GRGR(30): You will want cause and effect.

[David Morris]

>From: "Dave Monroe"
>
>... well, if there's one thing I can say about Mannerism, it's that it 
>seems to be an even more slippery term than postmodernism.  Indeed, just 
>about anything I've ever read on the subject starts off by noting just how 
>contested, controversial, even, the term is.  Not only was is not used by 
>anyone involved, even those who do deploy it seem esp. concerned to 
>emphasize just how much of a critical, scholarly, academic construct it is.

http://sgwww.epfl.ch/berger/Jardin-noframe/manierisme_english.html

Mannerism is a very recent term. It was invented in 1965 by Mr. André 
Chastel, a great art historian and curator of the exhibition of what was 
called at the time the 2nd European Renaissance, organized at the Louvre 
Museum in Paris.

For centuries, when one spoke of the Renaissance, one referred to the era 
starting with Fra Angelico and ending with Michelangelo.
The intermediate period between the Renaissance and the Baroque period was 
called the 2nd Renaissance. It brought together artists such as Il Bronzino, 
Pontormo, Lotto, Laudini, Giambologna, Parmigiano and Vignola.

In general,these artists were completely ignored by the public. Even the 
curious public, knowledgeable and erudite, detested them. Time has passed. 
Idols fall, new values come into play. Raphael was ostracized and, today, is 
still rather badly viewed. Curiously enough, Il Bronzino, on the other hand, 
is the subject of research, books and far more numerous exhibitions.

Mr. Chastel had the courage to organize this formidable exhibition in the 
Petit Palais, the Grand Palais and the Louvre simultaneously, bringing 
together what he was able to obtain from museums in the Netherlands, Italy, 
England and France. By means of this exhibition and a very thick catalogue, 
he was able to introduce Mannerism to the general public.

Why Mannerism?

When Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael died, Italian society demanded that 
young artists immemorialize their forefathers' genius and glory by imitating 
their manners. An imitative style of their manners, from which came the name 
of Mannerists, which Mr. Chastel bestowed on these young painters who worked 
from 1530 until approximately 1610 and would only be supplanted by the birth 
of the Baroque period.

http://www.televisual.it/uffizi/manneris.html

The mannerist style became popular around 1520, and was over by about 1590. 
It was so named from the term "maniera" used by Vasari (1550) in a positive 
way to describe the most truly Renaissance style of art. Later in history 
this very productive period was looked down on, as being useless and 
characterized by a search for artificiality. It was only in the nineteenth 
century that Mannerism was revalued, and considered to be a very expressive 
style, the alteration of volume and space and the twisting of the figures 
giving a harmonious unity to the compositions. The movement began in Rome 
and Florence, respectively with the "Fire of Borgo" frescos (1514-17) by 
Raphael, at the Vatican Museum, and with the vestibule of the Laurenziana 
Library (from 1521 on) by Michelangelo. Architecture in the style includes 
the Uffizi Gallery itself, restructured by Vasari between 1560 and 1580; the 
courtyard of the Pitti Palace by Bartolomeo Ammannati (who, among other 
things, also did the sculpture of the "Neptune Fountain" in Piazza della 
Signoria); Villa Madama in Rome by Raphael and his pupil Giulio Romano, who 
also created the magnificent Palazzo Te in Mantua, decorating the interior 
with lovely frescos; the Marciana Library by Jacopo Sansovino in Venice, and 
Venete Villas by Andrea Palladio. As for sculpture, works to be remembered 
include "Perseus" by Benvenuto Cellini, a prestigious goldsmith, and the 
"Rape of the Sabines" by Giambologna in the Lanzi Loggia. There were 
numerous painters in the Mannerist style, such as Raphael, Michelangelo, 
Giulio Romano, all mentioned above, and Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso 
Fiorentino, Parmigianino, Bronzino, Sebastiano del Piombo, Daniele da 
Volterra, Tintoretto, Veronese, Correggio and the spaniard El Greco.






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