Giovanni Battista Naldini created a unique Mannerist style that borrowed not only from his masters Jacopo Pontormo and Giorgio Vasari but from their teacher, Andrea del Sarto. He adopted Vasari's forms, but his art's feeling and energy--though softened--came from Pontormo. From del Sarto, Naldini absorbed intimate, sentimental, and painterly elements. While his teachers ranked line over color, Naldini used paint, often on a heavily loaded brush, to create rhythms across his panels.

Naldini joined Pontormo's studio at twelve and remained for about eight years. After Pontormo's death, he studied in Rome from about 1560 to 1561. Upon returning to Florence, Vasari recruited him to assist with decorations for the Palazzo Vecchio. From the...