Michelangelo died in 1564, and Titian bid farewell in 1576.
Prior to this, the Italian painting world in the first half of the 16th century was dominated by the two of them for a long time, plus the previous Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, in the face of these four masters, all painters had a helpless mood: the painting and the sculpture have been made again, as an artist, what else can you do?
In order to overthrow the "three mountains" of the heyday plus Titian, a group of artists began to look for new ways of expression, their style is called Mannerism (also translated as Mannerism, Methodism), this section we come to understand the so-called Mannerism, in the end is a divine horseism?
Illustration: Portrait of a lady made by Bruncino at the height of Mannerism 1532-33
One Cellini's impulsiveness and deliberateness
The book picks up.
In terms of the French painting scene in the first half of the 16th century, the Fontainebleau school formed by the Italian painters Russell, Primatigio, the sculptor Cellini and others involved can be roughly regarded as an important part of the international Mannerism that was popular at that time.
The macho Cellini arrived in France in 1540, and the aforementioned golden salt pot was made during this time. When he returned to Florence in 1545, he had another accident and had to flee to Venice. This time, however, he was remembered by the Florentines, whose sculptural work, In 1545, "Passius Cut Off Medusa's Head," showed his extraordinary artistic prowess.
Part of "Parsius Cut Off Medusa's Head"
This sculpture has always stood in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, and if you remember the previous introduction of Leonardo da Vinci and Old Rice, you should still have an impression of this L-shaped square.
Leonardo da Vinci suggested that Old Mi's David also be placed in this pavilion, but it was later placed at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria (also known as the Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio). Not far from the Mercenary Loggia, on the left is the "Uffizi Gallery" founded by The First Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I, of the Medici family , his most important contribution to art history.
Part of Cellini's "Parsius Cut Off Medusa's Head"
If we compare the works of Michelangelo and Cellini, two artists with an age gap of 25 years, we find that Pelius in Celligny Bronze is somewhat similar to David in old Rice Marble, who are also two toned young men with perfect proportions and well-developed muscles.
Even in the form of his signature, he deliberately paid homage to another of Michelangelo's works, Pietà, see article fifty-first: The Artistic Ambitions of the Young Michelangelo, after the vanity of the campfire, which he carved on a strap that Parcius crossed his right shoulder.
Michelangelo, The Pietà, 1498-1500
Beyond these similarities, we can feel that the young Cellini has an impulse and deliberate desire to surpass his predecessors.
The physical movements of Palcius and Medusa are more intense and complex than those of the Virgin Mary and David, and the blood spurting from Medusa's head is like the scene when the reservoir dam opens the floodgates to release water.
The blood from Medusa's head and neck, the thick curly hair of Palcius, and the intricate decoration of Palcius's beast and flying wings, echo the patterns on the base, all reflect the elegant, intricate, and ornate decorative effect that Cellini deliberately pursues.
In addition, compared with most of Lao Mi's works, which can only be appreciated from a fixed angle, he also pursues a more three-dimensional and more dramatic circular sculpture effect that can be viewed from all angles.
In terms of the characters' appearance, The son of Danaeus and Zeus, The Great Hero I introduced in titian's Painting perseus and Andromeda in the eighty-third article, his expression was very calm, without the heaviness and nervousness of David. It is also believed that Cellini paid too much attention to the beauty of form, and the spiritual shaping of the heroism of the characters was dissolved, lacking the quiet, simple, and direct beauty of the theme of the Renaissance.
In the French period before the completion of Parsius, Cellini also made a bronze floating statue of the nymph of fontainebleau, a fairy lying on her side by the stream, surrounded by wild boar elk and other beasts, and her lying on her side was very similar to Giorgione and Titian's "Sleeping Venus" and "Venus of Urbino", but the thighs and waist of this Nymph were stretched to the point of exaggeration.
"Nymph of Fontainebleau" represents the stylistic characteristics of his time, popular in order to cater to the tastes of the French royal family, while "Parsius" can be said to be a late effort by Cellini to return to some traditions, but he did not do it thoroughly.
These two sculptural works, Celine, represent an innovative and inherited style after the end of the Renaissance, began to appear in the paintings and architecture of that period.
Background to the rise of Mannerism
In a recent series of French Reformations and the accompanying Renaissance, the main artistic style is dominated by the Fontainebleau School, which was heavily influenced by Russell, Cellini and others from Italy, whose style can be seen as part of international Mannerism.
For Mannerism, we can get a rough idea of it in terms of time dimension, that is, since the height of the Renaissance, which can be regarded as the roman disaster in 1527, until the rise of baroque in the early 17th century, a transitional style and aesthetic trend that lasted in Europe for nearly a century or so.
The modern art historian Heinrich Wolfflin (1864-1945) was the first to use "Mannerism" to describe the artists and works of Italy and France during this period that could not be classified. Artists from all over the world made various attempts during this period, showing their own characteristics, and they can be regarded as members of Mannerism, but not that they formed a unified, mainstream, and highly recognizable Art Nouveau style, as it had been in the early Renaissance style before it, or the Baroque style that followed it.
Nevertheless, we can find some commonalities in them, and before we understand these common characteristics, let's first look at why such artistic claims appeared after the renaissance, and what were the artists thinking at that time?
Remember earlier about the plague in Venice in 1510, after the outbreak of titian's brother Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547) ran to Rome to continue to learn painting from Michelangelo and Raphael, who was later appreciated by Pope Clement VII and made him a monk, giving him a very important position - pimbatore.
In a letter to a friend probably in the 1930s, he described his views on art:
"What I used to do in two years, they did it in two months; if I could live a long time, I would have found that everything I could paint had been painted. Since there are such persistent and capable people, there must be some people who should do nothing, so that capable people have more things to do. ”
In fact, Piombo's words reflect a sense of oppression and helplessness faced by artists at that time, and when Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael had developed painting and sculpture to such a peak stage, what else could later painters do?
Titian, who was far away in Venice, gave his own answer, and the Venetian school he represented injected light, shadow and oil painting techniques into painting to be more abundant, and also began to expand landscape painting.
I once said that Titian left posterity without painting.
Yes, let's imagine that when Titian's time came, he was called the sun among the many stars of that era.
He went up to the tall building alone and watched Mantegna, Jantier Bellini, Giorgione and Giovanni Bellini leave.
This high-rise building, built two hundred years ago, was laid by Chimabue, Giotto and others, and a hundred years later, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Donatello and others built the first floor;
Verrocchio, Botticelli, Kierlandayo and Perugino built the second floor;
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael built the third floor, and the Venetian predecessors who were most closely related to him and the painters of the North built the fourth floor.
Titian's self-portrait
We can imagine that Titian, standing on top of a tall building, when he holds a paintbrush in his hand, already has all the necessary skills, he can draw the right perspective, precise proportions, perfect anatomy, reasonable composition, elegant narrative, bright colors, subtle light.
In terms of subject matter, he can not only create large-scale altarpieces for God, but also create vivid and realistic portraits for secular imperial relatives, interpret ancient mythological stories with a mixture of eroticism and grandeur, and also match the unique, sunny and colorful landscapes of Venice.
Until Michelangelo died in 1564 and Titian died in 1576, when the Italian painting world was dominated by the two of them for a long time, plus leonardo da Vinci and Raphael before, in the face of these four masters, all painters should have the same mood as Piombo: all paintings have been painted, as a painter, what else can you do?
Three The last masters of the Florentine school
In the face of the ubiquitous influence of these four mountains, both in terms of artistic achievement and in the real world, the source of orders has put tremendous pressure on the art of the same period. But not all painters are as negative as Piombo.
There were painters in Florence, the hometown of Leonardo da Vinci and Old Mi, who hoped to break through da Vinci's nature, Michelangelo's power, Raphael's harmony, and break all the established order.
The most famous of these is Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), three years younger than Raphael, who was florentine painter when Old Mi and Raphael went south to Rome and Leonardo da Vinci left for France.
His works include classical composition, perfect and elegant human bodies, and he is also a rare florentine painter who is good at depicting color and light and shadow.
In the spring of 1518, he was also invited by King Lancis I to paint at the French court. After returning to Florence in 1520, he entered the peak of his art.
Sarto's most famous work is this altarpiece of the Madonna of the Harpies. This work was completed before he went to France, and because there is a pair of bird-bodied banshees under the Constellation of the Virgin, it is also known as "The Madonna of the Bird-bodied Banshees". It is said that the Model of the Virgin mary in the painting is Based on Sarto's wife, Kolezia, and St. Francis is the image of the painter himself.
Part of Sato's "Madonna of Hapi"
Details of Sato's Virgin of Hippie
His works can be said to inherit the classical style of the heyday of the Three Masters, with a sense of solemnity and poetry, but his works in his later years have begun to emphasize light and shadow, dynamics and drama, somewhat similar to the later Baroque. From the following pieta, completed in 1523, we can fully feel this. Compared with his contemporaries, his paintings have delicate tones, rich color combinations and layers.
According to his pupil Vasari, Sarto's character is somewhat cowardly, humble and simple, so his paintings lack a grandeur.
Sarto, The Merciful Son, 1523
Indeed, several of Sarto's students seem to have gained a greater reputation than he did, including Vasari, the aforementioned Rosso Fiorentino (1495-1540) and Pontormo (also translated as Pontormo, 1494-1557), who were the founders of Mannerism.
In the next section, I will combine specific works to see what visual new experiences these early Stylist pioneers will bring us.
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