Mannerism is an artistic movement in a number of European countries in the 16-17th centuries. This trend arose during the late Renaissance, and some researchers believe that it became a kind of reaction of the intelligentsia to a number of crisis phenomena during the Renaissance.
General characteristics of the era
Mannerism is a transitional stage from the Middle Ages to the early modern time. These were very difficult decades in the history of Western European countries. After all, it was then that the formation of new socio-political and economic systems took place. All this was connected with the conduct of wider wars, in which military-political unions and even entire blocks of states participated. Serious changes have taken place within a number of countries associated with the transition to a capitalist structure.
In addition, the educated society of that time was particularly shocked by the plunder of Rome in 1527. All these changes could not but affect the worldview of educated circles. Mannerism is a peculiar reaction to the crisis of humanistic ideals that glorified man and his existence. Therefore, many artists, sculptors and architects turned to new searches in their work.
Features of the direction
A new style arose in Italy, then spread to a number of European countries. First of all, his principles began to be shared by artists from France and the Netherlands. The following features are characteristic of this trend: the desire to convey the harmony of the external and spiritual appearance, the elongation and elongation of lines, the tension of poses. This differed from the harmonious perception of Renaissance artists, who sought to convey peace in their works, and also especially cared for the proportionality of forms in the composition.
In sculpture, the masters began to pay special attention to plasticity and elegance. In architecture, a violation of the harmony of forms characteristic of the previous era was also observed.
In painting
The school of painting in Italy became the founder of a new direction. It developed in cities such as Florence, Mantova. The most prominent representatives of it were Vasari, Giulio Romano and others. The paintings of artists in this direction are characterized by a complex composition, mythical congestion, a special, light color scheme. Themes were the most diverse, but one of the main was the opposition of heavenly love and earthly love. Spiritualism was characteristic of many works of painters.
A school of painting has developed in France (in Fontainebleau). Many Dutch artists imitated Italian authors. In the framework of this direction, interest arose in the revival of the knightly portrait and medieval themes.
Sculpture and buildings
Mannerism in architecture has also been widely developed. For buildings in this style, a violation of the proportions and lines of the facades is characteristic. Architects sought to arouse a sense of concern among the viewer, in which the spirit of the era manifested itself, namely, the crisis of renaissance values and the loss of a sense of harmony and peace. One example of buildings in this style is the Laurenzian Library in Florence (author - Michelangelo). In the same style, the square in Mantua was decorated, as well as the loggia in the gallery building in Uffizi.
Mannerism is a transitional stage between the Renaissance and Baroque. In sculpture, the same phenomena were observed as in architecture and painting. The most prominent representative is B. Cellini. His works are distinguished by emphasized elegance and sophistication, even by some pretentiousness of shapes and colors.
Place in culture
Mannerism is an important stage in the history of art. Many researchers see in it the rudiments of Rococo and early Baroque. Of course, many elements of this direction affected subsequent trends. Baroque, for example, took over from this direction pretentiousness of form, complexity of composition, rococo - elegance and graceful manner of images. In general, mannerism in the fine arts, despite all the above features of the performance technique, is a rather broad and extensible concept.
For example, in the works of Renaissance artists, traits of this style are already traced. Rafael was one of the first to somewhat depart from the usual form of classicism and began to give elongation to his figures. In the canvases of Leonardo da Vinci, there are some features that portend Mannerism: the emphasized sophistication of some images and the particular sophistication, spirituality.
Influence
It is significant that the Renaissance and mannerism diverged in determining the principles of artistic creation. After all, a new direction appeared just when the classical forms of the Renaissance were still considered a role model. But even more interesting is the fact that mannerism was very popular in the 20th century. There is even the concept of “neomanism,” by which it is customary to understand the imitation of some contemporary artists in this direction. There is a point of view that this direction influenced the domestic art of the Silver Age. The reasons for this influence should be sought in the fact that mannerism was a transitional stage between the Renaissance and Baroque. It is inherently eclectic, therefore universal in some ways. Nowadays, mannerism is interesting by its unusual and pretentious forms, original approaches, as well as an active search for color solutions.