One of Stiles' Favorites

Madonna of the Long Neck, by Parmigianino (1534/40). I have to tell you, this painting is one of my all-time favorites, even as strange as it seems. [And, yes, its awkward appearance WAS intentional!] Following the "High Renaissance" era that ended *around* 1520, the year of Raphael's death, the so-called "Mannerist" painters were a group of individuals who were...uh...individuals. Your know the types: your typical anti-status-quo artists!

These rebels-seeking-employment had trained under the great Masters, yet they intentionally chose to break the accepted rules of composition in order to please themselves...or, more importantly, their clients. You see, the patrons to whom these works appealed would NOT have seen this Madonna as a "freak show" or the Jesus as a "baby alien." Rather, their sophisticated senses of aesthetic appreciation would have helped them understand these paintings as elegant exceptions to the creative canons, as shockingly new works of pure genius. And so we find Realism bowing to exaggerated line, a thigh that looks like the amphora next to it, and an alabaster neck that repeats the background column.

This is *fun* art that was made expressly for people of taste and significant means. While the latter may not be true of this group (i.e., of starving art students), we will nevertheless be seeing you, Parmigianino, in the Uffizi (room 29).