Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci)
1494–1557 · Renaissance & Mannerism
Biography
Like many other artists of his time, Pontormo’s fortunes were closely tied to the lucky star of the House of Medici, the de facto rulers of 16th-century Florence. The young painter got his first opportunity in 1513, after the Medici returned to Florence under Lorenzo II following a short exile, and Pontormo was commissioned to design and paint floats for the city’s triumphal procession. Further Medici commissions included the mural Vertumnus and Pomona (c. 1520) for the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano (pictured), and the no longer visible mural The Last Judgement (1550s) in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, where many members of the family were buried.
From the page of Portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici
