This volume presents the comprehensive scholarly study of a rediscovered panel painting depicting the Vir Dolorum (Man of Sorrows), attributed to Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo and datable to the years c. 1523–1525. Long known only through old photographic documentation and briefly discussed in the historiography following its publication by Roberto Longhi, the painting has now been fully re-examined through direct study, conservation, and scientific analysis, allowing its autograph status to be convincingly reassessed.
 
The book brings together art-historical, iconographic, and technical research in order to situate the work securely within Pontormo’s oeuvre and within the broader cultural and spiritual context of early sixteenth-century Florence. Particular attention is devoted to clarifying the subject of the painting, which is demonstrated not to represent an Ecce Homo, as previously assumed, but rather the Vir Dolorum, a devotional image deeply rooted in late medieval and early modern religious practice. This clarification has important consequences for the interpretation, dating, and function of the work.
 
A central section of the volume is dedicated to stylistic and comparative analysis, examining the relationship between the rediscovered panel and a group of related replicas, copies, and derivative works produced between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These comparisons shed light on the success and diffusion of the composition and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Pontormo’s working process and the transmission of his models.
 
The study is further strengthened by an extensive technical investigation, including infrared reflectography, X-radiography, ultraviolet examination, pigment and binder analysis, and a detailed examination of the wooden support. The results of these analyses are fully consistent with Pontormo’s documented materials and techniques and provide crucial evidence supporting the attribution.
Introduced by a preface by Philippe Costamagna and accompanied by a substantial iconographic essay by Viviana Farina, the volume offers a model case study in the reassessment of a Renaissance painting affected by centuries of wear, restoration, and reinterpretation. By restoring the Vir Dolorum to Pontormo’s corpus, the book makes a significant contribution to the study of Florentine Mannerism and to current debates surrounding attribution, conservation, and the historiography of early modern art.