Madonna of the Book

Madonna of the Book by Pontormo, painted around 1540, is a late devotional work from the period when the artist was increasingly absorbed in the San Lorenzo fresco project. The intimate subject of the Madonna reading reflects the contemplative spirituality that characterized Pontormo's later years. The Madonna of the Book, with its intimate domestic devotional character, reflects the late Pontormo's increasing focus on the relationship between the sacred and the intimate—the maternal bond between Mary and the Christ Child stripped of elaborate theological apparatus.

The late painting shows Pontormo's increasingly attenuated and ethereal figure style, with pale, cool tones and simplified forms that approach abstraction. The devotional image has a spectral quality characteristic of his final period.