Mannerism is the name given to the style of followers of Raphael and Michelangelo in Italy from about 1520-1600. It is characterised by artificiality, elegance, sensuous distortion of the human figure and often outright sensuality. (Bronzino Venus Cupid Folly and Time, National Gallery, London. ) Mannerism spread all over Europe, and in Britain the elegant artificiality of Elizabethan court painting can be seen as an echo of it. Later influence on Fuseli.