Pontormo (1494-1557)
Giuseppe venduto a Putifarre (Joseph sold to Potiphar)
c.1515
Oil on wood, 61 x 51.6 cm
National Gallery, London
This picture was commissioned to celebrate Pierfrancesco Borgherini’s marriage to Margherita Accaiuoli in 1515, and formed part of the decoration of their bedroom in the Borgherini palace in Florence. The group of pictures by Florentine painters is known as The Story of Joseph: Scenes from the Borgherini Bedchamber and includes six panels by Bacchiacca and Pontormo in the National Gallery’s collection. Granacci and Andrea del Sarto also contributed to the decorative scheme, which would have been one of the most sumptuous of the time.
The story is taken from the Old Testament (Genesis 39: 1). Joseph was his father’s favourite son and been given a coat of many colours by him. His jealous half-brothers sold Joseph to a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants taking perfumes and spices to Egypt. The brothers smeared goat’s blood on Joseph’s coat and told their father that Joseph was dead.
This scene shows Joseph (the central young boy in yellow) standing before his new master, Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. He has just been sold by the Ishmaelites, who are seen grappling for their payment on the left. One of them bends over, his back to the viewer and his head between his legs, to pick up a coin from the ground. The composition is crowded, with the figures snaking across the panel into the central doorway of the building behind.
The high-key expressive colour palette featuring pink, yellow and bright green, the elongated and self-consciously stylised figures with their deep-set round eyes, and the serpentine composition with little pictorial depth are typical of Pontormo’s work. His idiosyncratic vision, with scenes such as this seemingly painted from the 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.
Joseph’s life was thought to mirror that of Christ; the New Testament parallel of this incident was Christ’s betrayal by Judas. The next part of the story of Joseph from the decorations for the Borgherini bedchamber is told in Pharaoh with his Butler and Baker. (NG)
Scenes from the Story of Joseph:
Pontormo (1494-1557)
I fratelli di Giuseppe chiedono aiuto
c.1515
National Gallery, London
Pontormo (1494-1557)
Supplizio del fornaio
c.1515
National Gallery, London
Pontormo (1494-1557)
Giuseppe con Giacobbe in Egitto
probably 1518
National Gallery, London