Maniera and the education of a painter: iterations of Mannerist art theory in academic classicist doctrine and its critique

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article seeks to discuss narratives underlying the debate on artistic training and (self)education of artists in two distinguished moments: the sixteenth-century Italian Mannerism and nineteenth-century artistic movements which opposed academic instruction. Mannerist treatises were the first to encompass aesthetic and pedagogical concerns in the context of newly established art academies – providing a fundamental, albeit essentially unrecognised, conceptual background for the subsequent discussions on art education. The goal of this article, therefore, is to examine how the rich discursive production of Mannerist authors provided the frame of reference and delineated the limits of this debate until the late nineteenth century – by setting forth the perennial question of the polarity between imitation and individuality. For the conceptual treatment of empirical sources, we adopted an archaeological approach, which enabled us to identify how the derivations and appropriations of Mannerist concepts provided the theoretical base for both the firm establishment of Academic dogmas and, in parallel, their critique. By this methodological choice, we hope to make apparent how these narratives continually revolve around the same ideas in a binary logic of delivering critique and suggestions of reform and change, contributing thus to the deeper understanding of the debate on art education.