Italian Mannerism: The Art of Contestations

Under the artistic spell of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, the next generation of Italian painters, including Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, Beccafumi, Lavinia Fontana, and Vasari, began to conceive new artistic conceits between 1520 and 1575. These painters cultivated a personal style, contradicting the laws of anatomical proportions, pictorial space, light effects, and coloration. They composed artificial and beautiful images, evoking the spirit of viewers and daring their intellect and knowledge. In Mannerist paintings, the refinement of form and content produces an inventive art filled with graceful poses and pictorial fantasies. This seminar will unveil the Mannerist quest for beauty through serpentine poses, artificial and acid colors, compressed vertical and diagonal space, and emblematic and puzzling interpretations in the subject matter.

NoteThis course will not meet on Wednesday, October 11 and will resume the following Wednesday.

 

Class Recordings:

Class 1 - October 4, 2023

Class 2 - October 18, 2023

Class 3 - October 25, 2023

Class 4 - November 1, 2023

Class 5 - November 8, 2023

Class 6 - November 15, 2023


Group Leader: LIANA DE GIROLAMI CHENEY
Venue: online
Meets on: Wednesdays 3:30 to 5:30 pm
Starting: 10/4/2023
Sessions: 6
Class Size: 50
Teaching Style: Lecture and discussion
Weekly Preparation: None
Group Leader Biography:

Liana De Girolami Cheney, PhD, is Professor of Art History emerita from UMASS Lowell and a winner of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Prof. Cheney is a Renaissance and Mannerist scholar, and author of numerous articles and books including Giorgio Vasari’s Artistic and Emblematic Manifestations (2011); Agnolo Bronzino (2014); Arcimboldo (2015); Lavinia Fontana (2022); and Barbara Longhi from Ravenna (2023).