The Deposition from the Cross (Pontormo)

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	Pontormo's Entombment, Smarthistory

Deposition from the Cross
Deposition from the Cross
Italian: Deposizione
	Jacopo Pontormo
Year	c. 1525–1528
Type	Tempera on wood
Dimensions	313 cm × 192 cm (123 in × 76 in)
Location	Church of Santa Felicita, Florence

The Deposition from the Cross is an

Santa Felicita in Florence

.

Interpretation

This painting suggests a whirling dance of the grief-stricken. They inhabit a flattened space, comprising a sculptural congregation of brightly demarcated colors. The vortex of the composition droops down towards the limp body of Jesus off center in the left. Those lowering Christ appear to demand our help in sustaining both the weight of his body (and the burden of sin Christ took on) and their grief. No cross is visible; the natural world itself also appears to have nearly vanished: a lonely cloud and a shadowed patch of ground with a crumpled sheet provide sky and stratum for the mourners. If the sky and earth have lost color, the mourners have not; bright swathes of pink and blue envelop the pallid, limp Christ.^[citation needed]

Pontormo's undulating

Virgin, larger than her counterparts, swoons sideways inviting the support of those behind her; the Swoon of the Virgin was a controversial moment at the time.^{[citation needed]} The assembly looks completely interlocked, as if architecturally integrated. Legend has it that Pontormo set himself in self-portrait at the extreme right of the canvas; but ultimately, the most compelling and empathic figure is the crouching man in the foreground, whose expression mixes the weight of the cadaver and the weight of melancholy.^{[citation needed}

]

This painting plays a key role and is discussed extensively in Sarah Winman's novel, Still Life.^{[citation needed]}

Other works

The

his crowded version of the Deposition of 1521.^{[citation needed}

]

Pontormo's grieving crowds and brightness of color also provide a stark contrast to

Deposition by Raphael in the Galleria Borghese

shows a later, though related scene: the Entombment of Christ.

In addition to works of the same subject by other artists, Pontormo's own work from the time provides a useful comparison. The decoration in the dome of the Capponi chapel is now lost, but four

apprentice Bronzino. The swathed drapery in The Visitation (1529)^[2] in the church of San Michele e Francesco at Carmignano bears a striking resemblance to that in the Deposition. The contrapposto of the figures can be compared to Pontormo's Annunciation (1520s) frescoed on the adjacent wall.^{[citation needed}

]

References

^ For an historiographic look at the use of the term mannerism see Craig Hugh Smyth, "Manerism and Maniera" (1963), reprinted in Liana de Girolami Cheney, ed, Readings in Italian Mannerism, with foreword by Craig Hugh Smyth (New York: Peter Lang, 1997, 2004), pp. 69-112.
^ Digital reproduction
^ "Pontormo's Entombment". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2013.

External links

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Louis Alexander Waldman, "New light on the Capponi Chapel in S. Felicita," The Art Bulletin, June, 2002 [1]

[1] For an historiographic look at the use of the term mannerism see Craig Hugh Smyth, "Manerism and Maniera" (1963), reprinted in Liana de Girolami Cheney, ed, Readings in Italian Mannerism, with foreword by Craig Hugh Smyth (New York: Peter Lang, 1997, 2004), pp. 69-112.

[2] Digital reproduction

[smarth-3] "Pontormo's Entombment". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2013.

[2]

[3]