20thCenturyRedbook

Monday, 16 June 2025

{The Baroque Period [continued]}[7th May 1991]

[Redbook9:286-287][19910507:0915b]{The Baroque Period [continued]}[7th May 1991]

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[continued]

‘The decrees promulgated after the last session of the Council of Trent in 1563 reaffirmed the old mediaeval concept of art as the servant of the Church; but to this were added the specific demands for simplicity, ** intelligibility, realism, and an emotional stimulus to piety. For the reformers, works of art had a value only as propaganda material, the subject matter being all-important; and in Rome there was as a result a sharp decline in artistic quality. Under austere Counter-Reformation popes such as Paul IV and Pius V, the uncompromisingly dry and prosaic nature of of most official patronage was symptomatic of the times; and this late 16th-century*** [ce] style is best called Counter-Reformation Realist. A similar process took place in Florence, where a strong movement away from Mannerist conventions is seen in the last sculptures Giambologna and in the paintings of L. Cigoli[,] and in Milan where the dominant artistic personalities were the painters Cerano and Morazzone.

****

*64S~1544

Council of Trent:

Period 1: 1545-47[ce]; {64S~1544[ce]}

Period 2: 1551-52[ce]; {64M~1552[ce]}

Period 3: 1562-63[ce]; {64U~1560[ce]}

64U~1560

**R~

(+s~?)

***A~1568|G~1584|C1600[ce]

****– E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 25:352-353

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{The Baroque Period}[7th May 1991]

[Redbook9:286][19910507:0915]{The Baroque Period}[7th May 1991]

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(Baroque)

(Early and High Baroque in Italy)

‘By the last decades of the 16^th century the Mannerist style had ceased to be an effective means of expression. Basically, it was a refined courtly style in which the subject matter was of less importance * than the mode by which it was represented. In Florence a conscious reassessment of High Renaissance painting was taking place by 1550;** and this movement gathered momentum in the last decades of the century, particularly with the Bolgonese painters Ludovico Caracci and his cousin Annibale.

***

*{cf modern art?}

**2048G~|64C1536[ce]

64M~1552[ce]

***– E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 25:352

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{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes][continued (6)]}[6th May 1991]

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‘Unless the term Mannerism is to become so restricted as to exclude the entire oeuvre of Michelangelo, it seems that any definition of it must, after all, take into account those qualities of tension and disturbance that pervaded his art throughout his middle and later career. In some cases, they may be plausibly related to the general spiritual climate of the period; the apocalyptic character of the “Last Judgment” certainly reflects the gloomy and uncertain mood prevailing in Rome immediately after the Sack of 1527. In other cases, Michelangelo’s inner anguish was related to a more obviously personal crisis.* But whatever the cause, the spiritual malaise apparent in his art struck a deeply sympathetic chord in the souls of many of his contemporaries, and artists as diverse as Pontormo, Tintoretto, and El Greco may similarly be seen as adapting the formal language of Mannerism to an expressive purpose far removed from the aesthetic ideal of “maniera”.

*{64C|2048G~1536[ce]}

** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 685]

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{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes][continued (5)]}[6th May 1991]

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‘Another important work* of which the Mannerist status is in doubt is the Last Judgment (1534-42[ce]),[**] painted by Michelangelo on the west wall of the Sistine Chapel.

***

*[of Michelangelo’s]

**{2048G~|64C1536[ce]}

{PTO [next ts journal entry]}

*** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 683]

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Friday, 13 June 2025

{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes][continued (4)]}[6th May 1991]

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‘The same may be said of Vignola’s unexecuted design for the facade of the Gesù in Rome (c[irca]1570[ce]), which exhibits a comparable formality, complexity,[*] and fragility, and which Pevsner has characteristically interpreted as reflecting the “tormenting self-doubt” of the Counter-Reformation.’

*{‘Complexity’ is a recurring theme here}

[as are tension and intensity]

** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 683]

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{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes][continued (3)]}[6th May 1991]

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‘The principle representatives of official[*] Counter-Reformation views on art were, indeed, quite severe in their criticism of contemporary practice as disobedient to the directives issued at the Council of Trent in 1563[ce].’

*{Official Counter Reformation: eg

Foundation of Roman Inquisition 1542[ce] to combat heresy.

Council of Trent 1545-1563[ce]

– per E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 3:677 ‘The Counter Reformation’

(the only 2 precise dates given)

(There had been unofficial movements earlier)

cf 64C1536|S~1544|M~1552|U~1560[ce].}

** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 680]

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{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes][continued]}[6th May 1991]

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‘’For all Vasari’s assertions* that the art of his own age was proceeding from strength to strength, there is an uneasy sense in his writings that perhaps his own generation did not, after all, compare favourably with the proceeding one; after the great climax at the beginning of the century, a decline in art was to be feared.’

*{‘Vite’,** 1550[ce]; cf 2048G~|64C1536[ce];64M~1552[ce]}

** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 679]

***[‘Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects’, 1550ce]

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Thursday, 12 June 2025

{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes]}[6th May 1991]

[Redbook9:266-285][19910506.0000]{‘Mannerism’ [Footnotes]}[6th May 1991]

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[The entire chapter ‘Mannerism’ from The Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:266-265 is reproduced in the ms, but not in the ts nor the blog except where specific ms marginal notes or footnotes require reproduction of the particular extracts from the source text referred to.]

‘In its broadest application, the term [“Mannerist”] is used to embrace all the arts, and would include figures as diverse as Michelangelo (1475-1564[ce]), Breugel (c[irca]1525-69[ce]), and Shakespeare* (1564-1616[ce]). In its narrower sense, it is restricted to a particular trend in the figurative arts of central Italy around the middle of the 16^th century [ce]….’

* | [Marginal emphasis here]

** – [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4: 676]