Smyth, Mannerism

The most abundant feeling I got from Smyth's excerpt was that Mannerism was criticize a lot. The author didn't seem too fond of it either. Very negative descriptions of the mannerist style. Mannerism is compared to Renaissance painting which I don't think is fair. They are completely different. Mannerism isn't as realistic as Renaissance work, but on purpose. Why criticize a work of subtle abstraction for not being as real as Michelangelo or Raphael. It's abstract in nature. I like Manneristic paintings because of that reason. Someone in our class wrote in their blog that art kind of peaked with Michelangelo and the Renaissance. In their style I agree, I don't think you can get any better than Leonardo Da Vinci in my opinion. But mannerism is not Renaissance or vice versa. Of course, you could take this even further and say it was an expression of how even in 1500 and 1600's people hated change. That's not really art related so I won't go any further with that.

This painting I think is great by Pontormo. Very mannerist with his body being so much smaller than his clothes, its abstract but expresses a point about this person.