1567

Page 40: Mannerism - El Greco

• Travelled between Venice, Rome and Spain (eventually settling in Toledo in Spain)

• His work is characterised by elongated figures straining upward

• Painted in intense unusual colours.

• His paintings reflect Spanish tradition of religious intensity and neo Platonism.

• Influenced by the mysticism of the Counter Reformation.

Page 41: Mannerism - El Greco

Early science, particularly geometry and

astronomy/astrology (astronomia), was

connected to the divine for most

medieval scholars. The compass in this

13th Century manuscript is a symbol of

God's act of Creation,

The earth was at the center of the

universe; the planets (the moon,

Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter,

and Saturn) the stars and the heavenly

regions rotated around earth (and man).

Page 42: Mannerism - El Greco

Ptolemy

The prevailing theory in Europe

throughout the middle ages was

that created by Ptolemy in his

Almagest, dating from about 150

A.D.

The Ptolemaic system drew on

many previous theories that viewed

Earth as a stationary center of the

universe. (geocentric)

Stars were embedded in a large

outer sphere which rotated

relatively rapidly, while the planets

dwelt in smaller spheres between —

a separate one for each planet.

Page 43: Mannerism - El Greco
Page 44: Mannerism - El Greco

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

believed the universe is

finite and spherical with a

stationary earth at its

center. Enclosing the

whole universe is the

sphere of the Prime

Motion turned by the

First Unmoved Mover.

Inside that were

transparent spheres

containing fixed and

unchanging stars,

planets, moon and sun.

The universe. . . a celestial clockwork?

Page 45: Mannerism - El Greco

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May

1543)

The major parts of Copernican theory are:

1. Heavenly motions are uniform, eternal, and

circular or compounded of several circles

(epicycles).

2. The center of the universe is near the Sun.

3. Around the Sun, in order, are Mercury, Venus,

Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the

fixed stars.

4. The Earth has three motions: daily rotation,

annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis.

5. Retrograde motion of the planets is explained

by the Earth's motion.

6. The distance from the Earth to the sun is

small compared to the distance to the stars.

Page 46: Mannerism - El Greco

Jan Matejko –The astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God.

19th Century romanticized view of Copernicus science a divine revelation born in the

psyche of man himself.

Page 47: Mannerism - El Greco

The foremost philosopher physicist astronomer of the Renaissance was Galileo (1564-

1642)

He believed in a heliocentric view of the world (the earth revolves around the sun) was

considered a heretic by the Church.

He developed a telescope that was powerful enough to show the craters in the moon.

In 1633 he was put under house arrest for his astronomical teachings, later he was

forced to disown these views publicly.

Page 48: Mannerism - El Greco

Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition - Cristiano Banti 1857

Page 49: Mannerism - El Greco

the Laocoon 1610 - The Trojan War is the event depicted from Virgil‘s Aeneid

The Priest Laocoon of Troy finds out about the Trojan horse and tried to warn the city

He is prevented by the God Apollo who sends snakes out of the sea to devour them.

He is punished because he broke his priestly vow.

Page 50: Mannerism - El Greco

Who are the nude figures on the right of the

painting?

One of the women seems to be double headed.

The serpents seem ineffectual and thin we ask why

these men are over come so easily?

This appears more an allegory rather than a straight

forward story.

Page 51: Mannerism - El Greco

The Serpents

The circular tension

caused by the snake

and the boy creates a

physical tension.

He is destined to end up

like his dead brother.

Around his arm is a

band of black that

emphasises his rigid

arm. The figures all have

a black edge that

emphasises the stony

skin colour.

Page 52: Mannerism - El Greco

An allegorical horse trots

towards the city which is

spread out under a portentous

sky.

This not the city of Troy but

the home of El Greco of

Toledo in Spain.

The Counter Reformation was

prevalent in Spain and the

drama of transgressing

mortals and vengeful Gods is

a reflection of the beliefs of

the day.

Page 54: Mannerism - El Greco

Assumption of the Virgin. 1577-1579.

Page 55: Mannerism - El Greco

El Greco. The Burial of Count

Orgaz. c.1586.

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El Greco. St. Francis Receiving

the Stigmata. 1590-1595.

El Greco. St. Dominic in Prayer. c.

1585-1590.

Page 57: Mannerism - El Greco

Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple. c. 1600.

Page 58: Mannerism - El Greco

Mannerism • Derived from Italian word

‗Maniera‘ which in the 16th C meant ―style‖ in the sense of ―elegance‖

• A bit misleading and has lead to much confusion and disagreement

– Style does constitute an essential element in mannerism

– The style is somewhat ‗mannered‘

• Self consciously sophisticated often contrived or exaggerated elegance

• Heightened or sharp colour combinations complex and highly inventive composition and technical bravado

Page 59: Mannerism - El Greco

• Depending on the historical account, Mannerism developed between 1510 and 1520 in either Florence, Rome, or both cities.

• The early Mannerists in Florence—especially the students of Andrea del Sarto:

• Jacopo da Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino—are notable for elongated forms, precariously balanced poses, a collapsed perspective, irrational settings, and theatrical lighting.

• Parmigianino, a student of Correggio, and Giulio Romano, Raphael‘s head assistant were moving in similarly stylized aesthetic directions in Rome.

• These artists had matured under the influence of the High Renaissance, and their style has been characterized as a reaction or exaggerated extension of it.

• The earliest experimental phase of Mannerism, known for its "anti-classical" forms, lasted until about 1540 or 1550.

Portrait of a Young man – Andrea

del Sarto 1517

Correggio – Jupiter and Io 1531

Page 60: Mannerism - El Greco

• In past analyses, it has been noted that mannerism arose in the early 1500s alongside a number of other social, scientific, religious and political movements such as the Copernican model, the Sack of Rome, and the Protestant Reformation's increasing challenge to the power of the Catholic Church.

• Because of this, the style's elongated forms and distorted forms were once interpreted as a reaction to the idealized compositions prevalent in High Renaissance art.

• This explanation for the radical stylistic shift c. 1520 has fallen out of scholarly favor, though the early Mannerists are still set in stark contrast to High Renaissance conventions;

• the immediacy and balance achieved by Raphael's School of Athens, no longer seemed interesting to young artists. Indeed, Michelangelo himself displayed tendencies towards Mannerism, notably in his vestibule to the Laurentian Library built in 1525

Page 61: Mannerism - El Greco

• Rosso (Giovanni Battista di

Jacopo, 1494-1540)

• Emigrated to France where he was

known as Rosso Fiorentino ‗the

Florentine‘

• Deeply neurotic man art almpost a

flouting against normal xpectations

• Bolddissonant colour contrasts

• Figures fill the picture plane

• Eg. Moses with the daughters of

Jethro a fanstastic jumble of bodies

huge agitated Michelangelo

wrestlers with the pale terrified girl

• The idea of violence is central to the

painting rather than a narration.

Page 62: Mannerism - El Greco

Pontormo

His master piece is ―the deposition‖ painted for

a private chapel in Florence

Has a luminescent quality on account of the

lighting and colour combinations partly to

overcome the dark interior of the chapel

But also

Is about an sense of emotional intensity

Overriding sense of vulnerability and loss.

Contrast between the long athletic limbs and

classical bodies and the expressions of anxiety

and confusion makes the scene more pitiful

Page 63: Mannerism - El Greco

• Giovanni Della Casa, better known as Bishop or Monsignor Della Casa

Dellacasa (1503 -1556 ) was a

religious , scholar and writer, Italian , known not only to scholars primarily as author of the manual of good manners Etiquette overo de 'costumes (probably written after 1551 but published posthumously in 1558 ) that since the publication enjoyed great success.

• Pontormo‘s brilliantly observed portrait shows the prelates long aristocratic face above his auburn beard

• Hemmed in by the walls of his room, rigid, defensive challenging look serious minded and aloof scholar

• The painting has a pleasing effect in a design sense

Page 64: Mannerism - El Greco

This is a study for the painting in the parish church of San Michele at Carmignano (Florence).

The drawing reveals some significant differences compared to the painted version. The preparatory

design shows the two women in a frontal pose and more to the left compared to their position in the

painting. The drapery around the four figures is less ample and thus diminishes the group's compactness,

while the brisk pencil strokes delineating the faces of the companions or maidservants of the

protagonists express in them a certain psychological agitation, which in the painting is totally absent

Pontormo

Visitation

1528-29

Page 65: Mannerism - El Greco

• Joseph in Egypt

• The painting belongs to the series of four entitled Scenes from the Life of Joseph the Hebrew, now in the National Gallery, London.

• These works, together with others by Andrea del Sarto, Francesco Granacci, Bachiacca and Franciabigio, were intended for the decoration of the nuptial chamber of Francesco Borgherini and Margherita Acciaioli, who married in 1515.

• The group of fourteen paintings, broken up at the end of the 16th century, was contained within a wooden decoration made by Baccio d'Agnolo.

• The painter is no longer to be bound by perspective, or by the necessity of presenting his subject in a rational, objective manner.

• He may use light and colour, chiaroscuro and proportion as he pleases; he may borrow from any source he chooses; the only obligation upon him is to create an interesting design, expressive of the ideas inherent in the subject, and the various parts need bear no relationship to each other.

• The colour must be evocative and beautiful in itself.

Page 66: Mannerism - El Greco

• Depicts the most significant

episodes from the life of

Joseph when he unites with

his family of origin

• Divided into 4 scenes – Left foreground

– Joseph presents his family to

Pharaoh

– According to Vasari according

to Vasari, the boy with dark

cloak and brown tunic sitting

on the first step of the stairs on

which the figures are arranged,

is a portrait of the young

Bronzino.

Page 67: Mannerism - El Greco

• On the right, Joseph is seen sitting on a triumphal cart pulled by three putti; hoisting himself up with his left arm and clutching firmly onto a putto with the other, he bends toward a kneeling figure who is presenting him a petition or reading him a message

• a fifth putto, wrapped in a piece of cloth blown by the wind, dominates the scene from the top of a column, appearing to mime the gesture of one of the two half-living statues represented in the top left and centre of the painting.

• A restless crowd, curious to see what is going on, throngs the adjacent space between the two buildings in the background.

• Other mysterious figures, resting against one of the large boulders that dominate the landscape, turn their attention toward the action in the foreground.

• The clothes, expressions and features of all these figures are inspired by northern European painting, as is the large castle and surrounding trees depicted in the background.

• On the unrailed staircase of the imposing cylindrical building to the right, Joseph takes one of his children by the hand; higher up, the other is greeted affectionately by his mother. Lastly, Joseph and his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are portrayed inside the room at the top of the building, where Jacob, now old and near to death, imparts his paternal blessing.

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Bronzino • 1503 – 1572 Florentine

the pupil and adopted son of Pontormo

• This is one of Bronzino's finest works from the early 1530s. It shows the painter's admiration for the famous poet.

• The book in Dante's hand is open at the introduction to Canto XXV of the Paradise.

• lacked the emotional intensity that was such a characteristic of Pontormo's work and excelled as a portraitist rather than a religious painter.

• court painter to Duke Cosimo I de Medici for most of his career, and his work influenced the course of European court portraiture for a century.

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• Lucrezia di Gismondo Pucci married in 1528

– typical of Bronzino's art, the lady is dressed sumptuously in warm pink satin and dark

velvet. A book is held between her aristocratic hands and her severe, pure face is utterly

devoid of any naturalistic beauty. The artist makes this lady of a refined and cultured

Florentine society an idealized symbol of chaste beauty (note the delicately, but also

chastely gathered hair) and high spirituality.

• Portrait of a Lady in Green - 1530-32

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Allegory with Venus and

Cupid • This work was probably

created at the Tuscan court of

Duke Cosimo de' Medici for

presentation to the King of

France.

• It was designed as a puzzle,

and incorporates symbols and

devices from the worlds of

mythology and emblematic

imagery.

• It would have made the perfect

present for the French king,

known for his lusty appetites,

yearning after Italian culture

and magnificence, and with a

liking for heraldry and obscure

emblems.

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• The goddess of love and beauty, identified by the golden apple given to her by Paris and by her doves, has drawn Cupid's arrow.

• At her feet, masks, perhaps the symbols of sensual nymph and satyr, seem to gaze up at the lovers.

• Foolish Pleasure, the laughing child, throws rose petals at them, heedless of the thorn piercing his right foot.

• Behind him Deceit, fair of face, but foul of body, proffers a sweet honeycomb in one hand, concealing the sting in her tail with the other.

• On the other side of the lovers is a dark figure, formerly called Jealousy but recently plausibly identified as the personification of Syphilis, a disease probably introduced to Europe from the New World and reaching epidemic proportions by 1500.

• The symbolic meaning of the central scene is thus revealed to be unchaste love, presided over by Pleasure and abetted by Deceit, and its painful consequences.

• Oblivion, the figure on the upper left who is shown without physical capacity for remembering, attempts to draw a veil over all, but is prevented by Father Time - possibly alluding to the delayed effects of syphilis.

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Parmigianino • Girolamo Francesco Mazzola 1503

– 1540

• Born in Parma, from which he takes his nickname.

• He was a precocious artist, and as early as 1522-23 painted accomplished frescoes in two chapels in S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, showing his admiration for Correggio

• In 1524 Parmigianino moved to Rome, possibly via Florence, and his work became both grander and more graceful under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo.

• The originality and sophistication he displayed from the beginning, particularly his love of unusual spatial effects, is, however, most memorably seen in his

• Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror 1524

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• The Vision of St Jerome

1526-27

• Most important work of this time, showing the disturbing emotional intensity he created with his elongated forms, disjointed sense of space, chill lighting, and lascivious atmosphere

• The painting was commissioned by Maria Bufalini for her husband's family chapel at S. Salvatore in Lauro, Rome.

• The commission required the presence of two saints in the lower part:

– St John the Baptist was the patron saint of Maria's father-in-law, while

– Jerome was chosen because of his connection with the legal profession practiced by both her husband and his father.

• The artist chose to separate the two saints, with the Baptist dominating the lower portion while Jerome is shown sleeping to suggest that the painting represents his vision.

• John looks out and with an exaggerated gesture directs us to the Virgin and Child, who are floating in midair, a position that becomes popular in the sixteenth century.

• The complex and trained pose of the Baptist, the emphasis on foreshortened forms, and the long, unusually proportioned figures are all typical of Mannerist art.

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• Parmigianino left Rome after it was sacked by German troops in 1527 and moved to Bologna.

• In 1531 he returned to Parma and contracted to paint frescoes in Sta Maria della Steccata.

• He failed to complete the work, however, and was eventually imprisoned for breach of contract.

• Vasari says he neglected the work because he was infatuated with alchemy — 'he allowed his beard to grow long and disordered ... he neglected himself and grew melancholy and eccentric.'

• His later paintings show no falling off in his powers, however, and his work reaches its apotheosis in his celebrated Madonna of the Long Neck (Uffizi, Florence, c. 1535).

• The forms of the figures are extraordinarily elongated and tapering and the painting has a refinement and grace that place it among the archetypal works of Mannerism

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• The painting takes its subject from a simile in medieval hymns to the Virgin which likened her neck to a great ivory tower or column.

• Appropriate to the traditional understanding of the Virgin as an allegorical representation of the Church, this imagery was also exploited in poems.

• Thus the exaggerated length of the limbs of the Virgin and her son, as well as the presence of columns in the background of the painting, are not contrived merely for their decorative value, but clearly signal the painting's religious meaning.

This was painted for the church of Santa

Maria dei Servi at Parma.

The painter worked upon the picture for six

years, but this notwithstanding, it remained

unfinished.

It is a work of intense if somewhat aloof

poetical feeling, this effect mainly arising

from the splendid abstraction of the forms,

so smoothly rounded under the cool and

polished colour.

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Lucrezia Borgia

• 1480 – 1519

• was born to the mistress of Rodrigo Borgia, Vannozza de Cattanei.

• A Spaniard, Rodrigo Borgia had studied law in Bologna and became a bishop, cardinal and vice-chancellor of the church when his uncle was elected.

• After Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI, he arranged for Lucrezia to marry Giovanni Sforza with the purpose of establishing an alliance with the powerful Milanese ducal family as Giovanni was an illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza.

• Vannozza had given Rodrigo two other children before Lucrezia: Giovanni, born in 1474, and Cesare, born in 1476.

• One year after Lucrezia's birth, Vannozza gave Rodrigo one more child, a son named Goffredo, born in 1481.

• Rodrigo loved each of his children, but his passion for Vannozza ran out and she left for a retired life, leaving a young woman named Giulia Farnese to fill the spot of Rodrigo's mistress. Lucrezia Borgian – By Dosso Dossi

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• Historical record portrays Lucrezia Borgia as a beautiful, manipulative creature.

• She thought nothing of carrying out cold-blooded murders, some masterminded by herself others by her equally ruthless relatives.

• Swords, daggers, garrotting and poison were only a few of the Borgia‘s favoured methods of disposing of those who‘d displeased them or stood in the way of their political or material gain.

• The fact that one of Lucrezia‘s 3 husbands and various lovers died under mysterious or gruesome circumstances is no secret.

• But was Lucrezia solely responsible for their deaths, or were her jealous brother Cesare, and her father, Rodrigo, the actual masterminds?

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• Rodrigo successfully forged an alliance with the House of Aragon and had Lucrezia married off to Alfonso, 17 year old nephew of the King of Naples.

• Relations disintergrated and he was dispatched by Rodrigo‘s assassins prompted by her brother Cesare Borgia who was a murderous thug, who apparently had an ongoing sexual relationship with Lucrezia.

• Lucrezia‘s third husband, Alfonso d‘Esta, wanted no part of an arranged marriage with so notorious a widow as Lucrezia Borgia, particularly after hearing rumours of how she was amusing herself while in still in mourning.

• The lurid Roman orgies Cesare arranged were supposedly never attended by Lucrezia, but this did not appease the cautious Alfonso. After continuing pressure from his father and the promise of a priceless dowry from the elder Borgia, Alfonso d‘Esta grudgingly agreed to marry Lucrezia.

• Lucrezia and Alfonso‘s alliance endured and she bore him four children. Despite their supposed happy marriage, Lucrezia carried on numerous affairs.

• One ended in another messy scandal when the young poet, Ercole Strozzi, was discovered gruesomely murdered. Whether Lucrezia had him killed or whether Cesare succumbed to another fit of jealous rage has never been proven.

• In amongst all this scandal in the court of Ferrara worked a number of artists including Dosso Dossi

Dosso Dossi

1. Circe in a

landscape wth

her

lovers(portrait

of Lucrezia)

2. Portrait of a

man Possibly

Cesare Borgia

her jealous

brother

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Domenico di Pace Beccafumi • (1486 –1551) active predominantly in

Siena.

• He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese school of painting.

• 1509 he traveled to Rome, but soon returned to Siena,

• Beccafumi's style remains, in striking ways, provincial.

• In Siena, he painted religious pieces for churches and of mythological decorations for private patrons, only mildly influenced by the gestured Mannerist trends dominating the neighboring Florentine school.

• There are medieval eccentricities, sometimes phantasmagoric, superfluous emotional detail and a misty non-linear, often jagged quality to his drawings, with primal tonality to his coloration that separates him from the classic Roman masters.

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• Fall of the rebel angels 1524

• Beccafumi received a commission from the Carmelite friars of San Niccolo al Carmine for a panel representing St Michael subduing Lucifer.

• The artist produced two versions

• The earlier of these two versions of the expulsion of the rebel angels from heaven by the Archangel Michael is at first sight difficult to read:

– the lower part of the painting is dominated by the tall, elongated figures of three standing nude men. It requires some effort to discern that, within the gloom that surrounds them, other figures are shown in convoluted poses.

– In the upper part of the painting, encircled by a swirling mass of flying angels, is the arresting figure of Saint Michael. Clad in fanciful antique armour, he holds his sword aloft as a sign of his victory over the vanquished rebel angels.

– Above him in turn appears an extraordinarily daring representation of God, portrayed in extreme foreshortening. As the deity presiding over this act of heavenly vengeance, he appears as an insubstantial - but certainly visionary - phenomenon

• The confusion of the scene suggests that the picture is probably unfinished, and a satisfying solution may have eluded the artist.

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• Fall of the Rebel Angels 1528

• The second version, by comparison, is

much more clearly organised. Here God appears as a monumental figure, seated in judgement.

• The bright red of his voluminous mantle and the golden hemisphere behind him ensure that this figure dominates the composition as a whole.

• The angelic company is organised into an orderly choir of seated figures surrounding God, with only a few of their companions engaged in expelling the rebel angels.

• Saint Michael has been placed much lower in the composition and acts as the principal agent between heaven and hell. Although still holding a sword above his head, he has been divested of armour and appears in a pale pink and golden yellow tunic, tied across the chest with pale blue ribbons. Beneath him, the fallen angels recline in a series of subterranean vaults lit by sulphurous light. The devil has been transformed into a snarling monstrous beast that has the appearance of a classical chimaera.

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El Greco • Domenicos Theotocopoulos,

later called El Greco, the Greek, by the Spaniards, was born in Candia, on the island of Crete.

• Nothing is known of his parentage. He was trained as icon-maker in a monastery; he then went to Venice (soon after 1560), where Titian became his greatest mentor.

• El Greco, however, obtained very little influence from his master; but a certain influence of Bassano, Baroccio, Veronese, and Tintoretto could be felt but on the whole his works are very individual and distinct.

• Tintoretto – Christ at sea of Galilee

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• 1570

• By the time El Greco arrived in Rome, Michelangelo and Raphael were dead, but their example continued to be paramount and left little room for different approaches.

• Although the artistic heritage of these great masters was overwhelming for young painters, El Greco was determined to make his own mark in Rome defending his personal artistic views, ideas and style.

• He singled out Correggio and Parmigianino for particular praise,but he did not hesitate to dismiss Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel;

• The works of his Italian period are very different in style: Christ Healing the Blind Man (1560s), The Annunciation (1570-1575), Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple (c.1570).

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• 1576

• El Greco goes to Spain.

• He managed to secure two important commissions from the monarch Philip II

– Allegory of the Holy League and

– Martyrdom of St. Maurice.

• However, the king did not like these works and placed the St Maurice altarpiece in the chapter-house rather than the intended chapel. He gave no further commissions to El Greco.

• The painter moved to Toledo in 1580, the old capital and then a major center of artistic, intellectual, and religious life in 16th-century Spain.

• He stayed in Toledo until his death.

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• He arrived in Toledo by July 1577, and signed contracts for a group of paintings for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo and for El Espolio.

• By September 1579 he had completed nine paintings for Santo Domingo, including The Trinity and The Assumption of the Virgin. These works would establish the painter's reputation in Toledo.

• El Greco did not plan to settle permanently in Toledo, since his final aim was to win the favour of Philip and make his mark in his court.

• View of Toledo by Elo Greco

• And Toledo today

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El Greco. St. Francis Receiving

the Stigmata. 1590-1595.

El Greco. St. Dominic in Prayer. c.

1585-1590.

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• The Assumption of the Virgin 1577

• was one of the nine paintings El Greco

completed for the church of Santo Domingo el

Antiguo in Toledo, his first commission in

Spain.

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• 1586

• Painted The Burial of Count Orgaz (c.1586) for the church of St. Thomé, the success of which brought him a great number of commissions from the Church.

• He also became a popular portraitist: Portrait of a Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest (c.1580). His painting style always gave rise to much discussion.

• The Burial of the Count of Orgaz has been admired not only for its art, but also because it was a gallery of portraits of the most eminent social figures of that time in Toledo. Indeed, this painting is sufficient to rank El Greco among the few great portrait painters

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• Inspired from a legend of the beginning of the 14th century. In 1312, a certain Don Gonzalo Ruíz, native of Toledo, and Señor of the town of Orgaz, died (his family later received the title of Count, by which he is generally and posthumously known).

• The Count of Orgaz was a pious man who, among other charitable acts, left a sum of money for the enlargement and adornment of the church of Santo Tomé (El Greco's parish church).

• According to the legend, at the time he was buried, Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine descended in person from the heavens and buried him by their own hands in front of the dazzled eyes of those present

• The painting is very clearly divided into two zones; above, heaven is evoked by swirling icy clouds, semiabstract in their shape, and the saints are tall and phantomlike; below, all is normal in the scale and proportions of the figures.

• The upper and lower zones are brought together compositionally by the standing figures, by their varied participation in the earthly and heavenly event, by the torches, cross etc

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• The scene of the miracle is depicted in the lower part of the composition, in the terrestrial section.

In the upper part, the heavenly one, the clouds have parted to receive this just man in Paradise.

• Christ clad in white and in glory, is the crowning point of the triangle formed by the figures of the Madonna and Saint John the Baptist in the traditional orthodox composition of the Deesis.

• These three central figures of heavenly glory are surrounded by apostles, martyrs, Biblical kings and the just (among whom was Philip II of Spain, though he was still alive

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• Saints Augustine and Stephen, in golden and red vestments respectively, bend reverently over the body of the count, who is clad in magnificent armour that reflects the yellow and reds of the other figures.

• The young boy at the left is El Greco's son, Jorge Manuel; on a handkerchief in his pocket is inscribed the artist's signature and the date 1578, the year of the boy's birth.

• The artist himself can be recognised with a raised hand immediately above the head of Saint Stephen.

• The men in contemporary 16th-century dress who attend the funeral are unmistakably

prominent members of Toledan society

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the Laocoon 1610 - The Trojan War is the event depicted from Virgil‘s Aeneid

The Priest Laocoon of Troy finds out about the Trojan horse and tried to warn the city

He is prevented by the God Apollo who sends snakes out of the sea to devour them.

He is punished because he broke his priestly vow.

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Who are the nude figures on the right of the

painting?

One of the women seems to be double headed.

The serpents seem ineffectual and thin we ask why

these men are over come so easily?

This appears more an allegory rather than a straight

forward story.

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The Serpents

The circular tension

caused by the snake

and the boy creates a

physical tension.

He is destined to end up

like his dead brother.

Around his arm is a

band of black that

emphasises his rigid

arm. The figures all have

a black edge that

emphasises the stony

skin colour.

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An allegorical horse trots

towards the city which is

spread out under a portentous

sky.

This not the city of Troy but

the home of El Greco of

Toledo in Spain.

The Counter Reformation was

prevalent in Spain and the

drama of transgressing

mortals and vengeful Gods is

a reflection of the beliefs of

the day.