Brimming with numerous illustrations and<br>essays, this lavish book brings together the best<br>in Mannerist art from the city of Florence, where<br>the movement was born. Emerging in the early 16th century on the heels of the<br>Renaissance, the mannerist style arose out of the art<br>world's attempts to further the incredible achievements of<br>Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. Mannerist art comprises<br>many facets: it is elegant, cultivated, and sophisticated but also<br>artificial, extravagant, and sometimes even bizarre. Some called<br>the art of Maniera &quot;the stylish style.&quot; Spanning the period from<br>the return of the Medici in 1512 and the first tentative steps of<br>the new generation of artists to the definition of the Maniera<br>in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists in 1568, more than 120<br>paintings, drawings, and sculptures from the world's leading<br>museums are gathered in this book. It features works by Andrea<br>del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino, and Giorgio Vasari with a special<br>focus on the work of Pontormo and Bronzino, the central figures<br>of Florentine mannerism. The developments in art during the<br>decades in question are closely related to the history of the<br>city of Florence. Refined elegance and creative extravagance<br>render the painters of the Maniera a particular phenomenon in<br>the art of Italy. This beautifully produced and authoritative book<br>presents the achievements and practitioners of one of the most<br>intriguing and influential periods in the history of European art.