Mannerism vs Renaissance

マニエリスム / ルネサンス

Both sit in Historical Styles, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Mannerism

Mannerism — パルミジャニーノ『長い首の聖母』— Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Mannerism mastered High Renaissance proportion, perspective and balance, then deliberately unsettled them through elongated bodies, complex twists, compressed depth and cool unnatural color.

Renaissance

Renaissance — マザッチオ《聖三位一体》1425〜1428年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainRenaissance — ラファエロ・サンツィオ《アテナイの学堂》1511年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainRenaissance — ドナト・ブラマンテ《テンピエット》1502年頃（撮影 Labicanense）— Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

A movement that rediscovered ancient proportion and the human body and fixed three dimensions on a flat surface through linear perspective. Mathematics became the common language of painting and architecture, and the norms of the next five hundred years, symmetry, the classical orders and the golden ratio, were established here.

MannerismRenaissance
Erac. 1520–160014th–16th century
FamilyHistorical StylesHistorical Styles
KindStyleStyle
CuesElegantly lengthened necks, limbs and torsos / Serpentine poses twisting in several directions / Crowded foregrounds with displaced spatial cues / Acidic peach, blue and green arranged outside natural colorOne point linear perspective / The classical orders and symmetry / Composition based on the proportions of the body / A clear triangular composition
Best used forGiving a figure polish and unease at the same time · Departing from classical balance only after establishing proportion and spatial controlShowing authority and balance through proportion itself · Building an image whose depth is constructed geometrically
TypeUse a narrow serif and open spacing, introducing one deliberate strain against typographic balance.Set Roman capitals in the proportions of inscriptions.
CompositionCrowd figures into shallow space and turn the body's S-curves, gazes and hands along different axes while holding the whole.Steady figures and elements on a central axis and a triangle.
MaterialPair smooth flesh and hard contours with cool blue-green, pale peach and violet outside a natural-light relation.Move from tempera to oil and build up transparent layers.
CautionIt is not arbitrary anatomical distortion or novelty. The tension must knowingly depart from a Renaissance foundation.Pasting on columns and symmetry gives you stage scenery. Decide one basis for the proportions and carry it through the whole.

Put these two together

Historical Styles

IndexStyle