when you first look at a Mannerist

painting you might be tempted to think

that it's a product of the Italian

Renaissance and you'd be right sort of

mannerism is a period of art that came

out of the high Renaissance in Italy and

it's also known as the late Renaissance

period it lasted from about 1520 to 1580

the influence of the Renaissance style

is clear and the paintings of the

Mannerist movement there are figures

from religion and mythology rich colors

and careful details all of which you

would expect from the art of this age

but when you look again you discover

that something's a little off upon

closer inspection you realize that the

figures are distorted

no one's neck is that long no human can

maintain that distorted pose no one's

skin is that bright the lines are kind

of exaggerated aren't they and the

geographical setting is unclear the

space is strange that's when you realize

this isn't Renaissance art this is

mannerism the Mannerist knew what they

were doing when they created these

slightly odd images and presented them

as genuine distorting elements such as

scale and perspective adding drama in

subtle ways whenever they could were

exactly the look they were going for the

name mannerism comes directly from the

first known art historian Giorgio

lazatti Giorgio himself was a Mannerist

artist and used the Italian term maniera

meaning style in his encyclopedia to

describe the period in which he worked

many art historians believe that the

Mannerist s-- were making commentary on

the manners or style or proper art

proper anatomy and even proper Christian

virtue man heurists took cues from the

Renaissance artists about matters such

as bright color fine detail and a focus

on individualism and the human form but

applied these ideas in a way that

transformed their style Mannerist

artists departed from the ideals of

mathematical Anna Tom

Michals spatial and even scenic

perfection of the Renaissance in

breaking these rules and depicting

unrealistic body proportions poses

colors and settings

they opened imaginative possibilities

for juxtapose scenes vibrant color and

perfect elegance

Mannerist paintings are often filled

with tension rather than depicting an

important scene or action they

frequently show the moment just before

the action takes place consider

Tintoretto and his painting of the Last

Supper depicted from almost an offstage

viewpoint it is darker and more fraught

with suspense than da Vinci's more

famous painting of the same scene the

lighting is more harsh and surreal there

are more figures off to the side and

distorted poses and elongated angels

watch from up above all distinctly

Mannerist characteristics Raphael and

Michelangelo well-known painters of the

Italian Renaissance were also among the

first artists to experiment with

painting in a Mannerist style

Francesco Missoula more commonly known

as parmigiano followed these Renaissance

Heroes example and became one of the

first characteristically Mannerist

painters parmigiano self-portrait in a

convex mirror shows the artist painting

his own distorted figure the painting

entombment by Jacopo Pontormo features

an unnaturally elongated Christ and

surrounding figures bent and posed

uncomfortably unlike many Renaissance

paintings entombment is not didactic

with a specific dogmatic message in mind

but invites contemplation and opens

itself up to interpretation

like the figures and pond thermals and

to mint the subjects of El Greco's

baptism of Christ are punctuated by long

torsos and loud splashes of color el

greco began his painting career near

Venice but fully developed his talents

after moving to Spain he is known for

his intensely emotional depictions of

religious scenes in El Greco's baptism

of Christ the viewers gaze is directed

to all corners of the painting and the

postures and dramatic lighting of the

painting create a sense of movement and

urgency as with most trends in

exaggeration mannerism could last only

so long by the close of the 1500s it was

yielding to the less strange highly

detailed and more theatrical arts of the

Baroque movement

you