Pontormo, Jacopo da (1494-1557)

Italian painter. One of the leading Mannerists, he developed a highly original style, his figures slender and agitated, his colours lurid. One of his best-known works is his The Deposition about 1525 (Santa Felicità, Florence), an extraordinary composition of interlocked figures, with rosy pinks, lime yellows, and pale apple greens illuminating the scene.

His early style, marking the beginnings of Florentine Mannerism, derived from Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolommeo. It can be seen in Joseph in Egypt 1517 (National Gallery, London), and his first major altarpiece for San Michele Visdomini 1518.

During the 1520s his work underwent a change of style under the influence of Michelangelo, a change reflected in his Vertumnus and Pomona fresco in Lorenzo Medici's villa at Poggio a Caiano, the Medici villa. His knowledge of both Dürer and Michelangelo can be seen in the frescoes at the Certosa di Val d'Ema 1523.

His fresco in the choir of San Lorenzo, unfinished at his death, was completed by Bronzino.

Pontormo's late diary reveals his lonely, introverted character