An introduction to Pontormo
Mauro Pagliai Editore, €18 pb, 176 pp, 9788856403732
An introduction to Pontormo by Jonah Jones
Having crossed the bustling Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the visitor soon encounters a small piazza with a shaded entrance to the church of Santa Felicita and gladly enters the cool grey stone interior. On the right, behind an iron gate, a painting of Christ’s Deposition 1526–28 illuminates a side chapel, beaming colours of neon intensity, aqua blue, raspberry, and lime green. Christ’s body is transported by a host of intertwined figures, yearning and dolorous. In a bodysuit of fluorescent pink, a youth crouches underneath Christ’s legs, yet he seems to bear no weight other than that of grief. Mary and her attendants bid farewell to Christ in a mesmerising dance-like ritual.
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