Pontormo: 8 works

'Biographer Giorgio Vasari wrote that Pontormo almost obsessively revised his ideas for this fresco; his many known drawings for the project attest to the search for perfection.'

'In contradiction to the historic inscription 'Micarino', referring to the Sienese artist Domenico Beccafumi, modern research has revealed that this sheet is a work by Pontormo.'

'He drew Saint Francis over a partially obliterated standing man with a staff in his left hand, posed frontally with his head tilted to the left.'

'While these are merely studies, exploring ideas for parts of a painting, they clearly suggest the emotional intensity of his art and the sharp contrast with the preceding ideal of classical High Renaissance harmony. Pontormo made these drawings as preliminary figure studies for an altarpiece commissioned for a church in Florence in 1518, a work that some scholars consider the first clear manifestation of Mannerism in Italian painting.'

'According to Giorgio Vasari this commemorative portrait of Cosimo the Elder, founder of the Medici fortune, was painted by Pontormo for Goro Gheri, secretary of Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino.'

'However, it was Pontormo's pupil Bronzino who executed the finished fresco.'

'The Florentine painter Giorgio Vasari noted that during the siege of Florence in about 1528 Pontormo painted a "most beautiful work," a portrait of young nobleman Francesco Guardi as a soldier.'

'Although Maria still wears the clothing of mourning for her deceased husband, Pontormo's elegant style conveys her aristocratic grace through her impossibly long fingers and her fashionably pale color (indicative of a life led out of the sun), which she shares with Giulia.'