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Simply Art Styles: Mannerism  Mannerism was an art style that focused on the human form, depicted in
intricate poses and in exaggerated, not always realistic settings. The
term Mannerism was derived from the Italian word maniera, translated as
“style.” Mannerism developed in Florence and Rome between 1520 and 1600,
as a style that rejected the balance of the Renaissance period in favor
of a more emotional and distorted point of view. This art style
reflected the tension in Europe at the time of its popularity. The
Mannerism Movement eventually gained favor in northern Italy and most of
central and northern Europe. Paintings contained artificial color and
unrealistic spatial proportions. Figures were often elongated and
exaggerated, positioned in imaginative and complex poses. Works of the
movement are often unsettling and strange, probably a result of the time
period’s upheaval from the Reformation, the plague, and the sack of
Rome. In 1600, Mannerists were accused of disrupting the unity of
Renaissance classicism. However, in retrospect, the Mannerist movement
supplied the link between Renaissance perfection and the emotional
Baroque art that later developed in the 17th century. The sixteenth-century artist and critic Vasari, himself a mannerist, believed that excellence in painting demanded refinement, richness of invention, and virtuoso technique, criteria that emphasized the artist’s intellect. More important than his carefully recreated observation of nature was the artist’s mental conception and its elaboration. This intellectual bias was, in part, a natural consequence of the artist’s new status in society. No longer regarded as craftsmen, painters and sculptors took their place with scholars, poets, and humanists in a climate that fostered an appreciation for elegance, complexity, and even precocity.  More
than any other Venetian artist, Tintoretto (his painting “Origin of the
Milky Way“ is shown above) embraced the emotional aspects of Mannerism.
He was a huge fan of Michelangelo, whose influence can clearly be seen.
Although Tintoretto was prolific, and one of the most successful
Venetian painter in the generation after Titian's death, little is known
of his life. For his phenomenal energy in painting Tintoretto was termed
Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspective space and special
lighting effects are what Tintoretto is best known for today.
El Greco is arguably the best-known Mannerist painter. Born on Crete, then a possession of Venice, El Greco learned his craft in the Byzantine manner. An extremely pious, cultured man, El Greco's very intense, spiritual works are famed for their tortuously elongated figures. The most unusual painter in 16th-century Europe, El Greco combined the strict Byzantine style of his homeland, Greece, with influences received during his studies in Venice and the medieval tradition of the country where he worked, Spain. El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. He later spent enough time in Venice itself to pick up dramatic color techniques, then synthesized all into a whole after settling in Spain. The spirited Counter-Reformation going on in El Greco's new home lent itself to his mystical and religious themes. El Greco's art style was so completely unique that it died with him, its loss unnoticed for centuries. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. The Mannerist artists now had actual works, from antiquity, to study. No longer did they need to use their respective imagination when it came to Classical stylization. Artists had gained technical knowledge during the Renaissance, such as the use of oil paints and perspective, which would never again be lost to a "dark" age. Another new development at this time was rudimentary archaeology. High Renaissance art was natural, graceful, balanced and harmonious but the art of Mannerism was quite different. While technically masterful, Mannerist compositions were full of clashing colors, disquieting figures with abnormally elongated limbs, emotion and bizarre themes that combined Classicism, Christianity and mythology. |
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