This is my favorite painting in Florence, by the great post-High Renaissance painter, Pontormo. It hangs in the church of Santa Felicita. Do you see the wheel, outlined by the upper curvature of the picture frame? Follow the curve of Christ's deposed body, around the circuit of faces. Note the lurid colors, the un-Biblical face and shirt of the man in the foreground as well as the slack effeminacy of the dead Christ--the falsetto notes of Mannerism. The painting, along with another Pontormo, is set in a minute, perfectly proportioned chapel designed by the greatest of all Florentine architects, Brunelleschi, just on your right as you enter the church. Best of all, you'll have it all to yourself.
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