Mannerists

In place of the balanced compositions and rational approach to perspective that characterised art at the dawn of the 16th century, the Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt.

In place of the balanced compositions and rational approach to perspective that characterized art at the dawn of the 16th century, the Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt.

Like other works of his and other Mannerists it removes far more of the original block than Michelangelo would have done.

Subsequent mannerists stressed intellectual conceits and artistic virtuosity, features that have led later critics to accuse them of working in an unnatural and affected "manner" (maniera).

The term is also used to refer to some late Gothic painters working in northern Europe from about 1500 to 1530, especially the Antwerp Mannerists —a group unrelated to the Italian movement.

Walter Friedlaender identified this period as "anti-mannerism", just as the early mannerists were "anti-classical" in their reaction away from the aesthetic values of the High Renaissance.

While Renaissance artists sought nature to find their style, the Mannerists looked first for a style and found a manner.