Freedberg; Painting in Italy 1500-1600, pp.
285-291
Maniera allowed for a more complex response. The beginning of
maniera was a style that conveyed a complex sensation by aesthetes or by
illustrations. High maniera was composed of artificial form and content. Drapery
hair and human anatomy became perfected. Forms in these paintings were
decorated and painted with an arbitrary perfection. The human form took on a
fake look that looked like a porcelain figure or a doll. The people emit a cool
light that hits them rather than a warm light that would bring life to them. This
only allows them to seem somewhat like real people. The atmosphere seems un-breathable
and empty. This look is extremely stylized and artificial. It can be compared to
a poetic lie. This lie shows a power and existence in the people even though
they seem to be untruthfully painted.
There is a disjunction in the expectation we have of nature
in high mannerist art. It presents a meaning behind it by depiction admirable
and terrible characteristics of the culture during the time. There is a multiple
meaning in maniera by depicting an ambiguity while also showing some positivity.
High Maneria is the borrowing of a form that can represent a meaning that it doesn’t
usually represent. Usually the artists own inclination. The verbal meaning of a
painting could be completely different form the picture itself. Painters of
this time were decorators, they composed the whole surface of a painting beautifully.
I think High maneria would have caused a lot of problems in the
beginning of quatracento art as it would have not correlated with religious paintings.
It doesn't meet any of the requirements. Maneria has no sympathy with passion. This
and the fact that the style requires emotions to be avoided and replaced with chastened
feelings. Aesthetics seem to replace the human feeling and spirituality. Art of
the early quatracento was more about the feeling and religious meaning behind
it.
Artist of the maneria definitely departed from the unity of
form and aesthetics. The change mannerism presents is the start of different
ideas and has changed the history of art greatly. Adding this hidden meaning to
a stylized picture can have little to no meaning to a person that doesn't take
a more sophisticated approach and look behind the stylized beauty of the
painting.
The meaning in mannerist paintings is often hard to find amongst all the artistic liberties expressed by way of elaborate poses and strange coloration. I wonder how lower class audiences managed to understand paintings commissioned by elitist art enthusiasts. It seems there is the same disconnect today in the understanding of more abstract art.
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