Dr. Schiller: AP History of Art

Mannerism 1500s

This rather nondescript building is the exterior of the Sistine Chapel.  It is the place where Papal Conclaves are held (to select a new pope) and an always-popular tourist destination. The chapel is 40.23 meters long, 13.40 meters wide, and 20.70 meters high (about 132 by 44 by 68 feet) — reputedly, the dimensions of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in A.D. 70. The chapel’s exterior is simple and unassuming, giving little hint to the splendid decoration inside.

Michelangelo, frescoes on the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, Ceiling frescoes: c. 1508–1512 C.E.; altar frescoes: c. 1536–1541 C.E. Fresco.

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For the curious: what’s on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel:

A new monumentality can be felt in the figures of the sibyls and prophets in the spandrels surrounding the vault, which some believe are all based on the Belvedere Torso, an ancient sculpture that was then, and remains, in the Vatican’s collection. One of the most celebrated of these figures is the Delphic Sibyl (left).The overall circular composition of the body, which echoes the contours of her fictive architectural setting, adds to the sense of the sculptural weight of the figure.

Michelangelo, The Delphic Sibyl fresco on a spandrel of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1508-1512

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Her arms are powerful, the heft of her body imposing, and both her left elbow and knee come into the viewer’s space. At the same time, Michelangelo imbued the Delphic Sibyl with grace and harmony of proportion, and her watchful expression, as well as the position of the left arm and right hand, is reminiscent of the artist’s David.

Michelangelo, The Delphic Sibyl fresco on a wall of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1534-1541

The first frescoes Michelangelo painted contain multiple figures, much smaller in size, engaged in complex narratives. This can best be exemplified by his painting of The Deluge.

Michelangelo, The Flood (Deluge), fresco on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1534-1541 REQUIRED WORK

In this fresco, Michelangelo has used the physical space of the water and the sky to separate four distinct parts of the narrative. On the right side of the painting, a cluster of people seeks sanctuary from the rain under a makeshift shelter. On the left, even more people climb up the side of a mountain to escape the rising water. Centrally, a small boat is about to capsize because of the unending downpour. And in the background, a team of men work on building the ark—the only hope of salvation. 

Up close, this painting confronts the viewer with the desperation of those about to perish in the flood and makes one question God’s justice in wiping out the entire population of the earth, save Noah and his family, because of the sins of the wicked.

Unfortunately, from the floor of the chapel, the use of small, tightly grouped figures undermines the emotional content and makes the story harder to follow.   

MANNERIST ART (LATE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY) c.1520-1600

•“Mannerism” comes from Italian word “maniera” which in the 16th c. meant “style” in sense of elegance.

•Characterizations: *self-consciously sophisticated, * often contrived or exaggerated elegance, * its heightened or sharp color combinations and lighting, * complex and highly inventive composition, * technical bravado and *free-flowing line

•Mannerism replaced the rules of the ordered, rational and logical Classic Renaissance with an irrational, illogical and anti-Classical outlook toward world

•Inner vision was all.

•Definitely not naturalistic--opposite of Michelangelo who performed dissections to study anatomy.

•Innovation was healthy, but produced extreme personalities.

•Mannerism started out with intense religious feeling, but by High Mannerism there is an extreme worldliness

•In fact, after midcentury there was a counter Mannerist trend, using vocabulary of Mannerism for Counter-Reformation ends!

• Michelangelo’s’ works during this period show growing pessimism against corrupt rule of the current pope and growing unrest in Italy because of the Sack of Rome and spread of Protestantism.

•An example of this is one of Michelangelo’s last works of art, The Last Judgment on the \ wall behind the altar in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement,fresco on altar wall of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1534-1541 Stokstad plate 18-46

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Mannerist Painting in Italy:

•Michelangelo’s Last Judgment depicts the end of the world and the judgment that is said to follow

•Michelangelo strips his subjects of all their earthly rank and hierarchy, presenting them as equals now before Christ. •Everything radiates from Christ--the saved rejoice in light and joy and the damned are carried off to the underworld of darkness

•Unlike his earlier work, including the rest of the Chapel which he painted, his depiction of the Last Judgment was much more monochrome as well as gruesome with the souls of the damned cowering in fear as they are dragged down by demons.

• This is it. The moment all Christians await with both hope and dread. This is the end of time, the beginning of eternity when the mortal becomes immortal, when the elect join Christ in his heavenly kingdom and the damned are cast into the unending torments of hell.

•What a daunting task: to visualize the endgame of earthly existence– and furthermore, to do so in the Sistine Chapel, the private chapel of the papal court, where the leaders of the Church gathered to celebrate feast day liturgies, where the pope’s body was laid in state before his funeral, and where—to this day—the College of Cardinals meets to elect the next pope.

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• The Last Judgment was one of the first art works Paul III commissioned upon his election to the papacy in 1534.

•The church he inherited was in crisis; the Sack of Rome (1527) was still a recent memory. Paul sought to address not only the many abuses that had sparked the Protestant Reformation, but also to affirm the legitimacy of the Catholic Church and the orthodoxy of its doctrines (including the institution of the papacy).

•The visual arts would play a key role in his agenda, beginning with the message he directed to his inner circle by commissioning the Last Judgment

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• Michelangelo’s Last Judgment is among the most powerful renditions of this moment in the history of Christian art. •Over 300 muscular figures, in an infinite variety of dynamic poses, fill the wall to its edges. •Unlike the scenes on the walls and the ceiling, the Last Judgment is not bound by a painted border. •It is all encompassing and expands beyond the viewer’s field of vision. Unlike other sacred narratives, which portray events of the past, this one implicates the viewer. •It has yet to happen and when it does, the viewer will be among those whose fate is determined.

• Despite the density of figures, the composition is clearly organized into tiers and quadrants, with subgroups and meaningful pairings that facilitate the fresco’s legibility. As a whole, it rises on the left and descends on the right, recalling the scales used for the weighing of souls in many depictions of the Last Judgment.

•Christ is the fulcrum of this complex composition. A powerful, muscular figure, he steps forward in a twisting gesture that sets in motion the final sorting of souls (the damned on his left, and the blessed on his right).

• Nestled under his raised arm is the Virgin Mary. Michelangelo changed her pose from one of open-armed pleading on humanity's behalf seen in a preparatory drawing, to one of acquiescence to Christ’s judgment. The time for intercession is over. Judgment has been passed. For more on this work, see https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/michelangelo/a/michelangelo-last-judgment

•Basically, Mannerist painters: 1. using bizarre themes (from biblical to mythological to portraiture) 2. revealed a strange, personal subjectivity 3. chaotic figure arrangements 4. discordant, asymmetrical and obscure compositions and spatial interpretations 5. discordant and garish colors 6. exaggerated if not frantic image gestures and actions

Titian (1488/90-1576) Venetian--

not really “Mannerist” but from the same time period

Titian. Venus of Urbino. 1538. Oil on canvas. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Stokstad plate 18-27 REQUIRED WORK

Devoid as it is of any classical or allegorical trappings -Venus displays none of the attributes of the goddess she is supposed to represent- the painting is unapologetically erotic. The frankness of Venus's expression is often noted; she stares straight at the viewer, unconcerned with her nudity. In her right hand she holds a posy of roses whilst her left covers her groin, provocatively placed in the centre of the composition. In the near background is a dog, often a symbol of either fidelity or sexual profligacy; that the animal is asleep hints that the woman portrayed is unfaithful.

Titian's so-called Venus of Urbino shows a nude woman reclining on a luxurious pillowed couch. Although she is posed as the goddess of classical mythology, the woman is probably a courtesan seen in her bedchamber. Color plays a prominent role in the composition.

Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556/7)

He is described as a melancholy artist, whose work reflected both passionate genius and unusual experimentation.

This is embodied by his strong compositional skill, contrasted by his often contoured, Mannerist figures; the shining example being his Deposition from the Cross.

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Pontormo, “Deposition” or “Entombment”, c.1526-28, oil on panel, 10’3” X 6’4”. Stokstad plate 18-51

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• This work has a strangely luminescent quality and lucid, unearthly light

•The light is treated this way partly to compensate for the darkness of the chapel, but also for emotional intensity.

•His art is excitable and strange, striking us with a sort of agitation.

•There is an overriding sense of vulnerability and loss

•Notice the contrast between the athletic, long-limbed classical bodies and the facial expressions of anxiety and confusion. The contrast makes this scene all the more pitiful..

•The most compelling and empathic figure is the crouching man in the foreground, whose expression mixes the weight of the cadaver and the weight of melancholy. He does not appear to know where to move.

•everything is subordinate to the play of graceful linear rhythms created by the tightly interlocking forms

•Although they act in concert, the mourners are lost in a grief too personal to share with each other. •Hushed atmosphere.

•Pontormo’s self-portrait to the right of the swooning Madonna. He gazes moodily into space, shrinking from outer world.

Bronzino (1503-1572)

Bronzino, “Allegory with Venus and Cupid” (used to be known as “Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time”), circa 1545. Oil on wood, 57” × 46” STOKSTAD PLATE 18-54

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Bronzino (1503-1572) •famous pupil of Parmigianino •His was a chill vision—there was a cold brilliance in Bronzino •His icy and bitter portraits were much admired.

Bronzino, “Allegory with Venus and Cupid” (used to be known as “Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time”), circa 1545. Oil on wood, 57” × 46” GARDNER PLATE 22-43

•Many-sided allegory about sensual pleasure and the variety of unspecified dangers that lurk beneath the surface.

•Notice Cupid and Venus’ lips, and their expressions. Incest?

•On the left is Jealousy tearing hair. In 1986 a doctor discovered that Jealousy's appearance showed the clinical symptoms of and some side effects of 16th c. treatment syphilis.

•On the right are the head and hand of Fraud, who offers a honeycomb

•Further right is a child, representing the deceived will, who rushes to enjoy pleasure.

•So illicit love is attended by Fraud, and the result of that ignorant embrace is syphilis.

•In the upper right, a disapproving Time exposes the sickness by pulling away the blue backcloth, to reveal the awful cringing ma on the left, i.e. the truth that is hidden from Venus and Cupid.

The painting is a perversion of elevated humanism of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”

Tintoretto (1518-1594)

•Mannerism didn’t appear in Venice, Tintoretto’s city, till mid century.

•He “wanted to paint like Titian and to design like Michelangelo.”

•But Tintoretto would have been as strange to them as Parmigianino was to Raphael.

•Tintoretto came to be known as “It Tintoretto” meaning “little dyer,” his father’s profession.

•His style shows a passionate attack in painting, a tempestuous presence--constant excitement and sense of the tremendous.

•He keeps this trembling emotion both genuine and humble--total honesty and overwhelming emotional force.

Jacopo Tintoretto “Last Supper”. 1592-1594. Venice. Oil on canvas, 12 feet x 18 feet, 8 inches. Stokstad PLATE 18-60

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•Tintoretto’s “Last Supper” hangs in the chancel of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (building built by Palladio in 1565—with façade of classical temple). •Notice there is little interaction between apostles—Tintoretto's one interest is the gift of the Eucharist. •All is insubstantial except for Christ and food of Heaven, even though lots of things are happening—cats, dogs, servants. •Angels flicker and fade in the flashes of Christ’s glory, human presence takes on some sort of nebulous coherence only when haloed with holy brightness.

•Tintoretto owed to Titan the bold brushwork, glowing colors, and sudden lights and shadows. •But the total effect is Mannerist •It denies in every possible way the classic values of Leonard’s version 100 years before. •The table is at sharp angle in exaggerated perspective. •Jesus is distinguishable mainly by the brilliant halo. •Smoke from lamp turns into clouds of angels—blurs distinction between natural and super- natural— orchestrated vision. •Judas is seen isolated on near side of table. •Van Gogh is said to have been influenced by Tintoretto.

Mannerist Sculpture

•Sculpture still dominated by Michelangelo, but his later works seem more unbalanced, restless, and anxious, even ambiguous.

Michelangelo, Rondanini Pietà, in Milan, Italy,1564, marble, 77” highStokstad plate 18-48

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•seems like the final artistic expression of a lonely, disillusioned, and physically debilitated man who struggled to end his life as he had lived it-woking with his mind and his hands.

•but unlike his first pieta, this block resisted his best efforts to shape it.

•it shows the ongoing struggle between artist and medium

•here, he subvert renaissance ideals of human perfectibility and denied his own youthful idealism, uncovering new forms that mirrored the tensions in Europe during the second half of the 16th century

•Other Mannerist sculptors incorporated tensions of Michelangelo such as Giovanni da Bologna. •His works have typical Mannerist characteristics—elongated, svelte torsos, pin-heads and exotic, twisted poses and affected gestures. •Mythology popular.

Giovanni da Bologna, “Rape of the Sabine women”, Florence, Italy, completed 1583. Marble, approx. 13’6” high

Gardner plate 22-47

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Giovanni da Bologna, “Rape of the Sabines” Florence, Italy, completed 1583, marble, approx. 13 1/2 ‘ high Gardner plate 22-47

Spiraling Figures: Giovanni da Bologna's large-scale marble sculpture Abduction of the Sabine Women shows two men and a woman interlocked in a spiraling vertical composition that encourages viewing from multiple viewpoints.

Mannerist Architecture:

Giacomo della Porta, facade

il Gesu, Rome, Italy, ca. 1575-1584

Stokstad plate 18-45

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the most influential building of the later 16th c.

Jesuit church--Jesuits were major participant in the Counter Reformation, so wanted a prominent church

union of lower and upper stories by scroll buttresses

builds to a dramatic climax at the central bayMust see Khan academy video for notes on this and the other two required Il Gesu images: https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/reformation-counter-reformation/v/il-gesu-rome-consecrated-1584

Interior of Il Gesu

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On the ceiling of Il Gesu: Giovanni Battista Gaulli,Triumph of Jesus, ceiling fresco (artist), fresco, 1676–1679 C.E.

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KEY TERMS: MANNERIST ART (MANNERISM)

1.Counter-Reformation: the Catholic Reformation, a major reform effort begun in the 1530s to counter the Protestant Reformation. 2.cycle: a series of paintings, frescoes, or tapestries depicting a single story or theme intended to be displayed together. 3. engraving: a printmaking process of inscribing an image, design, or letters onto a metal or wood surface from which a print is made. An engraving is usually drawn with a sharp implement (burin) directly onto the surface of the place. An engraving is also the print made from this process 4. Erasmus: a Dutch Humanist who lived from 1466-1536; he criticized the church’s lack of spirituality. 5. etching: a print-making process in which a metal plate is coated with acid-resistant resin and then inscribed with a stylus in a

design, revealing the plate below. The plate is then immersed in acid, which eats away the exposed metal. The resin is removed, leaving the design etched permanently into the metal and the plate ready to be inked, wiped and printed. Also, the print made from this process

6. Ignatius Loyola: founder of the Jesuits. 7. indulgences: pardons from punishment for sin. 8. Martin Luther: born in 1483; challenged the Catholic Church by posting on the church door at Wittenberg 95 theses about

indulgences; broke with the Catholic church, established first Protestant sect, Lutheranism. 9. Netherlandish: of or pertaining to the Netherlands 10.piazza: the Italian word for an open city square. 11.plinth: the slab like base or pedestal of a column, statue, wall, building, or piece of furniture. 12.poesia: painting meant to operate in a manner similar to poetry. 13.Protestant Reformation: the movement away from the Catholic Church, begun by Martin Luther.

22. terribilita: the sublime shadowed by the awesome and the fearful 23. turret: a tall and slender tower. 24. Vasari: author of the “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects”. 25. villa: Italian version of a chateau. 26. woodcut: a type of print made by carving a design into a wooden block. The ink is applied to the block with a roller. As the ink remains only on the raised areas between the carved-away lines, these carved-away areas and the lines provide the white areas of the print. Also the process by which the woodcut is made.