Carrucci, Jacob

, an artist who from the place of his nativity was called Pontormo, had great natural ingenuity, and was in his earliest works admired by Raphael and Michel Angelo. He had had a few lessons from Lionardo da Vinci; after him from Albertinelli made some progress under Pier di Cosimo; and finished by entering the school of Andrea del Sarto, whose jealousy and ungenerous treatment, from a scholar, soon turned him into a rival. With such talents he became the victim of inconstancy, roaming from style to style. The Certosa of Florence exhibits specimens of the three different manners commonly ascribed to him. The first is correct in design, vigorous in colour, and approaches the style of Andrea del Sarto. The second, with good drawing combines a languid tone, and became the model of Bronzino and the | subsequent epoch. The third is a downright imitation of Albert Durer, aod at present can only be found in some histories from the Passion in the cloister of that monastery, which are neither more nor less than copies from the prints of Albert. To these, perhaps, a fourth manner might be added, if the frescos of the General Deluge and Universal Judgment, on which he spent eleven years in S. Lorenzo, and his last work, had not been whitewashed, with the tacit acquiescence of all contemporary artists. In this labour he strove to emulate Michel Angelo, and to exemplify, like him, anatomic skill, which was then becoming the favourite pursuit of Florentine art. He died in 1558, aged sixty-five. ¹