Mannerism in Italy

Mannerism in Italy

• Born as a reaction against naturalism, order and balance of the High Renaissance

• “Maniera” (Italian) - style, stylishness

• Intellectual sophistication – work directed towards a small audience who understands art

• It’s art based on art, not art based on nature

• Artificial, highly theatrical, dramatic lighting effects, exaggerated emotions, elongated figures, etc.

Mannerism(In Italy 1520-1580, everywhere else - lasted until 17th Cent.)

Mannerism

Entombment, Pontormo, 1525-28http://smarthistory.org/pontormo-entombment.html

NorthernRenaissance

• Is the term usedto describe theRenaissance inNorthern Europe

(England, France, Germany, Netherlands).

North. Renaissance – 1400-1520

• Universities, the printed press and the development of trade helped to spreadideas throughout Europe.

North. Renaissance – 1400-1520

Northern Renaissance - Medium:• Oil on panel (used due to wet, cold climate)

• Brighter, richer and deeper colors, smoother transitions, more realistic 3D rendering

• Small scale wood panels - are easy to transport & view in a private, domestic setting- helped the middle class to create an illusion of wealth and high social status

• Panels were treated as precious objects that arepart of the spectator’s world and at the same timeset off from the mundane world of everyday existence.

Italy - Subject matter:Classical mythology and religious iconography,portraiture much less common than in Netherlands

Northern Europe - Subject matter:Domestic interiors, portraits and religious scenes

Italian vs Northern Renaissance

Jan Van Eyck

Was an official court artist inBrugges (Belgium)

Is known for a microscopic-telescopic vision: an exceptionally realistic style of painting

Invented oil paint

His is full of religious symbolism

Man in a Red Turban (Self-Portrait), Jan van Eyck, tempera and oil on panel, 1433

Jan Van Eyck

“Jan van Eyck painted the world as if everything in it were both knowable and perfectly known... His aim was not representation, but reconstruction”- Panofsky.

Each object, is spiritualized by its almost total detail: his scrutiny goes beyond the concrete and waits for our symbolic imagination to catch up with it.

Portrait of Margaret van Eyck, Jan van Eyck, oil on panel, 1439

Portrait of a Carthusian, Petrus Christus, oil on panel, 1446http://smarthistory.org/petrus-christus-portrait.html

Italy - Style & Technique:

1. Artists study from nature (learn anatomy, etc.)

2. Space is constructed using 1-point linear perspective

3. The ideal of beauty and harmony is based onclassical art

4. Frequent use of symmetry and balance

5. Desire to make the images of the visible world more believable and accessible. The view of reality is more generalized, not fragmented like in the Netherlands.

Italian Renaissancevs Northern Renaissance

In Italy, the realism wasbased on the use of science (anatomy)

and math (linear perspective andgeometry). The realism of the Northern

Renaissance was based on a veryclose observation of the world.

Italy - Style & Technique

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints, Raphael, 1504

North - Style & Technique:

1. Exquisite and minute surface detail, microscopic view of the world

2. Naturalism, use of illusionistic tromp l’oil effects

3. Northern works are smaller scale, private, psychologically intimate

Style & Technique

Merod Altarpiece, Robert Campin, oil on panel, 1426, (25” x 24” center, 25” x 10” each wing)http://smarthistory.org/Campin.html

Northern - Style & Technique:4. Often combined multiple perspectives in 1 painting

to emphasize different realities: religious and secular.

5. Artists had insistent interest in the individual, withall its quirks and peculiarities. They refused to generalize and simplify.

6. Full of symbolic iconography, which awakens emotions of the pious (everyday objects symbolize spiritual ideas).

Albreht Durer

– Was a German painter, printmaker and theorist, born in Nuremberg in 1471

– He became very famous by his mid-twenties.

– Dürer painted his 1st self-portrait for his fiancé.

Self-portrait, Albrecht Durer, oil on panel, 1493 (left) – before his trip to Italy

Albreht Durer

– The second self-portrait was painted after his trip to Italy, where he studied with the great masters in Venice, Padua, etc.

Self-portrait, Albrecht Durer, oil on panel, 1500 (left) – after his trip to Italy

The Protestant Reformation - 1517

– The movement began with Martin Luther in 1517as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church

– Protestants considered the Catholic Church to be corrupt: abusing its power, etc.

– Protestants believed the Catholic church encouraged idol worship.

– “The kingdom of God is the kingdom of hearing,not of seeing” – Martin Luther

Genre Painting

Peasant Wedding, Pieter Bruegel The Elder, oil on panel, 1568

Genre Painting

The Hunters in the Snow, Pieter Bruegel The Elder, oil on panel, 1565

Exercise: Compare these artworks

Portrait of a Youth, Sandro Botticelli, 15 th cent. (left) / Portrait of Margaret van Eyck, Jan van Eyck, oil, 15th cent. (right)

Northern or Italian Renaissance?

Exercise: Compare these artworks

Mid 13th century (left) / mid. 15th century, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, San Marco, Florence (right)

Exercise: Compare these artworks

Virgin & Child, Ravenna, 6 century (left) / Madonna & Child, Rafael, early 16th century (right)

Exercise: Compare these artworks

Madonna With Child, Piero della Francesca, 15 th century (left) / The Deposition from the Cross, Pontormo, 16 th century (right)