Pontormo, Jacopo da

(Jacopo Carucci; 1494-1557)

   Mannerist Florentine painter who studied under Leonardo da Vinci, Piero di Cosimo, and Andrea del Sarto. Pontormo's personal diary has survived and reveals that the man had a neurotic personality. At the end of his life he became a recluse and made his studio accessible only through a ladder that he would draw up after himself so no one could gain entry. The Mannerist style, which is full of illogical elements, was well suited for his temperament. In c. 1518, Pontormo received a commission to paint Joseph in Egypt (London, National Gallery) for the Florentine Pier Francesco Borgherini, Michelangelo's friend, a work that falls in the early stages of his career. Borgherini wanted a series depicting the story of this biblical character for his nuptial chamber on occasion of his marriage to Margherita Acciaioli (1515) and he asked Michelangelo to recommend artists for its execution. Among those Michelangelo recommended were Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto. Pontormo's is a complex work with no specific central focus, with stairways that lead to nowhere, and crowded with figures and illogical proportions — all characteristic of the Mannerist style. It depicts various scenes at once, including the pharaoh's dream that Joseph interpreted, the discovery of the cup that leads to Joseph's reunion with his brothers who sold him into slavery, and his forgiveness of their deed.

   In 1525-1528, Pontormo painted one of his most highly regarded works, the Deposition for the Capponi Chapel in the Church of Santa Felicita in Florence. This ambiguous representation of the removal of the body of Christ from the cross includes neither the cross nor a tomb. Inspired by Michelangelo's muscular figures, Pontormo's feature massive torsos, contorted, almost impossible poses, and sculptural draperies. The focus of the work is not on the dead body of Christ but on the hands that are stacked in the middle of the oval composition. The colors are applied in unusual combinations, with blue being the dominant hue. Lighting is harsh, facial expressions are strange, and some body parts do not seem to belong to any of the figures included. To this period also belongs his Madonna and Child with Saints (c. 1529; Paris, Louvre), painted for the Convent of St. Anne in Verzaia, just outside Florence, and his Visitation (1528-1529) for the Church of San Michele, Carmignano. Pontormo's restless images with at times perplexing components provided an inventive alternative to the harmonious, more forthright compositions of the High Renaissance style.