Jacopo Pontormo

Jacopo Pontormo Biography

Jacopo Carucci (sometimes spelled Carrucci) and called Pontormo, was an influential artist in the 16th century style of Mannerism and also as a precursor to the later Baroque period. His training, though sometimes brief, gave him a sweeping influence of the time, including teachers such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), Mariotto Albertinelli (1474 – 1515), Piero di Cosimo (1462 – 1522) and prominently with Andrea del Sarto (1486 – 1531). Jacopo da Pontormo painting became an important influence on his prominent pupil, Il Bronzino (1503 – 1572).

This breadth of influence formulated in Jacopo da Pontormo as a highly individual style, which helped define the development of early Mannerism, which would dominate the 16th century. His patrons in Florence where the Medici Family, giving even his early work a prevalent influence. An early portrait by Jacopo Pontormo, Portrait of Cosimo the Elder, is of the Medici Ruler, Cosimo de’ Medici (1389 – 1464), now at the Uffizi Gallery. One of earliest Pontormo paintings, Leda and the Swan, influenced by da Vinci’s own depiction of Leda, also hangs in the Uffizi. Though, the piece is still sometimes argued to be a work of Sarto or possibly Perin del Vaga (1501 – 1547).

Of other Jacopo da Pontormo paintings now in the Uffizi are Portrait of a Woman with Splindes (1514), Portrait of a Musician (1518), Saint Anthony Abbot (1518), Madonna and Child with Saints (1520), Supper at Emmans (1525), Birth of Saint John (1526), Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John (1528), Martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion (1529) and another Medici portrait, Portrait of Maria Salviati, mother of Cosimo I.

Pontormo’s other well know commission from the Medici family was his masterful frescos in their Poggio a Caiano Villa in Prato, depicting Vertumnus and Pomona. the painting is an interesting historical lineage of Florentine art; the Jacopo da Pontormo art begun by his teacher Sarto, continued by the artist himself and then completed by Alessandro Allori (1535 – 1607), who was trained by his pupil Il Bronzino. There were also several well known religious paintings throughout Florence’s churches by Jacopo da Pontormo, including his Deposition from the Cross and his Annunciation. Last Pontormo paintings were also a Medici commission for the Choir frescos in their chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. His only surviving works from this commission are preparatory Pontormo drawings.
 

Over the door of the company of la Cecilia, on the hill of Fiesole, Jacopo Carucci did a St. Cecilia in fresco, holding roses, one of the most beautiful frescoes in existence. When Maestro Jacopo, the Servite friar, had seen these Jacopo da Pontormo paintings, his desire was greatly kindled, and he hoped to get him to finish the cloister, thinking that the competition with the other masters who had worked there would spur him to produce something extraordinarily fine. Jacopo did a Visitation in a manner somewhat more elegant than his wont, being moved as much by his desire for honour and glory as for gain. This gave Pontormo art much greater beauty, for the women, children, youths and old men are rendered so charming, in such harmonious colouring, that it is a marvel. The flesh-colouring of a boy seated on some steps and that of all the other figures is such that it cannot be surpassed for softness. By these and other Pontormo paintings he took rank beside Andrea del Sarto andFranciabigio, who had laboured there. Jacopo Pontormo finished the task in 1516, only receiving 16 crowns for it.

To continue: he next did a panel for the men of Jacopo da Pontormo which was placed in the chapel of the Madonna in their principal church of S. Agnolo. It represents St. Michael and St. John the Evangelist. At this time a youth called Giovanmaria Pichi of Borgo a S. Sepolcro was staying with Jacopo, and did very well, becoming a Servite friar afterwards, while he executed some Pontormo paintings in the Pieve at S. Stefano.

But to return to the Pontormo paintings. Duke Alessandro having restored the villa of Careggi, built by Cosimo de' Medici the elder, two miles from Florence, and executed the decoration of the fountain and the labyrinth in the middle of an open court, directed that the two loggias facing it should be painted by Jacopo with assistance, in order that it might be done more quickly, and so that the conversation would render him more cheerful and make him work without troubling his brain with various fancies. The duke himself sent for Jacopo, and asked him to finish the Pontormo painting as soon as possible. Jacopo therefore sent for Bronzino, and in the five compartments of the vaulting made him do figures, namely Fortune, Justice, Victory, Peace and to Fame, and at the sixth Jacopo himself did a Love. Jacopo Carucci then designed some cherubs in the oval of the vaulting with various animals, foreshortened from below all except one being coloured by Bronzino, who did excellently. While Jacopo and Bronzino were engaged upon these figures, Jacone, Pierfrancesco di Jacopo and others did the surrounding decoration, and so the whole work was soon finished, to the delight of the duke, who wished to have the other loggia painted. But there was not time, for the Pontormo art being finished on 13 December, 1536, the duke was assassinated by his kinsman Lorenzino on 6 January following. On the succession of Duke Cosimo, followed by the successful affair of Montemurlo, the Pontormo painting of Castello was begun, as related in the Life of Tribolo. The duke, to please Donna Maria, his mother, directed Jacopo to paint the first loggia on the left on entering the palace. Here, after designing the ornaments, Jacopo Pontormo gave it to Bronzino to execute and to the others who had worked at Careggi.