Northern Mannerism: The Flemish Experience (1560 - 1600)

Artists from the Low Countries had been traveling to Italy since the early part of the 16th century -- Jan Gossaert was the first to make the trip in 1509 -- but, to a large extent, the Netherlandish painting style remained aloof from Italian Renaissance influences. Those artists who did reflect some Italian influence in their work in the first half of the 15th century became known as Romanists. The Italianate influence was reflected in: (i) a greater emphasis on human form; (ii) the addition of classical myths and legends to the artist's repertoire; and (iii) inclusion of Classic Roman architecture in the painted scene. The works of these artists were primarily religious and mythological and included anatomically correct human beings in contrived poses.

Mannerism arose in Florence towards the end of the High Renaissance but came into full flower in Rome from whence it was exported to points north. This "Northern Mannerism" had unique individual flavors depending on the geographic region in which it took root. For example, the French strain of Northern Mannerism was referred to as the Fontainebleau School and was characterized by an innate elegance.

The type of Mannerist expression encountered in Antwerp prior to the religious troubles differed from the Counter-Reformation-compliant art in evidence during the re-furnishing of places of worship which, in turn, differed from the Haarlem Mannerism with its Prague-infused roots. I will examine Northern Mannerism on both sides of the post-1585 Low-Countries-dividing line beginning, in this post, with the Flemish experience.

Frans Floris (1520 - 1570)

Floris, known in his day as the Flemish Raphael, is a clear link between the Romanist and Mannerist styles in that his works done around 1545 were Romanist while those done post-1560 were Mannerist.

Frans Floris

Floris studied in Rome from 1541 to 1545, and upon his return established a large successful school (over 120 graduates) while also cornering the market for drawings for engravers. All printmakers active in the Netherlands between 1550 and 1570 worked from his designs.

Floris primarily painted religious works and Classical allegories in a "rather artificial style that borrowed heavily from Michelangelo and the Italian Mannerists in its elegant rhetoric and cool eroticism" (Vlieghe).

In his transition to Mannerism he took a less sculptural approach to the figures in his paintings  and his palette became more monochromatic. His later Mannerist style evidenced some influence from the Fontainebleau School in that his figures became more elegant and his output more refined.

Banquet of the Gods, 1550
Frans Floris

The awakening of the Arts, 1560
Frans Floris

The Mannerist style that Floris evolved remained dominant in Flanders until the end of the 16th century. Floris never recovered from seeing his paintings destroyed during the furies and virtually stopped painting after 1566.

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A great number of altarpieces had been destroyed or disappeared during the iconoclastic furies and a major effort was undertaken to replace them. Frans Floris had ceased painting but a large number of young painters (who had either been trained by Floris, or had made the trip to Italy and so was familiar with the Mannerist style, or both) were available to take up the task. Application of these learnings to the production of the new art varied widely, however. Some artists went back to their Netherlandish roots, while others fully applied the Mannersist idioms, while still others implemented a hybrid approach.  One of the painters in the highest demand during this period was Marten de Vos.

Marten de Vos (1532 - 1603)
De Vos was trained by his father and Frans Floris and traveled to Rome in the company of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He resided in Italy from 1550 to 1558 and worked in Tintoretto's studio in Venice. When de Vos returned to Antwerp in 1558, Floris was the leading history painter in Flanders and it was very difficult for young painters to gain commissions.

His paintings in the 1560s and 1570s clearly reflected his Floris training and the time that he had spent in Italy. His early paintings, according to Hans Vlieghe (Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585 - 1700), "... can easily be recognized by the gracefully stylized and elongated poses of the figures, with their sometimes emphatic distortions as well as in the typical Raumflucht effects of foreshortening and perspective." His Mannerist styling is displayed in The Dream of Pilate's Wife.

The dream of Pilate's Wife
Marten de Vos

Withe the passage of time, and an increase in commissions and fame, the Mannerist idioms began to slip out of de Vos' compositions. In the altarpiece Christ showing his wounds to Thomas, "a tempered Mannerism is combined with a preference for narrative that is more in line with Netherlandish tradition" (Vlieghe). In Saint Luke painting the Virgin, the Mannerist elements are almost totally missing.

Christ showing his wounds to Thomas, 1574
Marten de Vos

Saint Luke painting the Madonna, 1602
Marten de Vos

Ambrosius and Frans Francken
The Francken brothers exhibited a similar painting style to Marten de Vos. Born into a successful painting family, Hieronymus, Ambrosius, and Frans Francken trained under Frans Folis. Ambrosius and Hieronymus went to Fontainbleau upon completing training in 1570, with Ambrosius returning to Antwerp in 1573. Ambrosius, like de Vos, capitalized on the need for large altar pieces post the Reformation. His style is characterized as "descriptive realism with reminiscenses of the Early Netherlandis traditions ... combined with the portrayal of Mannerist physical contortions derived from the late-16th-century Tuscan-Roman art."

Frans Francken exhibited a similar style in his works.

The Martyrdom of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian
Ambrosius Francken

Christ among the Scribes, 1586
Frans Francken

Hendrik de Clerck (1570 - 1630)
Hendrik de Clerck, the foremost artist in Brussels in his day, was a student of De Vos and the teacher's work served as his starting point. He served as the Court painter to Ernest, Archduke of the Netherlands as well as his successors, Albert and Isabella.

Self-Portrait
Hendrik de Clerck

De Clerck painted a significant number of altarpieces to replace those damaged in churches and monasteries. As did De Vos, he sought a Netherlandish-tradition-based realism but his "weak and sometimes apparently elongated poses, together with the more sentimental facial expressions of his characters, also betray knowledge of the style of Parmigianino, with which De Clerck must first have become familiar in Italy" (Vlieghe).

Vlieghe sees De Clerck's emotionally charged Mannerism as akin to the Haarlem Mannerists but subordinated to "clear and well organized composition." His general characteristics include hard, rather metallic linearity and boniness of the male face, starkly accentuated by the sculptural effect of light.

The Judgment of Midas, c. 1600
Hendrik de Clerck

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It was almost a rite of passage for a Flemish painter to travel to Italy upon completion of his apprenticeship and, while their, to study the masters, the Classics, and, in the latter part of the 16th century Mannerism." But these painters were also schooled in the Netherlandish traditions and we see that, when called upon to deliver the large numbers of religious paintings required after the Reformation, they employed a watered-down Mannerism in the eventual solution. In the case of Marten de Vos, his later paintings contained no Mannerist idioms.

I will treat the Haarlem Mannerists in my next post.

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