On Mirror Copying of the Sistine Vault and Mannerist "Invenzioni"

In Mannerist painting invenzione frequently coincides with citations of works done by predecessors which looks like the opposite of what one would describe as inventiveness. In discussing some of the adaptations of the pre- existent motifs, the author proposes to show that although the Mannerist apprehension of invention is not compatible with what is now understood by this term, their modus operandi anticipates the procedures which we recognise as signs of creativity in modern art. Because critical appreciation of Mannerist painting was based on prestigious precedents, inventiveness, as we know it, was not considered a pre-requisite. Creative innovation remained the privilege of the truly great masters whom lesser practitioners were expected to emulate. At a time when artistic training consisted in copying, more or less explicit citations from earlier works would be aesthetically acceptable and even commended. The Mannerist citations, however, are seldom replicas: The poetic license of the painters is especially evident in their adaptations of the scenes painted on the Sistine vault, which in the sixteenth century became a sort of academy of drawing.