Decoration of the Cappella Capponi in Santa Felicità in Florence

At the end of the third decade of the 16th century Pontormo intensified his formal research. This phase of the painter's artistic career is marked by the decoration of the Cappella Capponi in the church of Santa Felicità in Florence. The chapel, designed by Brunelleschi, and formerly patronized by the Barbadori family, was bought by Ludovico Capponi in 1525, the year in which Pontormo started to work with the assistance of Bronzino. According to Vasari, God the Father and Four Patriarchs, now lost, once decorated the hemispherical cupola, which was apparently replaced by a vault in the 18th century.

Four tondos with the Evangelists still adorn the pendentives that once supported the old cupola. Except for the painting of St John, the precise authorship of the other three portraits has posed considerable problems for scholars, who are unable to agree on the extent to which Bronzino contributed in the execution of the paintings. The figures of the Evangelists, with their distinctly Michelangiolesque flavour, have a vigour deriving from the way their heads are twisted and pushed forward. They are wrapped in ample robes, whose bold colours stand out against the dark backgrounds. This play of strong contrasts, which exalts the delicate outlines of the coloured surfaces, is in keeping with the refined style of the entire decoration.

The most significant expression of Pontormo's new artistic tendency is undoubtedly the chapel's altarpiece, the painting of the famous Deposition, which can perhaps justly be described as the artist's masterpiece. It was presumably the highly singular artistic innovation of this painting that prompted Pontormo to build a kind of screen which for three years prevented anyone from entering the chapel.

The decoration of the Cappella Capponi is completed by the figure of the Annunciation frescoed on the wall of the window.