Mannerism Artist

Mannerism appeared in response to the Renaissance style from Florence, Rome and Venice in the 1520’s. Unlike Renaissance artists to strove to make their art look as realistic as possible, mannerism artists broke away from this convention. Some of these key characteristics include abnormally elongated limbs, contorted bodies impossible poses and most importantly, artifice. Renaissance artists tried to disguise artifice where mannerism artists reveal imbalanced compositions, ambiguous space, departures from expected conventions and unique presentations of traditional themes (Gardner 612). There are great examples in paintings, sculptures and architecture that utilize these characteristics and give us a better understanding of what mannerism truly is.
There were many influential painters in the 1500’s that took advantage of the freeing style of mannerism. One artist who stands out is Jacopo Da Pontormo. His piece, Entombment of Christ, (Capponi Chaple, Santa Felicita, Florance Italy, 1494-1557) embodies almost all of the characteristics assigned to mannerism. Christ’s decent from the cross-had been frequently portrayed by many artists before him. However, Pontormo took a different approach from his processors. Pontormo changed his picture plane from the traditional perpendicular plane by rotating image along a vertical axis. Because of this, the Virgin Mary falls away from the viewer as she releases her son’s hand (Kleiner 613). Another striking difference is how he positions the characters so there is an intentional void in the middle of the painting. How the bodies and limbs moves around the center accentuate the void. Also, the elongated limbs and bodies positioned in a contorted fashion depict the key characteristics of the style. For example, the figure holding Christ on his back has an elongated torso that does not seem to be anatomically possible. This painting gives the viewer an excellent example for how Pontormo and other mannerism artist’s have split ways