Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female Martyr

Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female Martyr

Jacopo da Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female MartyrVirgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female MartyrVirgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female MartyrVirgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female MartyrVirgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Baptist, Saint Anthony of Padua, and a Female Martyr

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.