The Changing Role of the Artist
Giorgio Vasari’s
Lives of
the Artists,
1568.
The Changing Role of the Artist
He believed
that the
artist was no
longer just a
member of a
crafts guild.
The Changing Role of the Artist
The artist
was an equal
in the courts
of Europe
with scholars,
poets,
& humanists.
The Changing Role of the Artist
Therefore, the artist should
be recognized and rewarded
for his unique artistic
technique [maneria].
Background
Late Renaissance [PreBaroque].
Art was at an impasse
after the perfection and
harmony of the
Renaissance.
Background
Antithetical (contradictary) to
the principles of the High
Renaissance.
From the Italian de maneria.
A work of art done in the
artist’s characteristic
“touch” or recognizable
“manner.”
Background
First used by the German
art historian, Heinrich
Wölfflin in the early 20c.
Influenced by
Michelangelo’s later works.
Michelangelo’s
“Last
Judgment”
(Sistine Chapel)
Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment”
(Sistine Chapel – left side)
Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment”
(Sistine Chapel – right side)
1. Replace Harmony
With Dissonance
& Discord
 “Susanna & the
Elders”
 Alessandro Allori
 Twisted bodies
or “weight shift”
[contrapposto]
2. Replace Reason with Emotion
 “Pietà” by Rosso Fiorentino
 1530-1540
 “Pietà” by El Greco
 1587-1597
3. Replace
Reality with
Imagination
 “The Mystic
Marriage of St.
Catherine”
 Parmigianino
 1525-1527
4. Create Instability Instead of
Equilibrium
 “The Rape
of Helene”
 Francesco
Primaticcio
 1530-1539
5. Bodies Are
Distorted
 “Christ in Agony on
the Cross”
 El Greco
 1600s.
 An attempt to
express the
religious tensions of
the times.
 “Adoration of the
Name of Jesus”
 El Greco
 1578-1580.
 “The Baptism
of Christ”
 El Greco
 1608-1628.
 “Portrait of a
Cardinal”
 El Greco
 1600
6. Colors are
Lurid
(vivid or
sensational )
 “The
Tempest”
 Giorgione
 1510
 “The Calling
of St.
Matthew”
 Caravaggio
 “The View
from Toledo”
 El Greco
 1597
7. Pictoral Space
is Crowded
 “Madonna with
the Long Neck”
 Parmagianino
 1534-1540
 “Joseph in
Egypt”
 Jacomo
Pontormo
 “The Last Supper”
 Tintoretto
 1594
8. A Void in the Center
 “Bacchus &
Ariadne”
?
 Titian
 1522-1523
 “Pastoral
Concert”
 Giorgione
 1508-1510
?
9. Hanging Figures
 “The
Annunciation”
 Jacopo
Tintoretto
 1583-1587
 “Moses
Drawing
Water form
the Rock”
 Jacopo
Tintoretto
 1577
Characteristics of Mannerist
Architecture
 Stylishness in design could be applied to a
building as well as to a painting.
 Showed extensive knowledge of Roman
architectural style.
 Complex, out of step style  taking “liberties”
with classical architecture.
 Architecture, sculpture, and walled gardens were
seen as a complex, but not necessary unified
whole.
 Villa Capra
[or Villa
Rotunda]
 By Andrea
Palladio
 1566-1571
 “Palladian” architectural style [popular in England]
 Entrance to
the Villa
Farnese at
Caprarola
 By Giacomo
Vignola
 1560
 Giacomo da
Vignola
 Wrote The
Rule of the
Five Orders of
Architecture
 1563
 Became a key
reference work
for architects.
The Fontainebleau School
French Mannerism 
flourished from
1531 to the
early 17c.
The Fontainebleau School
Characteristics:
Extensive use of
stucco in moldings &
picture frames.
The Fontainebleau School
Frescoes.
painting on a moist, plaster
surface with colors ground up in water or a
limewater mixture
An elaborate [often
mysterious] system of
allegories and mythical
iconography.
Centered around the Royal
Chateau of Fontainebleau.
The Royal Chateau at Fontainebleau
 Gallery [right] by Rosso
Fiorentino & Francesco
Primaticcio
 1528-1537
Jean Goujon
“Nymph & Putto,”
1547-1549
“Nymph,”
1548-1549
Baroque
 1600
– 1750
 From a Portuguese word
“barocca”, meaning “a pearl of
irregular shape.”

Baroque
 Implies
strangeness,
irregularity, and
extravagance.
 The more dramatic, the
better!
Baroque Style of Art &
Architecture
 Emotional.
 Colors were brighter than bright;
darks were darker than dark.
Baroque Style of Art &
Architecture
 Counter-Reformation art.
 Paintings & sculptures in
church contexts
should speak to the illiterate
rather than to the wellinformed.
 Ecclesiastical art.
St. Peter’s
Basilica,
Vatican
City
by
Gialorenzo
Bernini
Church of Santiago de Compostella, Spain
Church of Veltenberg Altar, Germany
Interior of a Dominican Church in Vilnius
“St. Francis in Ecstasy”
Caravaggio, 1595
“The
Flagellation
of Christ”
by
Caravaggio
“David and
Goliath” by
Caravaggio
“Salome with the Head of the Baptist”
by Caravaggio
“The Cardsharps”
Caravaggio, 1595
“Self-Portrait:
The Artist”
Artemisia
Gentileschi,
1638-1639
The 1st woman
accepted into
the Academy of
Drawing in
Florence
“Susanna
& the
Elders”
Artemisia
Gentileschi
,
1610
“The Dead Christ Mourned”
Annibale Carracci, 1603
“Joseph’s Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob”
Diego Velázquez, 1630
“Christ on the
Cross”
Diego
Velázquez,
1632
“Las Meninas”
or “The Maids
of Honor”
Diego
Velázquez
1656
Student
Report
Rubens,
Valaquez,
Bernini
“St.
Bonaventure on
His Deathbed”
Francisco de
Zurbarn, 1629
“The Elevation
of the Cross”
by Peter Paul
Reubens
1610-11
“The
Lamentation
”
by Peter
Paul
Reubens
1609-11
“Battle of the Amazons”
Peter Paul Reubens
“A Village Fête”
Peter Paul Reubens
“The Ecstasy of
St. Theresa of
Avila”
by Gianlorenzo
Bernini
1647-52
“A Bust of Louis XIV”
by Bernini
“A Bust of Cardinal Richelieu”
by Bernini
Baroque Furniture
Baroque Furniture
A Baroque Room
Giovanni Francesco Marchini,
1702-1736
Nicolas Poussin
greatest French artist of the
17th century, the founder of his
country's classical school.
Student
Report
Poussin
&
Rembrandt
Rembrandt, “Self
Portrait”
Nicolas Poussin
With him, French painting
shook off its provinciality and
became a European affair,
mirroring the power of its grand
century, the age of Louis XIV.
“Abduction of the Sabine Women”
by Poussin
Also
referred
to
As “The
Rape of
the
Sabine
Women.”
1633-34
Student Report
Michel de Montaigne
Student Report
Cervantes
& Shakespeare
Shakespeare