Editing Mannerism (section)

===Early mannerism===
[[File:Jacopo Pontormo 004.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Jacopo Pontormo]], ''Entombment'', 1528; [[Santa Felicita, Florence]]]]
The early Mannerists in Florence—especially the students of [[Andrea del Sarto]] such as [[Jacopo da Pontormo]] and [[Rosso Fiorentino]]—are notable for elongated forms, precariously balanced poses, a collapsed perspective, irrational settings, and theatrical lighting. [[Parmigianino]] (a student of [[Antonio da Correggio|Correggio]]) and [[Giulio Romano (painter)|Giulio Romano]] (Raphael's head assistant) were moving in similarly stylized aesthetic directions in Rome. These artists had matured under the influence of the High Renaissance, and their style has been characterized as a reaction to or exaggerated extension of it. Instead of studying nature directly, younger artists began studying Hellenistic sculpture and paintings of masters past. Therefore, this style is often identified as "anti-classical",<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Friedländer |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Friedländer |url=https://archive.org/details/mannerismantiman00frie/page/n5/mode/2up?q=%22anti%22 |title=Mannerism and Anti-Mannerism in Italian Painting |publisher=[[Schocken Books]] |year=1965 |pages=48 |isbn=978-0-8052-0094-2 |url-access=registration}}</ref> yet at the time it was considered a natural progression from the High Renaissance. The earliest experimental phase of Mannerism, known for its "anti-classical" forms, lasted until about 1540 or 1550.{{sfn|Freedberg|1993|pp=175–177}} [[Marcia B. Hall]], professor of art history at Temple University, notes in her book ''After Raphael'' that Raphael's premature death marked the beginning of Mannerism in Rome.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In past analyses, it has been noted that mannerism arose in the early 16th century contemporaneously with a number of other social, scientific, religious and political movements such as the [[Copernican heliocentrism]], the [[Sack of Rome in 1527]], and the [[Protestant Reformation]]'s increasing challenge to the power of the Catholic Church. Because of this, the style's elongated forms and distorted forms were once interpreted as a reaction to the idealized compositions prevalent in High Renaissance art.<ref name="grove">Manfred Wundram, "Mannerism," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, [accessed 23 April 2008].</ref> This explanation for the radical stylistic shift {{Circa|1520}} has fallen out of scholarly favor, though early Mannerist art is still sharply contrasted with High Renaissance conventions; the accessibility and balance achieved by Raphael's ''[[The School of Athens|School of Athens]]'' no longer seemed to interest young artists.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}