Mannerism in Renaissance Era Art

Introduction

"Mannerism" is an artistic movement that developed in the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. Developed by the Renaissance, Mannerism is generally considered as a reaction to the harmony, order and perfection of the art of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century. This style emerged as dominant in Italy from 1520 to 1600. Stylistically, mannerism is characterized by the use of bright colors, gaudy combinations, elaborate compositions, exaggerated forms and dramatic movements (Morrissey p. 223). The word takes on different meanings over the centuries, often with a negative connotation to indicate an excessive technical virtuosity and artificiality. Mannerisms are not developed, unlike other movements, such as reaction and rejection of the canons of the Renaissance.

Discussion

Important mannerist painters and their works include Parmigianino ("Madonna of the Long Neck" 1534-1540), Perino del Vaga, Pontormo ("Stories of Passion" 1522-1525, Certosa di Galluzzo), Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano, Daniele da Volterra, Tintoretto, Primaticcio, Bronzino ("Allegory of the Triumph of Venus" 1546, National Gallery, London), Rosso Fiorentino, and Domenico Beccafumi Siena ("Birth of the Virgin" 1544, Pinacoteca di Siena). At the end of the sixteenth century Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro, represented late Mannerism in Rome (Jones p. 103).

Among the sculptor Mannerists, you can quote Giambologna, and the Florentine sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini and Michelangelo, Jacopo Vignola and Giacomo della Porta and Bernardo Buontalenti, authors of inventive imaginative projects and refined decorative taste. With regard to the geographical area of diffusion, both the Mannerism and Baroque are movements of amplitude and Europeans consider both arts as literature. However, some scholars extend the concept of Mannerism to literature. Concerning the chronological limits, they correspond roughly to those of the business cycle: the period of relative stability and development that characterized the sixteenth century closes after the first decade of the seventeenth century, when it begins a serious economic crisis (Sigfried 504-533).

Baroque Art: Bernini

Baroque is the principal European art style in the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth. Artists of this period: Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Giordano and Tiepolo in painting, Bernini in sculpture, and Borromini, Fischer von Erlach and Wren in architecture. The statue “David” was sculpted for Cardinal Borghese in seven months. This sculpture of David is more “active”; he's bending at the waist and twists far to the one side, ready to launch a lethal rock (Jensen 84-95). As indicated in the text, this David appears more mature, his body is leaner, his expression is more determination and tense, his muscles are more flexed. I liked the line in the text “The view becomes part of the action that is taking place at that very moment”. That is very true; you really become part of the motion and can feel that determination on his face (Jones p. 89).

Another of Bernini's sculptures that I had the opportunity to see live is “The Fountain of the Four Rivers, The Ganges (Asia)”. This piece is located in the center of Piazza Navona, in Rome. What a ...