Page "Mannerism" Paragraph 21

Another literary source from the period is Gian Paolo Lomazzo, who produced two works — one practical and one metaphysical — that helped define the Mannerist artist's self-conscious relation to his art.

His Trattato dell ' arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura ( Milan, 1584 ) is in part a guide to contemporary concepts of decorum, which the Renaissance inherited in part from Antiquity but Mannerism elaborated upon.

Lomazzo's systematic codification of aesthetics, which typifies the more formalized and academic approaches typical of the later 16th century, controlled a consonance between the functions of interiors and the kinds of painted and sculpted decors that would be suitable.

Iconography, often convoluted and abstruse, is a more prominent element in the Mannerist styles.

His less practical and more metaphysical Idea del tempio della pittura (" The ideal temple of painting ", Milan, 1590 ) offers a description along the lines of the " four temperaments " theory of the human nature and personality, containing the explanations of the role of individuality in judgment and artistic invention.