Mannerism is a direction in the culture of Europe in the 16th-17th centuries

Mannerism is an artistic trend in a number of European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. This direction arose during the late Renaissance, and some researchers believe that it became a kind of reaction of the intelligentsia to a whole series of crisis phenomena during the Renaissance.

General characteristics of the era

Mannerism is a transition stage from the Middle Ages to the early modern era. These were very difficult decades in the history of Western European countries. It was then that the formation of new socio-political and economic systems took place. All this was connected with the conduct of broader wars, in which military-political unions and even whole blocs of states participated. Within a number of countries there have been major changes related to the transition to the capitalist way of life.

In addition, the educated society of that time was especially shocked by the plunder of Rome in 1527. All these changes could not but affect the worldview of the educated circles. Mannerism is a kind of reaction to the crisis of humanistic ideals that glorified man and his existence. Therefore, many artists, sculptors and architects turned to new searches in their work.

Features of the direction

A new style emerged in Italy, then spread to a number of European countries. First of all, his principles began to be shared by artists from France and the Netherlands. For this direction the following features are characteristic: the desire to convey harmony of external and spiritual appearance, elongation and elongation of lines, tension poses. This was different from the harmonious perception of the artists of the revival, who sought to convey tranquility in their works, and also especially took care of the proportionality of the forms in the composition.

In the sculpture of the master, special attention was paid to plasticity and elegance. In architecture, there was also a violation of the harmony of forms characteristic of the previous era.

In painting

The school of painting in Italy became the founder of a new direction. It developed in cities such as Florence, Mantua. The most prominent of its representatives were Vasari, Giulio Romano and others. For the paintings of artists of this direction are characterized by a complex composition, mythical congestion, a special, light color scheme. Topics were very diverse, but one of the main was the opposition of heavenly love and earthly love. Spiritualism was characteristic of many works of painters.

His school of painting has developed in France (in Fontainebleau). Many Dutch artists imitated the Italian authors. Within the framework of this direction, there was an interest in the revival of the knightly portrait and medieval themes.

Sculpture and structures

Mannerism in architecture has also been widely developed. For buildings in this style is characterized by a violation of proportions and lines of facades. Architects sought to arouse a sense of concern for the viewer, as manifested in the spirit of the era, namely the crisis of Renaissance values and the loss of a sense of harmony and peace. One of the examples of buildings in this style is the Laurentian library in Florence (author - Michelangelo). In the same style, there was a square in Mantua, as well as a loggia in the building of the gallery in the Uffizi.

Mannerism is a transitional stage between the Renaissance and the Baroque. The sculpture observed the same phenomena as in architecture and painting. The most outstanding representative is B. Cellini. His work is distinguished by an emphasis on elegance and refinement, even by some pretentiousness of shapes and colors.

Place in the culture

Mannerism is an important stage in the history of art. Many researchers see it as the beginnings of rococo and early baroque. Of course, many elements of this direction affected the subsequent currents. Baroque, for example, took over from this direction the pretentiousness of forms, the complexity of composition, rococo-elegance and graceful manner of images. In general, Mannerism in the fine arts, in spite of all the above features of the technique of performance, is a fairly broad and stretchable concept.

For example, the works of Renaissance artists already traced features of this style. Rafael was one of the first to depart somewhat from the usual form of classicism and began to give elongation to his figures. In the canvases of Leonardo da Vinci, there are some features that pre-emerge Mannerism: the underlined sophistication of certain images and the special refinement, spirituality.

Impact

Indicative is the fact that the Renaissance and Mannerism diverged in the definition of the principles of artistic creativity. After all, a new direction appeared precisely when the classical forms of the Renaissance were still considered a model for imitation. But even more interesting is the fact that Mannerism proved to be very popular in the 20th century. There is even the concept of "neomanierism", by which it is customary to imitate the imitation of some contemporary artists in this direction. There is a point of view that this direction influenced the domestic art of the Silver Age. The reasons for this influence are to be found in the fact that Mannerism was a transitional stage between the Renaissance and the Baroque. It is inherently eclectic, therefore in some way it is universal. In our time Mannerism is interesting by the unusual and pretentiousness of forms, the originality of approaches, and also by the active search for color solutions.