1. Mannerism and the Later 16th
Century in Italy
Sandrine Le Bail AP Art History

2. 16th century in Europe
Francis I in France
1527 Sack of Rome

3. Main events
• 1517 – 95 Theses of Martin Luther
• 1520 – Death of Raphael
• 1527 - Sack of Rome

4. Mannerism
• Emerged in 1520’s
• In reaction to the High Renaissance style of
Leonardo or Raphael
• Main feature: artifice

5. New Subjects matters
• Still live - Inanimate objects
• Genre Painting – Scene of everyday life

6. Patrons
• Court / wealthy patron
• Sophisticated messages
• Highly complex and difficult to decipher
• Intellectual

7. Artists Writers
• Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography, 1558-1562
• Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most excellent
painters, sculptors and architects ( 1550,
updated 1568)
• Andrea Palladio, Four books on Architecture
(begun 1570)

8. Main Mannerist Painters
• Jacopo da Pontorno
• Antonio Correggio
• Parmigianino
• Agnolo Bronzino

9. Michelangelo,
Last
Judgement,
1541

11. Raffaello,
Transfiguration,
1520.

13. Jacopo Da
Pontormo,
Entombment,
1525-1528

16. Raphael, The deposition, 1507

17. Jacopo da Pontormo, Entombment,
1525-1528
• Oil on wood
• For the church of Santa Felicità
• No focal point – Hole in the center of the
circular composition
• High keyed colors
• No ground line
• Linear bodies twisting around one another

18. Parmigianino,
Self Portrait in a convex mirror, 1524

19. Parmigianino,
Madonna of the
Long Neck, 1535
Figura Serpentina: twist of the body

20. Parmigianino,
Madonna of the
Long Neck, 1535
Figura Serpentina: twist of the body
Raphael, Madonna and the Goldfinch

23. Parmigianino,
Madonna of the Long
Neck, 1535
- Deliberately imbalanced
composition
- Enigmatic row of columns
- Elongated bod
- Disproportion between the
upper part of the body and
the lower part

24. Agnolo
Bronzino,
Venus,
Cupid, Folly
and Time,
1545

25. Time
Folly
Fraud or
Vanity
Masks =
Falseness
Envy?
Syphilis?
Fury ?
Truth?
Cupid
Venus
Dove = Love

26. Agnolo Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly
and Time, 1545
• Commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici
of Florence as a gift to Francis I
• Complicated allegorical structure –
Multiplicity of meanings
• Complex imagery and poses
• Figures in a congested composition,
pushed to the forefront of the
picture plane

27. Characteristics of the style
• Twisted and elongated figures
• Asymmetrical and unbalanced compositions
• Lack of a clear focal point
• Unusual representations of traditional themes
• Strident palette
• Ambiguous space
• Use of expressive hand gestures

28. Mannerist Sculptors
• Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)
• Giambologna = Jean de Boulogne = Giovanni
Bologna (1529-1608)

29. Mannerist sculpture: No primary point
Michelangelo, David, 1501-1404 Cellini, Perseus and the
head of Medusa, 1554

30. Benvenuto Cellini,
saltcellar of Francis I, 1543.

32. Giambologna, Mercury, c.1576

33. Giambologna,
Abduction of
the Sabine
Women, 1583

35. Characteristic of Mannerism Sculpture
• Elongation of the figures
• Intertwining figures
• Lot of negative space
• Crowded composition
• Viewers have to examine the details to
understand the whole

36. Giulio Romano, The Palazzo del tè,
1525-1535, Mantua
Commissioned by Federigo Gonzaga.
Horse farm and villa

37. Courtyard facade

39. Giulio
Romano,
sala dei
Giganti,
1530-1452
Battle between the Gods
and the Titans

43. Counter Reformation Painting

44. Protestant Reformation

45. Counter Reformation
Council of Trent 1545 and 1563

46. Art according to the Council of Trent
Art should :
• be didactic
• be ethically decent
• be accurate in its treatment of religious subjects
• appeal to emotion and not to reason
Themes:
• Parallels between Old and New testament
• Less Classical themes

47. Inquisition

48. Paolo Veronese, Last Supper (Christ in
the House of Levi), 1573

52. Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-
1594

56. Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-
1594
- Powerful diagonal
- Christ in the center
but seems far
- Elongated figures
- Light reveals flying
angels
- Light casts long
shadow
- Many details of
everyday life
- No action

57. El Greco, Christ Healing the blind,
c.1577

58. El Greco,
Burial of the
Count of
Orgaz, 1586-
1588
Church of Saint Tomé,
Toledo, Spain for Orgaz’s
burial chapel

59. Heaven
Earth
Saint Stephen
Saint Augustine
Orgaz
Mary
Saint Peter
Jesus

60. El Greco, Burial of the Count of Orgaz,
1586-1588

63. El Greco, Burial of the Count of
Orgaz, 1586-1588
- Mannerist use of space
- Combination of Venetian
color, Spanish mysticism and
mannerist elongation
- Painting divided in half:
bottom is the somber Earth,
above the ecstatic heaven.

64. Late 16th- Century Architecture

65. Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)
Wrote the Four Books of
Architecture
Influenced by Greek and
Roman Architecture
Synthesis between
elements of Mannerism
and ideals of High
Renaissance

66. Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-
1569
Used as a working farm, family estate, villa retreat

67. Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-
1569

68. Palladio, Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1567-
1569

69. Low dome like Antiquity with an
original occulus

70. Andrea Palladio, Saint Giorgio
Maggiore, Venice, begun 1565

71. Tall pediment
High classical
façade
Interlocking
pediments

73. Il Gesù, Roma
• Jesuit order founded by Ignatius of Loyola in
1540
• Decision to build the head church in the
center of Rome
• Architects: Giacomo Vignola, then Giacomo
della Porta
• Patron: Alessandro Farnese
• reflects the Counter Reformation concerns

74. Giacomo da Vignola, plan of the
Church of Il Gesù, 1565-1573

75. Giacomo da
Vignola and
Giacomo
della Porta,
Il Gesù,
Roma,
1575-1584