Beyond the frivolous head gear, elongated limbs and fluttering drapery, one of the most recognizable features which distinguishes early 16th-century artist working in the Low Countries from their Flemish predecessors is their distinct use of exotic architecture and ornament. By the 1520s, the repertoire of pre-Serlian antique motifs had achieved a striking degree of variety and invention. Using the Berlin sketchbook from the Amsterdam workshop of Cornelis Anthonisz. as a point of departure, the discussion situates the ornamental vocabulary of artists grouped under the rubric of “Antwerp Mannerism” within the broader linguistic and rhetorical currents of contemporary humanist circles. Many of these artists maintained close ties to rhetorician guilds, which functioned as vital social and cultural nodes in the urban environment. While the connections between rhetoricians and artists—especially within Antwerp—have been well documented, the direct influence of rhetorical thinking on emerging stylistic innovations has remained comparatively underexplored, overshadowed by scholarship’s emphasis on Joyous Entries and civic festivals.