Comparative Analysis of Two Mannerist Paintings

Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck and Bronzino’s Allegory with Venus and Cupid both display a mother interacting with her son and are painted in a Mannerist style of the Late Renaissance. One might think the similarity in subject matter ends there as one is a Christian religious painting while the other has Classical characters behaving in an overtly sexual manner but while both sons are children they can be seen to exhibit characteristics of adulthood.

Both Paintings demonstrate a Mannerist Style. The Madonna clearly has elongated fingers, torso and neck while Baby Jesus has the body of a four year old judging by the length of his limbs, while retaining a baby’s head. Venus and Cupid also have elongated features as well as twisted limbs and unnatural, nearly impossible poses.  The figures in both paintings are comparatively large to the canvas size giving a cramped feeling to the works and placed in an uncomfortable, unbalanced composition: Baby Jesus appears to be poised to slip off of the Madonna’s lap and Venus’ pose appears to be tilted up in perspective not unlike the works of the Early Renaissance Flemish painters using intuitive perspective, while her son is twisted in a back wrenching pose that would be extremely unnatural and uncomfortable for a human being to be in. While Madonna with the Long Neck can be said to be exhibiting a somewhat distorted pyramidal composition in the foreground figures, that particular compositional artifice is entirely missing from Allegory with Venus and Cupid as well as any real attempt at deep perspective. The figures in each are very elegant and lovely while at the same time uncomfortable and unstable.

The subject matter for these two paintings at first glance appear as though they couldn’t possibly be more different. One appears to be the holy of holies while the other exhibits a number of taboos that would seem to be deliberately designed to make a viewer uncomfortable. The Madonna with the Long Neck is holding the Baby Jesus; a mother with her child. Venus is kissing her child in an alluring way while her child squeezes her nipple. This activity breaks the taboos of pedophilia and incest and seems to show a darker side of motherhood. Closer examination uncovers extra details that may shed more light on the subject. The man pulling back the curtain is described as Truth and he seems to be exposing that activity and another figure, a woman who is screaming. She was referred to as Syphilis and suddenly the painting is a cautionary tale rather than a hedonistic romp. Cupid was also classically in the form of a child rather than an actual child and in a Pantheon of gods that was frequently incestuous the behavior, while unsettling, was not outside the boundaries of Classicism.

Venus and Cupid are behaving in a decidedly adult manner while Madonna and Baby Jesus are the epitome of a mother and her newly born child. Upon closer examination of this painting, though, the Baby Jesus still has elongated limbs and a most awkward position on the Madonna’s lap. This could be the artist using the mannerist style but the pose is such that it could also have the appearance of a Pieta. The pose of the Baby Jesus can be viewed as his lifeless adult body which would explain the elongated limbs and give reason for the awkward pose. Viewed in this manner the painting is one of the joy of motherhood combined with a sort of preordained knowledge of the childs life and eventual death.

The Paintings of Madonna with the long Neck and Allegory with Venus and Cupid are both of mothers with their children but they are also of mothers dealing with their children as adults. The Madonna holds her baby but also contemplates his entire earthly life unto his death while Venus copes with the adult lust of a son who maintains the appearance of a child while contemplating the results of that behavior. This layering of child and adult is an interesting facet of comparison between these two paintings.