Mannerism summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Mannerism.

Mannerism, Artistic style that predominated in Italy from the end of the High Renaissance in the 1520s to the beginnings of the Baroque period c. 1590. Mannerism originated in Florence and Rome but ultimately spread as far as central and northern Europe. A reaction to the harmonious Classicism and idealized naturalism of High Renaissance art, Mannerism was concerned with solving intricate artistic problems, such as portraying nudes in complex poses. The figures in Mannerist works frequently have graceful but queerly elongated limbs, small heads, and stylized facial features, while their poses seem difficult or contrived. The deep, linear perspectival space of High Renaissance painting is flattened and obscured so that the figures appear as a decorative arrangement of forms in front of a flat background of indeterminate dimensions. Mannerists sought a continuous refinement of form and concept, pushing exaggeration and contrast to great limits. After being superseded by the Baroque style, it was seen as decadent and degenerative. By the 20th century it was appreciated anew for its technical bravura and elegance. Major artists who practiced the style include Parmigianino, Federico Zuccaro, and Il Bronzino.

Parmigianino Summary

Parmigianino was an Italian painter who was one of the first artists to develop the elegant and sophisticated version of Mannerist style that became a formative influence on the post-High Renaissance generation. There is no doubt that Correggio was the strongest single influence on Parmigianino’s

Benvenuto Cellini Summary

Benvenuto Cellini was a Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and writer. He was one of the most important Mannerist artists and, because of the lively account of himself and his period in his autobiography, one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance. Cellini, resisting the efforts of his

Tintoretto Summary

Tintoretto was a great Italian Mannerist painter of the Venetian school and one of the most important artists of the late Renaissance. His paintings include Vulcan Surprising Venus and Mars (c. 1555), the Mannerist Christ and the Adulteress (c. 1545–48), and his masterpiece of 1592–94, the Last

Andrea Palladio Summary

Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect, regarded as the greatest architect of 16th-century northern Italy. His designs for palaces (palazzi) and villas, notably the Villa Rotonda (1550–51) near Vicenza, and his treatise I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570; The Four Books of Architecture) made