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| Sebastiano del Piombo Martyrdom of St Agatha ca. 1520 oil on panel Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
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| Il Bacchiacca (Francesco Ubertini) Beheading of St John the Baptist ca. 1535-40 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Gaudenzio Ferrari Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria 1540 oil on panel Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Marco Pino after Parmigianino Martyrdom of St John and St Paul (4th-century Roman martyrs, distinct from the Gospel figures of the same names) ca. 1544 oil on canvas Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena |
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| Carlo Portelli Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist ca. 1545-55 oil on panel private collection |
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| Gianfrancesco Caroto St Sebastian before 1555 oil on panel Chiesa di Santo Stefano, Venice |
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| Bernardino Licinio Salome receiving the Head of John the Baptist before 1565 oil on canvas Pushkin Museum, Moscow |
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| Paolo Veronese Martyrdom of St Justina ca. 1570-75 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| El Greco Martyrdom of St Maurice ca. 1580-82 oil on canvas Monasterio El Escorial |
"The most serviceable catalogue of the stylistic features of the art of the mid- sixteenth century is Smythe's [in Mannerism and Maniera by Craig Hugh Smyth - 1962] –
1 – The tendency to flatten pictures parallel to the picture plane, especially the more noticeable figures. The impression is of forced flatness. At the same time, poses are often abruptly twisted in two and three directions.
2 – Flat light, that tends to belong to planes that parallel the picture plane. Moreover, whatever surface that flat light of maniera touches, this surface, flat or not, tends to look flat.
3 – The inclination to juxtapose figures side by side, or tangent to each other. Where forms do overlap, confluence is avoided.
4 – The principle of angularity and of spotting the composition with angular elements.
5 – As for composition: paintings with more than a few figures tend to lack a focal point; secondary figures are apt to be abundant and more or less equally stressed in the uniform light, dispersing attention and obscuring the subject.
6 – Line modelling and color are suited to serve a uniform ideal rather than Nature's variety; the key words here are: cursory, smooth, lifeless, uniform.
7 – Importance of finish and details; finish especially in feet, hands, hair, beards; abundant garments and accoutrements. Mannerism is concerned with making it clear, polished and refined; neither thingness and uniqueness nor structure and function are primary.
8 – Space can be deep, or it can be shallow and almost eliminated. The ground is habitually tilted upward, placing the rear figures higher. And often one can describe the space as divided, or broken, into parts that are not easily grasped together.
9 – Exaggerated refinement and elegance, or exaggerated robustness and muscularity; extravagant and novel effects; "variety of bizarre fancies" and poses. Complication.
After making this excellent analysis of a number of stylistic features, Smyth goes on to offer an important suggestion as to their roots, the most important of which is the borrowing of late-classical reliefs, which display all the features, listed above, which distinguish the Mannerists. As Smyth says, "the characteristics of the most available antique art prefigured the conventions of maniera. In maniera, their more extreme manifestations were followed, modernized and exaggerated."
– adapted from an article by Hessel Miedema, On Mannerism and Maniera, published in Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art (vol. 10, 1978)
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| Federico Barocci Martyrdom of St Vitalis 1583 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Camillo Procaccini Martyrdom of St Agnes ca. 1590-92 oil on canvas (grisaille) Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan |
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| Jacopo Ligozzi Martyrdom of St Dorothea of Caesarea (detail) ca. 1595 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Francesco, Pescia |
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| Francesco Morandini (Il Poppi) Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist before 1597 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Fedele, Milan |
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| Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari) Martyrdom of St Margaret ca. 1608-1611 oil on panel National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Giovanni Antonio Molineri Martyrdom of St Paul ca. 1620 oil on panel Galleria Sabauda, Turin |