1. Mannerist Style Characteristics
Elongated bodies or body parts
Paintings appear to be stretched out
Focus on spiritual aspect of art
Meant mainly for the elite and wealthy, not meant for the general public

2. Mannerism Madonna with the Long Neck 1534 – 1540 Florence, Italy
Artist: Parmagianino
Mannerist style preferred distorted figures; elongated; artificial
Figures crowded into left side – viewer is drawn to different areas of painting
Not just one focus

3. Parmagianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534-40
KEY IMAGE
p 252
Parmagianino, Madonna with the Long Neck,
and this column is for what???
Quite a crowd
Little guy

4. Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicità, Florence, Italy
Jacopo da Pontormo
Descent from the Cross
Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicità, Florence, Italy
oil on wood 10 ft. 3 in. x 6 ft. 6 in.
Considered his masterpiece
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

5. Jacopo Pontormo Descent from the Cross 1525-28 11’ x 6.5’ oil on wood
The Deposition can perhaps justly be described as the artist's masterpiece. The compositional idea is extravagant and totally unprecedented: 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. This complicated bunch of forms arranged in the shape of an upturned pyramid defies any attempt at a rational exploration or identification of planes.
The compositional complexity is accompanied by a significant and probably deliberate ambiguity in the representation of the subject, which may be interpreted as halfway between the theme of the Deposition and that of the Pietà or Lamentation over the Dead Christ. The painting appears to represent the moment in which the body of Christ, having been taken down from the cross, has just been removed from the mother's lap. The Virgin, visibly distraught, and perhaps on the point of fainting, still glazes longingly towards her Son, and gestures with her right arm in the same direction. In the centre of the painting, the moment of the separation is underlined by the subtle contact of Mary's legs with those of Christ, now freed from his Mother's last pathetic embrace. The twisted body of Christ is reminiscent of Michelangelo's Vatican Pietà (1498).
An intense spiritual participation in the grief of the event profoundly affects the expressions and attitudes of all the figures present, even that of the woman turned away from the onlooker, probably Mary Magdalene, who communicates her anguished psychological condition by reaching out sympathetically towards the swooning body of the Virgin. Some scholars have interpreted the two young figures holding up the deceased's body as angels in the act of drawing Christ away from the main group and leading him finally into the arms of his Father. The general direction of the movement is, in fact, a rising one, and is created by the ethereal quality of the weightless figures, and their slow, almost dance-like rhythm. The two presumed angelic presences, moreover, seem to be unaffected by the weight of the lifeless body, and the figure in the foreground appears to be in the act of raising himself up by lightly pressing down on the front part of his foot.
The intricately connected group of figures, involved in a highly dramatic atmosphere, takes on the appearance of a rich frieze in the harmony of highly refined colour tones of pinks, blues and greens. The transparent shadows do not annul the colours, but actually become them, in the flesh tones invested with subtle shades of pink and green.
The cloaked man wearing a strange hat, almost imperceptible against the background of the painting behind the arm of the Virgin, may possibly be the artist himself. Staring at something beyond the confines of the painting and looking as though he were about to leave the pictorial space, he presents us with this complex and refined decoration of colours, forms.

6. Mannerism Allegory with Venus and Cupid 1546 Florence, Italy
Artist: Agnolo Bronzino
Court painter for Cosimo I de Medici
Mannerism was meant for nobility to enjoy not the general public
Space full of figures
Shows an oddly erotic encounter
Bodies elongated and distorted

7. Mannerism Last Supper 1592 – 1594 Venice, Italy Artist: Tintoretto
If it weren’t for the halo, Jesus would be hard to find
Perspective leads away from Christ
Darker version
Judas in traditional spot on opposite side of table

8. Christ in the House of Levi
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.
Paolo Veronese
Christ in the House of Levi
1573 oil on canvas 18 ft. 6 in. x 42 ft. 6 in.
The Venetian use of blue is still key in Mannerism – had to change name of painting

9. Slide concept by Anthony F
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

10. Paolo Veronese Triumph of Venice
ca oil on canvas approximately 29 ft. 8 in. x 19 ft.
Ceilings became the perfect place for illusion paintings
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

11. Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco)
The most important Spanish artist of this period was Greek.
1541 – 1614.
He deliberately distorts & elongates his figures, and seats them in a lurid, unearthly atmosphere.
He uses an agitated, flickering light.
He ignores the rules of perspective, and heightens the effect by areas of brilliant color.
His works were a fitting expression of the Spanish Counter-Reformation.

12. El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulous) Mary Magdalene in Penitence
1577 oil on canvas 42 1/2 x 39 7/8 in.
El Greco was born in Greece, studied in Italy and painted in Spain – as such he is a unique painter in many ways
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

13. El Greco Christ in Agony on the Cross 1600s

14. El Greco Portrait of a Cardinal 1600

15. El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulous) View of Toledo
1586 oil on canvas 47 3/4 x 42 3/4 in.
The most famous of the mannerist painters
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

16. El Greco’s, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586-1588

17. El Greco’s, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586-1588 (details)

18. El Greco’s, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1578-1580

19. Mannerism The Burial of Count Orgaz 1586 Toledo, Spain
Artist: El Greco
His masterpiece
Local aristocracy attends at bottom as Christ and Saints welcome his soul at the top
Elongated forms are typical

20. Mannerism Saltcellar of Francis I 1539 – 1543 Paris, France
Artist: Benvenuto Cellini
An ornamental salt and pepper holder for the king of France
Salt is represented by the sea and pepper by the earth
Gold and enamel

21. Mannerism Perseus 1545 – 1554 Florence, Italy Artist: Cellini
Blood drips from the beheaded Medusa as Perseus holds it up triumphantly
A masterpiece of Mannerist art

22. Mannerism Vestibule of Laurentian Library 1524 – 1559 Florence, Italy
Artists: Michelangelo, Vasari & Ammanati
Higher than long or wide
Niches taper up – smaller at bottom than top
Same with pilasters, columns set into the wall
3 separate sets of steps but 1 doorway

23. Mannerism Villa Rotunda 1567 – 1570 Vicenza, Italy Artist: Palladio
Symmetry was crucial to Palladio, even the gardens are symmetrical
All 4 sides are identical
Monticello in Virginia, Jefferson’s home was based in this building

24. Giacomo della Porta façade of Il Gesù Rome, Italy ca. 1575-1584
Still in basic Renaissance style – just longer than necessary
Slide concept by Anthony F. D'Ascoli FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY For publication, reproduction or transmission of images, please contact individual artists, estates, photographers and exhibiting institutions for permissions and rights.

25. Palladio
Scala Ovata
Basilica

26. Palladio
Teatro Olimpico
San Giorgio Maggiore

27. Mannerism in music Extreme chromaticism
Ex: Prophetiae Sibyllarum, by Orlando de Lassus, c. 1550

28. Summary – Northern and Late Renaissance
RELIGION/POLITICS – Reformation; much political & religious violence
IDEAS – a skeptical Humanism
ART – a realism of everyday life: PORTRAITS, LANDSCAPES; oil painting, Mannerism
MUSIC – conservative perfection (Palestrina) & new approaches (madrigals)