Mannerism

マニエリスム / c. 1520–1600 / Style / Historical Styles

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

Elegantly 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 color

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

Dictionary entry

Best used for
Giving a figure polish and unease at the same time · Departing from classical balance only after establishing proportion and spatial control
Type
Use a narrow serif and open spacing, introducing one deliberate strain against typographic balance.
Composition
Crowd figures into shallow space and turn the body's S-curves, gazes and hands along different axes while holding the whole.
Material
Pair smooth flesh and hard contours with cool blue-green, pale peach and violet outside a natural-light relation.
Caution
It is not arbitrary anatomical distortion or novelty. The tension must knowingly depart from a Renaissance foundation.
Further study
Italian Mannerism / Figura serpentinata and elongated proportion / Pontormo, Parmigianino and Bronzino

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