Style of painting and drawing practised by artists working in Antwerp during the period from c. 1500 to 1530. The term was coined by Max Friedländer in 1915 in his article ‘Die Antwerpener Manieristen von 1520’. In this and subsequent publications (1921, 1933 and 1937) he attempted to bring order into a large body of anonymous Antwerp paintings (and some drawings) that had been gradually gathered under the name of Herri met de Bles, after an Adoration of the Magi (Munich, Alte Pin.) bearing a false Bles signature. Only a small proportion of these works could be sorted into recognizable hands. The principal anonymous masters identified by Friedländer were PSEUDO-BLES (or Pseudo-Blesius), the author of the Munich painting, the MASTER OF THE VON GROOTE ADORATION, the MASTER OF THE ANTWERP ADORATION, the MASTER OF AMIENS (for all of whom see MASTERS, ANONYMOUS, AND MONOGRAMMISTS, §I) and the Master of 1518 (subsequently identified by Marlier as JAN MERTENS). The outstanding known artist of the group is JAN DE BEER. Friedländer also included ADRIAEN VAN OVERBEKE, the early work of JAN GOSSART and the putative oeuvre of Jan Wellens de Cock (see COCK, (1)) as part of Antwerp Mannerism. Despite its name, Antwerp Mannerism is unrelated to Italian or later Flemish Mannerism; its mannerism, instead, is an expression of Late Gothic art.

• Antwerp Mannerism
  • Antwerp, §II, 1: Art life and organization, before 1585
  • Beer, Jan de
  • England, §IX, 1(ii)(b): Gold and silver, 1450–1660: Form and decoration
  • Gossart, Jan
  • Gossart, Jan, §1(i): Early years in the southern Netherlands, to 1507
  • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Master of the Antwerp Adoration
  • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Pseudo-Bles
  • Overbeke, Adriaen van
  • see also GOTHIC -> styles -> Late Gothic