Week 5 Late Renaissance

When examining the mannerism works of “Madonna with a long neck” by Parmigianino, and “Entombment” by Potormo we can see many similar elements of design.

The first element that comes to my eye when I compare these two pieces is the form. Both images show human (or heavenly) figures in a small group while holding another human form. This is a carry over trait from the high renaissance, which is to include a mass of people, and a connection. In both images it is clear that the beings are all in the same plane. Meaning that the others acknowledge each body. However one major difference that affects the form of the individuals in these paintings is how each artist uses light to portray form. In Madonna light and shadow is used fairly realistically, which form a very natural feeling in the human bodies. This is in contrast to the Pontormo piece which floods the image with light creating unrealistic shapes and shadows in the human forms. Everything in Portomo’s piece is fairly flat, except for maybe the garments. In Madonna everything has a very natural flow to it and highlights and shadows follow the lines in a realistic way.

This leads me to consider the lines in both of these images. It seems to me that both paintings have very similar lines to form very similar shapes. Both have nice flowing organic lines in the fabrics of the garments or curtains, while at the same time have very strong lines in the architecture of the Madonna piece and the rocks in the Pontormo piece. What I also enjoy is the way line creates the environment. In both paintings in the upper left hand of the image there is a very natural flowy object. In the Madonna it is a nicely draped and shadowed curtain, while in the Pontormo piece there is a nicely rendered cloud the gives similar weight to both images.

In terms of weight, I believe this is achieved in both paintings by using another element, color, to visually alter the representative weight. In Madonna every thing seems to have a weight to it. The aforementioned natural shading and highlights do this, but also by the colors the artist chose to represent his image. The use of darker earthier tones gives a sense of visual weight as we usually assume great weight with earth type objects. No the opposite is true with the Pontormo piece. In this the use of light colors and unrealistic shading does give my eye a good idea of weight. This is mostly in part to the unnatural highlights that flatten out the image taking away any sense of a three-dimensional space.

The final element I wanted to touch on was the way the paintings are laid out. In both paintings the aspect ratio is the same. Meaning that both are narrow and tall. The similarities go even further when you examine how the artists used that space. Both fill the space with similar objects in similar places.

In all these are a great contrast that shows the variance between the kind of art that was being done in the late renaissance.