Jacopo Pontormo and Influences from the Renaissance Theater

The career of Jacopo Pontormo begins with commissions to paint decorations for a series of Florentine feste or public festivals. These celebrations usually commenced with a lavish procession of chariots bedecked with allegorical figures which were accompanied by bands of musicians and songsters. A play concluded each gala. Pontomo's early contact with the then-nascent theater was to have an immediate and indelible effect on his work. The artist, not infrequently, infused his painting with scenographic and narrative features of contemporary drama, both secular and religious.1