Italian Renaissance Art - Mannerism
Mannerism: The anti-High Renaissance
The height of Italian Renaissance art had reached its summit in the late 15th century with the advent of the three masters of the High Renaissance: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Their works of art exhibited the pinnacle of man’s aesthetic ability in creating realistic depiction of the world through anatomically detailed human bodies, harmonious perspectival space, and emphasis on uniformity derived from nature. However this astounding progress in artistic achievement was abruptly interrupted with the advent of Mannerism in the early 16th century. Perspectival space and the beauty of proportion were in neglect, replaced by alien concerns for unnatural bodily distortions and exemplification of one’s virtuosity in the rendering of art. No single factor can be attributed for this sudden emergence of Mannerism which replaced the Italian Renaissance. Rather it was the result of synergetic influence derived from religious instability and individual artists’ tendency to deviate from the norms of their predecessors, which led to the end of the Renaissance and spurred the new artistic movement of Mannerism.
The religious turmoil caused by Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation was one of the factors that served to indirectly stimulate Mannerism in the late Renaissance. In 1517, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church with his Ninety-Five Theses serving as the catalyst. In the eyes of the Protestants, the Catholic Church and the Papacy had been overwhelmed with corruption, manipulating the sanctity of Christianity to fulfill their own gains and material prominence. The main example of such misguided religious act was the sales of indulgence, where Christian followers were absolved of their sins by the Catholic Church through payment. This system transformed the spiritual act of penitence into a measure of lucrative business for the Catholic Church. In addition, the fact that clerical
The height of Italian Renaissance art had reached its summit in the late 15th century with the advent of the three masters of the High Renaissance: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Their works of art exhibited the pinnacle of man’s aesthetic ability in creating realistic depiction of the world through anatomically detailed human bodies, harmonious perspectival space, and emphasis on uniformity derived from nature. However this astounding progress in artistic achievement was abruptly interrupted with the advent of Mannerism in the early 16th century. Perspectival space and the beauty of proportion were in neglect, replaced by alien concerns for unnatural bodily distortions and exemplification of one’s virtuosity in the rendering of art. No single factor can be attributed for this sudden emergence of Mannerism which replaced the Italian Renaissance. Rather it was the result of synergetic influence derived from religious instability and individual artists’ tendency to deviate from the norms of their predecessors, which led to the end of the Renaissance and spurred the new artistic movement of Mannerism.
The religious turmoil caused by Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation was one of the factors that served to indirectly stimulate Mannerism in the late Renaissance. In 1517, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church with his Ninety-Five Theses serving as the catalyst. In the eyes of the Protestants, the Catholic Church and the Papacy had been overwhelmed with corruption, manipulating the sanctity of Christianity to fulfill their own gains and material prominence. The main example of such misguided religious act was the sales of indulgence, where Christian followers were absolved of their sins by the Catholic Church through payment. This system transformed the spiritual act of penitence into a measure of lucrative business for the Catholic Church. In addition, the fact that clerical