Network mannerism

Abstract

Artists of the Italian Renaissance developed their characteristic styles from the observation of nature and the formulation of a pictorial science. In 1520, when Raphael died, all the representational problems had been solved, painting had been established as a craft to be learned. The artists who followed, however, instead of taking nature as their teacher, took art itself. This epoch is referred to as “mannerism”, because it had turned style into manner. Today it is realized that most styles of art are followed by a period of mannerism, in this context often referred to as “post-modernism”. Umberto Eco, esteemed author of works of science as well as of fiction, wrote: “I have come to believe that “postmodern” is not a movement confined to a particular time, but a state of mind or, more precisely, an approach to intentional art. One could even say that every epoch has its own post-modernism, just as it was said that every epoch has its own mannerism”.

Quoted from Eco U (1984) Postscript to The Name of the Rose. Hanser, Munich/Vienna, translated by the author.