Pontormo, Jacopo da

Pontormo, Jacopo da (yä`kōpō dä pōntôr`mō), 1494–1556, Florentine painter, one of the creators of mannerism. His real name was Jacopo Carrucci. He studied with Andrea del Sarto, Leonardo da Vinci, Mariotto Albertinelli, and Piero di Cosimo. While studying with Sarto, Pontormo met Il Rosso, who became his main rival. Among his earliest religious works were the altarpieces for the churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Annunziata, Florence. His altar for the church of San Michele Visdomini, Florence, is considered by many to be the first mannerist work in recorded history. Pontormo was also a talented portraitist; he made full use of his abilities in his Passion Cycle (1522–25) for the Florentine Certosa family, in which he gave animation and presence to several mythological scenes. His Lady with a Lap Dog is one of the first mannerist portraits. It is said that Pontormo was influenced by Michelangelo and Dürer as his work matured. For much of his life, Pontormo was a recluse. He painted several frescoes from 1546 to 1556, but these have since been lost. He is remembered mainly for his drawings from this period. Examples of his art are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Fogg Museum, Cambridge; and the Yale Univ. Art Gallery. Pontormo also kept a diary in which he chronicled his neurotic obsessions.

Bibliography

See J. Cox-Rearick, The Drawings of Pontormo (2 vol., 1981).

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Pontormo, Jacopo da

 orig. Jacopo Carrucci

(born May 24, 1494, Pontormo, Republic of Florence—buried Jan. 2, 1557, Florence) Florentine painter. The son of a painter, he was apprenticed to Leonardo da Vinci and later to Piero di Cosimo and Andrea del Sarto (who exerted the greatest influence on him). The agitated, almost neurotic emotionalism of his work reflects a departure from the balance and tranquillity of the High Renaissance. His expressive style is sometimes considered an early manifestation of Mannerism. Primarily a religious painter, he also did sensitive portraits and was employed by the Medici family to decorate their villa at Poggio a Caiano with mythological subjects.

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Pontormo, Jacopo da 

(real name, Jacopo Carrucci). Born May 24, 1494, in Pontormo, Tuscany; buried Jan. 2, 1557, in Florence. Italian painter. Representative of the Florentine school.

Pontormo studied with M. Albertinelli and Piero di Cosimo between 1507 and 1512. He was influenced by Michelangelo, especially beginning in the 1530’s, and by A. Dürer. His early works were akin to the art of the High Renaissance masters, such as Andrea del Sarto, with whom he collaborated around 1512. In the 1520’s he became one of the founders of mannerism. Pontormo’s masterly, at times eccentric, compositional skill and sharp powers of observation are manifested with particular power in the frescoes of bucolic allegories in a villa at Poggio a Caiano (1520). Inherent in his later religious compositions, such as Deposition (1526–28, Church of Santa Felicità, Florence), are traits of inner anxiety and excited tension of color. This is also true of his portraits, such as Portrait of a Woman (c. 1543–45, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). Also noteworthy is Three Graces, a sanguine (c. 1535–36, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). Pontormo’s studies and sketches are remarkable for their unusual expressiveness of contour and flexibility and liveliness of line.

REFERENCES

Rearick, J. C. The Drawings of Pontormo, vols. 1–2. Cambridge, 1964.
Forster, K. W. Pontormo. [Munich, 1966.]