Explain the rise of mannerism and the baroque style

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

After the Catholic Reformation, the religious zeal of the reformers inspired a tremendous surge of artistic activity, especially in Italy and Spain. In Venice and Rome, the centers of Italian cultural life, the clarity and order of High Renaissance art gave way to the visual eccentricities of Mannerism (from the Italian maniera, meaning "style"). Coined in the twentieth century, the term "Mannerism" describes a style characterized by virtuosity in execution, artificiality, and affectation. Flourishing between ca. 1520 and 1610, Mannerism became a vehicle for the spiritual upheavals of its time. Mannerist artists brought a new level of inventive fantasy and psychological intensity to otherwise traditional subject matter. Their works mirrored the self-conscious spirituality and deep insecurity generated by Europe's religious wars and political rivalries.
The baroque style, which flourished between roughly 1600 and 1750, brought heightened naturalism and a new level of emotionalism to Western art. Derived from the Portuguese word barocco, which describes the irregularly shaped pearls often featured in ornamental European decoration, the term baroque is associated with such features as ornateness, spatial grandeur, and theatrical flamboyance. In painting, the baroque is characterized by asymmetric compositions, strong contrasts of light and dark, vigorous brushwork, and bold, illusionistic effects. A synthesis of the arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture—promoted the ambitions of sacred and secular alike.