mannerism

Meanings

1. A noticeable personal habit, a verbal or other (often, but not necessarily unconscious) habitual behavior peculiar to an individual.
2. Exaggerated or affected style in art, speech, or other behavior.

1. In literature, an ostentatious and unnatural style of the second half of the sixteenth century. In the contemporary criticism, described as a negation of the classicist equilibrium, pre-Baroque, and deforming expressiveness.
2. In fine art, a style that is inspired by previous models, aiming to reproduce subjects in an expressive language.

1. A style of art developed at the end of the High Renaissance, characterized by the deliberate distortion and exaggeration of perspective and especially the elongation of figures.

Etymology

From manner + -ism.