Giulio Romano was one of the most important representatives of Mannerism.
Giulio Romano was Roman by birth and even though the year of his birth, 1499, still dates to the old century, it marked a turning point into a new era.
Around 1515 Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi), still a young boy, worked with Raphael at the Vatican. The highly-gifted Giulio Romano soon became one of Raphael's preferred assistants.
When Raphael died in 1520, Giulio Romano (Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de' Gianuzzi) and G. Penni were his main successors. The young man was in charge of the continuation of Raphael's unfinished art projects, he bore the load with a juvenile dauntlessness: In the execution of the Vatican “Sala di Costantino” Giulio Romano changed original plans to a great extent and disregarded Raphael's authority. He propagated the new style of Mannerism - and that in large format. His own paintings from those days, such as the "Madonna with Saints" (around 1523) and the "Stoning of St. Stephen" (1523) show how far Giulio Romano went beyond Raphael's classicism.
The young Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi) caught the attention of Federigo Gonzaga and appointed him his court architect at Mantua in 1524. Here in Mantua Giulio Romano spent the rest of his life and created his main work, the "Palazzo del Tè". Giulio Romano, in charge of the palace's construction and embellishment, worked on his masterpiece from 1527 to 1534. The enormous, at times grotesque paintings, which Giulio Romano (Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de' Gianuzzi) executed mainly in the "Sala di Psiche" and the "Sala dei Giganti", are among the highlights of mannerist art. In the "Palazzo del Tè" the artist radically broke with architectural conventions and created a sort of parody of a classic building.
In 1546 Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi), the pioneer of Mannerism, died at Mantua.