Mannerism

One of the most important stylistic orientation within the sixteenth-century Renaissance. The name comes from the Italian word maniera which had a variety of meanings (style, creation, technique). Mannerism had a strong intellectual content. In contrast to the lucidity of the High Renaissance, it emphasised the subjective, non-natural, even anti-classical elements. Mannerist elements occur also in the Late Renaissance in Hungary. Outside Italy, one of the most important centres of Mannerism was the Prague court of Rudolph II. The term was originally used in art historical scholarship and later applied to literary history as well. The Renaissance painters of the Italian cinquecento (the sixteenth century) had to defend themselves against the advancement of the Baroque, while the formal order if the Renaissance was upset in their works, and their compositions fell apart. János Rimay's refined, unintelligibly complicated prose style, contrived and affected poetic language, startling similes (called concetto), and musical rhymes are all symptomatic of Mannerist taste.

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