Josef mit Jakob in Ägypten

This crowded little panel was made for a bedroom. Around 1515 the Florentine banker Pierfrancesco Borgherini married, and his family had the room decorated with painted scenes of the Old Testament hero Joseph, sharing the work among several artists. Pontormo painted this one, the last and boldest of the set. He folds four different moments of the story into a single stage, linked by a strange corkscrew staircase that winds up to the right, where the dying Jacob blesses his grandsons. The colours are sharp and unreal, the crowd restless. On the bottom step a small boy in a black hat sits holding a basket. Vasari, who knew them both, records that this child is a portrait of the young Bronzino, Pontormo's own pupil, who would become a great painter in turn.