In his wonderful essay on Mannerism, John Shearman defines Mannerism as "the stylish style" (p. 19), a style "drenched in maniera and, conversely should not be marked by qualities inimical to it, such as strain, brutality, violence, and overt passion. We require, in fact, poise, refinement, and sophistication, and works of art that are polished, rarified, and idealized away from the natural: hot-house plants, cultured most carefully. Mannerism should, by tradition, speak a silver-tongued language of articulate, if unnatural beauty." Giorgio Ghisi was a professional engraver, probably trained in the workshop of Giovanni Battista Scultori in Mantua along with Diana and Adamo Scultori, the children of the master. Of this group, Ghisi was the most important. The initial job of the workshop was to reproduce the works of Giulio Romano, superintendent of all artistic works at the court of Duke Federigo Gonzaga (1500-1540) of Mantua, and the Duke's chief painter and architect of his new palace. Before coming to Mantua in 1524, Giulio had been Raphael's chief assistant in Rome and had seen the advantage of having an engraver who could make his works known across Europe by engraving his drawings and designs for paintings. Marcantonio Raimondi and his artists performed this task for Raphael; Giovanni Battista Scultori and his artists did the same for Giulio. As Diane deGrazia points out in her review of the Boorsch, Lewis, Lewis catalogue raisonné of Ghisi's engravings (in Print Quarterly 2 (1985), 318-320, "Ghisi was a reproductive engraver in a period when reproductive engraving wasa considered an art form. Not only did he skillfully replicate the forms of his models, he went further in in varying the formats and embellishings of the surroundings" (320). Ghisi's works, six of which are included in Bruce Davis, Mannerist Prints: International Style in the 16th Century, are immediately different from those of his associates in Mantua: they triumphantly manage to reproduce an image, convey a sense of the style of the inventor of the image and simultaneously establish a maniera that is distinctively Ghisi's own (compare two of Ghisi's engravings after Giovanni Battista Scultori with one by Scultori himself: Ghisi's two engravings are at once precise and clear, using contrast to organize the varied scenes within each work; Scultori dramatizes the scene, but lacks the sense of design that makes Ghisi's seem distinctively his own.

Ghisi left Mantua during the mid-1540s and went to Rome where he worked with the publisher Antoni Lafreri, the leading print publisher in Rome. Toward the end of the 1540s, Ghisi was invited to Antwerp by Hieronymous Cock, whose Aux Quattre Vents / Shop of the Four Winds became the center of Northern Mannerism until his death, publishing drawings by Maerten Heemskerk and Pieter Bruegel engraved by artists like Phillips Galle (who succeeded him as the leading publisher in Antwerp after Cock's death).

Ghis was in France from the mid-1550s until the late 1560s, working with Fontainebleaue artists like Luca Penni and Primaticcio and presenting works by Giulio Romano, Raphael, and Michelangelo to Northern print collectors and painters and offering Northern engravers a chance to become familar with the most advanced Italian engraving techniques. Ghis returned to Mantua in 1567 and remained there until his death.

Selected Bibliography: ; Paolo Bellini, L'Opera Incisa Giorgio Ghisi (Bassano del Grappa: Tassotti Editore, 1998); Suzanne Boorsch & John T. Spike, The Illustrated Bartsch 31: Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century. G.B. Ghisi, G. Ghisi, A. Ghisi, D. Ghisi, Monogrammists, Reverdino, Pornedello, L. de Musi, Sannuti, G. de Musi, Cartaro, Lulmus (NY: Abaris Books, 1986); Suzanne Boorsch, Michal and R.E. Lewis, The Engravings of Giogio Ghisi. Ed. Michal and R.E. Lewis (NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985); Bruce Davis, Mannerist Prints: International Style in the 16th Century (LA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988); Stefania Massari, Incisori mantovani del '500: Giovan Battista, Adamo, Diana Scultori e Giorgio Ghisi dalle collezioni del gabinetto nazionale delle stampe e della calcografia nazionale. Mostra fatta a Roma nel dic. 1980 e genn. 1981 (Roma: De Luca, 1980); Lucia Fornari Schianchi, ed. Parmigianino e Il Manierismo Europeo: Atti Del Convegno Internazionale Di Studi Parma,13-15 Giugno 2002 (Milano: Silvana Editoriale, 2002 ); John Shearman, Mannerism (NY: Penguin, 1967, 1973); Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 4 vols (London: Everyman's Library, 1963; Vasari's life of Giulio can be found in vol 3, pp. 97-111).