[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.91,0:00:03.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(piano music)
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.05,0:00:06.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here we're looking at the great mannerist painting
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.74,0:00:10.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by Parmigianino, called "The Madonna of the Long Neck".
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.38,0:00:12.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a fun painting.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.50,0:00:12.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a tall painting.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.100,0:00:15.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's big. And Madonna is big.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.73,0:00:18.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She's big in funny places, too.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.42,0:00:20.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her head is really tiny.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.84,0:00:23.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Compared to her hips, especially.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.70,0:00:26.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Right, she's got really wide hips.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.02,0:00:29.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She comes down on tiny little toes.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.90,0:00:33.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's always seemed to me like her body is in the shape of a diamond.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:33.26,0:00:36.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In a sense, she is a landscape on which Christ sits.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:36.84,0:00:39.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Christ himself is also quite large.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.68,0:00:44.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's not just large. \NLook at the way he splays his body.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:44.02,0:00:47.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is crazy kind of torsion, with his arm falling,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.79,0:00:49.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,almost dislocated from his shoulder.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.96,0:00:54.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is a precedent for that way his left arm falls down.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:54.27,0:00:57.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you think about Michelangelo's "Pietà"...
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.39,0:01:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Christ here as a child but perhaps echoing when Mary would hold Christ
Dialogue: 0,0:01:04.00,0:01:06.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in images like the "Pietà" when Christ is dead.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.53,0:01:07.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in images like the Pietà when Christ is dead.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.03,0:01:11.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact Christ looks asleep but there's also a way that he looks dead, too.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.59,0:01:15.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That reference in some ways explains the mass of her lap,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.95,0:01:20.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because in that sculpture Mary is quite substantial in order to be able
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.35,0:01:22.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to support the dead body of her son.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.18,0:01:25.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's clear when we're looking at this that we're not in the High Renaissance anymore.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:25.86,0:01:26.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So what happened?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.10,0:01:29.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mannerism happened.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:29.10,0:01:31.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's almost like the artists of the High Renaissance
Dialogue: 0,0:01:31.10,0:01:32.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had done everything that could be done.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.88,0:01:36.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They had perfected the naturalism that they had sought after
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.50,0:01:38.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since the time of Giotto.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.33,0:01:41.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All of the illusionism that was at the service of the High Renaissance
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.88,0:01:45.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is here being used to distort and transform the body.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.75,0:01:49.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's not so much an ugly deformation as a kind of deformation that accentuates
Dialogue: 0,0:01:49.66,0:01:51.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a kind of extreme elegance.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.57,0:01:53.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Exactly. It takes that ideal beauty and elegance
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.65,0:01:55.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that was in the High Renaissance
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.23,0:01:57.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and exaggerates it.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:57.72,0:02:01.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When we're thinking about Mannerism, we think about it as art taken from art,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:01.80,0:02:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,instead of art from nature.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.00,0:02:08.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We think about the Renaissance as being based on observation of nature
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.53,0:02:09.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the natural world,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.95,0:02:13.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but when you look at this you think back to works of art
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.65,0:02:17.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like Michelangelo's "Giuliano de' Medici" and that long neck.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:17.68,0:02:19.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or back to the "Pietà".
Dialogue: 0,0:02:19.93,0:02:23.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That makes a lot of sense - the idea that this is art that is self-referential,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:23.12,0:02:25.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is referring to its own traditions.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:25.12,0:02:27.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The respect for human anatomy,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:27.65,0:02:31.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,portraying that naturalistically - that's not important to Mannerists.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:31.38,0:02:35.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, I think there is a letter from one Mannerist artist to another Mannerist artist
Dialogue: 0,0:02:35.24,0:02:36.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where he says something like:
Dialogue: 0,0:02:36.96,0:02:39.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Take a left hand and put it on a right arm."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.88,0:02:43.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's like a willful complicating of the body.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.25,0:02:47.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...and setting up relationships between forms that are absurd.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.32,0:02:51.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at the relationship between the vase that's being held by the angel
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.03,0:02:54.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in relationship to his/her thigh.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:54.15,0:02:58.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at the relationship between the massive Virgin Mary
Dialogue: 0,0:02:58.24,0:03:01.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the prophet in the lower-right corner
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.47,0:03:04.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is presumably impossibly far away,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.22,0:03:07.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but somehow just a tiny figure at the feet of the Virgin.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.80,0:03:13.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And look at the way the Virgin holds her hand to her chest,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.28,0:03:16.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with these impossibly long, almost boneless fingers.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:16.100,0:03:21.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's a way in which the gesture fails to mean anything.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.57,0:03:23.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It means gesture... and drama...
Dialogue: 0,0:03:23.97,0:03:26.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as opposed to a specific intent of the figure.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.55,0:03:29.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's a kind of dramatizing here.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.50,0:03:30.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For its own sake.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:30.35,0:03:31.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Exactly.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.10,0:03:34.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...with that kind of willful compression
Dialogue: 0,0:03:34.31,0:03:36.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that creates a sense of almost the impossible.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.58,0:03:38.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at the columns on the right,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.46,0:03:41.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there's actually a colonnade that's so deep in space,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:41.47,0:03:43.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's seen at such an oblique angle,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.07,0:03:45.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that it almost seems like a wall or a single column.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:45.30,0:03:47.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look closely at the base,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.13,0:03:49.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you can see the alternating light and shadow
Dialogue: 0,0:03:49.83,0:03:51.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that passes between those columns.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.53,0:03:54.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is ambiguity and that's a large part,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.11,0:03:55.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because that part of the painting is not finished.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:55.95,0:03:59.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So Mannerism seems to be this intense reaction
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.07,0:04:01.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to the perfection of the High Renaissance.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.70,0:04:04.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You have the Renaissance building itself
Dialogue: 0,0:04:04.55,0:04:06.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into a kind of extreme naturalism,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.92,0:04:11.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then it seems to be a flailing reaction against those strictures.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:11.73,0:04:15.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or a sense that there was nowhere to go except to do something really different.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.28,0:04:19.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All these ideas were very much a part of a culture of the court.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:19.73,0:04:24.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's important to recognize that there was a very specific, learned audience
Dialogue: 0,0:04:24.85,0:04:26.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for these kinds of paintings.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:26.12,0:04:29.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These were not made for the artists' own wild interests.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:29.88,0:04:33.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was considered a kind of high intellectual game.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:33.80,0:04:36.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(piano music)