Louvre Masterclass VIII : Italian Mannerism

This eighth Louvre Masterclass explores the development of Italian Mannerism in the sixteenth century through works by Correggio, Parmigianino, Rosso Fiorentino, Bronzino, Pontormo and their contemporaries.

Emerging in the wake of the High Renaissance, Mannerism gradually challenged the ideals of balance, stability and harmony associated with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. Artists developed a more complex visual language characterised by elegance, elongated forms, sophisticated poses, unstable spaces, refined colour and deliberately artificial expression.

Through close study of individual works, the session will examine the principal characteristics of Mannerism and the different forms it assumed across Italian artistic centres.

Correggio’s paintings will introduce the sensuous treatment of light, the movement of figures and illusionistic experiments that profoundly transformed the representation of space.

With Parmigianino, participants will explore elongated proportions, cultivated grace, intricate poses and the tension between ideal beauty and deliberate distortion.

Works by Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino will offer an opportunity to consider Florentine experiments with colour, movement, emotion and spatial construction, and their departure from the classical models of the preceding generation.

Bronzino will provide an introduction to a particularly sophisticated form of court art, in which precision of drawing, apparent coolness, elegant poses, sumptuous dress and psychological ambiguity play essential roles.

Particular attention will be paid to maniera, disegno, sprezzatura, grace, artificiality, distortion, spatial tension and chromatic refinement, showing how Mannerism transformed rather than simply abandoned the achievements of the Renaissance.

The session will also place these works within the political and cultural context of the sixteenth century: the rise of the great Italian courts, the role of the Medici, the movement of artists, princely patronage and the consequences of the Sack of Rome in 1527 for artistic exchanges.

The spread of Mannerism beyond Italy will also be considered, notably through Italian artists working in France and the development of the First School of Fontainebleau.

Through visual analysis and discussion, the masterclass will offer practical ways to introduce Mannerism to different audiences, recognise its distinctive features in front of artworks and construct a clear narrative around a movement often regarded as complex or difficult to define.