Jan van Doornick - The Marriage of the Virgin - 29-1929 - Saint Louis Art Museum

Antwerp Mannerism is the name given to the style of a group of largely anonymous painters active in the Southern Netherlands and principally in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in roughly the first three decades of the 16th century, a movement marking the tail end of Early Netherlandish painting, and an early phase within

Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting represents the 16th-century response to Italian Renaissance art in the Low Countries. These artists, who span from the Antwerp Mannerists and Hieronymus Bosch at the start of the 16th century to the late No ...

. The style bore no relation to Italian Mannerism, which it mostly predates by a few years, but the name suggests that it was a reaction to the "classic" style of the earlier Flemish painters, just as the Italian Mannerists were reacting to, or trying to go beyond, the classicism of

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

art. The Antwerp Mannerists' style is certainly "mannered", and "characterized by an artificial elegance. Their paintings typically feature elongated figures posed in affected, twisting, postures, colorful ornate costumes, fluttering drapery, Italianate architecture decorated with grotesque ornament, and crowded groups of figures...".

Joseph Koerner Joseph Leo Koerner (born June 17, 1958) is an American art historian and filmmaker. He is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and, since 2008, Senior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard Universi ...

notes "a diffuse sense of outlandishness in Antwerp art, of an exoticism both of subject and means ... evoking a non-localized elsewhere". Antwerpener Meister 002

The subject of the

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...

was a particular favourite, as it allowed the artists to give free rein to their preoccupation with ornament and the simulation and imitation of luxury products. The Biblical Magi were also regarded as the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

s of travellers and merchants, which was relevant for the painters' clientele in what had become Europe's main centre for international trade, in a "meteoric rise" after 1501, when the first Asian cargos were landed by Portuguese ships. The theme of rich commodities arriving from distant and exotic parts of the world had a natural appeal to Antwerp merchant buyers, a large proportion themselves foreign. Many artists from around the Netherlands and further afield moved to the city to benefit from the boom, which saw large workshops "that grew into assembly lines", and a great increase in the quantity of art produced, but also some fall in quality; this is especially seen among the minor figures grouped under this term. Many smaller works were produced without commissions, for sale from shop windows, at fairs, or to dealers, rather than for an individual commission, an indication of a growing trend in Netherlandish painting. The Antwerp ''Pand'' was a

trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...

lasting six weeks, where many painters sold works, and the latest ideas were exchanged and diffused. Although sometimes spoken of as the "subterm “Antwerp Mannerism” as part of "Northern Mannerism in the early sixteenth century", the movement is better distinguished from the

Northern Mannerism Northern Mannerism is the form of Mannerism found in the visual arts north of the Alps in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Styles largely derived from Italian Mannerism were found in the Netherlands and elsewhere from around the mid-century, e ...

of later in the century, which developed from Italian Mannerism. There was very little continuity between the two, with Northern Mannerism proper developing in the Netherlands only after a gap of about fifty years after Antwerp Mannerism declined in the 1530s, and after the next stylistic wave of Romanism, heavily influenced by Italian painting, as seen in the later works of

Gossaert Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1 October 1532) was a French-speaking painter from the Low Countries also known as Jan Mabuse (the name he adopted from his birthplace, Maubeuge) or Jennyn van Hennegouwe ( Hainaut), as he called himself when he matri ...

Name

The term ''Antwerp Manierists'' was first used in 1915 by

Max Jakob Friedländer Max Jakob Friedländer (5 July 1867 in Berlin – 11 October 1958 in Amsterdam) was a German museum curator and art historian. He was a specialist in Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Renaissance, who volunteered at the Kupferstichkab ...

in his work ''Die Antwerpener Manieristen von 1520'', in which he made a first attempt to put order in the growing number of works from the Netherlands that were catalogued under the "name of embarrassment 'pseudo-

Herri met de Bles Herri met de Bles, also known as Henri Blès, Herri de Dinant, Herry de Patinir, and ''il Civetta'' (c. 1490 – after 1566), was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter, native of Bouvignes or Dinant (both in present-day ...

' " (usually now "Pseudo Bles" or "Pseudo-Blesius").Max J. Friedländer: Die Antwerpener Manieristen von 1520. In: Jahrbuch der königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen 36, 1915, p. 65–91, p. 65 Friedländer used the term Antwerp Mannerism here as synonymous for "Antwerp style". Even though he added the location 'Antwerp' to name the artists and placed them in the year 1520, Friedländer made it clear that he did not intend to limit the group strictly to Antwerp and the time period to circa 1520, even though he was of the opinion that most of the "pseudo-Bles' works originated from Antwerp and Antwerp workshops. Friedländer placed the works attributed to the group in a time period between 1500 and 1530. Despite the name Antwerp Mannerism the style was not limited to Antwerp. The style also appeared in the north of France and the Northern Netherlands.ExtravagAnt! Antwerp pictures for the European market 1500–1525
at Codart

Artists

Although attempts have been made to identify the individual artists that were part of this movement, most of the paintings remain attributed to

anonymous masters In art history, an anonymous master is an Old Master whose work is known, but whose name is lost. Renaissance Only in the Renaissance did individual artists in Western Europe acquire personalities known by their peers (some listed by Vasari in hi ...

as the paintings were not signed. This anonymity has contributed to a lack of knowledge about or popularity of their works. Only a minority of the works have been attributed. The makers of the altarpieces have been given

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

s based on any external knowledge about the works such as an inscription, a previous owner, the place where it was kept or a date found on the work. These include as the Pseudo-Bles, the

Master of the Von Groote Adoration The Master of the Von Groote Adoration is a notname given to an artist or a number of artists or various workshops active in Antwerp sometime between 1500 and 1520.

, the Master of Amiens, the

Master of the Antwerp Adoration The Master of the Antwerp Adoration (active 1500 – 1520) was a Flemish painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism, whose compositions are typically filled with agitated figures in exotic, extravagant clothes. His notname is from a triptych sh ...

and the

Master of 1518 The Master of 1518 is a Flemish painter belonging to the stylistic school of Antwerp Mannerism. A group of unsigned paintings is attributed to this artist on stylistic grounds, and his name is derived from the date inscribed on the painted wings ...

. Works that cannot be attributed directly to a named master are attributed to ''Anonymous Antwerp Mannerist''. The

Master of the Lille Adoration The Master of the Lille Adoration (active ), was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Antwerp, as one of the Antwerp Mannerists. He was first suggested as a distinct but unknown figure in 1995 in an article by Ellen Konowitz, a proposal w ...

is a new figure, first proposed in 1995. There is evidence that some workshops developed division of labour, with different artists specializing in figures, landscape or architectural backgrounds, and dividing the work on a particular painting between them, and different workshops specializing in one or two subjects. Compositions were often copied, repeated or adapted; for example at least six versions of an ''Adoration of the Magi'' triptych composition by

Joos van Cleve Joos van Cleve (; also Joos van der Beke; c. 1485–1490 – 1540/1541) was a leading painter active in Antwerp from his arrival there around 1511 until his death in 1540 or 1541. Within Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, he combines the tr ...

and his workshop are known, though varying considerably in size, with the widths of the centre panel ranging from 56 to 93 cm. It has been possible to identify some of the artists. Jan de Beer, the

(possibly Jan Mertens or

Jan van Dornicke Jan van Dornicke was a South Netherlandish painter who was born in Doornik (nowadays also known as Tournai) in about 1470 and died about 1527. His first name is sometimes spelled "Janssone", and his last name is sometimes spelled "van Doornik" o ...

) and

Adriaen van Overbeke Adriaen van Overbeke, Adrian van Overbeck and Adriaen van Overbeke (''fl'' 1508 – 1529) was a Flemish Renaissance painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism. He operated a large workshop with an important output of altarpieces, which were ma ...

are some of the identified artists who are regarded as Antwerp Mannerists. The early paintings of

Jan Gossaert Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1 October 1532) was a French-speaking painter from the Low Countries also known as Jan Mabuse (the name he adopted from his birthplace, Maubeuge) or Jennyn van Hennegouwe ( Hainaut), as he called himself when he matri ...

and

Adriaen Isenbrandt Adriaen Isenbrandt or Adriaen Ysenbrandt (between 1480 and 1490 – July 1551) was a painter in Bruges, in the final years of Early Netherlandish painting, and the first of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting of the Northern Renaissance. ...

(in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

) also show characteristics of the style. The paintings combine

Early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

and

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

styles, and incorporate both Flemish and Italian traditions into the same compositions. A particular problem is that Antwerp was very badly hit by the

Beeldenstorm ''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...

of 1566, when a large proportion of the altarpieces in the churches were destroyed by iconoclastic rioters. Some of these are documented and probably many were signed, which would have helped greatly in attributing the mostly smaller paintings that have survived; these were no doubt still in private houses. The

Sack of Antwerp The Sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in the history of the Low Countries. On 4 November 1576, mutinying Spanish tercios of the Army of Flanders beg ...

or "Spanish Fury" of 1576, by unpaid Spanish troops caused much further destruction. Elsewhere in the Netherlands, artists in the large workshop of

Cornelis Engebrechtsz. Cornelis Engebrechtsz., also known as Cornelis Engelbrechtsz. (c.1462–1527) was an early Dutch painter. He was born and died in Leiden, and is considered the first important painter from that city.

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

seem to have pulled their reluctant master in the Mannerist direction, and at least the extravagant clothes and architectural settings are seen in the otherwise more solidly based works of the

Master of Delft The Master of Delft ( fl –1520) was a Dutch painter of the final period of Early Netherlandish painting, whose name is unknown. He may have been born around 1470. The notname was first used in 1913 by Max Jakob Friedländer, in describing the ...

and in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

Jan Mostaert Jan Mostaert (c. 1475 – 1552/1553) was a Dutch Renaissance painter who is known mainly for his religious subjects and portraits. One of his most famous creations was the ''Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America''. There are ve ...

. The Antwerp workshop of

(probably originally German) could work in the style, as well as others.

Subjects and style

The Antwerp Mannerists typically depicted religious subjects, which they interpreted generally in a more superficial manner than the Flemish artists of the previous century in favour of a more fluid form and an abundance of meticulously rendered details."H. Bex-Verschaeren" "Meester van de Antwerpse aanbidding
, in: Openbaar Kunstbezit, 1965 Although one scholar has described Friedlander's label as "utterly inefficient as a stylistic guide", there are communalities. Their "essentially late Gothic style is characterized by calligraphically complicated compositions peopled with elongated, theatrically-dressed figures animated by improbable poses and repetitive gestures". According to James Snyder, "Receptivity, not originality, characterises the style of Antwerp painting, resulting in a hodgepodge of modes that are nearly impossible to sort out... With some effort, a few basic tendencies can be discerned which include selective eclecticism and archaism in terms of style, Mannerism in matters of taste, and specialization in subject matter." The compositions typically include architectural ruins. The architecture is initially Gothic but later Renaissance motifs become dominant.''De schilderkunst der Lage Landen: De Middeleeuwen en de zestiende eeuw'', Amsterdam University Press, 2006, p. 172-175 The "antique" style appears in paintings when hardly any built examples existed in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

, any more than ruins from

Roman architecture Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered on ...

. The Mannerist painters show very little evidence of having visited Italy (where

had been in 1508–09), and their idea of ''alla antica'' style must be derived from Italian prints, and sometimes drawings. At this period painters or other artists were the usual designers of buildings, especially their ornament, and until a court case in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

in 1543, master-masons were prohibited from doing so there by

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

restrictions. Pseudo-blesius-adoracion reyes-prado

The fantastic and exotic costumes many characters wear were already a feature of Early Netherlandish painting in the previous century, and the Biblical Magi and their retinues gave one of the most typical settings for this. They seem to derive partly from theatrical contexts, such as ''tableaux vivants'' in royal entries and other pageants, which artists were often asked to design. Another influence was the visit of the Byzantine Emperor

John VIII Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( gr, Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, Iōánnēs Palaiológos; 18 December 1392 – 31 October 1448) was the penultimate Byzantine emperor, ruling from 1425 to 1448. Biography John VIII was ...

and his 700-strong retinue to the

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

stage of the Council of Florence in 1438. They were drawn by Pisanello and others, and the drawings were copied across Europe. The emperor's stylish hat, with a long pointed peak in front, seen on the Medal of John VIII Palaeologus, was especially popular, and versions appear in a good proportion of paintings of the Magi (as in some illustrated here). The large costumes were also useful in concealing deficiencies in the artists' figure drawing, which the complicated poses would otherwise have exposed. The artists liked "chromatic" colouring, as was becoming fashionable in Italy, and ''coleur changeante'' transitions between colours in fabrics, imitating silks (called

cangiante According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall, which has gained considerable acceptance, ''cangiante'' is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance; i.e. one of the four modes of painting colours available to Italian Hig ...

in Italy). Compositional elements, especially figures, are often taken from outside sources, especially prints, but also drawings which appear to have been passed around within and perhaps between workshops:"Thus background groups are endlessly repeated, the same repoussoire figures fill in a variey of empty corners, and stock poses answer many demands". The prints of Albrecht Dürer were the most common easily traceable source. Woodcut style also influenced the type of

underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. These ...

revealed by special photography, "extremely detailed underdrawing with an elaborate system of shading (hatching and crosshatching) and broad, curling contour lines". This is sometimes described as using the "woodcut convention" or having the "woodcut look". Although "detailed underdrawing in the woodcut convention appears labor intensive, it simplified the production process and saved on costs". Apart from the

, many of the panels or triptychs produced by the Antwerp Mannerists depicted the major events in the Life of Christ, including the Nativity, and the Crucifixion. Larger triptych altarpieces for churches might have several small scenes on the reverses of the hinged wings, giving the "closed view" which was displayed most of the time, the wings only being opened perhaps on Sundays or feast days (or for visitors on a small payment to the sacristan).

Drawings and miniatures

A number of highly finished drawings in the Antwerp style, possibly copies of paintings, can be shown to have been used as the basis for miniatures in illuminated manuscript

books of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript ...

made in France, probably around

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

, by the so-called "1520s Hours Workshop". At the same time the continuing Ghent-Bruges style of illumination had little influence in French manuscripts.Orth, 79 File:Jan de Beer - Martyrdom of St. Sebastian.jpg, Jan de Beer, Martyrdom of

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Dioclet ...

File:Master of the Antwerp Adoration (and workshop) - The Holy Family with Two Saints - Google Art Project.jpg,

(and workshop), ''The Holy Family with Two Saints'', c. 1520 File:Adriaen van Overbeke - Tryptich of crucifixion with scenes of the carrying of the cross and the resurrection.jpg,

''Triptych of the crucifixion'', Maagdenhuis, Antwerp

Notes

References

* Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn et al., ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', 2009, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.
google books
*Kavaler, Ethan Matt, in Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn (ed), ''Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance : the Complete Works'', 2010, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9781588393982
fully online
* Koerner, Joseph Leo, "The Epihany of the Black Magus Circa 1500" in, Bindman, D., Gates, H. L. (2010). ''The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition: artists of the Renaissance and Baroque'', United Kingdom: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
google books
*Konowitz, Ellen. “Dirk Vellert and the Master of the Lille Adoration: Some Antwerp Mannerist Paintings Reconsidered.” ''Oud Holland'', vol. 109, no. 4, 1995, pp. 177–190
JSTOR
Accessed 20 Dec. 2020. *Leeflang, Micha. "Joos Van Cleve's "Adoration of the Magi" in Detroit: Revealing the Underdrawing," ''Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts'' 82, no. 1/2 (2008): 60-75. Accessed January 3, 2021
JSTOR
*Orth, Myra D. "Antwerp Mannerist Model Drawings in French Renaissance Books of Hours: A Case Study of the 1520s Hours Workshop." ''The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery'' 47 (1989): 61-90. Accessed December 31, 2020
JSTOR
* Snyder, James. ''Northern Renaissance Art'', 1985, Harry N. Abrams, *Wisse, Jacob
“Northern Mannerism in the Early Sixteenth Century
��, In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002 *Van Den Brink, Peter. "A Shattered Jigsaw Puzzle: On a Partly Reconstructed Altarpiece by the Master of the Antwerp Adoration", ''Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch'' 68 (2007): 161-80, Accessed December 31, 2020
JSTOR

External links

* {{Western art movements Mannerism Flemish Renaissance painters Art movements Early Netherlandish painters Netherlandish Renaissance art