Jacopo Carucci, born at Pontorme, near Empoli, to Bartolomeo di Jacopo di Martino Carrucci and Alessandra di Pasquale di Zanobi, had studied painting with Leonardo da Vinci upon his arrival in Florence around 1511 and then become an assistant to Andrea del Sarto, from whom he has learned the High Renaissance idiom.

Called Pontormo for his birthplace, Vasari relates how the orphaned boy, "young, melancholy and lonely," was shuttled around as a young apprentice: Jacopo had not been many months in Florence before Bernardo Vettori sent him to stay with Leonardo da Vinci, and then with Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo, and finally, in 1512, with Andrea del Sarto, with whom he did not remain long, for after he had done the cartoons for the arch of the Servites, it does not seem that Andrea bore him any good will, whatever the cause may have been.

Pontormo paints in and around Florence, often supported by Medici patronage.

A foray to Rome, largely to see Michelangelo's work, influences his later style.

Haunted faces and elongated bodies are characteristic of his work.

An example of Pontormo's early style is a fresco depicting the Visitation of the Virgin and St Elizabeth, with its dancelike, balanced figures, painted from 1514 to 1516.

Pontormo is much closer in style to his teacher, Andrea del Sarto, and to the early sixteenth century renaissance artistic principles.

For example, the figures stand at just under half the height of the overall picture, and although slightly more crowded than true High Renaissance balance prefers, are placed in a carefully constructed, classicizing architectural setting at a comfortable distance from the viewer.