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Members' Research Report Archive

Expatriating the Maniera: Rome, Florence, and Venetian Mannerism, 1540–1575

Mattia Biffis, Research Associate 2015–2016

biffis-2015-2016

Nicolò Vicentino after Francesco Salviati,The People Rendering Homage to the Beauty of Psyche, chiaroscuro woodcut printed from three blocks in brown. London, the British Museum, W, 4.44

My research explores changes in the pictorial tradition of Venice over the first half of the sixteenth century, focusing on artists of Tuscan-Roman education who established their careers on the lagoon, among others Giuseppe Salviati (c. 1520–1575). As a mobile individual moving into a new environment, Salviati  experienced a set of new social and cultural constraints, which he managed to resolve by refashioning his artistic persona. In papers presented this year at the Renaissance Society of America in Boston and the Medici Archive Project in Florence, I also showed how his origins impelled his artistic success in his adoptive city. These studies will form the first part of a  manuscript in progress that investigates the multifaceted history of the maniera in Venice in the Cinquecento.