Group of the Dead

Pontormo executed several drawings in preparation of the frescoes of the choir, or great chapel of the Medici family, in the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. This decoration was the artist’s last commission (1546-56). These drawings are the only surviving evidence of the decorative cycle entrusted to Pontormo by Pier Francesco Ricci, the private secretary and major-domo of Cosimo I, which were irremediably destroyed in 1742 on the occasion of restoration work inside the church.

Group of the Dead is one of the surviving drawings.