Post #5

Pontormo - Entombment

Parmigianino - Madonna with the Long Neck

            Comparing Pontormo’s Entombment (from page 661) alongside with Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck (from page 662) are two pieces that have vastly different compositional elements that separate both in a wide spectrum.  Personally, I find it hard to believe that these pieces were only five years apart within their creation.  They both follow certain aspects of Mannerism that illustrates how these artists were evolving from the Early Renaissance style, but still paid attention to the criteria of naturalism.

            Some things that stand out as similarities are that both of the paintings seem to be conveying the same message as they highlight the importance as Christ within their arms or hold.  They both represent various uses of colors and shades within their pieces that help bring out detail and the importance of the attire they wore during this period.  Looking closer at the paintings, they both seem to portray women with slightly longer elongated necks, although it is more obvious in Parmigianino’s work.  They both focus on the Mannerism style by cropping others out of the painting, leaving more figures to the imagination as if they existed in real life outside of the piece.  With this being said, it leaves the idea that this exact image acts as if it completely natural and we shouldn’t be phased by the absence of the entire covered area.

            However, these paintings being so close to each other in date, also had a handful of differences that almost distinguish them as separate styles all together.  First off, within the Entombment, it seems to be a very busy painting with a lot of different clashing colors, which scatters the focal point, but eventually brings your eyes to the figure of Christ laying on a woman’s shoulders and another is carrying his upper body within her arms.  This varies greatly from Madonna with the Long Neck since this piece focuses exclusively on the importance of Mary and the son of Christ laying on her lap, which is also illustrated as a child and not a full grown man.  As far as color/hues go, I think that the Entombment piece uses a very wide variety of colors, but doesn’t use enough closely related colors that help really highlight detail within each figure like that of Parmigianino’s piece, which is overall a darker medium, but expresses vast detail throughout the entire painting.  In Madonna with the Long Neck, the artist focuses more on facial detail as well as capturing the basic elements of how his audience should grasp it.

            Although both of these paintings fit into the category of Mannerist style paintings, they seem to lack certain key parts that help create the “naturalistic” feel to them; such as the absence of the chair with Madonna, and the figures floating in the air in Entombment.  It leaves an unsatisfied feel to the painting, while still portraying the celebration and fascination of Christ.  If I were able to separate these two paintings into different categories, I would definitely say that Entombment falls into the category of Early Mannerist, while Madonna with the Long Neck would be deemed into the High Mannerist style.