Together with Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo was a leading and revolutionary artist of Mannerism in Florence. This expressive, highly worked up drawing can be dated in the period between Pontormo's ‘Madonna of San Ruffilo’ fresco at the Santissima Annunziata (1514), and the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ panel in the Palazzo Pitti (1520-22), thus early in the master's career. Pontormo's drawings, mainly figure studies in red chalk or black chalk, are among the highest expressions in the tradition of Florentine design. His early drawing style, particularly his preference for red chalk, shows the influence of his master, Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530). The early fortune of this extraordinary drawing is recorded by a copy now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 1991) made by the Late Renaissance painter and draftsman from Siena Francesco Vanni (1563-1610).
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Artwork Details
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Title:Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female Martyr
Artist:Jacopo da Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) (Italian, Pontormo 1494–1556 Florence)
Date:1514–22
Medium:Red chalk, brush and red wash
Dimensions:10 13/16 x 11in. (27.5 x 27.9cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1917
Accession Number:19.76.11
Inscription: Annotated in graphite at lower border, just right of center: "Pontormo"; in pen and brown ink at lower border of Pembroke mount: "Giacomo Pontormo. 1493-1556."
Possibly Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (British); Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke (British), by 1772 (was in Pembroke volume XU.2., dated 24 Nov. 1772); by descent to Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke (British); Pembroke Sale, Sotheby's, London, July 5–6, 9–10, 1917, no. 414
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," July 21–October 5, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," April 11–June 25, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 9–April 6, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Journeys," July 31–October 30, 2018.
Sandford Arthur Strong Reproductions in Facsimile of Drawings by the Old Masters in the Collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House. London, 1900, part 3, no. 26, repr. (as Pontormo), ill.
Bernard Berenson The Drawings of the Florentine Painters: Classified, Criticised and Studied as Documents in the History and Appreciation of the Tuscan Art, with a Copious Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols., London, 1903, cat. no. 2370.
Frederick Mortimer Clapp Les Dessins de Pontormo: Catalogue Raisonné, précédé d'une étude critique. Paris, 1914, p. 352.
Bryson Burroughs "Drawings Among the Recent Acquisitions." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 14, no. 8, New York, August 1919, fig. no. 178, p. 177, ill.
Bernard Berenson The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols., amplified edition. Chicago, 1938, cat. no. 2256G.
Italian Drawings. Exh. cat. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1941, cat. no. 31.
Walter Mehring European Drawings from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Portfolio of Collotype Reproductions [Vol. 1: Italian Drawings; Vol. 2: Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings; Vol. 3: "New Series": Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 vols., New York, 1942–44, also N.S., no. 9., cat. no. 23 (vol.1), fig. no. 23, ill.
Carlo Gamba Contributo alla conoscenza del Pontormo. Florence, 1956, fig. no. 2, pp. 10-11, ill.
Bacchiacca and His Friends. Exh. cat. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, 1961, cat. no. 64.
Bernard Berenson, Luisa Vertova I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. 3 vols., Revised and enlarged. Milan, 1961, cat. no. 2256G.
Janet Cox-Rearick The Drawings of Pontormo: A Catalogue Raisonné with Notes on the Paintings. 2 vols., first. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964, cat. no. A229, I, p. 398.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, cat. no. 191, fig. no. 191, p. 195, ill.
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