NOMÉ, François de

It is only in recent years that the mysterious painter called "Monsù Desiderio" has been separated into two artists who collaborated: Didier Barra (1590-c. 1644) and François de Nomé, both from Metz, Lorraine. Didier Barra usually painted topographical views, chiefly of Naples. François de Nomé was the more adventurous of the two, concentrating on the bizarre. Both painters spent their entire careers in Naples but never assimilated any local influences; they both retained a form of archaising mannerismGLOSSARYA movement in Italian art from about 1520 to 1600. Developing out of the Renaissance, Mannerism rejected Renaissance balance and harmony in favor of emotional intensity and ambiguity. In Mannerist painting, this was expressed mainly through severe distortions of perspective and scale; complex and crowded compositions; strong, sometimes harsh or discordant colors; and elongated figures in exaggerated poses. In architecture, there was a playful exaggeration of Renaissance forms (largely in scale and proportion) and the greater use of bizarre decoration. Mannerism gave way to the Baroque. Leading Mannerists include Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino, El Greco and Tintoretto. of a similar type to that of Claude Deruet. At their best, François de Nomé's pictures excite by their power of expression, even though they seem flagrantly to disobey almost every rule of art.