Visitation 1528

This is Jacopo Pontormo's "Visitation," a drawing housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Pontormo made this study as preparation for a painting of the same name. The image represents the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, both pregnant, one with Jesus, the other with John the Baptist. The encounter of these two women became an opportunity to comment on social structures in early sixteenth-century Florence. Pontormo breaks with traditional religious art; he highlights the emotional and physical experience of women, while simultaneously questioning the institutional structures that shape their roles. In understanding the socio-political dimensions of Pontormo's "Visitation," scholars like myself look to period documents, religious tracts, and the biographies of those who commissioned the works. By examining the social and institutional contexts, the image offers insights into the period's artistic conventions, religious beliefs, and attitudes toward women, challenging us to see how art is always contingent on its time.