Thesis statement : Baroque used the artificial intellectual sophistication of Mannerism and exaggerated it to the extent appealing to aristocratic and religious elite. Though most people like mannerism for its high-quality techniques that come from the experience of previous historical era in art, Baroque has emerged when the creativity of artists was of great value and their works were appreciated and acknowledged by representatives of aristocracy and religious elite. Mannerism The period of Mannerism emerged from High Renaissance and can be considered the predecessor of Baroque. The key factors for its advent can be analyzed with the help of assessment of social context in which this style has occurred. In other words, social relationships and their connection to political and religious concepts of the time created a fruitful ground for advent of Mannerism as a style typical of the European art and sculpture in sixteenth century. Though the origin of the style is suggested as Italian High Renaissance, the movement was spread on the territory of the entire Europe in this or that manner. As the Renaissance was characterized by natural depiction of nature and society with regard to accurate depiction of human body peculiarities in different ages in terms of movements, gestures, emotions expressed on the face, drapes of clothes, and use of light and shade techniques, it is necessary to analyze Mannerism in terms of these peculiarities. Naturalistic presentation of different objects, events, and life situations was substituted for more artificial qualities and intellectually sophisticated approach. The main characteristics of Mannerism include artificiality of depiction and sophisticated intellect that can be traced in all pictures of prominent artists of this era. Social conditions were contributing to the advent of the style because people wanted something new than naturalistic representation of images they could see with their own eyes. More creativity and artificiality was imposed into artistic techniques and methods used for depiction of people, still-life, landscapes, and other objects. This can be traced in the picture Madonna with long neck (1534-1540) painted by Francesco Mazzola; this picture is currently exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Baroque The style of Baroque was followed by Rococo and preceded by Mannerism. This style can be considered one of the greatest ones for European and world artistic world including painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, and other fine arts. However, it is necessary to focus on paintings to compare and contrast the painting created in Mannerism manner and the one of Baroque epoch. As the Baroque style was influenced greatly by the social conditions of the time and its origin can be found in the era of Mannerism, it was characterized with overt emotions and vivid movements, realistic depiction of poses and naturalistic though sometimes exaggerated use of colors and space. Light and shade techniques as well as space and organization of objects in the picture can be considered the key characteristic of Baroque works. Vivid poses and overt emotions became the main peculiarity of the st