The Visitation (Carmignano)

The artwork

Two women embrace, and two others, behind them, look out towards us: who they are remains a mystery to this day. It comes printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• Robes in bright colours, orange, green and pink, against a backdrop of houses.
• A work with real presence for a living room, a bedroom or an entrance hall.
• A gift for a birth, for a mother, for a lifelong friend.

The scene is the Visitation: Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist. Pontormo painted it between 1528 and 1532 for the parish church of San Michele in Carmignano, near Prato. In the exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome it closes the show, outside the chronological order, and the curators write that “it speaks to us of welcome, sisterhood, motherhood”.

It is Pontormo's most famous painting, and not only among art historians. It struck Pier Paolo Pasolini, and in 1995 it inspired Bill Viola's The Greeting, a video installation shown at the Venice Biennale: the same encounter, in slow motion. Next to the painting, in the exhibition, hangs the squared study from the Uffizi.

In a living room, a bedroom or an entrance hall: it is a gift for a birth, for a mother, for a friendship that has lasted a lifetime.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
Framed size: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with a gold fillet, handmade, with glass