Jacopino del Conte

An important pupil and collaborator of the Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto (1486 – 1531), Conte was a Mannerist painter who worked in Florence and Rome. His style was developed under Sarto and then independently after Sarto’s death in 1531, he enhanced his works using monumental figures in the style of Michelangelo (1475 – 1564). This was still very much in the influence of Sarto, as noted of his depictions of the Holy Family.

Conte’s independent works include the frescos in the Roman church, San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (Saint John of the Florentines), Annunciation to Zachariah, Preaching of Saint John the Baptist, and Baptism of Christ. Some of the work was based on drawings by Piero Buonaccorsi, called Perin del Vaga (1501 – 1547), and completed in collaboration with his Mannerist contemporary, Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta (1521 – 1580).

His other fresco works were executed for the Roman church San Luigi dei Francesi, and another piece, The Deposition, in the San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. His piece from the Sant’Ambrogio basilica in Florence, Madonna and Child with Saint John, now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. Conte’s works similar in style to the latter piece include, Virgin in the Clouds and Holy Family. He also painted the large scale, Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and John the Baptist, (1535) in Florence. These later, independent works were also influenced by Sarto’s other pupil, Pontormo (1494 – 1557), with the forms of figures even more elongated than Sarto’s Mannerism.

Conte is also documented by the Renaissance biographer, Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574), has having painted a portrait of Michelangelo in Rome around 1540. He also painted the Portrait of Bindo Altoviti, a banker, around 1550, now in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.