Scene of sacrifice

This scene of sacrifice, dating to around 1545, belongs to Pontormo's late period when his style had become increasingly abstract and visionary. The subject may relate to his work on the San Lorenzo frescoes, the massive decorative program in the Medici church that occupied the last decade of his life. These late works divided opinion even among his contemporaries. Characteristic of Pontormo's approach, the work displays intense psychological expressiveness, acidic colors, compressed spatial drama, anti-classical tension.

The composition reveals the extreme attenuation and flattening of form that characterizes Pontormo's final style. Figures are arranged with a disregard for naturalistic proportion and spatial logic that pushes toward pure expressive abstraction.