The 16th-century Florentine painter Jacopo da Pontormo (1494–1557) was a leader in the mannerist movement. This art style, which emerged between the High Renaissance and baroque periods, was inspired by the later works of Michelangelo and Raphael. Popular with Italian rulers and court intellectuals, mannerism spread later throughout Europe.
In the “mannered” approach, the naturalistic and harmonious renderings of the Renaissance were superseded. Mannerist artists favored stylized pictorial space and idealized figures, and they utilized vibrant and unusual colors in their elegant and sophisticated compositions.
