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.

Note: This course will not meet on Wednesday, October 11 and will resume the following Wednesday.