Northern European artists such as the Fleming Frans Floris were also heavily influenced by contemporaneous Italian styles.

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The Reputation of Mannerism

Oddly enough, from the decline of Mannerism until the late nineteenth century, art historians viewed Mannerism negatively as a revolt against the much-revered art of the High Renaissance. This alleged revolt represented to many art historians an ominous creative decline in the development of art, since the idealism and harmony of the High Renaissance had for centuries provided a hallmark of artistic perfection, and Mannerism seemed so contrary to these ideals.

Even revisionist views in the twentieth century initially perpetuated this notion: the example of modern art allowed Mannerism to be seen with new eyes, but scholars such as Walter Friedländer persisted in viewing the work of the Mannerists as a highly irrational reaction against the idealized beauty and rationality of the High Renaissance. They even referred to Mannerism as "anti-classical."

However, as later scholars such as John Shearman have explained, Mannerism was the product of a highly refined court society that valued artifice, elegance, and erudition in all aspects of culture. It was a natural outgrowth of the idealization of the High Renaissance rather than a revolt against it--that is, it was the extreme application of the goals and principles of this earlier period.

The Appeal to Gay Viewers

Mannerism in art and architecture has often appealed to gay viewers and collectors because of its exquisite refinement and frequent extravagance--tastes often ascribed (stereotypically) to male homosexuals. Certainly Mannerism's exaggerations and extremes of taste lend themselves to appreciation by viewers with a camp sensibility, and the uncertain sexual orientations of some of its practitioners is an added attraction.

Indeed, Mannerism's long rejection by mainstream art history has probably broadened its appeal to gays and lesbians, who likely identify with Mannerism's cultural marginalization.

Combining elements of incongruity, theatricality, and exaggeration, camp is a form of humor that helps homosexuals cope with a hostile environment.

From about 1590 through the first decades of the eighteenth century, Baroque artists challenged the decorum of Renaissance art; but the period was also a time of intolerance and persecution.

The various cultural patterns, especially the conditions of artistic production and the types of subjects and themes represented, provide a great deal of evidence about Renaissance sexuality and art.

Agnolo Bronzino, court painter to Cosimo de Medici, through both his writing and painting, offers significant insight into same-sex desire and relationships in sixteenth-century Florentine society.

Although little is reliably known of the private life of sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance painter Parmigianino, his superbly refined and tortuously complex style has often appealed to a gay male audience sensitive to the extremes of taste embodied by Mannerism.

One of the most original and fascinating artists of the Italian Renaissance, Pontormo played a decisive role in helping to define Mannerism.