CategoriesStyles and Movements
Mannerism
The self-conscious, elegant and often unsettling style that followed the High Renaissance in Italy, about 1520 to 1600, before spreading north.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
No open-access works for Mannerism are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
By around 1520 Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo had set a standard of harmony that younger artists could hardly surpass, so many chose to exaggerate it instead. The name comes from the Italian 'maniera', meaning style, prized at the time as effortless sophistication.
Look for elongated figures with small heads, twisting poses, crowded or ambiguous space and acid, shifting colour. Jacopo da Pontormo's Deposition (around 1525–28) in Florence floats pale figures in pinks and blues with no clear ground. Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck (1535–40) stretches the Virgin and Child to a strange elegance. Agnolo Bronzino's portraits are cool and enamel-smooth, and Giambologna's marble Abduction of a Sabine Woman (1579–83) spirals upwards to be seen from every side. The style reached the French court at Fontainebleau through Francesco Primaticcio, Prague under Rudolf II through Bartholomeus Spranger, and Spain, where El Greco turned it into a visionary personal language.
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