GRGR(30): Mannerism

[David Morris]

>From: "Otto Sell"
>so the info that the term was invented in 1965 by Mr. André Chastel puzzled 
>me.

Sorry if this bores.  It is not off-topic, as it relates to a larger 
perspective on the term "Post Modern.

The above credit cannot be literal, but it may be more informative than the 
literal: "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." 
<http://www.televisual.it/uffizi/manneris.html>
This early usage of the term, coined in the middle of the era it described, 
did not likely include the connotations and insight that we presently bring 
to the post-High-Renaissance, Pre-Rococo period.

Likewise, the "mannerist" eras in book you mention seem to have a very 
tenuous relation to the present-day use of the term.  It would be helpful to 
know what he intends by the term:

>Hocke takes a much wider approach, speaking of at least five important 
>European periods of manieristic artistic expressions:
>[1] Alexandria (350-150 BC)

I plead ignorance on any details of this era.

>[2] the *Silver Latinity* in Rome (14-138)

Hocke probably uses the term "manierist" here in the sense that 
architectural styles from other lands were widely and consciously 
appropriated:

This era begins with Nero and ends with Hadrian.  Both were passionate 
"architects" and both loved the artistic influences of the East.  Nero's 
"Golden House" (150 rooms - now opened for the first time in 18 yrs after a 
major renovation) was the work of his lifetime, sprawling over a vast area 
of Rome (which sprawl angered many, as private lands were swallowed up by 
Nero for his palace - prompting the rumor that he set fire to Rome out of 
land-greed).  Many of its additions were in styles "imported" from distant 
lands.

Likewise Hadrian's Villa (also builder of the Pantheon)

http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp./org/orion/eng/hst/roma/adriana.html
http://rubens2.anu.edu.au/cgi-bin/david/mkmap/htdocs/bytype/prints/piranesi/0011/1175.JPG
http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~wumsta/Milkau/73-2.jpg
http://members.aol.com/zorzim/index.htm/page9.htm

was a rambling compound, atop a hill in Tivoli, and base on architecture he 
admired in his travels.

>[3] the conscious manieristic epoch of 1520-1650
>[4] Romanticism, esp. from 1800-1830 [5] "present" period which he dates 
>from 1880-1950.

Although I'm familiar with the architecture of these last two eras (which 
curiously are continuous except for a 50 yr gap), I'm at a loss to see how 
these could be conceptually unified
into a "manierist" framework.

David Morris
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