Renaissance Masterpiece by Pontormo at The Getty Center

Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters

The Getty Center, Malibu, CA

February 5 - April 28, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

William Blake had the habit of writing comments in his copy of Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Art (1798). Usually these remarks expressed his indignant disapproval of the great English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy. But there were occasional pearls of wisdom in Blake's marginalia. In one of his rebukes of Sir Joshua's view of art history, Blake wrote:

Ages are all equal. But Genius is Always Above The Age.

Blake never visited Italy, though he was familiar with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes through engravings. Thus, the visionary British artist never was able to appreciate art from the "age" which followed Michelangelo's great achievements or to study art by a "genius" who was in some ways a forebear of his own prophetic work.

The Italian Renaissance artist, in question, was Jacopo Pontormo (1494–1557). We are more fortunate than Blake because one of Pontormo's  greatest works, The Visitation, is the centerpiece of an exhibition which just opened at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California. This is the final stop for the exhibition which debuted at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in the spring of 2018.

I saw the exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York last fall. It was a rare privilege to behold a masterpiece never before displayed in the United States.

Ed Voves (Photo 2018) 

Exhibition banner for the Pontormo exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum

Languishing under the long shadow of Michelangelo, Pontormo was a Florentine painter of talent and intelligence. He suffered the further disadvantage of being an innovator of the controversial artistic techniques known as Maniera or Mannerism. Later art critics dismissed Mannerism as a pastiche of gimmicks, mind games and coy sensuality. A typical example of such denigration was made by Emilio Cecchi in 1956: 

Jacopo Pontormo was probably the greatest exponent of that group of esthetic heretics we call Mannerists, each of whom officiated with a ritual of his own.

Instead of being hailed as a successor to Leonardo and Michelangelo, Pontormo's reputation was in decline even before he died. As we shall see, the unveiling of The Visitation coincided with dramatic shifts in the political scene in Italy. In this new age, skilled courtiers were as much in demand as creators of genius.

This profoundly moving painting has recently been restored to its original glory after earlier, botched, attempts at conservation. The Visitation's American tour will hopefully lead to a reassessment of Pontormo and the era of Mannerism.

Pontormo's The Visitation was painted around 1528-1529. It has long been displayed in the Church of San Michele in Carmignano, a village near Florence.

Prior to creating this remarkable work, Pontormo had painted two earlier versions of the Visitation. One was a smaller oil on panel showing just two figures embracing, set against a darkened background. This was painted in 1514 and may have been a working model for the the full-scale fresco of the Visitation which he painted between 1514 to 1516 for a chapel in Florence. The fresco version is a magnificent work but very much in the tradition of Florentine painting stretching back to the 1400's. The Visitation of 1528-29, painted on wood panels, would be a very different - and revolutionary - work of art!

Jacopo Pontormo, The Visitation Fresco, Santissima Annunziata, Florence, 1514-1516

Pontormo had been trained in drawing or disegno by one of the masters of the trade, Andrea del Sarto. As befitted a Florentine artist of his era, Pontormo prepared a meticulous preparatory sketch for The Visitation of 1528. Amazingly, this drawing, which appears below, has survived.

For the first time ever, the first-draft and finished painting are united in an exhibition, enabling us to chart the changes in design which Pontormo made. It is noteworthy that the ancient column, appearing in the drawing, did not make the final version. Classical motifs, of any kind were discarded in the 1528-29 oil in favor of an intense, almost prison-like setting, which contributes to an overwhelming sense of  immediacy. 

                           

Jacopo Pontormo, Study for The Visitation, c.1528-1529

This oil painting on wood panels was created during a dark time in Italian history. Rome had just been brutally sacked by mercenaries of Emperor Charles V in 1527. The Republic of Florence was being threatened by the Medici, intent on restoring their rule, which indeed they did. Artillery bombardment, famine and plague brought the proud city to its knees in 1530 after a lengthy siege.

The Visitation  of 1528 is notable for the contrast of bright, unusual colors, the movement and interplay of draped bodies and unnerving, psychological insight. This was not the first time that Pontormo had exhibited his mastery of unconventional art techniques. And it was not the first time that he had painted this episode from Christian history.

The dazzling (verging on discordant) color scheme had featured in Pontormo's The Deposition from the Cross, painted shortly before he commenced work on The Visitation. But the chief point of similarity between The Deposition and The Visitation is the way that Pontormo uses the eyes of protagonists to draw viewers of the paintings into the action taking place. The beseeching eyes of the young men (possibly angels) carrying Christ's body in The Deposition and the transfixing stare of the two mysterious figures In The Visitation engage us to such an extraordinary extent that we become actors in the dramatic events recorded in "holy writ."

This is not a subjective interpretation of these works. Every aspect of Pontormo's paintings - color scheme, structural positioning, disregard of the rules of perspective - point to his intention to create an emotional event NOW rather than a depiction of THEN.

The Deposition reinforces this direct, personal invitation from Pontormo to join the ranks of the Christian faithful. He included his own face among the group of the devout, grieving disciples. Like the young men bearing Christ's body, Pontormo looks directly at the viewer, appealing to his or her belief. A preparatory sketch of this self-portrait is on view among the supporting art works in Miraculous Encounters.

Jacopo Pontormo, Self Portrait, c. 1526-1528

The event which Pontormo's painting of the embracing women celebrates is one of the most significant in Christian sacred history. The Visitation has psychological implications which extend across the course of Western art, as I noted in an earlier Art Witness essay.

In the Gospel of St. Luke (Chapter 1, verses 39-56), we read how Mary, pregnant with Jesus, has gone to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth. Against all expectations, Elizabeth is too expecting a child, the future St. John the Baptist. When she sees Mary, Elizabeth realizes that her younger cousin will give birth to the Messiah. Elizabeth becomes the first person to identify Jesus as redeemer of all humanity.

And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:  And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb

This glorious, hopeful event in sacred history reflected the mood of opinion in Florence at the time The Visitation was being painted. In 1527, the Florentines reasserted Republican rule, driving out the Medici faction. The vibrant, eye-catching colors reflected this upsurge of democratic feeling, although it should also be noted that Pontormo's patrons for this particular work were members of the Pinadori merchant family, whose specialty products included painting pigments.

Thanks to the magnificent restoration work by Daniele Rossi, we can properly appreciate the sheer brilliance of Pontormo's color scheme for the first time in centuries. Pontormo's palette matched the emotions of the Florentine citizens under the restored Republic.

  Jacopo Pontormo, Detail of The Visitation, after (top) & prior to restoration in 2013

In a master stroke of psychological insight, Pontormo placed surrogates or "body-doubles"" of Mary and Elizabeth, directly facing us. Their faces are blank canvases, waiting for our response to determine their expression. They are questioning the viewer - Pontormo, us - before they reveal their feelings.

What was Pontormo, a sensitive and intelligent citizen of Florence, thinking as he painted this magnificent work? Surely, he was aware of the daunting odds facing the Republic of Florence in its confrontation with the Medici, who enjoyed the military support of Emperor Charles V.

Pontormo's The Visitation can be interpreted in many ways, but the haunted thoughts and fears which cloud the mind of humanity is surely one of its major themes.

Ironically, it was the pre-restoration Visitation, tinged with candle smoke and suffocated by layers of varnish, that most accurately reflected the somber emotional atmosphere of Italy following the Medici's crushing of democracy in Florence in 1530.

Revolutions, especially cultural ones, cannot be reversed. The printing press could not be "uninvented." The voyages of Columbus and Magellan had proven the ancient Greek theory that the earth was round. The globe could not be pressed flat. If the Renaissance cruelly disappointed hopes for political and religious reform, individualism and independent thought could not be suppressed.

Pontormo was one of the greatest portrait painters of the 1500's. He brought the kind of psychological probing and sense of immediacy which we see in The Visitation to his portraits.  

Jacopo Pontormo, Portrait of a Halberdier (Franceso Guardi?),1529-1530

Two of Pontormo's portraits complement The Visitation in Miraculous Encounters at the Getty.  One of these is the Getty's own Portrait of a Halberdier. This is one of the signature Old Masters in the Getty collection. The well-armed protagonist of this painting has been identified by many scholars as Francesco Guardi, though some questions remain.     
         

          
Jacopo Pontormo, Portrait of a Man (Carlo Neroni), 1529-1530

The other portrait, which was also on display at the Morgan, is believed to be the Florentine cavalier, Carlo Neroni. Like Portrait of a Halberdier, it was painted very close in time to The Visitation and the subsequent siege and fall of Florence. Together, these are portraits of the "lost generation" of the Italian Renaissance. 

These young patriots, men of conviction, were not destined to secure victory for the Republic of  Florence. Political independence was crushed throughout Italy. The light of liberty was not to be rekindled until the 1860's by Garibaldi.

Fate was unkind to Jacopo Pontormo, as well. He spent much of his later life working on a fresco cycle for the main chapel and choir of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. It was a vast work, dealing with complicated theological themes much like the later work of Michelangelo. Pontormo died before finishing the fresco. It did not find favor with the ruling Medici, though it was completed by Pontormo's assistant, Agnolo Bronzino. The frescoes were painted over during the 1700's, a victim of the low opinion of Pontormo and Mannerism which would not be reversed until the twentieth century.

To return to William Blake's reflections, not all of the "ages" of art history are equal. Some artists of genius are held in low repute, their works gathering dust in museum store rooms. This is especially true of artists like Pontormo whose protagonists stare us down from the wood panels or pieces of canvas on which they are painted, challenging our preconceptions.

Truth will emerge from the shadows. It always does, though in Pontormo's case it took a long time to happen. But thanks to the splendid exhibit now at the Getty, we are able to have a "miraculous encounter" with this Renaissance Man whose true genius we are only now beginning to appreciate.


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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the  J. Paul Getty Trust 

Introductory Image:
Jacopo Pontormo (Italian: 1494-1557) The Visitation,  about 1528-1529.  Oil on wood panel: Unframed: 202 × 156 cm (79 1/2 × 61 7/16 in.) Accession No. EX.2019.1.6.  Parrocchia di San Michele Arcangelo a Carmignano (Prato). Repro Credit: Su concessione della Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e  Paesaggio per la Città Metropolitana di Firenze e per le Province di  Pistoia e Prato. Photo © Antonio Quattrone, Florence

Ed Voves (Photo 2018) Exhibition banner for Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters, Autumn 2018, at the Morgan Library and Museum.

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) The Visitation, 1514-1516. Fresco: 392 cm x 337 cm (12.8 ft x 11 ft) Votive Chapel in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Wikipedia images, The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian: 1494-1557) Study for The Visitation, about 1528-1529.  Black chalk, traces of white chalk, squared with red chalk:  Unframed: 47 × 34 cm (18 1/2 × 13 3/8 in.) Framed: 52.5 × 39.5 × 3 cm (20 11/16 × 15 9/16 × 1 3/16 in.) Accession No. EX.2019.1.5.  Image © Roberto Palermo / Gabinetto Fotografico delle Gallerie degli  Uffizi / Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo. All rights reserved.

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494-1557) Self Portrait, about 1526-1528. Red chalk on paper tinted with diluted red chalk:  Unframed: 15.5 × 10.7 cm (6 1/8 × 4 3/16 in.) Framed: 52.5 × 39.5 × 3 cm (20 11/16 × 15 9/16 × 1 3/16 in.) Accession No. EX.2019.1.3 Image © Roberto Palermo / Gabinetto Fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi / Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo. All rights reserved

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) The Visitation, 1528-1529 (Detail of painting following the restoration by Daniele Rossi in 2013).  Full credits appear above for the introductory image.

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) The Visitation, 1528-1529 (Detail of painting pre-restoration.). Oil on panel. 202 × 156 cm (79.5 × 61.4 in)  Church of San Francesco e Michele, Carmignano. Wikipedia images, The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian: 1494-1557) Portrait of a Halberdier (Franceso Guardi?),1529-1530. Oil or oil and tempera on panel, transferred to canvas: 95.3 × 73 cm (37 1/2 × 28 3/4 in.) Object No. 89 PA 49. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian: 1494-1557) Portrait of a Man (Carlo Neroni), 1529-1530. Oil on panel:  Unframed: 92.1 × 73 cm (36 1/4 × 28 3/4 in.) Accession No. EX.2019.1.1.  Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J. Tomilson Hill. Image courtesy Shepherd Conservation, London

Art Eyewitness Book Review: Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence

Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence

Edited by Bastian Eclercy

Prestel Publishing/304 pages/$60

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is one of Europe's most innovative museums. The recent Städel exhibition, Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence, presented art works from one the most contentious periods of European history, Italy during the mid-1500's.

The accompanying volume to this exhibit, published by Prestel, is a work of art in itself. The abundant illustrations include copies of paintings not on display at the Städel, thus enabling more thorough comparison with those on view. The perceptive essays in the book, edited by the noted historian, Bastian Eclercy, raise many important questions - and answers -  about this controversial chapter of the Renaissance.

Gallery view of the Städel Museum exhibit, Maniera

Why Italian art of the 1500's should be a "difficult" subject can be explained in one word: mannerism. 

The Städel exhibit uses the Italian word, maniera, rather than the more familiar and dismissive Mannerism. In modern scholarship, maniera points to the many and varied interpretations of art that flourished in Italy during the 1500's. 

This change of terminology and the inspired efforts of the Städel Museum curators redirect our attention away from theories about Italian art of the 1500's to the art works themselves. It is a noble endeavor, a much needed one and it almost succeeds.

Almost. 

Mannerist art gained its clouded reputation because decisive changes were held to have occurred in Italy during the 1520's - and not for the better.

Raphael, Esterházy Madonna, c. 1507-08

Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael were dead by 1520 and art was at an impasse following the death of these inimitable masters. Likewise, Italy was ravaged by war, climaxed by the sack of Rome in 1527. The art that was created following these terrible events was held to reflect a devastating emotional malaise.

Some of the masterpieces displayed in the Städel exhibit and the Prestel catalog show the impact of the Italian Wars. Jacopo Pontormo's St. Jerome as Penitent was painted a year after Protestant troops employed by the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, pillaged the city of Rome. Charles V aimed to teach Pope Clement VII a lesson about power politics. Eight thousand people were murdered and the holiest city of  Christendom was desecrated.

Jacopo Pontormo, St. Jerome as Penitent, c.1528-29

Pontormo's St. Jerome beats his chest with a rock, having flung aside his cardinal's robe. It is one of the most searing images of a soul in agony in Renaissance art. Utterly realistic, yet surreal in its effect, Pontormo's St. Jerome powerfully evokes physical and spiritual torment.

How different is Pontormo's St. Jerome as a Penitent to the absorbed, scholarly St. Jerome of Albrecht Durer's famous engraving, dating to 1514. Nor does St. Jerome's companion, the lion, sleep contentedly as Durer depicted him. Instead, the lion in Pontormo's version looks upon the naked, suffering man with a look of incredulity... as we are likely to do, the more we study this amazing painting.

However much the tragic slaughter in Rome oppressed the minds of Renaissance painters, the sad fate of Florence had a profound effect as well. The headlined artists in the Städel exhibit, Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556) and Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), were both Florentines. They witnessed the destruction of the political liberties of Florence, crushed by the resurgence of  Medici power - glittering, bountiful and despotic.
                                                                                     
Pontormo learned his craft in the studio of Andrea del Sarto, one of the greatest Renaissance masters of desegno or drawing. This was the specialty of Florentine artists and Pontormo took del Sarto's lessons to new levels of excellence. One of the outstanding works in the Städel exhibit is a drawing in red chalk which for many years was mistakenly ascribed to del Sarto.

Jacopo Pontormo, Study of Two Standing Women, c. 1515

Study of Two Standing Women was proven, as far back as 1958, to have been drawn by Pontormo. It has still to be properly acclaimed, for as Eclercy writes in the Prestel catalog, "it has not received the attention it deserves: it is, after all, one of the single most virtuoso drawings of Pontormo's early phase."

The sense of energy, potential and kinetic, of this drawing, dated to 1515, is incredible. We can see a prefiguring of the writhing movement of the tormented St. Jerome in this drawing. Even more remarkable, is the way that we sense the flow of power, of vigor, that will propel the bodies of these women forward and off the page.

If a thread of development can be traced from Pontormo's early sketches to his St. Jerome as Penitent, that is a rare case of continuity. Pontormo was one of the most searching and eccentric artists in history. His famous Deposition from the Cross - which did not appear in the Städel exhibit - has a brilliant color scheme totally at odds with its somber subject. Nothing in Pontormo's variegated work, however, prepares us for the mythology-themed paintings which he created in the 1530's.

Whatever their style, Pontormo's works prior to 1530 had been notable for their religious feeling. His Venus and Cupid, though based on  a drawing by Michelangelo, is alarmingly erotic. 

Jacopo Pontormo, Venus and Cupid, c. 1533

Venus and Cupid is a "pagan" work of art, not unlike the first century frescoes that would be discovered in Pompeii centuries later. But Pontormo was a Christian artist and so was his disciple and student, Agnolo Bronzino. Here was "mannerist" art that was a radical departure from anything that had come before.

Bronzino painted his version of Venus and Cupid, even more sexually charged, around 1545. It did not appear in the Städel exhibit. Instead the exhibit wisely focused on Bronzino's portrait painting. During the 1530's, portrait commissions shifted from providing images of saints or clergymen to "power portraits" - Medici power.

Florence was a city with a strong tradition of civil liberties. Around the time of the sack of Rome, the Florentines took advantage of the turmoil in Italy to re-establish their cherished Republic. But a catastrophic outbreak of plague claimed 36,000 lives.

Alarmed at this resurgence of political independence in Florence, Charles V, Pope Clement VII and the Medici staged a rapprochement. They conveniently "forgot" about the sack of Rome. The desperately weakened Florence was besieged by their forces and fell after a heroic resistance in August 1530.                                                                      

Political liberty was dead in Italy and artists like Pontormo and Bronzino had to adapt.

Bronzino was a brilliant portrait painter, as can readily be seen in his Portrait of a Lady in Green, painted between 1530-32. It is a work in the evolving tradition of Renaissance portraiture whereby the life-like image of the sitter permits insight into her inner character as well. 

Agnolo Bronzino, Portrait of a Lady in Green, c. 1530-32

Psychological insight of the kind that Bronzino showed in Lady in Green in 1530 was no longer desirable in 1537. The Medici, restored to power, wished to be depicted as austere, unflinching authority figures. Having little real power, these Italian nobles wished to be seen as all powerful.

Bronzino's Portrait of a Lady in Red, which serves as the introductory image of this review, is believed to represent Francesca Salviati, the aunt of a Medici duke, Cosimo I. It is tremendously accomplished in many ways. Yet, it is a disturbing work, very much of the kind that has raised "red flags" about Mannerism.

The impassive, "ice goddess" countenance of the Lady in Red is really a mask rather than an accurate likeness. The face is almost androgynous and is drained of individuality, empathy and the marks of life experience. Lady in Red is a Renaissance Athena, a personification rather than a person. 

Agnolo Bronzino, Portrait of a Lady In Red, (detail)

Looking closely at the charming, skillfully-modeled lapdog held by Lady in Red, I wonder if Bronzino was making a sly comment on the restored Medici regime in Florence. As Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, used to say of the treacherous backstabbing in Washington D.C., "If you want a friend in this town, get a dog."

Debate has long raged over whether Mannerism represented a decline in standards or a reformulation in Renaissance art. These shifts in appraisal are examined in an excellent essay in the Prestel book.

During the 1500's, it was the judgment of the Catholic Church on the merits of Mannerist art that carried the most weight. When a Christian martyr, St. Sebastian, was depicted by Bronzino as a smiling, beautiful, nearly-naked boy, pierced by a Cupid's arrow, the reaction of the Catholic Church was not hard to predict.

Agnolo Bronzino, St. Sebastian, c. 1528-29

In 1545, Church leaders convened the Council of Trent to reform  Christendom following the Protestant Reformation. Religious art was a major agenda item.

Religious art, according to the Council of Trent must affect the emotions of the Christian faithful, not provide erotic enjoyment or cerebral reflection. In his wonderful book, Renaissance, Andrew Graham-Dixon quotes Gabriele Paleotti, the bishop of Bologna, on the Catholic Church's zealous attitude to art.                                                                                                    
Paleotti wrote in 1582 that the aim of religious art is to  leave Christians feeling "shattered" by depictions of Christ's crucifixion or a saint's martyrdom.

If a work of religious art fails to stimulate a Christian's ardor, then Paleotti wrote "we must be made of marble or wood if we do not feel deeply moved, if our piety is not stimulated afresh and our inner being is not deeply affected by remorse and devotion."

In the eyes of the Church, a statue or a painting that remained "marble or wood" rather than a testament of faith was deeply offensive.  Artists who created such works were censured, even the great Michelangelo.

Bronzino's Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo at the Städel Museum exhibit, Maniera

The debate over Mannerism which began with the Council of Trent has continued to this day. It is never likely to be resolved because the issues involved were meaningful  in the 1500's and remain so. True religious art cannot remain a thing of "marble or wood." Yet artists must have the freedom to create works in their own "manner."

The outstanding effort that went into Maniera, both the Städel exhibit and the Prestel catalog, represents a major step in judging this key episode in the story of Western art. In the future dialog about Mannerism, Maniera will serve as a long-standing point of reference.

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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Images courtesy of the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Introductory image and detail:
Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572) Portrait of a Lady In Red (Francesca Salviati?), c. 1533. Oil on poplar, 89.8 x 70.5 cm. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Foto: Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

Gallery view of the Städel Museum exhibit, Maniera.  Photo: Städel Museum 

Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520) Esterházy Madonna, c. 1507-08. Oil on panel, 29 x 21.5 cm. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2016

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) St. Jerome as Penitent, c. 1528/29. Oil on poplar, 105 x 80 cm. Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover. Photo: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover – ARTOTHEK

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) Study of Two Standing Women, c. 1515. Red chalk on paper, 39,3 x 26,1 cm. Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung. 

Jacopo Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1557) after a cartoon by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Venus and Cupid, c. 1533. Oil on panel,  128 x 194 cm. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florenz
© Foto: Antonio Quattrone

Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572) Portrait of a Lady in Green, c. 1530-32. Oil on poplar, 76,6 x 66,2 cm. Windsor Castle, State Apartments, Windsor. Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015

Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572) St. Sebastian, c. 1528-28. Oil on panel, 87 x 76,5 cm.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid


Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo at the Städel Museum exhibit, Maniera. Photo: Städel Museum