In today’s class we wrapped up our discussion of the High Renaissance and began our discussion of Mannerism and the later works of Michelangelo. Since he was the main focus of class today, we spent a lot of time analyzing his works on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. The amount of work Michelangelo put in to create this masterpiece is absolutely staggering. I found it interesting how we are still uncertain why he included certain aspects of the paintings, given that one would assume it would be fairly obvious why each part of the paintings was included.
We briefly touched on other Mannerist artists and works, such as Madonna of the Long Neck by Parmigianino. These works were very interesting, since there is a level of abstraction in each work that we haven’t really seen before. The shift that took place into Mannerist works is fascinating, as there really is a very noticeable difference between these works and the works that were made before the era began.