Titian Vecellio, gen. Titian, workshop or periphery Saint... Lot 2017

Titian Vecellio, gen. Titian, workshop or periphery Saint Mary Magdalene Oil on canvas (doubled). 130 x 102 cm. Inscribed lower left: TITIANVSP.. Provenance For several generations in southern German private collection. "She raises her eyes to heaven and shows her repentance by the redness of her eyes and her tears for her sins. Thus this picture stirs the beholder, and though it is very beautiful, it does not inspire pleasure, but pity." This is how Giorgio Vasari describes Titian's depiction of Mary Magdalene, which he saw in his workshop. Given the numerous versions, replicas and copies, it can be considered one of the artist's most successful compositions. Titian first dealt with the subject of the penitent sinner in the early 1530s. The painting, now in the Palazzo Pitti, shows Mary Magdalene as a half-figure, her gaze turned toward heaven (Florence, Galleria Palatina, inv. no. 1912.67). Only her long hair, blond and curly, covers her body; next to her is her attribute, the ointment vessel. The ambivalence of this depiction between devotion and eroticism is obvious, because Magdalena's hair covers her body but leaves her breasts visible. In the 1550s, barely 20 years later, Titian reconceived the depiction of Magdalene - in keeping with the precepts of the Counter-Reformation, it is now a depiction that inspires compassion, not lust, as Vasari writes. The posture of the saint - modeled on the ancient statue of Venus Pudica - has remained the same. However, she is now dressed in a white shirt and a precious striped cloth, only the bare shoulder recalls her sinful past life. The format of the painting - and with it the detail of the picture - is now larger, it leaves room for a view of a landscape and shows a skull and an open book, which serves the saint for meditation. The composition, as already reported by Giorgio Vasari and later Carlo Dolci, was repeated several times by Titian and his workshop. Among others, Philip II of Spain and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, two of Titian's most important patrons, received a version. The best version, according to unanimous opinion, remained in Titian's workshop and is now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (inv. no. GE-117). The present painting, which is probably a work from Titian's workshop or circle, follows the Neapolitan version for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. It differs from the Saint Petersburg version especially in the depiction of the ointment vessel, which is made of alabaster and not glass; furthermore, in the background, which shows an autumnal landscape; furthermore, in the fluttering veil, which can be seen on the left and is missing in the Saint Petersburg version (for the different versions, see Harold Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, Complete Edition, vol. 1, London 1969, pp. 144-151.).