Miraculous Encounters is an exhibition and accompanying catalogue organized around Jacopo da Pontormo's (1494–1557) masterpiece, the Visitation (ca. 1528–29). The altar painting from the Tuscan parish church of Carmignano is making a miraculous journey of sorts in order to raise funds for the historic Franciscan friary attached to the church, which is in danger of collapsing. Miraculous Encounters is a collaboration between the Uffizi, Florence (with an Italian edition of the catalogue), the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Bruce Edelstein's essay (17–61) resolves numerous mysteries surrounding the Visitation, which represents a miraculous encounter between two pregnant women, the Virgin Mary and her cousin Saint Elizabeth, as recounted in the Gospel of Luke (1:39–45). For example, the two female attendants are not mentioned in the scripture, but Edelstein traces the iconography back to a medieval mosaic in the Florentine baptistery. Study of this painting was significantly aided by scientific analysis from a restoration begun in fall 2013. Cristina Gnoni Mavarelli reviews the conservation history (63–67), followed by Daniele Rossi (69–79) recounting how conservation uncovered instructive details that had been hidden under later overpainting and gave insights into the artist's process. It became evident, for example, that Pontormo did not employ the customary cartoon when transferring the composition to the large panel but, rather, the squaring technique. The grid discovered in the underdrawing of the painting is identical to the one applied in a red-over-black chalk drawing of the group of four women in the Uffizi (inv. 461 F). Given the high degree of finish, the drawing can almost certainly be identified as the modello of a Visitation by Pontormo mentioned by Giovanni Cinelli in 1677, which he related to the full-size original, then in a villa of the Pinadori family near Carmignano. Bonaccorso Pinadori, a merchant of pigments and other art materials in Florence, who counted Pontormo and his pupil Agnolo Bronzino (1503–72) among his clients, is the most likely patron for the painting, which could explain the innovative choice of intense chromatic hues.

Vasari does not mention the Visitation in Pontormo's biography in the 1568 edition of the Vite, probably because he was unaware of its existence. However, he singles out two portraits the artist made in the same years, 1528–30, when Florence was besieged by imperial troops. Pontormo's maturity and the key turning point in the development of his art fall exactly in this timeframe. According to Vasari, Francesco Guardi (1514–54) was portrayed in the habit of a soldier, which he esteemed a very beautiful work. It is quite likely that the Portrait of a Halberdier, at the Getty Museum, represents the young Guardi, around 1529–30. A fine red-chalk drawing (Uffizi, inv. 6701 F) can be seen as a preparatory study. From Vasari's account we know that Bronzino painted a cover for this portrait, depicting Pygmalion—this work, of slightly smaller dimensions, still exists (Uffizi, inv. 1890 no. 9933). The Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap (rediscovered in 2008, now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Tomilson Hill) is almost identical in size to the Halberdier, and the pose of the sitter is strikingly similar, with the face seen frontally and the body turned to a forty-five-degree angle. This might be the second portrait Vasari mentions, representing Carlo Neroni (1511–67). Neroni must have ordered his image subsequently, around 1530, to conform explicitly to the model.

The exhibition focuses on eleven works (though only five were on view in New York), presenting a series of “miraculous encounters” between paintings, and between paintings and drawings. Since this is a small selection, each work is analyzed in detail. In addition to the essays and catalogue entries, the catalogue boasts nearly twenty pages of large, colorful illustrations of details from the three main paintings. It makes an essential contribution to our understanding of Pontormo and is a joy to leaf through as well.