b Pontormo, nr Empoli, 26 May 1494; d Florence, 31 Dec 1556). Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the leading painter in mid-16th-century Florence and one of the most original and extraordinary of Mannerist artists. His eccentric personality, solitary and slow working habits and capricious attitude towards his patrons are described by Vasari; his own diary, which covers the years 1554-6, further reveals a character with neurotic and secretive aspects. Pontormo enjoyed the protection of the Medici family throughout his career but, unlike Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, did not become court painter. His subjective portrait style did not lend itself to the state portrait. He produced few mythological works and after 1540 devoted himself almost exclusively to religious subjects. His drawings, mainly figure studies in red and black chalk, are among the highest expressions of the great Florentine tradition of draughtsmanship; close to 400 survive, forming arguably the most important body of drawings by a Mannerist painter. His highly personal style was much influenced by Michelangelo  Related Paintings of Pontormo, Jacopo :. | Group of the Dead | Christ before Pilate | Vertumnus and Pomona | The Expulsion from Earthly Paradise | Christ the Judge with the Creation of Eve |
Related Artists:
Pinturicchio
Italian Early Renaissance Painter, 1454-1513 was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was born in Perugia, the son of Benedetto or Betto di Blagio. He may have trained under lesser known Perugian painters such as Bonfigli and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. According to Vasari, Pinturrichio was a paid assistant of Perugino. The works of the Perugian Renaissance school are very similar; and paintings by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna and a young Raphael may often be mistaken one for the other.
Peder Als
Peder Als, a Danish historical and portrait painter, born at Copenhagen in 1725, studied for some time under C. G. Pile. After gaining the first great prize given by the academy at Copenhagen in 1755, he went to Rome and entered the school of Mengs. He occupied himself chiefly in copying the pictures of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, which it is said that he did with great accuracy. He also copied Correggio and Titian. On his return to his own country he painted some good portraits; but his colouring was too sombre to give a pleasing effect to his pictures of females, and his work was frequently so laboured as to be deprived of all animation. Copies of the works of the old masters by Als are to be seen in Denmark. He died in 1775.
Emile Friant
French Realist Painter, 1863-1932, Was a French painter. With a naturalist style Emile Friant painted quotidian scenes involving people. His creations are characterized by the photographic realism of the human skin portions, and a less defined portrayal of the rest of the scene.