Wasserman Reading Response

One argument Jack Wasserman makes in this criticism of Pontormo’s painting in the

Capponi Chapel in Florence is that the painting depicts and expanded look at the Pietá by

showing a crowd bringing the corpse of Christ to a weeping Virgin Mary. I agree with this

interpretation of the painting, especially considering the interpretations of other scholars where

they stress Eucharistic imagery and the fact that Jesus is moving away from the Virgin rather

than towards her. I feel as though Wasserman makes a really good point when he examines the

preliminary drawing done by Pontormo in which the youth carrying the top half of Jesus’ body is

more clearly shown moving to the right. This suggests that in the actual painting, even though

the direction of the crowd’s movement is not completely clear, they are halted after moving

toward the right, essentially bringing Jesus to Mary. This is how I interpreted the piece at first, so

I was glad to read Wasserman’s breakdown of why this movement is apparent.

Wasserman also backs up his claim that this is an expanded Pietá narrative by noting that

there is a path in the bottom left of the painting. I don’t know if I agree with him about this or its

supposed significance. I was a bit confused as to what he was trying to say about this “path”

(which I have trouble seeing), and also didn’t see how a path’s existence helps support his theory

that the narrative shows Jesus being carried toward the Virgin Mother. However it was

interesting that he noted the possible backstories and meanings of the cloth the woman is holding

in the middle as she offers it the Virgin Mary.

The idea of an expanded narrative leading up to a Pietá is also explored in terms of the

iconography of the scene and earlier renditions using this iconography. I feel that Wasserman’s

comparison of Fra Bartolommeo’s Deposition scene and its components’ parallels within the

Pontormo piece give substantial credibility to his interpretation of the scene as the presentation

of Christ’s body to the Virgin that will become the Pietá.

I can see how the job of interpreting this painting by Pontormo is difficult given the

ambiguity of which direction Jesus is moving, but Wasserman seems to make some very

reasonable and logical points in his attempt to prove that this is a narrative scene of Jesus being

brought to Mary after he has been taken down from the cross. One possibility that I don’t think

Wasserman considered was that perhaps Pontormo makes the direction of Christ’s movement a

little ambiguous on purpose. I think this would make sense since given the context of the

situation, it shouldn’t matter whether this is before or after the Pietá because Mary should be just

as sad either way. I think the beauty in this painting is the mystery surrounding the sequencing of

events. This way the viewer becomes more engaged in the painting and is allowed to come to his

own conclusions. This interaction with the art probably made viewers feel more deeply

connected with their faith, which is probably what artists like Pontormo who decorated these

religious spaces would have wanted.