Pontormo
Encyclopedia
Jacopo Carucci usually known as Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian
Mannerist
painter and portraitist from the Florentine school
. His work represents a profound stylistic
shift from the calm perspectival
regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance
. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity.
Jacopo Carucci was born at Pontorme, near Empoli
, to Bartolomeo di Jacopo di Martino Carrucci and Alessandra di Pasquale di Zanobi. Vasari
relates how the orphaned boy, "young, melancholy and lonely," was shuttled around as a young apprentice:
Pontormo painted in and around Florence
, often supported by Medici
patronage. A foray to Rome
, largely to see Michelangelo
's work, influenced his later style. Haunted faces and elongated bodies are characteristic of his work. An example of Pontormo's early style is The Visitation of the Virgin and St Elizabeth, with its dancelike, balanced figures, painted from 1514 to 1516.
This early Visitation makes an interesting comparison with his painting of the same subject (at right), which was done about a decade later for the parish church of St. Michael in Carmignano
, about 20 km west of Florence. Placing these two pictures together—one from his early style, and another from his mature period—throws Pontormo's artistic development into sharp relief. In the earlier work, Pontormo is much closer in style to his teacher, Andrea del Sarto, and to the early sixteenth century renaissance artistic principles. For example, the figures stand at just under half the height of the overall picture, and though a bit more crowded than true high renaissance balance would prefer, at least are placed in a classicizing architectural
setting at a comfortable distance from the viewer. In the later work, the viewer is brought almost uncomfortably close to the Virgin and St. Elizabeth, who drift toward each other in clouds of drapery
. Moreover, the clear architectural setting that is carefully constructed in earlier piece has been completely abandoned in favor of a peculiar nondescript urban setting.
The Joseph
canvases (now in the National Gallery in London) offer another example of Pontormo's developing style. Done around the same time as the earlier Visitation, these works (such as Joseph in Egypt, at left) show a much more mannerist leaning. According to Giorgio Vasari
, the sitter for the boy seated on a step is his young apprentice, Bronzino.
In the years between the SS Annunziata and San Michele Visitations, Pontormo took part in the fresco
decoration of the salon of the Medici country villa
at Poggio a Caiano
(1519–20), 17 km NNW of Florence. There he painted frescoes in a pastoral
genre style, very uncommon for Florentine painters; their subject was the obscure classical myth of Vertumnus and Pomona
in a lunette
.
In 1522, when the plague broke out in Florence, Pontormo left for the Certosa di Galluzzo
, a cloistered Carthusian
monastery
where the monk
s followed vows of silence. He painted a series of frescoes, now quite damaged, on the passion and resurrection of Christ.
The large altarpiece canvas for the Brunelleschi
-designed Capponi Chapel in the church of Santa Felicita in Florence, portraying The Deposition from the Cross, is considered by many Pontormo's surviving masterpiece (1528).
The figures, with their sharply modeled forms and brilliant colors are united in an enormously complex, swirling ovular composition
, housed by a shallow, somewhat flattened space. Although commonly known as The Deposition from the Cross, there is no actual cross
in the picture. The scene might more properly be called a Lamentation
or Bearing the Body of Christ. Those who are lowering (or supporting) Christ
appear as anguished as the mourners. Though they are bearing the weight of a full-grown man, they barely seem to be touching the ground; the lower figure in particular balances delicately and implausibly on his front two toes. These two boys have sometimes been interpreted as Angels, carrying Christ in his journey to Heaven
. In this case, the subject of the picture would be more akin to an Entombment, though the lack of any discernible tomb
disrupts that theory, just as the lack of cross poses a problem for the Deposition interpretation. Finally, it has also been noted that the positions of Christ and the Virgin seem to echo those of Michelangelo's Pietà
in Rome, though here in the Deposition mother and son have been separated. Thus in addition to elements of a Lamentation and Entombment, this picture carries hints of a Pietà
. It has been speculated that the bearded figure in the background at the far right is a self-portrait
of Pontormo as Joseph of Arimathea
. Another unique feature of this particular Deposition
is the empty space occupying the central pictorial plane as all the Biblical personages seem to fall back from this point. It has been suggested that this emptiness may be a physical representation of the Virgin Mary's emotional emptiness at the prospect of losing her son.
On the wall to the right of the Deposition, Pontormo frescoed an Annunciation
scene (at right). As with the Deposition, the artist's primary attention is on the figures themselves rather than their setting. Placed against white walls, the Angel Gabriel
and Virgin Mary are presented in an environment that is so simplified as to almost seem stark. The fictive architectural details above each of them, are painted to resemble the gray stone pietra serena that adorns the interior of Santa Felicità, thus uniting their painted space with the viewer's actual space. The startling contrast between the figures and ground makes their brilliant garments almost seem to glow in the light of the window between them, against the stripped-down background, as if the couple miraculously appeared in an extension of the chapel wall. The Annunciation resembles his above mentioned Visitation in the church of San Michele at Carmignano
in both the style and swaying postures.
Vasari tells us that the cupola
was originally painted with God the Father
and Four Patriarchs
. The decoration in the dome
of the chapel is now lost, but four roundels with the Evangelists
still adorn the pendentives, worked on by both Pontormo and his chief pupil Agnolo Bronzino. The two artists collaborated so intimately, that specialists dispute which roundels each of them painted.
This tumultuous oval of figures took three years for Pontormo to complete. According to Vasari, because Pontormo desired above all to "do things his own way without being bothered by anyone," the artist screened off the chapel so as to prevent interfering opinions. Vasari continues, "And so, having painted it in his own way without any of his friends being able to point anything out to him, it was finally uncovered and seen with astonishment by all of Florence..."
A number of Pontormo's other works have also remained in Florence; the Uffizi Gallery holds his mystical Supper at Emmaus as well as portraits.
Many of Pontormo's well known canvases, such as the early Joseph in Egypt series (c. 1515) and the later Martyrdom of St Maurice and the Theban Legion (c. 1531) depict crowds milling about in extreme contrapposto
of greatly varied positions.
His portraits, acutely characterized, show similarly Mannerist proportions.
Many of Pontormo's works have been damaged, including the lunnettes for the cloister in the Carthusian monastery of Galluzo. They are now displayed indoors, although in their damaged state.
Perhaps most tragic is the loss of the unfinished frescoes for the church of San Lorenzo
which consumed the last decade of his life. His frescoes depicted a last judgement day composed of an unsettling morass of writhing figures. The remaining drawings, showing a bizarre and mystical ribboning of bodies, had an almost hallucinatory effect. Florentine figure painting had mainly stressed linear and sculptural figures. For example, the Christ in Michelangelo's Last Judgment
in the Sistine Chapel
is a massive painted block, stern in his wrath; by contrast, Pontormo's Jesus in the Last Judgment twists sinuously, as if rippling through the heavens in the dance of ultimate finality. Angels swirl about him in even more serpentine poses. If Pontormo's work from the 1520s seemed to float an a world little touched by gravitational force, the Last Judgment figures seem to have escaped it altogether and fly through a rarefied air.
In his Last Judgment Pontormo went against pictorial and theological tradition by placing God the Father at the feet of Christ, instead of above him, an idea Vasari found deeply disturbing:
Vasari's Life
of Pontormo, depicts him as withdrawn and steeped in neurosis while at the center of the artists and patrons of his lifetime. This image of Pontormo has tended to color the popular conception of the artist, as seen in the film of Giovanni Fago, Pontormo, a heretical love. Fago portrays Pontormo as mired in a lonely and ultimately paranoid dedication to his final Last Judgment project, which he often kept shielded from onlookers. Yet as the art historian Elizabeth Pilliod has pointed out, Vasari was in fierce competition with the Pontormo/Bronzino workshop at the time when he was writing his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
. This professional rivalry between the two bottegas could well have provided Vasari with ample motivation for running down the artistic lineage of his opponent for Medici
patronage.
Perhaps as a result of Vasari's derision, or perhaps because of the vagaries of aesthetic taste, Potormo's work was quite out of fashion for several centuries. The fact that so much of his work has been lost or severely damaged is testament to this neglect, though he has received renewed attention by contemporary art historians. Indeed, between 1989 and 2002, Pontormo's Portrait of a Halberdier (at right), held the title of the world's most expensive painting by an Old Master
.
Regardless as to the veracity of Vasari's account, it is certainly true that Pontormo's artistic idiosyncrasies produced a style that few were able (or willing) to imitate, with the exception of his closest pupil Bronzino. Bronzino's early work is so close to that of his teacher, that the authorship of several paintings from the 1520s and '30s are still under dispute—for example the four tondi containing the evangelists
in the Capponi Chapel, and the Portrait of a Lady in Red now in Frankfurt (at left).
Pontormo shares some of the mannerism of Rosso Fiorentino
and of Parmigianino
. In some ways he anticipated the Baroque
as well as the tensions of El Greco
. His eccentricities also resulted in an original sense of composition. At best, his compositions are cohesive. The figures in the Deposition, for example, appear to sustain each other: removal of any one of them would cause the edifice to collapse. In other works, as in the Joseph canvases, the crowding makes for a confusing pictorial melee. It is in the later drawings that we see a graceful fusion of bodies in a composition which includes the oval frame of Jesus in the Last Judgement.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
painter and portraitist from the Florentine school
Florentine School
The Florentine School refers to artists in, from or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of the world...
. His work represents a profound stylistic
Painting style
In the visual arts, style is a "...distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories." or "...any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed and made." It refers to the visual appearance of a...
shift from the calm perspectival
Perspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity.
Biography and early work
Empoli
Empoli is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, about 20 km southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the latter river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes a hilly one as it departs from the river...
, to Bartolomeo di Jacopo di Martino Carrucci and Alessandra di Pasquale di Zanobi. Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
relates how the orphaned boy, "young, melancholy and lonely," was shuttled around as a young apprentice:
Pontormo painted in and around Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, often supported by Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
patronage. A foray to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, largely to see Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
's work, influenced his later style. Haunted faces and elongated bodies are characteristic of his work. An example of Pontormo's early style is The Visitation of the Virgin and St Elizabeth, with its dancelike, balanced figures, painted from 1514 to 1516.
This early Visitation makes an interesting comparison with his painting of the same subject (at right), which was done about a decade later for the parish church of St. Michael in Carmignano
Carmignano
Carmignano is a comune of c. 12,000 inhabitants in the province of Prato, part of the Italian region Tuscany. It is located about 20 km west of Florence and about 10 km southwest of Prato....
, about 20 km west of Florence. Placing these two pictures together—one from his early style, and another from his mature period—throws Pontormo's artistic development into sharp relief. In the earlier work, Pontormo is much closer in style to his teacher, Andrea del Sarto, and to the early sixteenth century renaissance artistic principles. For example, the figures stand at just under half the height of the overall picture, and though a bit more crowded than true high renaissance balance would prefer, at least are placed in a classicizing architectural
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
setting at a comfortable distance from the viewer. In the later work, the viewer is brought almost uncomfortably close to the Virgin and St. Elizabeth, who drift toward each other in clouds of drapery
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
. Moreover, the clear architectural setting that is carefully constructed in earlier piece has been completely abandoned in favor of a peculiar nondescript urban setting.
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....
canvases (now in the National Gallery in London) offer another example of Pontormo's developing style. Done around the same time as the earlier Visitation, these works (such as Joseph in Egypt, at left) show a much more mannerist leaning. According to Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
, the sitter for the boy seated on a step is his young apprentice, Bronzino.
In the years between the SS Annunziata and San Michele Visitations, Pontormo took part in the fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
decoration of the salon of the Medici country villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
at Poggio a Caiano
Poggio a Caiano
Poggio a Caiano is a town and comune in the Province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town lies 9 km south of the provincial capital of Prato.-The Medici villa:...
(1519–20), 17 km NNW of Florence. There he painted frescoes in a pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
genre style, very uncommon for Florentine painters; their subject was the obscure classical myth of Vertumnus and Pomona
Vertumnus and Pomona (Pontormo)
The fresco decoration of Vertumnus and Pomona in the Medici country villa at Poggio a Caiano is a masterpiece by Jacopo Pontormo. The villa is set among orchards and gardens, and served in summer as an outdoor respite to the heat in Florence.The fresco surrounds a lunette, high in a barrel-vaulted...
in a lunette
Lunette
In architecture, a lunette is a half-moon shaped space, either filled with recessed masonry or void. A lunette is formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at the level of the imposts, where the arch springs. If a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the...
.
In 1522, when the plague broke out in Florence, Pontormo left for the Certosa di Galluzzo
Certosa di Galluzzo
Florence Charterhouse is a charterhouse, or Carthusian monastery, located in the Florence suburb of Galluzzo, in central Italy...
, a cloistered Carthusian
Carthusian
The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
where the monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s followed vows of silence. He painted a series of frescoes, now quite damaged, on the passion and resurrection of Christ.
Main works in Florence
Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...
-designed Capponi Chapel in the church of Santa Felicita in Florence, portraying The Deposition from the Cross, is considered by many Pontormo's surviving masterpiece (1528).
The figures, with their sharply modeled forms and brilliant colors are united in an enormously complex, swirling ovular composition
Composition (visual arts)
In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...
, housed by a shallow, somewhat flattened space. Although commonly known as The Deposition from the Cross, there is no actual cross
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
in the picture. The scene might more properly be called a Lamentation
Lamentation of Christ
350px|thumb|Lamentation by [[Giotto di Bondone]] in the [[Scrovegni Chapel]]The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends and family mourned over his body...
or Bearing the Body of Christ. Those who are lowering (or supporting) Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
appear as anguished as the mourners. Though they are bearing the weight of a full-grown man, they barely seem to be touching the ground; the lower figure in particular balances delicately and implausibly on his front two toes. These two boys have sometimes been interpreted as Angels, carrying Christ in his journey to Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
. In this case, the subject of the picture would be more akin to an Entombment, though the lack of any discernible tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
disrupts that theory, just as the lack of cross poses a problem for the Deposition interpretation. Finally, it has also been noted that the positions of Christ and the Virgin seem to echo those of Michelangelo's Pietà
Pietà (Michelangelo)
The Pietà is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in...
in Rome, though here in the Deposition mother and son have been separated. Thus in addition to elements of a Lamentation and Entombment, this picture carries hints of a Pietà
Pietà
The Pietà is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ...
. It has been speculated that the bearded figure in the background at the far right is a self-portrait
Self-portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting...
of Pontormo as Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
. Another unique feature of this particular Deposition
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
is the empty space occupying the central pictorial plane as all the Biblical personages seem to fall back from this point. It has been suggested that this emptiness may be a physical representation of the Virgin Mary's emotional emptiness at the prospect of losing her son.
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
scene (at right). As with the Deposition, the artist's primary attention is on the figures themselves rather than their setting. Placed against white walls, the Angel Gabriel
Angel Gabriel
Angel Gabriel may refer to:*The Archangel Gabriel*The Angel Gabriel , an English galleon that sank off Pemaquid, Maine...
and Virgin Mary are presented in an environment that is so simplified as to almost seem stark. The fictive architectural details above each of them, are painted to resemble the gray stone pietra serena that adorns the interior of Santa Felicità, thus uniting their painted space with the viewer's actual space. The startling contrast between the figures and ground makes their brilliant garments almost seem to glow in the light of the window between them, against the stripped-down background, as if the couple miraculously appeared in an extension of the chapel wall. The Annunciation resembles his above mentioned Visitation in the church of San Michele at Carmignano
Carmignano
Carmignano is a comune of c. 12,000 inhabitants in the province of Prato, part of the Italian region Tuscany. It is located about 20 km west of Florence and about 10 km southwest of Prato....
in both the style and swaying postures.
Vasari tells us that the cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
was originally painted with God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
and Four Patriarchs
Patriarchs (Bible)
The Patriarchs of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, the ancestor of all the Abrahamic nations; his son Isaac, the ancestor of the nations surrounding Israel/Judah; and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites...
. The decoration in the dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
of the chapel is now lost, but four roundels with the Evangelists
Four Evangelists
In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
still adorn the pendentives, worked on by both Pontormo and his chief pupil Agnolo Bronzino. The two artists collaborated so intimately, that specialists dispute which roundels each of them painted.
This tumultuous oval of figures took three years for Pontormo to complete. According to Vasari, because Pontormo desired above all to "do things his own way without being bothered by anyone," the artist screened off the chapel so as to prevent interfering opinions. Vasari continues, "And so, having painted it in his own way without any of his friends being able to point anything out to him, it was finally uncovered and seen with astonishment by all of Florence..."
A number of Pontormo's other works have also remained in Florence; the Uffizi Gallery holds his mystical Supper at Emmaus as well as portraits.
Many of Pontormo's well known canvases, such as the early Joseph in Egypt series (c. 1515) and the later Martyrdom of St Maurice and the Theban Legion (c. 1531) depict crowds milling about in extreme contrapposto
Contrapposto
Contrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed...
of greatly varied positions.
His portraits, acutely characterized, show similarly Mannerist proportions.
Lost or damaged works
Perhaps most tragic is the loss of the unfinished frescoes for the church of San Lorenzo
Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze
The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III...
which consumed the last decade of his life. His frescoes depicted a last judgement day composed of an unsettling morass of writhing figures. The remaining drawings, showing a bizarre and mystical ribboning of bodies, had an almost hallucinatory effect. Florentine figure painting had mainly stressed linear and sculptural figures. For example, the Christ in Michelangelo's Last Judgment
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
in the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
is a massive painted block, stern in his wrath; by contrast, Pontormo's Jesus in the Last Judgment twists sinuously, as if rippling through the heavens in the dance of ultimate finality. Angels swirl about him in even more serpentine poses. If Pontormo's work from the 1520s seemed to float an a world little touched by gravitational force, the Last Judgment figures seem to have escaped it altogether and fly through a rarefied air.
Critical assessment and legacy
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th century...
of Pontormo, depicts him as withdrawn and steeped in neurosis while at the center of the artists and patrons of his lifetime. This image of Pontormo has tended to color the popular conception of the artist, as seen in the film of Giovanni Fago, Pontormo, a heretical love. Fago portrays Pontormo as mired in a lonely and ultimately paranoid dedication to his final Last Judgment project, which he often kept shielded from onlookers. Yet as the art historian Elizabeth Pilliod has pointed out, Vasari was in fierce competition with the Pontormo/Bronzino workshop at the time when he was writing his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th century...
. This professional rivalry between the two bottegas could well have provided Vasari with ample motivation for running down the artistic lineage of his opponent for Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
patronage.
Perhaps as a result of Vasari's derision, or perhaps because of the vagaries of aesthetic taste, Potormo's work was quite out of fashion for several centuries. The fact that so much of his work has been lost or severely damaged is testament to this neglect, though he has received renewed attention by contemporary art historians. Indeed, between 1989 and 2002, Pontormo's Portrait of a Halberdier (at right), held the title of the world's most expensive painting by an Old Master
Old Master
"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
.
Regardless as to the veracity of Vasari's account, it is certainly true that Pontormo's artistic idiosyncrasies produced a style that few were able (or willing) to imitate, with the exception of his closest pupil Bronzino. Bronzino's early work is so close to that of his teacher, that the authorship of several paintings from the 1520s and '30s are still under dispute—for example the four tondi containing the evangelists
Evangelists
Evangelists may refer to:* Evangelists , Christians who specialize in evangelism* Evangelists , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Four Evangelists, the authors of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament...
in the Capponi Chapel, and the Portrait of a Lady in Red now in Frankfurt (at left).
Pontormo shares some of the mannerism of Rosso Fiorentino
Rosso Fiorentino
Giovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:...
and of Parmigianino
Parmigianino
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola , also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma...
. In some ways he anticipated the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
as well as the tensions of El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
. His eccentricities also resulted in an original sense of composition. At best, his compositions are cohesive. The figures in the Deposition, for example, appear to sustain each other: removal of any one of them would cause the edifice to collapse. In other works, as in the Joseph canvases, the crowding makes for a confusing pictorial melee. It is in the later drawings that we see a graceful fusion of bodies in a composition which includes the oval frame of Jesus in the Last Judgement.
Early works (until 1521)
| Painting | Date | Site | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leda and the Swan (uncertain attribution) | 1512–1513 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | ||
| Apollo and Daphne | 1513 | Bowdoin College Museum of Art Bowdoin College Museum of Art The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is an art museum located in Brunswick, Maine. Included on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is located in a building on the campus of Bowdoin College designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White.-History:The museum's collection... , Brunswick, Maine |
http://artmuseum.bowdoin.edu/Obj4997$223 | |
| Holy Conversation | 1514 | San Luca Chapel, Santa Annunziata, Florence. | ||
| Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist | c.1514 | Whitfield Fine Art, London. | http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/WHITFIELD_FINE_ART/jacopo_pontormo.html | |
| Episode of Hospital Life | 1514 | Accademia, Florence | http://renaissance.mrugala.net/Pontormo%20(par%20Fontaine%20S.)/Pontormo%20-%20Episode%20from%20Hospital%20Life.jpg | |
| Veronica and the Image | 1515 | Medici Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence | ||
| Visitation | 1514–1516 | Santa Annunziata, Florence | http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/italren/pics.art/0180/18063.JPG | |
| Lady with Basket of Spindles(attributed to Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori , his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci,... ) |
1516–1517 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | ||
| Marriage bedchamber panels for Pier Francesco Borgherini. (Two others by Francesco Bachiacca) | ||||
| Joseph reveals himself to his brothers | 1516-17 | National Gallery, London National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media... |
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| Joseph sold to Potiphar | 1516-17 | National Gallery, London | http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6451 | |
| Joseph's Brothers Beg for Help | 1515 | National Gallery, London | http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6453 | |
| Pharaoh with his Butler and Baker | 1516–1517 | National Gallery, London | http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6452 | |
| Joseph in Egypt | 1517-18 | National Gallery, London | http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG1131 | |
| *St. Quentin St. Quentin (Pontormo) St. Quentin is a painting attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Jacopo Pontormo. According to Giorgio Vasari's Vite, one of Pontormo's pupils, Gianmaria Pichi, was commissioned by his hometown of Sansepolcro a processional standard with the figure of St. Quentin; Pontormo decided to... (Also attributed to Giovanni Maria Pichi) |
1517 | Pinacoteca comunale, Sansepolcro Sansepolcro Sansepolcro , is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Arezzo.Situated on the upper reaches of the Tiber river, Borgo was the birthplace of the painters Piero della Francesca, Raffaellino del Colle and Angiolo Tricca... |
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| Portrait of Furrier | 1517–1518 | Louvre, Paris | http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=13979 | |
| St Jerome & St Francis | 1518 | Whitfield Fine Art, London | http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/WHITFIELD_FINE_ART/old_master_paintings.html | |
| Madonna with Child and Saints Madonna with Child and Saints (Pontormo) The Madonna with Child and Saints, also known as Pala Pucci, is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance painter Jacopo Pontormo, executed in 1516. It is housed in the church of San Michele Visdomini in Florence.... |
1518 | San Michele Visdomini San Michele Visdomini San Michele Visdomini is a church in the centre of Florence, central Italy. The original church of San Michele was demolished in 1368 to make space for the tribunes of the new Cathedral of Florence. Soon it was rebuilt in its present location to a design by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini, with later facade... , Florence |
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| Portrait of Musician | 1518–1519 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | ||
| St Anthony Abbott | 1518–1519 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.arca.net/uffizi/img/8379.jpg | |
| Portrait of Cosimo the Elder | 1518–1519 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/gallery/pon_cos.html | |
| John the Evangelist & the Archangel Gabriel | 1519 | Church of S. Michele, Empoli Empoli Empoli is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, about 20 km southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the latter river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes a hilly one as it departs from the river... |
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| Adoration of the Magi | 1519-21 | Palazzo Pitti Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio... , Florence |
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| Vertumnus and Pomona Vertumnus and Pomona (Pontormo) The fresco decoration of Vertumnus and Pomona in the Medici country villa at Poggio a Caiano is a masterpiece by Jacopo Pontormo. The villa is set among orchards and gardens, and served in summer as an outdoor respite to the heat in Florence.The fresco surrounds a lunette, high in a barrel-vaulted... |
1519–1521 | Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano Poggio a Caiano Poggio a Caiano is a town and comune in the Province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town lies 9 km south of the provincial capital of Prato.-The Medici villa:... |
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| Study of Man's Head (Drawing) | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City | http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/recent_acquisitions/1998/co_rec_eur_1998_361.asp | ||
/Pontormo%20-%20Episode%20from%20Hospital%20Life.jpg){kind=link}
Mature works (1522-1530)
| Painting | Date | Site | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mary and Child with Four saints | 1520-30 | Metropolitan Museum, New York City | |
| Portrait of two friends | c. 1522 | Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice Venice Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region... |
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| Madonna with Child & Two Saints (Bronzino?) | c. 1522 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.arca.net/uffizi/img/1538.jpg |
| Holy Family with St John | 1522–1524 | Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,... , St Petersburg |
http://www.guggenheimlasvegas.org/artist_work_md_1305.html |
| Madonna with Child & St John (Attributed to Rosso Fiorentino Rosso Fiorentino Giovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:... ) |
1523–1525 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | |
| Prayer in Gesthemane (copies by Jacopo da Empoli Jacopo da Empoli thumb|250px|Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, [[San Lorenzo di Firenze|San Lorenzo]], [[Florence]].Jacopo da Empoli was an Italian late-mannerist painter.... ) |
1523–1525 | Certosa di Galluzo | http://www.arpai.org/pdf/061-063.pdf |
| Walk to Calvary | 1523–1525 | Certosa di Galluzo | http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/italren/pics.art/0180/18069.JPG |
| Christ before Pilate | 1523–1525 | Certosa di Galluzo | http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/painting/paintings/bigphotos/P/03galuzz.jpg |
| Deposition | 1523–1525 | Certosa di Galluzo | |
| Resurrection | 1523–1525 | Certosa di Galluzo | http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/italren/pics.art/0180/18073.JPG |
| Supper in Emmaus | 1525 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/p/pontormo/3/04emmaus.html |
| Study of a Carthusian Monk (Drawing) | 1525 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/karlins/karlins12-16-5.asp |
| Madonna and child & two angels | 1525 | San Francisco Museum Art, San Francisco | http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?keywords=&artist=%50%6F%6E%74%6F%72%6D%6F&country=&period=&sort=&start=1&position=1&record=64742 |
| Portrait of young man in pink | 1525–1526, | Pinacoteca Communale, Lucca Lucca Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca... . |
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| Tabernacle of San Giuliano, Boldrone, Crucifix with Madonna & St. John, and Sant'Agostino | 1525–1526: | Accademia, Florence | |
| Birth of St. John Baptist | 1526 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | |
| Saint Jerome Penitent | 1526–1527 | Landesmuseum, Hannover. | |
| Madonna with Child & St John (Bronzino?) | 1526–1528 | Palazzo Corsini Palazzo Corsini The Palazzo Corsini is a prominent late-baroque palace in Rome, erected for the Corsini family between 1730-1740 as an elaboration of the prior building on the site, a 15th-century villa of the Riario family, based on designs of Ferdinando Fuga. It is located in the Trastevere section of the city,... , Florence. |
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| Madonna with Child & St John | 1527–1528. | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.arca.net/uffizi/img/4347.jpg |
| Matthew, Luke, & John (Mark painted by Bronzino) | 1525–1526 | Santa Felicita, Capponi Chapel, Florence. | |
| Deposition The Deposition from the Cross (Pontormo) The Deposition from the Cross is an altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance painter Jacopo Pontormo, completed in 1528. It is broadly considered to be the artist's surviving masterpiece... |
1526–1528 | Santa Felicita, Capponi Chapel, Florence. | http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm |
| Annunciation Annunciation (Pontormo) The Annunciation is a wall painting by the Italian mannerist artist Jacopo Pontormo, executed in 1527-1528 as part of his commission to decorate the Capponi Chapel in the church of Santa Felicita, Florence.... |
1527–1528 | Santa Felicita, Capponi Chapel, Florence. | http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/pontormo/4capponi/2annunc.html |
| Portrait of Francesca Capponi, as St. Mary Magdalen | 1527–1528 | Whitfield Fine Art, London. | http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/?p=103 |
| Visitation | 1528–1529 | Church of San Francesco e Michele, Carmignano Carmignano Carmignano is a comune of c. 12,000 inhabitants in the province of Prato, part of the Italian region Tuscany. It is located about 20 km west of Florence and about 10 km southwest of Prato.... |
http://renaissance.mrugala.net/Pontormo%20(par%20Fontaine%20S.)/Pontormo%20-%20La%20Visitation.jpg |
| Madonna with Child, Saint Anne and Four saints | 1528–1529 | Louvre Museum, Paris. | http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=13981 |
| Portrait of a Halberdier | 1528–1530 | J. Paul Getty Museum J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California... , Los Angeles |
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=945 |
| Eleven Thousand Martyrs | 1529–1530 | Palazzo Pitti Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio... , Florence |
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/Pontormo%20-%20La%20Visitation.jpg){kind=link}
Late works (after 1530)
| Painting | Date | Site | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martyrdom of San Maurizio and the Theban Legions (Pontormo & Bronzino) | 1531 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | |
| Noli me Tangere (Bronzino?) | 1531 | Casa Buonarroti Casa Buonarroti Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence. The building was a property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo, which he left to his nephew, Lionardo Buonarroti. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger... , Florence |
http://www.casabuonarroti.it/english/other/e-jacopo.htm |
| Portrait of lady in red with puppy, (Bronzino?) | 1532–1533 | Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt | |
| Venus and Cupid | 1532–1534 | Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence | |
| Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici | c. 1534-1535 | Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year... , Philadelphia |
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/karlins/karlins12-16-2.asp |
| Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici | c. 1534-1535 | Art Institute of Chicago Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either... , Chicago |
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/karlins/karlins12-16-4.asp |
| Adam and Eve | 1535 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | |
| Study for the Three Graces (Drawing) | 1535 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/pontormo/drawings/05graces.html |
| Portrait of Maria Salviati de Medici and Giulia de Medici (Painting) | c. 1539 | The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore | http://art.thewalters.org/viewwoa.aspx?id=26104 |
| Portrait of Niccolò Ardinghelli | National Gallery, Washington D.C. | http://www.kressfoundation.org/cgi-bin/kressorg/2templateb.cgi?17&Pontormo+(Jacopo+Carucci)&works&0 | |
| Portrait of Maria Salviati | 1543–1545 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence | |
| Sacrificial Scene | c. 1545 | Capodimonte Museum, Naples | |
| My Book (Pontormo's Diary) | 1554–1556 | National Library, Florence | |
| Portrait of Pontormo (Bronzino) | http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/karlins/karlins12-16-6.asp | ||
| St. Francis (Drawing) | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_has_images=1&coll_keywords=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&submit=Search&coll_classification=Drawings&coll_artist=Pontormo | |
| San Lorenzo Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III... (Fresco cartoons) |
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/pontormo/drawings/07loren1.htmlhttp://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/pontormo/drawings/07loren2.htmlhttp://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/pontormo/drawings/07loren3.html | ||
Further reading
- Krystof, Doris. Joseph Carrucci, known as Pontormo 1494-1557. Koln: Konemann, 1988. ISBN 3829002548
External links
- Pontormo's paintings and drawings illustrated
- Pontormo at Olga's Gallery
- Giorgio Vasari's Vita (English)
- Pontormo's 1554 diary
- A diary of his last two years survives http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/18/pontormosdiary.php