Jacopo Carucci, better known as Pontormo (1494-1557), was the main representative of Mannerism, that style of art which at the beginning of the 16th century questioned the idealistic image of mankind and the formal harmony of Renaissance art. His expressive, anti-classical art was created in reaction to the works of his contemporaries, Raphael and Michelangelo, as well as to the political and religious crisis of his era.

Pontormo was no longer attempting to create a faithful reproduction of reality. The elongated bodies, stretched to the atmost, of the figures in his pictures and the unconventional colors in his mysterious compositions conveyed the deep-seated fears of a generation made insecure by outbreaks of the Plague and religious wars.

As the champion of a non-realistic, fantastic type of painting, Pontormo and his art had a considerable influence on subsequent generations of artists. He became the first protagonist of a modern conception of art which continues to influence avant-garde movements in our own century.