Mannerism

Mannerism was a European art style that began in Italy around 1520, in the later years of the High Renaissance. It spread by about 1530 and lasted there until the end of the 16th century, when the Baroque style took over. In the north, Mannerism persisted into the early 1600s. The style includes many different approaches, all shaped by—and reacting against—the balanced, harmonious ideals of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, and the early Michelangelo. While High Renaissance art values proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism pushes those qualities to extremes, often creating compositions that are asymmetrical or artificially elegant. It favors artificiality over naturalism, and prioritizes tension and instability over the calm clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. In literature and music, Mannerism is known for its ornate, florid style and intellectual complexity.

Art historians still debate how to define Mannerism and its phases. Some scholars apply the term to certain early modern poetry and music from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is also used for some late Gothic painters in northern Europe, especially the Antwerp Mannerists (active around 1500 to 1530), who are unrelated to the Italian movement. By analogy, the term has been applied to the Silver Age of Latin literature.

The word "Mannerism" comes from the Italian *maniera*, meaning "style" or "manner." Like the English word "style," *maniera* can describe a specific type of style (e.g., a beautiful or abrasive style) or an absolute quality (someone simply "has style"). In the 1568 edition of his *Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects*, Giorgio Vasari used *maniera* in three ways: to discuss an artist’s working method; to describe a personal or group style (such as *maniera greca* for the medieval Italo-Byzantine style, or the *maniera* of Michelangelo); and to make a positive judgment of artistic quality. Vasari himself was a Mannerist artist and called his own period "la maniera moderna" (the modern style). Scholar James V. Mirollo notes that "Bella maniera" poets tried to outdo the sonnets of Petrarch in virtuosity. This idea of "Bella maniera" means artists looked to copy and improve upon their predecessors rather than directly study nature. Essentially, it combined the best elements from various sources into something new.

As a stylistic label, "Mannerism" is hard to pin down. Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt first used it, and German art historians popularized it in the early 20th century to describe the seemingly unclassifiable Italian art of the 1500s—art that no longer fit the harmonious, rational ideals of the High Renaissance. "High Renaissance" referred to a period of harmony, grandeur, and revived classical antiquity. In 1967, John Shearman redefined the term "Mannerist" after an exhibition of Mannerist paintings organized by Fritz Grossmann at Manchester City Art Gallery in 1965. Historians still disagree on whether Mannerism is a style, a movement, or a period. Some call it the "Late Renaissance." Though controversial, the term remains common for identifying 16th-century European art and culture.

By the end of the High Renaissance, young artists faced a crisis: it seemed everything achievable had already been done. No technical or other difficulties remained. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, facial expressions, and gestures, plus the innovative use of the human form and subtle tonal gradation, had all reached near perfection. Young artists needed a new goal and sought fresh approaches. Mannerism began to emerge between 1510 and 1520, either in Florence, Rome, or both cities at once.

This period has been called a "natural extension" of the art of Andrea del Sarto, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Michelangelo developed a deeply original style early on, greatly admired at first and then often copied and imitated. His contemporaries especially admired his *terribilità*—a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur—and later artists tried to imitate it. Others learned his passionate, personal style by copying his works, a standard teaching method. His Sistine Chapel ceiling, especially the *ignudi* figures and the Libyan Sibyl, his Laurentian Library vestibule, the Medici tomb figures, and above all his *Last Judgment*, all served as models. The later Michelangelo was a major model for Mannerism. Young artists even broke into his house to steal drawings. In his *Lives*, Vasari recorded Michelangelo saying, "Those who are followers can never pass by whom they follow."

Patrons fueled a competitive spirit by encouraging sponsored artists to emphasize virtuosic technique and compete for commissions. This drove artists to seek new approaches, resulting in dramatically lit scenes, elaborate clothes and compositions, elongated proportions, highly stylized poses, and a lack of clarity in space.