Lecture 27: Mannerism and the Late Work of Michelangelo

Mannerism and the Late Work of Michelangelo .............................

Lecture 27

We are turning our attention back from northern Europe, where we

have been for several lectures, back to Italy. We are going to discuss

the movement, or style, called Mannerism, which is principally a style

associated with the 16th century.

W

e will learn the characteristics of Mannerism and study various

artists who used this style, including Jacopo Pontormo, Rosso

Fiorentino, Parmigianino, and Agnolo Bronzino. We will also

discuss the later work of Michelangelo. The style called Mannerism is

derived from the Italian phrase maniera della antica, meaning “manner of

the antique.” This term can be used to justify almost any aspect of style,

because just about every style can be found in the ancient art of Greece and

Rome and used as a model by living artists.

Mannerism arose in Italy for both psychological and stylistic reasons; that is, it

was not simply a development from the shadows in Leonardo’s paintings or the

later work of Raphael in the Vatican or the complexity of Michelangelo’s poses

for the human body. These were among the stylistic sources of Mannerism, but

the distortions of space, form, and color that characterize the style were given

a jolt forward by the Sack of Rome in 1527. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

and King Francis I of France were enemies who chose Italy as their battle¿ eld.

The election of Pope Clement VII in 1523 had been controlled by Catholic

princes—Henry VIII of England, Francis I, and Charles V. The new pope, a

Medici, was a compromise candidate and a politically indecisive man in an

untenable position. He had antagonized the emperor; when Rome became

vulnerable, the emperor’s troops swarmed in, and violence erupted.

Though the emperor was Catholic, many of his mercenary soldiers were

German Lutherans who began the Sack of Rome and clamored for the

deposition of the pope, a move that did not have the emperor’s support. The

troops pillaged the holy city and terrorized its inhabitants. Artists À ed Rome,

and the city lost the artistic vitality that it had developed under the patronage

of Pope Julius II and Leo X.