Jacopo Carrucci was known as Pontormo after his place of birth, Pontorme, near Empoli, where he was born in 1494. Together with Rosso Fiorentino, he was one of the main exponents of the Mannerist style. From his very first works, which include the "Sacred Conversation" (1514) and the "Visitation" (1516) at the Santissima Annunziata Church in Florence, he differed from the dreamy, graceful style of his master, Andrea del Sarto, showing a very spiritual and restless temperament in his anxious, unsettled style. As a young man he also painted the "Flight of Joseph" (1515-19), at London's National Gallery, the "Pucci Altar-piece" for the Church of San Michele Visdomini, and the "Portrait of Cosimo the Elder" (1518-19), in the Tribune at the Uffizi, in which the subject is dressed in magnificent red brocade, but has a sad, thoughtful gaze (in the same room is the emotionally strong "Virgin and Child with St. Giovannino"). His "Scenes from the life of St. Joseph" (1515-19) at the National Gallery in London, are noteworthy for their quality of highly meditative characterization, which shows the influence of Albert Dürer, also seen in Pontormo's later works. Important under this aspect are the "Adoration of the Magi" (1523), at the Pitti Palace; "Vertunno and Pomona" (1521), at the Medicea Villa of Poggio a Caiano; the "Scenes of the Passion" (1523-25), at the Charterhouse of Galluzzo and the "Supper at Emmaus" (1525), at the Uffizi (in the room dedicated to Pontormo himself and Rosso Fiorentino, which also houses the "Portrait of a musician", "St. Anthony Abbot", the "Portrait of Maria Salviati" and the "Birth of St. John" tondo, in which the tall, thin figures fit in perfectly with the composition). In his last paintings, the "Visitation" (1528-30) at St. Michael's Parish Church in Carmignano, and the "Deposition" (1526-28) at the Santa Felicita' Church in Florence, the bodies, wrapped in brightly coloured clothes appear heavier and more "earthly", despite the insense mysticism in their expressions. The artist died in 1556.
