Pontormo was one of the leaders of the Mannerist movement, best known for portraits and religious subjects. He was a painter's son from Pontormo, Italy. When young, he was immersed in High Renaissance artistic ideals as apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci and others in Florence. He developed an agitated emotionalism that was a dramatic departure from his masters' emphasis on balance and tranquility. Hallmarks of his mature Mannerist style include psychic energy over physicality, linear rhythms, restless movement, ambiguous space, and vivid colors. For Pontormo, unlike most of his Florentine contemporaries, Pontormo also studied northern European artists, particularly Albrecht Dürer. During the last ten years of his life, Pontormo became increasingly reclusive and disturbed, shunning even Agnolo Bronzino, who had been like an adopted son to him.
