The Deposition from the Cross

The Deposition from the Cross in the Capponi Chapel at Santa Felicita, painted 1525-28, is Pontormo's acknowledged masterpiece and one of the supreme achievements of Italian Mannerism. The painting eliminates the cross entirely—there is no landscape, no architectural setting, only a swirling vortex of anguished figures bearing Christ's body in a composition that seems to float weightlessly. The work's radical departure from Renaissance conventions shocked and moved contemporaries.

The painting's extraordinary palette of acid pinks, pale blues, and luminous greens creates an otherworldly atmosphere unprecedented in Italian art. The interlocking, spiraling composition of figures defies gravity, with bodies arranged in a continuous serpentine movement that draws the eye in an unending circuit of grief.