Mannerism
in Italy
Mannerism
(In Italy 1520-1580, everywhere else - lasted until 17th Cent.)
• 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
Entombment, Pontormo, 1525-28
http://smarthistory.org/pontormo-entombment.html
Northern
Renaissance
North. Renaissance – 1400-1520
• Is the term used
to describe the
Renaissance in
Northern Europe
(England, France,
Germany, Netherlands).
North. Renaissance – 1400-1520
• Universities, the printed press and the
development of trade helped to spread
ideas throughout Europe.
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 are
part of the spectator’s world and at the same time
set off from the mundane world of everyday existence.
Italian vs Northern Renaissance
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
Jan Van Eyck
Was an official court artist in
Brugges (Belgium)
Is known for a microscopictelescopic 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, 1446
http://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 on
classical 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 Renaissance
vs Northern Renaissance
In Italy, the realism was
based on the use of science (anatomy)
and math (linear perspective and
geometry). The realism of the Northern
Renaissance was based on a very
close 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, with
all 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 selfportrait 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 1517
as 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, 15th 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, 15th century (left) / The Deposition from the Cross, Pontormo, 16th century (right)