Renaissance Mannerism

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Discussion #3: Mannerism is Cinquecento Italy
When studying the High Renaissance in Italy, it is certainly no surprise to me as to why the period is considered to have the greatest pieces of art in the Western world. Artists such as Michelangelo, DA Vinci, and Raphael etc…are widely considered to be the world’s greatest at their craft, in any century or period. In the 16th century the center for Renaissance artists shifted from Florence to Rome. Almost every great name during the period went to Rome either to work on projects for the papacy or the nobility. As our text states, “the modern notion of the ‘fine arts’ and the exaltation of the artist – genius originated in Renaissance Italy” (Kleiner F.S p. 488). Indeed, the works of the period are master works…pieces that challenge our understanding of art itself. The Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo, The Mona Lisa by DA Vinci, and Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael are the foundations and examples of genius and greatness.
Painting especially reached its peak of technical competence, rich artistic imagination and heroic composition. The main characteristics of High Renaissance painting are harmony and balance in construction. Italian High Renaissance artists achieved ideal of harmony and balance comparable with the works of ancient Greece or Rome. Renaissance Classicism was a form of art that removed the extraneous detail and showed the world as it was. Forms, colors and proportions, light and shade effects, spatial harmony, composition, perspective, and the concept of anatomy, all are handled with total control and a level of accomplishment for which there are no real precedents.
“Art is never finished…only abandoned.” –DA Vinci
Michelangelo made his first trek ...

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...ly characterized as the “distortion of elements” such as scale and perspective. This period is considered the transitional phase between the Renaissance and the Baroque. Artists such as Pontormo, Parmigianino, Bronzino and Giulio Romano would be a few of the leaders of this new ideology. Figures would be imagined as having “elongated necks” and or other features such as the torso. This style would be deemed as “stylish, cultured, elegant” etc (p. 520). Other characteristics of Mannerism would be movement, the manipulation of space, light, and spiritual intensity.
Many of the tendencies we categorize as Mannerist were already incipient in the Renaissance. The highly prized quality of stylishness, which encompassed virtuosity, fluency and refinement, was to be found in the sculpture and statues of the era, and in the works of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo…

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