Salvation through two women

The cover features The Visitation, an oil painting on panel by Jacopo Carucci (known as Pontormo), dated around 1528-1530. The painting is preserved in the Pieve dei Santi Michele e Francesco in Carmignano, Tuscany. The altarpiece, which was created for the altar of the Florentine Pinadori family, who were opponents of the Medici, has remained in the church for which it was intended since it was created.  The painting depicts the meeting, after the Annunciation, between Mary, who is expecting Jesus, and her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. This encounter is narrated in the Gospel according to Luke.  The two women exchange an embrace and an intense, emotional gaze in the presence of two female figures behind them who have their gaze fixed on the observer. Critics emphasise the highly original interweaving of limbs and fabrics.  Mary wears a dark green dress and a pink kerchief, while Elisabeth wears a light green dress and an orange cloak. The protagonists are very large and imposing. In the background of the painting, Pomtorno -an artist tormented all his life by a sense of loneliness and abandonment-, draws two small male figures, probably alluding to Joseph and Zechariah, respectively father of the Savior and father of the Precursor. Their presence is relegated to the background, emphasizing that Salvation passes through the two women.