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.
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At a glance
Visual cues
- 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
Best used for
- Giving a figure polish and unease at the same time
- Departing from classical balance only after establishing proportion and spatial control
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Dictionary entry
- 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
Related entries
- Renaissance (ルネサンス)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Mannerism and Renaissance
- Baroque (バロック)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Mannerism and Baroque
More from Historical Styles
Continue through styles in the same Historical Styles family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Gothic (ゴシック)Shared effects: Luxury / Rebellion.
- Roman Art (古代ローマ美術)Shared effects: Luxury / Technique.
- Art Deco (アール・デコ)Shared effects: Luxury.
Browse all Historical Styles entries
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/mannerism
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- [Mannerism — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/mannerism)
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