Mannerism, spirituality, and cognition: the art of enargeia

Abstract

A study of the conceptual vocabulary found in sixteenth-century treatises on art from Giorgio Vasari to Federico Zuccaro, this book analyzes how language and spirituality complement the visual styles of Mannerism. By reading the way in which writers - for example, Lomazzo, Armenini, and Leoni - describe artistic styles as they discuss the relationship between art and spirituality, the author establishes a religious base for the language of art in sixteenth-century Europe, and identifies a spiritual mission in which artists and theorists participated. The book focuses on Italian and Spanish art from Pontormo to Jusepe Ribera, and includes consideration of French Mannerism, through to Jacques Bellange.