Circle of Pontormo, 'A Discussion', probably mid-1520s

This mysterious small oil painting shows a group of five men gathered in a vaulted space. Two of them, in robes of icy blue and pink, are engaged in a heated discussion, their oversized, expressive hands emphasising their strenuously argued points. They are watched by two bearded men wearing long dark robes who stand in the background on the left. Another man, in green, looks at the bare wall behind them. The face of the seated man in blue is in shadow, making his features indistinct, while the man in pink turns away from us altogether. It is unusual for the faces of the main figures in a painting to be obscured in this way and it creates a disconcerting effect.

The subject of the scene is unclear. It was once identified as Herod questioning the Three Kings on the whereabouts of the infant Christ, as the composition was compared to a drawing by Pietro Candido (Pieter de Witte) of the same subject in which the Three Kings are seen in the distance continuing on their journey, guided by a star. However, in the National Gallery painting none of the figures is shown with a king’s crown or sceptre and there is no other evidence to suggest who they might be. The painting is more likely to show saints or prophets in debate, which was a popular motif in Florentine art during the early sixteenth century.

With its cool bright colours, expansive drapery, unsettling effects and exaggerated dynamic poses, the painting is typical of the style of the Florentine Mannerist artist Pontormo. However, the figures are stiffer and more flatly modelled than those in Pontormo’s pictures, suggesting that it was probably not painted by Pontormo himself but by a close follower.

The picture was originally painted on wood but has since been transferred to canvas. The surface of the painting has lost quite a lot of detail of the brushwork, making it difficult to say with certainty who painted it. However, it was noted in the past that the hands and facial types are similar to a drawing of a kneeling nude (Uffizi, Florence) that has been attributed to the Florentine painter Mirabello Cavalori (1535–1572) on the basis of stylistic similarities with his known paintings, but the resemblance between those and the present picture are not sufficiently striking to make the attribution with confidence.

There is another version of this painting in the Musée Magnin, Dijon, which has recently been attributed to Pontormo himself. It is possible that the present picture is a replica.