Painting

Mannerism

The neck of Parmigianino's Madonna is twice the length a neck should be — and it is perfect.

IT  —  Post-Renaissance style valuing elegance and artifice over naturalism

Mannerism (from Italian 'maniera': style, grace) describes the art of roughly 1520–1600, which emerged in the generation after Raphael and Michelangelo as artists consciously deviated from Renaissance ideals of naturalism and harmony. Where High Renaissance art celebrated proportion, balance and harmony, Mannerist painters — Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino — introduced extreme elongation, contorted poses, acid colours, and spatial ambiguity. The figures in Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck have necks and fingers of impossible length, arranged in a space that makes no logical sense. The effect is unnerving, artificial, and possessed of a cold beauty quite different from Raphael's warmth. El Greco in Spain carried it further — his saints twist into ecstasy at angles the body cannot achieve. Mannerism was eventually dismissed as decadent, but the 20th century revalued it as the first consciously 'anti-natural' art movement.

Further Reading The Story of Art E.H. Gombrich Bookshop.org →