Explain the rise of mannerism and the baroque style
What will be an ideal response?
After the Catholic Reformation, the religious zeal of the reformers inspired a tremendous surge of artistic activity, especially in Italy and Spain. In Venice and Rome, the centers of Italian cultural life, the clarity and order of High Renaissance art gave way to the visual eccentricities of Mannerism (from the Italian maniera, meaning "style"). Coined in the twentieth century, the term "Mannerism" describes a style characterized by virtuosity in execution, artificiality, and affectation. Flourishing between ca. 1520 and 1610, Mannerism became a vehicle for the spiritual upheavals of its time. Mannerist artists brought a new level of inventive fantasy and psychological intensity to otherwise traditional subject matter. Their works mirrored the self-conscious spirituality and deep insecurity generated by Europe's religious wars and political rivalries.
The baroque style, which flourished between roughly 1600 and 1750, brought heightened naturalism and a new level of emotionalism to Western art. Derived from the Portuguese word barocco, which describes the irregularly shaped pearls often featured in ornamental European decoration, the term baroque is associated with such features as ornateness, spatial grandeur, and theatrical flamboyance. In painting, the baroque is characterized by asymmetric compositions, strong contrasts of light and dark, vigorous brushwork, and bold, illusionistic effects. A synthesis of the arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture—promoted the ambitions of sacred and secular alike.
You might also like to view...
"Sculpture in the round" is sculpture that is:
a. finished on all sides. b. part of a wall. c. meant to be viewed from one vantage point. d. all of these. e. none of these.
What is the term for a musical theme or sound effect that signals the arrival of a
character or the performance of an action?
a. volume b. sound cue c. pitch d. timbre