During the second decade of the 16th century, Andrea del Sarto had emerged as the foremost practitioner of High Renaissance naturalism in Florence. The subtle and ambiguous emotional tension present beneath the harmony of Andrea’s forms and colours was greatly accentuated by one of his pupils, Jacopo da Pontormo. In Pontormo’s Visdomini altarpiece (1518), the tension approaches the breaking point; the composition is vertical and lacking in a sense of space; and a host of similar but clashing centres of action create an impression of agitation. Pontormo persisted with this expressive style, becoming increasingly influenced by the angular forms of ...(100 of 73439 words)