Mannerism and Renaissance North

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Mannerism and Renaissance North
Extreme Renaissance
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• What happened after the High Renaissance?
• Time of crisis that gave rise to competing
  tendencies (kind of like today)
• Originally Mannerism was a negative term- used
  for mid-16th century painters whose style was
  artificial but now seen as a group of artists who
  looked inward instead of at the natural world for
  their vision

• Rebel in Florence!
• Unreal light, disquieting and creepy
• Figures are agitated yet rigid

Florentino, Descent From the Cross, 1521
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• Distortions are scientifically based
• Showed that inner views are skewed-there is no
  single correct reality

Parmigianino, Self Portrait, 1524
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• Influenced by Raphaels paintings
• His style changed to elongated figures, very
  smooth- ideal beauty does not copy nature
• Artificial background- nothing is based on
  reality, unearthly perfection

Parmgianino, The Madonna with the Long Neck, 1535
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• First woman artist example since Greece!
• First widely recognized celebrity woman artist

Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of the Artists
Sister Minerva, 1559
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Tintoretto, The Maundy (Christ Washing The Feet
of His Disciples), 1547

• Jacobo Titntoretto, Venetian, 1518-94
• Very emotional, unreal light, sudden lights and
  darks
• Michelangeloesque figures

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• Domenikos Theotocopoulos (1541-1614), worked in
  Venice
• Settled in Spain, but saw the great works of the
  High Renaissance
• Counter Reformation, which was intense in Spain
  effected his emotional work
• Count Orgaz was a medieval benefactor of the
  church
• Represented as a contemporary event
• Top of painting- figures are sweeping and
  flamelike

El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586
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• Color and texture rivals Titian
• Painting fills an entire wall of a chapel
• Below the painting is a box that looks like a
  coffin- meant to show that action continues-
  unites the visual world with the real world

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• Master at portraiture
• Religious leaders were seen as mystics and
  intellectuals at the same time

El Greco, Portrait of a Cardinal, 1600
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• Correggio was seen as a Proto-Baroque Artist
• Northern Italian but was influenced by the
  Renaissance masters
• For him, spiritual and physical ecstasy were one
  and the same
• Uses Leonardos sfumato
• Beautiful sense of color like the Venetians
  (Titian)
• Artist had no immediate successors but his work
  was widely appreciated unlike the mannerists

Correggio, Jupiter and Antiope, 1523
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• The most important sculptor in Florence in the
  latter half of the 16th c.
• Not really a lot of new sculptor talent in the
  later 16th c.- perhaps because of Michelangelo
• Was untitled- the artist just wanted to show
  three figures in physical turmoil- critics gave
  it its name
• Not really concerned with subject matter
• Purpose was to solve a formal problem
• Looks like choreography rather than pathos

Bologna, Rape of the Sabine Woman, 1583
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Palladio, Villa Rotunda, 1567-70

• Mannerist architecture is hard to define
• Palladio was 2nd only to Michelangelo during this
  time period
• Thought that architecture should be governed by
  reason and by certain universal rules perfected
  during ancient times
• Believed in cosmic significance of numerical
  rations-practiced classicism
• Villa Rotunda is a residence, shaped like a
  temple (he was convinced that Roman buildings
  were also shaped like this)

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Palladio, S. Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 1565

• Made a classically integrated façade on a
  basilican church
• Integrated a tall and a wide temple design

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• Renaissance North
• Italian ideas swept north around 1500
• Germany had two masters- Grunewald and Durer
• Grunewald remained relatively unknown
• Main work was The Isenheim Altarpiece
• Seen as the most impressive crucifixion ever
  painted
• Grief shown is very Medieval
• Jesus is both human and monumental

Grunewald, The Crucifixion, 1510

• Crucifixion is taken out of its familiar
  surroundings-in darkness yet bathed in bright
  light- symbolic and realistic at the same time

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• More jubilant mood
• Light is extremely bold, full of vibrant energy
• Color is rich and full
• Knowledge of perspective came from Italy
• Psychologically impacted by the Renaissance in
  Italy

Grunewald, The Resurrection, 1510-15
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• Albrecht Durer 1471-1528
• Greatest printmaker of his time
• Visited Italy and bought into the Artist as
  Genius idea and the rational rules of Renaissance
  art
• Subject of the Four Horsemen suggests the work of
  Schoengauer, but figures are Renaissance-based
• This is a woodcut, but the medium has become as
  expressive as engraving

Durer, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1497-8
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• First artist to be fascinated with his own image
• Christ-like pose- showing not conceit, but how
  seriously Durer regarded his mission as artistic
  reformer
• Invented a devise for producing an image by
  mechanical means to demonstrate the validity of
  perspective- first step towards the principle of
  the camera

Durer, Self Portrait, 1500
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• Hans Holbein the Younger 1497-1543
• Continued the portrait tradition of Durer
• Lived in Switzerland (German born)
• Memorable image of a true Renaissance man

Holbein the Younger, Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1523
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• Went to England and became court painter of Henry
  VIII
• Immobile pose, air of unaproachability
• Precisely rendered jewelry and costume
• Molded British aristocracys taste for decades

Holbein, Henry VIII, 1540
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• In the Netherlands, there were less and less
  commissions for religious paintings because of
  the strictness of the atmosphere (counter
  reformation)
• Landscape, still-life, and Genre scenes became
  important
• Meat stall- a completely secular picture- no
  interest in formal arrangements-just heaps of
  meat (mmm!)
• Meant to impress us with its detail (4X12)

Pieter Aertsen, The Meat Stall, 1551
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Bruegel The Elder, The Return of the Hunters, 1565

• Explored landscapes and peasant life- know little
  about him.
• Very educated, a humanist, never worked for the
  Church
• Visited Italy, but was not impressed with the
  masters- returned with landscape drawings instead
• This painting is a descendant of Lindbourgs
  February- landscape is more important than the
  people- rhythm of nature is the subject matter

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Bruegel the Elder, Peasant Wedding, c.1565

• Crude, heavy people yet respected in Bruegels
  view
• Limited modeling and flat colors, space is in
  linear perspective-attention to detail makes the
  event seem as important as a biblical scene-
  maybe because peasant life is the ideal life for
  him?

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Bruegal the Elder, Fall of Icarus
What is the philosophy behind this painting- What
is Bruegal trying to say?
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Chateau of Chambord, 1519

• France had a hard time adopting classical
  architecture- took a while for Gothic traditions
  to change
• Based on Gothic design on the outside, but its
  plan is much more geometric and regular- more
  Italian

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Pierre Lescot, Square Court of the Louvre, 1546

• Lescot was very influenced by Bramante and his
  ideas
• This design is a blending of Italian and French
  ideas -can you pick each influence out?