Akademik

   An art movement that emerged in roughly the 1520s inspired by the unprecedented architectural forms Michelangelo introduced in the vestibule of the Laurentian Library (1524-1534) and Medici Chapel (New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, Florence, 1519-1534), and the sculptural figures in this last commission with their exaggerated musculature and unsteady poses. Mannerists purposely denied the strict classicism and emphasis on the pleasing aesthetics of the High Renaissance and instead embraced an anti-classical mode of representation that entailed the use of illogical elements, jarring colors and lighting, contorted figures, and ambiguous iconographic programs. The early exponents of this movement were Jacopo da Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino who favored circular compositions with a void in the center, scenes that move up instead of logically receding into space, abrupt color combinations, and harsh lighting that ignores the subtle Renaissance gradations from light to medium to dark. Rather than looking to nature for inspiration, these masters looked to Michelangelo, the result being an art that can be categorized as self-consciously artificial, highly sophisticated, and cerebral.

   The pioneer of Mannerist architecture was Giulio Romano who designed for Duke Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua the Palazzo del Tè (1527-1534), a structure with asymmetrical placement of pilasters, stringcourses that are interrupted by massive keystones, and pronounced rustications on all the exterior surfaces. Mannerism soon spread to other parts of Italy and Europe. Perino del Vaga brought the vocabulary to Rome and Genoa, Domenico Beccafumi to Siena, Correggio to Parma, and Parmigianino to Parma, Rome, and Bologna. A second waive of Mannerist artists emerged toward the middle of the 16th century, including Agnolo Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, and Federico Barocci. Benvenuto Cellini, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Giovanni da Bologna translated the Mannerist idiom into sculpture, and Ammannati and Vasari also applied it to architecture. Rosso and Francesco Primaticcio traveled to France to work in the court of King Francis I. At the Palace of Fontainebleau, they invented a new type of decoration that combined stucco, metal, and woodwork with painting and sculpture, establishing what today is known as the Fontainebleau School, a French version of Mannerism. In the Low Countries, Mannerism was adopted by a group of masters known as the Romanists, among them Jan Gossart, Joos van Cleve, Bernard van Orley, and Jan van Scorel.