b Pontormo, nr Empoli, 26 May 1494; d Florence, 31 Dec 1556). Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the leading painter in mid-16th-century Florence and one of the most original and extraordinary of Mannerist artists. His eccentric personality, solitary and slow working habits and capricious attitude towards his patrons are described by Vasari; his own diary, which covers the years 1554-6, further reveals a character with neurotic and secretive aspects. Pontormo enjoyed the protection of the Medici family throughout his career but, unlike Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, did not become court painter. His subjective portrait style did not lend itself to the state portrait. He produced few mythological works and after 1540 devoted himself almost exclusively to religious subjects. His drawings, mainly figure studies in red and black chalk, are among the highest expressions of the great Florentine tradition of draughtsmanship; close to 400 survive, forming arguably the most important body of drawings by a Mannerist painter. His highly personal style was much influenced by Michelangelo  Related Paintings of Pontormo, Jacopo :. | Group of the Dead | The Expulsion from Earthly Paradise | Adam and Eve at Work | Christ before Pilate | Madonna and Child with St Anne and Other Saints |
Related Artists:
FRANCKEN, Ambrosius
Flemish painter (b. ca. 1544, Antwerpen, d. 1618, Antwerpen).
Gustav Eberlein
1847Spickerschausen-1926 Berlin,German sculptor. He attended the Realschule in Hannoversch Menden until 1861. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith in 1861-4 and thus learnt embossing, carving, chasing and engraving. He subsequently travelled as a journeyman, finding employment in Hildesheim, then in Kassel with the court jeweller, Ruhl. From 1867 to 1870, Eberlein trained as a sculptor under August von Kreling (1819-76), director of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Nuremberg, also working as Kreling's assistant to support his studies. On receiving a grant from Elisabeth of Prussia (the widow of Frederick William IV) for three further years of study,
Franz Xaver Kosler
Vienna 1864-1905