Time (note wings and hourglass)

Fraud (serpent’s tail, honeycomb and string)

Deceit

Jest or Folly (with roses and bells on his ankle. Has stepped on a thorn – the pleasure and pain of love)

Jealousy

Oblivion (note no back of head, no brain, o memory)

The Golden Apple of Venus given by Paris in the fateful contest with Minerva and Juno (Hera, Athena & Aphrodite). His reward was Helen and the Trojan War.

Allegory with Venus and Cupid c. 1455

• Agnolo Bronzino• A “puzzle painting” –alludes to different

qualities of Love.• Jest – compared to Fraud, Jealousy and Deceit.• Note Time and Oblivion struggling with the

blue cloth in an attempt to reveal (or forget) the Truth

• Venus disarms her own son (Cupid)

Allegories• An allegory that takes time to unravel and understand• Greater effort = greater reward• Some allegories more universal – David & Goliath. Some

more elite. Requires specific education.• May have been a gift of Cosimode’Medici to Francis I. ( a

gift of flattery – implies– 1. that Francis will understand all the references– 2. that Cosimo is intelligent as well– 3. caters to the taste of Francis: elegant, refined, erotic

MannerismBronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time• Given to Francis I of France as a gift from the Medici in

Florence• Extremely learned allegories that defy easy interpretation• Venus fondled by Cupid, her son, and uncovered by Father

Time• Venus holds the apple she won in a beauty contest• Cupid has his eyes on the apple, but does not suspect that

Venus has removed an arrow from his quiver• Folly throws roses• Vanity is beautiful girl on the outside, but an animal under

her skirt• Vanity’s hands are oddly arranged• Masks symbolize falseness; doves symbolize love• Envy is green• Strong contours• High key color, flesh smooth as porcelain

Women Artists

• Women’s roles in Florence, Sienna and Venice very limited

• More relaxed guild system outside of these cities

Prosperzia de’Rossi (1490 – 1530)

•First woman sculptor to leave works of such high quality

•Knowledge of male anatomy that was unusual for the time in women

SofonisbaAnguissola, 1532 – 1625

•1ST woman painter not the daughter of another painter

•Specialized in portraits

•Received high praise from Michelangelo

•Enjoyed the Patronage of the Spanish Royal family

Mannerist Painting• emphasized complexity and virtuosity over naturalistic representation.

• While the formal vocabulary of Mannerism takes much from the later works of Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Raphael (1483–1520), its adherents generally favored compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting.

• Some characteristics common to many Mannerist works include distortion of the human figure,

• a flattening of pictorial space, and a cultivated intellectual sophistication

Mannerism

• Figures often seek out toward the frame rather than the center of the composition

• Heavy Intertwining of Figures• Distortion and elongation of frms• Often a lack of mathematical space• Many religious and mythological subjects,

portraits

Correggio (1494-1534

•Begins a school of painting taken up by Parmigiano in Parma

•Breaks up the symmetry og High Renaissance using bouyant naturalism rather than deliberate chaos

•Specializes in soft voluptuous flesh

•Reminiscent of Mantegna with POV

•Huge influence on Baroque ceiling painting

Mannerism Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long Neck• Exaggerated elegance, long delicate

hands and neck• Ambiguous columns: one column or

many? This part of painting left unfinished, as is the hair of the Christ Child

• Self-portrait of artist gazes out at us at left

• Mary’s small head: standards of beauty of the time

• Christ’s pose inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà

• Vanishing point is low• Oddly proportioned figures, some

parts of the painting are crowded others relatively empty

Mannerism Bologna, Rape of the Sabine Women• Uncommissioned, done to silence

critics who doubted his ability to carve monumental marble works

• To be seen from all sides• Spiraling movement, figura

serpentinata• Arms and legs spiral in space• Nude figures• Reference to Laocoön in the crouching

old man• Three bodies interlock• Ancient sources said that sculptures

were made from a single block. The Renaissance discovered this was untrue. Bologna wanted to surpass the ancients.