1. Caprarola, Italy, Palazzo Farnese. Vignola's astonishing spiral staircase.

2. Maser, Italy, Villa Barbaro, Andrea Palladio, architect. Trompe l'oeil wall murals by Paolo Veronese. Most of the architectural details and the view to the outside are painted on the walls. The child in the doorway is painted on the door.

3. A cassone in the sarcophagus form with high relief carving. Both of these characteristics were favored in the Italian Mannerist period.

4. A cassapanca with curved panels and carved grotesques characteristic of Mannerist furniture.

5. Walnut table with high relief carving. Earlier tables did not have such exhuberant relief carving. Note the inclusion of the popular cartouche or family symbol (similar to a coat of arms).

6. Left: Late sixteenth Century walnut sgabello with fretted back and typical Late Renaissance carving. Right: Late sixteenth Century Dante chair with carved enrichment and stamped leather seat and back.