Pontormo : Man of Sorrows. A Rediscovered Work

This handsome and scholarly book explores a rediscovered panel painting depicting the Vir Dolorum (Man of Sorrows), attributed to Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo and datable to the years c. 1523–1525.

Long known only through old photographic documentation and briefly discussed in the historiography following its publication by Roberto Longhi, the painting has now been fully re-examined through direct study, conservation, and scientific analysis, allowing its autograph status to be convincingly reassessed. The book brings together art-historical, iconographic, and technical research in order to situate the work securely within Pontormo’s oeuvre and within the broader cultural and spiritual context of early sixteenth-century Florence.

Particular attention is devoted to clarifying the subject of the painting, which is demonstrated not to represent an Ecce Homo, as previously assumed, but rather the Vir Dolorum, a devotional image deeply rooted in late medieval and early modern religious practice. This clarification has important consequences for the interpretation, dating, and function of the work. 

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