Giuseppe con Giacobbe in Egitto (1518)

Pontormo (1494-1557)

Giuseppe con Giacobbe in Egitto (Joseph with Jacob in Egypt)
probably 1518
Oil on wood, 96.5 x 109.5 cm
National GalleryLondon

This is one of the panels that were made to decorate the bedchamber of the banker Pierfrancesco Borgherini on the occasion of his marriage in 1515. It was the latest and most advanced of a series painted for the room by several Florentine artists, including Pontormo, Bacchiacca, Granacci and Andrea del Sarto. The paintings tell the story of Joseph from the Old Testament (Genesis 47: 13 and 48). Five of the other paintings from the series are in the National Gallery’s collection.

In this picture (which may not have been part of the original commission) the concluding episodes of the story of Joseph and Jacob are ingeniously condensed. There are four separate episodes combined here: Joseph introducing his father Jacob to the Pharaoh of Egypt; Joseph on a chariot, hearing a petition from the victims of famine; Joseph with his sons climbing the staircase to visit the dying Jacob; and Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons.

Jacob is the elderly man in the white hooded gown who holds a stick and leans on a boulder in the centre of the painting as he rests on his journey to Egypt. Joseph, as Pharaoh’s vizier, sits on a chariot in the bottom right of the painting, deciding who should receive grain during the famine that he foretold. The elderly Jacob appears again wearing blue in the left foreground, kneeling at Pharaoh’s feet as Joseph introduces him. Joseph holds the hand of his own son as he takes him up the steps to visit the dying Jacob. In the concluding episode at the top right we see Joseph at his father’s bedside as Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons. This type of picture, in which several parts of a story are shown simultaneously, is known as a continuous narrative.

The story here is fragmented, presented almost like snatches from a dream. The stage set is oddly ill-defined, with sweeping curves and figures of different scales. The bright, acid colours are influenced by Michelangelo’s later work, particularly his recently completed Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, which were unveiled in 1512. Pontormo’s idiosyncratic vision, with scenes such as this seemingly painted from dreamlike imagination rather than any rational concept, makes him a central figure among the artists pursuing assertively individual styles in Florence at the time, today often described as Mannerists. The little boy with the black hat and basket who is sitting on the bottom step of Pharaoh’s palace is said in Vasari’s Lives of the Artists to be a portrait of Pontormo’s apprentice Bronzino, also a key figure among the so-called Mannerists; see for example his famous Allegory with Venus and Cupid. (NG)

Scenes from the Story of Joseph:

Pontormo (1494-1557)
Giuseppe venduto a Putifarre
c.1515
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Pontormo (1494-1557)
I fratelli di Giuseppe chiedono aiuto
c.1515
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Pontormo (1494-1557)
Supplizio del fornaio
c.1515
National GalleryLondon