GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, IL GUERCINO - 1591 - 1666
The penitent Mary Magdalene, Circa 1645
Oil on canvas, 118,5 x 96,5 cm.
Private European Collection
PRICE
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PROVENANCE
Conte Giovanni Giacomo Panici, who in 1641 was the governor of Cento; acquired from the artist on 22 April 1645 (see: Malvasia, p. 266 and Ghelfi, p. 125, No. 329);
Giovanni Battista Sommariva (1762-1826), Paris;
Princely Collections of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen, first documented in 1858 in the collection of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Konstantin von Hohenzollern (1801-1869);
his sale, through the art dealer Dr. Förster, Munich, 1886;
there acquired by Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern (1835-1905);
by descent to Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern (1864-1927);
by whom sold between 1896 and 1918;
Count Danilo de Micheli (1910-1996), Villa de Micheli, Lastra a Signa, by 1975;
Private Collection, Switzerland, at least by 1981;
by whom sold Koller Zurich, 23 September 2011, lot 3073 (CHF 288,000);
There acquired by Marco Pesarese Fine Art, Munich;
From whom acquired by a Private Collection, Europe.
LITERATURE
Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, Bologna 1841, p. 266.
Karl Theodor Zingler and Wilhelm Friedrich Laur, Die Bau- und Kunst-Denkmaeler in den Hohenzollern'schen Landen, Stuttgart 1896, p. 281, no 229 „Büssende Magdalena, von Guercino“.
Walter Kaufhold, Fürstenhaus und Kunstbesitz, Hundert Jahre Fürstlich Hohenzollernsches Museum, Zweiter Teil: Der weitere Ausbau des Museums Sein Verkauf und "Wiederaufbau, in: Zeitschrift für hohenzollerische Geschichte, ed. Hohenzollerischer Geschichtsverein, 4 (91).1968, p. 93 „Magdalena von Quercino (sic)“.
Barbara Ghelfi, Il libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629-1666, Bologna 1997, p. 125, no. 329.
Nicholas Turner, 'Variations on a Theme: Three Newly Discovered Half-lenghts of the Penitent Magdalene by Guercino from his Mature Period and Some Related Drawings', in: U. Roman d'Elia, ed., Rethinking Renaissance Drawings: Essays in Honour of David McTavish (Montral and Kingston, 2015), p. 253, fig. 17.6.
Nicholas Turner, The Paintings of Guercino, A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome 2017, no. 312 p. 602, pp. 208-210, fig. 170.
The painting is in superb condition.
After inspection of the original Sir Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner have confirmed the attribution. Based on a high-resolution image David M. Stone has independently confirmed the attribution to Guercino.
„The main signature motifs of Guercino's Magdalen for Conte Panici are the saint's hands (crossed at the wrists, held flat over her breasts, and keeping in place some stray locks of her hair), the extraordinary delicate pallor of her flesh, and the fine tear that trickels down her left cheek. The saint's golden-brown hair, spread a little sparsely over her front and back, is complemented if not eclipsed by her magnificent bluish-purple silk drapery, which falls in rippling folds and clings with almost animated force to her body and to some of the rocks. Rhyming with the saint's curling hair are the tangled roots of the shrubs growing at the top of the shadowy bank behind her. The darkness of this slope provides a forceful contrast to the standing crucifix that catches the light in the left foreground, as well as giving life to the soft, palpable forms of the saint's pale flesh“.
Nicholas Turner, 2015, p. 253.
Sinner or Saint?
Mary Magdalene has long been one of Christianity’s most beloved saints and a frequent subject in art. Her image vacillated between the first witness to the resurrection, a model of penitence, and an excuse for depicting an attractive female nude. Guercino’s late masterpiece brings all these aspects together. The painting shows Magdalene as simultaneously sensuous, devotional, and spiritually charged.
In the Gospels Mark and Luke record that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. She appears at the cross and is the first to encounter the risen Christ at the empty tomb (John 20:11–18). The unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus in Luke 7 is not explicitly identified as Mary Magdalene. That conflation is a later tradition, promoted by Pope Gregory I in the sixth century. Once cast as both sinner and saint, her penitence gained wide spiritual significance.
Post-biblical accounts portray her as having lived in sexual sin for years before her conversion. She then repented, retired to the wilderness, and spent her days in prayer and meditation. During the 16th and 17th centuries she became a symbol of the Sacrament of Penance. Yet she also came to stand as a strong, independent woman who became a symbol of hope for all sinners.
The detail of the saint’s tears has deeper meaning. In the Bible, Magdalene - or the “sinful woman” - is associated with the gift of tears. She washes Jesus’ feet with them (Luke 7:38) and is granted the first glimpse of the risen Christ through them (John 20:11–18). In devotional reading those tears wash away her sins. In Guercino’s painting they signify cleansing and the promise of salvation. Like Mary Magdalene, any sinner who truly repents may find redemption.