May 24
17 Works, Today, May 24th. is Pontormo’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #142
Adoration of the Magi, c. 1522–1523
Oil on panel
Height: 85 cm (33.4 in); Width: 190 cm (74.8 in)
Galleria Palatina
The Adoration of the Magi (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: A Magis adoratur) is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him. The Adoration of the Magi
The work’s landscape, crowds and grotesques evoke contemporary North European prints by artists such as Lucas van Leyden and Dürer, then circulating as far as Florence and beyond. Unusually for an Adoration of the Magi, the work shows saint Anne (behind the Virgin Mary). She and the image of the Verzaia Monastery in the right background recall the annual procession from Orsanmichele to that monastery on Anne’s feast day (26 July). More on this painting
Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 — January 2, 1557), usually known as Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity…
