Jacopo da Pontormo died on New Year’s Eve in 1556 in Florence, where he had been the leading painter of his day. Among the most original Mannerist artists, Pontormo was popular with the Medici and other elites like the Capponi and Della Casa. Described as an eccentric by his biographer Giorgio Vasari, Pontormo was somewhat of a loner, prone to neuroses and slight obsessions as revealed in a diary begun in 1554 and kept through his death that catalogues his diet, illnesses, feelings, and other daily activities.
Reference: Janet Cox-Rearick. “Pontormo, Jacopo da.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
Study for Vertumnus and Pomona, 1519, drawing, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
Lamentation, oil on panel, 1525–8, Florence, S. Felìcita, Capponi Chapel; photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
St. Luke, 1525–8, Florence, S. Felìcita, Capponi Chapel
Portrait of a Lady in Red, 1530s, oil on wood, Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut
Maria Salviati with Giulia de’ Medici, c. 1537, oil on panel, Baltimorw, Walters Art Museum
Giovanni della Casa, 1542-46, oil on panel, Washington, National Gallery of Art