Mannerism oil paintings were first to be seen in mid-16th century. In part it arose in reaction to the High Renaissance, emerging after the Sack of Rome in 1527. The event shook Renaissance confidence, humanism and rationality to their foundations, and even split religion apart.
In Florence, Pontormo and Bronzino, and in Rome, Il Rosso, Parmigianino, and Beccafumi created the first Mannerism oil paintings - elegant figures elongated and contorted into uncomfortable postures. Mannerists in their oil paintings devised compositions in which they deliberately confused scale and spatial relationships between figures, crowding them into the picture plane. Often strange tunnellike spaces were created, as in the works of Tintoretto and El Greco. Lighting became harsh, and coloring tended to be acrimonious. The mannerists devised sophisticated and obscure allegories. |
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