Northern Mannerism is the term in
art historyArt history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and look. This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics,...
for the versions of
MannerismMannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
practiced in the visual arts north of the
AlpsThe Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
in the 16th and early 17th century. Styles largely derived from Italian Mannerism were found in the Netherlands and elsewhere from around the mid-century, especially Mannerist ornament in architecture; this article concentrates on those times and places where Northern Mannerism generated its most original and distinctive work.
The three main centres of the style were in France, especially in the period 1530-50, Prague from 1576, and in the Netherlands from the 1580s—the first two phases very much led by royal patronage. In the last fifteen years of the century the style, by then becoming outdated in Italy, was widespread across northern Europe, spread in large part through prints. In painting it tended to recede rapidly in the new century, under the new influence of
CaravaggioMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610...
and the early Baroque, but in architecture and the decorative arts, its influence was more sustained.
Background
The sophisticated art of Italian Mannerism begins during the
High RenaissanceThe High Renaissance, in the history of art, denotes the culmination of the art of the Italian Renaissance between 1450 and 1527. Because Pope Julius II patronized many artists during this time, the movement was centered in Rome; it had previously been centered in Florence.The High Renaissance is...
of the 1520s as a development of, a reaction against, and an attempt to excel, the serenely balanced triumphs of that style. As art historian Henri Zerner explains: "The concept of Mannerism—so important to modern criticism and notably to the renewed taste for Fontainebleau art—designates a style in opposition to the classicism of the Italian Renaissance embodied above all by Andrea del Sarto in Florence and Raphael in Rome".
The High Renaissance was a purely Italian phenomenon, and Italian Mannerism required both artists and an audience highly trained in the preceding Renaissance styles, whose conventions were often flouted in a knowing fashion. In Northern Europe, however, such artists, and such an audience could hardly be found. The prevailing style remained
GothicGothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
, and different syntheses of this and Italian styles were made in the first decades of the 16th century by more internationally-aware artists such as
Albrecht DürerAlbrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
,
Hans BurgkmairHans Burgkmair the elder was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut.Burgkmair was born in Augsburg, the son of painter Thomas Burgkmair and his son, Hans the Younger, became one too. From 1488 he was a pupil of Martin Schongauer in Colmar, who died during his two years there, before Burgkmair...
and others in Germany, and the misleadingly named school of
Antwerp MannerismAntwerp Mannerism is the name given to the style of a largely anonymous group of painters from Antwerp in the beginning of the 16th century. The style bore no direct relation to Renaissance or Italian Mannerism, but the name suggests a peculiarity that was a reaction to the "classic" style of the...
, in fact unrelated to, and preceding, Italian Mannerism.
RomanismRomanism was the style of painting of a group of artists in the late 15th and early 16th century from the Netherlands who began to visit Italy and started to incorporate Renaissance influences in their work. The greatest artist in the style was Jan Mabuse . The influence of Michelangelo and...
was more thoroughly influenced by Italian art of the High Renaissance, and aspects of Mannerism, and many of the leading exponents had travelled to Italy. Netherlandish painting had been generally the most advanced in northern Europe since before 1400, and the best Netherlandish artists were better able than those of other regions to keep up with Italian developments, though lagging at a distance.
For each succeeding generations of artists, the problem became more acute, as much Northern work continued to gradually assimilate aspects of Renaissance style, while the most advanced Italian art had spiralled into a world of self-conscious sophistication and complexity that must have seemed a world away, but enjoyed a reputation and prestige that could not be ignored.
France
France received a direct injection of Italian style in the form of the first
School of FontainebleauThe Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau, that were crucial in forming the French version of Northern Mannerism....
, where from 1530 several Florentine artists of quality were hired to decorate the palace of Fontainebleau, with some French assistants being taken on. The most notable imports were:
Rosso FiorentinoGiovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:...
(Giovanni Battista di Jacopo de' Rossi) (1494–1540),
Francesco PrimaticcioFrancesco Primaticcio was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.-Biography:...
(c.1505-1570),
Niccolò dell'AbbateNicolò dell' Abate, sometimes Niccolò, was an Italian painter and decorator. He was of the Emilian school, and was part of the staff of artists called the School of Fontainebleau that introduced the Italianate Renaissance to France.-Biography:Niccolò dell'Abbate was born in Modena, the son of a...
(c.1509-1571), all of whom remained in France until their deaths. This conjunction succeeded in generating a native French style with strong Mannerist elements that was then able to develop largely on its own.
Jean Cousin the ElderJean Cousin was a French painter, sculptor, etcher, engraver, and geometrician. He is known as "Jean Cousin the Elder" to distinguish him from his son Jean Cousin the Younger, also an artist.-Career:...
, for example, produced paintings, such as
Eva Prima Pandora and
Charity, that, with their sinuous, elongated nudes, drew palpably upon the artistic principles of the Fontainebleau school. Cousin's son Jean the Younger, most of whose works have not survived, and
Antoine CaronAntoine Caron was a French master glassmaker, illustrator, Northern Mannerist painter and a product of the School of Fontainebleau.He is one of the few French painters of his time who had a pronounced artistic personality...
both followed in this tradition, producing an agitated version of the mannerist aesthetic in the context of the
French Wars of ReligionThe French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants...
. The
iconographyIconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek εἰκών "image" and γράφειν "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons...
of figurative works was mostly mythological, with a strong emphasis on
DianaDiana may refer to:*Diana, Princess of Wales, first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales*Diana , ancient Roman goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity*Diana , for people with the given name DianaIn music:...
, goddess of the hunting that was the original function of Fontainebleau, and namesake of
Diane de PoitiersDiane de Poitiers was a French noblewoman and a fixture at the courts of Francis I and Henry II of France...
, mistress and muse of
Henry IIHenry II of the House of Valois and son and successor of Francis I was King of France from 31 March 1547, until his death in 1559.-Early years:...
, and keen huntress herself. Her slim, long-legged and athletic figure "became fixed in the erotic imaginary".
Other parts of Northern Europe did not have the advantage of such intense contact with Italian artists, but the Mannerist style made its presence felt through prints and books, the purchases of Italian works by rulers and others, travels to Italy, and individual Italian artists working in the North.
Much of the most important work at Fontainebleau was in the form of
stuccoStucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a coating for walls and ceilings and for decoration...
reliefA relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or, in a sunken-relief, lowered, from a plane from which the main elements of the composition project . Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian...
s, often executed by French artists to drawings by the Italians (and then reproduced in prints), and the Fontainebleau style affected French sculpture more strongly than French painting. The huge stucco frames which dominate their inset paintings with bold high-relief
strapworkIn the history of art and design, the term strapwork refers to a stylised representation of strips or bands of curling leather parchment or metal cut into elaborate shapes, with piercings and often interwoven...
, swags of fruit, and generous staffage of naked nymph-like figures, were very influential on the vocabulary of Mannerist ornament all over Europe, spread by ornament books and prints by
Androuet du CerceauAndrouet du Cerceau was a family of French architects and designers active in the 16th and early 17th century.*Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau *Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau...
and others—Rosso seems to have been the originator of the style. The mysterious and sophisticated
Saint-Porchaire wareSaint-Porchaire ware is the earliest very high quality French pottery. It is white faience ware that was made for a restricted French clientele from the 1520s to the 1540s. Only about sixty pieces of this ware survive, all of them well known before World War II. None have turned up in the last...
, of which only about sixty pieces survive, brought a similar aesthetic into pottery.
Apart from the Palace of Fontainebleau itself, other important buildings decorated in the style were the
Château d'AnetThe Château d'Anet is a French château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France...
(1547-52) for Diane de Poitiers, and parts of the
Palais du LouvreThe Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...
.
Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the artsCatherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance. Catherine was inspired by the example of her father-in-law, King Francis I of France , who had hosted the leading artists of Europe at his court. As a young woman, she witnessed at first hand the...
promoted the Mannerist style, except in portraiture, and her
court festivitiesCatherine de' Medici's court festivals were a series of lavish and spectacular entertainments, sometimes called "magnificences", laid on by Catherine de' Medici, the queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559 and queen mother from 1559 until her death in 1589...
were the only regular northern ones to rival the
intermedioThe intermedio, or intermezzo, in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance which was performed between the acts of a play to celebrate special occasions in Italian courts; it was one of the important predecessors to opera, and an influence on...
s and
entriesThe Royal Entry, also known by various other names, including Triumphal Entry and Joyous Entry, embraced the ceremonial and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or his representative into a city in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period in Europe...
of the
MediciThe House of Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house who first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until...
court in Florence; all of which relied heavily on the visual arts. After an interlude when work on Fontainebleau was abandoned at the height of the French Wars of Religion, a "Second School of Fontainebleau" was formed from local artists in the 1590s.
Prague under Rudolf II
Maximilian II, Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian II was king of Bohemia from 1562, king of Hungary from 1563, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 and king of the Romans until his death. He was a member of the House of Habsburg.-Biography:...
(reigned 1564-1576), who made his base in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, had
humanistRenaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement that was a crucial component of the Renaissance, beginning in Florence in the latter half of the 14th century. The humanist movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of Latin literary and Greek literary texts. Initially,...
and artistic tastes, and patronised a number of artists, mostly famously
GiambolognaGiambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, also known as Giovanni Da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna , was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.- Biography :...
and
Giuseppe ArcimboldoGiuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books — that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of...
, whose fantasy portraits made up of objects were slightly more serious in the world of late-Renaissance philosophy than they seem now. At the end of his reign he devised a project for a new palace and just before he died the young Flemish painter
Bartholomeus SprangerBartholomeus Spranger was a Flemish Northern Mannerist painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He was born in Antwerp....
had been summoned from Rome, where he had made a successful career. Maximilian's son,
Rudolf II, Holy Roman EmperorRudolf II , Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II , King of Hungary as Rudolf , King of Bohemia as Rudolf II and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V...
was to prove an even better patron than his father would have been, and Spranger never left his service. The court soon transferred to
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
, safer from the regular Turkish invasions, and during his reign of 1576-1612, Rudolf was to become an obsessive collector of old and new art, his artists mixing with the astronomers, clockmakers, botanists, and "wizards, alchemists and kabbalists" who Rudolf also gathered around him.
Works from Rudolf's Prague were highly finished and refined, with most paintings being relatively small. The elongation of figures and strikingly complex poses of the first wave of Italian Mannerism were continued, and the elegant distance of Bronzino's figures was mediated through the works of the absent Giambologna, who represented the ideal of the style.
PrintsPrintmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
were essential to disseminate the style to Europe, Germany and the Low Countries in particular, and some printmakers, like the greatest of the period,
Hendrik GoltziusHendrik Goltzius , was a Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, noted for his sophisticated technique and the "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A...
, worked from drawings sent from Prague, while others, like
Aegidius SadelerThe Sadeler family were the largest, and probably the most successful of the dynasties of Flemish engravers that were dominant in Northern European printmaking in the later 16th and 17th centuries, as both artists and publishers...
who lived in Spranger's house, had been tempted to the city itself. Rudolf also commissioned work from Italy, above all from Giambologna, who the Medicis would not allow to leave Florence, and four great mythological allegories were sent by
Paolo VeronesePaolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
. The Emperor's influence affected art in other German courts, notably
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
, and
DresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
where the goldsmith and artist Johann Kellerthaler was based.
Rudolf was relatively little interested in religion, and "in the Prague of Rudolf II an explosion of mythological imagery was produced that had not been seen since Fontainebleau". Goddesses were usually naked, or nearly so, and a more overt atmosphere of eroticism prevails than is found in most Renaissance mythological works, evidently reflecting Rudolf's "special interests".
The dominating figure was
HerculesHercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became...
, identified with the emperor, as he had earlier been with earlier
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
and
ValoisValois is a district, in the city of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada. It was once a separate village, many years ago, but was then merged with Pointe-Claire....
monarchs. But the other gods were not neglected; their conjunctions and transformations had significance in Renaissance Neo-Platonism and
HermeticismHermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the Hellenistic Egyptian pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus who is the representation of the congruence of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes...
that were taken more seriously in Rudolf's Prague than any other Renaissance court. It seems, however, that the painted allegories from Prague contain neither very specific complicated meanings, nor hidden recipes for alchemy. Giambologna frequently chose, or let someone else choose, a title for his sculptures after their completion; for him it was only the forms that mattered.
Netherlands Mannerism
Whereas the artists of both Fontainebleau and Prague were mostly provided with a home so congenial in both intellectual and physical terms that they stayed to the end of their lives, for artists of the last Netherlandish phase of the movement Mannerism was very often a phase through which they passed before moving on to a style influenced by
CaravaggioMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610...
.
For
Hendrik GoltziusHendrik Goltzius , was a Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, noted for his sophisticated technique and the "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A...
, the greatest printmaker of the day, his most Mannerist phase under the influence of Spranger only lasted for the five years between 1585, when he engraved his first print after one of the Spranger drawings brought from Prague by Karel van Mander, to his trip to Rome in 1590, from which he "returned a changed artist. From this time on he no longer made prints after Spranger's extravaganzas. The monstrous muscle-men and over-elongated female nudes with tiny heads ... were replaced by figures with more normal proportions and movements." Spranger's work "had a wide and immediate effect in the Northern Netherlands", and the group known as the "Haarlem Mannerists", principally Goltzius, van Mander, and
Cornelis van HaarlemCornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem , Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in The Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist.-Biography:...
was matched by artists in other cities.
Partly because most of his Netherlandish followers had only seen Spranger's work through prints and his mostly very free drawings, his more painterly handling was not adopted, and they retained the tighter and more realistic technique in which they had been trained. Many Dutch mannerist painters could switch styles depending on subject or commission, and continued to produce portraits and genre scenes in styles based on local traditions at the same time they were working on highly Mannerist paintings. After his return from Italy Goltzius moved to a quieter proto-Baroque classicism, and his work in that style influenced many.
Joachim WtewaelJoachim Anthonisz Wtewael was a notable Dutch painter and engraver.Wtewael began his career engraving glass with his father in their hometown of Utrecht...
, who settled in
UtrechtUtrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern end of the Randstad, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, with a population of 300,030 in 2007...
after returning from Italy in 1590, drew more influence from Italian Mannerists than from Prague, and also continued to produce kitchen scenes and portraits alongside his naked deities. Unlike many, notably his fellow Utrecher
Abraham BloemaertAbraham Bloemaert , was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was one of the "Haarlem Mannerists" from about 1585, but in the new century altered his style to fit new Baroque trends....
, once Wtewael's repertoire of styles was formed, he never changed it until his death in 1631.
For painters in the Low Countries there was also the alternative of traditional Northern realist styles, which had continued to develop through Pieter Bruegel the Elder (d.1567) and other artists, and in the next century were to dominate the painting of the
Dutch Golden AgeThe Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.- Causes of the Golden Age :...
. Despite his visit to Italy, Brughel certainly cannot be called a Mannerist, but just as his paintings were keenly collected by Rudolf, Mannerist artists, including
Gillis van ConinxlooGillis van Coninxloo was a Dutch painter of forest landscapes, the most famous member of a large family of artists. He travelled through France, and lived in Germany for several years to avoid religious persecution....
and Bruegel's son Jan, followed him in developing the landscape as a subject.
Landscape painting was recognised as a Netherlandish speciality in Italy, where several Northern landscapists were based, such as
Paul and Mattheus BrillPaul and Mattheus Brill were brothers, both born in Antwerp, who were landscape painters who worked in Rome after earning papal favor. They are also described as painters of capricci or vedute ideate or veduta di fantasia, with typical rustic hills with a few ruins...
, and the Germans
Hans RottenhammerJohann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer, was a German painter, born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Elder. In 1593-4 he was in Rome, and he then settled in Venice from 1595-6 to 1606, before returning to Germany and settling in Augsburg, working also in Munich...
and
Adam ElsheimerAdam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light...
, the last an important figure in the Early Baroque. Most still painted Netherlandish panoramas from a high view-point, with small figures forming a specific subject, but Gillis van Coninxloo followed the earlier
Danube SchoolThe Danube School or Donau School is the name of a circle of painters of the first third of the 16th century in Bavaria and Austria . Many also were innovative printmakers, usually in etching...
and
Albrecht AltdorferAlbrecht Altdorfer was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht Dürer...
in developing the pure and "close-up" forest landscape in his works from about 1600, which was taken up by his pupil Roelandt Savery and others. Bloemaert painted many landscapes reconciling these types by combining close-up trees, with figures, and a small distant view from above to one side (example below). Paul Brill's early landscapes were distinctly Mannerist in their artificiality and crowded decorative effects, but after his brother's death, he gradually evolved a more economical and realistic style, perhaps influenced by
Annibale CarracciAnnibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
.
Still-life painting, usually mostly of flowers and insects, also emerged as a genre during the period, re-purposing the inherited tradition of late Netherlandish
miniatureThe word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment...
borders;
Jan Brueghel the ElderJan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from favored subjects, while the former may refer to the velveteen...
also painted these. Such subjects appealed to both aristocratic patrons and the bourgeois market, which was far larger in the Netherlands. This was especially so in the Protestant north, after the movement of populations in the Revolt, where the demand for religious works was largely absent.
Karel van Mander is now remembered mainly as a writer on art rather than an artist. Though he endorsed the Italian
hierarchy of genresA hierarchy of genres is any formalization which ranks different types of genres in an art-form in terms of their value.In literature, the epic was traditionally considered the highest form, for the reason expressed by Dr...
, with
history paintingHistory painting, as formulated in 1667 by André Félibien, a historiographer, architect and theoretician of French classicism, was in the hierarchy of genres considered to be the grand genre.-Description:...
at the top, he was readier than Vasari and other Italian theorists (above all
MichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer...
, who was brusquely dismissive of 'lower' forms of art) to accept the value of other specialized genres of art, and to accept that many artists should specialize in these, if that is where their talent lay. Specialization of many artists in the various genres was well advanced by the end of the century, in both the Netherlands and Prague, exemplified by Bruegel's two sons,
JanJan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from favored subjects, while the former may refer to the velveteen...
and
PieterPieter Brueghel the Younger was a Flemish painter, known for numerous copies after his father Pieter Brueghel the Elder's paintings and nicknamed "Hell Brueghel" for his fantastic treatments of fire and grotesque imagery.-Life:Pieter Brueghel the Younger was the oldest son of the famous...
, though it was also typical of the period that they both had more than one speciality during their careers. Although landscapes, scenes of peasant life, sea-scapes and still-lifes could be bought by dealers for stock, and good portraits were always in demand, demand for history painting was not equal to the potential supply, and many artists, like Cornelius Ketel, were forced to specialize in portraiture; "artists travel along this road without delight", according to van Mander.
The Mannerist painters in the now permanently-separated southern provinces of
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
FlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands...
in fact were less influenced by Prague than those in the
United ProvincesUnited Provinces may refer to:* United Provinces, another name for the Dutch Republic , now The Netherlands* United Provinces of Agra and Oudh , a former province of British India; now Uttar Pradesh...
. They had more easy access to Italy, where
Denis CalvaertDenis Calvaert or Denys Calvaert was a Flemish painter born at Antwerp but living mostly in Italy where he was known as Il Fiammingo . Calvaert was a profound student of architecture, anatomy, and history, exceedingly accurate in perspective and graceful in design...
lived from the age of twenty in
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
, though selling much of his work back to Flanders. Both
Marten de VosMarten de Vos , also Maarten, was a leading Antwerp painter and draughtsman in the late sixteenth century. He had, like Frans Floris, travelled to Italy and adopted the mannerist style popular at the time. De Vos was also highly influenced by the colors of Venetian painting, and might have worked...
and
Otto van VeenOtto van Veen, also known by his Latinized name Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius, was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century...
had travelled there; Van Veen, who had actually worked in Rudolf's Prague, was the founder of the
Guild of RomanistsThe Guild of Romanists was a 16th and 17th century society in Antwerp for humanist and artists; it was a condition of membership that the member had visited Rome. Deans were appointed annually. It was "where 'art-pilgrims' met to keep themselves up to date on news from Rome, whether it be new...
, an Antwerp club for artists who had visited Rome. They were more conscious of recent trends in Italian art, and the emergence of
BaroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
style, which in the hands of Van Veen's pupil from 1594-98,
RubensRubens is often used to mean Peter Paul Rubens , Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:*Paul Rubens , co-lyricist of Florodora*Alma Rubens , American actor*Bernice Rubens , Welsh novelist...
, would soon sweep over Flemish art. In religious works, Flemish artists were also subject to the decrees of the
Council of TrentThe Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Considered to be one of the Church's most important councils, it convened in Trento between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
, leading to a reaction against the more extreme virtuosities of Mannerism and to a clearer, more monumental style akin to the Italian
maniera grande. In the
retableA retable is a term of ecclesiastical art and ecclesiastical architecture, applied in modern English usage to an altar-ledge or shelf, raised slightly above the back of the altar or communion table, on which are placed the cross, ceremonial candlesticks and other ornaments...
s of de Vos, for example, "a tempered Mannerism is combined with a preference for narrative that is more in line with Netherlandish tradition".
In Flanders, though not in the United Provinces, the mostly temporary displays for royal entries provided occasional opportunities for lavish public exhibitions of Mannerist style. Festival books recorded the entries into Antwerp of French princes and Habsburg archdukes.
Dissemination in prints and books
The importance of prints as a medium for disseminating mannerist style has already been mentioned; Northern Mannerism "was a style that lent itself admirably to printmaking, and inspired the production of a succession of masterpieces of the printmaker's art". Goltzius was already the most celebrated engraver in the Netherlands when the Mannerist virus struck, and despite the disruptions of war he and other Netherlandish printmakers were connected with the well-oiled machinery of distribution across Europe that had been built up over the preceding fifty years, originally centred on
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
.
The same had not been true for the printmaking at Fontainebleau, and the prints made there (unusually for the period, all in
etchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
) were technically rather rough, produced in smaller numbers, and mainly influential in France. They were made in an intense period of activity approximately from 1542 to 1548. Those made in Paris were
engravingEngraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s and of a higher quality; produced from about 1540 to about 1580, they had a wider distribution. Many of the Fontainebleau prints were apparently made directly from drawn designs for the decorations of the palace, and consisted largely or entirely of ornamental frames or cartouches, although such was the scale of Fontainebleau that these might contain several full-length figures. Variations on the elaborate framings, as if made of cut, pierced and rolled parchment, played out in decorative framing schemes, engraved title pages and carved and inlaid furniture into the seventeenth century.
Printed Mannerist ornament, in a somewhat broader sense of the word, was a good deal easier to produce than the risky application of an extreme Mannerist style to large figure compositions, and had been spreading across Europe well in advance of painting in the form of frames to portrait prints,
book frontispieceA frontispiece is a decorative illustration facing a book's title page. In modern use, the frontispiece is the verso opposite the recto title page. Elaborate engraved title pages were in frequent use, especially in Bibles and in scholarly books, and many are masterpieces of engraving....
s, so like the elaborate doorways and fireplaces of Mannerist architecture, ornament books for artists and craftsmen, and
emblem bookEmblem books are a particular style of illustrated book developed in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, normally containing about one hundred combinations of pictures and text....
s. From these and works in their own medium, goldsmiths, frame and furniture makers, and workers in many other crafts developed the vocabulary of Mannerist ornament.
Wendel DietterlinWendel Dietterlin , sometimes Wendel Dietterlin the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, was a German mannerist painter, printmaker and architectural theoretician...
's book
Architectura of 1593-4, produced in the relative backwater of
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
, was the most extreme application of the style to architectural ornament.
In the decorative arts
The visual wit and sophistication of Mannerism in northern hands, which made it pre-eminently a
courtThe court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
style, found natural vehicles in goldsmith's work, set off by gems and colored enamels, in which the misshaped pearls we call "baroque" might form human and animal torsos, both as jewelry for personal adornment and in objects made for the
Wunderkammer. Ewers and vases took fantastic shapes, as did standing cups with onyx or agate bowls, and elaborate saltcellars like the
SalieraThe Cellini Salt Cellar is a part-enameled gold table sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini. It was completed in 1543 for Francis I of France, from models that had been prepared many years earlier for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este...
of
Benvenuto CelliniBenvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography.-Youth:...
, the apex of Mannerist goldsmithing, completed in 1543 for Francis I and later given to Rudolf's
uncleFerdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria was ruler of Further Austria including Tirol.-Life account:...
, another great collector.
Wenzel JamnitzerWenzel Jamnitzer , was a German artist, a printmaker in etching, and goldsmith, who worked in Nuremberg; the best known goldsmith of his era, and goldsmith to a succession of Holy Roman Emperors.Jamnitzer was born in Vienna, and died in Nuremberg...
and his son Hans, goldsmiths to a succession of Holy Roman Emperors, including Rudolf, were unexcelled in the north. Silversmiths made covered cups and richly-wrought ewers and platters, strictly for display, perhaps incorporating the large sea-shells now being brought back from the tropics, which were "cherished as Art produced by Nature". In the Netherlands a uniquely anamorphic "auricular style", employing writhing and anti-architectural cartilaginous motifs was developed by the van Vianen family of silversmiths.
Though Mannerist sculptors produced life-size bronzes, the bulk of their output by unit was of editions of small bronzes, often reduced versions of the large compositions, which were intended to be appreciated by holding and turning in the hands, when the best "give an aesthetic stimulus of that involuntary kind that sometimes comes from listening to music". Small low
reliefA relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or, in a sunken-relief, lowered, from a plane from which the main elements of the composition project . Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian...
panels in bronze, often gilded, were used in various settings, as on Rudolph's crown.
Female sphinxesA sphinx is a zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of Old Kingdom Egypt, to which the ancient Greeks applied their own name for a male monster, the "strangler", an archaic figure of Greek mythology...
with extravagantly elongated necks and prominent breasts support a Burgundian cabinet of walnut in the
Frick CollectionThe Frick Collection is an art museum located in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It is housed in the former residence of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, which was designed by Thomas Hastings and constructed in 1913-1914....
, New York; soon
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
made a specialty of richly carved and veneered cabinets inlaid with tortoiseshell, ebony, and ivory, with architectural interiors, mirrored to multiply reflections in feigned spaces. In England the Mannerist excesses of Jacobean furniture were expressed in extreme legs turned to imitate stacked covered standing cups, and a proliferation of enlaced
strapworkIn the history of art and design, the term strapwork refers to a stylised representation of strips or bands of curling leather parchment or metal cut into elaborate shapes, with piercings and often interwoven...
covered plane surfaces. Painters were called upon to design
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
s in Mannerist style for the
tapestryTapestry is a form of textile art, woven on a vertical loom. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a loom, and the weft thread is passed back and forth across part or...
workshops of
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium...
and Paris, and painterly compositions in Mannerist taste appeared in Limoges enamels too.
MoresqueMoresque is an obsolete alternative to "Moorish" in English, and in the arts has some specific meanings. By itself the word is used of forms found in ornament and decoration in the applied arts in Europe. Often it is a synonym for arabesque or interlace patterns in the Mannerist and Northern...
s, swags and
festoonFestoon , a wreath or garland, and so in architecture a conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons, either from a decorated knot, or held in the mouths of lions, or suspended across the back of bulls heads as...
s of fruit were employed in an ornamental vocabulary descended from
GothicGothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
illuminated manuscriptAn illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
borders and rediscovered Ancient Roman
grotesqueThe word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome in the 15th century...
ornament.
In France,
Saint-Porchaire wareSaint-Porchaire ware is the earliest very high quality French pottery. It is white faience ware that was made for a restricted French clientele from the 1520s to the 1540s. Only about sixty pieces of this ware survive, all of them well known before World War II. None have turned up in the last...
of Mannerist forms and decor was produced in limited quantities for a restricted fashion-conscious clientele from the 1520s to the 1540s, while the crowded, disconcertingly lifelike compositions of snakes and toads characterize the Mannerist painted
earthenwareEarthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects. Although body formulations vary between countries, and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15% feldspar. Earthenware is...
platters of
Bernard PalissyBernard Palissy was a French potter and craftsman, famous for having struggled for 16 years to imitate Chinese porcelain.- Biography :...
. Like the Jamnitzers on occasion, Palissy made moulds from real small creatures and plants to apply to his creations.
Northern Mannerism, politics and religion
Northern Europe in the 16th century, and especially those areas where Mannerism was at its strongest, was affected by massive upheavals including the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
,
Counter-ReformationThe Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648....
,
French Wars of ReligionThe French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants...
and
Dutch RevoltThe Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands , was the partially successful revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Low Countries against the Spanish Empire. It led to the formation of the independent Dutch state of the Netherlands and marked the beginning of the Eighty Years' War...
. The relationship between Mannerism, religion and politics was very complex. Although religious works were produced, Northern Mannerist art de-emphasized religious subjects, and when it did treat them was usually against the spirit both of the Counter-Reformation attempt to control Catholic art and Protestant views on religious imagery.
In the case of Rudolf's Prague and French art after the mid-century, secular and mythological Mannerist art seems to have been partly a deliberate attempt to produce an art that appealed across religious and political divides. At the same time, Mannerism at its most extreme was usually a court style, often used to propagandize for the monarchy, and it risked becoming discredited through association with unpopular rulers. While Rudolf's genuine tolerance seems to have avoided this in Germany and
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
, by the end of the century Mannerism had become associated by the Calvinist Protestants and other patriots of France and the Netherlands with their unpopular Catholic rulers.
Certain Mannerist works seem to echo the violence of the time, but dressed in classical clothing.
Antoine CaronAntoine Caron was a French master glassmaker, illustrator, Northern Mannerist painter and a product of the School of Fontainebleau.He is one of the few French painters of his time who had a pronounced artistic personality...
painted the unusual subject of
Massacres under the TriumvirateThe First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever – its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial...
(1562, Louvre), during the Wars of Religion, when massacres were a frequent occurrence, above all in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, six years after the painting. According to art historian
Anthony BluntAnthony Frederick Blunt , known as Sir Anthony Blunt, KCVO between 1956 and 1979, was a British spy, art historian, Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London , and Surveyor of the King's Pictures .Blunt was an...
, Caron produced "what is perhaps the purest known type of Mannerism in its elegant form, appropriate to an exquisite but neurotic aristocratic society". His cartoons for the
Valois TapestriesThe Valois Tapestries are a series of eight tapestries depicting festivities or "magnificences" at the Court of France in the second half of the 16th century. The tapestries were worked in the Spanish Netherlands, probably in Brussels or Antwerp, shortly after 1580.Scholars have not firmly...
, which hark back to the triumphalist
History of Scipio tapestries designed for
Francis IFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
by
Giulio RomanoGiulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A prominent pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
, were a propaganda exercise on behalf of the Valois monarchy, emphasizing its courtly splendour at the time of its threatened destruction through civil war. Jean Cousin the Younger's only surviving painting,
The Last Judgement, also comments on the civil war, betraying a "typically mannerist penchant for miniaturization". Tiny, naked human beings "swarm over the earth like worms", while God looks down in judgement from above.
Cornelis van Haarlem's
Massacre of the InnocentsThe Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, that appears in the Gospel of Matthew . The author, traditionally believed to be Matthew the Evangelist, reports that King Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the village of...
(1590,
RijksmuseumThe Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history...
), more Baroque than Mannerist, may involve his childhood memories of the killings (in fact only of the garrison) after the
Siege of HaarlemIn the Eighty Years' War the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands was put under a bloody siege by a Spanish army that wanted to reclaim the rebellious city for Philip II, the Spanish king.-Pretext:...
in 1572-3, which he lived through. Brughel's completely un-mannerist version of the same subject was bought by Rudolf, who had someone turn many of the massacred children into geese, calves, cheeses, and other less disturbing spoils. In general, Mannerist painting emphasizes peace and harmony, and less often chooses battle subjects than either the High Renaissance or the Baroque.
Another subject popularized by Brughel,
Saint John Preaching in the Wilderness, was given Mannerist treatments by several artists, as a lush landscape subject. But for Dutch Protestants the subject recalled the years before and during their Revolt, when they were forced to congregate for services in the open countryside outside towns controlled by the Spanish.
Other outcrops
Henry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
had been spurred in emulation of Fontainebleau to import his own, rather less stellar,
team of Italians and French artistsThe artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I....
to work on his new
Nonsuch PalaceNonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey, England; it stood from 1538 to 1682–3.- Background :Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, was arguably the greatest of Henry VIII's building projects. It was built on the site of Cuddington, near Epsom, the church and village having been...
, which also relied heavily on stuccoes, and was decorated from about 1541. But Henry died before it was completed and a decade later it was sold by his daughter
MaryMary I , was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. She was the oldest daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, she is remembered for restoring England to Roman Catholicism after succeeding her short-lived...
without ever having seen major use by the court. The palace was destroyed before 1700 and only small fragments of work associated with it have survived, as well as a faint ripple of influence detectable in later English art, for example in the grand but unsophisticated stuccoes at
Hardwick HallHardwick Hall in, Derbyshire, is one of the most significant Elizabethan country houses in England. In common with its architect Robert Smythson's other works at both Longleat House and Wollaton Hall, Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of the English interpretation of the Renaissance...
.
The portrait miniaturist
Isaac OliverIsaac Oliver was a French-born English portrait miniature painter.Born in Rouen, he moved to London in 1568 with his Huguenot parents Peter and Epiphany Oliver to escape the Wars of Religion in France...
shows tentative Late Mannerist influence, which also appears in some immigrant portrait painters, such as
William ScrotsWilliam Scrots was a painter of the Tudor court and an exponent of the Mannerist style of painting in the Netherlands. He is first heard of when appointed a court painter to Mary of Habsburg, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1537...
, but generally England was one of the countries least affected by the movement except in the area of ornament.
Though Northern Mannerism achieved a landscape style, portrait-painting remained without Northern equivalents of Bronzino or
ParmigianinoGirolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola , also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was a prominent Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma...
, unless the remarkable but somewhat naive Portraiture of Elizabeth I is considered as such.
One of the last flowerings of Northern Mannerism came in
LorraineLorraine is a historical area in present-day northeast France. Some of the main cities are Metz, Nancy and Verdun.-Lotharingia:Lorraine was originally an independent kingdom. It was created in 843, when the Carolingian empire was divided between the three sons of Louis the Pious...
, whose court painter
Jacques BellangeJacques Bellange was an artist and printmaker from Lorraine, now in France, whose etchings and some drawings are his only securely identified works today. They are among the most striking Mannerist old master prints.-References:...
(c.1575-1616) is now known only from his extraordinary
etchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s, though he was also a painter. His style derives from Netherlandish Mannerism, though his technique from Italian etchers, especially Barocci and
Ventura SalimbeniVentura di Archangelo Salimbeni was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker and among the last representatives of a style influenced by the earlier Sienese School of Quattrocento-Renaissance....
. Unusually, his subjects were mainly religious, and though the costumes are often extravagant, suggest intense religious feelings on his part.
Artists
French artists influenced by the first School of Fontainebleau:
- Jean Cousin the Elder
Jean Cousin was a French painter, sculptor, etcher, engraver, and geometrician. He is known as "Jean Cousin the Elder" to distinguish him from his son Jean Cousin the Younger, also an artist.-Career:...
(1500-c. 1590)
- Jean Goujon
Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy...
(c. 1510-after 1572) sculptor and architect
- Juste de Juste
Juste de Juste was a Franco-Italian sculptor and printmaker in etching, a member of the Betti family of sculptors from near Florence, who became known as the Juste family in France, where Juste de Juste's father Antonio and his two brothers emigrated and spent most of their careers...
(ca. 1505 – ca. 1559) - sculptor and etcher
- Antoine Caron
Antoine Caron was a French master glassmaker, illustrator, Northern Mannerist painter and a product of the School of Fontainebleau.He is one of the few French painters of his time who had a pronounced artistic personality...
(1521 - 1599)
The continuing French tradition:
- Germain Pilon
Germain Pilon was one of the most important sculptors of the French Renaissance. Trained by his father and Pierre Bontemps, Pilon was an expert with marble, bronze, wood and terra cotta; from about 1555 he was providing models for Parisian goldsmiths. He was also skilled at drawing...
(c. 1537 - 1590), sculptor
- Androuet du Cerceau
Androuet du Cerceau was a family of French architects and designers active in the 16th and early 17th century.*Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau *Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau...
, family of architects; Jacques I introducing Mannerist ornament
- Jean Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522-1595), painter
- Toussaint Dubreuil
Toussaint Dubreuil was a French painter associated with the second School of Fontainebleau...
(c. 1561 - 1602), second School of Fontainebleau:
Working for Rudolf:
- Giambologna
Giambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, also known as Giovanni Da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna , was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.- Biography :...
(1529-1608), Flemish sculptor based in Florence
- Adriaen de Vries
Adriaen de Vries was a Northern Mannerist sculptor born in the Netherlands, whose international style crossed the threshold to the Baroque; he excelled in refined modelling and bronze casting and in the manipulation of patina and became the most famous European sculptor of his generation...
(1556-1626), Flemish sculptor, pupil of Giambologna, who went to Prague
- Bartholomeus Spranger
Bartholomeus Spranger was a Flemish Northern Mannerist painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He was born in Antwerp....
(1546-1611) - Flemish painter, Rudolf's main painter
- Hans von Aachen
Hans von Aachen was a German mannerist painter.His name is derived from the birth place of his father, Aachen in Germany...
(1552-1615) - German, mythological subjects and portraits for Rudolf
- Joseph Heintz the Elder (1564-1609) - Swiss pupil of Hans von Aachen
- Paul van Vianen, Dutch silversmith and artist
- Aegidius Sadeler
The Sadeler family were the largest, and probably the most successful of the dynasties of Flemish engravers that were dominant in Northern European printmaking in the later 16th and 17th centuries, as both artists and publishers...
- mainly a printmaker
- Wenzel Jamnitzer
Wenzel Jamnitzer , was a German artist, a printmaker in etching, and goldsmith, who worked in Nuremberg; the best known goldsmith of his era, and goldsmith to a succession of Holy Roman Emperors.Jamnitzer was born in Vienna, and died in Nuremberg...
(1507/8-1585), and his son Hans II and grandson Christof, German goldsmiths
- Joris Hoefnagel
Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel was a Flemish painter and engraver, the son of a diamond merchant....
, especially for miniatures of natural history
- Roelant Savery
Roelant Savery , was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter.-Life:...
, landscapes with animals and still-lifes
In the Netherlands:
- Herri met de Bles
Herri met de Bles was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter....
, (1510-1555/60), landscape artist, earlier than the others
- Karel van Mander - now best known as a biographer of Netherlandish artists
- Hendrik Goltzius
Hendrik Goltzius , was a Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, noted for his sophisticated technique and the "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A...
(1558-1617) - the leading engraver of the period, and later a painter in a less Mannerist style.
- Cornelis van Haarlem
Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem , Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in The Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist.-Biography:...
(1562-1651)
- Joachim Wtewael
Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael was a notable Dutch painter and engraver.Wtewael began his career engraving glass with his father in their hometown of Utrecht...
(1566-1638)
- Jan Saenredam
Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam , was a Dutch Northern Mannerist painter, printmaker in engraving, and cartographer, and father of the painter of church interiors, Pieter Jansz Saenredam...
- mainly a printmaker
- Jacob de Gheyn II
Jacob de Gheyn II was a Dutch painter and engraver, whose work shows the transition from Northern Mannerism to Dutch realism over the course of his career....
- mainly a printmaker
- Abraham Bloemaert
Abraham Bloemaert , was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was one of the "Haarlem Mannerists" from about 1585, but in the new century altered his style to fit new Baroque trends....
(1566-1651), in the early part of his career
- Hans Vredeman de Vries
Hans Vredeman de Vries was a Dutch Renaissance architect and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments and perspective .- Biography :...
(1527 – c. 1607), architect, ornament designer, who wrote on garden design.
Flemish:
- Denis Calvaert
Denis Calvaert or Denys Calvaert was a Flemish painter born at Antwerp but living mostly in Italy where he was known as Il Fiammingo . Calvaert was a profound student of architecture, anatomy, and history, exceedingly accurate in perspective and graceful in design...
- worked mostly in Italy, in a largely Italian style, as did
- Paul and Mattheus Brill
Paul and Mattheus Brill were brothers, both born in Antwerp, who were landscape painters who worked in Rome after earning papal favor. They are also described as painters of capricci or vedute ideate or veduta di fantasia, with typical rustic hills with a few ruins...
, mostly painting landscapes
- Marten de Vos
Marten de Vos , also Maarten, was a leading Antwerp painter and draughtsman in the late sixteenth century. He had, like Frans Floris, travelled to Italy and adopted the mannerist style popular at the time. De Vos was also highly influenced by the colors of Venetian painting, and might have worked...
, founder of the Guild of RomanistsThe Guild of Romanists was a 16th and 17th century society in Antwerp for humanist and artists; it was a condition of membership that the member had visited Rome. Deans were appointed annually. It was "where 'art-pilgrims' met to keep themselves up to date on news from Rome, whether it be new...
- Otto van Veen
Otto van Veen, also known by his Latinized name Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius, was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century...
, (1556-1629)
Elsewhere:
- Hans Rottenhammer
Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer, was a German painter, born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Elder. In 1593-4 he was in Rome, and he then settled in Venice from 1595-6 to 1606, before returning to Germany and settling in Augsburg, working also in Munich...
(1564–1625) landscapist from Munich, spent several years in Italy
- Wendel Dietterlin
Wendel Dietterlin , sometimes Wendel Dietterlin the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, was a German mannerist painter, printmaker and architectural theoretician...
(c. 1550-1599), German painter, best known for his book on architectural decoration
- Jacques Bellange
Jacques Bellange was an artist and printmaker from Lorraine, now in France, whose etchings and some drawings are his only securely identified works today. They are among the most striking Mannerist old master prints.-References:...
(c. 1575-1616), court painter of Lorraine, whose work only survives in etchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
.
See also
- Northern Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe...
- Renaissance in the Low Countries
- Henry II style
The Henry II style was the chief artistic movement of the sixteenth century in France, part of Northern Mannerism. It came immediately after High Renaissance and was largely the product of Italian influences...
in French architecture
- Elizabethan furniture
Elizabethan furniture is the form which the Renaissance took in England in furniture and general ornament, and in furniture it is as distinctive a form as its French and Italian counterparts.- Gradual emergence :...
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