Christ in the Garden, counterfeiting so well the darkness of night
illumined by the light of the moon, that it appears almost like
daylight; and while Christ is praying, not far distant are Peter,
James, and John sleeping, executed in a manner so similar to that of
Duerer, that it is a marvel. Not far away is Judas leading the Jews,
likewise with a countenance so strange, even as the features of all
those soldiers are depicted in the German manner with bizarre
expressions, that it moves him who beholds it to pity for the
simplicity of the man, who sought with such patience to learn that
which others avoid and seek to lose, and all to lose the manner that
surpassed all others in excellence and gave infinite pleasure to
everyone. Did not Pontormo know, then, that the Germans and Flemings
came to these parts to learn the Italian manner, which he with such
effort sought to abandon as if it were bad?
Beside this scene is one in which is Christ led by the Jews before
Pilate, and in the Saviour he painted all the humility that could
possibly be imagined in the Person of Innocence betrayed by the sins
of men, and in the wife of Pilate that pity and dread for themselves
which those have who fear the divine judgment; which woman, while she
pleads the cause of Christ before her husband, gazes into His
countenance with pitying wonder. Round Pilate are some soldiers so
characteristic in the expressions of the faces and in the German
garments, that one who knew not by whose hand was that work would
believe it to have been executed in reality by ultramontanes. It is
true, indeed, that in the distance in this scene there is a cup-bearer
of Pilate's that is descending some steps with a basin and a ewer in
his hands, carrying to his master the means to wash the hands, who is
lifelike and very beautiful, having in him something of the old manner
of Jacopo.
Having next to paint the Resurrection of Christ in one of the other
corners, the fancy came to Jacopo, as to one who had no steadfastness
in his brain and was always cogitating new things, to change his
colouring; and so he executed that work with a colouring in fresco so
soft and so good, that, if he had done the work in another manner than
that same German, it would certainly have been very beautiful, for in
the heads of those soldiers, who are in various attitudes, heavy with
sleep, and as it were dead, there may be seen such excellence, that
one cannot believe that it is possible to do better.
Then, continuing the stories of the Passion in another of the corners,
he painted Christ going with the Cross upon His shoulder to Mount
Calvary, and behind Him the people of Jerusalem, accompanying Him; and
in front are the two Thieves, naked, between the ministers of justice,
who are partly on foot and partly on horseback, with the ladders, the
inscription for the Cross, hammers, nails, cords, and other suchlike
instruments. And in the highest part, behind a little hill, is the
Madonna with the Maries, who, weeping, are awaiting Christ, who has
fallen to the ground in the middle of the scene, and has about Him
many Jews that are smiting Him, while Veronica is offering to Him the
Sudarium, accompanied by some women both young and old, all weeping at
the outrage that they see being done to the Saviour. This scene,
either because he was warned by his friends, or perhaps because Jacopo
himself at last became aware, although tardily, of the harm that had
been done to his own sweet manner by the study of the German, proved
to be much better than the others executed in the same place, for the
reason that certain naked Jews and some heads of old men are so well
painted in fresco, that it would not be possible to do more, although
the same German manner may be seen constantly maintained in the work
as a whole.
After these he was to have gone on with the Crucifixion and the
Deposition from the Cross in the other corners; but, putting them
aside for a time, with the intention of executing them last, he
painted in their stead Christ taken down from the Cross, keeping to
the same manner, but with great harmony of colouring. In this scene,
besides that the Magdalene, who is kissing the feet of Christ, is most
beautiful, there are two old men, representing Joseph of Arimathaea and
Nicodemus, who, although they are in the German manner, have the most
beautiful expressions and heads of old men, with beards feathery and
coloured with marvellous softness, that there are to be seen.
Now Jacopo, besides being generally slow over his works, was pleased
with the solitude of the Certosa, and he therefore spent several years
on these labours; and, after the plague had finished and he had
returned to Florence, he did not for that reason cease to frequent
that place constantly, and was always going and coming between the
Certosa and the city. Proceeding thus, he satisfied those fathers in
many things, and, among others, he painted in their church, over one
of the doors that lead into the chapels, in a figure from the waist
upwards, the portrait of a lay-brother of that monastery, who was
alive at that time and one hundred and twenty years old, executing it
so well and with such finish, such vivacity, and such animation, that
through it alone Pontormo deserves to be excused for the strange and
fantastic new manner with which he was saddled by that solitude and by
living far from the commerce of men.
Besides this, he painted for the Prior of that place a picture of the
Nativity of Christ, representing Joseph as giving light to Jesus
Christ in the darkness of the night with a lantern, and this in
pursuit of the same notions and caprices which the German engravings
put into his head. Now let no one believe that Jacopo is to blame
because he imitated Albrecht Duerer in his inventions, for the reason
that this is no error, and many painters have done it and are
continually doing it; but only because he adopted the unmixed German
manner in everything, in the draperies, in the expressions of the
heads, and in the attitudes, which he should have avoided, availing
himself only of the inventions, since he had the modern manner in all
the fullness of its beauty and grace. For the Stranger's Apartment of
the same monks he painted a large picture on canvas and in
oil-colours, without straining himself at all or forcing his natural
powers, of Christ at table with Cleophas and Luke, figures of the size
of life; and since in this work he followed the bent of his own
genius, it proved to be truly marvellous, particularly because he
portrayed among those who are serving at that table some lay-brothers
of the convent, whom I myself have known, in such a manner that they
could not be either more lifelike or more animated than they are.
Bronzino, meanwhile (that is, while his master was executing the works
described above in the Certosa), pursuing with great spirit the
studies of painting, and encouraged all the time by Pontormo, who was
very loving with his disciples, executed on the inner side over an
arch above the door of the cloister that leads into the church,
without having ever seen the process of painting in oil-colours on the
wall, a nude S. Laurence on the gridiron, which was so beautiful that
there began to be seen some indication of that excellence to which he
has since attained, as will be related in the proper place; which
circumstance gave infinite satisfaction to Jacopo, who already saw
whither that genius would arrive.
Not long afterwards there returned from Rome Lodovico di Gino Capponi,
who had bought that chapel in S. Felicita, on the right hand of the
entrance into the church, which the Barbadori had formerly caused to
be built by Filippo di Ser Brunellesco; and he resolved to have all
the vaulting painted, and then to have an altar-piece executed for it,
with a rich ornament. Having therefore consulted in the matter with M.
Niccolo Vespucci, knight of Rhodes, who was much his friend, the
knight, who was also much the friend of Jacopo, and knew, into the
bargain, the talent and worth of that able man, did and said so much
that Lodovico allotted that work to Pontormo. And so, having erected
an enclosure, which kept that chapel closed for three years, he set
his hand to the work. On the vaulted ceiling he painted a God the
Father, who has about Him four very beautiful Patriarchs; and in the
four medallions at the angles he depicted the four Evangelists, or
rather, he executed three of them with his own hand, and Bronzino one
all by himself. And with this occasion I must mention that Pontormo
used scarcely ever to allow himself to be helped by his assistants, or
to suffer them to lay a hand on that which he intended to execute with
his own hand; and when he did wish to avail himself of one of them,
chiefly in order that they might learn, he allowed them to do the
whole work by themselves, as he allowed Bronzino to do here.
In the works that Jacopo executed in the said chapel up to this point,
it seemed almost as if he had returned to his first manner; but he did
not follow the same method in painting the altar-piece, for, thinking
always of new things, he executed it without shadows, and with a
colouring so bright and so uniform, that one can scarcely distinguish
the lights from the middle tints, and the middle tints from the darks.
In this altar-piece is a Dead Christ taken down from the Cross and
being carried to the Sepulchre. There is the Madonna who is swooning,
and the Maries, all executed in a fashion so different from his first
work, that it is clearly evident that his brain was always busy
investigating new conceptions and fantastic methods of painting, not
being content with, and not fixing on, any single method. In a word,
the composition of this altar-piece is altogether different from the
figures on the vaulting, and likewise the colouring; and the four
Evangelists, which are in the medallions on the spandrels of the
vaulting, are much better and in a different manner.
[Illustration: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
(_After the painting by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Florence: S. Felicita_)
_Alinari_]
On the wall where the window is are two figures in fresco, on one side
the Virgin, and on the other the Angel, who is bringing her the
Annunciation, but so distorted, both the one and the other, that it is
evident that, as I have said, that bizarre and fantastic brain was
never content with anything. And in order to be able to do as he
pleased in this, and to avoid having his attention distracted by
anyone, all the time that he was executing this work he would never
allow even the owner of the chapel himself to see it, insomuch that,
having painted it after his own fancy, without any of his friends
having been able to give him a single hint, when it was finally
uncovered and seen, it amazed all Florence. For the same Lodovico he
executed a picture of Our Lady in that same manner for his chamber,
and in the head of a S. Mary Magdalene he made the portrait of a
daughter of Lodovico, who was a very beautiful young woman.
Near the Monastery of Boldrone, on the road that goes from there to
Castello, and at the corner of another that climbs the hill and goes
to Cercina (that is, at a distance of two miles from Florence), he
painted in fresco in a shrine Christ Crucified, Our Lady weeping, S.
John the Evangelist, S. Augustine, and S. Giuliano; all which figures,
his caprice not being yet satisfied, and the German manner still
pleasing him, are not very different from those that he executed at
the Certosa. He did the same, also, in an altar-piece that he painted
for the Nuns of S. Anna, at the Porta a S. Friano, in which
altar-piece is Our Lady with the Child in her arms, and S. Anne behind
her, with S. Peter, S. Benedict, and other Saints, and in the predella
is a small scene with little figures, which represent the Signoria of
Florence as it used to go in procession with trumpeters, pipers,
mace-bearers, messengers, and ushers, with the rest of the household;
and this he did because the commission for that altar-piece was given
to him by the Captain and the household of the Palace.
The while that Jacopo was executing this work, Alessandro and Ippolito
de' Medici, who were both very young, having been sent to Florence by
Pope Clement VII under the care of the Legate, Silvio Passerini,
Bishop of Cortona, the Magnificent Ottaviano, to whom the Pope had
straitly recommended them, had the portraits of both of them taken by
Pontormo, who served him very well, and made them very good
likenesses, although he did not much depart from the manner that he
had learned from the Germans. In the portrait of Ippolito he also
painted a favourite dog of that lord, called Rodon, and made it so
characteristic and so natural, that it might be alive. He took the
portrait, likewise, of Bishop Ardinghelli, who afterwards became a
Cardinal; and for Filippo del Migliore, who was much his friend, he
painted in fresco in his house on the Via Larga, in a niche opposite
to the principal door, a woman representing Pomona, from which it
appeared that he was beginning to seek to abandon in part his German
manner.
Now Giovan Battista della Palla perceived that by reason of many works
the name of Jacopo was becoming every day more celebrated; and, since
he had not succeeded in sending to King Francis the pictures executed
by that same master and by others for Borgherini, he resolved, knowing
that the King had a desire for them, at all costs to send him
something by the hand of Pontormo. Whereupon he so went to work that
he persuaded Jacopo to execute a most beautiful picture of the Raising
of Lazarus, which proved to be one of the best works that he ever
painted and that was ever sent by Giovan Battista, among the vast
number that he sent, to King Francis of France. For, besides that the
heads were most beautiful, the figure of Lazarus, whose spirit as he
returned to life was re-entering his dead flesh, could not have been
more marvellous, for about the eyes he still had the hue of
corruption, and the flesh cold and dead at the extremities of the
hands and feet, where the spirit had not yet come.
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF THE FORTY SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Florence: Pitti, 182_)
_Alinari_]
In a picture of one braccio and a half he painted for the Sisters of
the Hospital of the Innocenti, with an infinite number of little
figures, the story of the eleven thousand Martyrs who were condemned
to death by Diocletian and all crucified in a wood. In this Jacopo
represented a battle of horsemen and nude figures, very beautiful, and
some most lovely little Angels flying through the air, who are
shooting arrows at the ministers of the crucifixion; and in like
manner, about the Emperor, who is pronouncing the condemnation, are
some most beautiful nude figures who are going to their death. This
picture, which in every part is worthy to be praised, is now held in
great price by Don Vincenzio Borghini, the Director of that Hospital,
who once was much the friend of Jacopo. Another picture similar to
that described above he painted for Carlo Neroni, but only with the
Battle of the Martyrs and the Angel baptizing them; and then the
portrait of Carlo himself. He also executed a portrait, at the time
of the siege of Florence, of Francesco Guardi in the habit of a
soldier, which was a very beautiful work; and on the cover of this
picture Bronzino afterwards painted Pygmalion praying to Venus that
his statue, receiving breath, might spring to life and become--as,
according to the fables of the poets, it did--flesh and blood. At this
time, after much labour, there came to Jacopo the fulfilment of a
desire that he had long had, in that, having always felt a wish to
have a house that might be his own, so that he should no longer live
in the house of another, but might occupy his own and live as pleased
himself, finally he bought one in the Via della Colonna, opposite to
the Nuns of S. Maria degli Angeli.
The siege finished, Pope Clement commanded Messer Ottaviano de' Medici
that he should cause the hall of Poggio a Caiano to be finished.
Whereupon, Franciabigio and Andrea del Sarto being dead, the whole
charge of this was given to Pontormo, who, after having the staging
and the screens made, began to execute the cartoons; but, for the
reason that he went off into fantasies and cogitations, beyond that he
never set a hand to the work. This, perchance, would not have happened
if Bronzino had been in those parts, who was then working at the
Imperiale, a place belonging to the Duke of Urbino, near Pesaro; which
Bronzino, although he was sent for every day by Jacopo, nevertheless
was not able to depart at his own pleasure, for the reason that, after
he had executed a very beautiful naked Cupid on the spandrel of a
vault in the Imperiale, and the cartoons for the others, Prince
Guidobaldo, having recognized the young man's genius, ordained that
his own portrait should be taken by him, and, seeing that he wished to
be portrayed in some armour that he was expecting from Lombardy,
Bronzino was forced to stay with that Prince longer than he could have
wished. During that time he painted the case of a harpsichord, which
much pleased the Prince, and finally Bronzino executed his portrait,
which was very beautiful, and the Prince was well satisfied with it.
Jacopo, then, wrote so many times, and employed so many means, that in
the end he brought Bronzino back; but for all that the man could never
be induced to do any other part of this work than the cartoons,
although he was urged to it by the Magnificent Ottaviano and by Duke
Alessandro. In one of these cartoons, which are now for the most part
in the house of Lodovico Capponi, is a Hercules who is crushing
Antaeus, in another a Venus and Adonis, and in yet another drawing a
scene of nude figures playing football.
In the meantime Signor Alfonso Davalos, Marchese del Vasto, having
obtained from Michelagnolo Buonarroti by means of Fra Niccolo della
Magna a cartoon of Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the garden,
moved heaven and earth to have it executed for him in painting by
Pontormo, Buonarroti having told him that no one could serve him
better than that master. Jacopo then executed that work to perfection,
and it was accounted a rare painting by reason both of the grandeur of
Michelagnolo's design and of Jacopo's colouring. Wherefore Signor
Alessandro Vitelli, who was at that time Captain of the garrison of
soldiers in Florence, having seen it, had a picture painted for
himself from the same cartoon by Jacopo, which he sent to Citta di
Castello and caused to be placed in his house. It thus became evident
in what estimation Michelagnolo held Pontormo, and with what diligence
Pontormo carried to completion and executed excellently well the
designs and cartoons of Michelagnolo, and Bartolommeo Bettini so went
to work that Buonarroti, who was much his friend, made for him a
cartoon of a nude Venus with a Cupid who is kissing her, in order that
he might have it executed in painting by Pontormo and place it in the
centre of a chamber of his own, in the lunettes of which he had begun
to have painted by Bronzino figures of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio,
with the intention of having there all the other poets who have sung
of love in Tuscan prose and verse. Jacopo, then, having received this
cartoon, executed it to perfection at his leisure, as will be related,
in the manner that all the world knows without my saying another word
in praise of it. These designs of Michelagnolo's were the reason that
Pontormo, considering the manner of that most noble craftsman, took
heart of grace, and resolved that by hook or by crook he would imitate
and follow it to the best of his ability. And then it was that Jacopo
recognized how ill he had done to allow the work of Poggio a Caiano to
slip through his hands, although he put the blame in great measure on
a long and very troublesome illness that he had suffered, and finally
on the death of Pope Clement, which brought that undertaking
completely to an end.
Jacopo having executed after the works described above a picture with
the portrait from life of Amerigo Antinori, a young man much beloved
in Florence at that time, and that portrait being much extolled by
everyone, Duke Alessandro had him informed that he wished to have his
portrait taken by him in a large picture. And Jacopo, for the sake of
convenience, executed his portrait for the time being in a little
picture of the size of a sheet of half-folio, and with such diligence
and care, that the works of the miniaturists do not in any way come up
to it; for the reason that, besides its being a very good likeness,
there is in that head all that could be desired in the rarest of
paintings. From that little picture, which is now in the guardaroba of
Duke Cosimo, Jacopo afterwards made a portrait of the same Duke in a
large picture, with a style in the hand, drawing the head of a woman;
which larger portrait Duke Alessandro afterwards presented to Signora
Taddea Malespina, the sister of the Marchesa di Massa. Desiring at all
costs to reward liberally the genius of Jacopo for these works, the
Duke sent him a message by Niccolo da Montaguto, his servant, that he
should ask whatever he wished, and it would be granted to him. But
such was the poor spirit or the excessive respect and modesty of the
man, I know not which to call it, that he asked for nothing save as
much money as would suffice him to redeem a cloak that he had pledged;
which having heard, the Duke, not without laughing at the character of
the man, commanded that fifty gold crowns should be given and a salary
offered to him; and even then Niccolo had much ado to make him accept
it.
Meanwhile Jacopo had finished painting the Venus from the cartoon
belonging to Bettini, which proved to be a marvellous thing, but it
was not given to Bettini at the price for which Jacopo had promised it
to him, for certain tuft-hunters, in order to do Bettini an injury,
took it almost by force from the hands of Jacopo and gave it to Duke
Alessandro, restoring the cartoon to Bettini. Which having heard,
Michelagnolo felt much displeasure for love of the friend for whom he
had drawn the cartoon, and he bore a grudge against Jacopo, who,
although he received fifty crowns for it from the Duke, nevertheless
cannot be said to have defrauded Bettini, seeing that he gave up the
Venus at the command of him who was his lord. But of all this some say
that Bettini himself was in great measure the cause, from his asking
too much.
[Illustration: JACOPO DA PONTORMO: PORTRAIT OF AN ENGRAVER
(_Paris: Louvre, 1241. Panel_)]