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| Antonio da Trento after Parmigianino Pallas Athena ca. 1520-50 chiaroscuro woodcut British Museum |
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| Antonio Salamanca after Parmigianino Prophet Aaron in niche before 1562 engraving British Museum |
"The word 'style' derives from Latin stilus, the writing instrument of the Romans. It could be used to characterize an author's manner of writing, although the more frequent term for literary style was genus dicendi, 'mode of speech'. The writings of Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric still provide the most subtle analysis ever attempted of the various potentialities and categories of style. The effect of words depends on the right choice of the noble or humble term, with all the social and psychological connotations that go with these stratifications. Equal attention should be paid to the flavor of archaic or current usages. Either usage can be correct if the topic so demands it. This is the doctrine of decorum, of the appropriateness of style to the occasion. To use the grand manner for trivial subjects is as ridiculous as to use colloquialisms for solemn occasions. Oratory, in this view, is a skill that slowly developed until it could be used with assurance to sway the jury. But corruption lurks close to perfection. An overdose of effects produces a hollow and affected style that lacks virility. Only a constant study of the greatest models of style (the 'classical' authors) will preserve the style pure. These doctrines, which also have an application to music, architecture, and the visual arts, form the foundation of critical theory up to the eighteenth century."
– from an article on Style by Ernst Gombrich, originally published in the International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (1968)
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| Giulio Bonasone after Parmigianino Mercury presenting panpipes to Minerva ca. 1524-30 engraving British Museum |
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| Andrea Schiavone after Parmigianino Minerva and the Muses before 1563 etching Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Andrea Schiavone after Parmigianino Holy Family with Angel before 1563 etching Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Marcantonio after Raphael Cupid, Venus and Athena ca. 1510-20 engraving British Museum |
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| Marcantonio after Raphael Apollo in niche ca. 1511-1520 engraving British Museum |
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| Agostino Veneziano after Raphael Young Roman at an altar ca. 1515-30 engraving British Museum |
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| Adriaen Collaert after Johannes Stradanus Judgment of Paris ca. 1587 engraving British Museum |
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| Virgil Solis after Jacopo Caraglio Ceres before 1562 engraving British Museum |
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| René Boyvin after Rosso Fiorentino Nymph of Fontainebleau ca. 1545-55 engraving Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Anonymous artist after Michelangelo Dead Christ from Pietà 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Federico Zuccaro after Michelangelo Statue of Dawn in Medici Chapel 1590s drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Michelangelo after Giotto Study of draped bending woman ca. 1524-34 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |