Both lauded and criticized for his pictorial eclecticism, the Florentine artist Jacopo Carrucci, known as Pontormo, created some of the most visually striking religious images of the Renaissance. These paintings, which challenged prevailing illusionistic conventions, mark a unique contribution into the complex relationship between artistic innovation and Christian traditions in the first half of the sixteenth century. Pontormo's sacred works are generally interpreted as objects that reflect either pure aesthetic experimentation, or personal and cultural anxiety. Jessica Maratsos, however, argues that Pontormo employed stylistic change deliberately for novel devotional purposes. As a painter, he was interested in the various modes of expression and communication - direct address, tactile evocation, affective incitement - as deployed in a wide spectrum of devotional culture, from sacri monti, to Michelangelo's marble sculptures, to evangelical lectures delivered at the Accademia Fiorentina. Maratsos shows how Pontormo translated these modes in ways that prompt a critical rethinking of Renaissance devotional art.

Author: Jessica A. Maratsos
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 09/09/2021
Pages: 272
Weight: 1.6lbs
Size: 10.20h x 8.00w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781316510551


Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2022

About the Author
Maratsos, Jessica A.: - Jessica Maratsos is Keith Sykes Research Fellow in Italian Studies at Pembroke College University of Cambridge.