Week 5 Mannerism Entombment and Madonna

For this blog I have chosen to analyze Pontormo’s Entombment and Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck. Both of these paintings express mannerism in the way that the people are manipulated to express human emotions.  The expression of the characters within the paintings along with little or no visual support gives the artist the ability to touch the soul of the viewer.

In Pontormo’s Entombment the face of Christ is smooth and at rest his hands are marked from the cross and yet the famed framed work is nowhere to be seen.  The weight of his body is supported by two men whom bear his weight in their faces that reveal shock and pain. The loss of her son is very evident on the face of Mother Mary. The surrounding figures show their sadness and concern for Mary as they attend to her and body of Christ. The presentation of his body to his mother is a strong scene of emotional distress. The only real support that we see given to the figures in the paintings come from the feet of the three figures in the foreground of the scene. In addition the two women shown with their backs to the viewer seem to say the dead are gone it is time to attend to the living.

While the Madonna with the Long Neck by Parmigianino shows a background that is set in a space that provides ground to stand on but little in the way of scenery. We see a column that does not belong and a representation of a man interrupted in reading from a scroll.  In the foreground we see Mary with the Christ child in her lap in a deep sleep. There is the look of adoration in the face of the young boy on the far left while gazing at the face of Mary. Her face shows a deep love for her son while she shows off the sleeping child. Mary’s body is out of proportion giving her the physical proportions of woman whom is larger on bottom than on top. We see a small boy in apparent contemplation. While the remaining children seem crammed in together and are looking out at the viewer and beyond.

Each of these paintings give the viewer the point of view of the artist and their impression of the scene they are painting. Human manners and the expression of the faces of the models cause the viewer to have a more visceral response to the paintings. In viewing the Entombment you can feel the loss of the son of Mary and the effect it had on his mother and her attendants. While in the Madonna we can see the adoration of the mother and the son. In addition we see the artists ability to create support where support does not exist. Mannerism is evident in how the artist manipulated the characters and their scenes to affect the emotional response of the viewer.