Emilian mannerism and provocative irony: new resources for artistic development after the sack of Rome?

Analysing Giulio Mazzoni’s artistic production, Claudio Strinati questioned about the possibility of reconstructing a figurative and speculative background, set up in Rome during the mid-16th century where artists struggled to obtain ‘a general review of Michelangelo’s world’. Michelangelo’s artwork remained an undeniable exemplum, but some artists called into question his Neoplatonist ideal and appealed to different artistic traditions, in particular the Emilian one: studying Correggio and Parmigianino and enriching them with the Primaticcio’s or Niccolò dell'Abate’s international experiences, a certain number of artists tried to develop a new line of research which could be consistent with the political and social situation established in Rome after the sack. Therefore, these artistic experiences could be interpreted as the result of a precise aesthetic attitude characterised by irony.