Pontormo, un amore eretico (Giovanni Fago, 2004): a «born under Saturn» painter into the Silver Screen

Abstract

The mannerist painter Jacopo Carucci (1494-1557), called Pontormo, is one of the most mentioned artists by Rudolf and Margot Wittkower in their famous essay Born under Saturn (1963). Forty years later, the filmmaker Giovanni Fago transferred his particular personality to the silver screen, by focusing on the frescoes for the basilica’s choir of San Lorenzo in Florence. The film Pontormo, un amore eretico recreates the cultural atmosphere of the city in 1555, in the years of Cosimo I de Medici, including such relevant names as Benedetto Varchi and Agnolo Bronzino. The main character, played by Joe Mantegna, presents an elderly and taciturn Pontormo, a supporter of the reformist ideas of Juan de Valdés. The film also portraits his infatuation with an enigmatic Flemish weaveress (the actress’s Galatea Ranzi), a figure originally seen in the novel Pas de Deux (1991) by the Swedish writer Ingamaj Beck. The paper offers an analysis of Giovanni Fago’s film based on its script and other sources such as the painter’s Diary and Giorgio Vasari. The text also pays special attention to the locations, artistic recreations (tableaux vivants) and historical figures mentioned in the film.