Jüdisch-christliche Buchmalerei im Spätmittelalter: Aschkenasische Haggadah-Handschriften aus Süddeutschland und Norditalien. Franziska Amirov. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 2018. 304 pp. €99.

Abstract

this portrait, depicting Pygmalion-this work, of slightly smaller dimensions, still exists (Uffizi, inv. 1890 no. 9933). The Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap (rediscovered in 2008, now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Tomilson Hill) is almost identical in size to the Halberdier, and the pose of the sitter is strikingly similar, with the face seen frontally and the body turned to a forty-five-degree angle. This might be the second portrait Vasari mentions, representing Carlo Neroni (1511-67). Neroni must have ordered his image subsequently, around 1530, to conform explicitly to the model. The exhibition focuses on eleven works (though only five were on view in New York), presenting a series of "miraculous encounters" between paintings, and between paintings and drawings. Since this is a small selection, each work is analyzed in detail. In addition to the essays and catalogue entries, the catalogue boasts nearly twenty pages of large, colorful illustrations of details from the three main paintings. It makes an essential contribution to our understanding of Pontormo and is a joy to leaf through as well.