Mannerist Painting• emphasized complexity and virtuosity over naturalistic

representation.

• While the formal vocabulary of Mannerism takes much from the later works of Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Raphael (1483–1520), its adherents generally favored compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting.

• Some characteristics common to many Mannerist works include distortion of the human figure,

• a flattening of pictorial space, and a cultivated intellectual sophistication

Mannerism

• Figures often seek out toward the frame rather than the center of the composition

• Heavy Intertwining of Figures• Distortion and elongation of frms• Often a lack of mathematical space• Many religious and mythological subjects,

portraits

Correggio (1494-1534

•Begins a school of painting taken up by Parmigiano in Parma

•Breaks up the symmetry og High Renaissance using bouyant naturalism rather than deliberate chaos

•Specializes in soft voluptuous flesh

•Reminiscent of Mantegna with POV

•Huge influence on Baroque ceiling painting

Mannerism Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long

Neck• Exaggerated elegance, long delicate

hands and neck• Ambiguous columns: one column or

many? This part of painting left unfinished, as is the hair of the Christ Child

• Self-portrait of artist gazes out at us at left

• Mary’s small head: standards of beauty of the time

• Christ’s pose inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà

• Vanishing point is low• Oddly proportioned figures, some parts

of the painting are crowded others relatively empty

MannerismBronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time• Given to Francis I of France as a gift from the Medici in

Florence• Extremely learned allegories that defy easy interpretation• Venus fondled by Cupid, her son, and uncovered by Father

Time• Venus holds the apple she won in a beauty contest• Cupid has his eyes on the apple, but does not suspect that

Venus has removed an arrow from his quiver• Folly throws roses• Vanity is beautiful girl on the outside, but an animal under

her skirt• Vanity’s hands are oddly arranged• Masks symbolize falseness; doves symbolize love• Envy is green; perhaps Fury is in upper left• Strong contours• High key color, flesh smooth as porcelain

Women Artists

• Women’s roles in Florence, Sienna and Venice very limited

• More relaxed guild system outside of these cities

Prosperzia de’Rossi (1490 – 1530)

•First woman sculptor to leave works of such high quality

•Knowledge of male anatomy that was unusual for the time in women

Sofonisba Anguissola, 1532 – 1625

•1ST woman painter not the daughter of another painter

•Specialized in portraits

•Received high praise from Michelangelo

Mannerism Bologna, Rape of the Sabine Women• Uncommissioned, done to silence

critics who doubted his ability to carve monumental marble works

• To be seen from all sides• Spiraling movement, figura

serpentinata• Arms and legs spiral in space• Nude figures• Reference to Laocoön in the

crouching old man• Three bodies interlock• Ancient sources said that sculptures

were made from a single block. The Renaissance discovered this was untrue. Bologna wanted to surpass the ancients.

Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici1526-33

Marble, 630 x 420 cmSagrestia Nuova, San Lorenzo, Florence