Unfortunately, most artists' biographies do not record periods of
crisis, with the exception of cases such as
Pontormo,
who
Vasari
suspected of heresy or madness at the time of his frescos in San
Lorenzo, Florence (1546-1551), and
Michelangelo, who left an extraordinary testimony of his
spiritual torment in his poetry. Current interpretations of Mannerism
concentrate on the anti-classical feeling that rose up in the early
1500s. Following this point of view, the work of artists such as
Dosso Dossi
(c.1489-1542) in Emilia and
Pontormo,
Rosso Fiorentino,
and
Domenico Beccafumi (1485-1551) in Tuscany can be
interpreted as experimental, challenging classical rules and often
introducing elements of northern European art. However, a continuing
debt to the "masters" of the High Renaissance is also evident in their
work. For example, while
Pontormo
clearly borrowed elements of
Michelangelo's style, he took them to the
limits of licence and subjectivity. Soon after, in Venice,
Tintoretto,
Veronese, and the Spanish artist
El Greco
(1541-1614), would in their own styles conclude this fullness of
Renaissance harmony. It seems most likely, as
Vasari
suggests, that Mannerism was both born out of the Renaissance and was a
fundamental part of it - a modern style in which the artist's own
interpretation superseded the imitation of nature.
Vasari
recognized a substantial balance between Mannerism and realism - a
"spontaneity which, although based on correct measurement, goes beyond
it" -even though he personally preferred the individual approach,
provided it was supported by good judgment. Seen in this way, Mannerism
is both the main variant within the culture of Renaissance art. and a
protagonist in the debate between subjectivity and objectivity, between
the individual and reality. Humanism - a secular cultural and
intellectual movement during the Renaissance that interested itself in
the literature, art, and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome - had
already addressed this duality. After the brief, but intense period when
Raphael and
Bramante were
in Rome, when art seemed to reach the pinnacle of harmony and grace, the
two poles of the argument soon revealed themselves as extremes in a very
difficult relationship. An examination of
Michelangelo's work, starting with the Doni Tondo
(c.1503) and the Sistine Chapel (1508-12) and culminating in the Medici
tombs in Florence (1520-34) and the Last Judgment (1536-41),
reveals how much he had contributed to this development. There are also
different interpretations on the impact on art and architecture of
religious upheavals both before and after the Council of Trent (a
council of the Catholic Church that met between 1545 and 1563 to address
the powers of the Papacy and the role of bishops). Apart from contact
documented between certain artists and Lutheran circles, including
Michelangelo himself, the strong individualism of
Protestant thought and the intellectualism of certain of its
aristocratic followers found favour with the more emotive and
sophisticated artistic trends of the time. In response, the Catholic
Church encouraged a popular form of art through commissions that
concentrated on making the content and meaning of its teachings clear
and effective. The confident tone of Gaudenzio Ferrari, as well as the
nobler, more imposing style of Titian in the years of the Madonna of
the House of Pesaro, were used by the Catholic Church to support its
cause. Moreover, a new sense of realism emerged in the painting of the
Brescian artists
Girolamo Savoldo
(c.1480-after 1548) and
Moretto
(1498-1554), which emphasized the devotional aspects of their subjects,
strengthening and enobling the emotive content with deep colour and
dazzling patches of light - glimpses of the future style of Caravaggio.
A very different style can be found in the formalism of
Parmigianino. His elegant, rarefied figures, from his
Madonna of the Long Neck (1534-40) to the frescos for the semi-dome
and vault of the high altar of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma
(commissioned 1531). were based not on Renaissance principles of
balance, but on Mannerist tensions. A younger contemporary of
Correggio,
Parmigianino left Parma for Rome in 1524 and was probably
familiar with the developing Tuscan Mannerist style. His idealized
paintings are full of artifice and refined compositional elements.
Raphael's
pupil.
Giulio Romano,
produced similarly-provocative results in Mantua. His architecture and
decoration of the fantastic Palazzo Te for Federigo Gonzaga - built and
decorated at great speed between 1527 and 1534 - deliberately go against
rules of style and measurement in an attempt to capture the most vital
and basic aspects of nature. This is not a place of tranquil symmetry
but the subject of experimentation and ambiguity, where the distinction
between architectural space and decoration is unclear. Such ideas were
highly successful in Protestant Flanders and Germany, where convention
was periodically challenged by outbursts of interest in diversity and
misrepresentation.
