In the Low Countries there emerged early in the 16th century a group of painters misleadingly lumped together as the Antwerp Mannerists. Their exaggerated and fanciful compositions descend in great part from the decorative excesses of late Gothic art, generally with some Italianate details probably transmitted by architects’ and goldsmiths’ pattern books. The Flemish painter Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse, visited Rome in 1508. At first he continued his ornate late Gothic style, but by 1514 he began to adopt the great innovations occurring in Italian painting. His mythological paintings, such as the “Neptune and Amphitrite” (Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin) ...(100 of 73439 words)