The characteristics of Mannerism can be seen in several signi¿ cant artists,
including Jacopo Pontormo (1494–1557). By the age of 20, Pontormo was a
gifted painter with a thorough grasp of the High Renaissance style. We begin
with Pontormo’s fresco of the Visitation (c. 1514–1516). This fresco depicts
the pregnant Mary meeting with her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant
(with John the Baptist). Elizabeth kneels on the stairs. The symmetry is
compromised in some places, and the palette has a range of hues that tends
to shift away from the pure triad toward intermediate hues; the hues are also
combined in unharmonious or unusual ways.
Our next work is the Entombment (or Deposition) (c. 1528). Note how the
pinks in this painting are emphasized, for example, on the boy kneeling to
support Christ and on one woman’s headdress. Other prominent colors are red,
orange, white, and pale blue. The space in the composition is irrational; the
painting looks unnatural. It is unclear if this is the entombment or deposition
of Christ. There is no cross or tomb, but Christ’s body is being carried.
Another practitioner of the Mannerist style was Giovanni Battista Rosso,
called Rosso Fiorentino (1494–1540). We see his Deposition (c. 1521),
originally created for the Cathedral of Volterra. This tall altarpiece with
large ¿ gures depicts Christ being taken down from the cross. This painting
is strongly vertical, with the long beam of the cross a dominant element. The
ladders reinforce the strong vertical of the cross. The tall ¿ gure of St. John
the Evangelist and the angular ¿ gures on the ladders similarly emphasize the
verticality. The center of the painting is vacated, with only Christ’s feet in the
exact center. This painting predates the Sack of Rome by six years and, thus,
attests to the stylistic shift already under way as a result of the emotional
religious climate precipitated by the Reformation. Luther’s 95 Theses were
posted in Wittenberg in 1517, followed by his trial and excommunication
in 1521.
Rosso left Rome after the Sack and wandered around Italy for several years
until he left for France. Francis I invited him, along with another Italian,
Primaticcio, to Fontainebleau to decorate a gallery in the royal chateau.
While in France, Rosso also painted a Pietà (c. 1530–1535) for the constable
of France, Anne de Montmorency, who owned the great chateau at Chantilly.
The composition is so crowded that there is no room for movement, but