French Mannerism  

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Northern Mannerism, Mannerism, French Renaissance, mythological painting

France received a direct injection of Italian style in the form of the first School of Fontainebleau, where from 1530 several Florentine artists of quality were hired to decorate the palace of Fontainebleau, with some French assistants being taken on. The most notable imports were: Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo de' Rossi) (1494–1540), Francesco Primaticcio (c.1505-1570), Niccolò dell'Abbate (c.1509-1571), all of whom remained in France until their deaths. This conjunction succeeded in generating a native French style with strong Mannerist elements that was then able to develop largely on its own. Jean Cousin the Elder, for example, produced paintings, such as Eva Prima Pandora and Charity, that, with their sinuous, elongated nudes, drew palpably upon the artistic principles of the Fontainebleau school. Cousin's son Jean the Younger, most of whose works have not survived, and Antoine Caron both followed in this tradition, producing an agitated version of the mannerist aesthetic in the context of the French Wars of Religion. The iconography of figurative works was mostly mythological, with a strong emphasis on Diana, goddess of the hunting that was the original function of Fontainebleau, and namesake of Diane de Poitiers, mistress and muse of Henry II, and keen huntress herself. She was always depicted with a slim, long-legged and athletic figure.[1]

Other parts of Northern Europe did not have the advantage of such intense contact with Italian artists, but the Mannerist style made its presence felt through prints and books, the purchases of Italian works by rulers and others, travels to Italy, and individual Italian artists working in the North.

Much of the most important work at Fontainebleau was in the form of stucco reliefs, often executed by French artists to drawings by the Italians (and then reproduced in prints), and the Fontainebleau style affected French sculpture more strongly than French painting. The huge stucco frames which dominate their inset paintings with bold high-relief strapwork, swags of fruit, and generous staffage of naked nymph-like figures, were very influential on the vocabulary of Mannerist ornament all over Europe, spread by ornament books and prints by Androuet du Cerceau and others—Rosso seems to have been the originator of the style. The mysterious and sophisticated Saint-Porchaire ware, of which only about sixty pieces survive, brought a similar aesthetic into pottery.

Apart from the Palace of Fontainebleau itself, other important buildings decorated in the style were the Château d'Anet (1547-52) for Diane de Poitiers, and parts of the Palais du Louvre. Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts promoted the Mannerist style, except in portraiture, and her court festivities were the only regular northern ones to rival the intermedios and entries of the Medici court in Florence; all of which relied heavily on the visual arts. After an interlude when work on Fontainebleau was abandoned at the height of the French Wars of Religion, a "Second School of Fontainebleau" was formed from local artists in the 1590s.

Mannerism in France continued into the 17th century, where it is known as the "Henry II style" and it had a particular impact on architecture.

Artists

French artists influenced by the first School of Fontainebleau:

Jean Cousin the Elder (1500-c. 1590)
Jean Goujon (c. 1510-after 1572) sculptor and architect
Juste de Juste (ca. 1505 – ca. 1559) - sculptor and etcher
Antoine Caron (1521 - 1599)

The continuing French tradition:

Germain Pilon (c. 1537 - 1590), sculptor
Androuet du Cerceau, family of architects; Jacques I introducing Mannerist ornament
Jean Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522-1595), painter
Toussaint Dubreuil (c. 1561 - 1602), second School of Fontainebleau:




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