In class, we discussed Michelangelo, the end of the high Renaissance, and the beginnings of Mannerism. So much new happened during the Renaissance, but the idea of the Renaissance man–a person with expertise and interest in many different areas–was not new as a concept, only new as an ideal to admire. At the time, Michelangelo was seen as an ideal artist. He was prolific, he was technically brilliant, and he was a “tortured artist.” Until this time, artists often employed many assistants to run a large studio and to produce more works in a shorter amount of time, but Michelangelo worked alone. His art then, was seen less as a product of his studio, and more as a product from the individual artist. La pieta in particular showcases his singular skill in carving marble. Contrary to the established ideas of La Pieta, Michelangelo portrays the Madonna as a calm young woman, with the full grown body of Jesus draped across her lap. The sculpture is huge and filled with fabric to visually support the body–the structure is triangular and stable. Michelangelo is embodying the balance, harmony, and ideals that define the high Renaissance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mannerism, on the other hand, steps away from the ideal, the balanced, and the harmonious by emphasizing individual artistry, disorder, and unbalanced compositions. In one sense, the sistine chapel can be seen as a bridge between high Renaissance ideals, and Mannerist disorder–pieces of the fresco exude stability and harmony, such as the Creation of Adam, while other sections (like the Sybils, and the Ignudi) seem contorted and discordant. Use of strange colors, too, denotes a shift from the primary colors most popular in the high Renaissance. Jacopo da Pontormo was a Mannerist in full, and his Pieta exemplifies the movement, individuality, and the innovation that defines the Mannerist style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In class, we discussed Michelangelo, the end of the high Renaissance, and the beginnings of Mannerism. So much new happened during the Renaissance, but the idea of the Renaissance man–a person with expertise and interest in many different areas–was not new as a concept, only new as an ideal to admire. At the time, Michelangelo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18928,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1911,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions\/1911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}