Late Renaissance Art

The Mannerist paitings are unique in their style, they are "distortions of accepted formal convention." (p. 660) Its a style of art that is made to look artificial, not realistic. With the passing of Rafael, many new artists emerged into the light. I will talk about one artwork of Jacopo da Pontormo and compare it to a painting made by Parmigianino.
Pontoromo's "Entombment" was completed in 1528. It is made of oil and tempera paint on wood. "The image, with its dark ground and gray sky, gives us no sense of location, and barely any grounding for the figures that it holds." (p. 662) The earlier Renaissance paintings were made according to the pyramid or triangular shape, which gave them a type of balance and order. On the contrary, the composition of "Entombment", is rather random and scattered, with no definite shape. Some of the figures, especially the man in the front, are set in very complex positions that don't seem humanly possible, and look like they're about to fall out of the painting. There are other people through out the painting that also have these weird poses that look very uncomfortable, like standing on their tiptoes. Another thing about this painting that makes it very much Mannerist, is the the expressions on the peoples faces. Every person depicted in this painting has a somewhat sad, but dreamy, look on their face, as if they're waiting for something big to happen. The colors used to make this painting are very unnatural as well. For example, the man in the front that is holding Christ, has a very pink back, but, at the same time, he has a bright blue stomach. These are not realistic colors of human skin.
Another painting made in the Mannerist style is "Madonna with the Long Neck". It is also oil on wood, made in 1540 by Parmigianino. This painting is also very unrealistic. The figure of the virgin Mary is very disproportional. Her huge thighs and lower body don't match with the small head, skinny fingers, and a long neck. This figure seems to be in a sitting position, but the viewer can see no chair underneath her, which makes her pose look unrealistic and impossible. The sleeping baby in her arms, looks too big too be a baby when compared to the other figures also in the painting. In the right corner of the painting, there is a unrealistically small figure of a man holding a scroll. His size does not go with the scale of proportions that was used in the earlier Renaissance times to make a painting look more proportional, in relationship to the other figures in the painting.
Unlike "Entombment", the "Madonna with the Long Neck" painting is made of a bigger variety of colors and the expressions on the peoples faces look happy. Another thing different about this painting from the first one, is that it has a background scene. There are curtains, stairs and a white column. Even though this column is not holding up anything, the viewer can imagine that this strange composition is located inside a building, perhaps in a temple of some sort. One last thing that I noticed in "Madonna with the Long Neck" that is different from "Entombment" is the composition of the figures. All of the people, besides the little man in the background, have been painted bunched up together on the right side of Madonna looking at the baby. Madonna, who is in the center of the painting, is also looking down, making the child be the focal point. The other side of the painting just shows us the background and not much human activity. This is different from the busy looking scattered composition of the "Entombment", which has no focal point because everyone seems to be looking into different directions.
Both of the paintings have similarities and differences between them, but they are perfect examples of the Mannerist style. They are very unrealistic, and contain figures in humanly impossible poses with disproportional bodies. I think that this style of painting is very interesting. It makes the viewer stop, look at it, and try to figure out what about the painting is different and what is wrong with the way these people are painted.