Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/384

332 and assistant of Andrea. His fresco of the Visitation in the Annunziata court (1516) comes nearer to Andrea's work in grace and technical skill than any other of the series, while his lunette of Diana and Pomona in the villa at Poggio a Caiano, is both gay in colour and charming in fancy. He was among the artists employed on the nuptial chamber of the Borgherini Palace, and two panels of the story of Joseph, which he executed there, are at Panshanger, while a third is in the National Gallery. His portraits of the Medici princes, at Florence, his Gem-Cutter, in the Louvre, his bust of Andrea del Sarto, at Berlin, and his Florentine Lady, at Frankfort, are dignified and attractive works, marked by a refinement and penetration which make us regret that he ever attempted more ambitious subjects. Unfortunately, this graceful and imaginative artist was carried away by his admiration for Michelangelo, and wasted time and powers in futile endeavours to rival that master's colossal nudes. His Venus and Cupid, in the Uffizi, his Holy Family, of 1543, in the Louvre, his Martyrdom of Forty Saints, in the Pitti, only show the folly of his ambition and the impotence of his efforts. He died in 1556, conscious of his failure to realise his ideal, and disappointed in his hopes of fame, and was buried, by his last wish, in the court of the Annunziata, under the Visitation, which he felt in the end was his best work.

Pontormo's merits and defects were shared by his favourite scholar, Angelo di Cosimo, surnamed Bronzino, who was also the intimate friend of Vasari. Bronzino's weakness is apparent when he tries to