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1520-1600 - Mannerism

Even while the political situation deteriorated during the invasions, culture continued to flourish as the Renaissance reached its highest expression, as artists began to go beyond their classical models, inventing new rules. Some of the greatest works date from this period, for example, Michelangelo's Moses. The taste for experimentation was exaggerated to the period after the Renaissance and led to the creation of a new style, mannerism, which became dominant between about 1520 and 1600. The new generation of artists rebelled against the classicism and restrictions imposed by the Renaissance masters. They reveled in their individuality and gave full rein to their imaginations, elongating human forms, using garish colors, and deliberately disobeying the rules of perspective and proportion in order to convey allegorical messages or to indulge in "hedonism" and "sensuality."

Humanism remained the dominant intellectual force, gaining popularity and transforming the culture. Universities once again became vibrant centers, and science took its place as an important scholarly endeavor beside literature, philosophy, and rhetoric. Methodological advances continued but were increasingly popularized, creating the nucleus of an informed lay public that would provide the support for the scientific progress of the coming decades. This popularization was made possible by the invention and distribution of the printing press.

The expansion of the cultural audience and the openness of the artistic scene during this period helped to create an increased sense of nationhood. Previously, cultural movements had generally been regionally and locally defined. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries those autonomous movements melded into a single national culture, invigorated by the integration of the local traditions but clearly aimed at a national audience. In the late sixteenth century an official written language was established, becoming the language of communications between all Italian diplomats, statesmen, administrators, and preachers. This did not, however, eliminate dialects. Regional dialects continued to coexist with the official language, regions being still the focus of people's primary allegiance, but there was discernible progress toward the establishment of a self identified Italian nation.

The papacy played a significant role in this progress, once again becoming a vital and, above all, an Italian institution. The church became the most important, or at least the most visible, pan Italian national institution, to which all the states and all the great families turned as a source of employment. The church itself, under pressure from the Reformation movement sweeping through northern Europe, reconstituted itself, ending some of the more obvious corruption and abuses of power and finally establishing doctrinal definition in the Council of Trent (1545-62). The masses responded enthusiastically to the reform movement, becoming more active and establishing new religious orders, e.g., the Jesuits in 1540, and popular rituals that soon became institutionalized. An important consequence of the reforms was the spread of literacy, as reading the Scriptures now became a critical task of the faithful.