Italian artists were responding to the beauty ideal in Renaissance art, attempting to emulate the work of their famous forbears and even take it a step further. They consciously avoided using ideal proportions in their intense efforts to refine composition, motion and representation of emotion. Mannerist art is known for its elongated and exaggerated muscular figures, intense twists and cool, bright colours. Thanks to travelling artists including Bartholomeus Spranger and Hendrick Goltzius the style quickly spread around Europe. Mannerism developed into a transitional style between Renaissance and Baroque art. The style’s name, which was applied to it later, has a negative connotation: it means ‘contrived’ or ‘artificial’.
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