Burial of count orgaz analysis

Visual Analysis PowerPoint Project

ART HISTORY 132

Mannerism

Mannerism

context: Wars of Religion (c. 1520-1600)

Sack of Rome (1527)

German troops (Holy Roman Empire) swarmed into Rome

plundered, tortured, raped, and murdered

many eyewitness accounts

effect  brought Renaissance to sudden, catastrophic end

context: death of Raphael (1520)

painters reject, repudiate & subvert harmony & balance of High Ren

style  belief beauty could be improved upon by imagination

glaring use of color & light

exaggerated perspective

attenuated figures

illogical scale

Pontormo (1494-1557)

Entombment (1525-28)

narrative: deliberate ambiguity

aesthetic: defies numerous High Renaissance ideals

figures:

unnatural proportions

elongated torsos

perspective: defies rational identification of planes

depth communicated only by

overlapping

foreshortening

singular cloud

spatial order: compressed

composition: no central motif along CVA

effect  disperses psychological impact

color: unnatural shades of pastels

light/shadow: even distribution

(Left) Pontormo’s Mannerist Entombment of Christ (1525-1528) vs. (right) Raphael’s High Renaissance Deposition (1507)

Parmigianino (1503-40)

Self-Portrait (c. 1525)

format: tondo

process: convex mirror

Leonardo warned against false mirror effects

spatial order/perspective:

consciously inventive

distorts form & space

extreme foreshortening

composition: stable

color: muted

light/shadow: modified chiaroscuro

Parmigianino

Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)

aesthetic: consciously stylized

figures: elegant

attenuated & tapered forms

porcelain-like surfaces of skin

scale: altered (large vs. miniscule)

composition: stable arrangement of Madonna along CVA

balanced by strong vertical of column

imbalanced by grouping on left

spatial order: tension between compressed grouping of figures on left versus sliver of sky

perspective: linear & aerial

illusionistic tricks

(Left) Raphael’s High Renaissance Madonna and Child Enthroned (1519) vs. (right) Parmigianino’s Mannerist Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)

Correggio (1489–1534)

biography: little known about C's early life or training

influenced by Italian Early Ren. artist Mantegna and response to Leonardo

teacher of Parmigianino

significance: considered revolutionary and influential on subsequent artists

half-century after his death, C's work well known to Vasari

visual strategies:

dynamic compositions

dramatic foreshortening

illusionistic perspectives

chiaroscuro lighting effects

narratives: sensuous/erotic Humanist themes

Correggio

Assumption of the Virgin (1530)

site: dome of Cathedral of Parma

narrative:

V  lofted upward by vortex of singing musical angel

Apostles  standing around tomb, ringing base of dome

Blessed  Adam and Eve, Judith

Jesus  placed at center of dome

foreshortened

beardless

descending to meet mother

perspective: principal means of Mannerist distortion

prototype: Mantegna’s

(Left) Correggio’s Mannerist Assumption of the Virgin (1530) vs. (right) Mantegna’s ceiling of the Camera Picta (Painted Chamber) @ Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy (1465-1474)

Correggio

Jupiter and Io (1531)

patron: Federico Gonzaga, 1st Duke of Mantua

intended to line room in palace w/ Loves of Jupiter  mythical ancestor of Gonzaga family

subject matter: Humanist

Book 1 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

divine love subjected to Christian interpretation (Psalms)

lower right, stag drinking from brook  ”As deer pants after water brook, so my soul thirsts for thee”

narrative tone: erotic

Io invited by Jupiter, at night, in dream, to lie w/ him in meadows

J  camouflaged w/in blackish cloud of constantly changing forms

face and hand can be seen within

undergoes metamorphoses to conceal their loving from indiscreet gaze

Bronzino (1503-72)

Allegory of Lust (1546)

theme: eroticism

narrative: Father Time & Daughter Truth expose incestuous kiss of Venus & son Cupid

spatial order: compressed

style: extremely stylized

figures:

deliberately distorted poses

form subordinated to stylized beauty

exaggerated gestures

porcelain-like flesh

Tintoretto (1518-1594)

Last Supper (1594)

aesthetic: rationality abandoned for mysteriousness

narrative: protagonist lost among multiple figures nor placed along CVA

spatial order: dramatically extended

figures: size inverted to importance

composition: dynamic

color: muted

light: supernatural

dark, windowless

sources, instead, come from candles, chandelier & halos

(Left) LEONARDO’s High Ren. Last Supper (c. 1500) vs. (right) TINTORETTO’s Mannerist Last Supper (c. 1600)

El Greco (1541-1614)

biography:

Greek descent (Crete)

worked for three (3) years in Venice

learned to model figures in clay and wax to study elaborate poses

influence of Titian’s colorism and compositional formats

in Rome, studied works of Raphael and Michelangelo

arrived in Spain (c. 1575(, in order to find patronage that eluded him in Italy

style: self-conscious departure from natural world

figures: elongated & agitated musculature

settings: contrived to add psychological power

El Greco

Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-88)

patron: El G’s own parish church

subject: 14C legend

Toledan nobleman who acquired renown as religious donor

in 1586, parish priest initiated project to refurbish count's burial chapel

narrative: dislocations of time & space

presented as contemporary event

composition: two zones

earthly  funeral

heavenly  top

color: Venetian

light/shadow: otherworldly

decorativeness: relate to Mannerist portraits

Detail of lower zone from El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz

El Greco

Burial of Count Orgaz (cont.)

heavenly zone:

angel holding soul of dead Count

soul passes between intercessors

Mary & John the Baptist

Christ  gestures w/ right arm

receives soul into heavenly glory

El Greco

View of Toledo (1597-99)

format: recalls Giorgione’s Tempest

sky/clouds

river bisecting townscape

perspective: transforms/rearranges topographic details

spires of Gothic cathedral

slope to river steeper

palace moved from edge of city to center

light/shadow: ambiguous & imaginative

(Left) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance The Tempest (c. 1500) vs. EL GRECO’s Mannerist View of Toledo (c. 1600)

El Greco

Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1600)

subject/sitter: scholar & poet who praised El Greco’s work

figure: agitated & tense

perspective: linear

spatial order: compressed by back wall

composition: dynamic

chair at oblique angle

gaze sharply averted

color: vibrant

light/shadow: even distribution

decorativeness: light reflects off satin fabric

drapery: metallic

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 3: PONTORMO. Deposition (c. 1528), Oil on wood, 10’3” x 6’4”, Capponi Chapel, Sta Felicita, Florence.

Slide 4: (Left) Pontormo’s Mannerist Entombment of Christ (1525- 1528); and (right) Raphael’s High Renaissance Deposition (1507)

Slide 5: PARMIGIANINO. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1525), Oil on panel, diameter 9 ½ in., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Slide 6: PARMIGIANINO. Madonna with Long Neck (c. 1535-40), Oil on panel, 216 x 132 cm., Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Slide 7: (Left) Raphael’s High Renaissance Madonna and Child Enthroned (1519); and (right) Parmigianino’s Mannerist Madonna w/ Long Neck (c. 1540)

Slide 8: CORREGGIO. Self Portrait (c. 1530)

Slide 9: CORREGGIO. Assumption of the Virgin (1526-30), Fresco, 430 × 470 in., Cathedral of Parma, Italy.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 10: (Left) Correggio’s Mannerist Assumption of the Virgin (1530); and (right) Mantegna’s ceiling of the Camera Picta (Painted Chamber) @ Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy (1465- 1474)

Slide 11: CORREGGIO. Jupiter and Io (1532-1533), Oil on canvas, 64.4 x 27.8 in., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Berlin.

Slide 12: BRONZINO. Allegory of Lust (c. 1540-45), Oil on panel, 57 ½ x 45 ¼ in., National Gallery, London.

Slide 13: TINTORETTO. The Last Supper (c. 1595), Oil on canvas, 12’ x 18’8”, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Slide 14: Dissection of TINTORETTO’s The Last Supper (c. 1595).

Slide 15: EL GRECO. Detail from Self-Portrait

Slide 16: EL GRECO. The Burial of Count Orgaz (1585), Oil on canvas, 16’ x 11’10”, Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.

Slide 17: Detail of lower zone from EL GRECO’s Burial of Count Orgaz.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 18: Detail of top portion from EL GRECO’s The Burial of Count Orgaz.

Slide 19: EL GRECO. View of Toledo (c. 1600), Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 108.6 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Slide 20: (Left) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance The Tempest (c. 1500); and EL GRECO’s Mannerist View of Toledo (c. 1600)

Slide 21: EL GRECO. Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1600), Oil on canvas, 194 x 130 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.