2.7 Art of the 16th Century: Mannerism and Baroque Art

Mannerism broke the High Renaissance rules of balance and harmony. Figures have long necks and limbs, poses are twisted, space is crowded or unclear, and colors can be harsh. Artists showed off skill and style, or manner, which gives the movement its name. It came in an unsettled era of the Reformation and the Sack of Rome by imperial troops in 1527.

Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck is a classic example. El Greco, a Greek-born painter who worked in Toledo, Spain, painted elongated, flickering figures with intense spiritual feeling, as in The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586–1588).

In 1563 the Council of Trent declared that religious images should teach the faith and move believers. Baroque art did that. It uses dramatic motion, diagonal lines, rich color and strong contrasts of light and dark, called chiaroscuro. It wants to overwhelm your senses and emotions.

• Caravaggio: placed realistic, even rough-looking people in religious scenes lit by a single harsh light, as in The Calling of Saint Matthew.
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini: sculptor and architect who designed the bronze canopy over the altar of St. Peter's Basilica and the vast colonnade around its square. His Ecstasy of Saint Teresa shows a mystic's spiritual experience in marble.
• Peter Paul Rubens: Flemish painter of huge, energetic canvases, often for Catholic churches and Habsburg rulers. His cycle of paintings on Marie de' Medici glorified the French queen mother.
• Artemisia Gentileschi: one of the few women painters of the era to win wide fame. Her Judith Slaying Holofernes shows a biblical heroine with fierce strength. She was the first woman admitted to Florence's academy of artists.

The Catholic Church used Baroque churches, altarpieces and ceilings to awe worshippers and celebrate Catholic victory over heresy. Monarchs used Baroque palaces and portraits to display their power; Diego Velázquez painted the Spanish royal court, and later Louis XIV's Versailles (see 3.7) took the style to a royal extreme.

Protestant regions had a quieter version. Dutch painters like Rembrandt used Baroque light and shadow but painted portraits, everyday scenes and landscapes for middle-class buyers rather than giant church altarpieces.

Music changed too. Claudio Monteverdi helped create opera around 1600, and Baroque composers later included Bach and Handel.