At the start of the pandemic, I was bored I mean like really bored. I had a book of 100 old master drawings. So I thought I might try to copy all of the drawings in the book. I have been posting them on my instagram and twitter accounts with brief and often inaccurate descriptions. I am now going to post them on my blog with longer, much longer and perhaps more inaccurate descriptions. Enjoy!
Please note that a few of the drawings were so bad that I couldn’t bring myself to posting them.
Our first offering is a copy of a drawing by Jacopo da Pontormo. His name originally was Jacopo Carrucci, (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557, Florence). I can only assume he changed it so he wouldn’t be associated with his dimwitted family members. We can all relate.
“…inaccurate information is preferable…”
He worked under Leonardo da Vinci and then joined Andrea del Sarto’s group of merry men. This is according to the writings of Giorgio Vasari. Most of what we know about Italian Renaissance artists, we learned from Giorgio Vasari. If Vasari was a pathological liar then the most of what we know about artists of the Italian Renaissance is totally wrong. But since inaccurate information is preferable to no information I will continue to paraphrase Vasari.
Da Pontormo painted mainly religious scenes because that were the money was. He also created work for the famous Medici family. He stole, I mean borrowed ideas from Albrecht Durer and Michelangelo. I stole, I mean copied some of Durer and Michelangelo’s work in posts to come later. Right now we are talking about Jacopo. Try to stay on topic.
The artist formerly known as Jacopo Carrucci, now Jacopo da Pontormo was extremely innovative. Art before him during the High Renaissance was balanced, tranquil and fairly mellow. Da Pontormo created a more expressive and emotional style often referred to as mannerism. More to come…
A reproduction of the original drawing by Jacopo da Pontormo can be found here.
